The US Capitol Building

May 20, 2013

Dharamsala: The US Senate Judiciary Committee approved the provision of 5,000 immigration visas to displaced Tibetans residing in India and Nepal.  The amendment, offered by Senator Dianne Feinstein and cosponsored by Chairman Patrick Leahy and Senator Chuck Schumer, was approved by voice vote and included in the immigration reform bill currently under consideration in the US Senate.

The approval of the Tibet-related amendment, however, faces a long and possibly arduous process before it gets enacted.  The immigration bill with the Tibetan provision must be approved first by the Judiciary Committee and then by the full US Senate, reconciled with the House version, and eventually passed by both houses of Congress. The entire process could take several months.

“I want to thank Senator Feinstein for introducing the amendment, Chairman Leahy and Senator Schumer for cosponsoring, and honorable members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee for approving the amendment. This provision will provide a great boost to Tibetans and contribute to burden sharing of Tibetans in India and Nepal.  The passage of this provision provides a timely moral support to Tibetans as they struggle against a new wave of repressive Chinese policies, and represents a tangible continuation of the long-standing and bipartisan support of the United States for Tibet,” said Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay.

Senator Feinstein’s amendment that would create 5,000 immigrant visas for displaced Tibetans over a three-year period is based on a similar provision in the Immigration Act of 1990. The US Congress then generously approved a provision to grant immigrant visa to 1,000 displaced Tibetans living in India and Nepal.  That program, carried out at no cost to US taxpayers, resulted in the successful establishment of thriving and independent Tibetan-American communities in 21 states.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan leadership have been trying for over five decades to preserve Tibetan identity and culture in exile until Tibetans are free to return home again.  It has long been His Holiness’ vision that a healthy and prosperous diaspora is key to achieving this objective.  The new Tibetan immigration provision, if and when enacted, will help the Central Tibetan Administration’s efforts to find meaningful livelihoods and support the well being of displaced Tibetans who have fled Tibet into exile.

The Fourteenth Kashag has been vigorously seeking international governmental support for Tibet. Over the past two years Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay has visited Washington frequently and met with Congressional leaders including Senators Feinstein, Leahy and Schumer to press the case for Tibet and Tibetans, including with regard to immigration issues. During his most recent visit to Washington on May 6-10, the Sikyong thanked the US government and Congress for their support and discussed the status of Tibetan refugee settlements in South Asia and the challenges faced by the Central Tibetan Administration in providing educational and employment opportunities for Tibetan refugees.

The Kashag urges all Tibetans to again be mindful that the inclusion of a Tibet-related amendment in the US immigration bill is only the first step in a long process.  Firstly, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate must approve the immigration bill. The House of Representatives will be working on their own immigration bill.  The two bills will then need to be reconciled.  Lastly, immigration reform is a highly contentious issue and it is possible that there may not be an agreement on a final bill.

Home Kalon Dolma Gyari speaking to Tibetans on Canada resettlement project

DHARAMSHALA: Home Kalon Dolma Gyari visited Tibetan settlements in northern and northeastern India from 13-22 May.

During her visit to Dehradun on 14 May, Kalon Dolma Gyari met Mr Subash Kumar, Chief Secretary of Uttara Khand. She briefed him about the ongoing process of seeking lease amendment for rehabilitation of Tibetan refugee families on the land provided on lease by the state government and requested the state government to expedite it.

On 17 May, Kalon Dolma Gyari visited Tenzingang Tibetan settlement, where she visited the Old People’s Home, CST school, and inspected the Kiwi plantation. She also addressed the Tibetan public.

On 18 May, the home kalon visited Bomdila, where she spoke to Tibetans living in scattered communities in Tawang, Dirang, Rupa and Bomdila.

On 19 May, she presided over a meeting with first batch of the prospective immigrants under Canada Resettlement project, at Tinkusia in Assam.

Kalon Dolma Gyari with concerned Canadian officials and prospective candidates for the Canada resettlement project

On 21 May, Kalon Dolma Gyari attended the meeting of first batch of the 204 prospective immigrants from Miao Choephelling, Tezu Dhargyeling, Tenzingang and Tuting respectively under Canada Resettlement project.

She welcomed Mr. Sidney Frank, the Minister for Canada Immigration (India, Nepal, Bhutan) and his staff on their visit at Tinsukia to oversee interviews and medical examinations of 204 prospective immigrants (commencing from 22nd May to 24th May). She thanked the government and people of India for their kind support and generosity towards Tibetans. She also thanked other countries, particularly, Canada, for their kindness and generosity shown to the Tibetan people.

Kalon Dolma Gyari during her meeting Mr Subash Kumar, Chief Secretary of Uttara Khand in Dehradun

Tibetan Writer Gartse Jigme. (File Photo)

DHARAMSHALA: The Chinese government, in their continued crackdown on Tibetan writers and intellectuals, sentenced a Tibetan monk to five years in prison for writing a book on Tibet and the wave of self-immolations that has swept Tibet since 2009.

Gartse Jigme, a well known Tibetan writer and monk from Gartse monastery in Amdo, was sentenced on 14 May 2013 by Tsekhog (Ch: Zekog) County People’s Court in Malho (Ch: Huangnan). He was first arrested on 1 January 2013 and was kept in detention at Rebkong (Ch: Tongren) County in Malho Prefecture till the sentence was pronounced.

Gartse Jigme has earlier written two books on Tibet. The book in question is the second edition of his second book, Tsenpoi Nyingtop (Eng: King’s valour). It was seized by police from the publishers’ before it could be printed. He was also briefly detained in April 2011 for his views expressed in his book.

He is also a respected member of the monastic community and has been vocal about government policies that threatened people’s daily lives in the region, and has repeatedly urged the Chinese government to end the ill-founded accusations levelled by the authorities against Tibetan religion and practitioners, that has detrimental impact on Tibetan religious culture.

Gartse Jigme was born in Garwa nomadic village of Gartse Township in Rebkong County. He has been writing since 1999 and had won several literary prizes. His first book, ‘Musings on My Reflections’ received favorable reviews from friends and others in the community. He was also a Buddhist scholar having studied and successfully passed major Buddhist courses at his monastery in 2003.

Frm Left: Mrs Trinley Palmo, Health Secretary Shosur Sonam Choephel, Kalon Tsering Wangchuk, Dr Sanjanthi Velu and Dr Nilesh Chatterjee.

DHARAMSHALA: Dr Tsering Wangchuk, Kalon for the Department of Health, Central Tibetan Administration today opened a workshop on ‘Health Communication and Education’ at the Imperial Heights Resort near Dharamshala. The workshop is being organised by the health department of the Central Tibetan Administration.

Speaking at the opening session, Dr Tsering Wangchuk spoke in detail about the programmes of the health department namely the Health Information System (HIS), Tibetan Medicare System (TMS), the up-gradation of nurses and doctors in the clinics etc.

He also said that the health department’s programmes are being carried out in accordance with the policies of the 14th Kashag.

The two-day workshop is being presided over by Dr Sanjanthi Velu and Dr Nilesh Chatterjee from the John Hopkins University, along with Mrs Trinley Palmo, Mr Tsegyal Dranyi and Mr Kapsang from the Department of Health.

Over 38 participants from various health clinics across India are attending the workshop.

Participants at the workshop.

But solving the Tibet issue will provide the buffer zone for peaceful borders. This will further lessen the suspicion on the Chinese government. Tibet will contribute to the peace in the region.

Fresh from a visit to the USA and Europe, Tibetan prime minister (in exile) Lobsang Sangay, in an exclusive interview to dna, speaks candidly on how changes in India and China’s stances on the Tibet issue can contribute to peace in the region.

Edited excerpts -  

How significant is Chinese premier’s visit to India?
Having chosen India as the first country to visit after taking over as the prime minister, Li Keqiang could have initiated substantive dialogue on resolving the Tibet issue. India and China have the largest populations and we wish good relations between both the countries. But solving the Tibet issue will provide the buffer zone for peaceful borders. This will further lessen the suspicion on the Chinese government. Tibet will contribute to the peace in the region.

Do you genuinely think Tibet can contribute to peace?
Yes. If Tibetans are given autonomy. I think we missed that opportunity this time.  

The joint statement between China and India does not mention India’s affirmation on a unified China. What do you make of it?
It is for the Indian government to decide. We welcome the fact that Tibet was discussed. We wish that there were substantive discussions where Tibet as the one of the core issues. India’s security is linked to the issue of Tibet.  

Do you think that the government of India has made genuine efforts in the last decade on the issue of Tibet?
Compared to other countries, India has done the most for Tibetans, for which we are grateful. But politically, we wish that India did more.

What are steps that the Indian government can adopt in the Tibet issue?
India needs to make Tibet the core issue with the Chinese government and clearly explain that India’s security is linked to the situation in Tibet. There was never a border between India and China, but there was always a border between Tibet and India. And that solving the issue of Tibet will contribute to peace in the region.

With China steady growth as a superpower, can India raise this issue in such a straight manner?
Definitely. India is one of the largest economies in the region and has the moral authority. The Indian model is not only important for Asia, but also for the world. India’s rich heritage, culture, the Gandhian notion of non-violence – is respected in the international community.

What are your impressions about the new Chinese leadership?
I think it is too early to say anything. But it looks like they are continuing with the same hard-line policies in Tibet.

What makes you think so?
In the 17th party congress, at least one minority was in the politburo. Now in the 18th party Congress, there is no representation of minorities. In the central committee, that has more than 200 members, there used to be 16 minority members. That has now reduced to 10. The representation of  Tibetans is marginal with only one or at the most two. Then 117 self-immolations have taken place and they are prosecuting self-immolators.

The current crop of Chinese leadership is young. They may stay for next 20-30 years. How you think things can progress?
For how long will the ruling party stay, we don’t know. But what we seek is genuine autonomy within the PRC, that is within the framework of the Chinese constitution. Hopefully, the Chinese leadership will realise the futility of repressing the Tibet. Internationally, it raises questions on China’s rise. 

There is worry in some quarters about China’s increasing investment in India’s neighbouring countries?
China has invested in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and in Nepal. The land route China has helped construct, stretches from all the way from Lhasa to Nepal. The railway line they are planning to bring from Lhasa to the Sikkim border via Shigatse and then Nepal and Bangladesh. We need to see what the Indian government will do in this regards. 

Do you think India needs to assert a little more on the border?
Yes, India needs to improve infrastructure along the border to feel secure. 

China was quoted saying that Tibetans based in India are provoking self-immolations?
This allegation is baseless and there is no shred of evidence, whatsoever. We invite them to send a delegation to Dharamsala and check all our records. As a matter of fact we are discouraging self-immolation in Tibet.

Then why are Tibetans resorting to self-immolation?
This is because of the continuing occupation of Tibet – its repression and the economic marginalisation of Tibetans. The environmental degradation and forced cultural assimilation brought about by the Chinese are moving in Tibet by taking away their jobs are reasons enough to provoke.

Tell us something about your recent visit to the US?
I met 21 senators of the Congress and wrote a letter to the  secretary of state John Kerry barely a month before he went to China. To take stock of the prevailing situation in Tibet,  they asked him to promote dialogue China and Tibet.  

They also acknowledged that the Dalai Lama has devolved his political authority and that the Tibetan administration is a democratic set-up now.

                      Chinese espionage and terror plot against Tibetan community exposed

Penpa Tsering, the Chinese agent

A terror plot to poison two Tibetan youths – Tashi Gyaltsen@Tashi Dhondup and Karma Yeshi@Tashi by Chinese Security Agencies aimed at spreading chaos and terror in the Tibetan community
was uncovered. This latest exposure goes well beyond Chinese government’s aggressive intelligence gathering on His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Central Tibetan Administration and other exile based organizations to undermine the exile community.

Penpa Tsering, aged 33, from Lhari County of Nagchu Prefecture in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), confessed that he was first recruited and then sent across to India in 2009 by Li Yuquan who was then working as Party Secretary of Political and Legal Committee; Head of Public Security Bureau of Nagchu Prefecture, ‘TAR’ and a member of the 9th National People’s Congress of TAR. Li has been since transferred to Chamdo Prefecture, TAR but holding the same portfolio as before.

Penpa Tsering is fully trained in intelligence tradecrafts and physical combat including weapon handling. He was in PLA from 1999 to 2002 and later worked in Public Security Bureau, Nagchu Prefecture prior to coming to India

Li Yuquan has initially tasked Penpa Tsering to collect intelligence on alleged “terrorist” activities against China by Central Tibetan Administration and Tibetan NGOs based in exile. He was asked to report on health condition and schedules of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Posing himself as staff of Department of Security, CTA, he made contacts with numerous individuals to collect specific intelligence on exile based Tibetan NGOs, important personalities, new comers from Tibet and vulnerabilities in Tibetan community; and reported these information to his handler on regular basis through phone, Internet based Weechat and QQ.

Later on, Li Yuquan tasked Penpa Tsering to eliminate the above mentioned two youths – Tashi Gyaltsen of Driru Dzong, Nagchu and Karma Yeshi of Palpung, Derge Dzong, Kham – both of them had escaped to India in early 2010.  To execute this terror plot, Li summoned Penpa Tsering twice to Kathmandu, Nepal since 2012. Li along with other Chinese agents personally instructed him to eliminate the two youths by poisoning. Three different poisonous substances were first tested in front of his eyes on two puppies and a chicken and then handed to him.

Penpa Tsering has received more than Indian Rupees Eleven lakhs from Li Yuquan since May 2009 for providing intelligence reports and task of eliminating the above two youths. 

The Department of Security would like to express its appreciation to Tashi Gyaltsen and Karma Yeshi for their courageous efforts in exposing the Chinese plot and intelligence network attempting to infiltrate and undermine the Tibetan exile community. We also take this opportunity to appeal all sensible and right thinking Tibetans to cooperate with us in further exposing evil designs of Chinese security agencies by providing credible and timely information whenever they come across of any such nature.

Tashi Gyaltsen@Tashi Dhondup (L) / Karma Yeshi@Tashi (R), who informed the Central Tibetan Administration about the Chinese espionage and terror plot

Issued on: 23 May 2013

Department of Security

Central Tibetan Administration 

Kaydor Aukatsang

DHARAMSHALA: Kaydor Aukatsang, the political advisor to Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay, has been appointed as the  new Representative for the office of Tibet, New York. He will take charge from 1 September 2013, a release from the Kashag secretariat stated.

There has also been a  reshuffle of Representatives in the offices of Tibet based in Geneva and Brussels.  Mr Tseten Samdup, currently the Representative for the Office of Tibet, Geneva will be the new Representative for the Office of Tibet, Brussels. He will take charge from 2 August 2013.

Mr Ngodup Dorjee, the incumbent Representative for the Office of Tibet based in Brussels, Belgium will be the new Representative for the Office of Tibet, Geneva from 9 August 2013.

Mr Lhakpa Tshoko, Representative to Japan and east Asia whose tenure ends on 1 June 2013, will continue in his current position until His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s scheduled visit to Japan in November.

Tibetan Parliamentarians during their meeting with the chief minister of Arunchal Pradesh

Chief Minister and Political Party Leaders pledge political support for Tibet

May 22, 2013, Itanagar: The Tibetan Parliamentary delegation wrapped up the seventh leg of North-East zone lobby campaign today following a press conference in the capital of Arunachal Pradesh. During the 5-day campaign, the delegation called on the chief minister and political leaders of the state for stronger and fortified expressions of political support for the resolution of crisis inside Tibet.

On May 20, whilst the high-level talk between the visiting Chinese Premier Li Keiqiang and Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh was underway in New Delhi, the 3-member Tibetan Parliamentary delegation held a meeting with the Honorable Chief Minister (CM) of the State Shri Nabam Tuku at the CM Bungalow.  The CM expressed solidarity with the aspiration of the Tibetan people inside Tibet and said that ‘he feels connected to Tibet socially and culturally.’  The CM expressed admiration for the ‘exile Tibetan Administration and the exile Tibetans’ perseverance that persists despite all odds.’  Taking stock of China’s diplomatic maneuvers in the contentious border row between India and China over Arunachal Pradesh, the CM affirmed that ‘practically Arunachal Pradesh shares border with Tibet and not with China.’

The Tibetan delegation met with Shri Mukut Mithi, Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (Congress), former Chief Minister and president of Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC). Shri Mithi avowed party support for the passing of an ‘All-Party Parliamentary Resolution on Tibet Crisis.’

Members of Legislative Assembly – Smt. Karya Bagang and Shri Passang Dorjee Sona received the Parliamentary delegation and assured State support for the Tibetan movement, particularly on Socio-Cultural avenues.

The remaining 58 Members of Legislative Assembly who were placed in their respective constituencies in the wake of the May 16 State-wide Panchayat and Municipal elections and with whom the delegation couldn’t engage in a direct face-to-face meeting were apprised of the campaign and its goals through a memorandum sent via priority mail.

On May 20, the Tibetan delegation took part in a symposium on ‘Tibet and India’ along with leaders of the four political parties of the State, three of which are mainstream parties: Indian National Congress (INC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), National Congress Party  (NCP) and one regional party- People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA).

Shri Thupten Temba, (former Minister) and current Chairman of Media Department, APCC, Shri Tai Taga, State President, BJP, Shri Khafa Bengia, (former Minister) and current President of NCP, Shri Kameng Ringu, President of PPA represented their respective parties.

The strategic symposium dwelled on numerous bilateral issues such as ‘Water’ and ‘Border’ affecting Tibet and India, particularly Arunachal Pradesh. The Brahmaputra River that originates from Tibet serves as lifeline for the State and caters to the future developmental plans to make the State the ‘Powerhouse’ of India.

Following the meeting, the NCP leaders issued a press statement demanding a ‘Water-Sharing Agreement between India and China.’ “As stakeholders in the lower riparians, we deserve access to information on China’s use of Tibet’s waters,” said Mr. Khafa Bengia.

The party leaders unequivocally pledged support-politically and socially for Tibet and Tibetans in Tibet and in exile and resolved to submit a joint letter to the Chief Minister on the Tibet crisis.

The symposium held at Hotel Donyi Polo Ashok, was facilitated by members of Tibet Support Group of Arunachal Pradesh (TSGAP): Mr. Anok Wangsa (former Minister, former MLA), Mr. Tacho Kabak (former NCP President), Mr. Karpak Sora (APCC) and Nima Sange (APCC).

While deeming the steadfast support of the Indian Government and its people towards the Tibetan people as significant, the delegation appealed the Indian leaders for substantial and public expressions of solidarity and support amid the unprecedented spate of self-immolations by Tibetans inside Tibet and the subsequent deepening crackdown by Chinese Government. The delegates also urged India to engage in urgent diplomatic actions pressuring the Chinese Government on various fronts.

The 3-member delegation led by former speaker and member of TPIE, Mr. Pema Jungney, include Ms. Yangchen Dolkar and Ms. Dhardon Sharling. After a successful lobbying campaign in West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand Sikkim, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh the delegation will visit Meghalaya for the ‘All -India Parliamentary Lobby Campaign’.

Nuns of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition during the Geshema dialectic debate on 22 May 2013.

DHARAMSHALA: The first ever Geshema dialetic debate is currently underway at Jamyang Choeling nunnery, located about 10 kms from Dharamshala. 27 nuns from various nunneries across India are participating in the debate which will be held from 20 May – 3 June.

The debating session is 30 minutes, 15 minutes for questions and 15 minutes for answering. The debates are fully monitored and controlled by the Nun Examination Board, comprising of members from Gaden Choeling, Dolma Choeling, Jangchup Choeling, Kachoe Gakyil, the Tibetan Nun’s project and the Department of Religion. Six Geshes from the three great monasteries are also assessing the performance of the nuns.

The historic decision to award Geshema degrees to qualified nuns  was reached last year after a two-day meeting between high lamas, representative of nuns and members of the Tibetan Nun Project. It was decided during the meeting that nuns who passes the final examination after completing a total of 21 years of studies will be conferred a Geshema degree.

Considering the high level of education attained by the nuns of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, His Holiness the Dalai Lama have also over the years, strongly advocated the need to award Geshema degrees.

“The system of debate is similar with the monks except for a few minor differences. The education standard of the nuns are very good,” said Geshe Ladangpa Yeshi Lhundup from Loseling Monastery.

Nuns during the debate.

Some of the over 1,000 Vietnamese and local people listening to His Holiness the Dalai Lama during their meeting at the Kentucky Center for Arts in Louisville, Kentucky on May 21, 2013. Photo/Jeremy Russell/OHHDL

(Dalai Lama.com)

His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s first meeting on his last day in Louisville was with a group of gentle Vietnamese Buddhists.

“Let’s begin with your reciting the Heart Sutra in Vietnamese,” he said. “While you do that visualize the Buddha in the space in front of you surrounded by Indian teachers like Nagarjuna and Asanga, and those who brought Buddhism to Vietnam. And remember how the Buddha practised for aeons to show us that through a combination of the awakening mind of bodhichitta and the wisdom understanding emptiness, we too can attain enlightenment.

“First of all, as I mentioned yesterday we Tibetans are historically junior to you as students of Buddha Shakyamuni. In today’s world, material development is much advanced. It’s useful, no doubt, but at the same time doesn’t necessarily bring inner peace; it tends instead to bring greed and competitiveness. On the other hand, the Buddha’s teachings do provide inner peace, which we can check, because the Buddha encouraged his followers not to take what he said on trust but to examine and investigate it.

“In the Sanskrit tradition of Buddhism it is explained that all sentient beings have Buddha nature, the potential to become a Buddha, and we extend our compassion to all of them.”

His Holiness clarified that it is a feature of the Buddha’s teachings that they appear to be inconsistent because he taught according to the dispositions of his listeners at different times and places. He suggested that it is possible to view other religious traditions as similarly suited to the needs of particular people, times and places and therefore deserving of our respect.

He mentioned meeting groups of Vietnamese in other parts of the world and that he is impressed by the way they keep up their language, Buddhist traditions and monastic robes. He remarked that Tibetans too are trying to preserve their culture and religion in the face of adversity. A question was asked about how His Holiness imagines freedom coming about in Tibet and he replied that although they don’t seek outright independence, Tibetans have their own language and culture, as well as a fragile environment, to protect, something best done by Tibetans themselves. And for that they need genuine autonomy.

Elsewhere in the Kentucky Center, His Holiness next met with middle and high school students from the Louisville area. He began by noting that some people are under the misapprehension that love and compassion are values that belong to religion, whereas he believes they are a natural part of human life, with a biological source. He pointed out that we are all born from our mothers and we have to depend on others to survive. He conceded that there are cases of children being neglected or abused which leads to their insecurity and unhappiness later in life.

“Not only should we not think that human values are confined to religious practice, it would be a mistake to think that compassion only benefits other people, but brings us no reward. My mother was consistently kind and compassionate to others, despite being illiterate and uneducated, and she was also consistently happy. Later, when I came to engage in Buddhist training in compassion, I found it easier because of the seeds of compassion my mother had sown in me.”

Some of the over 2,500 middle and high school students , wearing ceremonial Tibetan scarves as a offering to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, at the Kentucky Center for Arts in Louisville, Kentucky on May 21, 2013. Photo/Jeremy Russell/OHHDL

His Holiness affirmed that as far as he is concerned all 7 billion human beings are like brothers and sisters. He said that when he meets someone he thinks, “Here’s another human being.” A person who practises compassion and forgiveness has great inner strength, whereas aggression is usually a sign of weakness. Similarly, when two people have an argument, it tends to be the one who has reason on her side who is less inclined to become angry. We can reinforce our sense of compassion by using our intelligence.

“If someone behaves negatively towards you, it can be very helpful to remember that they are human beings like you. It’s also helpful to remember to distinguish between an action and the person who does it. If you need to take counter measures to prevent someone doing harm, it is always better to do it with a calm rather than an agitated mind. If we act out of anger, the best part of our brain fails to function properly. Remember, compassion is not a sign of weakness.”

The students had prepared questions and the first asked looking back what advice he would give his 13 year old self, while a second wondered what he enjoys doing that might surprise some people. His Holiness replied:

“I have some regret that at an age that was an ideal time to study I played instead. That time is gone and I regret losing it. When I was younger I loved gardening. I also used to love toys that moved. I’d play with them for a while and then would open them up to see how they worked. In a similar spirit, I looked at the moon through my telescope and seeing the shadows of the mountains realised they were caused by sunlight and that the moon had no light of its own. This was the beginning of my interest in science, which I have encouraged Tibetans to share. Last year, our Tibetan monasteries in India formally decided to incorporate science into their study programs.”

Asked what techniques American youth might adopt to calm down and avoid anger, His Holiness said that what they need to do is tackle their disturbing emotions, adding that if their basic mental state is calm it’s easier to deal with eruptions of anger. He recommended that corresponding to physical hygiene we should encourage the adoption of mental or emotional hygiene. When we have a calm mind we have less fear, anger and suspicion. One way to achieve this is to pay attention to our breath, by mindfully counting 20 inhalations and exhalations. That will reduce our tendency to anger.

To a question about how to deal with prevailing violence, His Holiness observed that this is not only a problem here but in many other places. He said it is another symptom of our need to reintroduce a sense of human values, which he likes to refer to as secular ethics, into our modern education system.

Another student wanted to know if His Holiness has any sense of fear and he recounted being bitten by a dog and then being told that it was a mad dog. He also mentioned visiting the sites of the Holocaust concentration camps in Poland, seeing the ovens and shower blocks and having a strong sense of fear there. This was similar to his response to the two places in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where nuclear weapons were used.

“On the other hand, the news that CO2 emissions have now passed the dangerous threshold of 400ppm is cause for another kind of fear.”

Students and teachers expressed their gratitude to His Holiness for coming, one of them telling him, “You remind us of the goodness within us.”

His Holiness the Dalai Lama with with Louisville Mayor Gary Fischer after his talks at the Kentucky Center for Arts in Louisville, Kentucky on May 21, 2013. Photo/Jeremy Russell/OHHDL

Meeting with Mayor Gary Fischer and his team, His Holiness stressed that whatever you do it is your motivation that is really important. He commended him for his initiatives towards compassion for the city and suggested that under his leadership it should be possible to promote human values under the banner of secular ethics.

Last of all, the organizers and volunteers who had worked hard to make the events in Louisville a success wanted to have a photograph taken with His Holiness. He posed with them, thanked them for all they had done, and, praising the great merit they had created during their work, told them that he always dedicates his merit to the awakening of all sentient beings and recommended they do the same.

Leaving Louisville for Chicago, His Holiness will later today fly across the Atlantic, and with a short stop Europe, travel on to India.

(Tenzin Kunga accompanied Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay during his recent visit to Europe as Sikyong’s personal secretary.)

The reception for Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay on his arrival.

My flight from Delhi, India had just landed at the Frankfurt airport on May 11th in the morning. I was there on my first ever official overseas visit as Assistant to the Sikyong, who was expected to arrive there from Washington DC. My first task was to receive the Sikyong at the Terminal.

As my observant eyes surveyed the expanse of the terminal I spotted the bright colored Tibetan national flag in the near distance. Few hurried steps later the picture became clearer. More than a dozen Tibetans, all in traditional Tibetan attire, some holding Tibetan and German national flags, eyes filled with anticipation and excitement, awaited eagerly – like me – for the Sikyong’s arrival, so that they could accord him the best possible welcome. It was 8 in the morning.

A brief chat with some of them and I learnt that a few Tibetans there had just pulled off a night-shift at work and headed straight to the airport. Similarly, almost all have reached there so early after journeying in train for an hour from their residence. Even though news of the Sikyong’s transit through Frankfurt reached them quite late, they had managed to network among themselves and even planned a welcome coffee and breakfast for the Sikyong at the Terminal – the famed Marsche restaurant being their choice.

The Sikyong then arrived through the crowd escorted by the Tibetan manager of Lufthansa Airlines. The awaiting Tibetans swarmed the Sikyong and basked in the glory of standing next to him. I observed that their level of enthusiasm and admiration for the Sikyong remained constant throughout the hour-long interaction, as they listened attentively to his words. As the Tibetan group later accompanied Sikyong to the waiting car and bade him farewell I could see satisfaction writ large over their happy faces.

This was not to be the one-off welcome that Sikyong were to receive on his Europe leg of his official visit. At the Oslo airport, Norway, even though only about 40 Tibetans resided there, 10 of them had converged there to welcome him – few among them in Tashi Sholpa costume, though they did not perform. An elderly Tibetan was so kind enough to place a bag in my hand whispering in my ears “san-gha balay” i.e., Tibetan home-made cookie “for the Sikyong to have with his coffee”. It was a touching gesture.

During an informal dinner together with the Sikyong in Oslo the Tibetans expressed their admiration and respect for him. He, in turn, acknowledged their active contribution towards the Tibetan voluntary tax, which, he opined, could serve as an example for other Tibetans abroad to follow. They were all ears as the Sikyong advised them on several issues. The warmth of their fondness was just perfect to fight the chilling cold of the Oslo night.

At Stockholm in Sweden, though only a few Tibetans turned up at the airport to receive the Sikyong, it was a packed house at the venue where he was to speak. The Tibetan Community in Sweden, numbering around 30 and an equal number of Swedish supporters – members of Swedish Tibet Committee – had formed their own separate lines outside the venue to receive the Sikyong – all dressed in their Tibetan best – even children as young as seven.

The sun shone bright, even at 7 in the evening, and the Tibetan and Swedish national flags fluttering atop tall poles in the strong breeze, provided the ideal backdrop to the welcome ceremony.

One Tibetan youth, an active volunteer for TCS, told me that the Tibetans had earlier gathered at the venue to cook food for the Sikyong – which explains their absence at the airport . He further explained that his employer at work had in fact sent him a text message saying that he was willing to pay him his full wages for the day, inspite of his absence from work, to express his support for the just cause of Tibet – as he knew about the Sikyong’s arrival in Sweden.

The highlight of the dinner that evening was not much the home-made food but the honest expression of love and admiration for the Sikyong that two Tibetan children displayed by coming over to his dinner table and gifting him their handwritten greeting card, which read “I love you. From all the kids”.

In the recent past, I have heard about large turnout of Tibetans at the airports and outside hotels wherever the Sikyong visited. During his most recent visit to Zurich, Switzerland in April 2013 about 500 Tibetans, I was told, waited outside his hotel to receive him, to name one. I have seen youtube videos of such warm receptions.

It is however to be noted that the official visit of the Sikyong to Norway and Sweden recently was not only to meet with the Tibetan community members there, but his program also included giving speeches, meeting dignitaries and officials, networking with Tibet supporters and also doing a lot of media interviews.

The Sikyong said in his oath-taking ceremony on 8th August 2011 that he had huge shoes to fill – in the wake of devolution of political authority by His Holiness to the elected leadership – and further explained that this devolution was not only to him alone as the then Kalon Tripa but to all Tibetans. Judging by the response of the Tibetans to his arrival in Frankfurt, Oslo and Stockholm and also the show of genuine support by Tibetans in the US and western Europe, to the Sikyong it is amply clear that the Tibetans are shouldering their share of the responsibility of the devolution by standing rock solid behind him in his official endeavors. This reflects the unity of the Tibetan people and is indeed a positive sign in our struggle.

Most of the issues discussed in exile community, be it in media or any public forum, are political in nature. Discussions on education-related issues are rare, if not nonexistent. While we find popular Tibetan websites and journals flooded with articles on situation inside Tibet and exile Tibetan polity, how often do we get to read about the problems and challenges that we face in the field of education today? For instance, no matter how naive, most Tibetans are cognizant of Middle Way Policy and the fact that it is the official standpoint of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA); but how many of us are aware of CTA’s Basic Education Policy (BEP) and its salient features?

Former Kalon Tripa Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche interacting with students at Mewoen Tsuglag Peton School in Dharamsala/File photo

As a person working for Tibetan Education, I often end up discussing on BEP with teachers, administrators, school children and parents. To my surprise and dismay, even after nearly 10 years since the BEP was promulgated by CTA, not many people in our community have even a rudimentary knowledge of the policy and its features. Worse is that many have skewed understanding of the policy which leads them to blatantly discredit it. In this article, I am highlighting three common myths about BEP amongst the Tibetan populace based on what I heard through grapevine and formal interactions.

Myth 1: BEP is Synonymous to Tibetanization of Medium of Classroom Instruction

This is the most common myth about the Basic Education Policy in our community. There is definitely a clause in the BEP document which underscored the need for full conversion of medium of instruction to Tibetan in our schools. However, neither is BEP just about this clause nor is this clause the most important aspect of BEP.

While people may debate on the legitimacy of mother-tongue based classroom instruction (although scientific research in this field has proven beyond any ambiguity that mother-tongue based classroom instruction leads to better conceptual understanding in children), taking one’s impressionistic disliking for this vernacularization aspect of BEP as the sole basis for discrediting the policy as a whole grossly overlooks the significance of the key features of BEP- most of which have universal appeal.

For me the essence of BEP lies in the four aims of giving education viz., enabling to fully awaken the students’ discriminative faculty of mind to be able to distinguish right from wrong which constitutes the principle of “freedom”; students embracing other beings as more precious than the self and sacrificing the self for the service and welfare of others which constitutes the principle of “altruism”; enabling in students the ability to preserve Tibetan culture and natural environment constitutes the principle of “upholding the heritage”; and finally the principle of “innovation” stresses that students should be to introduce new principles, systems, movements and so forth in accordance with the needs of time and place.

Besides these four aims of providing education, BEP endorses: student-centered teaching methodology, abolishment of  3 hour examination system, inculcation of higher order thinking skills, Inclusive Education, teaching of traditional subjects (such as Valid Cognition) and so forth. In short BEP envisages a ‘paradigm shift’ in our education to address the crucial issues plaguing our society such as lack of professionals, unemployment problem and cultural uprooting of youngsters.

Here, I also feel Department of Education is partially responsible for reinforcing this myth in the community. It has overemphasized the Tibetanization of instructional medium through implementation of various BEP related projects over the years. These projects, lopsided towards efforts to vernacularize medium of instruction left more crucial issues (like effecting positive changes in teachers’ classroom practice) almost unattended. I strongly believe that as long as BEP fails to bring about quite a radical change to the existing classroom practice of the teachers, it shall remain just a policy document.

Myth 2: Implementation of BEP will Adversely Affect the English Language Proficiency of Children

At times common sense can be tyrannical, causing unnecessary impediment to progress. The assumption behind the second myth is that below-par competency in English Language will be an obvious side effect of the switch in medium of instruction to Tibetan, and introduction of second language only after III grade as per BEP.

Quite counter-intuitively, many scientific researches in the field of mother-tongue based education system has shown that developing a strong foundation of mother-tongue language in children, rather than impeding, actually helps in acquisition of second language later in school, provided this alternate system is implemented properly.

Retrospectively, for about 40 years since the first Tibetan school was established in India, all the Tibetan schools followed a system wherein medium of instruction was English right from I to XII grade. Going by the (commonsensical yet unscientific) logic behind the second myth, the students who graduated from the Tibetan schools under the previous system must be reaaally good in English! Are they? If majority of the readers objectively respond to this question in affirmative, my argument would stop here. However, if the general response to this question is negative, I won’t hesitate to voice my argument that ‘just as following an English Medium System doesn’t guarantee good English Language competency in children, switching the medium of instruction to Tibetan will not necessarily hamper the standard of English in schools’.

For me this question of language competency (be it Tibetan or English) has very little to do with medium of instruction rather, it has much (if not all) to do with quality of our language classes. Cases of teachers teaching English language in Tibetan medium (even at Secondary and Senior Secondary Level) are not uncommon in our schools, the absurdity of which cannot be fathomed. Emphasis on creative writing, speaking, developing reading habit and so forth which is absolutely crucial for developing language skills has been seriously lacking in most of our schools. How then can we expect our children to possess good competency in languages?

Myth 3: Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche Formulated BEP

On several occasions I have heard people say that BEP is a ‘utopian vision’ of Ex Kalon Tripa Prof.Samdhong Rinpoche which lacks practicability hence, fails to garner popular support from people. Some even go to the extent of saying that Rinpoche is a monk and has no children; therefore for him to insensitively formulate a policy which undermines children’s career prospect is understandable.

If only these people study the rigorous drafting process of BEP, they would realize that BEP is not a handiwork of an individual.

Rinpoche prepared the outline of the Policy in 2003. Subsequently, an Education Drafting Committee was appointed in 2003 comprising of five members chaired by Ven. Karma Gelek Yuthok, then Secretary of the DoE. The committee submitted the first draft to the Kashag. After giving the draft a thorough consideration, the Kashag produced a second draft which was distributed amongst all Tibetan educational institutes and scholars in exile seeking their comments and suggestions. The DoE compiled all the suggestions that were received and submitted them to the concerned authorities. A seminar of Indian scholars distinguished in the fields of traditional as well as modern education was held in January 2004 to consolidate the professional advices and suggestions received on the second draft. A similar seminar of Tibetan scholars and administrative panel was held in February 2004. Thus, a third draft was prepared by the Drafting Committee and it was reviewed by the Kashag.  Later an international seminar of modern academicians was convened by the Kashag in June 2004; final version of the BEP document was prepared after making some changes according to the suggestions that came from the seminar.

Finally, in September 2004, the document was tabled at the 8th Session of the 13th Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies (ATPD) for approval. The Assembly held discussion on the document, made certain changes accordingly and then voted on; the BEP document was ‘unanimously’ approved by ATPD.

The reason why I presented this narrative on the rigorous process of drafting of BEP is to make people aware of the fact that the policy was not casually formulated overnight. It involves hard work of many eminent academicians and scholars in both traditional and modern education over a period of time. Therefore the question arises; are we justified as an individual to discredit the policy simply based on our impressionistic views?

Conclusion:

I presented my viewpoints on the BEP in this article not with the hope of making everybody agree with me. I know that would be unrealistic. However, I feel that healthy discussions on important educational issues (such as the one I brought here)  is seriously lacking in our community; therefore my primary intention for writing this article is to spark intellectual discussion on the topic based on sound reasoning and proper analysis.

Being political refugees in India, I understand if political activism is much hyped in our exile community. I don’t have anything against that. However, we must realize that our struggle is non-violent in nature; education is the key weapon for a nonviolent struggle. In that sense, a collective effort from the community is required to improve the overall standard of education. Working towards a better education is thus, a form of political activism!

After rendering 60 years of meritorious, unceasing and dedicated service to a nation, Tibet lost one of her longest-serving civil servants, most venerable Tara-wa Tenzin Choenyi, widely known as Ku-nyoe Tara la on 14th January 2013, he was 94 years old. One of his last wishes is not to burn his body on the wood as countless insects die in the process. His body was thus cremated in an electronic crematorium in New Delhi on 17th January 2013.

Venerable Tara-wa Tenzin Choenyi/File photo

The most venerable Tara-wa Tenzin Choenyi la was born in Tara’s family of Kharkha village of Gyaltse dzong in 1920. In 1941, at age of 22, he joined then the Gaden Phodrang Government of Tibet as Tsi-drung. In 1952, he was appointed as a staff in the Tibetan foreign office in Beijing, where he served until June 1955, for about three years. He was also a member of the organizing committee and the entourage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s visit to China and India in 1954-55 and 1956 respectively.

Especially during the chaotic year of 1959, people of Lhasa elected him as one of the leaders of masses to supervise the various volunteer groups for His Holiness’s security to safeguard the well-being of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to make sure His Holiness’s safe escape to India. Following the March 1959 Tibetan National Uprising, he came into exile in India with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He began his services in the Private Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama from January 1, 1960, and served in various capacities, most notably as Personal Secretary of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He officially retired in 2001 but continued to offer his services as an advisor until January 1, 2012.

I am fortunate to have ample opportunities to meet him and listen to his words of wisdom, which was an outcome of an extraordinary life that he had. One thing that strikes me most about him is his simplicity in living as well in thought. There was no pompousness and complexity in him, which is usually associated with people of his level of accomplishment. To be complex is easy but to be simple is actually not at all easy, indeed it is one of the most difficult things that an individual can do. In this sense, he is a perfect epitome of a phrase ‘Simple living high thinking’.

His absolute faith and loyalty toward His Holiness the Dalai Lama is unparalleled. In fact, he is the person who spent more time with His holiness the Dalai Lama than anyone else. Since his knowledge of Tibetan history is vast, one day I asked him, who is the greatest Tibetan of all time. He further asked me about my take on the question. In a hesitant voice, I replied; it might be Songtsen Gampo or Milarepa. Without any hesitation, he said it is Current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. He further told me that it was difficult for common Tibetan or for that matter, any other person to see him in the way that he really is!

Given the extra-ordinary life that he had and vast first-hand experience on contemporary Tibetans issues, many people of our community have visited him and sought his view and suggestion on issues about Tibet and others. I could many times see Kalons and other dignitaries seeking his suggestion and advice. Personally, I have visited him when I am in need of some guidance or advice on important matters. What is astonishing to me is his unassuming willingness to give his heart-felt suggestion on every question that I raised, even if it is of trivial matters. He never underestimates anyone, and that is I believe a sign of true learned man.

He placed important and significance emphasis on youth of Tibet and had a vision wherein younger generation becomes what he calls ‘a real Tibetan’. In his Biography, he wrote two specific chapters as a message for the younger generation of Tibetan. In those chapters, he passionately and rationally advised younger generations to study Buddhism and become a meaningful Buddhist.

Author during his meeting with Venerable Tara-wa Tenzin Choenyi

Whenever I am in his presence, he used to test my understanding of traditional Tibetan and Buddhist knowledge, including history of Tibet to which I have failed many times. He would then write it for me on the paper with his amazing Tibetan handwriting and use to tell me to learn it properly. He used to do this for most of the younger generations that came to seek his guidance. Because of him, I could now proudly say that I am Buddhist not because I am born to parents who are Buddhist, but I choose to be one. Personally, he had been one of the most illuminating people who I have ever met. His physical existence might have ceased to exist but the memories that have been created by his compassion and wisdom is and will always be in my heart.

The memories that I have of him are many. Reflecting on those memories, clearly he is man of total integrity, sincerity and honesty. His sense of humanity is profound. He is internationalist in its real sense. His attention to detail was mind-boggling. He is extremely rational in his thought and pragmatic in his deed. It is very well reflected in one of his last wishes, which told his relatives not to consult an astrologer or conduct a lavish final ritual which is customary for a man of his achievement and calibre. All of these qualities together make him a clear thinker, learned scholar, a decisive leader, a compassionate and fearless in standing alone in his principal and above all a good human being.

Traditionally, Tibetans do not celebrate the birthday of an individual. However, fondly remember those who had great accomplishment and service to fellow countryman while he or she is alive. In case of the most venerable Tara-wa Tenzin Choenyi la, he was indeed an individual to be remembered for his unceasing dedication and service to a nation.

* The writer is a developmental professional based in Delhi. He can be reached at tsewangrigzin59@gmail.com. The article submitted by the author.

“The risks of not reforming are now higher than the risks of reforming.” According to Robert Lawrence Kuhn, an American businessman who wrote an authorized biography of Jiang Zemin.

Despite major political scandals, factional infighting in China, and a series of self-immolations in various parts of Tibet, Beijing recently concluded 18th party congress and unveiled the top seven Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) members who are the brains behind the direction of China’s social and economic growth in the years to come. The departed nine members under the helm of Hu Jintao left unprecedented challenges for the new collective leadership headed by Xi Jinping. Unlike his two predecessors, Hu Jintao handed over the most privileged post of chairman of central military commission (CMC) along with the party’s general secretary post to the compromised successor Xi Jinping.

China observers believe Hu’s handover of the military post implies that he has no longer clout over the party elite politics and at the same time it reflects the healthy sign and exemplary to future successions. That was reflected through the party elders’ hand behind the scene particularly the influential 87 years old former party chief Jiang Zemin’s clout in “horse trading” and managed to outmaneuver Hu in filling seats in PSC with his protégés and allies-accounting for five of the seven members. It is visible that from Hu’s side the two relatively younger leaders, Li Yuanchao and Wang Yang, known for their liberal views and reformist outlook failed to reach the apex. Generally, Jiang’s protégés are more hardliners, while Hu’s allies are liberals and reformist.

Xi’s maiden remarks after his proclamation of party general secretary to succeed Hu, stressed on a growing number of corruption nationwide and to eradicate it in order to smooth and successful running of the party. After lambasting corruption, he pressed on gaining trust of the Chinese people to maintain the status quo of the party. There was nothing to hear about political reform which many people are skeptical about his recent conversation with Hu Deping, the son of late party chief Hu Yaobang, who was known to be reformist. Xi reportedly told Hu Deping, a former vice director of the United Front Work Department “Since the people are getting impatient with mere talk about reform, we must raise high the banner of reform, including political liberalization.” As I learned from few China observers that these kinds of conversations are mere a lip service and just to please people.

From another perspective, Xi had a father who was a revolutionary hero and economic reformist, purged by Mao and sent to countryside for manual labor. Later imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1977). After Mao’s death, senior Xi was rehabilitated by then party secretary Hu Yaobang and elected to the Politburo and served as Vice-Premier. He was one among many other liberal minded leaders who believed in meaningful reform unlike Wen Jiabao who expressed undefined political reform on numerous occasions. His Holiness the Dalai Lama recounts that Xi’s father Xi Zhongxun as a close friend, who had a liberal view and approach to ethnic minorities. Overseas China observers believe that junior Xi would gradually step into the shoes of his father to maintain his family legacy.

Unlike eras of four-generation leaders, fifth-generation leaders headed by Xi Jinping will be apparently different in many ways. Nowadays, Chinese people are more aware about its own government’s wrong and failed policies which reflect through number of protests in many parts of Chinese provinces and particularly Tibetans outcry against the regime’s hardline approach reached the breaking point that reflect through a series of self-immolations in different parts of Tibet. A Chinese government rule by the Communist party use the propaganda machine as a tool to disseminate biased information. Unfortunately, during those times, people had not much access to the outside world rather relied on its own government censored news and reports. The very remark of Mr. Xi during the proclamation of power transition was to reconnect with its people. Since, it’s quite clear that the propaganda machine has become ineffective and access to unbiased information has widened in China as well as Tibet. Despite intensified government crackdowns and Internet censorship, many Chinese intellectuals and netizens manage to jump beyond firewall and express their deep concerns for Tibet’s current political situation. Looking into such aspects would certainly bring hope for millions of people around the world who are waiting for Xi’s collective leadership to upgrade new version of reform, which is more liable and practical.

Not to forget about the growing number of Buddhists in China may prove another challenge for new leadership. Large numbers of Chinese devotees every year from Mainland China come to Dharamsala for Dalai Lama’s teachings and to know more about Tibetan Buddhism. For instance, last year alone, more than 1,000 mainland Chinese had attended Buddhist teachings gave by the Dalai Lama in Bodh Gaya, India, a place where Buddha attained enlightenment. On some press accounts, China’s new first lady Peng Liyuan is a Buddhist and more well-known in her homeland than her husband. When Xi joined PSC in 2007, the joke was “Who is Xi Jinping? He’s Peng Liyuan’s husband.” They have a daughter, who attends at Harvard under a pseudonym will likely to be counted under the banner of hope since I believe she is growing in a democratic environment where there is a rule of law and given every value of basic human rights albeit she may be a communist stalwart. People would suddenly disagree with this point but I would rather be on a benefit of the doubt.

China’s economic stagnation at the point is another serious challenge for new leadership. For the past six decades, China experienced great difficulties one which party still negotiates-the economic reform, up to now have been designed specially to maintain the rule of the CCP and enhance Deng’s strategy of “let some people get rich first,” of course some people were the leaders of the CCP and their families. The result has been a rich state and rich party with poor citizens. The fundamental problem lies with the Communist Party who has vested interest like state-owned enterprises, (SOE) the bureaucracy, the local government and the military. To maintain a sustainable economic growth rate, the new leaders have to be bold enough to go against their own personal benefits to avoid the revolt from the middle class in the non-state sector. The decision is in their hand whether to amass an enormous fortune by delegitimizing the Communist Party in the eyes of its own people, which could become a signal of downfall or bring meaningful reform that might prove party’s loss of power.

Some analysts have different view that Xi may boldly take up reform with his comrades. Initially, he wants to build robust support for his vision of change within the party members. Xi would probably experiment the idea of effective change in his second term, even though true economic changes need political transformation as well. “I think the emphasis is on continuity over change this time around,” said Bo Zhiyue, a scholar of Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore.

I believe China is on a do or die situation-Communist Party on one hand and reform on the other hand. It’s up to them whether to maintain the status quo or bring meaningful reform where there is an independent judicial system in which people have every right to evaluate and elect their government officials. This will bring transparency from top to bottom and a healthy sign of democracy.

The highly speculated leadership change in China later this year has brought back a memory of very different leadership change in exile Tibetan community a year back, where an ordinary citizen like me had an active role in choosing our Kalon Tripa (now Sikyong) or political leader of Tibet.

On 20th March 2011, I got up early and rushed to the Polling Booth with pride and excitement like everyone else, proud in electing our own leader and excited about the possible election outcome. Through this democratic election in Exile Tibetan Community, a young charismatic and Harvard educated Dr. Lobsang Sangay won the Kalon Tripa election 2011 with 55% of the nearly 50,000 total vote cast. This is a very small number in comparison to the 1.3 billion plus Chinese, but here we are talking about democratic elections and not factional bargaining. I really wonder how many democratic votes Xi Jinping would require to govern the nation and how far those electoral rights extend beyond few privileged Communist top brass?

There are many more questions but Chinese citizens are not entitled to question the government. They can only speculate like the world has done in recent months about factional infighting before the 18th National Congress to choose the next batch of Chinese leaders. The rubber stamp National Congress will unanimously endorse every proposal put forth by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee without any deliberation. This highly opaque and undemocratic process in Chinese political transition makes us realize the fact that the built up to our Kalon Tripa election has been very democratic, transparent and exciting.

The excitements were bursting out in the streets with Kalon Tripa candidates putting up their campaign posters in every visible corner. As the time for preliminary elections approached, the number of candidates narrowed down to six prominent figures and I was pretty sure of my choice of candidate after reading, listening and watching many debates and campaigns. I wanted our new Kalon Tripa to be someone who could lead Tibetan people as well as take firm and occasionally unpopular but visionary decisions. But in China a different kind of election is fought within Communist Party where different factions secretly play deadly ploys against each other. This means Mr. Xi has to survive the infighting to win the Party’s support and not the general public.

Whereas, Dr. Lobsang Sangay’s triumph as the Kalon Tripa was through intensive campaign to win every vote, travel every settlement, answer numerous queries to convince the general public that he can deliver the task assigned to a Kalon Tripa. The 37.42 percent vote won by Kasur Tethong Tenzin Namgyal is a strong indication of political maturity and diverse views found in every free society.

But in China there is neither election nor candidates to represent the masses. The Chinese government would present yet another musical play on 8th November 2012, where 18th National Congress would endorse and applaud everything put forth like a good comrade who never questions or dare to question. That is why the general public in China doesn’t give a damn who would the next president of PRC would be, because billion plus Chinese citizens are irrelevant in this once in a decade leadership change. Whereas, the Kalon Tripa of Tibet had the electoral verdict of the exile Tibetan community stretching 30 different countries, as well as the love, the songs and the moral votes from Tibet.

Unlike in China where everything happens within the forbidden palace and people could watch only on CCTV, I was among thousands of ordinary citizens and political leaders sharing the same podium during Kalon Tripa Oath ceremony to cheer for the occasion with joy, hope and pride. There were two sights during that function which I will tell and retell my children and grandchildren.

First, how His Holiness the Dalai Lama held our new Kalon Tripa’s head firmly in his chest for few minutes of silent prayers and blessings like 7^th Dalai Lama did when the Kashag(Cabinet) was first set up. The very sight brought tears in my eyes and I did little prayer of my own for the success of new Kalon Tripa in bringing freedom to all Tibetans.

The other sight was when the incumbent Kalon Tripa Prof. Samdhong Rimpoche handed over the 260 years old sovereign Seal Dekyima to Kalon Tripa elect Dr. Lobsang Sangay, which signifies historical legitimacy and continuity of the Kashag which existed since 1751.

Finally in a thank you message, the new Kalon Tripa said: “With profound humility I accept the Tibetan people’s support and the post of Kalon Tripa.” I really wonder who the new Chinese president would thank, the Chinese people or the Communist party?

Obviously there can be no similarity between the world’s largest authoritarian government and the world’s smallest democracy. That’s why we love our leaders while Chinese fear their government.

This analytical paper is written to coincide with the gathering of the second special general meeting of the Tibetan Diaspora towards the end of September 2012.

The Kashag of the Central Tibetan Administration and the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile has convened this important gathering to mobilise, energise and find new solutions to overcome the very urgent and desperate current situation in occupied Tibet, particularly the stream of selfless act of self-immolations carried out by Tibetans inside and outside of Tibet. The general consensus of the motivation and reasons behind the drastic acts of these Tibetans were for the return of His Holiness The Dalai Lama to Tibet and to achieve freedom for Tibetans from the rule of communist China.

This piece that I am about to communicate is an independent analysis of the present day China, China and the world, the world and China, the Tibetan issue and the opportunities as well as the realities that Tibetan movement faces. I am writing this piece not as an academician or as a specialist on either China or Tibet but as a lay person, who has watched, worked and continues to study the Sino-Tibetan relationship or no relationship with keen interest.

Therefore, it is fitting to quote a stanza from an ancient master Shanti Deva who said:

“Here I shall say nothing that has not been said before,

And in the art of prosody I have no skill.

I therefore have no thought that this might be of benefit to others;

I wrote it only to habituate my mind.”

I am sure that there is nothing in this piece that the reader has not read or heard already. But I hope this piece will serve as a small aide-memoires of the current position of China and the current international scenario that are necessary to be considered in making our deliberation to find solutions for Tibet and Tibetans inside Tibet.

It is particularly important this time because the deliberations of the delegates will not formally be commented, protected or blessed by His Holiness The Dalai Lama as the political head of Tibetan people. In other words, we do not have the safety cover of His Holiness The Dalai Lama, which we have always relied upon as a fall back and a guarantor. We are not so lucky now.

It is absolutely essential and vitally important that we consider the wider context under which China is now operating in the world and how other countries including superpowers are behaving, positioning and formulating not only their foreign policies, but also their economic and domestic policies towards China and its impact and consequences on Tibetan issues now and for years to come.

Within a period of thirty years, a periodic span of three generations of Chinese leadership (Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao), China has been transformed from a crippling communist regime to a super power next to the United States.

At the beginning of 2012, The Economist almost as a matter-of-fact reported that China will have a larger economy than America in purchasing power parity in less than five years from now (2016)

The economist also methodically chronicled and published the following statistics:

* China’s net foreign assets surpassed the United States in 2003 (China’s net foreign assets of $2 trillion today versus US net foreign debt of $2.5 trillion);

* Chinese exports surpassed the US in 2007;

* Chinese fixed capital investment took the lead in 2009;

* Chinese manufacturing output surpassed US in 2010;

* Chinese energy consumption also surpassed US in 2010;

* Chinese patent applications granted exceeded the United States applications for the first time in 2010.

* Based on reasonable projections of relative real growth rates China will have the larger GDP as measured by market exchange rates within the next seven years (2018)

China’s stated global aim and core interests:

Beijing’s stated core objectives, loosely and by no means exhaustive, consists of (a) the preservation of communist party and it’s rule in China, (b) unification of Taiwan with mainland China, (c) continuation of rule of Tibet, (d) unhindered access to world’s mineral resources and (e) non acceptance of what China calls imposition or importation of western values such as human rights and democracy in Chinese society.

The world and China

What has become evident is that, during these last three decades, China’s attitude towards the rest of the world has significantly changed since the early days of Deng Xiaoping’s modernisation program or vision of Chinese economy for alleviating the Chinese society from poverty in the aftermath of Mao’s cultural revolution and isolation of China from the rest of the world.

During the past decade, buoyed by China economic success, the country’s regime has manifested in a very assertive entity, threatening those countries with punitive economic repercussion who criticises its human right records, democracy, and issues relating to Tibet and Xinjiang.

This assertive Chinese policy on global development and dominance is imposed on other countries through a mixture of force and diplomacy. It has rattled and confronted the reality, the challenges that other governments especially western governments, parliamentarians, political thinkers and ordinary members of the society alike, may have envisaged on such a turn around. But none are not only unprepared for the consequences but at the speed of its arrival.

It seems the reality of Deng Xiaoping’s famous tactical policy for China of “biding time and hiding one’s talents or strength” has arrived suddenly within a very short period of three decades, with shock waves for the future of world order politically, economically, and the emergence of the concept of human rights, democracy and rule of law in Asia. My assumption here is that once China has actually obtained national wealth and superpower status, it will increasingly act unilaterally without adherence to international norms.

As a consequence is visible from the changing US policy and perhaps many regional countries too are likely to take active measures to hedge against a more unilateral China in the future so that they are not caught unprepared.

American President George W Bush senior rightly saw and politely stated that China is a competitor, but the US and western world accepted China as a “friendly partner” overshadowed by the stream of cheap imports from China that was to glut the insatiable wants of the western consumer society.

Transfer of western manufacturing know-how and technical expertise to China in the search for high profits for the corporations has made the economic benefits more lucrative to political expediency in the past three decades.

The Rise of China and its Impact on the Regional and Global Order

The real question throughout the world today is what does this rise and rise of China means for the regional and global order. What are its real impacts on both regional and global peace, prosperity, security and stability for the immediate decades ahead? How does this economically powerful China affect it treatment of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians and other minorities in China?

The current rise of economic power of China has been compared to the possible down fall of Western economic power primarily due to the global financial crisis, which started around 2006 that resulted in a long and still continuing economic recession in Europe and USA. The present economic crisis in Europe is so acute that it is not only affecting the economic recovery of US, but it still has the full potential to unleash a second round of Global Financial Crisis.

For the Western world this unprecedented rise of China is a very uncomfortable force to be reckoned with. According to Kevin Rudd, the former Prime Minister and current Foreign Secretary of Australia, “this will be the first time ever a non western power will dominate the global economic power since the rise of Spanish Empire in 1492 and that this will be the first time ever a non-democratic country will be the world’s largest economy for nearly 300 years”.

When we look at the impact of the rise of China in terms of global peace and security, we must look at it in a much wider worldwide and historical context than the relatives of G2 (US and China) metrics of the 21st century. The global implications of China rising to the top of the global economic position are simply jaw dropping to consider.

It is, therefore, a subject worthy of the most serious reflection and analysis, not just in Beijing and Washington, but across Asia, across Europe and across the world.

Asia Pacific and USA Foreign Policy change:

The inexorable rise of China has forced US to look eastward withdrawing from their war engagements from Iraq and Afghanistan and Europe First policy engagement with North Atlantic Alliance, which has been the back bone of US foreign policy for the past 60 years.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pronounced the Obama administration’s new approach to Asia Pacific in her November 2011 “America’s Pacific Century” speech where she declared that “the future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the center of the action”. And she further went on to say that “as we move forward to set the stage for engagement in the Asia-Pacific over the next 60 years, we are focused on the steps we have to take at home to secure and sustain our leadership abroad”.

In a very fluid world of changing politics dominated by giants powers, we need to look back and recollect with deep interest how President Obama’s administration has written a new chapter in American foreign policy, saying that United States will move away from South West Asia to focus on the rising power of china.

Clearly, America is broadening its strategic reach and relations in the pacific region both with individual countries as well as with Asian institutions such as ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) and EAS (East Asia Summit) to engage and to maintain a balance of power to counter the growing power and assertive influence of China. China’s growing global power, influence and its assertive territorial claims in South China Sea has made ASEAN countries nervous of the intentions of China. The Asia Pivot policy of Obama Administration has embraced the US by Vietnam and other member countries as a fallback security against their giant neighbour.

It is important to point out that for the first time ever in the ASEAN Regional Forum’s 45 year history, since its inception, there was no agreed communiqué in their 2012 Annual meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, because South-east Asian countries have failed to reach an agreement on how to deal with China’s assertive sovereignty claims on disputed territory in the South China Sea. The Philippines and Vietnamese wanted ASEAN Regional Forum to have a unified policy on South China Sea dispute and to resist Beijing’s insistence that the disputes should be handled on a bilateral level only. Perhaps, American Asia Pivot Foreign Policy may have given these smaller countries some confidence and may have increased their resistance level with China and it seems such countries are reciprocating favourably to the US declared role in Asia Pacific. Rival countries have made claims over territory in the South China Sea for centuries but the recent upsurge in tension has sparked concern that the area is becoming a flashpoint with global consequences.

US had clearly concluded that it not only has vital interests in this Asia Pacific Region in the century ahead, but also that this region will progressively represent the centre of gravity of global economic and strategic power.

US and most of its allies believes that this strategic positioning has kept and will keep the region in peace, thereby enabling open economies to develop, trade and commerce to flourish, and democracies to emerge.

This is where core American and Chinese strategic concepts clash against each other, because the Chinese view that US alliance structures in Asia and Pacific are relics of a cold war past that should be disbanded and that the retention of these alliances is designed to constrain China; and in doing so, continue to frustrate the reunification of Taiwan with the motherland.

Burma

It is not a coincidence that the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should make the first-ever and a landmark historical visit to Burma in December 2011, reversing a fifty year US Policy of engagement with Burma so soon after Obama Administrations Asia Pivot Policy announcement. US is well aware that such high level visit by the administration will not only give high hopes and expectations for the democratic movement in Burma, but that this will also provide the possibility for the Burmese authorities to rebalance its one sided and suffocating relationship with China, which has been resented by ordinary Burmese people.

Secretary of State Clinton’s meeting with Ms Aung Sun Suu Kyi, a Nobel Laureate, human rights icon and champaign of democracy in Burma, has paved the way for greater normalisation of relations between Burma with US and Europe.

Burma has become a client state of China for the past many decades. China has invested heavily in Burma both for its natural resources and for securing and carrying out the so called Maoist encirclement strategic position in surrounding India – which has given home to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan community and enabling and facilitating the exile Tibetans to preserve their language, customs and the unique cultural heritage of Tibet – from the east, Sri Lanka from the south, Pakistan from the west and occupied Tibet and Nepal from the north.

Japan

The continued mistrust between Japan and China are self evident in the past, but the clash between Chinese fighting boats with coastguard off Japan at the end of 2011 and allowing anti-Japanese protests and demonstration to take place in major cities in China by the Chinese Communist Party is a reminder of another flash point with global consequences.

Japan is one of the most important partners of USA in Asia, and China has consistently complained at USA and Japan’s military alliance. In reference to the annual USA and Japan military drill, which took place in Gotemba at the foothill of Mount Fuji on 21st August 2012, China Daily quotes a defence commentator as saying that the drill “is increasing tension in the region and has shown Washington’s true colours, despite its so-called neutral stance over the issue of disputed islands in the East China Sea”.

Again if we look back to the early days of Obama presidency, one could argue that the preparation for the Asia Pivot and American Pacific Century thinking was already underway soon after the end of 2008. It was evident because the Japanese Prime Minister was the first Oval Office visitor from abroad in early 2009 and Secretary Clinton’s first overseas trip was to Tokyo and not to London or Europe.

Australia

In line with US new policy of engagement in Asia, United State has secured a far reaching agreement with Australia to expand its military presence in the country and facility for joint exercises, training, and access to bases and eventual postings of up to 2500 American troops in northern Australia. Naturally, China is very unhappy with this US positioning.

Australia being a member of the club of G-20 and East Asia Summit Forum is also interested in shaping the future of Asia and Pacific region. Australia has huge commercial interests with mainland China with its mineral resources.

European Union and China

The European Union is the biggest and most important trading partner of China. The EU pursues a friendly strategic partnership with China and welcomes Chinese nods and winks when it hints that they may prop up the Euro. Chinese are openly lobbying Chinese government’s interests in Brussels and in the capitals of the European countries, yet at the same time Chinese leaders are telling off and pointing fingers at the European leaders for their lack of leadership for not “putting their houses in order”. Perhaps, it is really a sign of change in time of European fortune that we witness remarkable and extraordinary acts of dependency and vulnerability to see European States publicly seeking China’s financial support to intervene in Euro-bond markets.

Europe welcomes Chinese investments and China has taken advantage in investing and taking over well known brands and buying up ownership in strategic key industries requiring cash injection for the corporation’s survival.

In less prosperous European economies they have invested by either taking over the control or have taken stakes in key industries such as Ocean terminal at Piraeus port in Greece and wind-power farm in Romania. In other key industries they have taken stakes such as in the makers of polysilicon for solar panels in Norway, 40% stake in Norwegian Statoil, Addax Petroleum of Switzerland, a stake in the Fortis bank of Belgium, stake in the Barclays bank in UK etc.

China has two major demands from the EU. Firstly, China would like EU to lift the arms embargo imposed on it after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Secondly, it would like EU to grant them the status of a full market economy, which would shield it from anti-dumping measures.

EU member states remains divided and unable to agree on both issues because of the very sensitive political nature of the arms embargo and the inherent nature of the protection required for home grown industries to safeguard employment from cheap imports.

This has inevitably allowed China to manipulate the internal divisions of the member states and play one member state against others thorough the so called bilateral talks and discussions a format China has very successfully followed in South East Asia.

China and Africa, Latin America

Although China’s global influence, be it through force of assertiveness, through natural course or through bullying and blackmailing tactics, is felt almost throughout the entire world. In the above short and very superficial analysis, I have concentrated mainly on China and its relationships with the United States of America, Europe, Asia and Pacific.

Dominance of Chinese influence in the entire continent of Africa is without any dispute. China’s economic controls and political influence in the whole of Latin American world, former USSR republics are also undisputed. China is promoting their state interests in these countries through a combination of aid programs, particularly in Africa where China is now using aid programs to explore open markets for oil, minerals and other resources. In return for the access to natural resources, China lends cheap money, builds roads, railways, airports, bridges, hospitals, sport stadiums, schools and official buildings.

Although, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not mention Beijing by name but was directed at China when she said “be wary of donors who are more interested in extracting your resources than in building your capacity. Some funding might help fill short-term budget gaps, but we’ve seen time and again that these quick fixes won’t produce self-sustaining results.” at the global summit on development and aid held in South Korea.

For many of the developing nations China has become an essential partner particularly for those repressive and rogue regime states in African continent, Middle East and Latin American oil reach states.

An Overview on China

Whilst China’s economic power is growing and unstoppable, yet this is a country not at ease with itself and there is a huge number of areas which could derail their progress from becoming the world’s number one superpower.

The particular areas to look out for are both internal and external forces, but the explosion of an internal force is more likely and will have more devastating and chaotic outcome if that were to happen. The internal pressure for reform in China is like a boiling kettle and the Chinese government’s own admitted cost of maintaining the internal security in 2010 was US Dollars 93 billion. Experts believe that this amount is $1 billion more than the government’s publicly admitted national defense budget, and surely, such spending on internal security is a devastating blow for the image of a stable China, which it would like to portray and an undoubted evidence of a State at odds with its own people.

A leading UK think-tank on international affairs, Chatham House, states that there were 9 million petitions to the central government in 2009 and estimates that there are as many as 180,000 mass incidents each year. Most of the disputes have arisen because of infringement and summary acquisition of land rights, unsettled pension payments, conflict of political and lack of participation in decision making process in civil society frustrated by the non transparent and control imposed by one party system.

The second major area of internal conflict pressure point is the existence of massive inequalities in income between cities and countryside; development and income gap between coastal and inland regions; between eastern and western regions, as most of the development and wealth is concentrated in coastal regions. The scale of inequality is illustrated by World Bank’s statistics which states that China has 150 million people living in abject poverty, 24 million people malnourished, but China has 35 Dollar billionaires and over 100 Dollar millionaires.

The third pressure point is the massive problem of corruption and nepotism in Chinese society which is enhancing the marginalisation of ethic minorities, non communist party members, religious affiliated groups and other vulnerable members of the society.

The fourth pressure point is both an internal as well as an international issue which relate to Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia on one hand and Taiwan on the other. China’s continued inability to address and resolve the real and unprecedented grievances of the people of Tibet and Xinjiang has continued to dogged the Chinese government by a series of public disorders, unrest, protests and international condemnation of the Chinese government for its hard line policies and handling of these issues, which continues to taint it’s authority and legitimacy of rule in these ethnic regions, especially in occupied Tibet.

Sino-Tibetan Relations: The Way Forward

The objectives of Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People proposed by the Tibetan side, which provides the basis for a realistic and sustainable political solution to the issue of Tibet, is sill achievable through a strategy of campaign and continued engagement and negotiation with China even in the face of the latter’s intransigence. All we need is a political will from Beijing to resolve the question of Tibet. The last round of talks between the two side was held in January 2010.

A progressively wealthy and powerful China should have the confidence to settle the Tibetan issue during the life time of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, who is revered and enjoys the full confidence of all Tibetans both living inside and outside of Tibet. China should not fear the sincere overtures of His Holiness in helping China to settle the question of Tibet for the mutual benefit of Tibetan and Chinese peoples.

His Holiness has often talked about and recognised the need and benefits of a wealthy, powerful and industrious China to help bring economic development to Tibet. It is important for the Chinese leaders to realise and appreciate His Holiness’s genuine views and hopes for the benefit of both Chinese and Tibetan communities.

China must also be wise and confident enough to accept that it is in the best interest of China to settle the Tibetan issue as quickly as possible. The unsettled Tibet problem is one of the worst burdens that China has and this is holding back China in the eyes of international community. An amicable political settlement of the issue of Tibet with the return of His Holiness to Tibet will undoubtedly earn China international recognition for its political maturity and moral authority necessary to be a world super power.

Since the election of Kalon Tripa Dr. Lobsang Sangay, the unannounced official Chinese position had been that of a non engagement policy with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration.

Of course, this is much regretted from Tibetan side and I hope the new Chinese leadership, which will be selected in mid October, will reverse the existing hard line policy of non engagement with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Central Tibetan Administration. The new Chinese leadership has the opportunity to seize the moment to restore freedom in Tibet by putting an immediate end to the draconian control imposed in Tibetan areas. This will give breathing space for normal existence to begin, whereby the trauma of hopelessness will cease and may help to end the cycle of tragic self-immolations in Tibet.

As I am giving my finishing and final thoughts to this piece, the number of Tibetans who have set themselves on fire reached 51, of which 41 died. But unfortunately, there is no sign of abatement in this drastic form of non-violent protest against the continued Chinese rule in occupied Tibet and the denial of the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to his homeland.

The political movement of self-immolation, which started from inside Tibet, is a testament of desperation and unhappiness endured by Tibetans in Tibet.

We really need to collectively engage in the forthcoming Second Special General Meeting to come up with strategies and programmes, which will enable us to achieve an amicable resolution of the political future of Tibet based on the forward-looking and foresighted principles, philosophies and guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Sonam T Frasi is a former Member of Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile

September 2012.

Ancient China erected the Great Wall to keep out the barbarians. Modern China has erected the Great Firewall to prevent barbarian thoughts from infecting the health of the citizens of the People’s Republic. Like the ancient wall, the Great Firewall has been breached. Tibetan exiles have initiated a conversation with the netizens of China that has the potential to moderate Beijing’s policy towards Tibetans and other minorities.

One burning topic of discussion between Tibetan exiles and the Chinese on the Mainland is the spate of fiery deaths that engulf Tibet today. So far, 51 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2009. All of them called for freedom in Tibet and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to his homeland. When informed of these self-immolations, the reaction from the Chinese netizens is one of is shock and disbelief. Even when images of self-immolations were sent to them, the sentiment of the majority Chinese netizens is, this can’t be happening in China.

Ai Weiwei: Nobody is talking about the burnings in Tibet/Photo credit: Dezeen Magazine

Buried in the widespread sentiment of disbelief are also expressions of support and understanding, says Tsering Wangmo, who heads Drelwa, a Tibetan NGO based in Dharamsala, the seat of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in north India. Drelwa consist of six young Chinese-speaking Tibetans who daily surmount the Great Firewall of China to carry on a conversation with netizens in China. One netizen writes, “You Tibetans are not alone. We are also frustrated by rising food and rent prices. Though we haven’t heard about the self-immolations, we understand the reasons for the frustration arising out of a loss of hope.”

Another blames the Chinese Communist Party for the increasing cases of Tibetans resorting to self-immolation. He says, “The CCP hides the truth and spreads distorted information. The CCP suppresses not only Tibetans, Mongols, Uighurs but the Chinese people. The Chinese people don’t know the truth because all channels of free information are blocked. To solve all these problems, China must tread on the path of democracy.”

These are some of the sentiments of support and sympathy whispered beyond the radar of China’s censor and below the din of China’s Internet chatter.

Others openly express what they feel about the self-immolations going on in Tibet. For example, in an interview for the Foreign Policy magazine in its September-October 2012 issue, Ai Weiwei, the world famous Chinese artist, made these comments. “The one exception is Tibet, because of its natural resources, but the Tibetan people are burning themselves to death. Already over 40 of them in the past two years, and nobody’s talking about it.”

When asked whether he had been to been to Lhasa before, Ai Weiwei said, “No. I would feel ashamed to go. I think to respect [the Tibetans] is not to touch them, to leave them alone.”

Ran Yunfei, one of China’s most outspoken public intellectuals, in an interview to Ian Johnson for the New York Review of Books, said, “The communists really destroyed religion. They don’t understand it at all. Look at Tibet. I told the guobao (state security agents) that, “you guys have gone too far. You don’t allow them to hang pictures of the Dalai Lama. You don’t have faith so you don’t understand. So the Tibetans get very angry and depressed. And then you go into temples and instead hang pictures of Mao and Jiang (Zemin) or Hu (Jintao). You’ve gone overboard! This isn’t right. Think about it. No wonder they set themselves on fire.”

Ran Yunfei: The communists really destroyed religion… No wonder they set themselves on fire/Photo credit: New York Review of Books

In the wake of the widespread and sustained protests that erupted in Tibet in 2009, Chinese intellectuals’ expression of sympathy for Tibetan grievances was loud and clear. A letter, signed by the leading lights of China, including by the imprisoned Nobel Laureate, Liu Xiaobo and more than 340 others, urged the Chinese authorities to hold direct dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama to resolve the issue. Similarly, in May 2009, Gongmeng, a law firm in Beijing that advocates the rule of law, published a detailed report investigating the causes of Tibetan discontent. It cited China’s policy failure as a major cause. The reported recommended that Beijing in future base its Tibet policy on the aspirations of the Tibetan people.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama joined in this conversation in 2010, answering questions on his successor, his approach to resolve the issue of Tibet with Beijing, the nature of autonomy for Tibet, whether Tibetans would stick to non-violence after his demise and relations between Tibetans and Chinese. 1,543 Chinese submitted 326 questions. 12,771 netizens voted for the final ten questions, which were then answered by the Tibetan leader.

Yu Jie, now in exile in the United States, the author of Wen Jiabao: China’s Best Actor and a biography of Liu Xiaobo, commenting on the event said,  “The scale of the dialogue is not that big, just several thousand [participants]. However, I believe its influence and impact are getting bigger and bigger. One day it will defeat all distorted propaganda on the Dalai Lama and truth in Tibet.”

Given China’s current fluid political situation in which the premier of the nation is calling for the absolute necessity for political reform, these voices of moderation and tolerance may shape China’s attitude towards Tibet. Li Yuanchao, head of the Organization Department that supervises appointments of officials and a strong candidate for the Standing Committee of the Politburo, recommends that the authorities “comply with the will of the people.” If these sentiments of Chinese leaders are translated into policy, there is real hope for China and its minorities.

For another group of Chinese there is a different Tibetan attraction. This is Tibetan Buddhism. Young and well-to-do Chinese are turning to Tibetan Buddhism, inviting Tibetan lamas to their homes, joining monasteries in Tibet and even coming to India to attend the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This year in January when the Dalai Lama gave a set of Buddhist teachings in Bodh Gaya in northern India where the Buddha attained enlightenment, more than 1,000 Chinese from the Mainland attended the event.

These two strands of conversation which the Tibetans carry on with the Chinese in the Mainland constitute a drop in an ocean. However, if it is allowed to grow to its full potential within an evolving and increasingly pluralistic China, this conversation will help positively shape how China treats its minorities.

*Thubten Samphel is the director of the Tibet Policy Institute. Views expressed here do not reflect those of the Central Tibetan Administration.

Liu Xiaoming

By Thubten Samdup, Representative, Office of Tibet, London

The Chinese ambassador to Britain, Mr. Liu Xiaoming’s colourful tourist travelogue on Tibet painstakingly details many vistas where Tibetan cultural and religious life historically intersects with that of the Han Chinese. Making analogy with the UK’s political structure, the assertion here is that myriad sites, depicting centuries-old intercultural links and shared Buddhist references, speak of a Tibet that has always been integral to the greater China. Of course, it too easily discounts the centrality of the Dalai Lama to the Tibetan Buddhism to which he so liberally refers. In addition to summarily discounting Tibetan claims to sovereignty, Mr Xioaming’s eye-witness account of an intercultural landscape (Han & Tibetan) offers no evidence of a Tibetan struggle. If anything, we are informed that should we visit this landscape we would encounter a people faring better than ever; living as full-fledged integrated Chinese citizens.

Mr Xiaoming’s bucolic account comes on the heels of a 16 month-long upsurge of intense protest inside Tibet. In addition to ongoing street demonstrations, the region has witnessed a massive wave of tragic self-immolations. These are reportedly in protest against the Chinese government’s repression of religious freedoms, cultural and human rights. Amnesty International has called on the Chinese government to end these repressive practices immediately and respect the right of Tibetans to practice their culture and religion.

Offering a travelogue to a region closed to foreign reporters and tourists is a perplexing choice. The irony is not lost on the reader which it evidently underestimates. As for Mr. Xioaming’s idyllic report and bold statement that Tibetans inside Tibet are much happier and fare better; that they would voluntarily choose to live under the current Chinese system, what then should we make of the extreme tension in the region?

If closed to tourists, at the very least shouldn’t Tibet be open to international non-governmental organisations like Amnesty International and Doctors without Borders, etc.? Why aren’t these humanitarian agencies allowed to travel freely, and witness the situation first-hand? Tibet is closed to the outside world. There have been on-going protests and popular resistance through over the last fifty years. What can we conclude from this but that the attempt to ‘integrate’ Tibet into China has been catastrophic. Mr. Xioaming’s sightseeing account is little more than an excuse to spread the same tired propaganda that has been coming out of China since 1959: It peddles Beijing’s standard discourse, same the half-truths and disinformation the PRC has always served up with regards to our Tibetan homeland, in which it routinely alleges to have brought ‘harmony’ to a once feudal people.

The fact is, over the last year, an extremely tense situation in Tibet has grown particularly tragic: Young Tibetans, inside Tibet, have begun setting themselves on fire to protest an intolerable rise in public surveillance and escalating violence by Chinese forces. These incidences were sparked by violent incursions on several major Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, further impinging on the practice of religious and cultural rights. With the UN and many Western governments failing to effectively respond or validate the cries of Tibetans for human rights, the situation inside Tibet grows increasingly dire. The majority of protestors are young Tibetans, born under Chinese rule. They have never known an independent Tibet and have been taught that Tibet has always been a part of China. Yet, it is this very group who is leading street protests, risking imprisonment and torture. Over the last year, more than 40 Tibetans have self-immolated in a desperate plea to draw attention to our country’s plight; most of them young and having never known anything but occupation. The non-violent resistance carried out by young protestors are not the actions of secessionist miscreants: they are the actions of a people driven by a deep longing to return to wholeness. Like all people living in democratic nations who highly value their sovereignty and liberties, Tibetans also yearn to be free in their own homeland. The Tibetan struggle, under the leadership of His Holiness, has been and remains a non-violent one.

With regards to these current protests, our new Prime Minister Dr Sangay has said: “Stability cannot be restored in Tibet through violence and killings of Tibetans. The only way to resolve the issue and bring about lasting peace is by respecting the rights of the Tibetan people and through dialogue.” He has called on the international community to raise the issue of the fundamental rights of the Tibetan people at this critical time, and requested that the United Nations send a fact-finding delegation to Tibet.

Note: Liu Xiaoming’s ‘Tibet is a better place than it used to be’ was published in The Telegraph on 26 July 2012. Mr. Thubten Samdup, Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Office of Tibet, London wrote the above mentioned response to Ambassador Liu’s piece, delivered to The telegraph. But surprisingly, it was not published by The Telegraph.

He Qinglian: the chronicler of China's Great Leap Backward

For much of the past three decades China was viewed by the world as the engine that drove global prosperity. Communist China was credited with lifting the greatest number of people out of poverty in the shortest possible time in all of human history. The world was mesmerised by China’s stunning economic performance. Meanwhile, in 2006 China laid a railway line to Lhasa, the highest in the world. The Olympic Games held in Beijing in 2008 brought all these economic and technological achievements to a dazzling climax. China’s place in the world was firmly established and was well deserved.

However, the recent downfall of Bo Xilai, the party chief of Chongqing, the sprawling metropolis in China’s most populous province, Sichuan, from the pinnacle of power and the brave dash of the blind human rights activist, Chen Guancheng, to the American embassy in Beijing exposed the dark side of China’s economic growth. China’s economic growth comes at huge human cost and is based on pervasive corruption.

Even in the days when China dazzled the world, there were China scholars who wrote about the connection between the country’s economic growth and the corruption it spawned. The connection between the two became even stronger when in 1992 during his famous southern tour Deng Xiaoping, to prevent the Chinese Communist Party’s possible fall from grace and power, urged the Chinese people to go into the business “even more boldly” and “even faster.” That’s a fine sentiment and no one can disagree. But what was left unsaid was how the Chinese people could become rich and within what rules? To spell out these details would be to dismantle the one-party state. In order to save the Chinese Communist Party, China’s paramount leader threw the Chinese people to the vultures of a predatory state.

Today the Chinese people are suffering from the decision Deng made of sacrificing China for the sake of the Party. Since then, the Party treated the Chinese state as an economic pie to be divided among its different interest groups. Two broad interest groups emerged. The Party and business elites, working in collusion, started plundering the wealth of the state.

Here’s how the Party does it, as told by Bao Tong, an aide to the late Chinese premier Zhao Ziyang, to Ian Johnson in an interview published this month in the New York Review of Books. “If I were in the current system,” said Bao Tong, “I’d be corrupt too… If you’re in that system, they’ll say, oh, your son should be a CEO. If you say, no, he shouldn’t, then they say, how can he not? If your son can’t be one then ours can’t be one either. Then they’d push you out of the boat.”

One of the most detailed examination of  the link between corruption and economic growth in the People’s Republic of China was done by He Qinglian in her book, China’s Pitfall published as far back as 1998. It is a credit to the Chinese leaders that this book was allowed to be published in China at all. Within two weeks of publication, the Chinese public snatched all 100,000 copies. Later, 330,000 pirated copies came out.

In her book, He Qinglian says that China’s economic dynamism is based on “a process in which power-holders and their hangers-on plundered public wealth. The primary target of their plunder was state property that had been accumulated from forty years of the people’s sweat, and their primary means of plunder was political power.”

In a lengthy review of He Qinglian’s book for the New York Review of Books, Chinese writer Liu Binyan, and Perry Link wrote, “The fiftieth year of the People’s Republic, for example, will lead to comparison between the Communists and the Nationalists whom they displaced. The corruption of the Nationalists was ugly in the late 1940s, but many say it is far worse now. Problems of inequality, vice, and crime, which the revolution swept away in the 1950s, have returned. A popular saying goes:

For forty-some years, ever more perspiration,

And we just circle back to before Liberation;

And speaking again of that big revolution,

Who, after all, was it for?”

This saying encapsulates China’s entire history and the cyclic nature of that history. Droughts, floods and corruption lead to massive peasant rebellions that in turn lead to the creation of a new dynasty, which ushers in unification, peace and prosperity. Then inertia sets in and the ruling elite degenerates into so many corrupt regimes of the past. The cycle of rebellion, renewal and disintegration starts afresh. Who is to say that the Chinese Communist Party can escape this cycle without reforms of renewal and restoration of faith?

But to answer the question, who, after all, was the revolution for? This question was answered by the two reviewers quoting another popular Chinese saying. This saying is called A Short History of Comradely Sentiment. It runs:

In the 50s we helped people.

In the 60s we criticized people.

In the 70s we deceived people.

In the 80s everybody hired everybody else.

In the 90s we “slaughter” whoever we see.

The two reviewers explain. “The word ‘slaughter’ (zai), which corresponds in both sense and tone to ‘rip off’ in American English, is now widely used. Few people in the outside world appreciate how pervasive the attitude and practice of zai have become in China. Probably in no other society today has economic good faith been compromised to the extent it has in China.”

The writer is the Executive Director of Tibet Policy Institute of Central Tibetan Administration.

(The views expressed here are that of the author and shall not be regarded as views and policies of Central Tibetan Administration.)

“The dream of returning to Tibet is a dream that unites us all”

 Ever since I was a child in a Tibetan school in south India, I was taught that our country is Tibet and that we should be proud of being a Tibetan. And I have grown up duly, dwelling in the awesome feeling of being a Tibetan.

But as I grew up, I felt the dream of returning to the promised land, from where my parents came, kept getting farther and farther because as I see it, the Tibetan movement, as vibrant and widespread as it may be around the world at the moment, thrives solely on the support of others/foreigners, which also is based on one main fulcrum: His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

I believe for a movement to succeed, the strength of the movement should be reflected in its ability to support itself and survive, not in its ability to survive with the support of others.

The global Tibetan movement led by the Central Tibetan Administration works to raise the various issues facing Tibet today particularly Tibetan Culture and Religion, Education, Human Rights and Environment, through a middle way approach which is based on truth, justice and non-violence. Other than these issues, one of the main goal of the Central Tibetan Administration is the resettlement of these Tibetan exiles and unite their collective resource to spearhead the movement for the restoration of Tibetan freedom.

Over the past 51 years, the Central Tibetan Administration has been highly successful in creating an ersatz Tibetan world in exile, catering to the welfare of more than 129,000 Tibetan exiles, a major chunk of which is scattered across 55 different Tibetan settlements in India, Nepal and Bhutan. It also has seven major departments and 11 Offices of Tibet across the world working strenuously with leaders, thinkers and Tibet support groups.

The financial resource on which the Central Tibetan Administration stands, is just a shallow pool of funds collected through donations, govt aids and the Tibetan voluntary fund.

The Tibetan Voluntary fund, is an annual “voluntary contribution” from the Tibetans in exile, introduced by the Central Tibetan Administration on August 1, 1972. The aims and objective of this fund is to create a firm and stable administration to look after the present and future well being of the Tibetan people. The annual contribution is recorded in a document, also called the “Green Book”.

As of 2011, the annual rate is 58 rupees for an adult Tibetan in India, Nepal and Bhutan whereas it is 98$ for an employed Tibetan and 46$ for an unemployed Tibetan residing abroad.

The Green book is also described as the passport of the exiled Tibetans to claim their rights from the Central Tibetan Administration. And rightfully so, for any Tibetan to avail their legitimate rights like scholarships or to get employment in Tibetan civil services or any other Tibetan organisation or schools, the green book is the basis on which your legitimacy as a Tibetan exile is examined.

Moreover, Tibet.net, the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration says that, in the future, the Green Book “will become a base to claim Tibetan citizenship”.

Hence, the Tibetan Voluntary Fund or “the Green Book” is not only an important official document to avail our rights, it is also the solution to create a robust, stable and self-sufficient administration for the continuance of its works towards the fulfillment of the Tibetan dream, in line with the present Kashag’s principle of Unity, Innovation and Self-determination.

But most of us Tibetans fail to pay our contributions diligently, thereby shooting ourselves on the foot unintentionally. Its not that we lack patriotism or nationalistic feelings. We all have this burning desire to do something and contribute to the Tibetan movement but we are so caught up in the cob webs of our own creation, unable to breakaway from the shackles of work, family, relationships, heartbreaks etc.

So its high time we use our collective will, tighten the belt of our resolve and pay our annual green book dues willingly without fail for the smooth flourish of our Tibetan movement and for the sustenance of the Tibetan dream. I think its the least we could do, if we don’t want to get stuck in a land where we don’t belong and in a place which we don’t call home for the rest of forever.

The Tibetan Voluntary Fund, small as it is in amount, is the fuel that keeps the spirit of the Tibetan struggle burning. I believe it is the spark at the top of the Tibetan incense which will eventually light up China’s dynamite, shaking the very foundations of the PRC in the not so distant future.

The writer works at the Department of Information and International Relations.

(The views expressed here are that of the author and shall not be regarded as views and policies of Central Tibetan Administration.)

[IANS]

Dharamsala: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is all set to reach out to Indians in Hindi. The Hindi version of his official website will be launched Saturday. “His Holiness (Dalai Lama) often describes himself as ‘son of India’ and it’s only natural that his website (dalailamahindi.com) is made available in Hindi too,” Tenzin Taklha,addl secretary at the Dalai Lama’s office, told IANS.

 ”Now Hindi-speaking people will have online access through the Dalai Lama’s thoughts and other related news,” he said.

Both the English and Hindi websites would be updated simultaneously, Taklha added.

(View full story)

(The New York Times)

WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved a broad overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws on a bipartisan vote, sending the most significant immigration policy changes in decades to the full Senate, where the debate is expected to begin next month.

The 13-to-5 vote came as the committee reached a deal on one of the final snags threatening the legislation — and agreed to hold off on a particularly politically charged amendment, which would have added protections for same-sex couples.

After intense behind-the-scenes negotiations, Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, struck an agreement with the group of eight senators who drafted the original bill to address his concerns about visas for skilled foreign workers who could fill jobs in the high-tech industry.

By late afternoon on Tuesday, Mr. Hatch had said that he would support the bill out of committee, if not necessarily on the Senate floor, after the committee agreed, via a voice vote, to pass his amendment. (Read the Full Report)

 (View video)

Advice has been offered to members of the People’s Armed Police on combating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Photo: CAI JUN/EPA

[By Malcolm Moore / The Telegraph]

BEIJING: The leaked 25-page training manual was given to members of the People’s Armed Police charged with keeping order in Tibetan areas of Sichuan province.

Among the advice it offers are ways of combating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for paramilitary troops involved in recent atrocities.

One section is titled: “How should you deal with flashbacks of brutal episodes?” It specifically refers to an incident in Aba county on March 16, 2011 when a Tibetan monk named Phuntsok self-immolated in a market and to a protest on March 18, 2009 in Seda and Ganzi counties where Chinese armed police, confronted by protesting Tibetans, fired into the crowd. (View full report)

India’s decision to once again avoid reaffirming its commitment to a ‘One China policy’ has raised eyebrows in Beijing but Indian officials are playing down the omission of “Tibet” from the joint statement issued after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Diplomats in Beijing say China seeks from every country, without exception, a reference to a ‘One China policy’ in a joint statement, seen as a fundamental Chinese core concern. China’s need to seek assurances from foreign governments on this is rooted in its decades-old sensitivities over Taiwan, though the term also refers to Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Macau, besides Taiwan, as being parts of China.

Considering that China views the issue as a core concern — and, in the past, even as a fundamental prerequisite for the establishment of diplomatic relations — Chinese analysts and diplomats were of the view that the omission would not be seen in Beijing as a routine matter. (View full article)

WASHINGTON – US lawmakers debating a landmark immigration bill on Monday approved the provision of 5,000 visas to Tibetan refugees to enter the United States over the next three years.

Citing “terrible” and increasing oppression by Chinese authorities against Tibetans, Senator Dianne Feinstein offered the matter as an amendment to the vast legislation aimed at fixing the US immigration system.

Feinstein said the measure, approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee by voice vote, would ease conditions for displaced Tibetans living in India and Nepal, where she noted Tibetan resettlement facilities are more than 50 years old. (View full report)

By Edward Lucas

The West must unite to resist Chinese bullying against those who meet Tibet’s leaders

[Petitions24.com]

To:

Xu Zhiyong appeared in the Chinese edition of Esquire in August 2009, while he was being detained for alleged tax evasion.

Rights defense lawyer Xu Zhiyong has continued his advocacy despite years of setbacks. The Open Constitution Initiative, a legal assistance NGO he and several other lawyers founded in 2003, was shut down in 2009 by Beijing officials, citing tax evasion. After writing a blog post about the New Citizens’ Movement last May, Xu was detained overnight. In the run-up to the National People’s Congressthis February, Xu was one of 100 signatories to an open letter to the Chinese government calling for the ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Xu was put under house arrest during the Congress. He lectures at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, but has been barred from teaching because of his activism.

In an April 12 blog post, Xu describes how the police pulled him from a flight to Hong Kong and questioned him about the New Citizens’ Movement and public dinners he has helped organize to discuss issues of civil rights and democracy. Both this blog post and his April 23 essay on the New Citizens’ Movement are translated below.

On April 12, I was on my way to Hong Kong to participate in the “Symposium on the 10th Anniversay of the Sun Zhigang Case” at the invitation of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Teng Biao. I went through border control waited for my flight. “See you this afternoon,” I told Teng.

 

(View full article)

In his rare appearance before a Washington audience, the head of the Tibetan administration in exile said that though he has no complaints or regrets, but he wish India could have done more for Tibet.

India and China are increasingly facing off each other because Tibet is no longer a “buffer zone” between them, the leader of Tibet’s exiled government has said, noting that “pre-1949 there was hardly even a policeman on the border”.

Highlighting the importance of the strategic Himalayan region for India, Tibetan Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay said, “There was never incursion in ’40s and ’30s because India and China were never next to each other. Tibet always served as the buffer zone. Now they are facing off each other.” (View full report)

In his talk at CFR, the Sikyong was referring to the socialist system of China at the national level. The Middle-Way policy seeks genuine autonomy within the framework of the Chinese constitution which obviously requires restructuring of the existing system to include all the Tibetan areas under one single administration and implementation of Chinese laws. 

Also in an Op-Ed by Nicholas Kristoff in the New York Times on 6 August 2008, His Holiness the Dalai Lama had stated that he can accept the socialist system of China if genuine autonomy is granted to Tibetans.

The Sikyong has consistently maintained that the occupation of Tibet and repression of Tibetans are the causes of protest through self-immolation by Tibetans.

Mr Tsering Wangchuk

Press Officer

DIIR, CTA

Margaret Thatcher ( 1925- 2013 ), former prime minister of the United Kingdom.

Press Release

April 11, 2013

DHARAMSHALA: The Central Tibetan Administration expresses its deepest condolences at the passing away of former British Prime Minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher.

“With her passing away, the world has lost a great leader, a woman who lived an exemplary life to prove that there is no glass ceiling a woman with determination cannot break and thus acting as a great inspiration for humankind,” stated Sikyong in a condolence letter sent to her son, Sir Mark Thatcher.

Remembering her outright stand on Tibet in later years of her life, the letter quoted the following passage from her book, Statecraft : Strategies for a Changing World, “The Chinese claim to Tibet is dubious on historical grounds. In the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Tibet became a Chinese protectorate. However, in the nineteenth century Beijing’s control weakened until it was virtually symbolic. Between the overthrow of the Empire in 1912 and the Chinese communist invasion of 1950-51, Tibet functioned as an independent state.”

Media contacts:

Mr Tashi Phuntsok, Secretary for Information & International Relations; +91 98165 39103
Mr Tsering Wangchuk, Press Officer, +91 9882728337, +91 8679208465

April 10, 2013

Central Tibet Administration has enough evidence to prove that Gyama (Jiama) mining tragedy is man-made disaster

The environmental researchers of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) based in Dharamsala, India, refute reports in the China’s official media outlets stating that natural causes triggered the recent landslide at a copper and gold mine near in Tibet’s capital Lhasa which killed at least 83 miners. The Environment and Development Desk of CTA has released a 16-page report titled ”Assessment Report of the Recent Devastating Landslide in Gyama Valley: It’s Possible Cause and Impacts”, detailing the actual causes of the mining disaster and its collateral issues.

“In order to acquire maximum profit in the shortest period possible, mining in Gyama has been pursued aggressively. Whole swaths of land have been excavated in several sites and in some cases the whole face of a mountain has been ripped in the process of exploration, water diversion, mining and road construction. It was just a matter of time that such a large scale and aggressive expansion out of the mine was going to cause a big disaster,” the report reads. [View full report]

Media contacts:

Mr Tashi Phuntsok, Secretary for Information & International Relations; +91 98165 39103
Mr Tsering Wangchuk, Press Officer, +91 9882728337, +91 8679208465

Large-scale mineral resource extraction in the Gyama valley

On Friday, 30 March 2013, China’s official media reported that 83 miners including two Tibetans have been buried after a major landslide hit a part of the Gyama (Ch: Jiama) Copper Gold Polymetallic Mine. So far, the rescue efforts have failed to find any survivors or bodies and the chances of survival for those buried are getting slim. This is a sad and unfortunate incident that resulted in large number of casualties that could be higher than reported.

Environment and Development Desk (EDD) of the Central Tibetan Administration based in Dharamsala, India, fear that this tragic incident could be a result of the aggressive expansion and large-scale exploitation of mineral in the Gyama Valley—a man-made phenomenon rather than just a ‘natural disaster’.

Gyama mine is located in Medrogungkar (Ch: Maizhokunggar) County of the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region, about 68 kms from Lhasa. It is a large scale polymetallic deposit consisting of copper, molybdenum, gold, silver, lead and zinc with the potential to become the China’s biggest copper producer in 10 years. The Gyama Mine has been selected as a “pilot of the national green mines project” by Ministry of Land and Resources (PRC) in 2012 and also a “Model enterprises of national unity and progress”. As a requirement, Gyama mine must meet higher standard of technology oriented and corporate responsibility-oriented laws with adherence to policies of “people first” and “safe production”, promote “harmony between the mine and the community and shoulder the responsibility of social welfare”.

However in the past decade, Gyama mine has been a major failure in terms of the social harmony and environmental protection in the area. Before it was consolidated under a one umbrella in 2007, the Gyama Mine consisted of four small mines which has been causing pollution, land degradation, harm to livestock etc. After the consolidation, large-scale and heavy mechanized operations accelerated the ongoing environmental and social problems. There has been rapid expansion of the mining operation which covers a total of 145.50 sq. km including mining area of 76.19 sq. km and exploration covering an area of 66.41 sq. km. In order to acquire maximum profit in the shortest period of time, whole swaths of land have been excavated in several sites and in some cases the whole face of a mountain has been ripped in the process of exploration, water diversion, mining and road construction. Such a large scale and aggressive expansion out of the mine could have caused the recent event of landslide.

Due to the massive influx of Chinese migrants, Tibetans are left with very few employment opportunities and other benefits. The fact that only two of those trapped are Tibetan and the rest are Han Chinese migrant workers from neighboring provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan is a clear indicator. Many Tibetan farmers and nomads have been forced to move away from their ancestral pastures and arable lands which have been expropriated by government to make way for the expansion of mining operations in Gyama. Reports of environmental pollution leading to water contamination, illness of local Tibetans and loss of animals are common in the Gyama Valley.

The impacts of rampant mining activities have led to social unrest and related issues. In 2008, Chinese mining company carried out a water-diversion project in the upper Gyama region leading to forceful confiscation of agricultural lands. The mining, which has been going on in the upper hills of Gyama for nearly two decades have led to toxic wastes being dumped into Gyama Shingchu river resulting in the death of a large number of cattle. Villagers in the valley depend on Gyama Shingchu for their drinking water supply and irrigation. In the same year, local Tibetan residents from Gyama Township reportedly petitioned the local government to put an immediate halt to the mining project in the area. The local government responded by putting the whole region under heavy military surveillance, with imposition of severe restrictions on communication to outside world and people visiting the region. A positive response seems unlikely, as it will be at odds with the self-interests of many officials who make quasi-legal financial gains by protecting mining enterprises. On 20 June 2009, angry villagers took to streets and clashed with Chinese miners and the scuffle between Tibetans and miners were followed by police crackdown leaving 3 Tibetans wounded.

As opposed to being a model for “green mine” or “progress”,  Gyama Mine is a model of the issues relating to over 200 mining sites across Tibetan plateau which faces similar or even worse socio-economic and environmental problems, requiring urgent attention.

EDD hope that Chinese government will put sincere efforts to figure out the real cause of the landslide in the mine operated by Huatailong Mining Development Co. Ltd, (a subsidiary of the State-owned China National Gold Group Corporation) and take appropriate measures. EDD also call on Chinese government to ensure active participation of Tibetan people in all decision making process in Tibet; social, environmental (Environmental Impact Assessment) and cultural impacts are fully investigated; natural resources are not depleted; migration and settlement of non-Tibetans into Tibet are not facilitated; ownership of Tibetan land and resources are not transferred to non-Tibetans; and large-scale, capital-intensive and commercial projects are not facilitated inside Tibet.

The online announcement of the court sentence said that the men used self-immolations by Tibetans for publicity purposes and circulated texts and photographs related to Tibetan independence, spreading “bad influence locally and internationally, the New York Times reported Thursday.

The Central Tibetan Administration strongly deplores the harsh prison sentences meted out to the three Tibetans. It once again calls on the Chinese government to address the basic grievances of the Tibetans instead of engaging in counter-productive measures.

The EU member states and the US had raised their concerns at the UN Human Rights Council last week that such measures to criminalise Tibetans have exacerbated tension in the Tibetan areas. Speaking on behalf of the 27-member states, the EU said it encourages China to re-engage in constructive dialogue with the Tibetan people to resolve the issue of Tibet.

Since 2009, at least 109 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in Tibet calling for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and freedom for Tibet. The self-immolation protests persist despite the Central Tibetan Administration’s consistent appeals to Tibetans to refrain from taking drastic actions.

To commemorate World TB Day which falls on 24th March, Department of Health, Central Tibetan Administration and Delek Hospital are jointly organizing an Inter-Departmental Basketball Tournament from 11th March, 2013 at Gangkyi Basketball Ground. Twelve teams including two women teams are participating in the tournament. The final match will be held on World TB Day i.e. 24th March, 2013.

This basketball tournament is aimed at generating greater awareness about TB in the Tibetan community and also to mark this year’s TB day theme “Stop TB in my life time”. It is supported by Stop TB, Italy.

Issued by:
Department of Health, CTA & Delek Hospital
Date: 13th March, 2013

Chinese Government Misrepresents Personal Writings on Self-Immolations to Lay Blame on the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration
 

 

On March 1, 2013, Xinhua News Agency issued a press release accusing the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) and the Dalai Lama of encouraging self-immolations in Tibet through a blog postings by Mr. Lhamo Kyab (Chin: Lhamo Je). Mr. Kyab is a former member of the Tibetan Parliament in exile who now resides in France. He is neither part of the Central Tibetan Administration nor Private Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  His blog reflects his personal opinion. “Such writings are irresponsible and unnecessarily give excuses to the Chinese government to resort to the blame game and shirk its responsibility for the root causes leading to self-immolations,” stated Kalon Dicki Chhoyang of the Department of Information & International Relations of CTA.

 
As life is precious, the Kashag has consistently discouraged self-immolations and any other forms of drastic actions.  The CTA supports the aspirations of Tibetans inside Tibet for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and freedom for Tibetans. The onus for the problem in Tibet firmly lies with the Chinese government.  The CTA welcomes Chinese authorities to visit its offices in Dharamsala for proof of their allegations.
 
Media contacts:
Mr Tsering Dhondup, Secretary, Office of Tibet, Paris, Cell: +33 (0)6 68 94 94 49 Tel: +33 (0)1 46 56 54 53
Mr Lobsang Choedak, Press Officer, DIIR, Dharamsala, Cell: +91 98822 32476

Tibetans-in-exile hold a candlelight vigil following the self-immolation attempt by a monk in Kathmandu on February 13, 2013/Getty Images

PRESS RELEASE
14 February 2013

“Dignity is the spirit of a nationality…,” wrote the 42-year-old monk Sopa Rinpoche before his self-immolation on January 8, 2012. Since the first such action by Tapey on February 27, 2009, 100 Tibetans have burnt themselves. This has taken place, despite the recent harsh and unlawful sentencing of 8 Tibetans and arrest of family members, for allegedly instigating Tibetans to self-immolation.

All of them have called for the collective restoration of Tibetan dignity: Return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to Tibet and freedom for Tibet.

Latest reports coming out of Tibet say Lobsang Namgyal, a 37-year-old monk of Kirti Monastery died after setting himself on fire in Ngaba, north-eastern Tibet, on 3 February 2013. Though the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) continues to repeatedly appeal to the Tibetans in Tibet to refrain from such drastic acts, sadly the self-immolations continue.

The ongoing and unprecedented self-immolations by an increasing number of Tibetans in Tibet are the ultimate acts of civil disobedience against China’s failed rule in Tibet. Instead of owning the onus of tragedy in Tibet – a self evident responsibility of its over 60 years of continuous iron-grip rule in Tibet – China relentlessly and irresponsibly accuses His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan leadership of inciting these self-immolations.

To unveil the truth of the matter in Tibet, we have called on China to provide unfettered access to Tibet for the global media, diplomats and international NGOs. On our part, we have repeatedly invited China to Dharamshala, India, the headquarters of CTA, to investigate our alleged role in the self-immolations. We have pledged full co-operation and unhindered access to our offices.

The CTA, therefore, calls on the national governments and international agencies, including the United Nations, to use their good offices and actively engage with China to stop the deteriorating situation in Tibet by addressing the genuine grievances of the Tibetans. Concrete steps for the leaders of the world need to take immediately are to send Ms Navi Pillay of UNHCR to visit Tibet and investigate the real causes of self immolations, and convene a meeting to discuss and address the crisis in Tibet. It would go a long way not only to encourage the Tibetans in their effort to embrace democracy and non-violence but also to be a catalyst for a moderate China.

Dr. Lobsang Sangay
Sikyong of the Tibetan Administration based in India

Media contacts:
Mr Tashi Phuntsok, Secretary for Information, + 91 9816539103
Mr Lobsang Choedak, Press Officer, + 91 9882232476

Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay releases White Paper on Tibetan self-immolations published by Tibet Policy Institute in Dharamsala, India, on 28 January 2013

For Immediate Release

Contact: Mr. Dhundup Gyalpo
Mobile: +91 98057-88175

WHY TIBET IS BURNING…

Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay releases the first publication of the Tibet Policy Institute on the fundamental reasons for the increasing number of self-immolations in Tibet.

Dharamsala, 28th January, 2013:   This white paper examines the underlying causes of the increasing number of self-immolations that are currently engulfing Tibet. The Central Tibetan Administration has made many appeals to the Tibetans in Tibet to desist from self-immolation. Despite the Central Tibetan Administration’s repeated appeals to stop the self-immolations, unfortunately the numbers of Tibetans setting themselves ablaze are adding up at an alarming rate and frequency. All Tibetans who have set themselves ablaze have called for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to his homeland and freedom for Tibet. What are the causes which drive Tibetans to such acts of extreme desperation?

The reason lies in China’s massive policy failure in Tibet over the course of more than 60 years of its rule. The revolution that is brewing in Tibet is driven by political repression, cultural assimilation, social discrimination, economic marginalisation and environmental destruction.  98 Tibetans so far, most of them in their teens and early twenties, have set themselves ablaze. According to Chinese communist propaganda, this is the generation that was supposed to have benefitted most from Chinese rule in Tibet. Clearly, though, China’s spectacular policy failure in Tibet has totally alienated the new generations of Tibetans and they express this alienation by asserting their loyalty to His Holiness the Dalai Lama whom they have not seen in their entire their lives and who has not set foot in Tibet for more than 50 years.

China’s failure to solve the fundamental problem of its rule in Tibet was foreseen in the early days of Chinese rule in Tibet by eminent Tibetan leaders working within the Chinese communist establishment.  As far back as the early 1960′s, these Tibetan leaders strongly decried Chinese communist rule. In an act of unprecedented courage and boldness, the late 10th Panchen Lama presented a 70,000-character petition addressed to the top Chinese leaders, which, though diplomatically worded, amounted to an accusation of China committing cultural genocide in Tibet. This blistering critique of the nature of Chinese rule in Tibet cost the Panchen Lama dearly. Mao Zedong called the Tibetan leader “our class enemy” and denounced his 70,000-character petition as a “poisoned arrow.” He was “struggled”, sometimes violently, and subjected to imprisonment and solitary confinement for many years. When he was released from confinement in the aftermath of the death of Mao Zedong, the Panchen Lama rebounded, and in 1989, stated that Tibet had lost more than it gained under Chinese communist rule. He made these comments only a few days before his mysterious and untimely death.

Arjia Rinpoche, the abbot of Kumbum Monastery in Tibet, held many important posts in the Chinese Buddhist Association. In 1998, when increasing pressure was exerted on him to recognise the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama, he fled to America. “Modern Chinese history,” he says, “can be characterised as a ‘Tale of Three Fish.’ Taiwan is still swimming in the ocean. No one has caught that fish – at least not yet. Hong Kong is alive but on display in a Chinese aquarium. Tibet, the third fish, is broiled and on the table, already half devoured: its language, its religion, its culture and its native people are disappearing faster than its glacial ice.”

The late Ngapo Ngawang Jigme, one of the most prominent Tibetans who had worked with the Chinese communist establishment and was considered one of the national leaders of the People’s Republic of China, said at a party congress many years ago that the dearest wish of all old Tibetans was to see the Dalai Lama before their death. This would fulfill all their fondest hopes.

This universal wish of the Tibetan people was reiterated by Baba Phuntsog Wangyal, the founder of the Tibetan Communist Party, in one of the several letters he addressed to the top Chinese leaders on the issue of Tibet. “Therefore, most people in Kham, in (Central Tibet) Tibet and Amdo miss their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, from the bottom of their hearts. They trust and rely on him and ask him to grant favour to them and pray for them.”

Many Tibetan intellectuals and cadres who work in the communist establishment in Tibet make their judgment of Chinese communist rule in these terms: “In the first 10 years (1950-60) we lost our land (i.e. communist China invaded Tibet). In the second 10 years (1960-70) we lost political power (the government of old Tibet was replaced by the communist establishment). In the third 10 years (1970-1980) we lost our culture (the Cultural Revolution destroyed Tibet’s traditional beliefs). In the fourth 10 years (1980-90) we lost our economy (Chinese settlers took over the job market in Tibet).”

This stark judgment of Chinese rule in Tibet describes the reasons that drive so many young Tibetans in Tibet to self-immolation. Daily, they see and experience China’s constant assault on Tibetan Buddhist civilization, Tibetan language and their very identity. They strongly resent the Chinese communist party’s active interference in their spiritual life, including the attempt to appoint Tibetan spiritual leaders. They resent to the core of their being China’s demonization of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the policy of forcing monks to denounce him. They look on with alarm and fear as Chinese settlers stream into Tibet, taking away Tibetan jobs, land and their very future—and in the process, transforming Tibetan towns and cities into so many Chinatowns. They resent the forced removal of nomads from the grasslands, away from their animal herds and their source of livelihood, and settling them on permanent housing structures, which bring no income, and reduce formerly self-sufficient families to impoverishment. At the same time the Tibetan people see massive development activities undertaken on their land that bring little or no benefit to them and aimed, instead, to cart away Tibetan natural resources to a resource-hungry China.  In fact the policies of the Chinese communist party demonstrate to the Tibetan people that China wants Tibet but not the Tibetan people.

(Read and download White Paper)

FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE:

CENTRAL TIBETAN ADMINISTRATION CONDEMNS THE HARSH SENTENCES IMPOSED ON SIX MORE TIBETANS IN TIBET

Further to our press release today afternoon regarding two Tibetans – Lobsang Kunchok, 40, of Kirti monastery and Lobsang Tsering, 31, from Ngaba, who received death sentence with a two-year reprieve and 10-year imprisonment respectively for allegedly inciting Tibetans to self-immolate by a Chinese court – six more Tibetans from Labrang, Tibet, have been pronounced equally harsh sentences. The six Tibetans are Pema Dhondup, Kelsang Gyatso, Pema Tso, Lhamo Dondup, Dhukar Gyal and Yangmo Kyi.  In last two days eight Tibetans have become victim of Chinese wanton onslaught.

The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) based in Dharamsala, India categorically condemns the harsh sentences. It is unacceptable as the verdicts have been given out without due process and proper representation.

The series of rushed sentences clearly show that Tibetans in Tibet are denied basic human rights.  It is also evident that these are done in utter disregard to the Tibetan aspiration and deep anguish at the continuing self-immolations in Tibet. 99 Tibetans have self-immolated so far.

The CTA holds the Chinese leadership solely responsible for the growing unrest and deteriorating situation in Tibet.  We believe the world cannot remain a silent witness to this growing tragedy in Tibet.

Kalon. Dolma Gyari

Chairperson,

Media Sub-Committee, Tibetan People’s Solidarity Campaign

The Members of Parliament have been notified to report at the parliamentary secretariat on 17 September.   View Original Announcement

Press Statement

The Kashag and the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile of the Central Tibetan Administration based in Dharamshala, India is organising the Tibetan People’s Solidarity Campaign from 30 January – 2 February 2013 in Delhi. The objective of the campaign is to express solidarity with the Tibetans inside Tibet, raise awareness and seek international support for the tragic situation in Tibet.

For the press statement in Tibetan,Hindi, Chinese.

Despite the Central Tibetan Administration’s repeated appeals not to do so, in the absence of space for conventional forms of protests, there has been an unprecedented wave of self-immolations inside Tibet. Since 2009, 99 Tibetans have set themselves on fire protesting against the Chinese government’s repressive policies in Tibet. The most recent one being Kunchok Kyab who self-immolated on 22 January 2013. The messages they have left behind are testaments to their motiviation and aspirations for freedom and return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet. Instead of looking into real causes of the self-immolations, the Chinese government always blame His Holiness the Dalai Lama and outside forces.

The Chinese government has responded to the self-immolations with more repressive measures. They have locked down the restive areas and banned journalists, tourists and other visitors to Tibet. Moreover they have flooded the restive hotspots with armed personnel from People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and People’s Armed Police (PAP). Thus it is evident that Beijing is attempting to contain the new force of resistance through more draconian measures. Criminal prosecutions are being carried out to target the families and friends suspected to be involved.

Over 60 years of alien policies- political repression, cultural assimilation, population transfer, racial discrimination, economic and educational marginalisation and massive environmental destruction have led to further genocide in Tibet.

While the Central Tibetan Administration welcomes the statements of concern expressed by various governments around the world, including that of the United Nations, more needs to be done to call upon China to engage in peaceful dialogue with envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to find a mutually beneficial solution to the issue of Tibet through the Middle Way Approach.

The Central Tibetan Administration stands in solidarity with the Tibetans inside Tibet and appeals to India and the International community to urge China to:

• Allow unfettered access to Tibet for the media, the United Nations and International fact-finding delegations to investigate and report on the real causes behind the self-immolations;

• Allow governmental, parliamentary and diplomatic delegations to visit Tibet in order to ascertain ground realities in Tibet;

• Review its failed hardline policies in Tibet and address the genuine grievances of the Tibetan people by resolving the issue of Tibet through dialogue.

Dr Lobsang Sangay                        Mr Penpa Tsering

Sikyong                                         Speaker                                                                                             

(Political leader of Tibet)               Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile                    

Date: 29 January 2013

Prof. Ron addressing the children

DHARAMSHALA: ‘Mobile Science Exhibition’, a project funded by US Embassy, New Delhi and supported by Department of Education, CTA kicked off at Upper TCV School on 7 October. The exhibition provides children and science teachers with an opportunity to witness interesting working models in science that explains basic scientific concepts in a fun and counter-intuitive way. Most of the exhibits were developed by the students of Upper TCV School under the mentorship of project leader Mr Gyaltsen and science teachers Mr Tenzin Jamyang, Mr Tenzin Ngodup and Ms Dikyi Dolkar.

Prof. Ronald Vale from United States was the Chief Guest for the inaugural exhibition at Upper TCV School. He is the Vice Chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California. Prof. Ronald is one of the three scientists who received the 2012 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the award which is sometimes referred to as ‘American Nobel’ because many recipients in the past have subsequently won Nobel Prize. Mr Ngodup Tsering, the Secretary of the Department of Education and Mr. Thupten Dorji, the General Secretary of Upper TCV School also graced the occasion.

According to Mr Gyaltsen, the primary aim of the project is to enhance children’s interest in science and inspire the science teachers to incorporate hands-on/activity-based learning in their classrooms.

Children who participated in the event had an interactive session with Prof. Ronald Vale in the afternoon. He shared his personal story and entertained questions from the students. A group of class VIII students also performed a Science Role play on plant and animal cell during the exhibition.

The Mobile Science Exhibition will tour six Tibetan schools in Dharamsala region (Lower TCV School, Petoen School, TCV Gopalpur, TCV Chauntra, STS Chauntra and TCV Suja) in the upcoming weeks.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the ‘World Meet for Peace and Harmony’ at the Ramakrishna Mission in New Delhi on 11 Sept, 2012. (Photo/OHHDL/Choejor)

(dalailama.com)

NEW DELHI: Although, following the tragic events of September 11th 2001, this day is remembered by many with sorrow, it also commemorates an occasion of bright significance. It was on 11th September 1893 that Swami Vivekananda fired the imagination of his listeners with his speech to the first Parliament of Religions held in Chicago. It was perhaps the first occasion that anyone had acknowledged the existence of other faith traditions with respect and had suggested that they were paths to the same goal and so could live in harmony with one another. The Ramakrishna Mission, a philanthropic, volunteer organization that conducts extensive welfare and educational work, founded by Swami Vivekananda four years later in 1897, celebrated the event today with an All Faiths Prayer Meet at their temple in New Delhi.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama was welcomed as a guest while representatives of the Vedic tradition, Nichiren Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Bahá’í, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism and Hinduism sang or recited prayers from their respective traditions. His Holiness was invited to speak at the end. He greeted his spiritual brothers and sisters and began by comparing the numbers of followers of the various traditions in the world. It was agreed that probably Christianity has the largest number of devotees, followed by Islam and Hinduism, but His Holiness noted that while Zoroastrians may now be one of the smallest religious communities in the world they exercise their freedom to worship in India without fear.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama speaking at the All Faiths Prayer Meeting at the Universal Temple of Sri Ramakrishna in New Delhi. (Photo/OHHDL/Choejor)

He said, “I am grateful for all our religious traditions, because, despite their differing philosophical views, they all convey the same message of love and compassion and counsel us to live a simple life. In a world of 7 billion human beings with different ways of life these different traditions are necessary for humanity. Realistically speaking we need these different approaches to achieve inner peace and peace in the community.”

He went on to say that while prayer is good on a personal level, he has come to the conclusion that it is not always effective in the wider world. Violence and war persist in many places and prayer seems insufficient to stop it. What we need to do is to take action. He also advised that if religious teaching remains in a book that we only read occasionally, while we lead our lives in another direction, there is something wrong and it does not serve much purpose. At the same time he was all praise for India for its long-standing tradition of religious harmony. Occasional outbreaks of religious friction may take place, but these are understandable and of minor significance compared to the example of harmony and respect that otherwise prevails.

Next, His Holiness participated in the inauguration of a well-presented exhibition focussing on the life of Swami Vivekananda, which included viewing a short 3D film on his life. As part of the Ramakrishna Mission’s celebrations of the impending 150th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s birth it is holding a World Meet for Peace and Harmony. For today’s inaugural session the Chief Guest was former President of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. The Guest of Honour, Srimat Swami Smaranananda Maharaj was unable to attend for health reasons and was represented by Swami Vagishananda, who said although we have a dream of peace and harmony, division persists. He quoted Swami Vivekananda saying, “If you want peace of mind, don’t find fault with others.”

Dr AJP Abdul Kalam pointed out that overcoming poverty in the world is a precondition for peace and harmony. He quoted Tagore as saying, “If you want to know India, study Vivekananda, in him all is positive, nothing negative.” He suggested that when there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character and when these two exist there is harmony in the home and order in the country. The question he asked is how to ensure that young minds cultivate righteousness in the heart and told his listeners that, in his experience the answer lay in the power of great teachers.

Requested to offer some words of benediction, His Holiness first expressed his admiration for his friend Dr AJP Abdul Kalam, “He comes from a Muslim family, trained as scientist and became president of the most populous democratic country in the world; in fact the country where the most sophisticated philosophical views have developed.”

He went on, “As I mentioned earlier, all the world’s religions are found in this country, both homegrown religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism and others from outside like Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Bahá’í. They all flourish and live together in harmony, so in India this harmony is not just an idea or an aspiration, but a reality.

“Swami Vivekananda is no longer with us, but the spirit of what he achieved is alive and growing. He had great foresight and I feel I am a follower, trying to implement his dream of creating inter-religious harmony in the world. However, while respecting Swami-ji’s vision, I would like to say something about the Parliament of World Religions, which I have attended in Cape Town and Melbourne. I think there is a risk of these meetings just becoming occasions for religious leaders to exchange calling cards. I feel we need to make more effort if we are to actively foster harmony among our traditions. In Melbourne I said that effects come from actions not mere talk.

“As a Buddhist monk I pray and it is of some help for my own peace of mind, but as for world peace, it has little effect. A couple of years ago in Patna I was invited to attend the inauguration of a Buddhist park, during which the Chief Minister asked that by the Buddha’s blessings his state might prosper. When my turn came to speak I said that if the state’s prosperity depended on the Buddha’s blessings it should have happened long ago and that what was really needed was for a capable Chief Minister to take action. Action is the meaning of karma, while prayer is a little like wishful thinking. For example, climate change is a reality that I think probably cannot be affected by prayer.”

His Holiness commended the Ramakrishna Mission’s emphasis on education. He said education is the way to achieve far-reaching results, it is the proper way to promote compassion and tolerance in society. Compassion and peace of mind bring a sense of confidence that reduce stress and anxiety, whereas anger and hatred come from frustration and undermine our sense of trust. He described many of our problems as our own creation, why? because of ignorance. Education, however, is the instrument that increases our ability to employ our own intelligence. While praising the Ramakrishna Mission’s educational work, he urged its members to consider how to introduce moral ethics into the modern curriculum. He said he thought it was possible to talk about warm-heartedness without needing to talk about God or Buddha, for example.

Finally, he mentioned the increasing gap between rich and poor and the problem of corruption, saying, “When so many people are still poor, how can you let corruption go on. In this country, people are very religious minded, many offer puja to the gods every day and yet in their daily lives it seems to make little difference when it comes to issues like corruption. If you believe in god and karma, how can you not care when this kind of behaviour goes on. If I have been too frank today, or have offended anyone with what I’ve said, I apologise. Thank you.”

On this auspicious occasion of the birth anniversary of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, the supreme saviour of all sentient beings, the master of the entire corpus of the Buddha’s teachings extant on this earth; a great champion of world peace; the human embodiment of Avalokitesvara, the spiritual king of the three realms and Supreme leader, protector of symbol, of Tibet and the Tibetan people, I, on behalf of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, extend my greetings with great pleasure to all the guests who are present here.

For the sake of all sentient beings in general, and especially for the sake of the sentient beings of the Snowland of Tibet, whom he had especially assumed the obligation to bring under the realm of His spiritual guidance, His Holiness took birth amid numerous amazing signs and omens on the 5th day of the 5th month in the Wood- Pig Year of the 16th Tibetan Royal Sexantry, corresponding to the 6th of July 1935, as a son to His father Chokyong Tsering and mother Dekyi Tsering at Taktser Village in the Kumbum region of Dhomey Province. On this perfect, auspicious occasion, we offer our greetings to His Holiness by worshipfully holding over our heads the soil on which He has trodden and with unwavering devotions of body, speech and mind. On this basis, we forever remain in prayers to His Holiness, day and night, beseeching that He, the saviour and true refuge of all the Tibetan people in the Land of Snows, and a champion of world peace, to live for a hundred aeons so that we may receive the nectar of His omniscient guidance in a continuing stream from its pristine, original source.

By assuming obligation to bring the people of the Land of Snows under the realm of His spiritual guidance, and appearing in human form in such numerous and diverse capacities as kings, ministers, Bodhisattvas and so on, His Holiness has carried out vast and varied religious and humanitarian roles. From the time of the Great Fifth, His Holiness the Dalai Lama had assumed temporal and spiritual leadership of Tibet and exercised unquestioned authority over the Tibetan people in accordance with the principles of the co-existence of religion and politics. In particular, for the benefit of the people of Tibet, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama had, with a great sense of commitment and resolute drive, expressed desires and undertaken initiatives to introduce historic reforms in the system of governance in Tibet for the benefit of the Tibetan people. However, by then Communist China had already begun its invasion of Tibet and His sacred wishes could not be carried out. In addition, by 1959, the entire territory of Tibet was already under the occupation of Communist China. Therefore left with no other choices, nearly 100,000 Tibetan people fled into exile to the neighbouring country India. Immediately on reaching India, His Holiness especially established Tibetan schools, monasteries, settlements, and other kinds of Tibetan centres. In particular, since introducing democracy in the Tibetan community in exile in 1960, steps were taken in a continuous series of moves to attain a genuine democratic system. In this connection, a new system was introduced in 2001 by which the Tibetan people directly elected the head of their government, the Kalon Tripa. Thereafter, in 2011, His Holiness devolved to the directly elected leaders of the Tibetan people his entire political and administrative authorities. He thereby oversaw the transition of the Tibetan administration in exile into a legitimate, stable democratic system fully based on law. The entire deeds of great magnitude He carried out in both spiritual and political fields has earned His Holiness the Dalai Lama plaudits from across the world, which has presented to Him hundreds of awards and certificates, including the Nobel Peace Prize. In the immediate past one year alone, for example, he was presented the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Reconciliation and Peace, reiterated with the awarding of recognition as the master of all the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, awarded the peace prize of the University of California San Diego, and presented an honorary degree by Loyola University in the US city of Chicago. In particular, for His constant and unrivalled accomplishments in the courses of advocating kindness and compassion, universal responsibility, and peace and non-violence as well as for his promotion of interfaith harmony and friendship, and the inter-relationship between Buddhism and science, His Holiness the Dalai Lama was presented the famous Templeton Prize.

Likewise, during the past one year alone, His Holiness visited numerous countries across the world, including the United States of America, Switzerland, France, Finland, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Mongolia, Japan, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Belgium, and India’s capital New Delhi. In all these places, He met with revered religious leaders, as well as important political figures, such as current and former presidents and prime ministers, and members of parliaments. He also very graciously gave lectures on profound topics of great current and future as well as immediate and long term universal relevance and benefits to the student community as well as the general public in those countries. He especially visited the physically handicapped and those devastated by flood, met with the affected people, encouraged them by counseling about the importance of having a sense of determination, gave donations and consoled them in such manners. Likewise, His Holiness visited people devastated by earthquakes, offered prayers at the affected places, as well as consoled and instilled courage in the victims of the calamities. Also especially in the past one year, His Holiness gave His 31st and 32nd Kalachakra Empowerment teachings. In Canada, His Holiness took part in the inaugural session of the 6th World Parliamentarians’ Convention on Tibet and addressed its participants. It bears no mention at all that through events such as the above, His Holiness has carried out His noble commitments and advocacy actions without subjecting himself to any kinds of limits and still continues to do so.

It also bears no mention that the happiness of the people of this world in general terms and especially the hopes for an immediate resolution of the just cause of Tibet, as also the happiness of the Tibetan people, and the sanctity thereof rises in direct proportion to the rise in the level of the roles carried out by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Given this fact, it is obvious that not even a minuscule fraction of the gratitude we owe to His Holiness for his past and continuing roles for our benefits cannot be repaid even if we were to offer to Him the entire collection of virtues and a universe filled with Seven Kinds of Precious Minerals. Nevertheless, on behalf of the Tibetan people both in and outside the Land of Snows, we, with our body, speech and mind pay obeisance and prostration, present a manner of expressing our unfathomable gratitude to Him and at the same time pray with utmost vigour that for the sake of all sentient beings in general terms and especially for the benefit of the exceedingly anguished people of the land of snows, turn His attention to this blessed land of snows and continue as before his vast and uninterrupted role of caring for them out of a compassionate feeling of special closeness.

In the year 2010, His Holiness spoke on successive occasions about His desire to retire from politics. There was no denying the fact that His Holiness made His remarks out of a great feeling of compassionate concern for the immediate and long term interests of the Tibetan people, religion and government. Nevertheless, the Tibetan people both in and outside Tibet felt greatly concerned and saddened by this development and they offered successive petitions to Him, pleading with him never to entertain any thought about taking such a step. In the course of this development, the Standing Committee of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile too pleaded with Him, saying we the people of the Tibetan Land of Snows were sustained only by the kindness and gratitude they owed to His Holiness. On the basis of the fact that it was destined by the Buddha’s prophecy for His Holiness to have Tibet as the realm of his spiritual guidance or care, the Standing Committee entreated that He continue to adhere firmly to the oath-bound commitments he had been moved to make regarding the people of Tibet, which we said rendered it impossible for him to ever remove himself from his excellent role as the temporal and spiritual leader of the country for as long as this aeon endures. Likewise, in a background report to the First Special General Meeting of Tibetans held under Article 59 of the Charter of Tibetans in Exile in 2008; during successive sessions of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile; and especially in the very first paragraph of the final report summarizing the suggestions received from the participants in the First Tibetan National General Meeting, held at Bylakuppe in 2010, it was stated: “His Holiness the Dalai Lama has thus far assumed responsibility as the Head of the great Tibetan nation and as the head of the Tibetan government. On behalf of the Tibetan people both in Tibet and in exile, we offer immense gratitude to His Holiness. At the same time, His Holiness the Dalai Lama remarked in His speech that He was already in semi-retirement. This has plunged the entire people of Tibet, both those in the county and outside it, to such depth of despair that they are no longer able to digest their food or to go to sleep in peace. In view of this development, this general meeting appeals to His Holiness the Dalai Lama never to carry out any plan for such a decision.” Such was the prayer we offered in our petition to His Holiness.

Thereafter on 14 March 2011, during the 11th session of the 14th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, a precious message was received from His Holiness, which stated thus: “Lay down the conditions by which within a definite time schedule both the political and administrative authorities will vest in a leadership directly elected by the Tibetan people. In doing so, make sure that the relevant provisions of the Charter of Tibetans in Exile are in scrupulous conformity with a republican form of democracy. Because of this development, a number of deliberations in and outside of the parliament were held over a period of four working days, during which detailed discussions were held. At the end of it, a petition was submitted to His Holiness through the Secretaries of the Private Office, stating, among other things, “We remain resolute in praying that Your Holiness continue to assume your role as the supreme temporal and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people.” However, the reply we received through the Private Office was stern and firm, stating, “There will be no change in His Holiness’s wishes and the decisions which flowed from them. There is therefore no possibility to take up for consideration the provisions of the resolution of the Parliament-in-Exile. The resolution is therefore being sent back herewith.” Pursuant to this development, the members again held informal meetings, as well as group meetings with equal apportionment of the members of the parliament-in-Exile.

Thorough and indepth discussions were held in each of these committees. And for the purpose of implementing the wishes expressed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Speakers constituted a committee consisting of members of the parliament-in-Exile and members of the Kashag of the Tibetan administration in exile, with the task of drawing up draft recommendations for amending the relevant provisions of the Charter of Tibetans in Exile. And in accordance with its recommendations, a Second Special General Meeting of Tibetans was held. At that meeting too, it was amply explained that because an emphatic appeal based on our unanimous decision praying that His Holiness the Dalai Lama continue his leadership of the Tibetan nation, as was traditionally done by his successive predecessors, was turned down, an additional session of the Tibetan parliament was held from 26 to 28 May 2011 and the 25th amendment of the Charter of the Tibetans in Exile adopted. And it is a fact that in accordance with the provisions of this amendment, all the political and administrative authorities bequeathed by His Holiness were vested in leaders directly elected by the Tibetan people over the following courses of developments. Apart from that, it is important for everyone to understand that there is no reason whatsoever for anyone to give any credence or repose any trust in the exaggerated kinds of information which are totally at variance from the facts. Only a short time has passed since it finally became clear with absolute certainty that we had no alternative but to respect His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s wish mandating that his decision to hand over all his authorities be accepted. Nevertheless, the entire Tibetan people have thus far managed to properly follow, straight on, along the path of democracy and freedom so that the situation of the Tibetan administration in exile remains in conformity with the wishes and successive advices of His Holiness. However, the Tibetan people both in and out of Tibet still haven’t stopped feeling uneasy and discomforted by the fact that His Holiness no longer exercises direct political and administrative leadership over them. We would therefore like to emphatically remind the entire Tibetan people that the current situation means that we have arrived at an especially momentous event in history when we should apply our efforts with even greater vigour to both carry out our personal responsibilities and to contribute to the collective endeavours for the purpose of upholding our end of the sacred mutual obligations.

Ever since invading and occupying Tibet, Communist China set out to obliterate the Tibetan people’s ethnic identity and implemented a policy of demographic aggression. In the course of doing so, it split apart the entire territory of Tibet and separated them by merging various portions of it with a number of Chinese provinces. It banned the great monastic seats of learning in Dhotoe, Dhomey and U-Tsang from continuing their age-old practice of enrolling students from their historically connected areas and regions in Tibet within their various sections. In addition, the Chinese government especially established monastery management committees and through them forced the Tibetan monks and nuns to study, and subjected them to propaganda, about the atheist communist Chinese ideology and policies in the name of the so-called “love your nation, love your religion” campaigns. These practices continue to this day through successive campaign actions. In this milieu, any Tibetan who shows loyalty to his or her own race or work to protect the Tibetan culture is criminally branded as a separatist or splittist. And in violation of its own ethnic minority policy, China subjects such Tibetans to racially discriminatory “strike hard” campaigns, thereby making it impossible for the Tibetan people to tolerate the situation through day and night. It is no wonder, therefore, that peaceful Tibetan protest movements against the Chinese government has continued unabated.

Since the great Tibetan protest movement of the Earth-Mouse Year in 2008 and thereafter the self-immolation protest by monk Tabey in Amdo Ngaba on 27 February 2009, until 27 June, 2012 when Tenzin Choezom la at Ga-Kyegudo staged self-immolation protests, a total of 42 lay and ecclesiastical Tibetans have torched themselves in Tibet. Of them, 31 have died. These courageous men and women living in Tibet have shouted demands that, speaking in general terms, sought to uphold the just cause of the Tibetan people and, in particular, called for His Holiness the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet, the rights and freedoms of the Tibetan people to be respected, the policy to obliterate the Tibetan religion and culture to be halted, and so on. These Tibetan made great personal sacrifices by adopting such non-violent methods as self-immolation on numerous successive occasions.  Many have lost their precious lives in doing so. In addition, much more number of Tibetans have been detained for purposes of investigation and their whereabouts remain unknown even as they continue to be subjected to all manners of unbearable torture. For all such Tibetans who still continue to suffer, and with the hope to see all their demands being fulfilled, the Tibetan administration in exile and the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile jointly led from 18 October 2011 a four-day official programmes of extensive campaign actions carried out by Tibetans living across the world to make clear our sense of solidarity and feeling of communal oneness with them in hours of both happiness and sorrow. From 29 January 2012 onwards, a delegation of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile travelled to New Delhi and over a period of one week met with prominent Indian leaders as well as diplomats of various missions. The Tibetan MPs spoke to them about the tragedy of the situation in Tibet today. And on the Tibetan Water-Dragon New Year day this year, the members of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, including the Standing Committee members,carried out a peaceful campaign action designed to symbolically express solidarity with the Tibetans in Tibet by leading a day-long hunger strike by the Tibetan public.  Likewise, during the third session of the 15th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, an eight-point official resolution expressing solidarity with the Tibetans in Tibet was adopted. The resolution urged people across the world to lend their support to the just cause of the Tibetan people and so on. Also adopted was an additional resolution in memory of and by way of expressing solidarity with the patriotic and heroic men and women of Tibet who, in their struggle for freedom, gave up their all, including their very lives, in the cause of the religion, government, people and culture of Tibet.

Besides, at the 6th World Parliamentarians’ Convention on Tibet, discussions were held on about six agenda items which focused on reviewing and furthering the major decisions for action arrived at during the World Parliamentarians’ Conventions on Tibet since 2009 and during other similar meetings. In addition, not only agreements and decisions were reached on many Tibet related issues, but also the meeting, in which all the delegates took part, was able to come out with an Ottawa Declaration on Tibet. Likewise, through contacts and discussions with and by way of appeals to members of parliaments in various countries of the world, we were able to get resolutions and related parliamentary actions in support of Tibet being adopted. In that way, numerous and various kinds of urgent campaign actions were carried out and we plan to make more such efforts in future.

With regard to the especially important day of today, the Tibetan parliament is going to organize a worldwide campaign in the form of a “Flame of Truth” relay. In India, the relay will set off from three places, namely from Ladakh, Shillong and Kochi. All three relays will eventually conclude in New Delhi. Likewise, “Flame of Truth” relays will also set off in North America, Europe and also other places where offices of representatives of the Tibetan administration in exile have been set up, with the date for it being 2 September this year. Along the courses of the relays of the “Flame of Truth,” public gatherings will be organized at various places and lectures delivered, press conferences held, petitions submitted, signatures collected on a petition on Tibet to be sent to the United Nations Secretary General, and so on. Three separate relays will eventually come to an end on the World Human Rights Day of 10 December 2012 in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City where the United Nations Secretary General has his office, in front of the office of the United Nations Human Rights Council in the Swiss city of Geneva, and in front of the United Nations representative’s office in New Delhi.  At each of these places, the flames and a compilation of the collected signatures will be submitted and the campaign concluded. In view of this, we appeal to all Tibetans and supporters of the Tibetan cause to provide wholehearted and cooperative support when the relay campaign takes place in their concerned areas. The demands of the “Flame of Truth” relay campaign are:

1) The United Nations must discuss the issue of Tibet based on the resolutions that it had adopted in 1959, 1961 and 1965, and continuously make efforts to fulfill the substantive provisions of these resolutions;

2) An independent international fact-finding delegations must immediately be sent to investigate the ongoing crisis in Tibet; and

3) The United Nations must bear special responsibility to ensure that the basic aspirations of the Tibetans inside Tibet are fulfilled.

For the purpose of resolving the Sino-Tibetan dispute, the Tibetan side has made every possible effort without making any change in our mutually beneficial Middle Way policy. However, the Chinese government’s position and policy on the Tibet issue has only kept on deteriorating from bad to worse.  Besides, the Chinese government totally ignored the basic aspirations of the Tibetan people and their just demands. On the contrary, it took to allege that the self-immolation protest movement being carried out by Tibetans in Tibet has been instigated by the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan administration in exile. And using that as a pretext, it has made massive troop deployments throughout Tibet and thereby subjected a thoroughly oppressed Tibetan people to intimidation and violent repression on a war footing. As a result, the situation in Tibet today is so extremely serious that a state of de facto martial law prevails there. Many tens of thousands of Chinese cadres have been deployed in all the villages throughout Tibet to clampdown on the Tibetan people with surveillance and spying operations over them. At the monasteries in Tibet, China has ordered the implementation of a policy called “Nine Must Haves” and “Six Ones”. Under this campaign, the Chinese government has made it compulsory for all the monasteries to display portraits of the top leaders of the atheist communist party leaders. Within the monasteries, communist party offices have been set up and communist cadres exercise direct control over their administration and religious functions and routines. In particular, a campaign called “Model Harmonious Monastery” and a policy of selecting and awarding what is called “Advanced, Patriotic Monks and Nuns” has been started. What all this means in realistic terms is that a system of class division and class persecution which prevailed during the period of the Cultural Revolution has been revived in the whole of Tibet. Besides, in Tibet’s capital Lhasa, Tibetans who are not permanent residents in the city are being expelled while Tibetans who wish to visit there are required to produce six different kinds of identity papers. On the other hand, ethnic Chinese are allowed to freely enter Tibet both by air and land routes without any kind of hindrance to their journeys. Tibetans who complete their higher level education in China are required to land a job there itself while Chinese graduates continue to be poured into Tibet in the name of “Aid Tibet” cadres. To sum up, the Chinese government is implementing in Tibet a policy of racial contempt, racial discrimination, and racial obliteration against the Tibetan people in a manner which is all too obvious and blatant to warrant any doubt. Recently, delegations of so-called Chinese Tibetologists undertook tours to a number of countries, including the United States of America and Canada. In the course of doing so, they spokeabout a so-called four basic points underlying the reasons why thereincarnation of the Dalai Lama would be needed to be appointed by the Chinese government. They also spoke, with obvious negative motivations, about a set of so-called four reasons underlying the self-immolations in Tibet, including an insidious suggestion that they were caused by foreign political and religious instigators. With planned and scheduled courses of actions, they have been carrying out – as they still do – various kinds of distorted propaganda campaigns borne of ill-motivated designs. A concerned official of the United Front Work Department of China publicly made a suggestion that the status of ethnic minorities enshrined in the constitution of the People’s Republic of China should be done away with altogether. His ulterior motive was to thereby eliminate the legal basis on which the system of regional autonomy for ethnic minorities is founded. Because of these reasons, the Tibetan Special Envoy and the Envoy in talks with the Chinese government both felt constrained to resign and the Kashag had to accept the resignations with regret.

Many educated people in China these days are opposed to the policies of their government. The existence of disharmony and power struggle within the Chinese leadership became obvious recently from the Bo Xilai and Wang Lijun episode. Premier Wen Jiabao has, at numerous places, spoken out about the need for reform in China’s political system. Within the general Chinese population too, there is a hope for a democratic transformation of their country and their desire and interest for it keeps on growing. Speaking from the point of view of a China of the future, this is a moment of great opportunity. At this juncture of imminent transformation in their political powers, the call of the moment is for the Chinese government leaders to introspect, review the erroneous policies that they have hitherto pursued on the Tibet issue, and set out on a corrective course to bring them in line with the global trend of today and thereby make changes for the better.

So far His Holiness the Dalai Lama has not been touched by even an iota of any manifest harm to his bodily, oral and mental health.That He has continued to remain in a permanent state of good health, without being marred by any moment of any dip in it, is, no doubt, attributable primarily to the sacred strength of the effect of his prayers for his obligated objects of spiritual guidance, the collective merits of the Tibetan people, and the deeds of Tibet’s sea of oath-bound protector deities. In addition to these, gratitude is owed to the central and state governments of India where Tibetans mainly reside and, likewise, to the facilitative role played by the central and local government of other foreign countries visited by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to the dedication of the officials of the Security Department of the Central Tibetan Administration, and so on. The sunshine of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s great noble deeds of today could hardly be blurred by anyone. Nevertheless, the autocratic government leaders of China continue to try to libel him in all sorts of unimaginable and degrading manners and the possibility of them trying to harm him even physically cannot be ruled out. And so, over and above the security measures and conditions mentioned above, it is of utmost importance that Tibetans at all levels must remain alert and quick to react at all times. With regard to the personal security of His Holiness the Dalai Lama especially, the main thing is to faithfully carry out all his wishes, for the entire people of all the Three Provinces of Tibet to unite and work as one oath-bound entity, and it also depends on the collective merits of the Tibetan people, as unequivocally stated in unison by all the protector deities and lamas. In view of this, the entire Tibetan people should make no mistakes about what they have to put into practice. This is the essence of the matter and we take this opportunity to again remind our people about it and thereby again beseech them emphatically.

India has become like a second home to the Tibetans in exile. Over the past more than 53 years, the government of India, the concerned state governments, and the relevant local administrative bodies have extended unimaginable help, patronage, benefits and friendship to the Tibetan people.  To both the governments and the people of India we owe unlimited gratitude and we take this great opportunity to express our thanks.

Finally, we offer prayers that His Holiness the Dalai Lama continue to live for a hundred aeons, that all his wishes be fulfilled spontaneously, that the just cause of the Tibetan people be accomplished with urgency.

The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile
6 July 2012

(Note: Incase of any possible discrepancy in meaning, the original Tibetan text should be treated as authoritative.)

During the last nine years, from 2002 to 2010, the twelfth and the thirteenth Kashag considered the 10 March anniversary as the most important occasion to inform the Tibetan people, both in and outside Tibet, about issues concerning Tibetan politics and the administration. The Kashag has transparently informed the Tibetans about developments, policies, course of actions, principles and future plans regarding the issue of Tibet and its origins, Tibetan people’s strength and weaknesses, opportunities and risks, achievements and failures, and the status of Sino-Tibetan talks and the international situation. Particularly, in 2009 during the 50th anniversary of our being in exile, the Kashag commemorated and thanked the extraordinary achievements of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which spans across the globe and the great accomplishments of the Tibetan people, in and outside Tibet.

Since this is the last 10th March statement of the present Kashag, we would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the general public and reiterate some issues as a reminder. As it was mentioned in our 10th March statement of 2009, for more than half a century, Tibet has been subjected to a series of repressive campaigns under various forms and names to annihilate the Tibetan people and its culture. This has pushed Tibet to the brink of extinction. However, at the same time, the strength of Tibetan people’s unity and solidarity has gone undiminished, which has enabled us to sustain our struggle from one generation to the next.

Moreover, with the phenomenal accomplishments of His Holiness the Dalai Lama throughout the world, Tibetan Buddhism, culture, tradition and values have gained renewed recognition and interest. Consequently, the number of Tibet supporters and followers of Tibetan Buddhism and culture, both in the West and East, have grown many fold. Lately efforts to translate Kangyur and Tengyur into various Western languages were initiated, and the speed at which contact and discussions between Tibetan Buddhism and science is taking place today are a matter of great pride and constitute positive changes. Irrespective of the absence of any concrete change in the political situation, the fact that Tibetan religion, culture and tradition are developing paves great prospects for the future. When future generations look back at our times, they may consider our contemporary times as an era of expansion and spread of the Tibetan culture.

Furthermore, the nonviolent struggle of the Tibetan people and the transformation of the nature of Tibetan polity into a democratic system are two achievements that are source of pride and the strength for the Tibetan people. As a result, the issue of Tibet has been able to be sustained around the world and these have become reasons why the People’s Republic of China is unable to ignore the issue of Tibet.

As this miracle the Tibetans have achieved in exile is a result of the profound accomplishments of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. We express our deepest gratitude to him.

Since the PRC occupied Tibet, the Tibetan people have had not even a fleeting moment of peace and joy. Furthermore, policies were implemented that aimed to annihilate not only Tibetan religion and culture and natural resources, but even the trace of Tibetan identity as well. Since repression across Tibet worsened in 2008, the Tibetan people have been languishing in an environment of constant fear and suspicion. The recent campaign, targeted at Tibetan intellectuals, scholars, writers, artists and environmentalists, has resulted in their arbitrary incarceration on concocted charges. This further validates the existence of a definite objective to wipe out Tibetan identity and heritage. As Tibetan language is the bedrock of Tibetan identity and culture, the recent move to phase out Tibetan as the main medium of instruction in schools also constitute an aspect of the strategy towards the objective of annihilation of Tibetan identity. Under such circumstances, the people in Tibet have been struggling for the
preservation and promotion of Tibetan language and culture by disregarding even at the risk of losing their lives. For this, they deserve our heartfelt gratitude.

The Tibetan and the Chinese people are neighbours and share close social, economic and commercial relations. However, if enmity between the two people grows and the relationship is strained due to manipulations by the Communist leaders then this is highly undesirable. Tibetans living in exile are trying their best to create a good relationship with the Chinese people. Likewise, the Kashag wish to request the Tibetans inside Tibet to maintain friendly relations with Chinese and other nationalities. Particularly, we would like to urge Tibetans not to engage in any violent act with other nationalities.

A series of recent peaceful people’s protests in the Middle East and North Africa to move towards freedom and democracy is a source of inspiration for us. We offer our solidarity for all those who take part in these protests and extend our support and stand with them in unity as long as their actions remain non-violent. These events prove the fact that suppression by authoritarian regimes anywhere cannot last forever.

Presently, a major cause of concern for Tibetans in and outside Tibet is that His Holiness the Dalai Lama will relinquish his role as the political leader of Tibetan people, and transfer his political and administrative responsibilities to the elected leadership. As a result, a great number of Tibetans in exile from the various settlements, organisations, monastic institutions and individuals and particularly many Tibetans from inside Tibet collectively and individually have been ardently supplicating His Holiness the Dalai Lama not to take such a step. We, the Kashag, would like to make the same request in the strongest terms.

Since the institution of the Dalai Lama, as an emanation of Avalokitesvara, and the inhabitants of the Land of Snows, the spiritual domain of Avalokitesvara are intimately connected by a pure karmic bond, the Tibetan people must make all efforts to ensure that this relationship continues to last forever without change. The Tibetan people need to make great efforts to keep this bond between the successive Dalai Lamas and Tibet. In order for this to happen, we request the Tibetan people to make even more efforts to increase their collective merits.

To fulfil His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s wish to relinquish the temporal responsibilities, His Holiness will issue a message to the coming session of the Tibetan Parliament-in Exile. And all future course of action will depend on how the members of the legislative body intelligently formulate legislation regarding this. The Kashag would like to urge the members of the exile parliament to consider this a matter of utmost importance and accordingly think carefully to take the ight path.

Even though there are no major achievements during the tenure of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Kashag for the last nearly 10 years, we have been able to complete our tenure without any major failures and controversy. This has been achieved because of the kind guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and the sincere hardwork of the officials of the Central Tibetan Administration, the cooperation and support of the general public. I and all my fellow members of the Kashag deeply thank and extend our gratitude to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. At the same time, with deep regret we offer our sincere apology for our inability to work in accordance with your vision during our tenure. We beseech His Holiness to continue to lead us until we attain liberation. Similarly, we wholeheartedly thank the Tibetan people in and outside Tibet for their consistent cooperation and support. Likewise, we profusely thank all the officials of the Central Tibetan Administration who have worked with sincerity and devotion for the exile Tibetan administration only because of their commitment to the cause inspite of inadequate salary and facilities.

Taking this opportunity, we thank and extend our gratitude to all the Tibet Support Groups, heads of the governments and members of parliaments across the world who support the just struggle of the Tibetan people, and especially the general public, the leadership of central and state governments of India, for their unwavering support for the welfare of Tibetans, the preservation and promotion of Tibet’s cultural and spiritual heritage and for the realization of the Tibetan people’s aspiration.

Finally, the Kashag prays for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the spontaneous fulfilment of all his wishes. May the truth of the issue of Tibet prevail soon!

The Kashag

10 March 2011

NB: This is the English translation. Should any discrepancy arise, the original Tibetan should be considered the final and authoritative.

10 March 2010

Today — 10 March 2010 — marks the 51st anniversary of the Tibetan people’s peaceful uprising against the Chinese authorities. On this momentous day, the Kashag pays homage to the brave men and women of Tibet who have laid down their lives for our spiritual and temporal cause. The Kashag also, in solidarity with those Tibetan compatriots who are presently undergoing torture inside Tibet, extends its best greetings and commiserations to all of them.  

As detailed in the Kashag’s 10 March Statement of the previous year, we have witnessed both positive and negative developments during the last over 50 years. On the one hand, all Tibetans living inside and outside Tibet have endured tremendous hardships and our spirituality, polity and race have suffered irreparable damages. However, on the other hand, Tibetans inside Tibet of all ages have, without losing heart and inner strength, kept alive our struggle for truth all these years. In exile also, we have made great spiritual and political accomplishments, particularly in the fields of the preservation and promotion of Tibetan spirituality and culture. Today, while remembering all these things, the Kashag would especially like to express our deep sense of gratitude to His Holiness the Dalai Lama because all the positive results that we have been able to accomplish during these years is due to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s leadership.

From the last 10 March anniversary until now, the Tibetans in exile and their administration have been organising numerous programmes, or commemorative events, to mark the 50 years of their life in exile and to express their heartfelt “Thank You” to their host countries. As a part of this programme, an informal meeting of the employees of Central Tibetan administration (CTA) was held recently to reflect upon the past experiences and to propose ideas regarding our future plans. A summary of what transpired in this meeting, which has already been brought to the attention of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, includes, among other things, the CTA employees re-pledging themselves to the path of peace and non-violence in carrying forward our struggle for truth until the eventual resolution of the Tibet issue. It is our firm belief that the larger Tibetan population inside and outside Tibet will join in this solemn pledge.

Of abiding concern to us is that no positive developments have taken place in Tibet since a new crisis developed on 10 March 2008. Therefore, the Kashag would like to urge the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to put an immediate halt to their inhuman and unlawful actions, including repression and violations of human rights in Tibet, as well as handing down death and long-term prison sentences to the Tibetan people without due process of law. The Kashag would also like to make an emphatic appeal to them to release all the innocent Tibetan prisoners, including the young Panchen Lama — Gendun Choekyi Nyima. Furthermore, the Kashag would like to appeal to the Tibetans inside Tibet to exercise utmost restraint and caution.

In the on-going dialogue process, we have presented to the concerned officials of the PRC the Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People on 31 October 2008. In this memorandum, we have, besides articulating the fundamental aspirations of the Tibetan people inside and outside Tibet, requested for the full implementation of the National Regional Autonomy provisions as enshrined in the constitution. The Chinese side has, however, sought to distort or misrepresent the requests we have made in it. In order to offer clarifications to these, as well as to make a fresh request of two points, the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited Beijing this year and conducted ninth round of talks with their Chinese counterparts on 30 and 31 January. In this latest round of talks, the envoys, as advised by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, put forward these two points for the Chinese government’s consideration:

1) The ultimate concern of His Holiness is only the welfare of the six-million Tibetan people. Regarding this, the Chinese central government contends that the Tibetan people in Tibet are leading a happy life to their satisfaction and that there is no such issue as the Tibet issue that needs to be resolved. We believe, however, that most of the Tibetans in Tibet face tremendous hardships. There is, among them, a strong feeling of dissatisfaction or discontentment in every respect — be it religion, politics, economy, language, culture or social conditions. In the light of such divergent views between the two sides, there is a need for us to collectively undertake a careful investigation of the situation on the ground so as to understand what the reality is. We would like to, therefore, request the Chinese government to undertake the proposed investigation in a manner that affords all Tibetans the real opportunity to express their true feelings without any fear and doubts in their minds. If, as a result of such an investigation, it is found that most of the Tibetan people do not believe there is a problem in Tibet and that they are completely satisfied with their lot, then this is what His Holiness the Dalai Lama is calling for. There is, then, no need for both sides to argue about the issue of Tibet in the future. Whereas if we find that most of the Tibetans are dissatisfied, then the Chinese central government should also — treading the path of “seeking truth from facts” — acknowledge that there is a problem in Tibet and start discussions to collectively find the ways and means of solving the problem.

2) The allegation that His Holiness the Dalai Lama or his exile organisation has instigated the spontaneous and peaceful uprising that rocked the whole of the Tibetan areas since 10 March 2008 is not true. Hence, this allegation is not acceptable to us. This has been put across to the Chinese leadership during the informal discussion that took place in Shenzhen. As a result, during the seventh round of talks, the Chinese central government accepted the reality by changing its stance from the “Three Stops” to “Four Not-to-Supports”. Of late, however, it has begun to make the same kind of allegations against us. A need has, therefore, arisen for the Chinese central government to clarify now as to whether its viewpoint is same as it was during the seventh round of talks, or has it changed since then. If it has indeed changed, then the Chinese central government should undertake an in-depth investigation — both inside and outside Tibet — to determine scientifically the truth of these accusations. The verdict of such an investigation should be accepted by both the parties concerned. Moreover, we should make amends if we are found to be wrong. If we are not found to be wrong, then the Chinese central government must stop spreading lies, or making such baseless allegations, both domestically and internationally, and issue a clarification to this effect.

The Chinese government didn’t provide any clear answers to these two points and they also failed to exactly communicate our requests in its subsequent press briefings or statements. As for us, we will continue to press ahead with these two requests we made in a sincere and honest manner. If the views held by the Chinese central government — and what they say — have any truth in them, then it should not hesitate to subject these to investigation. All of us can vouch for the fact that once a proper investigation is undertaken, it will help clear things for the future, thus making it easier for all to see the reality.  

During the past nine rounds of talks, the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama have stated categorically to the Chinese government that they have nothing to talk about the personal issue of His Holiness or about the issue of a few people surrounding him. The sole agenda of the dialogue process was to discuss about the welfare of the six-million Tibetan people. In none of these exchanges had they raised the personal issue of His Holiness. We have made this amply clear earlier and we would like to reiterate this today. Therefore, the Chinese government’s saying, through its official statements, that their purpose of engaging in dialogue with us is only to talk about the personal issue of His Holiness and not about the welfare of the Tibetan people is not true. This is simply irrelevant. Although there is no change whatsoever in our determination to engage in dialogue with the PRC until the issue of Tibet is resolved once and for all, the Kashag would like to emphatically state that the agenda of the dialogue process should be only about the welfare of six-million Tibetans and nothing else. Therefore we reiterate that there is nothing to discuss about the personal welfare of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Considering the Tibet problem to be a domestic issue that has to be resolved within the framework of the PRC, we are always engaging with the Chinese central government. However, the Chinese side continues to talk about His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the issue of Tibet and exert enormous pressure in connection with these issues everywhere — be it in their bilateral relations with other countries or in various international forums. It is clear to all of us that this is what actually drives the issue of Tibet towards becoming an internationalised issue.

Our struggle is based on truth and non-violence. We have no doubt that if all Tibetans living inside and outside Tibet put their complete faith in the non-violent path that we have chosen and practise, then the truth of the issue of Tibet will prevail sooner rather than later. Today, there are an increasing number of justice-loving countries, peoples as well as religious and political leaders, showing great concern and support to the issue of Tibet. A significantly large number of Chinese intellectuals from Mainland China and from abroad are now beginning to appreciate and support His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Middle-Way policy. Moreover, the truth about the Chinese government’s wrong policies in Tibet is becoming ever more evident these days. Particularly, the mutually beneficial Middle-Way policy does not envisage victory for oneself and defeat for others. Envied by all the people of the world, it has the strong support of the USA and many other like-minded countries. Tibetan intellectuals inside Tibet, across three regions of Tibet, also admire and support it. Hence, the issue of Tibet has achieved — and is continuing to achieve — great results that have both the short- and long-term benefits. While expressing our immense gratitude to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for formulating such a genuine policy, the Kashag would like to pledge before Your Holiness that we will continue to uphold this policy without any doubt in our minds in the future.

Unimaginable atrocities and cruelty of the past about 60 years have not been able to shake the spirit and determination of the Tibetan people. The Chinese government is now further sharpening its strategy of employing deceit and money to destroy the spirit and unity of the Tibetan people. The Kashag believes that the Tibetan people will not fall prey to these Chinese deceptions. The unity among all the Tibetan people, which has remained intact for a long time now, has been strengthened after the popular uprising of 2008. The Kashag would like to urge all Tibetans to make efforts to further strengthen this bond of unity and to stay clear from the incitements or machinations of the other side to drive a wedge between us Tibetans. The Kashag would like to also urge that we Tibetans should caution by refraining from indulging in internal squabbles over petty matters.

Two important issues that the Tibetans inside Tibet must give a serious thought to are: 1) Tibetan youths should be encouraged to broaden their educational horizon by concentrating on both traditional and modern education and by acquiring professional and specialised skills in their chosen fields of study; and 2) explore all possible ways and means to save the delicate environment of the Tibetan plateau from further degradation. These are non-political issues that have a strong bearing on the short- and long-term benefits of both the Tibetan and Chinese peoples. Therefore, it is very important for both sides to make collective efforts towards these ends. Similarly, everyone should make best efforts to put into practice the advices His Holiness the Dalai Lama give to the people of world in general and to the people of Tibet in particular, the advices of both spiritual and temporal aspect that have huge bearing not just in this life but also in many lives to come.

If the Tibetans, who are currently divided into many administrative units, could be brought under a single autonomous administration, it will be more helpful in devising a uniform policy to bring about all-round development in the fields of education, culture, health, etc. It will, in particular, help protect the unique culture and identity of Tibet. The request to bring all Tibetans under a single administration has now and again been made to the Chinese government since 1951. As such, during the recent Fifth Work Forum on Tibet, delegates from all Tibetan areas were summoned to deliberate upon a uniform development plan for all Tibetans. The Forum has also identified the fact that the Tibetans in general, and the Tibetan farmers and herders in particular, are lagging behind as far as the standard of living is concerned. We must take note of these developments indeed. We await the Chinese government to actually implement a uniform development programme for all the Tibetan-inhabited areas.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama will turn 75 on 6 July 2010. The Kashag plans to celebrate his coming birthday more elaborately than the previous ones with major spiritual activities. Similarly, our exile democracy will complete 50 years on 2 September, this year. Therefore, we are planning to commemorate this day as well. We hope that all Tibetans will bear these upcoming events in mind. Although it is very difficult for the Tibetans inside Tibet to openly come out and celebrate these upcoming events, we believe they will be able to join us Tibetan exiles in their hearts and minds.

To conclude, the Kashag prays for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the spontaneous fulfilment of all his wishes. May the truth of the issue of Tibet prevail soon!

The Kashag

N.B. This has been translated from the original statement issued in Tibetan. If there is any discrepancy between the two, please treat the Tibetan version as authoritative and final.

Speaker Mr. Penpa Tsering delivering the Statement of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile during the Solidarity Hunger Strike on the first day of Tibetan Losar at Tsuglhakhang, Dharamshala

 Amongst the patriotic Tibetan men and women who have been committing the heroic act of self-immolations in Tibet under the two main slogans demanding “the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet” and “freedom and human rights for the Tibetan people”, Venerable Tapey of Kirti Monastery set the trend on 27^th of February, 2009. Since then, between the 16^th of March, 2011 and 19^th of February, 2012, some 23 Tibetans both lay and ordained, have committed self-immolation in Tibet for the sake of Tibet and its people. Two Tibetans have done the same outside of Tibet totaling 25 so far. Fifteen of them including three nuns have lost their precious lives in the process and we have not been able to ascertain the condition and whereabouts of the rest.

We have also come to know from reliable sources that on the 23^rd of January, 2012 which was the occasion of the celebration of the Chinese New Year, Tibetans in Tibet observed it as a day of mourning by holding peaceful demonstrations. But the Chinese police and the militia opened indiscriminate gun-fire on them and 4 Tibetans in Draggo, 2 in Serta and 1 in Zamthang totalling 7 were massacred. We have further come to know that on the 8th of February of this year, the same type of peaceful demonstrations had taken place in other places like Nangchen, Trindu, Zatoe, Golok, Chuchen, Chabcha etc while observing ‘White Wednesday’ which is the favourable prayer day for the long life of His Holiness The Dalai Lama. However, as the Chinese government had sealed of all internet and phone connection in most of the places in Tibet and especially those where demonstrations had taken place, we have not been able to ascertain the scale of oppression and the number of people killed, tortured or arrested. There is in effect, an unapparent military rule in Tibet at present and the Chinese government has declared an open “war” on the Tibetan people as whole.

The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile has continuously been appealing to the Government of China and the International Community regarding the urgent situation in Tibet through its series of press statements. Recently, a special delegation of the TPiE travelled to New Delhi to brief a number of Embassies of different countries about the fast deteriorating conditions in Tibet. We also wrote an open letter to the Chinese President.

Through this statement, we once again appeal to the Government of China and the International Community as follows:

Appeal to the Chinese leaders:

1. Withdraw the large reinforcement of military to reduce tension immediately and take measures to give due consideration to the aspirations of the Tibetan people.

2. Allow independent, non-partisan fact finding delegations to ascertain the ground realities. If you have issues with that, allow a Tibetan fact finding delegation to visit Tibet.

3. Stop the policies and programs aimed at destroying the identity of the Tibetan people. Provide religious freedom and undertake reconciliation measures to assuage the hurt sentiments of the Tibetan people.

4. Stop sedentarization of Tibetan nomads and include Tibetan participation in environmental stewardship by using their centuries old wisdom of having lived on the Tibetan Plateau.

5. All developmental activities in Tibet must give due consideration to Tibet’s fragile environment and should accrue due benefit to the native Tibetans.

6. Release all political prisoners including Panchen Rinpoche Gedun Choekyi Nyima, just as Burma did so to create more trust between the people and the government.

7. Resume dialogue with the Tibetans with the commitment and conviction to seek a lasting solution to the Issue of Tibet, and peace and stability in the whole geo- strategic region.

 Similarly to the International Community, we call upon the leaders of the free world to not only express your concern but also seek your intervention in de-escalating the prevailing dangerous situation inside Tibet and help find a lasting solution to the Issue of Tibet for a mutually beneficial agreement through dialogue.

We are confident that while engaging constructively with China, you will not refrain from voicing your concern for the values of democracy, equality, justice and basic human rights that you so very much cherish.

Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile

Dharamsala: Dated: February 22, 2012

Video Message of Mr. Penpa Tsering, Honourable Speaker of Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile is viewable in tibetonline.tv

She self-immolated near Jonang monastery to protest against the repressive policies of the Chinese government. Local Tibetans carried her body to the nearby Jonang monastery after the incident. Her body was later shifted to her home. Local Chinese authorities asked the family to cremate the body that night itself. Thousands of local Tibetans and monks came to pay their respects and express their solidarity at the funeral.

Jugtso is a native of Barma township in Zamthang. She is married and has a 3 year-old child.

New report confirms Phagmo Dhondup’s death

Phagmo Dhondup

Confirmed reports from Tibet say that Phagmo Dhondup, who set himself on fire on 24 February at Jakhyung monastery in Bayan Khar in eastern Tibet, died at a hospital in Siling. He was reported to be seriously burned during the self-immolation.

Kunchok Tenzin, a 28-year-old monk of Mokhri monastery, set himself on fire at a cross road near the monastery Tuesday (26 March) around 7 pm (local time). He died on the spot. Local Tibetans and monks then carried his body inside the monastery. Fearing Chinese police’s attempt to seize his body, the monks carried out the cremation that night. After the incident, severe restrictions have been imposed on the monastery and the nearby villages.

Kunchok Tenzin was a native of Zamtsa Yultso village in Luchu county. He is survived by his parents Lhakho and Lhamo Tso and his six brothers. He is the sixth Tibetan to set himself on fire to protest against the Chinese rule from the Luchu region.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Central Tibetan Administration organised a prayer service to express solidarity with Tibetan self-immolators, including Kalkyi, Lhamo Kyab, Tulku Athup and his niece Atse.

Speaking at the prayer service, Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay said the CTA continues to urge various parliaments of the world to pass resolutions to resolve the problem of Tibet. He said the Australian Parliament has recently passed a motion on Tibet, urging the Chinese government to address the underlying grievances of the Tibetan people and resume substantive talks with the Dalai Lama’s representatives to prevent the situation in Tibet deteriorating further. Sikyong commended the efforts made by Tibetans and support groups to lobby parliamentarians and government officials in their host countries on the crisis in Tibet. 

The last remains of Lhamo Kyab.

DHARAMSHALA: Reports coming out of Tibet say a Tibetan man has set himself on fire to protest the Chinese rule in Tibet, taking the total self-immolations to 111.

Lhamo Kyab, 43, set himself on fire in Sangchu county (Ch:Xiahe) in Kanlho in north-eastern Tibet (incorporated into China’s Gansu Province) Monday (25 March). Local Tibetans later found his last remains at the protest site. After the news of his immolation spread, Chinese police and security officials arrived at the site. Movements of local Tibetans have been restricted after the incident.

Lhamo Kyab hails from Kyitsang Meshul township in Kanlho. He was working as a forest officer.

The China director of Human Rights Watch on 25 March said Beijing must address its failed policies in Tibet to stop Tibetans from burning themselves to death.

“There is precious little evidence that Beijing is addressing the reasons articulated for the immolations – a desire for religious freedom, for independence or autonomy, for the return of the Dalai Lama among others. Nor is there any discernible sign of redress for Tibetans, as there has occasionally been for others in China who have self-immolated over issues like evictions or land disputes,” said Sophie Richardson, the China director at the Human Rights Watch.

“The willful refusal to see Tibetans as people who want to live a different way and have every right to do so – not as insurgents, criminals or separatists – is ultimately self-defeating. If Beijing wants to stop Tibetan ‘innocents’ from immolating, it must reverse course and loosen up – not batten down,” Richardson said.

Despite the Kashag’s's repeated appeals not to resort to drastic actions, since 2009, over 102 Tibetans have set themselves on fire to protest against the Chinese government’s continued occupation of Tibet and repression.

Latest reports coming out Tibet say Namlha Tsering, 47, self-immolated at Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) in Kanlho in eastern Tibet, on 17 February 2013. His current condition is not known although sources say chances of his survival are minimal.

No further information is available at the moment.

Since 2009, over 101 Tibetans have set themselves on fire protesting against the repressive policies of the Chinese government in Tibet.