Tibetan Uprising

[Dharamshala] - A day before the Beijing Olympics, thousands of Tibetans in Dharamshala became the voice of the Tibetans suppressed in Tibet and condemned China’s brutal and illegal occupation of Tibet. Tibetan supporters filled the streets of Dharamshala and snaked their way through the mountain pass, raising slogans and pleading for the international community to stand up at this critical moment for Tibet.

In the evening, a candle light vigil will proceed from Mcleod ganj square to Tsuglakhang and will be followed by the screenning of a new video footage of the uprisings in March in Tibet. Also, as a part of the Candle for Tibet, the biggest single action in the world for a free Tibet, Tibetans in Dharamshala will also light a candle on the eve of the Beijing Olympics to stand in solidarity with Tibetans in Tibet.

“For the past five decades, China has brought immense sufferings on Tibetans, refusing us basic human rights and freedom,” said Mr. Chime Youngdung, President of National Democratic Party of Tibet. “Despite that, Tibetans have fully committed ourselves to nonviolent and peaceful means of protesting China’s ruthless regime. It is the moral obligation of the peace loving people of the world to take a stand for truth and justice and for Tibet”

“A day away from the Beijing Olympics, as the Communist Chinese Government readies to show its seemingly harmonious face to the world, we stand to let everyone know the true face of the regime and how it has for forty nine years killed thousands of Tibetans and attempted to destroy the ancient and sacred Tibetan culture. We will not allow the brutal Communist regime fool the world,” said Ven. Ngawang Woebar, President of Gu-Chu-Sum Former Political Prisoners Movement of Tibet.

A nonviolent protest begun by a group of monks in the Tibetan Capital of Lhasa on March 10th rippled across the entire Tibetan plateau in the following weeks and months. More than two hundred Tibetans were killed in the Chinese governments violent retaliation crackdown against the demonstrations and thousands of Tibetans remain ‘disappeared’ or in detention. Buddhist monasteries and nunneries in Lhasa have been sealed off and Chinese officials have rolled out political indoctrination campaigns across the region designed to break Tibetan resistance to Chinese rule.

The Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement aims to revive the spirit of the Tibetan national uprising of 1959, and by engaging in nonviolent direct action, bring about an end to China’s illegal occupation of Tibet. The March to Tibet was one initiative of this historic Movement.