Humble farewell for Tibetan martyr from Kolkata/ENG

2012. április 12.Hindustan Times/Tibet Sun/TibetPress

By Amitava Banerjee

The Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, Darjeeling Chapter, will be organising a memorial prayer service for martyr Dhondup Phunstok on 18 April in Darjeeling, West Bengal. This 26 year old Tibetan youth had quietly jumped off the Howrah Bridge in Kolkata late on 2 April night, following the footstep of his brethren setting themselves ablaze crying “Free Tibet.”

Though the act of self emolution by fellow Tibetan Jamphel Yeshi on 26 March in New Delhi had hit the headlines, Phuntsok’s act of self sacrifice was a more subdued affair. After he had gone missing, his mother Dechen Dolma and Dhondup’s friends had gone looking for him.

On 6th April morning his body was finished out of the Ganga. He was found wearing a “FREE TIBET” T-shirt. Born in Darjeeling, Dhondup and his family had moved to Kolkata. He was an alumni of Assembly of God Church (Class of 1999) and Scottish Church College (2006.) He was also the Coordinator of the “Students for a Free Tibet.” “With news of his death we had planned to go to Kolkata to attend his lat rites. We even wanted to organise candle light vigils in his memory. He is a martyr. However the family has requested us to keep things on a low key note (just as Phuntsok would have wanted)” stated Tashi Dhondup, President, RTYC, Darjeeling Chapter. “The special prayer service to be held at the Tibetan Welfare Office premises in Darjeeling on 18 April will be attended by the martyr’s family members also” added Diki Dolkar, Vice President, RTYC, Darjeeling Chapter.

“Dhondup came across to me as a spirited young man who was willing to do anything for Tibet. He used to often message me or call me discussing with me how to better spread the word about Tibet among Indian community” said Tenzin Tsundue, President of Regional Tibetan youth Congress, talking to HT from Dharamshala. The RTYC organised a special prayer service and candle light vigil in Dharamshala.

RTYC Vice President Tsering Yangchen said: “After 33 cases of self-immolations against Chinese brutal occupation of Tibet, Dhondup Phuntsok sacrificed his life by drowning himself into the Ganga river. Though we are grieved by his death, his sacrifice for the country’s freedom make all of us proud”. Moved by Jamphel Yeshi’s act of self-immmolation, Phuntsok’s decision to follow in Yeshi’s footsteps was not a spur of the moment decision. Pictures uploaded by him on a social network on 29th March and 30th March, show him on the Howrah Bridge and on the Jetty captioned “At the River Ganges or Ganga in Kolkata waiting for my sail.”

Phuntsok in his last ever speech, delivered on 10 March 2012 at Kalamadir in Kolkata, commemorating the Tibetan uprising day had stated “We are not at war with our great neighbour China, we bear no hatred nor nourish any ill feeling for our brothers and sisters in our eastern borders, Our is not a mere Sino Tibetans conflicts or an ideological warfare, let me make this clear our struggle for freedom is not an act of conflicts or secessions as is projected by the Chinese in fact our’s is also not a fight against the Chinese people. But we are against the illegal occupation of our territory and colonization of the land that belongs to the TIBETANS……”