nyamrup
ONE WORLD. ONE DREAM. FREE TIBET!
Taking Back the Victory of March 10, 1959
07 Mar 2007 00:41 EST
To many an educated reader these days, March 10, 1959, the day of the Tibetan “National Uprising”, brings forth a spectrum of thoughts: massive loss of life, the flight of the Dalai Lama, tragic tales of an ill-armed people making a valiant last effort against one of the world’s most formidable armies. But the thought on my mind now is the one that’s conspicuously missing: the thought of victory.
“Victory?” one might ask, “Where is victory amidst all the death and destruction in the aftermath of March 10?” Mainstream journalism has conditioned us to think of March 10 as a “failed uprising”, as a “last effort” instead of a first victory.
When we say this is the year to “take back” March 10, I believe that means taking it back from the erroneous and insulting spin and recognizing it for what it actually was: the most successful nonviolent direct intervention in the history of Tibet, and one of the most successful ever seen upon this planet: a day on which the people of Lhasa made themselves into a human barricade, successfully shielding the body of he who was most precious to Tibet and barring the Chinese from taking away the 23-year-old emanation of Chenrezig.
Among the news articles archived by World Tibet Network, you’ll find over 1000 hits for the words “failed uprising”. After reading 5 or 10 of them you’ll start to pick out patterns in the phrasing, and by the time you hit 20 or more you’ll be certain that these journalists’ composition teachers failed to instill in them any aversion to plagarism — they’re all using near-identical variants of a small pool of ill-worded “March 10 sentences”.
A slightly more subtle realization should soon follow as well: in a large portion of the articles that use a standard “failed uprising” sentence, there is a soft but consistent implication that the 1959 uprising was somehow the work of the Dalai Lama. Not only does this contradict historical fact and even basic motivational logic which should be evident to anyone who has studied the Dalai Lama’s interaction and relationship with China at the time. What’s worse, this misportrayal plays into the hands of the Chinese, who want to portray the Tibetan struggle as a personal dispute with the Dalai Lama rather than as a people’s struggle, and it’s also deeply disempowering, robbing those who sacrificed their lives and personal futures of their agency in choosing to take such drastic action.
What are the reasons for such misportrayal and spin on the events of March 10, 1959 becoming so prevalent? This is a difficult question to answer. Surely part rests upon the limited successes of the Chinese propaganda machine, but I believe a part also rests on a desire to conceive of Tibet in a “tragic” light. In other words, the idea of a valiant but “failed” uprising is somehow more in harmony with the world’s preconceptions of “Shangri-la”.
The small flame which sparked my writing this article was a conversation with a Tibetan friend. She related a recent event where notable Tibet supporters had expressed their sentiments for Losar and March 10: with each speech or song they conveyed sorrow, never celebration.
While I have no qualms about criticizing irresponsible journalists, I wish not to criticize any Tibet supporters or Tibetans for the tragic conception of Tibet. I believe it’s largely human nature to identify with and embrace tragedy. Part of this is a selfish tendancy, a desire for the cathartic experience which tragedy carries with it for the observer. But another aspect is compassionate, a desire to enlarge the sphere of support for those who have suffered by making the suffering known and vicariously participating in it, recognizing the suffering of our fellow human beings. Each of these aspects has its place. However, compassion alone is not enough.
This is why we must “take back” March 10 — why we must couple that compassion with a deep respect and appreciation not only for the suffering of those who suffered, but of the deep and critical victory they secured for Tibet.
So why was March 10, 1959 actually a great victory, contrary to nearly every mainstream media source’s spin?
- The action achieved its direct goal in the most objectively measurable and concrete way possible: safeguarding the person of the 14th Dalai Lama and preventing his kidnap or murder at the hands of the Chinese.
- Out of the action sprung the true beginning of the Tibetan
resistence as a national people’s movement. This is evidenced
by:
- The first large-scale instance of (mostly-)unarmed citizens taking the most direct form of direct action against the Chinese occupation.
- The founding of the Tibetan Women’s Association in the days that followed.
- Massive public assemblies convening to make key decisions.
What we must never forget is that, among all those who died on March 10, 1959 and the days that followed, among all those died in prison or survived unimaginable torture over the decades that followed — none of them were tragic figures who died a foolish death. On that historic day, these people set out to accomplish a concrete mission, and they achieved the victory! For that, may they never be forgotten! And may we follow in their victory unto the final victory for Tibet!