Gu-Chu- Sum marks ‘Day of the Imprisoned Writer’ with poetry night

DHARAMSALA, Nov 16: Gu-Chu- Sum Movement of Tibet, an organization of former political prisoners of Tibet, marked ‘Day of the Imprisoned Writer’ with a poetry night in the woods in Dharamsala yesterday.

On the occasion of the 38th anniversary of the Day of the Imprisoned Writer, Dharamsala-based Tibetan NGO formed by former Tibetan political prisoners held a poetry night in the pine woods of upper Dharamsala in Dharamkot to support and express solidarity with the writers imprisoned by China, particularly Tibetan writers who were jailed for expressing their opinions, a fundamental human rights and those from China, Hong Kong, Southern Mongolia and East Turkistan.

Tibetans, Indians and foreigners attended the event in large numbers. The attendees were treated to a multilingual variety of poems written by imprisoned Tibetan writers, original poems by attendees that expressed the longing for freedom, home, human rights and reunification among others.

While a Tibetan youth read his poem that largely expressed his plight of his refugee life where he sleeps every night to wake up every morning in a rented house and eating his three meals a day that tastes nothing like his mother’s delicacies back home in Tibet, a foreigner from Sweden expressed his support for the struggle of the Tibetan people and informed the congregation about his government’s awarding of Swedish rights prize to the detained Chinese-Swedish book publisher Gui Minhai.

A woman from Cyprus said that her country also underwent occupation in the past as she expressed her support and solidarity with the Tibetan people and further applauded the Tibetans for teaching the world about compassion and non-violence through their struggle.

This is  Gu-Chu- Sum Movement of Tibet’s fourth poetry night in the woods. It was initially started in 2016 to honour imprisoned Tibetan writers and prisoners of conscience, the ambit has since expanded to all those suppressed, oppressed and repressed by the Chinese Communist regime. 

All the attendees were also served hot tea and bak-thuk apart from the bonfire in the woods to comfort them. 

Started by PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee in 1981, Nov 15 is annually observed as the Day of the Imprisoned Writer to honour, recognize and support the imprisoned writers who resisted repression of basic human rights, freedom of expression and stood up to attacks made against their right to impart information.

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