Red Flag Over Tibet

I spent Sunday afternoon and evening learning more about the occupation of Tibet and its refugees. I started by visiting the Tibet Museum and watching a screening of "Red Flag Over Tibet" (1994), shot by an American journalist who traveled from Nepal to Lhasa as a tourist since journalists were not really welcome in Tibet. The film was an intriguing and troubling look into the way the Tibetan culture been almost completely destroyed and hundreds of thousands of its people killed, displaced, imprisioned and tortured. It also discussed how the environment is being destroyed and the Tibetans still living in Lhasa and other parts of Tibet are strictly limited and monitored and many are out of work, replaced by the influx of Chinese who come there for better money-making opportunities.

A few of the Tibetans, speaking under strict anonimity, that the journalist talked to expressed discontent with the Dalai Lama's nonviolent stance. They were ready to pick up arms to fight for their country. The Dalai Lama was five when he was named the 14th Dalai Lama, 15 when he fled Tibet, and 19 when he started appealing to foreign governments for help. When I was five, I was tasting Elmer's glue, at 15, my biggest troubles were the braces on my teeth, and at 19, I was probably appealing to bartenders at Kam's.

The footage of Chinese brutality against Tibetan demonstrators is very limited, but there were a few snippets shown in the museum. I read accounts of how prisoners were tortured, women who were violated with electric batons and released prisoners who were ignored by family and friends out of fear and could never again get a job. I was haunted the rest of the day by the looks in the eyes of the ragged refugees, photographed as they stumbled down from the mountains into Dharamsala.