Dhondup Wangchen made a short film about the Tibetans viewpoint of the Beijing Olympics. On March 23rd 08, shortly after the film tapes were smuggled out of Tibet, Dhondup was arrested by Chinese authorities, his friend was also arrested but released after being severely tortured in prison, Dhondup is still in detention but no-one has any news (he has a wife and four children). Below is a comment found in response to the film, I felt it shouldn't go unseen:-
'Until all injustice is eradicated from his earth, until all beings are free and until there is no oppression I will make a great noise with my life - it will be so loud it will echo for thousands of years. I will make a great noise with my life. I will shame oppressors with laughter; with the freedom in my heart. I will be visible – there will be nothing they can do. I will go anywhere, I will travel and live like a bird, and more will come. We will travel, we will live like birds there will be nothing they can do, they will not know who we are. I will no longer watch the world be cruel to itself, I am one person, there are many ordinary people and extraordinary who see no difference between one beating heart and another. Our hearts beat as one. I will close my eyes and send out a vision of hope to the oppressed. We are coming, we are the warriors of old, we have not forgotten, we have not given up. We know how life is like a snake that runs through sand, it continues, it sheds centuries and grows in a new form. Our ancestors are with us and we know the truth. Each of us is a pure being, a beautiful droplet of the universe. I am shedding my old self, it is dying on the ground before me, I die first so I can continue fearlessly. My enemies are hatred and despair; my allies are love and faith. There is no faith brighter than my faith. I have seen it in the eyes of people who are dancing, I have seen it in the eyes of people who bake extraordinary cakes from ordinary flour. I have seen gardens growing. It is not the end. It was out of hatred and despair that I grew this faith, it has wings like an eagle. How will I make a noise? With my life I will make a noise. How will it help? When someone is unjust, I will say it is wrong what you do, that the person you are hurting is yourself, you can either choose to understand now – or you can wait – you can wait and understand when it is too late. You cannot undo the actions you do, you can only not do them in the first place. It is better to do something else. I am going to do something else. I am going to make a noise with my life about the violence I no longer wish to see, about the prejudices I no longer have patience for, about ideas and inaction that cause people to stand and watch. I have no stomach for pictures of dying children followed by football results. It is cowardly to look away. I will look at the dying children, at the mistakes of our parents and grandparents, I will look at the dying children in the arms of their mothers and their fathers, their sisters and their brothers. I am the dying child, the child is dying within me; the mothers, the fathers, the brothers and the sisters are dying within me. I can feel the dying. I have tried to look away. I am ashamed – I have tried to see something else, to live in the world as though it were two worlds. But the blood is on my doorstep, the crying is in the street, the famine is in the garden and I am wearing the clothes that have made it like this. The world has become like this, because of my indifference, about where things come from, about how they are made. I have allowed the greed of others to become lawless because it suited me, but this thoughtlessness is laying waste to this planet and I am sad for the future I can not see, not for the future I can.
I will take off these thoughtless clothes and return this thoughtless laptop I write upon. When they can be replaced by something that has caused no harm, perhaps even done some good, I will come back. You must show me a positive product, I do not want your tainted hardware, it has worn itself hardest upon this planet, upon poor miners, and rainforests, upon native cultures and people who know the land and have thought of the future for thousands of years. What future do you think of but your own. You must learn the truth about how you are involved in the destruction and decimation and you must ask for something positive. You must take back those things that come from countries where people are oppressed, where human rights do not exist. You must take them back to the shops and say I would like one that does not have this --------- (read catastrophe) as a result of its manufacture. Your mobile phone with its barium, that has ripped Africans from their homes and carved up their country. Your electricity, whose nuclear power source has generated waste that is sold to the Chinese, who have conveniently (for who?) stored it on the Tibetan plateau. You must say I do not want this --------- product. I do not want this because it has caused and is causing suffering. You must say, I want something else. A positive product, from source, to recycling or resource. They must give you a brand new ‘recycled’ model, you no longer want something brand new. Fresh from the stains of pollutining factories, of slave wages, of induced genocides and wars. I do not want this one you say, I want this one. And this is where it becomes important – you must ask for what you want. I want a mobile phone that is ecological, where everyone’s lives have benefitted from the process of manufacturing it. I do not want it otherwise. It has to be a positive product. If you can not do this, I will return to the forest, I will live like a bird. I will take down your factories a piece at a time, and I will give them back to the animals. You do not belong here if you cannot look after it, or each other. It is clear you cannot look after it or each other. There is no time left now. Choose your battle wisely, choose your ground, choose where you will stand, make it count, make them count. There are many of you, but you fight without weapons against ignorance, brutality.and indifference. You must warm the coldest of hearts and you must help each other.
I will make more noise than a thousand Dhondup Wangchen's until all the Dhondups of the world are free - or you can have me in his place. Except you will never be able to silence me, my voice is their voice, my voice is our voice - we are coming to get our home back, to return our earth to its peace and original beauty. Our weapon is eternity; if you (the perpetrators of injustice) lose now, all of us will win; but if you win none of us will, if you win now, we will all be lost.
I have no country now, I am of no country except this earth. I will travel over the seas and over the lands like an eagle. I am nameless but I speak for all beings. Like an eagle with great wings I soar through clouds of darkness.' Anon
More information about Dhondup Wangchen can be found here:-
'Meanwhile, a Tibetan monk who was jailed after helping make a film about the Olympics and Tibet has been released but was severely tortured while in prison, the filmmakers said.
Farmer Dhondup Wangchen and his friend Golog Jigme — a monk also known as Jigme Gyatso — were detained shortly after finishing the film, called Leaving Fear Behind, but managed to smuggle tapes out of the country.
The film was shown to a small group of foreign reporters in secret in Beijing during the Olympics.
“It is not clear, according to information from Tibet, if all charges against Jigme Gyatso have been dismissed. He was told by the authorities that he will stay under observance and his probation will last one year,” the filmmakers said in a statement seen yesterday.
“The interrogators beat him continuously and hanged him by his feet from the ceiling for hours and kept him tied for days,” they said.
Dhondup Wangchen is still in detention and there is no news of his pending trial, they said.' Quoted from here http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2008/10/20/2003426403
