By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, August 16: Members of the regional Tibetan Women’s Association (RTWA) of Dharamsala on Saturday organized a symbolic celebration of ‘Raksha Bandhan’, a Hindu festival of tying ‘rakhi‘ (a piece of holy thread) round the wrist of brothers, to cherish and tie “bond of brotherhood with India”.
Raksha Bandhan (bond of protection), also called Rakhi Bandhan, is a Hindu festival of love, faith and protection and is being celebrated all over India today. On the occasion, the sisters tie up the sacred traditional thread of ‘rakhi’ round the wrist of their brothers to save them from all evils and to cherish the chaste bond of love between brothers and sisters.
Members of Tibetan Women’s Association, armed with rakhis for their Indian brothers, participated in the symbolic religious festival of Raksha Bandhan here today at the courtyard of the Main Tibetan Temple (Tsuglag-Khang).
Members of the local taxi and Auto unions and Tibet supporters joined the celebration.
The RTWA members, joined by the Tibetan Women’s Association President Dr B. Tsering, tied the sacred traditional thread of rakhi round the wrist of Indian brothers and offered traditional Indian sweets to them. Members earlier on Thursday visited different local Indian administrative offices to extend advance greetings to officials.
“Initiating social and cultural interactions like this one can help strengthen our existing bond of friendship with local Indian community here,” Dharamsala RTWA president Kelsang Youdon told Phayul.
“As per tradition of the day, we would like to extend greetings to our Indian brothers,” she added.
“Tibetans throughout history have developed a unique and strong relationship with the people of India,” she explains, adding “We would like to celebrate this auspicious day and tie the bond of brotherhood with India”.
“Tibet now faces a grave historical challenge and we have once again turned towards India for strategic support,” she said. Saying Tibetans have been following the non-violent path shown by Mahatma Gandhi; Kelsang said, “India is Tibet’s teacher in our struggle against the oppressor”.
She said those Tibetans, who rose gallantly all over Tibet since March 10 against Chinese oppression, were treated with swift and harsh military crackdown, which left more than 200 Tibetans dead, over a thousand arbitrarily arrested and many more still missing.
Describing India as a “peace-loving, non-violent and the biggest democratic country in the world”, she urged India to support Tibetan people’s cause more openly.
