In 1961, Switzerland opened its doors to Tibetans – 63 years later, many things are different. Texas plans to build a military base on the border with Mexico

“Losar tashi delek!”, this is what every minute feels like during the Tibetan New Year in the monastery in Rikon. In German: “Happy New Year!” Children run around the square, laugh, play hide and seek. Inside the monastery the mood is more serious. On the first floor, the seven monks lead the New Year prayers. Every seat in the room is occupied. The visitors listen attentively and pray with them.

There is also a lot of activity on the second floor. The revelers, especially the young ones, distribute Tibetan pastries on the tables.

On the third floor, the Tibetans watch the ceremony on a flat-screen TV because all the seats on the first floor are already occupied. But the transfer is less important here: people exchange ideas, pour tea, serve rice. Three boys wrestle and play ‘skerry, stick, paper’, taking turns eating Tibetan pastries, chips or gummy bears. A boy’s mother quietly warns her, but every five minutes, to be quiet. The mother doesn’t seem to mind that they continue anyway, because the children also have to enjoy “Losar” (New Year).

Tashi Shitsetsang, a Tibetan woman who will also participate in the festival on Saturday, February 10, says with a laugh: “For us, everything we do today is all about the new year. “That means the little ones are hoping they can eat a lot of snacks this year.”

Tibet: One of the least free countries in the world

The monastery is filling up more and more every hour. In total, more than 1,000 Tibetans celebrate the new year in Rikon. Migmar Wangdu Christoph Raith also arrived. In 1961 he came to Switzerland as a four-year-old as part of the “Foster Children Campaign” project. A Swiss family in Basel took him in and later adopted him as a teenager. He says: “It’s unbelievable how many people are here. “I used to know almost all the visitors, but today I know less than 10 percent.”

Non-Tibetans are also warmly welcomed by the community. Raith says: “It’s so nice that there are people who want to get to know our culture.”

Raith and thousands of other Tibetans had to leave their homeland from 1950 onwards. The reason: the annexation by China. In March 1959, the Tibetans resisted, but their protests were brutally suppressed by the Chinese. In 1961, Switzerland was the first European country to offer Tibetan refugees a new home.

According to the international NGO Freedom House, Tibet remains one of the least free countries in the world. China denies basic rights to the Tibetan people and rigorously suppresses all signs of resistance. “Including expressions of Tibetan religious beliefs and cultural identity.”

The situation in Tibet is precarious, but the number of Tibetan refugees is decreasing every year. According to Tibetan exiles, the reasons for this are stricter surveillance, stricter border controls at mountain passes by the Chinese and closer cooperation between Beijing and Nepal.

China and Switzerland are moving closer together

Despite several human rights violations, China has been Switzerland’s third most important trading partner since 2010. Since then, the relationship between the Swiss government and the Tibetans has also changed. The hospitality of 1961 seems to have waned – parallel to the intensive trade between Switzerland and China.

This is reflected in the change in permits for demonstrations in Tibet: in 1999, then Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited Switzerland. The Tibetans were allowed to demonstrate loudly right in front of the Federal Palace. Zemin then became so angry that he canceled the reception in front of the Federal Palace and gave a lecture to the Federal Council members present.

The next state visit was planned for 2017. The then Federal Councilor Doris Leuthard received Xi Jinping in Bern. Criticism of the Chinese regime was not welcome. The Tibetan diaspora was allowed to demonstrate – only three hours before the state visit and not on the Bundesplatz, but on the lower Waisenhausplatz.

Anyone who did not follow the rules was punished by the Swiss police. Journalist Philipp Mäder even wrote on X at the time about a hunt for young Tibetan demonstrators.

“Why are they wanted and we are not?”

Similar, albeit not as dramatic, scenes also occurred this year: In mid-January, Federal President Viola Amherd received Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Kehrsatz (Bern).

Kalsang Choyulpa is co-chairman of the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe. She tells Watson that the Tibetan diaspora only found out about it from various media reports four days before Qiang’s visit. Getting permission for a demonstration was impossible.

But Choyulpa and some activists decided to hold a peaceful meeting during Qiang’s arrival. Today, Choyulpa still says clearly: “I know that China is an important contractual partner. But Switzerland cannot trade with China as long as it violates human rights.”

Police surrounded and arrested the Tibetan activists. “We offered the police to leave. But they forbade that and surrounded us,” says Choyulpa.

The Chinese reception committee, which had also gathered and held up Chinese flags, left the police alone. It could solemnly greet the convoy Qiang was in. The scenes were documented by Choyulpa’s association with a video:

Choyulpa says:

An activist was forced into a van. The activist later said that he had seen an A4 piece of paper in the car with various flags printed on it. Flags that the police did not allow. Includes the flag of East Turkestan and Tibet.

The cantonal police of Bern denied these accusations, writing at Watson’s request:

“At home in Tibet”

But Choyulpa is also very grateful to Switzerland. For example, for the Tibetan monastery in Rikon that she visits on ‘Losar’: ‘This is a part of Tibet that we have in Switzerland. The monastic community makes me feel most at home in Tibet.”

At home in Tibet. How can a place be a home if you’ve never been there?

Many Tibetans in exile have never been to the land of their ancestors. But they have an idea of ​​’home’, their country. From the stories of grandparents. Choyulpa says: “For outsiders it is unthinkable that you stand up for a country you have never been to. But this is about more: it’s about our culture, our identity.”

The long arm of China in Switzerland

Chinese pose as tourists or ETH students and regularly photograph Tibetan activists, says Choyulpa. For example during demonstrations.

Thinlay Chukki can also confirm what Choyulpa says. She has often experienced the Chinese trying to intimidate her. In the UN building, but also on the street. Because she is an official representative of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan government in exile in India.

Watson also meets her at the monastery in Rikon. While the other Tibetans celebrate, she talks about geopolitics. Because they – and most exiles – always have in the back of their minds: the Tibet issue. She says:

Isn’t that scary?

Being afraid is not an option for Chukki. She has a clear goal in mind: “I believe in rebirth. Maybe my next life will be different. But in this life I fight for a free Tibet.”