Reting Tenpa Tsering

Sixty-nine-year-old Tenpa Tsering, born in Reting, an area northeast of Lhasa, remained with his family until the age of thirteen when he married and left home to live with his family. His two wives were sisters. With them he had six children, four boys and two girls.

It was in 1958, at the age of twenty-three when he joined the freedom fighter group called Chusi Gangdruk (Four Rivers and Six Ranges), which battled the Chinese for two years. By 1960, almost his entire group had been extinguished and he was arrested and taken to prison where he remained in leg shackles and handcuffs twenty-four hours a day for one year and eight months. He was later transferred to Phenpo Gyal Lhakhang, which had once been a monastery but was turned into a labor camp. Between the years 1967 and 1982 he was transferred twice more. First to Pawo Tramo in Kongpo and then on to Nyatri Shen where he remained for fourteen years until his release in 1982. At that point having served twenty-two years in prison.

This was the year when China released its "Open Door Policy" which somewhat relaxed the political climate in Tibet. Tenpa Tsering then moved to Lhasa where remarried and started a small business of his own. It was not long before he took part in the major demonstration in Lhasa on September 27, 1987. At this time he was able to sneak away because there were so many people and so much chaos and confusion. However, during the second major demonstration four days later, on October 1, he and many others stood outside the Police Station, demanding the release of those arrested during the first demonstration, who were now inside tied to the beams, receiving countless blows. After the police refused their request, they set fire to the station's door and the Chinese officers then began shooting at the demonstrators. He was the first person to be hit by a bullet, and he also witnessed an eighteen-year-old girl and a seventeen-year-old boy both shot dead beside him. The same day, five others were killed and seventeen wounded. The shot caused his stomach to swell immediately and he was taken to the hospital where he remained for four months in order to undergo a major operation for his fractured rib and his damaged intestines. During the operation, the bullet was left inside, on purpose, he believes.

After having recovered, Tenpa Tsering once again took part in the third major demonstration on March 5, 1988. He spent the entire morning, from 8 a.m. to late night throwing stones at the Chinese. A little after midnight he was arrested from his home and taken to the Barkhor area Police Station where he was tied with ropes and beaten and interrogated until 5 in the morning.

The next day he was taken to Sangyip prison where he remained for four months at the same time as Yeshe Togden, current president of Gu-Chu-Sum. He was then transferred to Seitru where he endured almost one year of nightly interrogations and extreme battery. He became seriously ill and was released on November 1989 because the administration did not want to pay for his medical treatment and they also did not want to be responsible for his death inside the prison.

Even after his release, however, the interrogations continued at least twice monthly, and finally becoming fed up, Tenpa Tsering escaped from Tibet. Coincidentally, when he arrived at the Red Cross Centre in Nepal, he ran into two Americans who had sneaked into his room in the hospital in Lhasa, during the three hour customary afternoon nap of the Chinese. They had lifted his blanket to look at the bullet wound and asked him if he was Tenpa Tsering, to which he half-nodded since he was quite comatose at the time. They then videotaped him. They successfully managed to bring the tape back to Nepal. After meeting him again at the Red Cross Centre, these two Americans sponsored his trip abroad and helped him acquire refugee status and find asylum in Switzerland where he continues to live today.

Tenpa Tsering has become an active world traveler giving a number of public talks and attending peace conferences. During the last UN Human Rights' conference at Geneva, he did a 47 days' hunger strike. This hunger strike which he took part in along with two members of the TYC (Tibetan Youth Congress) had three primary focus points. These were a demand for the UN's adoption of a resolution on China, a UN visit to the youngest known political prisoner, the Panchen Lama, and a request to urge China for the release of four present political prisoners, Ngawang Sangdrol, Jigme Sangpo, Ngawang Choephel, and Ngawang Phulchung.