Ugyen Choephell
When I heard that Palden Gyatso’s film ‘Fire Under the Snow’ was going to be shown in Bristol this March 15th, I began to make plans to build upon the event. What started out as a simple welcome for Palden from Bristol’s Tibetan community ended up as an impassioned debate between political prisoner, local politician and concerned constituents.
The week Palden came to Bristol coincided with the week of the mass lobby of UK parliament, and there the idea arose.. join the two and invite our MPs to meet Palden Gyatso. So, along with last minute preparations over questions and points to raise at Westminster came the design of an invitation to deliver too.
Tues 10th March 2009, exactly 50 years on, another small tibetan uprising began. We travelled from Bristol to meet our MPs, Kerry McCarthy (East Bristol) and Stephen Williams (West Bristol) and raise the stakes for the Tibetan cause. I especially wanted to ask my MP about the Foreign Secretary’s October statement that “tibet is part of china” as I was really unhappy with this statement and especially the timing of it – coming before the outcome of the meeting of Tibetan exiles in dharamsala discussing whether to continue with the middle way approach or not. So I wanted answers and after some debate she accepted to write to the Foreign Secretary to clarify.
Next day when we received confirmation from Stephen Williams that he would be attending our event the excitement was tangible. I immediately rang around the rest of Tibetans and supporters in Bristol to let them know about preparations and to share out the tasks of momo making.
The day of the showing arrived, and anyone who did not pre book their tickets were turned away disappointed as the film had sold out two days before the showing. I knew about Palden, having read his book, but nothing could prepare me for the man I met and his powerful film.
His film was incredibly moving yet inspiring, portraying his life of extraordinary courage and dignity, tracking his individual battle against communist oppression and thought reform. A battle Palden has won, albeit at great personal suffering, emerging from 33 years of brutal incarceration to remain steadfast to his spiritual and political beliefs and who continues to speak out on behalf of those inside Tibet who have no voice. Afterwards the Q&A session proved what a remarkable man Palden was, his insight so remarkably sharp, his knowledge of the workings of the world so acute and his charisma made people really believe in him and the points he raised. You could feel the support welling up inside the theatre.
Palden continues….The Tibetan government in exile are ready to compromise, they have offered the Chinese a solution – genuine Tibetan autonomy whilst remaining under Chinese nationhood, but still the Chinese brush it aside. Why asks Palden, Why? Why doesn’t the Chinese government accept this compromise, why would they not be interested in living at peace? The only answer he has is backed up by his own experiences – that china wants to completely destroy all evidence of a Tibetan people & culture – but isn’t this genocide? And if the Chinese do not want to work and live alongside Tibetans as equals, then Tibetans have no alternative but to go back to calls for rangzen – independence.
Heading off for the function afterwards were Bristol Tibetans, their supporters, members of tibet society UK who organised the film showing and of course MP Stephen Williams. Palden was delighted to be able to talk to Stephen and gave a brief outline of his life story before requesting Stephen to raise certain points to UK Parliament. It was a wonderfully moving experience, Palden democratically exercising the right to free speech which contrasted so sharply with the images we’d just witnessed in his film earlier about the relentless attempts by the Chinese to silence his views.
It was the first time I had met Palden, and I have to say that I have seldom met such a character whose incredible resilience reaches out and whose sentences ignite such passion that I felt like this is someone who really can change the face of the Tibetan issue and I believe that we must really cherish people like this because Palden can and will have a profound effect on the people he meets and in the words of one man at the film premiere “this film should be shown on every channel every night til everyone takes notice”
[OPINION-DISCLAIMER]
