Nathan Janes has completed his latest work, "Tragedy and Hope," as a response to the genocide of the Tibetan people by the Chinese government. The painting is striking as it pairs the artist's usual muse and pop art style with strong and unsettling imagery. Janes says that he was moved to complete the painting as the crisis in Tibet has continued to exist for several decades with very little response from foreign governments, even in light of the recent Olympic Games held in Beijing. "Many people may have forgotten that Tibetan culture is being purposefully destroyed by the practices and policies of China and that Tibetan monks still go missing today." Janes fears that if citizens of the world are not cognizant of the issue, then the United States and other countries will continue to go silent due to China's role as an major economic player in the world market.

The painting, "Tragedy and Hope," marks the bloody history of Tibet as its culture and people have been eradicated by the Chinese since 1950 but also marks the artist and other activists' hope that people will continue to cry out until freedom is brought to the Tibetans. Janes says he "realizes many people accept the world as it is presented to them and that continuing struggles such as that of the Tibetan people are not often presented to the American public through mass media outlets." He hopes that through his painting he will spread awareness about the tragic situation in Tibet to those who view his art and encourage people to learn about world events in other ways besides the mass media.

Tibet

1. The country of Tibet was invaded by China in 1949.  In the winter of 1959, 87,000 Tibetan’s were killed. Since the Chinese invasion, 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed. Mao Zedong ordered Barley to be switched with Wheat resulting in 50% of Tibet starved to death.  Mao’s regime is responsible for 40,000,000 – 60,000,000 million deaths between 1949-1975.

2. Approximately 6,000 monasteries, nunneries, temples, and their contents were destroyed in the late 1950s and during the Cultural Revolution. Most of these areas have now been converted into tourist resorts. The treasures and Buddha statues were confiscated and taken to Beijing for their smelter. There are 300,000 Chinese Troops stationed in Tibet and consequently Lhasa has become one of the largest brothels in Asia.

3. The Tibetan Flag is outlawed in its homeland & pictures of the Dali Lama are illegal in Tibet. The basic freedoms of speech, religion, and assembly are strictly limited, and arbitrary arrests continue. There are currently hundreds of political prisoners in Tibet, enduring a commonplace punishment of torture. According to human rights groups, there are currently hundreds of political prisoners in Tibet, including the young Panchen Lama, imprisoned since age six.

4. Millions of Tibetans have died under the Chinese occupation as a result of factors including torture, starvation, and execution. Tibetans can be imprisoned and tortured simply for expressing their views. Tibetan monks and nuns are frequently subjected to severe torture in Chinese prisons, including beatings with metal bars and electric cattle prods and solitary confinement. For example, electric cattle prods are used in Tibetan women’s vaginas and also put in the mouths of men.

5. Tibet had a sovereign government, currency, postal system, language, laws, and customs. Prior to 1950, the Tibetan government signed treaties with foreign nations including Britain, Mongolia, and Nepal. While the Chinese government claims that Tibet has “always” been part of China, its invasion of Tibet resembles the same imperialist aggression that China accuses other powers of exhibiting.

6. The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s political and spiritual leader, was forced to flee Tibet in 1959. He escaped to India along with over 120,000 other Tibetans and established the Tibetan Government in Exile in Dharamsala. In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his steadfast dedication to nonviolence.

7. The "Tibetan Autonomous Region" (TAR) is not Tibet, nor is it autonomous. Tibetans are becoming a minority in the TAR. The Chinese government has divided historical Tibet into one region and several prefectures and counties, with the TAR encompassing only the central area and some eastern regions of Tibet. Historical Tibet was a vast country, with an area roughly equal to Western Europe. Tibet is the source of five of Asia's largest rivers, which provide water for two billion people. Tibet's fragile environment is endangered by Chinese strip-mining, nuclear waste dumping, and extensive deforestation.

8.The Panchen Lama was just six years old when he was kidnapped by the Chinese authorities shortly after he was named Tibet's spiritual leader, second only in importance to the Dalai Lama. He has been missing for 12 years and is one of the youngest political prisoners in the world. He plays the lead role in naming the next Dalai Lama when the current one dies. This is the reason that the Chinese authorities have removed the boy and replaced him with their own alternative candidate. By putting their own candidate forward in place of the one chosen by the Tibetan government in exile, the Chinese authorities are seeking to appoint a pro-China Dalai Lama.

9. Tibet is the only place in "China" where individuals are allowed to have more than one child without facing retribution. This policy is different in Tibet than the rest of China because the Chinese government hopes to dilute and replace the Tibet population with Chinese. The number of Chinese settlers is steadily growing. Today there are more Chinese than Tibetans in Tibet. Many Tibetan women are subjected to sterilization. There is a massive transfer of Chinese population into Tibet and apply restrictive policies of birth control in a country, which include forced abortions and sterilizations.

10.The Chinese government’s policies of cultural assimilation and population transfer of ethnic Chinese into Tibet threaten the very survival of the Tibetan identity. Chinese colonists outnumber Tibetans in most urban areas and many rural areas, making Tibetans a minority in their own nation. Although the Chinese government claims to have developed Tibet economically, most good jobs benefit only Chinese colonists, not Tibetans. The bigger part of business in Lhasa is in the hands of Chinese people. The Chinese have many incentives for going to colonize Tibet like better salaries. Meanwhile, thousands of Tibetans continue to flee from Tibet every year, making the treacherous journey over the Himalayas and into the uncertain world of exile.

11. China has spent millions of dollars building infrastructure in Tibet but  have neglected education and healthcare.  Many of the roads, buildings, and power plants that have been built directly support heavy militarization of the plateau, allowing China to maintain Tibet as a police state.

12.  While Tibetan kids are educated by the Chinese to be ashamed of their own culture. Their ancestral traditions are being brutally attacked and its people suffer misery, persecution, and often death.

13.  The land and livestock of farmers is expropriated to supply the large military contingent that was highlighted there. As a result farmers are forced to migrate to cities, thus destroying their traditional way of life. Moreover when they arrive in the cities, they do not have specialized skills and must work in conditions of slavery. Many Tibetan nomadic herders have been deported to other Chinese provinces. Since 2000 more than 16,000 Tibetan herders have been displaced in urban areas where their livelihoods are destroyed and they experience perverse discrimination.

14. China is aggressively seeking foreign investment for its “Go West” campaign in Tibet, East Turkestan, and other occupied areas. China is trying to use international funds to develop Tibet as a resource extraction colony and consolidate control over the region. Foreign investment in Chinese companies gives legitimacy to China’s colonization of Tibet, and the exploitative projects they fund certainly do not benefit Tibetans.

15.  The world community has done very little to address the core issue of China’s illegal occupation of Tibet. China represents a gigantic market and cheap labor force, and its associated businesses have such a strong lobby that politicians are reluctant to take any substantive measures against the Chinese government. Since western countries adopted policies of so-called “constructive engagement” with China in the 1990s, the human rights situation in Tibet has drastically deteriorated. In order for this to change, world governments must take decisive action to pressure China into respecting human rights and ending its occupation of Tibet.

10 Questions for the Dalai Lama

Tibet: The Cry of the Snow Lion

Voices In Exile

Buying the Dragon's Teeth

Memories of Life in Lhasa under Chinese Rule

The Tibetan National Flag And HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

During the reign of the seventh-century king, Songtsen Gampo, Tibet was one of the mightiest empires in Central Asia. Tibet, then, had an army of 2,860,000 men. Each regiment of the army had its own banner. The banner of Ya-ru To regiment had a pair of snow lions facing each other, that of Ya-ru Ma a snow lion standing upright, springing upwards towards the sky, and that of U-ru To a white flame against a red background.This tradition continued until the Thirteenth Dalai Lama designed a new banner and issued a proclamation for its adoption by all the military establishments. This banner became the present Tibetan national flag.

To Know More about it just click on the pic or The Tibetan National Flag to read more! 

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