It’s a Friday night, and a small crowd at New York City’s Tibet House listens intently as Tibetan poet and artist, Tenzing Rigdol, recites his untitled political adaptation of Allen Ginsberg’s infamous 1956 poem “Howl”.
But the Tibetan people howled long before Ginsberg’s New York junkies.
Since China’s invasion of Tibet in 1949, Tibetan citizens have been oppressed, culturally discriminated against, and robbed of all basic human rights.
After the end of the Second World War in 1945, the United Nations charter banned the colonization of foreign territory under international law, making China’s invasion of Tibet illegal.
In order to hide the illegality of the occupation, the Chinese government was forced to justify its presence in Tibet by claiming that they have always owned Tibet, that all Tibetan culture stemmed from Chinese traditions, and that all Tibetans are essentially Chinese people who have “forgotten” how to live a Chinese lifestyle and speak Chinese.
“The option there for the Chinese is to erase that culture in order to make their revisionist history stick,” Ganden Thurman, executive director of Tibet House US said.
At Amnesty International’s Get on the Bus student rally on April 11, Tenzin Dolkar, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, spoke about the Chinese government’s views of the Tibetan people.
Tenzin Dolkar at Amnesty International’s Get on the Bus speaker’s panel on April 11
“The Tibetan people in Tibet are criminalized for just being a Tibetan, for practicing their way of life, for practicing their Buddhist religion, for simply just trying to speak and learn the Tibetan language.”
Chinese is quickly replacing Tibetan in school textbooks, on public signs, and storefronts. As a result of this language shift, Tibetan citizens are displaced in their own country; their children are taught in Chinese or Mandarin, leaving young Tibetans illiterate in their own native language.
According to a 2012 study, 34.8% of Tibetans 15 years and older are illiterate, as compared to China’s total illiteracy rate of 4.96%, making the extinction of the Tibetan language a very real possibility.
Though these issues face a country and a people over 7,000 miles away from the United States, organizations made up of both Tibetans and non-Tibetans dedicated to the freedom of Tibet have sprung up all over the country and the rest of the world.
Human rights organizations such as Students for a Free Tibet and cultural institutions such as the Tibet House US are working to protect the Tibetan people and preserve their dying culture.
Statue of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the Tibet House US gallery. In 1959, he fled from Tibet to India, where he still lives today.
Tibet House US in New York City, the first of 13 world-wide locations, was founded in 1987 by Robert Thurman under His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tibet’s religious leader, who requested the opening of a cultural institution dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan culture and religion.
“We work to preserve, to present, and to promote awareness of Tibetan culture, which is in danger due to the political difficulties the Tibetans have faced since the Chinese invasion,” Thurman said.
The Tibet House works through art exhibits, conferences, educational programs, and “whatever means they can” to keep Tibetan culture and religion alive.
“Right now they’re [the Tibetans] a little bit stuck; they are unable to make their contribution to the world, and so we help them do that,” Thurman said.
At a Tibet House gallery event on May 2 in support of his exhibition Transcending Boundaries, Reflecting Change, Tibetan artist Tashi Norbu emphasized the importance of the unity of the Tibetan people and their determination to gain their independence.
Artist Tashi Norbu talks about his painting, “Universe XXL” at the Tibet House on May 2.
The nonviolent expressions of Tibetan artists, poets, and activists, Norbu said, are more powerful than any weapon.
But the price of using art as a weapon is a high one for the citizens of Tibet. In recent years, countless Tibetans have faced detainment for speaking out against China, among them being singers, writers, and filmmakers.
Tibet House US gives those otherwise suppressed voices a chance to be heard and provides a safe cultural environment for artistic expression.
Rigdol’s highly controversial adaptation of “Howl” has yet to be published due to its politically charged and potentially dangerous content, but within the walls of the Tibet House, the poet is able to express himself without having to fear for his life.
The work of the Tibet House does not only benefit the people of Tibet, however. Through its work, the gallery informs the masses of these important global issues, and serves as a map of Tibet’s cultural history that can be studied by generations, present and future, Tibetan and non-Tibetan, across the globe.
“It’s why we do the work that we do,” said Thurman. “To preserve that culture for future generations, not just for Tibetans, but for the overall multicultural experience of everyone in the world.”
