The Heroic Life of Ani Panchen
by Jane Ayers

My last encounter with Tibetan freedom fighter Ani Panchen was an endearing moment: we were off in a corner, sitting quietly. She slowly put her feet up into my lap, took my hand and laid it on her ankles for healing. I was honored to be able to possibly relieve the pain of the woman many consider to be Tibet's Joan of Arc.

The pain in Panchen's ankles was not due merely to age, but to a life marked by personal strength and suffering. The sole surviving child of a clan chief in Tibet, she learned to ride horses and shoot guns while at the same time being prepared for marriage into another chieftain's family. As a teenager, however, she rebelled against the arranged marriage and became a Buddhist nun. It was only when her father died that she was forced to leave the religious life she had adopted and take his place in leading her clan; she led 700 farmers and nomads on horseback in armed resistance to the invading Chinese People's Liberation Army. After being captured by the Chinese a year later, she endured 21 years of interrogation and physical torture in prison.

After her release, Panchen lived in Dharamsala, India with the Dalai Lama's exiled community. Two years ago, she walked (with other monks and former political prisoners) from San Francisco to Los Angeles on the "March for Tibet's Independence." She then walked from Nice, France to Geneva, Switzerland to protest at the United Nations about permanent trade status for China and to shed light on human rights violations against Tibetans by China. Ani Panchen died of heart failure this past February at her home in Dharamsala.

The author of Sorrow Mountain: The Journey of a Tibetan Warrior Nun (Kodansha International), Panchen was highlighted in the award-winning documentary, Strange Spirit.

This interview with her took place in Malibu in April 2000. Since then, the U.S. government has granted China the "permanent" trade status Panchen feared as so potentially dangerous.

You are considered a freedom fighter of Tibet. Why were you arrested in the late 1950s?
Tibet, even though it had been an independent country for thousands of years, even with the Treaty signed between the Emperor of China and the King of Tibet, still China did not respect the old historic agreements and invaded Tibet in 1949. As a direct result of that invasion there was massive destruction and desecration of Tibet's culture. There were 6,000 monasteries destroyed, and those monasteries incorporated the school, college, and university all rolled into one educational system. They were also the treasure-houses for Tibetan sacred artifacts and relics. China knows this, and that's why the monasteries became the first line of attack. They were looted, and the artifacts, gold, and valuables were sold in Hong Kong to raise more money for China's weapons to continue the invasion and conflict in Tibet. China destroyed our heart and soul by burning our holy scriptures.

As a direct result of this invasion, 1.2 million Tibetan people died. There was no sparing of women, children, nuns or monks. My father was one of the nine leaders in the Gonjo district in Tibet, and could not stand all the destruction. He and the nine leaders started a resistance against the Chinese invading forces. He died in 1958, and because I was the only child of that family, I had to take up that responsibility and fulfill the duty to my community and country in the Tibetan uprising against China troops in 1959. I resisted the Chinese military movement into Tibet, and I tried to defend my motherland. That's why China arrested me and put me into prison for 21 years.

What was the worst treatment/torture you had to endure all those years in prison?
I had two incidences that were unbearable. The worst punishment was putting very heavy shackles around my ankles for one year and one month, 24 hours per day for that duration. In the winter, it was excruciating because I felt they were cutting into my skin, like a burning sensation, because the iron got so cold.

I also had to live in a hole for nine months in solitary confinement. I was put underground and had to live in my own feces. It was a difficult time; it was totally dark. I couldn't see any light and I had to just imagine whether it was day or night. I would sometimes hear a bird singing its song and assume it was daytime. It was a terrible punishment-solitary confinement in total darkness. Some nuns have to endure that punishment for years.

Human Rights Watch/Asia released a report on Tibet in 1998 that said that since President Clinton de-linked human rights and world trade status for China, repression against Tibetans has actually increased.
China not only violates the human rights of Tibetans, but also of its own people. China violates every norm of human behavior, [and] does not respect any form of international convention or law. So by granting this special trade status to China, it is now being rewarded while conducting such atrocities.

China breaks all rules framed by the United Nations for basic human rights. The trade status for China will enslave Tibet more, with more child labor used to profit Beijing.

From a personal perspective for Americans, it is not good for America's moral strength and your sense of being a moral nation and peacekeeper in the world. All people who are striving toward independence from Communist nations, all people who are fighting for truth and justice, all people who are fighting for basic human rights as Tibetans are doing, are totally discouraged by this act of the U.S. Congress. Therefore, I feel that it is a great concern not just to the Tibetan people, but for Americans too. What do you stand for? What does your nation really stand for morally and ethically in the world?

So Tibetans are concerned about granting China permanent trade status?
Yes. America usually fights for human rights around the world, but when you reward China when they are so blatantly violating such rights, then the basis for your stance is weakened and you lose your moral strength and character to speak to other nations about human rights violations worldwide.

The U.S. government must also be aware that China, while it wants to show the world that it's peaceful, is always preparing for war. The whole Tibetan Plateau is being used as a launch-pad for intercontinental ballistic missiles, pointed at all Asian capitals. That is why all the little Asian countries are in support of China, because they are so deadly fearful of China.
While I was in prison, every single day the Chinese government said there was no hope for any of the political prisoners unless we confessed and followed the Chinese government leadership. They'd say that one day everyone in the world would be under Communist rule. We thought they were threatening this to scare everyone, but now I believe they have a big design to control as much of the world as possible. China will get that needed money through the special trade status. People around the world need to take China seriously when it says it's going to be the number one superpower in the world.

The Dalai Lama announced that China should be brought into the mainstream of the world because sooner or later it will have to adhere to international human rights standards. Do you agree?
Take the threats of China seriously. The Chinese power is much more than people realize. This is my warning: you think that if China gets democracy inside with trade deals that it will be fine. No! China has much bigger designs for itself.
I'm just an ordinary person. But mark my word, one day America will regret it if you don't take China's human rights violations seriously.

Have you been further harassed since being released from prison?
In 1991, I was released and went home; it was all destroyed and all my friends and relatives were dead. Because of the Tibetan freedom struggle, I was almost arrested again, so I escaped over the Himalayas. I have had no atrocities against me in exile. I've experienced freedom in a free country, India. But the newcomers who arrive from Tibet bring a sense of urgency about the prison system in Tibet and China. The torture and mistreatment of political prisoners is getting worse.

There are 1,000 political prisoners in Tibet. The oldest is 74 years old, and he's sentenced for 44 years. The youngest is our beloved Panchen Lama, now 11 years old. Since the U.S. decided to de-link human rights from trade status, it's harder for us because international support groups were using the trade issues as leverage with China to adhere to human rights standards. Now we won't be able to pressure China to be more humane.

You walked 600 miles from San Francisco to L.A., culminating in a protest at the Chinese Consulate. Along with other Tibetan ex-prisoners, you burned the Chinese flag and demanded the immediate release of the Panchen Lama. Then you walked with Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire and actor Richard Gere from the white House to the Chinese Consulate in Washington D.C. What were your specific goals?
If China can kidnap a 6-year-old child like the Panchen Lama, it shows a clear example of what China is capable of doing to keep control. Even with the Chinese brutality, the Dalai Lama still speaks of peace but China doesn't accept our offers to negotiate. Tibet is desperate: Do we wait for the Dalai Lama's pleas for autonomy to be accepted or do we do something now on our own to free Tibet from the choke-hold of China? If China is not going to listen about peace, every Tibetan must act to free Tibet. I'll never stop fighting to free Tibet as long as I breathe.
We are struggling for life and death now in our history. At the Chinese Consulate we called for the release of the Panchen Lama, whom China has had under house arrest for five years, incommunicado. I started my walk from San Francisco on his 11th birthday. He plays an integral part in the survival of Tibetan culture, and the Chinese government was practicing child abuse five years ago when they kidnapped him four days after the Dalai Lama identified him as the important lineage holder of Tibetan Buddhist traditions.

We also called for the World Bank loan to China to be halted immediately, because it included a $40 million portion to resettle non-Tibetans into the heartland of Tibet. This is cultural genocide, leading Tibetans to become a minority in our own country, a form of ethnic cleansing and a violation of the Genocide Convention.

We conducted a reenactment of the Tibetan Holocaust in front of the Chinese Consulate in L.A. We all wept as we conducted the ceremony to end the oppression of the Tibetan people.

The International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet released a preliminary report which focuses on human rights abuses in Tibet, including the imprisonment and torture of Tibetan children. What are Tibetan children suffering?
They have documented illegal detention, mistreatment, torture and imprisonment of Tibetan children. We have no religious freedom. In rural Tibet, the real Tibet, we have no schools now for Tibetan children. The Chinese say there are schools, but they are only in the cities and they cater to Chinese officers' children. Since we don't have human rights, if we conduct a peaceful demonstration, we are met with brutal force, either shot on the spot or put in prison.

Because of these conditions, there are 3,000 to 4,000 refugees yearly crossing the Himalayas to flee the brutal force of China. Since 1979, 40,000 refugees have fled into India.

Are the mostly nuns and monks?
Yes, and children risking their lives to get their education. They have had to say good-bye to their parents forever just to be safe and get proper schooling. Recently, 60 Tibetan children went back to Tibet to see their parents after they graduated, and they were all arrested and are now doing hard road work as punishment.

What are the conditions for women in Tibet?
I bore a lot of suffering, but it's not like what Tibetans suffer today. Tibetan women have had to endure coerced abortions and sterilization to avoid imprisonment of their husbands. Women and children are being abused using painful electric batons to their mouths and genitals. Nuns in prisons are being brutally raped. The Chinese Army would forcibly take blood from the nuns in prison. They would tell us it was for the army hospitals, but it would make us very weak because they would take so much blood and also beat us. Prison sentences are sometimes expanded for 10 more years if we sing songs of Tibet. Pictures of the Dalai Lama are still banned, and he's a Nobel Laureate! Many are arrested and tortured if they possess a picture of him.

Even the natural resources of Tibet are suffering-deforestation, ruthless mining, animals hunted to extinction. And now China will gain more world trade capital to do more damage.

The Dalai Lama met with you and the other peace walkers while in L.A. What did he tell you when he honored you?
He told us that there was merit gained in every step we took. He thanked us for walking the 600 miles for the cause of Tibet. He told us we were touching Americans' sense of liberty and justice in our effort. I hope Americans will vote for political leaders who make human rights a priority.

-Jane Ayers (ladywriterjane@hotmail.com)is an independent journalist who has written for USA Today, L.A. Times, and The Nation. The Jane Ayers Human Rights &Environmental Writing Project is a nonprofit project of SEE (Social & Environmental Entrepreneurs) of Malibu, CA.
Excerpted & edited from www.wholelifetimes.com

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