Another School Shut Down in Tibet

In memory of the Ragya Ganjong Sherig Norbu Lobling, which was recently closed due to oppressive Chinese policies. This closure is part of a broader pattern of cultural suppression, aimed at erasing Tibetan identity and assimilating Tibetans into Chinese culture. The forced enrollment of Tibetan children in Chinese-run boarding schools, without access to Tibetan cultural curricula, is a violation of their rights and a threat to their cultural heritage. We urge the international community to uphold the principles of Freedom of Education and take action to prevent the destruction of Tibetan culture, which constitutes cultural genocide.

Another School Shut Down in Tibet!

As I peer through the cracking walls,

My heart sinks at the sight before me,

Schools being shut down, one by one,

By force, it feels like a terrible dream.

Sweeping away the essence of our nation,

Leaving our identity in tatters,

Like whispers carried away by the wind.

The trees now grow tall in full gloom,

Soon to dry and die in the empty campus,

As will the branches bearing fruit and wisdom.

Students, once vibrant as spring blossoms,

Now scattered like leaves in autumn’s cruel wind.

Roofs collapse, walls crumble,

Ancient wisdom fades to mere echoes,

In halls where young minds once flourished.

Classrooms now chained by spider webs,

Dust conquers desks in silent victory,

Mother tongue chokes, gasping for air,

Culture suffocates behind locked doors,

Young hearts starved of truth and heritage.

As the doors are closed,

And gates barricaded and blocked,

The walls crack and cry in silence.

The trees’ gentle, caressing whispers vanish,

Elders watch, their eyes clouded with sorrow,

As traditions crumble like sand castles.

Identity bleeds from forced wounds,

A nation’s soul dimming with each closed door.

In the silence of this loss,

The world turns, unseeing, unhearing.

Another school falls in Tibet, And with it, a nation’s identity.

By Sonsnow

#rights #education #poem #tibet #freedom

མིག་ཆུ། Tears

Namkyi, a former political prisoner, sheds tears as she speaks of the torture she endured under Chinese repressive rule.

Tears,

They have shed tears for too long,

If they were a glacier, it would eventually dry up one day.

The warmth of heart will wither away,

If they were a river, one day their flow would cease,

And hope would wither away, like a fading breeze.

If they were an ocean, even its vastness would turn into a dunes,

And happiness’s smile would set, like the sun in a distant land.

Tears are mere droplets, a symbol of our deepest longing,

But they cannot quench our thirst,

nor ease our heart’s tormenting.

Tears alone cannot sustain us,

nor can they quench the fire within.

Even our heart aches within

For the freedom we seek, let us march forward, undaunted and unbroken,

until we claim our victory.

By Sonsnow

ཁུ་བྱུག་དང་ཕ་ཡུལ།

དྲན་ཐོ།

ཁུ་དབྱུག་དཔྱིད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མོའི།

དཔྱིད་དཔལ་བསུ་བའི་གསུང་སྙན།

གཞན་ཡུལ་ས་མཐར་གྲགས་པའི།

བདག་བློ་ཁྱུང་བྱའི་སྙིང་ཁ།

དྲན་གདུང་གླིང་སུ་བརྫངས་སོང་།

ཕ་བཟང་བུ་ནས།

When the cuckoo bird sings its spring songs, 

Heard loud and clear across distant lands, 

My heart, like the Chung bird’s, 

Suffers the weight of homesickness, 

My spirit, still longs the distant homeland. 

By Sonsnow

It Pains Deeply,

In the shadow of forced relocation, my words stand as a beacon of solidarity for the resilient souls of Kham Dege, who continue to suffer under the Chinese repressive rules.

It pains deeply!

The pain runs deep within

As I see my countrymen crying in despair

Pleading with hands folded

Kneeling before the oppressors

Prostrating before the perpetrators

It’s a pain that cuts through, raw and tight.

It hurts, oh it hurts so deeply,

This was never our norm

When our warriors commanded half the globe,

When emperors from China bowed to our spiritual guides,

When the Chinese trembled at the might of Sogtsen Gampo.

We were never this desperate,

We fought for what was rightfully ours,

We never begged, never pleaded,

We stood firm against intruders,

Our mountains, resilient and strong

Against the bombs , they never bowed

Never surrendered to the Great Wall’s shadow,

They stand tall, unwavering as ever.

Awaken, my warriors,

It’s time to rise and resist.

By Sonsnow

ལྷ་བསང་།

ལྷ་བསང་།

མཆོད་རྟེན་ཆེན་མོའི་མདུན་ནས།

སྐྱབས་ཆེན་ལྷ་ཚོགས་རྣམས་ལ།

ལྷ་གསོལ་ལྷ་བསང་བཏང་སྟེ།

ལྷ་མིའི་དམ་ཚིག་བརྟེན་ཆེད།

བསང་ཕུད་དྲི་ཞིམ་ཕུལ་ཡིན།

ལྷ་གླུ་གསོལ་བའི་མཆོད་པ།

དུ་བ་བསང་རྫས་ནག་པོ།

ནམ་མཁའི་དབྱིངས་སུ་ཁྱབས་ཏེ།

ལྷ་ལམ་འགོག་པར་བྱུང་ཚེ།

བཤགས་པ་སྔོན་ནས་འབུལ་ལོ།

ཕ་བཟང་བུ་ནས།

Before the Sacred Stupa in Boudha,

I conducted a Sangsol, a ritual purification,

Offering to the deities of great refuge.

I offered Sang, the sacred scent,

To fortify the samaya of gods and humans.

Offerings of the gods and deities,

The smokes and the Substance rise,

Flew high and wide in the sky

Should it obstruct the god’s sacred path,

I begin with a confession, seeking forgiveness.

By Sonsnow

Before the Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu

A Burning Flame for Freedom

A Burning Flame for Freedom

A burning flame for Freedom!


Under the occupation and oppression
You stood strong against the repression,
For a little shine of Freedom
Your fists raised high, so as the slogans,
In the face of injustice and unlawfulness
You hold to truth too tight,
Unbowed, you ran with all your might
Banned flags waving, a courageous sight,
Though flames consumed, you never waned
Against oppression and repression, you stood strong,
Your call and fist of Freedom
you raised them with a powerful voice,
Your body consumed and your voice taken away
But you rose and resist, until your last breath,
Your light will shine day and night
Through highs and lows, your names endure,
Echoing from the Himalayan mountains
Across the world, your slogans ring,

Free Tibet, Free Tibet, Free Tibet

 
By Sonsnow

  • In loving memory of the Tibetan martyrs, who made the ultimate sacrifice through self-immolation for the cause of Tibet.

A Homely Call

During our short stay in Ladakh.

A Homely Call 

Amidst whispers of the willow tree 

Here I sleep so sound and free,

Listening to the wrathful rushes, Indus’ gentle song  

The lullaby from the far distance, where I belong 

Beneath the blue sky and the twinkling stars,

Here I sleep so deep and free as if it’s all ours,

Imagining the wonders of a faraway homeland,

I can’t stop missing home, where my return was banned,

By Sonsnow

ལྷག་དཀར་བསུ།

ཕ་ཡུལ་གངས་དཀར་ལྷུན་པོའི།

གཟི་འོད་ཉམས་འདུག་མ་གསུང་།

གོང་འཁྲིགས་ཁ་ནག་སྤྲིན་ནག

ཁ་འཐོར་དགུ་འཐོར་བྱུང་དུས།

གཟི་འོད་ངང་གིས་འཕྲོ་ཡོང་།  

ཆོལ་གསུམ་ཕུ་ནུར་སྡང་བའི།

དགྲ་བོ་ཤན་པ་ལག་དམར།

མནའ་ཤག་གྲོགས་ཡིན་མ་གསུང་།

ཁ་དན་ཚིག་གནས་མེད་པར།

རང་ཁྱིམ་བཅོམས་པ་མ་བརྗེད།

ཕ་བཟང་བུ་ནས།  

Tell me not 

That the heavenly high peaks have lost their light,

It gleams beyond clouds, pure and bright.

As black shrouds part and the sky unfurls,

Peak’s radiance grows, unfettered and pearls. 

To my siblings in all three traditional land and place,

It is an oppressive foe, a ruthless face.

Speak not of bonds that friendship ties,

Remember deceit veiled in friendship’s guise.

With words so sweet and deeds that lacked core,

Our land was seized, its fate hard to swallow.

By Sonsnow

Let us stand by our Sister’s side

( Let us stand by our Sister’s side )

Yesterday, he restrained from raising his hand to her,

But today, he rapped her in a fit of rage,

The gentle touch replaced by violence’s stir,

Leaving her trapped in a cruel, dark cage.    

Once, he cherished her as a sister dear,  

A smile that radiated warmth and care,  

But now, that affection has disappeared,

Replaced by humiliation she can’t bear.  

Respect was shown, like all daughters and sisters,

She was valued for her worth and her soul,

But today, she’s silenced, her voice now whispers,

A victim of a world that’s taken its toll. 

 

He once stood tall with honor and grace,

A role model for others to admire,  

But today, he’s lost in a twisted chase,

And his virtuous heart seems to expire. 

 

Let us not be bystanders, blind and mute,

But champions of justice, strong and bold,

Together we can change this dark pursuit,

And heal the wounds that time’s hands have told.

   

Yesterday we were proud men,

And today we feel ashamed,

But together, we can rise again,

To a brighter future, unrestrained.

By Sonsnow

Happy 88th Birthday Your Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

His message of love and compassion divine,
Unites humanity, transcending the line.
Across colours and creeds, he fosters unity,
Spreading harmony with unwavering serenity.
His smile, a beacon of hope, shining bright,
Guiding souls through darkness, with gentle light.
Countless lives touched, hearts filled with bliss,
His radiant smile, a celestial kiss.
May he continue to live long, we pray,
For better and brighter days, each step of the way.
His wisdom and guidance, a beacon so strong,
Leading us forward, righting the wrong.
With each passing year, his light does shine,
A symbol of hope, in a world sometimes unkind.
His presence, a blessing, a gift to us all,
A source of inspiration, standing tall.

I had the privilege of taking this pic while receiving His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama back to Dharamshala after a successful program in Bodhgaya this year.

Your Holiness, on this special day, I extend my heartfelt wishes for a joyous 88th birthday. May you be blessed with good health and longevity, enabling you to bring profound benefits to all sentient beings. Your message of love and compassion has the power to unite humanity across diverse backgrounds, transcending differences and fostering harmony.


Your radiant smile has the ability to illuminate the lives of countless sentient beings, spreading light and hope in the world. May your smile continue to touch the hearts of people far and wide.

Once again, Happy 88th Birthday, Your Holiness. May your path be filled with abundant blessings and continue to inspire and transform lives.