Sonam Wangchuk on Disappointment and Hope
May 7, 2012Sonam Wangchuk was recruited into the Tibetan resistance at age 13, leaving Tibet in 1958 to study English in India. He was a trainee and an interpreter at the CIA's training base in Camp Hale, Colorado for 7 months in 1961 and again from September 1962 to December 1963. He continued his work as translator for the operation through 1993 and moved to the United Stated in 1998. Here he discusses the disappointment Tibetans felt at the end of US support for the operation (which pulled all aid between 1972 and '74), as well as his hopes for the future of Tibet.
For photos, thanks to Sonam Wangchuk, Mikel Dunham, Bruce Walker and the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.
Remembering Juchen Thupten Namgyal and Donyo Jagortsang
January 24, 2012Two more veterans of the Tibetan resistance passed on in 2011: Juchen Thupten Namgyal on August 31, and Donyo Jagortsang on December 19. Both were from Derge, a kingdom in the Kham region of Eastern Tibet. And both were part of Tibet's underground resistance army backed by the CIA, the Chushi Gangdruk.
After fighting since 1956, Juchen Thupten Namgyal was part of the Dalai Lama's guard during the uprising of March 1959; following him to India as back-up security during his escape. He was later a key member in the Tibetan exile government. He led the first fact-finding delegation to Tibet in 1979, was part of the first negotiations with the Chinese in 1982 and '84, and eventually served as Prime Minister from 1985 to '90.
The son of a Derge Chieftain, Donyo Jagortsang was trained by the CIA in Camp Hale, Colorado. After being dropped with his team of 18 into Pembar, another area of Kham, he was caught in an unexpected siege by the Chinese in 1960. Over 10,000 resistance fighters and their families had gathered there, making them a clear target for the PLA. Few survived, and Donyo made it to India with only 4 others from his team. Soon after, he left the operation.
Including footage of Chushi Gangdruk soldiers from the CIA archives, this video is in memory of them both. May they rest in peace.
Thanks to Doma Norbu and Jamyang Norbu for help with translation.
Tashi Paljor on the Camp Hale Commemoration
December 12, 2011If you happened to see the video on the Camp Hale memorial that took place on September 10, 2010, you may remember Tashi Paljor, one of the Tibetan veterans who spoke that day. Born in Tibet, Paljor left for India in 1954 to learn English for an intended career as a trader. Living in Kalimpong, he became acquainted with Gyalo Thondup, an elder brother of the Dalai Lama and the main CIA contact for its Tibetan operation. Thondup arranged for Paljor’s English studies at St. Joseph's College in Darjeeling, then sent him to the CIA’s Tibetan training base in Camp Hale, Colorado. From May 1959 to the end of 1960, he worked there as an interpreter and also took part in training. Later he worked for Lhamo Tsering, Gyalo Thondup’s right-hand man, from 1962 to 1989 (including a transition to Indian intelligence after all CIA aid ended in 1974). He currently lives in Canada.
I interviewed Tashi Paljor on October 27, and among many other things, asked him about his feelings at the Camp Hale commemoration. Here's a short bit on that.
Thanks to Doma Norbu for the photo of 4 of the Camp Hale veterans that attended the ceremony. Left to right: Tashi Paljor (Noel), Sonam Wangchuk (Lee), Chime Namgyal (Conrad), and the late Tashi Chutter (Mark).
Rebiya Kadeer
July 25, 2011In light of the recent unrest in Xinjiang, a northwest territory of China in dispute by the indigenous Uyghur people, I'm showing some video from an interview with Rebiya Kadeer. A native of Xinjiang – called East Turkestan by Uyghurs before its occupation in 1949 and still today – Kadeer rose to prominence as one of the wealthiest people in China. In 1997, she openly criticized a violent crackdown of Uyghur protestors that left many dead, and was eventually imprisoned in 1999 for organizing against the Chinese Government. She was released to the US in 2005, and has continued to lead her people's fight for human rights, freedom and democracy while in exile as the president of the World Uyghur Congress. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, she is considered a separatist and a terrorist by China where, like the Dalai Lama, it is illegal to possess her picture.
This interview – at an August 2008 protest march in Washington DC, where Tibetans, Uyghurs and other groups protested the Olympics in Beijing – was the first and last time I had the privilege to meet her. This article quotes a line that sums up her indomitable spirit: after a police chief reportedly told her, “We will crush you like a snake”, she replied, “And I will emerge from prison like an eagle”.
Note: the sub-titles here are rough translations taken from the interview translator, Alim Seytoff.
Bhusang: Surviving War and Prison
June 26, 2011In wake of the recent release of several Chinese dissidents from prison – artist Ai Weiwei, three of his associates, journalist Wen Tao, and activist Hu Jia – I thought I’d share a related story from one of the Tibetan veterans I interviewed, Bhusang. Imprisoned in Tibet from April 1961 to October 1978, Bhusang was a resistance fighter trained by the CIA at Camp Hale, Colorado and the only survivor of his team soon after they were dropped back into Tibet. For more background on him, see “Democracy for Breakfast: Ode to Bhusang” and "Battle for Lhasa".
The interview took place on the 8th and 9th of November, 2009, in his small room just below the Namgyal Monastery in Dharamsala, India. Bhusang passed away only four months later, so we were lucky and privileged to be able to record some of his stories while we could. I’m not yet able to subtitle this interview on video as I’ve had limited funds to get exact translations for most of Bhusang, as well as other Tibetan-language interviews that count more than 40 hours at this point. I’m planning on getting on that this summer, and will soon be starting a kickstarter.com campaign to raise funds to go towards finishing translations, a little more production, and post-production. As I have more translations done, I can start working with them in the feature editing, as well as share more bits on this blog. Look for an updated fundraising video and trailer coming up soon.
The transcription below consists of the questions I asked the interview’s interpreter, Tenzin Norkyi, and her translation at the time – a rough summary of Bhusang’s replies.
Bhusang after the interview, Nov 9, 2009
HOW DID THE CHINESE CAPTURE HIM?
He was part of seven Tibetans trained in the US [Camp Hale, Colorado] that fought and were killed in Markham [Eastern Tibet]. The only thing the Chinese feared is the Americans, and because they had trained with the Americans, they are their double enemy. After fighting a long time in Markham, they were outnumbered and surrounded by around noon on April 15th, 1961.
They had parachuted close to Markham on March 15th, 1961. First of all, they were dropped in the wrong place. From there, the problems started. One good thing is the team leader, Yeshi, was from the area. But the first people they met thought Yeshi was in India, and had no idea he was trained by the US so they didn’t believe him. The locals didn't trust that they weren't Chinese spies and wouldn't give them any food or sell anything to them. Soon, the Chinese heard about them.
Once the secret was out that they were there, after a few days they met the people they were looking for. They told them about how the Americans would supply weapons, money, and help them fight. They discussed plans for what to do.
Soon after, the Americans dropped weapons and supplies, so four of Bhusang’s team, plus six other teams, went to get them. By then the Chinese had already pressured the family they first met to give them all their details; that they trained with the US, and were there to fight. So the Chinese started coming to Markham.
When Bhusang and his team reached Markham, there were a lot of other groups there to fight the Chinese. They started fighting at 6am on April 15th and by the time they realized they needed to retreat, the Chinese had surrounded them; thousands and thousands, too many to count, herds like cattle. After most others were killed, he and three others were the only ones left of his team. They decided to each face north, south, east, west and keep shooting until they had no more bullets left, then take their suicide pills the Americans gave them in case of capture.
Two of the others took the cyanide pills. Bhusang put his in his mouth while the Chinese were shouting, “Surrender”. At the same time there were two girls crying a lot. They came to fight because their families had been killed and they had no one left. As the girls surrendered, Bhusang was knocked unconscious, hit on the head by a PLA soldier before he could bite down on the pill. Of his seven-man team, Bhusang was the only survivor.
He was kept in a Markham prison for a week after that. There was a big hall and you could see thousands and thousands other prisoners, many of which had been fighting that day. He was put into a black dark cell. He got better food than the rest; three times a day. The rest would get only a small amount of tsampa [Tibetan staple of roasted barley flour] in the morning and a little thukpa [noodle dish] in the evening. Other than that they had nothing else to eat and everyday were made to do hard labor building roads. After that he was transported to a prison in Chamdo. There was always a Chinese guard by his cell throughout the day and night. They beat him until he crumbled. Because of the medicine they gave him, he couldn't talk, and he was tortured often. On May 18th, he was taken from Chamdo to Lhasa. When he was transported from one prison to another, there was one Chinese jeep ahead of them, one behind and four policemen with him. They were very suspicious; thinking the Americans would do something, try to rescue him, since he was trained in America. He was stripped of all American clothes he had. All the time his arms and legs were bounded together.
When they got to the army camp prison in Lhasa, the police took off his shackles and the new prison guards put their own chains on him, and took him inside. There he saw that all the prisoners were abbots and lamas, no lay people. Since he had previously been a doctor in Lhasa's Tibetan Army, he knew some people there – one was an uncle.
Most of the time he was kept in a small room where he was with another inmate, a Chinese Kuomintang [Nationalist Party] who was captured trying to escape to India. In every cell there were eight rules. (1) Whatever work you do, you have to get permission from the officials. (2) You cannot move, you have to stay sitting down, you cannot get up and look around. (3) You can never talk to anyone, except when a Chinese officer talks to you. (4) You cannot give anything to others, and you cannot take anything from others. (5) You cannot draw or write anything on the wall, or even touch or make a scratch on the wall. (6) You cannot listen to anything happening around you. (7) You cannot look around when you are going out to work or whatever situation. (8) He can't remember.
There were 2 high lamas and a General, they were the only ones not made to work. All the other lamas had to work. Cleaning, or any sort of work. Guards would always be around watching them.
David Urubshurow on Geshe Wangyal
May 11, 2011One of the cool things about this blog is it introduces me to people I otherwise wouldn't know about. David Urubshurow is happily one of those people. We connected a few months ago after he saw the "The Escape of the Dalai Lama, Part 3". In it, a Kalmyk-Mongolian monk named Geshe Wangyal plays a part in helping the CIA translate the telecode for the radio messages between Washington DC and Tibet.
Urubshurow met and began studying with Geshe Wangyal as a young boy, and though he was like a son to him in many ways, he never knew about his work with the CIA. Not until the late '90s or so, long after his death in 1983, did anyone outside the operation begin to learn that this secret history included "Bakshi", as his students called him. (Or Geshe-la, a Tibetan way of giving respect.)
Many thanks to David for sharing his stories. I wish I had the time to include more here, but will do another video in the future that include some others. Thanks also to Joshua Cutler, who runs Geshe Wangyal's center with his wife Diana, for sharing some of the pictures.
Music by Joel Langley at Green Goose Music
Airborne Leaflet Propaganda Campaign 1960-1961
March 7, 2011As mentioned in the last post, propaganda played an important role in the CIA's Tibetan operation. To continue with that theme, I'm showing a bit of my interview with Ken Knaus from March 2008, when we headed up to his office to take a look at the propaganda booklets that were dropped into Tibet in 1960-1961. Knaus, author of "Orphans of the Cold War", began working on the Tibetan Task Force in 1958, was an instructor at Camp Hale, and the operation's project manager from 1961 to 1965. He oversaw the making and distribution of these booklets.
Psychological tactics of this kind have often been used in historical military operations. According to Wikipedia (quoting from "Cassell's History of the Wars Between France and Germany, 1870-1871"): “Airborne leaflets have been used for military propaganda purposes at least since the 19th century. One early example is from the Franco-Prussian War when in October 1870 during the Siege of Paris a French balloon coming from the city dropped government proclamations over Prussian troops that stated the following (in German): ‘Paris defies the enemy. The whole of France rallies. Death to the invaders. Foolish people, shall we always throttle one another for the pleasure and proudness of Kings? Glory and conquest are crimes; defeat brings hate and desire for vengeance. Only one war is just and holy; that of independence.’ ”
In recent news, reports say that the South Korean military has been dropping leaflets, DVDs and flash drives into North Korea, where communication is tightly controlled and leaves many citizens unaware of world affairs. The propaganda, dropped by balloons, apparently describes the pro-democracy movements in the Middle East and North Africa in a call for North Koreans to also rise up against their oppressors.
The objectives for the booklets dropped into Tibet -- in many ways like South Korea's reported campaign -- were primarily to spread anti-communist sentiment, counter PRC propaganda, promote reasons to fight for freedom against oppression, show how to conduct political and guerrilla warfare operations, and persuade more Tibetans to join the resistance against China. Here's the brief explanation written on the first page of Knaus’ copies shown in the video: "A collaborative effort by the Camp Hale trainees on a booklet which spells out the reasons why the Tibetans are rebelling against the Chinese efforts to destroy Tibet as a nation and a culture with examples of how other nations obtained their independence and of friendly countries which are supporting the Tibetan cause. It was dropped into Tibet at the authors' request when they returned there on their missions."
CLICK HERE to download some of the pictures that have been translated (in chronological order from one of the booklets). Many thanks to Ken Knaus for sharing the booklets for scanning and to Doma Norbu for helping with the translation. Click the picture below to watch Ken Knaus showing and discussing his copies.
Wei Jingsheng: Interview Excerpts
December 15, 2010With all the news recently about Liu Xiaobo, an advocate for freedom in China which just won him the Nobel Peace Prize, and also condemned him to an 11-year sentence in Chinese prison last December, I put together some excerpts from an interview with another famous Chinese dissident: Wei Jingsheng. Arguably the most well known activist for Chinese Democracy outside of China, Wei was arrested in 1979 on charges of counterrevolution and spent 18 years in jail. Since his release in 1997 through a US-China exchange, he's lived in Washington DC and has continued to fight in exile for democracy, freedom and human rights in China, as well as throughout Asia. The author of "Courage to Stand Alone: Letters from Prison and Other Writings" and numerous articles, Wei has won many awards for his activism, including seven nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize.
On August 7, 2008, I interviewed Wei Jingsheng outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC where he was part of a protest against the Olympics being held in Beijing. Attended predominantly by Tibetans, they were accompanied by Chinese, Taiwanese, Uyghur, Inner Mongolian, North Korean, and Vietnamese groups who support human rights and freedom in China.
(Note that this is a loose translation taken from the interview's interpreter Huang Ciping, Director of the Wei Jingsheng Foundation.)
Interview Excerpts: Carole McGranahan
November 11, 2010Carole McGranahan is a professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. As an anthropologist and historian, she's lived off and on with Tibetan families in Nepal and India since 1989, focusing her study in 1994 on the Tibetan resistance to China. Her depth of experience with many veterans of the Chushi Gangdruk (the CIA-backed Tibetan resistance army) brings fresh insight into Tibet's history of armed resistance and how it's remembered (and not remembered) in Tibetan exile society today. In her recently published book "Arrested Histories: Tibet, the CIA, and Memories of a Forgotten War", she argues that the telling of this history has largely been put on hold, and while it's begun to be told over the past decade or so (through books and Tenzing Sonam's BBC documentary "Shadow Circus"), there are particular reasons why the story of Tibet's armed resistance to China is still little-known today, even within the Tibetan community.
For more on the subject, here's some of her interview from September (just after the Camp Hale ceremony that honored the Tibetan freedom fighters, the video of which also touches on this topic).
Interview Excerpts: Jamyang Norbu
October 13, 2010Jamyang Norbu is a noted author, blogger and activist in the forefront of the Tibetan struggle for independence from China. While he has many supporters, he is also controversial within the Tibetan community for criticizing the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration for eventually taking a "middle way" position of accepting Chinese rule, seeking only autonomy within it.
Norbu began working in the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in 1968, and was part of the Tibetan resistance in Mustang, Nepal from '71 to '72, just when the CIA was beginning to pull their aid. Mainly charged with getting intelligence on China, he also helped raise funds to keep the resistance alive until the Dalai Lama finally put an end to the Mustang base in 1974. Among other involvements in Tibetan activism, culture and academia, he was a president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, director of Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, and co-founder of the Amnye Machen Institute for advanced studies on Tibet.
He currently lives in the US, blogging on jamyangnorbu.com and rangzen.net (rangzen is Tibetan for independence), and writing his latest book, a literary history of Tibet's fight for freedom. Here are some excerpts from my interview with him on August 29.
CIA Impact on Tibet? Part 9: Tsering Shakya
August 18, 2010Born in Lhasa, Tsering Shakya is a noted scholar and author of many articles and books on Tibet, including "The Dragon in the Land of Snows", and the recently published "The Struggle for Tibet", co-authored by Wang Lixiong. Currently a Professor of Tibetan history and literature at University of British Columbia, he organized the 2010 International Association for Tibetan Studies conference, underway this week at UBC's Institute for Asian Research, with 400 scholars from 21 countries attending.
From his interview last May, he talks about the CIA's impact on the Tibetan resistance to China.
CIA Impact on Tibet? Part 8: Ken Knaus and John Greaney
August 11, 2010Ken Knaus and John Greaney were both CIA Officers on the Tibetan Task Force. Greaney, the Deputy Chief from 1957-1961, was in charge of US communications with the Tibetan radio team inside the Dalai Lama's escape party in 1959. Knaus began in 1958 as a Case Officer and Instructor at Camp Hale, Colorado, then became the operation's Project Manager from 1961-1965. Knaus is the author of "Orphans of the Cold War: America and the Tibetan Struggle for Survival". From separate interviews in 2008, here's their take on the CIA's impact.
Also a note on current events: For some time, Knaus has been lobbying the powers that be in Washington DC to have a sign posted at Camp Hale, pronouncing its use as a secret CIA training site for Tibetan resistance fighters from 1959 to 1965. Recently, Colorado Senator Mark Udall has agreed to support this, and a ceremony will take place there soon. More on that in future updates.
CIA Impact on Tibet? Part 7: Mikel Dunham
August 4, 2010Mikel Dunham, author of "Buddha's Warriors: The Story of the CIA-Backed Tibetan Freedom Fighters, the Chinese Communist Invasion, and the Ultimate Fall of Tibet", shares his thoughts on the CIA's impact.
As part of his answer, he brings up a major intelligence find for the US, when approximately 2,000 Chinese government documents were captured by Tibetan guerrillas in 1961. Showing classified information on the PLA's activities inside Tibet and China, the documents were published in 1966 as "The Politics of the Chinese Red Army", by Stanford's Hoover Institution. I'll eventually have a blog video going into more detail on this part of the story.
CIA Impact on Tibet? Part 5: Bruce Walker
July 21, 2010Bruce Walker was a CIA Case Officer and Training Instructor with the Tibetan Task Force from 1960 to 1968. Dedicated to preserving the memory of STCIRCUS, the operation's code name, Walker has donated archival material to the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and recently commissioned a painting for the CIA Museum's Intelligence Art Gallery, entitled “The Secret PLA Pouch Heads to CIA's K Building”.
In this video, he shares his viewpoint on the CIA's impact to the Tibetan resistance to China. While it essentially covers his feelings on the failure of the CIA-backed resistance, his opinion on more positive results from this history is reflected below in a statement written for our talk on March 21, 2008, soon after Tibetan protests and riots inside Tibet gained worldwide attention.
"In spite of its tragic ending, the resistance demonstrated to the world that the Chinese were committing genocide against the Tibetans and that the Tibetans were passionate about trying to preserve their God-King, their religion, and the integrity of their country. In attempting this, they were not afraid to die for the cause and did not hesitate to kill Chinese in the process. They did not go down supinely before the enemy. As events in Tibet this month show the world, generations of Tibetan patriots inside and outside Tibet still maintain this passion and spirit of resistance to the Chinese, 58 years after the Chinese invaded Tibet."
CIA Impact on Tibet? Part 4: Doma Norbu
July 14, 2010Doma Norbu is the daughter of Athar, one of six in the first team trained by CIA in 1957. Athar, along with his team partner Lhotse, were the two radio agents that caught up to the Dalai Lama's escape party in March 1959, kept the CIA informed of that perilous journey, and helped secure asylum for the Dalai Lama in India. From 1960 to 1962, they both served as instructors at Camp Hale, a secret CIA training base in Colorado. After that, Athar was involved with intelligence gathering within Tibet until the base in Mustang, Nepal was closed in 1974.
I met Doma in June 2008 when she was organizing the 50th anniversary of the Chushi Gangdruk, the CIA-backed Tibetan resistance army. At that time, she was President of the New York Chapter of the current Chushi Gangdruk, an organization that keeps the legacy of their fight for freedom alive through non-violent means.
As one who is dedicated to continuing her father's struggle for Tibetan independence, Doma shares her opinion about the CIA's impact on Tibet in part 4 of this ongoing series.
CIA Impact on Tibet? Part 3: George Patterson
July 7, 2010Scottish author George Patterson has a long history with Tibet. After a year in China as a missionary, he arrived in Tibet in 1947 and lived there until the Chinese invasion in 1950. Following that, he briefly served as a translator for US State Dept and the CIA, and began reporting on the Tibetan resistance throughout the 50s. In 1964, he collaborated on the BBC documentary "Raid Into Tibet", a documentary that nearly ended the CIA's operation after filming a secret raid by Tibetan guerrillas --the only known film ever taken of them actually fighting. Mr. Patterson has written "Gods and Guerillas", his account of the making of that film, among other books on Tibet.
In part 3 of an ongoing summer series, he gives his opinion on the CIA's impact on Tibet's resistance to China.
CIA Impact on Tibet? Part 2: Lhasang Tsering
June 30, 2010Arriving after the CIA had pulled their support, Lhasang Tsering was a member of the armed resistance force in the Mustang, Nepal operation from 1973 to 1974, its final year. Later in Dharamsala, India, he was the Principal of the Tibetan Children's Village, briefly served in the Tibetan Government in Exile, was President of the Tibetan Youth Congress, and one of the co-founders of the Amnye Machen Institute. Currently, he is a Poet/Writer, and owns a bookshop.
A passionate and outspoken voice in the Tibetan community, here he shares his viewpoint in a continuing series of answers to the question: "What impact do you think the CIA had on Tibet's resistance against China?".
CIA Impact on Tibet? Part 1: Clay Cathey
June 23, 2010"What impact do you think the CIA had on Tibet's resistance against China?" This is a question I ask everyone I talk to, and get an equal amount of interesting answers.
To begin a series of opinions on this question, I'll start off with my dad, Clay Cathey, who was the first one I asked. I'll post a different person's response every week or so over the next couple months.
Tsering Shakya Interview Excerpts
June 6, 2010In mid-May, I had the opportunity to interview the author of "The Dragon in the Land of Snows", Tsering Shakya. For more background on the issue of violence and the Chushi Gangdruk resistance army backed by the CIA, here's a few excerpts from that interview.
Ken Knaus on Meeting the Dalai Lama
May 21, 2010In excerpts from his interview on March 13, 2008, Ken Knaus, former CIA officer on the Tibetan Task Force, recounts his 3 meetings with the Dalai Lama over a period of 42 years. As an extension of his commentary in the last post, "Phala, the Dalai Lama and the CIA", Knaus' continuing story gives a deeper look at the conflict of violence for the Dalai Lama.
While some parts of the video here will probably be shown in the eventual feature documentary, most of what you'll see will only be seen on this blog. Interview excerpts like these, which you'll see more of in future posts, is for me one of the best things about Kefiblog--the ability to share all the good stuff the feature won't have time for.
Ratu Ngawang: We Must Never Forget March 10
March 10, 2010Ratu Ngawang is respected among many Tibetans as a former commander in the Chushi Gangdruk, the Tibetan resistance army that fought the Chinese PLA from the 50s through the early 70s. He was also the head of security in the escape of the Dalai Lama, which began one week after the Tibetan uprising began on March 10, 1959.
Here's a clip from my interview with him in November, 2009.
