Apr
26
This is supposedly a true story I heard from a Tibetan migrant on my trip to Mcleodgang (the Himalayan town where the Dalai Lama lives and runs his Government in exile). A Tibetan girl’s brother went missing after taking part in protests against the Chinese, and what this girl saw in the mortuary can only be described as gut-wrenching.
Not that she could get easy access to the mortuary in the first place: she had to bribe way through; China is one of those countries where money can achieve a lot. She had a hard time even identifying anyone, with faces either already decayed or disfigured with acid. Tragically, her brother was there too – face unrecognisable – but identifed by a unique neck piece (Tibetans believe in wearing different kinds of stones on their body, and he was wearing one on a string).
What made the trip even more shocking was the sight of many other bodies with life still in them – the dying were left to die with the dead.
How did the story come out? Over telephone (on a rare occasion, as these too have become restricted in Tibet) to her ex-boyfriend now in India. And he narrated it to a well respected Tibetan in India whose word can be taken to be true. This last mentioned person is my source, who I cannot name for obvious reasons. Of course, one is free to feel sceptical about all or a bit of this story.
Didn’t the girl feel scared to make the call? She is now a Canadian citizen, and the worst the Chinese Government does to them for such offences is deportation after a brief interrogation.
The Tibetan cause may need more supporters – if not on political grounds, at least on humanitarian ones – if stories like these are even partially true.
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