(From top) Schoolchildren protest human rights violation, a Tibetan with a banner asking the international community to raise its voice on Tuesday. Pictures by Suman Tamang

Kalimpong, March 10: Members of the Tibetan community here took out a procession and held a day-long prayer meeting to mark the 50th anniversary of an uprising in Tibet that sent the Dalai Lama into exile.

About 2,000 Tibetans marched through the main streets of the town before gathering at Damber Chowk to pray. The rallyists carried placards and banners condemning, what they called, the continued occupation of their motherland by China

Lobsang Dhendup Bhutia, the president of the Kalimpong chapter of the Tibetan Youth Congress, alleged that the Chinese government was continuing to “brutally suppress” the people’s movement to free their country. “In January this year, too, the Chinese picked up a large number of people from various parts of Tibet while they were taking part in peaceful protests,” he said.

The Tibetan diaspora the world over is observing 2009 as Black Year to protest against the Chinese suppression of last March’s uprising. The Tibetans in the hills did not celebrate Lochar or the New Year of the community on February 25.

The Tibetan Youth Congress has appealed to the international community to raise a united voice against “widespread violation of human rights” in Tibet. “We would also like to express our gratitude to the Indian government for its continued support to the Tibetan people,” he added.

The organisation has also expressed its solidarity with people in Tibet for “valiantly” enduring the 50-year-old suppression and separation from the Dalai Lama and his government-in-exile. “China must accept the historical truth about Tibet’s independence and free all political prisoners,” said Dhendup.

Kalimpong is home to a sizeable chunk of the nearly 4,000 Tibetans living in the Darjeeling hills. The town shares a historical relationship with Tibet as it used to be a trading hub for Indo-Tibet trade through the then thriving, Jelep La, a mountain pass, till the early Sixties.