Clad in vibrant red and yellow robes, the Dalai Lama exhorts monks and nuns in recent public prayers to utilize their “compassionate hearts” for global healing. The spiritual leader, weeks before commemorating the failed Tibetan uprising against China, emphasizes the collective responsibility of being a good human being.
As the 88-year-old Buddhist leader expresses optimism about his extended life, Tibetans abroad confront an inevitable future without him. China, asserting Tibet’s integral part of the nation, raises concerns among exiled Tibetans about Beijing appointing a rival successor, enhancing control over the region it entered with troops in 1950.
Tibet’s historical shifts between independence and Chinese control evoke caution from Tsultrim, a 95-year-old Tibetan and former CIA-backed guerilla. He vividly recalls the 1959 uprising, urging younger Tibetans not to trust Beijing. Tsultrim, among the last of his generation, recounts a bygone era of “free Tibet,” emphasizing a self-sufficient lifestyle for herders and farmers.
Engaged in the armed resistance during the 1960s, Tsultrim operated from Nepal’s Mustang region, supported by the CIA. After over a decade of covert operations, the CIA’s withdrawal prompted a shift in strategy, aligning with the Dalai Lama’s call for a peaceful resolution in 1974. Tsultrim retired to India after a life as a farm laborer.
Ngodup Palden, a 90-year-old former paratrooper, shares a fading dream of returning to a liberated Tibet. Having served in India’s special Tibetan force during the 1962 China-India war, he reflects on the comfortable life before losing their country.
Both elders, now in the twilight of their lives, symbolize the dwindling generation that experienced a free Tibet. As they cling to memories of resistance and yearn for their homeland’s freedom, their narratives underscore the complex historical and geopolitical challenges facing Tibetans in exile.
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