RANGZEN
“Remember the suffering brought by the changing times to the people of the snowland, the people endowed with history, courage and a sense of national responsibility. Remember their unflinching determination and let us continue to develop our own sense of national responsibility.
— The Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso April 30, 2000
Rangzen is a Tibetan word meaning freedom. For Tibetans, it is also synonymous with the struggle for a free and autonomous Tibet—a struggle rooted in non-violence, love, and compassion, yet one that feels more impossible by the day.
In October 1950, China invaded Tibet after its claims of sovereignty were rejected by the Tibetan government and people. The UN General Assembly condemned the invasion and called for an end to Chinese repression, but these appeals were ignored. What followed was an occupation marked by brutal oppression, destruction, and systematic efforts to erase the Tibetan way of life and national identity.
After nearly a decade of repression, amid growing fears that the Dalai Lama would be arrested or even assassinated, the Tibetan people rose in protest on March 10, 1959. Tens of thousands surrounded the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the home of the Dalai Lama. In response, China launched a fierce counter-offensive, killing thousands of Tibetans, capturing Lhasa, dissolving the Tibetan government, and forcing the Dalai Lama into exile.
During the conflict, approximately 87,000 Tibetans and 2,000 Chinese were killed. More than 100,000 Tibetans fled to neighboring countries—India, Nepal, and Bhutan—many undertaking grueling and dangerous journeys through the Himalayas, battling extreme conditions while evading capture, imprisonment, or torture at the hands of Chinese authorities. Most never returned. The majority of their children, and their children’s children, have never set foot on Tibetan soil and likely never will. As a result, their sense of Tibetan identity is deeply complex—rooted in exile and now standing on the precipice of another tragedy. More subtle, more insidious, but just as grave: the death of a generation. A generation that still remembers Tibet before the Chinese occupation, a generation that still carries the stories of their homeland. With China’s stranglehold over Tibet continuing unabated, the importance of sharing these stories and preserving the incredibly rich and unique culture, history and language, grows ever more crucial—and ever more complicated.
These people are Tibetan.
These are their stories.
Hear their voices.
Long Gaze to Tibet | Diskit Monastery, Hunder
Excerpt from 'Personal Reconnaissance' by Tibetan refugee writer and activist Tenzin Tsundue
Confluence of the Indus and the Zanskar rivers. The Indus, one of Asia's great rivers, originates in the Changtang cold desert in the high altitude Tibetan Plateau crossing the border into India.
Young monks of Lamayuru | Today many young tibetans are raised in monastic communities in India where they learn the Tibetan language and a pure form of Tibetan tantric buddhist philosophy.
The Chinese government has deemed it illegal to display images of the Dalai Lama, whom it accuses of inciting resistance to and plots against China, anywhere in Tibet.
A Changthangi (Ladakh Pashmina) herder tends to his trip of goats at one of the world's highest altitude saltwater lakes, Pangong Tso. Pangong Tso is an endorheic lake spanning eastern Ladakh and West Tibet and sits at an elevation of 4,225 m. It is the perfect climate for the much-prized Changthai breed of goats which produce the highest grade of pashmina wool.
Exile House | Tenzin Tsundue; prominent Tibetan independence activist and writer in his house in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India.
Mesib Norbu, former monk, writer and part of Free Tibet movement outside the poetry tea shop he runs in Mcleod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh, India.
Lo Sang, a Tibetan monk and refugee in exile escaped Tibet just over a decade ago. He had to grow is hair long, take off his monastic robes and travel only during the cover of darkness with the help of a Nepali fixer through the Himalayas from Tibet to Nepal.
The outer section of the inner temple at Namygal Monastery (home of the Dalai lama) blankets, cushions etc are spread out to reserve places for the H.H. Dalai Lama's teaching - set to draw a crowd of over 5000. Reserving places is done on a trust basis.
Dolma Yangchen, president of the Tibetan Women's Association. The organisation supports the preservation traditional culture and language and rights of and advocacy for Tibetan women in exile.
Tibetan women in traditional dress (chupas) near high altitude settlement of Sama Goan, Nepal. The pattern of nomadic life was common throughout Tibet. Nomads dwelt in tents of yak hair and lived off the produce of their yak, dri (female yak), dzos (cow/yak cross) sheep and goats. They would barter milk, butter, meat and wool for tsampa and other commodities.
Tibetan settlement, Namrung in Nupri valley Nepal. Nupri valley is home to a tibetan population who speak exclusively tibetan dialect wear traditional tibetan dress (chubas) and live a very preserved example of traditional tibetan life (grazing yak etc) - more so than is now evident in Tibet itself.
Yak are sacred to Tibetans. Everything they produce is traded or used to sustain their way of life. Milk, also used to make yak butter used their staple Yak butter tea and porridge. Wool for clothing and their manure is burned as fuel and used as insulation.
Tibetan settlement of Sama Goan, Nepal high in a restricted area of the Himalayas. It lies in the lap of Mt.Manaslu the seventh highest peak in the world.
Very high altitudes settlements become totally inhospitable in the winter as snow and ice engulf the landscape and blocking supply routes. With winter fast approaching, this family plan to move to lower ground in the next few days.
Inside the homestead in one of the highest altitude settlements in the world. The family speak only Tibetan dialect with everyone sleeping in one room.
Dharamsala settlement, Nepal - one of the highest altitude settlements in the world. A Tibetan woman in traditional dress stands on top of the first level of her home. In the winter months they live in the bottom section with their yak to maintain warmth. Yak dung is stuck to walls and used as insulation and also burned for fuel in the fires.
Man carries returns home with wood
Facing Rui La | The view from the high altitude Tibetan settlement of Samdo in Nepal looking out towards Rui La and the Tibet border. Many Tibetans fled Tibet through here over the years but it is now a tightly controlled crossing run by the Chinese. It is open 15 days a year to natives of the Nupri valley area only.
