Tibetan self-immolations reach Lhasa
May 29th, 2012 § 2 Comments
On Sunday two young Tibetan men self-immolated in Lhasa, one of whom died at the scene before police swiftly erased any trace of the incident (BBC). I called a friend in the city, and we discussed everything other than the incident. It went unmentioned, as these things do in Lhasa, where talk is dangerous.
At least 37 Tibetans have self-immolated since March of 2011, with most of the incidents taking place in eastern Tibet, an area the Chinese government considers a part of China. Sunday’s self-immolations were the first to spread to central Tibet and its capital, and the two young men chose one of the city’s most pivotal landmarks as the backdrop to their protest against China’s repressive rule—the Jokhang Temple. Built in the 7th century, the temple is one of Lhasa’s most important Buddhist sites, and it lies at the center of the Barkor, a devotional circuit where pilgrims circumambulate and a neighborhood of sorts where many Tibetans reside. A police station is located close to the entrance, and tents are set up along the route around the temple, under which a handful of policemen sit drinking tea and smoking cigarettes. Any sign of dissidence would surely be quelled instantly, but knowing this did not deter the two young men. Neither did the possibility of their death.
Up until Sunday the self-immolations occurred in places I had never before seen, and thereby could not fathom. The mind has a hard time comprehending disasters, especially in places it has never seen. Maybe this is why those who never saw the World Trade Towers standing had a difficult time interpreting the significance of their fall. Maybe this is why we photograph and film and erect museums and memorials–not to remember (because remembering is difficult) but to explain, to portray what once was.
Yet I have seen the Jokhang Temple, I have walked through the plaza countless times, and I still cannot fathom what it would be like to watch two young men light themselves on fire at the base of the enormous temple, the sheer size of which is diminished through a lens. Would they look somehow smaller in the shadow of it, or larger than life? How many would notice, but more importantly, how many would understand? How many would comprehend? How many would remember?
If the Chinese government were to have its way, no one would. In China, online searches for Jokhang Temple “turned up a message saying that according to laws and policies no search results could be shown” (NYTimes blog).
The Jokhang Temple’s main entrance, as viewed from the end of the plaza; 2011.
An image of the self-immolation in front of the Jokhang Temple, from Woeser’s blog: http://woeser.middle-way.net/2012/05/527.html
“This strip of four photos is circulating on Weibo, showing one of the self-immolations in front of the Jokhang in Lhasa on Sunday. The front of the Jokhang is visible in the first photograph, and behind it the Tashi Mandala hotel, and one of the two darchen or prayer flag poles in the square is visible in the last two photos. The pictures show a young man on fire walking across the largely deserted square as two young men run towards him with a cloth; the two young men trying to put out the fire with the cloth; two local policemen putting out the fire with a fire extinguisher and a cloth; and a western tourist taking photos.” Robert Barnett, founder and Director of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University
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photo of the day: koh phi phi coffee
May 14th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
One year ago today I was sipping coffee whilst digging my toes into the soft, sandy beaches of Thailand’s Koh Phi Phi, an island devastated by the tsunami in 2004. Today, I am sipping tea at my writing desk as the gray New England skies loom overhead, accompanied by scattered showers that churn the biting cold salt water in nearby Little Bay.
I’ve always found a strange sort of comfort in recalling where I was a year ago (or two, or twelve for that matter). I keep a small planner at hand with the sole purpose of writing down what I’ve done each day, rather than what I will do. It keeps things in perspective.
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woodwork: norbulingka
May 9th, 2012 § 1 Comment
The studios were situated on the floors between the stairwells; desks erected beside floor-to-ceiling windows allow artists to bathe in natural sunlight day in and out. Most of the desks were empty, save one. The man greeted us in Tibetan, and we spoke briefly, just long enough for me to learn that he once lived in a village near Lhasa, Tibet.
The Norbulingka Institute was built in the late 1980s to preserve Tibetan culture and artistic traditions. Read more about woodwork on their website:
http://www.norbulingka.org/index.htm?http%3A//www.norbulingka.org/woodwork/index.htm
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photo of the day: deden tsuglagkhang
April 27th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
An empty chair rests beside the entrance to the main temple of the Norbulingka Institute, called the Deden Tsuglagkhang in Tibetan. The wind lifts and drops the sheer white curtain, exposing the massive gilded copper Buddha inside.
The Norbulingka Institute was built in the late 1980s to preserve Tibetan culture and artistic traditions. Read more at their website: http://www.norbulingka.org/
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a lonely animal: inside the writer’s workshop
April 16th, 2012 § 3 Comments
The writer is a lonely animal, spending the majority of the day in solitude. Occasionally there is musical accompaniment, occasionally there are cafes bustling with people. Mostly, there is only the writer, with a pen and paper.
I have been writing ever since I learned how, but I never called myself a writer until recently. It doesn’t pay the bills (yet), and most people that I interact with can’t comprehend what it looks or feels like to be a writer. It looks and feels, in a word, lonely. However, it is indescribably fulfilling.
To elaborate, this is sort of what it looks like, superficially:
The Writer’s Sanctuary: volumes of filled journals dating back to 2006, a recent issue of Poets & Writers magazine, inks, paints, pens, brushes, glues, tape, stacks of photographs, and a record player and vinyls in the background.
The Writer’s Coursework: books on writing intermingled with two works by French literary critic Roland Barthes, as inspired by Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot and the video B*tches in Bookshops.
The Writer’s Shelf: notes on deadlines; inspirational quotes, reminders, and scribbles (see below); tiny canvases waiting to be finished; an envelope stuffed with plane ticket stubs and foreign currencies; a stone elephant from India; a golden elephant and bell from Thailand; vintage photographs of Mt. Fuji and an unknown girl in a library who looks like a relative; blank notebooks; and a transparent pink folder containing typewritten pages from the past few years, awaiting edits.
Inspirational quotes, reminders, and scribbles:
“All composite things pass away. Strive for your own liberation with diligence.” – Buddha
“You write to please yourself, you write to move yourself, to engage yourself in the asking of questions that are important to you.” – Jonathan Safran Foer
saturday, december 2011. i need to write yet i find myself doing anything but writing. today is a perfect example of life lately—doing anything & everything except what feeds my soul. not writing makes me cranky. my thoughts are clouded; i can’t tell up from down. when i don’t write i lose sight of who i am.
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Jamphel Yeshi’s Letter
March 29th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
How many Tibetans must light themselves on fire in an act of protest against China’s repressive rule before the world stops to take notice? Thirty.
On Monday, a 27 year-old Tibetan man doused himself in a flammable liquid and struck a match, engulfing his body in flames as he sprinted 50 yards in the midst of an estimated 600 protesters. The method was the same as the 29 who came before him, but unlike those, Jamphel Yeshi’s self-immolation was set in a democratic nation, in plain view of a massive audience, and plenty of camera lenses and mobile phones captured his protest as soon as it happened. In the next twenty-four hours, the images exploded across the internet, and the story was seemingly everywhere—from news desks in Cambodia to the New York Times.
Since January alone, 18 Tibetans have self-immolated inside Tibet, but the world has seen no videos, merely pixelated cell phone images of a few of the 30 total incidents since 2009; evidence of China’s crackdown in Tibet. Jamphel Yeshi’s protest swept through the media seemingly as quickly as the flames that engulfed him, because he was visible—there was immediate access to images and witnesses, and no need to navigate the Great Firewall of China. On top of this, Jamphel Yeshi left a hand-written letter, penned on the 16th.
The fact that Tibetan people are setting themselves on fire in this 21st century is to let the world know about their suffering, and to tell the world about the denial of basic human rights. If you have any empathy, stand up for the Tibetan people.
We demand freedom to practice our religion and culture. We demand freedom to use our language. We demand the same right as other people living elsewhere in the world. People of the world, stand up for Tibet. Tibet belongs to Tibetans. Victory to Tibet!
In an NBC news report featuring a clip of Yeshi’s self-immolation, a professor in Hong Kong remarked that, while the Chinese government continues to offer “economic support” in Tibet, the Tibetan people are expressing that they want “more autonomy, better respect for their religion and culture.” This assertion is wrong on two counts.
First of all, many fail to express how the “economic support” hardly helps Tibetans directly, and comes at a devastating cost to freedoms of speech, religion, and movement. Likewise, infrastructure and development are contributing to catastrophic environmental issues that endanger Tibetan livelihoods in the region—these include changes in hydrology, loss of biodiversity, rampant mining and resource extraction, grassland desertification, and permafrost degradation.
Secondly, the Tibetan people are certainly not calling for “more autonomy” and “better respect for their religion and culture” because they possess neither respect nor autonomy from the Chinese government, only superficially. Each of the Tibetans who have self-immolated, along with countless others that have risen up in protest this year alone, have not called for more autonomy or respect; they have demanded freedom and/or independence, and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet.
On Wednesday, Jamphel Yeshi succumbed to the burns that covered ninety percent of his body, dying in a hospital bed in India. That same day, Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in New Delhi, India for the BRIC Summit, and a 20 year-old monk in eastern Tibet self-immolated and died—an indication that these tragic acts will continue.
Now that we know how many lives it costs for the world to take notice, the question remains, will people act?
More information:
International Campaign for Tibet, Self-Immolation Fact Sheet:
http://savetibet.org/resource-center/maps-data-fact-sheets/self-immolation-fact-sheet
Stand Up for Tibet, Self-Immolation Fact Sheet:
http://standupfortibet.org/further-information/
Stand Up for Tibet, Get Involved: http://standupfortibet.org/
News and resources:
Lhasa Rising, the official blog of Students for a Free Tibet India (contains an alternate translation):
http://lhasarising.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/statement-on-the-self-immolation-of-a-young-tibetan-in-delhi-india-march-26-2012/
CBC News, Tibetan sets self on fire in New Delhi protest (graphic images):
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/03/26/tibetan-burning.html
New York Times Blog, Tibetan Activist Who Self-Immolated Leaves Letter Behind:
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/tibetan-activists-letter-explaining-his-self-immolation/
New York Times, India Tightens New Delhi’s Tibetan Districts on Eve of Summit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/world/asia/india-tightens-new-delhis-tibetan-districts-on-eve-of-summit.html?src=tp&smid=fb-share
New York Times, Tibetan Exiles Rally Around Delhi Self-Immolator:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/world/asia/tibetan-exiles-rally-around-delhi-self-immolator.html
New York Times Blog Tibetan Who Self-Immolated in Delhi Dies:
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/tibetan-who-self-immolated-in-delhi-dies/?scp=1&sq=Jamphel%20Yeshi&st=cse
BBC News, Tibetan self-immolation activist in India dies:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17534104
Wikipedia, Immolations by Tibetans protesting Chinese rule:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation#Immolations_by_Tibetans_protesting_Chinese_rule
