Tibetan refugee visits 22 countries on motorbike urging China to free his homeland

DHARMSALA, India (AP) — Tibetan exiles in India cheered a New York-based Tibetan as he arrived by motorcycle Thursday after traveling through 22 countries to call for his homeland's independence.

Chanting slogans demanding that China free Tibet, dozens of Tibetan refugees, also on motorbikes, greeted Lhakpa Tsering when he reached the outskirts of Dharmsala, where the spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has been living since he fled Tibet in 1959.

They escorted Tsering, 41, to a school where was brought up as an orphan 40 years ago.

He set out from New York on March 10 last year — the 50th anniversary of a failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule — after new anti-government riots erupted in Tibet.

"I thought somebody had to make Tibetan people's voice heard. I decided to go around the world telling people about our plight," Tsering said.

"It was a very fulfilling tour. I was successful in what I set out to do — to tell people about the illegal occupation of Tibet by China," Tsering said.

Tsering's mother made the arduous journey to India from Tibet through the Himalayas when she was six months pregnant. He was born in exile in India.

His parents died when he was an infant and he was brought up in the orphanage in Dharmsala.