Freedom

This particular quote caught my eye, so I wished to put on my blog "Freedom is the right to live as we wish." It's sweet and short but conveys the feelings of every Tibetan. Majority of the countries in today's world are making giant strides in all aspects which includes our Indian economy too, and it's a shame that we have a neighbour Tibet, with whom we share our boundaries still chained crying for freedom. Fifty years have passed and it's still an unanswerable question which generation of Tibet can say that they are free in their own land. How painful it would have been to see one's own country being annexed as a part of other county and being forcibly occupied. It's the humiliation of the worst sort. We Indians should be the best sympathizers as we too suffered colonial rule.

Tibetans have always been peace loving people having adopted non-violence as a way of life. Causing another being harm or killing or even disrespecting another living being is considered equivalent to a sin in Buddhism and Buddhism is their way of life. Tibetan Buddhism cannot be discussed in isolation without mentioning their spiritual leader Dalai Lama.

He is revered and is believed to be a living incarnate of Buddha. The current fourteenth Dalai Lama is respected the world over for spreading his message of peace and harmony. The Dalai Lama was born as Llamo Thondup on July 6, 1935, to a poor family in Taktser in the province of Amdo. He was spotted at the age of three as the new incarnate and was accepted as the fourteenth Dalai Lama. He was acknowledged as the spiritual head and was educated in the field of Tibetan art and culture, Sanskrit, medicine and Buddhist philosophy. But life has not been a a bed of roses for this small child. When he was fifteen years old, China forcibly occupied Tibet claiming Tibet as its own territory. The Tibetan government appealed to the UN, but since Tibet was not a member, its pleas were ignored. Dalai Lama was forced to become their political head and tried negotiating with Chinese Government, but it bore no fruit. The following years saw continuous negotitations between Dalai Lama and successive Chinese Governments , which failed and one day led to his own residence at Norbulinka monastery being shot down by the Chinese. Dalai Lama decided to leave and requested thethen Indain Government for asylum. He and thousands of Tibetans were granted asylum by Pt. Nehru in Dharmasala in India. The Dalai Lama has set up the Tibetan Government in Exile and has been leading the freedom struggle from there ever since.

The Dalai Lama has consistently striven to open up dialogue and negotiate with the Chinese Government, from Chairman Mao, to Chou-En- Lai, to Deng Xiaoping, and now to the current leadership . The Chinese Government refuses to budge from its stand that Tibet belongs to China. Thought the Dalai Lama has done a lot by maintaining a non-violent method in dealing with Chinese governments, many Tibetans are becoming restless with this method and strongly believe that non-violence practised for so long did not yield any result.

The passing of Olympic flag through many countries sparked off a chain of protests worldwide showing the brewing impatience of every Tibetan who want freedom . Generations of Tibetans have not visited their homeland and long to visit their independent country . China on the other hand is accusing the Dalai Lama to be instigating violence and has even accused Tibetans staying in India of having links with the Al-Qaeda and propagating violence.

The Olympics in Beijing suddenly shifted the focus on Tibet at least for a short span and caught worldwide attention. But I really doubt if the issue will burn as long as the Olympic flame burns. Some people opine Tibetans must seize their right to self determination to save the simmering country, while some feel an open democratic dialogue will help in granting autonomy at least if not complete freedom. But whatever may be the outcome, oppression of Tibet for long is not a sustainable solution.