Stolen Tibetan Treasures

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Back in April we attended an exhibit of Tibetan cultural relics organized by the Chinese government. It appears someone in Japan has at last decided to organize and do something to educate the media and the public. Good for them.

Check out the website in English and in Japanese.

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Of Tibet and Maple

This afternoon we made the short trip to Dazaifu to take in the exhibit of Tibetan Treasures now at the Kyushu National Museum. Perhaps because I've just returned from a world where these kind of artifacts are part of daily life it wasn't as impressive as it might be to those encountering them for the first time or after some period of absence. But as many of the items in the exhibit are show pieces, some of the best of the best, what was most stirking for someone like myself was the difference in workmanship between these pieces and the everyday items I saw in homes and businesses and temples in Kathmandu. The stuff in Dazaifu is gorgeous. Regrettably, photography was prohibited.

The exhibit is quite small and won't take you more than an 40 minutes to walk through, perhaps even less. For the 1000 yen ticket price, that's not such a great bargain, especially when you include transportation costs.

On the way back to the train station we stopped at Komyozenji, Fukuoka's most beautiful temple garden, today awash in the vibrant green of spring maple.

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Memorial Service 50th anniversary of Occupation of Tibet, Fukuoka, 29 March 09

Free Tibet Fukuoka this past weekend organized events to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Chinese occupation of Tibet, including a memorial service for Tibetans who in the past year lost their lives in protest of China's campaign of cultural genocide.



The service was held at Nanfukuji, a small Shingon temple up a narrow road in a residential area of the city quite close to where we live but which we have never visited.


In the parking lot FTF set up a tent with a series of placards outlining basic Tibetan culture and history, along with a collection of photographs of life in Dharamsala.



Inside the temple, a photo of the Dalai Lama and a thangka had been set up on the altar, and a list of names of Tibetan victims installed just in front.




The memorial service began with everyone circling the altar three times chanting Om Mani Padme Hun, followed by the lighting of the ritual fire and what I suppose was a suttra recitation during which each attendee could approach the altar to offer incense and prayers.



The names of the victims were then recited before the papers bearing their names were folded up and offered to flames.

After a short tea break we reconvened for a discussion of Tibet and Tibetan issues with three young Tibetans living in Japan, two from the North Kyushu area, and one down from Nagoya specifically for the event. One of them noted that the most serious problem in Tibet today is the lack of control by Tibetans of cultural education. Many young Tibetans now grow up being able to communicate only in Chinese. One of the Japanese participants noted that China's policy of control is similar to that practiced by the Japanese Imperial Government in Manchuria and Korea. Another Japanese participant suggested that it was precisely because Japan had done such things to the Koreans, to the Taiwanese, to the Ainu, and to the Okinwans, that it was now the responsibility of Japanese to help the Tibetans and other oppressed people.

Altogether this was a wonderful day for me. I met some Tibetans and reconnected with that part of my life in Nepal. I sat in a Japanese temple, my first such visit in many months, enjoying the heady aroma of wood, tatami and incense. And as the main speakers were themselves foreigners using a less idiomatic form of the language, I was able to follow a two-hour discussion of politics in Japanese.

For those in Japan interested in connecting with groups working on Tibetan issues, have a look at some of the following links.

• I Love Tibet
• Tibet Support Network Japan
• Students for a Free Tibet Japan

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Deliberately telling lies

The Chinese government last week sent a delegation of Tibetan legislators to the United States to counter what it calls a lack of accurate information about life in occupied Tibet.

Regarding accusations of torture and imprisonment for expressing political or religious views, a fellow by the name of Tenzin Chodrak said of his fellow Tibetans, "I think that some of them are deliberately telling lies, and some of them are saying so because of bias."

If you have the stomach, watch this video released just yesterday by the Tibetan exile government and see for yourself what kind of bias Tibetans might be harboring. The first part of the video is rather mild and shows protesters in March 2008 being whipped with batons as they lay handcuffed. The second half is more gruesome, with footage of the mutilated body of a young man tortured for intervening in the public beating of a monk by Chinese security officials.

While the Chinese government cries crocodile tears for being misunderstood by the American public, it succeeded this week (presumably through economic blackmail) 0f convincing the South African government to deny a visa to the Dalai Lama, who was to attend a congress of Nobel Peace Prize winners. That meeting now seems in jeopardy as many of the other winners are refusing to participate if the Dalai Lama is denied entry into South Africa. Among the Peace Prize winners is Bishop Desmond Tutu, former SA president FW de Klerk, and former political prisoner Nelson Mandela, all of whom it appears are still needed in South Africa to remind their countrymen of right and honorable behavior.

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Fukuoka Free Tibet events March 2009

For a guilt-free Tibet experience in Fukuoka, you might like to join the two events being sponsored by Fukuoka Free Tibet over the 28-29 March weekend.



Undercover in Tibet &
Discussion with Tibetans living in Japan
28 March
Fukuoka-shi, Chuo-ku, Arato, FukuFuku Plaza
Film begins 17:30, admission 500yen
This British television documentary first aired in spring 2008 and follows a young Tibetan, now naturalized British, who ventures into Tibet to talk with people the Chinese government would not like you to hear from, including victims of torture, sterilization, and forced resettlement. I reviewed this film last year here, including a link to Google films. Presumably the Fukuoka screening will include Japanese subtitles or narration. After the screening there will be a discussion with Tsering Dorje, Students for a Free Tibet Japan.

Memorial Service for Victims of Chinese Occupation
29 March
Fukuoka Shi, Chuo-ku, Sakarazaka, Nanfukuji Temple
Service begins at 15:00
This will be a short religious service commemorating the victims of 50 years of Chinese occupation of Tibet, followed by discussion with resident Tibetans.

For more on these events, you can visit the Fukuoka Free Tibet website, through which you may contact the organizer in English.

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Tibetan Treasures at Kyushu Museum 11 April - 14 June 2009

The Chinese government just a couple of weeks ago attempted to obstruct the auction in Paris of what it calls looted national art treasures, while here in Fukuoka we have the Japanese government, through it's national museum in Dazaifu, cooperating with the Chinese government in a month-long exhibit of Tibetan cultural relics. I don't think anyone asked the Dalai Lama if they could borrow a few statues and paintings from the Potala palace, but a few such items will be on display here in Japan.

Just this week I met two well educated Japanese women who admitted they knew very little about the situation in Tibet, about the Dalai Lama, or about Tibetan Buddhism. And if that is true for them, how much more so for the general population. Most potential visitors to the exhibit are not likely to weigh the consequences of supporting this project through the purchase of tickets; even those of us acutely aware of the situation are subject to old habits, to reacting to pleasant forms and ideas. While buying train tickets this week, Mutsumi noticed the colorful image of Damarupa and added a set of exhibition tickets to her purchase. When she showed them to me that evening, I was pleasantly surprised to find such an exhibit opening so soon after arriving back in Fukuoka.

My intention yesterday was to add a post here announcing the exhibit for the benefit of local readers, but as I began to do a little research at the museum's website I noticed that the pieces in this exhibit are administered by China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the China Cultural Heritage Exchange Center. The Chinese government has over the past decade begun to realize the benefit of preserving Tibetan culture as a valuable asset in attracting tourists and in burnishing a self-created image as a protector of the Tibetan people. This exhibit in Japan seems to be part of what the Chinese today might generously refer to as the government's marketing strategy; the Maoists would have had no shame in calling it propaganda.

My purpose here is not to discourage people from attending this exhibit. Especially for those like my female friends, it might prove the beginning of a process resulting in clearer understanding. Perhaps an interest in the culture will lead them to learning about the strained conditions under which many Tibetans now live, and that may lead in turn to more informed decisions, increasing pressure on the Chinese government, and better living conditions for Tibetans.

For ourselves, we already have tickets. I thought perhaps to sell them to someone else, but still the money has already been paid to the Japanese and Chinese governments. Perhaps we will go and in observing perhaps find some way to help visitors better appreciate what they are seeing.


TIBET Treasures from the Roof of the World
2009 April 11 Sat. to June 14 Sun.
Kyushu National Museum


聖地チベット　
- ポタラ宮と天空の至宝 -
平成２１年４月１１日（土）〜６月１４日（日）
九州国立博物館

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Movie Review: Escape from Tibet; Nick Gray, dir; 1997

In Escape from Tibet, a 50-minute documentary for English television, director Nick Gray follows a dozen young Tibetans as they walk across the Himalayas into exile. With no special clothing or camping gear, carrying nothing but a few meager provisions and their life savings, the refugees hike across some of the world's most rugged landscape at altitudes of up to 6000 meters in -33° temperatures. Once in Nepal, they must walk at night to avoid police, and even after arriving at a refugee center in Kathmandu face deportation if they cannot convince the authorities of their legitimate status as refugees.

Crossing the border into Nepal

Sleeping rough in Nepal

This proves difficult for Tenzin, a boy of twelve whose unusual dialect has raised suspicions that he may be a Mongolian posing as Tibetan. The UN issues papers to the film's entire group, including Tenzin's older brother, Pasang – but not to Tenzin. On the night of the group's departure for India and the seat of Tibetan exile government in Dharamsala, Pasang bundles his brother Tenzin onto the bus and the pair ride undocumented into India.



The lack of papers is again an issue in Dharamsala and it appears possible Tenzin may be deported. But at the ritual audience of new refugees with the Dalai Lama, Pasang presses his brother's case and there before the cameras the Dalai Lama orders that Tenzin be allowed to stay.



Escape from Tibet is a touching film that is unfortunately today not in wide circulation. So far as I know it has not been released on DVD. Though now 11 years old, the issues it raises, and the difficulties of the individuals it chronicles, for the most part remain unchanged. Hundreds of Tibetans make this same trek every year, facing hardship and death to escape persecution in their own country. Their stories should be more widely known.

• Article by Nick Gray with more details of the brothers

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Movie Review: The Saltmen of Tibet; Ulrike Koch, dir; 1997

You'd think a 110 minute film about the nomadic salt collectors of Tibet might get a tad tedious. How much can there be to tell, after all, about scraping up salt from a lake, bagging it, and carrying it back to the village?

Not much, actually. So it was to the audience's benefit, and to the director's credit, that he let the camera do the talking. In simple documentary style, with no narration and unobtrusive background music, the film crew follow four men who make the annual trek from their summer camping grounds to Lake Tsentso to collect salt. We watch them as they plan the expedition, collecting yaks from members of the community that will carry back the salt, initiating a new member into their fold, and making the ritual offerings to propitiate the gods and ask their favor in making a successful journey. The group sets out with over 160 yaks on a month-long trek across rugged and beautiful landscape, the struggle of the journey made all the more touching by buses, cars, and lorries whizzing past on a nearby road. These men will be perhaps the last generation to collect salt in the traditional manner. They seem to be aware of this, which makes their journey all the poignant, The Saltmen of Tibet all that more precious for documenting a culture in its dying days.

• 1997
• Director Ulrike Koch
• Tibetan w/ English subtitles
• At Amazon

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Movie Review: Dispatches: Undercover in Tibet

Tashi is a young Tibetan who escaped his Chinese-occupied country by walking across the Himalayas into Nepal. Hundreds make this arduous trek every year. Most never get the chance Tashi did, to settle in the UK. Eleven years later, Tashi has hooked up with the English investigative news unit, Dispatches, to return to Tibet to document human rights abuses. This is risky work, not only for Tashi, but for the Tibetans who agree to talk before the cameras.

Undercover in Tibet is not an easy film to watch. There are no scenes of blood and only a few of bodily brutality. But the stories average Tibetans tell are heartbreaking – torture in return for non-approved political or religious expression, forced sterilization, marginalization of the native language, the herding of nomads into reservations far from any source of economic self-sufficiency. It is the same program carried out on Native Americans, on Inuits, Ainu and Aborigines. The Dalai Lama is not a person given to exaggeration or overstatement. He speaks today of of cultural genocide.

Mr McCain promises to shake things up in Washington; Mr Obama promises to deliver change. Will either do anything to alleviate this great suffering? Will American, European or Japanese firms be prepared to take an economic hit for the people of Tibet?

• Free Tibet
• Tibet Online
  

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Athlete Wanted

Students for a Free Tibet has begun a new initiative to bring the Tibetan genocide to the attention of the 2008 Olympic audience. They are soliciting donations to pay for the following advertisement in the NY Times (click the photo for a larger image).



I think Americans can be justifiably proud that the organizers are advertising in US media. If you need someone to make a bold and brash move, ask an American. (Of course with one of the world's largest Olympic teams, they're statistically better off targeting the USA.)

Wouldn't it be wonderful to see an athlete on the medal podium pull out a Tibetan flag? Or in a live interview mention the suffering of the Tibetans? Bjork put her future Chinese earnings on the line by making a statement at a concert in March in Shanghai. Maybe your donation will help an athlete make the choice to make his or her own statement.


Donate
Students for a Free Tibet
Athlete Wanted


Not to brag, but just to let you know that I'm not asking you to do something I wouldn't myself, here's my email confirming my donation (click to enlarge).




Donate
Students for a Free Tibet
Athlete Wanted

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Tibetan Independence Day

The Tibetans began gathering at the monastery at around 08:00 this morning. Following prayers and a few speeches, the crowd made it's way around the stupa and then attempted to move out onto the main street. The police tried to prevent them but were overpowered. After we got into the street the police tried forming a running blockade that was breached three times. By the fourth attempt they had reinforcements that charged the demonstrators. Details and photos are in the following links.

I was standing with the Tibetans, including several of my classmates, when the police charged. And suddenly I found myself behind police lines with rocks and bricks raining down around me. I was standing under a bus stop shelter and didn't get hit - by rocks or the police.

Here in Nepal we have demonstrations that shut down highways and cut off the supply of petrol and the police do nothing. But if Tibetans want to march peacefully to the Chinese embassy, the government sends in the troops to baton women and monks.

What a way to end this visit to Nepal.

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Nepalnesw.com: Tibetans clash with police; scores arrested

BBC: Nepal police break up Tibet protest

Rompres Photos

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Tibetan Uprising Day

Yesterday one of the students mentioned offhandedly that today was Tibetan Uprising Day. When I asked the school staff about it, they confirmed the fact but didn't seem to attach much importance to it. That was the same attitude among the staff at the Shechen Guest House. (Which is perhaps one reason why Tibet is still under Chinese rule.)

I went to school this morning only to find that between yesterday afternoon, when I asked about Tibetan Uprising Day, and this morning, a holdiay was declared. I wasn't the only one who wasn't informed and a few of us who showed up for class decided to stick around and put in a few hours of practice. But as the teachers weren't around and as it was a holiday, some of the resident students made themselves comfortable in our classroom, which has the only functioning television in the building. And so our daily drawing and painting was accompanied by Hindi music videos, at least until the one girl who seemed most interested in watching them left to do something else. Then a young monk came in and took control of the remote after which it was time for classic rock videos, which I thought afterwards was quite an amusing collection of circumstances: the 45-year old American practicing Tibetan Buddhist art in a classroom in Kathmandu with a 24-year old monk from Bhutan with Bruce Springsteen singing about Glory Days.

I finally packed up and left around noon (after videos from Led Zeppelin, Mark Knopfler, Toto, and The Police, among others), did a little more painting in my room at the guest house, finished up Indestructible Truth, then headed out to the internet cafe, where along the way I snapped the following.


Free Tibet Campaign


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Happy Losar!

Tuesday was the last day of the three day New Year holidays, known as Losar by the Tibetans. Whereas the first two days are rather quiet, with families visiting temples and accepting visitors at home, the last day is more public, with families out circling the stupa and showing off their new year finery. In the afternoon there was a Losar party at the nearby Hyatt hotel grounds, featuring live music, dance, and lots of food and beer.

Below are some photos taken around the stupa, fol owed by a few shots from the party at the Hyatt. In the first band photo the singer is my art teacher at Shechen.