Students for Tibet helps spread international awareness

By Francesca Lo Basso
Collegian Staff
April 5, 2006

Let’s say I walk up to you and hand you an American flag. And let’s say you hold it. What would you do if I then said that you were under arrest? You’d laugh in my face, because it’s not a crime. That is, unless you live in Tibet, where if you’re caught with a Tibetan flag, you’re imprisoned. If you’re caught with a picture of the Dalai Lama, you’re imprisoned.

You’ll know that you’re in Tibet because people talk about it. It’s where Mount Everest is. It’s where the Dalai Lama’s from. And yet Tibet isn’t on a map. It doesn’t have a team in the Olympics. Its leader isn’t recognized by one of the largest and most powerful nations in the world.

China forced the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, into exile in 1959 when it invaded the Buddhist country. It’s been almost 50 years since he was forced to flee, and he still hasn’t been able to return. The man, who stands as an international symbol of compassion for all beings and literally exudes peace in every step and mannerism, has been refused acknowledgement by the Chinese government for a half-century.

Tibetan Buddhists believe in reincarnation. The point of practicing Buddhism is to prepare yourself for death, so that in the moment before dying, you can control your consciousness and choose what body it will be reborn in. The current Dalai Lama is the reincarnation of the Buddha of Compassion known as Avalokiteshvara.

When the Dalai Lama dies, there needs to be someone to recognize his reincarnated form, and that person is known in Tibetan Buddhism as the Panchen Lama. The Chinese government kidnapped the Panchen Lama in 1995, when he was just five years old, and has had him ever since. There has been no information on his whereabouts or condition, except that in 1996 the Chinese government admitted to having him. Only recently was the topic of the Panchen Lama reissued—China released a public statement denying that the boy in question was the real Panchen Lama, and instead, instituted one of its own.

I could go on longer than reruns of Law & Order about the crimes against Tibet, but I’d rather tell you about what you can do to change it. I helped to start a chapter of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) at La Salle this year. This international organization, consisting of 650 chapters worldwide, is dedicated to freeing the Tibetan people and preserving their culture.

This may sound like another bit of liberal propaganda, all hippie-like and full of fluff, but that’s not true. SFT has really made a difference because students like you around the world have given it their time and energy. Students actually managed to influence a decision made by the World Bank (a D.C.-based organization with 124 affiliates internationally). In July 2000, a proposed World Bank loan of eight billion dollars that would have funded the move of 58,000 Chinese settlers into Tibet’s Amdo Province collapsed. The project would have facilitated China’s continuing population transfer efforts, which have already made Tibetans a minority in much of their own nation. Fifteen months worth of all those hippie-like protests that people are so fond of scoffing at are what stopped the institution. No one in history had ever been able to influence the World Bank before SFT.

So now I’m asking you to help. Maybe the idea of a foreign country halfway around the world suffering from oppression is too far removed from you. Doesn’t it always seem like these things only happen halfway around the world? But the truth is, injustice happens everywhere. Maybe it’s not because you’re Tibetan. Maybe it’s because you’re black, or gay, or a woman or poor. But it’s unjust, unfounded and unfair all the same. What’s remarkable about injustice is that it can inspire you to fight in ways complacency never could. Most of us want things to change, but the question is, how bad do we want it? I can truthfully answer—bad enough to get involved. What about you?

Go to www.studentsforafreetibet.org for more information. I’m hosting a benefit concert in the ballroom on Apr. 20 with performers Melody Gardot and John Francis. Go to www.melodygardot.com for more info.

lobassof1@lasalle.edu