Published by: World Tibet Network News, Sunday, Apr 21, 1996

Submitted by: kmurphy@nuvo.net (Katie Murphy)

THE HOME NEWS AND TRIBUNE, NEW JERSEY

Local Report

By Staff Writer Sean P. Carr

Millstone became a player on the international stage this week as a band of protesters marching for the freedom of Tibet, a mountainous Asian country nicknamed "The roof of the world," found a place to rest in Mayor Mary Patrick's home.

The 15 marchers caught Patrick's eye as they walked down Amwell Road by her Alley home on Monday. After spotting the banner proclaiming "FREE TIBET PEACE MARCH D.C.--N.Y.," Patrick directed the group to the home of neighbor, May McAdam, a Buddhist monk.

Sit tuns out , the marcher were looking for McAdam, but had gotten lost.

Wanting to be a good host, Patrick swung into action, not even knowing that the group included a celebrated former political prisoner and the brother of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spritual leader.

Clad in old clothes and slippers, Patrick prepared tea and opened her home for the marchers.

"Fortunately, I had just baked bread and some cakes," Patrick said. "It was very exciting for this small town," she said.

The serendipitous meeting provided a welcome respite for the weary marchers, who are trying to rally worldwide opinion and pressure China to withdraw fro Tibet, the Buddhist nation it has occupied since 1959.

The 45-day march began on March 10- the anniversary of the Chinese invasion- with a demonstration at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC.

"Tibet is not part of China," said Techung, a marcher from San Francisco. "Our whole nation, our whole race is close to extinction."

After conquering its neighbor to the southwest, China killed 1.3 million people and destroyed 6,000 monasteries, said Larry Gerstein, director of the March for Tibet's Independence. Only a handful of monasteries remain, he said.

The marchers are calling on U.S. businesses and consumers to boycott goods made in China, goods often made by political prisoners in labor camps.

"Those profits are being used to build their military," said Gerstein, a psychology professor at Ball State University in Indiana.

The marchers also want China to free Gendhun Choekyi Nyima, a 6-year-old Tibetan boy designated by the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama, the second-highest spiritual figure in the Tibetan Buddhist faith.

The child and his entire family disappeared from their home last May 14, the same day the Dalai Lam named him as Panchen Lama.

Chinese officials deny holding the boy prisoner.

the disappearance has cast the Tibetan religious culture in limbo, Gerstein said.

"There's a potential there for the whole culture to be destroyed," Gerstein said.

Thupten J. Norbu, professor emeritus at Indiana University, is the brother of the 14th Dalai Lam, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

By helping to raise awareness of the Tibetans' plight, the march will help the cause, Norbu believes.

"Definitely it will make a difference," he said.

Palden Gyatso, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, spent 33 years in a Chinese prison cam for demonstrating for Tibetan Independence.

Showing scars on his arms, scalp and back, Gyatso described how soldiers beat, burned and cut him during his long imprisonment.

"They would have released me immediately if I would say, "Tibet is a part of China,"Gyatso said, speaking through an interpreter. He refused to do so.

Now 65, Gyatso was release in 1992 following a 10-year letter-writing campaign by members of Amnesty International and Asia Human Rights Watch.

Despite his experience, Gyatso remains faithful that Tibetans will persevere and one day be free again.

"I have much hope that Tibet will be free," he said.

McAdam presented Norbu with a "chos," a special gift for the Dalai Lama.

The ceremonial yellow silk robe was made for the 13th Dalai Lama by a Chinese prince in late 1800s, McAdam said. McAdam acquired the robe for a "few thousand" dollars several years ago from an art dealer"who didn't know its true value," he said.

The priceless garment rightfully belongs with a representative of "His Holiness," McAdam said.

the meandering march will conclude on April 25-- the Panchen Lama's seventh birthday-- with a 2 p.m. rally at the United Nations building in New York City, Supporters will meet at 9: a.m., at the Staten Island Ferry Plaza, arrive at Manhattan's Battery Park at 9:30 a.m., and walk to the U.N.

Internet users interested in more information about the International Tibet Independence Movement can contact the group at its World Wide Web site (http://www.nuvo.net/tibet).