Tibetans at Gothangaon hope to see Tibet free of communist China's occupation

Tibetans at Gothangaon shared the hope that someday their homeland Tibet, the spiritual kingdom, will be free from communist China's occupation on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day today.

Sharing the story of Tsering Wangmo from Gothangaon camp in Gondia district, Kartik Lokhande, writing in The Hitavada said that she was seven-year-old when communist China's final invasion of Tibet came in 1959, now 70-year old with teary eyes said, "Tibet should be freed of Chinese occupation. I feel that my end should come in free Tibet..."

On March 10, 1959, the Tibetan people revolted against the brutal occupation of their homeland by the communist Chinese forces. For Tibetans in exile, March 10 every year marks the anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising.

This year, they observe the 63rd anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising. The 14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetans, and scores of his followers had to flee Tibet in 1959. Since then taking refuge in India at Dharamshala and other places, the Dalai Lama has kept the flame of Tibet's Independence alive and a Tibetan Parliament in Exile works in that direction.

There are several Tibetan settlements/camps in India where the Tibetans in exile live, keeping alive their dream and preserving their culture and tradition. Gothangaon Tibetan Settlement is the only such camp in Maharashtra, said Lokhande.

Karma Gelek, Member of Tibetan Parliament in Exile, tells 'The Hitavada' that his father too had died in Tibet. Like the Tibetans he leads, he strongly wishes to see Lhasa in Tibet before his death.

"Chinese have created such conditions there at present that we cannot go visit our homeland Tibet," he lamented.

Meanwhile, the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, headquartered in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, issued a statement on Wednesday, on the eve of the 63rd anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising.

In the statement, it flayed the communist Chinese Government for persecution and oppression unleashed in Tibet. Also, it reiterated the call to China to enter into 'a substantive dialogue', reported The Hitavada.

"In this way, the government of China deprived the Tibetan people, the rightful owners of their national territory, of everything they ever owned, including the most basic of their human freedoms while subjecting them to such degrees of persecution and torture as if they stood condemned to live in hell on this land of the living itself. There is no mistake about the fact that the ultimate objective of the government of China is to turn Tibet into Chinese both in its outer form and internal substance," it added.

As per the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, a total of 156 Tibetans have carried out protests accompanied by self-immolation since 2009. It accused the communist Chinese government of persisting on 'misrepresenting the actual situation in Tibet with nothing but outright lies and distorted narratives and concealing the reality from Chinese people and the international community by means of 'employing all sorts of propaganda subterfuge,' said Lokhande.

In an effort to 'Sinicize' the Tibetans, it added, China was shutting down privately run Tibetan schools accompanied by Tibetan students being made to study policies of the communist Chinese Government and speeches of its leaders.

It also alleged that China had carried out destructions in Drakgo County in the Tibetan province of Kham including that of a 99-feet statue of the Buddha, prayer wheels containing a hundred million rounds of the text of six-syllable Tibetan Buddhist mantra, demolition at Chanang Monastery etc. Besides, it accused China of arresting and beating Tibetan scholars, monks, reported The Hitavada.

( With inputs from ANI )

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