Video & Photos from Rebkong (Amdo) HHDL Obama Celebration

From Reuters:

Buddhist monks in Tongren, an overwhelmingly ethnic Tibetan part of northwestern Qinghai province, said they were celebrating the meeting in Washington, which is going ahead despite warnings from Beijing that Obama’s act will hurt Sino-U.S. ties.

Tensions with Washington have already risen over issues ranging from trade and currencies to a U.S. plan to sell $6.4 billion of weapons to self-ruled Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province.

The midnight display of fireworks along a valley dotted with Tibetan Buddhist monasteries was a bold and noisy reminder that, in spite of Chinese condemnation of the Dalai Lama, he remains a potent figure in his homeland, and his meeting with Obama will be noticed here by both supporters and opponents.

“My heart is filled with joy,” said Johkang, showing off an enormous smile, standing at his monastery in this arid and mountainous part of the Qinghai province, which lies next to the official Tibet Autonomous Region.

“It is so important for us that this is happening, that the U.S. has not given in to threats and will meet our leader,” added the monk, who like many ethnic Tibetans goes only by one name.

Qinghai, called Amdo by Tibetans, is where the Dalai Lama was born in 1935. He fled into exile from Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, and since then has campaigned for self-rule for Tibetans. China brands him a separatist.

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2009 in Tibet: The Uprising that China Feared

As the New Year begins and we reflect on the events in Tibet last year, we are reminded that 2009 was indeed a year of resistance. From the No Losar movement, to the farming boycott in Kham, to solo protests in Kandze, Tibetans made 2009 another year of uprising.

Since January 2009, Tibetan protests for freedom, human rights, and independence have taken place in more than 30 known areas of Tibet. In addition to protests and actions we have also seen a sharp increase in creative resistance through technology in Tibet. In 2009 Tibetan bloggers and “netizens” flooded the internet with writing expressing their discontent under Chinese rule.

Civil protests by Tibetans who were scammed by Chinese companies and discriminated in the Chinese educational system have also been on the rise.

In 2009 China learned that despite increased repression and a crackdown on all political activities, Tibetans are determined to fight for their fundamental rights.

Below is a list of places in Tibet and China where known acts of resistance by Tibetans took place:

• Rabgya (Amdo)

Large protests by Tibetans in western China -Los Angeles Times

Monk kills self in Ragya, residents protest -Phayul

• Derge (Kham)

Situation in Derge “Critical” after Residents Distribute Tibet Independence Pamphlets -Tibet.net

• Drango (Kham)

Tibetan Monk Beaten to Death -RFA

• Kandze (Kham)

Tibetans Stage Farm Boycott -RFA

Protester arrested in Kardze -Tibetinfonet.net

Woman arrested in Kardze -Tibetinfonet.net

China arrests two nuns of Dragkar Nunnery in Kardze -TCHRD

Details of Kardze Protests Emerge -Tibetinfonet.net

Tibetans Refuse State Dance Troupes -RFA

Two monks, three teenagers held for protesting -Voice of Tibet

A solo nun stages protest march in Kardze -RFA

• Lutsang (Amdo)

Tibetan Monks in Protest March -RFA

Tibetan monks stage new year protest in China, report says -Monsters and Critics

Tibetans forgo New Years celebrations in protest -CTV

• Nyagrong (Kham)

Tibetans Protest in Sichuan -RFA

• Tsolho (Amdo)

• Ngaba (Amdo)

More Protests in Tibet -Beijing Wide Open

New protest today in Ngaba after officials ban prayer ceremony -ICT

Tibetan monk killed by Chinese police after setting himself on fire -Asia News.it

China arrests Tibetan writer in Ngaba -TCHRD

• Nagchu (Ü-Tsang)

Tibetan Bloggers and Citizen Journalists -High Peaks Pure Earth

• Xining (Amdo)

Tibetan monks stage sit-in protest in front of Chinese court -TCHRD

• Machu (Amdo)

Tibetans clash with Chinese soldiers, several injured -Phayul

• Labrang (Amdo)

School students demonstration in Labrang County -TCHRD

A video appeal from a Tibetan inside Tibet to the International Community -TCHRD

• Markham (Kham)

Face off between Tibetans and Chinese security forces over gold mine -Phayul

Standoff at Tibet Gold Mine -RFA

• Nangchen (Kham)

Tibetan national flag was raised in Nangchen county, eastern Tibet - Tibet Post International

Protesting children beaten in Yushu -Tibetinfonet.net

• Lithang ( Kham)

Clash Over Tibet Has County in Lockdown -Washington Post

Tibetans Protest in Sichuan -RFA

Fifteen Tibetans arrested in Lithang after a peaceful protest -TCHRD

• Kaykundo (Ü-Tsang)

Tibetan man flies flag on tree, police launch hunt -Phayul

• Chamdo (Ü-Tsang)

Tibetan schoolboy arrested for anti China protest -Phayul

Act of defiance -Enriching thoughts

Seven monks arrested, abbot missing in Chamdo -Tibetinfonet.net

Schoolboy held in Chamdo after holding lone protest -Tibetinfonet.net

• Dzogang, Chamdo (Ü-Tsang)

Tibetans in Chamdo Protest China’s Patriotic Education, 6 Detained -Tibet.net

• Chentsa County (Amdo)

Protesters Call for United Stand Against China’s Wrong Policy in Tibet Tibet.net

• Baygen County (Amdo)

China expels disciplinary head of Amdo Jaqung Monastery -TCHRD

• Jodha County (Ü-Tsang)

Tibetans in Jodha county, eastern Tibet continue to refuse to plant crops -Tibet Post International

Tibetan woman stages sit-in protest to demand her husband’s release in Tibet’s Jomda County -Tibet.net

• Tawu (Kham)

6 Tibetan women injured in Tawu police firing -Phayul

• Lhasa (Ü-Tsang)

Tibetans ignore New Year -Tibetinfonet.net

• Meldro Gongkar (Ü-Tsang)

Tibetans in Meldro Gongkar clash with miners, 3 injured -Phayul

• Diru County, Tsashul Township (Ü-Tsang)

Two sentenced for bringing down Chinese flag, Ngaba Tibetans forced into renovation -Phayul

• Sog County (Ü-Tsang)

3 Tibetans arrested for posting Dalai Lama contents on chat website -Phayul

• Sershul (Kham)
  

20 Tibetans arrested in Sershul for “dissent” -Phayul

• Matoe, Golog (Amdo)

China arrests eleven Tibetans in Golog over subversive VCD - TCHRD

• Nagchukha (Kham)

Tibetans protest over jailed monk in southwest China -CTV

Tibetans continue with fasting and protest, situation extremely volatile in Nyachuka -TCHRD

Tibetan Protest Over Monk -RFA

• Chengdu (China)

Tibetans continue with fasting and protest, situation extremely volatile in Nyachuka -TCHRD

*The above list is not meant to be a event by event summary but rather a list of protest locations. If there are any corrections or additions please comment.

Advertisement Two sentenced for bringing down Chinese flag, Ngaba Tibetans forced into renovation

Join the Global Call: Record your own video message calling for the release of Dhondup Wangchen

SFT has joined other Tibet organizations to press President Obama to raise Dhondup Wangchen’s case with Chinese President Hu Jintao this week. Add your voice to the international call for his immediate release from Chinese prison at FreeTibetanHeroes.org

Record your own video message and upload to the  Gallery of Voices: http://www.freetibetanheroes.org/gallery/submit-your-words-photos-or-videos

Watch TenDolkar’s video here:

New York Times Profiles Dhondup Wangchen Ahead of Obama’s China Visit

Just weeks before U.S. President Obama makes his first presidential visit to China, Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times profiled detained Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen who is facing a secret trail for documenting the views of Tibetans in Tibet on the Beijing Olympics, the Dalai Lama and Chinese rule in Tibet.

Read the full article below:

China Is Trying a Tibetan Filmmaker for Subversion
By ANDREW JACOBS

CHONGQING, China — A self-taught filmmaker who spent five months interviewing Tibetans about their hopes and frustrations living under Chinese rule is facing charges of state subversion after the footage was smuggled abroad and distributed on the Internet and at film festivals around the world.

The filmmaker, Dhondup Wangchen, who has been detained since March 2008, just weeks after deadly rioting broke out in Tibet, managed to sneak a letter out of jail last month saying that his trial had begun.

“There is no good news I can share with you,” he wrote in the letter, which was provided by a cousin in Switzerland. “It is unclear what the sentence will be.”

As President Obama prepares for his first trip to China next month, rights advocates are clamoring for his attention in hopes that he will raise the plight of individuals like Mr. Wangchen or broach such thorny topics as free speech, democracy and greater religious freedom.

With hundreds of lawyers, dissidents and journalists serving time in Chinese prisons, human rights organizations are busy lobbying the White House, members of Congress and the news media. In some ways, the pressure has only intensified since Mr. Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, raising expectations for him to carry the torch of human rights.

Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, said Mr. Obama had an obligation to press Mr. Wangchen’s case and the cause of Tibetan autonomy in general, given his decision not to meet the Dalai Lama in Washington this month.

That move, which some viewed as a concession to China, angered critics already displeased with what they say was Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s failure to press human rights during a visit to China in February.

“Beijing is emboldened by such moves,” Ms. Tethong said. “They see a weakness in the U.S. government, and they’re going to exploit it. This idea that you’ll gain more through some backroom secret strategy does not work.”

Until now, the case of Mr. Wangchen, 35, has received little attention abroad. Uneducated and plainspoken, he was an itinerant businessman until October 2007, when he bought a small video camera and began traveling the Tibetan plateau interviewing monks, yak herders and students about their lives.

Tsetring Gyaljong, a cousin who helped him make the documentary, said that Mr. Wangchen’s political awareness was sharpened nearly a decade ago, when he witnessed a demonstration in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, that was quickly broken up by public security officers.

“He saw how it was dissolved in two or three minutes and how everyone was taken away,” said Mr. Gyaljong, speaking from Switzerland, where he has lived in exile since escaping from Tibet. “There were no pictures, no testimonies, and he felt like the world should know that Tibetans, despite the Chinese portrayals, are not a happy people.”

Out of 40 hours of footage and 108 interviews came “Leaving Fear Behind,” a 25-minute documentary that is an unadorned indictment of the Chinese government. Although given the choice to conceal their identities, most of his subjects spoke uncloaked and freely expressed their disdain for the Han Chinese migrants who are flooding the region and their love for the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile since 1959.

In his own comments at the start of the film, Mr. Wangchen said the approach of the 2008 Olympics had compelled him to record the feelings of Tibetans, many of whom were less than enthusiastic about the decision to hold the Games in Beijing.

“We have no independence or freedom, so Tibetans have no reason to celebrate,” said one young woman standing by a road. “The Chinese have independence and freedom, so this is something they can celebrate.”

On March 10, 2008, Mr. Wangchen traveled to Xi’an in central China to hand over the tapes to Dechen Pemba, a British citizen who ferried them out of the country. That same day, a protest in Lhasa turned into a rampage that left at least 18 people dead, most of them Han Chinese.

On March 26, Mr. Wangchen and Golog Jigme, a Buddhist monk who helped him make the film, were arrested. Mr. Jigme was subsequently released.

“It really is a remarkable coincidence,” Ms. Pemba said.

Mr. Wangchen’s family hired a lawyer, but the authorities barred him from court last July, leaving Mr. Wangchen with a public defender.

Before he was forced to drop the case, the lawyer, Li Dunyong, said Mr. Wangchen had told him that he was tortured and that he had contracted hepatitis B while in custody. Since then, he has been held incommunicado. Officials at the Xining Intermediate Court in Qinghai Province, where Mr. Wangchen is being held, would not comment on his case.

Mr. Wangchen seemed acutely aware that his project could get him in trouble. Just before he began filming, he sent his wife and their four children to India, where they live along with his elderly parents.

In an interview from Dharamsala, where she works as a baker, Mr. Wangchen’s wife, Lhamo Tso, said she feared she might not see him again for many, many years.

“As a wife, I’m very sad to be without the person I love so much,” she said. “But if I can separate out that sadness, I feel proud because he made a courageous decision to give a voice to people who don’t have one.”

OUR NATION: EPISODE 13 – News of Daring Vigil by Monks in Tibet

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Two Great Articles

A great source for Tibet & China commentary is Rebecca Novick, who blogs regularly on The Huffington Post. Novick has two posts up this week on China’s crackdown inside Tibet following the nation-wide uprising this spring and as the Olympics approach. Go give these two articles — Leaking State Secrets: Beijing Finds Nothing Noble in Speaking Out on Human Rights and Guilty of Being Tibetan: Scenes from a Lhasa Prison — a read today.

Transcript of Press Conference by Tibet Activists on Eve of IOC Meeting in Athens

TIBET ACTIVISTS SPEAK OUT ON EVE OF INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE MEETING IN ATHENS
TRANSCRIPT OF STATEMENTS MADE AT PRESS CONFERENCE
JUNE 3RD, FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION OF GREECE, ATHENS

1) INTRODUCTION BY LHADON TETHONG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STUDENTS FOR A FREE TIBET (SFT) INTERNATIONAL
2) TENDON DAHORTSANG, PRESIDENT, TIBETAN YOUTH ASSOCIATION IN EUROPE, ON THE CURRENT SITUATION IN TIBET
3) BORIS EICHLER, PRESS OFFICER, TIBET INITIATIVE DEUTSCHLAND, ON THE TORCH RELAY THROUGH TIBET
4) LHADON TETHONG, SFT, ON INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ACCESS TO TIBET

Below is the transcript of remarks by Tibet campaigners at a press conference at the Foreign Press Association of Greece in Athens, June 3rd. The press conference was broadcast live on the Internet and can be viewed at: www.sfttv.org. The remarks were followed by questions by reporters present in the room as well as by viewers who watched the press conference live online and asked their questions in an accompanying web-forum. Transcript may vary slightly from the remarks as delivered by the presenters but the following should be regarded as the official remarks of the identified activists.

INTRODUCTION BY LHADON TETHONG
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STUDENTS FOR A FREE TIBET INTERNATIONAL

Good Morning and thank you everyone for joining us.

My name is Lhadon Tethong and I am the Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet International based in New York.

As you know, we are here in Athens because the International Olympic Committee is meeting from tomorrow, June 4th to June 6th. This is their last meeting before August, followed shortly thereafter by the Beijing Games. Meanwhile, the meeting also comes just days before the Olympic torch is scheduled to make its first stop in Tibet.
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Tibetan Monks Sealed in Sichuan Monastery Request Permission to Pray for Chinese Quake Victims

Currently based out of Dharamsala, India, friend-of-SFT and Producer of Pacifica/KPFK’s The Tibet Connection radio show Rebecca Novick posted an amazing story to The Huffington Post. Relatively inexperienced at this blogging thing, I hope I’m not breaking any rules by simply re-posting it in full here:

Tibetan Monks Sealed in Sichuan Monastery Request Permission to Pray for Chinese Quake Victims

Tsering, a monk living in exile in Dharamsala, India, received a static-filled call from Tibet at 10:30 at night on May 15th. On the other end was a monk from Kirti Monastery in Sichuan, the province where China’s devastating earthquake took tens of thousands of lives.

The monk told Tsering that the monastic community of Kirti had requested that the Chinese authorities to allow them to perform prayers for the Chinese people who had suffered in the disaster.

Since March 6th, Kirti monastery has been surrounded by large numbers of Chinese security forces. The local Tibetan community has not been allowed access after large public demonstrations — in which thousands of the monks participated — resulting in mass arrests. For a few days, Kirti became a temporary morgue for fifteen Tibetans who eye witnesses claim were shot and killed by Chinese police while protesting non-violently. Scores of other protesters were reported to have been killed in the ensuing crackdown.

Two weeks later, after photographs of those killed in the protests were leaked to the outside world, the People’s Armed Police and Public Security Bureau officials stormed the monastery and searched the rooms. During the raid, they defaced pictures of the Dalai Lama — an unimaginable offense to Tibetan monks. (Photo courtesy of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights & Democracy.)

It was in this atmosphere that the monks of Kirti made their quiet request to do prayers for the Chinese quake victims. Since March, the monks of Kirti have not been allowed to conduct their usual Buddhist rituals, but on May 15th, they received special permission to make an exception. The monks began the day with a prayer offering ceremony and collected cash donations from among their members. They also wrote letters of condolences to the bereaved families.

The monks of Kirti monastery, located in Ngapa county in Amdo, also conveyed the following message to the Chinese people:

As monks of a Buddhist Monastery, we unwaveringly follow the nonviolent path shown by Buddha and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We practice the Buddhist teachings of loving compassion to all sentient beings. We are all one human family. Therefore the monks of Kirti monastery offer their prayers to the Chinese victims of this disaster.

We want our Chinese brothers and sisters to know that we Tibetans are not against them as the Government has tried to claim through the state run television after the March 14 unrest in Lhasa. This has been creating a rift and hostility between Tibetans and Chinese. The monks from Kirti monastery confidently represent the Tibetans by clarifying that the Tibetans are against the unjust policies of the People’s Republic of China and not against the Chinese people themselves.

We wish to express to the Chinese people that we have never harbored any anger towards them. Our only wish is to find a solution to the Tibet issue. Tibetans and Chinese have a deep history of cultural relationships, and it’s a fact that Tibetans and Chinese have to live side by side. Therefore, we urge the Chinese people to join us to try to find a solution that will allow us to remain friends rather than enemies.

That solution may presently seem out of reach, but its sentiments like these that could bring it closer.

BREAKING NEWS: Tibetan monks disrupt another scripted media tour

. Breaking news: a group of Tibetan monks in Labrang Monastery bravely demonstrated during a tightly-scripted media tour conducted by the Chinese government. Like the monks of the Jokhang Cathedral last month in Lhasa, the Labrang monks took great personal risk to show the world that Tibetans are not happy under Chinese rule.

As the world’s eyes are on San Francisco today for the Olympic torch relay, we must remember that in Tibet, the Tibetan people continue to suffer under China’s brutal military occupation. Despite this, the spirit of the Tibetan people is unbroken, and Tibetans continue to speak out for freedom.

The brave Labrang monks, like the Jokhang monks, knew that they would likely be arrested and tortured. But their act of courage spoiled yet another effort by the Chinese government to pretend that all is well in Tibet. We should all be urging our governments to demand that these monks not be punished, and demand full media access across Tibet; no more of these sham media tours conducted by Chinese officials.

ABC news has amazing video (click here), where the monks can be heard shouting (in Tibetan) that they want human rights and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Here is a report from the New York Times:

Buddhist monks interrupted a government-managed media tour in western China on Wednesday, waving a Tibetan flag and protesting that the authorities were depriving them of their human rights.

The disruption, in the city of Xiahe in Gansu Province, was another unexpected public relations setback for China, and marked the second time that monks have upstaged government efforts to control foreign media tours of Tibetan areas.

Last month, several monks in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, risked official punishment when they made an emotional appeal to foreign journalists inside the Jokhang Monastery, one of the city’s holiest shrines.

The outburst on Wednesday came as authorities guided reporters through the Labrang Monastery. The tour marked the first officially approved visit to Xiahe by foreign reporters since monks and other Tibetans in the city clashed with police last month. During the tour, about 15 monks rushed out, waving a Tibetan flag, and approached a group of about 20 Chinese and foreign reporters.

Tibet remains under lockdown

Even as we watch the Olympic torch relay blow up in the Chinese government’s face, our thoughts should remain with the Tibetans inside of Tibet, who are suffering under a crackdown away from the world’s eyes. In just one example, the AP reports:

Police manning a checkpoint on Thursday stopped reporters trying to enter Aba prefecture, a primarily Tibetan area in Sichuan province, and escorted them back to the provincial capital, Chengdu.

At a news conference in Beijing, Aba’s deputy chief Xiao Youcai, said life was “completely normal” in the area, but insisted also that it remained “too dangerous” for foreign journalists.

This is a complete contradiction, showing how crazy the Chinese government’s claims about Tibet are. Is the situation “completely normal” or “too dangerous”? Pick one! What is the Chinese government hiding in Tibet?

From the information trickling out of Tibet, we hear of protesters massacred in the streets, and massive political indoctrination sessions (as if more propaganda will solve Tibetan demands for freedom and independence). From this information, we can piece together a grim picture of life in Tibet right now:

Xiao refused to confirm an earlier state media report that Aba police had shot and wounded four rioters in self-defense, conceding only that shots had been fired in self-defense. Tibetan groups said up to 20 people may have been killed.

Alongside the stepped-up security, the region’s top officials have ordered more stringent ideological education for young people _ an apparent acknowledgment that years of political indoctrination have failed to curb support for the Dalai Lama.