Published by: World Tibet Network News, Wednesday, August 14, 1996

Trenton State College

Hillwood Lakes, New Jersey

April 10, 1996

Edited by Katie Murphy & Larry Gerstein

When I travel around the country and people ask me where I'm from? I tell them, "I am from Tibet." Then people ask, "Are you Chinese? Do you speak Chinese?" I respond, I'm not Chinese. I do not speak Chinese. I am different from the Chinese. My language is completely different. I am Tibetan. We speak Tibetan in Tibet.

Tibet is not a part of China. We Tibetans are not Chinese at all. We have our own culture, our own written language, and our own speaking language. Tibetans are completely different from the Chinese. Our way of thinking is different and our way of life is different.

Tibetans never prepared for the defense of Tibet. In 1949, we had no army. We had about 8000 soldiers equipped with ancient traditional weapons. We did not have mortors and we did not have tanks. In July1949, the Chinese modern army walked into Tibet with mortors and machine guns and they had very "nice words" to say to us. "We came to liberate you!" The Chinese always say nice, sneaky words.

We Tibetans don't need to be liberated. We do not even know what that word means. Then they said, "Tibet is a part of China. We must bring our brothers back to our big family!"

Tibetans are not part of China's big family. If we were family, we would have a similar language, culture, and habits. We have nothing like that. We are completely different. We do not belong to this big Chinese family at all.

In 1949, I was privileged to be the Abbot of Kumbum Monestary located near the Northeastern boarder of China. Condemned for my culture and condemned for my beliefs, I was under house arrest for almost three months. Day and night, three or four Chinese officials stayed with me. They thought that my brain was dirty and needed to be washed. In communism, Buddhism is very bad. Anything you believe other than communism is considered poison to the system.

The Chinese asked me to tell the monks at my Monastery to stop burning butter lamps and incense. "Tell the monks not to wear Tibetan costumes. They should wear Chinese baggy pants and a blue jacket. You waste so much material with your costumes and you waste so much butter burning your butter lamps and incense in the Temple. This is all not nesessary."

"I cannot do that." I told them. "We Tibetans, if we don't burn butterlamps and incense are completely lost. This is our tradition. For many centuries, we have practiced this. I cannot tell them to stop doing this. You [The Chinese] must tell the people. I'll call my monks together and then you can annouce whatever you want."

They replied, "Not now. In five years time, we will wipe out all your habits. If your brother, His Holiness The Dalai Lama, does not cooperate with communism then you must KILL YOUR BROTHER." This was the kind of message the Chinese Communists told me.

In the three months I was under house arrest, I was urged many times to, "Tell your people and your brother to cooperate with the Chinese Communists." I refused. At this time, the Tibetan government had no help from the outside world. The Tibetan government appealed to the United Nations for assistance, but the Indian government and the Chiang Kai-shek government said this had nothing to do with the United Nations; this is an internal affair of China. Without support from the UN, the Tibetan government had no choice and they were forced to sign the Seventeen Point Agreement. I took the 'Agreement,' written in Chinese and sealed with the Chinese seal, and informed my brother, His Holiness The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government what the Chinese planned to do.

Since the Chinese have occupied Tibet, our country has become a graveyard. Over a million people have been killed by the Chinese. Every family has some kind of disaster to tell about what happened to their Brother, their Uncle, their Parents, their Children. Individuals' belongings have been taken away. All of our history: the museums, the temples and the Monestaries have been completely destroyed. Myself, with my own eye, I saw the Chinese torture my friend. Before they killed him, they brought his children before him and forced the children to say, "My Father must be killed."

I thought that this is an impossible situation for the Tibetan people to deal with, so I decided that I must leave Tibet. I did not want to be a torture victim of the Chinese or their political puppet, so in 1951 I left my country, Tibet. I had to tell the world the truth of what was happening in Tibet and how our people were suffering.

Tibetans have opposed Chinese rule since the very first day the Chinese set foot in Tibet. China does not believe in Buddhism. Their atheistic government is trying to destroy all our beliefs and they want to destroy all the Tibetans. No one can stand for this. China must get out of Tibet. Tibet must be ruled by Tibetans.

What we are asking for is something very simple. We want our own country. We are a Nation; a Tibetan Nation. Not a Chinese Nation. We are asking for our rights. We are not asking for anything else. Just our rights. TIBET MUST BE INDEPENDENT.