Uprising Day Commemorations and Protest March By Caroline Couffinhal March 10, 2011, Main Temple, McLeod Ganj The clock strikes 9 and for Tibetans, today is unlike any other. This day marks the 52nd anniversary of the Tibetan people’s peaceful uprising of 1959 against Communist China’s oppression in the Tibetan Capital Lhasa, and the third anniversary of the non-violent demonstrations that took place across Tibet in 2008. Hundreds of Tibetans and supporters gather in front of Tsuklakhang Temple (main temple) to listen to a statement read by His Holiness the Dalai Lama In 1949 and 1950, the Chinese army troops invaded the territory of Tibet. In response, the Tibetan people made an appeal to the international community that remains unanswered. A small Tibetan delegation was forced to sign the “17 Point Agreement,” in which Tibet lost its sovereignty, in 1951 in Beijing. For Buddhist Tibet and Communist China, eight years of uneasy coexistence followed this agreement. On 10 March 1959, tens of thousands of men and women took to the streets of Lhasa to demand
Copyright: Kiran Aujlay H.H. Dalai Lama 10th March statement at main temple in McLeod Ganj
independence for Tibet. The protest, led by an exhausted population, was crushed in a bloodbath. According to Chinese estimates, about 87,000 Tibetans were killed in Central Tibet alone. It took over three days for the People’s Liberation Army to defeat the uprising, but it failed to quell the resistance movement, which spread throughout Tibet. The March 10, 1959 uprising and its suppression is the reason His Holiness, members of his government and about
Tribute to Phuntsok By Caroline Couffinhal
phot o: tchrd.com
March 17, 2011, Dharamsala Tribute to Phuntsok, 20 years old. Hundreds of monks, Tibetans and foreigners led a walk in McLeod Ganj for the late Phuntsok, a young Tibetan
monk who self-immolated on the evening of March 17th in the Sichuan Province. The tribute was organized by five major Tibetan organizations to express solidarity with Phuntsok. The 20 year-old monk died after he set himself on fire. The police initially attempted to extinguish the flames, but then they began hitting him, said Tibetans in exile in contact with locals in Tibet. The body of Phuntsok was returned to Kirti Monastery, located not far away from Meru marketplace, where the monk had set himself on fire, before hundreds of monks and civilians gathered to demonstrate, said the International
80,000 Tibetans have been exiled to India. On March 10, 2008, just months before the Beijing Olympics and the day of the 49th anniversary of Tibetan uprising of 1959, peaceful demonstrations of Buddhist monks took place in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. They demanded the release of monks imprisoned in October 2007. Then, on March 14, protests escalated into violent riots against any non-Tibetan people and their property. The police retreated before the onslaught (continued on page 6) Campaign for Tibet in a statement. According to sources, a few hundred to 2,000 Tibetans, including monks, were immediately gathered to demonstrate against the Chinese law and walked about a mile from the place where the sacrifice took place. “The crowd continued to grow rapidly and took Phuntsok in his monastery and has managed to protect him while police tried to take him,” a local witness said. “The monks of the monastery said they would not let the Chinese police Phuntsok take the body, even though they all die.” Phuntsok was in critical condition when he was taken inside the monastery. He was later taken to the local hospital while Tibetan (continued on page 3)