Tibetans in Dharamsala Mark 66th Women’s Uprising Day with Protest March
By Tenzin Chokyi
DHARAMSALA, 12 March: Tibetans and supporters of the Tibetan cause took out a protest march in McLeodganj today to commemorate the 66th Tibetan Women’s Uprising Day and to pay homage to the Tibetan women who rose against the Chinese occupation of Tibet on March 12, 1959, two days after the Tibetan National Uprising Day.
The commemoration ceremony and the protest organised by the Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA) saw Tibetan women across different walks of life, including Tibetan students, nuns, and activists, participate in the march from McLeod Ganj to Kacheri ground in lower Dharamsala to echo the voices of past Tibetan women patriots and to assert the voices of Tibetan women in exile as Tibetans continue to resist the Chinese occupation.
Outlining the significance of the women’s movement in the larger Tibetan struggle against China’s illegal occupation of Tibet, TWA stated in a statement that it is a “day that should be remembered and commemorated by both the government and individuals.”
Tsering Dolma, the President of the TWA, in her address, reflected on the deteriorating state of freedom in occupied Tibet and stated that the TWA in all its capacities has been and will work towards the Tibetan freedom struggle, aligned with the Middle Way policy and non-violence.
She further said that “the TWA has optimally exercised its platform at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy (February) by providing the space for individuals who can speak the truth for the Tibetan cause, regardless of their political standpoint.”
She added that TWA was able to provide opportunities for prominent Tibetan figures including Dr. Gyalo, a leading expert on China’s colonial education system, Chime Lhamo, an activist and Campaigns Director of Students for a Free Tibet, and Tibetan activist and writer Tenzin Tsundue to address the Geneva Summit.
More recently, former political prisoner and activist Namkyi was able to testify at the 17th Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy held last month.
The TWA is the only Tibetan women’s association in exile and is considered as the continuation of the TWA originally founded on March 12, 1959, in Tibet, when thousands of Tibetan women took to the streets against the Chinese occupation at the deciding moments of whether Tibet would survive as an independent nation. The association organized three separate demonstrations between the 12th and the 18th of March 1959.
Following its temporal discontinuation as a coherent organization after China’s complete occupation of Tibet in 1959 and the subsequent exodus of Tibetans into exile, it was formally revived in 1984.
However, from 1959 to 1984, many Tibetan women’s groups were established in India, such as in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Dharamsala, and Rajpur. Some of these groups initiated handicraft centers for women in their localities, which are said to have not only preserved the arts and crafts of Tibet but also imparted skills to Tibetan women to earn their livelihood during early refugee life.
Today, the TWA, with over 16,000 members and 57 branches worldwide, stands as one of the largest Tibetan NGOs and functions at a global level to garner international support for Tibetans in occupied Tibet under China’s colonial rule, and addresses gender-based discrimination and violence against Tibetan women.
The association acts as the carrier of the voices of Tibetan women who have been marginalized in Tibetan society. As such, the Tibetan Women’s Uprising in 1959 marks a major political assertion of agency by Tibetan women.
Although at the margins, the voices of Tibetan women can be looked at through the experiences of political prisoners such as Ama Adhe, who spent just over one-third of her life in Chinese prison, and Ani Pachen, renowned as the “warrior nun” who led her Tibetan clan in armed rebellion against the Chinese invaders until she was captured and imprisoned for 21 years, eventually passing away in exile in 2002.
More recently, Namkyi, who was arrested at the age of 16 for protesting against Chinese rule with her sister, also represents the ongoing struggle of Tibetan women towards the Tibetan freedom movement.
Presently, the Tibetan democracy in exile accommodates women politicians, and in fact, the exiled Tibetan society has witnessed a growing number of women’s participation in political and public discourses.
“With participation, visibility and recognition of women’s role in Tibetan Freedom movement does not make the movement different or better, it makes it real,” Lhagyari Namgyal Dolker, a sitting member of the Tibetan Parliament and an outspoken Tibetan feminist, said as quoted by Peace Insight in an earlier interview.
