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New video testifies to repression in Tibet

By Lobsang Wangyal | Tibet Sun

Rinchen Sangpo, the monk who made the documentary ‘Unveiling the Truth’ during its launch in Dharamshala, India, on 25 September 2009. The 90-minute documentary bears testimony to the sufferings of the Tibetans under Chinese rule.Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal/India

A new video covertly shot by a monk in Tibet bears testimony to the Chinese repression in Tibet.

Unveiling the Truth, a 90-minute video, is a series of interviews by Rinchen Sangpo with Tibetans of Golog, the county he hails from, in Amdo (now incorporated into Qinghai Province of China).

In order to expose the Chinese government’s repressive and discriminatory policies in Tibet, Rinchen Sangpo took the initiative to tell the world about all that he has been experiencing and witnessing.

Notwithstanding the imminent danger to their lives, the interviewees openly tell of the suffering and injustice they have endured over the last 50 years under Chinese rule.

A large number of Tibetans from all walks of life in Machen, Golog, were interviewed throughout October of 2008. Rinchen sought the views of the interviewees on three issues: The old Tibet, the events that occurred after the arrival of Chinese forces in Golog in 1958, and the sufferings that Tibetans endured under Chinese rule.

All the interviewees said the people of Tibet were free prior to the Chinese occupation.

They recounted untold misery, including deaths of hundreds of thousands of Tibetans due to torture, starvation and suicide, following the Chinese occupation.

One of the interviewees, Jamtsang Karkyab, 85, recounted that he visited Lhasa when he was 18, and had an audience with the Dalai Lama. After his return to his village, it was invaded by Chinese forces.

He fought against the Chinese, for which he was arrested.

The Chinese confiscated all his wealth, saying he didn’t deserve it, and sentenced him to life in prison.

However, he actually spent about five years in jail.

“I was left with no food to eat or clothes to wear,” Jamtsang says. “After I was released, I had lost my family and all my possessions.”

Many Tibetans died of starvation after the occupation. Both of Jamtsang’s parents and his wife starved to death. The corpses were thrown into huge pits, and the Tibetans were forced to dance on the burial grounds.

Commenting on recent events, Jamtsang said that as the host of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government used the occasion as an opportunity to sell a lie to the world that Tibetans inside Tibet are happy.

Jamtsang is now waiting for the return of the Dalai Lama. His only wish before he dies is to meet the Dalai Lama.

In another testimony in the video, Kartse Drukgyal says that nomads are being driven away from their land, and forced to settle down in concrete houses, against their will. “What the Chinese government wants is the land.”

The filmmaker Rinchen Sangpo could not finish all the interviews he had planned, as the Chinese government had became aware of his shooting of the film. Authorities had issued an arrest warrant against him.

However, he escaped into exile in India with all the footage had shot. He arrived in India at the end of December 2008.

Rinchen Sangpo was born in Akyong village in Golog, Amdo, in 1965. At 14, he was ordained as a monk at the Tongkyab Monastery, and remained there until 2008.

Rinchen Sangpo is credited with setting up two primary schools in Amdo.

Copyright © 2009 Tibet Sun

Published in Tibet Sun