Tibetan Uprising

The Daily News Journal
Murfreesboro, Tennessee

May 5, 2008

Pema Richeson and her parents moved to Rutherford County in 1996. These days, the 2003 Oakland High School graduate is thousands of miles away in India, marching to Tibet with a group of freedom marchers.

The 23-year-old is involved with Tibetan Freedom Movement and is a communications/media team member for the March to Tibet. As China prepares to host the Olympics this summer, international attention and activism has increased surrounding Tibet, a region that has long sought freedom from China’s control.

“The March to Tibet is an initiative launched by five leading Tibetan non-governmental organizations in Dharamsala, India, exiled-home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile,” said Richeson from India. “(It) currently has 250 core members who are committed to walking to Tibet, and eight Western support marchers. The aim of the march is to raise awareness about Tibetans’ plight.”

China took control of Tibet in the 1950s. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, escaped Tibet in 1959 following the Chinese troop’s suppression of a Tibetan national uprising in Lhasa. He has been in exile in India since then.

The march is now over 50 days old and will end with a number of the marchers attempting to cross the border into Tibet.

Richeson keeps foreign press correspondents updated about the march.

“The march is moving forward towards the Indo-Tibet,” she said. “Now is the time to capture the international community’s attention and to keep it until the marchers reach the border.”

There are several reasons Richeson is impassioned about the cause. Her biological mother is from Sikkim, a mountainous kingdom located between Nepal and Bhutan, and her father is from Tibet. Richeson is the adoptive daughter of Cliff Richeson and Bonnie Tinsley of Murfreesboro.

“While I was raised by two white Americans, I am Tibetan racially and ethically. As a Tibetan, I am, by default, part of the movement,” sad Pema Richeson. “Freedom is something to which everyone should be entitled; the very fact that China has ruled Tibet and Tibetans with an iron fist for nearly 50 years is appalling. Tibetans cannot speak their own language, practice their own religion, raise their national flag, or have pictures of their religious and spiritual leader (the Dalai Lama).”

Her trip to India began in the last quarter of 2007 as a trip to learn about her heritage.

“Within two days, I was swept up in the world of activism through Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) and my plans changed immensely,” she said.

Since last October, she has been volunteering with SFT, India. When this group signed on to be one of five groups involved in the March to Tibet, she was recruited to be part of the communications/media team.

“On the March, I stay mainly in tents in open fields. However we occasionally have to stay in Ashrams (Hindu place of refuge), Gurdwaras (a Sikh place of worship, temple) in which case we are spread out in halls or courtyards,” said Pema Richeson. “It’s basically like a camping trip with 250 people.”

The marchers are committed to the practice of non-violence in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi, but they are willing to sacrifice their lives for the movement, she said.

Tinsley was asked it she was fearful of her daughter’s safety.

“Of course. Sometimes I am scared to death,” said the Siegel High School Latin teacher. “But in actual fact, I would rather she be where she is than she would be in L.A. or some other tense spot in the U.S. She is in a place where people are looking after her.”

Cliff Richeson said he is only concerned about his daughter’s health.

“They have left the rugged mountains and are now in the flatlands. It is very hot there,” the general manager of Liberty Tax Service in Rutherford County said.

The walk began over 50 days ago in Dharmshala, north of Delhi and will end at the Tibetan border, he said.

Pema Richeson graduated from Indiana University-Bloomington in 2007 with a degree in international studies (focus on Human Rights). This fall, she will be attending the University of Denver to work on a master’s degree in international human rights, with a focus on humanitarian assistance and refugee rights.

“I will continue to work for the Tibetan Movement,” said Pema Richeson. “It is a cause I will work for until Tibet is free.”