The Dalai Lama - Tenzin Gyatso

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so small (normally 6 ft. x 3 ft.) that the prisoner can only sit. The cells are also pitch dark and, in some, the floor is metal to make the cell unbearably cold. The only con-tents are a small pot to be used both as a bowl and a toilet. The prisoner kept in soli-tary confinement is never allowed to go out of his or her cell except for interrogation sessions and is usually kept manacled. The solitary confinement period can last longer than six months. Torture videos - Prisoners are sometimes forced to watch torture vid-eos showing atrocities against Tibetans such as mass executions. The most widely show-ed is that of a Buddhist monk being tortured. He is first crucified with his feet and hands pierced with nails. He is then shot twice before being hanged above a pile of wood

thumb-cuffed or with his or her hands tied behind the back. This may accompany the interrogation process. While being forced to remain in that position, the torturers may burn coal and chili powder underneath the victim. According to for-mer victims, the burning sensation can be so severe that they are unable to open their eyes for several hours. The ex-treme perspiration from the body also exacerbates the pain. Palden Gyatso, a former political prisoner of 33 years said that hot water was also poured over prisoners while they were hanged from the ceiling. The cuffs - The Chinese have created several cuffs designed to serve as torture devices. A thumb-cuff links the thumbs behind the back. The victim is then hanged from a bar for interrogation. Foot-cuffs of different weights are also used and, some prisoners are made to do hard labour while foot-cuffed. Former prisoners have reported that they had to dig a hole in the ground to make the pain bearable and the work in the carpet factory possible. Some prisoners claim that the most painful cuff is the self-tightening handcuff, also called the �yellow cuff.� This becomes tighter with every movement. It has sharp teeth inside that prick and lacerate the wrists, causing bleeding and leaving permanent scars. Another type of handcuff was fasten-ed, Palden Gyatso states, �so that the wrist would develop blisters all around, and these would later become inflamed and turn into burns.� Electric shocks - In the early 1980s, Chinese officials introduced a new torture technique in the prisons known as the electric baton or cattle prod. Electric batons of various sizes and voltages are used. Some are part of a policeman�s equipment, mostly used on pro-independence demonstrators; others are kept in the interrogation cells and are used to hit the victim on the body or face, or as an instrument for sexual assault on female prisoners. There are many reports of women having electric batons inserted into their vagina or anus. This instrument is also frequent-ly forced into the prisoner�s mouth as a punishment for responding incorrectly, causing severe swelling of the tongue. In some cases prisoners have lost their teeth. The victim can also be directly electrocuted with electric wires wrapped around the thumbs or other parts of the body. To increase the shock, water may be poured on the victim. The damages due to these electric shocks are generally very serious, leading to internal injuries or mental disturbances. Lhundup Ganden (also known as Ganden Tashi), a political prisoner of three years from 1988, described the electric baton as his worst form of torture: �...they would make me strip and then beat me with electric batons all over my body. Afterwards I was unable to sleep on my back and buttocks. My skin swelled, turned green and blue and there were many cuts.�
Exposure to extreme temperatures - During winter time, prisoners are sometimes forced to remain standing in the cold or in snow for up to 24 hours, either naked or wearing very thin clothes. Winter temperatures in Lhasa average be-tween zero and minus 13 degrees Celsius. In the west and the north, temperatures may drop even lower. In order to in-crease the pain, the torturers may force the victim to stand naked while pouring ice cold water over them.. Some soli-tary confinement cells are also designed to be extremely cold. Exposure to heat is also commonly practiced. Some pri-soners are made to stay in the hot sun for hours wearing very warm clothes and fur hats. Another technique is to burn the victim directly by tying him or her to a hot chimney, burning him or her with cigarettes, or suspending the victim above a fire of burning chili powder. Ferocious dogs - Vicious dogs are sometimes brought in during interrogation ses-sions and ordered to attack the prisoner. Any movement, or panic from the prisoner will prompt the dog to attack. A monk was badly mutilated due to this technique as the dog ripped off his calf. Sexual assault - Sexual assault is one of the most barbaric torture techniques used in prisons in Tibet. It is mostly aimed at breaking the faith and spirit of de-fenseless Buddhist nuns who have participated in pro-independence demonstrations. Sticks and electric batons are in-serted into their vagina and anus, provoking incredible pain and irreversible internal injuries such as kidney damage and psychological trauma. Rape by guards while under detention is not commonly reported. However, there is a strong stigma attached to a Tibetan woman being raped, especially for nuns, so it is possible that rape is more prevalent than reports suggest. Short sharp shock torture techniques - Some torture techniques reported by former detainees and pri-soners include: whipping the victim with stinging nettles, perforating his or her skin with needles, inserting bamboo sticks under his or her fingernails, hitting the joints of the limps - especially those of the ankles - with such instru-ments as a hammer and beating the victim with a bat equipped with folded nails. There have also been reports of beat-ings with wooden truncheons and iron bars, including wooden clubs with filed-down nails protruding from the end to tear the flesh. Solitary confinement - Solitary confinement conditions are designed to be as inhumane as possible, with cells

The art of torture - In January 1999, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democra-cy (TCHRD) released Tales of Terror: Torture in Tibet, which describes methods of torture used by Chinese authorities. In this excerpt, TCHRD defines the most commonly used methods of torture by authorities against people in detainment or prison. These acts are all classed as torture under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which China is a party to. This describes torture as �any act by which severe pain whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person.� Aerial suspension - The prisoner is hanged from the ceiling either

and burnt alive. Urinating in the victim�s mouth - Officials in Chinese prisons have created many techniques to humili-ate the detainees. They may force the victim to drink large quantities of a liquid and deny them the right to leave the room until he or she cannot help relieving himself or herself where they stand. Another reported technique is to direct-ly urinate into the victim�s mouth, generally through a rubber tube.

Tales of Terror: Torture in Tibet - Electric batons, forced blood extraction, self-tightening handcuffs, and sexual assaults are some of the techniques used by Chinese authorities on political prisoners, according to a report by a Tibetan human rights group. Torture against Tibetan political prisoners has been used as a method of repression since the Chi-nese occupied Tibet in the 1950s. Despite China�s claim that it adheres to international law which effectively bars the use of torture, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) has gathered numerous testimonies from former political prisoners which demonstrate that torture is still routinely used. Political prisoners are at the greatest risk of being tortured. These prisoners, many of whom are monks and nuns, are often imprisoned for openly expressing their support of the Dalai Lama and an independent Tibet - rights which are protected under international law. On October 4, 1988 the People�s Republic of China ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture and Oth-er Cruel or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), which they had signed on December 12, 1986. A member of the Chinese delegation at the United Nations General Assembly stated in November 1988 that �China will implement in good faith its obligations undertaken in the Convention.� Since China�s signing of the Convention, 60+ people have died from torture while in detainment. Dozens more have been killed while demonstrating in pro-independence movements and many have committed suicide under duress from being forced to denounce their religious beliefs or being unable to cope with detention conditions. In 1993 and again in 1996, the United Nations Committee Against Torture, a team of legal experts, asked China to set up a genuinely independent judiciary and to change its laws to ban all forms of torture. In May 1996 the Committee stated �there has been a failure to incorporate a definition of torture in China�s domestic legal system in terms consistent with the provisions of the Convention.� On October 5, 1998, 12 years after the signing of CAT, China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. China has now signed all the important United Nations laws relating to human rights; however, evidence from recent years shows little commitment by the Chi-nese authorities of upholding its international legal commitments. The personal accounts in Tales of Terror show that the Chinese authorities continue to abuse human rights at the worst level. TCHRD has interviewed former political pri-soners in India and Nepal to obtain a picture of the current situation relating to torture in Tibet. The personal accounts of torture received by TCHRD are believed to represent only a fraction of the real situation in Tibet. For the purposes of this publication, torture is based on the definition stated by CAT, which includes physical or mental torture. TCHRD has limited torture accounts to those Tibetans who have been detained or arrested, where torture is most prevalent. My name is Tenzin Choedon. I am a 28-year-old nun. I spent two months in Gutsa Prison for participating in a pro-indepen-dence demonstration on February 4, 1988. We were arrested by the Chinese police and driven to Gutsa Detention Cen-tre. When one of the nuns shouted �Tibet is independent!,� we were all hit with rifle butts and hit again on our arrival at Gutsa. The interrogation started immediately. Three PSB officials came into my cell and asked questions about who initiated the demonstration. I was beaten and it all ended suddenly. A Tibetan PSB shouted: �You shameless nuns, you just run after monks. If I had my rifle I would shoot you!� Then an official set a dog upon me. I stood still, even when the dog bit me. We were then taken to a hall and ordered to remove our clothes, except for our waistcoat and petticoat, after which we were individually led to a room. There were four women - one young Chinese woman and three Tibetans. I was stripped and told to lie down on the floor as if prostrating. I saw them bringing knotted ropes, electric batons and sticks. They had covered their faces and wore gloves. First I was hit with a stick all over my body. After five strikes my body became senseless. Later, as I was coming back to my senses, I saw my fellow nuns being abused with electric ba-tons in their anuses. When the baton was used on my body, I felt as if a nerve in my heart was being pulled out and my stomach was in pain. I was told to stand up and lean against the wall. After arguing with the women, they inserted a stick into my vagina four times with full force, which resulted in pain that lasted for three days and also gave me prob-lems when urinating. Then the stick was rammed into my mouth. As I had kept my mouth closed, they had to push very hard to insert it and as a result my lips were injured and two of my teeth were loosened. After this incident, I was un-able to move and they had to take me to my cell. I had no idea whether it was day or night. When I recovered my senses, I saw that my skin had become green and that I had marks on my buttocks. When released, we were advised: �You are all young and immature, and can�t think properly. From now on, if you are found taking part in any demon-strtion, you�ll be executed.� After our release, we were kept under strict surveillance by the PSB. After my release on June 27, 1988, I stayed for about two years in Tibet before I fled to India in 1991 with three others. I decided to go to India as I had been expelled from the nunnery, sent back to my town and was not allowed to join any institution. I know that my escape may cause a problem for my five relatives in Tibet, but I felt I had no choice. As a result of torture, I have lost a third of my physical ability, mainly on the right side of my body. I never received any medication or check-ups in prison, but after my release I was confined to bed for two months and could only send urine samples to the doc-tor. Now I suffer from daily headaches, back pain and have problems with my veins. It is painful when I study or read scriptures for too long. Electrocuted in prison: My name is Gaden Tashi and I am a 29-year-old monk from Medro Gong-kar Shen. I was arrested on March 5, 1988 in Lhasa�s East Barkhor, as I was one of the organisers of the Monlam pray-er festival. On our arrest, countless Chinese PSB and army officers threw tear gas at us and hit us with sticks, rifle butts and rubber bats. About seven of us were beaten and stripped naked. They used electric batons and threw cold wa-ter over us. The beatings lasted about an hour or so. Later, when I came back to my senses, I realised that I was hand-cuffed in Gutsa Detention Centre where there were about 20 prisoners in each cell. I was first sentenced to three years for �counter-revolutionary activity� in November 1988 and was later moved to Drapchi Prison where some prisoners and I founded the Snow Land for Youths Freedom Organisation. On May 17, 1990, my sentence was increased from three to 12 years for my involvement in the organisation, but I was finally released on medical parole in 1992 after spending one year in hospital. The worst torture was when we were stripped and beaten with electric batons. It was difficult to put on my trousers and robes when the torture had ended. When we reached our cell, I was so badly swollen and cut that I could not sleep on my back. My skin had turned blue and green. I was frequently hung from the ceiling in Gutsa, for about 10 to 15 minutes at a time. Electric batons and electric wire were also used. They tied the wire around my wrist and electrocuted me which was extremely painful. In Outridu, they mainly used sticks, electric batons and cold water. After throwing water, they hit the prisoner with an electric baton causing electric shocks. But they prefered to starve the prisoners rather than beat them. During this time, I suffered severely from a wound on my head that I had received during a particularly bad beating in Gutsa. From Outridu, I was taken to Seitru where I was kept in solitary confine-ment. Seitru is a strict prison and I received most of my beatings and hangings there. The worst thing in Seitru was the use of a self-tightening handcuff (the �yellow cuff�). While tightening the cuff, they put our wrists on the floor and kicked the cuffs with their feet, which hurt a lot. Later I suffered from swelling on my hands and today they are still scarred. One day, while in Drapchi, I was handcuffed, a sack was put on my head and I was taken to the Outridu Prison,

where I was kept in solitary confinement for 34 days and leg-cuffed. The room was so dark that I could see only my hands if it was a very bright sunny day outside. When the weather was bad, it was impossible to distinguish between the day and the night. I had to pass my urine and stools in the same room and was given two small tingmo [steamed buns] and a vegetable soup twice a day. At the end of my solitary, I had a tough time opening my eyes. I was taken back to Drapchi and put in the political activist cell and given hard labour, which was all the

more difficult because I was leg-cuffed. Two years later, I was released on medical parole, after spending one year in hospital. I arrived in India on December 18, 1996. I now suffer from headaches and bad eyesight.

Meditation - The premise we begin with is that every human being has great potential that can be realized. Each one of us is capable of experiencing a permanent state of total joy, love, clarity, and openness; a state usually referred to as being beyond description because our ideas and concepts of human experience are inadequate to encompass it. This state is the experience of our true nature: liberation. Liberation from suffering in all its forms and manifestations. It is to-wards this end that for thousands of years people have been meditating. We have gone astray, or missed the point of liv-ing. Through fundamentally misunderstanding what life is all about, we have focused our attention on a limited aspect of our conscious experience, and this has warped and distorted our view and therefore our experience of reality. This warp-ing has led us into paths of egocentric fixation, which have resulted in a variety of negative states. These negative states have taken hold in our consciousness at both gross and subtle levels and therefore have manifested in our minds either permanently or occasionally. When they manifest, we suffer, because they are always painful - painful to ourselves (such as depression and jealousy), and often to others (such as anger and hatred when acted out). So we mediate in or-der to create the condition that will bring about a change in this state of affairs. The meditation exposes the fraud: it re-veals the state of egocentric fixation. Through it we discover that we are actually clinging at a psychological level to ways of being that are unhealthy, confusing and destructive. This discovery automatically leads to letting go and liberation, because we are working with our energies at fundamental, not theoretical levels. When we enter into true meditative states, we experience the capacity of the mind to work with great clarity and immediacy - conditions that lead to pro-found transformations of consciousness. Change comes at this level because there is no inner debate or confusion. There is a clear seeing, and at the inner level, seeing is the action. Rather like the state of mind, if you can imagine it, of walking into a dimly lit room and picking up what appears to be a piece of rope lying on the floor. No sooner have you taken hold of it than you realize it is actually a snake. This realization gives rise to a state of mind (except in cases of extreme neurosis) that is extremely clear and immediate: without an instant of debate or confusion, the mind says �drop it!� and you drop it without having to think. We are talking here of a state of mind that arises through direct re-alization, not through theory or debate. This is the quality of the meditative mind. (In this context, �mind� includes not only the intellectual thinking and reasoning faculty, but also feeling and emotion.) The implication is not that we are all sunk in an endless ocean of permanent misery, anger, and hatred; rather our lives are an unsatisfactory mixture of states and experiences that hardly ever actually fulfill our expectations. When our desires are fulfilled, the sense of ful-fillment and satisfaction does not last. Before long, we want more of the same again. So, most of us have a sense of not being fulfilled, of skating on the surface of life, not achieving anything. It is these and similar feelings that lead us to the path of meditation, a path that leads to our own depths, away from external superficiality to inner realization and to-tal fulfillment.
The Importance of Attitude - Meditation is unlike normal business or worldly activity because it is not goal ori-ented and does not involve linear or direct thinking. it begins as a process of allowing the busy day-to-day mind, with all its agitation, aggression, anger, fear, and anxiety, to slow down and come to rest of its own accord. Most people do not know what causes this slowing down and coming to rest, so they do not know how to go about it. what counts most in meditation in attitude. If you have an attitude of wanting to achieve something, or change something within the mind, this will prevent meditation and result instead in mental conflict and tension. For example, many people think that the purpose of meditation is to make the mind go blank, or to stop thought, or in some way to control or manipulate inner mental or emotional processes. They sit down expecting to be able to do this rather like King Canute sitting enthroned on the seashore ordering the tides back. The result is the same - instead of leading to inner peace, this attitude will cause a buildup of tension and suppressed emotional energy, which will eventually burst upon consciousness and cause confusion.. Disclaimer: All articles and/or images retain the original copyrights of their original owners.

"Just as you have the instinctive natural desire to be happy and overcome suffering, so do all sentient beings; just as you have the right to fulfill this innate aspiration, so do all sentient beings. So on what exact grounds do you discriminate?
"We are all here on this planet, as it were, as tourists. None of us can live here forever. The longest we might live is a hundred years. So while we are here we should try to have a good heart and to make something positive and useful of our lives. Whether we live just a few years or a whole century, it would be truly regrettable and sad if we were to spend that time aggravating the problems that afflict other people, animals, and the environment. The most important thing is to be a good human being.

"Naturally, emotions can be positive and negative. However, when talking about anger, etc., we are dealing with negative emotions. Negative emotions are those which immediately create some kind of unhappiness or uneasiness and which, in the long run, create certain actions. Those actions ultimately lead to harm to others and this brings pain or suffering to oneself. This is what we mean by negative emotions.
"May those who are afraid be fearless.
May those in bondage be free.
May those who are powerless be empowered.
May all our hearts be joined in friendship." The Dalai Lama

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Last Update: 11/30/04