Sontsa: Tibetan Youth Power
(Tibetan Review | August 2004)
The old amala rephrased her question:
"I mean are you Amdo, or Khampa or Toepa?"
Lobsang gave the same defiant answer again.
In a brash tone he said "Tibet".
One amala mumbled condescendingly —
"obviously the boy doesn't know his parentage, his native land."
This incident happened at a restaurant in McLeod Ganj, where my
friend Lobsang, a school drop-out works there as waiter. He was
trying to be polite to this gang of old amalas while serving them
tea, when he was asked: "What is your native land?"
Most Tibetan youngsters would perhaps give the same answer as
Lobsang did. Some are oblivious to their parental roots. Many know,
but do not like to identify themselves with any of the clans.
Tibetan youngsters don't want to carry the extra baggage of their regional
and sectarian identities, which, more than anything else, has become
a divisive tool to many of the petty politicians in the community.
Tibetan youngsters are choosing to steer clear from such
typecasting. This is the new generation emerging with its own
sense of identity. They have seen such categorization resulting in
communal fundamentalism.
The challenge is to know one's own parental and cultural roots,
and yet not fall into the trap of clannish groupism, which has stifled
Tibetan parliamentarian politics. This is the fine balance I believe
our youngsters must maintain to take the community forward into
positive development. Through this we will achieve that wonderful
democratic vision that exiles are struggling for.
Right from the beginning of our exile life, His Holiness the Dalai
Lama placed great importance on the healthy growth of the Tibetan
children. Tibet's youth who are receiving both traditional and
modern education will greatly influence future Tibet. Today, there
are over one hundred Tibetan schools in exile.
The children of exile are the hope for free Tibet.
His Holiness has a special word for this, 'Sontsa'.
Sontsa is not the unborn seed, it's not the assumed potential;
it is the sapling, it is already fertile and growing,
and yet it is young.
There is promise of a bright future in Sontsa.
As a kid growing up in school, the Elders gave us the most wonderful dream
—
a dream called "Free Tibet", a country of our own,
the country our elders lost to the Chinese and we have to quickly
grow up and reclaim. There was so much patriotism in our education,
whether it was about the national flag, our leader His Holiness,
or study of Tibetan history and politics.
Today we are grown up and ready to fight for that dream, but the
rules have changed. There is no longer that freedom to fight for. The
goal post has moved, and we are left with no role to play. Now we
can't even do a protest rally; elders charge us of disloyalty
with the Exile Government's request to keep calm.
There is no glory in battling for a compromise, nor does the
compromise look hopeful. Anyway, even if it was granted, would the
youngsters keep silent and be satisfied with that autonomy?
Quite often I get to work with Tibetan college students in cities
all over India. Tibetan students in these cities have been forming
student associations through which they collectively campaign for
Tibet. These are being run from the funds they begged from Tibetan
camps during their summer and winter vacations. These associations
double up as welfare organizations taking care of students in times
of emergencies like sickness or accidents.
Last year I was in Mangalore, the seaside city in south India.
About 300 Tibetan youngsters study there. During the four-day Tibet
festival, a curious Indian student asked one Tibetan youth, both
about the same age: "How does Tibet look like?"
The Tibetan student stopped in the middle of his speech and began
thinking. He was perhaps recollecting images of Tibet he had seen in
films and photographs. Most Tibetans born and brought up in exile
have never seen Tibet, even the hundreds who escaped at a young
age haven't seen much of their homeland other than the village
they fled.
Their Tibet is created by their imagination, their education,
stories they heard from elders and tourists and what they inherited
in their blood. There is no citizenship to claim; the Dalai Lama
is their passport. They are born refugee.
Yes, like the younger generation of any community we too have
our own share of problems with language, traditional customs,
and yes, we have loads of attitude. And yet deep down there we are
Tibetan. Every mention of Tibet and the Dalai Lama in a newspaper,
TV, radio pulls the strings in us. It's something very personal.
Tibetans strayed to foreign countries with or without
papers tell me of this heartstring. It's just magical.
This, I believe, is Tibetanness, and I know this is there in all Tibetans.
At the end of the day, we also want a home to return to, a small
place to call our own, somewhere where we belong. It's too
difficult imagining there will be a free Tibet and postponing our
dream called "Home," and yet the struggle must go on.
Often I am asked how should the Tibetans channelize their emotional
power into real works to free Tibet. Today, with the youngsters
receiving a world-class education, equipped with global language
and technology skills, we can put up a strong fight. Today's
youngsters are not bound by customary loyalties. They are patriotic,
but educated and informed.
If only we can do away with the inhibition where —
in the name of faith —
we place the whole job of freeing Tibet on the shoulders of one man:
His Holiness the Dalai lama. We are the kind to share
responsibility while simultaneously receiving guidance from the Buddha.
We do have a younger group who have excelled in their field
of social service, leadership, art and literature, and have
set examples. Norsang runs the most popular Tibetan website,
phayul.com, single-handedly, Lobsang Tsering runs Kunphen;
his drugs de-addiction centre in Dharamsala has helped more than 120
patients, Rapsel has been campaigning for vegetarianism; traveling
Tibetan camps across India, Techung and Tsering Gyurme in music,
Tenzin Dorjee in photography, Karma Sichoe in thangka painting,
Lhadon Tethong in youth leadership, she's also the president of
world-wide Students for a Free Tibet, and not so young Dolma Gyari
and Karma Yeshi in the Tibetan parliament.
I salute these and many others who work silently with commitment
and years of dedicated work for Tibet. This article pays tribute
to that power of youth, to this new generation of Tibetans in exile
which is now slowly coming of age, and making 'Sontsa' —
the dream of His Holiness —
come true, a promise of new Tibet.
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