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FREEDOM   TALKS   BY   TENZIN   TSUNDUE
(Delhi | February 11, 2008)

Tenzin Tsundue with supporters at the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus in New Delhi

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi: Tenzin Tsundue, Tibetan Poet and General Secretary of Friends of Tibet speake to the JNU students in the Sabarmati Mess in an after-dinner session. He talked about the invisibility of the Tibetan people in the scheme of international politics. The world looked at the His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the face of the Tibetan struggle, whereas the ordinary Tibetan may not necessarily want the same as the Dalai Lama. Why is it that outsider's narratives have appropriated the movement?

He showed how the Tibetan plateau has played a huge role in determining its people, and that only the Tibetans understand and can conserve the plateau. "Chinese definition of development and Tibetan definition of development are completely contradictory to each other." The urbanisation of Tibet is another phrase for the dumping ground it has become of workers, of wastes. The water resources that it has will become a point of contention between India, China, Pakistan, and Burma in the future.

He covered many facets of the struggle, emphasizing on how non-violence was the only real option for the Tibetans. He showed his Foreign National Certificate stating that, "in this I am told I am a Tibetan, but is there a Tibet on the map today?" He delved into the struggle as of today and ways in which the struggle is lived out in the everyday lives of the Tibetans in exile.

Students asked him about the status of minorities in the Tibetan politics, for example, the Muslims to which his response was that the people belonged to the idea of Tibet, which is not essentially Buddhist; India's stand on the issue, to which he traced a history of support that the Indian state has offered the Tibetans- the land, the monasteries, the education system. Yet, India remains tight-lipped on the issue in its dialogues with China. He mentioned that only a strong public opinion can disrupt this status quo and located the role of groups like Friends of Tibet in keeping Tibet alive as an issue.

He concluded his talk by briefly mentioning the March 10 walk to Tibet and by reading out two of his poems.

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Delhi University, Delhi: Tibetan Poet and General Secretary of Friends of Tibet Tenzin Tsundue addressed the Masters students of the Political Science department of Delhi University. He talked about the "Tibetan Cultural Resistance, a Native response to China's Corporate Designs."

He illustrated the way Tibetans use songs and especially music videos in communicating their reverence for the Dalai Lama and remembering their loved ones in exile, through these videos. Albeit, in coded words and messages only the community will understand. In an hour-long audio- visual presentation, he showed how a popular Tibetan pop artiste Kunga's videos are replete with such messages. "He wishes that the three brothers come together. For the Chinese officials, he responded that he meant his own brothers, but metaphorically, it means the Dalai Lama, Panchen Lama, and the Karmapa."

He showed how the monasteries he chose to display in the video too, were the ones, which were re-built after severe destruction in the Cultural Revolution or under the Communist Party's regime. Thus, his talk highlighted the way cultural statements have formed a battleground for resisting the cultural hegemony of China.

Especially because corporate China wants to sell an exoticised Tibet. Tibetans are using this very garb of exotification to send out their message- they will were the brightest chuba and sing about the Sun, Moon and the Star, circumventing a physical resistance as they know that too many lives have been lost in doing just that. Tsundue was able to link this to the larger trend in the community of trying to understand China's schemes. The students asked about Burma and his plans for the Olympics.