UNENDING STORY OF RED TERROR IN TIBET – 1961 INTERVIEW WITH THE DALAI LAMA

**UNENDING STORY OF RED TERROR IN TIBET DALAI LAMA LIVES IN EXILE SINCE MARCH 1959.**

US News interviewed the Dalai Lama in 1961 in which he shared aspects of Red Terror in Tibet. Tibetans suffered lot more during the years of Cultural Revolution which may have concluded in China after death of Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong. As far as Tibetans are concerned, the story of Red Terror has remained the same with new dimensions that Dalai Lama could not foresee in 1961.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA
SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE

The Red Terror in Tibet: 1961 Interview With the Dalai Lama

In a 1961 Q&A with U.S. News, the Dalai Lama described Red China’s movements in Tibet.

By U.S. NEWS STAFF June 15, 2016, at 12:42 p.m.

**UNENDING STORY OF RED TERROR IN TIBET. DALAI LAMA WITH INDIAN PRIME MINISTER JAWAHARLAL NEHRU ON APRIL 22, 1961.**

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru clasps hands as he and the Dalai Lama, god-king of Tibet, meet at Nehru’s New Delhi, India, residence on April 22, 1961, to discuss rehabilitating an estimated 50,000 refugees who fled Tibet when red China took over in 1959. The Dalai Lama is now living in exile in India. (AP)

This article originally appeared in the April 24, 1961, edition of U.S. News & World Report.

At a time when Communists are denouncing “colonialism” and “imperialism”—

Take a look at what Red China is doing in its captive “colony” of Tibet.

Communists shot their way in, now are systematically “absorbing” that ancient land.

To get the story of what Red colonizers are doing, a member of the staff of “U. S. News & World Report” journeyed into the highlands of Northern India for this exclusive interview with the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual ruler—now a refugee from the Communists.

DHARMSALA, India—

Q Your Holiness, are Tibetans being forced out of Tibet?

A In some places, yes—in Northern and Eastern Tibet.

Q How many have been deported?

A I cannot give you an exact figure, but it would run to at least 15,000.

Dalai Lama and Obama to Meet Wednesday, Amid Chinese Criticism

The Chinese foreign ministry vociferously objected to the meeting.

Q Have they been replaced by Chinese settlers?

A Many more Chinese settlers than that have come into Tibet.

Q What sort of settlers?

A All types, but mostly soldiers. Tibetans usually divide them into two types—”yellow” Chinese and “blue” Chinese. “Blue” Chinese are officials and villagers. “Yellow” Chinese are troops. Recently some Tibetans came here from Lhasa and they told me there were more “yellow” Chinese in Tibet.

Q What’s taking place inside the country?

A People are all frightened and tense—always afraid they won’t finish tasks the Chinese have given them to do. The worry about famine.

There’s a saying in Tibet, “We are sitting on a thorn.” Now all Tibet is sitting on a thorn—and anyone who moves is hurt. It’s not just a matter of political rights. Their human right are being suppressed, too.

Q In what way?

A They’re having to undergo all types of forced labor. For 20 hours a day, people in Tibet must work and listen to Communist propaganda. Two or three men have to do the work that once was done by two mules, hauling stones in mule carts—

Q Do you mean people instead of mules now pull carts?

A Yes, as a form of torture. Some haul stones, others have to carry baskets of dirt. The normal quota for one day is 250 baskets, but some have to carry 300 baskets a day. Many of these people have developed sores on their backs. This is something that was never known in Tibet before.

Q What kind of food are Tibetan people getting?

A They get worse food than the animals do. People who come from Lhasa have brought samples of the food they get—a mixture of grains and meal which they mix with water and form into a cake. They get about two small teacups of this per day. Sometimes in place of grain they get two teacups of beans.

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Compiled by the U.S.News & World Report library staff.

Q What kinds of military activities are going on in Tibet?

A They’ve built very good roads—a network of roads. In some areas of Western Tibet they’ve built airfields.

Q Have you heard any reports of restlessness among the Chinese troops?

A I believe this to be true. The reason is that, since 1958, some Chinese soldiers and officers have joined resistance troops in Tibet.

Q Is the resistance underground operating effectively?

A Yes. Out of sheer desperation—as long as oppression goes on, out of sheer desperation there will be resistance.

Q What do they fight with? How are they armed?

A The only weapons they possess are those they’ve managed to capture from the Chinese. They have guns, but they’ve even been using slingshots, spears, knives and swords.

Q Have there been any pitched battles?

A Yes, there have been many.

Q What’s happening to religion inside Tibet?

A The Chinese are using two principal methods against religion:

Firstly, they’re trying to obliterate the existing ancient religion by attacking religious leaders; they’ve murdered several and sent others to forced labor. You may have heard of our famous monasteries—Drepung, Sera, Ganden. At one of these, Sera, there used to be about 8,000 monks. Now there are only two or three hundred left. Where have the others gone? Some to forced labor, some to China, some killed, some to prison.

Secondly, as regards our sacred texts and images, only some have been preserved in Lhasa to show foreign visitors. Images made of brass or gold or silver have been melted. Those made of clay have been thrown away. Sacred texts have been used as shoe soles or burned. So religion is being destroyed.

**Unending story of Red Terror in Tibet. Dalai Lama in Exile since 1959.**

**Unending Story of Red Terror in Tibet. Dalai Lama lives in Exile since March 1959. His Journey into Exile.**

**Unending Story of Red Terror in Tibet. Dalai Lama Lives in Exile Since March 1959. Picture taken in 1967.**

**Unending Story of Red Terror in Tibet. Dalai Lama’s Journey into Exile began in March 1959.**

**Unending Story of Red Terror in Tibet. Dalai Lama Lives in Exile Since March 1959. Photo taken in May 1959.**

**Unending Story of Red Terror in Tibet. Dalai Lama Lives in Exile since March 1959. Photo taken in 1959 with Indian President Dr. Babu Rajendra Prasad.**

**Unending Story of Red Terror in Tibet. Dalai Lama Lives in Exile Since March 1959. Seen with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.**

**Unending Story of Red Terror in Tibet. Dalai Lama Lives in Exile Since 1959. Seen with Maharaja of Sikkim.**

**Unending Story of Red Terror in Tibet. Chinese Vive-Premier Chen Yi with Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama. Dalai Lama forced into Exile in March 1959.**

**Unending Story of Red Terror in Tibet. Dalai Lama Lives in Exile Since National Tibetan Uprising of March 1959.**

**Unending Story of Red Terror in Tibet. Dalai Lama forced into Exile in March 1959.**

**Unending Story of Red Terror in Tibet. Dalai Lama Forced to Live in Exile Since March 1959.**

**Unending Story of Red Terror in Tibet. Dalai Lama Lives in Exile Since March 1959. Seen with Indian Vice President Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.On wholedude.com**

**Unending Story of Red Terror in Tibet. Dalai Lama was forced into exile after failed Tibetan Uprising of March 1959.**

**UNENDING STORY OF RED TERROR IN TIBET. THE DALAI LAMA (TENZIN GYATSO) LIVING IN EXILE SINCE MARCH 1959.**

Trouble in Tibet – Red China’s Policy of Obstructionism

Red China, after forcing His Holiness the Dalai Lama to live in exile, is pursuing the policy of ‘Obstructionism’ creating Stumbling Blocks, and erecting Roadblocks preventing global community from reaching the destination of Peace and Justice in Occupied Tibet.

OBAMA TO MEET DALAI LAMA AT WHITE HOUSE, DEFYING BEIJING
June 15, 2016

**Trouble in Tibet – Red China’s Policy of Obstructionism**: **President Barack Obama meets with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the Map Room of the White House, Feb. 18, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)**

China on Wednesday warned US President Barack Obama against meeting with the Dalai Lama at the White House, saying that hosting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader could damage mutual trust.

Obama has met the Dalai Lama several times before and calls the monk, who is revered by Tibetans but portrayed by Beijing as a dangerous separatist, “a good friend.”The tete a tete, planned for Wednesday will — as usual — take place behind closed doors in an effort to avoid angering China, which accuses the Nobel peace laureate of using “spiritual terrorism” to seek independence for Tibet.

“China’s Foreign Ministry has launched solemn representations with the US side, expressing our firm opposition to such an arrangement,” foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters.

“If such meeting goes through, it will send a wrong signal to the separatist forces seeking Tibet independence and it will damage mutual trust and cooperation,” he added.

The spiritual leader — who has lived in exile in India since a failed 1959 uprising — has for decades called for more Tibetan autonomy rather than independence.

Beijing maintains he is a “wolf in monk’s clothing” and vigorously lobbies — often successfully — against foreign leaders meeting him.

Obama made a high-profile public appearance with the Dalai Lama last year at a prayer breakfast in Washington, calling him “a powerful example of what it means to practice compassion.”

But three prior meetings were held privately, and Obama was criticised in 2010 for obliging the 80-year-old, clad in his characteristic red robes and flip flops, to leave the White House through a back door and walk past piles of snow and bags of rubbish.

Obama’s schedule indicated the Wednesday meeting would be held away from the cameras in the White House Map Room, not the Oval Office.

TIBETANS APPLAUD

Tibetans “feel happy about His Holiness meeting the president,” said Sonam Dagpo of the Tibetan government-in-exile, adding they hoped the US would support “the struggle of Tibetans.”

China has ruled Tibet since the 1950s, but many Tibetans say Beijing represses their Buddhist religion and culture — charges China denies.

More than 130 ethnic Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2009 in protest at Beijing’s rule, campaign groups and overseas media have said. Most of them have died.

The Dalai Lama has described the protests as acts of desperation that he is powerless to stop.Many observers believe China is confident that the Tibetan movement will lose much of its potency and global appeal when the charismatic Dalai Lama dies.

The Dalai Lama has also increasingly spoken of succession and has not ruled out picking his reincarnation before his death, fearing that China would instead pick its own boy whom it would use to advance its agenda.

His stance has led Chinese communist rulers, who are officially atheist, to insist that the Dalai Lama can only reincarnate after his death.