Dharamsala  ondemns Tibet Sentences, Urges China for Magnanimity
The Central Tibetan Administration is deeply concerned that the Chinese government has once again handed down a death sentence to one Tibetan and lengthy prison terms to five other Tibetans.
According to China’s state media, the Lhasa Intermediate People’s Court has sentenced Sonam Tsering, aged 23, a native of Rachap Township, Payul County in Kardze, to a two-year suspended death sentence for his alleged role in ?rioting? during the Tibetan people’s peaceful demonstration in 2008 against five decades of Chinese repression in Tibet.  Five more Tibetans –  Tashi Choedon, Kelyon, Yeshi Tsomo, Tayang, Tsewang Gyurmey – have been given
lenthy jail terms ranging from 3 to 7 years for harbouring Sonam Tsering. We strongly condemn the harsh sentences arbitrarily meted out to Sonam Tsering without truely conducting an open and fair trial.
The recent verdict is against the spirit of China’s first national human rights action plan (2009-2010) which stipulates that ?every precaution shall be taken in meting out a death sentence and judicial procedures for death sentences will be stringently implemented?. The rights action plan also affirms that ?the state takes effective steps to guarantee the lawful, timely and impartial  rial of all cases, and ensures clear facts, sufficient evidence and legitimate trial procedures.”
Moreover, it is totally against the claims of ?China’s tremendous achievements in the promotion and protection of human rights? during the UN Human Rights Council’s periodic review of China’s  human rights record last year. The head of the Chinese delegation o the UN, Mr. Li Baodong, had also said since the founding of New China in 1949, ? a fundamental social and political system for the promotion and protection of human rights has been established.”
We are deeply concerned that despite these pledges, since March 2008 seven Tibetans were given death sentences out of which four Tibetans were executed on 20 October 2009.
The Central Tibetan Administration once again appeals to the Chinese goverment and the international community, especially the UN Human Rights Council to give due consideration on the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibet.
The Central Tibetan Administration reiterates its longstanding appeal that China should release forthwith all prisoners of conscience and accept an international body to investigate the conditions in Tibet.
Kalon Kesang Y Takla
Department of Information & International Relations
Dharamsala
28 May 2010

Talking About Tibet: An Open Dialogue Between Chinese Citizens and the Dalai Lama

Perry Link

The Dalai Lama at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York, May 23, 2010
Following is an English translation of an Internet dialogue between the Dalai Lama and Chinese citizens that took place on May 21. The exchange was organized by Wang Lixiong, a Chinese intellectual known for his writing on Tibet and for theorizing about how China might generate its own kind of democracy in the Internet age.
The idea of promoting “free dialogue” on the Web between the Dalai Lama and Chinese citizens is an extremely bold notion. To China’s rulers, nearly every word in the phrase “free dialogue with the Dalai Lama” is anathema. The Dalai Lama, in their language, is a traitor, a “splittist,” an “enemy of the people,” a “monster,” a “wolf in monk’s robes.” The word “dialogue” has not fared well in Chinese Communist history, either. It is what student protesters were asking for in spring 1989 just before tanks and machine guns settled the question by massacre.
So how did Wang Lixiong do it? First he asked representatives of the Dalai Lama, who is on a tour of the U.S., for an hour of time in which the Tibetan religious leader might answer questions from Chinese citizens. The Dalai Lama agreed to use the hour of 8 to 9 a.m. (EST) on May 21 for this purpose. Wang then arranged to open a Twitter page beginning on May 17 at 10:30 a.m. (Beijing time), onto which Chinese Web users could pose questions. In order to promote democracy in the questioning process, Wang decided to prioritize the questions using the program Google Moderator, which posts all questions on a Google Moderator page inside China. According to the program, any Web visitor can vote on which questions he or she prefers and only one vote from any one remote Web user is accepted (to prevent a cyber version of ballot-box stuffing); during the voting period, a running tally is published on which questions have received the most votes.
This process went well until 4:07 p.m. (Beijing time) on May 18. At that moment access to the Google Moderator page inside China was blocked. Apparently the authorities had discovered the project. Many questions and votes had already been collected, however, and questions continued to pour in even after the blocking because many Web users in China know how to use proxy servers to “jump the great firewall” electronically. By 10 p.m. on May 20 (EST), which was the deadline Wang set for submitting questions and voting on preferences, 282 questions had been submitted and 12,045 votes for questions had been cast. Wang said that he was “very pleased” with this response and that the questions that rose to the top of the pile were indeed, in his view, a good representation of the actual concerns on the minds of Chinese citizens.
The questions that had the most votes at the end were presented to the Dalai Lama Friday at 8:00 a.m. (EST). My English translations of the questions and answers, which follow below, are based on a Chinese-language transcript that has been approved by the Dalai Lama’s staff. More detail is available at Wang Lixiong’s Twitter account (twitter.com/wlixiong). The numbers attached to the questions refer to their rank order in number of votes received.
Question 1: Your Holiness Dalai Lama, how are you? I want to ask you about the religious leadership of Tibet in the future. Please forgive my audacity, but what is your view on the possibility of “two successors” for you, as happened in the case of the 11th Panchen Lama [when Tibetan Buddhists chose one successor and the Chinese government arrested him and named another]? And what, by the way, is your view of the Panchen Lama that the Chinese government has appointed?
Dalai Lama: In 1969 I issued a formal declaration that the question of whether the Dalai Lama system should continue is a question for the Tibetan people to decide. In 1992 I issued another declaration, making clear that as soon as Tibet might gain formal autonomy, I would hold no official position in a Tibetan government and that all Tibetan affairs would be continue to be handled by officials serving in their posts inside Tibet. Then, in 2001 the Tibetan government in exile adopted a system to elect leaders to five-year terms of office by popular vote of the Tibetan community in exile. In view of these developments, I have come to feel that the Dalai Lama system is no longer very important. I am going to continue to do my best in my role as long as my health holds up, but as for the Dalai Lama system, I have to say that the Chinese government cares more about this than I do (laughs). A problem like that of “the two Panchen Lamas” might indeed appear. But if such a thing happens, it will only cause confusion and not do any good.
[On the government-appointed Panchen Lama], I understand that he is very bright and works hard at Buddhist cultivation. Believers remain skeptical about him, waiting to see whether he can cultivate himself to a high level. In my view this will be very important, and will depend upon his own efforts.
Question 2: I would like to ask Your Holiness about the meetings between the Tibetan government in exile and the Chinese Communists. Why are these meetings always fruitless? What exactly are the questions that have been so intractable over the decades?
Dalai Lama: The main problem is that the Chinese government continually insists that there is no Tibet problem, only a Dalai Lama problem. I have made no demands of my own, but am primarily concerned with six million Tibetans and their culture, especially their religion and their natural environment. If a day comes when Chinese leaders acknowledge a “Tibet question” in the same sense in which they recognize a “Xinjiang question,” and if they are ready to face the Tibet question and work for its solution, I will lend my full support, because our goals—to build, develop and unify Tibet—will then be the same. At present the Communists are relying on forcible methods. They repeatedly stress “stability” in Tibet. My belief is that true stability comes from inner confidence and trust.
Question 3: Hello, Your Holiness. Regardless of what political path China takes in the future, the gap between ordinary Tibetans and ordinary Han Chinese is getting bigger all the time. Many Tibetan people are too simplistic when they say the problem is just that Hans rule Tibet. In fact we Han people are also victims of the same dictatorial rule. How do you view this problem? Do you have any way of maintaining good relations between Hans and Tibetans?
Dalai Lama: Relations between the Han and Tibetan people did not begin in 1949 or 1950; they arose more than a thousand years ago. There have been times of harmony and times of conflict. We are now in a time of conflict, but the cause of the conflict has been the government, not the people. This why our people-to-people relations are so important. It is why we have set up “Tibetan-Han Friendship Associations” in many of the free countries of the world. These associations have seen some success.
In my view the main difficulty [on the Chinese government’s side] has been the failure to carry out Deng Xiaoping’s “seek truth from facts.” Hu Yaobang also had the right idea when he stressed “understanding actual conditions.” Recently Wen Jiabao has praised the spirit of Hu Yaobang’s approach of relying not just on official documents but doing on-the-scene investigation.
In China generally [not just Tibet], the pattern of ignoring actual conditions and living in non-transparent social structures causes many major problems. If there could be transparency and attention to actual conditions, much progress could be made, for example, in handling and reducing corruption and graft.
As for how to maintain good relations between Hans and Tibetans, my experience, wherever I go, has been that I get a lot of respect and sympathy from people if I just approach them as one human being to another. If Hans and Tibetans approach one another in this way, on a basis of equality, many problems might be solved. When I meet people from mainland China, I always find them extremely sincere and find no barriers to communicating with them.
The problems of doubt and suspicion between people are hardly limited to Tibetans and Hans. These problems exist everywhere in the world. This is why we need contact. We need it in order to get rid of suspicion and doubt. Whenever I meet someone, no matter where in the world it is, I emphasize harmony in person-to-person relations. There are two levels in any such meeting. The first is that we are all human beings. Only when that point is clear do I address differences of religion, culture, or language.
When I was in Beijing in 1954 and 1955, I learned that Marxist theory emphasizes “internationalism,” which is a doctrine that people everywhere are the same. I entirely agree with this.
Question 4: I would like to ask your Holiness about your “Memorandum on Achieving True Autonomy for All Tibetans,” in which you do not mention how to protect the rights of Han people living in Tibet. Would you, after autonomy, recognize the right of Han people who currently reside in Tibetan areas to continue living there? Can you publish a Memorandum describing how you would guarantee equal rights of life and livelihood to Han people in Tibetan areas? Many Han people believe that your “autonomy” is another word for independence and that an autonomous government would discriminate against Hans and drive them out.
Dalai Lama: Han people were living in Tibet before [the CCP takeover in] 1950. There were Hans and Muslims living near the place where I was born. In the future, too, Hans will no doubt live in Tibet. The crucial question is whether Tibet will become like Inner Mongolia, where Mongols have now become a minority. When this happens the significance of self-rule is lost. In some Tibetan districts, where the Han population has grown large, the language and culture of Tibet are in great peril.
Question 5: I would like to ask the Great Teacher why your description of earlier Tibet—as a harmonious Buddhist society—differs so radically from the Chinese government’s description of an evil slave society. There are many drawings and other visual materials that document a cruel and dark slave society. Can you explain why this discrepancy is so big?
Dalai Lama: Tibet before 1950 was a “backward society” and its institutions were imperfect. We acknowledge this. No one ever said Tibet before 1950 was a paradise. I don’t think any Tibetan, inside Tibet or outside, even in their dreams, would want to restore the old system intact.
On the other hand, the Chinese government’s widespread claims that old Tibet was a kind of hell are also very wide of the mark. For example the film called “People Denied the Right of Birth,” which was sponsored by the Chinese government, is pure propaganda and utterly unacceptable to most Tibetans because it departs so far from the truth. This is like the propaganda of the Cultural Revolution, with all its claims about “great victories”—which, once the true situation could no longer be covered up, melted into nothing. It is also reminds us of the Tiananmen events of June Fourth [1989], which the whole world knows about, but the Communists’ propaganda pretends not to have happened.
The most important point is that every one of you [Han Chinese friends] should make fair, objective, and scientific investigation of questions. I often say the same to Tibetans. I tell them not to take what I say as automatically true and accept it uncritically; I say make your own observations and reach your own conclusions. As a Buddhist, I approach even the words of the Buddha in this spirit of analyzing thoroughly and reaching one’s own understanding.
Question 6: If the regime were to allow you to return to Tibet, and were to grant self-rule to Tibet, what kind of political system would you like to see in Tibet?
Dalai Lama: This question will be for Tibetans inside Tibet, especially intellectuals, in a spirit of “seeking truth from facts,” to decide for themselves. Our Tibetan society in exile, for the past 50 years, has already achieved democratization in its social system.
Question 7: I would like to ask the Dalai Lama a sharp question. The fiercest criticism that Chinese government officials level against you is that you demand there be no troops in Tibet. This, they say, is evidence that you are asking for independence in disguise. Do you stick with your demand of “no troops in Tibet”? The right to station troops is a fundamental part of national sovereignty, and I am afraid that most Han people will not be able to agree to a “no troops” condition. Is there any possibility you will drop this condition?
Dalai Lama: We do ask for “autonomy,” but we have repeatedly been very clear that foreign relations and military affairs would remain the responsibility of the central government. Many years ago I expressed an idea that when relations of friendship and mutual trust had grown among India, Nepal, and Tibet, we might form a sort of “peaceful region,” but this was little more than a distant ideal. The whole world, actually, holds this kind of ideal. So there truly is nothing to worry about.
Question 8: In view of how things stand at present, the chances of a peaceful resolution of the problem of Tibet seem almost zero. May I ask how Your Holiness views the current prospects for Tibet?
Dalai Lama: During 60 years of Chinese Communist rule, the eras of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao have all been different. In fact there have been some very major changes. I feel confident that changes in [China’s] nationalities policy will come, and in particular that the Tibet problem can be solved on the basis of mutual interest. Some retired officials and Party members who used to work on Tibetan affairs—as well as some Chinese intellectuals—have begun to point out irrationalities in minority policy and the need for a re-thinking of nationalities policy. This is why I feel there will be changes in the not-so-distant future, and that problems can be solved.
May 24, 2010 9:30 a.m.

China arrest six monks in early morning raids in Jomda

Four monks of Wara Monastery in Thangpu Township, Jomda County (Ch: Jiangda xian) in Chamdo Prefecture, “Tibet Autonomous Region” (‘TAR’) were arrested last Saturday (15 May) under suspicion of leading and instigating protest at the county headquarters in Spring 2008 and two other official monks of the same monastery were arrested on Sunday for their failure to ‘educate’ the monks under ‘Patriotic education’ campaign, according to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).
A total of six monks of Wara Monastery were arrested during early morning raids carried out by scores of Chinese Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials at the monks’ residence on Saturday and Sunday.
On 15 May (Saturday),Thinley, 25, and Nangsey, 27, were arrested from their room whereas Soegon, 26, was arrested for sounding alarm on the arrival of PSB into the monastery. Kelsang Gyurmey, 29, whom the PSB officials were looking for could not be traced in the monastery and was later arrested from his home. All the four monks were students of Buddhist philosophy at Wara Buddhist College that comes under Wara Monastery. The four monks are currently detained at Jomda County PSB Detention Centre.
On 16 May (Sunday) morning, the PSB officials came again to Wara Monastery and detained two senior monks: Sonam Gonpo a.k.a Soegon, 40, and Tagyal, 29. The duos were known to have been arrested for their failure to “educate” the monks of the monastery under “Patriotic education” campaign launched at the beginning of April 2008. There is no information on where the two monks are currently held.
On 3 April 2008, monks of Wara Monastery in Jomda County confronted and challenged the “work team” from carrying ‘patriotic education’ campaign by saying ‘even at the cost of our lives we will never defame and denounce our religious leader, the Dalai Lama”. According to sources, many of the Wara Monastery’s monks were in the forefront during the 2008 protests in Jomda County when they were blocked by the People’s Armed Police (PAP) from advancing towards the main county market to proceed with their protest.
At the beginning of this year, a novice monk, Jamyang Palden, 14, was detained twice and released after undergoing torture to extract confession for his role in 2008 protest at Jomda. He was detained for more than a week on both occasions at the Jomda County PSB Detention Centre. Similarly, Gyaltsen, 16, was also detained under suspicion of distributing and pasting speech by the late Panchen Lama to Tibetans during the 2008 protest. He was released after a week of interrogation at the PSB detention centre.
TCHRD condemns in strongest terms over the arbitrary detention of Wara monks. The Centre calls upon the Chinese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release the detained monks and guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of detained monks. The Chinese authorities should put an end to all acts of harassment against the monks so that they are able to carry out their religious studies without hindrances.
TCHRD – Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy

Lhasa to tighten rules for copy shops
Residents in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa will soon have to register their names if they want to make photocopies, in an apparent government bid to deter separatists from printing pamphlets.
The Chinese government has carried out a sustained crackdown on alleged separatist activity in Tibet and its surrounding areas following anti-government protests in 2008 that erupted in violence. The riots sparked sympathy protests in Tibetan communities across a quarter of west China _ the widest uprising against Chinese rule in a half-century.
An official with the Lhasa Public Security Bureau said Wednesday that the local government hoped to begin enforcing the registration rule soon but he couldn’t give an exact launch date.
“Since May 1, Lhasa’s public security forces have been investigating these (photocopying) businesses and keeping track of them,” said the official, who would only give his surname as Ma. “There’s a lot of work to be done before we actually take this measure.”
He refused to specify what sort of printed material police were concerned about. The official China Daily newspaper reported Wednesday that police were worried that separatists were using pamphlets to spread illegal content.
China says Tibet has always been part of its territory, but many Tibetans say the Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries until Chinese troops invaded in the 1950s.
Beijing blames the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, for fanning anti-government sentiment and routinely purges monasteries and nunneries, where support for the Dalai Lama and Tibetan independence run high.
Since the 2008 riots, Tibetan protests have continued to occur sporadically in heavily Tibetan regions. In China’s far western province of Gansu on Saturday, 15 Tibetans were wounded in a clash with local police after they blocked a road leading to a cement factory they blame for spewing pollution, an overseas Tibetan rights group said.
The International Campaign for Tibet quoted an exiled Tibetan in touch with locals in Gansu’s Xiahe county as saying 15 people were hospitalized with gunshot wounds or injuries from beatings by police. The Tibetans were upset because ash from the factory was polluting their grazing land and construction was encroaching on a religious site, the statement said, citing a petition prepared by the protesters.
The China Daily said the new rules for copy shops in Lhasa would require customers to submit both their names and addresses. Only permanent Lhasa residents or people with temporary Lhasa residence permits would be allowed to make copies, it said.
An employee of the Yongkang Photocopying and Printing Shop in Lhasa said by telephone that he had yet to receive any notice on registering customers. He said though that the shop already refuses service to some people based on what they are printing.
“If any material is written in characters we don’t know, like Tibetan, then we don’t print them,” said the man who would give only his surname, Luo. “There’s no official notice on that, but we just want to be safe.”
Associated Press researcher Zhao Liang contributed to this report.

Dharamsala Hands Over Donation to Charity For Quake-hit Tibet
[Thursday, 13 May 2010, 2:30 p.m.]
Dharamshala: The 4-14 Yushu Earthquake Charity Committee has received a total amount of Rs. 2.5 million donated voluntarily by Tibetans living in Dharamsala to help those affected in one of the deadliest earthquake that hit Kyegudo in Tibet, which left thousands dead and injured, and many thousands homeless.
The Kashag had appealed to the Diaspora Tibetan community in India, Nepal, Bhutan and other countries to contribute any relief, materially and monetarily, through the charity committee.
The contribution from Tibetans in Dharamsala was handed over by Kalon Tripa to the Charity at a special prayer service held for the victims of Kyegudo tragedy at the main Buddhist temple in Dharamsala on Tuesday, 11 May. The Tibetan Settlement Office assisted in coordinating the collection of donation from various offices and departments of the Central Tibetan Administration, monasteries and nunneries, non-governmental organisations, schools, Tibetan associations and individual Tibetans.
Tibetans in Dharamsala join for candle light vigil to mourn the tragedy in Kyigudo, Tibet
Addressing the solemn memorial service, Kalon Tripa said those affected by unimaginable catastrophe in Kyegudo were helped by their brethren living in Tibet and comforted with prayers from Tibetans living far away from Tibet. We commend the spirit of solidarity displayed by Tibetans during the crisis as the symbolism of the Tibetan people’s unity, he added.
Kalon Tripa spoke on series of religious services initiated by the Tibetan communities based across the world led by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We hoped that the prayers would bring solace to all those affected by the calamity, he said.
In the aftermaths of the tragedy in Kyegudo, some of senior leadership of the Chinese government, including President Hu Jintao, CPPCC Chairman Jia Qinglin, Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice Premier Hui Liangyu and Executive Vice Minister of the Central United Front Work Department Zhu Weiqun, of whom some paid visits to the affected regions to express their solidarity with the victims. They had discharged their responsibilities of being political leaders, which was commended by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and we also must thank them as a gesture of our gratitude, Kalon Tripa said.
Kalon Tripa spoke about the long-term plans to help the rehabilitation of quake victims under the supervision of Vice Premier Hui Liangyu. He said Premier Wen Jiabao gave recognition and praised the rescue efforts led by Tibetan monks, he added.
We Tibetan people must express our gratitude to the exemplary rescue efforts made by Tibetans in Kyegudo and other areas of Tibet, including Tibetan monks and students, and students from China and other countries. We must also pay our gratitude and praise the Chinese people, including general public, intellectuals, writers and journalists, for showing their solidarity by giving donations, assisting those injured and highlighting the tragedy, Kalon Tripa said.
Kalon Tripa conveyed the Tibetan people’s gratitude and appreciation to the media, including BBC and CNN, for taking interest in making transparent coverage of the events to the whole world following the earthquake in Tibet.
He said the clear message conveyed by CPPCC Chairman Jia Qinglin to overseas Tibetans to make material donation or visit family members in Tibet has encouraged and showed to the Tibetans in exile a way forward. We firmly hope and belief that our wishes in accordance with the path shown by the Chinese leadership will come true, Kalon Tripa added.
Kalon Tripa reiterated the unwavering wish of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to visit the affected regions in Kyegudo to pray and comfort those affected by the earthquake. His Holiness has expressed his eagerness to visit the affected areas as Tibetans in the region yearn to seek his blessings. The Central Tibetan Administration led by His Holiness Dalai Lama does not have any desire to politicise the issue or gain any political mileage out it, he said.
(Reporter: Lobsang Choedak)
http://www.tibet.net/en/index.php#

The earthquake in Qinghai
From whence cometh my help
Co-operation between monks and the government has been curtailed
Apr 29th 2010 | BEIJING | From The Economist print edition
Time to go back to the cloister
FOR Tibet’s rebellious monastic community, the earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people in a remote county on the Tibetan plateau on April 14th became a rare opportunity to forge some trust with the government of China. In an unspoken truce, the authorities allowed monks from far and wide to to join the relief efforts. Chinese troops watched impassively as columns of red-robed Buddhists bearing the flags of their monasteries deployed near the epicentre. But mutual suspicions have been quick to resurface.
The devastation struck Yushu, a county in Qinghai province, which Tibetans view as part of their historic territory. The government has seen the recovery efforts here as a chance to show its care for an ethnic minority suffused with misgivings about Chinese rule. The prime minister, Wen Jiabao, delayed an overseas trip and the president, Hu Jintao, cut short a trip of his own to fly to the disaster area and be photographed with grieving Tibetans. Just as it did after a far more destructive earthquake in Sichuan province in 2008, the government declared a national day of mourning, which was observed on April 21st.
But official goodwill has its limits. Tibetan areas, including Qinghai, had been under a security clampdown since March 2008, when anti-Chinese protests and riots flared across the plateau. The government is still in no mood to give leeway to Tibetan dissenters who, it fears, might seize on any inadequacies in the relief mission to whip up public anger. One of China’s senior leaders, Jia Qinglin, said on April 19th that ‘hostile elements abroad”often code for the Dalai Lama and his supporters’were trying to ‘sabotage’ the relief work.
Four days later, police in Qinghai’s capital, Xining, detained a prominent Tibetan intellectual, Tagyal (he has a single name, as do many Tibetans). He had joined seven others in signing an open letter to residents of the disaster area. It referred to the earthquake as another blow to Tibetans; on top of ‘armed force and cruelty’. And it urged people to give donations only to ‘trustworthy’ agencies’implying that government bodies are too prone to corruption.
Tagyal’s letter seems to have been the last straw. The authorities were already enraged by a book he wrote under his pen name, which he had been circulating informally in the past few weeks. ‘The Line Between Sky and Earth’ praises the activism of monks during the Tibetan unrest of 2008 and calls for passive resistance as a way of pressing for more freedoms. Its message was particularly striking because Tagyal had been regarded by many Tibetans as someone who shared official China’s disdain for Tibetan religion. Police have informed Tagyal’s family that he is suspected of ‘inciting separatism’. Concerns about his book might have helped to inspire a campaign the government launched to prevent ‘illegal publications’ from disturbing the relief effort.
The authorities have reason to worry about the loyalties of this earthquake’s survivors. Some have been scrabbling in ruins to recover photographs of the Dalai Lama. The government has ignored the exiled Tibetan leader’s suggestion that he be allowed to visit Yushu. Woeser, a Tibetan writer living in Beijing, says survivors become excited whenever they spot an aeroplane overhead, hoping the Dalai Lama might be on board.
Monks, unfettered by the altitude sickness suffered by many of the emergency workers sent from other parts of China, made valiant contributions to the rescue. But the government appears to have lost patience with them. Within a week of the earthquake, officials were making it clear that those from outside the county should return to their monasteries. Woeser says that many monks have decided to play safe and withdraw.

China urged to free 11th Panchen Lama
Phayul[Monday, April 26, 2010 16:43]
By Phurbu Thinley
Gendhun Choekyi Nyima’s photo taken in 1995, when he was six years old, remains the only proving clue available of him to the outside world. (File photo)
Dharamsala, April 26: For Tibetans Gendhun Choekyi Nyima, who turned 21 Sunday, is very much their beloved and undisputed His Holiness the 11th Panchen Lama of Tibet. But no one knows where he is and what has become of him since he disappeared out of public view in Tibet 15 years ago.
Chinese Communist authorities secretly abducted him along with his parents in May 1995, shortly after His Holiness the Dalai Lama declared him to be the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. Today only one photo taken when he was six years old remains the only clue available of him to the outside world.
Chinese Government claims that his whereabouts are kept undisclosed to protect him, but all requests for access to Gendhun Choekyi Nyima have been repeatedly refused so far.
The latest statement by the Chinese authorities concerning the fate of the Gendhun Choekyi Nyima came just last month from Pema Thinley, the Chinese-appointed governor of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). Thinley told reporters on the sidelines of China’s annual legislative session in Beijing earlier in March that the young boy was living with his family and having a “very good life”  somewhere in Tibet. He, however, gave no further details.
Tibetans and their supporters around the world on Sunday marked his 21st birthday by organising free Panchen Lama campaigns and holding candle light vigils in the evening to pray for his well-being.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama releases a book at a commemoration ceremony to mark 20 years since the passing away of the 10th Panchen Lama, Lhundrup Choekyi Gyaltsen, at Tsunglakhang in Dharamsala, India, December 30, 2009. (file photo/Phayul) In Dharamsala, the seat of Tibet’s government in exile in north India, official function was held yesterday during which exile Tibetan leaders, including the Speaker Penpa Tsering and Deputy Speaker Gyari Dolma of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, and Cabinet ministers of the exile Tibetan government urged the Chinese Government to show him to the international community and let it meet him.
The Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA), one of the most prominent organisations campaigning for the release of Panchen Lama, urged the international community, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other human rights bodies, to join their “15-year struggle” to save the fate of the 11th Panchen Lama.
“TWA is committed to campaigning for the safe return of the Panchen Lama to his rightful abode and to seeing the complete restoration of his political and religious rights. Until this happens, we will do everything in our power to keep the plight of the Panchen Lama at the forefront of people’s minds,” says Kirti Dolkar Lhamo, the president of TWA.
TWA also launched an artwork competition featuring more than 20 acclaimed Tibetan artists to create an imaginary portrait of the 21-year old Panchen Lama. “This new art campaign is part of our continued effort to raise awareness and one that we hope will also create a meaningful visual reference for Tibetans,” says Lhamo. “Currently, the images we use to remember him are of a young child, but he has now reached adulthood,” she says.
Lhamo says the campaign serves to emphasise the length of his captivity he has gone – from boy to manhood – hidden from the eyes of the world. “So all we can do to visualise him is to use our imaginations,” she adds.
Lhamo says her organisation will chose one of the pieces of art and will use it as a new emblem for its campaign materials calling for the Panchen Lama?s release.
Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, the traditional seat of the successive Panchen Lamas, and the Central Association of Panchen Lama also jointly issued a statement Sunday asking China to provide clear information on his safety and whereabouts.
Panchen Lama is revered as the second highest tulku lineage in the Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and one of the most influential spiritual leaders of Tibet.
Traditionally, the Panchen Lama bears part of the responsibility for finding the incarnation of the Dalai Lama and vice versa, a practice many say has prompted China to install another boy, Gyaltsen Norbu, as the Panchen Lama.
Gyaltsen, who is generally not recognised by Tibetans, is being used by Beijing to supplant the Dalai Lama as the public face of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet and elsewhere in China. In recent years he has taken on an increasingly political role and was recently appointed to China’s top government advisory body.