Home › Magazine › Spring 2004 › A River of Compassion

A River of Compassion

Imprisoned for more than twenty years, Ani Pachen Dolma drew on her single-minded devotion to the dharma to help her endure years of torture, forced labor, and near-starvation in Chinese work camps.

Ani Pachen Dolma

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After the guards finished beating me, they brought out an iron clamp for my feet and threw it in front of me. I thought they were going to chain me again, but they didn’t. “Your prison term has been increased by three years,” the short, fat officer told me, “and you will spend the next nine months in isolation.”

They opened a small wooden door and threw me into the room. I fell onto my hands in the darkness and felt the dirt of an earthen floor. Behind me I heard the door close. There was a dull scraping as the key turned in the lock. I lifted myself onto my knees trying to see where I was, but I could see nothing but blackness all around me.

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