Reportage – 2000

Clinton's Tibetan Gift

DHARAMSHALA, India
Published in Rangzen, Summer 2000 issue (Magazine of the Tibetan Youth Congress)

Clinton has come and gone. The visit to India by a President of the United States after twenty-two years in the post cold war era has very great significance. Firstly, the US recognises India as a nuclear power. Hence the US pressure on India to sign a comprehensive test ban treaty. India is a major player in ensuring security in Asia.

Secondly, the US acknowledges India as a cyber powerhouse wherein lies the secret of a future base of economy. This gives India a solid economic basis, a partnership the US cannot afford to lose.

Thirdly, the visit announced joint Indo-US research in the fields of health and science. India perceived the visit as a move towards the right direction.

What have we Tibetans, done on this historical, euphoric visit? What have been our aims? We can argue that Clinton was visiting India and there is nothing for us to do. That is wrong. We are a nation that is trying so we must try. Attempts have been made. Tibetans in Delhi got together at Jantar Mantar to welcome the President holding flags of Tibet, the US and India whilst sporting Tibetan costume. The media coverage of this event was to everybody's delight.

But there should have been something governmental such as an attempt to meet the President by a Tibetan government delegation, a reception in his honour, or a request to one of our veteran Indian, journalist friends to raise questions during the press conference. This is in view of the fact that if anybody met President Clinton the most, from India, it is perhaps His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Maybe we do not have such good connections with Indian journalists to ask this favour.

The Nine non-governmental-organisations submitted a memorandum to the President through the US embassy. The memorandum was accompanied by a gift. The gift was a wall hanging with the picture of four harmonious friends, namely an elephant, with a monkey sitting on him, on top of him is a rabbit and then a bird. This machine manufactured article, decided at the eleventh hour, costs Indian rupees One Hundred and Fifty. The point is, a member of one of the organisations said, (whose idea it was to give this gift), is not how much it cost, but it is the meaning the four harmonious friends convey.

But, they neglected to demonstrate the profound meaning it carries. My point is that even if everybody really decided on the four harmonious friends, it should have been a beautiful traditional thangka painting with nice silk brocades.

I remarked that the gift should have been a nice statue of Lord Buddha, or a beautiful thangka painting like that of a thousand handed and a thousand eyed Chenresig or that of the Kalachakra deity, or a collection of the best selling Tibetan books or even a set of Traditional Tibetan costumes. The gift, however, was not very catchy and irrelevant as a Tibetan gift. The problem is I am writing this too late and that I should have written a preview. Taking maxim, better late than never to heart, I write this to avoid slapdash decisions in the future.

The letter sent to Chelsea by the college students of the SOS Tibetan Youth Hostel was the best of all. They have thanked her and her family for their love and support for the Tibetan people. They asked how she liked her Holi, the Indian festival of colours she participated in in Jodhpur, and, as a token of their appreciation and friendship they enclosed a Chupa (a traditional Tibetan ladies dress) along with a shirt and a badge of the Tibetan national flag.

Media in the New age Tibetans

There was a time when Tibetans saw Injis (Westerners) as all friends. This notion dwindled with the emergence of fraud Injis indulging in desperate business collaborations with the Chinese. Evidence of such cheap acts by some friends in disguise forced us Tibetans to be more alert.

Today, time has changed to such an extent that some Tibetans believe Injis doing things for Tibetans have their own self interests at heart. Journalists, photographers and video film makers are here to do business. Others who do projects for us are to make their living.

We should be very careful about this. We cannot do away with the help and support of media for our non-violent struggle for a free Tibet.

In this light our endeavour should be to take every opportunity to get our message carried through all the media. We should befriend the media giants, news agencies, journalists and others related to journalism. This should have been done already but alas, wasn't. The most recent example was experienced by Juergen Hein, South Asia Bureau chief, Deutsche Press Agency (DPA).

He was a resource person during the Media workshop for Tibetan journalists in February, organised by the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Tibetan Youth Congress at SOS Tibetan Youth Hostel in Delhi.

He had tried to call Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR) in vain to ask about His Holiness the Dalai Lama's 60th enthronement celebration. Perhaps the BBC could have been informed and asked to cover the event by our government. The BBC is a world service but may not necessarily reach everywhere. DPA has a German audience. The point Juergen Hein made was that he was not informed or invited. With this we missed a chance to tell the Germans of our plight. He explained how the enthronement celebration would have been news and a good opportunity to inform the German people of our situation.

It was the time of the Karmapa hype. As everybody was interested and following the Karmapa story, the news piece would read something like: Dharamsala, February 18 (DPA) – Karmapa, recently escaped from Tibet to India, made a public appearance during the 60th anniversary of the enthronement of the Dalai Lama. It is believed that the Karmapa escaped to India from the hands of the Chinese due to the non-existence of religious freedom and other fundamental rights in Tibet.

Along side the Karmapa are the other heads of the Tibetan Buddhist schools. Tibetans in large numbers despite the cold February weather of Dharamsala, a northern Indian town, gathered outside the temple of the Dalai Lama to celebrate the event. The celebration also marked the 50 years of his taking over as the head of the Tibetan people.

The Dalai Lama, 64, the spiritual and political head of the Tibetan people was enthroned at the age of four in Lhasa, Tibet. He escaped to India following the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959. Since then, he, along with about 150,000 Tibetans in exile have been advocating a non-violent struggle for a free Tibet. For his peaceful efforts to resolve the Tibetan issue, he was conferred the Nobel Peace prize in 1989. Imagine the above news item with a photograph from the day. Very informative and beneficial for us. This chance has been lost. We must concentrate not only on big timers like the BBC, but also befriend and welcome other journalists including the local Indians. Then we can be successful on both the local and global levels.

China is tormented and embarrassed by the favour and support we are enjoying from the media. We must continue the pressure.

Then there is the problem of the press section arrangements. There are too many people. There are photographers plus video and film cameramen. Some of them are from the same organisation and not even involved in journalism. Even if they publish a newsletter, it is not important to have several photographers. Somebody else may come from a travel agency to do a video shoot. What is he doing here? These people should ask the DIIR of our government for photographs, footage and information.

The point I am trying to make, is that the journalists need the photos of the precise moment, but they face problems from an unnecessarily crowded press section.

The press section should be better organised. For example, to photograph the throne of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Tsuglag khang, the flashlight is blocked by the hanging thangkas. As a Tibetan photographer living in Dharamsala, other photographers complain to me for not having done or said something. This problem may seem small but only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches.