Dharamsala: The entire Tibetan world came to a standstill on Friday, 30 November, upon hearing the news of Palden Gyatso’s passing. Tibetans and Tibet lovers took to their social media accounts to offer tributes, express condolences and remember Tibet’s noted political prisoner.
Ven. Palden Gyatso spent 33 years in prison for peacefully demonstrating against the Chinese invasion in 1959 and spent the rest of his entire life advocating the cause of Tibet.
In prison, he faced unfathomable physical and mental torture. Many times, he was starved to death, electric baton shoved into his mouth; cattle prod poked his rectum and many more.
In the words of Palden Gyatso:
“I completed my prison terms in 1975 but was not allowed to go home. I was sent to a labour camp, and prison life resumed. In 1979 I escaped; I put up posters calling for Tibetan independence. I was caught and sentenced to nine more years in prison.”
Despite the irreversible physical damage he had to endure, he holds no hatred or animosity against anyone. Instead, he developed genuine compassion for his enemy.
After his release in 1992, he fled to India; along with him he brought some of the torture tools that was used on him in prison. He highlighted the plight of Tibetan on his world tours; he became the face of China’s indiscriminate torture of Tibetans in Tibet.
He could give his first-hand evidence of inhuman treatment by China at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva in 1995 and at the inaugural Oslo Freedom Forum in 2009. Also, he was a former Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience.
He was felicitated the John Humphrey Freedom Award from the Canadian human rights group Rights & Democracy in 1998.
A flurry of posts on social media sites saw netizens from across the globe remembering and paying respect to Ven. Palden Gyatso:
