Candlelight vigil held in Dharamsala to express solidarity with Hong Kong

DHARAMSALA, 20 Aug: Tibetans and supporters of Hong Kong carried out a candlelight vigil on 19 Aug. evening to express solidarity and support their fight for justice and right to self-determination.

The candlelight vigil was organised by the Gu Chu Sum Movement of Tibet, an organization of former Tibetan political prisoners based in the exiled headquarter.

“We stand with the nations and the world leaders across the world that called on China for a peaceful solution to the protests and respect the rights of people of Hong Kong,” the NGO formed by former Tibetan political prisoners said in their press release.

Gu Chu Sum further urged the leaders and nations who have remained silent on the issue to condemn the ‘atrocities inflicted upon non-violent protesters in Hong Kong’.

The organisation further said that it is important that we echo the message the mass protesters in Hong Kong are sending to the world that the Chinese Communist Regime and is not ‘trustworthy’.

Led by a Tibetan with a microphone with banners that read ‘Hong Kong is not China’ and ‘Tibet solidarity with Hong Kong, the participants marched from the main square in Mcleod Ganj to the Martyr’s Pillar at Tsug-lag-Khang, the main temple.

Marching through the town at around 6 pm, the participants recited Jangchub Semchok prayer [Generation of Boddhisatva’s heart]:

May the precious bodhicitta

Be awakened where it has not

And where it has already been awakened

May it not diminish but grow and flourish evermore.

Lhagyari Namgyal Dolkar, the President of Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet briefed the gathering about the ongoing mass protest in Hong Kong that ensued for more than ten weeks.

“It was very important that we all come together and pay our solidarity with the Hong Kong brothers and sisters and to let them know that we care about them and to let them know that what they are doing in Hong Kong is the right thing to do, how courageous they are and how proud we are of them. We understand that the message that they are trying to tell us,” she said.

Gu-Chu- Sum’s President further read a message from an activist friend of her from the Hong Kong to the supporters here in Dharamsala.

“Thank you so much for your support. We all stand together and fight for universal suffrage and democracy,” the activist has said in her message.

She has further said that she read more about the history of Tibet lately and that it has a great meaning to the present situation in Hong Kong.

“Many people have started to realise that we would face the same conditions like Tibetans. We are in a messy situation the protest has been carried out for around three months. Many of the pro-democracy politicians are arrested and wounded by the Hong Kong police and gangsters sent by the Chinese government,” she said in the message.

“Even with that we won’t lose our hope, thank you again for standing with Hong Kong and pray for our victory and safety,” she concluded.

Tibetan writer and activist Tenzin Tsundue speaking at the event said that the message of Hong Kong People is very clear, the message is about freedom.

“Hong Kong people have said it, and we have always been saying. Freedom now, democracy in Hong Kong.”

Tsundue added that what Hongkongers are undergoing today, Tibetans have been exactly suffering the same over the last 70 years under the communist regime.

He concluded by saying that what is happening in Hong Kong today will happen in China tomorrow.

“Hong Kong today, China tomorrow.”