The Dali Lama and Violence

I experienced violence in Nepal for the first time. Yes, I have seen Maoist protests, I have watched police keep the peace through intimidation, but I have never actually seen physical violence used before. That Nepal is just stories or history to me. While eating lunch with Pat, I noticed that the cars on the opposite side of the street had stopped and the ones on our side where no longer coming, so I though something’s happening, assumed it was another rally we would get a good view of and kept eating my naan. And then I heard the screaming, followed by the stampeding feet. As a group of 25 young Tibetans and monks came sprinting past our window, followed closely by the police with the long thick bamboo sticks they use to beat, I realized this was something completely different. I asked what happened and the waiter said “Mukti chAhanuhuncha.” They want freedom. We watched together as the Tibetans came running back at the cops the boldest yelling “Fuck You.” Or “You are like the oppressors.” In which the cops responded with resonating bangs of the bamboo sticks. It was a horrific sight, to see the police beating women, men and monks. To actually see it happen is beyond words. I’ve watched movies, or seen news footage, but to hear the scream, the anguish and to see the pain is indescribable. After, most had fled the police headed back up to the U.N. where the altercations started, and Pat and I ate in silence. We walked out of the restaurant and started to head back home which took us right past the U.N., but cars had started moving and things seemed to be fine. As we headed up towards the U.N., we saw a group of Tibetans gathered. I said it was okay to keep going because it was just a gathering and I had walked through them before. As we walked through the signs declaring a Free Tibet, a boycott of the Olympics and a return of the Dali Lama to Tibet, I felt the passion that pulsed through them, all the way to their fingers held up in the peace sign, holding the Tibetan flag with a pride reminiscent to post 9/11 America. As we made our way I looked up to see a group of Tibetans sitting directly in front of the armed police and realized this was no ordinary gathering, this was a standoff. I turned to Pat and said “We need to get out of here.” The only way to go was over the street fence and into the line of police. As I started to climb over I began to slip and reached for the hand that reached out, and looked up to see a Tibetan teen with a Free Tibet shirt under the Tibetan flag he had draped over his shoulders. I wish I could say that I took the flag and started yelling “Free Tibet.” But I simply said “Thank you and I’m sorry” hoping these two words would convey the guilt and regret I felt for crossing the police line, into safety. As Pat and I walked on the street past the Tibetans sitting in peace and the police waiting for the armed guards we saw barreling down the street two minutes later, and the 2 U.N. peace keepers standing in their blue vest behind the police, all I could think was Holy Shit, what just happened?
As I have been reading the paper this past week and seeing stories about the incident in Lhasou or how the Chinese have placed plain clothesed police along the Nepal-Tibet border, but the piece the struck me the most was how they described the actions of the Tibetans are “against the Buddhist tenants.” While Buddhism is anti-violence, as a human race we should be anti-human dignity abuse. For years the Tibetans have been oppressed and abused, I teach students who are orphaned refugees because of the conflict, we live near one of the larger Tibetan refugee camps in Kathmandu I have seen how people are trying to forget about Tibet. Schoolbooks no longer list Tibet as our bordering country, people believe “Free Tibet” is a cool sticker for their Nalgenes, but they are forgetting this isn’t just a for discussion in coffee houses or classrooms, this is life for so many people.
I was also struck by how people feel the Dali Lama is not doing enough to stop or condemn the violence. But how to stop a fire that has been burning for years, how to calm people who are losing their culture? What if Mexico came in and took over? Forcing us to lose our “American culture.” How to stop that anger? While I will not pretend to know everything or even a little about the Tibetan conflict, what I do know is that there is more pain then anger. To be forced from your home and not allowed back, to not be able to show your children where they are from, to be in permanent exile from your home, it does more then anger, it breaks the spirit. So as you read about all that is happening and see the news casts, remember this is more then just a protest, for some people this is very much about life, and their right to live.