Marathon Vigil

Tibetan activists stage a protest of Olympian proportions

By MELISSA JELTSEN

del.ico.us | digg it! | reddit!

print | email | 0 Comments

Tibetan flags shook over the pit in Harvard Square, as a man wearing a "Free Tibet" beanie clutched a microphone. Then the chanting rang out, as it has each night since March 15th. It begins with one baritone voice, but is picked up and carried by the group of Tibetans and sympathizers who pray for the dead.

Protestor Kalsang Namgyal translated the prayers as requesting peace for all human beings, and praying for a good reincarnation. Tibetan Buddhist funeral rites last 49 days, or the duration of the transition between death and rebirth. "This is the 38th day," Namgyal said.

When peaceful protests in Lhasa and other cities in Tibet turned violent on March 14th, many Tibetans in the Cambridge area felt they needed to do something, explained Dhondup Phunkhang, a 35-year-old who helps young Tibetan immigrants retain the culture and identity of their homeland. "A lot of young Tibetans were extremely upset and frustrated," he said.

The nightly vigil in Harvard Square honors the many protesters—reports cannot verify how many—who were killed in Tibet during protests against the Chinese government in March. Since the Tibetan uprising, the international media has been largely banned from Tibet. The country has also been closed to domestic and foreign tourists since March 16. The protestors have four requests: They don't want the Olympic torch to go through Tibet and they're requesting the release of all innocent protesters. They also want the international media to be allowed back into Tibet and China to begin a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, which even President Bush has requested.

"We are not against China having the Olympics," Phunkhang said, "but the torch stands for justice, the spirit of mankind ... it would be ridiculous to have it pass through."

Phunkhang said his feelings were mixed when he heard about the recent Tibetan protests—the largest in two decades. "When we heard that monks were protesting in Lhasa, we were overjoyed—at the same time, we also had a lot of reservations," said Phunkhang. "We knew what would happen."

Two columns of white paper mounted on cardboard listed the fallen protesters' names, ages and places of death. The information was reported by the Tibetan Human Rights and Democracy website. A young girl with a red blessing string around her neck asked spectators to sign a petition.

"We have to take an active role, and spread unbiased information about what is going on," Phunkhang said, stressing that the protest was aimed against the Chinese government, not Chinese people. "This is about basic human rights."

He added that the Tibetan community in Greater Boston is clustered in Medford, Malden, Somerville and Cambridge. He estimated there are around 500 Tibetans in the state.

Tenzin Diki, a 24-year-old Tibetan studying English literature at Harvard, said that a powerful communal feeling had come out of the nightly gathering. "We are a community in diaspora, essentially," she said. "It's hard to know how to help family we left back in Tibet."