The Tibetan Freedom Torch: "Karma Gyasey, a monk at the Tibetan Buddhist centre, Jam Tse Dhargyey Ling, north of Kamo. 'It’s very different to the Olympic Games torch. This one is called the peace torch.'"
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1 in 5 persons in this world are Chinese citizens (1.3 billion), and its central government states that everyone over 18 votes, yet none of them have really voted for those who execute its policies, including what's happening at the Olympics. China is quite a paradox in our world.
China has potentially so very much to contribute to the world's progress. She might represent the world's oldest group of uninterrupted societies, with a language/culture base that goes back perhaps at least 7,000 years, and with early hominid evidence going back to almost 2 and a half million years.
Upon the flareup of the Russian-Georgian war, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Qin Gang said, "We call on the relevant parties to keep restraint and cease fire immediately."
Way back before 700 BCE, when the first recorded Olympiads were staged, there began a tradition that's been very hard to keep. It's called Ekecheiria, or more commonly, Olympic Peace. In the month during which the Olympiads were held, the parties involved - if at odds with each other - were enjoined to lay down their arms. This Olympic Peace tradition was also established to enable the athletes and spectators to travel to and participate in this celebration without fear.
The UN attempted in 1993 and again in 2004 to re-institute this tradition, but no one has heeded it. In 2000, the United Nations, in conjunction with the International Olympic Truce Center, made this Millennium Declaration: "We urge Member States to observe the Olympic Truce, individually and collectively, now and in the future, and to support the International Olympic Committee in its efforts to promote peace and human understanding through sport and the Olympic Ideal."
The US rejected it, with Colin Powell stating on behalf of Bush: "Our call for Olympic peace does not guarantee a ceasefire and only applies for the location itself and for the transport“.
Look at our world today. There is about as much killing and warfare going on now in the world as at any time in human history, if not more.
According to even the World Bank, extreme poverty (living for under $1 per day when that statement was made several years ago - so it is now $2/diem) is one the world's greatest threats to peace. There are three times as many people living in that circumstance in the world now than the population of China - over 3 billion.
But on the other hand, due to population growth, perhaps more people than ever in history are actually living in a relative state of peace.
Regarding China's call for peace, China emptied 3 major Tibetan monastaries in Lhasa - jailing 1000 of its monks - in an attempt to prevent the world from seeing their protests over the Chinese occupation of Tibet. In Beijing, western journalists have been harassed and even detained, as they report on the sporatic protests against various Chinese human rights violations. Numerous Europeans and Americans in Beijing, protesting Tibet's occupation, have been arrested.
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Comments: 57
So, too, even short terms of peace.
Why is it so difficult?
Thanks, Bent. I will let your article guide me through today.
..
U
"Give peace a chance"? Sadly, that's an illusive aspiration.
In my mind, the most telling, and touching "Olympic moment" was seeing a Georgian and a Russian athlete embracing (after hostilities had commenced between their two countries). I'm wondering what kind of welcome these two peace-loving young women will receive when they return to their respective homelands.
Thank you for pointing out this ancient tradition. It's a shame today's leaders only pay seeming lip service to the ideals of their forefathers.
This is Chinese Govts' "Olympic Peace" Terrorizing people from telling the truth....so they will eventually die unheard. This, if successful, will be the last nail in the Tibetan world's coffin. So, these things must be heard, and acted upon.
patrick
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Notes from Kham: Observations of a Police State
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 2:12am
Here in Litang, a Khampa town in Eastern Tibet (present day western Sichuan), fear and paranoia lingers in the air to a palpable degree. I've never seen so many police and military personnel in one town in my life. Nor have I experienced this kind of heart pounding fear before. Last night, at around 11:40pm, I heard the police yell and pound on each and every door at the guesthouse I was staying at. When they got to my door, I was numb with fear. I was afraid because foreigners are not permitted to enter the town I'm in. Also because the US embassy in Chengdu suggested that I may very well be 'shadowed' and my email being monitored due to my involvement in Dharamsala, so I am even a bit afraid writing this right now. Should I stop writing out of fear for my own safety?
The embassy told me to watch our for a few signs: to look out for guys looking too relaxed always hanging out and smoking a cigarette in the corner and, precariously place objects on my laptop to check if anyone snuck in to bug my electronics. Apparently all the embassy employees have a 'shadower' and all their computers are bugged. Not even the tech specialist there know the extent to which Chinese Intelligence monitor their activity. They also told me, contrary to what I thought, that I am not protected by my American passport since I am traveling on my Taiwanese documents, since China also regards Taiwan as one of its own provinces. So in the eyes of the PRC, they are free to detain me upon any suspicion of 'inciting subversion', which has been recently accused of many activists and writers in China. There have been 3 cases of Taiwanese Americans detained by the PSB in the last 2 years where the US embassy have not been allowed any access to the detainee. But thankfully, the police left without incidence since I played the ignorant tourist role. I found out the next day that recently, the police have often raided hotels in search for suspicious people. Hotels in the Tibetan areas of Western Sichuan will also be shut down for the duration of the Olympics.
So how does the government instill fear into the hearts of the public in order to make them obey? Along a long row of prayer wheels in the town's temple, there is a big gap in the wall which looks like it was left open on purpose. Through the gap, you can see military personnel going about their business. 2 days ago, there was a big military group assembling and polishing what looked like AK-47s rifles. All this you can see as you circumambulate the stupa. You can also find at least 2 guards standing behind sand bags with their rifles and their sharp bayonets at every gas station. A Tibetan friend here told me that military presence has stepped up big time, from minimal to extensive after the protests in March and as the Olympics approach. And you do see them around every corner, strolling around town and patrolling the streets. Even though the vast majority of the town is Tibetan, every single police and military personnel I've seen have been Han. Actually, the only Chinese in town are either police or business owers. I still haven't been able to find a restruant that's Tibetan run.
I counted today, and there are at least 7 police/public security stations within a 1km radius, all with camouflaged rifle-clutching, bullet-vested guards at the gates. In mainland China, it's estimated that there is 1 police to every 14,000 people. In Tibet, it's about 1 police to every 20 people. But recently, in sensitive areas of eastern Tibet, its as high as 1 police to 1 Tibetan. A few Tibetans here have told me they are afraid since 5 Tibetans have disappeared recently and they've heard no news on their whereabouts. While I hear whispers of arrests, shootings and police brutality, the Chinese people I've talked to denied anything having happened here. Their sense of patriotism, especially when they commonly use the term 'us Chinese' sickens me. I want to yell 'I'm not one of you' but I am, ethnically. So I sit and listen and remind myself that the best way to take down a fortress is from within.
What's been incredible to see is that people still hang Dalai Lama's portrait on their walls and wear his image on the pendents of their necklaces. The Tibetan woman who runs the guest house I'm staying at told me that after the police threatened to close down her business for having a large 11x14 portrait of His Holiness, she hesitantly replace HHDL's photo with the late Panchen Lama, but she still put up a small 4x6 photo of His Holiness on the corner. Despite the police threat, she said her heart's not at peace if she doesn't have a photo of His Holiness on the wall. It's a small but brave act of defiance. I've also seen HHDL's photos in 2 monasteries in this region, which I'm sure will change after the purge the Chinese government has scheduled for the monasteries. You can read about it in this article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/2463385/China-plans-sweeping-purge-of-Tibetan-monasteries.html
patrick
*************
Arrested in Kham
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Saturday, August 9, 2008 at 11:18am
The Second Miracle of August 1st
As I arrived in Karze (Ch: Ganzi), I remember my eyes widening with alarm as I looked out the car window. Foreign travelers aren’t permitted to travel to this region of Kham (present day Western Sichuan) for a reason. The minibus driver took back roads to avoid the checkpoints in order for me to get to this Tibetan town which saw heavy protests this spring. I had just read an article about a Tibetan girl who was shot dead in the vegetable market here during one of the protests. Karze is the epitome of the word ‘occupation’. About every half a block, there is a squad of 10 to 15 People’s Armed Police in full battle gear. Dressed in fatigues holding rifles and shields, they sat in rows in front of convenience stores, they stood behind raised metal posts with cutout windows at the corners of the street, they camped under blue tarps in the middle of the sidewalk, they marched throughout the city looking for any signs of trouble. It looked like a war zone. Fear permeated the air. I could feel their prying eyes everywhere I walked. Was it really 2008 I kept thinking? In addition to the sea of armed police, bright red government issued banners with patriotic slogans hung in replacement of modern day advertisements everywhere. It reminded me all too much of the Cultural Revolution. There was one ideology acceptable, that of the government. For the first time in my life, I began to understand through fear, what the word ‘occupation’ actually felt like.
Soon after I arrived in Karze, I went to check my email and got a suspicious notification in broken English from Gmail warning me about the suspension of my account due to ‘unusual activities’. Knowing that Karze is at the center of a recent government purge and crackdown against ‘splittists’, I was becoming genuinely afraid. What did the Chinese Government know about me? Do they know that I helped start a group in Dharamsala that’s raised over 6,000 ‘illegal flag of the Snow Lion’? Do they know I’m collecting information for the Tibetan Government in exile? Am I being followed like the US Embassy suggested? Paranoia grew as the possibility of being arrested for ‘inciting subversion’ was becoming more real in my mind. I wished that I had traveled on my American passport, in which case, the worst thing they could do is deport me. I wished I had known that traveling on my Taiwanese documents deprived me amnesty as an American.
When I returned to my hotel, a Tibetan was watching a government staged protest on TV. The narrator praised the People’s Armed Police for showing restraint against Tibetan protesters who were shouting “Independence for Tibet” in Chinese. The protesters on screen hurled themselves onto the shields of the Police and eventually ceased. The propaganda machine never ceases to amaze me. The Tibetan told me the government just filmed this a few kilometers away yesterday and is airing it on the local network. All the ‘protesters’ in the act were actually police themselves. I went back to my room and started filming the TV show on my camcorder and soon after, two policemen pounded on my door. I said I was changing and was trying to not shake as I was putting away my tripod. They looked around and asked what I was doing in Karze. One officer carefully studied my documents and warned me to be careful with what I do in town, that if I did anything suspicious, there would be ‘consequences’. It sounded like a threat. Little did I know that 2 days later, after he arrested me and got to know me, would joke over a breakfast of hotpot that he tried his best to intimidate people while on duty. But after the officers left, my heart was still pounding and I couldn’t calm down even after 2 cigarettes. I rarely let fear stop me from doing what I want, but I began to seriously consider aborting mission and going back to India. I began chain smoking and after much apprehension, I bought a 600km bus ticket back to Chengdu bound to leave early next morning. I felt the suffocation of the occupation and saw the latent torture of cultural genocide and it left me in rough mental shape. I felt ashamed more than ever to be Chinese. I wanted to leave, but I couldn’t help but feel defeated because I let fear win.
I thought I could ease my nerve for the time being by going to the Karze Monastery on the top of the hill. It was a steep climb up to the rooftop of the Monastery where you can get an incredible panoramic view of the entire town surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Aesthetic pleasure returned and I felt at ease. I took many photos of the valley and town, but couldn’t help myself from taking a few zoomed in shots of the military base. I didn’t realize I was playing with fire. I noticed that someone was holding his cell phone unusually high towards my direction, but I didn’t realize he was a plain clothed policeman following me. It was a beautifully serene atmosphere and having barely eaten, I didn’t comprehend what I was getting myself into. After a long rest, I began walking back down into town. All the sudden, the policeman who warned me the night before in my room, now dressed in normal clothes, told me to come with him. Fear was becoming reality – I was being arrested. I was told to sit and wait in the policeman’s office. More plain clothed police came and two of them started filming me. I asked what was going on, but no one answered my questions, they told me to “wait and see”. Before long, I was escorted by four plain clothed police to my hotel room where again, they told me to sit and wait until more police came. I said that I was an American citizen and have the right to call the US Embassy, but my demand fell on deaf ears. After about half an hour, there were more than ten police in my room. They closed the door, started filming and began searching through my things. I thought about how stupid it was of me to have taken the photos of the military base from the monastery rooftop and remembered all the photos I secretively took of the People’s Armed Police in Litang. I was so close to leaving! They soon found the photos and I knew that I was beyond screwed. My demand to call the US Embassy turned into a plea and it began to annoy them so they told me what I already knew, that I was a ‘Chinese citizen’ travelling on a ‘Chinese’ document in China, therefore, I will be prosecuted accordingly by Chinese Law. Shit, shit, shit I thought. I’m done for. Three Taiwanese Americans have been imprisoned in China in the last 2 years; I’m going be the fourth.
They began asking questions and compiled an official document for my case. I was charged with ‘illegally possessing state secrets’ by taking those photographs. I signed the papers and fingerprinted them. Then they told me to pack my things because I’ll be escorted to Kangding soon, their provincial headquarter 300km away for ‘further investigation’. I kept asking questions that they didn’t answer, so I stared at them in the eyes and tried to hold their attention through eye contact, thinking that maybe it’ll get some answers through sympathy. I wanted to win at least a human response. But all they told me was that they don’t have the power to determine my case here, that I need to Kangding where they can determine whether or not I am guilty of my crime. Sprinklings of patriotic party slogans were also regurgitated throughout the questioning. Lines about how now is the time when our glorious government needs our unyielding support quite frankly, disgusted me. They sounded excessively passionate and reminded me of brainwashed children. I asked if they were going to send me to prison, and they said if my background checks out clean and they see I have no ulterior motives, then I’ll be released. I remembered from a documentary I recently saw where one of China’s top lawyers commented that he’s lost 99% of the cases involving political ‘crimes’. Fuck I thought, it won’t take long to find out about my involvement in Dharamsala. My laptop was in storage in Chengdu and I didn’t bring anything ‘illegal’, but I made the big grand mistake of packing my 80GB external hard drive which I had everything saved on. I kept thinking about what was in that hard drive – photos of Tibetan flags, me holding Tibetan flags, me speaking on a microphone in front of a giant Tibetan flag, me distributing Tibetan flags, photos of the Dalai Lama, my name stated as the co-founder of the Raise Tibetan Flags Campaign (RTFC) in press releases and flyers, the entire RTFC website I put together, the recent application to the International Tibet Support Network I filled out with my name as the main contact – I began feeling desperately hopeless.
Before we left for the 12 hour drive to Kangding, we stopped for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Another car full of plain clothed police joined us for a big meal around the lazy Susan. Everyone else was in a jolly mood and eating away. Their stern demeanor changed at the table as they told me to try this eggplant dish and that pork soup. What the fuck I thought. Seriously, what the fuck going on? Aren’t I arrested? Didn’t the police woman sitting next to me just follow me to the toilet and watched me pee? Didn’t they just confiscate my cell phone and refused to let me call anyone? What made things even more strange for me was hearing them talk in Tibetan. I had never met a pro-Chinese Tibetan, and now I’m with a table full. But I think seeing my long face made some of them uncomfortable, so one of the officers reassured me that everything was going to be okay, as if appeasing a pouting child. They began telling me about the great things they are doing for this ‘backwards’ region, about the hospitals, schools and roads, praising themselves for their achievements, all coming from a Tibetan speaking perfect Chinese. I sat in silence. My fate will be determined tomorrow I kept thinking, on August 1st, 2008. Is it a coincidence? Last year, on the night of August 1st, I experienced the most physical pain I ever have in my life in the hospital. The doctor had to insert a catheter because I couldn’t even move my head. Tomorrow, on August 1st, 2008, will it be mental pain I’ll be experiencing in jail? I’m not a superstitious person, but I couldn’t help but wonder about this bizarre twist in fate.
On the evening of August 1, 2007, I missed the freeway exit I was supposed to take to meet a friend for Happy Hour. I remember thinking that I had to stop daydreaming while driving as I came upon bumper to bumper traffic on the 35w Bridge and was now going to be late to meet my friend. At 6:01 pm, without any warning, the pavement underneath me began to violently rumble, shaking my car harder and harder. I saw the bridge split open where my front bumper was and within seconds, my car took a nosedive towards the Mississippi River. I had locked my elbows and grasped on to my steering wheel for dear life. I remember an intense turbulence and seeing glass flying around me as I tumbled in the air. I don’t know how many times my car flipped, but it landed upside down, jammed on the bridge tussock and on top a steel beam which cut diagonally across my car. It took 13 seconds to fall 60 feet. I was suspended upside down only by the fibers of my shoulder belt but didn’t hit my head even upon the landing. I think I was too much in shock to feel fear at this point. I saw my blood dripping, but I didn’t feel the pain. Thinking the car might explode, survival instinct kicked in and I realized that I had to get out of the car as soon as possible. I wasn’t able to open the driver side door, but managed to crawl out of the passenger side door and then onto the steel beam which my car landed on. I crawled down to the bottom where I couldn’t believe what I saw. Looking up was open air where a massive five lane bridge fell into the debris I was standing on. A woman somewhere in the distance was screaming hysterically. I rushed over to the partially submerged cars nearby and some people suddenly appeared and asked if I was ok. I was bloody but still standing. I still don’t know who they were, but they told me to cross the river and climb up the bank. I don’t know if I lost consciousness when I was hanging upside down, because rescuers were already present by the time I got out of my car and there was a big group of bystanders watching from the riverbank. 190 cars were on the bridge when it collapsed. 13 people died. Many people suffered debilitating injuries. The girl next to me at the hospital had almost everything below her waist crushed. People in cars in front of me drowned and fell to their deaths. I only had deep cuts on my hands and fingers, a few small puncture wounds and a slightly fractured sternum. Will I be just as lucky on this August 1st?
On the drive to Kangding, I was in the back seat sandwiched between two police officers. To the right of me was a female Tibetan officer who had more than a few patriotic Chinese lines to share. To the left of me was the Chinese officer who warned me the night before I was detained and also the one who arrested me. He began chatting with me in the car. He said he really wanted to improve his English and this is long drive would be a good opportunity for him to practice if that was okay with me. The guy who threatened and arrested me now wanted to learn English from me. What the fuck I thought again. But I also reminded myself that it would be a good idea to get on their good side. So he went on asking me simple but poignant questions which are common to English learners, like what I believed in, what my life goals are and if I liked China. This lasted for hours until my answers became minimal and he eventually dozed off, on my shoulder. The Tibetan officer also fell asleep on my shoulder. I watched the digital clock in the car turn as it became midnight. It was August 1st, 2008, exactly a year after the bridge collapse and now I’m in a police car, red and blue siren flashing in the dark, on my way to being interrogated with two police officers sleeping on either side of my shoulder. I felt like Alice after falling into the rabbit hole. I didn’t fall asleep at all. I was thinking about life in prison. I thought about the shit that is probably piled up in the toilets. I thought about the self tightening cuffs that are common in Chinese prisons. I thought about the Tibetan nuns who described having electric cattle prods shoved into their vaginas. I thought about China’s reform through labor schemes for political offenders. I thought about all the different torture techniques practiced in Chinese prisons. I thought about what they would do with the bhod gyalo tattoo on my neck. Would they born it off or carve it off? At one point, I was debating what sentence they would have to give me for me to want to kill myself. 15 years? If they gave me 15 years, I would be 39 when released. But then I also thought about Palden Gyatso, the Tibetan monk who spent 33 years in prison, how he didn’t give up. I’ve heard countless testimonies of political prisoners, and couldn’t believe I was also going to follow their fate. Mandela and Gandhi both served long terms. In fact, maybe prison strengthens the activist soul. Maybe only after you’ve tasted the bitterness of injustice will you dedicate your life to fight it with 110 percent. I rethought suicide. I’ve always believed that whatever doesn’t kill me will make me stronger, and there’s no better time than now to embrace this creed. In 15 years, I could master Chinese and Tibetan. But 15 years is unlikely since Chinese dissidents are usually sentenced to 5 to 10 years. Thoughts and wonderings carried on in loops like this until we reached Kangding in the morning.
They took me to a hotel room on the 4th floor with a view of the valley in Kangding. The head police chief who they called ‘boss’ was going to do the interrogation. He sat across from me by the window. Two more officers sat behind him and two more were sitting on the bed filming and taking notes. No one was in a uniform. The boss held a friendly tone. It didn’t feel like an interrogation. He just kept asking one question after another, trying to find discrepancies in my answers. Maybe it was because I was so tired, maybe it was because I swallowed my fear, but I transformed into someone else. If I told the truth, I would be sending myself straight to prison and endangering others. On the drive, I also had decided on an alias personality. I was Wen, the artsy, tree hugging, new age hippie – a politically inept traveler and devout Buddhist looking for myself by exploring the world. I exaggerated the language barrier so when I was asked a question I needed more time to think about, I would either ask them to clarify the meaning of certain Chinese words or use English words in my answers so they would have to stop and look up thw word. This bought me time to produce more believable lies. I’ve always been horrible at lying since and I’m often clumsy with my words when put on the spot, but this day was a definite exception. I’m not proud of the lies I told, but I can’t say I completely regretted it either. I became an actress. I gave brilliant answers and surprised even myself with my performance. For example, when the boss asked me if I had ever been to Dharamsala, I excitedly said yes, that I took the Tushita Introduction to Buddhism course which opened many doors to Buddhism and helped quench my spiritual thirst and that I also did a Vipassana Mediation course and went into detail about the feelings and emotions I experienced during the 10 day meditation. I went on describing my spiritual connection with the Indian Himalayas and my spiritual growth in India. I gave them more than enough detail from the things other people have told me from the courses. I knew that all Chinese officials are required to be atheists since Communism is suppose to be their religion, but I went on asking about the boss’ faith, what he would think he would spiritually develop if he meditated for 10 days. This made him laugh. The interrogation had turned into a conversation. For all the questions regarding Dharamsala, I kept answering with spiritual hippie talk. When he asked about what I thought about the Tibetans wanting independence, I played politically ignorant and asked him to explain the situation and what he thought. He went ahead and quite passionately talked about how he thought it was stupid for Tibetans to want such ‘independence’. I said that it’s not nice to call people stupid, that we should all have more compassion, but that I really should learn more about the issue and went back to talking about my ‘passion’ in Tibetan Buddhism. When asked about the photos I took of the military base, I explained the theories of composition and why I took the photos aesthetically. And then I went on about why I love photography, the magic of freezing time and whatnot. When they asked about my email account, I said that a few months back, I had a horribly messy and painful breakup with my boyfriend, so I cancelled my email account and decided to take a clean break. I went on feigning the pain of a broken heart and how hard it was to even stay friends, which didn’t stray too far from the truth and made the performance much more believable. After about two hours of questioning, the boss seemed satisfied. I actually managed to convince him I was an ignorant harmless girl. He said they just need to quick look through my things, confiscate my memory card and they’ll send me back to my hotel in Chengdu. Hope grew. Now the only evidence was left on the external hard drive. If they opened the hard drive, they would know I was lying all along.
The boss told me to wait in the hotel room until they finished looking through the external hard drive. Anxiety had dissipated at this point since I was certain of my fate and there was absolutely nothing I could do at that point. The only thing I could think of was trying a human approach. I wanted the police officers to get to know me and see that I’m not a bad person, that I don’t deserve to be locked up because I have different political opinions as them. I wanted them to feel guilty for imprisoning me. So we chatted, ate breakfast and watched TV in the hotel room. The Tibetan officer told me that she envied how many countries I have gone to, that when she was 24 she was married with a child and working full time for the Public Security Bureau. She said she wants to see the world, but it seems so impossible for her. She asked me about my home in America. I told her Minnesota had 10 thousand lakes and the biggest shopping mall in the world. She told me to guess the tune as she played Britney Spears on her pink cell phone. It was ‘Oops, I did it Again’. I began to see why she would cling tightly on to the romanticism of Communist ideology. She decided to take a nap and got into bed. I sat in the other bed and began talking to the officer who threatened and arrested me, the one who wanted to practice his English on the drive over. An Olympics program was running on low volume on the TV as we talked. He was a big sports fan and was excited to see the Olympics Games, especially basketball and track. He talked about how proud he was of China, like it was his own son. He did have a son, but didn’t mention him until I asked. We talked and laughed. He was a womanizer and grinned when he said if it were up to him, he would have multiple wives and asked if people in America were allowed to do that. I talked about the divorce rate and the ins and outs of dating in the US. I chatted with these two officers for more than four hours until different officers came into the hotel room and said it was time to go. I asked if they were coming to take me back to Chengdu and they said it would be a fun road trip, but it wasn’t up to them. They asked me for my email address and I had to remind them that I ‘cancelled’ my account. I looked at them with sad puppy eyes as I was escorted into a police car where again I sat in the middle of the back seat with four new officers. I was sure they had made all the arrangements for my imprisonment. I wondered how long it would be before my trial, knowing full well that fair trials in China were virtually non-existent for political offenders.
There seemed to be confusion about what to do with me. The car drove one direction, stopped and turned back to the hotel. The new officers pretended to not hear my questions about where they were taking me. I was escorted into another car at the hotel and we drove the opposite direction. They finally said they were taking me to Chengdu, but I didn’t quite believe them. I couldn’t tell if they were lying or annoyed. I tried to ask different questions to figure out if they were really going to release me in Chengdu, but my efforts were futile. They still wouldn’t give me back my passports and cell phone. When I asked why I couldn’t get them back, the officer in the front seat said he didn’t have them, that another officer in a different car had them. This made me feel uneasy after I heard the low battery tone of my cell phone beep from his pocket. I know there is a prison for political offenders in Chengdu and was sure that was where we were headed. When we stopped at a restaurant for lunch, they seemed to be in a better mood. They began joking with me like the last group of officers I was with. They told me to eat up and the Tibetan officer referred to me as ‘zema’, the Tibetan term for beautiful, but he commented that I would be more attractive if my complexion was so dark. Another officer asked me if it was too soon to start teaching English to his two year old son. I recommended that he find English language children’s programs like Sesame Street and Blues Clues, that it was best to start young. It was beginning to feel more at ease and clung on a tiny piece of hope, thinking that they wouldn’t be this friendly if they were going to put me away, would they?
It was a 5 hour drive to Chengdu. As we approached the city, just before 6pm on August 1st, the officer in the front seat asked what street my hotel was on. I perked up and couldn’t believe my ears. He’s not taking me to prison if he’s asking me where my hotel is! I told him I needed to check in my guidebook but was still stunned they were actually going to release me. I told them about what happened last August 1st and they told me to not worry, I’m safe because I’m with the police this year. A few minutes later, he asked if I would mind writing a letter confessing my ‘crime’ just for their records. It sounded suspicious since they already had written pages and pages along with the recorded files for my case. He said they wanted a confession written by me, that it won’t take long, and then I can take a taxi to my hotel. Did I have a choice to say no?
We arrived at another fancy hotel and they took two double rooms on the second floor. I wrote about a page and a half apologizing for taking photos of the military base and the armed police explaining that I wasn’t aware I was illegally possessing state secrets. I said I would learn to abide by the law of the country in the future. After I handed in the letter, it was dinner time and they insisted that I eat with them. I was anxious to go, but they joked that after spending a whole day with them that I didn’t even want to have a nice dinner at the end of the day. Seeing that I really didn’t want to stay, one of the officers said I could go now and come back later if I wanted to because there were still a few things they needed to talk to me about. Still feeling despondent and unsure of what was really going on, I agreed to the dinner. It was my fourth meal under custody with the police at nice restaurants. Two of the officers drank four bottles of beer. They were having a great time eating and laughing, holding up their glasses and saying ‘tashi delek’. I wondered if and when I’ll actually get released and when the charade will end. At dinner, the officer next to me said after dinner, we’ll go up to the hotel room and delete the pictures I wasn’t suppose to have taken, the ones that contained ‘state secrets’. I was surprised at this since the boss in Kangding said my memory card will be confiscated. I was impressed by his consideration. Then he mentioned the external hard drive for the first time. He said they found some things and they need to delete on the hard drive, but since it’s about 50GB worth of data, they’ll bring it to a shop and have it deleted overnight. I can come back the next morning to pick it up. I was still in disbelief. They found everything, they found out about all my involvement with Dharamsala and Tibetan flags, they didn’t question me about it and now they were letting me go. After they deleted the photos, took photos of them deleting the photos, they handed me back my passports and cell phone and waived me goodbye.
I picked up my empty external hard drive the next morning and was free. I couldn’t believe it. They found everything and decided to let me go. The most logical explanation was that it was too sensitive of a time to detain me, that it would look bad for the Chinese government to imprison a Taiwanese American activist during this sensitive time for Beijing. Was it the Olympics that saved me?
Now back in Dharamsala, something is haunting me, something that many Tibetans also have to live with. When I was questioned in Kangding, I lied and I didn’t stand up for what I believe in. I knew what the authorities wanted to hear and that was what I told them. I knew the consequences if I told them what I actually believed in. People may say that China is heading towards a bright future, but how can this country of 1.3 billion, one sixth of the world be under this form of control where an individual cannot express their difference in opinion? How did the IOC decide to award its prestigious games to a country where you can’t say what you think, read what you want and worship who you choose? I’ve never fully appreciated freedom until it was taken away from me, because it was something I had from birth. I’m able to write these words today, but a sixth of the world is not able to express what’s in their hearts without the fear of persecution if what they’re expressing strays from the Chinese government’s ideology. China is using fear to silence its people. But there be a time when fear turns into defiance. I was Mao himself who said that it only takes a spark to start a prairie fire. It’s just a matter of who’s going to light to match.
-wen King
Wen King’s FaceBook address: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=13944861
My FaceBook address: http://www.facebook.com/people/Patrick_Mahoney/1102272018
I have live, 24 hr 7 day a week internet news feeds up (From SFT)
and almost hourly postings of events as they occur (from many sources)
Also, if you look to the left of my FaceBook page, you will find many Tibetan organizations to find out very detailed information.....
This is all true, folks.....no one is making this stuff up. The Ironic thing? The Chinese Govt accuses "the Dalai Lama Clique" with sedition and "splittist" propaganda.....when they are the ones using the Olympics to fool the world.
And, it might just work.....since they are buying off almost everyone....
Keep these discussions alive....here, at home, at work, everywhere.....its the only thing that will change this mess.
Best regards,
patrick mahoney
:-)
Kathryn, from hope and dreams well reality
Aunt Boni, nice quotes on *peace.* Every breath one takes holds so much peace. We just have to give that breath to one another as though life depended on it.
Paul I saw that on Danish TV the other day. It was honestly the most touching mom,ent I've yet seen from Beijing.
Sandre, We're still trying to come out of the Dark Ages, it seems sometimes... at least with the current bunch of leaders. But the world's so much more filled with caring, kind and peaceful people. Here in Denmark I am amazed all the time by this coming generation. If we don't go totally nuts in the next few years, I honestly believe we're going to have a whole new group of leaders who echo in their own way, what we heard echoing +30 years ago
Patrick, that is one remarkably brave woman. Thank you so much for sharing it here. When I read it, I thought of going over to your Free Tibet Gather site, and then saw your article on that railways China built to dilute away the native Tibetan population, and you inspired me to write an interesting comment based on old prophecies from Tibet and native America, and new findings in mt DNA... so I guess I'll share it below with the people who come across this article. Thank you
More recent advances in coding the human genome, and the ability now to trace ancestry via the mother's mitochondrial DNA (not directly involved in sexual meiosis, and hence antiquity sits there) has resulted in the following finding, which was only a theoretical "educated guess" back when I studied anthropology:
SALT LAKE CITY & PAVIA, Italy--(Business Wire)--
In the most comprehensive study to date on the genetic origins of
Native Americans, an international research team confirmed that Native
Americans who descended from ancestors who crossed from Asia to the
Americas approximately 20,000 years ago are offspring of six founding,
or ancestral, mothers. The study also confirms the presence of genetic
subgroups of more rare, less known and geographically limited genetic
groups who arrived later. This study is the first time all known
Native American mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences and lineages have
been compiled, corrected and organized into a single tree with
branches dated. (it gets far more interesting, but that would require a separate article)
***
When the iron eagle flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered over the earth and the dharma will go to the land of the red man.
--- Padmasambhava, 8the century Tibet
When the iron bird flies, the red-robed people of the East who have lost their land will appear, and the two brothers from across the great ocean will be reunited.
-- Hopi Native American Prophecy
By the way, the Hopi were horrifically brutalized (limbs hacked off) by the Conquistadors, sanctioned by Franciscan friars, of the early 15th century, in their search for a mythological cache of gold.
So were the Tibetans only 40 years ago
Gerald, In 50 years the stuff of graduate school will be fodder for our teens in high school. Sometimes in my articles, I'll pepper some items to help push the envelope of people's ordinary thinking... to help see the simple patterns of life. this article is not complicated; perhaps some of the follow-up discussion.
AF Stewart, it'll come to an end, just perhaps not in our lifetimes. The world now is filled with young people with incredibly advanced ideas, just waiting to percolate through once some old dinosaurs no longer dominate.
Sheila and Selene, it's right around the corner
It will happen. Of that I'm certain; just when... ?
In a globalized world, and with all sorts of natural systems going through changes due to our exploitive ways, and with the unparalleled wisdom I've observed in the coming generation of kids (whose parents were forced by increased awareness and law not to abuse), it will absolutely happen, I believe, due to educated predictions, before the middle of this century.
The scope of this conversation is amazing. Too bad you're not a U.S. citizen. I would vote for you to be our president.
Of course the parties involved would argue that thier opponent started it back when. And then the opponent would bring up something that happened a hundred years before that. And so on and so on. I think we need to condemn the practice of using our ancestors battles as an excuse to commit violence. And I really think we need to condemn the practice of claiming some piece of land is somehow sacred and promised to them by some deity.
In the 1960's, 1970's, there was great awareness of human rights, environment, and the need to create peace. Significant social advancement changes occur in outbursts in 30-40 intervals, and I see great promise for the next leap forward in the young people of today.
Why is peace so elusive and warfare so entrenched in our history? War mentality is so
much more the easier path. Peace is very difficult, but absolutely necessary.
Here in Litang, a Khampa town in Eastern Tibet (present day western Sichuan), fear and paranoia lingers in the air to a palpable degree. I've never seen so many police and military personnel in one town in my life. Nor have I experienced this kind of heart pounding fear before. Last night, at around 11:40pm, I heard the police yell and pound on each and every door at the guesthouse I was staying at. When they got to my door, I was numb with fear. I was afraid because foreigners are not permitted to enter the town I'm in. Also because the US embassy in Chengdu suggested that I may very well be 'shadowed' and my email being monitored due to my involvement in Dharamsala, so I am even a bit afraid writing this right now. Should I stop writing out of fear for my own safety?
Of course, there is much more but wanted this thread to be known. What is wrong with people - just this week, I heard two accounts of people bragging about killing cats - bragging about it - why do people BRAG about killing things - I try to save everything I can - is it something in human nature - I don't want to get off the subject ...anyway, good article, Ben. Salud
She didn't realize she was playing with fire????? omg - Salud
-wen King
And, that's why we best be grateful for all the freedom we have here in the United States...don't take it for granted...Salud
I do not watch much TV and I never watch the news. It's enough what I hear from friends.
I have read the comments as well and I noticed that each one has a different opinion and react in a different way.
I iked your answer about the one who said " this is the reason they have earth quakes" such a misplaced understading of the natura laws of the Universe; and there is negativity too which I don't admire at all.
Mariana is telling us about the freedom the Americans have. What freedom? I just wonder!
Thank you for your contribution to the world peace. You are a born ambassador of peace and light.
Will see if I saved it on WORD....
Well, Marinela - I can wake up in the morning and sit on my porch and drink coffee - my choice of coffee. I can decide where I want to drive and choose who I want to go and visit. I can go to the airport on any given day and fly to the destination of my choice. I can say what I want to about any of the politicial candidates and I can be on this computer at any time of the day or night - I can pick up my telephone and call most anyone. I can vote for the candidate of my choice. I don't have an armed guard outside of my residence. I can dress as I want to dress...Yes, I call that freedom - and I am most grateful for those bits of freedom and so many many more. Thanks for asking. Salud
Gather Broadcasting: Have it your way
This takes you in the back door. If you’ve already been, don’t click again.
Gather Broadcasting: Have it your way
This takes you in the back door. If you’ve already been, don’t click again.
I responded there, not here.... So, here it is to go along with yours.... Enjoy! :-)
*************
Thanks, Bent....
and to add to the "other-world-li-ness" of your very accurate Prophecy quotes and the combo of the genetic origins study......
When I took a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks to California, on a tour of universities and churches, etc to do Sand Mandalas and put on "The mystical Arts of Tibet" tour (traditional music,dance, etc) I wanted to take them to Indian Reservations.....but we had no time.
Then, at one university, some Indians approached me....
"can we do a blessing, for the monks?"
"Surely," I said...
so, before the show that night I took all of the monks out into a dark parking lot....and the Indians had a few extra folks with them. They did a blessing with smoke....
this blessing, was just like the kind of juniper smoke blessings that the Tibetans do on their rooftops. The younger monks hadn't, of course, ever seen this.....being born & raised in India. But the older monk, who accompanied the Dalai Lama from Tibet to India, just glowed.
"Just like home," he says. Then, his eyes misted over.....and I could visibly see him "taken back" to his youth of 50 years prior. He said nothing during the entire tour, except that....the deep sadness in him moved me like nothing else.
Two items: I see the Tibetans and the native American Indians as they same. It was a hunch to "get them together", but a fact once done.
and lastly, We CAN STOP THEM FROM BEING DESTROYED. WE can bring back the past. By simply re-connecting with nature, and our true natures.....which these two peoples can help facilitate. The survival of the Tibetan Buddhist world, I contend in my book, is nothing less that the survival of the human race. If we can't assure their safety, ours is surely lost....eventually. we have strayed sooo far from our true natures (and the life-force of nature itself) that we are losing our humanity; our role/relation to earth itself. Then? Only further abuse of that which we were meant to protect....until its dead. Both Native American Indians and Tibetan Buddhists hold this as THE TRUTH....to be ignored at one's peril. This isn't simply "backward cultures tied into natural phenomenon" (as our greedy expansionists throughout time have implied; with the "aid" of control-based religions).
This is the question before us...our last test.....
For respect/cultivation/nurturance of life? Or, against life?
The first way insures everyone's survival.....the second? A slow and miserable death.
So, yeah, Bent, the stakes are at their highest.....and yes, its taken this many centuries to get to this point. Weather its "convergence" or "parallel tracks", its the same question....
Do we want to live, or to die.....
more than half the world's population is in India and China.....why? Well, just like other forms of life, humans "swarm" too. This is whats happening. Swarm, and die off....from burning all the resources in one last blaze of production.
Why the "human swarm?" Because those two countries have very little spiritualism left....of any kind. Without the care for higher level of consciousness (beyond raw intelligence/education), there is no reason to share, care, or nurture (on a societal level). This is why human life, actually all life, is "valued" so cheaply there. Visualize people dying all around you, all the time.....and that is India and China. Tibetan Buddhists were an island in all of this....until Mao correctly perceived the "threat" to his ideology. Most Buddhists in India had been killed off, over many thousands of years.....same in China.
I could go on, but suffice to say.....we are now faced with THE most important question of mankind. Not that it hasn't been considered before, its just that this time its Global, and there is no going back.
Is there anything more important for us to be working on today?
I think not...
Thanks, Bent, for your insightful words...Lets get people to do something now, eh?
BOYCOTT Chinese goods until TIBET is FREE! :-)
:-)
Patrick, do you realize you were party to both sides of those two ancient "prophecies" ? The past now being *The Now.*
Let's all participate in making the future *The Now*
I pray people wake up Patrick M. Salud
I had a thought just now, about the comment generated here on karma. In the Buddhist philosophy, and especially the dynamic form in Tibet, natural events are just that. Natural events of the universe's systems of integrated nature. But under the circumstances of such a cataclysmic event as someone mentioned above in the incorrect context of karma, those touched by that event can transform their suffering such that *karma* is burned off, so to speak. Karma is not some deity looking down and causing havoc as a form of retribution. Karma is sort of like a shadow, or cloud, that holds one's ignorance, perhaps - where the stuff of one's actions based on not understanding or not wishing to understand the nature of this place under the sun we occupy - and... well, I better stop here, since I am definately not at the level of that understanding as any Lama who has concentrated her attentions on it all his life.
I do this gender thing on purpose... (-:
Mariana was quoting me; and my book :-) She pulls out, nicely, things she liked in my comments....then comments on them. Thanks, for that, btw, Mariana.....shows someone is reading :-)
so tell us, bent, about this "gender thing" ;-)
Oh, it's just this thing that keeps cropping up in some of my discussions, of mindsets that parrot an indoctrinated belief that this god thing is always male, and this is saturated in our European language bases. So I do this thing with reversing male-relative pronouns that frustrate some.
So why not an ultimate Buddha archetype, Kwan Yin - White Tara / Avalokitesvara
just being playful. Though not quite.
There is also in Tibet a female Lama, the 12th Samding Dorje Phagmo, who is considered a reincarnation of Vajravarahi, also the vice-chairperson of the Tibetan region's Communist party, who is capitalized upon by Beijing for her strong criticism of the Dalai Lama for instigating feudal echoes.
It's a paradoxical spin because if one were to pay attention to Mao's dead words, or Chinese officials who convey an image of China under Communism as being an ERA haven, one would not realize the reality of China under Communism, or under any historical system. Women in much of China suffer much like farm animals. The system of one child per family has only served to reinforce very old Chinese patriarchal ideas that a woman has no worth in society, and this has pushed the birth ratio, such that there are born 120 men for every 100 women, due to aborting simply to sex-select.
The world ratio is generally 105 men to 100 females, but more boys die in infancy than girls, so natural selection brings the ratio rather to 1 to 1.
That's why I often can like even atheist or agnostic philosophies; yet, what gender are the authors to most of those philosophies? Or at least those that gain any distribution? So one still holds in one's head, images of a male.
I have a statue of "White Tara" at my father's house ;-)
I gave it to my sister, but she left it there after dad passed away......not so into Buddhism, though a feminist galore........so, now its mine :-)
U R right in many of your above observations.
"Shoulder to shoulder, unto the fray.
Our daughter's daughters will adore us;
and they will sing in grateful chorus:
Well done!
Well done!
Well done; sisters suffragettes!"
Wonder if the Chinese ever watched "Mary Poppins?" ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGmMHmejdmU
*Well Done!* I wish I could sing it, but my singing voice is not that good.