Karma Dorjee
Radio Free Asia
Tibetan Service
1.21.14
Driru (Biru in Chinese) — the name in Tibetan means a line of female yaks — is a Tibetan county under Nagchu prefecture (Nagqu) in the China-controlled Tibetan Autonomous Region. It has a total population of about 40,000 residents, 90 percent of whom are Tibetans with only 9 percent Han Chinese. It is located at a distance of one day’s drive to the northeast from Lhasa and is surrounded by Pelbar county, Chamdo to the east, Drachen county to the north, and Nagchu county to the southwest. While ten other counties in Nagchu are comparatively quiet, and six other prefectures in the TAR are silent, Driru made headlines throughout 2013 by mounting a brave and persistent challenge to a relentless Chinese political “re-education campaign.” On September 3, 2013, when government workers backed by several hundred armed paramilitary police swarmed Driru to enforce Tibetan loyalty to Chinese policies, Dayang, an old man of 68 from Donglha village in Driru’s Tsachu township, held up a white scarf and called for the independence of Tibet, insisting that the Chinese leave Tibet, a Tibetan from the area reported to RFA. Dayang was severely beaten and transported to a local hospital in Driru and then to Lhasa, where his condition was listed as critical. He was later sentenced to two years and six months in jail. But the story of resistance in Driru neither ended nor began with this daring old man who still languishes somewhere in an unidentified Chinese prison.
An area of political instability
Beijing authorities have identified Driru as an area of political instability with a potential for spreading unrest to other parts of the Tibetan region and beyond to Tibetan-populated areas in the Chinese provinces. This identification became more relevant when Chen Quanguo, Communist Party chief of the TAR, urged that the “Dalai Clique’s” voice be silenced and replaced with the sounds of the Communist Party in every part of the TAR. But the Tibetans in Driru did things the other way around by letting the voices of the Dalai Lama be heard in the Tibetan areas. According Driru Samdup, a native Tibetan of Driru now living in Europe, Driru became “a target for excessive Chinese suppression in 2006, when the members of the Driru Tibetan community swiftly responded to a call by the Dalai Lama and abandoned the use of animal skins, excessive ornaments, and other animal products like ivory rosary. Some Driru community members also went to Lhasa, prostrating all the way from Driru, and made offerings to restore the face of the Jowo statue (the Buddha statue brought by the Chinese queen of Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo in the 7th Century) in the Jokhang temple for the long life of the Dalai Lama.
“The Beijing authorities also saw a potential for future instability when they[Chinese] knew the Driru community is relatively well off, united, better educated, and active in the propagation of Tibetan language, culture, and ethnicity,” Ngawang Tharpa, another Driru native, added. So to bring about “political stability” the Beijing authorities “deployed several hundred government team members backed by armed police and paramilitary troops to force the Tibetans in Driru to fly the Chinese national flag from their homes,” Thupten, a Tibetan caller from Tibet, told RFA’s Tibetan service . Robbie Barnett, a Tibet expert at Columbia University in New York, sees China’s actions in Driru as an ”attempt to try to contain dissent to a specific area…almost to try to make it a local ethnic issue, as if they see Driru people as a different community, a different group, even a subgroup different from other Tibetans.”
Defiant Driru
By treating Driru Tibetans as a different group, the Chinese efforts to subdue and break the will of Tibetans in Driru continued. Throughout September 2013, the Chinese government workers called meetings and went from village to village distributing the Chinese five-star national flags with poles ready for placing on the roof tops of Tibetan houses. But the Tibetans in Driru were defiant. On September 27, 2013, the Tibetans in Mowa and Monchen villages in Driru collected all the Chinese flags with the poles and dumped them into the local Gyalmo Ngulchu river. This action triggered a clash between the Tibetans and the Chinese force that resulted in the detention of 40 Tibetan villagers. In response to the Tibetan action, the Chinese authorities then expelled all children who lived in the two villages from the county schools. They also banned the collection of cordycep fungus from the mountains, the main source of income for the locals. Tibetan residents were also denied access to medical treatments. To express their solidarity with the expelled students, 400 students of Driru county schools walked out of their classes in protest, demanding that the students from the two villages be allowed to return to school. They were joined by roughly 800 Driru Tibetans of all ages. The Tibetans continued their protests by blocking traffic, sleeping in large groups on the highways, refusing to eat, and camping day and night in front of the Driru county center. Officials finally caved in and released 40 Tibetans after a senior official arrived from TAR headquarters in Lhasa. Later, the Tibetans found that several of those who had been detained had been severely beaten while in custody.
The detentions, restrictions, and crackdowns on the Tibetans continued in Driru. On October 6, Dorje Draktsel, a Tibetan resident of Driru, was detained and taken away by the Chinese police. And this quickly led to clashes and deaths.
Shooting and deaths in Driru
The first incident of shooting in Driru took place on October 7, 2013 when Tibetans in Driru protested against the detention of Dorje Draktsel. Several hundred Tibetans gathered in Dathang township and demanded Draktsel’s release, and at the same time over 300 armed paramilitary police arrived at the site, began firing tear gas into the crowd, and then started shooting. Four Tibetan villagers were killed and over 50 were wounded. Photos of bullet wounds were sent out, but no other details of the four Tibetans killed in the shooting were made available. But sources inside Tibet confirmed that three of those killed were from Sengthang village, and the fourth was from Tingring village. And the killing of Tibetans in Driru has not been confined to laypersons. Monks of the monasteries in Driru have formed a large part of the victims of Beijng’s campaign to address Driru’s “political instability.” In December 2013, a senior monk of Driru’s Tarmoe monastery was beaten to death by police, who then returned his body to his relatives with the stern warning of similar consequences if they [Tibetans] discussed his death with outside source. He was Geshe Ngawang Jamyang, a senior Tibetan monk who was taken into custody with two friends on November 23 while they were on holiday in Lhasa. He was a popular religious teacher who had studied for 19 years in Sera monastery in India before returning to Tibet.
Crackdown on Driru monasteries
There are about 13 Buddhist monasteries in Driru county with 50 to 200 monks in each monastery. Most of the monasteries follow the Gelug tradition, but there are also monasteries following the Nyingma and Kagyu traditions. According to Ngawang Tharpa, a reporter for the Tibet Express, most monasteries in Driru were forced to shut down by the Chinese authorities in 2012 when the monks resisted the stationing of government work teams in the monasteries. The names of three monasteries that appeared in the news 2013 are Tarmoe, Rabten, and Dron Na. On November 23, the three monks of Tarmoe monastery were detained in Lhasa, their monastery in Driru was surrounded by police and the monks’ rooms were searched. Around the same time eight monks of Driru’s Rabten monastery who had studied in Palyul, Sershul, and Sertha monasteries in neighboring Chinese province were also detained. Tsering Gyal was one of those detained, while the names of the other monks are not known. Kelsang Chodar, a monk from Sog county in Nagchu was detained in Palyul, Kardze on the suspicion that he had spread information on Driru. He was released later in Chengdu, Sichuan. The Chinese authorities forced Tarmoe, Rabten, and Dron Na monasteries in Driru to shut down in 2013.
Targeting young and educated Tibetans
Many of the Tibetans who have been detained, sentenced, and jailed in Driru are the young and educated. Thondup, a caller from Tibet, told RFA that “they [the Chinese] are targeting the young and educated and the children of wealthier Tibetan families.” Reports from the area tell several stories of young and educated Tibetan youths who have organized themselves to speak pure Tibetan instead of Chinese, and to educate locals on the importance of Tibetan culture and language. They have formed White Diet (vegetarian) groups to advocate a vegetarian diet, and have organized Lhakar events on Wednesdays, the Dalai Lama’s auspicious day, to eat, dress, and speak like Tibetans They have also organized debates on Tibetan culture, language, and religion. The younger Tibetans who have called in to the RFA Tibetan Service program said that the 2008 Tibetan Uprising opened their eyes to the importance of Tibetan identity. The educated younger Tibetans in Driru are part of this new younger Tibetan generation who were born and brought up in a Tibet controlled by China. In this year’s uprising against the Chinese authorities in Driru, many of the Tibetans who are reported in the news are the younger members of the Tibetan community. To mention some examples for illustration, on November 3, 2013 seventeen Tibetans from Shamchu village in Driru were detained and released later after paying fines. They were 19 to 27 years old. Kundrak was 17 while the eldest among them was just 27 years old.
On November 12, Tsering Gyal, another Tibetan youth, was taken away for no apparent reason and released only after paying a fine of one thousand Chinese yuan.
On November 18, two school students, Lobsang Choying and Konchok Choephel, were detained for their participation in the students’ protest against the authorities for expelling the students of Mowa and Monchen villages.
On November 18, 2013, a young woman name Thinley Palmo, 32, was detained and severely beaten in custody.
On November 23, two young monks of Tarmoe monastery were detained in Lhasa while on vacation with their teacher.
On November 26, Sonam Dorje, 16, was detained after he pasted protest fliers signed with his name on a government building the day before in Driru.
On November 30, Gonpo Tenzin, 25, and Thinley Tsekar, 22, two popular singers of Driru, were detained in Lhasa and Nagchu town respectively.
On November 30, three young Tibetan writers were sentenced. They were Tenzin Rangdrol, 32, who was given five years; Topden, 30, who was given five years; and Konchok Choephel,28, a monk, who was given six years for “anti-state” activities.
On December 13, a young monk named Tsokye was taken away from Rongpo monastery for speaking out against the Chinese-sponsored reincarnation of the senior lama of the monastery.
In December 2013, Thinley Tsekar, 22, a singer, was sentenced to nine years, Choekyab (age unknown) was given 13 years, and Tselha (age unknown) was given three years for inciting the local community to protest against the mining at Naglha Dzamba mountain in May 2013.
Burning of Flags
Driru Tibetans have not only refused to fly the Chinese national flag from their houses, but have even burned them or thrown them in the local river to express their defiance. During the past two years, a dozen Tibetan youths were detained for burning the Chinese flag in Driru. In December last year, Bumchok, 16, was taken to the county center for burning the flag. Then, on December 16, two Tibetan girls—Yangchen, 27, and Choedron, 19—were taken away for burning the Chinese flag. Earlier, in August 2012, a group of 8 to 9 Tibetan youths were detained and severely beaten on the suspicion of burning Chinese flags in Shachi Tomtak township in Nagchu, a neighboring county of Driru. They were released later when the allegations against them could not be proved. According to Chinese officials, burning the Chinese national flag is considered to be a crime as severe as homicide. With full aware of the possible consequences, Tibetans in Driru have continued putting up posters, burned Chinese flags, and refused to fly the flag on their houses. But the Tibetan resistance in Driru was not confined to these activities, but took more drastic actions of self immolations.
Driru self-immolations
Since February 2009, 125 Tibetans have set their bodies on fire to protest against Chinese policies in Tibetan areas, and called for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet and freedom for the Tibetans. Most of these fiery protests took place in the Tibetan areas in Sichuan, Qinghai, and Gansu provinces. Eight self-immolations took place in what China calls the Tibet Autonomous Region. The first was in Chamdo on December 1, 2011. In the following years two burnings took place in Lhasa on the same day on May 27, 2012. The third took place in Dhamshung on July 7, 2012, but in Driru four self immolations took place in two months of October and November 2012. All eight of the self-immolators in the TAR died, but it was only Gudrup from Driru who left behind a suicide note. According to a classmate of Gudrup who lives in Australia, the note said,”..We should invite the Dalai Lama to a fully independent Tibet. His Holiness has proposed a Middle Way approach to achieve genuine autonomy for Tibet. But while we have waited for a very long time, the Chinese authorities have detained, tortured, and secretly killed many Tibetans, and many have disappeared just for speaking about the conditions of Tibetans in Tibet. So I now sacrifice myself by burning to vouch for the truth and to raise my voice for Tibet’s independence. I pray to the Three Jewels to bless Tibet and for help in the victory for truth.” Gudrup was 43, a resident of Yungkar village in Shakchu township, Driru county in Nagchu, under the TAR.
Twenty one days after Gudrup’s death, two young Tibetans named Tsepo and Tenzin died in a fiery protest on October 25, 2012 in front of a school in Driru. And twelve days after this dual self-immolations, another young Driru Tibetan named Tsegyal, 27, set himself on fire in protest on November 7, 2012, and died 11 days later . Such drastic expressions of Tibetan resistance did not stop here in Driru. Twenty-one days after the death of Tsegyal, a group of seven Tibetans in Driru planned to carry out a mass fiery protest in Driru by burning all seven at the same time.. They were from Balkar village in Driru and planned to do it on the eve of World Human Rights Day on December 9. Their plan leaked out and the police tried to detain them, but all seven escaped, and in the police pursuit, “two were detained but the rest jumped into the river and ended their lives,” Driru Samdrup told RFA.
Detention of 1000 Tibetans
Due to a lack of access to Driru and harsh restrictions on the local Tibetans, it is very difficult to know the exact number of Tibetans who have been detained, jailed, or killed. Carole McGranahan, a Tibet scholar at the University of Colorado, in Boulder, said in The Washington Post on December 17, 2013, that “it is easier for journalists to get access to North Korea than to get access to Tibet.“ While this is true in most Tibetan areas under Chinese control, it is even more relevant to the Driru, which has been identified as a “politically unstable area.” A Tibetan in exile with contacts in Driru told RFA’s Tibetan service that only about 30 percent of the information concerning Driru has come out of the area and other 70 per cent remains unreported due to the restrictions in the area.
Thus, information on the number of Tibetans detained or jailed and on their present condition has been sporadic and incomplete. The little information that we have cannot tell the complete story of Driru. However, callers from Tibet and others who have contacts in the area have told RFA’s Tibetan Service that several Tibetans have been sentenced to jail for different lengths of time. Since September 2013, over 1,000 Tibetans have been detained in Driru. Around 600 of them are detained in the Nagchu town detention center, roughly 200 are held in Tsamtha village in Driru, and another 200 are held in the Driru county center. We still don’t have exact numbers of the Tibetans from the Driru area who have been jailed .Those who are detained are given daily “re-education instructions” and are subjected to interrogations. Some of them were later released.
Why Driru ?
There are different answers to this question. Robbie Barnett, the Tibet expert at Columbia University, says, “Driru is an area which historically has never been particularly amenable to control by a state. The Tibetan government itself was only able to get effective access to most parts of Nagchu in the 1920s. It was a self-managed area for hundreds of years, and it didn’t identify with Lhasa for most of that time or with any other capital or outside control.”So the Tibetans in Driru have a historical tradition of resistance to control including the Chinese state control. Moreover it is a fact that Driru and its two neighboring counties, Drachen and Sog in Nagchu, are gifted with rich supplies of cordyceps fungus. And the Tibetan residents of these three counties are known for their wealth from the sale of this gift of nature, which can be harvested without much effort as explained by Ngawang Tharpa, a native of Driru. He also added that the Tibetans in Driru live in a very cohesive community with many educated members with a strong sense of unity in belief and action. In Driru, the united action of the monasteries and the villages were able to halt Chinese mining operations on Naglha Dzamba, a sacred mountain. However, efforts in many other parts of Tibet–Dzatoe in Yushul, Markham in Chamdo, and the Gyama mine in Medrogunkar—had failed to halt the mining. But Tsering Gyal, a researcher at the TCHRD (Tibetan Center for Human Rights, and Democracy) in Dharamsala, thinks that what is happening in Driru “is the cumulative impact of the Chinese crackdown on Rongpo monastery in 2005, the massive uprising in 2008, the united protest against mining at sacred Naglha mountain in 2013, and the self-immolations.”