It’s been nearly two months of intense work editing “Saffron Flames: the Voice of the Tibetans.” The book is done but I don’t feel as if I can now breathe any easier: the subject of this book is just too heavy to bear and the tragedy is just continuing to spiral down. Just as we put the book in print last weekend, again came the sad news of two more Tibetans who set themselves ablaze, bringing the number to 26 in three years. This is more than any human heart can and should take.
What causes a person to self-immolate? Common sense and moral tuition should enable us to realize that the spate of Tibetan self-immolations are revealing four and only four grave realities.
First. The increased clampdown on the Tibetans especially monks and nuns, stepped up cultural genocide and ever growing ethnic oppression have made the situation in Tibet unbearable to the Tibetans.
Second. The self-immolators did not end their lives out of fear or of utter despair as many think because there are a variety of less painful ways of terminating one’s life if one acts out of fear or utter despair. Rather their very acts of self-immolation have displayed Tibetans’ will power, resolution and courage. They sacrificed their lives in the most painful for a message.
Third. They have chosen to take the most desperate step of setting themselves on fire to protest because the message would have not been possible to get across otherwise given the most critical conditions in which they are forced to live.
Fourth. The self-immolators were not hopeless as many would say because hopeless people do nothing. Rather they had a profound confidence in the conscience of man and set themselves on fire in the hopes that the flames would shine for the world to see the seas of unthinkable suffering and enlighten the hearts of many people around the world including that of the perpetrators. The greatest effect of this struggle is to awaken the world’s morality.
Let’s listen to the flames. Yes, there are voices in the flames: Free Tibet and Let the Dalai Lama Return Home! When we see the flames, we must hear the voices, and when we hear the voices, our conscience permits us nothing but to act as their transmitters and amplifiers, through our words and deeds to awaken more people’s moral conscience, letting more people know the truth about these tragedies, and allowing more people to experience these Tibetans’ despair and desire to be reborn in the flames.
Here came the idea of editing, publishing and distributing the book that is now in front of you.
This book includes news coverage of the Tibetan self-immolations, the positions of Western countries, the calls of the Tibetan exiles, as well as the comments of Chinese writers and human rights activists. At the same time, the book also collects some articles published in the official Chinese media for people to reference. This book is not an in-depth analysis of Tibetan self-immolations, but mainly the reactions from difference sources on the subject. We hoped to help the reader to have a broader view, and to think more comprehensively and objectively about Tibetan self-immolation and about the nature of the Tibetan issue as a whole.
Lianchao, myself and many our colleagues who put efforts in this little book project did so primarily as human beings. Not just any human beings, but people who happen to have been so close to the issue and who are all impatient with injustice anywhere in whatever form. And we are Chinese; we particularly share this moment of sadness and anger and yet we have a unique shame to shake off: the Tibetan sufferings have been inflicted by a government consisting of mainly people of our ethnicity, and we are so ashamed of what the Chinese regime, Chinese officials, and Chinese soldiers have done to our Tibetan brothers and sisters. We are proud that we have fought side by side with Tibetans for more two decades, yet this still cannot wash away all our shame. We always feel obliged to do more.
We edited the book as very special messengers in the hope of helping the voices in the flames reach out to more Chinese.
In the process of editing this book, we regret that, despite so many self-immolation cases, little is known about each individual incident itself. The information we have obtained is still far from sufficient, and in some cases, we know nothing about their personal background and their suffering—only their names. We don’t even know if some of them are still alive. This reflects the high degree of control by the Chinese government in Tibet. Even compared with other parts of China, it is much harder for the outside world to obtain information from Tibet due to the restrictions on Tibetan transportation, communication, and language differences. We believe this is the very reason that the outside world must care more about Tibetan suffering. So far, the reaction to Tibetan self-immolation from the outside world, including Western societies, is far from sufficient. All of us who care about the survival of the Tibetans’ should make a greater effort to think and explore the question of how to make the outside world wake up from its desensitized state and exert greater pressure on the Chinese Government to ease the suffering of the Tibetan people.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all the authors and my special thanks go to Professor Yan Jiaqi for the preface and Prof.. Xia Ming for the introduction. During the editing process of this book, Kunga Tashi and other Tibetan friends have provided us with the information on the self-immolated Tibetans, we are grateful to their valuable help. In addition, we also want to express our thanks to those volunteers who have helped in information collection, book layout and design.
Lastly, let us forever remember and always cherish the memory of each and every one of the Tibetan martyrs:
Tapey,Lobsang Phuntsok,Tsewang Norbu, LobsangKunchok, Lobsang Kelsang,Kelsang Wangchuk, Khaying, Choepel, Norbu Damdul, TenzinWangmo, Dawa Tsering, PaldenChoetso, Tenzin Phuntsok, Tenyi, Tsultrim, Sobha Tulku, Lobsang Jamyang, Kyari, Tsering, Rigzin Dorje,Tsering Kyi, Rinchen,…