Letter to Chakmo-la by Jamyang Kyi

Jamyang Kyi posted on her blog a letter addressed to her friend Chakmo (lCags mo). She notes that the letter was written in October 2008 but was only posted on her blog on 31 December 2008.

High Peaks Pure Earth has been monitoring Jamyang Kyi’s blog and when she didn't post for several months over the summer of 2008, we were all anxious about her safety. The letter makes it clear that during that period she was visiting her family in Jadoru (Bya dmo ru).

Although the letter is personal, High Peaks Pure Earth has posted this translation as it would be of interest to readers concerned about Jamyang Kyi’s current well being.

Dear Friend Chakmo la (lCags mo),

How are you? It has been more than half a year since we last saw each other, but I never forget the moments that we were together. Although I had thought for months of writing you a short letter, I was not able to do that. Honestly, life is not predictable and it is just like a stream forever flowing.

Today, I woke up at nearly seven o’clock as usual. I spent two hours reading and had a chance to glance at the autobiography Freedom in Exile, (bTsan byol pa’i bag phebs) and with sadness I got up from bed. After breakfast, I went to the office. It takes half an hour from my house to where I work. When I arrived in Xining, after staying half a month in my hometown Jadoru (Bya mdo ru), I had gained four to five kilos in weight, so it forces me to walk to the office everyday now.

It has been raining almost everyday the past several days and the weather is unpredictable. Today, I walked to my office in the rain. I realized when the chilly wind brushed against my face that it is already close to the end of autumn.

The yellow leaves of the trees falling in front of my steps and ta ta sounds of the leaves crushing under my feet brought feelings of sadness inside me. When my mind became clearer, the thought of my beloved compatriots living abroad and the autobiography Freedom in Exile, rushed into my mind. At that moment I suddenly had an urge to write a short letter to you.

First of all, I would like to say congratulations to your translation of learned Tsering Woeser’s book ‘Poetry Named Tibet’. Some days ago you interviewed Paldan Gyal on his experiences in his homeland. I་ thought your frank and honest conversation was good.

Dear friend, I am sure you and your family are well as usual. Are you busy these days? Although I am completely occupied by the endless housework as well as occupied by a massive amount of office work, I am well and my family and relatives are also doing well. Do you remember once I told you that the happiness given to parents by their children is immeasurable? Naturally, this happiness comes with difficulties and suffering. When I was writing down my thoughts from the other day, my daughter was pushing and pulling from the back of my chair and trying to talk to me with nonsense words, and sometimes she held my hand so that I could not write properly. In the meantime I had to answer her questions constantly so I could hardly get a moment in which I could concentrate my mind on what I was doing. I clearly know that my child is wasting a lot of my time, but she is the only source of happiness of mine, so as a mother I cannot complain about her. I think a mother’s love to a child is why a mother risks her life to save her child and the final hope of a mother is her children. Countless mothers break their won dream for their children's well being. This is hard to avoid.

Yes, since I was deeply overwhelmed by the past memories of our meetings, as I walked half an hour to my office, even the Chinese street became more silence and I arrived in front of my office without hearing the noise from the street. I locked the door of my thoughts then and put the key in my pocket. My mind and body was completely seized by a lonely wind.

'Let Us Make Lamp Offerings and Light Candles to Commemorate the Souls of the Deceased' by Woeser

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a blogpost by Woeser originally written for Radio Free Asia on 8th January 2009 and posted on her blog on 14th January 2009.

'Let Us Make Lamp Offerings and Light Candles to Commemorate the Souls of the Deceased' by Woeser

At the beginning of the New Year, the various festivals with best wishes have arrived one after another. These festivals include those of the East, the West, Tibet and China etc. If it is really a peaceful and flourishing age, a true reunion of the entire family, and if it is indeed a period in which the old can grow old, people in the prime of their life can put their talents to use and the young can grow up and mature peacefully, then we will naturally have our own unique customs to celebrate these festivals which have lasted for centuries.

However, this year’s celebration will be different. This year’s differences are due to the fact that so many people have been plunged into the abyss of misery. In the land of Tibet, in the villages, pastures and towns of Amdo, central Tibet and Kham, many white-haired grandparents and parents had to endure the suffering of attending the funeral of young blacked-hair people. What is even more tragic is that some of these white-haired ones have not been able to attend the funeral services since the black-haired ones have disappeared without their corpses being able to be found. The family members do not know the day they died, thus, it is not even possible to hold the religious ceremony to release the soul of the deceased from purgatory suffering. The monasteries have already been closed, and monks expelled. There are countless vultures circling around over the desolate sky burial grounds.

Then, let us light butter lamps to make offerings in memory of the deceased, whose exact number we still do not know, in the corners where the video surveillance can not reach. Furthermore, those of us who live in alien lands and do not have butter lamps to offer, let us light candles for those deceased whose exact number we still do not know. Like March 16 last year, several hundred Tibetan students from the Northwestern University for Nationalities in Lanzhou spread out banners with the slogan “share weal and woe with Tibetans” on the ground, and staged a sit-in under candlelight throughout the night. On March 17, over a hundred Tibetan students from the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing also lit candles and staged a sit-in on the campus, thus, the fire of protests extended to the capital of the “empire”.

In our culture and tradition, we attach great importance to the commemoration of the deceased. Many rites are the ones to offer sacrifices, and all the sacrifices have to make offerings to deities for the souls of resentful relatives and creditors. The forty-nine days, from the first week to the seventh week, are the forty-nine phases the soul of the deceased has to pass through the intermediate stage between death and rebirth, so the family not only need to invite the monks to perform Buddhist rites to release the soul of the deceased from purgatory suffering, but also have to give alms on a large scale to the poor. The coming year is similarly important, in fact the entire coming year should be the year to make sacrifices! At such a moment, we should pay tribute to the monks who are qualified to be called lamas. It is because only the practice of the monks can help the souls of the deceased to head for the truth, the light and a good rebirth. This is not superstition, on the contrary, it is the cherished memory of the deceased, which is the deepest and most beautiful feeling of mankind. Even Lenin said that “forgetting the past means betrayal”. For those of us who believe in religion, forgetting about the deceased means betrayal and signifies that we walk around without any feelings. If one does not commemorate one’s deceased relatives, then one is worse than a beast. If members of an ethnic group do not commemorate their deceased compatriots, then they are also worse than beasts.

Cherishing the memory of the deceased is not a virtue unique to any ethnic group. Similarly, the Han Chinese also deeply cherish the memory of their compatriots who have died. I read an article written by a Chinese who suffered in the “Incident of June 4” in 1989. After having been silent for as long as twenty years, he made a series of short films entitled “1989: The Calling of Memory”. He wrote, “ …the gun shots smashed all our dreams, how is it possible what’s smashed are just dreams of individuals? Our entire ethnic group has a common pain, but because of fear, we even dare not think about the pain, or dare not touch the pain. In this way, this pain has been buried in the heart of each one of us for year after year…When all our world desires have been satisfied, we ourselves are feeling more and more lost. We have material wealth, but we have lost our soul.”

To respect life is to respect oneself, and to cherish the memory of the deceased is to rescue and redeem oneself. The brutality and valiance of a materialist lies in the fact that he believes in guns and money. However, they also acknowledge the law of birth, death, illness and death as well as the law of rise and fall. Even Mao Zedong, who claimed that he himself was an outstanding person compared with others in history, was not able to avoid death. What is absurd is that after Mao’s death, a memorial hall was built for his corpse. Is this different from the countless terracotta warriors buried underground by the First Emperor of Qin? Certainly, if materialists also have the right to cherish the memory of the deceased, Tibetans who have religious belief should also have the right to cherish the memory of the deceased!

Therefore, 2009 is the year for us to cherish the memory of the deceased. And we have our own way to do so: make lamp offerings and light candles to commemorate the souls of the deceased, and recite the mantra of Avalokiteshvara: Om mani padme hum!

8th January 2009, Beijing

The Very Last Note from Tsawa Danyuk

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a note from Tsawa Danyuk that Jamyang Kyi posted on her blog on 2nd January 2009 (photo of the blogpost below). It appears that this writer is either missing or has fled abroad. We are not certain if Tsawa Danyuk is another blogger or whether the note was sent to Jamyang Kyi. It is apparent from the note that he had been accused of unknown crimes for writing or saying some words.


What is interesting is that since March 2008, a number of Tibetan writers and bloggers have been accused of political crimes by the authorities and have disappeared or gone underground. Another point to note is the growing admiration for Jamyang Kyi amongst her readers and followers. The comments on her blog are filled with words of admiration and affection to her.


The Very Last Note from Tsawa Danyuk (Tsha ba mda’ smyug)
By a tormented soul

Because of a few words I had said three years ago, I had to leave my beloved parents, teachers and friends. I even had to depart the land, where my umbilical cord is buried and be tossed away like sacrificial cake (gtor ma) from my native land.

Now I endure pain and suffering beyond worldly imagination inflicted by an army equipped with modern technology. What do I have to sacrifice? Where do I escape? Am I not allowed to remain on this earth? What crime have I committed? I begin to the think that even the gods are not being fair. I cannot comprehend! I am confused! I am laughing!

Notice: The above short note was written by Tsawa Danyuk on 29th April 2008

Comments:







Are you the writer of this blog?






Compatriot. Indeed, yes, I am the writer of this blog whose name begins with Jam. Thank you from the depth of my heart for visiting my blog all the time.

Whether the first six Tibetan primordial beings are monkeys or not is not our topic of debate.
Whether Nyatri Tsanpo descended from sky or not is not our (debate) to be won and lost.
Whether Songtsen lived into his eighties or not is not about victory or defeat.
Whether we are living up to the legacy of Tibetan kings is the question for the six million Tibetans.

Embrace the courage of our ancestors to our hearts and hold our hands together.
The agile horse running east and west, yet what is the use of a single horse?
Like the elegant saying, that united hands are gold, this is the path we should stride.

This was written in the Wood Bird Year, on the 23rd of the 1st Tibetan month. Tsawa Danyuk wrote this in Rebkong. I offer this to Jamyang Kyi.







The descendants of red-faced Tibetans call out the name of Tsawa Danyuk.








You are the flower of my life
You are my heart’s choice,
Forever my affection and love to you.










In the past I only thought of you as a singer. Yet, this year when the tide of time turned against us, I have scaled the strength of all the known Tibetans. And you are one of the most courageous Tibetans in the face of this difficult time and undeniably you have become a historical person. For being the voice of many educated Tibetans and raising the voice of truth through your writings, I would like to thank you from the depth of my heart.







Because of this oppression, I wouldn’t be able to close my eyes even if I were dying.









Tsawa Danyuk, Tsawa Danyuk!
Where are you? Have you been blown away by the storm?
A symbol of intelligent mind and brave heart
Forever present in (our) conversation,
Will never be forgotten.

‘Ethnic cleansing’ in Lhasa by Woeser

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a blogpost by Woeser originally written for Radio Free Asia on 17th November 2008 and posted on her blog on 17th December 2008. The rise in discrimination towards Tibetans within the PRC has been documented before on High Peaks Pure Earth but in this post Woeser goes into the minutiae of the bureaucracy behind daily life in Lhasa. It's in the details that we can build up a picture of the state apparatus at work.

Zhu Weiqun's comments that Woeser refers to can be read in this Guardian article of 11th November 2008.

Photos of Lhasa last winter…

‘Ethnic cleansing’ in Lhasa by Woeser

Not so long ago, Zhu Weiqun, a vice-minister of the Chinese Communist Party's United Front Work Department, declared: " The Dalai Lama wants to drive away millions of people of the various ethnic groups who are living in this land, and this reveals a message: If one day, [the Dalai Lama] really seizes power, he will without any compunction or sympathy carry out ethnic discrimination, apartheid and ethnic cleansing."

However, it is very regrettable that Lhasa is currently experiencing ethnic discrimination, apartheid and ethnic cleansing. And those who are responsible are not outsiders but the Communist Tibetan authorities themselves. The complaints of the Tibetans in Lhasa have already been heard everywhere. The reason I have to emphasize the complaints of Tibetans is that this only affects Tibetans and it does not involve any people from Han, Hui or other ethnic groups. Among all Tibetans, all those who do not hold a household registration certificate in Lhasa, or do not hold a temporary residence permit, particularly Tibetans from Amdo and Kham (which have been separated into parts of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces as well as the Chamdo prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region), whether they have come to worship at the temple or to do business in Lhasa, they are without exception detained and then expelled from the city.

It all started at the beginning of April when authorities at Lhasa’s three main monasteries – Drepung, Sera, Ganden – arrested up to a thousand monks from Amdo and Kham who had come to Lhasa to study Buddhism. They used the train link between Tibet and Qinghai to send them to a military prison in Golmud. The monks remained in detention there for three or four months, depending on the situation, before being sent back by various officials or policemen to their native region. This is a form of apartheid and ethnic cleansing towards monks coming from outside Lhasa to study. Later, such operations have been carried out on a larger scale.

Since April 23, the various offices and the neighborhood committees under the local government of Lhasa city proper started to carry out checks on people under their jurisdiction. All the people holding a household registration had to be checked, and had to photocopy their ID and household registration certificate as well as hand in their photograph. Outsiders who did not hold a Lhasa household registration had to register. During this registration process, both the landlord and the tenant had to produce the relevant certificate, ID and temporary residence permit. Besides, the landlord must vouch for his tenant with the "Three Knows": that he knows the tenant's full name, that he knows the tenant's birthplace and that he knows the tenant’s profession. Stricter checks were carried out on people who did not hold the three crucial certificates - ID, temporary residence permit and birth certificate. It was reported in Tibet Business Daily that at least two hours were needed to obtain a temporary residence permit, but in reality it is very difficult for Tibetans from outside Lhasa to secure this certificate, which is very simple for Han and Hui people who have come to Lhasa to work temporarily to obtain. And even for Tibetan people who do hold a temporary residence permit, there still is a possibility that they will be expelled.

Every work unit in Lhasa also required all their employees to produce a copy of their ID and household registration as well as a photograph. All people listed on household registration of each employee also had to produce copies of ID and a one-inch photograph for each person – including infants. Each police station also repeatedly sent policemen to carry out checks at workplaces.

After the authorities had gathered information about all Tibetans, they started to implement in Lhasa what was described by Tibetans as a ‘major ethnic cleansing’. If we think about the history of the old city of Lhasa, Lhasa has always been a holy place where Tibetans from all regions head to and has been the homeland with traditional culture built by Tibetans from all regions for a thousand years. And the ‘major ethnic cleansing’ carried out by the authorities, which is much greater than that occurred in the “Cultural Revolution”, demonstrates that the Communist regime has damaged and even destroyed the Tibetan people’s way of life and traditional culture. Another aspect is that this ‘major ethnic cleansing’, which only targeted at Tibetans, is being carried out as a result of the Chinese authority’s effort to prevent any future outburst of Tibetan protests in Lhasa. However, the result is that in the future Lhasa will only be inhabited by a few remaining Tibetans from Lhasa; the rest of the people living in Lhasa will be people from other ethnic groups such as Hans or Huis who evolved from playing the role of guests to the role of owners. And in the course of this large-scale assimilation by ethnic groups from outside, Lhasa will completely lose its identity.

To put it in a nutshell, Lhasa is currently being silenced and experiencing ethnic discrimination, ethnic segregation and ethnic cleansing. And under such a tight control, the outside world experiences difficulties in getting to know the terrible truth of human rights violations. May the outside world support the ideals of justice and fairness and more people understand the intricacies of these events, and speak out for Tibetan people living in fear!

17th November, 2008

"To Go Sherab Gyatso la" by Jamyang Kyi

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a letter to Go Sherab Gyatso that Jamyang Kyi wrote on 25th July 2008 and posted on her blog on 31st July 2008. In an earlier posting, a letter to her friend Norzin Wangmo, Jamyang Kyi had said "Go Sherab Gyatso (sGo she rab rgya tsho), the one you were enquiring about, was arrested a few months earlier. His phone has been cut off and we have no idea about his whereabouts." From this blogpost, we know that Go Sherab Gyatso has been imprisoned but we do not know more than this.

Go Sherab Gyatso is the author of the book "We Need To Wake Up" (Nga Tsho sad ran), published in 2007 by Gansu Nationalities Press. Follow this link to see the index of the book in Tibetan.

We Need To Wake Up
by Go Sherab Gyatso

Jamyang Kyi mentions other intellectuals such as Arig Dolma Kyab, Golog Palchen Gyal, Norzin Wangmo and Woeser. For our European friends, here is a translation of the blogpost, in French, by the team at www.tibet-doc.org.

*Update 6th January 2009*
Many thanks to a High Peaks Pure Earth reader in China who informed us that Go Sherab Gyatso has since been released and is back at Kirti Monastery.


'To Go Sherab Gyatso la' by Jamyang Kyi

At that time, no one expected the possibility for sudden events to occur and I never thought that I would be taken away and denied the right to utter three words or take three steps forward. At that time you said that you had been accused of horrendous political crimes and had been sentenced to 3 years in prison. I་ deeply regretted that three prime years of your life would be wasted in prison. I had hoped these three years would turn into a beneficial experience.

At the time when I was kept in 'Ping An' detention centre for two days, this thought came to my mind again and again. I was regretful and ashamed for feeling it was hard to pass even two days in detention. In my mind I wondered how you would endure three years. Whatever the reasons may be, if one hasn't experienced detention, then it is not easy to make assumptions.

I respected those brave men and women who sacrificed their life and those who are within the walls of prison fighting for our nationality, especially talented Arig Dolma Kyab (a rig sgrol ma skyab). I deeply admire and respect this brave young man. And I realized that as for myself I am small-minded and not brave. In your case, you were imprisoned not once but twice. Your late father was labelled with political crimes and had to leave his own beloved place of birth. Your father died thinking of his beloved home in a foreign country. Thinking of it sometimes, the feeling of deep sadness falls to the ground.

The saying that behind every brave man there is an intelligent woman is true. Even when the situation was hopeless and desperate, your father had to leave and become a refugee. Your mother stood strong and encouraged and emboldened you. Like the saying goes, a half of the clothing is the shoe and half of a couple is the wife. She took the responsibility of both parents and raised you healthy and strong, mentally and physically. You are truly the son of a brave father and an intelligent mother. I would not be able to compare between your parents who is the more important or who is more courageous.

Among us, the diamond-like precious brave men and women are beaten against the rock and ground into the soil one by one. In these dark times how many of the brave and capable young men and brave mothers will be destroyed. Thinking carefully, how could all this be happening? Our men slept and the enemy took over, and women slept and the work overwhelmed us. And you uttered the unblemished truth, "We Need To Wake Up".

As for the men who haven't woken up yet, it is enough to respect and remember those who stand at the forefront. Doing so will affect future generations and inspire them. Otherwise, without respect and admiration for the brave people, there is no forward path for our nationality.

For those willing to listen, I always repeat the story of brave men and women. Even to my five-year-old daughter, I told her the story of brave Tsering Woeser (tshe ring ‘od zer) and Arig Dolma Kyab (a rig sgrol ma skyab).

Brothers and Sisters! You are always in the depth of our heart. You, brave Norzin Wangmo (nor ‘dzin dbang mo), Golog Palchen Gyal (mgo log dpal chen rgyal). And many more whom I don't know by name, I have been waiting with great hope that you will be released someday. This is not just my hope, it is the hope and prayer of six million Tibetans.

Comments:







Congratulations and admiration to Woeser and Dolma Kyab, even a mountain cannot obstruct your path.







My respect to the heroes and heroines of our nationality!







Respect to them from the depth of my heart.









Jamyang Kyi. Sometimes you made me laugh and sometimes you made me shed tears.








We are like an insect under the feet of a power that is reckless and lawless. Even if we raise our voices about our suffering for three hundred and sixty days, it will not be heard. I express my respect to you from the depth of my heart.










Sister Jamyang Kyi. I read your blog. There is no end to the tears, there is no limit to the space, everyone is thinking of them. From my depth of my flesh, I remember them, and from the crown of my head, I respect the brave Tibetans.









I would like to request more essays like Go Sherab Gyatso's "We Need To Wake Up" to readers. Even though I would like to read it, I have yet to get hold of it.









Sister, this is the truth. We should really appreciate and respect the brave Tibetan men and women. Like Uncle's advice "We Need To Wake Up" , I pray and hope that we will wake up and walk on our own feet soon.







You are inflicted with so much hardship.







You have suffered immensely and I cherish you in my heart.








Sister. It is our pride that we shower you with admiration of flowers for your courage and sacrifice. Yet, one thing that is sad is that our writers stick to their crooked thinking and look for someone's mistake.







Sister. Thank you.











First, I would like to welcome Jamyang Kyi for her safe return. I and all our brothers and sisters share the pain and suffering you and Go Sherab have undergone.

Like you mentioned, you and the rest of the brave brothers and sisters who were taken away, shackled and denied the right speak to three words and walk three steps, such a thing is unimaginable in free countries in the western world.

My brothers and sisters, this is not an unchangeable precept. You have, for the sake of the happiness and freedom of (our) nationality, sacrificed your own interests. And to me that is a true hero. Hearing that Sherab, one of the exemplary monks of the 21st century has been taken away in secret brings inexpressible pain.








Greetings!! Even though, this is somewhat late, it is coming from the depth of my heart. Ping An Detentions centre. Ha ha!! (Ping An, 平安 in Chinese, translates into English as 'safe')










How are you Jamyang Kyi la? I am an ordinary boy who likes listening to your songs. Your song commemorating the 10th Panchen Lama is very special for me and has left an inexpressible impression. This is the first time I am looking at your blog and even though I wasn't able to comprehend everything in-depth, I can sense your composition expresses the fate of a nationality, thank you for this. (I hope) in the future that we can get to know each other, Tashi Delek.








After the incident, I bought your book on my way home. I hadn't paid much attention to these ideas before. But this year gave me a lot of ideas and changes in my way of thinking. I made myself examine my way of thinking. I would like to thank you and pray for your success.










Amidst the torture and blood, if we can win our truth.
And if we can materialize our hope by our lives’ effort,
Their heart will be warmed, as life is wrapped with hot blood,
Even if their heart is wrapped in the darkness, they will see the rays of light.

I would like to congratulate you on your release.








In our case, "if a man lays still for too long, he is defeated by his enemies and, if a woman lays still for too long, she is overwhelmed by household tasks". It is naked truth expressed elegantly. Thank you. I am extremely happy that you have been released.










After leaving Xining Hospital, I have shared Go Sherab's advice with my collegues and students. It was like medicine to their mind. According to your advice, I have also completed putting together the book on new vocabulary in Tibetan. Like you said, if you cannot speak Tibetan, you are not a true Tibetan and you have lost the pride of being a Tibetan. I would like to request your continued advice and thank you for bringing your book to our attention.







I have no means to help you. Yet we share the same fate. Whenever we are weeping helplessly, it remind us of our karma.








Go Sherab is a person who doesn't know how to think according to the 21st century. He is a convict who disrespects the grateful Buddha, parents, lamas and monastery. It is difficult to establish that he is a Buddhist. The reasons are evident if you look at his book "We Need To Wake Up".

Dergé - A Poem by Woeser

Photo of Tsering Dorje taken in Lhasa in 1959

On the 17th anniversary of his death, High Peaks Pure Earth is posting a poem written by Woeser in 1992 dedicated to her father Tsering Dorje.

Dergé
For my father

This scripture, also, vanished before sunrise on the Lesser Chill.
I plunged my face in my hands and wept.
How could the horse I’d prayed for time and again,
which Fate made mine,
Advance into the hidden temple
As seven bones picked clean?

Where shall a monk’s robe floating in the air come down?
Where shall my father live his life again?
Three sticks of incense, a few burial−mounds…
O Dergé, my ancestral home, I wish it meant nothing!
Would that no road led there!
Aren’t a myriad snowflakes another khata,
An early welcome for this soul
Beyond the paths of men,
Among ghostly deer and white lotus
The perfect liberation?

My brothers and sisters, grieving, lose all care for life.
But O my soul, this side of the great bourn
You might as well wear one−and−twenty rings
When you fall prostrate: a glitter of silver
To light the nether world.

Auspicious streamers waft the hope of better fortune
like a subtle fragrance.
In the next life, we shall know justice together.

The deep red village feels deserted.
A shattered echo brands a falling star
Upon my brow.

This woman whose once−tapering nails are broken,
—Eyes blur as phantoms crowd her mind—
Why is her grief so hard to tell?
Why should the cool tinkling of a bell stir up affections
from the past?
Yet I, I will ride home on the horse of my destiny
Scattering lungta by the fistful toward the sky!

December 25, 1992
Lhasa

Many thanks to Ragged Banner for this translation taken from the poetry volume "Tibet's True Heart".

"The Sudden Appearance of Advertisements for the Sale of Guns all over Tibet is Not A Joke" by Woeser

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a recent blogpost by Woeser that was published on her blog on 15th December 2008. Of course it was Deng Xiaoping who said "to get rich is glorious" and it seems that that saying still applies - and there are so many ways to get rich in China. This year, Tibet has brought unexpected commercial opportunities to astute business minded folks. Never mind the politics, the first example of making money off Tibet was perhaps this story by the BBC in April this year where it was revealed that a factory in Guangdong had been manufacturing Tibetan flags!

A Xinhua report from 23rd March 2008 about an Amdo Tibetan found being in possession of a rifle and ammunition can be found here. In Tibet, the monasteries have often been the forces behind local-level initiatives to encourage nomads and farmers to hand in weapons in an effort to discourage hunting. This can explain the so-called "weapons caches" that was all over Chinese media reports.

In China, the sort of mini-advertisements that Woeser writes about are commonly sprawled all over walls, pavements, bridges, lamp posts, any surface really. They advertise everything you could possibly need in daily life, from getting your big bottles of drinking water delivered to fake ID vendors to rooms for rent to guns and knockout drops. A quick look at the dictionary tells us that knockout drops are "a solution, usually of chloral hydrate in alcohol, put into a drink surreptitiously in order to render the drinker unconscious". Woeser writes about seeing the mini-ads in Lhasa during her brief trip there in August. Her shortest trip ever to Lhasa actually as she was constantly monitored, detained for eight hours and had no choice but to go back to Beijing. Her detention was subsequently reported by The Times.

"The Sudden Appearance of Advertisements for the
Sale of Guns all over Tibet is Not A Joke"
by Woeser

(13579293739 is a mobile phone number,
the Chinese writing says: knockout drops and guns)

After the “Incident of March 14”, all official media, from Beijing to the various regions in China, exaggerated in the extreme incidents of “ beating, smashing, robbing and burning” in Lhasa and other regions in Tibet by continuously claiming that they had “hunted down and seized” batches and batches of “firearms and ammunition” in many monasteries and tried their best to create evidence that Tibetans had become “terrorists”. As a result, this not only caused people in inland China to change their attitude when talking about “Tibet” but also many mini-advertisements in Amdo, U-tsang and Kham (traditionally, Tibet includes Amdo, U-Tsang, Kham and other regions) have quietly appeared overnight, the content of which is unexpectedly about the sale of real firearms and ammunition!

It is said that these are all mini-advertisements put up by gun dealers from all over China. Since they are “terrorists,” they will be demand for firearms and ammunition. The gun dealers believe the propaganda of the authorities that Tibetans are “terrorists”, to the contrary, they hold that it is just the perfect business opportunity they wished for, thereupon, they have travelled a great distance to come to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where the sky is high and the rivers are long, and have sent out information about supplying firearms to the ubiquitous Tibetan terrorists by putting up mini-advertisements everywhere randomly.

This news, which sounds preposterous, was first told to me by a friend of mine from Amdo. He also said the following with a serious tone: “look, the power of market economy is great after all”.

I originally thought this was a joke made by Tibetans to mock current affairs, but, I did not expect that I would be fortunate enough to witness the joke to become a reality as soon as I arrived at my house in Lhasa. Opposite our house, there is a ‘retirement house’ which is rented to temporary workers from other places. On its walls where many mini-advertisements are repeatedly put up or written, I saw a line of hair-raising black words, which read “13579293739 for knockout drops and guns”.

Look, there are not only knockout drops for sale, but also firearms! Certainly, what they wrote in their ads are all in Chinese characters and they are not necessarily selling firearms specifically to Tibetans. But this was clearly the joke told to me by my Amdo friend. Morals of the world are indeed splendid! What is more splendid is that there was a patrol car parked next to the mini-advertisement!

Later, on the day of 21st August, after I had been taken by the Tibetan and Chinese public security and interrogated for eight hours, to show my gratitude for sending me home, I deliberately told the story to Wangdu, the fat deputy director of the Public Security Bureau. He gave a snort of contempt and said it was a fabricated story and he was about to criticize me for “having an ulterior motive’, so before the night fell on Lhasa, I immediately pointed out the rather eye-catching “knockout drops and guns” opposite my house and said the following words to the deputy director, “ Director, you should track down the gun dealer by following clues. Make a phone call to this phone number. So brazenly selling guns and knockout drops is simply damaging the great stability of Tibet.” All the public security officers were surprised. Ha, they hadn’t thought that even I could “ provide meritorious service by reporting [illegal activities] to the authorities”.

Later I read a blog written by a Han Chinese who went to Tibetan areas as a tourist and wrote that when he travelled to the famous travel destination Shangri-la he also saw the mini-advertisement about “guns” which made him shake with fear. He wrote baffled, “ Ads for the sale of ‘firearms’ in Tibetan areas are just like those of “ the [fake] I.D Group of Southeast Asia” in Beijing and those of “detectives” in Shenzhen, that leave their phone numbers openly and legally. I asked Xiaoxiao to take a photo of the advertisement which had shocked me, and his angle for the photo is rather interesting: next to the advertisement for firearms there is a hotpot restaurant which is permeated with warm-heartedness. The people in the photo sitting there eating hotpot are uniformed police.

Since the advertisements for firearms have suddenly been put up all over Tibet just as the spring wind comes overnight, it cannot be justified if I show indifference to a new thing like this, therefore, I document it as such.

Click here to read the blogpost written by the Chinese tourist who travelled to Shangri-la with a photo of the mini-advertisement.

Tibetan NGO Worker Given A Life Sentence

High Peaks Pure Earth has been looking at the news behind the news today. Unfortunately the news is already over five weeks old but behind it is a wealth of information courtesy of the 9th November 2008 edition of the Lhasa Evening News (拉萨晚报 La Sa Wan Bao). Thankfully this one particular news story with the dramatic headline "Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court Pronounced Judgement on Four Criminal Cases of “March 14th Incident” Accused of Endangering National Security" was picked up sooner rather than later by the Dharamsala based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) in yesterday's press release titled "Chinese Court Sentences Seven Tibetans Between 8 Years to Life Imprisonment".

Electronic edition of the Lhasa Evening News

The news behind the news is intriguing to say the least. As usual, there is one scapegoat to deter other people from following their example. As the Chinese saying goes, 欲加之罪，何患无辞 (yùjiāzhīzuì, héhuànwúcí which roughly means that if you are out to condemn someone, you can always trump up a charge). In this case, the scapegoat goes by the name of Wangdu, a former Jokhang monk in his 40s. A former political prisoner, Wangdu had been working as an HIV/AIDS activist and was employed by the Australian medical research and public health NGO the Burnet Institute. An earlier press release from TCHRD tells us that Wangdu disappeared in Lhasa on 14th March 2008. Despite nine months having passed since then, the Burnet Institute's website poignantly still lists Wangdu as a staff member. Maybe they were waiting for his return. His disappearance had not gone entirely unnoticed, on the back of TCHRD's press release, his case was taken up as an urgent action by the Dublin based human rights group Frontline Defenders. For curious High Peaks Pure Earth readers who want to know all there is to know about Wangdu, his record number is 2004-00243 in the Congressional - Executive Commission On China's Political Prisoner Database. Look him up.

Wangdu (left) and colleague at an HIV/AIDS awareness stall in Lhasa
Photo: TCHRD

As Wangdu was charged on the grounds of "espionage", the people he allegedly gathered to conspire with him were duly punished including Migmar Dhondup, Phuntsok Dorjee and Tsewang Dorjee who received sentences of 14, 9 and 8 years respectively. The TCHRD press release left out some crucial information that was contained in the Lhasa Evening News. Namely that two Tibetans were charged with conspiring with Tibetan NGOs, Beijing's favourite scapegoat after the Dalai Clique, the Tibetan Youth Congress - as chronicled earlier in a previous post and this time a new one, a Dharamsala based NGO called Gu Chu Sum that helps Tibetan ex-political prisoners.

Here is the full High Peaks Pure Earth translation of the Lhasa Evening News article:

Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court Pronounced Judgement on Four Criminal Cases of “March 14th Incident” Accused of Endangering National Security

Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court of Tibet, in accordance with the law, recently held a public trial on four criminal cases of the “March 14th Incident” accused of endangering national security and announced the judgement publicly. Seven defendants, including Wangdu (Wangdui 旺堆) and others, have been held criminally responsible in accordance with the law.

A Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court spokesman said that the facts of crimes of the above-mentioned four criminal cases are clear, and its evidence is irrefutable and ample. All these have fully proved that the “March 14th Incident”, the serious and violent incidents that occurred in Lhasa and other areas, was well planned by the Dalai Clique and its "Tibetan independence" separatist forces, and was deliberately created after they had colluded with “Tibetan Independence” elements within Tibet in a well organized and pre-meditated manner.

After Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court held the trial, it ascertained that the defendant Wangdu received the assignments from the “Public Security Department” of the Dalai Clique, and set up an underground intelligence network in Lhasa. He made a great number of copies of a CD, the contents of which were inciting to split the country, and leaflets inciting to hold a "People's Uprising in Tibet” given to him by the “Public Security Department” of the Dalai Clique, then, he, together with the defendant Migmar Dhondup (Mima Dunzhu 米玛顿珠), distributed them in Tibet. In addition, right before and after the “March 14th Incident”, they also collected information concerning national security and interests and provided this to the Dalai Clique. Their actions violated the 110th article of the Criminal Code of the People’s Republic of China [1], constituting the crime of espionage. The defendants Phuntsok Dorjee (Pingcuo Duoji 平措多吉) and the defendant Tsewang Dorjee (Ciwan Duoji 次旺多吉) collected information concerning national security and interests and they provided it to organizations outside of China through Wangdu. Their actions violated the 111th article of the Criminal Code of the People’s Republic of China [2], constituting the crime of providing intelligence illegally to organisations outside of China. Among the afore-mentioned defendants, Wangdu and Phuntsok Dorjee are recidivists, thus, in accordance with the law, they should be punished severely. On October 27th, Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court sentenced, in accordance with the law, defendant Wangdu to life imprisonment and deprived of political rights for life for the crime of espionage, defendant Migmar Dhondup to 14 years in prison and deprived of political rights for 5 years for the crime of espionage, defendant Phuntsok Dorjee to 9-year imprisonment with deprivation of political rights for 5 years for the crime of illegally providing intelligence to organisations outside of China and Tsewang Dorjee to 8 years in prison and deprived of political rights for 5 years for the crime of illegally providing intelligence to organisations outside of China.

The defendant Sonam Dakpa (Suolang Zaba 索朗扎巴) joined the "Tibetan Youth Congress" of the Dalai clique and accepted assignments from this organization. Right before and after the "March 14th Incident" in Lhasa, he had collected a great amount of intelligence concerning national security and interests and had submitted this to the organisation. His actions violated the 111th article of the Criminal Code of the People's Republic of China, constituting the crime of illegally providing intelligence to organisations outside of China. On October 27th, the Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court, in accordance with the law, sentenced Sonam Dakpa to 10 years in prison and deprived of political rights for 5 years for the crime of illegally providing intelligence to organisations outside of China.

The defendant Yeshi Choedon (Yixi Quzhen 益西曲珍)accepted assignments from the “Public Security Department” of the Dalai Clique and also received funds from the “Public Security Department” of the Dalai Clique. She provided intelligence and information endangering national security and interests to the “Public Security Department” of the Dalai Clique. Her actions violated the 110th article of the Criminal Code of the People's Republic of China, constituting the crime of espionage. On November 7th, Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court sentenced the defendant Yeshi Choedon to 15 years in prison and deprived of political rights for 5 years for the crime of espionage.

The defendant Sonam Tseten (Suolang Cidian 索朗次点) accepted assignments from the separatist organisation "Gu Chu Sum". He collected a great amount of intelligence concerning national security and interests and provided it to the afore-mentioned organisation. His actions have violated the 111th article of the Criminal Code of the People's Republic of China, constituting the crime of illegally providing intelligence to organisations outside of China. On November 7th, the Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court, in accordance with the law, sentenced Sonam Tseten to 10 years in prison and deprived of political rights for 5 years for the crime of illegally providing intelligence to organisations outside of China.


[1] Article 110 covers the crime of espionage dealt with in Article 97 of the 1979 law. While the sentencing range stays the same as before - three years to life imprisonment, or death - the former distinction between "agents" (tewu, which used to be reserved for Kuomintang spies from Taiwan) and "spies" (jiandie, denoting mainly non-Chinese agents) has now been dropped, and the latter term is used throughout. The new article includes two main categories of offense: "Joining an espionage organization or an accepting assignment from an espionage organization or its representative" in 110(1) and "identifying bombardment targets for an enemy" in 110(2). It is unclear from this article that those who carry out such "assignments" are required to be aware they are doing so for an entity identified by the authorities as a "spy organization."

In practice, "espionage" is a highly elastic term in Chinese criminal law. For example, in unconnected cases, Hada and Ngawang Choepel were accused of this offense, yet no evidence was ever presented to show that either had access to any privileged information or that they passed anything resembling "intelligence" to any "spy organization." Both are from sensitive ethnic minority regions - Inner Mongolia and Tibet - and both were concerned about the preservation of their respective cultures. And they received harsh sentences: 15 years in prison for Hada, 18 for Ngawang Choepel.

[2] Article 111 incorporates into the Criminal Code the main principles of the State Secrets Law and the 1988 Supplementary Regulations of the NPC Standing Committee on the Punishment of Crimes Involving Leaking State Secrets regarding the provision of secret material to parties outside China. Article 111 defines the offense as: "Stealing, prying into, purchasing or illegally providing state secrets or intelligence for institutions, organizations and individuals outside the country." While this generally mirrors the formulation of Article 32 of the State Secrets Law, the vague term "intelligence" (qingbao), which does not appear in that law, has been added, thus expanding the scope of materials covered beyond documents classified in accordance with the formal system it established. The full range of penalties is available for this crime, from probation to life imprisonment, or death.