Pedaling students breach 2000kms mark/ENG

2012. február 20./Phayul.com/TibetPress

DHARAMSHALA, February 20: The three Tibetan students who have been pedaling across the major cities and towns in India for exactly a month now, reached the Indian commercial capital Mumbai last week.

After holding a candle light vigil at the landmark Gateway of India, on the shores of the Arabian Sea, the three school students also met with the press.

"Lots of Tibetan supporters joined us for the candle light vigil and lots of Indians and foreigners came to us to inquire about our cause and what we cycling for," Tselo Gyal, one of cyclists told Phayul.

The three school students, with a mission to pedal through the length of India, demanding an international monitoring team to be allowed inside Tibet, began their ‘Cycling for Tibet’ campaign from the Tibetan settlement of Bylakuppe in Karnataka state.

Gyaltsen, Lugoen Thar, and Tselo Gyal, all students of the Tibetan Children Village School, Gopalpur, hope to reach the Indian capital New Delhi by mid-March.

They voluntarily undertook the taxing mission coinciding with their two-month winter vacations.

Pedalling on from Mumbai, the young students reached the city of Baroda in Gujarat state Sunday and were received by the members of the regional chapter of Tibetan Youth Congress.

Since they began the cycle rally on January 20, the three students have covered more than 2000 kilometers, holding awareness programmes and talking to the media in many of the major Indian cities, including Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, and Mumbai.

Speaking to Phayul, the cyclists said their next major stop would be Gandhi Nagar, the capital of Gujarat named after the father of the Indian nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

In a statement at the beginning of the rally, the three students said they were undertaking the ‘Cycling for Tibet’ campaign to highlight the “plight of Tibetans suffering under China’s repressive rule” and to appeal for support in the resolution of the ongoing crisis in Tibet.

“The suffering and the injustice meted out to Tibetans in Tibet must end soon if truth, freedom, and peace are to sustain this world,” the release said.
By Tendar Tsering