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| Three Tibetans who fled Tibet after the Uprisings of 2008 |
Each year many Tibetans make the perilous journey across the world’s highest mountain range seeking refuge in India to escape the violent suppression waged against Tibetan culture by communist China. Denied genuine freedom inside Tibet, fear coats the landscape, with Tibetans unable to express openly their political hopes.
Should escaping Tibetans manage to avoid the bullets
of Chinese and Nepalese security forces and eventually reach the safety of
Indian territory, most make their way to the Dharamasala, home of the exiled
Dalai Lama and his Administration. Their personal details having been recorded
they wait, expectation filling their eyes, in long lines to receive a blessing
from their supreme political and spiritual authority. Clearly overwhelmed and
barely able to contain their joy some break-down and weep, others experience a cathartic
unburdening of the oppression and injustice which they have experienced,
informing the Dalai Lama of personal abuses they, or family members, received.
Some talk of the struggle for Tibet’s independence and the resistance to
Chinese rule, the Tibetan leader feels and hears the cry of his people and
knows what lies in their hearts.
However the transition from escapee to refugee is a
difficult road, adapting to new circumstances, within a Tibetan community
relatively confident and settled within Indian society, basic educational and
medical support is provided by the Tibetan Administration, yet much is alien
and challenging. At least there is now the air-of-freedom to breathe, no longer
fettered by the oppressive chains of Chinese domination there is an occasion to
continue the struggle for Tibet without fear, suppression and censorship. There
are a number of organisations to join, the Tibetan Youth
Congress, Tibetan Women’s Association, or the ex Tibetan political
prisoner’s group Chol-Ka -Sum,
all of which advocate independence for Tibet. For any Tibetan previously
silenced by years of disabling oppression it must be an intoxicating feeling to
have such opportunity, yet although on the dusty streets of India there is no
law against carrying Tibet’s national flag, and protesters can openly call for
Tibet’s freedom, there are nevertheless forces-at-work, albeit more subtle,
which in their own way exercise a degree of censorship and oppression.
Interestingly these have accompanied every Tibetan
seeking a life-of-exile since 1959 and their origin lies in the profound sense
of loyalty and respect which Tibetans hold towards the Dalai Lama. It is a
devotion not witnessed in the West since perhaps medieval times, when the Pope
was in every sense of the word considered holy. Demanding of itself, and
willingly accepted on a personal Tibetan level, complete obeisance, and
generating a public conformity and pattern of compliance, this operates within
a cautious and conservative Tibetan culture lacking any tradition of democratic
opposition or political critique. Unless counting times when Tibet was
independent and Tibetan plays could feature the lampooning of Tibetan
government figures (not though the Dalai Lama) to the delight of Tibetan
audiences. Who could indulge through laughter, silently held views. This being
the point, there seems to be an historic cultural tradition where privately an
individual holds a range of burning political opinions with respect to the
Tibetan Government, yet maintains a conformist public façade. The influences
which encourage such censorial compliance spring from the reverence held
towards the Dalai Lama, take the following words from Tsewang Dhondup who fled
from Tibet in May 2009: "To be
honest, what I want is independence, but I think it's important for Tibetans to
follow whatever His Holiness the Dalai Lama says."http://www.phayul.com/news/
This is a common view held by Tibetans, a middle-way
position on the Dalai Lama's policy is a far safer option than being seen to be
openly critical, which exposes a real risk of being charged with opposing and
insulting the Tibetan leader. A crime in Tibetan society from which
there is no rehabilitation, often no more than a baseless accusation is
required to forever brand an individual, suspected, charged and punished
This combination of piety and fear ensures a
submissive and overwhelmingly silent community, one that presents virtually no
critical examination or opposition to its own Administration. It is a
particularly virulent form of censorship in that it exists, not by violently
oppressive measures imposed by authority (as experienced in Chinese occupied
Tibet) but through the self-imposed and cultural compliance of individuals. In
that sense it is far more effective and guarantees a staggering degree of
operational freedom and authority to the exiled Tibetan Administration, that
governments around the world can only enviously dream of. Supported without
question by a deferential population autocracy continues to dominate the exiled
Tibetan political landscape permitting the Tibetan Administration (formerly
known as the Tibetan Government In Exile) to follow even the most controversial
and potentially dangerous courses of action, in the knowledge that criticism
will be virtually non-existent, and importantly can always be easily managed
through encouraging charges of being opposed to the wishes of the Dalai Lama.
This can be achieved through its extensive network of officials and supporters,
it takes only one word in the right ear and a Tibetan settlement can be set-
ablaze with rumor and allegation. No Tibetan wishes the cold eye-of-suspicion
upon himself or his family, much easier to comply and keep political opinion
indoors.
So it is that the Tibetan Administration operates
without any restraint or accountability, supremely confident that it will be
unchallenged, and arrogantly indifferent to the stifled opinion of Tibetans.
This explains why and how it is able to impose, unopposed, upon
its people a strategy which surrenders Tibetan nationhood, accepts communist
Chinese law on so-called autonomy, and concedes that Tibetans are not a people,
but a Chinese minority nationality. In any other political struggle such
treacherous action by a leadership would result in the storming of government
headquarters demanding answers and a radical change of policy. Certainly the
Irish, Palestinians, Kurds and East Timorese would not have tolerated such an
autocratic betrayal, yet virtually all Tibetans have remained obediently silent
as their Administration promotes the abandonment of Tibet's nationhood. Should
negotiations between the Dalai Lama’s private envoys (Note: Not official Tibetan
Government representatives, itself a great concern) and communist China move
forward, with an acceptance of Chinese demands, no doubt those Tibetans
returning (and how many will want to?) to life inside a still oppressed and
marginalized Tibetan culture, may draw some meagre comfort in the face of
continued suppression, by being able to say that they were not disloyal to His
Holiness. By then the prison door will be slammed shut!
NOTE— Tibet
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