Insight: Tibetans in China seek fiery way out of despair
1 of 7. Tibetan Buddhist nuns from the Ganden Jangchup Choeling nunnery walk along a mountain road near the town of Daofu, Sichuan province November 13, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria
DAOFU, China |
DAOFU, China (Reuters) - The Ganden Jangchup Choeling Nunnery stands hidden from view on an isolated mountain-top in southwestern China, accessible only by a twisting, rocky road. It was here, in a mud-brick hut, that Palden Choetso lived.
The 35-year-old Tibetan Buddhist nun burned herself to death on a public street an hour's drive away earlier this month, the latest in a string of self-immolations to protest against Chinese religious controls over Tibet.
Palden was a quiet woman who had been with the nunnery in the Ganzi prefecture in Sichuan province for more than a decade, her friends said. A bright nun who studied Tibetan Buddhism, she was well-versed in reciting spiritual texts and was an ardent follower of the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama.
No one suspected, however, that Palden would sacrifice herself, writhing in flames on a dusty road lined with shops in downtown Daofu, or Tawu in Tibetan.
"I want the Dalai Lama to return to China, I want freedom for Tibet!" she is said to have shouted as fire engulfed her body.
"She had drunk several jin of gasoline," a senior religious figure at the nunnery told Reuters, referring to a traditional weight of measure that is about half a kilogram. "We got a call that she had set herself on fire, and a few of us went down to try to save her. But it was too late."
In China, eleven Tibetan monks and nuns -- some former clergy -- have resorted to the extreme protest since March this year. At least six have been fatal.
The similarities are striking: All called for the return of the 76-year-old Dalai Lama, who fled to exile in India in 1959, and for freedom for Tibet.
China's Foreign Ministry has branded the self-immolators "terrorists" and has said the Dalai Lama, whom it condemns as a supporter of violent separatism, should take the blame for the "immoral" burnings.
Human rights activists and Tibet experts say, however, the string of self-immolations stems from desperation at Chinese religious controls and being left with few opportunities and little protection for their culture, without the Dalai Lama to provide hope.
"In her heart, she's always wanted the Dalai Lama to return to China," said the senior religious figure at Palden's nunnery, some 425 km (265 miles) from Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The Dalai Lama, revered by Tibetans, has not condemned or condoned the burnings but said the desperate conditions Tibetans face under Beijing's rigid controls in what amounted to "cultural genocide" have led to the spate of self-immolations.
"ALL HEROES"
Burning oneself in public is not a new form of protest in China. The self-immolations are perhaps an uncomfortable reminder to the Communist Party of previous public protests such as those by five people in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 2001. China said then the self-immolators belonged to Falun Gong, a banned spiritual group.
But this year's self-immolations are notable for their frequency -- and the power with which they symbolize the pent-up frustration felt by many Tibetans in China.
Just days before she burned herself, Palden told her fellow nuns that she felt "so sorry for those who self-immolated themselves," Free Tibet, an advocacy group, told Reuters.
Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher on China for Human Rights Watch, said that his interviews and reports among the monastic communities suggest that tensions are worse now than in March 2008, when deadly riots against the Chinese presence spread across Tibetan regions ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
"So far, the escalation and the rise in tensions is unprecedented," he said. "One of the main concerns of the government is they don't exactly know how to respond to this."
"Normally they rely on fear and intimidation," Bequelin said. "But how do you intimidate people who are ready to set themselves on fire?"
Most of the people who Reuters spoke to in three Tibetan towns in Ganzi prefecture approved of the grisly act.
"I think they are all heroes," said a woman shopkeeper selling Tibetan religious artwork in the heavily Tibetan town of Danba, giving the "thumbs up" as she spoke. "The central government says our policies on the Tibetans are good. But all they do is suppress the Tibetan people."
"There will be more. This is just the beginning," she said. "There's no other way out."
A monk at the Jingang Temple in Kangding town concurred: "Many Tibetans support it, and I support it too. They gave up their lives for the Tibetan race."
In Daofu, a town of about 55,000 people and the site of a previous self-immolation by a monk from the Nyitso monastery in mid-August, Tibetan clergy appeared conflicted about the act.
"No, absolutely not," said the senior religious figure from Palden's nunnery, when asked whether he supported self-immolation. "I can't support it because we're talking about people's lives. It's going against the principles of Buddhism."
The Karmapa Lama, ranked third in the hierarchy of Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama, appealed last week for Tibetans not to set themselves on fire, saying he hoped they would find more constructive ways to advance their cause.
Robbie Barnett, a Tibet expert at Columbia University in New York, said there has been no precedent for self-immolation as a political protest in Tibet, but added it would be "quite misleading to think that Buddhists disapprove of this".
"They disapprove of it from the point of view of the individual, but they admire the sacrifice that the person is making for what's seen as a greater ideal, for the greater good," Barnett said.
The self-immolations have been concentrated in Ganzi and the neighboring Aba prefecture. Most residents are Tibetan herders and farmers, many of whom have long resented Chinese rule.
"This was not far from the areas where the first big battles began against the Chinese in the mid-1950s," Barnett said. "These are people who are not easily pushed around, especially now when their religious institutions are being interfered with in a way that is not seen by them as justifiable."
All the monks who were interviewed by Reuters spoke of decades of "patriotic re-education" campaigns, during which they are forced to pledge allegiance to the Communist Party and occasionally denounce the Dalai Lama.
In Daofu, where monks have been jailed for "splittist" activities, they say they live in fear of the police and are wary of arrest. All of them asked that their names not be used.
The complaints are familiar: China has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since its troops marched in 1950. Experts say, however, that Beijing has compounded the problem by intensifying its security presence in monasteries in recent years.
Monks and nuns are deeply respected figures in Tibetan society and have also often led resistance to Chinese Communist rule. Chinese security forces detained about 300 Tibetan monks from Aba's Kirti monastery for a month in May amid a crackdown sparked by a monk's self-immolation in March.
Although there were no police roadblocks and no sign of a heavy security presence in Ganzi on a recent weekend, six buses of troops and paramilitary forces were seen leaving Daofu. Police told Reuters journalists to "leave immediately" and tailed them out of the town for about 200 km.
RETURN OF THE DALAI LAMA?
China, which has poured billions into Tibet, rejects accusations that it oppresses Tibetans, saying its rule has ended serfdom and brought huge economic benefits to what was a poor, feudal society.
"Life was much harder before the Communists came," said Zhaxi Zhongka, a villager from Jiaju village in Danba, which has benefited from tourism money. She brushed off questions about Tibetan independence and the Dalai Lama.
But many Tibetans remain resentful of Chinese rule. They have placed their hopes in the Dalai Lama, who stresses a non-violent movement for Tibetan autonomy but not outright independence.
Khedroob Thondup, the Dalai Lama's nephew, said in a telephone interview the situation is unlikely to improve unless Chinese officials meet with his uncle. China has held on-off talks with the Dalai Lama's envoys for several years, without any sign of progress. Talks between the two sides last occurred in February 2010.
The thorny issue of the aging Dalai Lama's religious succession may also feed into tensions. Tibetans fear China will use the issue to split the movement, with one new Lama named by exiles and one by China after his death.
"We cannot change anything without His Holiness, the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet," Palden was quoted as telling her friends in the nunnery, days before she burned herself.
Woeser, a Tibetan writer based in Beijing, said Tibetans in Ganzi have been sentenced to jail for merely shouting slogans. "Under these circumstances, you can only choose self-immolation to express your intentions," she said.
(Additional reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Ken Wills and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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Other nations bordering the South China Sea are ecstatic about the return of the US because they’re terrified of the malicious belligerence of the Chinese Military. This increasing military strength has encouraged China to reject a multiparty approach to resolving territorial disputes in the South China Sea. It prefers bilateral negotiations where the unequal balance of power can be used to ‘divide and rule’ and coerce other weaker nations by ‘sabre rattling’. The intervention of the US, advocating a united front, irritates China because that frustrates China’s degenerate objectives. The mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party in the UK, ‘CCTV’, said in its broadcast of 19th November 2011 that China has engaged in no wars (recently!). Such statements are disingenuous because it’s perfectly obvious that China is ‘biding its time’ until it thinks that it can challenge the US on equal terms. The argument that China needs a massive military presence to protect its interests in the East Asia area is fallacious. Post war Japan saw no need to threaten other nations by ramping up its military presence but it still became the world’s 2nd largest economy and it did that using exclusively peaceful means and the intellectual and industrious efforts of its people and without stealing the intellectual property of other nations. In my opinion, war between China and the US is inevitable. The reason for this is that when an aggressive and dictatorial nation signals that it is determined to expropriate natural resources in an area for its exclusive benefit to the detriment of other nations, the climate becomes as dry as a ‘tinder box’. One small spark is all that’s required to trigger a conflagration. China is behaving very much like pre-war Japan with its rapid build-up of military capability while at the same time lusting for natural resources overseas
There is, of course, a distinction to be made between the Chinese Government and the Chinese People. The Chinese People exhibit many wonderful characteristics including kindness, generosity, compassion, respectfulness, industriousness and intelligence. Unfortunately, they have the misfortune to be governed by the Chinese Communist Party, a body comprising liars, cheats, hypocrites, criminals, thugs and psychopaths. It is profoundly naïve to believe that cooperation is possible with such individuals or that they can be trusted. Hypocrites such as these advocate friendship and cooperation towards other nations while at the same time ordering the harassment of foreign shipping in the home waters of those nations
A nation behaves according to the values of its rulers and it is for this reason that China behaves with a restrained malevolence that is intensely disturbing. China’s philosophy is consistent with a desire to wield an iron fist in a velvet glove. For this reason and because its thinly veiled aggression arises from the decisions of an uncivilised government China is not a nation to be respected or admired but rather it is a nation to be reviled. Scraping below the surface China reveals itself to be neither a partner of the West nor a competitor but an enemy of the West
If the Chinese Government wishes China to be regarded as a civilised nation, it should:
1) Stop raping, torturing and murdering the Falun Gong
2) Stop raping, torturing and murdering the people of Tibet
3) Stop provoking ‘Self Immolations’ in Tibet. On this point China seems to be confused. Tibet is not a province of China; it is an independent nation that was invaded by China in 1950. China continues to occupy the land and oppress the Tibetan people to this day. Any investment in Tibet by China is for China’s benefit not for the benefit of Tibet
4) Stop coveting the South China Sea
5) Stop coveting the independent nation of Taiwan. On this point China’s opinion on the status of Taiwan is irrelevant. Any civilised and reasonable person would agree that the wishes of the Taiwanese people are paramount and they roundly reject China’s threats, interference and meddling, not to mention China’s aspirations of sovereignty
6) Stop supporting the criminal regime in North Korea
7) Stop supporting the criminal regime in Burma
8) Stop supporting the criminal regime in Iran
9) Stop supporting the criminal regime in Syria
10) Respect the rule of law in your own country by enforcing the laws that already exist there
11) Appoint an independent judiciary to draft a body of civil and criminal law that is civilised
12) Abide by international law. On this point China’s argument that it will not respect any international law that it has not helped to draft, such as the ‘international law of the sea’ is ludicrous. This is like an individual visiting a foreign country and refusing to abide by the pre-existing laws of that nation because the laws are not to the individual’s liking. To allow China to be involved in drafting international law is like a nation asking its own common criminals to participate in formulating the laws of the land
13) Allow the operation of an independent free press to criticise the government and expose corruption which is endemic in virtually all of China’s institutions
14) Stop oppressing Chinese internet users who are being spied upon and unreasonably censored and denied access to ideas and values circulating in the wider world
15) Stop stealing the intellectual property of other nations by hacking the computers of commercial competitors
16) Stop currency manipulation in order to unfairly benefit Chinese exports and ultimately the wealth of the nation. Let the Yuan float on the foreign exchange markets as the currencies of all other nations in the world are forced to do
17) Stop using financial warfare against other nations as an instrument of foreign policy, for example applying constrictions at ‘supply chain choke points’ to deny Japan a source of ‘rare earth’ metals
Unless the US unites with other civilised nations of the world to expose China’s iniquities, there is no prospect of a proud and civilised China arising from its current ignominy
3) There is no international recognition of Tibet as an independent country. The historical background is too complex for here.
5) Taiwan would not be independent if it weren’t for the KMT who’s original mantra was for a one-china policy
7) Hillary Clinton has just visited Burma
9) Your mention of Syria is odd (but probably purposely meant to misconstrue because Syria is not viewed favorably) because Arab states as well as many other countries in Europe and Asia trade with Syria.
12) International law often is indeed western law and western focused. To omit the crafting of these laws by large segments of the world is undemocratic and racist and wreaks of colonialism.
16) The topic of currency manipulation is fabricated and arbitrary, albeit very popular right now as a scapegoat reason for our financial woes. There is no criteria that china alone uses that other countries do not. Upwards of 50 countries peg, and china’s currency has appreciated 40% since 2005. In 1997 we were praising the chinese for keeping their currency STRONG. We (the US) change interest rates and print money to alleviate debt which directly affects our currency.
17) Their rare earths are theirs to do as they wish just like if we had them no one would have a right to tell us what to do. Restricting them is the ONLY way for development of these minerals elsewhere in the world because they actually aren’t that rare, just horribly environmentally destructive to obtain. Regardless this financial warfare as you allege is performed by many countries including us, and worse, we actually use REAL warfare where they haven’t in over 30 years.
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