Tibetan homes to be demolished, replaced by Chinese-style dwellings
December 7, 2015
Radio Free Asia, December 4, 2015 – Chinese authorities in Tibet have ordered the destruction of houses built in traditional style in three counties outside the regional capital Lhasa, with their replacement by Chinese-style dwellings scheduled for completion in five years, according to a local source.
Demolition and construction will begin in 2016 in Tagtse (in Chinese, Dazi), Lhundrub (Linzhou), and Maldro Gongkar (Mozhugongka) counties, located outside Lhasa city, a resident of the area told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“We are being forced to accept and support the plan without any choice,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Our own house is in very good shape and doesn’t need reconstruction,” she said, adding that residents in all three counties have been ordered to register for their homes to be replaced by buildings of Chinese design.
“We haven’t turned in our own names yet,” she added.
The order for replacement was issued by the Lhasa city government and then communicated to Tibetan families by their county governments, with residents of Tagtse informed in September, Lhundrub in October, and Maldro Gongkar in December, RFA’s source said.
“The project will begin with those families who are recipients of government welfare, and then move on to those families who don’t receive benefits,” she said.
Though anticipated costs of the work in Tagtse and Lhundrub are still unclear, “families in Maldro Gongkar have been told to contribute 200,000 yuan [U.S. $31,340], with remaining expenses paid by the government,” she said.
“Families have been promised the keys to their new homes when the work is finished,” she added.
Details and costs of the planned reconstruction could not be independently confirmed, and calls seeking comment from the Lhasa city government rang unanswered on Thursday.
In 2013, a project to modernize Lhasa’s central Barkhor, or Old City, area ignited a storm of protest online and among international Tibet support groups, with some calling the move an attempt to destroy Tibetans’ “living connection” to their past.
Meanwhile, the demolition in October of Tibetan dwellings near a scenic lake in northwestern China’s Qinghai province has left over 900 homeless and living in tents, sources said in earlier reports.
Reported by Lobsang Choephel for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finn

China’s about-face on climate change
Carrie Gracie
China editor
• 30 November 2015
Carrie Gracie explains China’s plans for solar energy
With a hard pledge on peaking carbon emissions and with ever more ambitious targets on installing renewables, China has become one of the countries to watch at this week’s Paris conference.
The Qinghai Tibet plateau is the heart and lungs of Asia. Here, the continent’s weather is made and its great rivers are born.
The altitude and the cold make it one of the most extreme climates on earth.
When I visited, icy winds gusting at 50mph (80km/h) were whipping a sandstorm into Qie Qun Jia’s face as he herded his flock of sheep home to safety.
The 28-year-old Tibetan nomad has only ever known this life.
But climate change is turning the grasslands that once supported his yak herd to desert, and now Qie Qun Jia has only a flock of sheep.
“When I was little the grass grew tall and the mountains were covered with flowers,” he says.
“Summers were warmer and winters were much colder. But in recent years there’ve been so many sandstorms, the flowers are disappearing and the grazing gets worse year by year.
So our flocks of sheep are shrinking. We can’t afford to buy grass to feed them.”
Counting the cost
China is both a victim and a perpetrator of climate change.
After three-and-a-half decades of headlong industrial growth powered by coal, China is the world’s largest polluter, and now it is counting the cost in climate change and environmental damage.
In the north and west, it faces desertification. In the south and east, it battles flooding. Its population endures some of the world’s most polluted air, soil and water.
Since the last global UN climate conference in 2009 when Beijing was unwilling to commit to hard targets on reducing carbon emissions, it has realised that its dependence on fossil fuels has to stop. It has become a climate convert.
This about-face is driven not just by the ever more alarming threats from devastating climate change and pollution, but also by opportunity.
China believes the world is on the brink of an energy revolution and it sees a chance to dominate, and profit from, the new technologies of a greener century.
After putting industrial growth above the environment for so long, the Chinese government now believes sustainable growth can only come from rescuing the environment. Tackling climate change is in the national interest.
Solar energy’s big moment
The Huanghe solar farm on the Qinghai plateau claims to be the biggest of its kind in the world. Nearly four million solar panels tilt up towards a vast blue dome of sky.
As I walked between the rows with senior engineer Shen Youguo, tumble weed and sand blew into us and the wind was bitter, but he’s excited. It’s a big moment to be in solar energy in China.
“What we’re doing right now is for the sky to be bluer and the water to be clearer. We want a better future for everybody. So we’re committed to being a part of that push,” he says.
The International Energy Agency predicts that solar power will be the world’s leading source of electricity by the middle of this century.
China wants to dominate renewable technologies like this, and competition between its manufacturers is driving down costs not just in China but globally, as Mr Shen explains.
“As technology advances, the efficiency of our solar batteries improves and the costs come down. So there’s bound to come a day when solar power becomes cheaper than traditional energy.
Personally I’m very optimistic about it,” he says.
Even the environmental activists are impressed.
Yuan Ying of Greenpeace says there are still many challenges to integrate renewable energy fully on China’s national grid, but that the overall trend is positive.
“China is now showing more willingness to lead the international effort to tackle climate change. We also hope China’s efforts can inspire other countries to follow,” says Yuan Ying.
Back on the Qinghai plateau, Qie Qun Jia puts his sheep to bed and the sandstorm drives him in from the cold to sit by the stove with a bowl of steaming milk tea.
In the old days he lived in a tent, but he now has a two room house with a solar panel just outside the door.
The light bulb hanging from the ceiling is solar powered as is the TV on which his children are watching cartoons. He worries about what will become of them in the future.
“We grew up so freely, raising our cattle on this vast grassland. Every day was fun. But our sons and daughters can’t continue this herding life. There’s no road ahead for them. I feel very sad,” he says.
It will take generations to cure China’s addiction to coal and embed renewable energy at the heart of its economy. And all the while, the grassland is shrinking.
Even with an agreement in Paris and even with stronger pledges in the years ahead, the self-inflicted scars of climate change in China may yet deepen before they heal.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34929561

China staged religious activities during US congressional delegation to Tibet
November 23, 2015
Radio Free Asia, November 20, 2015 – A visit to Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa by U.S. lawmakers last week was highly staged, with all signs of a typically heavy security presence removed from central areas in the city before the delegation’s arrival, according to a source inside Tibet.
U.S. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi led a delegation of six lawmakers to the normally tense and tightly controlled city—the scene of violent 2008 protests against Chinese rule—on Nov. 10 for a three-day visit, a local resident told RFA’s Tibetan Service this week.
“On the eve of the visit … Chinese officials in Lhasa ordered 10 members from each division of each township, and six members from each neighborhood, to participate in staged religious activities,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“They were summoned from all sectors of the Lhasa city government jurisdiction and forced to circumambulate around the religious sites, while the monasteries in the city were directed to organize religious activities during the three days.”
According to the source, many of the people called to stage religious activities “were paid for their participation.”
“Therefore, it would have been very difficult for Nancy Pelosi and others to see the true status of religious freedom in Tibet,” he said.
The source said that all of the metal-detector gates used to scan people entering the Jokhang—Lhasa’s central cathedral—and the police tents regularly pitched in the central Bakhor district were removed from the area before Pelosi’s arrival.
“The U.S. delegation did not see even one of those restrictive gates, so the visitors might have got a false impression of peace and calm in the area,” he said.
“In reality, the situation is very different.”
The delegation was shown a Potemkin Lhasa where religious freedom and economic progress is enjoyed by all, the source said.
“They likely did not see any of the darker aspects of Tibetan life in Lhasa, and thus [didn’t understand the problems] in the wider Tibetan region,” he said.
“Whatever they saw was all staged and part of a deceptive plan to paint the wrong picture, so it is important for all to know the truth.”
Confidential letter
The Tibetan government-in-exile on Friday cited a “confidential letter” from a resident of Lhasa who said the city was under a severe lockdown in late October and early November, and described repressive measures taken by the Chinese government to silence Tibetans ahead of the delegation’s visit.
“Lhasa was placed under extreme repression and the people were being constantly indoctrinated in political thoughts, using both violent and softer approaches,” said the letter, according to the report by the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala, India.
“Free speech was also severely curtailed. So much so that people felt it difficult to even move their bodies.”
The letter echoed the account of RFA’s source, saying the gates to Barkhor, which were constantly guarded by security personnel, “were all of a sudden removed and replaced with new doors and lesser security.”
“We were confused at first for the cause of these replacements. However, we realized their intent after learning about the U.S. delegation’s visit,” the letter said.
The letter welcomed the fact-finding visit to Lhasa and expressed the Tibetan people’s desire to meet with the delegation, but acknowledged that it would be hard for Pelosi and the other lawmakers to learn the aspirations of Tibetans because their visit was being guided by Chinese authorities.
‘We saw what they wanted’
On Tuesday, Pelosi and the other members of the delegation—Democratic Representatives Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, Betty McCollum and Tim Walz of Minnesota, Joyce Beatty of Ohio and Alan Lowenthal and Ted Lieu of California—thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping for inviting them on the state visit, which also included stops in the capital Beijing and Hong Kong.
McGovern, the co-chair of the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, said it was clear that the Chinese government “has invested a great deal in Tibet,” but warned that the investment “should not come at the price of an entire culture.”
“You cannot confine a people’s culture and heritage—their very sense of identity—to a museum or a market of handicrafts,” he said.
Pelosi, who has been highly critical of the situation in Tibet, agreed that China’s government was not doing enough to preserve the traditions of the Tibetan people.
“It’s beautiful if the Chinese government spends a lot of money to gild the temple roof … but we’re interested in what’s happening in the minds of the children, and the education and the perpetuation of the culture there,” she said, adding that a large scale resettlement of majority Han Chinese to the region is “diluting that culture.”
The lawmakers were also quick to acknowledge that their delegation had been guided by handlers and encountered difficulty meeting with Tibetan residents of the city.
“I think it’s fair to say that … the Chinese government wanted to control as much of our visit as they could. And we saw what they wanted us to see,” McGovern said.
Pelosi said that 30 Chinese officers guiding their delegation “is probably a conservative estimate because there were people who—shall we say—had walkie talkies that may not have been identified as security” joining the entourage through Lhasa, making sure the lawmakers stuck to a prescribed route.
“Well, what they wanted us to see was housing. And we did,” she said.
“Did we see families? I’m not sure.”
Ambassador visit
In June 2013, sources in Tibet told RFA that a visit to the region by then-U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke was met with a similarly staged welcome, including police officers dressed as Tibetans from remote rural and nomadic communities, carrying prayer wheels and rosaries in their hands.
During his trip, Locke emphasized the importance of preserving the Tibetan people’s cultural heritage, including its unique linguistic, religious, and cultural traditions, the U.S. State Department said at the time.
A riot in Lhasa in March 2008 followed the suppression by Chinese police of four days of peaceful protests by Tibetans, and led to the destruction of Han Chinese shops in the city and deadly attacks on Han Chinese residents.
More than a dozen civilians were killed in the clashes, according to various reports.
The riot sparked a wave of mostly peaceful protests against Chinese rule that spread across Tibet and into Tibetan-populated regions of western Chinese provinces.
Hundreds of Tibetans were detained, beaten, or shot as Chinese security forces quelled the protests.
Meanwhile, a total of 143 Tibetans to date have self-immolated to challenge Beijing’s rule in Tibetan-populated areas and to call for the return of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Reported by Sonam Wangdu for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma

US, China officials get into heated argument over Tibet
Published November 18, 2015 Associated Press
WASHINGTON – U.S. lawmakers on a rare congressional visit to Tibet last week had “heated exchanges” with Chinese officials as they called for Beijing to renew dialogue with exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, one participant said Tuesday.
Seven Democrats led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi made the first visit by U.S. lawmakers to Tibet since anti-government unrest in 2008. The region has also been largely off-limits to foreign media and diplomats since then.
Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts said the visit was an important gesture by the Chinese government but “too often” they heard characterizations of Tibet and the Dalai Lama that reflected old prejudices.
“I believe that the Dalai Lama is part of the solution, not the problem, to resolving the issues confronting Tibetan autonomy,” McGovern said, calling for genuine dialogue to address the concerns of Tibetans who are seeking more autonomy, the freedom to practice their Buddhist religion and preservation of their culture.
The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule and is shunned by Beijing as a separatist.
Pelosi, who last traveled to China in 2009, said the delegation’s visit, which also took them to Hong Kong and Beijing, followed an invitation to “come see for yourself” when she raised congressional concerns over human rights with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a Washington visit in September. In Beijing, they met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
“I considered the trip constructive, bridge-building, and we want to continue building that bridge through reconciliation and clearer understanding,” Pelosi said. They also discussed cybersecurity and climate change.
McGovern said the delegation saw what Chinese officials wanted them to see in Tibet, but at Pelosi’s insistence, visited religious sites too.
They came away uncertain about what steps the Chinese government was willing to take on reconciliation in Tibet, but not feeling “the door was entirely closed to anything,” including to opening a U.S. consulate in the regional capital of Lhasa.
“Some discussions were more heated than others and there were some discussions that I felt signaled openness to a constructive dialogue,” McGovern said.
Also joining the trip were Democratic Reps. Betty McCollum and Tim Walz of Minnesota, Joyce Beatty of Ohio and Alan Lowenthal and Ted Lieu of California

Amnesty: Chinese Police Use Torture to Extract Confessions
http://www.voatibetanenglish.com/content/report-finds-chinese-police-using-torture-to-extract-confessions/3054963.html
Chinese police still routinely use torture to extract confessions from criminal suspects, Amnesty International said Thursday, despite Beijing’s recent criminal justice and legal reforms. The report, entitled “No End in Sight,” is based in part on interviews with dozens of human rights lawyers, and comes as the United Nations is set to conduct a regular review of China’s record on torture. “For the police, obtaining a confession is still the easiest way to secure a conviction,” said Patrick Poon, a China researcher at the London-based rights group.
Methods of torture outlined by Amnesty include beatings, sleep deprivation, being forced into painful positions for long periods, and withholding food, water, or medication. Since 2010, China has introduced a number of guidelines it says have successfully reduced torture, including laws explicitly banning the practice. But the measures have been ineffective, says Amnesty, partly because the courts that are supposed to punish such behavior are controlled by the ruling Communist Party. “China’s police authority still wields too much power within the judicial system,” the report said, “As a result, few perpetrators of torture are held to account.”
Amnesty also faulted the “deep-rooted practices” of China’s criminal justice system. “The system still overly relies on ‘confessions’ as the basis of most convictions, providing an almost irresistible incentive for law enforcement agencies to obtain them by any means necessary,” it said. While it did not directly respond to the report, Beijing’s Foreign Ministry Thursday insisted Chinese law is committed to ensuring “fairness and justice.” “Extorting a confession by torture is explicitly banned by China’s laws. The person who is found exercising torture during interrogation will be subject to punishment,” said ministry spokesman Hong Lei.
The Amnesty findings were corroborated by other recent reports, including a May investigation by Human Rights Watch, which dismissed China’s criminal justice reforms as being “easily circumvented.” China next week will be scrutinized by the U.N. Convention against Torture, an international panel of experts that judges whether signatory nations are complying with the U.N.’s anti-torture convention. “Torture remains a daily reality in China, and this is a critical moment for Beijing to answer tough questions about why this problem still exists,” said HRW China director Sophie Richardson in a statement on Thursday. “Dishonesty, evasion, or obfuscation from officials at the review can only deepen torture survivors’ agony. An honest discussion that commits to accountability for torturers might help mitigate survivors’ pain and indicate willingness to reform.”

Tibet Party Chief declares renewed crackdown on religious belief
November 16, 2015
By Edward Wong
New York Times, November 11, 2015 – The Chinese Communist Party in central Tibet is aiming to peer into the hearts of its members to hunt down secret worshipers of the Dalai Lama or people who secretly hold religious beliefs.
That seemingly difficult mission was laid out by the party chief of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Chen Quanguo, in a question-and-answer published online by the party’s central anticorruption and discipline agency.
“We must severely punish those party members and cadres who don’t have firm beliefs and ideals, who don’t share the same mind with the party and the people, who have ‘two faces’ when it comes to the important question of what’s right and wrong,” Mr. Chen said, according to the transcript of the question-and-answer session that was published on Monday.
Mr. Chen said it was important to go after party members who “pretend not to be religious but indeed are” and those who “follow the clique of the 14th Dalai Lama.” He said that party investigators should seek out members who have gone to India, where the Dalai Lama lives, to “worship” him or ones who send their children or other relatives to schools run by the Dalai Lama.
There are skeptics of this approach. Global Times, a nationalistic, state-run newspaper, ran an article in its English edition citing an expert based in Tibet who said, in the newspaper’s words, that “it’s hard to identify such people because separatism is an ideological issue and is usually difficult to spot during recruitment simply through their words and deeds.”
The expert also said, again in the newspaper’s words, that the Dalai Lama “has been deodorizing his image, and local governments should provide more information of his activities in a transparent and open manner.” Global Times did not name the expert.
The party has vilified the widely revered Dalai Lama, 80, the Tibetan spiritual leader, since he fled to India in 1959, saying he is plotting Tibetan independence even though he has insisted he wants only self-autonomy for the Tibetans, as guaranteed in the Chinese Constitution. The Dalai Lama’s image is generally banned from mainland China and Tibetan regions, though local officials occasionally allow people to openly display it.
Each year, many Tibetans and even some ethnic Han, the dominant group in China, try to go to Dharamsala, India, to seek the Dalai Lama’s blessing or to hear him speak. Many Buddhist institutions of learning have been established by Tibetans in Dharamsala.
Since a widespread uprising of Tibetans in 2008, Chinese officials have tried to clamp down on the border between Tibet and Nepal to prevent most Tibetan pilgrims from leaving via a popular route. In 2012, security officers in Tibet detained hundreds of people returning from a Kalachakra religious teaching ceremony in India over which the Dalai Lama had presided. The ceremony is sometimes held in India, and officials had turned a blind eye to some Tibetans seeking to attend, but the 2012 mass detention showed that Mr. Chen, an ethnic Han, and other regional leaders were intent on taking a harder line.
Mr. Chen said in the question-and-answer transcript that officials in the Tibet Autonomous Region, which includes Lhasa and the central Tibetan plateau, had uncovered 19 cases of violations of political discipline and had punished 20 people. “In 2015, not one person from the Tibet Autonomous Region has gone to the 14th Dalai Lama’s prayer sessions,” he said.
In August, an official publication of the party’s Organization Department, which manages postings for party members, said the party in central Tibet was tightening discipline. The publication, China Organization and Human Resources News, said the party there had issued a policy called the “six absolutely don’t-use,” which described criteria for rejecting potential party members or officials. Those include people who have gone abroad to “worship” the Dalai Lama or to prayer sessions and teachings, and ones who “intentionally manufacture ethnic conflict or disrupt ethnic unity.”
Though the party denounces the Dalai Lama, it has insisted that he must reincarnate after his death, rebutting declarations by the current Dalai Lama that he may be the last one. The party is seeking to control the reincarnation process so it can give the title of Dalai Lama to someone whom it can control, as it has done with the Panchen Lama.
Two decades ago, officials took a 6-year-old boy, Gendun Choekyi Nyima, from his home in Tibet after the Dalai Lama said he was the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second-ranking figure in the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism. The party then installed its own boy as the reincarnation.
In September, an official in the party’s United Front Work Department in Tibet, Norbu Dunzhub, made a rare reference to the boy who had vanished in 1995, now 26. The official said he “is being educated, living a normal life, growing up healthily and does not wish to be disturbed.”

Tibetan Father of Four is Detained After Solo Protest in Ngaba
Authorities in southwestern China’s Sichuan province have detained a Tibetan man after he launched a solo protest in the latest public challenge to Beijing’s rule in restive Ngaba county, Tibetan sources living in India said.
Tashi, 31, staged his protest in the seat of Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) county in the Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture on Oct. 26, calling for Tibetan freedom and the return of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Tibetan monks Lobsang Yeshe and Kanyak Tsering said, citing contacts in the region.
“He carried a photo of the Dalai Lama in his hand as he walked down the street in protest,” Yeshe and Tsering said, adding, “Police stationed in the town quickly jumped on him and took him away.”
“At present, he is said to be held in the Ngaba detention center,” they said.
“Tashi is a family man with four children, two boys and two girls,” Yeshe and Tsering said. “His wife’s name is Kelpe, and two of their children are still students at the Meruma township school in Ngaba.”
“They all live in Group Five of Meruma township,” they said.
Communications cut
News of Tashi’s detention was briefly delayed due to communication blocks imposed by Chinese authorities in the area following a string of similar protests last month, and no official confirmation of his whereabouts or details regarding his condition were immediately available.
Internet service in the Ngaba area has been cut off since September after other Tibetans, including a woman and several monks, launched solo protests in the town, with the restrictions especially hurting the county’s business sector, Yeshe and Tsering said.
Hotels in the area have been particularly hard hit, they said.
“They are appealing to authorities to lift the ban.”
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Chinese rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008, with 143 Tibetans to date setting themselves on fire to oppose Beijing’s rule and call for the Dalai Lama’s return.
Reported by Dhondup Gonsar for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Chinese Authorities Demolish Tibetan Nunnery in Driru
106 nuns from a well-known Tibetan nunnery that has often been a subject to crackdown have been expelled from their homes, which was later destroyed, according to an exiled Tibetan nun originially from Jada Nunnery.
People familiar with the area say that Jada Nunnery of Driru County, Nagchu Prefecture,Tibetan Autonomous Region host both local nuns and nuns from other areas of Tibet.
The Tibetan Center of Human Rights and Democracy (TCHR) based in Dharamsala, Northern India reported that the Chinese authorities have often launched crackdowns in the area, and that a number of nuns had been expelled last month as well.
According to Ngawang Tharpa, a source from India, in November of last year, 26 nuns were reportedly expelled from the same nunnery. This is however, the first time that the authorities have destroyed the residence homes of the nuns through false promises of renovating the compound.
The nunnery now has only about 60 nuns remaining as a result of these constant crackdown and expulsion.

Tibet’s PM-in-exile urges global leaders to support cause of ‘free Tibet’ – both for the sake of democracy and the global environment
World Bulletin / News Desk
Tibetan Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay, who currently lives in exile in India, has urged global leaders to support the cause of a “free Tibet” — both for the sake of democracy and the global environment.
A Himalayan region of China, Tibet — which is surrounded by India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar — is of considerable ecological importance.
“Tibet is not only vital for six million Tibetans, but for the whole world — from an environmental point-of-view, a spiritual point-of-view and a strategic point-of-view,” Sangay told Anadolu Agency.
“Supporting Tibet is to support a rich, ancient civilization,” he added. “It is also [to support] values which we embrace [which] are democratic values.”
A graduate of Harvard University in the U.S., Sangay was elected head of the Tibetan government-in-exile in April 2011.
Beijing, however, remains staunchly opposed to any notion of Tibetan independence.
At an August meeting devoted to the issue, Chinese President Xi Jinping strenuously rejected proposals by the Dalai Lama — Tibet’s “spiritual leader” — for Tibetan “autonomy”.
Xi went on to assert that China would actively oppose any perceived threats to its territorial integrity.
– Ecological issue
Sangay, for his part, said that supporting the cause of a “free Tibet” was also important from an ecological perspective, as the country was the source of several important rivers in the region.
“It is also important for more than a billion people who survive on fresh water coming from Tibet,” he said.
China is currently building a number of dams in Tibet, which, Sangay warned, would have critical implications on neighboring India and Bangladesh.
“Unfortunately, the Chinese government has not signed the UN convention on water sharing,” he said. “So they are not bound to share water as per international norms.”
“The Indian government should be vigilant and make this issue more pronounced,” he added. “I was told the water level of the River Brahmaputra has receded over the years [which] will affect greenery, agriculture and fishing.”
The Brahmaputra River emanates from a glacier located on Mount Kailash in Tibet, where the river is called the Yarlung Tsangpo.
According to Sangay, Tibet is the source of at least 10 major rivers in Asia, including the Brahmputra.
“Tibet’s glaciers — where most of these rivers originate — are fast depleting,” he said. “On top of that, there is deforestation and exploitation of water resources through dam construction and other activities.”
“Downstream countries are going to bear the brunt of Tibet’s ecological destruction,” Sangay warned while attending the fifth All India Tibet Support Groups Conference in India’s northeastern city of Guwahati.
Currently, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans live in exile in different countries, with more than 100,000 said to be living in India alone.
In 1959, the Dalai Lama — along with some 80,000 followers — fled into exile in India.
Sangay concluded by expressing hope that Tibet would soon be a “free country”, whose people would enjoy the “fruits of democracy”.

China Arrests Latest Tibetan Lone Protestor in Ngapa
A Tibetan man was arrested after staging a solo protest in Ngapa County, Ngawa Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province on Monday, October 26, 2015.
Holding up a picture of the Dalai Lama, Tashi, 31, took to a crowded street in Ngapa County and shouted, “Tibetans want freedom, and let the Dalai Lama return to Tibet.”
According to Kanyag Tsering, Spokesperson for Kirti Monastery in Dharamsala, Tashi was immediately arrested following his protest and taken to the Ngapa county jail.
This is the latest in a series of lone protests that have been taking place in Tibet this year.
Since 2008, Ngapa remains one of most persistent protest areas in Tibet. It is also a place where the self-immolation movement inside Tibet began in 2009 by a monk named Tapey. Since then, there have been over 140 known self-immolations in the Tibetan areas to protest China’s policies towards Tibetans.