Author and activist Tsultrim Dolma will never stop fighting for Tibetan liberation

As a young girl born in a mountain village in eastern Tibet, Tsultrim Dolma was destined for a certain type of life: no education because her family was poor and married off young because she was a girl.

But Dolma, whose family was barely getting by under Chinese occupation, wanted more for herself. And at the age of 16, she found it when she joined protests to liberate Tibet from the People’s Republic of China. But not long after, she was arrested and sent to Gutsa Detention Center, a place infamous for brutally torturing political prisoners, located in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in China. Dolma details all of this and more—including being surveilled by the government after being released from prison, as well as her escape to the United States—in her coming-of-age young adult memoir, Defying China, which she wrote with Rebecca Wei Hsieh and was published last month.

Despite it being sad for her to revisit that time in her life, Dolma, now 58, decided to write a memoir because it’s important for justice and for her country. “I want my people to have their own country. When I was young, I wanted to go to school and be somebody, but that wasn't the life I could have. It wasn't enough,” she says. “Then I started fighting for freedom for my country and it all just made sense. Activists made sense. I want the next generation to have more.” She adds that she focused on her early life specifically because it was a time when anything could happen. She could have written about the more extreme parts of her experience in an adult book, but she geared her memoir toward young people because they have so much ahead of them—just like she did when she started protesting.

And looking at today’s political climate, Dolma is not alone in being young and speaking up and speaking out about things that matter to her. From Stop AA+PI Hate and climate change, to women's rights, Black Lives Matter, and Abolish ICE, many demonstrations are happening around the country, and around the world. And in many cases, young people aren’t just participating, they’re leading these movements.

When asked what her message to these young folks would be, Dolma says while they are fighting for peace, they also have to try to protect people in the process, adding that this was exactly what she and others did when they were protesting in Tibet and being shot at. She says it’s important to be honest when it comes to spreading your message, and to not meet people with violence, as others may use it for their own agenda. And there are many ways to do the right thing, so avoid corruption. “If the protest gets overheated, come back the next day with peace. And the next day. And the next,” Dolma says. “People worked for generations to build things, and as you protest, protect the people in your community and what they've built. Come to protests with hope.”

Dolma says she always has hope, and one message she wishes readers of all ages get out of her story is to never give up—because she is never giving up on fighting for her homeland. “I work really hard and give it everything, and so I hope that my people can be free,” she says. “Lots of people don't have the opportunity to speak for their rights, like my parents or my grandparents, but I always hold onto the hope that my speaking up will help my people.”

I had to admit to Dolma that I actually did not know much about Tibet before reading her story (a clear demonstration of how lacking the American education system is). So I asked her what she would like people to know about Tibet.

In response, she talks about everything from the country’s many mountains and rich soil, to the farmers who tend to that soil. Dolma also describes the people of Tibet as being very close and looking out for each other. Tibet is a peaceful country with a highly religious culture, with monasteries and lots of land, and a rich history that Dolma admits she is not good at telling—but it is essential to the world. “The world should know what China has done to Tibet. If we lose Tibet, we lose another one. We are losing another culture and language and freedom of the Tibetan people,” she says. “Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan, are not part of China. And Tibet never wanted to be part of China. Not now and not forever. Lots of people, lots of countries all around the world are going through this, and they don't have to be.”

In looking back at her young adulthood, Dolma says it feels like that was a different person—someone she can admire. And she survived and she is happy now. But there is also sadness in the fact that the things she experienced when she was younger are so different from the life she lives now in Massachusetts. “It hurts to not be able to contact my family or people from my life before,” she says. “But the experience of reflecting makes me hopeful, to keep fighting, to be able to see and smell and enjoy the things I used to from my land.”

This being said, writing this memoir has also been a release for Dolma. Likening the process to heart surgery in that the procedure makes you feel better. “I feel done, I feel good,” she says. “When I don't speak about my story, I feel depressed and sick, but getting to talk with Rebecca to help tell my story felt like healing my heart.”