A Tibetan Writer attends Tokyo International PEN Congress[Tibet House Japan, Friday, 1 October 2010]
Tokyo:
Mr Kunthar, a Tibetan writer and translator from Dharamsala, India,
attended the 76th International PEN Congress 2010 in Tokyo.
International PEN and Japan chapter and Waseda University organised the
one-week conference from 23 September. The theme of the conference was
“The Environment and Literature – What can words do?”
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Around 600
writers from 128 countries attended the conference. Mr Gao Xingjian, a
Chinese Nobel laureate for literature opened the conference at Waseda
University, Tokyo was one of the main speakers. The participants were
divided into several committees to discuss on the freedom of thought
and writings. Mr Kunthar participated in “Writers in Prison” and
“Translation & Linguistic Right” committees.Kunthar
appraised the members of the arrest and torture of more than 40 Tibetan
writers and intellectuals since March 2008 incident in Tibet. He said
that many Tibetan writers wrote against the brutal and ruthless
oppression of the peaceful demonstrations and urged the government to
resolve the matter through dialogue.”But the Chinese
authorities labeled these writers as separatists and rebels, and
silenced them in various prisons under false charges. What the Tibetans
writers did was the implementation the ‘right to speech and expression’
as enshrined in the Chinese constitution.”Communist party
cannot represent China; it should abide by the nation’s constitution.
By arresting and torturing the Tibetan writers, the government is
violating the nation’s law”, said Kunthar.He explained about
the critical condition in which the Tibetan language stands now. “China
in its effort to sinicize the Tibetan region, it has made Tibetan, a
second language in the region. Most of the streets and lanes are named
in Chinese language. Most of the mountains and rivers of Tibet has been
renamed in Chinese. This policy of destroying Tibetan language and
imposing Chinese is posing great threat to Tibetan language,” he said
in Translation and Linguistic Right Forum. There were many
participants of Chinese origins including some well-known dissident
writers. Some participants were from Mainland China. Chinese
participants also agreed to what Mr Kunthar said, but they expressed
very strongly that it is not only in Tibet that freedom of speech and
expression is denied, whole China is denied of this freedom. They said
that a joint concerted effort is needed from all sides to make the
communist government listen to the people’s plea.Some Chinese
writers mentioned that most of the Chinese people are not aware of His
Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teachings and his idea of autonomy. They
attribute this firstly to the government’s stern policy to ban anything
associated with Dalai Lama, and secondly to the lack of Chinese
translation of Dalai Lama’s writings. They suggested that effort should
be made to have the Dalai Lama’s writings more accessible to Chinese
public.Compiling the resolutions of the PEN conference, the
organisers submitted a part of the resolutions to Chinese embassy in
Tokyo, in which the writers have demanded freedom of expression and
thought in China, and asked for immediate release of all writers in
prisons in China, Tibet and other autonomous regions.Mr Kunthar
said that the conference was very educative, and he felt the strong
support from the members for Tibetans’ struggle for peace and freedom
in Tibet. He was happy to meet many Chinese intellectuals who were very
frank and was able to share the essence of middle path approach of His
Holiness the Dalai Lama and other important issues with them. Mr
Kunthar is a Dharamsala based Tibetan writer and translator. He is Vice
Chairman of Dharamsala PEN chapter. One of his noted translations is
Gangseng Kyi Ngardra, dairy of Tibetan writer Ms Woser on March 2008
incident. He has translated three series of His Holiness’ work ‘Shide,
The Peace’ into Chinese language. -Report filed by Tsewang Gyalpo Arya
