DHARAMSALA, India: More than 600 people carried lit candles and chanted for a free Tibet as a global protest movement inspired by internal Tibetan dissent entered its seventh day.
Children, monks, young men, women and the elderly – most of them Tibetans – marched through the streets of McLeod Ganj, a hill station town in India’s northern Himachal Pradesh state that is kilometers away from Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile.
A day that began with an organized march, candlelight vigils and flag demonstrations, ended peacefully as thousands of candles lit up the window frames of homes dotted across the hills of this northern Indian region, signaling the exiled community’s solidarity with those in Tibet.
One week after Tibetans inside and outside Tibet launched a serious efforts to revive the spirit of a 1959 uprising, an increasing number of Tibetans in India joined ranks with the protestors.
Local area Tibetan activists helped bolster the mood by distributing free Tibetan flags and encouraging people to fly them proudly.
“I have this brainwave last night,” said Tenzing Janyang, 31, who runs Rogpa, a support network. “I thought this would be a good way to demonstrate our solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Tibet.”
The bright yellow, red and blue flag is banned in the People’s Republic of China and is a symbol of resistance for Tibetan activists.
Collecting funds from friends and family Janyang bought over a 1,000 Tibetan flags and handed them out. Hundreds of Tibetans and other supporters pinned them onto their shirts or waved them in the air as they chanted for Tibet’s freedom.
“It’s the eve of the Chinese government threat to Tibetans to stop their protests,” said Janyang referring to the Chinese government’s Monday 17th warning that Tibetans cease their protests. “We thought flying our flag high was a great way to pay tribute to the people who have been killed fighting for our freedom.”
New from Tibet filtered in through international organizations, news media and Tibet connections as flyers and news bulletins were distributed at the peace vigil.
Information about the aggressive response of the Chinese police to a protest by 2,800 monks at Amdo Ngaba Kirti Monastery in Tibet was detailed in circular distributed by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, a Tibetan non-governmental organization.
Constant news reports from Tibet have helped enlist more people into the ranks of the disaffected.
Lobten Tenzing, 22 and Lmsang Teharcho, 25, both monks came to India from Tibet, six years ago joined the protests today. They have no news about their families in Tibet but news of Chinese military action against peaceful protestors has brought both of them out onto the streets.
“”We are fulfilling our dreams because we want to take our country back,” said Tenzing. “We will never give up out country without fighting for it.”
More Tibetans in exile have come out onto the streets since yesterday when a spontaneous march drew about 2,000 people out onto the streets of McLeod Gang and Dharamsala.
“We were watching from up here,” said Dawa Lokyitsang, 23, a Tibetan American, who has been in McLeod Ganj for the last nine months and is helping Students for a Free Tibet. “It started with just ten guys shouting out for a free Tibet, and within five minutes people started emerging from their homes and there were 100 people.”
Within an hour some 2,000 people had joined the protest from McLeod Ganj to Dharamsala where the Tibetan government-in-exile has its headquarters.
On the way they hauled out an effigy of Chinese president Hun Jin Tao and burnt it.
The protest caused a little bit of tension in the Mcleod Ganj-Dharamsala area, which has been home to thousands of Tibetans since the Chinese government took over Tibet in 1959.
Indian authorities arrested a group of over 100 Tibetans four days ago when they began a peace march to highlight their opposition to Chinese rule over Tibet as the Beijing Olympics draws near. A second group of 44 Tibetans that set off after the first arrest has not yet been arrested.
“India is caught up in a tight spot,” said Lokyitsang. “It’s not sure whether it should listen to the condemnation of the international community or the Chinese government.”
Few expect that the coordinated and spontaneous protests organized outside Chinese embassies in several countries, will have the desired impact on Chinese authorities but the spirit of hope hung in the air in Dharamsala and McLeod Ganj.
“We have hope,” said Janyang, who was born in Dharamsala and whose parents were among the first to join the Dalai Lama in India in 1960. “We always have hope. I’m always hoping and dreaming that my next morning sunrise will be in Tibet.”
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