Venerable Tenzin Bagdro
“A Hell on Earth”
Several
weeks after my arrival in McLeod Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama, I met Bagdro, a Buddhist Monk. I had seen him on a few occasions in
a restaurant next to my hotel, but we had never got chatting until
one evening, whilst waiting for my dinner. I offered to help him
fold many leaflets he had written. We’d been trying not to
giggle at the eccentricities of another customer of the restaurant
and moved tables. On the other table lay a book, “A Hell on
Earth,” which I picked up and flicked through. After reading
several random paragraphs I was in tears. “This is you, isn’t
it?” Badgro nodded. “I’m sorry, I hadn’t
realized.” My first thoughts were how could this incredible
man find anything to laugh about? I bought Bagdro’s book and
began to read it after dinner and didn’t stop until early
the following morning. Born into a farming family in 1968, Bagdro’s parents were
already reduced to a life of begging for tsampa (roasted barley).
Conditions had improved a little by the time Bagdro was 18, but
were still far from comfortable. In 1985 Bagdro decided to become
a monk, his parent’s were happy with his decision.
Bagdro had never questioned his childhood, teachings that Mao was
the great ruler. His parents would read to him books detailing good
and bad behaviour (according to the Chinese) and punishments for
their breaches. I recall him telling me of a sister who had died
at 3 years of age, he had thought she had simply died.
In July 1987 Bagdro was handed a book, “ My Land and my People”
by 2 American tourists. This book about The Dalai Lama’s early
life and escape to exile had a profound affect on the young monk.
After a while, the book became a very important treasure to Bagdro.
Having grown up in a remote area his awareness of these issues were
under-developed. For example, children might be able to beg for
tsampa but they were not allowed to say why, that it was because
they were starving. Bagdro also realized his sister had starved
to death.
On March 5th 1988 Bagdro found himself in the centre of a demonstration
against Chinese rule. Several thousand Monks and lay Tibetans took
to the streets….
 |
Gonpo Palijor, shot in
the head by police. |
"At around 11 am the Chinese soldiers opened fire into the
crowd and I was shot in the foot, but by this time I had lost all
fear. I was very angry and bullets were coming very close to me.
A Khampa (Eastern Tibetan) named Gonpo Palijor, who was at my side
was shot in the head and died soon after. Two monks from Sera Monastery
were also shot, Kalsang Tsering and Lobsang Tenpa. Lobsang survived
but Kalsang died on the spot. By this time the soldiers were using
tear gas. Many people were shot and injured.”
On the 18th April the Chinese arrested Bagdro at his parents’
home and taken to Gutsa Prison, east of Lhasa.
Bagdro was about to embark on a 3 year prison sentence which would
reduce him to drinking his own urine, eating his shoes, the stuffing
from his mattress and a 40kg skeleton.
Asked if he had connections with the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan
government-in-exile, Bagdro was accused of being part of a splitist
movement and killing a policeman…..
April 19th. First Interrogation Session.
"There was a table and on it was an electric baton, a revolver
and handcuffs which separated the hands from each other. The
ones I wore held my hands together. The Chinese man was asking
questions and writing down the answers while the Tibetan was interpreting. The
questioning was very aggressive, and the gun was slammed on the
table. I told them exactly what I thought because I thought
I would die anyway. When I said I had no contacts outside Tibet,
the Chinese stuck the electric baton in my mouth. It made
my mouth bleed. He also shoved it on my face and down my chest
and back. Both the Chinese and Tibetan man kicked me several
times. The Tibetan was a bit less brutal. The Chinese man stuck
cigarette ends on my face".
Then I was pressed against a wall and asked to reveal the names
of the monks involved in the demonstration. When I wouldn't,
they kicked me in the stomach. I can't count the number of
times this happened, but I started to vomit and bleed from my mouth,
nose and ears. When I lost consciousness they poured water
over me to revive me, picked me up and smashed my head against the
wall, holding me by the hair".
"On the first day, this type of beating happened in two sessions.
The first session lasted from 8.30 a.m. until sometime in the late
morning. The second one was from 1.00 p.m. until sundown,
when they beat me and hung me up and used the electric prod again.
During the day, I was given two small lumps of tin momo (plain dumplings)
from fellow prisoners, and nothing to drink. They again accused
me of killing the policeman, though they had no real evidence. They
only knew that I was wounded when I went back to the monastery. When
I denied this killing, they left me to stand barefoot outside on
the ice for 35 minutes, when I was pulled off, the skin under my
feet had frozen to the ground and they were bleeding. By the
end of the session I was very sick. That night, I was made
to stand near to the vegetable patch for the entire night without
sleeping".
Day 2 – April 20th – Second interrogation
"That morning, I was still terribly thirsty and dizzy from
hunger. I was taken back to the same room, but there were
three different interrogators, two Chinese and one Tibetan.
The same sort of things happened. The questioning was the
same and the same forms of brutality were used. This time they took
my shoes off and wet my feet and the electric prod was used on the
soles of my feet, causing my body to spasm and blood to come from
my nose and mouth".
Day 2 – April 20th – Third interrogation.
"During the afternoon, I was called back, this time to a different
room. There were, again, three different interrogators, two Chinese
and one Tibetan. I was interrogated for a further three hours, always
accompanied by torture. At this session, they used electric shock
on my heart, and I thought that I would go crazy. By now,
my hands were swelling, due to the tightness of the handcuffs. I
complained to the Chinese about the pain, but I cannot remember
what they said. They asked questions again, but this session
they were much more violent. Again it was the same form of questioning,
along the lines of who sent me to demonstrate, who was responsible,
what did I know about the killing of the policeman and what were
my activities during the demonstration. I did not say".
"Then they dragged me to a place outside, near the vegetable
patch and, for about three more hours, I was standing outside with
my arms up against the wall. Again, it was the same questions
and the same torture techniques. They took off all of my clothes
and threw water on me, which froze in the cold weather. They
used electric shocks in my ears and on my chest and back and again
I was bleeding. This went on until 6 p.m. but still they got no
information from me".
Day 2/3 – Ariel Suspension - 12 hours
"It about this time, they hung me up on a structure that came
out of the wall. They got me onto the thing by making me stand
first on the chair. They put a chain through the handcuffs and I
was suspended about a foot above the ground. They came back at one
point and asked if I had anything to say and as I said nothing they
left me. I was left hanging until sunrise the next morning.
At some point, I lost consciousness, and some time after that they
took me down".
Day 3 – April 21st - Fourth interrogation
"This session lasted about two hours. They slapped me on the
face, I was poked with the electric prod on my face and neck near
the ears where the nerves are, then on my hands. The effect of the
prod, is that, a vibration goes into your body, it gets very hot
inside and you feel that you will lose consciousness. It is very
painful. At some point they used the prod on my stomach.
Days 3-5 - Three days standing outside
"I was made to stand for the next three days and nights
near the vegetable garden. It was April, which is winter in Lhasa.
I had only one soft vest, a Chinese shirt with a zip up the front,
a pair of under-trousers and a pair of cotton trousers. I had a
thin pair of socks and a thin pair of shoes. It was extremely cold."
"They made me kneel down on all fours and place my chin on
a chair about three feet off the ground. Because of the handcuffs,
I could not bend my hands properly, so they stepped on them to flatten
them. It was terribly painful at my neck as well, because my chin
was jerked up by the chair. I remember screaming for my mother. Then
they put electric prods on my neck, below my ears on both sides. The
torture was mainly to my head and down the back of my neck, though,
sometimes they applied the prod to my anus and genitals. They pulled
my shirt up and kicked me in the back with their metal boots".
Day 7 - April 25th. Sixth interrogation
"I asked if I could go to the toilet, and, when the Tibetan
took me to a staff toilet, I looked down into the bowl and saw that
there was a tin momo there. I picked it up and ate it.
They then interrogated me the entire morning while I sat on a stool. They
used an electric prod and a metal bar that was about two and half
feet long and may be an inch in diameter. Again there were the same
questions."
......"alone and without food. I was so hungry that I took
my vest off, tore it and began to eat it"
"The intensive torture went on for about eleven days and during
this time, I never had the same officers and interrogators. However,
I could see that the same file was being used. From the eleventh
day until the sixteenth day, there was fairly intense questioning,
usually in the mornings. This, along with sporadic beatings, went
on for a total of about a month. One day there was a Chinese woman
who was very brutal. She wore something sharp on her hands and beat
me. During this time, I became so thirsty that sometimes I drank
my own urine. I was not able to take off my clothing by myself
with the handcuffs on, so I would often wet myself. Since
there was no way that I could clean myself, I became filthy and
infested with lice. There were many hours when I cried in agony,
dying to scratch myself, but unable to. I could not sleep properly".
“My handcuffs were taken off three days after the interrogation
ceased. I had the handcuffs on for one month and three days. The
effect was so severe that when I moved one hand to one side, the
other automatically followed it, and I could see the bone showing
through on my left hand, just below the wrist. The electroshock
had such an effect on me that my body still shakes even now. My
head used to shake too at the same time as my hands did. This is
getting a bit better now. I can hold handles, but still I tend to
drop things, so items such as bowls I have to hold from underneath".
Not surprisingly after 4 weeks of such treatment Bagdro caved in
and confessed to hitting the policeman with an iron bar. Officials
wrote the confession. Bagdro says, “I don’t know if
other people confessed but I imagine they did.”
For me, meeting Bagdro and the cyclists on the rally had the profoundest
affect on my life.
At the front of Bagdro’s book he writes:
“The purpose of this booklet is to let the world know the
truth about the Chinese Communists’ inhumane repression of
the Tibetan people and to make the truth about the Tibetan cause
known to the outside world. It is not for my personal benefit or
for the sake of becoming famous that I write this but in the hopes
that I will solicit more support for Tibet from people all over
the world.”
Bagdro, you have…
If you would like read more about Bagdro’s life in prison,
his escape to India over the Himalayas and fight for his country,
you can purchase a copy of “A Hell on Earth” by writing
to or e-mailing Bagdro at:
Ven Bagdro
C/O Tashi Choeling Monastery
McLeod Ganj
Dharamsala
176219
Himachal Pradesh
India
Or e-mail Bagdro on bagdro_earth@hotmail.com
|
