Editorial: Don’t Abandon the Tibetans

The boisterous festivity one has grown to associate with Losar celebrations will be missed this year. The Tibetan community in exile here as well as across the world has resolved not to celebrate their new year this year and instead mark the day with prayers and other expressions of solidarity with the their compatriots inside Tibet. Losar, the Tibetan New Year, is the only traditional occasion during which the Tibetans let their hair down and celebrate. All other special days of the community are religious events which do not always include the boisterous celebrations which mark Losar. So, when the community announces to the world that it will be denying itself this annual celebration, their desperation deserves special attention. The Kalon Tripa of the Central Tibetan Administration, Dr. Lobsang Sangay, in his Losar Statement to Tibetans and “friends around the world”, has “requested” that they do not celebrate Losar this year “but observe traditional and spiritual rituals by going to the monastery, making offerings, and lighting butter lamps for all those Tibetans inside Tibet who have sacrificed and suffered under the repressive policies of the Chinese government.” The Tibetan Parliament itself will be observing a daylong Solidarity Hunger Strike in Dharamsala on 22 Feb [Losar] for the victims of Chinese police firing and self immolations in Tibet. News from Tibet continues to be grim. Media reports suggest that a massive Chinese crackdown is underway and there have been a series of self immolations by Tibetans in Tibet to protest the continuing Chinese occupation of their country. The last such self immolation was by a teenager, a mere 18 year old who set himself on fire in the Dzamthang province of Tibetan Autonomous Region.
On surface, the Tibetans have decided not to celebrate Losar this year in solidarity with the agony coursing through Tibet at present; a suffering manifesting in slew of self immolations in TAR. What is important for world at large, and especially communities which have hosted and lived with Tibetans in exile for the past more than half a century, is to pay more attention and try to understand why such desperate measures are being undertaken. Suicide [let’s accept it, that’s what self immolation is] is a major taboo in Tibetan Buddhism. And yet, many Tibetans, including monks and nuns, are resorting to self immolation as a sign of protest. Deaths due to state brutality are not new to TAR, and yet, the Tibetan community in exile has decided not to celebrate Losar in protest over it this year. Why are such measures being resorted to? These are clearly the desperate laments of a people, who, despite the universally acknowledged recognition of their protest as being genuine and nonviolent, find their plight being sidelined, not just by China, but increasingly now, also by their traditional allies. Even our own country has ensured that even the traditional protest rallies [like 10 March Tibetan Uprising Day] are discouraged and denied their public displays. The Tibet issue was elbowed out of the Sino-India equation long back, but now, the Tibetan community in exile itself is being increasingly denied its right to protest with dignity or even be heard with clarity. China’s increasing economic domination plays a role in why governments across the world are blindsiding Tibet, but if the people of the world were to express stronger solidarity with the Tibetan right to self expression, such denials could be ended and such desperate measures as self immolation and self denial will not be required. It is important to recognise that the community finds itself with its back to the wall in the face of growing insensitivity of governments across the world to their plight, and through such extreme measures as they are now undertaking, are sending out an SOS to the people at large of their desperate situation. Irrespective of where one stands on the Tibet issue vis a vis China, humanity cannot afford to abandon the Tibetans...