DHARAMSHALA: Two Tibetan singers from Meuruma in Ngaba in north-eastern Tibet have been arrested by Chinese police last year for writing and singing songs about His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Panchen Rinpoche, Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay, Kirti Rinpoche and the wave of self-immolation protest in Tibet.
Pema Thinley, 22 and Chakdor, 32 were first arrested in July 2012 for their album ‘The Unbearable Pain of an Open Wound‘ (སོས་མེད་རྨ་ཁའི་ཟུག་གཟེར་) and were detained at the Ngaba county jail for six months without trial. They were later sentenced to two years imprisonment in February 2013 and lodged at the Minyang county jail, Sichuan.
The authorities informed their family members about the prison sentence. The family members have been denied permission to visit them despite repeated appeals. The authorities of the Minyang county jail also refused to acknowledge that the two Tibetan singers are in their captivity, raising their family’s concern about their well-being and whereabouts.
Chakdor is also a close relative of Choepa, who self-immolated in August 2012 to protest against the repressive policies of the Chinese government.
[Note: Below are English translations of the songs. If there is any discrepancy between the two, please treat the Tibetan versions as authoritative and final.]
An excerpt from Chakdor’s song: ‘This is How It is’
Our rich natural resources,
Are being destroyed and exploited by coercion,
Our land is being robbed of its resources,
Against our wishes.
The legacies left by wise ancestors,
In the form of ten traditional wisdoms,
Are being systematically annihilated,
Against our wishes.
The snow covered mountain ranges,
The brave young patriots of Tibet,
Have been mercilessly murdered and slaughtered,
Against our wishes.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
The living Buddha of our snowland,
Has been forced to go into exile,
Such is our tragic fate.
An excerpt form Pema Thinley’s Song, Tragic Voices (Tib: Me-Ngag)
Our spiritual teacher has been exiled to a foreign place,
The Tibetan people are turned into orphans,
The suffering under Chinese oppression is brutal,
Yet I couldn’t express the brutality.
The martyrs of our snow land Tibet,
Have offered their bodies as burning fuel,
The flames of their pain is great,
Yet I can’t hear the shrills of this excruciating pain.