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Towards the last two months of my last visit to India in the spring of 2012, I encountered the Tibetan community in exile in India experiencing painful news of their people self-immolating in fire one after another in China-occupied Tibet. My experiences in the past visits in India (drawing a cremation site in Varanasi, documenting fire pits, cremation alters, and contemplating on life and death around fire) synchronized with this particular movement, an extreme way of ‘offering’ their bodies to ‘fire’ for asking freedom and peace.I could not help drawing large and small drawings as emotional response and with a sense of mourning.

After coming back to Vancouver, the self-immolation kept happening and I felt that my personal and professional task is not finished.

I have come back to India to continue to document and draw under the same theme. tomoyoihaya@hotmail.com

26 October 2022

Thinking of you 3 : Two women who stood up for freedom

Daw Aye Aye Thet  is a teacher. She participated in the anti-dictatorship protest (the civil disobedience movement) and was arrested as a result. 

She was charged 3 years in prison and serving the sentence at this moment. 


 Moe Sett Eain, 22 years old, served in prison for 3 and a half months in infamous Military Interrogation Center.  She was detained along with other young protesters during participating in the anti-dictatorship protest. She witnessed tragic deaths of fellow protesters during the protest and in the prison but survived.  After coming out from the prison, she decided to join the guerrilla force to continue her resistance against the dictatorship.

She will not go home till her country, Myanmar, will be free and democratic again. 

(original source is in Japanese by Mika Funakoshi, please click the link : https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/funakoshimika/20220926-00316737?fbclid=IwAR0Ls0lFTZXM0Svx4dyqjuUBzG980m6KESZXxHsqHQAnr3Z5Y8b38d7LesU