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In Dharamsala, I spent many days and evenings during a
memorable year at my friend Kargyu Dhondup’s and his wife, Chok-
Tsering’s home.
They made sure I was taken care of with warm conversation and my
favorite foods. This often meant preparing extra dishes and they
never accepted ‘no’ for an answer. I won’t forget those days.
There was also a neighbor in the room next door that would stop by
sometimes to talk and have a cup of tea. Her name: Kelsang
Chodron. When Kargyu-la and Chok-la heard about the project I
had began, they were fast to inform me that I needed to interview
her. I wasn’t aware that this kind lady who had always stopped by
had gone through so much loss of property, position, and family
and endured so much persecution by the Chinese. There was no
way of telling that from her appearance. Kargyu-la and Chok-la
both helped by interpreting and by providing their room which was
lit by the afternoon sun. I believe that this is the first time that
Kelsang shared her history with anyone (at least in such detail) and
I feel she was willing to do it only because of her trust in Kargyu and
Chok-Tsering.
Kelsang’s family could trace their lineage to a long line of special
government service all the way to the 5th Dalai Lama. The lineage,
by the name of “Lochee” was on the mother’s side. Husbands would
enter into their household. The Lochee was head of Lokah, of the
Tsonga zone. The name of her family is “Shewoo” which Kelsang
mentioned was well known by the residents of Lhasa.
There were two special hereditary lineages linked to the service of
the Tibetan government. In Tibetan, the two were: “Tsetung”, or
financial power, and “Trunkor”, which concerned holders of estates
with considerable property. Her family was based on the Trunkor
side. In all there were one hundred eight ‘Trunkors’ and hers was
situated somewhere in the middle level.
Since the time of the 5th Dalai Lama her family and ancestors had
owned and taken care of this land. A land which consisted of 300
khel (approximately 300 acres), 500 yaks and even more drey
(female of yak), 2000 sheep, 2000 goats, about 35 horses, 45-50
cows and tzomo. She said there was a fluctuation in cattle over
certain years. They lived in a three story building that contained
about 40 rooms. When she was twelve years old, in 1949, her
mother died in an earthquake when the upper two stories collapsed.
They finally rebuilt the building, including the upper two stories, just
around the time of the 1959 uprising.
In 1949, Kelsang remembers that Chamdo had been taken over by
the Chinese. She heard this from elders. Even the adults never
thought that the Chinese would take over Tibet entirely. Her father
didn’t expect it would be that bad and that they would have time to
escape if ever necessary.
Since her mother expired early, she had to look after the home but
she later attended a school when she was fourteen and fifteen
which was in Lhasa. Kelsang studied Tibetan, Chinese, and math.
After two years of schooling she returned to domestic work at home.
She was in Lhasa when the Chinese came there in 1950-1951.
They came bringing the Panchen Rinpoche (Panchen Lama) and
she witnessed seeing the first Chinese delegations then. It was the
first time she saw Chinese. She remembers that her impression was
that their whole face looked like blood was coming out. Then at a
later time, she saw them and it looked like their face was very white.
The first time caused her to feel very frightened. She was even
there in Lhasa, when the Chinese started the T.A.R. (Tibet
Autonomous Region) talks. The talk on the street was that the
Chinese were deliberately employing Tibetan government staff and
paying them high salaries. Her family was not included in this
program. The T.A.R. head office then started T.A.R. offices in the
villages. It seemed that the people who were ‘a bit clever or well
known’ were employed in those offices. Kelsang discerned that, “the
Tibetans who began to feel suspicious would leave their T.A.R.
posts but those who were ignorant remained on”.
At the age of twenty, in May 1959 (a few months after the Tibetan
uprising) everything abruptly changed in Kelsang’s life.
Kelsang said, “The Chinese claim that they ‘liberated’ Tibet”. Her
father was one to be taken away by the Chinese and imprisoned. It
was the fifth month of the Tibetan calendar. When they came for
him, they were careful to say in front of her that they were taking
her father to a meeting. The place was two hours away from her
house. Later, almost everyone else that went to this so-called
meeting came back but not her father. The next morning, the
Chinese came and sealed her house with signs that said, “Property
of Chinese Government”. Those that came to seal the house told
her said to her, “your father is anti-Chinese and has been put in
jail”. After his imprisonment, she was then taken for interrogation
regarding whether they have any weapons on their property. She
was kept for two days. The family remaining in the home was
ordered to leave and were allowed to take just some blankets, mats,
and a little food. The Chinese had her remain in the house and kept
her in one storage room for ten days.
Her father had been brought in front of the house one morning and
the Chinese organized and had trained a local crowd to publicly
defame him. She was not allowed to see it but she could hear it.
She remembers them saying things like, “Our families have suffered
under you from generation to generation but from now onwards
your family will not be able to rise above us.” The locals were forced
to do this. The defamation took place throughout the morning and
he was brought back to the jail in the evening. From that day, she
was thrown out from the room where she had been staying and put
in a room further away from the main home but part of the property.
This time, the room was a small storage space where wool was
stocked. It was less space then even the servants had stayed she
said. She was told to change into the clothes they gave her, and
was given a few utensils and one single blanket. This was in the mid-
summer 1959 and her father was taken to Lhunchee zong.
During that summer she was allowed a little tsampa for food. Some
of the army personnel questioned her about the possessions in the
house. They wanted her agreement about all the contents of what
now was to be considered their possessions. They wanted her to
‘confess’. The house was packed with Chinese personnel, including
some paid agents among the public. During that period she was not
allowed to talk to anyone else other than Chinese staff. She did not
actually want to speak to anyone else because she felt it was
dangerous to say anything. At the end of the year in 1959, they
(the Chinese) took all the property and all things of value. Only the
edibles and some livestock did they distribute among the local
public. Among the livestock and cattle, they took all the horses with
them.
Her brother-in-law’s brother was accused of contacting the foreign
office as he had try to inquire there about her. Even though this
incident took place in Lhasa, she was questioned and went through
interrogation again. She didn’t know anything. (It was only much
later on a trip to Lhasa that she found out about him being injured.
He was shot, but not critically while on his bicycle.) To frighten her
during interrogation, they would shoot a gun in the air and then
point the gun and put it into her chest. In the end, she said she didn’
t fear anything because she did not have knowledge about anything
they were asking her. Also at this time, most families were very
fearful of being imprisoned. She expected to certainly be put in
prison. On that particular day, five local persons were taken away
including the secretary of the monastery, a monastery keeper, and
the medium(oracle). The two others were brothers of the secretary.
The secretary and his brother’s home had been sealed and they
had tried to take some of their valuables and escape. Of these five,
the medium, later escaped to India and is now in the settlement at
Mungod. The secretary was released in 1979 from prison, and the
three others died in jail. He died just two months after his release.
In 1960, she also went and saw her father at Lhunchee. He was
later relocated to Tsetong prison in 1961. When she went there she
had to hire a mule to go, as it was a journey of seven days. She
had nothing to bring him so she contacted some nomad friends who
gave her wheat, butter, cheese, and tsampa to offer her father. It
was a risk to go there as the passage is dangerous, having to cross
through three huge mountains by herself. It was also dangerous in
another way, in that she could possibly be imprisoned.
In 1962, Kelsang’s father was shifted to another prison at Noncau.
Her sister and she visited him twice there. From Lhasa they could
transit and get to there via motor vehicle. In the first location, at
Lhunchee, the food and clothing were o.k. At the second prison in
Tsetong, the food was poor but sufficient to get by. However, this
time, in Noncau, many died of hunger, as there was a famine. At
that time, some Chinese were eating tin foods, which meant that
they dug up earthworms and boiled them in empty tin cans. Some
used to boil leather shoes. Most of the people who died she says,
from hunger, were either the elderly or else those who were used to
eating a lot. Those who normally did not eat too much were the
survivors. Her father, on seeing her sister and her, told them that
he was on the verge of dying and if they didn’t come he was sure to
die. He said that he could smell the food they were carrying from a
far distance. These were days when people were dying of hunger at
many prisons. She recalls that at another prison, in Samye, only
eighteen would survive out of seventy to eighty of the prisoners.
The Chinese had started a ‘twenty-six point’ program also called,
‘yong-kep-dem-thruk’. They started giving a passport to every adult
over eighteen years old. Her father had been shifted back to
Tsetong in 1964. She requested permission to see her father but
permission was not granted. Still she went. When she arrived there,
he was nowhere to be found. Thanks to one Tibetan prison
employee, information was passed to Kelsang indirectly through a
song. In the prison staff’s song, he ‘told her’ that her father is in
Netung prison. When she turned back from there, she was
interrogated and then defamed in public. From that time onward, it
got stricter and stricter day by day. In 1965 the Chinese started yet
another program that included some travel procedures. She was
issued a passport and later was told to go get him as he was being
released due to his being very sick. One other prisoner’s family had
also been called, as he was also to be released for the same
reason. Since she had no means of transportation, she asked that
man’s family if they could go bring the two back together. They
refused and she was left to go by herself to the prison. But to get
the official permission to travel to the prison, she needed to get
permission at Tsongnar zone which meant she had to travel alone
through mountain passes -- one large mountain and one small
mountain. It was during winter and the snow was waist high. But she
successfully made it and got the pass and then returned back.
When the other family heard that she received the authorization,
they changed their minds and decided to send the man’s brother-in-
law with one horse to go with Kelsang. When they reached the
prison, her father and brother were brought out. Her father was
actually not too ill, and was able to walk. But the other man was
being supported with the help of others. After they brought him out,
he died. Kelsang said that she thought he was only in his mid-
thirties. On return, the one horse then was used for her father.
Until 1965, Kelsang’s father stayed together with her and her aunt.
Their home had already been converted to a Chinese office.
Although they were given a little land, the Chinese staff forced her
do all the cleaning and maid work for them in what used to be her
house. She said that if it was only cleaning that would have been o.
k. but she was also physically beaten. Once again, her father was
taken back to prison after just one year out. They said that he had
“only acted ill before.” After 1965, not much movement was allowed.
Kelsang said, “for example, you couldn’t even go around your
block.” It was only during “meeting times” that local people would
get to see each other. Since 1965, the clothes people wore were
always worn out, covered with patches. No one was allowed to do
other kinds of work to earn extra. Only tilling the land was permitted.
Then in 1966, Kelsang’s father was again released. The Chinese
had sent a message for her to come pick him up at Lhuntsee, the
location that the Chinese had brought him to. It was a two-day
journey. She met him along the way as he was walking back.
Until 1975, he was in the home. Since her father was in the house,
she had to go out for work. Kelsang said that she had worked
longer and harder than others but was paid the least. Then on
returning home after work, she had to also assist the person who
cooked for the Chinese by bringing firewood. From her place, many
times she had to go to a place called Chir, where more Chinese
staff were to be found. She had to carry about 30-35 kg of firewood
on her back for the Chinese staff there. That even took a full day’s
walk but she had to return back to her home. If she didn’t do these
things she would be physically beaten. Sometimes messengers
would come with a letter for her to give someone else even in the
middle of the night. This happened once or twice per week.
Sometimes she was called for construction work and had to sleep
outside. At night, when they sleep during these construction
projects, they would have to lie with their heads in opposite
directions. She had to sleep on the end so her head was often
kicked during the night as the Chinese would go back and forth.
On construction jobs she faced many problems. Once, the Chinese
decided to make a canal by cutting through the middle of a hill. She
was sent with many young boys and they had to carry stones on
their backs. Once she was made to put a rope on her back and
hang on the hill. This was not physical torture but was very
dangerous and she preferred this to carrying rocks. But as the
Chinese sensed that it was not physically painful enough, they put
her back to carrying the stones. Her father was also made to do this
work. Her father faced many more problems doing this work and
she felt that it would be very good if he wasn’t there doing it. At
night when they take off their clothes, the skin on their backs came
off. This is because “the first two trips burn the back, and from then
onwards the pain isn’t felt”. During these times sometimes they fell
down. This would be a cause to get beaten by the Chinese officers
and sometimes by the Tibetans working for the Chinese. She was
made to be the first in the morning to arrive at work and also the
last to go back. At lunch all the people would be taken together.
The main dish they had each day was tsampa with black tea. To
prepare the black tea they had to carry wood from their homes.
After every seven days they were required to go to the police
station and report recent happenings.
“At these meetings to report weekly ‘happenings’ we would not be
called by name. If the officer was somewhat friendly, we would be
allowed to sit on the floor during the interrogations. Otherwise we
had to stand up the whole time. Sometimes, we had to go one full
day walking distance for work. This would be out of the locality. In
the early morning, we had to go collect human excretion. If the
quantity is a lot, then nothing would be said, otherwise, we would be
beaten and scolded”. In the evenings or at night she remembers
that they had to study Mao’s red book. During these studies, she
would often be beaten as the Chinese would say that she is
‘purposely misreading or mispronouncing the words.’ At that time
she wished that she didn’t know how to read. She had to
continuously report to the police all the way until 1979.
It was around 1966, during the Cultural Revolution, that the
passport once given her had been revoked. The reason they said
was that she was considered in the “worst criminal” category. It was
around that time that there was a drought in China so the Chinese
started ordering people to use less grain. From other places in
Tibet they were shipping grain from Tibet to mainland China but
due to the absence of transportation facilities they didn’t do that
from her vicinity.
In 1977, the two cattle that they owned were not allowed to stay in
their small field and also not allowed to mix with anyone else’s
cattle. They had to keep the cow and tzo down in the grazing place
only at night. They could milk the cow and bring it up to their room
from there. From their village, no one could loan them the grain
they desperately needed. But down past the grazing area there
lived a monk who agreed to loan them a bag of grain. One morning,
her father said he was going to go look after the cattle and went to
get the grain. But he broke his leg when some stones fell from the
hill on the way down to the monk’s place. She was at that time, away
fetching the horse of a Chinese official. When she came back she
saw her father back in the house with his broken leg. He then had
to tell the purpose for which he went down the hill and related the
story about the monk and the grain. She couldn’t take him to a
good doctor but there was a village doctor who came and checked
on him. But this doctor didn’t give proper treatment. Then one day,
she was sent some distance to work for road construction and her
aunt stayed home to look after father. But she wasn’t there when he
died. Kelsang was later sent a message that her father had died.
When she arrived back her father was lying there and his leg had
insects on it. She was told to take the body away herself but her
aunt came and took the corpse. As the Chinese still restricted
religious practice, they were not allowed to do any religious
ceremonies. (At this moment in the interview, Kelsang could not
hold back the tears that she tried so hard to hold in.)
Travel was very restricted until 1979. Her sister had sent a boy with
a request that she come to Lhasa and live with her. She was able to
get permission to travel there and even stay. She found out from
her sister that in either 1971 or 1973, the Chinese had a program
called ‘terim gersheep’ which was designed to locate any people left
who were from Noble families. During that program, all the nobles
as well as general public were interrogated, and many people
committed suicide. Her father was actually on the listed but due to
fear of further widespread suicide, they stopped. At that time, it
became known that a lady with twins had committed suicide but her
twins survived. Since so many people had committed suicide, they
stopped the interrogations and decreased the public defamations
for a while.
Her sister who married in 1959, moved to Lhasa.. Her husband, a
young man, was called upon to guard the Norbulinka Palace. Later
after His Holiness the Dalai Lama fled, her sister’s husband was
captured by the Chinese.
Being born in a Tibetan aristocratic family, after 1959, meant great
danger --vicious persecution. The Chinese singled out these
families at large and used them as primary scapegoats in their
grand scheme. Entire families were destroyed and property,
belongings, all confiscated. These people were fair game for
perverse humiliation under Chinese rule.
This interview contains so much. I must thank Kelsang Chodron for
sharing her very private memories with me as I now transmit many
of them here in an appeal to the conscience of the world
community. Her history depicts the reality of a life spent behind the
doors of a corruptly governed, closed society. It is also the private
story of the challenge of survival under such conditions of a father
and his loving daughter.
CYBEReTOWER™ LLC. All text and photographs above are copyrighted by the artist, David F
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