DESPATCHES
Journey with Mr. Rangzen 
By: Tsetan Namgyal, Chennai

"Some people believe that he must have been a Tibetan in his previous life, his family thinks and treats him like a Tibetan and His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls him Mr. Rangzen for his love, commitment for Tibet and strong belief in independent Tibet." Writes Tseten Namgyal.

Vijay Kranti, a veteran photo journalist who formally worked with India Today, Zee TV, and other media houses is a familiar person for most of us, particularly for the first and second generation of exile Tibetans with whom he shared his frame for three decades.His genuine feelings and commitment for our cause is so deep that today he is revered to as an expert on Tibet rather than a photo journalist. It all happened when he was 22years old. Vijay recalls, “I landed my first assignment, an interview with Dalai Lama and a story on Tibetan refugee for Saprahik Hindustan in 1972. They asked me to arrange photographs too. I borrowed a camera from my friend and took 52 pictures. To my surprise, they used 18 out of them instead of four or five, as is the usual practice”.
After witnessing the trauma and pain that we the Tibetan refugees were going through, he decided to do something to our community and cause at large. Since then for the past thirty five years he has been traveled intensively in the Tibetan refugee settlements in India, Nepal and even visited the occupied Tibet twice. He captured the moments, emotions, lives, socio-political and economic condition of both exile and occupied Tibet. Today, he has over one lakh photographs of Tibet.

In 1980, he accompanied His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his month long religious teachings in Ladhak. That was one of the best moments of his life. He also had an opportunity to photograph His Holiness. On this occasion he got to photograph His Holiness while meditating. So, Vijay asked His Holiness about how much freedom does he has in His Holiness’s private meditation chamber? Then His Holiness looked around and pointed his finger to a cat that was also there at that time and said, “That much”. Vijay felt relieved and took one of the best shot. Another memorable incident that happened during the Ladhak trip was when, one day Vijay heard a person calling “Are Mr. Rangzen kaun hain? Lamaji bhula rahe hian”. (hello! Who is Mr. Rangzen, the Dalai Lama is calling you). When Vijay reported His Holiness, he saw monks making a sand mandala. His Holiness told him to take a photograph as His Holiness felt that the process is too beautiful and needs be captured.

He once asked His Holiness to give him a Tibetan name. For which His holiness first gave him Tenzin. Then after a thought he said, “Gurmey. Tenzin Gurmey. Gurmey means not changing. You are same when I saw you first and now”.

Vijay Kranti has already organized over ten photo exhibitions covering the Tibetan theme across the globe in India, Switzerland, Germany, Britain and Canada. Recently he held his first ever photo exhibition in Chennai and this was made possible by Mrs. Aasha Reddy a Tibet supporter in Chennai along with Tibetan Student’s Association Madras.

Zoomed Tibet through the lens of a photographer
During Vijay’s first visit to occupied Tibet in 2002, he traveled 1000 km in southern and central Tibet to capture the reality behind the iron curtain of Chinese rule. It was a challenging task for him as a photographer to capture the reality in a sterilized environment. However he took the challenge and shot many photographs that reveal the true state of Tibet. His photographs captured the new economic order where the cream of society is being offered to Chinese and crumbs to the native Tibetan. A system that leaves lower end jobs like begging for Tibetans and in every possible way the native Tibetans are being marginalized.
He recalls, “Chinese claim about Tibet’s economic development sound great when one sees the dazzling malls, magnificent buildings and the world’s most expensive cars on the streets. But sadly, the big cars and the mansions belong to Chinese. It is Chinese who owns, sell and buy these luxury products. The Tibetan populations have been reduced to meaningless and almost invisible creatures in their home land”.
To his surprise during his second visit in 2004 he found Chinese beggars had started pushing out the local Tibetans beggars from the business. Vijay is critical on Beijing’s enthusiasm to cash on the Buddhist faith. He reasons, “Chinese are suddenly amazed to discover that the religion which they fail to kill in Tibet can get billions of Dollars for China. So some selected monasteries are being renovated to bring international tourist”. In occupied Tibet all the tourists have to pay an entry fee in every monastery that they enter and an extra fee to take photographs in different temples. Tibet’s big monasteries have more than seventy temples. There were shops in every monastery where the monks sell charms and other souvenir at a reasonably high price. Vijay understood that the money goes to Chinese authorities and not to the monastery or Tibetans. This is how Chinese authorities are able to churn lots of dollars from religion which their leader Mao Zhedong once considered, “Poison”.

He was shocked to observe that the Chinese tour guides who dressed in funny, distorted Tibetan costumes have replaced most of the Tibetan tourist guides. He found their Chinese political agenda with them whenever they guide gullible tourist.

Once, when a monk asked Vijay where he is from, to which Vijay replied, “Gya gar”. After knowing that he is an Indian, the monk refused to take his entry fee. When, Vijay asked for reason. The monk said, “How can I take money from you when your country takes care of our Dalai Lama”. Vijay later understood that it is a shameful act for that monk to take money from him.

In another incident, an old monk asked Vijay, whether he is a Pakistani. When, Vijay gave same reply “Gya Gar”. The old monk held his hand and said, “Tibbat yaad rakhna”. (do remember Tibet)
“You have to fight for your cause. We will stand by you, be with you and support you” says Vijay Kranti, during the inauguration function of the photo exhibition on Tibet titled “Faces of Tibet” in Chennai.
Back in exile, Vijay is still hopeful that Tibet will one day attain its independence. After his long association with our refugee community, he is proud about the successful functioning of our exile government and the Tibetan masses.

He summarized, “when the Dalai Lama first came to India in 1959 along with around 80000 refugees. Many of them died of malaria, cholera, frostbite, exhaustion. None of the Tibetan refugee knows the local Hindi or English languages nor do they understand the new world. For the Dalai Lama all of them are his liability. Yet the Dalai Lama didn’t give up. Later the Dalai Lama picked up singers, craftsman, musicians, artists, and scholars and gave the responsibility to pass their talent to the orphans, semi-destitute children. This is how the Dalai Lama transformed his liabilities into assets. Today after forty eight years Tibetan culture, religion and traditions are preserved so well and passed down from one generation to the next. Indian government has played a major role in providing land and separate autonomous Tibetan School system. That is why today India happens to be the largest reservoir of authentic Tibetan culture”.

One thing that drew the attention of Vijay is the Tibetan philosophy of living life through peaceful and non-violent means and this is the root teaching of Tibetan Buddhism that preaches love, compassion and altruism. Pointing to a photograph that shows a group of Tibetan men and women squatting on the floor holding a card board which reads, “CHINA QUIT TIBET” he explains the First Lady of Guyana (name) during his exhibition about how we Tibetan people stage their protest against China through non-violence and not through terrorist activities and it is this peaceful freedom struggle that has received appreciation and support from many international countries.

And this black and white photograph is both the beginning and the end of Vijay’s exhibition on Tibet. The only political photograph in the exhibition.

Nyingtam: words from heart.
Today, Vijay Kranti is a grandfather but he is still young when it comes to working on Tibetan cause. He started a Hindi magazine “Tibbat Desh” which exclusively covers issues on Tibet, human rights situations, exile community and the development in China and occupied Tibet. He is also known as a media person for all the NGO and Tibetan government for past decades. Though, Vijay has come up with a suggestion to start a Tibet press house in New Delhi collectively by all the NGOs and other associations but none has conceded to it.
During a gathering with young Tibetan students in Chennai he like a father of a family, shared his feelings from heart. He openly said, “Tibetans are emotionally rich for Tibet, but poor in information”. Quoting different phases of our history he made it very clear that we lost our freedom because of division, lack of information and co ordination amongst us. And he warned us that such mistakes shouldn’t repeat again in our generation, as history will never give another opportunity. While working for the cause he found some disturbing and petty issues that caused huge harm to the whole struggle.

Being a supporter he comprehends these pity issues analytically and he says, “All those pity issues like regionalism, Chushi gangdruk A v/s Chushi gangdruk B, shugden, middle path v/s independence, happened due to lack of information. And when such pity issues arises China is very happy and use such issues as an opportunity through their spies, informers to widen the existing division through false in formations thus, widens the division in society which results in weak struggle. There fore, this generation who is more educated and open shouldn’t allow such pity issues to take place”.

And he argues, “When somebody is never born in Kham, Amdo or U-Tsang, never been there, never seen it. Then who come he or she could say I’m Khampa, Amdowa or U-Tsangpa. You are here in India not because you are Khampa, Amdowa or U-Tsangpa. You are given refugee here because you Tibetan.” With this he advised our present generation must be very firm for construction of a united Tibetan society.
He worries not for the power that China has today, he worries about such pity things that could ultimately divide the whole society and drag the hope and forty eight years of hardwork into drain.

Vijay doesn’t believe in China’s conviction that Tibet will die after the Dalai Lama, since for the past forty eight years His Holiness the Dalai Lama with his vision for Tibet has set up democratic exile government system and if the Tibetans stay united under this elected democratic system and show support and trust in this democratic system, then even when His Holiness passes away, the fight for the Tibet will continue.

Like many Tibetans, the students here too are very critical on India’s policy on Tibet. And Vijay brings the other dimension by narrating the history of Bangladesh formation. He said, “It was during the prime minister ship of Indra Gandhi the problem of Bangladesh emerged. First she refused to help the people of Bangladesh by answering the fellow members of parliament saying that India can’t interfere in the internal affairs of Pakistan. To this reply most of the opposition MPs showered abusive words like coward etc. It was after some time when Indra Gandhi senses the situation of possibility of Bangladesh. She all of a sudden called an emergency parliamentary meeting and declared India’s recognition of Bangladesh. The rest is history”.
Like Bangladesh, it will be same for Tibet too. As Vijay finds that helping Tibet is not only for Tibet, helping Tibet is helping India also as India lost its peace after China occupied Tibet.

Current call
Vijay also stress on the need of activism against 2008 Beijing Olympic. Here he reasoned, “Nobody thought that Soviet Union will one day collapse but it happened. And one of the factors that lead to this disintegration is Moscow Olympic. During that time the Soviet government spent billions of dollars for preparation of Olympic. When it was about to begin many greater nations of the world boycotted soviet Olympic reasoning Human rights violation. That led to economic crush in the country, as they were not able to recover what they spent on it. And this economic condition results in collapse”.

Like Soviet Union, China is an artificial country of fifty six occupied nations. And post 2008 Olympics, China will feel secure and the fate of the Dharamsala dialogue is unknown. And one thing is for sure, China will continue to crack down Tibetans in occupied Tibet.
So before it gets late, lets act now!

The writer currently works at a MNC company in Chennai after his post graduation.