Refugee Stories

Revised May 31st, 2012

In the article The stories of Tibetan elders in exile, J.M. Brown writes about the oral history project work by clinical psychologist Marcella Adamski in recording the stories of Tibetan elders in exile. Adamski’s work was spurred directly from a request by the Dalai Lama, whom she met in Dharamsala in 1999. After reading this article I was reminded of some of the stories I have heard from my own “elders in exile” when I was younger. I thought I’d patch together and share some of these stories so that people can read them and then maybe share their own stories as well.

I can remember most clearly my mother’s account of why her family fled from Tibet in late 1959. My mother’s family lived in the  small farming village of Namdha, about a half hour walk from the town of  Khangmar in the district of Gyantse. Her family was the wealthiest of the village and her father was well respected for the kindness he had shown to the poorer villagers, and the loans he gave to those who needed it.

Kalon Tripa Lobsang Sangay and Kalon Dicki Chhoyang Meet with Tibetan-Canadian Interns

Kalon Tripa Lobsang Sangay, Kalon Dicki Chhoyang, and the Tibetan interns of the 3rd Parliamentary Friends of Tibet Internship Program

 On Tuesday, May 1^st, at the end of the Tibetan Representative’s meeting in Ottawa, Canada, from April 29^th to May 1^st, 2012, Kalon Tripa Lobsang Sangay, and Kalon Dicki Chhoyang, met with the Tibetan-Canadian interns of the 3^rd Parliamentary Friends of Tibet Internship Program.

The Kalon Tripa spoke to the interns and explained the importance of representing the Tibetan people and the Tibetan cause on Parliament Hill, while stressing for interns to take pride in their rich cultural and historical background as Tibetans.

He also candidly shared his experiences serving as Kalon Tripa thus far and the challenges he faces in his new role as the political leader of the Tibetan people.

“He was able to show us that with strong will power and determination, we can accomplish anything we want. Most importantly, he reminded me of the things that I can be proud of as a Tibetan, and truly motivated me to work harder towards achieving the ultimate goal as a Tibetan – to see his Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama return to Tibet.” said intern Tenzin Kalsang.

After NBA event is cancelled, Parkdale bounces back

Here is an article written by Kate Allen, from the Globe and Mail, about Tibetan youth and basketball in the Parkdale area of Toronto.  I was interviewed by her for it and afterward I helped her with getting in touch with some other Tibetans in the community so that they could also give their input to the article. It was published last month but I forgot to post it on here for more people to read. So here it is for those who haven’t yet read it:

Rigpe Dorje (left), Dorjee Galtsen, Tenzin Kalden and Tenzing Chaeyang relax after playing basketball at an outdoor court in Parkdale. Della Rollins for The Globe and Mail

In Parkdale, like other inner-city communities in Toronto,basketball is social glue. When mentors try to impart life lessons to kids here, they often do it with basketball.

Remington Dixon, 19, is a coach with Power Youth and Sports, a local organization. “We have the kids come in, and every time I do a drill, I relate it to life,” he says. “If I can relate it to life, I can get kids to do well in school and on the court.”

So when the annual summer NBA 3on3 basketball tournament was cancelled, community organizers worried about what lesson that presented. For kids in Parkdale, the event was the equivalent of a trip to summer camp or the cottage, says Power director and parent Bruce Whitaker. The cancellation – “it was just bad vibes,” he says.

The Canadian Parliamentary Friends of Tibet (PFT) Launches Second Parliamentary Internship Program

In front of Ottawa’s Parliament building (from L-R): Front row: Yeshi Lhamo, Tsering Asha Leba, Tenzin Nawang Tekan, Tenzin Lama, and Rinchen Lama. Back row: Rignam Wangkhang, Tenzin Obum, Jigme Duntak, Tenchoe Dorjee, and Wangdu Duntak.

Following up on the success of their first internship in 2007, the Parliamentary Friends of Tibet have launched a second internship program for young Tibetan-Canadian students hoping to familiarize themselves with the workings of Parliament.

The importance of involving young Tibetans in the parliamentary process was echoed at the November 2009 World Parliamentary Convention on Tibet held in Rome where parliamentarians from all over the world gathered to discuss parliamentary initiatives that could be adopted by the different parliaments around the world in order to move towards a solution on the Tibet issue. One of the key strategies that was proposed by parliamentarians from all over the world was to “involve young Tibetans in the political system” in order to develop a “greater Tibetan understanding of local political conditions.”

From the results of the Canadian PFT’s first internship program in 2007 it was seen how this sort of initiative can really benefit young Tibetans. Of the four Tibetans who were selected for the internship, all went on to find employment in a parliamentary office or other governmental organization. Reports were also submitted by the interns at the end of their internship describing their experience. All were favorable and thankful for the opportunity to participate in the internship program and viewed their experience as valuable to their future.

“The Witless Gang of Foxes are the Governor-General and his Band”

The title of this post comes from a line in a Tibetan street song sung in Lhasa during China’s invasion of Tibet referring to the incompetence (“witless”) and cowardice (“foxes”) of Ngabo (“governor-general” of Eastern Tibet) and his Lhasa officials (“band”):

From among one hundred men Commander Muja is the most able, The witless gang of foxes are the governor-general and his band.

On December 23, 2009 Ngabo Ngawang Jigme, a former minister in the Tibetan government passed away in Beijing at the age of ninety-nine. As a controversial figure during and after the People’s Liberation Army’s Invasion of Tibet in 1950, Ngabo’s death led to the emergence of many mixed reactions regarding his legacy on Tibetan history. On February 2^nd, 2010, Jamyang Norbu, an influential Tibetan political activist and writer, stated his continued support for his analysis of Ngabo as a treasonous traitor in a reiteration of his journal article titled “Deconstructing Ngabo,” that was first published in the Tibet Review in May 1980.[1] Much earlier in an April 4^th, 1998 interview, Tibetan historian Tsering Shakya explained how “most Tibetans despised [Ngabo] as a traitor,” and that “the Chinese [used] him to legitimise their rule.”[2] In Jean-Jacques Annaud’s 1997 film “Seven Years in Tibet,” Ngabo was depicted conspiring with the Chinese and sabotaging the Tibetan resistance effort in 1950.[3] In contrast, earlier on December 24^th, 2009, a statement issued by the General Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, described Ngabo as “a great patriot, renowned social activist, good son of Tibetan people, outstanding leader of China’s ethnic work and close friend of the CPC.”[4] On that same day, a statement issued by the Kashag (Cabinet) of the Tibetan Government in Exile (TGIE) also similarly eulogized Ngabo’s legacy as “Honest and patriotic” and as “someone who upheld the spirit of the Tibetan people.”[5] However, contrary to these accounts by the CPC and the TGIE, Ngabo Ngawang Jigme’s actions during the invasion of Tibet in 1950 were not “patriotic” and in the “spirit of the Tibetan people”; rather, they were incompetent, and harmful, and paved the way to the Chinese invasion and occupation of Tibet.

Inspector Gadget Goes to Tibet

I remember watching the cartoon Inspector Gadget a lot when I was younger, but just recently I came across one Inspector Gadget episode I haven’t seen, an episode when he travels to Tibet called “Weather in Tibet.”

For those of you who’ve never seen an Inspector Gadget episode, he’s basically a detective who everyone believes is the best at his job when in reality he’s dimwitted, clumsy, and is only successful because of his niece Penny and dog Brain who constantly secretly help him in his missions.

In this 56th episode of Inspector Gadget, originally aired on November 28th, 1983,  Inspector Gadget is sent to Tibet to destroy a M.A.D. (a worldwide crime syndicate) weather controlling machine. Dr Claw (the head of M.A.D.) plans to use this machine to start storms over cities if they refuse to comply to his ransom demands.

Trees for Tibet

http://treesfortibet.blogspot.com

I have set up this blog with the hope to raise money to help the people of Lowah village in Amdo province, East Tibet. They live in an area called Mangra and 1000′s of peoples livelihoods are effected by the increasing problem of desertification. Amdo is also an area which has maintained a very strong nomadic culture.

This way of life is under threat by new Chinese law and if the nomads grasslands are also destroyed by the desertification they will be forced from their land in to Chinese cities. This sadly will help contribute to the death of a proud and unique way of life.

The Lost World

Here is a very interesting documentary by the BBC about Tibet in the 1930s and leading up the Chinese invasion of Tibet. It has a lot of very rare and amazing footage of the Dalai Lama and his family, festivals in Lhasa, and the Chinese occupation. It also includes commentary from the Dalai Lama, Samdhong Rinpoche, and others like the Dalai Lama’s sister-in-law.

British Perceptions of Tibet in the late 19th to the early 20th century

For centuries Tibet has been a place of intrigue in Western minds. From as early as the time of Herodotus (484-425 BCE) the mythical perceptions of Tibet were already present in the West. In Herodotus’s third book of his work Histories apodeixis he describes fox-sized ants who would lived nearby tribes of people who lived north of the Indians. The fox-sized ants would dig up the sand to construct their underground homes while unearthing amounts of gold dust in the process. In the mornings gold-seekers would quickly come to gather up as much sand as possible before fleeing from the pursuing giant ants.¹

As centuries passed the beliefs associated with Tibet in the West were no longer confined solely to these types of “mythical” and “mystical” beliefs, by the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the British perceptions of Tibet were now not only based from that of myth but also of historical images derived mainly from the academic research of British officials. The British perceptions of Tibet and Tibetans during this period were diverse, and in some cases conflicted by opposing perceptions, but they were largely rooted or influenced by British imperialist aims. To many British perceptions, Tibet was a mysterious and unexplored frontier that intrigued curiosities, imperialist desires, as well as fears; to others Tibet was the land of a people who were believed to be an immoral, dirty, ignorant and over-religious race of people; and to others Tibet was the land of a degenerative form of Buddhism that acted as a blinding influence on the Tibetan people with a despotic ruling class of Lamas who extorted the Tibetan people. However, although the British perceptions of Tibet in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries were diverse, they were heavily influenced by the imperialist colonial desires of the British.

The Influence of the Occult on the 1939 German Expedition to Tibet

Ernst Schäfer and his expeditionary team in Lhasa in 1938

In the late spring of 1938 a German expedition team arrived in Calcutta with the aim of entering into Tibet. The expedition team consisted of: Zoologist, ornithologist, and expedition leader Ernst Schäfer; Entomologist, photographer, and camera operator, Ernst Krause; Ethnologist, Bruno Beger; Geophysicist, Karl Wienert; and technical caravan manager Edmund Greer. As well as being scientists, all of the five members were also officers in the SS. Weeks before the German invasion of Poland on September 1^st, 1939, the team had returned from their expedition and had successfully entered Tibet and had collected a large amount of scientific material.¹ Occultism, the belief in the existence of secret, mysterious, or supernatural agencies, has been claimed to have links to Nazism and its beliefs on the roots of the Aryan Race. For many, the 1939 German expedition to Tibet was proof of this link. Some theories claim that Hitler held occultist beliefs of a hidden population of Aryan supermen in the Himalayas and that the expedition was thus driven by Hitler’s desire to find these people. Other’s point to Himmler and claim that it was his occult beliefs in Tibet that led him to sponsor the expedition and then use it to serve his occultic interests. However, contrary to the claims of many sensational genres of literature, the 1939 German Expedition to Tibet was not driven by occult beliefs on the roots of the Aryan race, but rather by the scientific interests of Ernst Schäfer.