Name: Ama Adhe
(Alias: No)
Gender: Female
Interview Age: 84
Date of Birth: 1928
Birthplace: Nyarong, Kham, Tibet
Year Left Tibet: 1987
Profession: Dairy Farming, Farming
Monk/Nun: No
Political Prisoner: No
Interview No.: 61D
Date: 2012-05-14
Language: Tibetan
Location: Mcleod Ganj, Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India
Categories: Oppression and Imprisonment
Keywords: brutality/torture, Chinese -- first appearance of, forced labor, imprisonment, Kham, monasteries -- destruction of , resistance
Summary:
Ama Adhe was born in Nyarong in Kham Province to a middle class family. She was a devout Buddhist from a very young age, practicing as her parents taught her. She describes her feeling of terror upon seeing the Chinese for the first time and recounts how they tried to lure children with silver coins and their pretense to help Tibetans.
Ama Adhe and her husband planned an escape to Lhasa, but her husband was poisoned by the Chinese before they could leave. Ama Adhe then inspired other women to help the Tibetan men who fought against the Chinese by supplying food and provisions to them. When the rebellion was crushed some of the women and many men and monks were arrested. Some of the stronger ones like Ama Adhe were taken away to a prison in Changshita, China. Only four out of the 300 women in that prison survived the ordeal of starvation there.
Ama Adhe is one of the Tibetans who served the longest prison terms, which was 27 years and ended only when Deng Xiaoping pardoned the political prisoners. During her incarceration she suffered torture and forced labor. The Chinese tried to instill in her that the Buddhist dharma and the Dalai Lama were bad, but she continued to pray daily. She believes her deep faith in the Dalai Lama and the Goddess Tara saved her from imminent death. She repeatedly emphasizes her wish to tell reveal to the world the suffering of prisoners who died under Chinese oppression.
Interview Team:
- Marcella Adamski (Interviewer)
- Tenzin Yangchen (Interpreter)
- Pema Tashi (Videographer)
