Tashi Tsering (), born in 1929 in Guchok, Namling County, Shigatse prefecture, and died on in Lhasa, is a Tibetan of peasant origin, author of the autobiography, My fight for a modern Tibet, Life story of Tashi Tsering, where he describes the life he led successively in pre-communist Tibet, in exile in India and the United States, and finally back in China during the Cultural Revolution, between Tibet and Eastern China in the decades that followed.

Early life

In the village Tashi Tsering was the son of a poor peasant family living outside Lhasa., Commoners and nobles: hereditary divisions in Tibet, p. 23 They live in a village stone house, the first and second floors are used as living space and the ground floor accommodates the animals. They grow barley and lentils and raise yaks, goats and sheep. The family makes its clothing by spinning wool and weaving it on wooden looms. She uses barter to obtain products like salt. Tashi Tsering's father is a scholar.

At the dance school In 1939, at the age of 10, he was designated to become a gadrugba (), a young dancer of the Gar, traditional dance troupe of the Dalai Lama, also called the dance society of the Tibetan government., A saint in Seattle: the life of the Tibetan mystic Dezhung Rinpoche, Wisdom Publications, 2003, p. 266. It is a servitude traditionally owed by his village and abhorred by all because it almost amounts, for parents, to losing a son. Young Tashi, however, is not unhappy with this situation, even if his mother is desperate: it is in fact the opportunity for him to learn to read and write, his dearest wish.Grain, Tibetans and the Cultural Revolution, Journey to the East site: "At the age of ten, he became his village's tax to the Dalai Lama's ceremonial dance troupe. He said, "In our village everyone hated this tax, as it literally meant losing a son, probably forever." (p. 11, The Struggle for Modern Tibet.) His mother cried for days, and tried to snatch the village elders to spare him from being chosen, to no avail. Tashi himself was actually happy at the prospect of joining the troupe. For him, the task was a chance for education. He wanted very much to learn how to read and write."

At the dance school the method used by the masters to stimulate the students is to hit them for each mistake they make, as has been done for centuries. Tashi still bears the marks of almost daily corrections.Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuch and Tashi Tsering, The Struggle for Modern Tibet, the Autobiography of Tashi Tsering, Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, 1997, xi + 207 p., pp. 3–5: . At the age of 13, in 1942, he was whipped in front of the entire troupe for having been absent from a performance: his skin tore, the pain became unbearable.Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuch and Tashi Tsering, The Struggle for Modern Tibet, the Autobiography of Tashi Tsering, Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, 1997, xi + 207 p., pp. 3–5.

The young dancer makes his way by becoming the drombo (, literally the 'guest'),From Tibetan mgron-po: one newly come; a guest, according to Sarat Chandra Das, A Tibetan-English dictionary: with Sanskrit synonyms, 1902, p. 298. that is to say, euphemistically, the “passive homosexual companion"Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuch and Tashi Tsering, The Struggle for Modern Tibet, the Autobiography of Tashi Tsering, Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, 1997, xi + 207 p., p. 29: and according to Goldstein "sex toy"Presentation of the book, taken from Publishers Weekly, on page 4 of the cover: Colin MacKerras, The New Cambridge Handbook Of Contemporary China, Cambridge University Press, 2001, 313 pages, p. 148 : by Wangdu, a monk with interpersonal skills who treats him gently and promotes his intellectual training. But he was kidnapped and sequestered for a few days by a dob-dob and managed to escape, no one having been able to do anything to help him, this dob-dob being known for his ferocity had always a dagger on him. (according to Jean-Pierre Barou and Sylvie Crossman, these warrior-monks could go so far as to fight among themselves to possess the favors of a cute)Jean -Pierre Barou, Sylvie Crossman, Investigation into indigenous knowledge, Calman-Lévy, 2001, 260 pp. (digital book, not paginated): .

Tashi is surprised that such behavior can be tolerated in monasteries: "When I spoke about 'dob-dob' to other monks and monastic leaders, they shrugged their shoulders and simply said that it was the course of things".Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuch and Tashi Tsering, The Struggle for Modern Tibet, the Autobiography of Tashi Tsering, Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, 1997, xi + 207 p., p. 29: Patrick French, who met Tashi Tsering in Lhasa in 1999, where French noted the oppressive atmosphere linked to the massive presence of security forces,Patrick French, , translated from English by William Oliver Desmond, Albin Michel, 2005, p. 203 indicates that he is not homosexual but that he took advantage of this relationship for personal purposes.Patrick French, , translated from English by William Oliver Desmond, Albin Michel, 2005, p. 253. During his interview, Tashi Tsering told him that in hindsight, he saw the "sexual practices of ancient Tibet, as a matter of habits and conventions, the accepted social consequence of people exploiting the loopholes of religious rules.".

Tashi's mother arranges her son's loveless marriage to Tsebei, a fairly wealthy girl. Tashi therefore goes to live with his in-laws but refuses to be commanded by his father-in-law and his brothers-in-law, who have nothing but contempt for him because of his humble origins. After three months, he left home. As this marriage could not take place without the permission of the head of Gadrugba, Tashi must, to be untied, undergo twenty-five blows of the whip.André Lacroix, Summary of The Struggle for Modern Tibet.

In 1947 Tashi, who was eighteen years old, applied for a position as secretary to the treasury of the Potala Palace. Passing the entrance exam, he is assigned to an office headed by two monks and a nobleman. He stayed there for about a year.

In the 1950s Of the Chinese troops present in Lhasa in 1952, he noted the efficiency and autonomy, declaring that the soldiers would not even have borrowed a needle from the inhabitants.Elliot Sperling, review of The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering by Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuh, Tashi Tsering, in The Journal of Asian Studies, flight. 59, No. 3 (Aug. 2000), p. 728: He is fascinated by their practices, which are different from those of the Tibetans: they fish in rivers with a worm on the end of a hook, they collect dog and human droppings to serve as fertilizer in their search for food autonomy, practices that Tashi finds repulsive.Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuch and Tashi Tsering, The Struggle for Modern Tibet, the Autobiography of Tashi Tsering, Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, 1997, xi + 207 p., p. 40: He also remembers that a loudspeaker was installed in the heart of the city and broadcast propaganda in the Tibetan language.

He is impressed by the achievements of the Chinese: opening of the first primary schools, a hospital and various public buildings in Lhasa. In a short period of time, he sees more improvement than he has seen in his life, or even than Tibet has seen in centuries.Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuch and Tashi Tsering, The Struggle for Modern Tibet, the Autobiography of Tashi Tsering, Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, 1997, xi + 207 p., p. 41:

Tashi has an affair with a noble girl named Thondrup Dromala. The opposition of the latter's family and the young man's limited resources ultimately got the better of their couple despite the birth of a boy in 1953.Calum MacLeod, 2Farchive%2Fold%3Fy%3D2000%26m%3D10%26p%3D10_1 Enter the Dragon: The invasion of Tibet, The Independent, 10 October 2000.

Studies

In India (1957–1959) Resourceful, in 1957 he managed to raise the necessary funds to study in India. He was abroad when the 1959 Tibetan uprising.Elliot Sperling, review of The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering by Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuh, Tashi Tsering, in The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 59, No. 3 (Aug. 2000), pp. 728–729: Robert Barnett, Lhasa: Streets with Memories, p. 18.

He worked closely with exiled Tibetan resistance leaders, in particular an older brother of 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, Gyalo Thondup (" Gyalola as we called him"),Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuch and Tashi Tsering, The Struggle for Modern Tibet, the Autobiography of Tashi Tsering, Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, 1997, xi + 207 p., p. 51: with whom he befriended.Elliot Sperling, review of The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering by Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuh, Tashi Tsering, in The Journal of Asian Studies, flight. 59, No. 3 (Aug. 2000), p. 728: He assists him in welcoming the Tibetan refugees, without knowing that Gyalo Thondup is financed by the CIA and that he has significant financial resources.Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuch and Tashi Tsering, The Struggle for Modern Tibet, the Autobiography of Tashi Tsering, Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, 1997, xi + 207 p., p. 59: .

One of his tasks is to collect stories of atrocities from refugees. He found very few and most of the refugees he interviewed were illiterate and unable to present their experience in an orderly and logical manner. Many have not even seen the battles waged by the Chinese army in Lhasa. They were caught up in the fear panic that had gripped the entire country. They have no story to tell other than the suffering they endured during their march across the mountain but not at the hands of the Chinese.Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuch and Tashi Tsering, The Struggle for Modern Tibet, the Autobiography of Tashi Tsering, Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, 1997, xi + 207 p., p. 57: Ultimately, the accounts recorded by him, along with those from other refugee camps, would be presented by the International Commission of Jurists in its 1960 report accusing China of atrocities.Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuch and Tashi Tsering, The Struggle for Modern Tibet, the Autobiography of Tashi Tsering, Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, 1997, xi + 207 p., p. 57:

In 1959, he was charged by his friend Gyalo Thondrup with taking care of part of the Dalai Lama's treasure which had been secured in 1950 in the reserves of Tashi Namgyal, maharaja of the Sikkim. After the Dalai Lama fled, the Chinese government demanded its return, claiming that it was not the Dalai Lama's property but that of the country, which they now considered as theirs. When Tashi Tsering intervenes, the treasure has just been transported by truck from Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, to Siliguri further south. While the gold is sent by cargo plane to Calcutta, where it is entrusted to banks, the silver is kept with a trusted Tibetan trader, where Tashi must keep it for almost a month before participating in its melting into ingots.Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuch and Tashi Tsering, The Struggle for Modern Tibet, the Autobiography of Tashi Tsering, Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, 1997, xi + 207 p., pp. 57–58:

In the United States (summer 1960 – end of 1963)

Tashi Tsering then meets an American student in India, thanks to whom he will be able to study in the United States. Before leaving, he meets the 14th Dalai Lama, who invites him to "be a good Tibetan", to "study seriously" and to "put his education at the service of his people and his country".Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuch and Tashi Tsering, The Struggle for Modern Tibet, the Autobiography of Tashi Tsering, Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, 1997, xi + 207 p., p. 65: