Tibetan Exiles like all other human beings may face a perplexing question about their Identity. To Be Tibetan, Or Not To Be Tibetan is the First Question. Man is a terrestrial creature and his identity is largely shaped by his natural habitat. To be a Tibetan in Tibet is easy and natural. For Tibetans living in exile for a long time, alienation from native land poses a painful choice. To resolve this crisis, if I could help, I prefer to remove any superimposition of Chinese Identity over Tibetan territory. I prefer the second choice, “Take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?”
Tibetan Exiles like all other human beings may face a perplexing question about their Identity. To Be Tibetan, Or Not To Be Tibetan is the First Question. Man is a terrestrial creature and his identity is largely shaped by his natural habitat. To be a Tibetan in Tibet is easy and natural. For Tibetans living in exile for a long time, alienation from native land poses a painful choice. To resolve this crisis, if I could help, I prefer to remove any superimposition of Chinese Identity over Tibetan territory. I prefer the second choice, “Take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?”
LONG LIVE TIBETAN RESISTANCE.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
Tibetan Exiles like all other human beings may face a perplexing question about their Identity. To Be Tibetan, Or Not To Be Tibetan is the First Question. Man is a terrestrial creature and his identity is largely shaped by his natural habitat. To be a Tibetan in Tibet is easy and natural. For Tibetans living in exile for a long time, alienation from native land poses a painful choice. To resolve this crisis, if I could help, I prefer to remove any superimposition of Chinese Identity over Tibetan territory. I prefer the second choice, “Take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?”
THE DIPLOMAT
Tibetan Exiles like all other human beings may face a perplexing question about their Identity. To Be Tibetan, Or Not To Be Tibetan is the First Question. Man is a terrestrial creature and his identity is largely shaped by his natural habitat. To be a Tibetan in Tibet is easy and natural. For Tibetans living in exile for a long time, alienation from native land poses a painful choice. To resolve this crisis, if I could help, I prefer to remove any superimposition of Chinese Identity over Tibetan territory. I prefer the second choice, “Take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?”
Image Credit. Tibetans in Exile. Natalia Davidovich
Tibet in Limbo: An Exile’s Account of Citizenship in a World of Nation-States
The international community needs to address the plight of Tibetan refugees.
By Tenzin Pelkyi for The Diplomat January 06, 2016
Recently, an Al Jazeera article offered a profile of statelessness which featured tales of refugees from around the world. From Tibet to Kazakhstan, Syria to the Dominican Republican, the intimate glimpses of life for the millions of dislocated individuals in countries across the globe highlighted the common obstacles faced by those forced to flee their ancestral lands. Tibet is a prime example of this 21st century phenomenon of statelessness in a world of nation-states. In fact, many parallels have been drawn between the troubled Himalayan region and stateless peoples from the Palestinians to the Kurds. In 2015, a number of important events took place in the secretive underbelly of Tibetan exile politics – a world unto itself for those of us who have to navigate it either as members of the in group (Tibetan exiles) or out group (non-Tibetan activists, scholars, journalists), including the Tibetan exile elections, inception of the Tibetan feminist movement, the rising numbers of self-immolation protests in Tibet, and a major rebranding of the official Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) policy of “genuine autonomy” for Tibet (i.e. “The Middle Way”). As such, I think it’s important to properly contextualize the article and clarify a few key points in regard to the issue of Tibetan refugees. Having personally been born after the cut-off point for Indian citizenship granted to Tibetan refugees after the 2010 ruling, I, like many others, take issue with the arbitrary window period for citizenship. Although it’s certainly better than no such law at all, there is still a restriction on citizenship for future Tibetan refugees and an entire generation excluded from this opportunity. Tibetans like myself, who were naturalized in the U.S. after relocating through the special visa provision for Tibetan refugees included in the Immigration Act of 1990, are privileged in holding American citizenship. But there are far more in the settlements in India who are not so fortunate. Beyond the issue of a cut-off point for citizenship, the very idea of Indian citizenship was hotly debated in the Tibetan exile community. Those advocating for Tibetan independence, which the exile administration opposes, have argued that granting exiles Indian citizenship when the administration is headquartered in India would negate the very existence of such an entity. An official name change of the CTA was posed in 2012 and met with vocal opposition for restricting its jurisdiction to “the Tibetan exile people,” encompassing only the exile population of roughly 128,000 rather than the entire population of Tibet (over 6 million). Indian citizenship thus has tremendous implications for any prospects for Tibetan statehood. With the rise of disputes between Tibetan exiles in the Indian settlements and locals, legal protections for Tibetan refugees are becoming an increasing concern. Tibetan exiles are required to carry and renew a registration certificate and an identity card to travel overseas. A lack of citizenship means Tibetans are unable to own land and travel freely. Harsh penalties, including incidents of arrest, for the mere failure to renew these documents have further heightened fears over the tenuous nature of exile in the settlements. Restrictions on employment opportunities in India have also contributed to growing debate over Indian citizenship. As we head into the new year, the plight of Tibetan refugees must be more fully addressed by the international community, lest we have yet another global humanitarian crisis on our hands. Tenzin Pelkyi is a writer, activist, and law student. She sits on the board of the Asian American Organizing Project and is also the founder/editor of the Tibetan Feminist Collective. She writes and speaks regularly about Tibet, Asian American advocacy, reproductive rights, and racial justice.
Tibetan Exiles like all other human beings may face a perplexing question about their Identity. To Be Tibetan, Or Not To Be Tibetan is the First Question. Man is a terrestrial creature and his identity is largely shaped by his natural habitat. To be a Tibetan in Tibet is easy and natural. For Tibetans living in exile for a long time, alienation from native land poses a painful choice. To resolve this crisis, if I could help, I prefer to remove any superimposition of Chinese Identity over Tibetan territory. I prefer the second choice, “Take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?”Tibetan Exiles like all other human beings may face a perplexing question about their Identity. To Be Tibetan, Or Not To Be Tibetan is the First Question. Man is a terrestrial creature and his identity is largely shaped by his natural habitat. To be a Tibetan in Tibet is easy and natural. For Tibetans living in exile for a long time, alienation from native land poses a painful choice. To resolve this crisis, if I could help, I prefer to remove any superimposition of Chinese Identity over Tibetan territory. I prefer the second choice, “Take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?”Tibetan Exiles like all other human beings may face a perplexing question about their Identity. To Be Tibetan, Or Not To Be Tibetan is the First Question. Man is a terrestrial creature and his identity is largely shaped by his natural habitat. To be a Tibetan in Tibet is easy and natural. For Tibetans living in exile for a long time, alienation from native land poses a painful choice. To resolve this crisis, if I could help, I prefer to remove any superimposition of Chinese Identity over Tibetan territory. I prefer the second choice, “Take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?”Tibetan Exiles like all other human beings may face a perplexing question about their Identity. To Be Tibetan, Or Not To Be Tibetan is the First Question. Man is a terrestrial creature and his identity is largely shaped by his natural habitat. To be a Tibetan in Tibet is easy and natural. For Tibetans living in exile for a long time, alienation from native land poses a painful choice. To resolve this crisis, if I could help, I prefer to remove any superimposition of Chinese Identity over Tibetan territory. I prefer the second choice, “Take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?”
Tibet Awareness – Tibetan Resistance of Foreign Power
Tibet Awareness – Tibetan Resistance of Foreign Power
News reports indicate that Tibetans are resisting ban on displaying the Dalai Lama’s image. Tibetans are displaying Dalai Lama’s image giving expression to Tibet’s resistance of military occupation by Red China.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
UCANEWS.COM
Tibetans resist ban on displaying Dalai Lama’s image
China attempts to control image as spiritual leader enters his twilight
In this photo taken on Dec. 9, a group of Tibetans spin a prayer wheel under a portrait of the Dalai Lama at Kirti Monastery in Aba, a Tibetan area of China’s Sichuan province. A ban on displaying the spiritual leader’s image has been met with resistance in the autonomous region. (Photo by AFP/Benjamin Haas)
ucanews.com reporter, Beijing.
February 24, 2016
Police and the Bureau for Religious Affairs issued a notice across the Tibetan county of Drango in January making a rare admission.
About 40 percent of the shops in this mountainous area of 50,000 people in western Sichuan province were selling pictures of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. These were ordered removed by Feb. 2. Announcing the campaign was to eliminate “pornography and illegal publications” ahead of the Chinese New Year, the nationalist Global Times said hanging the Dalai Lama’s image “was the same as displaying Saddam Hussein’s image would be for Americans.” Ordinary Tibetans have fought cyclical campaigns banning the Dalai Lama’s image for decades since he went into exile in 1959. As his reincarnation moves ever closer — a source of dispute between the Dalai Lama and Beijing — propaganda and control of his image has only intensified. In open defiance of the recent ban, thousands of Tibetan Buddhists held a prayer ceremony in Drango to pray for the spiritual leader’s health while he was being treated in Minnesota on Jan. 25. A video circulated online showed people standing and kneeling, hands pressed together, in front of a giant image of the Dalai Lama in this remote corner of Sichuan province. “While this doesn’t breach the letter of the ban — which applied to the sale of his image — it clearly breaches the spirit, which local residents will have known,” said Alistair Currie, campaigns manager of the London-based Free Tibet. Later, police arrested two high-ranking monks from Chongri Monastery in Drango for organizing the event. Barely a month goes by without someone being arrested in the administrative region of Tibet and surrounding Tibetan areas in the neighboring western provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu. In December, a video showed a young man walking through the streets of Ngaba county carrying a portrait of the Tibetan spiritual leader and its former flag. He was later arrested, reported Free Tibet. A month earlier, two monks were reportedly sentenced to four and three-and-a-half years in prison for separate, similar protests displaying the Dalai Lama’s image while calling for a free Tibet. A symbol of Tibetan aspirations for more autonomy than Beijing is willing to allow, the Dalai Lama’s image has taken on political as well as spiritual meanings. And signs are that Chinese security forces plan to expunge the Tibetan spiritual leader’s image from every corner of the Tibetan plateau, part of the end game to crush resistance as he moves toward the twilight of his life. Beijing clearly hopes that if it can seize control of the Dalai Lama’s image, it may eventually win hearts and minds — at least after Tibet’s spiritual leader dies. In June last year, China announced it had finished installing televisions in every one of Tibet’s nearly 1,800 Buddhist monasteries, a policy that took three-and-a-half years to implement. Many monks were required to ship television sets on horseback across high Himalayan passes. Far from providing Tibetan monks with entertainment, the move was designed to prevent televisions from displaying images of the Dalai Lama inside monasteries. “By listening to the radio and watching television, monks and nuns have a more intuitive understanding of the party and country’s policies, laws and regulations, ethnic policies and religious policies,” reported the state-run Tibet Daily. During the same period, authorities posted notices in monasteries warning of fines of 5,000 yuan (US$800) to those that did not get rid of old satellite television systems. Many were able to pick up Tibetan news from exiled broadcasters based outside of China including Radio Free Asia — funded by the U.S. government — which began its first satellite bulletin during the Tibetan New Year last February. “The Chinese government is trying really hard to try to stop Tibetans from getting any information from outside,” Tsering Tsomo, director of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy based in Dharamsala, India, told ucanews.com during the campaign last year. Instead of displaying images of the Dalai Lama, Buddhist monasteries have recently been ordered to display images of Communist Party leaders and Chinese flags instead. Earlier this month, 70-year-old monk Trigyal died in detention after being accused of throwing Chinese flags into a river instead of installing them on a monastery in Driru County. He served two years of a 13-year prison sentence. “Making the Tibetan people choose between the Dalai Lama and the Communist Party when there is space and opportunity to coexist only leads to deepening the wound in the hearts of the Tibetan people,” said Bhuchung Tsering, vice president of the International Campaign for Tibet based in Washington D.C. “China does not care about the Tibetan way of life.” On occasions authorities have proven unusually tolerant of the Dalai Lama’s image, however. In mid-2013, international media and campaign groups started reporting that authorities had started to allow veneration of the Dalai Lama in monasteries including in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, for the first time in 17 years — a move denied by authorities in Beijing. Then in July last year, his image was “generally well tolerated” as Tibetan’s marked the spiritual leader’s 80th birthday, Currie said. With so little information coming out of Tibet and a lack of transparency from authorities, it remains difficult to know why enforcement of a ban on the Tibetan spiritual leader’s image has been so erratic, he added. “Trying to prevent celebrations would simply cause more trouble for local authorities that it was worth,” said Currie. It’s a point that highlights the extent to which Beijing has tried to calibrate a policy that tries to diminish the influence of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader without inciting ordinary people into cyclical rioting that has been a feature of 70 years of rule by the Chinese Communist Party. This policy has been a total failure, said Golog Jigme, an exiled Tibetan monk who managed a long and arduous escape to India in May 2014. In mid-February, he appeared in Berlin and met with members of Germany’s parliament to warn of “appalling Chinese policies in Tibet.” The reason he decided to flee — thereby creating yet another propaganda disaster for Beijing — was straightforward: Chinese military raided his monastery in Qinghai province, smashing and burning images of the Dalai Lama, he said. “After each and every experience of these crackdowns there will be even bigger pictures of the Dalai Lama, even better frames and more beautiful portraits that we will hang on our walls,” he added. “Because this really strengthens our determination to show that, actually, we are not afraid.”
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News reports indicate that Tibetans are resisting ban on displaying the Dalai Lama’s image. Tibetans are displaying Dalai Lama’s image giving expression to Tibet’s resistance of military occupation by Red China.
Poverty in Tibet – A Petition to the Colonial Masters
Hundreds of Tibetans signed a petition to the Colonial Masters to secure improvement of their living conditions. Red China’s propaganda claiming economic development and improvement of quality of Tibetan lives is not supported by hard evidence. Poverty in Tibet is real. Modern Face of Trouble in Tibet. Ugly Face of Occupation has New Dimension.
Hundreds of Tibetans signed a petition to the Colonial Masters to secure improvement of their living conditions. Red China’s propaganda claiming economic development and improvement of quality of Tibetan lives is not supported by hard evidence. Poverty in Tibet is real.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
Hundreds of Tibetans signed a petition to the Colonial Masters to secure improvement of their living conditions. Red China’s propaganda claiming economic development and improvement of quality of Tibetan lives is not supported by hard evidence. Poverty in Tibet is real. Modern Face of Trouble in Tibet. Ugly Face of Occupation has New Dimension.
Hundreds sign petition for improvement of living condition in Tibet
Tuesday, 24 May 2016 19:07 Kalsang Sherab, Tibet Post International
Hundreds of Tibetans signed a petition to the Colonial Masters to secure improvement of their living conditions. Red China’s propaganda claiming economic development and improvement of quality of Tibetan lives is not supported by hard evidence. Poverty in Tibet is real. Modern Face of Trouble in Tibet. Ugly Face of Occupation has New Dimension.
Dharamshala — Hundreds of Tibetans in Khanya Township (Ch: Kaniang), Drakgo County (Ch: Luhuo), just signed a petition to plead with the local government to investigate the severe living condition in the township of Kham region, eastern Tibet. The latest development indicates clearly that Tibetans who live in rural areas are still facing deepening poverty in the face of China’s so-called economic prosperity.
The collective petition also urges the government to solve local troubles as soon as possible, including deteriorate transportation, insufficiency of electricity, difficult water access, backward in public health and education, and forest destruction, etc.
According to local contact, the Chinese government has deliberately ceased poverty alleviation and construction projects in Khanya Township since 2008, which has left the township in extreme poverty ever since. Collapsed road in the raining season, and snow-sealed mountain passes in the winter had trapped villagers in the mountains for several times. Food and accommodation in the township was in serious shortage during these natural disasters, while the government remains unresponsive.
Besides this, due to the lack of water and electricity, inconvenient communication, and malfunctioning transportation, schoolteachers were unwilling to stay. The only school in the township becomes the ’empty house’, and children in the township were thus deprived of educational opportunities, sources told the Tibet Post International (TPI).
By contrast, the local government started to deforest without constraints, which facilitated water and soil loss as well as natural disasters. Regarding this, local Tibetans have reported to the relevant higher authorities for several times, but no response was given. They now hope to call for attention from institutions inside and outside of Tibet through media report.
Multiple pictures of the local situation, include the signed petition received by the RFA Mandarin service showed that the Chinese government propagates their achievement in economic development and improvement of people’s livelihood; but in fact, the difficult situation in Khanya Township is a valid evidence to debunk this claim. One local source pointed out six needs; Our Khanya Township has 400 households, and is 80 kilometers away from the Drakgo County. Due to the terrible road condition, collapse commonly happens along the way, and many car accidents thus occur; this is the first problem. Secondly, the government constructed a small power station, which is almost derelict nowadays. Thus the electricity for living and production in this township has also been paralyzed. The seriously damaged electricity pole and low quality electricity cables have resulted in multiple accidents. During these accidents, some people died and some other were permanently disabled, but no compensation was provided. Thirdly, the issue of water access is still not solved by the government, which has seriously impacted the health of both villagers and livestock. Fourth, the telephone facility was not well built by the government. Almost in half of the full year, the telephone cannot be connected, but villagers have been required to pay for the telephone fee for the full year. Fifth, the only school in the township is an empty shell, without teachers or students. This directly affects kids’ study and future. Sixth, the housing quality and public health in our township are largely lagged behind, and remain insecure. The so-called house-construction compensation, poverty alleviation subsidy, and health insurance allowance are not broadly implemented. Villagers are complaining a lot about this.
In order to solve the issues above, 400 households in Khanya Township appealed again to the relevant authorities of the government, but no response was given.
The informant reflected, ‘On December 23 last year, all of the villagers signed the letter appealing to the local government, calling for relevant officials to investigate whether CCP’s beneficiation policy has been implemented. However, no response has been given ever since. Thus, we recently submitted a collective petition to the County’s government, calling for the government taking steps to alleviate the severe situation at the moment.’ According to another local contact, this time, the collective case of appeal mainly mentions the problems of water and electricity, transportation, and deforestation, and so on.
The sources also revealed, ‘in our Khanya Township, trans-village roads, local power station, and mobile communication equipment are all jerry-built projects. For example, the tap water only works at summer, and it is almost gone in the winter. The quality of the road is poor, and once it rains or snows, even motorbike cannot go through. The electricity and communication facility is usually cut off for long intervals.
‘The facility is terrible, and even it breaks down, no people are sent to repair them. It caused accidents including, Jigme Wangchuk, a Khanya villager from Gyeda Village (Ch: Jizha, Luhuo county in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China), was shocked to death by high-tension electricity cable; and Konchok Gyaltsen, another Khanya villager from Khanya Village, was disabled by mobile communication cables, and Metok Dolma, a Khanya villager from Lharo Village was crippled by deforestation; and so on. And those people who are killed or disabled did not receive any compensation from the government.’
The informant added, ‘the cow-stealing cases are becoming more and more serious in our township. It often happens, but the government has no response despite of our report. Deforestation is becoming more and more severe. Recently, the government cut down overtly amount of trees in our holy mountain, and reaped exorbitant profits. The whole mountain has been devastated, and forestry resource has severely damaged, which may result further water and soil loss, and frequent natural disasters.’
The informant told TPI that after submitting the signed statement again, the government has promised to take measurements. However, based upon past experience, in order to urge the Chinese government to improve the current situation of Khanya Township, Khanya villagers still wish for external attention and support.
Hundreds of Tibetans signed a petition to the Colonial Masters to secure improvement of their living conditions. Red China’s propaganda claiming economic development and improvement of quality of Tibetan lives is not supported by hard evidence. Poverty in Tibet is real. Modern Face of Trouble in Tibet. Ugly Face of Occupation has New Dimension.
Love Counteracts the Violation of Natural Freedom in Tibet
LOVE COUNTERACTS THE VIOLATION OF NATURAL FREEDOM IN TIBET. LOVE IS THE BASIS FOR BALANCE IN LIFE.
Natural Science such as Physics and Chemistry describe Four Fundamental Forces and Four Fundamental Interactions. These are, 1. The Strong Nuclear Force, 2. The Weak Nuclear Force, 3. Electromagnetism, and 4. Gravitation.
I describe ‘LOVE’ as Fifth Fundamental Force to account for existence of Life on planet Earth. Love acts as a Force of Compassion to sustain Life. Love also acts as a Force to counteract the violation of Natural Order, Natural Balance, Natural Equilibrium, and Natural Freedom.
People’s Republic of China or Red China is governed by political doctrine called Communism which provides rule or governance by a One-Party political structure which lays emphasis on the requirements of State rather than on Individual Liberties. Communist State plans and controls all aspects of economy apart from social, cultural, and religious aspects of all Individual State Subjects. Communist State sponsors Violence to establish tyranny or totalitarian regime. Communist Policy or Doctrine demands use of power or authority by Party and State to oppose Natural Rights and Natural Freedom entitled to citizens.
Red China, in pursuit of its State Policy of Expansionism, made an unprovoked attack on Tibet in 1950. Red China uses her Military Power or Force to threaten, to harm, to cause pain, to give misery, to bring misfortune, and to create trouble in the lives of Tibetans to force them live under State-sponsored Occupation, Oppression, Repression, Suppression, and Subjugation.
Natural History of Tibet reveals that Nature uplifted Tibet using massive force of Collision generated by Indian landmass northwards thrust into Asian Continent. This Natural Event created a Natural Condition that sustains Natural Freedom experienced by denizens of Tibet. Red China’s military occupation of Tibet fundamentally opposes Nature’s Plan for Tibet.
Red China violated Natural Order that shapes Tibetan Existence. In my analysis, Love acting as Fundamental Force will counteract Red China’s Violation by using Force/Power/Energy that has been shaping and conditioning planet Earth over billions of years of its existence.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
DOOM DOOMA DOOMSAYER
LOVE COUNTERACTS THE VIOLATION OF NATURAL FREEDOM IN TIBET. THE OFFENDER OR VIOLATOR WILL BE DISCIPLINED BY PHYSICAL FORCE.
Pink Hearts Can’t Conceal Repression in Tibet – Human Rights Watch
New Campaign Aimed at Increasing Loyalty to Party, China
To many people’s ears the phrase “Four Loves” probably invokes images of a pop music act or a self-help philosophy – not an authoritarian regime’s latest campaign for political loyalty. But the Chinese Communist Party is once again deploying gentle terms to conceal its suppression of human rights.
LOVE COUNTERACTS THE VIOLATION OF NATURAL FREEDOM IN TIBET.
Tibet, a region known for systemic, state-sponsored human rights violations, is now awash with posters celebrating the “Four Emphases and Four Loves.” The campaign requires people to “Love the core by emphasizing the Party’s kindness/Love the motherland by emphasizing unity/Love your home by emphasizing what you can contribute/Love your life by emphasizing knowledge.”
Translation: don’t criticize policies or officials and do show gratitude and loyalty to “the core” – the CCP and its leader Xi Jinping. The only way to “love the motherland” is to oppose anything that threatens “unity,” which certainly includes substantive criticism of the Party or the state or any discussion of independence or increased autonomy. And to be a “good citizen” is to focus one’s efforts on what you can “contribute” – but implicitly it’s up to the Party to decide what can or cannot be contributed.
It’s also never too early to start indoctrinating people in this mindset: photos from primary schools in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, show children “speaking [their] hearts to Grandpa [President] Xi.” One is captioned, “The words of the heart spelled out in…small notes.”
Campaigns for Tibetans’ hearts and minds seem almost tragic against the backdrop of repression there. In recent years authorities have reshaped the region’s economy in a manner that suits the central government and effectively excludes Tibetans from decision-making – and in the case of some nomadic communities leaves them demonstrably worse off.
Authorities remain suspicious of Tibetans’ loyalties, and have also radically expanded the security and surveillance apparatus, and methodically inserted state control into all aspects of religious practice. Meanwhile, Tibetans – and many others across China – have virtually no ability to help develop, change, or object to the policies that profoundly affect their lives.
Propaganda – no matter how treacly, and no matter how many pink hearts deployed – is unlikely to generate the kind of loyalty or respect Chinese authorities seem to want from Tibetans. Respect for Tibetans’ human rights, on the other hand, might go a long way towards that goal.
LOVE COUNTERACTS THE VIOLATION OF NATURAL FREEDOM IN TIBET. BEIJING DOOMED.
The Future of Tibet – Can Red China Save herself from the consequences of Evil plans?
The Future of Tibet – Can Red China Save herself from the consequences of Evil plans?
Doom Dooma Doomsayer understands the problems faced by Tibetans; the Great Trouble in Tibet following Tibet’s military conquest. I am not a monk, a priest, or a member of clergy. I am not a prophet. However, my rational analysis of events leads me to announce Beijing’s Doom. Without recourse to any kind of human intervention, Red China faces Eviction From Occupied Tibet.
The Future of Tibet – Can Red China Save herself from the consequences of Evil plans?
TIBET – THE PLATEAU, UNPACIFIED
Tibetans’ culture is changing, by their own will as well as by force
Sep 17th 2016 | YUSHU
Doom Dooma Doomsayer understands the problems faced by Tibetans; the Great Trouble in Tibet following Tibet’s military conquest. I am not a monk, a priest, or a member of clergy. I am not a prophet. However, my rational analysis of events leads me to announce Beijing’s Doom. Without recourse to any kind of human intervention, Red China faces Eviction From Occupied Tibet.
An elderly woman with long, grey plaits, wearing a traditional Tibetan apron of wool in colorful stripes, has spent her day weaving thread outside her home near the southern end of Qinghai Lake, high on the Tibetan plateau. She is among hundreds of thousands of Tibetan nomads who have been forced by the government in recent years to settle in newly built villages. She now lives in one of them with her extended family and two goats. Every few months one of her sons, a red-robed monk, visits from his monastery, a place so cut off from the world that he has never heard of Donald Trump. Her grandson, a 23-year-old with slick hair and a turquoise rain jacket, is more clued in. He is training to be a motorcycle mechanic in a nearby town. Theirs is a disorienting world of social transformation, sometimes resented, sometimes welcome.
Chinese and foreigners alike have long been fascinated by Tibet, romanticizing its impoverished vastness as a haven of spirituality and tranquility. Its brand of Buddhism is alluring to many Chinese—even, it is rumored, to Peng Liyuan, the wife of China’s president, Xi Jinping. Many Tibetans, however, see their world differently. It has been shattered by China’s campaign to crush separatism and eradicate support for the Dalai Lama, their spiritual leader who fled to India after an uprising in 1959. The economic transformation of the rest of China and its cities’ brash modernity are seductive, but frustratingly elusive.
The story of political repression in Tibet is a familiar one. The Dalai Lama accuses China’s government of “cultural genocide”, a fear echoed by a tour guide in Qinghai, one of five provinces across which most of the country’s 6m Tibetans are scattered (the others are Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan and the Tibet Autonomous Region, or TAR—see map). “We know what happened to the Jews,” he says. “We are fighting for our existence.” Less commonly told is the despair felt by many young Tibetans who feel shut out of China’s boom. They are victims of Tibet’s remote and forbidding topography as well as of racial prejudice and the party’s anti-separatist zeal. They often cannot migrate to coastal factories, and few factories will come to them. Even fluent Mandarin speakers rarely find jobs outside their region.
Doom Dooma Doomsayer understands the problems faced by Tibetans; the Great Trouble in Tibet following Tibet’s military conquest. I am not a monk, a priest, or a member of clergy. I am not a prophet. However, my rational analysis of events leads me to announce Beijing’s Doom. Without recourse to any kind of human intervention, Red China faces Eviction From Occupied Tibet.
Yet Tibetans are not cut off from the rapidly evolving culture of the rest of China, where more than 90% of the population is ethnic Han. Mayong Gasong Qiuding, a 26-year-old hotel worker in Yushu in southern Qinghai, listens to Mandarin, Tibetan and Western pop music in tandem. He can rattle off official slogans but can recite only short Tibetan prayers. His greatest wish, he says, is to go to the Maldives to see the sea. Tibetan women in Qinghai use skin-whitening products, following a widespread fashion among their Han counterparts; a teenager roller-skates anticlockwise around a Buddhist stupa, ignoring a cultural taboo. Young nomads frustrate their elders by forsaking locally-made black, yak-hair tents for cheaper, lighter canvas ones produced in far-off factories.
Han migration, encouraged by a splurge of spending on infrastructure, is hastening such change. Although Tibetans still make up 90% of the permanent population of the TAR, its capital Lhasa is now 22% Han, compared with 17% in 2000. Many Tibetans resent the influx. Yet they are far more likely to marry Han Chinese than are members of some of China’s other ethnic groups. Around 10% of Tibetan households have at least one member who is non-Tibetan, according to a census in 2010. That compares with 1% of households among Uighurs, another ethnic minority whose members often chafe at rule by a Han-dominated government.
Core features of Tibetan culture are in flux. Monasteries, which long ago played a central role in Tibetan society, are losing whatever influence China has allowed them to retain. In recent years, some have been shut or ordered to reduce their populations (monks and nuns have often been at the forefront of separatist unrest). In July buildings at Larung Gar in Sichuan, a sprawling center of Tibetan Buddhist learning, were destroyed and thousands of monks and nuns evicted. Three nuns have reportedly committed suicide since. Of the more than 140 Tibetans who have set fire to themselves since 2011 in protest against Chinese rule, many were spurred to do so by repressive measures at their own monastery or nunnery.
Cloistered life is threatened by social change, too. Families often used to send their second son to a monastery, a good source of schooling. Now all children receive nine years of free education. “The young think there are better things to do,” says a monk at Rongwo monastery in Tongren, a town in Qinghai, who spends his days “praying, teaching [and] cleaning”. New recruits often come from poorly educated rural families.
Mind your language
In the TAR (which is closed to foreign journalists most of the time), the Tibetan language is under particular threat. Even nursery schools often teach entirely in Mandarin. A generation is now graduating from universities there who barely speak Tibetan. Some people have been arrested for continuing to teach in the language. In April last year Gonpo Tenzin, a singer, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for his album, “No New Year for Tibet”, encouraging Tibetans to preserve their language and culture.
In some areas outside the TAR, however, the government is less hostile to Tibetan. Since the early 2000s, in much of Qinghai, the number of secondary schools that teach in Tibetan has risen, according to research there by Adrian Zenz of the European School of Culture and Theology at Korntal, Germany. The range of degrees taught in Tibetan has expanded too. Unlike elsewhere, someone who has studied mainly in Tibetan can still get a good job in Qinghai. A third of all government roles advertised there between 2011 and 2015 required the language. Despite this, many parents and students chose to be taught in Mandarin anyway, Mr. Zenz found. They thought it would improve job prospects.
Doom Dooma Doomsayer understands the problems faced by Tibetans; the Great Trouble in Tibet following Tibet’s military conquest. I am not a monk, a priest, or a member of clergy. I am not a prophet. However, my rational analysis of events leads me to announce Beijing’s Doom. Without recourse to any kind of human intervention, Red China faces Eviction From Occupied Tibet.
But work can be difficult to get, despite years of huge government aid that has helped to boost growth. Government subsidies for the TAR amounted to 111% of GDP in 2014 (see chart), according to Andrew Fischer of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Eleven airports serve Qinghai and the TAR—they will have three more by 2020. A 156-mile train line from Lhasa (population 560,000) to Shigatse (population 120,000), which was completed in 2014, cost 13.3 billion yuan ($2.16 billion). A second track to Lhasa is being laid from Sichuan, priced at 105 billion yuan.
Better infrastructure has fueled a tourism boom—domestic visitors to the TAR increased fivefold between 2007 and 2015—but most income flows to travel agents elsewhere. Tourists stay in Han-run hotels and largely eat in non-Tibetan restaurants (KFC opened its first Lhasa branch in March). Tibetan resentment at exclusion from tourism- and construction-related jobs was a big cause of rioting in Lhasa in 2008 that sparked plateau-wide protests. Other big money-spinners—hydropower and the extraction of minerals and timber—are controlled by state-owned firms that employ relatively few Tibetans. The Chinese name for Tibet, Xizang, means “western treasure house”. But Tibetans have little share in its spoils. The rehousing of nomads has helped provide some with building jobs, but has also brought suffering: those relocated sometimes find it harder to make a living from herding.
In most other parts of China, villages have been rapidly emptying as people flock to work in cities. In the country as a whole, the agricultural population dropped from 65% to 48% as a share of the total between 2000 and 2010. On the plateau it fell only slightly, from 87% to 83%. It is hard for Tibetans to migrate to places where there are more opportunities. Police and employers treat them as potential troublemakers. In 2010 only about 1% of Tibetans had settled outside the plateau, says Ma Rong of Peking University. They cannot move abroad either. In 2012 Tibetans in the TAR had to surrender their passports (to prevent them joining the Dalai Lama); in parts of Qinghai officials went house-to-house confiscating them.
Doom Dooma Doomsayer understands the problems faced by Tibetans; the Great Trouble in Tibet following Tibet’s military conquest. I am not a monk, a priest, or a member of clergy. I am not a prophet. However, my rational analysis of events leads me to announce Beijing’s Doom. Without recourse to any kind of human intervention, Red China faces Eviction From Occupied Tibet.
For university graduates, the prospects are somewhat better. There are few prospects for secure work in private firms on the plateau. But to help them, the government has been on a hiring spree since 2011. Almost all educated Tibetans now work for the state. A government job is a pretty good one: salaries have been rising fast. Few Tibetans see such work as traitorous to their cause or culture. But the government may not be able to keep providing enough jobs for graduates, especially if a slowdown in China’s economy, which is crimping demand for commodities, has a knock-on effect on the plateau.
Many of the problems faced by Tibetans are common in traditional pastoral cultures as they modernize. But those of Tibetans are compounded by repression. They are only likely to increase when the Dalai Lama, now 81, dies. The central government will try to rig the selection of his successor, and no doubt persecute Tibetans who publicly object.
In private, officials say they are playing a waiting game: they expect the “Tibetan problem” to be more easily solved when he is gone. They are deluding themselves. They ignore his impact as a voice of moderation: he does not demand outright independence and he condemns violence. Tibetan culture may be under duress, but adoration of the Dalai Lama shows no sign of diminishing. Poverty, alienation and the loss of a beloved figurehead may prove an incendiary cocktail.
Doom Dooma Doomsayer understands the problems faced by Tibetans; the Great Trouble in Tibet following Tibet’s military conquest. I am not a monk, a priest, or a member of clergy. I am not a prophet. However, my rational analysis of events leads me to announce Beijing’s Doom. Without recourse to any kind of human intervention, Red China faces Eviction From Occupied Tibet.
DEATH AND MISERY IN OCCUPIED TIBET. EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLING OF TIBETAN WOMAN NEAR CHALONG TOWNSHIP. What happened on the grasslands near Chalong in Garze prefecture fits a disturbing pattern. More than six decades after Chinese troops first moved into Tibet, dissent continues to roil the plateau and, if anything, is being suppressed ever more savagely.Death and Misery in Occupied Tibet: Tsering Tso’s grandmother, Lhadhey, 83, and mother Adhey, 49, pose for a photograph in Jiqie No. 2 Village on the grasslands outside Chalong township in China’s western Sichuan province. (Xu Yangjingjing/The Washington Post)
A woman’s gruesome death by hanging portrays the reality of Death and Misery in Occupied Tibet. What happened on the grasslands near Chalong in Garze prefecture fits a disturbing pattern. More than six decades after Chinese troops first moved into Tibet, dissent continues to roil the plateau and, if anything, is being suppressed ever more savagely.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
Tibet Awareness – History of Tibet’s Unrest. Map of Peaceful Protests 2008. Most of the self-immolations and the worst cases of historical repression are in the same spots in the Tibetan provinces near China.
A woman’s gruesome hanging shocked Tibet — but police have silenced all questions
By SIMON DENYER August 26, 2016
Death and Misery in Occupied Tibet: Tsering Tso’s grandmother, Lhadhey, 83, and mother Adhey, 49, pose for a photograph in Jiqie No. 2 Village on the grasslands outside Chalong township in China’s western Sichuan province. (Xu Yangjingjing/The Washington Post)
JIQIE NO. 2 VILLAGE, Raghya, Tibet — She was 27, a kind, hard-working woman who supported her family by herding yaks and harvesting caterpillar fungus, a prized health cure, on the high grasslands of Tibet. Last October, Tsering Tso was found hanged from a bridge in a small town near her home.
Her family and local villagers gathered outside the police station in Chalong township to demand answers: She had last been seen in the company of a local Buddhist priest and two policemen.
The authorities insisted it was suicide. Family and friends suspected foul play and demanded an investigation. That night and the following morning, an angry crowd stormed the gates of the police station, smashing windows, according to local police.
The authorities’ response was brutal, revealing much about the crackdown taking place in Tibetan parts of China and showing how unrest and unhappiness is increasingly viewed as dangerously subversive.
On Oct. 10, five days after Tsering Tso’s body was found, hundreds of armed soldiers arrived in the town and descended on her funeral ceremony in the remote hamlet known as Jiqie No. 2 Village in Chinese and Raghya in Tibetan, in China’s western Sichuan province.
Witnesses said that more than 40 people were tied up, beaten with metal clubs, piled into a truck “like corpses” and placed in detention.
So much blood was shed that “stray dogs could not finish lapping it up,” according to a remarkable and rare open letter sent by the community to President Xi Jinping asking for justice. Most of those detained were gradually released in the weeks and months that followed, and although no one died, many went straight to the hospital.
But on May 20, five relatives and family friends were sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. Acquaintances say they were jailed for refusing to sign a statement absolving the police of blame for Tsering Tso’s death.
In a statement issued on its social-media account, the Garze county Public Security Bureau contested that version of events. It said some of the protesters had carried knives, iron pipes or stones and had caused nearly $10,000 worth of damage. The bureau ran photographs of several men climbing over a gate, but only two broken windows were shown. The jailed men, the statement said, had either carried weapons or organized the protest and had been found guilty of “assembling a crowd to attack state organs.”
But relatives who spoke to The Washington Post outside the family’s tent on the remote grasslands said they were not convinced that any investigation had been carried out.
No one denied that a few stones had been thrown during the protest, hitting a police car and office building. But they said that as a result, their entire community had been accused of “splittism” — a serious crime implying support for the Dalai Lama, the exiled religious leader, or for Tibet’s independence from China.
Internet connections have been cut off in Chalong township since the incident, and relatives of Tsering Tso have been threatened with further punishment if they talk to outsiders. The village — a scattering of tents and yaks in a scenic, sweeping grassland valley — has been told it will not get government subsidies for roads or houses for three years because of its “bad character.”
The family insisted that its demands were not political or ethnic in nature: The priest and policemen last seen with Tsering Tso were local Tibetans, and the family said it had no beef with the central government.
All the family wants, it said, is a proper investigation, justice for Tsering Tso and freedom for the five men in jail.
“My daughter was healthy and happy. She wouldn’t commit suicide,” her 49-year-old mother Adhey said, fighting back tears as she sat on the grass with her 83-year-old mother and two young sons. “My beloved daughter was murdered without any justice being given by the government. Instead, they simply arrested more innocent people and sent them to jail.”
What happened on the grasslands near Chalong in Garze prefecture fits a disturbing pattern. More than six decades after Chinese troops first moved into Tibet, dissent continues to roil the plateau and, if anything, is being suppressed ever more savagely.
Control and surveillance have been dramatically tightened since riots and demonstrations broke out in Tibet in 2008, and then expanded further under Xi, with tens of thousands of party cadres sent to monitor villages and monasteries, according to a January report by the International Campaign for Tibet.
In a May report, Human Rights Watch catalogued nearly 500 arrests across Tibetan parts of China between 2013 and 2015. It concluded that dissent had spread from urban to rural areas. Whereas the vast majority of arrests in the 1980s and 1990s had been of monks and nuns, most of those detained more recently were ordinary people.
Many “had merely exercised their rights to expression and assembly without advocating separatism” — criticizing local officials, for example, or opposing a mining development, the report said.
Yet even relatively mild protests about poor governance are increasingly seen through a political lens and labeled as “criminal acts,” rights groups say. Punishment can be severe. The incident in Chalong “reflects the unrest and instability in Tibetan society,” said Golog Jigme, a filmmaker and former political prisoner who now lives in exile in Switzerland. “It’s not outsiders or the Dalai Lama stirring things up, it’s social issues.”
On the evening of Oct. 4, 2015, Tsering Tso had received a phone call from her boyfriend, a lama at the Gertse Dralak monastery in Chalong. He said he was ill and wanted to see her. Her father gave her a lift, only to find the lama drinking with two policemen. He left her there. The following morning, Tsering Tso’s body was found hanging from a small bridge in the town. Although police say an autopsy listed the cause of death as suicide, residents are deeply skeptical. Some reported seeing bruises on her body and said that a doctor’s report had noted a wound on her head as well as a broken neck. They also said her clothes looked as though they had been put on after her death. The lama, who had a reputation as a womanizer, has since disappeared.
In its statement, the Public Security Bureau said the two policemen were on duty at the time of her death and could not have been involved. But villagers insist that the two men were seen drinking with the lama that night and suspect a coverup. Instead of investigating, they say, the police just called in the army.
As they rounded up suspects, security forces raided and ransacked relatives’ homes, “smashing everything and stabbing knives into sacks of rice and butter,” one relative said. “We’ve only seen that kind of brutality before in TV dramas about Japanese invaders.”
The raiders confiscated photos of Tsering Tso — even checking mobile phones. A family member showed scars on his head from a beating that he said left his body drenched in blood. Released weeks later, he was warned by officials not to talk to anyone, but he refuses to be silenced.
He said another relative walks with a limp after being beaten on his legs; a third, a Buddhist monk, was beaten so badly on the head that he bled from one ear and today cannot walk at all. Family members who work for the government lost their jobs.
The police statement merely said that 44 people had been subpoenaed.
Many Tibetans are too scared to speak out publicly against injustice, but the communities around Chalong appear to have gathered to write a remarkable open letter about the incident. The letter, first obtained by Golog Jigme, claims to have been written in the name of 700 residents across 13 communities in the area.
“These days the Chinese Communists are claiming and announcing how they are building a perfect Tibet and how free and happy Tibetans are in China, but now we have no option but to show the world an actual example of the real suffering endured by the people of the three regions of Tibet under Chinese oppression,” the letter begins.
Local officials, the letter continued, had “conspired to use force to bully the common people,” ending with an appeal to President Xi to “investigate and rectify.”
The International Campaign for Tibet said the incident reveals the extent of the impunity of officials and police in Tibet, and the fact that it took so long to reach the outside world shows how tightly information flows are restricted. The organization Free Tibet said it “clearly exemplifies not just the brutality of life under the Chinese occupation but also how arbitrary and illogical it can be.”
Xu Yangjingjing contributed to this report.
Simon Denyer is The Post’s bureau chief in China. He served previously as bureau chief in India and as a Reuters bureau chief in Washington, India and Pakistan.
TIBET AWARENESS – THE HISTORY OF UNREST IN TIBET. Most of the self-immolations and the worst cases of historical repression are in the same spots in the Tibetan provinces near China.
From 1947, both Tibet and India anticipated Trouble in Tibet while the Communists came into Power in mainland China forcing Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists to retreat to Formosa or Taiwan. During 1945 to 1949, Tibet was unwilling to fully embrace the offer of the US Friendship hoping Red China will respect Tibet’s Policy of Isolationism or Neutralism. Trouble in Tibet speaks of the lack of Intelligence capabilities; Tibet’s Trouble describes Tibet’s Intelligence failure; Tibet failed to know the Enemy’s Mind and it was a total Intelligence Disaster. For Tibet failed to provide the necessary Intelligence, the response of India and the United States was inadequate from the beginning of Tibet’s Trouble.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
The beginning of the Cold War in Asia in 1949 with the Communist takeover of mainland China.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
A WRITER’S QUEST TO UNEARTH THE ROOTS OF TIBET’S UNREST
SINOSPHERE
By LUO SILING AUG. 14, 2016
Tibet Awareness – The History of Tibet’s Unrest
On March 10, 1959, several thousand Tibetans, fearing that the Chinese might abduct the Dalai Lama, gathered at the Norbulingka summer palace to protect the Tibetan spiritual leader. Credit The Office of Tibet, Washington, D.C.
Generations of Chinese have been taught that the Tibetan people are grateful to China for having liberated them from feudalism and serfdom, and yet Tibetan protests, including self-immolations, continue to erupt against Chinese rule. In ‘TIBET IN AGONY: LHASA 1959’,to be published in October by Harvard University Press, the Chinese-born writer Jianglin Li explores the roots of Tibetan unrest in China’s occupation of Tibet in the 1950s, culminating in March 1959 with the Peoples Liberation Army’s shelling of Lhasa and the Dalai Lama’s flight to India. In an interview, she shared her findings.
You’ve drawn parallels between the killings in Lhasa in 1959 and the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing.
China was better able to cover up its actions in Lhasa in 1959, before the advent of instantaneous global media coverage, but the two have much in common. In both, the Chinese Communists used military might to crush popular uprisings, and both involved egregious massacres of civilians. But for Tibetans, what sets the Lhasa massacre apart is their bitter sense of China as a foreign occupying power. The Tibetans were subjugated by force, and they are still protesting today.
What happened in 1959?
The crisis began on the morning of March 10, when thousands of Tibetans rallied around the Dalai Lama’s Norbulingka palace to prevent him from leaving. He had accepted an invitation to a theatrical performance at the People’s Liberation Army headquarters, but rumors that the Chinese were planning to abduct him set off general panic. Even after he canceled his excursion to mollify the demonstrators, they refused to leave and insisted on staying to guard his palace. The demonstrations included a strong outcry against Chinese rule, and China promptly labeled them an armed insurrection, warranting military action. About a week after the turmoil began, the Dalai Lama secretly escaped, and on March 20, Chinese troops began a concerted assault on Lhasa. After taking over the city in a matter of days, inflicting heavy casualties and damaging heritage sites, they moved quickly to consolidate control over all Tibet.
Why did the Dalai Lama flee to India?
Mainly he hoped to prevent a massacre. He thought the crowds around his palace would disperse once he left, robbing the Chinese of a pretext to attack. In fact, not even his departure could have prevented the blood bath that ensued, because Mao Zedong had already mobilized his troops for a final showdown in Tibet.
Jianglin Li Credit Ding Yifu
When the Dalai Lama left, he didn’t plan to go as far as India. He hoped to return to Lhasa after negotiating peace with the Chinese from the safety of the Tibetan hinterlands. But once he heard about the destruction in Lhasa several days into his journey he realized that plan was no longer feasible.
Why were the Tibetans afraid the Chinese would abduct the Dalai Lama?
For Tibetans, he is a sacred being, to be protected at all costs. He had traveled to Beijing to meet Mao in 1954 without setting off mass protests. By 1959, however, tensions had risen, and Tibetans had reason to fear the Chinese theater invitation might be a trap.
The trouble actually started in the Tibetan regions of nearby Chinese provinces Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu, home to about 60 percent of the Tibetan population. When the Chinese Communists forced collectivization on these Tibetan nomads and farmers in the latter half of the 1950s, the results were catastrophic. Riots and rebellions spread like wildfire. The Communists responded with military force, and there were terrible massacres. Refugees streamed into Tibet, bringing their horror stories into Lhasa.
Some of the most frightening reports had to do with the disappearances of Tibetan leaders in Sichuan and Qinghai. It was party policy to try to pre-empt Tibetan rebellion by luring prominent Tibetans from their communities with invitations to banquets, shows or study classes from which many never returned. People in Lhasa thought the Dalai Lama could be next.
You’ve documented the massacres of Tibetans in the Chinese provinces in the late 1950s.
In 2012, I drove across Qinghai to a remote place an elderly Tibetan refugee in India had told me about: a ravine where a flood one year brought down a torrent of skeletons, clogging the Yellow River. From his description, I identified the location as Drongthil Gully, in the mountains of Tsolho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. I had read in Chinese sources about major campaigns against Tibetans in that area in 1958 and 1959. About 10,000 Tibetans, entire families with their livestock had fled to the hills there to escape the Chinese. At Drongthil Gully, the Chinese deployed six ground regiments, including infantry, cavalry and artillery, and something the Tibetans had never heard of: aircraft with 100-kilogram bombs. The few Tibetans who were armed, the head of a nomad household normally carried a gun to protect his herds shot back, but they were no match for the Chinese, who recorded that more than 8,000 rebel bandits were annihilated, killed, wounded or captured in these campaigns.
I wondered about the skeletons until I saw the place for myself, and then it seemed entirely plausible. The river at the bottom of the ravine there flows into a relatively narrow section of the Yellow River. In desolate areas like this, Chinese troops were known to withdraw after a victory, leaving the ground littered with corpses.
Tibet Awareness – The History of Tibet’s Unrest.Credit Harvard University Press
The Tibetans in Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai were already under nominal Chinese administration when the Communists took over in 1949. How was Tibet annexed?
It was Mao’s goal from the moment he came to power. Tibet is strategically located, he said in January 1950, and we must occupy it and transform it into a people’s democracy.
He started by sending troops to invade Tibet at Chamdo in October 1950, forcing the Tibetans to sign the 17-Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, which ceded Tibetan sovereignty to China. Next, the People’s Liberation Army marched into Lhasa in 1951, at the same time in disregard of the Chinese promise in the agreement to leave the Tibetan sociopolitical system intact smuggling an underground Communist Party cell into the city to build a party presence in Tibet.
Meanwhile, Mao was preparing his military and awaiting the right moment to strike. Our time has come, he declared in March 1959, seizing on the demonstrations in Lhasa. After conquering the city, China dissolved the Tibetan government and under the slogan of simultaneous battle and reform imposed the full Communist program throughout Tibet, culminating in the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region in 1965.
How did Mao prepare his military for Tibet?
Mao welcomed the campaigns to suppress minority uprisings within China’s borders as practice for war in Tibet. There were new weapons for his troops to master, to say nothing of the unfamiliar challenges of battle on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.
The new weapons included 10 Tupolev TU-4 bombers, which Stalin gave Mao in 1953. Mao tested them in airstrikes at three Tibetan monasteries in Sichuan, starting with Jamchen Choekhor Ling, in Lithang. On March 29, 1956, while thousands of Chinese troops fought Tibetans at the monastery, two of the new planes were deployed. The Tibetans saw giant birds approach and drop some strange objects, but they had no word for airplane, or for bomb. According to Chinese records, more than 2,000 Tibetans were annihilated in the battle, including civilians who had sought refuge in the monastery.
Tibet Awareness – The History of Tibet’s Unrest. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama met with Chairman Mao Zedong in 1954. Tibet failed to Know its Enemy. Intelligence Disaster.
The Dalai Lama meeting with Mao Zedong in Peking on Oct. 13, 1954. Credit Associated Press
Mao used his most seasoned troops in Tibet. Gen. Ding Sheng and his 54th Army, veterans of the Korean War, had gained experience suppressing minority uprisings in Qinghai and Gansu in 1958 before heading to Tibet in 1959.
How often was the Chinese military used against Tibetans, and how many Tibetan casualties were there?
We don’t have an exact tally of military encounters, since many went unrecorded. My best estimate based on official Chinese materials, public and classified, is about 15,000 in all Tibetan regions between 1956 and 1962.
Precise casualty figures are hard to come by, but according to a classified Chinese military document I found in a Hong Kong library, more than 456,000 Tibetans were annihilated from 1956 to 1962.
How does this history relate to recent Tibetan self-immolations?
I think they are a direct consequence. I’ve compared a map of the self-immolations with my map of Chinese crackdowns on Tibetans between 1956 and 1962, and there’s a striking correlation. Most of the self-immolations and the worst cases of historical repression are in the same spots in the Tibetan provinces near China.
How did you get interested in this?
Like everyone in China, I was raised on the party line. I never thought to question it until I came to the U.S. for graduate study in 1988 and discovered how differently people here think of Tibet.
Since 2007, I’ve been making annual research trips to Asia, where I have recorded interviews with hundreds of Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal, including the Dalai Lama and his brother. In 2012, I explored Tibetan historical sites in Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan and interviewed people there. I crosscheck what I learn in the field with written data: official annals of the Tibetan regions, Chinese documents, and Tibetan and Chinese memoirs.
How has the Chinese government responded to your work?
The only official response to my books has been to ban them, but I’ve been denied a visa since my trip to sensitive Tibetan regions in 2012. This has been painful because my 84-year-old mother still lives in China.
Insight, analysis and conversation about Chinese culture, media and politics.
FILE – In this May 2, 1949 file photo, a column of Chinese Communist light tanks enter the streets of Peking, which are filled with people watching the conquerors pass. In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists lost the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong’s Communists and retreat from the Chinese mainland to the island of Taiwan. The Republic of China, however, retained China’s Security Council seat with the key backing of the U.S. in order to restrain Mao’s ally, the Soviet Union, as the Cold War unfolds. (AP Photo, File)TIBET AWARENESS – THE HISTORY OF TIBET’S UNREST. LHASA, MARCH 10, 1959.TIBET AWARENESS – THE HISTORY OF TIBET’S UNREST. POTALA PALACE, LHASA, TIBET.TIBET AWARENESS – HISTORY OF TIBET’S UNREST – TIBETAN NATIONAL UPRISING DAY, MARCH 10, 1959.Most of the self-immolations and the worst cases of historical repression are in the same spots in the Tibetan provinces near China.Tibet Awareness – History of Tibet’s Unrest. Most of the self-immolations and the worst cases of historical repression are in the same spots in the Tibetan provinces near China.Most of the self-immolations and the worst cases of historical repression are in the same spots in the Tibetan provinces near China.Most of the self-immolations and the worst cases of historical repression are in the same spots in the Tibetan provinces near China.
TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET. THE GREAT TIBET PROBLEM WILL EXIST UNTIL BALANCE OF POWER IS RESTORED IN OCCUPIED TIBET.
Trouble in Tibet as Future of Tibet Hangs in the Balance. Tibetans enjoyed natural sense of Independence for several centuries which includes extended periods of foreign conquests by Mongol China and Manchu China. As Dalai Lama admits the need for ‘Skepticism’, Tibetans have become highly skeptical as Future of Tibet got intertwined with the vexing problem of Red China’s oppressive regime. I predict the sudden, catastrophic downfall of the mighty Chinese Empire any time before or after the Dalai Lama.
Whole Future – The Future of Tibet hangs in the balance. I predict the sudden, catastrophic downfall of the mighty Chinese Empire any time before or after the Dalai Lama.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET. THE GREAT TIBET PROBLEM WILL EXIST UNTIL BALANCE OF POWER IS RESTORED IN OCCUPIED TIBET.
WWW.SLTRIB.COM JUN 24, 2016
More from the Dalai Lama on the afterlife, science, China and Tibet’s future
Peggy Fletcher Stack First Published Jun 22 2016 09:51AM • Last Updated Jun 22 2016 12:14 pm
THE FUTURE OF RED CHINA WITHOUT DALAI LAMA. I PREDICT SUDDEN CATASTROPHIC DOWNFALL OF THE EVIL RED EMPIRE AFTER DALAI LAMA WITH OR WITHOUT HIS REINCARNATION.
(The Dalai Lama waves goodbye to the crowd after speaking at the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. (Chris Detrick/The Salt Lake Tribune) via AP)
The Dalai Lama captivated thousands of Utahns this week with his speech Tuesday at the Huntsman Center, emphasizing the power of individuals in bringing about change and pointing out that actions, more than prayer, can lead to global peace.
But the Tibetan Buddhist leader touched on many more topics — from the afterlife to Chinese relations and the value of science — during a question-and-answer session. Here are some of his responses:
• What does he say about the afterlife to a man whose father committed suicide?
“That is sufficient reason to feel sad, but then think that sadness will not bring your father back,” he said. “Now you should work hard and make an effort to fulfill your late father’s wish, and somehow he will know of your condition.”
• What happens after death?
That, he said, is “a more complicated question.” In some Indian traditions, including Hinduism and Buddhism, there is no central authority as creator, “just self-creation,” he said. “Actions bring positive or negative results or karma. … Basically the life continues, no beginning or end until people reach nirvana,” akin to enlightenment, and escape from the cycle.
• What is the most effective approach to climate change?
“I don’t know,” he said. “Ask some specialist.”
• What role does scientific education play in universal responsibility?
“I especially like scientific research that involves the brain,” he said. ” … Such research is now showing interest in the nature of compassion — love — based on the oneness of the individual … and how anger and fear destroy the mind and the physical health.”
The Dalai Lama said he has had many discussions with scientists who are “neutral and unbiased — so that’s a true scientist — that mental attitude is very necessary to further research or knowledge. … There is no progress without investigation. Your mind must be open. It is also necessary to have skepticism. That brings questions and questions bring an effort to find any answer. … If you are contented, if you feel ‘I know everything,’ then no further progress.” ” … I am nearly 81, but I consider myself still a student,” said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
• Will he ever return to Tibet?
Nine years after the Chinese took over Tibet in 1950, the Dalai Lama fled to India with a small party of his associates. He has lived in exile for more than five decades, he said Tuesday, and most of the people with his group are either dead or too old to travel. “I don’t know if they will see Tibet or not,” he said, “but most of us feel that one day will come when we meet back home.”
China, of course, sees Tibet as part of its sovereign territory and has opposed any move toward independence, which the Dalai Lama also has given up. But the Tibetan leader hopes China will allow the Tibetans to continue their traditions and culture. “I feel for their own [Chinese] future and for society,” he said, “if they don’t change.”
Younger Chinese who travel, study, tour or do business outside the country are more open, he said. “If you have an opportunity to meet them, tell them the reality.” He was, he said, “optimistic.”
Peggy Fletcher Stack
Copyright @ 2016, The Salt Lake Tribune
THE FUTURE OF RED CHINA’S EXPANSIONISM – BEIJING DOOMED.
Communist Expansionism in Asia – Unfinished Korea-Vietnam War
Communist Expansionism in Asia – Unfinished Korea-Vietnam War
Democracy, Freedom, Peace, and Justice in Asia are threatened by Communist Expansionism in Asia. United States tried hard to prevent the spread of Communism to mainland China. Having failed to do so, the United States fought battles in Korea and Vietnam but again failed for Korea and Vietnam are not real enemies posing the threat. The United States has yet to fight a War to evict Communist China from Tibet, the very first victim of the spread of Communism to mainland China. I coined the phrase Unfinished Korea-Vietnam War as the real purpose of this War is to contain Communist Expansionism in Asia.
The problem threatening Peace in Asia cannot be resolved by imposing UN sanctions on North Korea. Communist China’s Expansionism in all directions, including Tibet, and South China Sea must be challenged and contained simultaneously. US cannot win this battle without Knowing the Enemy.
Communist Expansionism in Asia – Unfinished Korea-Vietnam War
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Doom Dooma Doomsayer
Communist Expansionism in Asia – Unfinished Korea-Vietnam War
TO STOP KIM JONG-UN, CHINA NEEDS A BIG PRIZE: THE SOUTH CHINA SEA
Without any doubt, China can stop Kim Jong-Un’s missile tests. Once and for all, and save a lot of trouble for America and its allies—and for Asian market investors.
But to do that, China needs a big prize, the South China Sea. All of it, so Beijing can write its own navigation rules, exploit all the riches that are hidden beneath, and satisfy the nationalistic sentiment it has nurtured.
Communist Expansionism in Asia – Unfinished Korea-Vietnam War Communist Expansionism in Asia – Unfinished Korea-Vietnam War
The Korean Peninsula is far away from the South China Sea. But the on-going crisis in the Korean Peninsula isn’t independent from what’s going on in the South China Sea, as there is a key player behind each conflict: China.
In fact, Kim Jong-Un has emerged as China’s decoy in South China Sea disputes. As the world is fixated on Kim’s nuclear tests and missiles launches, China continues the building of artificial islands in the South China Sea, bullying every neighboring country that dares to challenge its ambitions to dominate the vast waterway. Like threatening the Philippines with all-out war should it enforce an international arbitration ruling, which confirmed that China has no historic title over the waters of the South China Sea.
China also told Vietnam and India to stop searching for oil in the region, or else risk an attack on the oil and gas bases. And it has demanded that Indonesia rescind its decision to rename its maritime region in the southwest part of the South China Sea as the “North Natuna Sea,” asserting its own sovereignty in the area.
But it hasn’t stopped there. It further demanded that America’s close Asian ally, Japan, stay away from its “own” South China Sea.
Meanwhile, bilateral trade between China and North Korea has increased by nearly 20% last year, as Apostolos Pittas, adjunct professor of economics at Long Island University Post notes.
So far, Asian markets have been responding more to the Korean Peninsula crisis, losing a couple of percentage points any time Kim fires a missile and less on China’s South China Sea bullying.
That’s why China has no real intention of taming Kim’s ambitions — unless America and its allies are prepared to let Beijing take control over the entire South China Sea, and step up its bullying tactics.
Are they prepared to pay this big a price?
Red China Expansionism South China SeaCommunist Expansionism in Asia – Unfinished Korea-Vietnam War THE EVIL RED EMPIRE – NUCLEAR EXPANSIONISM – NUCLEAR STRATEGY .Communist Expansionism in Asia – Unfinished Korea-Vietnam War Communist Expansionism in Asia – Unfinished Korea-Vietnam War Communist Expansionism in Asia – Unfinished Korea-Vietnam War red china red alert economic espionageCommunist Expansionism in Asia – Unfinished Korea-Vietnam War People’s Republic of China wants to legalize its military occupation of Tibet and other territories taking full advantage of its military and economic strength.
Bharat Darshan describes the concept of Whole Yoga.
Yoga explores the principle of man’s Unity with God or Supreme Being. Indian tradition suggests that God is present in entire creation and yet God remains detached, unattached, aloof, distant, or separate from creation. Human Existence is evidence for Unity of man with Divine Principle and yet Human Existence is burdensome, worrisome, and troublesome as God chooses to remain separate from entire creation.
Bharat Drashan describes the concept of Whole Yoga
International Yoga Day – The Celebration of Man – Woman – God Unity called Humanity
International Yoga Day – The Celebration of Man – Woman – God Unity called Humanity. International Day of Yoga 2025 celebrated at Rama Krishna Mission Beach, Visakhapatnam (Vizag), Andhra Pradesh, India.International Yoga Day – The Celebration of Man – Woman – God Unity called Humanity. International Day of Yoga 2025 celebrated at Rama Krishna Mission Beach, Visakhapatnam (Vizag), Andhra Pradesh, India.International Yoga Day – The Celebration of Man – Woman – God Unity called Humanity. International Day of Yoga 2025 celebrated at Rama Krishna Mission Beach, Visakhapatnam (Vizag), Andhra Pradesh, India.
The term ‘Yoga’ is related to ‘Yug’ which pertains to time, and Yoking which means pairing, joining, coming together, harnessed to work together, bonding, and union.
International Yoga Day – The Celebration of Man – Woman – God Unity called Humanity The term ‘Yoga’ is related to ‘Yug’ which pertains to time, and Yoking which means pairing, joining, coming together, harnessed to work together, bonding, and union. The harnessing of farm animals makes the burden of Yoke easy.
The term ‘Yoking’ is also attached to Holy Union of Man and Woman in Matrimony, a coming together if mankind has to survive.
International Yoga Day – Celebration of Man-Woman-God Unity called Humanity. Yoga relates to Yoking, a term used to describe the Yoke of Marriage.
International Yoga Day is observed on June 21 and it emphasizes importance of seeking harmony, and physical well-being through actions that bring body, mind, and soul to work together.
International Yoga Day – The Celebration of Man – Woman – God Unity called Humanity The term ‘Yoga’ is related to ‘Yug’ which pertains to time, and Yoking which means pairing, joining, coming together, harnessed to work together, bonding, and union. The harnessing of farm animals makes the burden of Yoke easy.International Yoga Day – The Celebration of Man – Woman – God Unity called Humanity The term ‘Yoga’ is related to ‘Yug’ which pertains to time, and Yoking which means pairing, joining, coming together, harnessed to work together, bonding, and union. The harnessing of farm animals makes the burden of Yoke easy. The Declaration of International Day of Yoga shows the popularity of the physical practices associated with the Theory of Yoga.
The UN General Assembly declared June 21 as International Yoga Day. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his maiden address to the UN General Assembly on September 27, 2014, asked the world leaders to adopt June 21 as Yoga Day. He stated that Yoga provides a holistic approach to health and well-being; a holistic way of life that brings harmony between man and nature and promotes simpler lifestyles. Prime Minister Modi has expressed the hope that by changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness, Yoga can help us deal with Climate Change.
International Yoga Day – The Celebration of Man – Woman – God Unity called Humanity The term ‘Yoga’ is related to ‘Yug’ which pertains to time, and Yoking which means pairing, joining, coming together, harnessed to work together, bonding, and union. The harnessing of farm animals makes the burden of Yoke easy. The Declaration of International Day of Yoga shows the popularity of the physical practices associated with the Theory of Yoga. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi practices Yoga and finds it useful in his personal life and well-being.
The phenomenon called ‘Humanity’ is the evidence of Divine Providence sustaining Life on Earth as individual human beings arrive and depart experiencing Peace, Harmony, and Tranquility in their living condition.
What is Yoga?
What is Yoga? Yoga is often associated with spiritual practices such as Meditation, “Dhyan” (Internal Reflection and Mental Concentration), Bhakti or Devotion, and a system of postures that includes controlled breathing. In the Indian tradition, Lord Shiva is often depicted in images as a practitioner of Yoga
Yoga is a general term for spiritual practices, and spiritual discipline followed for centuries by devotees of both Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism to attain “Higher Consciousness,” liberation from ignorance, release from suffering, and Freedom from Rebirth. It is also one of the six orthodox systems of Indian Philosophy. Patanjali (2nd Century B.C.,) expounded the Theory and the Practice of Yoga called “Raja Yoga” (Royal Yoga). He stated Yoga Sutras or aphorisms and divided the practice of Yoga into eight stages.
The School of Indian Thought called Yoga was expounded by Patanjali who described the Yoga Sutras and the Eightfold Path to “Samadhi” or identification of Individual Consciousness with the Godhead.
Patanjali considered “Samadhi” as the highest stage of Yoga practice in which the Yogi, the practitioner of Yoga finds identification of the individual “Consciousness” with the Ultimate Godhead, or the Absolute Reality (often called Brahman). Hindu tradition recognizes three main types of Yoga; Jnana Yoga, the path of wisdom and discrimination, Bhakti Yoga, the path of Love and Devotion to a personal, or impersonal God, or both, and Karma Yoga, the path of selfless or unattached action. Hatha Yoga emphasizes physical control, holding body in systematized postures, and the practice of controlled breathing. In Jainism and Buddhism, the emphasis may involve withdrawing from the world, mental concentration without allowing the mind to get distracted by extraneous things. In Indian traditions, the highest meditative state is called “Nirvikalpa Samadhi,” content less trance that constitutes Liberation or “Nirvana.”
In Buddhism, Yoga is a tool to attain perfect wisdom, overcoming ignorance by emptying the contents of the mind that permits reaching the State of Pure Consciousness in which Man has no desires.
While Yoga may explain the highest aim or purpose in “Life” for most Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains, certain physical practices have found their acceptance in the West without any concern for the religious doctrine or the philosophical basis. Even in the Indian tradition, the practice called “Japa Yoga” which involves the repetition of certain sounds with mystic power or “Mantras” is concerned about providing relief to man while coping with “Stress”, the physical, and mental challenges posed by day-to-day existence in a world where threats to existence come from several known and unknown directions.
The Indian Tradition of Japa Yoga involves the repetition of certain sounds, words with mystic powers called Mantras. For example, the above Hare Krishna Maha Mantra is composed of Sixteen Words and the mere chanting of these Words may destroy the evil or polluting effects of the present Time Cycle called “Kali Yuga” which is associated or joined with the experience of Stress.
The word ‘Yoga’ is related to the Sanskrit word ‘Yuga’ which symbolizes union, or association of entities or events. It may be noted that the problem of human existence is always connected to the Time and the Place of man’s existence. In the Indian tradition, the events in one’s life are conditioned by the Cyclical Flow of Time, and the Time Cycles have designated names called “Yuga.” The term ‘Yoga’ is variously used in Indian tradition to describe the ‘Yoke’ which is often seen as a mark or symbol of bondage. ‘Yoke’ is commonly used all over the ancient world where the agricultural practices are similar.
What is Yoga? Yoga is related to the Sanskrit Word “Yuga” and it describes the nature of human condition which is influenced by the powerful effects of Time and the need for easing the burden of existence. This principle is often applied in the agricultural fields where the practice of Yoking involves bringing together a pair of Oxen to work together to reduce the burden of their work
Yoke (Hebrew. motah, an oxbow, a yoke, tsemedh, yoke of oxen; Greek. zeugos, a team and Zygos, yoke) in the literal sense, is a bar of wood so constructed as to unite two animals, usually oxen, enabling them to work in the fields, drawing loads and pulling the plow. For these two chief functions yoke was commonly used all over the ancient world.
What is Yoga? The connection between Yoga and Yoke must be properly interpreted. Yoking is about pairing, something that binds, unites, or connects, or joins together. Apart from a pair of animals harnessed together to perform physical tasks that impose a heavy burden (if the work is performed without the pairing); Yoking is about sharing the Burdens of Life. The Yoke of Matrimony helps the pair, the Man and the Woman who are united to share the burden of raising their own children.
The Yoke imposes a burden of its own and can be seen as a sign of bondage and servitude. At the same time, the Yoke provides some relief to the entities that are paired or joined together while they are subject to bondage and servitude for there is sharing of the burden. Man’s existence in the world imposes a burden for man has to constantly find an external source of energy to support his living functions. This burden of ‘Life’ is eased for man is paired with Providence, the term that describes God’s Compassion, Mercy, and Grace. Man is never alone in the toils of his ‘Life.’ I use the term “Spiritual” to describe the nature of a relationship, a partnership, a pairing, “Yoking”, an association, a connection, or bonding between two, or more living entities to find Peace, Harmony, and Tranquility in their living experience. For man’s existence is conditioned and is constantly threatened by both internal, and external challenges from known and unknown directions, man has to find comfort and solace by pairing with the Divine Providence.
Spirituality is about finding Peace, Harmony, and Tranquility in the Living, Human Condition challenged by burdens, worry, anxiety, hopelessness, and misery. The spiritual practice called Yoga will give Peace, Harmony, and Tranquility if Man is Yoked with the Son of Man for His Yoke is Easy and the Burden is Light.
If spirituality is about finding Peace, Harmony, and Tranquility in the living, human condition, the spiritual practice called ‘Yoga’ demands the “Yoking” of man with Son of Man. In The New Testament Book, The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, Chapter 11, verses 28 to 30 describe the ‘Yoga’ prescribed by Jesus Christ: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew, Chapter 11, verses 28 to 30 describe the ‘Yoga’ prescribed by Jesus Christ: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
If spirituality is about finding Peace, Harmony, and Tranquility in the living, human condition, the spiritual practice called ‘Yoga’ demands the “YOKING” of man with “The Good Shepherd.” In The New Testament Book of Bible, The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, Chapter 11, verses 28 to 30 describe the ‘YOGA’ prescribed by Jesus Christ: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Yoga explores the principle of man’s Unity with God or Supreme Being. Indian tradition suggests that God is present in entire creation and yet God remains detached, unattached, aloof, distant, or separate from creation. Human Existence is evidence for Unity of man with Divine Principle and yet Human Existence is burdensome, worrisome, and troublesome as God chooses to remain separate from entire creation.
Millions stretch and bend as Indian PM Modi leads International Yoga Day exercises
21st June 2016 | AFP
In this photograph released by the Indian Press Information Bureau (PIB) on June 21, 2016, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes part in a yoga demonstration at the Capitol Complex in Chandigarh. AFP PHOTO / PIB –
CHANDIGARGH: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called yoga a “people’s mass movement” as he took to the mat Tuesday along with millions of others worldwide to celebrate the ancient practice.
Across India, sailors, soldiers, school children and bureaucrats bent and twisted their bodies from early morning at mass outdoor sessions to mark the second International Yoga Day.
Sessions were also held around the world including at the Sydney Opera House where colorful mats were spread outside the Australian landmark, while Afghans and foreigners gathered at the Indian embassy in Kabul.
Yoga-loving Modi, dressed in a white track suit, led more than 30,000 people in the northern city of Chandigarh for a mass session where they performed poses and breathing exercises at the outdoor Capitol Complex.
“Do not wait, make yoga a part of your life,” Modi urged in a brief speech to mark the event, an idea he successfully asked the United Nations to adopt. “This is a day linked with good health and now it has become a people’s mass movement,” the 65-year-old premier said.
Modi took a short break to inspect the poses of his fellow yogis, who included students and soldiers, before returning to his spot.
His ministers were also dispatched to cities around India to stretch and bend along school children, while the navy tweeted photos of sailors on mats spread atop an aircraft carrier.
Modi, who credits yoga for his ability to work long hours on little sleep, has been spearheading an initiative to reclaim the practice as a historic part of Indian culture after his Hindu nationalist government came to power in 2014.
Indian scholars believe yoga dates back 5,000 years, based on archaeological evidence of poses found inscribed on stones and references to Yogic teachings in the ancient Hindu scriptures of the Vedas.
Modi, who has established a government ministry charged with promoting yoga, last year led around 35,000 people in New Delhi in an outdoor session to mark the first World Yoga Day.
Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh, center in middle row, performs yoga with others at an event to celebrate International Yoga Day in Lucknow, India, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Millions of yoga enthusiasts are bending their bodies in complex postures across India as they take part in a mass yoga program to mark the second International Yoga Day. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Yoga guru Vachanaananda (2R) conducts a laughter session with Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah (R), Union Minister for Fertilizer Ananth Kumar (2L), and Bollywood actress Bipasha Basu (C) at a yoga session to mark International Yoga Day in Bangalore on June 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / Manjunath Kiran
This photo taken on June 20, 2016 shows Chinese enthusiasts practicing yoga at a glass sightseeing platform in Shilinxia scenic area in Beijing. June 21 marks the International Yoga Day. / AFP PHOTO / STR / China OUT
Sydneysiders engage in a yoga event in front of the Australia’s iconic landmark Opera House in Sydney on June 21, 2016. Hundreds of Yoga lovers gathered at Opera House to mark the International Yoga Day. / AFP PHOTO / Wendell Teodoro
Indian Yoga practitioners pose in front of a floral arrangement after taking part in a morning yoga session to mark International Yoga Day in Lodhi Gardens in New Delhi on June 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / ROBERTO SCHMIDT
Kashmiri students perform yoga at an event to celebrate International Yoga Day in Srinagar, India, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Millions of yoga enthusiasts are bending their bodies in complex postures across India as they take part in a mass yoga program to mark the second International Yoga Day. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)
Nepali yoga practitioners take part in a yoga session to mark International Yoga Day in Kathmandu on June 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / PRAKASH MATHEMA
In this photograph released by the Indian Press Information Bureau (PIB) on June 21, 2016, Indian Armed Forces personnel take part in a yoga session to mark International Yoga Day on the Indian Navy aircraft carrier INS Viraat in Mumbai.
Indian army personnel take part in a yoga session on International Yoga Day at Khasa on the outskirts of Amritsar on June 21, 2016. Yoga, which means union in Sanskrit, is a family of ancient spiritual practices and also a school of spiritual thought from the South East Asian continent, where it remains a vibrant living tradition and is seen as a means of enlightenment. / AFP PHOTO / NARINDER NANU
Indian Yoga practitioner Goverdhan, sits in front of a monument as he practices yoga in Lodhi Gardens in New Delhi on June 21, 2016, on International Yoga Day. A large group of yoga practitioners gathered at the park to mark International Yoga Day but Goverdhan sat away from the group and completed the same morning ritual he has done for the past 14 years since moving to a colony near the park. / AFP PHOTO / ROBERTO SCHMIDT
Indian yoga practitioners take part in a session during heavy rains on International Yoga Day in Jammu on June 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO /
In this photograph released by the Indian Press Information Bureau (PIB) on June 21, 2016, Indian Armed Forces personnel take part in a yoga session to mark International Yoga Day on the Indian Navy aircraft carrier INS Viraat in Mumbai.
Indian army personnel take part in a yoga session on International Yoga Day at Khasa on the outskirts of Amritsar on June 21, 2016. Yoga, which means union in Sanskrit, is a family of ancient spiritual practices and a school of spiritual thought from the South East Asian continent, where it remains a vibrant living tradition and is seen as a means of enlightenment. / AFP PHOTO / NARINDER NANU
Indian yoga practitioners participate in a mass yoga session to mark the International Yoga Day at Capitol complex in Chandigarh on June 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / PRAKASH SINGH
Participants perform yoga during World Yoga Day in Srinagar June 21, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Ismail
A student performs yoga during World Yoga Day in Srinagar, India June 21, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Ismail
Participants perform yoga during World Yoga Day in Ahmedabad, India, June 21, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave
A participant performs yoga during World Yoga Day on a seafront promenade in Mumbai, India, June 21, 2016. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade
Participants perform yoga during World Yoga Day in Ahmedabad, India, June 21, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave
In this photograph released by the Indian Press Information Bureau (PIB) on June 21, 2016, Indian Armed Forces personnel take part in a yoga session to mark International Yoga Day on the Indian Navy aircraft carrier INS Viraat in Mumbai.
Participants perform yoga during World Yoga Day on a seafront promenade in Mumbai, India, June 21, 2016. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade
Indian army personnel take part in a yoga session on International Yoga Day at Khasa on the outskirts of Amritsar on June 21, 2016. Yoga, which means union in Sanskrit, is a family of ancient spiritual practices and a school of spiritual thought from the South East Asian continent, where it remains a vibrant living tradition and is seen as a means of enlightenment. / AFP PHOTO / NARINDER NANU
Indian Yoga practitioners participate in a morning yoga session in Lodhi Gardens in New Delhi on June 21, 2016, on International Yoga Day. / AFP PHOTO / ROBERTO SCHMIDT
Indian Army soldiers participate in a yoga demonstration on International Yoga Day in Chennai on June 21, 2016. Yoga, which means union in Sanskrit, is a family of ancient spiritual practices and a school of spiritual thought from the South East Asian continent, where it remains a vibrant living tradition and is seen as a means of enlightenment. / AFP PHOTO / ARUN SANKAR
An Indian Yoga practitioner sits away from others as she participates in a morning yoga session to mark International Yoga Day in Lodhi Gardens in New Delhi on June 21, 2016 / AFP PHOTO / ROBERTO SCHMIDTAn Indian Yoga instructor takes photographs as others participate in a morning yoga session to mark International Yoga Day in Lodhi Gardens in New Delhi on June 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / ROBERTO SCHMIDT
Whole Dude - Whole Concept 