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Reclaiming Tibetan bRla Srog, our consciousness!

By Tenzin Nyinjey

Tenzin Nyinjey is an English Literature student. File photo/Tenzin Lhawang (LTWA)

China has not only occupied our country, but it is currently even colonising it. No one can deny this fact, not even the Chinese themselves. And like all colonising states, China is no exception: it feeds on the exploitation of the native population — exploiting not just the physical attributes of our country, that is our mountains, water, minerals, rivers, air, and wild life, but also our country’s very own soul by attempting to systematically destroy our more than two- thousand-year-old cultural heritage.

In short, one doesn’t need to be a thousand-eyed Chenrezig to see what China is doing to us. It is all clear to the naked eye: China consistently suppresses and oppresses and denies the distinct identity and characteristic of Tibet, its very bRla Srog, that is our very own Tibetan soul. In other words, it denies our very existence as a separate people with our own separate history and way of life, created for centuries by the sweat and blood of our forefathers. This cold, determined act is, as Tsering Shakya says, “worse than burying a man alive.”

This denial of our representation, our distinctiveness, our rich, dramatic and diverse culture, religion and history, in brief our very own soul, is the core issue that we have been fighting for the past fifty years. This is, to borrow a phrase the Chinese themselves use, “a struggle of life and death.” There is no middle ground here.

Since China’s policies and practices are to consistently deny (and even attempt to annihilate) the very existence of Tibet’s history and identity, our response should be the opposite: that is we must strongly reinforce and reclaim our separate history and identity. In other words, we have to re-awaken our own submerged Tibetan consciousness by finding greater pride and honour in our true original roots, which spring from the very native soil and dust of Tibet. To put it simply: we need to know who we, and our ancestors, truly are.

This I feel is the need of the hour, the very crux of the matter for young people at present, as the Tibetan saying goes “gal che nang gi don che.”

There is only one way to do this: by making ourselves familiar with all things Tibetan, which is only possible if we return to and absorb ourselves in the original works of Tibetan authors, both religious and secular, including the abundant and rich folk wisdoms of our country, that huge collections of Tibetan literature available in Tibetan libraries. They are our legacy, our inheritance, the rich expression of the very soul of our being. They constitute what we are as Tibetans. Such an effort will help re-awaken our true consciousness as Tibetans.

Besides, a strong grasp of our own native history and identity will help us create original works, of things exclusively Tibetan, be it poetry, music, architecture or painting, thus contributing to the global culture in a positive, creative, recognizable, confident and constructive way. Most important of all, as I said before, this determination will reinforce our identity as Tibetans, to ourselves, separate and distinct not only from the unrelenting Chinese, but also from the cultural dominance of Indians and Americans.

Alas, not many young educated Tibetans in exile, in our struggle to survive and educate ourselves in an alien land, realise this. While we are indeed very familiar with the works of Shakespeare and Homer, most of our ears are strangers to the painful and beautiful sounds and echoes expressed in the original Tibetan works of our very own native poets like Gedhun Chophel and Dhondup Gyal, a clear indication of how far we have been estranged and alienated from our roots!

I believe we have to reverse this trend and reclaim our very consciousness, our bRla srog, our Tibetan-ness, if we are to save our rich nation, which is at this time clearly and truly facing “a death sentence!”

Copyright © 2010 Tenzin Nyinjey

Published in Tibet Sun