By Stephanie Innes
A Tibetan monk who endured three decades of imprisonment and torture for resisting Chinese rule will be in Tucson early next month as a guest of Amnesty International.
Palden Gyatso , 72, who was imprisoned for 33 years – longer than former South African President Nelson Mandela – will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 7 at Tucson High Magnet School, 400 N. Second Ave. There is a suggested donation of $10 per person.
“Tibetans are really still forgotten people. People consider them part of China and they are not. It’s a really sad set of circumstances,” said Vicki Burnham, a Tucsonan who is organizing the event for the local chapter of Amnesty International.
“The Chinese tortured nuns and monks because they wouldn’t denounce the Dalai Lama and go along with their program. It’s very sad.”
Burnham, who met Gyatso while she was in India, said one of the most incredible things about the monk is that he holds no bitterness or resentment in spite of decades of torture and starvation so severe that he ate rubber. At one point, guards put an electric cattle prod in his mouth and he lost all of his teeth, Burnham said.
Gyatso, who was imprisoned between 1959 and 1992, is the author of a book titled, “The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk” (Grove Press, 1998), which The New York Times called, a “rare Tibetan voice,” that gives a devastating account of terror and brutal oppression within the Chinese prison system, starkly countering China’s reports of improving the lives of Tibetans.
Tibetans rebelled against the Chinese in 1959 because the Chinese communist government was dismantling the government of the Dalai Lama, who was head of state and the spiritual leader of Tibet. After crushing the Tibetan revolt, the Chinese destroyed Buddhist monasteries, forced the Dalai Lama to flee, and arrested thousands of monks like Gyatso, sending them to prison.
Gyatso, who will speak through a translator when he is in Tucson, won release from prison in 1992 following a letter-writing campaign by Amnesty International. He is often referred to as the longest-surviving political prisoner in Tibet. In his book, he describes the deaths of many fellow prisoners, who wasted away from starvation.
“Immediately upon his release he said he would not let the world forget about what he saw,” Burnham said. “Since then he’s been extremely active in talking and in protests and marches.”
One of the things that Tibetans in exile like Gyatso, who lives in India, stress is that Tibet is still controlled by China’s Army. Exiled Tibetans continue to fight for Tibetan independence, maintaining they are a distinct people with a long history, rich culture and spiritual tradition that is far different from the Chinese.
Joe Watkins , the Tucson-based coordinator for Amnesty International in Arizona, said the aim of Gyatso’s appearance in Tucson is to bring awareness of the human rights situation in Tibet.
“He has a fairly remarkable story. It’s a general part of human rights education,” Watkins said.
For more information about Gyatso’s talk in Tucson, call Vicki Burnham at 400-8589.
