“I was 15 years old when I went to prison. I was a monk at the time. The Chinese police were everywhere.
Even we have to get permission to fetch drinking water from the near by
well. The monastery has to pay the
expenses of the stationed patrols, such as money cigarettes, alcohol and
everything. Moreover, they won’t
let us practice the daily prayer session and on top of all that we have to attend
daily lessons about culture revolution. “
“Thus, in the year of 1998, me and four other friends, went to protest with our slogans.
We told ourselves that, this is the end of our life but we were not afraid. We
were happy and confident about what we are going to do.”
“Maybe we get around 3 minutes to do the demonstration and
then we were surrounded by plain cloth police,
police as well as army. They all
stumbled on me and my friends. We were pushed down on to the ground and hand
cuffed us. We were put in a line and within a friction of a second, there was
an army van near us. We were all forced into the van and drove off.”
“I felt a ball, they were kicking us from all directions.
You know, the army boots, they are so strong. One of the army hit my eyes and I
couldn’t see at all. I guess we drove for around half an hour.”
“Once we reached the near by station, me and my friends were
separated. It was so scary. Dogs, batons, a uniformed army and none of my friends
were there. I demanded where my friends were and every question was answered
with a baton.”
“I was interrogated. The same question again and again. They
will ask you mainly three things: Who told you to do the demonstrations? Who
told you about Tibet? Who is supporting you?”
“They have a huge notion that we were being educated from
exile. We were put into force to do demonstrations and finally they think that
there is a secret school within Tibet where we learn about Tibet. They have no
clue at all.”
“I repeated with the same answer, I am the one!”
“That time, I could bear all the torture. There was a huge
energy within me. Even though I was pushed so many times on the ground. I stood
up again and again. I shouted, free Tibet, long live Dalai Lama and China get
out of Tibet. Now when I look back, I couldn’t understand where I got that
brave heart. from”
“I won’t be able to tell you every detail but I will
definitely share some moments which even now a days sometimes haunt me.”
“When I was moved to jail, the first few days, I was stripped and tied up to a poll in
the middle of the ground. They really try to crush your personality, dignity,
faith and everything that you have.”
“Yes, I was crushed but I didn’t loose hope though. I stood
strong.”
“Then another moment which was really sad is, along with us
there were other normal prisoners too. They could have family visits as often
as us. Usually these prisoners didn’t eat prison food and threw it in the sink.
So one day, the toilet was blocked and all the political prisoners were called
in. We were asked to dig out everything.
We piled it up. We were made to sit down in a circle and asked to eat
it. At first, we ate. Yes, we did. We were so hungry. But later on when we were
full, then we realized that we have been eating shit.”
“Wow. It was horrifying. It was such a sad moment for all of
my prison mates. We puked. We
stared at each other. We cried. We hugged each other. We were separated with
batons and other weapons. ‘Now, where is your Buddha? Where is your Dalai
Lama?’ shouted the main police officer.
One of my prison mates shouted, “He is in our heart.” We all clapped, as
at least that was what we could do. Again, we were crushed to the earth.”
“Another prison mate, was beaten so badly during an
interrogation. He couldn’t sleep the whole night. On the next day, we demanded
a medical checkup for him. Police came in and started beating him again, they
were yelling at him saying don’t pretend. We know you are not sick. They left him in pain and us in
silence. Later that night, he was not moving but he was breathing. He was
clinging onto his life. We should
from the bar,
police came in, they took him and he never returned. “
“Huuuuuu… “
There was
silence for a while. It seems like things are flashing back. I stood still, my
pen trembling. My eyes were
holding my tears. I just waited for him to catch the interview again.
“You can not know how difficult life in prison was. It is so
hard. But I never felt hatred towards those Chinese officers. I felt pity. They
really don’t know anything about being good, wise and honorable men. I prayed for them.”
“Well, then I came to India after I was released. I guess that is pretty much what people
should know about.”
