Where Tibetans Write

Must We love the Party…

Bhuchung D Sonam — 2013-05-13T07:42:43Z

On 8 May, among many issues the Tibetan prime minister discussed at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, Dr Lobsang Sangay said: 'We don't challenge, or ask for, an overthrow of the Communist Party. We don't question or challenge the present structure of the ruling party.' The ruling party being the Communist Party of China (CCP). This statement by the popularly-elected head of the exile Tibetan government contradicts two of the fundamental principles that his administration stands for (...)

- Articles

"Tibet's Next Incarnation?"

Jamyang Norbu — 2013-04-29T07:32:00Z

CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS, CONFUSION AND CONSPIRACIES AT THE CENTRAL TIBETAN ADMINISTRATION For some months now, large-scale protests and violent street battles have been raging throughout Cairo and other major cities of Egypt. Thousands of Egyptian liberals and secularists have come out on the streets to protest what they called President Mohamed Morsi's “power-grab”, after he issued a declaration awarding himself new powers, which he claimed were “temporary” until a new constitution was put in (...)

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To think independently is more important than dogma

Tenzin Nyinjey — 2013-04-26T10:15:32Z

In his biography of Mila Repa, Tsangnyon Heruka (1452-1507) wrote: When one of his disciples asked Mila Repa whose reincarnation you are, the great yogi said, "I don't even know myself whose reincarnation I am. That you believe in me as a reincarnation of a Boddhisatva is your superstition. In fact believing in reincarnation is the worst form of heresy." Mila Repa's above comment is enlightening. It testifies the corruption of the Tulku system and the dangers of theocracy to human (...)

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My nephew and the Self-Immolation

TW — 2013-03-13T07:48:00Z

I was sleeping in on Saturday morning when my cell phone rang several times. I picked it up without looking at the number. Over the phone I heard crying and the sounds of protest and the local dialect of my town Amchok: "Boys, don't be sad, be strong, walk this way, walk forward. Om mani padme hum, Gyalwa Tenzin Gyatso." No one was talking to me over the phone and I realized that something bad had happened. I quickly called the other villagers who said, "I am sorry your brother's lovely son (...)

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The Massacre of Tibetans

TW — 2012-11-11T17:07:35Z

Tibetan writer Woeser takes issue with the Chinese author of a recent book on Tibetan history, saying her views gloss over the horrors of the Chinese occupation. I haven't yet had the chance to read the book by Tibet historian Li Jianglin, titled When The Iron Bird Flies: A Secret War. I have only seen some of the reports and the author's preface online. The key sentences in the author's preface are: "The mid-1950s to the early 1960s saw a tragic war in southwestern and northwestern China, (...)

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Make it a Burning Issue

Jamyang Norbu — 2012-11-10T10:55:40Z

Seventy Tibetans have, one after the other, in relentless and purposeful succession, set themselves on fire for the cause of their people's freedom. If anything so heroic, selfless, spontaneous, non-instigated, and entirely non-violent* had happened anywhere else in the world, especially in the West or in places important to Western interests, like the Middle East or North Africa, these self-immolations would not only have become headline news but would have been discussed to death (if you (...)

- Articles

The Revolution Will Be Tweeted in Tibetan

Tendor — 2011-12-20T08:51:47Z

One of the rare advantages of being born a refugee is that you become bilingual by default. As a Tibetan educated in India and the United States, I'm often asked to interpret for Tibetan speakers at meetings, rallies and press conferences. Recently, I facilitated a brainstorming session between Nathan Freitas, technology director at the Tibet Action Institute, and Kusho Monlam, a Tibetan monk and a pioneer in the computerization of Tibetan language. As the discussion turned to the (...)

- Submission

Hu's menacing dogs are they?

Bhuchung D Sonam — 2011-12-20T08:49:17Z

In 2009, Kunga Tsayang — the imprisoned writer and environmentalist — wrote a bold essay titled Who are the Real Separatists? "China Television, Lhasa TV and others, while ignoring the truth, have excessively branded all Tibetans as separatists. This has caused an incurable communal rift between the Chinese brothers and sisters and Tibetans, leading to the Chinese disliking the Tibetans…" was Tsayang's prescient analysis. This has proved to be true many times over, the latest case being the (...)

- Submission

I heard someone in the street...

Tendor — 2011-12-09T09:41:12Z

I heard someone in the street say This was the year when you lost Your home and your job to pay For freedom's dear cost. But the street lamps silently rejoice That in fact you found your light And your soul and your voice Amid the dark of the night. I heard someone in the street weeping: What about the jailed and the slain? And the buried and the missing? Will they come back again? But look, their faces shine in our mirrors With wrinkles dug by smiles, not age. May their faith (...)

- Poems

The Vigil

Tsoltim N. Shakabpa — 2011-12-07T07:15:57Z

With the setting sun In the twilight of my days My work completed I sit in an easy chair And await the creeping darkness of night Into the wee hours of the morning When dew drops fall from your eyes This vigil I must keep And fight off temptations To fall asleep I know His knock will come when morning dawns All I want to do is exit gracefully When He comes for me And accept gratefully Whatever He has for me And when I am gone Think not of me in coming tomorrows But in (...)

- Poems