Tibetan struggle framed for Gen X

Darjeeling, June 27: The Dalai Lama’s journey over the freezing Himalayas was an arduous trek but more than 50 years later, the stories continue to inspire the Tibetans as history captured in frames travels across the country in the form of an exhibition.

Since January 2010, the Dharamsala-based Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has been unravelling the unseen stories of Tibet — before, during, and after the Chinese “invasion” through photographs.

In 1949, the People’s Liberation Army of China marched into Tibet’s eastern provinces of Kham and Amdo and seized control over the region. Two years later, a 17-point agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet was “forced” upon the Tibetan government and its people. Ultimately in 1959, the Tibetan uprising was crushed by the Chinese army forcing the Dalai Lama to flee to India with some 80,000 followers.

The purpose of “a photo exhibition on 50 years in exile – Tibet Experience” is to remind the younger generation, who have never been to their payul (fatherland), of the struggles of their community elders.

Tenzin Chemey, the in-charge of the CTA museum in Dharamsala, said: “We are trying to tell the stories of our community, the struggles of the elders and their feelings through this travelling exhibition. We have visited 19 places so far and the exhibition will end by September this year.”

Every aspect of Tibet’s history has been depicted: from the rare photographs of the marching Chinese army in front of the Potala palace — the seat of Dalai Lama in Lhasa — to the vignettes of a the full-scale guerrilla war in eastern Tibet raged by the fighters from Kham. The Tibetan fighters had started the Chushi Gangdruk (Four Rivers, Six Ranges) guerrilla movement in 1957.

Rare photographs of the Dalai Lama’s escape from Tibet to his entourage’s entry into Bomdilla in Arunachal Pradesh escorted by the Indian army have been put for public display in the office of the Tibetan Welfare Officer.

“I had never seen these photographs, which are hair raising. My resolve to be part of the free-Tibet movement has become even stronger,” said Tashi Bhutia, a Tibetan who has never been to his fatherland.

The stories are however not just confined to the Tibet in the 1950s. The community’s struggle in setting up settlements — there are now 39 such centres in India and 19 in Nepal and Bhutan — and life in a different country too have been captured.

From a Tibetan’s life as a daily wage earner in road construction to the building of a community in terms of providing education, developing human resources and imparting skill development training, the exhibition is a complete story of the Tibetans.

“We are not just trying to present the 50 years in exile but also trying to look forward towards achieving our goals through this exhibition,” said Chemey.

The telegraph