The recent Tenshug, or long-life prayer offering, for His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the occasion of his 90th birthday, made by veteran Tibetan freedom fighters, was one such moment. It was an act of deep devotion; but it was also a reminder that Tibet remains an unresolved international issue.
I arrived in the United Kingdom from Lodrik Jampaling Tibetan Refugee Camp in 1996 on a scholarship programme and, to the best of my knowledge, was the first child of Lodrik veterans to do so. Thirty years later, I still carry the stories of those resistance fighters into conversations with politicians, officials, diplomats, lawyers, journalists and human rights advocates. I do so through meetings, writing and public engagement, because Tibet’s plight must remain visible. The recent gathering in Dharamsala brought home, once again, that Tibet’s struggle is not over, and that the responsibility of remembrance now rests heavily on those of us in exile.