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On the 60th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising, activists say the 'resistance spirit' is still alive
Lhadon Tethong, director of the Tibet Action Institute, addresses a crowd outside of Boston City Hall in Boston, Massachusetts. During a March 8 rally, the group raised the Tibetan flag in front of the government building. Boston will fly the Tibetan flag over the government center until March 14.
A Tibetan flag flutters alongside a Massachusetts one and the US flag outside Boston City Hall, marking the 60 years since the Tibetan uprising in Lhasa prompted the Dalai Lama to flee his palace.A group of Tibetans and activists gathered on a frigid Friday to hoist the flag, which will fly through March 14.
Lhadon Tethong held her 2-year-old son in her arms as the flag was raised. Like her son, Tethong was not born in Tibet. Her father fled his homeland after the uprising, so she was born in Canada and never lived in Tibet. Tethong, director of the Tibetan Action Institute, has been an activist most of her life.
A woman stands with her back to the camera and holds a young child. A group of people is watching a flag move up a flagpole
The March 10 anniversary is a bitter one for Tibetans, she says. "It was the ultimate sort of breaking moment for their lives, for people fleeing into exile, for His Holiness leaving Tibet."
"It was the ultimate sort of breaking moment for their lives, for people fleeing into exile, for His Holiness leaving Tibet," Tethong said. "For all the Tibetans that have lived like my father in exile for so long, who thought for a very long time that they would be going home. Sixty years is a long time. And so that sadness " I think every Tibetan and I feel it even having been born and raised in the West."
The Dalai Lama was supposed to attend a dance troupe performance on March 10, 1959, but he was told he could not bring soldiers, and his bodyguards could not be armed. Soon, thousands of people in Lhasa surrounded the Norbulingka palace. A few days later, the Dalai Lama fled Lhasa for India. Tibetan rebels launched an attack on March 19, but Chinese troops captured the city on March 25. Some 87,000 Tibetans were killed, and some 100,000 fled as refugees.
"After a decade of China trying to consolidate its rule in Tibet, Tibetans were saying enough is enough," Tethong explained. "'China out! Tibet for Tibetans!' These are the slogans that they used."
A Chinese guard stands in front of the Potala PalaceA paramilitary policeman stands guard in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. The Potala Palace, once the seat of Tibetan government and traditional residence of Dalai Lama, is 1,300 years old and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Credit: Damir Sagolj/Reuters
Tethong, now 42, first became an activist in college. The Free Tibet movement is less prominent than it was in the late 1990s and early 2000s there are fewer "Free Tibet" bumper stickers but support of the movement meant a lot to activists and Tibetans.
A bumper sticker on the rear of a car near the taillight says "Free Tibet"A "Free Tibet" sticker is seen on a Volkswagen Beetle car during a public talk by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Frankfurt May 14, 2014.
Hollywood actors like Steven Seagal and Richard Gere support the movement. In 1994, the Beastie Boys sampled two Tibetan monks on their album, "Ill Communication," and created a fund to disperse royalties to them.
US rap group the Beastie Boys perform at the first Tibetan Freedom Concert before an ethnic Chinese audience in Taipei on April 20, 2003. The Tibetan Freedom Concert, which began in 1996, raises money to support human rights in Tibet. Credit: Richard Chung RC/FA via Reuters
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