Exile Tibetans wearing masks to protect from coronavirus, at a tailoring centre in McLeod Ganj, India, on 6 March 2020. Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal
By Lobsang Wangyal
McLEOD GANJ, India, 6 March 2020
Concern over the new coronavirus has reached the Himalayas, including the village of McLeod Ganj, the capital of the Tibetan diaspora.
In response to the rapid spread of the new virus around the world and global health concerns, the exile Tibetan community is taking precautionary measures.
The office of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has cancelled a teaching scheduled on 9 March, and indefinitely postponed all his engagements.
Information Secretary of the Central Tibetan Administration, TG Arya, announced the postponement of a Global Summit of International Tibetan Associations, to be held in Dharamshala from 2-4 April.
The authorities of the Tibetan Children’s Village Schools have decided to suspend classes VIII and below in all the schools under their jurisdiction, sending children back home just two days after they returned from a two-month winter break. Senior students will remain to prepare for and take the board exams.
However, Secretary Arya announced that the 10 March Tibetan Uprising Day, commemorating the Tibetan resistance to Chinese occupation of Tibet, will be observed. He also said that the Five-Fifty Youth Forum scheduled in August will take place as planned.
There are no reports of any Tibetan in exile contracting the virus so far. The first case in Bhutan was that of a 76-year-old American tourist who arrived in the country on 2 March via India. India has 30 cases, including 15 Italian tourists.
The new 2019 novel coronavirus, officially named COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation (WHO), appeared in Wuhan, China, at the beginning of December 2019. It is believed that the virus first infected people at a seafood market in Wuhan and spread from there.
Reports say that the virus has spread to 86 more countries apart from China. A total of 98,373 confirmed infected, and 3,387 deaths (including 3,043 in China, 148 in Italy, 107 in Iran, 42 in South Korea, 12 in Japan, 12 in the US, seven in France, three in Spain, two each in Australia and Iraq, and one each in the Philippines, Switzerland, UK, San Marino, Thailand, and Taiwan) have been reported around the world as of 6 March 2020.
CTA should arrange isolation rooms in case Tibetans in future get infected. The Tibetan reception center with its large number of unused buildings could come in handy.
The 10th of March is too important an event to go unnoticed. This is when we lost our hearth and home. This is when our world was turned upside down. This is when our legitimate Government in Lhasa was dismantled and the undisputed leader of the Tibetan people was forced to flee to foreign lands.
Yes, the deadly virus is a serious contagion that indeed is dreaded by everyone. Fully respect the concerns of those who are of the opinion that it could spread the disease if there are organised gatherings like the observance of 10th March. However, every event has to be judged according to the merit and demerit that would accrue out of the event.
While there is no doubt that the teachings of HH are supremely meritorious and important, they can be moved to another date. The same can’t be said of the M10 Day which must be observed on the exact date due to the historical context of the event. The teachings gather far more people and that also in very close proximity owing to the scarcity of space for the large attendance during HH’s teachings. while the M10 attracts only the CTA officials, students from TCV Schools, monks, and the Dharamshala resident Tibetans. The teachings attract people from all over the world including mainland China.
I believe the Exile-Government would have taken everything into account and found it necessary to make sure that this very important event in our history is not forgotten by the coming generation who have never seen Tibet and know almost nothing about what really happened to our country. They see the importance of this event as a mark of respect for the 1.2 million precious Tibetans lives lost defending our nation and our right to be a free people. It also is a tribute to the 155 martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for Tibet.
Take precautionary measures to boost your immune system to fight the virus — take a good multi-vitamin, drink mixture of turmeric, ginger, garlic and holy basil (tulsi), and lemon in boiling water. Decrease or stop consumption of sugar and white flour. Prayer, meditation, and exercise also helps your immune system. Cut back on smoking and drinking. Get good sleep and rest.
If the Dalai Lama’s teaching on 9 March was cancelled, why is the protest on 10 March still going on? How is going to a protest with a large number of people safer than attending a teaching?
This is absolutely ridiculous. CTA should immediately turn and cancel the protest. How can we fight the Chinese if many Tibetans catch Coronavirus during the march?
There’s an even greater danger of transmission during the march since an infected person doesn’t remain in one static place but moves around here and there and shouts slogans which throws saliva droplets in the air.
Mentsekhang’s rimsung rilbu pill might help prevent or reduce risk of transmission according to Tibetans. But then, why not wear rimsung rilbu during the teaching of the Dalai Lama and the 10 March protest?
Xi the dictator is responsible for the political decisions that facilitated the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The CCP’s web of misinformation, censorship, and corrupt ethos of putting the party before the people have resulted in the loss of billions from the GDPs of nations, as every affected Government is struggling to contain the disease. The CCP is a political primitive that has no sense of empathy for its citizens.
An estimated 760 million Chinese are in lock down without any thought for the physical and emotional well-being of the people. Their doors are welded closed. The Chinese public are outraged by the early efforts to suppress the information when a well-meaning doctor’s effort to raise the alarm was thwarted and instead was accused him of “rumour-mongering”.
When the genie was well and truly out of the bottle and started spreading like wild fire, Xi and his CCP henchmen scapegoated the “local officials and sacked them” to save their skin. It demonstrates that the CCP prizes secrecy and its own power over the lives of the public. As a result of Xi’s dictatorship and the callous disregard for the well-being of the people and the world at large, the disease has infected 98,000 people and claimed the lives of 3,300 people around the world. Xi and his CCP lied through their teeth and through extraordinary irresponsibility allowed this terrible disease to spread and kill people across the world.
Xi and his cohorts must be held to account and punished for their failure to rein in a most deadly disease by listening to the people who sounded the alarm bells. The situation we are in today is entirely the making of Xi the dictator and his fawning curs, who have brought this disaster to the whole world. The world must not allow the CCP to wash its hands off a few lowly officials.