NEW YORK—Seated before a large poster of the five Olympic rings, five young Tibetans had their heads shaved in Union Square last week in protest of the recent Chinese police and military actions in Tibet, and the Chinese Communist Party's plan to parade the Olympic torch through Tibetan territory in June.
The students and other supporters from Students for a Free Tibet were protesting of what is being called a global "journey of harmony" by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The area students, three high school and two college students, ages 16-22, after having their heads ceremoniously shaved, dressed in monk's robes, and were then subjected to a brutal staged attack by actors dressed as Chinese soldiers and carrying cardboard machine guns.
The piece of street theater was organized by a graduate theater student at Columbia University, Ms. Kiat-Sing, and an economics major at New York University, Mr. Sogyel Lhungay. Lhungay, 20, is ethnic Tibetan—he was born in exile in Nepal and currently lives in New Jersey.
Sing, with her hands and arms bloodied with red makeup, held a replica of the Olympic torch high over her head and led the crowd of about 300 protesters in chants of "Free Tibet" and "Shame on China."
"This is the young people's vision of what happened," said Sing. "We want to stop the Olympic torch from going through Tibet to stop further unrest."
Sing said, "We urge the world to stop the brutal crackdown in Tibet," referring to the recent protests in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, and subsequent heavy handed crackdowns by the Chinese Communist Party.
Lhungay fears that the CCP will use the torch relay through Tibet as further excuse to persecute Tibetans. "We want to draw light to the Olympics, we would like people to take an active role to stop the torch from going through Tibet."
Lhungay wants the press to have free access to the events in Tibet and fears that if the Olympic torch is carried through Tibet it will cause further unrest.
The travels of the Olympic torch have met with repeated disruption from protesters in London, Paris, and San Francisco, where the torch was secreted away to a local warehouse for 45 minutes in an attempt to avoid the thousands who turned out to protest. The planned route was changed in the eleventh hour, much to the disappointment of supporters and protesters alike.
A torch carrier in San Francisco, 41-year-old Bronx woman Majora Carter, surprised torch organizers by pulling a Tibetan flag from her sleeve as she carried the torch through San Francisco—she was quickly escorted away by police.
The Olympic torch is scheduled to be carried through Lhasa, Tibet on June 19-21.
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