DHARAMSHALA, September 25: A book authored by a jailed Tibetan writer in Tibet was launched in the exile Tibetan headquarters of Dharamshala by Kalon Dicki Chhoyang of the Department of Information and International Relations of the Central Tibetan Administration on Monday.
The book titled “Sa Jhi Thrag Dri Marpo” was written by Ghang Mingpa following the mass pan-Tibet peaceful uprisings of spring 2008. According to CTA more than 200 Tibetans were killed and over 1200 arrested by Chinese authorities in the brutal crackdown on the peaceful protests.
In the book, the author has given a personal account of the protests in China’s Olympic year and explained the reasons that led to the most widespread protests on the Tibetan plateau in recent decades.
Author of five books, Ghang Mingpa for this book, traveled to the places of major protests and spoke to a number of local Tibetans on the uprisings.
He was arrested in 2012, reportedly on suspicion of sending sensitive information out of Tibet.
In India, the book has been published by two exiled Tibetans – Tashi Delek and Jigdrel Tenzin.
Speaking to Phayul, Delek said that as per the author’s wish, the book has been kept in its original form.
“We have added two chapters on the peaceful protests that have followed the 2008 spring uprisings and also the last testaments that few of our Tibetan self-immolators have left before burning themselves,” Delek said.
“The writer showed keen interest in the First Special General Meeting of the Tibetan People held in Dharamshala in November 2008 and had written about his thoughts and ideas for the meeting called to discuss the urgent situation in Tibet.”
Earlier this morning, copies of the book were distributed to the delegates of the ongoing Second Special General Meeting, aimed at discussing campaign ideas in response to the spate of self-immolations in Tibet.
Ghang Mingpa hails from the traditional Kham province of eastern Tibet.
Last month, the representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Geneva, Tseten Samdup, submitted a detailed profile of 64 Tibetan intellectuals to the UN Special Rapporteur and urged for necessary inquiry into their cases.
In what Samdup called the “harshest” crackdown on Tibetan artists and intellectuals since the Cultural Revolution, he said that at least 24 Tibetans intellectuals have been given sentences ranging from few months to life imprisonment for exercising their freedom of expression.
“This new generation of young Tibetans born and educated under Chinese Communist rule have edited banned magazines and are tech-savvy bloggers imprisoned for gathering, expressing and sharing information about conditions in Tibet especially after the March 2008 demonstrations across Tibet,” he said.
The exile Tibetan administration notes that the whereabouts of about 37 Tibetan intellectuals remain unknown, while 12 intellectuals were released on fear of custodial death after excessive torture during detention by the Chinese authorities.
