Standing up for Tibet

Standing up for Tibet
Image: Yeshi Tsomo and others will send a message to Canberra on Tibet Advocacy Day. Photo: Chris Peken

At the age of 14, Yeshi Tsomo made the hazardous trek across the Himalayas from Tibet into Nepal, escaping the repression of the Chinese government.

Accompanied only by her cousin, Ms Tsomo left her family behind in Tibet seeking a new life in India, where she lived in the hill station of Dharamsala before studying in the southern city of Chennai.

“It was quite a long journey across the Himalayas to get to Nepal. So it really took us a long time, it was windy and it was really hard for us,” Ms Tsomo said.

India, she explains, is not a signatory to the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention. “So even though there are a large number of people in India coming from other countries, we are not refugees. We are stateless.”

Now age 32, Ms Tsomo resides in Stanmore and is studying a Masters in Human Rights at the University of Sydney. Her goal is to work with refugees in Australia.

“Last year I did a Diploma in Community Service and after I finish my studies at uni, I’m really looking forward to doing community work,” she said.

“Hopefully I can work with refugees and asylum seekers.”

Next week, Ms Tsomo will undertake a journey of a different kind, as part of a 12-member delegation bound for Canberra who are urging support for the Tibetan cause.

A series of meetings with senators and members of parliament will take place on Tibet Advocacy Day, March 17, which is organised by the Australia Tibet Council and is in its third year.

The delegation will discuss the situation in Tibet from a Tibetan perspective as well as raise awareness of the public support the issue has within politicians’ constituencies.

“Not all the politicians are aware of what’s going on inside Tibet. We’re really going there with the hope that we can give them some insights about the Tibet issue,” Ms Tsomo said.

“The Chinese have such strong propaganda…and the politicians hear only the one side of the story, so I hope to give them a balanced perspective from both sides.”

Since 2009, 127 Tibetans have self-immolated. Ms Tsomo said the underlying reasons for this situation will be discussed at the meetings in Canberra.

“If you look at why they are self-immolating it’s because of the repressions, especially the religious repressions that are taking place inside Tibet,” she said.

“Also because of the economic marginalisation of the Tibetan people and then the environmental policies the Chinese government has followed.”

Another issue the delegation will be addressing is the Chinese government’s policy of resettling nomadic Tibetans in urban areas.

“It is causing us great social and economic problems because a large number of Tibetans are nomads and the nomad’s way of the life is the only way of life these Tibetans have known,” Ms Tsomo said.

“So once they are moved into the urban area they really lose their livelihood, their sense of identity. [It is] causing more social problems in terms of unemployment, gambling and alcoholism.”

For Ms Tsomo, the solution would be to have genuine autonomy under Chinese rule, which is a view shared by the Dalai Lama and the Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, Dr Lobsang Sangay.

“Under genuine autonomy what we are really asking for is our own power to make decisions regarding our culture, environment and economy,” she said.

Tibet Advocacy Day will take place in Canberra on March 17.

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