JAMPA TASHIThe Present
Jampa Tashi is a prisoner
Jampa Tashi supports the Dalai Lama's Middle Path Approach, though he is no longer a monk.
Jampa Tashi realises the importance of modern English education, so I find him with a book of alphabets (English) looking at pictures of apples and balls and cats and dogs.
Jampa Tashi stays at the Gu Chu Sum [See footnote] centre in McLeodganj, India
The Escape
Jampa Tashi cannot escape his district so he travels to Lhasa, secretly acquires a passport to travel to the China- Nepal border.
Jampa Tashi spends 6600 yuan (about Rs 32000) for a guide.
Jampa Tashi is expelled from the monastery after his release.
Jampa Tashi is released on November 29, 2006
The Past
Jampa Tashi spends his time in prison reciting Tibetan mantras. The power of Buddhism gives him inner strength.
Jampa Tashi spends 7- 8 years in solitary confinement. (This time there was another person in his cell intermittently, I presume!).
Jampa Tashi also spends 4 years in jail where the Chinese try (torture?) to instill Maoist ideology. (There were a group of 17-18 mates/monks).
Jampa Tashi spends 4 years working on a prison farm.
Jampa Tashi and 3 other monks arrive in prison.
How He Got Here
The Past
Jampa Tashi spends his time in prison reciting Tibetan mantras. The power of Buddhism gives him inner strength.
Jampa Tashi spends 7- 8 years in solitary confinement. (This time there was another person in his cell intermittently, I presume!).
Jampa Tashi also spends 4 years in jail where the Chinese try (torture?) to instill Maoist ideology. (There were a group of 17-18 mates/monks).
Jampa Tashi spends 4 years working on a prison farm.
Jampa Tashi and 3 other monks arrive in prison.
How He Got Here
Jampa Tashi is sentenced by a county court to 12 years in prison including another 4 years of deprivation of political rights. One of his mates gets 5 years in prison, another 15.
Jampa Tashi is detained for one month and three days.
How He Got Here…really
Jampa Tashi is frustrated since the Chinese restrict admission to monks, so he and a few others paste 'Free Tibet' slogans on a county gate on 29 March 1994.
Jampa Tashi spends the first four years of his life as a monk renovating the monastery destroyed by Mao's Cultural Revolution.
Jampa Tashi is sent to the monastery at age 17.
Jampa Tashi is a farmer from Chamdo in the Tibetan Autonomous Region
What He Said
- I think the Chinese take away Tibetan resources, products. I think the Chinese are hungry
- The Chinese told me Tibet was developed. They asked me to surrender and the prison sentence would be lowered.
- Today I'm Free, But only physically
Jampa Tashi is a prisoner.
Footnote
Gu Chu Sum is an organisation established by ex- political prisoners of Tibet. The name refers to the months when major demonstrations occurred in Lhasa.
Gu – September 27, 1987
Chu – October 1, 1987
Sum – March 5 1988
http://www.guchusum.org/
Jampa Tashi is detained for one month and three days.
How He Got Here…really
Jampa Tashi is frustrated since the Chinese restrict admission to monks, so he and a few others paste 'Free Tibet' slogans on a county gate on 29 March 1994.
Jampa Tashi spends the first four years of his life as a monk renovating the monastery destroyed by Mao's Cultural Revolution.
Jampa Tashi is sent to the monastery at age 17.
Jampa Tashi is a farmer from Chamdo in the Tibetan Autonomous Region
What He Said
- I think the Chinese take away Tibetan resources, products. I think the Chinese are hungry
- The Chinese told me Tibet was developed. They asked me to surrender and the prison sentence would be lowered.
- Today I'm Free, But only physically
Jampa Tashi is a prisoner.
Footnote
Gu Chu Sum is an organisation established by ex- political prisoners of Tibet. The name refers to the months when major demonstrations occurred in Lhasa.
Gu – September 27, 1987
Chu – October 1, 1987
Sum – March 5 1988
http://www.guchusum.org/
Photo Credits: Sushmit Ghosh
nice read.
ReplyDeleteNow one can never forget Jampa Tashi, the way he and his life story have been depicted here!
ReplyDelete