Four decades after a failed uprising against Chinese rule and almost five decades since Tibet's incorporation into the People's Republic of China, no single story encapsulates the experience of exile from Tibet -- certainly not as it is experienced by Tibetans today. To speak with a range of Tibetans who have come out of Tibet in the late 1990s is to be firmly jolted from the common image of the Tibetan escapee as neither more nor less than a devout Buddhist seeking simple religious freedom and the possibility of seeing the Dalai Lama. continue....
Exile Accounts Written and based on interviews by Mickey Spiegel
Jamyang Dargye is a disillusioned Tibetan exile now in Dharamsala. He looked forward to life in India as a way of furthering his education, but none of his hopes have been fulfilled. He can't go back across the Chinese border to his home in Qinghai Province (Amdo to Tibetans), or he will be arrested for his active involvement in support of a free Tibet. continue...
Lama Kyap never stops moving. If he is not with his wife managing the Delek Cafe, he is on his motorcycle heading to work at Dharamsala's Amdo Community Organization, where he is general secretary, or to the language school he established for local residents. continue...
In 1995, Lukhar Jam's options were stark: seventeen years in prison, or escape to exile in Dharamsala. Then twenty-six, he chose exile. continue..
Rinchen Dorje still plans to be a writer, even though it was his writing that got him into trouble with Chinese authorities. He only began to advocate actively for free speech for Tibetans in 1991 as a student at Qinghai Institute for Nationalities in Xining, but his involvement with Tibetan political struggles is rooted in an event that preceded his birth: his maternal grandfather's arrest during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-76). continue...
Three
Rongpo Monks
From 1994 to
1997, monks at the Rongpo Monastery in "eastern Tibet" were deeply involved
in political activities, distributing leaflets, putting up posters, and
using lay and religious festivals to get their independence message out.
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Virtual Tibet by Orville Schell
The Western imagination has long hungered for cultures and places remote enough to remain uncontaminated by the imperatives of modern life. One may debate, of course, whether any place on our increasingly small planet remains untouched by the homogenizing effects of jet travel and the global marketplace. continue...
Prisons in Tibet by Steven Marshall
Some five hundred to six hundred Tibetans are believed to be detained for the nonviolent expression of their political or religious beliefs. Most are from the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), but some are residents of Tibetan autonomous prefectures and counties in the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, and Yunnan. continue...
A
Brief Summary of Propaganda Materials for Patriotic Education in Tibetan
Buddhist Monasteries
September 20,
1997
LESSON ONE: The
Main Points Concerning the Propagation of Patriotic Education in Tibetan
Buddhist Monasteries and the Strengthening of Supervision over Them in
Accordance with Law.
continue...