Tibetan Uprising

Kunsang, 60, has a loving genuine smile that glows in her beautiful wrinkled face. This tough lady doesn’t talk about the ailments and setbacks in her life with any rancor. She just smiles sadly.

At nine years old, Kunsang fled from Lho Dongkar, a village near Lhasa, with her parents. She remembers the sound of machine gun fire and bombs falling as the Chinese attacked the crowd outside the Potala Palace recently vacated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama after his escape to India. They walked most of the way to the border and crossed into Bhutan where her stepfather died of old age. Kunsang’s mother supported her for the next three years in Bumdela, Aruncahal Pradesh by woodworking until finally succumbing to a long and painful stomach ailment.

Her mother’s family sent her to school in Orissa for the next three years and then arranged a marriage to a man in the Indian Army. Unfortunately, she fell sick with same disease as her mother and had to go to Rajpur where it took her three years to fully recover. She stayed in Rajpur to work as a carpet maker and only got to see her husband on holidays. They had four children together but one little girl died after a month from boils. They lost their 13 year old son after he collapsed at school one day and died instantly from unknown causes. Her remaining daughter now sells sweaters and her son sold cosmetics in Rikikesh until he came down with jaundice.

Kunsang worked in carpets for seven years before she contracted tuberculosis. With the help of Tibetan medicine, she eventually recovered without hospitalization. Her eyesight has gotten too bad for carpet making so now she sells laping and aloo tarka in Mussorie. There’s not much money in it but she says “It’s better to do something than stay idle.” Her husband has retired but receives no pension from the government because “Tibetans never do.”

Her husband heard about the march first and wanted to go. However, at 74, he’s in poor health and so she decided to join in his place. He said “we are both the same so whomever goes.” Kunsang joined the March to Tibet in late April with only about a month left until the planned border crossing. When asked about entering into her homeland facing Chinese guns, she responded quickly, “Everyone has to die one day. If one can die for one’s country, it’s worthwhile. I am not scared.” However, she has not been feeling well and just received a diagnosis of viral fever. She may be sent home although she does not want to go. Knowing her history in overcoming adversity, she will probably be on the March to the very end.