Fire Under the Snow

At this year’s Montreal Human Rights Film Festival, I went to see “Fire Under the Snow”, a film about Palden Gyatso, a Tibetan Buddhist monk who spent 33 years in Chinese jails. The documentary was simple but well made – it captured the real nature of the monk who drew me into the Tibet movement nine years ago.

I first heard about Palden Gyatso in high school. I was then a member of the Amnesty International club at school and had just learned about the situation in Tibet. A friend of mine, who was a member of Students for a Free Tibet, insisted that I come to see Palden’s public talk.

Just like in his talk nine years ago, in “Fire Under the Snow” Palden tells the story of how he was arrested for protesting against China’s invasion of Tibet in 1959. He shows the tools the Chinese prison guards used to torture him and the other inmates, describing in gory detail how he was tied up, hanged, shocked, and beaten. And yet, despite the horrible pain inflicted on him, Palden la never gave in to his interrogators’ demands that he denounce his teacher as a spy nor did he lie about his motivations for protesting. Whenever questioned, he honestly told the prison guards that Tibet was independent and that he protested for it to be so yet again. After 23 years in several prisons and 10 years in hard labour camps, Palden was released and escaped to Dharamsala, India, where he still lives. Instead of staying in a monastery with fellow monks, Palden chose to live in a small room that I used to pass on my way to temple so that he could continue to work for Tibetan independence.

Nine years ago, Palden’s story moved me more than any other political prisoner’s case had. I was amazed by the small, smiling monk who sat humbly but resolute at the front of the room, with a great sense of humour and deep compassion for the Chinese people and his prison guards, even after so many years of brutal torture. Because of his talk, I joined the local chapter of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) who had helped organize his cross-Canada tour.

Last year, Palden was attending a press conference in Dharamsala that SFT had helped organize for the Spanish lawsuit against the Chinese government, in which he is a main witness of the genocide being carried out in Tibet. A friend, knowing that Palden la had inspired me to join the Tibet movement, took me to meet him after the press conference. When we were introduced, Palden la held my hand, smiled sincerely, and said “good friends!”

It is the strength and dedication of Tibetans like Palden Gyatso who keep me involved in the movement. If they still have hope, then so will I. It’s infectious – as I’m sure the rest of the audience at “Fire Under the Snow” would agree.

Ma nuit blanche à Montréal

"La nuit blanche" (the all-nighter) is an annual festival designed to encourage Montrealers to come out of their hibernation at the end of a long winter. Museums, art galleries and venues all over the city stay open over-night and the metro and buses run to get everyone home safely.

I met up with a childhood friend and her sweet French boyfriend to check out the festivities. They had met while traveling around Europe and like me, returned to Montreal with a lingering desire to be out in the world. After a photo exhibit of flea markets, we fittingly found ourselves at Bain St. André, an old empty swimming pool that is now used as a venue for photo exhibits, music and dance performances. The exhibit that night was a travelogue of a road trip from Canada down to South America. The artists had a slide show playing on the wall with music that could have been the soundtrack of their trip. The photos, hung from the old piping in the building, reminded the three of us what it’s like to be in a completely different environment to what we are used to, with all of its sights, smells and noises. The descriptions accompanying the photos captured the thoughts that go through conscious travellers’ minds as they try to understand the new environment in which they find themselves. The exhibit culminated in a call to do whatever makes you happy, now – striving to bring the emotions, experiences, and sense of adventure of the open road into your everyday life. It was uplifting to know that there are other people in this city who have the same mindset as me, my friend and her boyfriend, and who have been as deeply touched by their travels as we have been.


Stop number three of the night was a party intersected by dance performances that would organically start in the middle of the dance floor, near the bar, or against a wall of the club. Without fail, the audience gathered around the performers who would dissolve back into the crowd at the end of the performance. My friend, who is a dancer herself, filled me in on all the gossip in the modern dance crowd – who was sleeping with who, who wanted to sleep with who, and who was on what drugs. I was completely swept away by how comfortable dancers seem in their bodies, compared to the rest of us.

Our fourth stop was a free concert by an amazing Quebecois DJ, Ghislain Poirier. In the middle of a huge crowd of people dancing like crazy, I wondered why I had never heard his music before. It was an impressive mix of hip-hop, house, and dancehall with an amazing drummer and MC alongside.


A night out in Montreal wouldn’t be complete without a drunken poutine stop – my first in probably 3 years. For non-Montrealers, poutine is a French Canadian "delicacy" of French fries with cheese curds and gravy on top. It has the ability to sober you up and make you feel guilty for not exercising, both at the same time.

And because it was "la nuit blanche", I got to take the metro home at 5am to my new room in Mile End. This was exactly the night I needed to reconcile me with this city that I used to love… and may grow to love again.

The Call for 'No Losar'

During my last weeks in Dharamsala, the community had been preparing for ‘No Losar’. Taking their cue from their brothers and sisters inside Tibet, Tibetans in exile decided that they would not be celebrating their new year this month. Tibetans traditionally do not celebrate Losar when there has been a death in the family. There is no drinking and visiting friends and family, no new clothes or jewels, and for the children, no pocket money. None of these Losar customs will happen this year, in commemoration of the hundreds – if not thousands – of Tibetans who died during the Uprising last year.

My support for this campaign was not immediate. To me, Losar is an event for Tibetans to celebrate their Tibetanness, and to differentiate themselves from their Chinese oppressors. The two cultures have different New Year dates, which are celebrated with different customs. This call for no Losar seemed to be taking away the one time of year Tibetans get to publicly and proudly celebrate their culture.

But Tibetans’ calls are becoming more courageous and resolute. In the last several days, it has been reported that Tibetans in Ngaba County, Amdo (Chinese province of Sichuan), have posted the following message in their towns:

To the Tibetans of the three provinces, monks, nuns, lay men and women,

Let us unite our strength, and let us not surrender to this evasive system of repression. Let us hold our hands across all three provinces, and share our joys and sorrows.

We must never forget that those killed did not die fighting for their own interests. They died fighting for our just and noble cause and for the freedom of the land of snows.

For that matter we must not celebrate Losar this year.

So long as you are Tibetan, you must not celebrate this Losar.

Do you want to be reunited with your guru? Do you want Tibet to be free?
If yes, then you should cancel Losar celebrations as a political act.

Dear brothers and sisters, do not despair.

(Listen to the message on Students for a Free Tibet’s online daily news show, Our Nation.)

With the idea of no Losar spreading in Tibet and in Tibetan communities worldwide, the Chinese government in Tibet has begun scrambling to assure that Losar celebrations will be held as usual. There have been reports that Chinese officials are offering money for Tibetan families to buy firecrackers for New Year celebrations. The Chinese government knows that the cancellation of Losar will go against their propaganda that Tibetans are happy under their rule. But their domineering attempts to control Tibetans’ lives have only led to the increased politicization of the Losar boycott.

In the last three days, there have been as many protests by Tibetans in Lithang County, Kardze (Sichuan Province). At all three protests, the monks and laypeople called for Independence, the return of the Dalai Lama, and no Losar celebrations. These 21 people were severely beaten and are being held in detention. One of the protesters is now missing. (For more details, visit TCHRD’s website.)

With Tibetans inside Tibet risking their lives to call for the political boycott of Losar, they have won my support. This truly is an amazing and inspiring phase of Tibetan resistance. It may be organic, but it is widespread. It is also very difficult for the Chinese government to control without resorting to brute military force. And as it was during the Uprising of last year, Tibetans inside Tibet and around the world stand united in this latest form of resistance.

Here in Montreal, we will be holding a candlelight vigil to commemorate those who have and continue to sacrifice their lives for the freedom of the Tibetan people. Please join us for this ‘No Losar’ vigil, on Wednesday, February 25th at 5:30pm. We will be gathering at the Place des Arts (near the steps on Saint Catherine street).

For more inspiring stories of courageous resistance, see Students for a Free Tibet’s "Profiles in Courage" countdown to March 10th, the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising.

Fun with Wordle

Wordle is a web-app that takes text and turns it into word clouds—the more often a word is used the bigger it is. This is what my blog looks like:



How this applies to anthropology is beyond me. But it's a fun distraction :)

The Special Meeting and Journey of a Dream

Tsundue was the bearer of the good news. He sat translating for me at the public discussion of the Special Meeting, wearing a traditional Tibetan shirt and blue chuba over his usual jeans and old sneakers, more happy than I have seen him in months. In between peoples’ questions and the panellists’ answers, Tsundue filled me in on the final recommendations of the meeting that was anxiously watched by Tibetans and their supporters around the world.

I had few expectations from this meeting. An important moment in the history of Tibet, I hoped that it would not add to divisions within the movement or discourage the passionate freedom fighters that surround me.

A lot of media coverage focused on how Tibetans decided to stick to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Middle Path approach. However, the resolutions, as I heard them, were a lot more nuanced. The majority of participants at the meeting did in fact agree to continue with the Middle Path but they remain open to the option of independence if there are no concrete results from negotiations with China in the near future. While no one has put a definite time limit on the Middle Path, I find it a definite step in the right direction. But I wonder how naïve it is to believe that China will now be forced to sincerely approach the negotiations, as some have argued. I think that the only way China will ever take the negotiations seriously is if there would be a third-party moderator. Which raises the question: is there any country or third-party that the Chinese leadership trusts enough, who would actually be an unbiased moderator?

There hasn’t been much response from China since the meeting. However, there has been some joking around town that perhaps the Mumbai terrorist attacks this week were China’s response. Interesting considering that the last bombs used in Delhi were proven to be made in China, and that it is well known that China supplies arms to Pakistan.

I was somewhat distracted during the Special Meeting because I was acting as a production coordinator for a friend from Canada who was in town filming a documentary film called Journey of a Dream (check out the teaser). It was perfect timing for Shenpenn and the crew to get some interviews with people who were attending the meeting, some meat for the more political tones of the film. Interviewing Lobsang Sangye and T.C. Tethong outside the meeting, we all felt that we were witnessing history in the making.

On a personal level, it was kind of strange to be an injie girl showing Tibetan friends around town, introducing them to people, organizing trips and interviews. But it was a great experience to see how films are made, and a pleasure to spend my days with such an awesome crew. I can’t wait to see the finished film in 2010!!