China urged to release Panchen Lama after 20 years
May 18, 2015
BBC, May 17, 2015 – Tibetan exiles are calling for China to release a high-ranking monk who disappeared 20 years ago when he was just six years old.
The boy was detained by the Chinese authorities just three days after the Dalai Lama declared him to be the reincarnated Panchen Lama.
The Panchen Lama is the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism.
Many consider him to be one of the world’s longest-serving political prisoners.
China has refused provide details of the whereabouts of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima.
In 1995 it anointed its own Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu, who while popular among some Tibetans has been described by exiles as a “stooge of the atheist Chinese Communist Party government”.
Wangdue Tsering, press spokesman for the Office of Tibet in London, told the BBC that events were taking place on Sunday across the world to mark the 20th anniversary of Gendhun Choekyi Nyima’s disappearance, including a candle-lit vigil outside the Chinese embassy in London.

Tibet’s competing Panchen Lamas
Gedhun Choekyi Nyima
· Named as the 11th Panchen Lama by the Dalai Lama on 14 May 1995
· Detained by Chinese authorities within three days of his appointment
China has divulged little information about him or his whereabouts – it says this is necessary to protect him from being “kidnapped by separatists”
Banned from meeting foreign visitors, China says he has attended school and is now leading a normal life in China
His parents are both employed by the state, China says, and his brothers and sisters are either working or at university
Gyaltsen Norbu
Chosen by Beijing as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama when he was six
The son of two Communist Party members
Spent his early childhood in Beijing before moving back to Tibet to study Buddhism
He was selected by drawing lots from a golden urn – a custom introduced in 1792 and used to select previous Lamas – but which critics say has been manipulated by the Chinese authorities
Gave his first appearance outside of mainland China to address more than 1,000 monks in Hong Kong in April 2012
“We are appealing to the world community to help us find out where the Panchen Lama is,” Mr Tsering told the BBC’s Asia analyst Michael Bristow.
“It has been 20 years since he disappeared and we don’t know where he is, where his family is and how he is. We want the Chinese authorities to give some information.”
The Dalai Lama has in the past strongly criticised China for “brazen meddling in the system of reincarnation” – especially the reincarnation of the Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas.
The Chinese government views the Dalai Lama as a separatist
Tibet is governed as an autonomous region of China. Beijing claims a centuries-old sovereignty over the region, but many Tibetans argue that Tibet was colonised.
China sent in thousands of troops to enforce its claim on the region in 1950. Some areas became the Tibetan Autonomous Region and others were incorporated into neighbouring Chinese provinces.
In 1959, after a failed anti-Chinese uprising, the 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet and set up a government in exile in India.
Beijing views the Dalai Lama as a separatist threat, although he has repeatedly stated that his goal is for Tibetan autonomy rather than independence. WTN – Canada

India’s cautious relationship with the Dalai Lama
May 11, 2015
India Today, May 11, 2015 – As he prepares for his visit to China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is cutting the ground from beneath his own feet by distancing himself from the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, all the while promoting India as the founding Buddhist nation.
A scheduled meeting between BJP president Amit Shah and the Dalai Lama on May 2 in Dharamshala was cancelled by the BJP leader at the last minute because the PM did not want the Chinese to be upset with the senior BJP leadership meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader they deem to be “splittist,” BJP sources confirmed.
“The prime minister will surely meet His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, upon his return from China. In fact, the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday is soon coming up in July… The BJP president cancelled his meeting with the Dalai Lama because the government did not want the Chinese to be upset with the meeting on the eve of the PM’s visit to China,” BJP sources said.
The tension between the government and the Dalai Lama is believed to have reached such a stage that the Tibetan spiritual leader, who has lived in India for the past 55 years since he fled the Chinese takeover of his homeland in 1959, will be travelling to California in early July for his birthday celebrations.
But with the last-minute cancellation of the Amit Shah meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader, Tibetan leaders in India are wondering if something is changing.
The BJP sources pointed out that the Chinese leadership believes the Dalai Lama is “splittist,” meaning, he wants to split Tibet from China, and therefore fundamentally dangerous.
But the Dalai Lama has said publicly that he wishes the People’s Republic of China and its leadership well, and believes that Tibet is an integral part of that country.
Fact is, the mother of Chinese president Xi Jinping – Modi’s host in China next week – is a devout Buddhist. Interestingly, Tibetan leaders from Dharamshala confirm that the number of “Mainland Chinese believers in Buddhism” attending the Dalai Lama’s teachings in Dharamshala has significantly increased.
“His Holiness’ teachings are often translated in several languages, including Russia and Chinese. We have begun noticing that several Chinese from mainland China have begun to attend his teachings along with Taiwanese Buddhists,” a Tibetan leader said.
The Dalai Lama has always enjoyed the status of a “holy leader” in India since he came to India in 1959 and then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru welcomed him on the condition that he wouldn’t propagate any political activities. Every prime minister since has met the Dalai Lama soon after he becomes the PM and both sides have reiterated that position.
Certainly, each government holds the Dalai Lama in high esteem, and he is very careful not to breach the promise he first made to Nehru. Each foreign secretary as well as every joint secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs incharge of China is also seconded to look after Tibetan affairs in India, especially the Dalai Lama.
At the same time, prime minister Modi has come to realise that the officially atheist Chinese have begun to “use Buddhism as a tool in a big way to expand its own sphere of influence,” the BJP sources said, for example, in helping fund the building of a Buddha temple in Lumbini in the Nepal Terai and close to the border with India.
It is only after India protested with the Nepalis, the BJP sources confirmed, that Kathmandu seems to have backed off. “India was uncomfortable with a huge Chinese presence in the Terai so close to India,” an official said.
The officials admitted that India expected China to now rain money in Nepal, after the earthquake, helping them rebuild the country with soft loans that Kathmandu won’t be able to refuse and India won’t be able to match. “The Modi government may have got the first-mover advantage in Nepal when it sent search & rescue teams to help the Nepalis, but see how the Chinese now move in,” the official added.
Clearly, Modi has learnt fast that diplomacy can be seamless in these last months as prime minister, which is why he wanted to know why India, a country where Buddha was born – a country called Nepal did not exist at the time in approximately 480 BC – did not make use of this inherent advantage.
So Modi led the Buddha Purnima prayers on May 5, the first time a prime minister has done so, pointing out “It has been said that the 21st century will be Asia’s century… Without Buddha, this cannot be Asia’s century.”
During his recent visit to Germany, Modi told a journalist at a press conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel that “Buddha was born in India.” Diplomats say they have been shy of making this assertion publicly as they don’t want to upset Nepal.
Modi’s new-found realisation that Buddhism can be used as an important tool to counter the Chinese will be in full display in Mongolia and South Korea, where he will travel after China. The visit to predominantly Buddhist Mongolia is the first-ever by an Indian prime minister, where he will address the country’s parliament on Sunday, May 17. In Korea, Modi is expected to plant a sapling from the Bodhi tree taken from the mother tree in Bodh Gaya.Certainly, Modi’s interest in Buddhism contradicts his determination to distance himself from the Dalai Lama, often described as a “living god” of Buddhism, certainly of its Gelugpa sect.
Certainly, too, it seems as if the Modi government hasn’t fully come to terms with the Dalai Lama’s presence in India. Health minister JP Nadda, who also hails from Himachal Pradesh, where the Dalai Lama also lives, is believed to promote the Tibetan cause but Modi himself isn’t so sure, the BJP sources conceded.

Tibetans Detained, Beaten For Protesting Construction Near Sacred Site
2015-05-01
Chinese authorities have cracked down on villagers protesting road work linked to plans for mining on a sacred mountain in Tibet’s Gonjo county, detaining an unknown number and leaving many badly injured, sources said.
Construction of the road leading to Mini mountain near Awong village in the Chamdo (in Chinese, Changdu) prefecture had resumed around April 2 after being blocked last year by local challenges to the project, a Tibetan living in exile told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“Tibetan residents objected to the plan to mine on a sacred site and appealed to the authorities not to go ahead with it,” RFA’s source, Tashi Lamsang, said, citing contacts in the Gonjo area.
“As a result, the plan was temporarily halted,” Lamsang said.
When local Tibetans approved a separate project to develop bathing facilities at a local hot springs, work on the road began again, and a group of 10 village representatives approached local officials to demand an explanation.
“They were told the work order had been given by Norbu Dondrub, the Gonjo county chief, and were advised to accept money in compensation and keep their mouths shut,” Lamsang said.
The Tibetans were then taken into custody when they threatened further protests, Lamsang said.
“This led to a clash between local Tibetans and the police, and many Tibetans were injured,” he said, adding, “The local government hospital refused to treat those who had been hurt, forcing them to go instead to a private clinic for help.”
Exact numbers for those who were detained or injured in the clash were not immediately available.
A group of Gonjo-area traders were then detained in Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa when they went to the Chamdo Liaison office in the city to plead for an end to mining in their hometown, Lamsang said.
“They told the authorities that if the road work and mining are not stopped, they will appeal the case to central government authorities in Beijing,” he said.
Tibetan areas of China have become an important source of minerals needed for China’s economic growth, and mining operations have led to frequent standoffs with Tibetans who accuse Chinese firms of disrupting sites of spiritual significance and polluting the environment as they extract local wealth.
Reported by Lobe Socktsang for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

We have Truth on our Side: Sikyong on China’s White Paper on Tibet
April 30, 2015
By Staff Writer
DHARAMSHALA: Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Tibet Museum’s inauguration, Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay made a brief remark on the White Paper on Tibet published recently by China’s State Council Information Office.
Explaining what he called the Chinese government’s nervousness over its grip on occupied Tibet, Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay said the latest White Paper on Tibet is another attempt by the Chinese government to mislead the world about the real situation inside Tibet.
“Since the early 1990s, China has issued 13 white papers on Tibet. This means Beijing has issued a white paper on Tibet for almost each of the two years within this intervening period,” Sikyong said.
“China has issued two white papers on Xinjiang, one on Hong Kong and none on Inner Mongolia so far. The fact that China has published not one, not two, but 13 White Papers on Tibet, is a testament to the fact that the information provided, principally by the Central Tibetan Administration, as well as by other leading international Tibet support groups, are the ones considered factual and authentic by the world,” he said.
“White papers by nature are authoritative guides on complex issues that need to be resolved or commercially as sales and marketing documents. For the Chinese government to issue 13 white papers on Tibet means that it is having great difficulty in convincing potential customers to buy its arguments on Tibet. These white papers are a dozen too many, too unconvincing and too late to arrest the worsening conditions in Tibet,” Sikyong reasoned.
Describing truth and justice as its guiding principle, Sikyong said that “the Chinese government is economically much more powerful and has a large resource of manpower and finance at their disposal. The resources available with the Tibetan people pales in comparison to those of China. However, our wholehearted efforts to create awareness on the Tibet issue has been much more significant as we have truth on our side,” Sikyong asserted.
The latest whitepaper on Tibet issued by the Chinese government has been heavily criticised by the Central Tibetan Administration and Tibet support groups worldwide as another attempt to whitewash the tragic reality in Tibet.
The CTA has issued a press release earlier, in response to the White Paper, urging the Chinese government to open up Tibet to both international rights groups and media instead of issuing White Papers on Tibet.
“Let the international media do an objective report on the issue of Tibet and let the world be the judge,” the CTA has said.