Buddhists in Waiting: Tibetan Exiles Fear Persecution at Home

Anne Lilburn

March 2, 2004

Dorji Yurwog would one day like to return to his homeland, but he realizes that that will most likely never happen. Unless, that is, he wants to spend time in prison.

For Yurwog, who fled Tibet as a child, Buddhism is not just a religion, but the defining part of his ethnicity and his heritage. He says the Chinese government targets his people because Buddhism is such a part of the Tibetan culture.

The Chinese government invaded Tibet in 1949 and has occupied the isolated mountainous country ever since. Under China's communist regime, open religious practice is forbidden.

Moreover, for the communist government, the goal of assimilating Tibet into the People's Republic of China requires suppressing traditional Tibetan culture. Central to that culture is the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled religious and governmental leader.

The Dalai Lama, a Buddhist monk believed by Tibetan Buddhists to be the reincarnation of the Buddha of Compassion, fled Tibet in 1959. He continues to serve as the head of state of Tibet's Government-in-Exile, which is based in India.

Dorji Yurwog, 44, was five years old when his family fled Tibet. It took them 30 days to get from their home, on the Nepalese border, to India. There, Yurwog attended a school run by Tibetans that taught the Tibetan language, culture, religion, and traditions. He now works for the Office of Tibet in New York, which serves as the embassy of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile.

Like the government, Yurwog remains in exile. Though he says he very much wants to, Yurwog has never returned to Tibet itself. He is both angry at China's occupation and accustomed to free speech, which he says would make for a dangerous combination if he were to return.

"If I go there," he says, "I may lose my temper and maybe I may wind up in prison. There's a fear factor."

Yurwog feels lucky that he does not have any relatives left in Tibet, because he fears his work with the Government-in-Exile would put family or friends back home at risk.

In the past, Tibetans often seem imprisoned arbitrarily. Freya Putt, Program Coordinator for Students for a Free Tibet, meets many Tibetans who have spent time in Chinese prison.

Putt recounts one story of a Tibetan man thrown into jail for buying balloons in the colors of the Tibetan flag for his son's birthday party. The Tibetan father eventually escaped prison, Putt says. A fellow prisoner, a Muslim man, saw him praying and offered to help. The Muslim sympathized because he, too, was not allowed to pray. The two smuggled themselves out by clinging to the underbelly of a truck, and the Tibetan father and his family eventually settled in India. This February, Human Rights Watch released a 108-page report on human rights abuses in Tibet, focusing on the case of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, a monk sentenced to death on what some say are falsified bombing charges. Delek was a quiet critic of the Chinese government who also worked to develop impoverished Tibetan communities. The Human Rights Watch report alleges that the Chinese government has sought to silence any strong religious voices.

Most Tibetans who end up in New York and other Western cities do not come directly here. Instead, the families or individuals flee first to India or Nepal. The journey, according to Yurwog, is long and dangerous. Families and individuals flee on foot through mountain passes, hiding from Chinese government officials and evading checkpoints; they move at night and hide during the day, and many are killed on the journey.

Once they leave, most will never return, though Yurwog says that, for most refugees, "there is definitely a lot of attachment to Tibet. It is their dream to get back to their country, with Tibetan culture and religion."

For Tibetans, their land is a key part of religious practice, according to Alma David, Grassroots Coordinator for Students for a Free Tibet. Buddhism in its Tibetan form, she says, draws heavily on bon, an indigenous religion that merged with Buddhism sometime in the seventh century. Bon traditions emphasize the living nature of the environment and play into the cultural attachment many Tibetans feel towards their harsh homeland.

All in all, Students for a Free Tibet estimates that 1.2 million Tibetans have died as a direct result of the Chinese occupation. Many were Buddhist monks and nuns, who led the initial resistance to the Chinese government. David says that part of that is because religion is one of the most common reasons for arrest, but part of that also has to do with a sense of responsibility in a climate filled with fear.

"They see it as their duty as people that don't have families and don't have social ties," says David. "They don't have people depending on them [so they feel] that they are the people that should be protesting and the people that should be risking their lives."

Students for a Free Tibet has joined the campaign to free Tenzin Delek, the imprisoned monk. They also recently celebrated the release of Phuntsog Nyidron, one of 14 nuns imprisoned for participating in non-violent protests and for recording a tape of freedom songs while in jail.

Putt is friendly with two of the nuns who were released several years ago. The two nuns, in their twenties, spent most of 2000 and 2001 on speaking tours of Europe and the United States. One now works as a delivery-person for a jewelry casting company; the other cleans house.

For Tibetan Buddhists, Buddhism is practiced in the home, not in public weekly gatherings at temples, according to both Yurwog and Putt.

"For us, it is something we do with our mind," he says.

In Tibet, monasteries and nunneries serve as schools in small villages. Monks often teach culture, religion and basic skills to young villagers. Occasionally, Tibetans will also go to such a monastery to make an offering or to visit.

Monasteries, monks and nuns were visible targets, and the Chinese government destroyed many monasteries during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. Now, monks and nuns often spend their time rebuilding them.

For that reason, the focus of religious persecution is not often actual gatherings, but political and religious expression, including having a photo of the Dalai Lama. The Chinese government targets Buddhism as a cultural expression by an ethnic minority as much as a religious practice.

"They feel religion is a poison," says Yurwog, "which hampers focus on country."
For Putt and David, the young activists, campaigning for Tibetan independence can be a challenge. They say they often battle preconceptions that all Tibetans are truly peaceful and non-violent. David said she often deals with disillusioned students.

"I got an email the other day," she says, "from a girl who was like, I don't want to be involved in the struggle anymore because I don't believe that Tibetans are only concerned about the well-being of all other sentient beings, and I was kind of like, 'well, yeah, welcome to reality.' They're like a normal people."

In fact, Putt and David see a rise in activism and anger on the part of young Tibetans. They think the Chinese efforts to suppress Tibetan culture and education have backfired, and many young Tibetans, they say, are growing impatient with the Dalai Lama and the older generation's sit-back-and-wait approach.

"The Dalai Lama's a religious man," explains Putt, "and he believes that all people are good and that the people in the Chinese government can be won over by reason."

Working for the Dalai Lama's Government-in-Exile, Yurwog doesn't hold out much hope for the future. He does not see himself returning to Tibet any time soon.

"If things return for the better," he says, he might return. He pauses. "But not now."

(Updated April 26, 2004)