Dharamsala, December 19: Tibetan woman writer and poet , writing in Chinese language Tsering Woeser was on Monday awarded an honorary medal " courageous freedom of speech"by the Association of Tibetan Journalists (ATJ) On10th founding anniversary day.
The Chief Guest , Mr Thupten Samphel, Secretary for Department of Information and International Relations, Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), presented the freedom of speech medal to a Voice of Tibet reporter, who took the award on Woeser’s behalf.
Woeser is greatest Tibetan woman poet, writer and author writing in Chinese. Born in Lhasa , educated in Kham-Derge during and post-Cultural Revolution in schools with Chinese medium curriculae. She graduated from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at the South West University for Nationalities in Chengdu, in 1988. She worked as a reporter for Ganze (Kardze in Tibetan) Daily in Kham before joining as an editor of Lhasa-based Tibetan Literature (Xizang Wenxue), an official Chinese language journal of the Literature Association of the Tibet Autonomous Region. She is the author of books such as "Tibet Above" (Xizang zhishang), "Notes on Tibet" (Xizang Biji) and "Map of Burgundy Red" (Xianghongsede Ditu). It was her second book, "Notes on Tibet"; a compilation of 38 short stories on Tibetan culture, first published in 2003,(GuangZhou in China), that caused her lost job , even forced to leave from Tibet.
In October 2004, Chinese authorities decreed that the book contained "political issue" and subsequently banned for revealing opinions "that are harmful to the unification and solidarity of our nation" and, containing sympathetic and favourable references to the Dalai Lama. Her unrelenting courage to pen down the true realities of Tibet under the wide attention of Chinese Communist authorities is known to have ignited a new literary movement inside Tibet. Because of the ban on her book, she is now unemployed and living in self-exiled in Beijing.
Yet she writes through her own blog "Map of Burgundy Red" (Xianghongsede Ditu), many time, Chinese government to ban her web blog, she never give up her contributions for recent informations from inside Tibet. This medal based on her courage, writing Tibetan reality ,a new informations of Tibet around the world.
In her acceptance letter from Beijing, for ATJ’s medal , Woeser writes, "In reality, the three Tibetan writers Dawa Gyaltsen, Jamphel Gyatso and Dolma Kyab and many other Tibetan political prisoners who are still subjected to torture and persecution in Chinese jails inside Tibet are more deserving of this medal of honour".
She also writes," I am ready for freedom of speech".
Norwegian Tibetan Committee on the same day, press release Norwegian authors union's freedom of expression prize for 2007 was given to Woeser living in China.
The official statement from the Norwegian Authors Union says "The Norwegian Authors Union is convinced that in this year's(2007) prize winner, we have found a worthy recipient who bravely has chosen to publish her books even though they have a content considered controversial by the Chinese authorities. At the sometime she devotes her time to the struggle for the freedom of expression through her articles and various blogs, also writing about the Chinese suppression and colonialisation of Tibet. Norwegian Authors Union appreciates that Tsering Woeser represents a new generation of bloggers in China, challenging a state monopoly on the access to information through using the internet. It is very clear to us that by giving this prize to Tsering Woeser we have found a female author that are in the middle of one of the most important struggle for freedom of expression in our time."