The Agonist - Tibet

Dalai Lama caught in Sino-Indian dispute

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:52:49 -0700

Sudha Ramachandran | Bangalore | Sept 18

Asia Times - A proposed trip by the Dalai Lama in November to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, part of which China claims as its territory, has ruffled feathers in Beijing. The visit by the Tibetan spiritual leader could lead Sino-Indian relations, already tense over alleged Chinese incursions into Indian territory, to deteriorate even further in the coming months.

"We firmly oppose Dalai visiting the so-called 'Arunachal Pradesh'," Jiang Yu, the spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, told Reuters this week. China claims around 90,000 square kilometers of territory in India's northeast, roughly approximating Arunachal Pradesh. It regards the area as "disputed territory" and refers to it as "Southern Tibet".

With India indicating that it will not buckle to Chinese pressure on the issue as it has in the past, a war of words and heightened tension along the nation's frontiers is on the cards. "Arunachal Pradesh is a part of India and the Dalai Lama is free to go anywhere in India," India's Minister of External Affairs S M Krishna said on Wednesday.

Arunachal Pradesh is India's eastern-most state. During the 1962 Sino-Indian border war, China advanced deep into the state, and after briefly occupying it, withdrew. It has continued to lay claim to the area, expressing this in increasingly strident language and alleged intrusions in the last couple of years. It objects to any Indian assertion of sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh.

Tibetan Monks and Nuns Turn Their Minds Toward Science

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:14:48 -0700

Amy Yee | Dharmasala, India | June 29

NYT - Tibetan monks and nuns spend their lives studying the inner world of the mind rather than the physical world of matter. Yet for one month this spring a group of 91 monastics devoted themselves to the corporeal realm of science.

Instead of delving into Buddhist texts on karma and emptiness, they learned about Galileo’s law of accelerated motion, chromosomes, neurons and the Big Bang, among other far-ranging topics.

Many in the group, whose ages ranged from the 20s to 40s, had never learned science and math. In Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries, the curriculum has remained unchanged for centuries.

To add to the challenge, some monastics have limited English and relied on Tibetan translators to absorb the four-week crash course in physics, biology, neuroscience and math and logic taught by teachers from Emory University in Atlanta.

But the monastics put morning-to-evening lectures into action. At a Buddhist college campus here in Dharamsala, the exile home of the Dalai Lama in northern India, red-robed monks and nuns experimented with pendulums, gathered plants in the foothills of the Himalayas that showed natural selection and bent their shaved heads over microscopes to view an unseen world.

Tibetan monks and nuns may spend 12 hours a day studying Buddhist philosophy and logic, reciting prayers and debating scriptures. But science has been given a special boost by the Dalai Lama, who has long advocated modern education in Tibetan monasteries and schools in exile, alongside Tibet’s traditions. India is home to at least 120,000 Tibetans, the largest population outside Tibet.

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My job is too big for one man, says Dalai Lama

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:32:29 -0700

Andrew Buncombe | June 22

The Independent - After 500 years of autocracy, Tibetan leader calls for democracy

In a speech that underscored the pressures he has had to bear during his life serving as both a spiritual and political leader, the Dalai Lama has said there is no need for his successor to perform the two roles.

In a video clip shown to hundreds of monks, nuns and lay people gathered in the mountain town of Dharamsala, the 73-year-old said it was essential that the Tibetan community in exile embraced democracy if it were to keep step with the wider world.

"The Dalai Lamas held temporal and spiritual leadership over the last 400 to 500 years. It may have been quite useful. But that period is over," said the Nobel prize winner. "Today, it is clear to the whole world that democracy is the best system despite its minor negativities. That is why it is important that Tibetans also move with the larger world community."

China marks "emancipation" of Tibet with holiday

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:35:33 -0700

Jason Subler | Beijing | Mar 28

Reuters - China marked its inaugural Serfs' Emancipation Day on Saturday with testimonials by Tibetans on the merits of Communist rule, denunciations of the Dalai Lama and vows to crush any attempts at independence.

China declared the annual public holiday in Tibet earlier this year, marking the date in 1959 when Chinese troops took direct control of the government in Lhasa after being brought in to quell an uprising.

In a carefully choreographed ceremony held on a sprawling public square beneath Lhasa's Potala Palace, the government projected its message that its rule brought an end to a cruel feudal system and has improved Tibetans' lives ever since.

Roughly a year after deadly riots shook Lhasa and triggered waves of protests in ethnic Tibetan areas, an audience of some 13,000 Tibetans sat in neat rows as a former serf, a student, military officials and the region's top leaders spoke on the horrors of the "old Tibet" and the merits of Beijing's rule.

China criticised over YouTube

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 06:23:15 -0700

Maggie Shields | March 25

BBC - China's move to block YouTube has been criticised by a leading advocacy group that promotes constitutional liberties in the digital age.

...Earlier in the week, the BBC reported from Beijing that China cut off access to the website because it carried a video showing soldiers beating monks and other Tibetans.

China's Panchen Lama cites Buddha to praise Beijing

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 01:46:06 -0700

Ben Blanchard | Beijing | Mar 22

Reuters - The Tibetan anointed by Beijing as the region's second-ranking spiritual leader was quoted by Chinese state media on Sunday as saying the teachings of Buddhism justify the Communist Party's rule in his remote homeland.

His comments came two weeks after the exiled Dalai Lama said 50 years under Communism had brought "untold suffering" and turned the region he once ruled as spiritual and temporal leader into a "living hell".

Gyaltsen Norbu, recognised by China as the 11th incarnation of the Panchen Lama but spurned by many Tibetans, said the last few decades had brought freedom and prosperity to the people of Tibet, thanks to the "wise" leadership of the Party.

The 19-year-old, writing in an editorial in Party mouthpiece the People's Daily to be published on Monday, cited a line of Buddhist scripture about good leaders leading to happy people.

"What this means to me is that only with wise leaders will the country be peaceful and the people happy," the Panchen Lama said in the article, carried a day early by the official Xinhua news agency.

He said he would continue, as his predecessors did, to uphold the "four great loves" -- of the Communist Party, of socialism, of his own people and of religious belief.

Tensions high as China braces for Tibet protests

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:45:54 -0800

Beijing | Mar 8

AFP - Chinese authorities have imposed a security lockdown in Tibet as the Himalayan region this week marks the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising that sent the Dalai Lama into exile.

Beijing is desperate to prevent protests by monks and nomads after violent unrest last year embarrassed the leadership just ahead of the Olympics in the Chinese capital.

The Dalai Lama has called on his Buddhist followers to remain true to his non-violent cause, while also warning that worsening Chinese repression could provoke further confrontations.

"The situation in Tibet is very tense and discontentment over Chinese rule is simmering," said Tsering Shakya, a Tibetan exile and historian now working as a researcher with the University of British Columbia in Canada.

Tuesday marks half a century since Tibetans rose up against Chinese rule, a brutal period when exiles say more than 80,000 people were killed in China's military response.

50 Years After Revolt, Clampdown on Tibetans

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:38:05 -0800

Edward Wong | Maqu | Mar 5

NYT -

Enraged nomads stormed through this windswept town on the Tibetan plateau a year ago this month, raiding a police compound, setting fire to squad cars and forcing police officers to flee. To the north, Tibetans on horseback galloped into a schoolyard, ripped down a Chinese flag and hoisted a Tibetan one, shouting “Free Tibet!”

Now, the authorities have imposed an unofficial state of martial law on the vast highlands where ethnic Tibetans live, with thousands of troops occupying areas they fear could erupt in renewed rioting on a momentous anniversary next week. And Beijing is determined to keep foreigners from seeing the mass deployment.

In monasteries and nomad tents, villages and grasslands, the fury of Tibetans against Chinese rule has raged continuously since last year’s riots and the violent repression that followed. They are aware, too, that March 10 marks the 50th anniversary of a failed revolt against Chinese rule that led to the Dalai Lama’s flight into exile in India.

Signs of simmering resistance abound: Just last week, many of China’s six million Tibetans chose not to celebrate Losar, the Tibetan New Year, in order to mourn Tibetans who suffered during last year’s clashes. Monks have held rallies in parts of Qinghai and Sichuan Provinces. Last Friday, a monk from Kirti Monastery in Sichuan lighted himself on fire in a market, prompting security officers to shoot at him, according to Tibetan advocacy groups. Local officials deny the shooting.

Chinese leaders have prepared for the worst, ordering the largest troop deployment since the Sichuan earthquake last spring. This reporter got a rare look at the clampdown because he was recently driven through the Tibetan areas of arid Gansu Province while being detained by the police for 20 hours.

China closes Tibet to foreign tourists: agencies, hotel

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:30:35 -0800

Beijing | February 24

AFP - China has closed Tibet to foreign tourists ahead of next month's highly sensitive 50th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule, tour agencies and other industry people told AFP Tuesday.

The ban comes amid deep tensions in the Himalayan region, with a reported increase in security forces and a call by the Dalai Lama for a boycott of Tibetan New Year celebrations on Wednesday, in protest against Chinese rule.

"Authorities asked tour agents to stop organising foreigners coming to Tibet for tour trips until April 1," an employee at a government-run travel agency in Lhasa, who could not be named for fear of reprisals, told AFP.

China closes Tibet to foreign tourists

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:26:21 -0800

Beijing | Feb 24

AFP - China has closed Tibet to foreign tourists ahead of next month's highly sensitive 50th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule, tour agencies and other industry people told AFP Tuesday.

The reported ban comes amid deep tensions in the Himalayan region, with a reported increase in security forces and a call by the Dalai Lama for a boycott of Tibetan New Year celebrations on Wednesday, in protest against Chinese rule.

He said the city's tourism bureau had decided this at a meeting in mid-February, although it was unclear when exactly the orders were given.

Clash Over Tibet Has County in Lockdown

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 05:24:28 -0800

Ariana Eunjung Cha | Beijing | February 19

WaPo - The county of Lithang in Sichuan province was under lockdown this week after Tibetan monks, laypeople and nomads clashed with Chinese security forces Sunday and Monday, according to residents.

Zhou Xiujun, owner of a grocery store, said she witnessed a small protest near the county's main vegetable market Feb. 15 that escalated into a much larger one around lunchtime Feb. 16. On the second day, she said, she saw several hundred Tibetans gathered downtown shouting, "Long live the Dalai Lama," the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists who lives in exile in India. In just a few minutes, she said, squads of police arrived and a melee ensued.

At least one Tibetan protester was swinging a stick, she said, and others were throwing stones. The policemen subdued them using what she called "electronic sticks" and tear gas.

The activist group Free Tibet said the protests were the largest across the Tibetan plateau since violence last spring, which left at least 18 civilians and one police officer dead.

Since last March, Chinese security officials have gone to great lengths to seal off Tibet. No foreign journalists, except on escorted tours, have been allowed into the region, and few Tibetans have been allowed to leave.

China warns Tibet clergy against demonstrations

AP, By Christopher Bodeen, February 19

BEIJING -- A Communist Party official in Tibet has warned Buddhist clergy against political activity in the run-up to the first anniversary of last year's massive anti-government protests.

The warning from Lobsang Gyaincain, published in the official Tibet Daily on Thursday, followed a reported crackdown earlier this week on Tibetan protesters in Lithang, a volatile traditionally Tibetan region of Sichuan province. Those protesters had praised the exiled Dalai Lama and called on Tibetans to abstain from celebrations of the Tibetan new year to mark the anniversary of the demonstrations.

Lobsang Gyaincain, who is a member of the standing committee of the regional Communist Party, also demanded that monks and nuns recognize what he called the "reactionary nature" of the Dalai Lama clique, as well as plots to use temples and clergy to carry out "infiltration and disturbances," Tibet Daily reported.
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Clergy must "refuse to take part in activities aimed at splitting the motherland, and not take part in illegal marches, demonstrations and other activities that disrupt social order," it quoted Lobsang Gyaincain as telling a meeting of clergy on Wednesday.

Rights group reports protests among Tibetans

AP, By Christopher Bodeen, February 19

BEIJING -- Protests have broken out in a volatile Tibetan area of western China just weeks before the anniversary of last year's deadly rioting across the Himalayan region, Tibetan advocacy groups reported Wednesday.

At least 24 people were detained and several injured in the demonstrations Sunday and Monday around the town of Lithang that drew hundreds of participants and onlookers, the London-based Free Tibet Campaign said.

A year after China quashed revolt, Tibetans simmer with resentment

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:41:37 -0800

Ton | Tongren, China | Feb 18

McClatchy Newspapers - Scratch only a little bit, and Dorje, a Tibetan nomad, lets loose with a tirade at the people he simply calls "the Chinese," the majority Han who he says will get no respite from Tibetan frustration this year — or for generations.

"After I die," the 53-year-old grizzled herder says, "my sons and grandsons will remember. They will hate the government."

On the cusp of the first anniversary of a mass revolt on the Tibetan Plateau that marked the worst ethnic unrest in China in nearly two decades, many Tibetans still seethe at living under China's thumb. Some engage in small-scale civil disobedience. Others, including monks, brazenly display photographs of the Dalai Lama, the exiled leader they revere as a God-king but that China maligns as a "beast." Nearly all gripe about a lack of religious and political freedom.

Another imminent anniversary date adds to the sensitivity of the Tibet issue. March 10 marks 50 years since the Dalai Lama fled across the Himalayas to exile in India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. Fearful of a spasm of new unrest, Beijing has closed off many ethnic Tibetan areas to journalists and made scattered arrests of organizers of resistance campaigns.

Invisible Tibet: keep on blogging to the free world

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:08:00 -0800

When Lhasa rioted a year ago, Tibetans in exile logged on to the only site they trust.

Jane Macartney | February 11

Times Online - Catching up with Tibet's most popular blogger isn't simple. Tsering Woeser is under constant surveillance, so we agree to meet on a street corner in Beijing. The subterfuge seems pointless: Woeser is easy to spot. Her slightly hippy style sets her apart - for our meeting she has chosen dangling earrings and a glass pendant in Buddhist colours, bought on her last visit to the Tibetan plateau. Its blues, reds and yellows remind her of the colours of the banned Tibetan Snow Lion flag. “I mentioned it to the shopkeeper as a joke,” she says. “He was shocked. Of course, I bought it.”

Monlam's colourful enlightenment

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:22:03 -0800

Feb 6

The Independent - Taking place on the 4th-11th day of the first Tibetan Lunar month, Monlam, the Great Prayer Festival, is one of the most important festivals in Tibetan Buddhism. Pictures of this year's festival display the spectacular processions and colourful outfits of Tibet's Buddhist monks.

The Monlam festival was established in 1409 by Tsong Khapa, founder of the Geluk (Yellow Hat ) tradition and is considered the greatest religious festival in Tibetan Buddhism, with performances of masked dancers, known as Cham, always attracting large crowds. It is said to commemorate the Buddha's spiritual victory over the forces of ignorance, anger and greed, and his attainment of enlightenment. Pilgrims from all over Tibet take part in the festivities, which includes prayers and teachings, at monasteries throughout the region.

* Photos In pictures: Tibetan Buddhists celebrate Monlam

China Aims at Dalai Lama With New Tibet Holiday

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:19:58 -0800

Edward Wong | Beijing | Jan 20

NYT - Chinese leaders have never minced words when it comes to the Dalai Lama. Last year, during the Tibetan uprising, the government labeled the Dalai Lama “a jackal clad in Buddhist monk’s robes.” Now, it has come up with a name to celebrate the date the Communists declared rule over Tibet after forcing the Dalai Lama to flee — Serf Emancipation Day.