By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Sept. 4: In a first, a Tibetan football team from Switzerland played a football match against a prison team inside a state prison in Zurich on the Tibetan Democracy Day on Saturday. Although the match between Tibetzuri SC and FC Inter Poschwies ended on an even score of a goal each, the initiative marked a victory for the amateur Tibetan team whose goal has been to extend friendship and awareness on Tibet all along.
The game organized by the Tibetzuri SC management with the Kanton Zürich Justizvollzugsanstalt Pöschwies (State of Zürich Prison Office) comes as one of the long line of goodwill and charity initiative by the team comprised of Tibetan immigrants and second generation Swiss-Tibetans. Tsering, a Tibetan immigrant/President as well as a player for the team told Phayul, “This game against the prison team represents a new height for the team as we’ve started an alliance with the local government through this and hopefully we can build on it in the future.”
The Zurich based Tibetzuri SC team came about in 2013 and serves as a meeting point for Tibetan youngsters in the city who shares love for football and also as a means to stay connected forming a close-knit brotherhood, where often teammates share their difficulties living in a new country and becoming each other’s support system . “The team became a good base for us to eventually table causes which were bigger than ourselves. Even though we were still finding our feet here, we aspired to help our fellow Tibetans and especially those who needed our help,” Tsering further said.
The team and its management have organized its first ever fund raising concerts and charity event in 2014. Since then, the team has funded the scholarship for a Tibetan girl in India who is pursuing nursing for the last four years. Tibetzuri has also donated 1000 Swiss franc to help the Tibetans who lost their shops in a fire last year in New Delhi besides engaging in local social service in Switzerland. The team further plans to increase the number of scholarships and continues to highlight pressing issues of Tibet such as the self immolation by Tibetans and China’s illegal rule in Tibet.
Tenzin Tsewang who was born and brought up there said the team is his extended family and helps him cope with the identity crisis that he and many second generation Tibetans born in exile faces. He says that spoken language is a crucial element in belonging to a community and that his “meetings on and off the ground helps him speak and learn Tibetan and know more about my people.”
The team that has become a rudimentary essence to the Swiss-Tibetan community is not without tribulations of their own; few of the players are battling bureaucracy with their asylum application while others are just starting to find a life of their own in the new country. The Berne government recently asked close to 300 Tibetans to leave the country while officially recognizing Tibetans as Chinese (through Beijing’s misgivings), making it more increasingly difficult for Tibetans to start a life in the country.
