By Tsering
Under a typical New England weather that switched from a pleasant evening to sprinkles and back to a dry evening, local Tibetans gathered in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts this past Wednesday to mourn the victims of the recent earthquake in China and Tibet.
Tibetans have held daily candlelight vigils till the 49th day and continue to hold weekly protest vigils every Wednesday with prayers. But this day and the previous one was different. No banners, no posters and no anti-Chinese Communist Government slogans.
“We haven’t stopped our vigils and protests against the Chinese government at all but out of respect for the thousands that died in China and Tibet, and as requested by the Tibetan Government in Exile, we use this vigil to mourn China’s tragedy,” explained Dhondup Phunkhang, one of the main organizers of the vigil to the 80 some Tibetans gathered.
A representative of the Chinese students group at Harvard University was invited to the vigil. With an apology for not speaking in Tibetan, he thanked the group for their support.
“As a Han Chinese, I am grateful for the Tibetans… many members of the Han Chinese community are grateful for your help” he said, gazing at Tibetans and American friends standing in a circle. He then took out a piece of paper folded in half and read a hand-written note. It was HH the Dalai Lama’s condolence message, “I am deeply saddened by the loss of many lives and many more who have been injured in the catastrophic earthquake that struck Sichuan province of China. I would like to extend my deep sympathy and heartfelt condolences to those families who have been directly affected by the strong earthquake on 12 May 2008. I offer my prayers for those who have lost their lives and those injured in the quake.”
This was not the first time for him to read the Dalai Lama’s message in public. In fact, he read the same message last Sunday at a memorial service held at the historic Harvard Memorial Church for the victims of the earthquake in front of 400 Chinese students and scholars. A significant act given the diverse views amongst the Chinese people on the subject of HH The Dalai Lama.
The Tibetans raised $668 in donations to be handed to the Chinese Students and Scholars Association to send to the Hong Kong Red Cross.
Within Harvard University, five panel discussions were organized on Tibet between Tibetan and Chinese students and scholars, including East Asian scholars and Human Rights advocates by the Fairbank Center, Asia Center, Yenching Institute and Harvard branch of Amnesty International and the undergraduate Chinese students group. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) also held a talk on Human Rights in Tibet with Dr. Lobsang Sangay, who participated in all of the panels.
The latest panel discussion on Tibet at Harvard was organized by the Chinese students titled “Working Towards a Better Future: A Cross-Cultural Dialogue between Tibetans and Han Chinese,” with a poster in English, Chinese and Tibetan languages. Including Tibetan script in their flyer showed a considerable sensitivity on the issue of Tibet. These discussions allowed local Tibetans to have face-to-face conversations with the Chinese scholars and the community.
“The more we discuss, more Chinese students and scholars empathize and understand our situation better, and agree that there is a contention in Tibet that needs to be resolved through dialogue between the Chinese government and His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” said Dr. Sangay, a senior fellow at Harvard University. “A group of Chinese students thanked me for speaking and said they support dialogues and that we should have more of this conversations.”
To reciprocate for organizing these discussions on Tibet, some local Tibetans also participated in solidarity gatherings by helping local Chinese collect donations for the earthquake victims in Harvard Square. An act that also fulfilled Kashag’s (executive branch of the Tibetan Government in Exile) four-point request that came through the Office of Tibet, New York.
After attending one of the memorial services organized by 84 Chinese associations, including local Chinese students, writers and business owners, Kalsang Namgyal had a chance to talk to one of the Chinese organizers, who agreed that Tibetans should be given more autonomy. She also stressed the importance of dialogue, saying, “there is a way to talk. We have to talk. Confrontation does not work.” And cited Richard Nixon as an example, stating he hated China first but then became a good friend later.
“It’s important that Tibetans explain their grievances and historical and practical truth for them to understand us. This builds a grassroots interaction between the Tibetans and the Chinese and will slowly be a stepping-stone for a foundation on which we will be able to gain Tibetans’ right,” explained Pema Tsewang, a board member of the Tibetan Association of Boston. “That is how many of the reconciliations take place,” Tsewang added.
Although the weekly protest vigil took a different turn with the last two, it will continue every Wednesday for months and years to come.
“The essence of doing it consistently captures it. A reminder that everyday something bad is happening in Tibet. More importantly for us Tibetans, doing it continuously helps us empathize with what is happening in Tibet,” said Tsepak Bayul, 22, a junior at Northeastern University.
