The time has come for me to go to Tibet again. Last time
when I went to Tibet in 1997, after my graduation, I was arrested by the
Chinese authorities, beaten up, interrogated, starved and finally thrown
out of Tibet after keeping me in their jails for three months in Lhasa and
Ngari. I walked to Tibet on my own, alone, across the Himalayan mountains
from Ladakh.
Eleven years later I am walking to Tibet again, this time
too without permission. I am returning home. Why should I bother about
papers from a Chinese colonial regime which has not only occupied Tibet
but is also running a military rule there, making our people in Tibet live
in tyranny and brutal suppression day after day, every day, for fifty
years?
The year 2008 is a huge opportunity for the Tibet movement
to present the injustices the Tibetans have been subjected to, when China
is going to attract international media attention. I am taking part in the
return march from Dharamsala to Tibet that is being organised as part of
the "Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement", a united effort put together by
five major Tibetan NGOs: the Tibetan Youth Congress, Tibetan Women’s
Association, Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet (an association of former
political prisoners), National Democratic Party of Tibet and Students for
a Free Tibet, India.
The march will start on March 10, 2008, from Dharamsala,
the capital of Tibetan exiles, and will pass through Delhi and then head
towards Tibet. Walking for six months, we might reach the Tibet border
around the time China opens the Beijing 2008 Olympics (August 14-25).
Presently, it is too early to approximate at which border point we will be
crossing; Tibet and India share a border that runs 4,075 km along the
length of the Himalayas. We might choose any point or even multiple
points. We’ll assess the situation.
I know there have been similar attempts in the past but
this is 2008 and I have seen the organisers working extra hard with
strategic planning, taking care of every minute detail, and the best thing
is that we have all the NGOs working unitedly for the common goal. This
unity is our strength. I do not know where we will end up, that’s why I am
giving away the little collection of books (my only possession in life) to
a library that is being set up in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala. My friends
Lobsang and Nyingje (who served in the Indian army as part of the Tibetan
battalion) are also giving away their personal belongings, committing
themselves for the march.
Of course, the Indian police will do their duty; the
Chinese army at the Tibet border will be overly enthusiastic. Since we are
leading a peaceful march, with absolute commitment to non-violence, I do
not think anyone, either from the Indian authorities or the Chinese, will
impose themselves on us. Inspired by Gandhi’s Salt March, even if they did
try to stop us, we are not stopping. For how many days can they jail us
for just walking peacefully? And why should the Indian government stop
Tibetan refugees voluntarily returning home on foot?
In the past I have climbed buildings to shout for freedom,
thrown myself at the Chinese embassy gate in New Delhi, spent months in
jails, got beaten up by the police, fought court cases, but I have never
lost the dignity of the struggle: my belief in non-violence. The march to
Tibet will be non-violent; it is a sadhana, a spiritual tribute to
the truth and justice that we are fighting for. This is our long march to
freedom.
And on our journey home we will cook and camp in tents on
the roadside, there will be the marchers and the support marchers, the
kitchen team, logistics, media and the medical team. There will be dancing
and singing and theatre and film shows on the road as we take this long
journey home.
Join us.
