Tibetan refugees in India boycott Losar (New Year's) celebrations

They caution me against getting emotionally attached to my stories. But I keep hitting the wall.
The Tibetan refugees had gathered at the famous protest street at Jantar Mantar to show solidarity with their people in Tibet who had boycotted the new year's festivities to protest against the Chinese crackdown against the monks, nuns and villagers in Lhasa last year in March.
The New York Times had carried a big report on the same today. For Tibetan refugees here, Losar means a time of celebrations and a way to forget their sad plight. In boycotting it, they were expressing their anguish.
In Delhi, they live a second-class life and most of them long to go back. Their lives are in a limbo and organizing such protests is their only way to keep the struggle alive.
An edited version of the story appeared in the Indian Express on Feb. 27.

Tibetan refugees in India forgo Loser, show solidarity with those in their country

Chinki Sinha
New Delhi, Feb. 26, 2009

A young man wrapped in the Tibetan flag shouted “Free Tibet", while an old woman holding the beads in her hands chanted with closed eyes at Jantar Mantar on Thursday. Not an unusual scene at the protest street but on Thursday it carried a special significance.
On the fringes of the protest at Jantar Mantar to express solidarity with the monks and Tibetans that are forgoing the New Year's celebrations that started Wednesday in their country, a monk, in his maroon robes, walked in circles, with folded hands, seemingly praying for those who died in the Lhasa uprising last year.
The Regional Tibetan Youth Congress had called for a boycott of Losar celebrations close on the heels of a similar unofficial protest in Tibet against the killings of the Tibetans in an uprising last year in March. A few weeks from now, it will be the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising in 1959 against the Chinese rule that also led to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, to flee to
neighboring India.
Dalai Lama has said celebrations would be “inappropriate.” On Tuesday, the eve of ar, Tibetans burnt the effigies of the Chinese officials including Hu Jintao instead of the demons as they would have normally done, a traditional practice to ward off the evil. Nothing short of that would have sufficed, they said.
Shutters of shops were downed in the markets in Tibetan communities and people flocked to Jantar Mantar to be part of the protest, climbing on to buses and in some cases even walking the distance. Not a single firecracker burst.
Nyima Woeser, 21, who wore the flag Tuesday, stood shouting slogans in the middle of the street.
“China has captured our country. We will not celebrate. We will fight,” he said, as he dropped his hands to show respect for the Tibetan national anthem.
And he was not the only one.
Gelak Sangpo, a young Tibetan, who has born in Bangalore and has never been to Tibet, has for long been involved with protests and rallies calling to end the Chinese occupation of Tibet. To him, nothing means more than returning to his country.
For years Losar meant a fun-filled time, an escape from the harsh realities of living a refugee life in Delhi. They would visit friends, family members, cook Indian dishes, add some Tibetan delicacies to the table and dress up in traditional clothes for three days, transported to a country that exists only in their imagination, conjured up through stories and folk tales handed down to them by mothers, grandmothers and community elders.
So, the dream has lived on.
But this year, Sangpo joined many from the community to forgo the celebrations. No firecrackers burnt, there were delicacies, and there were no new clothes. The mourning pervaded everything.
“It is a natural thing … the longing. And we stand by our brothers and sisters in Tibet who live a life of hardship and denial,” he said. “We want to show we are not celebrating, that we have not forgotten. This is to continue our struggle.”
Organizing the protest was also a means to keep the fire burning.
Often Sangpo has felt that Tibetans are losing their connection, caught up in the daily struggles as they are, and discouraged by the hardships.
It makes him sad, he said.
“This is a reminder to them that we will not let go,” he said.
Inside the tent, incense burned in front of a large photo of the Dalai Lama. Outside, young and old Tibetans from Majnu Ka Tila locality in North Delhi where most of the 5,000 Tibetan refugees in Delhi live, held flags and chanted mantras for the victims of the 2008 uprising.
Kalsang Sungrab, 39, came to India in 1993. As the vice president of RTYC, it was important to call for a similar boycott.
“A lot of people were killed,” he said. “How can we celebrate now?”
According to the Chinese government only 22 people had died in the Lhasa protests, but Tibetan rights advocates put the toll at a much higher number. As per the state media, 76 people have been sentenced for taking part in the demonstrations. More than 950 including villagers, monks and nuns were detained.
In Dharmsala, which is home to the Dalai Lama, new year’s was ushered in with morning prayers. But firecrackers and other festivities were absent.