Dharamsala (AsiaNews) – Thousands of Tibetan women met yesterday in Dharamsala, shouting that they would never accept Beijing’s “slavery.” They gathered in the Indian city to observe the 48th anniversary of the day when thousands of other Tibetan women rose up against Chinese rule only to be forced into exile by the invading People’s Liberation Army.

The women came from across India to the city that is home to the Tibetan government-in-exile to remember the uprising led by the Dalai Lama on March 11, 1959, which was followed one day later by the women's revolt against the invader.

Chanting anti-China slogans like “Never accept the Chinese hegemony” or “End Chinese desecration of Buddhist heritage”, the women marched through Dharamsala’s streets in the company of Indian and Buddhist religious women who came to show their solidarity to the exile movement.

“This day [March 12] has become a part of our history. We want to remember that women too joined the Dalai Lama’s uprising against China and that this opposition shall never end,” said Deckyi, a Tibetan woman activist.

The initial invasion by Mao’s troops took place in 1950. The popular uprising against Chinese rule led by the Dalai Lama took place in 1959 because “despite trying to coexist peacefully with the Chinese, their attitude had become intolerable and we rebelled,” Deckyi explained.

Meanwhile, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, an India-based human rights watchdog, has slammed China for more human rights violations against ethnic Tibetans still living in their homeland and has called on other countries to do something to end Beijing’s abuses in the territory.

The Centre highlighted the May 2006 Nangpa Pass incident on the Sino-Nepali border when Chinese soldiers shot at Tibetans trying to cross into Nepal, killing two.

According to the centre’s own figures, some 2,445 Tibetans escaped Chinese repression, mostly teenagers and Buddhist novices who “fled in order to reach Dharamsala and their leader, the Dalai Lama.”