Three Tibetan voices: Solidarity with the people of Tibet

I was born in a farming family in a small town near Lhasa in independent Tibet. The year was 1934. Most Tibetans were farmers and nomads who have lived in harmony with our natural environment for many generations. We shared a deep connection to the land, the rivers and the mountains.

Tibetans are mostly Buddhists. There is a small number of followers of Bon, Tibet’s indigenous religion before Buddhism came to Tibet in the 7th century. Buddhism is an integral part of our culture. Most families would send at least one son to the monastery. I became a monk at the age of six.

When I was in my late teens, I heard about communist Chinese troops entering Tibet’s eastern provinces bordering China. The Chinese told the Tibetans that they were coming to help us, to modernise our country. Many did believe them at first. But soon they destroyed our monasteries, took control of our resources, arrested our leaders and ruled us. 

I joined the resistance movement at the age of 25. For that, I spent 24 years in prison. After my release, I fled into exile to live close to His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala in northern India. 

Few years ago, I was given a humanitarian visa to Australia. From the mountains of Tibet to the Northern Beaches of Sydney, I have come to share the suffering of my people and seek justice.

You took part in the uprising in Lhasa on 10 March 1959? How has that day shaped your life?

The Chinese military began invading eastern Tibet in 1950, a year after Chinese Communist Party came to power in Beijing. The Tibetan leaders tried to settle the conflict during the early years of the invasion, to no avail. 

By 10 March 1959, the Chinese military had besieged Lhasa. That day, a huge crowd of Tibetans surrounded Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama’s summer palace, and marched on the streets to protect our leader. Rumours had spread that the Dalai Lama was going to be arrested that day. This marked the beginning of the uprising in Lhasa and a military crackdown by the Chinese authorities.

We held an urgent meeting at our monastery that night. I signed up to join Chushi Gangdruk, a guerilla group that had started in eastern Tibet in 1956. Literally meaning Four Rivers, Six Ranges, Chushi Gangdruk is also known as Defend Tibet Volunteer Force. Little did I know when I became a monk as a young boy that I would one day join an armed resistance group. For us monks, it was our duty to protect Buddhism from the communist Chinese.

As violence ensued in the following days, a young Dalai Lama had to make the most difficult decision to leave his homeland and escape to India from where he could appeal for international help. On 17 March 1959, he left his palace, disguised as a Chinese soldier and crossed the mountains. Two days later, the Norbulingka Palace was heavily bombarded by Chinese troops. I vividly remember the incessant shower of bullets and the piles of dead bodies strewn everywhere. It was unimaginable. 

The Tibetans were too ill-equipped and untrained to resist the Chinese troops. We had rifles; they had machine guns. But we did not give up and put up a good fight for a few more days and went to two other towns near Lhasa, defending our monasteries which were coming under heavy attack. In late March, I was severely wounded and captured.

Tell us about the time you spend in prison for 24 years.

After my arrest, I was put in solitary confinement at my monastery for six months. I was tortured and forced to confess guilt over my actions and disclose the names of my accomplices. When I refused, I was sent to a prison to be “reformed”. Thus began my 24 years of imprisonment and torture. 

Food was scarce in prison. We would go without food for days and would end up eating grass. Many fellow inmates died of starvation. Once I saw a monk quietly chewing on something. I asked him what he was eating when others were dying of hunger. He had found bones of dead prisoners.

He shared some with me on the condition that I didn’t tell anyone. In any case, I would not brag about eating human bones. The prison guards learnt what we were doing and threw the bones away.

Whatever food we got was not enough as we were working 12 hours a day at construction sites. From the early days of occupation, the Chinese government started building dams on Tibetan rivers, using prisoners as labourers. 

All the big rivers of Asia, including the Yangze River and Yellow Rivers in China, start from Tibet. These dams are built to generate electricity for Chinese cities, without local consent. Such big dams are bad for Tibet’s fragile environment. China invaded Tibet to take control of our waters and natural resources, of which we have had plenty. Gold, copper, lithium, iron ore, aluminium, and so on.

In prisons, “political education” sessions were a big part of our daily routines, during which we were forced to denouce the Dalai Lama and sign a confession statement stating Tibet is a part of China. Those who obliged would be released from prison. I refused as the Chinese government would use these statements to legitimise their rule. They punished me with a seven-year prison term and stripping of political rights for a lifetime.

I was then moved to another prison Drapchi, Tibet’s most notorious prison. Prisoners were dying from torture and undernourishment there. When fifteen people lost their lives one day, the prison authorities launched an inquiry. They summoned me for interrogation. They claimed there was an outbreak of a disease, but I knew that was not the case. I openly criticised the Chinese government’s policy and accused them of ethnic cleansing. 

The Chinese government was killing our people, our history and our religion and culture. In prison, we were forced to urinate on sacred Buddhist textbooks. As a Buddhist monk, it was the most painful thing to do. Having seen many dying in front of my eyes, I was counting my days and was not afraid to speak up.

Towards the end of my seven-year prison term, prison officials showed us a Japanese movie depicting the cruelty of Japanese imperialist rule and how Chinese children were separated from their parents for many years. During the discussion on the film, I accused the Chinese of doing the same thing to the Tibetans. I pointed out that I had not been allowed to meet my parents during my imprisonment.

Few days later, my mother was brought in to see me. They told me I would be released if she expressed her regret over my actions and her gratitude to the Chinese Communist Party for the prosperity it has brought to Tibet.

My mother refused to give in and told me to continue to fight. So the Chinese authorities extended my sentence and I ended up spending 24 years in prison.

I spent many months in solitary confinement at Drapchi. The only contact with humans were with prison officials who interrogated and tortured me every day. When I refused to give in, I was beaten up by angry guards. My legs were broken. To this day, I can’t walk without assistance.

In the early 1980s, the leadership in China changed which gave some hope of China opening up. One of the leaders Hu Yaobang believed political reforms were neccessary in China and even showed some sympathy towards the plight of Tibetans.

In 1982, I appealed to the Chinese authorities to release me for my good behaviour in prison and for the fact that I was one of the longest serving prisoners. On 1 December that year, I was released from prison. It felt like a miracle. I never imagined during those 24 years that I would one day walk out of prison, go to India, meet the Dalai Lama and eventually move to Australia.

I am turning 90 this year, and as I look back, have no regrets of spending all those years in prison. I stood up for justice. My legs are not great. But my spirit is still strong. I may not get to return to Tibet but every morning I pray for world peace and for the Dalai Lama’s final return to Tibet.

I was born in a Tibetan refugee camp in South India. For nearly 30 years of my life, I was a stateless person without a passport or a citizenship certificate. The Registration Certificate issued by the Indian government was a marker of my precarious political existence as it needed renewal every year.

In the wake of the uprising on 10 March 1959, my parents and grandparents followed the footsteps of the Dalai Lama into exile in India where Tibetans have set up our government-in-exile and built a thriving refugee community. I am a product of these institutions.

Dad was eight when he crossed the Himalayas on foot. He was with his mother and siblings as our grandfather was arrested after the uprising day in Lhasa. He was imprisoned for over 20 years and died in custody. His crime was simply because his family was paying tax to the central Tibetan government.

This is a common story among Tibetan refugees around the world.

Every Tibetan in exile is born an activist. That has certainly been my journey. From being a student leader at university in Delhi to heading up a Tibet advocacy group in Australia to getting elected as a Member for the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, I have dedicated my life to fighting for the freedoms and human rights of Tibetans. 

That has later allowed me to fight for injustices faced by people everywhere and that’s how I have landed at Amnesty International Australia.

What is happening in Tibet today?

Since the invasion in 1950, China’s control of Tibet is predicated on denial of fundamental human rights and self-determination.

There is no active war in Tibet today like the ones we see in other conflict zones around the world. Our homes and monasteries are not bombed. And people are not dying from starvation. All of that had occurred decades ago. At a time when many countries were recovering from the ashes of the World War II or gaining liberation from British rule, we lost our freedom. As such, world governments were focussed on rebuilding their nations and had little appetite to help resolve a conflict emerging in a remote part of the world.

But as they say, absence of war is not the presence of peace. Or justice. Tibetans believe we are facing a cultural genocide and dying a slow death if Chinese policies are not stopped. 

At the heart of the human rights crisis facing Tibetans today, and one that affects me deeply as a mother, is the forced removal of children from families. For seven decades, the communist regime has tried to sever our people’s ties to our land, culture and history. When that became an insurmountable task, their strategy turned towards targeting children. When you kill the Tibetan in a child, you have controlled the future of Tibet. In recent years, over a million Tibetan children, roughly 80 percent of the children population in Tibet, from as young as four years old, have been reportedly forced into colonial Chinese boarding schools, where they are raised to speak a new language and cultivate a new understanding of who they are as a people. Many kids are now unable to communicate with their grandparents.

As Australians, this policy should remind us of the Stolen Generations and the lasting inter-generational trauma to First Nations peoples. I am told by my Indigenous colleagues that most children in Australia’s youth detention regime and out-of-home care are indeed descendants of those of the Stolen Generations over a century ago.

While the young ones in Tibet are taken away from their families, once-proud nomads and farmers are forcibly removed from their ancestral lands and stripped of their traditional livelihoods that have sustained them for many generations and sent to the urban fringes of Chinese society to work in factories and at construction sites.

Tibet is consistently ranked one of the least free places on earth today. It is a vast open prison. 

There is not a single independent journalist who works there. Access to foreign tourists is restricted – one has to be part of a Chinese government-approved and monitored tour group to visit Tibet. Meanwhile, every year millions of Chinese tourists flock to Tibet as a place of spiritual Disneyland.

The Chinese government has converted Tibet into a surveillance state combining oppressive techniques with technology that monitors every citizen’s movements, phone calls and internet habits. Surveillance – physical and electric – is pervasive at all levels of society. Large-scale protests have been unheard of in recent years. Solo protestors are arrested within minutes.

China’s surveillance no longer stops at the Tibetan border. The CCP’s techno-authoritarianism and fear tactics extend to communities abroad. Tibetan-Australians cannot freely talk to families in Tibet. Many are unable to join protests for fear of not getting a visa from the Chinese embassy to visit family.

China has divided our people into two – most of us on the outside can’t return to Tibet because we are denied visa and those inside can’t leave because they don’t have the passport. For decades, the only escape route is across the mountains. But security has increased on the borders.

So why is China interested in controlling Tibet. Tibet has a host of natural resources that China needs. One example is water. China is water poor. In contrast, Tibet is the source of all major rivers of Asia, on which millions of people in China and South and Southeast Asia depend on for their livelihood and sustenance.

Precious metals and minerals are another example. From copper, iron, uranium, zinc, gold, and lead – they are stolen from our people to fuel China’s economy. Increasingly relevant, Tibet also has large amounts of lithium, critical to powering our mobile phones, electric cars and more.

The exploitation of resources goes hand in hand with the persecution of a people. 

Why don’t we hear about Tibet in the news?

That’s a relevant question. Tibet was a fashionable cause in the 1990s. That was before the international community sacrificed human rights at the altar of trade. Beijing made sure that if you wanted economic gain, you give up your values. Sadly, world leaders, Hollywood people, and even academics and NGOs obliged.

Today Tibet has been pushed off the international agenda. Many people ask me if it is due to many other competing issues. That’s one part of the answer though.

It is not an accident that Tibet is not in the news today. It is a design by the Chinese Communist Party. The erasure of Tibet from the global conscience is a consequence of China closing off Tibet, bullying governments into silence, and undermining institutions, including parliaments, universities & the UN. And at the same time carrying out an aggressive propaganda campaign to rewrite and control the discourse on Tibet. 

For example, when Tibetans talk about Tibet, we are referring to Tibet as we know it. The entirety of Tibet with three historical provinces prior to China’s invasion. A country that has now become one-quarter of modern-day China. With a total population of around six million. 

China misleadingly claims there are 3.2 million Tibetans in Tibet because they count only the Tibetans in Tibet Autonomous Region, a label created by the Chinese government. It comprises only central and western Tibet and excludes the whole of eastern Tibet. China has divided the lands we’ve lived on for thousands of years and incorporated them into four Chinese provinces. In this way, they redraw maps, rewrite history and confuse people. They call us “ethnic minorities” and count us as one of the 56 minorites of China. Tibetans are not an ethnic minority. We are a majority in our own country before China took over.

What can Australians do for Tibet?

Firstly, Australians have to recognise that we have a special responsibility to speak up for the human rights of Tibetans, Uyghurs or Hong Kongers.

Australian economy has grown over the past three decades as a result of our economic ties with a government committing crimes against humanity. We have benefitted from that relationship. Our market is flooded with Made in China goods, many tainted by Uyghur and Tibetan forced labour or their raw materials stolen from our people – including the lithium in our mobiles and polysilicon in solar panels. So we are responsible.

Our silence amounts to our complicity in the Chinese government’s egregious human rights abuses. Our failure to hold them to account risks giving legitimacy that the regime sorely lacks.

Education is a good start. Learn more about Tibet. Join the protests. And amplify Tibetan voices.

My name is Tenzin Chokrab Kundeling. I attend Northern Beaches Secondary College Cromer Campus in Sydney. I grew up in a loving environment with my parents teaching me Tibetan culture and letting me appreciate the good life in Australia. When I was four years old, my brother was born, and it was the best day of my life.

My parents, on the other hand, had a more rough life. Let’s start with my mother. She was born in Chinese-occupied Tibet. When she was 16, she took part in a protest and was tortured by the Chinese police that night which has affected her health to this day. That was in late 1980s during the second big demonstrations by Tibetans against China’s rule. 

Soon after her recovery, she decided to leave Tibet. In the dead of night, she escaped Tibet and travelled on foot across the Himalayas to Nepal. She walked at night and slept during the day.

My mum used to tell me stories of refugees losing fingers from frost bite or falling off the mountain cliffs. And if caught by Chinese soldiers, they were punished with things worse than death. Luckily she and her companions made it to Nepal where they saved enough money to go to India.

Once arriving in India, she was taken care of by the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, who gave her medical care and opportunities to go to school. She recieved a great Tibetan education for the first time and did so well at school and ultimately became an amazing teacher! Dad was born in a Tibetan refugee camp in India and became a computer teacher. They met at the school where they both taught. 

My parents moved to Australia as part of the humanitarian program in 2008. I was born a year after.  Now as a 14-year-old, I can see the sacrifices my parents have made for me and my brother.  My mother teaches Tibetan language and music at the Tibetan Learning Centre, run by all volunteers. This is where we spend a big part of our weekends.

When did you first learn of Tibetan Uprising day? What does this day mean to you?

I was constantly told about events relating to Tibetan history and the importance of them. Sometimes I would forget the names of people or date, but always remember the key reason for the event. Tibetan Uprising Day is a day of remembrance. It’s like ANZAC Day, we lost thousands of lives and our country, along with our rights. 

This day is also a call to action. To tell Tibetans that today is the day we lost our country, our rights and people in 1959. And to remind us to continue our fight for our homeland. We protest and let our people’s sacrifices not go in vain. It’s a day that we will never forget. That’s what Tibetan Uprising day means to me.

How does it feel to be a Tibetan refugee born in Australia?

I feel lucky to be born in such an amazing country with so many opportunities ahead of me.  Life is good here. But as a Tibetan-Australian, I also feel obligated to speak up about the human rights problems people face in Tibet. It’s a responsibility young Tibetans like me instinctively know. I am only 14, but I know what Tibetans are striving for. For human rights. For peace. For equal opportunity, so people like my mum can travel to Tibet to meet her family. Talk to them freely on the phone. Right now such simple things are not possible.

What would you like to tell Australians about Tibet on Tibetan Uprising Day?

Well. I would say to help the Tibetan cause. Because it is about justice. Human rights. And peace. To those who support, you have my sincere gratitude. Tibetans would love to meet you. Join us at our community celebrations – Losar or Tibetan New Year, Trungkar or the Dalai Lama’s Birthday, or Tibetan Uprising Day. Hear our stories, learn about our culture and history, enjoy our food. Share our photos and information on Tibet on social media. 

Tibetans are human beings who deserve equal human rights. We live in a free country, so we have a responsiblity to speak up for them. China is a business partner of Australia. If you are a true friend, you have to be honest with them and tell them that what they are doing to Tibetans is not right.

What is your hope for Tibet?

My hope for Tibet is simple. It’s every other Tibetan’s hope. To one day free Tibet without any violent means. For Tibetans in exile to be able to return to the country that we once owned.

My hope for Tibet is for China to give Tibet back to Tibetans, or at least give basic human rights to the Tibetans. All the rights we enjoy in Australia like going to protest without getting arrested, electing your leaders, practising your culture, watching any show on your mobile or TV, and not have Chinese officials and police knocking on your door any day or night. Tibetans will keep fighting, but we will do it peacefully.