For Ani Dolma

For Ani Dolma, 24 yrs old nun, who self immolated in Bathang County, Kham, Tibet on March 29th 2014.

Ani la ( Nun in TIbetan) protest took place near
Ba Choede monastery. Local Tibetans on their routine circumambulation spotted her. They doused the flames and took her to a nearby hospital.

The security force arrived and blocked the hospital. All means of communications in the area have been cut off to outside.

For Goshul Lobsang la

Tomorrow We Together Here

Goshul Losang la

You have endured many months in the dark cell,
tortured, beaten up
till your body
became bones and skin

Even though your body was to go,
your spirit remained firm and clear,
like a clear light of Dorje Semba

Your firm belief without regret
you have served your life
To protect your culture, religion and freedom
and your 6 million Tibetan brothers and sisters

I had drawn you from a picture of you on painful death bed in March.
your figure on your death bed still keeps lingering in my heart
I wanted you to be in green pasture again
over looking snowy mountains
From which the new sun, glorious tomorrow, is rising

For Lobsang Palden and an unidentified monk

For Khechok Palden, a monk from Kirti monastery, Ngaba, Amdo and an unidentified monk from Tsekhog, Malho, who self immolated on March 16th 2014.

Kunchok Palden, a monk from Kirti Monastery, Ngaba, Amdo, set himself ablaze on the main road in a town of Ngaba where more than a dozen Tibetans have self immolated.

March 16th is a day of a heavy and
tragic memory for Ngaba. In 2008, many people were shot to death by the Chinese police force when they were carrying out a peaceful protest. Since then till this day, Ngaba continues to suffer. 36 lives have been lost by self immolation protests since 2009.

Information on the other unidentified monk from Malho has not arrived at this point.

March has become a sad month, the most memorable month for Tibetans and for us who care for peace and freedom in the world.

For Tashi Paljor

Tashi Paljor, 34, a monk at the Wenpo monastery in Chamdo (in Chinese, Changdu) prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), was tortured to death on March 1st 2014.

He was seized by police on Friday, February 28th when he arrived at a residence in Wenpo village where authorities had found banned recordings and writings by exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and exile political leader Lobsang Sangay.

When he was returned to his family, he could not talk and while his family rushing him to the hospital, he passed away.

Since 2008, more than 100 Tibetans have been tortured to death.

A heart aches thinking of the pain that they had to go through.
How can the same human beings treat innocent people with enormous pain?
What kind of state of mind is it?

Thoughts on Losar ( Tibetan New Year)

 

My first Losar was with a Tibetan friend's family in Delhi in 2007. All I remember is freshness, joy, dancing with laughters.

In 2008, the year of Beijing Olympic, I was at another Tibetan family's Losar in Sevoke, West Bengal.
Only a little later, I came to know the wave of peaceful protests that had happened all over the Tibet.
Many people were killed, arrested and imprisoned.

After that year, Losar was never the same, to all Tibetan people and...to me.

In 2009, a monk called Tapey self-immolated in Ngaba, Amdo, Tibet. He called for freedom and peace in Tibet and died in flame and more people followed his protest.

It was not till 2012 that I came to know more of on-going self-immolations.
In that painful year of 87 self-immolations, I spent some painful months in Dharamsala. Thousands of candles at vigils and butter lamps at the main temple stained out hearts. Although people were mourning with heavy hearts, there was a sense of being united,
sending our prayers together to the far away land.

The lost people's spirits seem to live with me and I am sure, with many others.

I hope that all my Tibetan friends have a happy and peaceful Losar gathering. At the same time, I take Losar as a day to think of those people who sacrificed their lives, are in prison at this moment, and to wish for peace, freedom and happiness.

Dear friends, I also wish that you are well no matter where you are right now and even though you are far away from your families. I send my sincere wishes that you will go back to your homeland soon, stepping on your own soil and reuniting with your loved ones.

A bridge of Peace for you. kusug tug chag nango dan kyippo tan.

On a cloudy and quiet morning in the west coast