NEW YORK—Dorjee Gyalpo, 59, sat with his daughter in front of the United Nations headquarters on Tuesday, reminiscing about summer days in his hometown in Tibet. The landscape has changed under Chinese communist rule.
Gyalpo managed to get news from home, although contact is limited between Tibetans in Tibet and the outside world. Chinese loggers have stripped the landscape, and the monasteries have all been destroyed; one of the monasteries is now a place to keep cattle, lamented Gyalpo.
Gyalpo reached day 21 of his hunger strike on Tuesday, along with Yeshi Tenzing, 39, and His Eminence Shingza Rinpoche, 32. They call on the U.N. to intervene and lift the undeclared martial law in Tibet.
“Personally, emotionally, being a daughter, it’s hard not to ...” began Gyalpo’s daughter, Deden Gongma, her voice breaking and tears in her eyes “Looking at the worst scenario that I could lose my dad because of his conviction. ... I’m nervous, but in the meantime, not just my dad, but all three of them, their conviction and their strength reassures me.”
She described the situation in Tibet, where peaceful protests are brutally suppressed, where the people have no voice and no freedom. Gongma said compared to that, her father’s suffering is easier to bear because it is chosen in a free country.
