China media: Police accidentally killed Tibetan
The Associated Press (AP)
August 30, 2010
BEIJING — Chinese police fatally shot a Tibetan protester during a demonstration last week, state media reported Monday, saying the man was hit by stray warning rounds.
The incident is apparently the same one reported by U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia over the weekend when the broadcaster said at least four Tibetans were killed and 30 others wounded when police opened fire on demonstrators protesting the expansion of a gold mine they blamed for causing environmental damage.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday that a 47-year-old Tibetan named Babo died after being hit “by a stray bullet when police fired warning shots with an anti-riot shotgun.”
It said the protest in Baiyu county in Sichuan province near the Tibetan border happened about two weeks ago when Babo led a group of about 30 illagers to protest the arrest of Fu Liang for illegally exploiting gold mines in the area.
The area is a deeply Buddhist region filled with monasteries and nunneries and is known for its strong Tibetan identity and has been at the center of dissent for years. It saw some of the most violent protests in the spring of 2008 after anti-government riots in Tibet.
Radio Free Asia said the shooting happened when a group of Tibetans was protesting outside the Baiyu county offices. It said its information came from Tibetans living outside China who follow events inside the country.
It quoted them as saying the protesters were upset because heavy equipment brought in for the increased mining operations had damaged nearby farmland.
The Xinhua report quoted a local government spokesman as saying the villagers “attacked the police with knives, clubs and stones during the dispute,” wounding 17 of them, four seriously.
It said police fired warning shots to stop the protest and later found Babo dead.
A pro-Tibetan independence website, Phayul.com, meanwhile, said three Tibetans had been killed and 30 others wounded when they were fired upon. The different death tolls could not be reconciled.

Associate the Dalai Lama with Revived Nalanda University

by B.Raman Sri Lanka Guardian
August 22, 2010

Chennai — China is reported to have conveyed to the Government of India through diplomatic channels its unhappiness over a courtesy call made by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at New Delhi on August 11,2010. It is not known how the Chinese came to know of this courtesy call since it was not publicised by the Government of India. The Government-controlled media in China has not yet reported about this.

2. After the publication by sections of the Indian media on August 19 about the meeting and the Chinese protest, Kalon Tenpa Tsering, the Tibetan leader’s representative in New Delhi, confirmed the meeting between the two leaders, in an interview to the Voice of Tibet Radio.

3. This is not the first time the Chinese had protested over a courtesy call by His Holiness on an Indian Prime Minister. Mr. Li Peng, the then Chinese Prime Minister, had protested to Mr. Narasimha Rao, the then Indian Prime Minister, in the early 1990s on the same subject. In that case, Mr. Rao himself had taken the initiative to inform Mr.Li Peng beforehand of the proposed courtesy call by His Holiness. Despite this, Mr. Li Peng objected to the meeting.

4. There is no need for us to be defensive or apologetic about meetings between His Holiness and senior Indian leaders and officials—- either for courtesy purposes or for discussing the problems of the Tibetans in India and else where. His Holiness has been an honoured guest of the Govt. of India and has the right to meet anybody he wants. There is no need to keep these meetings a secret. Similarly, the Prime Minister and other Indian personalities should not hesitate to return the courtesy calls of His Holiness.

5. Apart from being the leader of the Tibetan people all over the world, including those in China, His Holiness is also an important and highly respected leader of Buddhists all over the world. It is unfortunate that in misplaced deference to the sensitivities of China and Singapore, the Government of India has chosen not to associate His Holiness with the proposed joint project with Singapore for the revival of the fifth century Nalanda University. How can there be any project for the revival of the University without His Holiness being associated with it as a guide, adviser and well-wisher the historic links between India and Tibet should be an important subject in its curriculum. If Singapore is not prepared to be associated with the project if His Holiness is to be associated with it, so be it. We should not allow China or Singapore to dictate to us in this matter .

6. China has ignored our sensitivities and core interests relating to Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Why should we pay attention to its sensitivities in matters relating to His Holiness and his Tibetan people? Our recognition of Tibet as a part of China should not mean our silence on all matters relating to His Holiness and the Tibetan people. This has to be made clear through appropriate actions and policies.

* The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com

Life imprisonment for Tibet’s richest man
Jane Macartney, Beijing
The Times (UK)
August 12, 2010
A Chinese court has sentenced to life imprisonment a hotel owner believed to the country’s richest Tibetan businessman.
Once hailed by authorities in Tibet as one of the region’s top 10 most outstanding young people, 37-year-old Dorje Tashi was sentenced on June 26 after a three-day trial by the Lhasa Municipality Intermediate People’s Court, Tibetan sources told /The Times/.
His elder brother, Dorje Tseten, was jailed for six years, the sources said.
No details were available about the charges on which the two brothers were convicted. If the charges were politically linked then such secrecy is not unusual in Tibet where officials are anxious not to stir up renewed unrest among the deeply Buddhist population, many of whom resent Beijing rule and yearn for the return of the exiled Dalai Lama.
The absence of any reports in the Chinese state-run media underscored the possibility that the arrests of the two men may have been related to activities deemed by the authorities to be of a political nature.
However, court sources have said the conviction was based on “illegal business operations” involving his Yak Hotel — one of the best-known and oldest in Lhasa. They refused to say whether political charges had contributed to the severity of the sentence.
The court confiscated all of Dorje Tashi’s personal property, estimated at 4.3 billion yuan (£430 million), the sources said.
Dorje Tashi was arrested just weeks after an anti-Chinese riot rocked the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, on March 8, 2008 and had been held incommunicado and without charges ever since. His elder brother was detained a few months later.
The businessman was well known in Lhasa after he founded the Yak Hotel, one of the first private inns to open in the city and situated on one of the main roads in the old part of the town. The Yak Hotel remains a favourite among foreign and domestic tourists visiting the capital of the Himalayan region, serving both Chinese food and a menu listing cappuccinos and pasta to appeal to foreign visitors. It expanded rapidly from a small two-storey hostel in the mid-1980s to a sprawling compound with a restaurant overlooking the street.
Dorje Tashi had many other business interests and was believed to have close links with the Chinese authorities in Tibet that had enabled him to build up his enterprises and which prompted many Tibetans to regard him as something of a turncoat.
Shortly after his arrest, reports surfaced that he had been held on charges of corruption. However, Tibetan sources said there were also rumours that, like many other well-off Tibetans, he had donated some of his wealth to monasteries or even to the Dalai Lama.
Such donations would have enraged the authorities after most of the main monasteries in and around Lhasa staged peaceful demonstrations in the days leading up to the March 14, 2008 riot.
Robbie Barnett, a Tibet expert at Columbia University , said the harsh sentence underlined talk in Tibet of a pattern or retribution against prosperous Tibetans suspected of giving money to monasteries.
He said: “It looks like a long-term drive among Tibet officials to oppose and criticise lay donations to monasteries. It is baffling because leading businessmen have always avoided politics is far as anyone as ever known and have benefited from the current Chinese economic system.”
He said the sentencing of such a prominent Tibetan figure could have been kept secret to avoid inflaming local sentiment. “This risks causing deep rifts between the Tibetan community and the government.”

The Kashag Offers Condolence to Tibet Flood Victims
9 August 2010
The Kashag of the Central Tibetan Administration is deeply saddened by the ongoing floods in Drugchu, near Labrang Tashikhyil in northeastern Amdo Province in Tibet, which has claimed at least 127 lives with more than thousand missing.
The Kashag offers its deep condolence to the surviving relatives and pray for their quick emotional and physical recovery both in terms of health and reconstruction. In this context, the Kashag is organising a special prayer session tomorrow early morning (10 August 2010) at Tsuglagkhang, to pray for the deceased and early recovery of those injured. This will be attended by entire staff of the Central Tibetan Administration.
Around 300 houses have been buried after heavy rains on early Sunday triggered devastating floods and mudslides in Drugchu which has about 40,000 Tibetan residents.
According to media reports, nearly 45,000 affected people have been relocated with the help of rescue operation by the PRC government.
The local Tibetans in the area said the disaster was caused by rampant mining and deforestation, and damming of Drugchu river as well as the unprecedented spell of heavy rain.
9 August 2010
Dharamsala
Parliament Expresses Grief Over Loss of Lives in Tibet Flood
Monday, 9 August 2010
Dharamshala: The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile has conveyed its deep condolences to those affected by the devastating mudslides which hit Drugchu in northeastern Amdo Province of Tibet on early Sunday.
“The Tibetan Parliament would like to express condolence to our brethren who lost their lives and those injured, and pray for the deceased to attain early rebirth in human realm,” the Parliament said in its condolence message.
The Parliament expressed its deep concern over the safety of those living in the low lying areas of Drugchu.
“Drugchu region of Amdo is one of the largest forested-region in Tibet and it has never been affected by floods in its recorded history. But the natural environment of Tibet has suffered adverse impact due to rampant cutting of trees after the invasion. The latest devastating flood primarily resulted from mining and building of hydroelectric plants under government projects which lack mechanisms to protect Tibet’s natural environment. We hope that the Chinese government will implement in Tibet the ideal that it has established to develop in conformity with science,” the statement noted.
“We do no doubt the motivation of the Chinese security forces and police who are leading the rescue efforts. But we hope that those affected people wont have to bear more suffering under the government policy of maintaining social stability and censorship.”
At least 127 people have been confirmed dead and over 2,000 still missing after the rain-triggered mudslides inundated nearly 300 houses.
9 August 2010
Dharamsala

Golden seal honour for Dalai Lama for leading Tibetan democracy
Asia TImes (Hong Kong)
August 9, 2010
Pradesh, Aug 9 (IANS) — Tibetans living in exile in India will honour the Dalai Lama with a golden seal next month for leading the Tibetan democratic system in exile.
‘It would be a big day for us and we are celebrating it in a big way at Bylakuppe (in Karnataka). We would felicitate His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, for his years-long selfless service and also present a golden seal to him,’ Penpa Tsering, speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, told IANS.
The golden seal will be given to the Dalai Lama at a public function at the biggest Tibetan settlement in India, Bylakuppe near Mysore, September 2.
The Dalai Lama, who has been living in exile in India with thousands of other Tibetans for the last over five decades, had fled Tibet in 1959 when Chinese forces entered and took over Lhasa city.
Since then, the Dalai Lama, the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, and the Tibetan government-in-exile is based in the hill town of Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.
Talking about other preparations, Tsering said: ‘It would be an around half-day long function. Besides normal prayers, there would be many other ceremonies and speeches. We have invited around 20 MPs from 10-12 countries to participate in this event. We are expecting around 25,000 people, from all across the world, to come to Bylakuppe to attend this historic event.’
Tibetans will celebrate 50 years of democratic tradition in their adopted land next month. It will be preceded by a meeting of the Tibetan leadership Aug 26-31 to review the work done in the last five decades and to discuss the future and welfare of exiled Tibetans in settlements across India and globally.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama Tweets with the Chinese People
Central Tibetan Administration
August 4, 2010
1558 Chinese people submitted 317 questions to His Holiness the Dalai Lama through the renowned Chinese writer, Wang Lixiong. 11705 Chinese netizens voted for the following 10 most important questions, to which Holiness the Dalai Lama responded from his residence in Dharamsala on 16 July 2010.
The responses were released on the Chinese-language website of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on 19 July 2010.
Question One: Looking at the current situation, it seems difficult that a reconciliation with the Chinese government will come about in your lifetime. After your passing away, you will have no control over the Tibetan youth organisation which holds on firmly to their ideology [of seeking Tibetan independence]. Is it not possible that they will engage in large-scale terrorist activities then? Are there ways by which they can be prevented from taking such a course?
Answer: On the whole, I believe that even after my death the Tibetan exile set-up will continue to make progress, particularly in the field of education. More importantly there are a growing number of young Lamas between the ages of 20 and 30 who are currently pursuing studies in the various religious schools of our community who are capable of taking up greater leadership roles in the spiritual field. In the political field, for the last more than 10 years I have been in a state of semi-retirement. All the important political decisions are being taken by the elected political leadership and this will continue to do so in the future as well. There are forces within our community such as the Tibetan Youth Congress who criticise our Middle-Way policy and demand complete independence [for Tibet]. It seems their voices
are growing stronger [these days]. We cannot blame them for this, since our successive efforts to bring about a mutually-beneficial solution [to the issue of Tibet] have failed to produce any positive results and under such a situation, their viewpoint is gaining momentum [in our society]. However, it is very evident that 99% of the Tibetan people have complete faith in the non-violent path [that we have chosen] and so you should not worry [about their ever resorting to violence]
Question Two: Your Holiness, how do you plan to resolve the problem of those areas which form a part of your notion of ‘Greater Tibet’ but are incorporated into the Chinese provinces as far as the current administrative divisions of these
provinces are concerned? Will the autonomous government of your ‘Greater Tibet’ exercise control over the other ethnic groups living within those areas? If so, how would you safeguard the aspirations of these ethnic groups?
Answer: We have not used the term ‘Greater Tibet.’ It is [actually] a term employed by the United Front Work Department of the Chinese government [to refer to our demand]. What we say is that all those Tibetans who speak and write the same language of Tibet should have equal right to preserve and promote their religion and culture as well as to work for their collective economic development. Now this is, in principle, agreed upon by the Chinese government. In the Fifth Work Forum on Tibet, the Chinese central government has recommended a uniform policy for overseeing all Tibetans living in the Tibet Autonomous Region and in other Tibetan autonomous areas under the four Chinese provinces. Premier Wen Jiabao has, particularly, mentioned this in his work report to the National People’s
Congress. This, I believe, is really in keeping with the actual prevailing situation. Otherwise, when the word “Xizang” is mentioned, it is taken to be as referring only to the Tibet Autonomous Region. This is not right. There are only a
little over two million Tibetans living in the Tibet Autonomous Region and the remaining approximately four million Tibetans live in the neighbouring four Chinese provinces. As such, we are saying that all of these Tibetan people
should be given the same rights. For example, I do not belong to the Tibet Autonomous Region; I hail from Tso-ngon [Ch: Qinghai] province. Likewise should you care to look at Tibetan history, you will see that many of the
highly-realised Lamas/Tulkus have come from these four provinces. Even today, most of the [respected] teachers teaching in the monastic institutions of all the religious traditions of our community have come from these provinces;
very few of them belong to the Tibet Autonomous Region. Therefore, we are saying that a uniform policy should be adopted for all of these areas since they share the same religion and culture.
It is altogether a different matter if we are seeking separation or independence but we are not. We are simply saying that we be granted the freedom to preserve our own religion, culture and language within the larger framework of the
People’s Republic of China. If, in due course of time, we get an opportunity to discuss about it in detail, then the Tibetans inside Tibet should take the main responsibility. Once they are able to engage in extensive discussions [with the Chinese government] without any fear in their minds, I do not think we will face any problems [in resolving the issue of Tibet].
In the case of the Tibet Autonomous Region, a few Chinese lived there prior to the 1950s. [The number grew later.] A considerable number of Chinese, however, have been living in Kham and Amdo regions, particularly in the area of my
birth [Xining], since early times. Tibetans are not saying, and will never say, that Tibet should be occupied by exclusively Tibetans to the exclusion of all other nationalities, which includes [even] the Han Chinese. What is
important is that since it carries the name ‘Tibetan Autonomous Region’ or ‘Tibetan Autonomous Areas’, the natives of these very places should constitute the majority and the rest of the nationalities the minority of the total population. It is for this very purpose that the name has been given. If, otherwise, the number of Chinese or other minority nationalities
living in these places is more than the Tibetans, then there is no way such names as mentioned above could be given. We are hoping that we are able to establish a big family of friendship between the Chinese and Tibetan peoples based on over thousand years of relations with each other. We also hope and even pray that the People’s Republic of China flourishes with all its nationalities enjoying equality in a spirit of one big family.
Question Three: Last year, a television channel in France broadcast a documentary titled The Dalai Lama’s Demons, in which Shugden-worshipping Tibetan monks were shown to be thrown out of the Tibetan settlements in India. The situation has come to such a pass for these monks that they could not even visit shops and hospitals as well as enter their monasteries at the time. In the documentary, you were also shown to be issuing a strict order that these Shugden-propitiating monks must be expelled from their monasteries. Moreover, one of the monks interviewed said: ‘On the one hand the Dalai Lama talks about the freedom of religious belief and compassion, but on the other hand he restricts our religious freedom and shows us out of our monasteries.’ What do you have to say about it?
Answer: Gyalpo Shugden came into existence during the time of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama. The Fifth Dalai Lama saw Dorjee Shugden as ‘a vow-breaking demon/evil spirit born into such a state as a result of his wrong aspiration/negative prayer”. This is mentioned in the Collected Works of the Great Fifth, Volume K, an earlier edition block-printed in Tibet. So ‘wrong aspiration/negative prayer’ is what caused Dorjee Shugden whose nature is but a ‘vow-breaking
demon/evil spirit’ and whose actions are to ‘harm the Dharma and humanity’. This is admitted by the Dolgyal himself in his autobiography.
Earlier I too propitiated Shugden. Later on as I studied the words of the Great Fifth, I came across the document cited above. I have, from my side also, conducted a series of investigations about it and found that it is not good to worship
the spirit. Consequently I gave up the propitiation completely but did not, at that point of time, place any restrictions on the section of the Tibetan community who were practising it. Then the problem surfaced at the Jangtse College of the Gaden Monastery. Through my examinations, it became very clear to me that the problem at the Jangtse College was caused by its new initiative of propitiating Gyalpo Shugden. I communicated this to the concerned. When the issue became more public later on, some people began to spread the rumour that I was trying to curry favour with the Nyingma Tradition [of Tibetan Buddhism] and that I had not actually imposed any restrictions but simply pretended to
do so. Under these circumstances, I had to come out in the open to express my strong objections to, and make things clear about, the worshipping of this evil spirit.
No children of the Dolgyal followers have been expelled from the schools. If in the monasteries the worshippers and non-worshippers of Dolgyal assemble together, it does not go very well with the sanctity of the spiritual bond [that is so
very essential in matters of spirituality]. Those who do not worship Dolgyal have all received spiritual teachings from me and those who worship it are the ones who have some problem or disagreement with the Lama from whom they receive teachings. Therefore we are saying that we feel very uncomfortable to be associated with the Dolgyal followers. Apart from that, we have done nothing to throw them out of the Tibetan settlements. I urge all of you to come to India
and visit the Tibetan settlements in South India to see for yourselves what the reality is. The Dolgyal followers have established their own separate monastery there and lead their lives like any other Tibetan. Nobody is creating problems for them.
In short, what I am saying is that it is one’s freedom, in general, to practise or not to practise any religion. How one chooses to practise one’s religion is also one’s freedom. Therefore, whichever deity or demon one may worship, one may decide as one pleases. To say that the practice of the spirit in question is disadvantageous and it has no advantages
whatsoever is my duty. Therefore, I have highlighted the negatives. Now it is up to the people to think over or decide for themselves whether they want to listen or not. A Chinese friend has raised this question. If you are interested in the subject, it is [really] your freedom [to worship or not to worship the spirit]. But you must carry out a proper investigation [before plunging into it]. Usually, our religious practitioners say that ‘one must develop a pure perception of one’s teacher and investigate [thoroughly] the religion one practises’. So religion must be subjected to investigation. For instance, Nagarjuna and other scholars [of the ancient Nalanda University] have shown through their example that even if they were the words of the Lord Buddha, they must be subjected to investigation for ascertaining their
truthfulness. [The Buddhist concept of ‘Four Reliances’ says, among other things, that] one must ‘rely on the doctrine than on individuals’. So it is very important for all of you to investigate.
Question Four: During the 2008 Tibet incident, why did many monks and lay Tibetans raise their hands against the ordinary Chinese citizens? We must understand that it is the Chinese government which you are against [and not the ordinary Chinese citizens].
Answer: As far as I know, the first protest of 2008 in Tibet occurred in the afternoon of 10 March. This was then followed by more protest demonstrations on 11, 12 and 13 March of that year. The Chinese security people, from the very beginning, learned about these demonstrations as a result of which they blocked the road of the monk protestors arriving from Drepung Monastery. On the morning of 14 March, the incident of setting shops on fire, hurling stones and
destroying properties occurred. One foreign journalist, who had been an eye-witness to this incident, came to meet me [at Dharamsala] and told me: ‘Apart from video-taping the entire happening, the Chinese security personnel at the
scene did nothing to stop them.’ The Chinese government’s propaganda about the 3-14 incident disregards the fact that the first protest broke out on 10 March. Moreover, according to reports they deliberately hired some mischievous people
on the morning of 14 March to indulge in rioting, which they video-shot for later use in shifting the blame of the entire incident on the Tibetans. Tibetans arriving from Tibet after the March incident informed us that ‘Tibetans’ whom they
had never seen earlier had been brought to Lhasa at that time. They further said that ‘these people were the main culprits who created the disturbances’. [I believe] this [unfortunate] incident should actually be investigated independently. This is one thing I want to say.[Another thing I want to say is that] in the monasteries of the Kham and Amdo regions, there
is an ancient custom of keeping old swords, spears and rifles in the shrines of the guardian deities. I was informed that these weapons were forcefully taken out in order to blame the monasteries for using weapons to stir violence [in the country]. It is, in a way, very probable that a few people in their fits of anger may have unwittingly caused some inconveniences to the Chinese people [during that time]. If such a thing really happened, then I stand ready to
apologise [on their behalf]. It is very likely indeed that some enraged Tibetans may have caused such a situation because at that time, the Chinese government tried [its level best] to create the false impression of the Tibetans as
being anti-Chinese. Majority of the Tibetans would never do such a thing
Tibetans cannot be blamed for airing their grievances against the Chinese government policies. The Chinese government strikes hard upon the Tibetan people for the [only] reason that they are loyal to their religion and culture
as well as their spiritual leader. This creates a feeling of hurt in the minds of the Tibetan people. This is also the reason why Tibetans are strongly critical of the Chinese government policies. You should not, however, take this as a
form of Tibetan people’s animosity to the Chinese people. If what I have heard is indeed true, then Tibetans visiting the Chinese cities and towns seem to be facing a lot of problems after the 2008 March incident. This is because the Chinese
hoteliers, shopkeepers and restaurateurs in these places show a cold attitude to the Tibetan customers. Moreover, we have heard that a lone Tibetan member of a Chinese government delegation was stopped at the airport for interrogation. All these developments are a cause of disappointment for the Tibetan people
Question Five: Was the ‘liberation of Tibet’ a deception from the beginning or did it change later?
Answer: It is difficult to say. When the People’s Liberation Army arrived in Chamdo, they fought with the Tibetan army and killed about seven to eight thousand Tibetan soldiers. Khenchung Thupten Dhonyoe, who was a staff of the Governor General of Eastern Tibet at that time, told me that Wang Qiming, the PLA general (who ‘liberated’ Chamdo) said to him with tears in his eyes: ‘We, fraternal nationalities, have killed each other.’ I feel that some of them may have
been genuine. Likewise, when the road from Kham to Central Tibet and Amdo to Central Tibet were being built, some people used their bodies to block water when floods took place. They worked hard. Those things, I feel, were genuine. For others I cannot say what their intentions were from the beginning. The best thing would be for historians to thoroughly study classified government documents, which will make things clear. That is the most important thing.
In terms of overall policies, in 1954, I went to China and spent about five to six months in Beijing. At that time I met most of the Chinese leaders, including Mao Zedong, who I had met many times. I especially went to visit many Chinese
provinces, during which I met many Chinese leaders, who were members of the Communist Party and had real revolutionary outlook and were genuinely working to serve the working class and the country. I saw many who had no desire for personal gain and were working for the common good. They impressed me. Mao, for instance, made many promises to me. However, from 1956-57 onwards, I felt that things were moving towards ultra-leftism.
Question Six: If in the future China will have a genuine democratic system, what would Tibet’s relations be with that government? What is your opinion?
Answer: Right now many of the unwanted problems, whether it is PRC’s external relations or issues within the country, I think, are created by suspicion and lack of mutual trust. For the last 51 years, I have lived outside Tibet. From my
many friends in the US, Europe, Japan and in India, I know that China has the desire to build good relations. But its failure to build genuine relationships is due to the lack of mutual trust. This, in turn, is the result of lack of transparency in China which, though, it outwardly pretends to have so. Hence many problems arise. Whether it is the issue of Tibet or Xinjiang, there is clearly a huge difference between the external impression that China gives and the real feelings that the people in these regions harbour. Therefore, once a time comes when China will have transparent, honest and just policies, many of the problems will naturally be solved.
Regarding the Tibetan issue, if there is transparency and sincerity on the part of the Chinese government, we on our part are not seeking separation. We have a long history, but I am not thinking about it. If we think about the future, materially Tibet is behind others and therefore if we stay within the PRC, it will be beneficial for Tibet’s development. Because of this we are not seeking separation. The most important thing is that Tibet has a unique culture, language and religion. Amongst the Buddhist traditions, many of the world’s scholars today say that Tibetan Buddhism is the most
extensive and profound. Tibetan language has become the best medium to articulate/express this profound and extensive philosophy. The translations – both in terms of literal translation (dra gyur) and contextual translation
(don gyur) – of the texts from the Sanskrit language are of the highest standard. Therefore, if we are able to maintain this religion and culture, it will also benefit the overall culture of the PRC. Generally speaking, China is also a
Buddhist country. As the number of Chinese Buddhists is increasing these days, we will surely be able to contribute in this field. I think this is of mutual benefit.
Question Seven: If Tibet achieves genuine autonomy or wins independence, do you have plans to transform the system of governance in Tibet into a democratic one? How will religion and politics be separated?
Answer: I do not think this question needs a special answer. If you are interested, you can come to India. You will then actually see how we have carried out democratisation during our stay in exile, how we have set up a political system
during the last 51 years and our future programmes. For me personally, since 1969, I have been saying that the people should decide whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue or not. I have no worry. The most important thing is that we need to preserve and maintain the unique Tibetan religion and culture. In terms of Tibet’s development, it is very important not to harm the natural environment. Tibet’s environment is fragile and susceptible to damage. Because of the high altitude and dry wind, it is said that once damage occurs, it will take a long period to restore the ecological balance. This is a special issue that you must pay attention to. The glaciers in the high Tibetan Plateau are the main source of many of the great rivers in Asia. That is why we should take special care of them.
Question Eight: What do you think will happen to Tibetan unity once you are no longer in the scene? Will the charisma of your successors be able to control the Tibetan nationalists to retain the non-violent and peaceful nature of your struggle?
Answer: It will make no difference. For over 30 years I have been saying that Tibetan religious and political leaders must take responsibility as if I am no longer with them. They have been doing it and that is how they acquire experience. There is a new leadership after every five years. There will be a new political leader next year directly
elected by the people. In the religious field, there are heads of each Buddhist school to take responsibility. There is no difference whether I am with them or not.
Question Nine: You say that there should be a democratic system for Tibet. However, when you and your predecessors ruled Tibet did you rule democratically? If not, what confidence do you have to rule Tibet more democratically than Communist China?
Answer: The First to the Fourth Dalai Lamas did not take part in politics. The Fifth Dalai Lama became the temporal and religious leader of Tibet. At that time there were no such thing as democratic system in Tibet’s neighbours like
China, India and Russia. They were all largely feudal societies. However Tibet had a strong Buddhist tradition and the principle of developing compassion for all sentient beings. That is why, in 1959, when the ‘landlords’ were put under struggle sessions following the ‘Democratic Reforms’, there were many ‘serfs’ who came forward to save the lives of their ‘landlords’. Many of the ‘landlords’ were also able to escape into exile in India with the help of their ‘serfs’. Therefore, ‘serfs’ may be a common phenomenon in all these feudal countries, but the treatment of Tibetan ‘serfs’ was different.
At the end of 1955, ‘Democratic Reforms’ were carried out in Tibet starting from Sichuan. As elsewhere in China, ‘Democratic Reforms’ were carried out in Tibet, which did not suit the Tibetan situation. Such things happened. It is
important to investigate these things. You do not have to believe these things because I said them. If you have the freedom later to investigate it is important to do so thoroughly.
In the later stages of his life, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama thought about introducing a democratic system in Tibet, but he was unable to carry it out. In 1952, when I was in Lhasa we formed the Reform Committee to make a number of changes to our taxation and loan systems. But we were only able to carry out some of them. Since I already
had thoughts about carrying out reforms from the time I was in Tibet, we established a democratic system immediately after we came into exile in India. I have no intention of holding any post when Tibetans in and outside are reunited. I made this clear in 1992 that when there will be autonomy or a considerable degree of freedom for Tibet, we will return. However, I said, from that time onwards I will not take any responsibility and will hand over all my historical
responsibility to the local government. Even now that is my thinking and I will never take any political roles.
Question Ten: What is your view on the Chinese who are settled in Tibet and the second-generation of Chinese living there? It is possible that your ‘High Level of Autonomy’ may end up marginalising them, which is the concern
of those Chinese inside Tibet who are opposing you and the Tibetan administration in exile.?
Answer: Tibet is an autonomous region. In that region Tibetans cannot become a minority. Otherwise, we will applaud however many Chinese brothers and sisters decide to stay there. Particularly, we will appreciate those Chinese
brothers and sisters who are interested in Tibetan religion and culture. I normally say that Chinese brothers and sisters can cook us delicious food and we Tibetans can provide spiritual food to them through Buddhism. That is
why there is absolutely no reason to worry. Then there are those Chinese who look down upon Tibetans by considering Tibetan Buddhism as bad and the Tibetans as dirty. For them, there is no reason to live in such a filthy place; it is
better for them to return to cleaner places. Tibet predominantly practises Buddhism and in Buddhism there is totally no reference to racial discrimination. Earlier in Tibet, many of the abbots in monasteries were Mongolians and there
were Chinese studying Buddhist scriptures as well. We were of different races but there was no discrimination whatsoever. Likewise, if there are religious scholars amongst Chinese, they too can become abbots and Lamas in Tibet. There is no difference at all.
Note: This is translated from the Tibetan. If there is any discrepancy between this and the Tibetan version, please treat the latter as authoritative and final.

A Trip to Tibet, With My Handlers Nearby
By EDWARD WONG
The New York Times
July 31, 2010
LHASA, Tibet — One warm morning on the campus of Tibet University, a couple of foreign journalists
on a government-run tour of Tibet quietly broke away from the group to talk to students standing on a grassy lawn. Security guards dashed in and waved the students away.
Two days later, Chinese officials brought the 30 or so foreign reporters to the sprawling Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse, the seat of power of the Panchen Lama, a reincarnated leader in Tibetan Buddhism. The officials had arranged for a monk to brief us on the monastery’s history. But reporters preferred to pepper him with questions about the selection of the 11th Panchen Lama — the Chinese government appointed one in 1995 after whisking off a 6-year-old boy endorsed as the genuine reincarnation by the exiled Dalai Lama. The boy and his family have not been seen since.
A foreign ministry official from Beijing quickly signaled an end to the talk. Later, walking through the white-walled monastery, the official shook his head and said to me: “The questions you all ask — what’s the word I’m looking for? — they’re ridiculous!”
These days, the Chinese government wants foreigners to think it is moving beyond Orwellian controls on information. In Beijing and most other parts of China, a foreign journalist can usually travel freely. Plainclothes officers don’t regularly follow journalists around. And ordinary people who talk to journalists usually do not fear reprisals from the authorities, unlike many Tibetans, who speak to foreign reporters only in quick, furtive conversations because of the omnipresent security forces.
China is pushing its state news agency, Xinhua, into new markets in hopes that foreign publications will run its stories as if they are those of The Associated Press or Reuters. Xinhua is even opening a newsroom in Times Square. One Xinhua reporter asked me, “When will foreigners view us like The A.P.?”
The Chinese government and its information agencies crave legitimacy among foreigners, and a growing number of Chinese journalists are trying to push the boundaries. But open and critical inquiry is still an alien concept to Chinese officials, as I discovered on this five-day government-run tour of Central Tibet.
In general, Chinese journalists still have to tip-toe around strict censorship measures. We foreigners know that we are being monitored, however subtly. And when it comes to certain important issues — like sovereignty and treatment of minorities — China places tight restrictions on domestic and foreign reporting.
That means that reporting on Tibet, Taiwan and Xinjiang, where ethnic tensions run high between Uighurs and Han, is still fraught.
Foreign journalists are forbidden from travelling independently to the Tibet Autonomous Region. A government-sponsored tour, held about once a year, is the only way in. And woe to reporters who cross some invisible line. Two Polish journalists recently discovered that they are on a blacklist for Chinese visas, one possibly because of his Tibet reporting.
Harmony, however, is the official catchword these days — including between the government and Tibetans, and the government and journalists. So two years after the largest Tibetan uprising in decades and the continued arrests of Tibetans accused of subverting state power, reporters on this trip received a heavy dose of ethnic entertainment, beautiful scenery and stage-managed interviews.
An hour after we checked into our hotel in Lhasa, as the afternoon sun dipped toward stark brown peaks, we were bussed to the Nangre Folk Customs Park for a buffet dinner that included several song-and-dance routines.
The next day, two tour buses and a police escort shuttled us around. At a village called Gaba, we talked to residents about new homes they had built with subsidies and loans under a government mandate called the “comfortable housing” program, begun in 2006. Gaba was a model village, and clearly not representative. In fact, the visit to Gaba was reminiscent of ones during the Cultural Revolution, when officials brought foreigners to similar model villages to demonstrate the country’s progress.
(The living room décor did not help: In each home, there was the same poster featuring the smiling countenances of Mao, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin, the three paramount leaders of China.)
There were occasional reminders of reality. One morning, our minders wrung their hands when cameramen on my bus filmed more than 150 military trucks with ethnic Han soldiers rumbling along a highway to Lhasa.
The last day, as we boarded the buses for a four-hour ride to the airport, reporters griped to one another about the tight leashes, but agreed that going on the trip was better than having no access at all. Just riding through the sweep of the Himalayas made up for all the frustrations. We stopped for lunch by a stunning holy lake, Yamdrok Tso, nestled high in the mountains.
Then, as we packed up to go, an Australian and a British reporter each stripped naked and dove into the waters.
I looked over at our minders. The ones from Lhasa were laughing, and so were our police escorts, from behind their mirrored sunglasses. It had been a long five days.

Unease in Tibet Over Influx of China’s Money and Migrants
By EDWARD WONG
Published: July 25, 2010
LHASA, Tibet – They come by new high-altitude trains, four a day, cruising 1,200 miles past snow-capped mountains. And they come by military truck convoy, lumbering across the roof of the world.
Han Chinese workers, investors, merchants, teachers and soldiers are pouring into remote Tibet. After the violence that ravaged this region in 2008, China’s aim is to make Tibet wealthier – and more Chinese.
Chinese leaders see development, along with an enhanced security presence, as the key to pacifying the Buddhist region. The central government invested $3 billion in the Tibet Autonomous Region last year, a 31 percent increase over 2008. Tibet’s gross domestic product is growing at a 12 percent annual rate, faster than the robust Chinese national average.
Simple restaurants located in white prefabricated houses and run by ethnic Han businesspeople who take the train have sprung up even at a remote lake north of Lhasa. About 1.2 million rural Tibetans, nearly 40 percent of the region’s population, have been moved into new residences under a “comfortable housing” program. And officials promise to increase tourism fourfold by 2020, to 20 million visitors a year.
But if the influx of money and people has brought new prosperity, it has also deepened the resentment among many Tibetans. Migrant Han entrepreneurs elbow out Tibetan rivals, then return home for the winter after reaping profits. Large Han-owned companies dominate the main industries, from mining to construction to tourism.
“Why did I come here? To make money, of course!” said Xiong Zhahua, a migrant from Sichuan Province who spends five months a year running a restaurant on the shores of chilly Nam Tso, the lake north of Lhasa.
A rare five-day official tour of Tibet, though carefully managed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, provided a glimpse of life in the region during a period of tight political and military control.
Tibet is more stable after security forces quelled the worst uprising against Chinese rule in five decades. But the increased ethnic Han presence – and the uneven benefits of Han-led investment – have kept the region on edge.
Some Chinese officials acknowledge the disenfranchisement of Tibetans, though they defend the right of Han to migrate here.
“The flow of human resources follows the rule of market economics and is also indispensable for the development of Tibet,” Hao Peng, vice chairman and deputy party secretary of the region, said at a news conference with a small group of foreign journalists. But the current system “may have caused an imbalanced distribution,” he said. “We are taking measures to solve this problem.”
The government bars foreign reporters from traveling independently in Tibet. Journalists on the tour were brought to several development projects by ministry officials, but were occasionally able to interview locals on their own. Tibetans interviewed independently expressed fear of the security forces and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
One high school student complained that Tibetans could not compete for jobs with Han migrants who arrived with high school diplomas. “Tibetans just get low-end jobs,” he said.
Chinese officials say Tibetans make up more than 95 percent of the region’s 2.9 million people, but refuse to give estimates on Han migrants, who are not registered residents. In the cities of Lhasa and Shigatse, it is clear that Han neighbourhoods are dwarfing Tibetan areas.
Resentment of the Han exploded during the March 2008 rioting – Tibetans in Lhasa burned and looted hundreds of Han and ethnic Hui shops; at least 19 people died, most of them Han civilians, the Chinese government said. Han security forces then cracked down on Tibetans across the plateau.
Robert Barnett, a scholar of Tibet at Columbia University, said the goal of maintaining double-digit growth in the region had worsened ethnic tensions.
“Of course, they achieved that, but it was disastrous,” he said. “They had no priority on local human resources, so of course they relied on outside labor, and sucked in large migration into the towns.”
Now, a heavy security presence is needed to keep control of Lhasa. Around the Barkhor, the city’s central market, paramilitary officers in riot gear, all ethnic Han, march counterclockwise around the sacred Jokhang Temple, against the flow of Tibetan pilgrims. Armed men stand on rooftops near the temple.
Limits on religious freedom have been a major cause of discontent. In the Jokhang itself, and in the Potala Palace, the imposing white-walled winter fortress of the Dalai Lamas, images of the exiled 14th Dalai Lama have been banned. Pilgrims carry the Dalai Lama’s photograph in hidden lockets or amulets. As the pilgrims circle the Potala, a loudspeaker in a small park blares Communist Party propaganda: “We are part of a Chinese nation contributing to a great future – we are Chinese people.”
Development programs are sometimes well received, and sometimes they create resentment. Since 2006, the Tibetan government has mandated that Tibetan farmers, herders and nomads use government subsidies to build new homes closer to roads. New concrete homes with traditional Tibetan decorations dot the stark brown countryside.
But the base government subsidy for building the new homes is usually $1,500 per household, far short of the total needed. Families have generally had to take out multiple times that amount in interest-free three-year loans from state banks as well as private loans from relatives or friends.
“Though the government assures that villagers have not borrowed beyond their means, many villagers around Lhasa have expressed pessimism about their ability to repay these loans, suggesting that the degree of debt for the new houses is beyond what they are comfortable with,” said Emily Yeh, a scholar at the University of Colorado at Boulder who has researched the program. “This should become clearer over the next few years as loans start to become due.”
In the model village of Gaba, right outside Lhasa, residents leased out their farmland for eight years to Han migrants to pay back the loans, which mostly ranged from $3,000 to $4,500. The migrants grow a wide variety of vegetables to be sold across China. Many of the Tibetan villagers now work in construction; they cannot compete with Han farmers because they generally know how to grow only barley.
“Renting out the farmland was suggested by the bank,” said Suolang Jiancan, the village head. “It would be a guaranteed income to pay back the loans.”
Among the Han, it is not just farmers who are profiting from the land. Large companies from other parts of China are finding ways to tap Tibet’s resources.
On July 19, China National Gold Group, the nation’s largest gold producer, began work at a polymetallic mine whose daily output is expected to reach 15,000 tons. Tibet has more than 3,000 proven mineral reserves, including China’s biggest chromium and copper deposits. China Daily, an official English-language newspaper, quoted a Tibetan official in March saying that mining could make up at least 30 percent of Tibet’s gross domestic product by 2020, up from 3 percent now.
A prominent mineral water company called 5100 that is registered in Hong Kong but managed from Beijing has set up a factory in Damxung, on a grassy plateau three hours north of Lhasa, to collect glacial runoff and bottle it as high-end mineral water. Last year, the company, named after the altitude of the glacier, produced almost two million gallons of water. The water is shipped out on the Qinghai-Tibet railway.
The water that is collected would otherwise flow through wetlands where yak graze. It is unclear how the factory’s work has affected the ecosystem. Jiang Xiaohong, the factory manager, who moved to Tibet three years ago, said the company did an environmental assessment before starting operations in 2006. “There’s no impact on the wetlands,” she said.
Because the company employs Tibetans, it receives government subsidies, Ms. Jiang said. About 95 percent of the 150 or so workers are Tibetan, and the average salary, including housing subsidies, is about $740 a month, a small fortune on the Tibetan plateau, she said. But ethnic Han are the company’s managers and owners, and the ones who ultimately profit from it.
Mr. Hao, the regional vice chairman, said the key to making Tibetans more competitive in business “is to enhance Tibetan people’s skills through education and training.”
The government has encouraged wealthier Chinese cities to finance school construction in Tibet. In the city of Shigatse, four hours from Lhasa, the Tibet-Shanghai Experimental School was completed in 2005 with an investment of $8.6 million from the Shanghai government. The principal, Huang Yongdong, arrived in January from Shanghai for a three-year posting. Nearly 1,500 students, all Tibetan, attend junior and senior high schools here.
A portrait of Mao hangs in the lobby. All classes are taught in Mandarin Chinese, except for Tibetan language classes. Critics of the government’s ethnic policies say the education system in Tibet is destroying Tibetans’ fluency in their own language, but officials insist that students need to master Chinese to be competitive. Some students accept that.
“My favorite class is Tibetan because we speak Tibetan at home,” said Gesang Danda, 13. “But our country’s mother tongue is Chinese, so we study in Chinese.”
On a blackboard in one classroom, someone had drawn in chalk a red flag with a hammer and sickle. Written next to it was a slogan in Chinese and Tibetan: “Withoutthe Communist Party, there would be no new China, and certainly no new Tibet.”
Xiyun Yang and Helen Gao contributed research.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=633047&f=110

UN ‘concerned’ over Nepal’s repatriation of Tibetans
By Claire Cozens
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
July 28, 2010
KATHMANDU — Nepal has forcibly repatriated three Tibetan refugees, the United Nations said on
Wednesday, adding it was “extremely concerned” by the move.
The UN refugee agency said it had written to the Nepalese government about the incident in early June, details of which were published in a report by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT).
Two of the refugees — a Buddhist monk and a young woman — are now in jail in Tibet after they were detained in western Nepal and taken by helicopter to the border, where they were met by Chinese security forces, the ICT said.
Theirs is the first such case to be reported since 2003, when 18 Tibetans, some of them children, were detained by Nepalese police and sent back to China in a move that sparked international condemnation.
“Three Tibetans were forcefully returned to China from Nepal in early June 2010. It is a very serious issue and we are extremely concerned,” Nini Gurung, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency in Kathmandu, told AFP by email.
Thousands of Tibetans used to make the difficult and dangerous journey to Nepal every year, fleeing political and religious repression in China.
hey have traditionally been given safe passage through Nepal under an informal agreement between the government and the UN refugee agency put in place in 1989, when Nepal stopped giving them refugee status.
They are then given UN assistance to travel on to India, where the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama lives in exile.
But their numbers have fallen sharply since March 2008 riots in Tibet led China to strengthen border security and increase pressure on authorities in Nepal to stem the flow of refugees.
“Nepal is duty-bound under its own agreement with the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) to ensure the safe transit of Tibetan refugees through its territory,” said ICT president Mary Beth Markey.
“We urge the Nepal government and the UNHCR to work together to investigate this incident, including China’s extra-territorial role, and to adopt remedies that prevent future occurrences of refoulement (forced return) from Nepal.”
A spokesman for the home ministry in Nepal declined to comment, saying he had no information about any such incident, which involved two Tibetan monks living in a monastery near the border and a 22-year-old woman.
China is a major donor to Nepal, and news of the forced repatriations followed reports of a new aid package designed to help its impoverished neighbour improve border security.
The governments of the two countries will set up a joint mechanism to help share intelligence on “anti-China activities” in Nepal, the Kathmandu Post daily reported, following a meeting of security officials in Kathmandu.

Rights group: Chinese security used
indiscriminate force to break up 2008 Tibet protest
By Gillian Wong
The Associated Press
July 22, 2010
BEIJING — Chinese security forces fired indiscriminately on Tibetan protesters in 2008 and beat and kicked others until they lay motionless on the ground, a rights group said in a report detailing unrest that the government says it suppressed legally.
The Human Rights Watch report released Thursday — using rare eyewitness accounts — examines China’s crackdown on the broadest anti-government uprising the country has faced from Tibetans in nearly 50 years.
Riots started in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and then spread to communities across China’s west.
Since the unrest, Beijing has sought to quash accounts of rights abuses. It has flooded the region with troops, put Tibetans under tighter scrutiny, reduced the flow of international tourists and allowed in only a few foreign reporters under government escort.
Among the report’s findings: Witnesses say on March 14, 2008, security forces in Lhasa opened fire on rotesters near the Barkhor, the heart of the old city. They say that at several rallies, security forces also hit demonstrators with batons and rifle butts until they were no longer moving. As protests spread across the Tibetan plateau, security forces shot at secondary school students headed to a demonstration and at monks and civilians marching toward government buildings.
The 73-page report says security forces also tortured protesters and others during arrests and in detention by beating them and depriving them of food and sanitary conditions. It points out that hundreds of Tibetans arrested in the crackdown remain unaccounted for.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang accused Human Rights Watch of bias. The events in Lhasa were “serious, violent criminal incidents that caused great loss to the lives and property of the local people,” Qin said in a statement.
He said authorities enforced the law in a legal, civilized way and that ethnic customs and human dignity were respected.
The 2008 uprising started with several days of anti-government protests by Buddhist monks in Lhasa and then turned into riots, with Tibetans attacking Chinese-owned shops and homes. China has said 22 people died in the Lhasa riots. Overseas Tibet supporters say many times that number have been killed in protests and the ensuing security crackdown.
To compile its account, New York-based Human Rights Watch said its researchers interviewed 203 Tibetan refugees and visitors outside China between March 2008 and April 2010.
“Over the past two years, security forces acted in a way that is completely disproportionate to the actual threat to public order,” said Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch. “The Chinese government could do something about it. This is not about their sovereignty in Tibet, this is about how their security forces behave.”
The report investigates cases in which security forces shot at demonstrators in Lhasa and in the Tibetan areas of Aba and Ganzi in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
It cites a 24-year-old Tibetan woman who was near the Barkhor Square and said protesters roamed freely on March 14 until the afternoon, when troops showed up and opened fire.
“When the soldiers showed up later, they threw tear gas. A gas canister hit my leg and I couldn’t walk any more,” the report quoted the woman as saying. “Then there was indiscriminate shooting and we saw two people shot dead in front of us.”
A 33-year-old monk from a monastery west of Lhasa said he was beaten with clubs and sticks by guards at detention facilities where he was held, and beaten again, with sand-filled rubber tubes, when sentenced to a year in a labor camp.