130 women participate in foruth peace march, this one from Dharamshala to Chandigarh
By Philem Dipak Singh
Chandigarh, March 25 – Ask Sangyal Sangmo what it means to walk 260 kilometres from Dharamsala, and she comes across as one quite unimpressed. It is nothing compared to the suffering Tibetans faced in Tibet, says the 65-year-old woman who is one of the 130 Tibetan women participating in the peace march in support of the initiative taken by the Dalai Lama to send his envoys to China.
Sangyal fled Tibet at the age of 20 along with 11 other family members — including her father, mother, brothers and sisters — to escape Chinese persecution. This was after the historic 1959 uprising by Tibetan women against the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
‘‘All my family members died while fleeing Tibet. Some were killed by the Chinese Army and some were captured. I was the only one of my family to reach Nepal,’’ said Sangmo, recollecting the past with a grim face. ‘‘For one year in Nepal, I did not have proper food, shelter or clothes. I lived by begging,’’ Sangmo says.
She said after one year at Nepal, she left for Pithoragarh (now in Uttaranchal) and there she stayed alone for three years working as a daily wage labourer for house and road construction, earning Rs 1.50 per day at that time.
Finally, Sangmo landed at Dharamsala where she met other Tibetans at camps. She married a Tibetan at the age of 25 and now has four daughters.
Today’s peace march was the fourth such. Three have already been conducted —from Dehradun to New Delhi, from Siliguri to Kolkata and from Pune to Mumbai. The marches began on March 12, the 46th anniversary of National Tibetan Women’s Uprising Day. The marches were organised by the Regional Youth Tibetan Congress (RYTC) and Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA). The peace marchers said they received co-operation from Indian people all along the route.
