Tibetan Self-Immolator Dies
2012-07-13
A Tibetan man who suffered severe burns a week ago after self-immolating in protest against Chinese rule in the Tibet Autonomous Region has died, sources said Friday.
The man, in his 20’s, was rushed to a military hospital after the fiery protest in the seat of Damshung county (in Chinese, Dangxiong) near Tibet’s capital Lhasa but could not be saved,  the sources said.
“He was taken to the military hospital near Sera monastery in Lhasa when he could not be treated at the Damshung local hospital,” a source in Nepal with contacts in the region told RFA.
“The man suffered burns nearly all over the body and died on the same night he was brought in,” another source in Nepal said.
His identity could not be confirmed though he was believed to be 22 or 23 years old and a resident of Damshung’s Chode village.
The Damshung incident brings to 43 the total number of self-immolations reported since February 2009 as Tibetans challenge Chinese policies which they say have robbed them of their rights.
Of the 43, the Damshung man is the fourth to self-immolate in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
All of the other self-immolations have occurred in Tibetan-populated areas of the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai, and Gansu.
The burnings have intensified over the past year and resulted in a Chinese security clampdown across the region.
The authorities have detained hundreds of monks from monasteries and jailed scores of Tibetan writers, artists, singers, and educators for asserting Tibetan national identity and civil rights, exile sources say.
Recuperating
Meanwhile, one of two young Tibetan men who self-immolated in Lhasa on May 27 in the first self-immolations in the Tibetan capital is recuperating in the Sangyib prison complex in Lhasa, according to the second source in Nepal.
The man, identified as Dargye, “was brought to the same military hospital on Sera road. Later on he was moved to the police hospital. Now he is moved to Unit 4 of Sangyib prison complex in Lhasa,” the source said.
The other man, identified as Tobgye Tseten, succumbed to his burns on the same day.
They had self-immolated in front of Jokhang Temple in central Lhasa—reputedly the ultimate pilgrimage destination for Tibetan pilgrims—and were swiftly bundled away by security forces, the sources said.
Reported by RFA’s Tibetan service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
Copyright © 1998-2011 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.

A Tibetan man is detained after staging a one-man demonstration.
Chinese authorities in a restive Tibetan prefecture of Sichuan province have beaten and detained a young man who staged a solitary protest against Chinese rule and demanding the release of all political prisoners in Tibet, according to a source with contacts in the area.
Kelsang Tenzin, 22, was detained on July 4 after calling for the return of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader in front of the Kardze county offices in the Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
“He shouted for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and demanded release of all political prisoners in Tibet. He also threw small white leaflets into the air as he raised the slogans,” the source said, speaking to RFA on condition of anonymity.
“He was able to shout the slogans for 10 to 15 minutes.”
After that, a “large number” of armed Chinese security personnel arrived at the scene to lead him away.
“They detained him and severely beat him up and he was later taken to Public Security Office,” the source said.
Kelsang Tenzin, from the county’s Thinka subdivision, is being held at the Kardze county jail and his parents have not been allowed to visit him, the source said.
Lone protesters
The one-man protest follows a similar demonstration in the same town less than two weeks earlier by a 17-year-old girl, Jigme Dolma, who attempted to march to the center of town while shouting slogans and calling for freedom for Tibet on June 24.
Police beat her as they took her away and relatives found her days later at a hospital with broken bones.
Also in June, police detained a monk, Karma Rabten, who staged a solitary protest in front of government offices in Tibet’s Chamdo prefecture in June. Authorities tightened restrictions in his monastery following the incident.
Another monk, Samdrub Gyatso, was handed a five-year sentence for his lone demonstration in front of Lhasa’s central Jokhang Temple in May 2010.
Tibetans have also been turning to self-immolations in defiance against Beijing’s policies.
At least 42 Tibetans have self-immolated in protest against Chinese rule since February 2009, mostly in Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Qinghai, and Gansu.
Sichuan’s restive Kardze prefecture was also the scene of a series of mass public protests in January and February challenging Chinese rule.
Reported by Ugyen Tenzin for RFA’s Tibetan service. Translated by Righden Dolma. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
Copyright © 1998-2011 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.

Press Release
June 28, 2012
TIBETANS CONVERGE ON UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL TO PUSH FOR A STRONG RESOLUTION ON TIBET CRISIS
GENEVA- Today, exiled Tibetans from across Europe delivered a 55,000-strong petition to the UN Human Rights Council urging greater action to address the spiralinghuman
rights crisis in Tibet where this year alone 28 Tibetans have lit themselves on fire to protest China’s occupation. Tibetans from France, Austria and Switzerland are
in Geneva this week to attend the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session and personally urge official representatives to table a strong resolution on China’s
human rights violations in Tibet.
“Previous statements of concern by member-states have been welcomed but the deteriorating human rights situation inside Tibet demands the strongest diplomatic
action possible by the UN Human Rights Council,” said Migmar Dhakyel of the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe. “The UN must act to pass a resolution now
holding the Chinese government accountable for its grave human rights violations in Tibet that amount to crimes against humanity and cultural genocide.”
A Tibet resolution has not been tabled at the UNHRC for over half a decade [1], evidence of the Council’s failure to uphold its primary purpose of addressing
critical human rights violations around the world. In the past 12 months, 39 Tibetans in Tibet have set themselves on fire in an unprecedented wave of protest
against China’s repressive rule and failed policies; 41 self-immolations have taken place since 2009, at least 30 have been fatal. In January 2012 a wave of
large-scale peaceful protests broke out across eastern Tibet and Chinese security forces responded to this resistance by opening fire on crowds, killing at least five
Tibetans and seriously injuring many more. [2]
“For over six-decades now, Tibetans in Tibet are continuously resisting China’s violent rule; now they are lighting their own bodies on fire as a cry to the world
to help restore their fundamental rights as human beings,” Tenzin Namgyal of Students for a Free Tibet France said. “As the body responsible for monitoring
human rights violations around the world, the UNHRC has an obligation to the people of Tibet and we’re here today to personally bring this message to the Council
members.”
This morning, in the Place des Nations in front of the UN Building in Geneva, the Tibetan delegation [3] unfurled a huge banner displaying photos of thousands of
concerned global citizens who are calling for greater multi-lateral action on Tibet.
“The message from Tibetans inside Tibet is clear; the message from tens of thousands of concerned global citizens is clear: the United Nations must pass an
urgent resolution on the Tibet crisis now!” Tsetan Zouchbauer of the SOSTibet, Austria said. “China is responsible for writing the darkest chapter in Tibet’s
history. Now the UN must take bold multi-lateral action to hold China accountablefor its repressive rule in Tibet – which violates every major international human
rights protocol.”
Tibetans in Tibet are continuing to risk everything to advocate for their freedom in defiance of China’s leadership, which earlier this year announced it was preparing
for “war” against Tibetan “saboteurs” [4]. 
In an effort to stop news of the unrest across Tibet reaching the outside world the Chinese government has sealed
Tibet off from foreigners and journalists. Earlier in 2012, undercover footage of the military build-up in eastern Tibet was smuggled out revealing China’s intense
security clampdown that is fueling greater unrest across Tibet. [5]
“Previous inaction by world governments and international bodies has allowed the human rights situation in Tibet to worsen; if something is not done soon it could
easily spiral out of control,” said Gyamtso Tenzin, Students for a Free Tibet France. “We need the UN to stand on the right side of history and take principled,
decisive diplomatic action to address the Tibet crisis now.”

http://standupfortibet.org/take-action/tibetans-converge-on-un-human-rights-council-in-geneva/

Dalai Lama: The Tibetan spirit is very, very strong – it will remain
During his tour of Britain this month, the Dalai Lama sat down with Metro’s Fred Attewill to discuss the future of Tibet, the changing attitudes of the Chinese government and his own legacy.
Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama recently visited Britain (Picture: PA)
The Dalai Lama has held out the hope that the next generation of Chinese leaders will relax Beijing’s iron grip on Tibet.
But in an interview with Metro, the defiant spiritual leader vowed the Tibetan culture and spirit was virtually unbreakable and would survive continuing Chinese rule of the ancient Himalayan region.
The 14th Dalai Lama said the culture was flourishing inside Tibet even among Tibetans who have grown up only speaking Chinese.
And he suggested Tibetan culture could even outlast the rule of the Chinese Communist party.
‘The Tibetan spirit is very, very strong – it will remain,’ he insisted. ‘Tibetan spirit comes from Buddhism teaching. Buddhism has over 2,500 years of history and in  today’s world the image of Buddhism is still good, and is even going up.
‘The communist totalitarian ideology, Marxism, is about 200 years old.’
With a deep laugh, and pointing towards the floor of a Manchester hotel room, he added: ‘And today, the image of Marxism goes like that!’
However, with characteristic optimism, he said he believed China, which seized control of Tibet in the 1950s, will eventually end what activists claim is widespread political and religious repression against the mainly Buddhist population.
The leadership of the world’s most populous nation has already shown it is capable of radical change by embracing capitalism and boosting the living standards of hundreds of millions of people, he claimed.
And the Dalai Lama added the current Chinese president, Hu Jintao, was trying to address the growing gap between rich and poor.
‘This shows the communist party have the ability to act according to a new reality,’ he said.
‘But still their top priority is how to control 1.3billion Chinese people by the communist party with relatively few people. The Chinese constitution was made in the 50s, the party is supreme, the judicial system should serve the party, everything should serve the party. Since the authoritarianism is institutionalised, change is not easy, but we’ll see.
‘For their own interests they have to follow the world reality. Democracy and the rule of law are world trends. No matter how powerful China is as  a nation, it can’t go against that, it’s impossible.’
He urged China to follow the example of its democratic neighbour, India – where he fled in 1959 – in how to keep together a vast and diverse country without resorting to authoritarianism.
Returning to a favourite theme – realism – he said China must realise its future lies in allowing its citizens more freedom.
‘The Chinese hardliners feel unity and harmony can  develop under fear and force. That’s unrealistic.
‘The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, has on many occasions expressed publically China needs political reform.
‘The outgoing prime minister seems to have laid down some kind of foundation. Now a new leadership may start some new thinking but still I don’t know.’ China reviles the Dalai Lama as a separatist who is trying to split Tibet from the rest of China and accuses him of trying to hide his real agenda.
But he insisted the issue of Tibet’s status could be solved relatively quickly because it was not seeking separation.
‘Materially we are very, very backward. So, therefore, we want to remain in the People’s Republic of China for our own interests, for material development, provided we have our own language, our own script and our own peaceful way of life.
‘We have peaceful cultural heritage. This must be protected by self-rule and autonomy.’
In his trip to Britain, the Dalai Lama – who spoken of his surprise at last summer’s riots in England – has talked widely to young people in an attempt to promote peace and positive change.
He places great store on self-confidence – which he says is generated from living truthfully and transparently – and taking responsibility for your own life. Yet the Dalai Lama, a Buddhist monk, said the answer to any current moral crisis was not religion – but rather secular education and better parenting.
He defines spirituality as ‘a sense of concern of others’ well-being’ but argued modern education systems neglected these ‘inner values’.
The Tibetan leadership is working with experts to develop a curriculum in Indian schools and hopes to have a concrete plan within the next year.
‘I think it will include some sort of explanation about the mind, emotions and how it works and how one emotion is not independent and but due to other emotions,’ he said.
The Dalai Lama said he bore no grudges against the Chinese – despite previously accusing Beijing of a ‘cultural genocide’ against Tibetans.
On the eve of his 77th birthday, he is sanguine about his own future and  admits he could be the last in the line of reincarnated lamas who date back almost 600 years.
‘If I remain another 15, 20, 30 years, and at the time of my death circumstances are such that the Dalai Lama institution is now longer much relevant, then this institution will cease.’
Jokingly, he added: ‘I often express that if this almost 600 year-old institution of the Dalai Lama ends at the time the 14th Dalai Lama is quite popular, I would feel very happy!’
Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/newsfocus/903241-dalai-lama-the-tibetan-spirit-is-very-very-strong-it-will-remain#ixzz1yyI1R2VT

The New York Review of Books
Why the Dalai Lama is Hopeful
Jonathan Mirsky
“I told President Obama the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party are missing a part of the brain, the part that contains common sense,” the Dalai Lama said to me
during our conversation in London Wednesday.
But it can be put back in. I am hopeful about the new Chinese leadership beginning late this year. The Communist leaders now lack self-confidence, but I have heard
from my Chinese friends that after a year or two the new ones will take some initiatives, so more freedom, more democracy.”
The Dalai Lama, with whom I have been talking periodically since 1981, was in an ebullient mood even for him. He was here referring to his meeting with Obama in
2011. I had asked the Dalai Lama about those national leaders throughout the world, from South Africa to Britain, who refuse to hold formal meetings with him because
they fear Beijing’s anger. President Obama declined to meet him in 2009, the first rebuff from an American president since the Tibetan leader began visiting Washington
in 1991.
The meeting that finally took place in 2011 was in the White House Map Room rather than the Oval Office, after Beijing had warned against such an encounter: “We firmly
oppose any foreign official to meet with the Dalai Lama in any form.” In Britain, Prime Ministers Gordon Brown and David Cameron found other venues for their
meetings, far from 10 Downing Street. Two weeks ago Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg held a brief unpublicized meeting with the Dalai Lama who was
about to address several thousand admirers in St Paul’s cathedral. All such meetings, including the one at the cathedral, are routinely condemned by Beijing as
“hurting the feelings of the Chinese people.”
“If these national leaders don’t see me that’s up to them,” the Dalai Lama said. “But slowly Chinese people realize they have been exploited, censored. The
Communists tell them they don’t need Western-style democracy and human rights.’”
In recent months, there have been reports of self-immolations by Tibetans in China, and there are concerns that the human rights situation is worsening. Yet, as in
previous meetings, the Dalai Lama reflected without rancor on Chinese Communist rule over Tibet. “What has kept Tibetans going for 2500 years? The Dharma.” This is the
traditional Buddhist view of the universe and its principles of human behavior and wisdom. “How old is the Communist Party? Less than 200 years [it was founded in  1921]. Admiration for Tibetans throughout the world is always rising. Attitudes toward the Chinese Communist party, inside and outside China, couldn’t be worse.”
He noted that the Party sees how Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader and a fellow Nobel Peace laureate, was admired throughout the world for more than twenty
years when she was a captive in Rangoon and now, free at last, is welcome everywhere. She was in London this week, and Beijing cannot have been happy to see her meeting with the Dalai Lama on Wednesday. The Dalai Lama told Suu Kyi that he admired her courage.
The Dalai Lama said that the reason Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo is serving an eleven year prison sentence for subversion is “because he is not just one
individual. There are thousands of intelligent thinking people in China who agree with him that change is necessary.” This means more transparency, he insisted, an
end to violence, and a real legal system. “And there are also 1.3 billion other Chinese who because of their great culture have the brains to distinguish right from
wrong. More and more they are aware of their rights.” The Party fears them, he added, and Liu is supposed to be a warning, an example, he agreed, of the Chinese
saying “Strike the rooster to frighten the monkey.”
Particularly interesting was what the Dalai Lama had to say about the eleventh Panchen Lama, the second most eminent religious figure in Tibetan Buddhism, who has
been chosen by the Chinese leadership in Beijing, in an apparent effort to impose further control on Tibet. The authentic eleventh Panchen, Gedhun Choekyi Nyma, was
chosen by the Dalai Lama in 1995 while the Tibetan leader was in exile in India. In accordance with tradition, he made the choice five years after the tenth incarnation
died.
Beijing immediately denounced the choice as illegitimate, kidnapped the child and his family—who have never been seen again—and imprisoned for subversion the abbot of
the Tashilunpo monastery, the Panchen’s traditional seat, who had first identified little Choekyi Nyma as a possible eleventh Panchen. Employing “authentic” rituals,
the Communist Party then chose its own boy, Gyaincain Norbu. It was only too plain that this rigamarole, as the Dalai Lama has remarked to me over the years, was a
dress rehearsal for Beijing to select his own successor, the Fifteenth Dalai Lama, who it hopes will be accepted by Tibetans, as their choice of Panchen has failed to be.
I was surprised, therefore, by the Dalai Lama’s comments about the spurious Panchen. He mentioned 2008, when an uprising swept throughout Tibet proper and regions of
China populated by many Tibetans. Chinese properties were destroyed, some Han were killed, and a number of Tibetans are estimated to have been killed at the hands of
the Chinese police and army.
“Of course Beijing wanted the boy to denounce the uprising,” the Dalai Lama observed. “But some of his friends have told me that he remains a Tibetan deep
inside and preferred to remain silent. Beijing couldn’t use him.”
June 21, 2012, 1:30 p.m.

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/jun/21/why-dalai-lama-hopeful-about-china/

China closes Tibet to tourists
BEIJING, June 6, 2012 (AFP)
Chinese authorities have closed Tibet to foreign visitors, travel agents said Wednesday, just 10 days after two Tibetans set themselves on fire in the troubled region.
The move comes at the start of a festival that traditionally sees tourists flock to the Himalayan region, which has been under tight security since riots against Chinese rule erupted in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in March 2008.
Major travel agencies said they were told by Tibetan tourism authorities in late May that travellers from overseas would not be allowed into the vast, remote region and said they were clueless about how long the ban would last.
“The tourism bureau asked us to stop organising foreign groups to Tibet in late May. We don’t know when they will lift the ban,” an employee at the Tibet China International Tour Service told AFP.
While the official reason for the ban was not immediately clear, one agent said it could be linked to the Saga Dawa festival, which celebrates the birth of Buddha in the Tibetan calendar.
“It was halted in late May. People said it was because of the… festival,” an employee at the Tibet China Travel Service said.
The festival traditionally sees Buddhist pilgrims flock to Tibet to mark the month-long celebration, which began on June 4 this year — a date that coincided with the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown on democracy protests.
Another agent from the Tibet China Youth Tour Service said the ban might also be linked to the “recent social order problem”.
China sporadically bans foreign travel to Tibet, where many Tibetans complain of cultural and religious repression at the hands of Chinese authorities — a claim the government denies.
Since March last year, 37 people have set themselves on fire in Tibetan-inhabited areas of China in protest at repressive government policies, according to activists.
On May 27, two Tibetan men set themselves alight in front of the Jokhang temple, a renowned centre for Buddhist pilgrimage in the centre of Lhasa — the first such incident to hit the regional capital.
Foreign tourists were banned from travelling to the region for more than a year in 2008 after anti-government riots erupted in Lhasa — unrest that subsequently spread to other Tibetan-inhabited areas of China.
Even in normal times, overseas tourists need special permits to travel to the remote region as well as their visas for China, and have to travel in tour groups.
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/74176

PRESS RELEASE
Kalon Tripa Accepts Resignations of Special Envoy Lodi G. Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen
The Tibetan Leadership Reiterates its Commitment to the Middle-Way Policy
Kalon Tripa Dr. Lobsang Sangay, Head of the Central Tibetan Administration, regretfully accepted the resignations of Special Envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama Lodi G. Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen. The resignations became effective June 1, 2012.
Special Envoy Lodi Gyari, assisted by Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen, led the Tibetan team in nine rounds of talks with representatives of the Chinese government starting in 2002. The last meeting with the Chinese side took place more than two years ago in January 2010. Despite Mr. Gyari’s desire to step down in April 2011, the two envoys were asked to continue their efforts to reach out to their Chinese counterparts by Kalon Tripa-elect Dr. Lobsang Sangay. The envoys met and briefed the Kalon Tripa on twelve separate occasions since May 2011.
At the Task Force meeting on May 30-31, 2012 in Dharamsala, the envoys expressed their utter frustration over the lack of positive response from the Chinese side and submitted their resignations to the Kalon Tripa. “Given the deteriorating situation inside Tibet since 2008 leading to the increasing cases of self-immolations by Tibetans, we are compelled to submit our resignations. Furthermore, the United Front did not respond positively to the Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People presented in 2008 and its Note in 2010. One of the key Chinese interlocutors in the dialogue process even advocated abrogation of minority status as stipulated in the Chinese constitution thereby seeming to remove the basis of autonomy. At this particular time, it is difficult to have substantive dialogue,” stated the two envoys in their resignation letter.
“I have known both Special Envoy Lodi G. Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen for many years. They have worked extremely hard in challenging circumstances and made earnest efforts to move the dialogue process forward and resolve the issue of Tibet peacefully. Their contributions during their decade-long leadership of the Tibetan negotiating team have been invaluable. The Kashag will continue to rely on them for their wise counsel. They will remain as senior members of the Task Force team,” said Kalon Tripa Dr. Lobsang Sangay.
The Kashag urges Beijing to accept the Middle-Way Approach, which seeks genuine autonomy for Tibetans within the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and within the framework of the Chinese constitution. This is a win-win proposition, which contributes to PRC’s unity, stability, harmony and its peaceful rise in the world.
The Tibetan Task Force on Negotiations will be expanded and will meet again in December 2012 to discuss the Chinese leadership transition with the hope of continuing to dialogue with the new Chinese leaders to resolve the issue of Tibet peacefully.
The Tibetan leadership remains firmly committed to non-violence and the Middle-Way Approach, and strongly believes that the only way to resolve the issue of Tibet is through dialogue. The Tibetan leadership considers substance to be primary and process as secondary, and is ready to engage in meaningful dialogue anywhere and at anytime.
The Kashag
June 3, 2012
 
Contact Persons
For Tibetan: Kasur Tempa Tsering +91-9811115593
For English: Thupten Samphel +91-9805024662
For Chinese: Dawa Tsering +91-9882611071 (until June 5, 2012)
+886-227360366 & 255822506 (after June 5, 2012)

PRESS RELEASE
Kalon Tripa Accepts Resignations of Special Envoy Lodi G. Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen
The Tibetan Leadership Reiterates its Commitment to the Middle-Way Policy
Kalon Tripa Dr. Lobsang Sangay, Head of the Central Tibetan Administration, regretfully accepted the resignations of Special Envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama Lodi G. Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen. The resignations became effective June 1, 2012.
Special Envoy Lodi Gyari, assisted by Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen, led the Tibetan team in nine rounds of talks with representatives of the Chinese government starting in 2002. The last meeting with the Chinese side took place more than two years ago in January 2010. Despite Mr. Gyari’s desire to step down in April 2011, the two envoys were asked to continue their efforts to reach out to their Chinese counterparts by Kalon Tripa-elect Dr. Lobsang Sangay. The envoys met and briefed the Kalon Tripa on twelve separate occasions since May 2011.
At the Task Force meeting on May 30-31, 2012 in Dharamsala, the envoys expressed their utter frustration over the lack of positive response from the Chinese side and submitted their resignations to the Kalon Tripa. “Given the deteriorating situation inside Tibet since 2008 leading to the increasing cases of self-immolations by Tibetans, we are compelled to submit our resignations. Furthermore, the United Front did not respond positively to the Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People presented in 2008 and its Note in 2010. One of the key Chinese interlocutors in the dialogue process even advocated abrogation of minority status as stipulated in the Chinese constitution thereby seeming to remove the basis of autonomy. At this particular time, it is difficult to have substantive dialogue,” stated the two envoys in their resignation letter.
“I have known both Special Envoy Lodi G. Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen for many years. They have worked extremely hard in challenging circumstances and made earnest efforts to move the dialogue process forward and resolve the issue of Tibet peacefully. Their contributions during their decade-long leadership of the Tibetan negotiating team have been invaluable. The Kashag will continue to rely on them for their wise counsel. They will remain as senior members of the Task Force team,” said Kalon Tripa Dr. Lobsang Sangay.
The Kashag urges Beijing to accept the Middle-Way Approach, which seeks genuine autonomy for Tibetans within the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and within the framework of the Chinese constitution. This is a win-win proposition, which contributes to PRC’s unity, stability, harmony and its peaceful rise in the world.
The Tibetan Task Force on Negotiations will be expanded and will meet again in December 2012 to discuss the Chinese leadership transition with the hope of continuing to dialogue with the new Chinese leaders to resolve the issue of Tibet peacefully.
The Tibetan leadership remains firmly committed to non-violence and the Middle-Way Approach, and strongly believes that the only way to resolve the issue of Tibet is through dialogue. The Tibetan leadership considers substance to be primary and process as secondary, and is ready to engage in meaningful dialogue anywhere and at anytime.
The Kashag
June 3, 2012
Contact Persons
For Tibetan: Kasur Tempa Tsering +91-9811115593
For English: Thupten Samphel +91-9805024662
For Chinese: Dawa Tsering +91-9882611071 (until June 5, 2012)
+886-227360366 & 255822506 (after June 5, 2012)

By EDWARD WONG
DHARAMSALA, India — One young Tibetan monk walked down a street kicking Chinese military vehicles, then left a suicide note condemning an official ban on a religious ceremony. Another smiled often, and preferred to talk about Buddhism rather than politics. A third man, a former monk, liked herding animals with nomads.
All had worn the crimson robes of Kirti Monastery, a venerable institution of learning ringed by mountains on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau. All set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule. Two died.
At least 38 Tibetans have set fire to themselves since 2009, and 29 have died, according to the International Campaign for Tibet, an advocacy group in Washington. The 2,000 or so monks of Kirti Monastery in Sichuan Province have been at the center of the movement, one of the biggest waves of self-immolations in modern history. The acts evoke the self-immolations in the early 1960s by Buddhist monks in South Vietnam to protest the corrupt government in Saigon.
Twenty-five of the self-immolators came from Ngaba, the county that includes Kirti; 15 were young monks or former monks from Kirti, and two were nuns from Mame Dechen Chokorling Nunnery.
Chinese paramilitary units are now posted on every block of the town of Ngaba, and Kirti is under lockdown. Journalists are barred from entering the monastery, which has made the question of how Kirti became the volcanic heart of this eruption of self-immolations something of a mystery.
But monks and laypeople from Ngaba who have fled across the Himalayas to this Indian hill town said that Kirti had been radicalized in the last four years by an occupation of the monastery that amounted to one of the harshest crackdowns in Tibet. Chinese security measures have converted the white-walled monastery, with its temples and dormitories and rows of prayer wheels, into a de facto prison, which has fueled the anger that the measures are aimed at containing.
After a five-week lull, the self-immolations picked up again last week. On May 27, two men in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, set fire to themselves outside the Jokhang Temple, the holiest in Tibetan Buddhism. It was the first notable act of protest in Lhasa in four years. One of the men was a former Kirti monk.
On Wednesday, a mother of three burned herself to death in Ngaba, known as Aba in Chinese.
The Ngaba exiles here say the security measures imposed on the town and the monastery have been extreme, even by the standards of Chinese control in Tibet. In 2008, during a Tibet-wide uprising, security forces shot protesters in Ngaba with live ammunition, killing at least 10 civilians, including one monk, according to reports by advocacy groups and photographs of corpses that had been brought to Kirti. It was one of the most violent events of the uprising, and anger and alienation set in among local Tibetans. Officials tightened security.
In February 2009, in the town’s market area, a young man from Kirti self-immolated, the first monk to do so in modern Tibetan history. The monk, named Tapey, survived, and officials stepped up surveillance of Kirti. In March 2011, the next self-immolation occurred: Phuntsog, 20, set fire to himself on the same street in the market, which locals now call Hero’s Road.
Local Tibetans say the heavy-handed reaction of the authorities in the six months after that event backfired, encouraging the self-immolations to continue. Chinese officials ordered the People’s Armed Police to surround the monastery; built a wall to cut off a rear entrance; banned all religious activities; smashed photographs of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual
leader; forced monks to attend patriotic re-education sessions; cut off Internet access; and barred pilgrims from entering. They also took away 300 monks in a nighttime raid; many of them have not returned.
Kanyag Tsering, a Kirti monk in exile who keeps in touch with colleagues in Ngaba, said about 300 officials now lived inside the monastery to keep watch. Last summer, at the height of the patriotic re-education campaign, there were perhaps twice that many.
Another Kirti monk, Lobsang, said the paramilitary police had set up four camps around the monastery.
“The most uncomfortable thing was seeing soldiers pointing guns at you but not shooting at you,” said Lobsang, who recently arrived here and agreed to speak on the condition that only his first name be used. “This has been daily life since 2008. For myself, I’d rather get shot than to have them pointing the guns at me every day, 24 hours a day.”
He said there did not appear to be any coordination or organized plan for self-immolation.
“I think those who self-immolated didn’t have an official agreement, but there was spiritual solidarity between people,” he said. “The energy of the Tibetan people is totally linked like a bracelet of prayer beads. You cannot find the end and the beginning because it’s a circle.”
Chinese officials have condemned some of the self-immolators as “terrorists” and blamed the Dalai Lama for inciting the acts, a charge he has denied.
Researchers for Human Rights Watch attribute much of the frustration in Ngaba to the smothering security and “provocative policing techniques.” The groupfound that per capita government spending on security in Ngaba from 2002 to 2006 was three times the average for non-Tibetan parts of Sichuan. There was a rapid increase after 2006, and by 2009 it was five times that of non-Tibetan areas.
Top officials have signaled their approval of the security clampdown. In February, the party chief of Ngaba, Shi Jun, was promoted to lead Sichuan’s public security bureau.
A former monk with whom Lobsang had close ties, Rinzen Dorje, was one of those who felt suffocated by the security. He left Kirti Monastery in 2010 to herd animals and do manual labor. He set fire to himself at a primary school one evening in February. Lobsang last saw him in July.
“He told me he felt very uncomfortable and had headaches when he saw the atmosphere in Ngaba town,” Lobsang said.
That was also the case with Tapey, the first monk to self-immolate, Lobsang said. Two days before his self-immolation in 2009, Tapey was walking among military trucks and kicking them.
“He was intentionally trying to provoke the soldiers,” Lobsang said. “I asked myself, ‘What happened? What’s wrong with him?’ That day he was really different, and in his eyes I could see how he hated the military.”
On Feb. 27, 2009, a high lama told a gathering of monks that Kirti had to comply with official orders to cancel an important prayer ceremony scheduled for that day. Tapey set himself on fire in the marketplace half an hour later, having left a note saying he would kill himself if the government banned the ceremony, Lobsang said.
“The people very much respected his motivation and the price he paid for freedom,” Lobsang said.
The next monk to self-immolate, Phuntsog, never appeared to be in a dark mood, said Lobsang, who had studied with him. Phunstog liked to joke and play around with friends, often showing off his biceps by flexing.
“I never heard any political agenda expressed by Phuntsog,” Lobsang said. “The action he took is unimaginable to me. But, of course, we can now understand how many things he must have hid inside.”
After that self-immolation, the authorities started an intense re-education campaign and locked down the monastery for half a year. That led to the radicalization of more monks. One of the tensest moments came in April 2011, when officials sought to detain monks who were not from Ngaba. Residents of the town tried to block the police, and two elderly Tibetans were beaten to death, according to the International Campaign for Tibet. Officers took away 300 monks.
In August, a court sentenced three monks to more than a decade in prison, two of them for being involved in Phuntsog’s self-immolation and one, an uncle of Phuntsog’s, for refusing to turn his body over to the police at the time.
One day in September, after officials had eased some restrictions on Kirti, two monks raced through the marketplace at noon, their robes aflame. One held up the banned Tibetan snow lion flag. Before collapsing, one of the monks, Lobsang Kelsang, a younger brother of Phuntsog’s, shouted, “We are the accused.”
The event was described by a witness who arrived in Dharamsala this spring. “Because of unfair judgments, oppressive policies and discrimination, because of all those things, the Tibetan people feel isolated,” he said. “The self-immolations are not the end. This is only the beginning.”
Zhang Wei contributed research from Beijing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03

Press Release
Dharamsala, 28 May 2012
Central Tibetan Administration Seriously Concerned by the Cycle of Self-Immolations Reaching Other Tibetan Regions
The Central Tibetan Administration, based in Dharamsala, India,  expressed its concern over the latest development in Tibet involving the self-immolation of two Tibetans in Lhasa, on Sunday, 27 May.  These are the first such incidents taking place in the capital of Tibet.  The two self-immolators have been identified as Dhargye and Dorjee Tseten from the northeastern Tibet’s Ngaba and Labrang area respectively. It is reported that Dorjee Tseten died and Dhargye survived with injuries.

The Tibetan men are said to have set themselves on fire in front of  the Jokhang Temple, located in Barkhor Square, one of the few remaining traditional Tibetan quarters in Lhasa. Arriving in several convoys, Chinese security forces are said to have swiftly cleared all traces of the incident.
The situation in Lhasa remains tense with the deployment of huge number of police and para-military forces in the area.  With these two latest incidents, 37 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in Tibet.  All, unanimously called for freedom in Tibet and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to his homeland.
“No matter how the Chinese government attempts to present the cycle of self-immolations to the international community, such explanation will be met with deep skepticism so long as access to Tibetan areas, particularly where self-immolations took place, is denied to impartial observers such as members of the press, and representatives of international bodies such as the United Nations,” said Kalon Dicki Chhoyang of the Department of Information & International Relations for the Central Tibetan Administration.
A few days ago, on 24 May, the US Government released its 2011 annual report on the human rights situation in Tibet.  The report documents in detail the Chinese government’s policies which are pushing Tibetans to set themselves on fire.  It states that “repressive measures such as forcing Tibetans to denounce the Dalai Lama through patriotic and legal education campaigns, occupation of monasteries by security forces, provoked acts of resistance among the Tibetan population, who saw it as a threat to the foundations of Tibet’s distinct religious, linguistic, and cultural identity. These acts of resistance, in turn, led to enhanced attempts by PRC authorities to maintain control, thus creating cycles of repression that resulted in increasingly desperate acts by Tibetans, such as a series of self- immolations by Tibetans.”
“The report accurately depicts the circumstances leading to the current tense situation in Tibet.  This information is further supported by video footage from smuggled out of Tibet. It shows Chinese police night raids into monastic living quarters, a monk being arrested for possession of photos of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and State security forces’ seal-off of Drepung Monastery in Lhasa.  Although the footage dates back to 2008, it remains relevant to this day as it illustrates repressive policies that continue to be enforced across the Tibetan plateau and thus leading Tibetans to self-immolate,” states Kalon Dicki Chhoyang.
The video footage can be viewed at the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIfhd7Bouz0
Media contacts:
Mr Tashi, Secretary for Information
and Spokesperson of the Central Tibetan Administration
+91 9816843798
Mr Lobsang Choedak, Press Officer
+91 98822 32476
Website: www.tibet.net
www.tibetonline.tv