Escape From Tibet: How Two Brothers Made The Treacherous Journey To Safety | Our History

this is the most daunting Escape Route in the world across the Himalayas on foot it's an Escape Route that has operated secretly for 40 years Tibetan refugees in flight from Chinese repression [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] thank you China annexed Tibet in 1950 unchallenged by the world since then Western observers believe that up to a million Tibetans a sixth of the population have perished through execution and starvation this is the story of one group of escapers from where they left the road inside Tibet they have already walked eight days over rugged terrain climbing up the Himalayas just to approach the border with Nepal [Applause] they have no Maps no knowledge of the route all they own is what they carry meager rations and their life savings they have no specialist clothing pasang age 19. and his brother Tenzin aged 11 have been captured before by Chinese Border Police they tortured him they tortured me as well they poked an electron button in my face in my mouth like this the Chinese do not treat Tibetans like human beings but like cattle they are not frightened of hurting people if you try to escape they will shoot you foreign the brothers survived now they're trying again to escape pemmer is a 20 year old city waitress prepared to leave her family forever [Music] we must bear any hardship just for the chance of seeing the Dalai Lama [Music] tibet's head of state and religious leader the Dalai Lama [Music] he and the government in Exile are based in dharam Salah in Northern India [Music] the ambition of all refugees is to see him to fulfill this hope they attempt an escape route of 1 600 miles from Tibet across the mountains people who escaped from Tibet because of the city they are the spirit or their determination and also the fear that they in spite the thick snows or difficult road to say they I mean I mean they try so unfortunately sometimes you see the such as the dead body so very sad foreign the group are near Mount Everest approaching one of the highest passes across the Himalayas [Music] at 19 000 feet the temperature is 20 degrees below zero any worsening in the weather would be fatal they must keep moving [Music] [Music] already the boy Tenzin is suffering from the pain of snow blindness this is their long march to Freedom leaving behind a country turned into a Chinese prison [Music] in Tibet today repression is intense human rights and religious freedom curtailed from a concealed camera these are the latest pictures from a country where foreign journalists are banned in both the countryside and in the capital lhasa many Tibetans have been reduced to poverty and begging there is continuous police and army presence in uniform and Secret the population live under continuous surveillance over one hundred thousand Chinese troops are stationed in Tibet thank you International observers are refused access to prisons and detention centers officials in Beijing privately admit that 20 of inmates here are prisoners of conscience torture in Chinese prisons is routine in 1992 after 33 years in prison and labor camps one man smuggled torture instruments out of Tibet into India the Buddhist monk palden gyotso foreign these special handcuffs get Tighter and Tighter and I got wounds on my wrists in it I was suspended from the ceiling so now I cannot stretch my arms I got very thin this is the worst thing an electric cattle prod they use this on your body if they press that button your whole body will be in shock if they do it for too long you lose Consciousness but you do not die if I press this button you can die they used all these on my body they tortured me because I was speaking out for Independence and I will continue to speak out many of my friends are still in prison monks nuns lay women and men there were 145 in dropsy prison alone when I escaped to India when I sleep I dream about them dropsy prison one of six in lhasa now holds 270 prisoners of conscience according to a recently released prisoner foreign flag marks the border between China and Nepal [Music] [Applause] [Music] although the group has passed the Border they are by no means safe they're walking on a glacier that can suddenly throw out cracks and crevasses every year adds to a death toll that has never been counted their escape from Tibet will continue at high altitude for 120 miles across Nepal until they reach the lowlands and now there are new dangers if they are found by The Nepalese authorities before they are registered as refugees they face deportation as illegal aliens and return to the Chinese gulab thank you they also face harassment robbery extortion even shooting the hands of The Nepalese police foreign day 11 the journey is taking its toll all are suffering from extreme hunger altitude sickness and snow blindness wrenchen a herdsman from Eastern Tibet all day we are worried about having nothing to eat all night we are cold and hungry my foot has burst blisters I'm in so much pain I wonder whether I can stay alive I cannot believe the suffering is a farmer left penniless when his parents died victims of the Chinese it's very hard on me because the path is so difficult my parents are dead I have brought my mother's bone in the bag I'm carrying it with me over there the group must reach Kathmandu where they've heard there's a Tibetan Community which could help them Sonam a monk seeking religious freedom outside Tibetan I think we will reach Kathmandu in eight to nine days if we don't get there we will die but Kathmandu is in fact 20 days and 300 miles away Boda in Kathmandu is the center of the Tibetan community in Nepal lobsang sum10 is a monk who escaped to Exile here in 1982. he spent 20 years in a Chinese prison during the maoist era of mass executions in my prison many died of natural causes and many were executed seven eight nine people would be lined up like this then they dig a pit in the pit there's a spear for each person behind them men Point guns at their heads the main purpose is to shoot them in the head and when they fall on the spear they throw Earth on top of them that's what happened [Music] in 1959 during an uprising 87 000 Tibetans were executed [Music] many were buried here these are lasa's Killing Fields [Music] thank you Mount Everest Tibetans call it chomolangma mother of the Earth [Music] this is day 12 of walking their route now takes them through the inhabited area of Nepal where there are police the group must walk by night it will make the journey more dangerous many have traveled vast distances across Tibet a country the size of Western Europe before climbing the Himalayas the Escape Trail leads many to Kathmandu only a staging post before continuing to India and dharamsala home of the exiled Dalai Lama the group have walked without a break for 36 hours there was a gap in the path and I slipped down the rocks I injured my head I bandaged him and the blood spilled all over me I was worried that he would die on us but it is this is what it's like it's like just the smallest mistake and you can form then it's all over you're dead [Music] foreign [Music] the group have now been walking for 20 days Kathmandu is still a week away stateless hungry and exhausted they have no idea what the future will bring [Music] for 11 year old Tenzin the greatest obstacles lie ahead [Music] eleven-year-old Tenzin leads the group battered but intact into the city they have spent 30 Days on the Road I think [Music] [Music] at Boda the monk lob sang something knows that they are still in danger [Music] since 1919 Nepal has given no Haven to refugees the police can arrest and Deport them at any time both their appearance and their baggage make them conspicuous the monk directs them to the transit camp for Tibetans a temporary Sanctuary on the outskirts of the city all are suffering from exhaustion and the after effects of altitude sickness they are met by an official of the Tibetan government in Exile they are told that they can only stay in Kathmandu for a few days during which their status will be assessed by the Tibetan welfare office and the United Nations High commission for refugees in 15 years 25 000 people have crossed the Himalayas to be processed here but not all have been allowed their freedom foreign [Music] [Music] Hallelujah the accommodation is an overcrowded shed during the monsoon there is a constant threat of disease here is their first meal for many days and their first opportunity to reflect on their Journey why they left what might happen to them next foreign foreign has a place waiting for him in a monastery in India he wants Tenzin to stay with him this is the brother's second attempt to escape Tibet on the first they went to lhasa to finance their escape by begging on the street [Music] imprisoned the notorious gutser detention center number four unit a prison the Chinese say does not exist Western observers estimate that two to three thousand political prisoners including many children have passed through here since 1987. [Music] there are no beds whether it's summer or winter you have to sleep on the stone floor people piss everywhere we were sleeping in their urine food is meant to be noodles but it is just like water if you don't drink it they punish you know the Chinese beat me mercilessly I was hit on the eye for three days I was blind there were many older people and they beat them severely there were about 200 prisoners I was sent out breaking rocks while my brother stayed in the prison I wanted to escape but I couldn't because I would have left him behind in the prison there was a small window through which we escaped then we went into town to beg for some money and went to the Border the boys hitched a ride to the Border Town of drum in drum the police caught them without travel papers and held them at this checkpost for five days they were imprisoned here and repeatedly tortured [Music] they put the electric button inside my mouth it burned me badly and gave me a wound they treated me very badly in prison I thought I would not be able to go to India picture after release the brothers chose the toughest Escape Route over the mountains in Nepal the processing continues relentlessly the group know that vital decisions on their future are about to be made foreign accused of fermenting anti-chinese feeling in his monastery in 40 Years of their occupation of Tibet the Chinese have destroyed 2 700 monasteries the number of monks has been reduced by eighty thousand now recruitment is State controlled religion must coexist with political education they send a letter saying don't run away so all have to attend when they come to the monastery at the start of the meeting the Chinese say you are not allowed to save free Tibet you Revolt it's not good they say concerning the Dalai Lama's demand for Tibetan Independence do not support this separatism if you support this we will confront you with arms and kill you and some of us from the monastery went at night and put up posters saying free Tibet the next day three or four Jeeps arrived at our monastery who put up posters do you want to be killed they interrogated me is it you who put up the poster they took me to prison and I know they wanted to kill me shortly after his interrogation Sonam put on peasants clothes and escaped he is now able to resume his identity as a monk he can wear again the robes he carried over the mountains a medical team gives each new arrival a health check and an inoculation against tuberculosis Emma worked in a restaurant in lhasa foreign political in Tibet until she came into confrontation with the Chinese authorities throughout Central NASA the police closely monitor citizens with video cameras and high-powered microphones any protest can be swiftly intercepted on the day of a demonstration pemma was swept up in the crowd as she left the cinema with her friends [Music] when we got there the Chinese police were chasing people with electric batons there was a policeman standing nearby and we threw a stone at him then we were chased we ran away I was left behind I fell and was arrested Perma was held here in the barcore police station but was rescued by her family and taken home my maternal uncle would speak to me he said I'm a government official how can I now work for the government what will happen to us if other people hear what you have done my uncle said that he might even have to go to prison my mother said you don't know what this Tibetan Independence means if you do not understand something you must not join in yours then that pemma began secretly planning to escape from Tibet she told no one not even her mother she will know by now I wrote her a letter when I left before that she had no idea the group are now nearing the end of the processing in Nepal most receive their crucial passes yeah but pasang and his brother Tenzin are singled out for special attention the representative of the United Nations High commission for refugees is the officer who decides if they receive International Refugee status their decision is based on a confidential interview if successful each is given a pass and sufficient money to cross the border to India the commission has a procedural problem with Tenzin the officers cannot understand his dialect only pasang can translate for him U.N rules do not allow them to be interviewed together they may be sent back to Tibet they are calling us Mongolians sometime in the past the place where we live was in Mongolia but now it is in Tibet there are many likers who have been sent on to my Monastery in India but they will not send us on and I don't know why I don't understand what they are doing the United Nations people have given us nothing although I smile sometimes I am very unhappy in my mind I am very angry but what can I do the rest of the group have their passes and money and prepare to leave for India pasang decides that he and Tenzin should leave with the group illegally and cross the border without papers or money foreign [Music] the Indian border is 12 hours away [Music] at the Nepal India border the Tibetan refugees present Customs officers with a small bribe and their papers are not checked they're allowed to continue pasang and Tenzin cross the border as illegal aliens [Music] two days later the refugees arrive at Delhi the capital of India [Music] here they have to change buses for dharamsala and the Dalai lung [Music] [Music] s [Music] [Music] as India is attempting to limit the flow of Tibetan refugees the prospect of deportation hangs over the two brothers [Music] twelve hours north of Delhi they near dharamsala in the foothills of the Himalayas this is where the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government have been exiled for over 30 years [Music] thank you 7 000 Tibetan refugees have crowded into dharamsala so the government in Exile has adopted a new policy to discourage their own refugees from staying in India it is struggling to support them and work and accommodation are scarce in 1993 5 000 new arrivals from Tibet were registered here in 1994 a 2000. [Music] all refugees are carefully checked in recent years many have been suspected of being Chinese agents the papers from Nepal are inspected without papers refugees will be returned to Tibet Tenzin has no papers foreign foreign [Music] how far is it as he has no papers I cannot go to the monastery without papers either from Nepal or here we can't go anywhere I am helpless because he can't go to the monastery I won't be able to go there either this is impossible [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] for the anniversary of the Tibetan School in durhamsala the group have their first chance to see their leader his Holiness the Dalai Lama [Music] all who escaped from Tibet into India will receive an audience with the living Buddha of compassion thank you for passing and Tenzin he is the highest Authority uh it's not always [Music] then comes a bitter twist to the Dalai Lama's message he warns the refugees that though they can receive education in India he wants them to return to Tibet he knows there is the risk of Chinese reprisals but without their return the country's culture will die the land will be lost [Music] huh organism s this is pasang's last chance to help Tenzin stay in India he and the official describe tenzin's plight the Dalai Lama gives his order hmm sarin asks his Holiness to bless the bone of his mother [Music] pasang and Tenzin will have the papers which will allow them to train together at a monastery in the south of India but pasang rejects the Dalai Lama's pressure to return to Tibet [Music] I will not go home until Tibet is free I don't know about my brother he will make up his own mind when he grows up the immediate future for rinchen and Sonam is precarious if I find work I'll stay if I can't find work I will have to go back to Tibet if I get a place in a monastery I will stay otherwise I will have to go back to Tibet also there is no place for them in darum Salah Sonam and rinchen must take their chances elsewhere in India [Music] once you've met the Dalai Lama you forget the hardships of the road pemma is entitled to only one year's education at the transit School in dharamsala before she has to return I cannot go back to Tibet so soon I want to go back only when Tibet is free I will never return I will be able to beg I don't have any other way of finding money as I don't know anybody here I will always pray for the freedom of Tibet Tenzin says he intends to study hard he wants to return one day to Tibet to see his mother again until that day there can be no contact I wouldn't tell her how we had to steal food to live how when we cross the snow mountains I got snow blindness how I cried because I miss my mother so much how I could hardly walk because my feet were wounded [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] pasang and Tenzin are safely installed in the drepung monastery in South India 1500 miles to the north the Chinese maintain an iron grip and every day the subject set out again risking their lives to escape from Tibet [Music] [Music]

Channel: Our History

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Keywords: our history, documentary, world history documentary, documentary channel, award winning, life stories, best documentaries, daily life, real world, point of view, story, full documentary, history, historical, history documentary

Id: OJVse4B_M80

Length: 49min 47sec (2987 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 23 2023