Blog Viajologia

05/04/2008 01:38

Depois que Ngulchu Tulku foi preso, consegui encontrá-lo alguns dias mais tarde em um café no bairro tibetano de Bouda, em Katmandu. Conversamos bastante e o resultado está em uma entrevista publicada hoje na revista EPOCA. Como a versão em português está na edição online, coloco no blog a tradução em inglês para que ainda mais pessoas possam saber o que acontece aqui nessa parte do mundo.

Below you will find the English translation of an article that was published today in EPOCA, a prestigious weekly magazine in Brazil. As Tibetan protests make the news around the world, we would like to share this unique interview with you.

Ngulchu Tulku, born again to fight

Kathmandu is going through a tense moment, as the Assembly elections are coming up on April 10. During the past two weeks, Nepal’s capital has also been the stage of a number of protests against Chinese policy in Tibet. Nepal shelters over 20,000 Tibetan refugees. After the peaceful Tibetan insurgence on March 10, 1959, thousands of Tibetan monks and lay people flew from Chinese dictatorship. The first groups reached Nepal, crossing the Himalayas, half a century ago. Around the same period, the Dalai Lama, Tibet spiritual and political leader, also found refuge in India.

After Tibet and Dharamsala (place where the Tibetan government in exile is located), Nepal is the main refuge of this ethnical group. Mountain people used to high altitude valleys, the Tibetans are hard workers and strong followers of their Buddhist religion. When they reached Kathmandu’s valley, they came across the village of Boudha, 3 miles away from the capital. Its giant sanctuary was crowned with four pair of Buddha eyes. For practical or superstitious reason, the refugees settled around the giant stupa.

The Boudha stupa: the four pair of Buddha’s eyes reminds us that we need to be attentive.

Today, the Tibetan neighborhood of Boudha is not an isolated village, like a few decades ago. Hundred of stores offer antiques that crossed the border, religious articles for everyday practices and precious tangkhas, paintings that illustrate Buddhist deities. Around the sanctuary, the movement of pilgrims walking and praying (always clockwise) is almost as intense as around the Johkang, Lhasa’s main temple. For a moment, I thought I had returned to the Tibetan capital. I am able to recognize particular odors, such as the smell of the yak butter and the juniper incense and to identify familiar sounds like the mantra “Om Mani Padme Hum,” the language and the music. Here, I meet again the crowds of monks, with their red or orange robes, walking around the streets or coming in and out of monasteries.

Even if everything around me is a distraction to my eyes, I have a clear goal. I want to meet again Ngulchu Tulku, a 29 years old man, with whom I had started a rather unconventional interview a few days ago. Indeed, our conversation had been interrupted abruptly as we left for the Chinese Consulate, where he and some other 80 demonstrators, went to protest. He was arrested, but, like it happened other previous ten times this past two weeks, he was released a few hours later.

Recently, Ngulchu Tulku was detained a dozen times.

The only information I have is that he is at Café Saturday, in Boudha. I ask a shop owner, make my way around the giant Buddhist construction – the four pair of eyes always following me – and finally climb the five floors up to the loft of a building. I reach one of the westerners selected cafés, which stands face to face with the stupa. I recognize Ngulchu. I am happy to see him smiling, without any wound. I ask if he was beaten when he was arrested. “After having been jailed so many times, the policemen know me. At first they would treat me very badly. Now, not so much. I just got a couple of pinches that left marks”, he says.

Ngulchu is always with his cell ready at his ear. He dresses in western clothes and could be mistaken for any young Asian man, avid for more western consumerism. But his second name – Tulku – has a deeper meaning, connected with the essence of Buddhism. He explains that he is the incarnation of Ngulchu Lobsang Choepel, the 10th Panchen Lama’s tutor. Recognized by the Dalai Lama himself as the reincarnation of the teacher of the second Tibetan spiritual authority (the Panchen Lama), Ngulchu started to tell his story. In 1962, the 10th Panchen Lama presented to Mao Tse Tung his famous “70,000 Characters Petition.” The Chinese dictator became furious with the critics to the Communist Party: the long letter mentioned the Tibetan executions immediately after the insurgence of 1959. “To avoid the Panchen Lama to be killed, his tutor declared that he had been the author of the petition”, said Ngulchu, two days ago. “And the tutor – my previous incarnation – was murdered.”

I need to confirm the story that he told me that day. Is Ngulchu really the reincarnation of such an important wise man in the history of Tibet? His colleagues confirm, he retells the same story. I am convinced that nobody would joke with such serious matters. As he finishes telling his story, he concludes: “It is sad that we are refugees, without a land, without a nationality. On the other hand, as Buddhism was expelled from Tibet, important scholars left to all directions and our philosophy is now everywhere in the world. I am very proud to be Tibetan”, he affirms.

Ngulchu Tulku in Boudha: protected by the giant stupa and Buddha’s wisdom.

I direct our conversation to the topic of the second generation of Tibetans, who – like him – where born in exile. “Our parents did not study in schools. They had to learn English to be able to communicate in India, Nepal and around the world. Our generation was born with more opportunities and we received better education. We are more prepared to explain to the world what happens in Tibet”, he argues.

The protests in Nepal started with the news of the demonstrations in Lhasa. The Chinese version of the facts – that the Tibetan had attacked Chinese civilians – left the habitants of Boudha outraged. A few days later, photos of bodies of monks shot – some of those images probably captured by camouflaged cell phones – reached Kathmandu and triggered the reaction of the community. “This is the greatest Tibetan protest in Nepal in the last five decades. Each Tibetan does his share. While elders and adults pray and recite mantras at the temples or at home, we, the young people, use our energy to call the attention of the world.”

Ngulchu explains that along with ten other activists, he started a hunger strike two weeks ago. “On the sixth day, we received a clear message from our leader, the Dalai Lama: we should not continue with the strike”, he says. “We stopped the hunger strike, but maintained the peaceful demonstrations. We never hurt any police officers, we only defend ourselves”, he affirms. Ngulchu and his companions follow the “Middle Path” pledged by the Dalai Lama who considers that Tibet is part of China, but it should be fully autonomous – which it does not happen. “We do not accept that China continues with its policy of repression, killing our brothers and sisters and then blaming our own people. The world needs to know what happens in Tibet – human rights are violated on a daily basis”, tells Ngulchu. “This is the reason of our protests. And we will go on until our voices are heard: today, tomorrow, after tomorrow, next week.”

“We are not against China development. We want better life conditions for Tibet. We want to be part of this process that will benefit our relatives and our native land. The problem is the abuse of power of the Communist Party”, says Ngulchu. “Also, we are not against the Beijing Olympic Games. This will be a great opportunity for China. But we cannot accept that the games happen in a country that does not respect human life. This is against the Olympic principle. The foreign athletes should reconsider their participation. They will be representing their countries, where they are free, but they will be in a nation where freedom is limited.”

Nyima Dolkar and Ngulchu Tulku discuss the strategy for the next protest.

Nyima Dolkar, a 33 years old woman, comes in limping. When she was arrested for the ninth time the Nepalese police kicked her leg. She also shows the purple marks on her right arm. “This time, I remained unconscious for three or four minutes. But I am ready for another protest today”, she says. Ngulchu and Nyima switch from a broken English to the rapid and energetic Tibetan language. They talk about where would the protest-of-the-day take place. “We might meet in front of the United Nations building or a European country embassy, as the European Community supports Tibet. The French and German authorities are sympathetic to our cause”, says Nyima.

I ask them how they feel as they confront one of the largest powers of the world. “China is very powerful. We know that it will be very difficult to win. But we need to continue to fight for freedom. There is no other solution”, says Ngulchu. “I am certain, that at the end, truth will prevail over lies.”

The cell phone rings again. They need to find other companions somewhere in Boudha. I am impressed by the courage of the group. They know that the Nepalese police – under the pressure of the Chinese Embassy – will repress them, that they will be arrested, and suffer bad treatment. Again and again. But, even like this, obsessed by the search for greater freedom for their land, they will repeat their ritual – almost a religious one – one more time. “I am not afraid. I sacrificed my previous life for my country. Why not this time as well?” concludes Ngulchu Tulku.

Translated by Flavia Castro

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