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"Fortunately, there are Tenzin Tsundues out there, men neither craven nor willing to shut up, and unaffected by the demands of 'realpolitik'. Power to your flag and banner, Tenzin. May they fly from a thousand places, unexpectedly."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Tenzin Tsundue is a restless young Tibetan who, after graduating from Madras, South India, braved snowstorms and treacherous mountains, broke all rules and restrictions, crossed the Himalayas on foot and went into forbidden Tibet! The purpose? To see the situation of his country under Chinese occupation for himself, and find out if he could lend a hand or two in the freedom struggle. He was arrested by the Chinese border police, and after cooling his heels in prison in Lhasa for three months, was finally pushed back to India. 
Born to a Tibetan refugee family who laboured on India's border roads around Manali, North India, during the chaotic era of Tibetan refugee resettlement in the early seventies. Tenzin Tsundue is a writer-activist, a rare blend in the Tibetan community in exile. 
He published his first book of poems “Crossing the Border” with money begged and borrowed from his classmates while doing his Masters degree in Literature from Bombay University. His literary skills won him the first-ever 'Outlook-Picador Award for Non-Fiction' in 2001. In this all-India essay contest Tsundue took first prize from 900 other entries. His second book Kora is already in its fifth editions selling more than ten thousand copies, besides it French and Malayalam translations. His third book – Semshook, a compilation of essays on the Tibetan freedom movement was published in March 2007, and it is already in its second edition. Tenzin Tsundue joined Friends of Tibet (INDIA) in 1999. Since then he's been working with the organization as its General Secretary. In January 2002 his profile peaked when he scaled scaffolding to the 14th floor of the Oberoi Towers, in Mumbai, to unfurl a Tibetan national flag and a banner down the hotel's facade which read 'Free Tibet'. China's Premier Zhu Rongji was inside the hotel addressing a conference of Indian business tycoons. The world's media featured this feat and Indian police officials congratulated him in prison for standing up for his rights. In April 2005 he repeated a similar stunning one-man protest that captured the world’s imagination while Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was visiting India’s tech capital, Bangalore. Because of these daring protest actions, the Government of India restricted his movements at the request of the Beijing government during Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to India in November 2006. He was detained within Dharamsala jurisdiction for fourteen days, constantly surveilled by police and intelligence escort. Tsundue has been wearing a red band around his head for the past six years which, he says is the mark of his pledge that he would work for the freedom of his country, and would never take it off until Tibet is free, and work in the struggle everyday. Red for him is the colour of courage. Tenzin Tsundue’s writings have been published in The International PEN, The Indian PEN, Sahitya Akademi’s Indian Literature, The Little Magazine, Outlook, The Times of India, The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Better Photography, The Economic Times, Tehelka, The Daily Star (Bangladesh), Today (Singapore), Tibetan Review and Gandhi Marg. As a poet he represented Tibet in the Second South Asian Literary Conference in New Delhi in January 2005 organized by Sahitya Akademi, Poetry Africa 2005 and KATHA Asia International Utsav 2006, New Delhi. Both as an activist and a writer, Tsundue fights tooth and nail, night and day for the freedom of his country. His writings are published online at www.friendsoftibet.org/tenzin
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