Subject: Dalai Lama's brother protests at China park
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Drawing attention. T.J.Norbu (center), brother of Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, leads a group of 60 outside Splendid China near Kissimmee.
Frank Rivera/The Orlando Sentinel
Dalai Lama's brother protests at China park
By Jim Stratton
of The Sentinel Staff
Published in The Orlando Sentinel,
October 13, 1997
Led by the brother of Tibet's exiled Dalai Lama, a group of about 60 people spent Sunday morning protesting at the ornate gates of Splendid China near Kissimmee.
The demonstrators, carrying banners and homemade signs, urged park-bound visitors to skip the attraction until it changes the portrayal of relations between China and the peoples of Tibet, eastern Turkestan, Taiwan and southern Mongolia. Protesters say the park sugarcoats the treatment of minority groups under Chinese rule, presenting them as a happy part of the People's Republic.
In reality, the Chinese government has sought through force and torture to squash the cultures of those religious or ethnic groups. At the top of China's list has been Tibet, whose spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled the country in 1959 after a Chinese invasion. That story is now reaching millions across the United States, with the release of the new Brad Pitt movie Seven Years in Tibet.
Sunday, amid chants of ``Free Tibet Now,'' the elder brother of the Dalai Lama said he came to Central Florida to ``tell the world about the lie'' he said Splendid China is perpetuating.
``This is completely wrong,'' said T.J. Norbu, a retired college professor who, like his brother, left Tibet after the Chinese takeover. ``They are brainwashing the American public.''
Norbu said that after the Chinese invaded Tibet, he was held under house arrest for 3 1/2 months while officials tried to convince him communism would work. At one point, they offered him a high-ranking government job if he would kill his brother, he said.
Though Norbu's work has focused on his homeland, the 75-year-old offered support Sunday to other groups he thinks China has mistreated. In a statement, he said the Taiwanese, the Mongols and the people of eastern Turkestan have ``been incorporated into China by brute force.'' And China, he said, ``proudly shows off its conquest with this `park,' pretending that Tibetans and others want to be part of China.''
Officials from Splendid China -- which is in part funded by the Chinese government -- did not return calls Sunday. They also did not show up at the demonstration, though a lone security officer did.
He talked quietly with protest organizers and then slowly drove off in a small hatchback. In the window of his car was a faded bumper sticker supporting Tibetan independence.
[Posted 10/12/97 10:11 PM EST]
