Tsewang Dhondup
One Man’s Amazing Escape From Tibet
As a child growing up in a remote village in the mountainous region of Kham, Tibet, Tsewang Dhondup loved to listen to the heroic fables recounted by the local elders. Now Tsewang’s own story is the stuff of legend and may end up marveled at by generations to come.
Tsewang’s name means ‘longevity,’ yet from his own account, it is incredible he is still alive. In March, 2008, he had just returned home to celebrate Tibetan New Year with his family, when protests erupted in the capital. The reaction in his village was electric. “The feeling was that this was the time – that Tibetans can’t live like this anymore and we have to do something. We might lose our lives, but at least our death will have meaning.”
On March 24, Tsewang was one of a hundred volunteers working laying a water pipeline to Jogri Monastery. Around four in the afternoon, they heard shouting and gunfire coming from the nearby town of Trehor. Everyone rushed to their parked motorbikes and rode in the direction of the town.
Tsewang slipped into a crowd of about 300 protesters. The Chinese police were beating people indiscriminately. “I was close to a couple of Chinese soldiers. It would have been easy for me to kill them.” His devotion to the Dalai Lama held him back. “He is like the sun for us. We can’t disobey him no matter how badly the Chinese treat us. It’s not because we Tibetans are weak that we don’t resort to violence.”
Outside the police station gate, policemen were firing live ammunition into the crowd. A twenty-one-year-old monk named Kunga was caught in the open, immediately shot and slumped to the ground. Tsewang rushed to help him. “There is a Tibetan saying, when a rabbit is picked up by a vulture it’s useless for the rabbit to petition the sky. But like the rabbit, I found myself calling out in my mind for the blessing of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.” Tsewang was trying to carry the monk away when he felt a searing pain in his left side. Only two steps later he was hit by another bullet in his left elbow.
At this point, Tsewang’s friend, Lobsang, appeared on his motorbike, pulled Tsewang onto the seat between himself and another protester and sped out of town. They stopped at another village and hid Tsewang in a prayer room. Someone bandaged his wounds while others constructed a makeshift gurney with bamboo poles and a blanket. Four men volunteered to carry him to the mountains.
For the next fourteen months, the group hid in mountain caves, moving their camp monthly as a security measure while living on only barley flour and tea. Without proper medical attention, Tsewang’s wounds began to rot and became infested with maggots. Lobsang used a razor to cut off the dead skin. The process was sheer agony for Tsewang. “I took a stick and put it in my mouth and just bit down as hard as I could.”
For the first six months, Tsewang sat in an upright position and couldn’t move a single part of his body. Only after a year was he able to walk unassisted. He decided to try to get to India so he could tell his story. Tsewang’s photo was on a most wanted list posted at every checkpoint between them and Lhasa, and there was a generous bounty on his head. But somehow he and Lobsang beat the odds again; in May, 2009, they made it safely across the Tibetan border into Nepal where he received proper medical treatment.
“Sometimes it’s hard for me to believe that I lived through it all,” says Tsewang. “I survived through sheer willpower and the collective courage and determination of those who cared for me.”
Rebecca Novick is the founding producer of The Tibet Connection radio program found online at: thetibetconnection.org.
By Rebecca Novick
