Phuinsok Wangdu

When I interviewed Phuinsok in 1991, he was then the Secretarty
General of the Tibetan Parliament(in-Exile). This is another
fascinating person that my friend Sonam Tenzin introduced me to.
Sonam also facilitated the interpretation for this interview.

Phuinsok was there in Lhasa, when Chinese troops entered the
capital city of Tibet in 1953. He first heard about the invasion of Tibet
in 1949, and very young at the time, was shocked. His first thoughts
then were simply, “Why should a bigger nation invade a smaller
one?” When the Chinese entered Lhasa, they said that they were
there to help the Tibetans because outside foreign forces were
going to invade Tibet, he said. Phuinsok took them for their word. He
explained how the Chinese had realized in 1951 that there were no
motorable roads to connect Tibetan cities with China, so road
construction began. With the new roads came “flocks of Chinese
forces, day by day”, he said. It was then that he realized the Chinese
were the ones going to invade – the ‘foreign forces’ turned out to be
the Chinese themselves.

Stationed in Lhasa as a government official at the time, he was able
to empathize with and understand the feelings of the Tibetan people
directly. Suddenly, all of the commodities tremendously increased in
price. This led to a spontaneous revolt by the Tibetans. “We said
that they came here saying that they promised to help us but ever
since their arrival everything became expensive.” People were in
disbelief. “Rapid changes started to happen, particularly in Lhasa.”

“Until about 1957-1958, the Chinese in Tibet had behaved as if they
were there as our friends and brothers of the Tibetans, but
apparently they were only disguising their true intentions and the
plans that would later be forced upon us.”

Phuinsok was thirty-one years old in 1959, the year of the Tibetan
uprising and the year that would forever mark a major change in his
life. He was working for the Tibetan government at the time. He was a
member of a large family which consisted of many relatives living
together on their own land and property, and who derived income
from the property. Each individual family would occupy different
rooms in a large complex. His wife and her parents took responsibility
for managing his family. His wife gave birth to five children, one died
at a very young age. Four are alive today (1991).

Phuinsok was one of the representatives who was chosen to talk with
the Chinese right after the bombardment took place. On March 19,
1959 at 2:40 a.m. he was right below in a small meeting hall just
below the Potala Palace in the printing press (shol) with other
representatives. They did not have time or opportunity to go to their
families. They knew ultimately that the Dalai Lama would have gone
by then, so they discussed over again what course of action to take
and all agreed that they should flee behind the Dalai Lama, rather
than stay there in fear.

So they crossed over the Potala and over a mountain and he and
the other government representatives decided that they absolutely
could not go to their families. Most of these representatives (who
were almost all elected by the people of Lhasa, not selected by the
government), had not even been allowed to leave the meetings
because they feared that important secrets might be leaked out and
the Chinese might aim to kill them. About one hundred
representatives were able to flee but some remained back.

One of the main factors that caused them to make this decision was
that the bombardment didn’t stop. They felt sure that if they were
caught they would be killed, imprisoned or worse, used by the
Chinese. The option of leaving gave them two choices: (1) go south
of Lhasa and counter attack the Chinese, although they lacked
sufficient weapons or (2) If the first choice is not possible, they would
follow the Dalai Lama’s entourage. Staying back would be suicidal.
Phuinsok thought that if they start an attack at Lokha, they would be
able to be successful and then be able to go back to Lhasa and
bring his family to Lhoka where there were no Chinese forces. If that
wouldn’t be successful, he thought he could work with the Dalai Lama’
s government. On the second day after arriving at Lokha, they all
assembled together, held a meeting, and no sooner did they see
Chinese army planes flying over in the Lokha sky and then later, the
appearance of Chinese land forces. This was enough for them to
realize they had no other alternative then to take immediate flight to
India following His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Phuinsok thought that
this was best, and believed that once in India, the Dalai Lama will
regain his country just as the 13th Dalai Lama did years before. (The
13th Dalai Lama also fled to India for refuge and returned only after
one year to reclaim Tibetan independence.) Phuinsok hoped for
something similar to happen. He felt that America would help push
back the Chinese forces from Tibet. He also was encouraged and
hopeful that since India and Tibet had a friendly relationship, and as
their borders are so close, India would come to aid Tibet. He was
aware that Great Britian understood Tibet’s critical situation and
might come to help. But he was more doubtful about Great Britian
because he felt there were some tricky politics going on.

On his arrival in India he was very disappointed. He saw some of the
officials of the pre-1959 government there in India. He thought that
they must be given great credit for seeing that the Dalia Lama was
escorted to safety but at the same time he was upset about the
previous Tibetan system that he felt had been really a very poor
system, that did not take care of the Tibetan people’s welfare and
may have also been a cause that led to the Chinese invasion of
Tibet. I think that Phuinsok seemed to feel that they were in many
ways the faces of that ill-system.

The first time he heard about his family was in 1980 since after 1959,
his family was not allowed to come out because Phuinsok was
labeled a reactionary having been an official in the Tibetan
government. His son visited India in 1980 for the first time. Still today,
(1991) most of his family is not allowed to come out. His first wife was
able to visit him in 1980 for about one month, then went back
because after such a long period (21 years), many things had
changed. He had remarried. His wife also had not known whether he
was alive or not, and had met someone whom she had one child with.

Phuinsok’s story is not like many of the others presented here. This
shows the life of one who escaped the persecution but became
separated from his family. It is the story of a sincere young Tibetan
representative who had little choice but to flee following the
bombardment in 1959. His family left behind and oppressed, with
communication cut off, had created difficult, painful circumstances to
say the least. He was an optimistic young man, even while in flight to
exile, and was not able to comprehend the overwhelming situation.
On arriving to India, he was greatly upset about the previous Tibetan
government and persistently worked his way to becoming Secretary
General of a Democratic Tibetan Parliament of Representatives, in-
Exile, determined to make a better life for future generations of
Tibetans.

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