Tibetan Writer Jamyang Norbu Interview

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung publishes an interesting interview with Tibetan writer in exile Jamyang Norbu in today’s edition. You can read the full interview (in German) here. Below two extracts, the first of which questions the limits & possibilities of simple non-violent resistance, and a second one that speaks to the modern aspect of the current revolt, in my quick translation:

Everything we have and are today in exile, can be linked to that insurrection [i.e. the 1959 revolt in Lhassa]. The Dalai Lama too should become conscious of the fact that he could only flee because Tibetans with guns in their hands helped him flee. In the final instance he owes his freedom and status to people who were ready to use force and who didn’t just save his life, but also protected him from further disgrace. In truth, the Dalai Lama was kidnapped against his will by Tibetans and taken abroad. If he had stayed, what happened to the Panchen Lama would have happened to him — he would have become a puppet in the hands of the Chinese government.

…In the final analysis it is a cell-phone revolution! In Lhasa even monks took pictures with their cell phones and send them to the allied monasteries in India, but also to the Tibetan areas of Amdo and Kham which are today parts of the nearby Chinese provinces of Quinghai, Gansu, Schezuan and Yunnan. Even more than the internet, these photos helped the spark of this revolt to propagate. The people in Tibet have found a possibility to use modern technology to express themselves and inform each other.