Tibet

[Dvivid]

China's hand in instigating the recent unrest in Tibet:
Back in January, two of the most senior and well-respected monks were found hanged - murdered as a warning to Tibetans to keep quiet during the run up to the Olympics. These monks were involved in the pivotal role of recognizing the Panchen Lama (a 6-year old boy who has since been kidnapped), and were set to help with the recognition of the next Dalai Lama.

"The death of Gyaltsen Tsepa Lobsang and Yangpa Locho is full of unanswered questions, part of an increasingly nasty repression campaign waged by Beijing ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games.

Dharamsala (AsiaNews) – The suicide over the last few months of two elderly and well-respected Tibetan monks “under mysterious circumstances must be seen against a background of increasing pressure by Chinese authorities on Tibetans. Before the Olympics the government is in fact trying to rid itself of all those social elements who might cause problems,” said Urgen Tenzin, executive director of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

Speaking to AsiaNews, Tenzin said that the two monks—Gyaltsen Tsepa Lobsang and Yangpa Locho, both 71-year-old—were found hanged in Tashilhunpo Monastery, the official seat of the Panchen Lama and scene of one of the most violent anti-Chinese demonstrations ever seen in Tibet.

According to some local lamas, the government and the monastery’s abbots had always humiliated and ostracised the two monks, guilty in their eyes of training those who instigated the mass anti-Chinese revolt of he mid-nineties, but especially blamed for recognising the 11th Panchen Lama, who was later seized by Communist authorities.

Furthermore, the monks (at least those still alive) who recognised the Panchen Lama are consulted on recognising the new Dalai Lama. Both suicide victims were thus on the list of those who would have searched for the reincarnation of the current Tibetan leader, seen by Beijing as a “secessionist.”

Panchen Lama:
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=4176

[Dvivid]

News 4/3/08:

Witnesses confirm, with cellphone photos, that over 100 Chinese soldiers dressed as Tibetan monks to incite violence.
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=11921&size=A

"Chinese propaganda" is behind attacks meant to justify accusations against the Tibetans. In Lhasa, the army is also harassing the Chinese.


Dharamsala (AsiaNews) - "It is absurd to say that there are 'Tibetan suicide squads' prepared to carry out attacks against the Olympics. It is another attempt by China to pass us off as extremists and terrorists" and to justify violent repression. Tsering Choedup, south Asia coordinator of the International Tibet Support Network, speaks to AsiaNews of the many anti-Tibetan lies that Chinese propaganda is spreading around the world.

Wu Heping, spokesman of the Chinese public safety ministry, has accused the Tibetans of "organising suicide squads to carry out violent attacks. They say they are not afraid of blood or sacrifice".

Choedup replies that "this is an accusation created by Chinese propaganda, entirely baseless and absurd". "The Tibetan emphasis on non-violence is well known. Tibetan exiles are 100 percent followers of nonviolence". "Chinese propaganda has been following this strategy since the first peaceful march, on March 10 . . . Since then, they have been accusing us of acts of violence that have nothing to do with [our] peaceful protests. Since March 10, they have brazenly described the Tibetans as violent and destructive, and are now speaking to the world of 'Tibetan terrorism'".

On the violence by monks in Lhasa against ethnic Chinese and Muslim citizens, denounced by Beijing during the first days of the protests, the Dalai Lama said, "in a photograph, we see a lama holding a sword, but it is not a traditional Tibetan sword. We know that a few hundred soldiers have dressed as monks".

Choedup says that "it is not only a matter of a photo, eyewitnesses living in Lhasa have confirmed this for us. Through cell phones given to them by relatives here in India, they have confirmed for us that they have seen Chinese soldiers and security agents changing into monks' robes, and inciting the crowd". "After the accusations of Wu Heping, we are afraid that Chinese might dress as Tibetans and carry out attacks".

It is also not true that the army must stay in Lhasa to protect the ethnic Chinese. On the contrary, "our contacts in Lhasa say that the Han Chinese and the Hui Muslims are increasingly dissatisfied with Beijing's actions". "They, too, are victims of the increasing military repression and the massive presence of soldiers in the streets. The authorities have not struck only the Tibetans, but are going from door to door, and have sealed the entire area".

The Olympic torch will be in New Delhi on April 17, and the Indian foreign minister has said that he does not want actions that might "compromise" relations between India and China.

"We are revising our protest plans", Choedup confirms, "we absolutely do not want to harm the Indian government, our objective is Beijing alone. Now our campaign is 'Speak Out For Tibet'. We are asking the torch bearers to wear something that symbolises Tibet. Bollywood star Aamir Khan has said that he would like to carry the torch 'with a prayer in [his] heart' for the people of Tibet. We are asking him to at least wear a headband, or even a T-shirt or anything that symbolises Tibet". "We are also asking the world powers to boycott the opening ceremony".

[Dvivid]

Protests in the UK:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080406/D8VSDUK00.html

Police repeatedly scuffled with protesters as Olympians and dignitaries carried the Olympic torch through snowy London during a chaotic relay Sunday.

Demonstrators tried to board a relay bus after five-time Olympic gold medalist rower Steve Redgrave launched procession at Wembley Stadium - presaging a number of clashes with police along the torch's 31-mile journey.

There have been 30 arrests, Metropolitan Police said.

In west London, a protester tried to grab the torch out of the hands of a TV presenter, forcing police to briefly stop the procession as officers detained the man. Another demonstrator tried to snuff out the flame with what appeared to be a fire extinguisher. Others in the crowd threw themselves at torchbearers running past in official Beijing 2010 Olympics tracksuits.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown briefly greeted the torch when it arrived outside his Downing Street residence as pro-Tibet demonstrators and police clashed yards away near Britain's Parliament buildings.
Demonstrators swelled in number near the spot where Chinese Ambassador Fu Ying had been expected to carry the Olympic torch, forcing a last-minute change of plan. Fu emerged with flame in the heart of London's Chinatown instead, and managed to jog unhindered before handing over the torch to the next participant in the relay.

In London's historic Bloomsbury area, police separated anti-China protesters from hundreds of flag-waving Chinese who turned out to support their nation and the Olympics.

"As an English person, I have a right to stand where I want to on the street," pro-Tibet demonstrator Roger Moulland, 54, from Brighton, said as he was moved away by police.

Hundreds of protesters along the route chanted slogans including "Free Tibet!""Stop killing in Tibet!" and "China, talk to Dalai Lama."

[Dvivid]

and in Paris:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080407/ap_on_sp_ol/olympic_torch

[Dvivid]

and you can count on Americans to take it to the next level:

Chaos in San Francisco, CA

When San Francisco first agreed to host the Olympic torch on its way to the summer games in Beijing, no-one could have imagined such scenes. But since the torch began its journey from Athens, passing through London and Paris, outrage over China's military crackdown in Tibet has resulted in increasingly bitter protests.

In Paris, pro-Tibet groups tackled the runners and used fire-extinguishers to put out the flame. China's blue-suited and heavy-set "flame minders" only aggravated the problem.

The authorities in San Francisco faced a different problem yesterday: more than a third of the city's residents claim some kind of Asian heritage. As a result, many of them took to the streets in support of the Chinese government.

By Tuesday night, San Francisco's Mayor, Gavin Newsom, had cancelled all police leave and put in place a massive security plan for the 80 runners: they would be protected by four-layered formation of officers on foot, on bicycles, on motorcycles and on boats in the San Francisco bay. Nevertheless, one of the runners, a 14-year-old schoolgirl, backed out because of fears over her safety.

On San Francisco's 3rd Street, near the waterfront, not all the Tibetans were happy with the way the protests were turning out.

"We just want to let the world know that we're an occupied country," said Lobsang Tsering, a 35-year-old Tibetan who works at the company in Salt Lake City that makes the Olympic medals. "We keep asking people to remember the Dalai Lama's peaceful message. We don't want violence and we don't hate the Chinese. They're just human beings like the rest of us. All we ask is for them to free our country.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article3716291.ece

[penglai]

A couple of interesting articles from Asia Times...here's a quote from the first:

"In a speech last year, Zhang Qingli, the party secretary of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, went so far as to say that "The central party committee is the real Buddha for Tibetans".

The fierce anger that such blasphemy is bound to evoke in the heart of believers does not seem to be grasped by Beijing.

In India, the mere slaughter of a cow has been known to provoke riots where hundreds have been left dead. The publication of a few cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed has caused violent protests around the world. Many feel the constant vilification and forced criticisms of the spiritual leader of the Tibetans should be seen in this context. "

And a quote from the second...

"In fact, the Dalai Lama accused China of carrying out a cultural genocide in Tibet, destroying or thwarting all cultural legacies. However, this is an issue to which the Chinese are largely deaf. In the past 60 years, Chinese rulers have committed a "cultural genocide" on their own culture: they saw it as a necessary measure in the process of modernization and becoming an advanced nation. This brutal process is partly due to globalization, where local cultures disappear in one global melting pot."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/JD10Ad01.html

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/JD11Ad01.html

Keeping good thoughts for both Tibetan and Chinese peoples- pl

[Dvivid]

Tibetan government-in-exile accuses China of organizing fake protests in Tibet

DHARMSALA, India: The Tibetan government-in-exile accused China's government on Friday of staging fake protests that turned violent in Tibet in order to justify its recent crackdown.

Most of the protesters involved in violent acts in Tibet on March 14 were unfamiliar to local people, Samdhong Rinpoche, the prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, told reporters.

"There are cases where people have seen the Chinese policemen in Tibetan dress and monks' robes taking the leading role during the protest," Rinpoche said.

He was talking to reporters in Dharmsala, the northern Indian town where the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and his followers have been living since fleeing Tibet in 1959.

Anti-government protests sprung up throughout Tibetan areas of western China after demonstrations in the capital, Lhasa, turned violent on March 14, days after the anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. Hundreds of shops were torched and mobs attacked ethnic Han Chinese.

China says 22 people died in the riots, though the Tibetan government-in-exile says more than 140 people were killed in the protests and the ensuing crackdown.

Beijing has blamed the violence on the Dalai Lama and his supporters. The Tibetan government-in-exile denies any involvement.

Rinpoche also rejected Chinese allegations that arms and ammunition were recovered from some Tibetan monasteries. "The claim is based on recovering some unserviceable country-made guns and swords, which were offered to ... the protective deities of monasteries," he said.

Rinpoche urged the international community to pressure China to end the "brutal repression of Tibetans."

"If efforts are not made, the Tibetans inside Tibet will be (left) helpless," he said.

[Dvivid]

Tomorrow, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama and Tibet's second most important religious leader will turn 19 years old. He has not been seen or heard from since he was abducted by Chinese authorities in 1995 when he was only six years old.

The same government that stole this young child from his people is now engaged in a bloody crackdown inside Tibet. As we write this, thousands of people are being detained, imprisoned and killed simply for crying out for their freedom and basic human rights. Read more below about the current crackdown inside Tibet.

Despite decades of violent oppression by China, the past six weeks have shown the determination of the Tibetan people to fight for justice and regain their freedom. It is in this spirit that we must continue our efforts to secure the release of the Panchen Lama and every Tibetan currently suffering in Chinese prisons and detention camps across Tibet.

TAKE ACTION:
Sign a petition demanding the Panchen Lama's immediate release.

http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/releasepanchenlama

UPDATE ON THE SITUATION INSIDE TIBET:
Inside Tibet the situation remains critical as Chinese forces continue to seal off all Tibetan areas from the outside world. With foreign journalists barred from the region, the full extent of China's brutal crackdown has been difficult to ascertain, however, across Tibet eyewitness reports describe a situation that recalls the darkest days of the Cultural Revolution.

Reports of house-to-house searches, late-night raids on monasteries and nunneries, mass imprisonments, and torture are widespread. People everywhere are afraid to leave their homes for fear of being arbitrarily beaten or detained. Food and supplies to the monasteries in and around Lhasa have been cut off and many people fear starvation. Click here to read more.
http://www.savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=1292

[Dvivid]

The International Campaign for Tibet said more than 160 people were detained from several monasteries in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and neighboring provinces during April.

Authorities removed at least six monks from the Nechung monastery, eight from the Nalanda monastery and rounded up at least 60 people, including monks from the Pangsa monastery, the Washington-based group said in a six-page statement.

The group also said up to 100 monks were detained at the Rongwu monastery in the neighboring province of Qinghai.
The U.S.-government funded Radio Free Asia also reported that two nuns in Sichuan province were detained for protesting.

There was no way of independently verifying either the activist group's claims or the radio report. The International Campaign for Tibet said it received its information from Tibet sources but did not provide more details.

Their reports follow mass anti-government riots and protests in Lhasa last month. The riots and subsequent crackdown by Chinese authorities have drawn worldwide attention to China's human rights record and its rule in Tibet ahead of August's Beijing Olympics.

On Tuesday, a Chinese court in Lhasa sentenced 30 people, including six monks, to jail terms ranging from three years to life for their involvement in the riots that erupted in Lhasa on March 14.
Three of the people were given life sentences, including a Buddhist monk identified as Basang who led 10 people to destroy local government offices, burn down shops and attack policemen, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The other two men given life sentences — a driver and a businessman — were convicted of inciting others to commit arson and loot shops during the riots, Xinhua said.
New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned the one-day trials in Lhasa, saying the defendants "were tried on secret evidence behind closed doors and without the benefit of a meaningful defense by lawyers they'd chosen."

"Guilty or innocent, these Tibetans are entitled to a fair trial," Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement Wednesday.
The White House said it had seen the reports about the sentencing, and is concerned.
"We don't think that anyone should break the law, but we also believe in freedom of expression and assembly," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday.

The speedy trials are one sign that China is attempting to wrap up the punishment phase of its latest campaign to assert control in Tibet.
China has said 22 people died in the riots, while Tibet's government-in-exile said Tuesday it believes at least 203 Tibetans were killed in the ensuing crackdown.
The estimate was compiled from a combination of the government's own sources, Tibetan exile groups and official Chinese media. It was impossible to independently verify the information.

But in a sign that the unrest was continuing despite the government pouring thousands of security officials into Tibetan areas, Xinhua reported late Tuesday that a policeman and an alleged "riot leader" were shot dead during an attempted arrest in northwestern Qinghai Province.
Xinhua said police moved to arrest the suspected riot leader Monday after a monthlong investigation into a riot on March 21. He resisted and was killed by other officers in a gunbattle, it said.

[Dvivid]

Video:

http://studentsforafreetibet.org/

[Dvivid]

The brutality continues...

"On January 20th, Pema Tsepak, a 24-year old Tibetan man from eastern Tibet and two other Tibetans were arrested after they staged a peaceful protest with Tibetan flags. Pema Tsepak died two days later from injuries he sustained from being beaten and tortured while in detention. "

http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/pematsepak

[darth_freak]

what does master yang think about this? I think I heard him or read from him saying that in China's history, it has never used or tried to conquer other territories... or did I misunderstand him?

[Dvivid]

Dunno...I HAVE heard him say things indicating he holds high respect for Tibetan qigong and Buddhism.

But I believe his exact words were as somesuch: "in ANCIENT Chinese history, China never invaded outside countries". Even though they had gunpowder.

As evidenced by Wu Shu, which means "stop weapons", aka self-defense.

[darth_freak]

wyeah of course, I think one can have but respect for tibetan qigong and stuff.

When did China started invading Tibet?

[yeniseri]

One may say technically that Tibet is a contiguous land area within "Greater China" so one may take a leap and say techically Tibet is Chinese territory!
No sea or "foreign" territory to cross, as it were.

[Dvivid]

Tibet considered itself a separate entity. China said it was part of China. They disagreed. 50 years ago, in 1959, China invaded and forced the signing of some papers saying that Tibet was now "free from feudal oppression", and began dismantling Tibetan culture, mainly because of the Communist view that "Religion is poison." Many monks, nuns, and civilians have been murdered. It is illegal to practice aspects of Tibetan culture or to speak their own language. China has sent trainloads of people each year to cross populate the area so that Tibet will fade culturally and genetically.

Since the beginning, all the Dalai Lama has worked for, peacefully, is "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet, not separation. They just want the freedom to maintain their culture and beliefs.

Today's news is relevant to your question:

'China is preparing for the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising - which saw the Himalayan territory's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, flee into exile - with a "strike hard" campaign and propaganda on the evils of feudal oppression in pre-1949 Tibet.

The massive Chinese security crackdown in Tibetan areas initiated earlier this month has prompted the Tibetan government-in-exile, located in the northern Indian town Dharamsala, to appeal to the international community for help.

The "strike hard" campaign and intensification of China's other "hardline policies will cause much more violation of fundamental rights and freedom of the Tibetan people," said Kesang Yangkyi Takla, Tibet's foreign minister, in a statement released last Thursday on the government-in-exile's website.

Takla appealed to parliaments, governments and individuals around the world to "actively intervene" to prevent a crackdown similar to the one that followed anti-Chinese protests in Tibet last March.

Chinese state media reports say that 81 people - targeted for criminal activities - have been detained so far in the crackdown, which started on January 18. But Tibet's government-in-exile says the "strike hard" campaign has been launched to prevent political protests in a year laden with tense anniversaries.

This month, Beijing-backed Tibetan lawmakers approved March 28 as a new annual holiday in Tibet, called "Serfs' Emancipation Day", to mark the day China says 1 million people were freed from serfdom, 50 years ago, in the Himalayan region.

Since the proclamation of the holiday, Chinese propaganda tsars have launched a massive media effort to portray what they call "pre-liberation Tibet" as a Medieval fiefdom of suffering and torture, where a few lords and lamas owned all the assets, including the serfs who worked for them and lived under lifetime debts.

The new holiday is aimed at "reminding all the Chinese people, including Tibetans, of the landmark democratic reform initiated 50 years ago," Pang Boyong, deputy secretary general of Tibet's regional parliament, said after the approval of the legislation, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Accompanied with graphic archival photos of emaciated children and serfs blinded by their lords, main print outlets in China have all carried feature spreads dedicated to the new emancipation day.

The Beijing Youth Daily hailed the new holiday for marking "the liberation of slaves and people's victory". The Guangdong-based Southern Weekend and the English-language China Daily all printed stories of escapees from serfdom that painted life under the rule of the Dalai Lama in the theocratic Himalayan region in the bleakest colors.

"Many foreigners often compare Tibet in the past with the utopian paradise of Shangri-La created by British writer James Hilton in his novel Lost Horizon", Tibetologist Wang Xiaolin wrote in a commentary in the Beijing Youth Daily. "Few of them can even imagine that Tibet until the 1950s was like a country in medieval Europe where 95% of the population lived under feudal oppression."

China has always maintained that Tibet is an integral part of its sovereign territory. It also insists that the march of the People's Liberation Army in the region in 1950-51 brought liberation to Tibetan people from the feudal rule of the Dalai Lama.

It was on March 28, 1959, that the communist party announced the dissolution of the existing government of Tibet. A few days before that, the Dalai Lama and some 10,000 followers were forced to flee to India following the crushing of a mass Tibetan uprising.

The 49th anniversary of the March 10 Tibetan uprising last year led to widespread protests by monks and civilians in Lhasa and other Tibetan areas. Fearful that this year's milestone anniversary may bring even bigger riots, Beijing has been keen to put forward its own view of the historical events of 1959.

But the move has been dismissed by Tibetan exile groups as an effort to rewrite history and avoid addressing the problems facing the region.

"It is best not to avoid the situation, that we accept the reality that there is a problem inside Tibet and that was clearly demonstrated by the demonstrations we saw took place in March of last year," Tenzin Takhla, joint secretary in the office of the Dalai Lama, said in a statement earlier this month.

"So I think the Chinese, instead of trying to hide this fact by declaring these new holidays, they should address the issue realistically and seriously."

In the latest attempt to promote its own beliefs on Tibet, Beijing has cast the controversial figure of the 10th Panchen Lama as an example for Tibetans pursuing ethnic unity.

Marking the 20th anniversary of the death of the monk - the second most senior figure in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy - communist party officials have lauded him as an enemy of separatism and a patriotic example to be followed by all Tibetans.

"He was always at the forefront of the struggle against separatism and resolutely protected ethnic unity," an op-ed written by Du Qinglin, a senior communist official in charge of religious and ethnic groups, said in the People's Daily this week to mark the January 28 death anniversary.

But while it is true that the late Panchen Lama initially supported the communist party in its endeavors to subjugate Tibet, he is also among the few contemporaries of chairman Mao Zedong who dared to criticize and oppose his policies in the 1950s and 1960s.

The Panchen Lama opposed independence for Tibet in his belief that the new communist rulers would create a more just and prosperous Tibet. Yet the scenes of religious desecration, killings of monks and hunger he saw during his trips to Tibet in the late 1950s shook his faith.

Against the advice of his aides who feared for his safety, Panchen Lama drafted a 70,000-word document which denounced Mao's policies of land collectivization and destruction of religion in Tibet.

The hard-hitting report alleged that Tibetans were undergoing mass starvation, Buddhism was being annihilated and that Tibetan nationality would either cease to exist or be completely assimilated.

Since the text of the Panchen Lama's petition has never been published in mainland China, it has been easy for Beijing to conceal the monk's struggle of loyalties.

After he presented the petition to Chinese leaders in mid-1962, the Panchen Lama was criticized and denounced as a traitor and spent over a decade in solitary confinement or under house arrest. He was freed in 1977, after Mao's death, and rehabilitated a year later.

[Dvivid]

This article is also interesting. The Dalai Lama is getting older, and soon he will reincarnate. For the first time, he whole world will be watching.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/weekinreview/01powell.html

[joeblast]

What's to be done about the panchin lama? From what I understand, Isnt he locked away by the chinese govt, with them having set up a puppet figurehead panchin lama? He's supposedly ultimately responsible for making the determination of an incarnation, right?

[Dvivid]

Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama and Tibet's second most important religious leader is now 19 years old. He has not been seen or heard from since he was abducted by Chinese authorities in 1995 when he was only six.

He may be in school, or he and his parents may all be in prison. Despite demands from even the UN, China has been almost silent about this.

There are other lamas who can perform the task of finding the next Dalai Lama in his absence.

Meanwhile, China installed their own Panchen Lama who will be in agreement with the party line. Their goal is to have the fake panchen lama choose the next (fake) dalai lama, and then they can finally pretend to make peace.

http://www.freepanchenlama.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gedhun_Choekyi_Nyima

[Dvivid]

NPR story on Tibet this week:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101147214

Many Tibetans in China are boycotting New Year celebrations as a symbolic act to commemorate those who died or were detained when protests against Chinese rule swept across the Tibetan plateau in 2008...