Brave monks thwart China again

As China tried to rush a hand-selected group of foreign journalists on a carefully-scripted 3-day tour of Tibet, Beijing’s propaganda came crashing down thanks to the bravery of 30 Tibetan monks. What might happen to those monks now in prison is unthinkable, but their sacrifice has blasted away Beijing’s attempted facade of normalcy in Tibet.

Breaking news from the AP:

A group of monks disrupted a government-managed tour by foreign reporters to Tibet’s capital on Thursday, screaming there was no religious freedom and that the Dalai Lama was not to blame for recent violence there.

The outburst by about 30 monks came as the journalists, including an Associated Press reporter, were being shown around the sacred Jokhang Temple by government handlers in Lhasa.

“Tibet is not free! Tibet is not free!” yelled one young Buddhist monk, who then started crying.

They also said their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, had nothing to do with recent anti-government riots by Tibetans in Lhasa, where buildings were torched and looted, and ethnic Han Chinese were attacked.[...]

Government handlers shouted for the journalists to leave and tried to pull them away during the protest.

From Reuters:

“About 30 young monks burst into the official briefing, shouting: ‘Don’t believe them. They are tricking you. They are telling lies’,” USA Today reporter Callum MacLeod said by telephone from Lhasa.

Another reporter said some of the monks asserted that they had been unable to leave the Jokhang Temple since March 10.

From The Times (UK):

About 30 monks, speaking first in Tibetan and then in Mandarin Chinese so that the reporters could understand them, said they knew that they almost certainly faced arrest for their action but that they were willing to take the risk. [...]

The outburst of anger at the Jokhang temple is particularly unusual since the 120 or so monks who live there are among the most carefully watched and best cared-for of any Tibetan religious institution.  

From the BBC:

The monks said they had not been allowed to leave the temple since the rioting. [...]

Later, the area around the Jokhang Temple was sealed off by riot police.

This is the Chinese government’s version of what happened:

More than a dozen lamas stormed into a briefing by a temple administrator to cause chaos.

China tried to bring these journalists on a carefully stage-managed tour of Tibet, in an attempt to counter the incredible negative publicity garnered by its brutal crackdown there. China’s propaganda effort backfired

These incredibly brave monks, who knew that they were risking torture and perhaps death, exposed China’s propaganda as a total farce.

I continue to be in awe of the incredible bravery of my fellow Tibetans in Tibet.  These monks are true heroes.

SFT’s press release on this incident is below:

Contact: Lhadon Tethong in Dharamsala, +91 980 523 7015
Tenzin Dorjee in Paris, +33 625 758 326

Dozens of Tibetan monks disrupt Chinese government organized media tour of Tibet

Monks shout: ‘Tibet is not free,’ risking their lives to send message of freedom to the world

Dharamsala - A group of Tibetan monks disrupted a tightly controlled Chinese government media tour in Lhasa today — the only foreign media that has been allowed into Tibet since widespread protests of Chinese rule gripped the nation. As over 20 journalists and their government handlers toured the Jokhang temple in Lhasa, several dozen monks — at great risk to their personal safety — began shouting: “Tibet is not free!” and asserting that the Dalai Lama was not to blame for the recent protests. After speaking to journalists for approximately 15 minutes, the monks were taken away by police officers and their current whereabouts remain unknown.

“In Tibet, where the free expression of political views is met with incarceration and torture, these monks risked everything to show the world that Tibet is not free,” said Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet,  “While the Chinese government tries to paint a picture of criminal Tibetan riots and many in the press focus on ethnic tensions, the fundamental issue is freedom. The Tibetan people are not and never will be content under Chinese rule. ”

The Chinese government has a long history of organizing state guided tours of Tibet in order to present their biased view of life under occupation. Though this humiliating tactic is well known to Tibetans, this is the first time they have disrupted such a tour on this scale.

“The actions of monks, nuns, and ordinary Tibetans in almost every region of Tibet point to a nationwide uprising,” said Tethong,  “Tibetans have suffered under Chinese rule for half a century and in this year of the Olympics – with all eyes on China – Tibetans are risking everything to achieve a free Tibet. This is the uprising of a people against their oppressor and the only possible outcome is freedom.”

This action comes on the heels of Beijing’s announcement that over 660 Tibetans have ‘surrendered’ in the wake of last week’s protests. Tibetans and supporters maintain that Tibetans – knowing the consequences of detainment in one the world’s most notorious prison systems – would never give themselves up to Chinese authorities and the arrests are the result of harassment, door-to -door searches, intimidation, and coercion.

-30-

Students for a Free Tibet     
International Headquarters
602 East 14th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10009
PH/FX 212.358.0071 / 1771
www.studentsforafreetibet.org