An Autobiography of Dalai Lama hidden in a sack of grain
Tibet Watch conducted a series of interviews this year (I, II, III, IV, V) with a group of newly arrived Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala, northern India who escaped from occupied Tibet.
This interview was conducted on 21 September and is the sixth in the series. The refugee is a forty-year-old woman from central Tibet. Born into a family labeled as “class enemies” by the Chinese Communist Party, her father, the first in her village to serve the Tibetan Army, was sent to prison after the 1959 Tibetan Uprising, and she was denied rights. The stories of suffering her family endured during the Cultural Revolution would later be shared in the privacy of her home, and she would read His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s autobiography, My Land and My People, that remained hidden in a sack of grain.
She also recounts her experiences of lockdown in Lhasa, the forced resettlement of nomads in central Tibet, Tibetans secretly talking about Tsewang Norbu’s self-immolation, as well as the military-civilian activities in areas close to Tibet-Nepal border, where her family were asked to patrol.
The following account is in her own words. We have kept her identity anonymous and omitted a few geographical details for security.
Daughter of a Tibetan Army
I went to school up to seventh grade. Then I dropped out of school.
The reason for my decision was my family background. My family had close connections with religious figures. After His Holiness the Dalai Lama and thousands of Tibetans fled Tibet, my father was imprisoned for seven years in a jail in Lhasa, in the name of being reactionary. After his release, my family endured immense suffering due to our family background. Our family was labeled "reactionary" for our past family connections.
Our family endured humiliating struggle sessions during the Cultural Revolution. A brother of my grandfather disappeared and was never found again after the struggle session. My sisters and brothers all have limited rights. During the land redistribution, I was denied land rights.
When I was in seventh grade, I learned that I had no right to enrol in a military unit due to my family background. I felt that nothing was going to work in my favour even if I continued my studies because of my family background. So I left school and worked for a few years on the farm. It was difficult to find a good job.
Then I contacted an old friend from school and moved to Lhasa. I found a job in a restaurant and worked there for a year. After that, I worked as a saleswoman in a mall.
I had a deep longing to escape from Tibet and the wish to get an audience with His Holiness since when I was young. I didn't know how to get out of Tibet. I was young and didn't understand how to organise my escape plan and route.
I tried to find a way out four times before the COVID pandemic and I hosted dinner for someone a couple of times in the hope that he would help me with my plan. He turned it down afterward.
Then I met a person who works in the railway sector, and he helped me find a route and a person who could help me. I paid about 20,000 yuan for that.
I then went to XXX on my own. He was waiting there and there were lots of armies patrolling in the area. I hid out in a restaurant for two nights.
After that, I walked for four days in the rain with the helper till the border. It was very difficult. My family background and the stories I heard from my mother left a huge impact on me and I felt that there was no future to stay back for.
Book cover of the autobiography of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, My Land and My People
My mother used to share with me her life story and struggle.
My mother had a copy of the biography of His Holiness, My Land and My People, hidden in a sack of grain.
When I was young, I read it a few times. She found out afterward that I was reading it and told me to never again take it outside home as it would cause trouble if the authorities found out; our families were already being closely watched by the authorities.
My brothers used to tell me about those people who charged and subjected my family to struggle sessions ; nowadays they have achieved some position and power because they did things to earn the favour of the Chinese authorities. He still remembers and recognises all the people who were involved during the painful times. All of my brothers are tall and strong. They cannot join the army even if they wish because of our family background. Things were a little better though after the Cultural Revolution.
My father was the first from our village to join the Tibetan Army. The amulet that he wore during his military service is still with our family. If my father was alive now, he would be 84.
COVID-19 lockdown in Lhasa
From 8 August to 21 November 2021, the lockdown was abruptly imposed in Tibet. We were notified a few hours before the actual start of the lockdown. I thought it might last a few days or a week at the most, so I bought a week’s worth of vegetables and rations. But it went on and on for three whole months. The price of vegetables rose sky-high, and people had no choice but to buy at whatever price they were charged.
Once locked inside, no one was allowed outside - even if you were sick. Meanwhile, the preparation was very poor. There were extensive checks every day, and they barged [into homes] like burglars; sometimes banging at the doors in the middle of the night, and other times early in the morning to do nasal swab tests.
After a week of lockdown, we were running out of food stock. We had a neighbour, a Chinese couple, who had managed to get a white suit as a medical volunteer. So everyone in our residential area collected money; each family gave him 400 yuan and had them buy our food stocks and other necessary items. And they bought everything and delivered it in the middle of the night.
Isolation centres were overcrowded. If one COVID case was reported from a residential area, all the people in that surrounding area - even those who were sick - without exception, were forcefully sent to isolation centres. That's why those isolation centres were crowded.
I was sent to an isolation centre after one report of a COVID positive case came out in our neighbourhood. All of us were taken from there at around 9 pm on a bus. Although it's only half an hour’s drive to get there, we reached in the middle of the night because there were many buses and they were circulating around the city, rounding up people from different areas.
When they found out that the isolation centre was crowded, we were taken to another one. But we were sent back to the previous isolation centre for the same reason we were taken there in the first place. At last, at around 6 am the next morning, after driving back and forth, we were finally forced to stay at a hotel.
Actually, it was a school, a middle school which had been turned into an isolation centre. It was already a crowded centre, and the food provided was mostly only boiled vegetables.
What startled me most during lockdown was the difference in treatment between the Tibetans and the Chinese, and the open display of discrimination between the Tibetans and the Chinese. All the shops - except for vegetables shops and pharmacies - were forced to shut down. Even then, Tibetan vegetable sellers were not allowed to open their shops. Chinese migrants held a protest and they were later allowed to return to China.
If Tibetans staged such a protest, I know they would not let go of us easily. Tibetans don't have that kind of right.
Bodies of the deceased person weren't returned to the family. In the Tibetan tradition, we have to do prayers for the deceased soul and there are instructions from Tibetan lamas to follow for the body’s cremation. But they cremated everyone [before the bereaved families could do prayers and rituals]. The lockdown caused so much misery…
And I heard there were also numerous cases of suicide in and around Lhasa. My neighbor told me that a person committed suicide in the isolation center they were in. I saw a video shared online of an old man jumping to death from a building. I think people were desperate and not able to deal with the long lockdown. Our Chinese shop owner also committed suicide.
It was a difficult period for people who had come to Lhasa seeking medical treatment. There was an old Tibetan woman from Medro Gongkar who had come to Lhasa seeking treatment for her knee pain. Because of the lockdown, she was not able to visit the hospital. Moreover, because of the lockdown, she was locked inside a room with no sunlight. It was so damaging to her knee. She needed good sunlight for her knee to keep it going.
We were forced to throw out all the butter and meat we’d kept inside the fridge at home. They claimed concerns of virus proliferation but we were given little sugar, butter, and meat. Small bits of tomatoes… And this was at the end of the lockdown!
Later on, after the lockdown restrictions were lifted, we witnessed the massive outbreak of COVID-19 in Tibet, leading also to the loss of many lives.
I heard that for two weeks approximately 80 to 90 dead human bodies were burnt daily at the cemetery behind the Drepung Monastery.
It is unusual and many old-aged people lost their lives. This is because even those uninfected were put together with COVID-19-positive patients in the same isolation centre.
They killed more than two thousand yaks within a day in Damshung (当雄县 ) and that meat was shipped to different parts of China. A Tibetan shared a post asking people to pray because the government had ordered the mass slaughter of yaks- about 2000 yaks to be killed in one day.
Tsewang Norbu’s self-immolation and surveillance in Lhasa
Last year, a Tibetan man called Tsewang Norbu set himself on fire in front of the Potala Palace. People who were walking nearby have seen it. But it was immediately covered up, and police forces were massively deployed at the scene. I heard these from people and saw many social media posts [on Douyin] sharing his song with prayers and emojis.
The online posts said: "We need to stand together" and others expressed pride in his action. But these were immediately removed and no one shared or talked about it. People secretly shared information to not talk about it as it might lead to detention and arrest.
Everything is wiped out and kept out of public knowledge so that it remains unknown.
It seems that the real Jowo statue was damaged by the fire accident at the Jokhang Temple in February 2019. People in the city say that the present Jowo statue isn’t the one that was damaged by fire. There is a SWAT team ( 特警 ) stationed at the crossroad which leads to the Jowo temple. Before one enters the temple to see the Jowo, they conduct security checks there. Backpacks and phones are all thoroughly checked.
Lhasa is routinely scrutinised, and surveillance measures run all the time. Military helicopters hover above the city at all times, and paramilitary patrol the city. There are lots of security check posts at many points in Lhasa. We can easily recognize if something has happened in the city - whether it is a visit by Xi or any political activity because the police presence and movement would be noticeable.
You often see Tibetans waving Chinese flags and welcoming Chinese delegations in Tibet, but it is also true that most of the Tibetans you see waving Chinese flags when visiting Chinese delegations were mostly forced. Not volunteers. Those people are connected with the Chinese Communist Party and government. They are dependent on the government. They used to host those events and film them in the early morning. I saw it a few times when I used to go to work in the office. They stage these events out of sight of people.
Nowadays, you cannot trust and converse with anyone.
In the past, we can see Tibetans secretly talking about everything among themselves in tea stalls at Barkor street but you cannot do so these days.
There are lots of spies and many people get arrested too. You cannot trust and the environment is brimmed with paranoia. Secret cameras and surveillance cameras are everywhere in Lhasa. It became more and more after the 2008 uprising; military tanks strolled the streets of Lhasa every day. Not only police but armed military also patrolled the streets of Lhasa.
I had a friend from a village in a county near the Nepal-Tibet border. She has a sister who used to live in India but is nowadays in France. When they talked over WeChat, the local police came to her home and checked her phone.
It is very difficult to keep in touch with the Tibetans living outside Tibet. Those surveillance cameras in Lhasa have the ability to record voices. It is scary to talk. They check anyone out in the streets who they find suspicious. If you speak Tibetan or make a video in Tibetan language and share it on Douyin, it gets immediately removed and blocked.
It is very strict in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), and it is difficult to get permission to travel to Nepal. It is different from people from other regions. It is easier for Tibetans living in regions outside the TAR to get travel permits and you will see more people from these regions visiting His Holiness in India. I even tried to get a travel permit to Nepal and I thought I could flee to India from Nepal. I was told I needed so many documents and guarantors to get travel permits to Nepal. I heard that those Tibetan businessmen doing business in Nepal and foreign countries need guarantors from the company with which they are partnering and doing business.
Ethnic unity and urban-rural marriage
China promotes the intermarriage of Tibetans and Chinese in Tibet in the name of promoting ethnic unity. They are promised preferential treatment and support from the government. They can buy a house at half of the market price. They have special consideration and support for their kids from the government. If they enroll as members of the Communist Party, they have special consideration and support.
There are also marriages between urban Chinese residents and rural Tibetan villagers. People with networks introduce them to each other. Such marriages give rural Tibetans easier access to jobs and other economic opportunities in the city which would be very difficult otherwise.
The government creates such an environment where Tibetans find themselves compelled to make such decisions.
I never felt happy among Chinese people. Except for speaking Chinese at the workplace, I never made friends with Chinese people. I never hung out with the Chinese people. I never used to feel happy when my Tibetan friends spoke in Chinese. I used to scold them. My friends are not like me. They are married. They confided that they wished they were not married with children so that they could also flee to India.
On the other hand, nowadays you hear many cases of human trafficking in Tibet. It is also true. For instance, there was a story about a young girl who went missing without a trace and then around a decade later, she was found in a city somewhere in China. She had been married off to a Chinese Hui Muslim, and has children now. But I don’t know how she disappeared, nor how she was found.
Border and military development in Tibet
Another development in Tibet is related to border area development. China is spending a huge amount of cash on people residing at the border. They are spending money to buy people's loyalty. My home village is at the border, so everyone is getting paid to live at the border. You have to stay in the village to get paid. You can't refuse it either. They also give different things like fridges, flasks, and so on in the name of “gifts” from Xi Jinping. These are also common in non-border areas like Shigatse.
The military is massively deployed at the border. Even the villagers in the border area are asked to patrol. My mother and my family were asked to patrol the border area. Some Tibetans were also involved in passing information and the arrest of Tibetans who were trying to cross the border to escape to India. That’s how money is being spent in the border area.
When I was young, there were few military people in the area but their presence has now hugely increased. There were four to five military units in early 2000 when I was there: 1) 海关, Haiguan 2) 边防, Bianfang 3) 伍张信 , Wu zhang xin and 4) 中及人, Zhong ji ren.
There are other few small units but I don't know the names. I heard that quite a few Chinese armies lost their lives during the Galwan war, but this information was being kept secret. In general, they are trying to recruit Tibetans but they do not manage to recruit many.
Forced resettlement
There are lots of new nomad settlements in the Tibet Autonomous Region. My friends from a village in Shigatse - which is near the Nepal-Tibet border - recently told me that the authorities told them to resettle in Lhasa. I don't know the reason for the resettlement. It is yet to be done.
But there were many people from Kham Chamdo who were resettled in the Medro Gongkar area. It was a huge town and I went there recently. All the houses were built in a similar structure. We can easily recognise it as it is huge, built in the same style and even the roof has the exact, same colour. Villagers from one village were divided into three different settlements.
There were nomads from Kham who were resettled in Tsal Gungthang near Lhasa. Many from Nagchu were also resettled in Lhasa. I heard that they are facing difficulties because they are mostly nomads and they are not used to new lifestyles. I think most of the people living in sparsely populated remote areas are being asked to move and resettle in the city. I think it is an attempt [by the government] to make it easier to control everyone. I heard the nomads have been told that the resettlement policy is to ensure the protection of ecology and grassland.
Boarding school and precarity of the Tibetan language
China has set up pre-school boarding (བུ་གཅོལ་ཁང་།) schools in every village in Tibet. They have made it compulsory for all. If their children were to enrol in school for education, their children have to have grades of three years of pre-school boarding. During our time, we had few boarding schools, and children aged only above six or seven were being enrolled. Now, children at the age of three are being sent to boarding pre-schools and it is compulsory too.
Tibetan kids who are becoming fluent in Chinese and Tibetan language are manifesting a lot of concerns. Even when they read Tibetan texts, they read slowly. And they read like a Chinese person reading Tibetan. They are mixing Chinese language in every conversation. Their competency in Tibetan language is very low and Tibetan parents are worried about their children’s Tibetan language skill. They are complaining that their kids are failing in the Tibetan language exams, and they are trying to send their children to Tibetan coaching classes.
The Chinese language is being taught everywhere. My friend who is studying in a medical institute in Lhasa recently told me that they were learning the Chinese language and she is taking coaching classes in the Chinese language.
The primary goals of Chinese language teaching and education are to promote Chinese civilization and culture among Tibetans and suppress or wipe out Tibetan culture, civilization, and language.
Tibetans are extra cautious and conscious about the status and prospect of the Tibetan language's survival.
His Holiness’ Viral Video Circulates in Tibet
I saw a video of His Holiness in April on Douyin. I don't know the reason his videos were allowed on the social media platform. Videos of His Holiness with an Indian child were allowed to circulate in an attempt to mock him and they thought the Tibetans would feel disgusted but it backfired on them.
Tibetans in Tibet were so happy to see him finally. They were more than overjoyed and all commented with tremendous praise. So the authorities were left with the only choice to block it again.
Their policy backfired on them. It was so good because Tibetans who are younger than me have never seen him in their life. But now, they can recognise him. They have seen him. And they will remember.