Conversational English: A Nun's Story
During our time in Dharmsala, I had the opportunity to meet and interact with many members of the Tibetan refugee community through conversational English classes. Each person had a different story, but they were all firm in calling Tibet their home and expressing a desire to return.
At one class, I met and talked to a Budhist nun who had been a political prisoner for being part of a peaceful protest against the Chinese government. The police beat her to the ground and continued to hit her with rifles as she screamed out the Dalia Lama's name. She was taken to prison where she spent many years in horrible conditions, being beaten and tortured every day to give up the names of Tibetan political leaders. The police made her watch as one of her close friends was tied by the arm to the ceiling and left to hang until the arm had turned completely black. She wanted to save her friend, but she had no names to give, for the Tibetan resistance was people based, and had no certain leaders. Her Chinese torturers called her a whore for the monks and kept her in a small cell with prostitutes. Every day they were given a small cup of black tea and a piece of bread, and the prisoners were hungry all the time. Some starved to death. When she was finally released, she was so weak she could barely walk, but when she got up her strength again she was determined to escape from Tibet to meet the Dalai Lama and tell him her story. She met up with a group from Lhasa, and set out to try to reach Nepal. The group walked only at night, hiding during the day from Chinese soldiers who are ordered to shoot Tibetans trying to escape. The journey was thirty days, and at many times she thought she would not make it. People lost toes and fingers to frostbite, and many of the passes were dangerous. At one time, a small avalanche fell near the group, at another, a bridge they were crossing swayed and nearly broke. Fortunately, the entire group made it to Nepal, from where they were able to obtain papers to come to India. When she arrived in Dharmsala, she was able to meet the Dalai Lama, and fell crying. She joined a nunnery near Dharmsala, encouraged to study by His Holiness' words. She can no longer contact her family for when she calls the Chinese come to her family's home and beat her siblings and elderly parents. The last time she called her brother begged her not to call again to preserve the safety of her family. So here she stays, studying and waiting, praying for a free Tibet which will allow her to return to her family.
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