By Josh Mitchell
DELRAY BEACH, FL. – Buddhist nun Ani Kalsang Palmo marched down State Road A1A on Monday carrying a sign that read “Honk for Tibet.” Almost 16 years ago, she staged a similar protest in her native Lhasa, where she said she was promptly sent to a Chinese prison to be severely beaten and tortured for several months.
“Identity and Tibetan culture are all being destroyed,” Palmo, a diminutive 38-year-old who speaks in soft tones, said through an interpreter.
Inspired by the Dalai Lama’s visit to South Florida this week, Palmo and four Tibetan supporters began the first part of a 55-mile walk along the coast slated to end Wednesday in Miami Beach. The marchers call for a free Tibet, a region near the Himalayas taken over by China in the 1950s amid bloody revolts.
Among the marchers is Jigme Norbu, a nephew of the Dalai Lama. Norbu, who was born in New York and now lives in Indiana, is part of a second generation of Tibetans in exile who say their culture is being extinguished by a government that forbids any expression of Tibetan Buddhism. When he and his father, the Dalai Lama’s eldest brother, visited in Tibet in 1980, they heard stories of torture and rape, Norbu said. Tibetans are forced to abandon native teachings in favor of Chinese culture in school, Norbu said.
“If we all stopped (protesting), then it all dies,” Norbu said. “We keep the spirit going. It doesn’t make China happy.”
Norbu’s father and Palmo are among about 150,000 Tibetans who have fled to places such as North America and India. Palmo, who teaches in the Indian village of Dharamsala, came to the United States in June to raise money for a new nunnery.
Their group, the International Tibet Independent Movement, is urging people to boycott Chinese products. It also want the United States and other governments to pressure China to release Tibetan prisoners including the Panchen Lama, a religious figure who plays a key role in identifying the next incarnation of the Dalai Lama.
