October 8, 2005
There was an old man from Norwich . . . If you’re a poetry lover, you’ll know that the 9th annual International Poetry Festival is happening next week (October 10-15).
Another brilliant idea from the Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN), it offers readings, performances, workshops, music, as well as book launches every evening at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, with a festival finale and the
Durban Slamjam at the Bat Centre on October 15. This year will see more than 25 participants visiting from 15 different countries, including the Philippines, Mozambique, Spain, Kenya, the Netherlands, Iraq and India.
There’s even one from Tibet. And he’s incredibly interesting.
Tenzin Tsundue was 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 ’70s. After graduating from
Madras, South India, he braved snowstorms and treacherous mountains, broke all rules and restrictions, crossed the Himalayas on foot and went into forbidden Tibet to see the situation of his country under Chinese
occupation for himself. He was arrested by the Chinese border police and, after spending three months in prison in Lhasa, was sent back to India.
Tsundue is a writer-activist. He published his first book of poems, Crossing the Border, with money he “begged and borrowed” from his classmates while doing his Masters Degree in Literature at 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, has run into three editions that have sold out.
His writings have been published in International PEN, The Indian PEN, The Indian Literary Panorama, The Lit tle Magazine, Outlook, The Times of India, The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Better Photography, The
Economic Times, Tehelka, Mid-Day (Mumbai), Afternoon (Mumbai), The Daily Star (Bangladesh), Today (Singapore), Tibetan Review, Tibetan Bulletin, Freedom First, Tibetan World, and Gandhi Marg.
He represented Tibet in the Second South Asian Literary Conference in New Delhi in January 2005, which was organised by the premier Indian literary association, Sahitya Academy. Tsundue joined Friends of Tibet (India) in 1999. Since then he’s been working with the organisation 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 which read “Free Tibet” down the hotel’s facade. China’s Premier Zhu Rongji was inside the hotel addressing a conference of Indian business tycoons.
The world’s media featured Tsundue’s antics and Indian police officials reportedly congratulated him in prison for standing up for his rights. Recently, in April, he repeated a similar feat with a stunning protest that captured the imagination of the world. Single-handedly, he snatched the world media attention from the visiting Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jia Bao in the south Indian city, Bangalore.
He is presently working on his third book, a compilation of essays on the Tibetan freedom movement.
