Phuntsog Wangyal* reflects on the vicissitudes of times dating from what he witnessed during a delegation visit to Tibet in 1980 in a period of relative relaxation through the exile Tibetan government’s 1988 decision to seek autonomy, not independence for Tibet, and to what has come of it thus far, arguing that deception being the fundamental strategy of China, Tibetans should not give up their independence struggle.
I was a member of the Second Tibet Fact Finding Delegation sent to Tibet by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1980. Recently the leader of our delegation, Tenzin Namgyal Tethong, called me to consider writing a postscript about the delegation’s visit to Tibet.
Some 44 years ago in 1980 the delegation visited Tibet. For me that visit to Tibet was the most eventful mission of my life, full of both joy and sadness: joy at the first ever visit to our homeland after 21 years in exile, and sadness at witnessing the nearly total destruction of our country and the suffering of our people. I take this occasion therefore to publish my reflections on that visit so that we can continue to remind ourselves of the suffering of the people in Tibet, their efforts to resist Chinese rule and their spirit of dedicated commitment for the freedom of Tibet. This is also my attempt to reflect on the past and to appreciate what many of our compatriots suffered and died for in fighting for a Free Tibet.
Some of you may remember a public talk I gave in Darjeeling on 7th of September in 1980 soon after returning to India from an extensive tour of three months and fifteen days in Tibet. This was published in full in the Tibetan language journal, ‘Tibetan Freedom’. I also wrote a personal report which was published in 1981 in the ‘Tibet News Review’ of the Tibetan Community in Britain. [Tibet News Review, Special Issue Vol.1 No 3/4 Winter 1980/81]. I have also copied them to my delegation colleagues: Tenzin Namgyal Tethong, Tsering Dorjee, Pema Gyalpo and Losang Jinpa, and have requested them to consider sharing their experiences of the visit.
On our return to Dharamsala Losang Jinpa, who was entrusted with the duty of recording the daily events of our visit, submitted his report of the delegation to the Kashag. Unfortunately, I do not have access to that report nor do any of my colleagues as I understand it. What I said and wrote some 44 years ago are somewhat old narratives and they are long. But I feel that the messages sent by the Tibetans in Tibet at that time are still very relevant. They are a living record of historical importance, and because they are important, I hope some of you will have the patience to read and reflect on them.

What I heard from the people and learnt about the situation on the ground during our tour of Tibet changed my perception of the highly praised social reforms introduced since the Chinese occupation and I came to understand the reality of the Chinese rule. I found them saying one thing and doing the opposite. I can never forget key messages that the people in Tibet tried to convey. I quote here two messages from the people as examples, “Please protect (free) us from living under this enemy. We will never be able to live under this evil China” (དགྲ་འདི་འོག་ལ་སྡད་མི་དགོས་པའི་སྐྱབས་འཇུག་ཐུགས་རྗེ་གཟིགས། རྒྱ་ངན་འདིའི་འོག་ལ་ང་ཚོ་་ནམ་ཡང་སྡོད་ཐབས་རྩ་བ་ནས་མེད།). In other slogans they said: “Tibet is completely independent. Long live His Holiness for thousands of years” (བོད་རངདབང་རང་བཙན་གཙང་མ་ཡིན། རྒྱལ་བ་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུ་སྐུ་ཙེ་ཁྲི་ཁྲག་བརྟན་པར་ཤོག)
These sentiments and the Tibetan people’s determination to struggle for a Free Tibet continue to resonate till this day. The time has come for us in exile to realise that we have to learn from them, to be accountable to them, and to draw inspiration from their hardship and continued resistance to Chinese rule.
I repeat what I said before: deception is a fundamental principle of communist strategy to defeat their enemies. Chinese deception led India to become the first country to recognise Communist China (PRC) and led the United States to recognize and support its seat in the UN Security Council. Now, 75 years later, China has become the biggest threat to security and democracy in the world. In 1951 the Tibetan government in Lhasa signed the 17-Point Agreement, trusting that China would honour the agreement to respect the status of the Dalai Lama. But the Chinese broke their agreements one after another. In the end – in 1959 – Tibetans had to revolt and some eighty thousand of them were reported to have been killed at this time, and His Holiness had to flee the country.
Similarly, in 1988 the Tibetan Government-in-Exile gave up their demand for independence and proposed to accept a ‘genuine’ Autonomy within communist China, with the hope that China would honour its commitments. Far from getting any positive response from China, we are now in a situation where even uttering the name of the Dalai Lama and displaying the Tibetan National flag is a crime. Tibetan children are groomed in boarding schools to be brought up as Chinese and to ignore their own language and culture. Tibetan culture has become a showcase for tourists, and the vast land of Tibet is becoming a new resettlement ground for an ever-increasing Chinese population.
Throughout this time, many countries in the world remained largely ignorant of the sufferings of the Tibetan people because reporting from Tibet was restricted to communist sympathisers. For a brief few years foreign tourists were permitted to visit Tibet and during this time there was a huge increase in sympathy and support for Tibet. But the bamboo curtain has again descended and little news now comes out of Tibet. The CCP controls the information coming out of Tibet and is quick to punish any support for Tibet. This has led to a policy of appeasement on the issue of Tibet and an acceptance of the Chinese claim – loudly and insistently repeated – that Tibet is a purely internal affair of China. Meanwhile China has aggressively expanded its influence in the world. While China’s loud version of its claims go unchecked, we Tibetans on the other hand seem to depend heavily on prayers and wishful thinking, and are often too busy quarrelling amongst ourselves to present our case to the world. These are just a few examples to remind us of actual realities that we need to be aware of.

As Buddhists we aim to achieve Enlightenment (an end of suffering) through realisation of the four noble truths: recognising the existence of suffering, identifying the causes of suffering, analyzing methods and finally becoming free from suffering. We have witnessed the suffering of the Tibetan people and have known that the main cause of their suffering is the Chinese occupation. Yet due to the magic power of the Chinese deception and its belligerent repetition of its self-serving view of history, many countries fail to stand up for the rights of the Tibetan people and Tibetans also have begun to lose focus of their objective of independence. Like attaining Buddhahood, liberation or freedom does not come easily or without cost. Ultimately it is the Tibetan people who have to struggle, to fight and to earn their freedom.
Having said that, we have to remember that no empires last forever. The great British Empire on which the sun never set is now a thing of the past. Dictators like Saddam Hussein who ruled with an iron fist survived for a time but ended in disgrace. The Chinese Communist Empire and its dictator Xi Jinping also will not last forever. The free world was slow to understand what Napoleon Bonaparte once warned: “China is a sleeping giant, when she wakes she will shake the world”. It is time for the free world to wake up and take measures to face the challenges ahead.
For Tibetans it is time to reaffirm our faith in the Law of Impermanence. The path to freedom may be rough and long, but in the end the Tibetan people will be free. However dark the night may be, light will shine as the sun rises. The Tibetan people and their government need a determined objective of independence and a sustained will to endure and continue fighting for it. What I understand by this is that we must never cease from presenting our view of our history and never cease from stating clearly what it is that we want for our country – which is to be free. Never Give Up.
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* Phuntsog Wangyal is a former Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in London and a former Member of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile