Today China’s efforts to eradicate the traditional culture of Tibet have run up against a new barrier - a resurgence of Tibetan cultural pride and the irrepressible creativity of Tibet’s youth. So concerned is China by the new trend in subversive writing and music that it has already arrested dozens of Tibet’s new cultural vanguard, drawing vehement criticism from international Tibet support groups and sparking the interest of the international media.

The reaction of Tibetans in exile has been to get squarely behind these new heroes of Tibetan resistance, publishing translations of poems on the web, uploading music to YouTube and swapping mp3s of the latest songs to make their way to the outside world.

The popular blog “High Peaks, Pure Earth” was one of the first websites to draw attention to the new wave of music and writing emerging in response to China’s post-2008 crackdown. The blog regularly publishes new works coming out of Tibet and has become an online hub for what many are now fondly calling Tibet’s “Cultural Renaissance”.

In October 2009 the International Campaign for Tibet published an anthology of new writing from Tibet named “Like Gold That Fears No Fire”. (Download PDF)

This week we bring you a few samples of new Tibetan writing taken from High Peaks Pure Earth and encourage you to explore more of this inspiring new material emerging from Tibet.

Torture Without Trace - Song by Tashi Dhondup

Tashi Dhondup, 30, was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment and re-education through labour after releasing his album “Torture Without Trace”. The album comprises 13 songs expressing nostalgia for the Dalai Lama and remembering the crackdown that followed the 2008 Tibetan uprising.

I Am Tibetan - Poem by “Son of Snow” Dhondup

The poem below forms part of the series of poetry and prose pieces on High Peaks Pure Earth titled “I Am Tibetan”. It was written in Chinese on 10 February 2010 by a Tibetan university student living in Amdo calling himself “Son of Snow” Dhondup and posted the next day on his TibetCul blog. This was around the time of Losar (Tibetan New Year) when there was an upsurge in online activities and poems centred around the theme of “I Am Tibetan”.

In low profile, I live on the noble snow-covered plateau
In my simple mother tongue, I tell
of how false history
in those days buried the truth and we
have tried our best to discover
the truth in this world
through our Tibetan identity

With a guitar on my back, I walk
on the ever desertifying grassland
Singing sadly, playing feebly
From tents to tall buildings
From steeds to cars
All development is suffused with dense “fakery”

His back bent,
Father takes up the time-worn prayer wheels and
prays for the dead spirits that exist everywhere on the plateau
In those days when lovers aged
We have endured the most miserable pastoral song
A sigh in the middle of the night outweighed
The countless barking dogs

Tukshey (Tap Dance), Gorshey (Circle Dance) and Zhes (Folk Dance)
Who shakes the wilderness that lies in deep sleep?
Steeds, armour and sharp swords
Who commands the awakened army?

I gaze at the temples as dear as Mother to me
Guarding the last piles of mani stones

We have been waiting for too long
We have been voyaging too far
Tibetans, carrying dignity on their backs,
Bearing pain, are gradually rising.