Tibetan exiles mark 60 years since uprising
Huge crowds gathered at the Dalai Lama’s temple in India on Sunday to commemorate 60 years since the failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule that drove the spiritual leader into exile.
Supporters of the 83-yearold peace icon chanted and prayed at the Buddhist shrine in mountainous Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama established a government-in-exile after fleeing a deadly Chinese crackdown in Tibet in 1959.
Devotees in the Indian hill station the Dalai Lama has called home for six decades waved Tibet’s colourful “snow lion” flag, which China has banned as a symbol of separatism.
Some had “Free Tibet” painted on their faces along with the colours and distinct golden sun of the iconic flag.
“This is a proud day,” Lhakpa Tsering, a Tibetan living in exile in India, said in Dharamsala on Sunday.
“Sixty years we’ve been in exile but still, our struggle is young and fresh and strong so we can give a message to China that until Tibetans remain, our struggle will never end.”
The Dalai Lama was not present at the anniversary ceremony, but chief representatives of the exiled Tibetan administration and foreign dignitaries gathered for the occasion.
Performers dressed in traditional attire danced and recited Tibetan songs at the temple for guests, which organisers said included parliamentarians from 10 nations.
A minute’s silence was held at the outset to remember those killed when China brutally crushed the fledgling Tibetan revolt, a crackdown the government-in-exile claimed killed tens of thousands.
Buddhist Tibet, a vast Himalayan area of plateaus and mountains, declared independence from China in the early 20th century but Beijing took back control in 1951, having sent in thousands of troops.
The Dalai Lama – chosen at the age of two in 1937 as the 14th incarnation of Tibetan Buddhism’s supreme religious leader – was enthroned as head of state after the Chinese invasion. His co-existence with the Beijing authorities was tense and Beijing sent more troops into Tibet.
In the bloodshed that followed, refugees poured over the border into Dharamsala – already then a sanctuary for Tibetan exiles fleeing Chinese repression.
The Dalai Lama won the Nobel Prize in 1989 and remains a thorn in the side of China, which rejects any suggestion of Tibetan autonomy and has blacklisted him as a dangerous separatist.