Global Tibet Lobby Day 2011

On February 28 and March 1, more than 100 Tibetan-Americans and their supporters descended on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. to thank the U.S. Congress for its longstanding support, and to urge greater action for freedom and democracy in Tibet. The next day, SFT Canada arrived on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada for two days of meetings and discussions on how the Canadian government can increase support for Tibet.
Follow the action on SFT’s Twitter feed #tibetlobby.

Tibet Lobby Day 2011 is far from over. National Tibet lobby events are coming up in Sydney, Australia; London, UK; and New Delhi. Stay tuned for more updates on how we’re building global political support to help bring an end to China’s occupation of Tibet.

After Metok County was “Opened Up” By Woeser

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a blogpost by Woeser that was originally written for broadcast on Radio Free Asia on January 29, 2011 and posted on her blog on February 17, 2011.






One month ago, all of China’s main media focused on southern Tibet, solemnly reporting that the Metok highway tunnel had been opened, announcing that “the history of generations of Metok people being cut off by the vast snow-capped mountains is finally over”. Indeed, we have always known that Metok was the only county not accessible by highway; yet, more importantly, we have always known that Metok was never a deserted area, in fact, it has always been a very extraordinary place, both in terms of religious significance and natural resources.

However, over 90 years ago, the Qing Dynasty official, Zhao Erfeng, with his red peacock feather hat, led his army into Tibetan territory and instigated a bloody massacre. The general working under him, Chen Liangzhen, who was later endlessly praised by the Chinese literati, came to realise the rich and fertile products of southern Tibet, but he collectively called all the inhabitants of the area “barbarians”; in his diary titled “Memoirs of My Trip to the Tibetan Plateau” he wrote: “When I first went to Tibet, I thought all Tibetans were simply ‘barbarians’. However, after living there for a while I realised that Tibetan barbarians are more civilised than ordinary barbarians.” And the place where the so-called “barbarians” lived, was the Pema Kong – Metok.

So, is today’s Metok still inhabited by “barbarians”? Since it was not accessible by highway, doesn’t that mean that compared to other places in Tibet, its Sinicisation process happened at a much slower pace? I have always wanted to visit Metok because of the deep religious association with Padmasambhava, and because of the many historical sites left behind by great individuals representing a spiritual oasis of comfort for many pilgrims. But travelling there was always inconvenient with many bloodthirsty leeches along the route, which left me in a state of hesitation. I thought many people would think similarly, that in this way the place would remain a kind of untouched and natural pure land. By saying natural I of course include the indigenous people living there.

A Chinese military reporter recorded the opening of the Metok Highway with photos and text on his blog and on Twitter. I came to understand that my initial imaginations of the place are no longer true. After the opening of the highway, some issues could be observed which are likely to increase in the future: as more and more people move to Metok, more and more natural resources will be taken away from Metok. Those “barbarians” who were once a nuisance to the invaders many years ago, are now turning into stage props to spice up the travel experience of all the tourists that will be flocking in; freely displaying their bodies draped in animal skin, the feathers pinned to their heads, singing and dancing in a rather “barbarian” fashion, they look more like rare domesticated animals living in a zoo.

About his experiences in Metok, this journalist wrote: “On the Tramok highway 80K there is a restaurant. It is the largest hub for commodity exchange. The small restaurant, opened by people from Sichuan, has a big sign outside, reading ‘Grand Canyon Restaurant’”, “a local party official explained that today, in the whole of Metok we already find over 200 shops”, “they have even opened a karaoke hall, which, despite the fact that it looks simple and crude, has a large sign saying ‘Made in Heaven’”, “The wall of the Deyang Restaurant in the Metok county town is full of messages left by travellers. Another Sichuan restaurant called ‘Seafood Restaurant’ has already become a stronghold on the walking routes of Metok”. And so on and so forth.

I asked the journalist on Twitter whether those over 200 shops were opened by local people or by people who had moved there. He replied that they were mainly run by people from Sichuan. This is exactly what I had expected. Not only was Lhasa many years ago referred to as Chengdu’s backyard garden or clone city, also the Nyingtri Region’s capital city, Bayi Town (literally meaning 8-1-Town), to which Metok belongs, was many years ago described as not referring to 8 Han Chinese and 1 Tibetan, but to 80 Han Chinese and 1 Tibetan. There is another widespread joke; there was a tourist who set out to venture into the unknown to explore Metok, but the result was that he was laughed at, people said that there was nothing to explore in Metok, some “young ladies” had already gone in there long time ago to open businesses.

The system of "Liuguan", which was promoted through the bloody massacre instigated by Zhao Erfeng wreaked havoc in the eastern Kham area of Tibet; fortunately, their closing in on central Tibet was brought to an early end with the outbreak of the 1911 Xinhai Revolution in China. But later on, the undertaking was completed by the Communist Party instead. Now, the national excitement triggered by the “Opening Up of Metok” brims over with a flavour that is repeatedly and commonly conveyed through words and found in various history or scientific books. It is a flavour of colonialists setting foot on new land, impatiently waiting to catch the big fish. What we will inevitably see in the future is that the “Opening Up of Metok” means the extermination of Metok. But for now, it is enough to say that with the endless stream of people moving into the area, the once “barbarian” indigenous inhabitants will soon be tamed.

Beijing, January 29, 2011

Tiananmen 2.0: Why China is not immune to the Tunisia effect

Below is an article I wrote on the Huffington Post. It’s at this link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tenzin-dorjee/tienanmen-20-why-china-is_b_827685.html

Last spring, I was waiting for a bus in Cairo. Dawn was just breaking, and Tahrir Square, where the bus station was located, was empty except for the omnipresent face of Hosni Mubarak, on posters that covered giant billboards and buildings all over the city. In the cafes where men sipped tea and smoked hookahs, there was no smell of a revolution brewing. Instead, there was a lingering sense of resignation that the country might be condemned to live under Mubarak forever.

Less than a year later in January, images of the Egyptian revolution flashed across TV screens worldwide, and Tahrir Square had become unrecognizable! As people power explodes across the Arab world ­ — first in Tunisia, then in Egypt, now in Bahrain, Libya and elsewhere — one can’t help but wonder if we may be witnessing the fourth wave of democratization. If so, can 1.5 billion people living under the Chinese Communist Party ride this wave to democracy and freedom?

Before the dust has settled on the Arab spring, analysts are citing poverty, unemployment and corruption as the three main causes of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Arguing that these socioeconomic conditions and statistics are missing in today’s China, some are quick to dismiss any possibility of Beijing’s rule being shaken by the Tunisia effect. But let us remember an enduring lesson from history. Statistics don’t make revolutions; people do.

A few years ago, I traveled to Palestine to attend a conference on nonviolence with a friend of mine. One evening, after the panels and workshops were over, we found ourselves sitting with the pioneering theorist of nonviolent conflict, Dr. Gene Sharp. Discussing the likelihood of mass protests in Tibet and China, we asked him what he thought was the single most important ingredient to make a revolution.

“Hope,” he answered, without a moment’s hesitation, in a tone that indicated mild surprise at how we could not know such a basic fact of life.

People rise up not just because they are poor or unemployed; people rise up when they believe change is possible. After the success of the Tunisian revolution, millions of Egyptians suddenly found new hope and poured into the streets to demand change. In fact, in both Tunisia and Egypt, the revolution was not led by the poor and unemployed; it was organized and largely executed by the educated, online, middle class youth who wanted a say in the way their country was run. If revolutions are created by poverty and unemployment, why are we seeing an uprising in Bahrain, an international banking center with an educated, middle class majority? If Chinese youth are financially better off today than a decade ago, it makes them more — not less — likely to demand freedom and democracy.

However, while hope can mobilize people, it cannot guarantee success, which depends on strategy and tools. The mass convergences in Tunis and Cairo that filled our TV screens for weeks were preceded by months and years of behind-the-scenes strategic planning, training and organizing by groups of activists and youth leaders, who wielded the power of the internet in their nonviolent struggle.

The internet has decentralized technology and exponentially strengthened the grassroots. Wael Ghonim, one of the heroes of the Egyptian uprising, said it best, “If you want to liberate a society, just give them the internet.” According to Mr. Ghonim, who aptly called their uprising “Revolution 2.0,” the Egyptian revolution began online.

Is China ready for a revolution 2.0? There are nearly half a billion internet users in China today. China’s social media networks are expanding rapidly — Chinese Facebook look-alike Renren has 170 million users and microblogging site Sina has 75 million users. In spite of China’s great firewall, Chinese netizens have learned to circumvent the censors and read between the lines. When “Egypt” disappears from the internet, they can surmise that Cairo is in tumult. In the age of the internet, any battle against information is futile.

Nevertheless, the ultimate success of a revolution in China will depend on the effective use of strategy. In Egypt and Tunisia, activists and organizers connected with other pro-democracy forces including the Serbian youth movement that helped topple Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. They gathered in living rooms and watched films such as “Bringing Down a Dictator” about the Serbian uprising, and read books like From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp, internalizing the lesson that nonviolent movements are more powerful when they are planned strategically than when they happen spontaneously. If Chinese activists can analyze the strategic decisions within the 1989 Tiananmen movement and draw lessons from its failure, they will have a much higher chance of succeeding the next time.

Some believe the Chinese state is too ruthless to allow a nonviolent revolution, arguing that protesters will be arrested long before they reach a critical mass. But mass protest, although the most visible, is hardly the most effective form of nonviolent resistance. In places where the crackdown on street protests is swift and brutal, noncooperation and civil disobedience tactics are often more advisable. These tactics of denying obedience to the rulers, while reducing the risk of arrest and increasing the sustainability of the movement, have crippled ruthless regimes.

Largely unknown to the world, Tibetans today are engaging in a growing noncooperation movement. Since a 2008 uprising erupted across Tibet, China’s militarization of the Tibetan plateau has snuffed out all signs of dissent in the streets. But the revolution did not disappear; it simply moved indoors. Tibetans are now making a conscious effort to speak only in Tibetan, to eat only in Tibetan restaurants, or to buy only from Tibetan shops. Tibetans are channeling their spirit of resistance into social, cultural and economic activities that are self-constructive (promoting Tibetan language and culture) and non-cooperative (refusing to support Chinese institutions and businesses). The fact that Tibetans are able to wage a quiet, slow-building nonviolent movement in the most repressive political climate shows that there is a way to mobilize people power against the Chinese regime.

In spite of China’s image as a high-functioning economy, many of the social causes of mass discontent that exploded in the Arab world — endemic corruption, income inequality, labor unrest, inflation, pollution — continue to plague the nation. Since 2008, China has witnessed the Tibetan uprising, the Uyghur uprising in East Turkestan, and 90,000 mass incidents of public unrest each year. The Chinese government spends almost as much money on maintaining internal security as on its national defense. This underlines the overwhelming danger the regime faces from within its own empire.

2011 marks exactly a century since a previous generation of Chinese overthrew the Manchu dynasty and established a republic that lasted till 1949. This week, as organizers of a “Jasmine Revolution” issued calls for protest rallies every Sunday in thirteen cities in China, I started to feel that the stars are aligned against dictatorships everywhere. If the Chinese people seize this opportunity by combining nonviolent tools with strategic planning, they stand to liberate a quarter of the world’s population. It is about time.

What Chinese are saying about Egypt

How are Chinese people viewing the pro-democracy uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia? That’s a question many are asking and few are answering. The Chinese state, of course, dislikes what’s happening along the Nile, so much so that it has banned the word “Egypt” in micro-blogging sites. But what are Chinese people thinking? Are they even aware that the Arab world is on fire?

Well, it appears that the Chinese netizens are not only aware of the Egyptian revolution, they’re in fact voicing their support and admiration for the Egyptian people right now. Below are some comments from Sina microblog from a few days back:

smartskym: They want freedom of information. Keeping the people in ignorance is out of the question, and will not work.
田野V8: It’s pity that many people have never seen Twitter or Facebook. So our people are: without any stance!
想睡的猫: Dictators can only live in lies.
NELLL: Frightened souls that were crushed over by tanks 22 years ago have learned to be selfish, to be obscure and to escape. Then, no one has ever heard the song “The most beautiful Chinese” that was played at the square.
Mr-Six: Why the f**k this seems to be talking about the heavenly kingdom?
捷克刀神: Egyptians and Tunisians have been very awesome lately.
李PENG: Exactly the same as what we need.
遗世独立Q苍苍_暖酱: We don’t want Xinwen Lianbo (CCTV prime time news). We also want Twitter and Facebook.
83年瑕疵品_我要瘦: Agree! And the water pipe! (Chinese nickname for Youtube)
pplove24: I tuned in for Xinwen Lianbo that I’d quit a long time specially. There was absolutely nothing…
erinfourteen Spot-on. //@亚洲的法语:AGREE!!!!!TOTALLY!!!
Pony菜菜: That’s why the two characters “Egypt” is now being banned and filtered out.
A李想: F**k. All four are controlled (in China)!
RShuJian: Before we asked for bread and milk. Now we ask for democracy and freedom. Mankind’s aspiration is also being constantly upgraded!
山水风中奇缘: In retrospect, the great Party is indeed brilliant. It built the grand GFW. (Great Fire Wall) Must have had foresight.
碧眼寰宇: I would think it were in China if it were not for the English…
信号山博攫: Revolution! Awesome Egyptian.
zhengxiaoshuo: Need free speech. No internet censorship
JennyL630: Chinese have none of these. So what? V5 (Sounds very similar to powerful in Chinese)
难淡: Twitter and Facebook turn out to be tools for revolutions. Haha. No wonder Z*F (An euphemism for the government, a form of self-censorship) is afraid.
憨鸟: This expression is very good. No bloodshed. Need communication. Need freedom.
東京上空30秒: God is so far away from some countries!
chen510260x: Need a lot of RMB (Chinese currency)
张颂zhangsong: Internet has infinite power!!! China doesn’t have tools for observation that the world of freedom has.
bobodiva: I disagree. These are tools for divulging secret information for a bunch of nosy people to look on. What’s the point of hiding at home, raising arms and shouting? Such revolutions are but virtual revolutions. Just go ahead with your dreams!
虾米虾米: We need (film) rating system; need legalization of red-light districts…
傻逼贾有财: We Chinese just don’t need these, as we don’t know about these for starters. They must be poisonous weeds sown by capitalism! We must firmly cast them aside!
宁财神: Need imdb! (Internet Movie Database) Need Emule; need google. No castration. Need original works.
Akimoon: Need wiki.
May733: Need individual freedom and a free society as well.
储扬: The majestic country has been terrified lately. None of the mainstream media covered the events. It seems it has silently admitted that its path is never a bright and broad road. It is dead determined to brag and allege that only the scenery here is beautiful.
侵略地球的火星猫: Right. We should learn from this method too.
独立旅鼠: Capturing a city is an inferior strategy. Capturing the minds is superior. China can become a real superpower only when it begins to export these things (referring to twitter and facebook).
飄忽小姐Valynn: I second it. Also need the right to take to the streets with signs.
王斌_im2点0: The one who held the sign might be a special agent from the U.S. CIA and is specially in charge of infiltrating and spreading ideology in the Third World.
李国庆: Internet is a nuclear weapon without fire.
古拉阁: Different skin colors, same wishes.

“Waterfall of Youth – Dhondup Gyal” Music Video by Yudrug (Green Dragon)

Following on from the huge popularity of their music video "New Generation", High Peaks Pure Earth has translated another song by Yudrug called "Waterfall of Youth - Dhondup Gyal".

The song was uploaded onto their blog on November 27, 2010 and is a paean to writer, poet and critic, Dhondup Gyal (དོན་འགྲུབ་རྒྱལ་ -  Don rgrub rgyal). Dhondup Gyal was born in 1953 in Chentsa (གཅན་ཚ་ gcan tsha, Amdo, located today in Qinghai province) and is widely considered to be the father of modern Tibetan literature. Dhondup Gyal wrote under the penname of "Rangdrol", meaning self-liberated. This is indicative of his limpid nationalistic bent and can be taken to have both a Buddhist meaning and modern political connotations. The title of Yudrug's song is taken from Dhondup Gyal's groundbreaking 1983 poem "Waterfall of Youth" (ལང་ཚོའི་རྦབ་ཆུ - lang tsho'i rbab chu) that caused a sensation when it was published, both for its radical literary innovation and bold nationalistic sentiments.

In his essay "The Waterfall and Fragrant Flowers", Tibetan historian Tsering Shakya writes: "The poem fervently appealed to Tibetans to embrace modernism as a means of regenerating their culture and national pride, and beseeched the youth to shake off the past and march proudly towards their future."

The essay "The Waterfall and Fragrant Flowers", along with an English translation of the poem "Waterfall of Youth" featured in a special edition of academic journal "Mānoa" titled "Song of the Snow Lion", published in 2000 by University of Hawai'i Press. In a review of "Mānoa" published by "New Left Review", eminent literary critic Henry Zhao called ‘Waterfall of Youth’ by Dhondup Gyal "powerful" and "somewhat Mayakovskyan in accent, conceived as a manifesto for a national literature."

As Shakya writes, “[...] Boldness in style and politics was characteristic of Dhondup Gyal’s writings. For the first time, the possibility emerged that, through-the medium of poetry and fiction, a genuine discourse on Tibetan modernity could occur. At stake were the future direction of Tibet and Tibetan identity in the latter half of the twentieth century.” Interestingly, the term “lang tsho” has no direct English translation. The word could be translated as “youth”, but this does not fully convey its connotations – it rather refers to the peak of youthfulness. It is the period when young men or women reach their peak in physical development, and there is an implicit connotation of energy and vitality in the word. The torrent and the force of the waterfall are metaphors for the burning desire for freedom, modernism and innovation. The energy generated by the torrent of the Waterfall became a metaphor for the pent-up vision of the younger generation of Tibetans. After their innovative and modern hip-hop song and music video "New Generation", it seems as though Yudrug have adopted "Youth" as their signature theme, taking their cue and energy and inspiration from Dhondup Gyal's words.

High Peaks Pure Earth has also noticed a revival of Dhondup Gyal online in recent months, with many Tibetan netizens sharing his poems and photo on their blogs and social networking pages such as these images below:

Waterfall of Youth

Excerpt from Dhondup Gyal's "The Narrow Path"

Yudrug’s music video “Waterfall of Youth - Dhondup Gyal” has generally been enthusiastically received by Tibetan netizens. Comments on the video have typically praised both Yudrug and Dhondup Gyal, such as these on the Chinese language Tibetan site TibetCul:

Tashi Delek I really support them, they are the essence of we Tibetans !!!!!!!!!

The bright shining star of Tibetan literature deserving of praise! The lyrics are lively, the singing is also passionate! Hope that Tibetan literary circles will forever be permeated by Waterfall of Youth!

The main criticism towards Yudrug is evidently that they mainly sing the song using the Chinese language:

If it were sung in Tibetan, it would be even better.

Why aren’t you singing in Tibetan???

Dhondup Gyal committed suicide in 1985, he was 32. Below is the English translation of the lyrics to "Waterfall of Youth", High Peaks Pure Earth has not subtitled the middle part of the song, the Tibetan rap is lifted from the “Waterfall of Youth” poem. Similarly, the Tibetan at the start and end of the song are also taken from the poem and are indicated in italics.


Lyrics: Duozhihe
Composition: Yudrug (Green Dragon)
Performed by: Yudrug (Green Dragon)
Directed by: Duozhihe

The clear blue sky,

The warmth of the sun,

The fragrant flowers,

The majestic mountains-

Aima!

But even more beautiful than these,

a cascading waterfall

before a steep cliff

Your life has been full of legendary character
Your spirit is full of wisdom and divine light
Your story will be passed on by many generations
Dhondup Gyal, you are the pride of the people of Chentsa

You’ve opened the door to wisdom for our people
You’ve welcomed the ordinary people of a later generation
You’ve written something that has defined our past
You’ve set up an everlasting tablet on which to inscribe the future

Dhondup Gyal, Dhondup Gyal, Dhondup Gyal...

Although your life was very, very short
But your journey was very, very long
In the course of history
You are a single glittering pearl
(glittering pearl)

(Tibetan Rap)

Your youth was bursting with vitality
Your students have already filled the sky like peach blossoms
Your brilliant successors ceaselessly praise you
Dhondup Gyal, you are the pride of the Snowland

You’ve planted the seeds for a golden field here
You’ve draped an auspicious rainbow over this snow mountain
You’ve left a wealth of knowledge from yesterday
And opened a golden pathway for tomorrow

Dhondup Gyal, Dhondup Gyal, Dhondup Gyal

Although your life was very, very short
But your heart flew very, very high
In the vast darkness of the night
You are that one single bright shining star
(shining star)

Dhondup Gyal, Dhondup Gyal, Dhondup Gyal

The bright road
Pride in responsibility
Joyous life
Song of struggle

The youthful waterfall will not diminish
The water will never become impure

This is!
The waterfall springs from the voices of the youth of Tibet

This is!
The waterfall flows from the mind of the youth of the Land of Snows

Translation by High Peaks Pure Earth
[Ends]

Read Tsering Shakya's English translation of "Waterfall of Youth" here:
http://tibetwrites.org/?Waterfall-of-Youth

Read "Waterfall of Youth" in the original Tibetan here:
http://www.tibetcm.com/html/list_20/94dc4c3b995ab0fc3079d96d777ec7fc/

Read "Waterfall of Youth" in Chinese here:
http://reganglin.tibetcul.com/56426.html