Karanjit Singh

Gu Chu Sum

September 11, 2015 by KJ Singh

Karanjit Singh
Gu Chu Sum
Dharamsala, India

My time at Gu Chu Sum proved to be very helpful in understanding the motivations of many of the former political prisoners from Tibet that have risked their entire lives to stand up for a cause they really believe in. Gu Chu Sum was established initially in 1991. The name is three numbers, 9, 10, and 3 in the Tibetan language, and was chosen because it represents the dates (September 9, October 10, and March 3) when massive pro-independence demonstrations broke out in Lhasa during 1987-1988, where hundreds of protesters were arrested, imprisoned and tortured in Chinese prisons.

Initially I had a few problems working with the community, mainly because of the language barrier; although I know a little Tibetan, there were several accents that I was unaware of prior to my arrival here which set me back for a bit. Most of the staff were recent refugees who also happened to be former political prisoners inside Tibet that have moved into exile. Gu Chu Sum is currently led by the Vice President, Namgyal Dolkar, a passionate young Tibetan woman. Namgyal Dolkar is also one of the first few Tibetans to have successfully applied for an Indian citizenship. As Tibetan refugees living in India, it is in fact very difficult to obtain an Indian citizenship, even if one was born in India to a refugee family.

woman posing in dark room before pictures on wall — Namgyal Dolkar, Vice President of Gu Chu Sum India, poses next to an archived photograph of Chinese instruments of Torture. She writes, “Hearing stories about life in Chinese prison was something so ‘normal’ and part of my life, and never would I’ve reckoned that it would become my profession. I am a daughter of a former prisoner of conscience and I always state that with much pride. Working in Gu Chu Sum and becoming the first ever second generation of a political prisoner in Tibet to get this opportunity of serving my community is an immense privilege.
It might seem like a job to some people but for me I can envisage how this is shaping my personality drastically. I am inspired everyday to continue my fight for freedom and feel lucky that I get to take part in it. There used to be a time when it was too difficult and overpowering to hear the testimonies of different political prisoners who are all martyrs in my eyes leave apart the emotional intensity/pressure of reciting or translating. But as I continue doing so I realize how it is making me a stronger person; a stronger Tibetan
I truly believe each Tibetan holds a responsibility and owes it to their ancestors; and that succumbs me to work harder.”

At Gu Chu Sum, I took up the task of teaching photography and English to a group former prisoners who had recently escaped Tibet and had come into exile in India. During the two month long course, we were able to read several short stories written by prominent Tibetan authors in exile. The idea was to emphasize political and cultural vocabulary that has been used by exiled writers so that the students could ultimately pen stories of their own. I was particularly interested in how these students, all young activists from Tibet in their late twenties and early thirties, understood the Tibetan issue. For many of the people who have lived only in exile, the problems faced by Tibetans inside Tibet can sometimes be hard to grasp, as there is a lack of clear information regarding what is happening in the region due to heavy surveillance and censorship.

man sitting on bed in bedroom facing window — Yeshi protested with friends when he learnt of the 2008 Beijing Olympics happening in China. Only 18 at the time, Yeshi had to flee his town out of fear for his family and lived in hiding in the woods for two months scavenging on what food he could find in the wild. Not returning home for two years, Yeshi lived under various disguises as a nomad travelling far and wide in Tibet. Upon deciding to leave his home to escape the authorities cracking down on protesters, Yeshi recalls, “It was a cold winter morning on 15th of November 2008, and as usual, my mother handed me a cup of hot milk but this time the thickness of the milk had just doubled. She told me that nobody can protect our family except ourselves. Perhaps it was her thick words that made the milk so thick that I couldn’t even drink it. Unusual silence from my father’s side made the atmosphere even worse. He only told me to be fast because my mother might not be able to take my leaving so easily. In that heavy atmosphere with all that heavy heart, I finally realized it was time to leave my beloved family and embark of my predictably unpredictable future of struggle for freedom. I jumped on the backseat of my brother’s motorbike and took off slowly away from my house. The picture of my family and relatives coming to bid their last goodbye got smaller and smaller as we rode farther away from my house.”

It was fascinating to hear stories from the students about their time inside their homeland. Out of the 7 students I taught, 4 had been involved in the 2008 protests that erupted in Lhasa during the Beijing Olympics. One of them happily recalled how he, in protest to the Olympic games and China’s continued disregard of Tibetan history and language, sneaked into his local school, cut the computer wires, and wrote “Free Tibet” on the chalkboard of every classroom. The authorities obviously found out about him, but only after he was on the run. Stories like this are not one but many, stories of youngsters who acted out against an oppressive system in any small way they could.

man sitting in a hall with folded flag on his lap — Gonpo Thrinley was only 19 when he was arrested and imprisoned in Tibet for protesting during the 2008 Beijing Olympics protests that erupted all over Tibet. During his sentence, Gonpo was beaten with spikes and electrical rods, and put through an emotionally traumatic ordeal. “At night, I couldn’t even sleep properly because all I could think of was food. Each morning all that would be given to us would be a cup of hot water and that’s it. The afternoon and evening meals were also really bad rice and curry, which they served to us in quantities that is not at all sufficient. At night I would dream about the food my mother would make at home,” said Gonpo of his time in prison. He is one of the few political prisoners that was recently released and now works with Gu Chu Sum, an organization for political prisoners in Dharamsala.

Lhasa to Dhasa

September 10, 2015 by KJ Singh

Karanjit Singh
Gu Chu Sum
Dharamsala, India

“Exile
is a memory of a beloved
bleeding somewhere behind the
high mountains”

So wrote K. Dhondup (1952-1995), a Tibetan poet and historian attempting to describe the nature of Exile. High up in the Dhauladhar range in Himachal Pradesh India, the question of their current disposition presents itself like an unending nightmare each day to over 80,000 Tibetans who fled their homeland after the Chinese occupation began in 1959. The thought crosses the mind of a little boy, as he sits in his orphanage bedroom looking out the window where he sees a snow laden mountain and mistakes it for a Tibetan landscape because it reminds him of the half forgotten journey he took as a baby tucked cozy in his aunt’s rucksack. The thought invades the mind of a nun, as she takes a break from her daily monastic chores to go to a local police station for the third time in a month so she can renew her refugee certificate despite the fact that she was born in India; the word “REFUGEE” screaming out of the legal documents reminding her that homelands are after all, like everything else, impermanent. The thought troubles the mind of a young boy as he attempts to burn his hand with a candle at the wee hours of the night after he watches videos of self-immolations in Tibet on YouTube to try and understand the pain these martyrs feel as they light themselves on fire in protest.

town nestled in tall mountains — Dharamsala – Home to Tibetans in Exile

Dharamsala, a small hill station tucked between major Hindu pilgrimage destinations, is now a home to thousands of Tibetans who have, along with their religious leader HH. Dalai Lama, embarked on the daunting journey of building their lives from scratch since the community was displaced by the unjust occupation of their homeland by the people’s republic of China. Since then , the once abandoned town has now become the center of the exiled Tibetan community, and the frontier of a rising democratic exiled government and grassroots activism. Before the Tibetans were granted a refuge, Dharamsala was widely known for its eerie ghost stories left behind since a massive earthquake that struck the region in 1905, leaving hundreds of the local population dead. Now as swarming numbers of foreigners and Indian tourists have started to turn to the region, development has accelerated over the past few years. However, current structures are still not strong enough for another earthquake, which the region is prone to.

Dharamsala is also where my host organization Gu Chu Sum operates in to help political prisoners who have recently escaped from Tibet.

A map of Tibet — Tibet, a region described by Tibetans as unrightfully occupied by Chinese control, hangs on the wall inside the office of Students For a Free Tibet. For many Tibetans, whose communities have lived in exile since 1959, it is a matter of deep grief to see their homeland being erased from the face of the world map. “Imagine being in a classroom trying to explain to your non-Tibetan peers and Teacher where you are from; it’s like we don’t even exist!” says Ten Phun.

Historians have long argued about the independent status of Tibet, even before the Chinese invasion in the Tibetan regions began. Since the invasion, the Tibetan diaspora led by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama has now petitioned several times for a larger space for autonomy for Tibetans under the Chinese government. Through the Middle Way policy, the government in exile hoped to achieve a genuine democratically elected Tibetan administration in the T.A.R. region through strictly non-violent means, whilst recognizing its common future under the leadership of People’s Republic of China. The idea garnered a lot of international attention, as countries that didn’t or couldn’t agree on the sovereignty of Tibet as a nation at the time openly came forward to support the renewed peace talks. The idea however has failed to reach any substantial outcome from the Chinese who see providing more autonomy to Tibetans as a sign of a future struggle for independence. Thus HH Dalai Lama and his followers have been deemed terrorists by the state attempting to split China.

Semester in Retrospect

May 18, 2015 by KJ Singh

Karanjit Singh
Gu Chu Sum
Dharamsala, India

The past semester was an eye-opening time for me as I attempted to understand the Tibetan issue better through the eyes of a younger Tibetan diaspora. You see, in order to comprehend where the future of the struggle lies, the voices of young Tibetans are perhaps the most important narrative to pay attention to.

As we see China become a major superpower in the East and gain political and economic stronghold in the region, we also see the power struggle skew even more as His Holiness Dalai Lama is refused official meetings in various countries. In order to gain further control over the Tibetan populous in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, The People’s Republic of China hopes to install their own version of a new Dalai Lama inside Tibet after the current Dalai Lama passes away. Whatever may be the future outcome of this fiasco, one thing is certain: the future of Tibet lies in the hands of the exiled young diaspora.

The first generation to come into exile and settle in India was largely deprived of a strong infrastructure in India. Similarly, the second generation of exiled Tibetans grew up in an environment where Tibetan schools and businesses were in their nascent stages. The third and fourth generations, however, weren’t denied the proper infrastructure and grew up relatively in the information age of the digital era. These are also the generations that left India and ventured out into the world; they studied at American colleges and received an international outlook on matters of their national identity, culture, and statehood.

What has become clear though, is the presence of a deepening generational gap that is causing conflict within the exile community. The older generations are mainly asking for autonomy, while the younger are increasingly lobbying for an independent Tibet.

This semester I spent time with young activists from Students For a Free Tibet (SFT), a grassroots organization that first began in 1994. SFT is responsible for the groundbreaking Freedom Concerts in the 90s that brought many celebrities to the forefront of the movement to popularize the Tibetan independence struggle. This semester, SFT organized various poetry readings, film screenings, and protests to galvanize the Tibetan youth community in New York City.

I also conducted an archival project this semester in an effort to understand the representation of Tibetans in the media. I attempted to find vernacular documentations of Tibetan life and culture through 20th-century photography.

Despite such a productive semester, I still have lingering questions that I will probe during my summer fellowship. I hope to further understand the generational gap in politics regarding the freedom v.s. autonomy debate. With the insight I have gained into the human rights field through our enlightening discussions in Vasuki Nesiah’s class, I hope to approach my research more academically and without a nationalistic bias, which I felt was hindering me in truly seeing things for what they were.

I am excited and ready to begin the summer research with a fresh set of eyes and insight into the Tibetan issue!

The Changing Face of Tibetan Activism

March 31, 2015 by KJ Singh

Karanjit Singh
Gu Chu Sum
Dharamsala, India

On the morning of March 10, I woke up feeling uneasy. That day—Tibetan National Uprising Day—commemorates the 1959 uprising by the Tibetan people against Chinese occupation. The reason for my restlessness was probably from learning about the news of yet another self-immolation in Tibet just the day before.

Ever since I began documenting the Tibetan diaspora’s struggle for independence and genuine autonomy, the number of self-immolations has risen steadily, the weight of the situation intensifying itself. My thoughts kept going back to the time I witnessed Jamphel Yeshi self-immolate in protest of Hu Jintao’s visit to New Delhi in March 2012. This event initially motivated me to learn more about the Tibetan issue as well as the agony felt by thousands of Tibetans in exile.

Human rights in Tibet encompass self-determination on one hand, and political repression, cultural assimilation, economic marginalization, and environmental destruction on the other. Moreover, indiscriminate detentions and sentencing, disappearances of religious heads, and forced torture and interrogation of Tibetans who dare to stand up for their rights have left their aspirations crippled. Singing the national anthem or owning the national flag or a photograph of His Holiness the Dalai Lama are reason enough for the Chinese government to sentence one to rigorous imprisonment.

Although the Chinese Constitution provides for freedom of speech, press, assembly, demonstration (Article 35) and religious belief (Article 36), these rights somehow don’t seem to belong to the Tibetans.

Despite the current grim situation in Tibet, remarkable efforts are being made by the Tibetan diaspora all over the world to keep the issue of Tibetan autonomy relevant. The changing face of Tibetan activism, which integrates disciplines like the arts, is charged and ready for the 21st century.

Thus this summer I will be working with Gu Chu Sum in Dharamsala, India. For the past 23 years, this organization has been influential in helping voice the concerns of many suppressed political prisoners in Tibet and has brought international attention to the increasing human rights violations currently taking place in the region. I am seeking to explore how Gu Chu Sum, a grassroots organization and an important part of the Tibetan story, is keeping alive the political aspirations of an exile community.

Since the political prisoners are firsthand witnesses to human rights abuses being carried out by the Chinese Communist Party, their accounts of life in Tibet under the martial-law-like state is an important perspective that needs to be documented. I hope to take portraits and testimonials of the various members of the Gu Chu Sum movement and provide the organization with comprehensive visual documentation of their day-to-day contributions to the Tibetan story, which may be used later by them. I am really excited to have been given this opportunity, and I am confident that my stay with them will be an insightful experience.