Conscious Art Gallery David F Shever 5

Kunsang Paljor

Kunsang Paljor’s parents were the chieftains of one village in
Shigatse when he was selected by the Chinese to be taken to China
to be educated there. He was thirteen years old in 1956 when he
was taken to Peking. He said that the Chinese were taking one
student from each village for ‘short term studies’. There were about
two hundred villages in Shigatse at the time. He recalls back then,
hearing the Chinese praising the mainland as the most wonderful
place. The civilian officials would say to the children that ‘when you
walk the roads in China, you can see your reflection.’ They
promoted that China was known for its resources, towns, cities, and
the great wall. Kunsang as a young boy had seen many movies
about China and pictured it as a wonderful, rich, warm place and he
actually wanted to go. The Chinese officials had given him money to
go enjoy ball games, dances, and other fun activities. They told his
parents that they would take him for short term studies in China, and
if he does well, he can continue. If he gets homesick, he would be
sent right back to Tibet. His father was against him going…

Kunsang said that being sent to school in China meant an attempt at
“total brainwashing”. He was put in the “Minority Nationalities
Institute” in Peking, where he had to study communism, Chinese
history, Chinese language, and the “importance of rejecting
religion”. His observation, years later after having escaped, was that
one of the main differences of those who study under communism
and those who study in open societies outside is that the main
criteria in a communist based education is your loyalty to the
Communist Party. This ‘loyalty to the Party’ is the determining factor
for who advances and who doesn’t. So those who study under
communism are at a great disadvantage, he said.

Kunsang explained what the situation of being a student in the
Minority Nationalities Institute was like. To be an ‘A’ student,
regarding the group of Tibetan students taken to China, one must
say that what the Tibetans had done in the 1959 uprising was bad.
They should say that those who participated should be ‘hanged,
executed’. An ‘A’ student will denounce his own parents and relatives
saying that they are ‘parasites of the community and must be
punished’. An ‘A’ student will laud the Chinese, as the “only savior of
Tibet” and be asked to repeat this over and over again. Also to be
safely in the good books as an ‘A’ student, “you denounce His
Holiness the Dalai Lama”. Kunsang got by without having to say
these things because he could say he had no knowledge and he
was too young. There were housemasters in the school, and group-
leaders, one for every ten students and each was responsible for
bringing out the proper mental attitudes of their respective groups.

After several years of this, he was then assigned to work for the
“Tibet Daily”, a Chinese-run newspaper in Lhasa, in 1962. He had
been very eager to return to Tibet and see his family. He was also
enthusiastic to go back and utilize his abilities there. Little was he
aware of how much had changed back home. As he had been
separated from his family and brought to China in 1956, on return to
Tibet six years later, he witnessed the fact that Tibetans were
racially discriminated against. The Chinese were using the strategy
of ‘divide and rule’, which meant giving only a very few, selected
Tibetans pleasant, pampered, treatment . On going back to see his
family in Shigatse, he received the tragic news that his father had
been tortured and died in prison. His parents’ property had all been
taken.

Difficulties existed in every aspect of his life once back in Tibet.
He worked for the newspaper, but felt ill-at-ease because the
Chinese were always suspicious of all the Tibetans. On meeting his
mother and sister, he never experienced a feeling of warmth from his
mother and sister when he met them, because of the fact of his
educational training in mainland China. He sensed distrust from his
mother, partly because he worked for the newspaper. Kunsang
recalled one specific episode with family members that must have
really saddened him. He knew about the real truth of China’s
casualties in the Sino-Indian War of 1962 (not the official public
report) and when he openly shared this with the family (mother,
sister, and brother-in-law), instead of responding with interest or
surprise on hearing the story, they gave the ‘Chinese-programmed
response’ by replying that, “China will win the war’. He knew they did
this because they were very frightened about Kunsang’s presence.
They feared he would tell authorities about them if they spoke their
thoughts freely - even at home. The family had already experienced
persecution and father’s death. Everyone was well aware of the
dangerous social environment that had been implanted– an
environment that had spread fear, even to cause suspicion within
the family. His mother died in 1965 and his brother-in-law was
persecuted and imprisoned from 1970 to 1983. Since the time of
that talk in 1963, he lost contact with his sister.

As a journalist for the ‘Tibet Daily’ Kunsang said that all the reports
were supposed to be praises of the Chinese for the great changes
in Tibet and praises of Chairman Mao. It was a clear cut policy,
Kunsang said, that the writers must report that the “long oppressed
people of Tibet” are now “liberated”. He was told by his bosses,
“write stories about the people (Tibetans) enjoying happiness under
the long lost sun(China).” On one occasion he was sent to
Darjeeling and saw “freedom of the press” for the first time, which
caused his thoughts to reflect on Tibet. He remembered thinking
then that if the people of Tibet would speak out as freely about the
truth as the people did in Darjeeling, then the whole of Tibet would
become one big prison. But in reality, it already was…

In the course of his work, Kunsang traveled all over Tibet. Kunsang
said, “I could see for myself the numerous examples of atrocities and
deceptions perpetrated by the Chinese occupation in Tibet - people
everywhere in Tibet, living in constant fear, without a right of any
kind.”

Since 1963 he desired to flee to exile and be free of Chinese rule.
He was a bachelor and his aim was to do further studies in India.
Finally after some time, he was able to escape. In exile, Kunsang
edited a magazine called, “Kumatom” which means ‘Awake’.
Publishing this magazine gave him satisfaction as it condemns the
Communist Chinese actions. As he was educated in China, if he
stayed back and followed the Chinese policies, saying what they told
him to say, he believed that he could have been by now (1991) very
likely, one of the eldest Tibetan officials working for the Chinese in
Tibet. Instead, he is much more satisfied working for Tibetan
freedom. Kunsang also mentioned that he had received a letter from
his sister requesting he cease writing openly about the Chinese and
he should stop campaigning against the Chinese. The Chinese had
said that they will punish her and her children for ‘the crimes her
brother commits’ in exile. He had felt that due to his knowledge and
awareness, he had to stand up and speak out about the oppression
in his homeland. This was not easy and he had the feeling that
somehow his sister would find a way to tolerate it if it helps the
Tibetan cause as she had already experienced much suffering.

This interview dates back to 1991. Kunsang Paljor passed away in
Dharamsala, India on August 6, 2003. He had worked in many
official positions after coming to exile. He had worked as a senior
official in the Department of Security in the Tibetan Government in-
Exile, often traveling with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in India. He
was a senior reporter for Voice of Tibet Radio. Kunsang had also
served as a member for the assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies.
He was a founding member of an organization for Tibetan journalists.

While I was in India, I really enjoyed getting to know him a little better
after the interview. He has a wonderful, very hospitable family in
Dharamsala. They had me over for tea and snacks one afternoon.
Kunsang was known for his expertise in Chinese language and I was
surprised how he had picked up quite a bit of Hindi and English
since he came to India. He was really a very sharp, intelligent man.
When I visited India on different occasions in the 1990’s, he always
was the same; bright, warm, and very easy going. This is the tale of
a youth, taken by Chinese officials to China and put through a
severe dogmatic-based training program. He was positioned as a
reporter for the “Tibet Daily” which strictly meant propagation of the
Chinese Communist message. On return to Tibet, he found his
father had died in prison, his family’s property all confiscated, his
mother and sister suspicious of him; he experienced life in an
oppressed homeland.

That the Chinese would threaten his family after he escaped to exile
is just one clear example of how the Chinese authority operates.
China is a closed society. They have no tolerance for any other
‘truth’ than the false one that they wish to pound into the massive
population they rule, and do this through the tools of fear and violent
punishment. There is an unspoken insistence that the people follow
the state program. One has no right to examine policy or speak out
critically (controlled through abusive and often life-threatening
punishment). There is the official story that they insist the outside
world accept, and they attempt to shut down inquiry by claiming that
what goes on inside Tibet is no ones’ business except China’s.
Kunsang’s experience is proof that they do everything possible to
protect the great lie, and to hide the facts. The Chinese required
Kunsang, to lie, to propagate their story, to ignore what happened to
his father and mother, and to unquestioningly follow their dictums.
Once in exile, this kind man became an enemy of the Chinese,
simply for knowing and speaking the truth. It seems clear, from my
point of view that the truth is consistently the real enemy of the
Chinese occupation of Tibet.

Kunsang’s story is also one of success following distress. After
experiencing such circumstances, he escaped to India to work in
many constructive, needed ways, to tell the truth about his land and
his people. He consistently fought for independence and justice
through the written and spoken word. He served as a member of the
executive committee in the Tibetan Youth Congress and also was a
member of the Tibetan Assembly. He was the author of the book
“Tibet, The Undying Flame”.

May the life Kunsang Paljor lived be a flame that continues to spread
the light of truth and inspire those who are committed to the fight for
truth and justice. At the conclusion of this interview, Kunsang stated:
“People will measure your life for what you stood for.”




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