March 10, 2015 is the 56th anniversary of the Tibet Uprising, when Tibetans in Lhasa revolted against the People’s Liberation Army control, triggering the H.H. Dalai Lama’s flight into exile a week later. It is commemorated by Tibetans worldwide as their National Day. This year’s commemoration in Washington D.C. is organized by Capital Area Tibetan Association. Tibetans and supporters started with a rally in front of the Chinese Embassy, then marched to the White House. Dr. Yang Jianli, and members of Initiatives for China joined the commemoration.
Dr. Yang Jianli’s Speech at the 56th Anniversary of Tibet Uprising Commemoration in front of Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Dear Brothers and sisters:
Tashi Delek.
I feel humbled, honored and proud to stand with you at this solemn moment to commemorate March 10, one of the most significant days representing the Tibetan people’s aspirations for a free Tibet. I am humbled because your suffering at the hands of the Chinese regime has been so great that I am afraid that I, as a Chinese, may never be able to properly understand it. I am honored and proud because your six decades of extraordinary struggle for freedom under the leadership of His Holiness the Dalai Lama has won worldwide respect and have long been part of this just cause and you call me dear brother.
Although I have said so much on so many occasions in support of a free Tibet, before you, my dear brothers and sisters, I have a lot strong feelings I want to share. But what I feel most strongly is to pay my homage to the 135 Tibetan martyrs who have set themselves on fire for the cause of their people’s freedom, for which I would like to share with you an essay I wrote at the beginning of this new year:
At about 4 pm on December 22, 2014 in Aba County of Tibet, a 20-year-old Tibetan girl Tsepey set ablaze on herself. The beautiful girl’s body creeping in the flames completely crushed me, and my tears rushed down my cheeks.
Tsepey was the 135th Tibetan martyr in a spate of self-immolations starting 2009 in protest of the Chines rule in aTibet. Such a high frequency reflects the overall deterioration of the human rights situation in Tibet, which has been caused by the ethnic oppression, economic exploitation and cultural genercide committed by the Chinese government. No period in human history has witnessed such gravity of tragedy and scale of rebellion as in contemporary Tibet.
Many say that Tibetan self-immolations are out of their hopelessness. This is a sheer misinterpretation of the brave heroes. Indeed, a hopeless person might take her own life, but she would never do it in the form of phoenix nirvana with such breathtaking appealing. If one has lost her home, her freedom of belief, her freedom of expression, and her freedom of mobility, but she still does not give up her pursuit of freedom, the motivation of her self-immolation must be to inspire people at large and to let her extremely painful message be heard.
The Tibetan writer Gudrub wrote before setting himself on fire:
“We are declaring the reality of Tibet by burning our own bodies to call freedom of Tibet. Higher beings, Please see Tibet. Mother earth, Extend compassion to Tibet. Just world, Uphold the truth. The pure land of snow is now tainted with red blood, where military crackdowns are ceaseless. We as sons and daughters of the Land of Snow will win the battle. We will win the battle through truth, by shooting the arrows of our lives, by using the bow of our mind.”
The selfless Tibetan martyrs must have believed that compassion can cleanse human conscience, and a bright and clean conscience will reveal the truth. They must also have believed that everybody’s conscience can conduct heat and can be awakened. That is why they resolutely set their bodies on fire to be the fire sticks.
If the Tibetan self-immolators had not had such strong confidence in human conscience, their great deeds would have been meaningless. However, human evils often seem to dull human perfection and virtue, just as dark clouds cover the sun. Facing such enormous tragedies, the Chinese regime remains cold-blooded with its high pressure as ever, and our Chinese compatriots are almost as indifferent as ever. And there is little response from the international community.
This kind of silence is shocking and suffocating.
Have we all betrayed these martyrs who confided in our conscience? Shouldn’t we have felt sorry for a young beautiful life ending in such a painful way, even if we do not know much about the Tibet issue, nor echo with Tibetans’ demands or their approaches? Have we become so indifferent that we don’t even bother to ask why all this happened?
In such silent darkness I felt so powerless and kneeled to pray to God. My life is too trivial for me to say Tsepey’s martyrdom was unworthy, but I have come to better understand the significance of her lighting a fire in the darkness. “Lighting a fire is the only way that I can relate to the surrounding darkness,” as my prison poem goes. I understand that not all have the courage to do what Tsepey did, but I believe, as Tsepey did, that most people’s conscience is good enough to be lit up. My friends, let the burning body of Tsepey light up the conscience of each of us. Let us relay the torch to light up the moral intuition of more people so that they can see the truth, understand these Tibetan martyrs’ desire and make their heroic voices heard: Free Tibet! Let Dalai Lama go home!