WholeDude

Whole Tyrant – Red China strangles Human Rights at Home and Abroad

COMMUNIST CHINA STRANGLES HUMAN RIGHTS AT HOME AND ABROAD

**Whole Tyrant – Red China strangles Human Rights at Home and Abroad**

The spread of Communism to mainland China compromised prospects of Freedom, Democracy, Peace, and Human Rights both inside China and in her occupied territories of Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and East Turkestan.

CHINA’S MANIPULATION OF UN HUMAN RIGHTS EFFORTS MUST BE STOPPED

Clipped from: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/09/12/chinas-campaign-to-smother-human-rights-efforts-at-un-needs-to-be-stopped.html

SOPHIE RICHARDSON, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center in Xiamen in southeastern China’s Fujian Province, Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

China’s growing appetite for global power isn’t hard to spot: military muscle-flexing in the South China Sea, the trillion-dollar New Silk Road development initiative, even its proliferation of Confucius Institutes, academic outposts to spread its version of history and politics.

What’s less easy to see is that worsening human rights violations at home are increasingly reflected in Beijing’s diplomatic agenda to undermine human rights protections abroad, including at the United Nations.

The U.N. human rights system exists to protect people whose own governments cannot or will not do that for them. The system has many shortcomings, but even so it is a vital international forum for monitoring nations’ compliance with their human rights obligations, where critical independent voices can be heard and violators at times held accountable—or at least spotlighted.

For activists who work on China human rights issues, this venue is all the more important because the country’s president, Xi Jinping, has steadily strangled domestic options for obtaining justice through the courts and engaging in peaceful dissent.

Chinese authorities have prevented mainland activists from reaching the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva and harassed them at U.N. headquarters in New York. Chinese officials in Geneva have even threatened foreign diplomats and UN. human rights experts who support scrutiny of Beijing’s record.

As a new Human Rights Watch report exposes, President Xi’s government is working hard to weaken these U.N. mechanisms. Chinese authorities have prevented mainland activists from reaching the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva and harassed them at U.N. headquarters in New York. Chinese officials in Geneva have even threatened foreign diplomats and U.N. human rights experts who support scrutiny of Beijing’s record.

Reflecting its hostility to human rights monitoring generally, China has also blocked U.N. resolutions supporting human rights defenders globally—thus undermining protections for rights groups who do not even work on China.

Beijing is also trying to manipulate U.N. mechanisms to impose its political views on others. China—along with other countries hostile to human rights—sits on the U.N. committee that grants civil society groups accreditation needed to participate in U.N. meetings. Applicants have been told that getting approval means deleting from their organizations’ materials any reference to 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. Any references to Taiwan or Tibet must reflect Beijing’s view that those territories are part of China.

China has jailed activists who wanted to participate in U.N. activities, and even blocked a commemoration of one who died trying to do so.

In September 2013, Chinese authorities detained Cao Shunli, a Beijing-based activist, prior to boarding a flight for Geneva, where she was going to participate in China-related U.N. training sessions. While in detention Cao fell critically ill, but the authorities denied her adequate medical care. She died in March 2014.

At the next session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, nongovernmental organizations sought to hold a moment of silence in her honor, but China coolly and cruelly succeeded in getting enough other Council members—including Cuba, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela– to prevent the gesture.

U.N. officials have at times rejected Chinese efforts at intimidation and ensured that independent voices are heard. Yet on other occasions they either fail to stand firm—allowing, for example, China to dictate that experts seen as critical of China not sit on key committees—or, worse, are complicit in abuses.

In April 2017, U.N. security officers forced Dolkun Isa, an accredited activist for China’s persecuted Uyghurs, to leave the New York headquarters, where he was participating in a conference on minority rights. When challenged about this incident, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “fully aware of the situation,” but failed to offer any explanation or plan of action to change things.

To be sure, China isn’t the only government that seeks to manipulate the U.N. human rights system for its own benefit. But Beijing’s global power, ambitions, and its status as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council make it a sinister role model for other authoritarian governments.

China’s ability to block human rights initiatives is not absolute. The U.N. remains a high profile venue for countries intent on promoting human rights and for working to hold abusive governments to account. In March 2016, for example, the United States and 11 other countries issued an unprecedented joint statement condemning China’s arrest of human rights activists and attorneys.

Nonetheless, the trend is moving in the wrong direction. As Human Rights Watch’s research has shown, unless the U.N., with help from rights-respecting governments, pushes back by insisting on compliance with established human rights practices, adopting new ones to prevent future abuses, and holding China and other bad-faith players accountable, the integrity of the vulnerable U.N. human rights system—and the people around the world it helps to protect—are at grave risk.

Sophie Richardson is China director at Human Rights Watch. Follow her on Twitter at @SophieHRW.

Whole Consciousness – Tibetan Human Rights

Tibet Consciousness – World Human Rights Day

To celebrate observance of World Human Rights Day on December 10, 2024, I speak about Tibet’s yoking with Red China. This yoking, coming together, or joining of Red China with Tibet speaks of Subjection, Bondage, Servitude, Enslavement, Hardship, Burden, Trouble, Pain, Suffering, Sorrow, and Misery. Tibetans resist this burden imposed upon their Natural Freedom. Tibet is under Control, and Tibet is Subdued under burden imposed by Red China’s Yoke. We need to help Tibet to resist Subservience to Red China.

**TIBET AWARENESS – FULL INDEPENDENCE INEVITABLE. RED CHINA’S POLICY OF RULING TIBET WITH IRON FIST IS DOOMED.**

TIBET POST INTERNATIONAL

Tibet: News WHAT PERCEIVED IN TIBET WAS A SMALL REALITY: GERMAN RIGHTS CHIEF

Saturday, 05 December 2015 20:46 Yeshe Choesang, Tibet Post International

**TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – WORLD HUMAN RIGHTS DAY, DECEMBER 10, 2015. Red China and Germany hold the 13th Human Rights Dialogue in Beijing on November 24, 2015.**

Dharamshala — German Human Rights Commissioner Mr Christoph Straesser who has led a delegation to Tibet, said what his delegation perceived was surely only a small part of reality in Tibet.

Straesser’s comment came after Beijing said China and Germany held “candid” and “in-depth” talks during their 13th Human Rights Dialogue in Beijing.

During an interview with German newspaper Deutsche Welle, Mr Straesser rebuked the Chinese government for showing an ‘incorrect perception of reality’ during his recent visit to China and Tibet as part of the EU-China human rights dialogue.

The Chinese State-Run Media Xinhua reported on November 25 that the dialogue was attended by top officials of the CCP, holding that the “dialogue was candid, comprehensive and deep and promoted mutual understanding.”

“Both sides exchanged views on new progress and cooperation in human rights area, human rights and environmental protection, social integration and human rights and other issues,” it claimed.

However, responding to a question on the freedom of religion and language in Tibet, Straesser said: “What we perceived was surely only a small part of reality in this region.”

“But given the decades-long discussions held in Germany, there is also the impression that Dalai Lama supporters aren’t allowed to freely practice their religion given that the Dalai Lama is seen in China as someone who is allegedly seeking state autonomy for Tibet.”
“His supporters are in constant danger of having their rights infringed because of their affiliation. This also leads to more arrests and very unpleasant situations for these people,” he added.

Describing the current situation in Tibet as a clear violation of the right to religious freedom, he said, ” However, we must take into account that only through persistent dialogue can we achieve that the Chinese government views the Dalai Lama as someone who is not seeking to divide the country.”

“We also have to point to the fact that the Dalai Lama is also seen in our region – when he comes to Germany – as a religious leader and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who says he has no intention whatsoever of disentangling Tibet from the People’s Republic of China,” he said.

The German Human Rights Commissioner also discussed the issue of political prisoners and other Chinese dissidents including the case of Gao Yu, an outspoken former journalist who was granted medical parole after she was sentenced to seven years in prison in April 2015.

The Germany delegation paid a visit to Tibet. Beijing said it “hopes the tour will help the German side get a correct and objective understanding of the region.”

Last Updated ( Saturday, 05 December 2015 21:10 )

COPYRIGHT©2013TPINEWS. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, all materials on these pages are copyrighted
by The Tibet Post International.

TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – TIBET CLIMATE ACTION. DEMANDING FREEDOM, PEACE, AND JUSTICE FOR TIBET.

**Tibet Consciousness- World Human Rights Day, December 10, 2015.**

**Tibet Consciousness – Human Rights Day, December 10, 2015.**

Whole Awareness – Tibetan Human Rights

Tibet Awareness on World Human Rights Day

Whole Right – Old Age Monthly Retirement Income Benefit is a Human Right

OLD AGE MONTHLY RETIREMENT INCOME BENEFIT IS A HUMAN RIGHT

At the Headquarters Establishment No. 22 also known as Special Frontier Force, I served to defend the Human Rights of men who are neither citizens nor refugees of the United States which employed us. For that reason, I examine the Human Rights of workers who work in the United States without being citizens or refugees.

The most important characteristic of Labor is that it consumes time while the man performing Labor experiences the relentless aging process without any concern for his nationality status. Providing income security in Old Age is a humanitarian concern for it defends the human dignity of all people who suffer from the inevitable consequences of the eternal Law of Aging.

Having served the US exposing my life to extreme risk of premature death, I must expose ‘The Clinton Curse’ that endangers the lives of all the US residents irrespective of their Nationality Status.

President Bill Clinton’s Slavery Mandate of 1996 constitutes disobedience of LORD’s Commandment to choose Life and to avoid the danger of eternal Death.

SENIOR ALIEN IN US GULAG VS SENIOR IN OCCUPIED TIBET

Undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars in federal taxes each year

Clipped from: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/taxes/undocumented-immigrants-pay-billions-of-dollars-in-federal-taxes-each-year/ar-AAvQsR4?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=BHEA000

One of the biggest misconceptions about undocumented immigrants is that they don’t pay any taxes. In his first address to Congress, President Trump set the tone for his coming immigration agenda when he said immigration costs US taxpayers “billions of dollars a year.”

A 2017 Gallup poll that asked survey respondents “whether immigrants to the United States are making the [tax] situation in the country better or worse” found that 41 percent said, “worse,” while only 23 percent said “better” (33 percent said they had “no effect”).

The reality is far different. Immigrants who are authorized to work in the United States pay the same taxes as US citizens. And, contrary to the persistent myth, undocumented immigrants do in fact pay taxes too. Millions of undocumented immigrants file tax returns each year, and they are paying taxes for benefits they can’t even use.

The best estimates come from research by the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington, DC, think tank, which suggests that about half of undocumented workers in the United States file income tax returns. The most recent IRS data, from 2015, shows that the agency received 4.4 million income tax returns from workers who don’t have Social Security numbers, which includes a large number of undocumented immigrants. That year, they paid $23.6 billion in income taxes.

· Those undocumented workers paid taxes for benefits they can’t even use, like Social Security and Medicare. They also aren’t eligible for benefits like the earned income tax credit. But the IRS still expects unauthorized immigrants to file their taxes, and many of them do so.

Filing taxes helps immigrants create a paper trail to show when they entered the country and how long they’ve been contributing tax dollars. Many are hoping it will help them get legal status one day. That has happened in past reform efforts, and one of the first requirements is usually to prove that a person has been paying taxes. That was the case for the undocumented youth granted temporary work permits under President Obama’s deportation relief program, known as DACA.

· So, despite all the political rhetoric, undocumented immigrants are not a drain or burden on the government.

How unauthorized immigrants pay their taxes

In April 2017, I visited Casa de Maryland in Rockville, Maryland, which hosts two federally subsidized centers where low-income workers can file their taxes for free. That year, they had helped about 200 undocumented immigrants file their taxes, and many were waiting in line with their paperwork when I stopped by.

I watched tax preparer Earvin Gonzalez go through the process of helping undocumented immigrants file their taxes. Maria, whose last name is being withheld because of her immigration status, handed him a folder with tax documents from two jobs. Her W-2 showed that a housecleaning company paid her $17,288 in 2015.

As Gonzalez filled out her information in a computer software program, a green box popped up on the computer screen: “Taxpayer’s Social Security number is not valid.”

· That wasn’t a surprise. The 36-year-old woman from El Salvador is undocumented, and she told me that she made up the Social Security number on the W-2 form because she doesn’t have one. Her employer never asked for identification to verify it, she says. Instead, she has an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), created by the IRS in 1996 so people who aren’t allowed to work in the United States could still file taxes on any income they earned. (The IRS does not share ITIN information with immigration authorities.)

Maria said she applied for an ITIN number shortly after arriving illegally in the United States from El Salvador in 2009. People told her that having a record of paying taxes would help her with her case to gain legal status if immigration reform happened.

Comprehensive immigration reform failed in Congress, but Maria is still paying her taxes every year. “I think it’s important, and all my relatives pay their taxes too,” she told me.

· Last year, her tax documents also included two 1099 forms, for her second job as a contractor.

“What kind of jobs were these?” Gonzalez asked her in Spanish.

“After cleaning houses, I would go lay concrete in parking lots,” she said.

Those two jobs brought in a total of $24,845 last year, and Maria still needed to pay taxes on that income. Gonzalez entered some deductions, such as the $1,500 she spent on equipment to pour and level concrete and the 12,000 miles she drove between job sites. Maria, who is a single mom, claimed two dependents: her 16-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. With her ITIN number, she was able to claim child tax credits, but not the earned income tax credit, the major federal tax credit for low-income working families.

· In the end, Maria owed $1,131 in income taxes to the state of Maryland and $775 to the federal government. She said she had some money saved up because she knew she would have a tax bill at the end of the year from the contracting jobs. But she said she will probably get on a payment plan with the IRS. If Maria had qualified for the earned income tax credit, her tax bill would probably have been about $500 lower.

Unauthorized immigrants boost funding for the Social Security system

It’s true that not all undocumented immigrants pay federal income taxes, because the government has no way to keep track of their under-the-table earnings. The IRS can withhold taxes from those hired with fake Social Security numbers, but workers who get paid in cash could simply choose not to report it, unless they voluntarily file a return with an ITIN number.

Still, all undocumented workers fund public schools and local government services by paying sales and property taxes like everyone else. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that they pay about $11.7 billion a year in state and local taxes.

And workers who get a paycheck, like Maria, still have payroll taxes for Medicare and Social Security withheld from their paycheck, even if they put a fake Social Security number on their W-2 form. The IRS estimates that unauthorized workers pay about $9 billion in payroll taxes annually.

In Maria’s case, the W-2 form showed that she paid $1,072 into Social Security and $251 into Medicare, two social safety net programs she may never benefit from.

A portion of the payroll tax withheld from undocumented immigrants — like all workers — goes to the retirement trust fund at the Social Security Administration. In 2013, the agency reviewed how much money undocumented workers contributed to the retirement trust fund. The number was astonishing: $13 billion in one year.

The chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, Stephen Goss, estimates that about 1.8 million immigrants were working with fake or stolen Social Security cards in 2010, and he expects that number to reach 3.4 million by 2040.

“We estimate that earnings by unauthorized immigrants result in a net positive effect on Social Security financial status generally,” Goss concluded in the 2013 review.

These numbers are a stark contrast to the often repeated rhetoric that undocumented immigrants are a drain on the US economy. Even most Americans seem to think so — in a 2014 Reuters poll, 63 percent of people surveyed said they believe undocumented immigrants burdened the economy.

Emiliano, a 57-year-old undocumented day laborer from Honduras, told me that he knows many people assume he doesn’t pay his taxes. He doesn’t care. He just hopes one day it will help him get legal status.

When I told him the chances don’t look good under the Trump administration, he shrugged.

“You have to have hope in something,” he said.

Whole Memory – The ancient Land of India remembers Lord Gautama Buddha

Timeless Memories of Lord Gautama Buddha

**Whole Memory – The ancient Land of India remembers Lord Gautama Buddha**

The memories of Lord Gautama Buddha are indeed timeless. The Land of India has unfading, undying, everlasting memory of Prince Siddhartha and it is of great pleasure to share those memories.

Sunday, 26 Jul 2015

IN SKARDU, SIDDHARTHA SINGS ON

The rock carving of Buddha in Baltistan serves as a window into the past

By FERYA ILYAS

Published: July 26, 2015

Images of Buddha in his different forms meticulously carved on a rock in Skardu. PHOTO COURTESY: BCDF

Centuries have passed since Buddhists disappeared from Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), but Buddha still watches over the serene town of Skardu from the corner of a cliff. Immortalised in stone, the sage continues to radiate wisdom for those who seek. But sadly, there are none.

Resting at the edge of Manthal village on the left of a stream from Satpara Lake, the granite – known as the Buddha Rock – is pale and smooth. Believed to be carved between 8th and 10th centuries, the relic represents the glory of the past, of a time when men and women meditated in the footsteps of the ‘One Who Woke Up’.

It has the makings of a heritage site – bearing testimony to a tradition which has disappeared. Its significance goes beyond nationalities. Yet, it sits at the border of Manthal village, ignored and forgotten by the world.

The serene and spotless Satpara Lake in Skardu. PHOTO COURTESY: MARYAM TARIQ

It is widely believed in Pakistan that the rock was not known to most until British traveler Jane E Duncan documented it in the early 1900s. “I went to Sadpor in search of the carved rock which Rajah Spindia at Khapallu had told me about; three miles and a half from Skardo, and a few yards off the road to Sadpor, we came to the rock, which proved to be a large and important relic of antiquity,” Duncan wrote in her book ‘A Summer Ride Through Western Tibet’ about the 1904 trip to Skardu.

Wazir Ejaz, CEO of Baltistan Culture and Development Foundation (BCDF), tells us that Duncan―failing to understand the Tibetan inscription on the rock―copied it and sent it to German scholar August Hermann Francke who was working in Ladakh. “Francke deciphered the script in English and published it in Calcutta and the world came to know about this magnificent carving,” Ejaz says.

However, British Tibetologist Philip Denwood, in his 2007 article for Journal of Inner Asian Art & Archaeology 2, said the rock carvings and Tibetan inscriptions were noticed by GT Vigne and reproduced in 1836 and 1838. Denwood further wrote AGA Durand published a photograph of the whole rock in 1899.

Shedding light on the ancient relief, historian Muhammad Abbas Kazmi says the carving and Tibetan inscriptions were made on a 30-foot high and 20-foot wide triangle-shaped rock. “The carving depicts present time Buddha—Siddhārtha Gautama—in the centre, 20 smaller Buddhas of the past around him and future Buddhas – Maitreya – standing on both sides,” Kazmi interprets. He claims that in Buddhist tradition, the ‘Council of all Buddhas’ as represented in the carving is called ‘Mandal’ – a word from which the village’s name is derived.

Tibetan text engraved on Buddha Rock.

All the Buddhas, except the Maitreyas, are shown resting on lotuses in Bhumisparsha position which means ‘touching the earth’ and signifies the moment of enlightenment for Gautama. It is the moment when Buddha, after six years of hardship, decides to sit under a tree and not move until he achieves supreme and final wisdom. He is distracted by Mara, the lord of desire, but to no use. Gautama resisted every temptation and as the final test, Mara challenged Buddha to tell him who would bear witness to his worthiness to attain wisdom. Gautama said nothing and touched the ground beneath him. The earth shook. “The earth is my witness,” Buddha said.

The Tibetan script on the Buddha Rock, though incomplete at many places, instructs the followers of Gautama to take care of this sculpture. “The faithful ones (should) from time to time (make the colours of the sculptures) bright, and clean the place of offering that it may not decay,” says the text, as translated by Franke in the 20th century. Kazmi says only one of the three-part text is visible today but the entire script—with only a few characters missing—was on the rock when Duncan examined it.

In her book, Duncan wrote that she submitted copies of the inscription to several Buddhist scholars in London and Paris but because of the missing characters, none could give a rendering. “I wrote to Mr Francke telling him of my difficulty in getting a good translation, and he immediately sent a competent Tibetan from Khalatse to Sadpor to make new copies and this man was able to fill up many of my blank spaces, as he recognised numerous letters which had been partly destroyed,” the British traveler wrote, expressing amusement over the Tibetan charging just Rs12 for his long and fatiguing journey to the rock and back and his trouble in making the copies.

Francke, who translated the ancient text, said that “judging from the orthography employed, the writing is as old as those at Balu-mkhar, dating from not later than 1000 AD and, imperfect as they are, are of great philological and antiquarian interest; they all seem to refer to the sculptures on the rock.” He added, “Line No 8 in the third of them seems to indicate that the sculptures of Buddha are much older than the inscriptions themselves.”

Present time Buddha, Siddhãrtha Gautama, craved in the middle of the rock.

Duncan, in her travelogue, wrote that the hole was used to hold light. “At the top of the rock above the Buddha’s head there is a square hole, which the chowkidar, who acted as my guide, said was used for holding a light, and the stone round it looks smoke-blackened,” she wrote.A prominent feature of the relic is a square cube cut out at the top of the stone. Last summer, when I arrived here, I saw visitors aiming to throw pebbles inside the hollow boxy space in fulfillment of a myth that praying and then throwing a stone inside the cube successfully will make a wish come true—a local spin on European wishing wells and lovers’ locks.

Historian Kazmi, however, says the space was probably used to hold a beam with support from both sides of the stone to carry a roof. “The square recess and cuts on the edges very clearly indicate that in the beginning there was a canopy over the rock-face of the carving to protect it from weather effects,” he explains. Buddhism specialist Dr Christian Luczanits concurs, pointing out that the images were probably painted originally and the roof had protected the paintings.

A copy of a portion of Tibetan text engraved on Buddha Rock. SOURCE: JANE E DUNCAN’S A SUMMER RIDE THROUGH WESTERN TIBET

The exact purpose may remain a mystery for years to come or maybe even be lost forever if the relic is not protected from wear and tear caused by nature and humans. “The sculpture should have been declared a heritage site by UNESCO long ago, but the government and BCDF have failed to make efforts to preserve the eroding piece of history,” Kazmi says, pleading to authorities to pay attention to the relic.

Pakistan, which hosts six world heritage sites, has failed to even mention the Buddha Rock in its Tentative List from which the UN body picks places of ‘special cultural or physical significance’. The last inventory was complied in 2004 in which ten nominations were made in addition to 1993’s eight recommendations. And as per the rules, Pakistan can re-examine the list at least every ten years.

Ejaz says the BCDF―which has Buddha Rock on lease for 90 years―considered recommending it to UNESCO for a heritage site as well as for one of its awards, but did not do so because the relic does not fulfill their criteria.

Dr Luczanits sees this rock carving as part of a larger group of Buddhist relics in the region, which he recommends to be declared a heritage site together. “What is more important is to create awareness locally to ensure protection of the site as part of the heritage,” the Buddhism expert says. And BCDF’s chief Ejaz tells us that for this purpose, his organisation has constructed a boundary wall around the rock and deployed a security guard to facilitate tourists. “The BCDF has also constructed a tourist hut nearby in collaboration with the government’s tourism department and submitted proposals to different donor agencies to preserve its writings and images,” adds Ejaz.

Crystal clear Satpara Lake.

Protection of the site is crucial for preserving history as many believe this place was important for the spread of Buddhism in the area and served as a pilgrimage site for worshippers from far and wide. However, there is no concrete evidence to prove the exact use of the place.

“Such rock carvings are usually at spots that are widely visible and thus serve as a reminder of Buddhism in general, besides having a more specific local ritual function that we cannot reconstruct today anymore, except for its latest use like recorded by Ms Duncan for the square recess on Buddha Rock,” Dr Luczanits tells us.
The real story behind the stone may never unravel, but Kazmi vouches for the uniqueness of the carving. “Nowhere in the Buddhist world has anyone seen the depiction of all Buddhas in such a magnificent style,” he claims to point out the importance of Baltistan, and Skardu in particular, in the Buddhist history of the region. “Even in Lhasa, China—which has been the center of Mahayana Buddhism and the seat of Buddhist kings and fourteen Dalai Lamas—such a glorious picture has not been carved,” he says with a hint of pride.
Buddhism expert Dr Luczanits says the relief is part of a larger group all along the southern edge of the western Himalayas where rocks were used to depict Buddhist imagery. “The one in Skardu is unique in its composition, high quality carving and the number of Buddhas depicted; the carving emphasises the cosmic quality of the Buddha through the repetition of his image around him,” he says.

An older image showing the entrance to the historic site. The barbed-wire boundary has now been replaced with a concrete wall.

Baltistan was the land of Shamanism until Buddhism arrived in the 4th Century with the monks from Northern India, well before it entered Ladakh and Tibet. Many monasteries were built during the Palolashahi kingdom that ruled the area and the religion continued to flourish after the Tibetan conquest of the region in the second quarter of the 8th Century.
In the 14th Century, Ali Hamadani and his followers arrived from Iran and changed the landscape forever. Locals embraced Islam and Buddhism vanished from their daily lives. The places of worship fell into despair due to no visitors and because the preachers of the new religion called for shunning the past. “By the 15th Century, no Buddhist was left in Baltistan and the Muslim population wreaked havoc on the Buddhist legacy, destroying religious buildings and monuments,” claims Kazmi, adding that many dug out the foundations of religious sites in search of wealth believed to be buried by Buddhist kings and lamas. More recently, in 2007 the Taliban in Swat defaced the biggest Buddha sculpture in the world, second only to the monumental statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, which were destroyed in 2001 by the Afghan Taliban.

‘The Little Tibet’ and its Buddhist heritage disappeared over time, but what mysteriously survived was the Buddha Rock among a handful of artifacts. “In the midst of a purely Mohammedan population, these monuments have been allowed to remain intact except for the partial defacement of the inscriptions, while over the rest of the country every trace of its ancient religion appears to have been destroyed,” Duncan wrote in surprise.

Dr Luczanits says it is not uncommon that such rock carvings were either ignored once the religion changed or reinterpreted to attain a new meaning for the locals.
In this case it appears, Buddha was simply left in peace.

Ferya Ilyas is a senior subeditor at The Express Tribune. She tweets @ferya_ilyas

Whole Trouble – Military Occupation Compromises Freedom of Religion in Tibet

Trouble in Tibet – No Freedom of Religion in Occupied Tibet

**Whole Trouble – Military Occupation Compromises Freedom of Religion in Tibet**

Taiwan urged Tibetan Prime Minister and Uighur activist not to seek visas to visit Taipei to attend a forum on Religious Freedom as their presence may offend Red China. My concern is not about Taiwan’s sense of Fear. My concern is about lack of Freedom in Occupied Tibet.

Taiwan urges Tibetan exile leader and Uighur activist to stay away, supporters say

**TROUBLE IN TIBET – NO FREEDOM OF RELIGION. SIKYONG, PRIME MINISTER LOBSANG SANGAY WITH US UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE SARAH SEWALL AT KANGRA AIRPORT.**

Lobsang Sangay, prime minister of Tibet’s government in exile, walks with Sarah Sewall, U.S. undersecretary of State for civilian security, democracy and human rights, during a meeting in Dharmsala, India, on Jan. 15.

(Ashwini Bhatia / Associated Press)

Ralph Jennings

Taiwanese authorities asked a close ally of the Dalai Lama, as well as a U.S.-based activist for China’s Uighur minority, not to attend a forum on religious freedom in Taipei this week because their presence might irritate mainland China’s Communist leaders, the event’s sponsors say.

U.S.-based representatives of Taiwan’s government persuaded Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer and Lobsang Sangay, prime minister of Tibet’s Buddhist government in exile in India, not to apply for visas in December, said Bob Fu, the founder of China Aid, an American nonprofit that is co-sponsoring the forum.

“To talk about China’s religious freedom situation, if you don’t mention the Tibetan and Uighur minorities, a discussion of religious freedoms is incomplete,” Fu said from the forum in Taipei, which opened Thursday with 99 participants from 26 countries. “The whole application process feels political.”

Beijing regards representatives of the Tibetan government in exile and Kadeer as separatists, and routinely pressures other countries not to host or meet with them.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry and immigration agency said they had no information about what their offices in the United States might have told potential visa applicants. “We have no way to comment; all we do is process the visas,” a National Immigration Agency spokesperson said.

Though Tibet and the Uighur homeland of Xinjiang are under control of mainland Chinese authorities, Taiwan has had de facto independence from mainland China since 1949. But Beijing still claims sovereignty over the island. The commonalities among these three contested regions have sparked significant interest in Taiwan about figures such as Kadeer and Sangay.

But outgoing Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, who is leaving office in May after eight years, has tried to foster closer ties with Beijing after six decades of icy hostilities.
The Dalai Lama retired as head of the Tibetan government in exile in 2011, giving up leadership to the democratically elected Sangay. The Dalai Lama abandoned calls for Tibetan independence in 1979, embracing instead a “middle way” in which Tibetans would enjoy autonomy and freedom of religion and speech under Chinese rule.

Kadeer, meanwhile, has taken a similar stance, speaking out on human rights issues in Xinjiang and campaigning for self-determination for the largely Muslim region.
Many Uighurs and Tibetans say Chinese officials restrict their religious practices as well as their language and customs.

In early February, a foundation in Taipei representing the Dalai Lama said it too was told by Taiwanese officials that Sangay should avoid this week’s forum.
“Taiwan is in a tough spot because of pressure from China, that’s the reason,” said Bari Dawa Tsering, director of the Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He declined to say which agency gave the word.

“Of course we hoped Sangay could do this. But Taiwan is small and right next to China, so their stance is not to add any new trouble,” he said.
Shortly after Ma took office, the Dalai Lama visited Taiwan in 2009 to console survivors of a typhoon that sparked serious mudslides and killed about 700 people. China warned Taiwan then that the visit could damage relations, but the two sides put the matter behind them on the way to signing a series of landmark economic pacts.
Kadeer was invited to Taiwan later that year by a musician but denied entry.

This time, Kadeer was rejected along with Dolkun Isa, a Uighur activist who escaped China in 1997 and is now a German citizen.
Ma’s Nationalist Party administration “fears that to let Dolkun Isa and Rebiya Kadeer enter Taiwan will affect the understanding it has reached with Beijing,” Dilxat Rexit, a spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, said Friday.

Ma’s Nationalist Party roundly lost elections in January, and in May he will be replaced by Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party.
“Beijing’s adding of pressure has had the result of refusing them entry, and proves that Taiwan’s policy depends on Beijing’s complexion,” he added. “I hope in the future the Democratic Progressive Party government can reject Beijing.”

Jennings is a special correspondent.

**Trouble in Tibet – National Prayer Breakfast Meeting 2016. Dalai Lama attended the National Prayer Meeting.**

Whole Trouble – Where is the Key to Choose Happiness in Occupied Tibet?

TROUBLE IN TIBET – KEY TO LIVING A HAPPIER LIFE

Trouble in Tibet – The Key to Living a Happier Life

For there is ‘Trouble in Tibet’, I want to Find the Key to Living a Happier Life. Where is the Key to choose Happiness in Occupied Tibet? Happiness is like Sunshine. How can I find Sunshine, if my Land is submerged under deep Darkness called Military Occupation? The concept of finding “Inner Peace” through Meditation or Internal Reflection is invalid if there is no Peace in the external environment which conditions man’s existence at any given place and time.

ABC News

What the Dalai Lama Suggests Is the Key to Living a Happier Life

By Lauren Effron

Mar 10, 2016, 9:00 AM ET

VIDEO: 10% Happier with Dan Harris with the Dalai Lama — **Whole Trouble – Where is the Key to Choose Happiness in Occupied Tibet? Trouble in Tibet – The Key to Living a Happier Life**

10% Happier with Dan Harris’ with the Dalai Lama
For the Dalai Lama, finding inner peace is as easy as deciding that whatever is bothering you simply doesn’t exist.

Well okay, it’s not that easy. It takes a lot of practice and study.

His Holiness, along with Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist and founder of the Center for Healthy Minds, sat down with ABC News’ Dan Harris for his new live-stream podcast show, “10% Happier With Dan Harris.” The Dalai Lama and Davidson have collaborated for years on research looking at the impact meditation can have on the brain.

Specifically, the Dalai Lama spoke about the importance of studying and practicing analytical meditation, the art of actively examining something bothering us and questioning whether it really exists.

“When we analyze the nature, or the very identity of sadness or worry, you can find … the appearance of something or ‘my sadness, something is here, something solid,’ now that no longer there,” His Holiness said when describing the practice of analytical meditation.

If it’s a another person you’re angry with, the Dalai Lama suggested recognizing that you are angry at that person and then letting that anger go.
“In the case of one human being who gives you problem, and you feel very negative with that person [you] consider your enemy. … That is a target of anger. Analyze that target. Dissolve. So anger no longer find independent target,” he said.

Even as a spiritual leader, His Holiness said he believed scientific research into meditation is important because having evidence and knowledge about the physical and mental benefits meditation can have on a person can only enhance “the well-being of the world.” It’s a way to deal with problems and find “peace of mind” within oneself without relying on outside escapes, such as drugs or alcohol, he said.

Davidson said having good health doesn’t just mean the “absence of illness” in the body, but also removing suffering from the mind. Teaching others how to do that through the practice of meditation, learning to live happier, can have real long-term benefits.

“It’s public health because disturbing emotions we know cause changes in the body that impact our physical health,” Davidson said. “And so there is evidence to suggest that people who are happier and have higher levels of well-being actually have biology that is more conducive to health … our aspirations is that these practices can actually reduce health care costs because it can enable people to be more healthy.”

But meditation, His Holiness said, is not merely sitting there in “thoughtlessness,” but instead using our brains to concentrate on a particular subject or noise or destructive emotion (like anger) bothering us as a way to “reduce the intensity” of the emotion, and then let it go.

“You see, one of the best gift from God is intelligence. So without using our intelligence it’s quite a pity,” he said.

So when asked what he thought of Donald Trump and the American election process, which has been fraught with anger and opponents slinging mud at each other, His Holiness said, “a serious discussion about policy matter is useful, but sometimes little bit sort of personal criticism these things that looks a little bit cheap. That’s my view.

Whole Trouble – Oppression of Tibetans

Trouble in Tibet – Oppression of Tibetans

Trouble in Tibet manifests itself as Oppression of Tibetans. The Agent causing Trouble in Tibet is Occupation. If Occupation is vacated, Oppression will cease and Tibetans will find relief from Trouble.

NEW INTERNATIONALIST

China’s oppression of Tibetans has dramatically increased — New Internationalist

The country fears that if they don’t completely crush any form of protest they will lose control. Emily Korstanje reports.

Tibet-590.jpg [Related Image] — Tibetans do not have freedom of speech, religion or movement. Many passports have been recalled and the borders are closed, trapping Tibetans in the country as their culture and land diminishes. In Dutch, the poster says ‘China stop torturing Tibetans to death.’ by Emily Korstanje

In Dutch, the poster says ‘China stop torturing Tibetans to death.’ by Emily Korstanje

‘They would hang me up for several hours with my hands tied to a rope…once I was beaten continuously for two days with nothing to eat nor a drop of water to drink,’ said Labrang Jigme, a Tibetan monk arrested for peaceful protesting in Tibet. ‘The second time I was unconscious for six days unable to open my eyes or speak a word.’

Upon being released, Jigme was forced to sign a document stating that he was not tortured.

I was beaten continuously for two days with nothing to eat nor a drop of water to drink
‘They are destroying our people, beautiful culture, and land,’ said social worker and Tibetan refugee, Sonam Sangpo.

According to International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), massive peaceful protests in 2008 led to an intensive crackdown on the country with more than 600 Tibetans imprisoned and approximately 150 self-immolations – Tibetans light themselves on fire as an individual form of protests against oppression.

‘The Chinese government fears that if they don’t completely crush any form of protest they will lose control of Tibetans,’ said Executive Director of International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) Europe, Tsering Jampa. ‘Instead of trying to assess why Tibetans self-immolate and change the situation, they come down harder and more fierce each time.’

International Campaign for Tibet (ICT)’s European director, Tsering Jampa, gathering signatures for the campaign. Emily Korstanje

Recent evidence shows that there has been a significant increase of Tibetan political prisoners since the protests, and torture has become more widespread than ever. Because of these outstanding cases, in November 2015, the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) met with China officials and asked them to account for ‘deeply entrenched’ torture and ill treatment, according to a published report by ICT.

‘It (the report) also reflects alarm at China’s attempts to subvert criticism of its record on human rights and to distort the reality,’ said Executive Director of ICT Germany, Kai Mueller. For example, when ICT brought forward torture devices that were used on prisoners, Chinese officials argued they were made comfortable with cushions so they could no longer be considered torture devices.

‘We had a Tibetan monk who was able to escape prison, testify and show examples of the torture devices that were used on him,’ Jampa said. ‘Chinese officials refused to acknowledge this case and many other cases brought before them.’

The Dalai Lama is simply asking that Tibetans have the same rights and freedom as the Chinese have

Another case brought before CAT included a Tibetan man who was shot and killed while trying to intervene on behalf of an elderly monk who was beaten with an iron rod in the prison. The elderly man later died of what Chinese officials called ‘natural causes’ even though his body showed obvious signs of torture and brutal beatings.

China refused to acknowledge these cases because of the ‘unverifiable nature of information’. CAT strongly urged China to provide more insight on these brutal cases, which have created a lot of distress among Tibetans.

China has been able to continue and intensify their control because they have successfully closed Tibet off from the rest of the world. So during the UN’s confrontation with China, ICT, which focuses on monitoring and reporting on Tibetan human rights and advocating for Tibetans imprisoned for their political or religious beliefs, ran a campaign in the Netherlands against torture in Tibet. This was to raise awareness about the abuse that Tibetans are subjected to and to gather signatures to put pressure on European government officials who would then put pressure on the Chinese government.

International Campaign for Tibet has helped several prisoners such as Ngawang Sangdrol, Phuntsog Nyidron and Dhondup Wangchen get released; each who share horrific stories of their imprisonment.

China refuses to give up Tibet due to its strategic location, land space, natural resources, and the fact that there are now more Chinese in Tibet than Tibetans because of immigration. Therefore, the Dalai Lama – Tibetans’ spiritual leader currently living in exile in India – has pleaded with the Chinese government to make Tibet truly autonomous so people can have freedom of speech, religion, and movement.

‘The Dalai Lama is not asking that the Chinese leave, we know it is too late for that,’ Sangpo said. ‘He is simply asking that Tibetans have the same rights and freedom as the Chinese have.

We all ask for that and for the preservation of our beautiful culture.’ Published on February 4, 2016 by EMILY KORSTANJE

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Whole Trouble – The Amazing Adventures of Sue in Tibet

The Adventures of Sue in Tibet – Thanks to Doris Shelton

I thank Ms. Doris Shelton for describing The Amazing Adventures of “Sue in Tibet.” I examine the Whole Trouble of Tibet from various perspectives. The central issue is that of the military occupation of Tibet by a foreign power.

B B C

The amazing adventures of Sue in Tibet and her creator

16 March 2016

Image copyright: William Arthur Smith. Image caption: The cover art for Sue in Tibet shows a smiling girl, poised for adventure.

Girls did not often star in the adventure stories of the early 20th Century, but the chance discovery of a little-known book by the daughter of an American missionary who lived in a Tibetan border town led researcher Tricia Kehoe to uncover an extraordinary life story, but one marred by tragedy.

Everybody remembers when Tintin went to Tibet, but not what happened when Sue was there.

While browsing around a tiny second-hand bookshop in Nottingham, I came across a dusty, worn cloth-covered out-of-print book entitled “Sue in Tibet”. As a scholar of Tibetan studies, I was familiar with Tibet-based adventure and mystery novels published in the 1920s, but these were invariably centred on the stories of the men.

This was intriguing because it looked like it could be the first piece of western children’s literature ever set in Tibet, and its main character was a teenage girl. Published in 1942, it tells the story of Sue Shelby, the eldest daughter of an American missionary family stationed in the remote Tibetan border town of Batang.

Image copyright Newark Museum Image caption This photograph may record the Shelton family’s first journey from the interior of China into Tibet

Set against the backdrop of rampant banditry and skirmishes between Tibetan and Chinese soldiers, it begins with the dangerous journey on horseback across snow-capped mountains by Sue’s family before they eventually settle in Batang. By the end Sue, fluent in Chinese and Tibetan, acts as an interpreter at a crucial military conference, so ensuring peace at a time of unrest.

Its observations are astonishingly accurate – because it is based very closely on the true-life adventures of its author, Dorris Shelton Still. However, her story did not have the same happy ending. As a woman back in the United States, so her children told me, Dorris almost never spoke of her unique childhood.

Image copyright Newark Museum Image caption The Shelton family making a precarious crossing over a lake in the Batang region

Like Sue, Dorris was the eldest daughter of the Sheltons, an American missionary family stationed in the remote Sino-Tibetan border town of Batang between 1908 and 1921. Batang was not a strange or exotic land for Dorris, it was home. Clues to the Sheltons’ life come from Sue’s story too.

Image copyright Newark Museum Image caption Dorris Shelton was sent away from Batang in 1921 to attend boarding school in the US

Image copyright Willliam Arthur Smith Image caption Sue in Tibet recounts the heroine’s close friendships with Tibetan girls in Batang

Just a few years after the British invasion of Lhasa in 1905 and a subsequent massacre of missionaries and converts by Tibetan lamas in Batang itself, the fictional family are received with a mixture of curiosity, fear and suspicion. Nevertheless, Sue becomes best friends with local girl Nogi, who teaches her to apply yak butter to her skin after bathing. They swap snacks of peanut better and jelly sandwiches for yak meat and dried yak cheese.

Sue even befriends a so-called Living Buddha, known in Tibet as a tulku or reincarnated lama. This story has some basis in reality as one remarkable photograph now held at the Newark Museum shows. It documents the occasion when the Shelton family sat down to a picnic with an incarnate lama who had been disbarred from priestly functions because he fell in love.

Image copyright Willliam Arthur Smith Image caption When Sue met a so-called Living Buddha

Image copyright Newark Museum Image caption When Dorris met an incarnate lama (second from right)

As she notes in her memoirs, Dorris never forgot her friends in Batang, and would regularly pine for butter tea and tsampa, the traditional staples of Tibet. Although she longed to return, it was never to be.

But the triumphant climax of Sue in Tibet is where fiction departs from reality. When Sue’s father is prevented by injury from acting as interpreter at a crucial military conference, Sue jumps in, and after a gruelling journey on horseback, she saves the day, returning to a heroine’s welcome in Batang.

It was not like that for Dorris and her sister, who were dressed like sober American girls and kept to a strict schooling schedule. In 1921, they were sent off to boarding school.
But they were never again to see their father, the heroic doctor whom Sue’s father is closely based on.

Image copyright Newark Museum Image caption Dorris and her sister, despite their very Tibetan way of life, were kept in Western clothes while in Batang

While on a mission to Lhasa to set up a medical centre, he was shot by bandits on the road. He died days later. His family were not there, but a travelling companion later provided a graphic and tragic account of what happened, paying tribute to the doctor’s courage and crediting him with saving his life. After the bandits moved on, they found the doctor lying on the side of the road.

“There were blood stains all over his face. I could see a large wound open on his forehead. “

He was desperate for water, but that was scarce. Nursed for a few day, the doctor knew what was coming once his arm was amputated..

“Ming Shang. I will be gone in a few days, no hope to live, I love you, be a good boy. I have told the other folk to look after you,” Dr Shelton said.

“I was extremely sad, a man who loved me as his own son, now I had to carry his amputated arm on the back of my horse,” the account goes on to say.

Image copyright Newark Museum Image caption Her father, a doctor, was on the way to set up a medical mission in Lhasa, when he was killed by bandits
Even though Dorris went on to write about Sue in Tibet, her children believe the pain of the loss of her father lay behind her personal silence in her later years. Her granddaughter, Andrea Still does recall one conversation, possibly a tribute to Dorris’s father’s work as a doctor.

“She spoke about …where Western and Eastern philosophies met with most friction. It was that if someone was injured…in Tibetan culture, they would write a prayer down on a slip of paper, cover the paper in mud and swallow it down while saying prayers and walking in supplication, while the Westerner finds his trusty doctor.”

Image copyright Newark Museum Image caption Dorris Shelton went on to involve herself in Tibetan causes from the US

Tibet clearly stayed with her Dorris. She was involved in raising money to help Tibetan refugees and sponsoring Tibetan businesses in Dharamsala, the Indian city which has become a hub for Tibetan exiles. She also had private audiences with the Dalai Lama.

In many ways, the book was ahead of its time. In the 1940s, out of the 284 children’s books published in the US, only 21 had girls as their main characters. Sue, however, is centre-stage. Faced with unfamiliar and dangerous situations, she is an independent and quick-thinking girl with a strong sense of curiosity and a passion for adventure.

It is clearly a reflection of Dorris’s spirit too and she wrote about her time in Tibet with a poignant nostalgia in her later journals.
“We were happy youngsters in a beautiful land with friends we loved and endless wonderful things to do.”

Image copyright Shelton Family archive

Whole Trouble – The Blessings of Mount Kailash to seek Freedom from Occupation

Trouble in Tibet – The Blessings of Mount Kailash

**The Story of Tibet relates to The Origin of Man. Mount Kailash in Tibet is associated with The Beginning of Anatomically Modern Man.**

Both Tibet and India believed that they can contain Red China’s of Expansionism using diplomatic negotiations. I will not blame Tibet or India for trying to resolve the problem of Red China’s aggression with patience and without escalating international tensions. Their efforts have failed and yet I will not blame them for trying to negotiate for a peaceful solution. Red China’s deception could not be easily discovered and her plans for total subjugation of Tibet could not be deciphered in time.

I hold Red China responsible for her own evil actions and she cannot escape consequences as evil actions always leads to downfall, disaster, calamity, catastrophe, and apocalypse. I cannot predict the response of India, or the United States to continued military occupation of Tibet. However, with a sense of profound confidence, I seek Blessings of Mount Kailash to predict and announce to the World, “Beijing is Doomed.”

**The Story of Tibet relates to The Origin of Man. Mount Kailash in Tibet is associated with The Beginning of Man.**

India has ignored Tibet for too long

A settlement of the Tibet issue is imperative for regional stability should become our consistent diplomatic refrain

By Brahma Chellaney, Livemint | November 11, 2014

Despite booming two-way trade, India-China strategic discord and rivalry is sharpening. At the core of their divide is Tibet, an issue that fuels territorial disputes, border tensions and water feuds.

Beijing says Tibet is a core issue for China. In truth, Tibet is the core issue in Beijing’s relations with countries such as India, Nepal and Bhutan that traditionally did not have a common border with China. These countries became China’s neighbours after it annexed Tibet, which, after waves of genocide, now faces ecocide.

China itself highlights Tibet as the core issue with India by laying claim to Indian territories on the basis of purported Tibetan religious or tutelary links, rather than any professed Han Chinese connection. Indeed, ever since China gobbled up the historical buffer with India, Tibet has remained the core issue.

The latest reminder of this reality came when President Xi Jinping brought Chinese incursions across the India-Tibet border on his recent India visit. Put off by the intrusions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government permitted Tibetan exiles to stage protests during Xi’s New Delhi stay, reversing a pattern since the early 1990s of such protests being foiled by police during the visit of any Chinese leader.

However, India oddly bungled on Tibet and Sikkim during Xi’s visit—diplomatic goof-ups that escaped media attention.
In response to China’s increasing belligerence—reflected in a rising number of Chinese border incursions and Beijing’s new assertiveness on Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir (J&K)—India since 2010 stopped making any reference to Tibet being part of China in a joint statement with China. It has also linked any endorsement of one China to a reciprocal Chinese commitment to a one India.

Yet the Modi-Xi joint statement brought in Tibet via the backdoor, with India appreciating the help extended by the “local government of Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China” to Indian pilgrims visiting Tibet’s Kailash-Mansarovar, a mountain-and-lake duo sacred to four faiths: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Tibet’s indigenous religion, Bon. Several major rivers, including the Indus, the Brahmaputra, the Sutlej and the Karnali, originate around this holy duo.

The statement’s reference to the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China was out of place. It lent implicit Indian support to Tibet being part of China by gratuitously changing the formulation recorded during Premier Li Keqiang’s 2013 visit, when the joint statement stated: “The Indian side conveyed appreciation to the Chinese side for the improvement of facilities for the Indian pilgrims”. Did those in the ministry of external affairs (MEA) who helped draft the statement apprise the political decision-makers of the implications of the new, China-inserted formulation?

After all, the new wording ran counter to India’s position since 2010—a stance that came with the promise of repairing the damage from India’s past blunders over Tibet, including by Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi. Nehru, in the 1954 Panchsheel pact, ceded India’s British-inherited extraterritorial rights in Tibet and implicitly accepted the sprawling region’s annexation without any quid pro quo. Under the terms of this accord, India withdrew its military escorts from Tibet, and conceded to China the postal, telegraph and telephone services it operated there.

But in 2003, Atal Bihari Vajpayee went further than any predecessor and formally surrendered India’s Tibet card. In a statement he signed with the Chinese premier, Vajpayee used the legal term recognize to accept what China deceptively calls the Tibet Autonomous Region as “part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China”.

Vajpayee’s blunder opened the way for China to claim Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet, a term it coined in 2006 to legitimize its attempt at rolling annexation. Had Vajpayee not caved in, China would not have been emboldened to ingeniously invent the term South Tibet for Arunachal, which is three times the size of Taiwan and twice as large as Switzerland. And since 2010, Beijing has also questioned India’s sovereignty over J&K, one-fifth of which is under Chinese occupation.

In this light, the reference to China’s Tibet region in the Modi-Xi joint statement granted Beijing via the backdoor what India has refused to grant upfront since 2010. This sleight of hand implicitly endorsed Tibet as being part of China without Xi committing to a one India policy.

Now consider India’s second mistake—falling for China’s proposal for establishing an alternative route for Indian pilgrims via Sikkim, a state that strategically faces India’s highly vulnerable “chicken’s neck” and where Beijing is working to insidiously build influence.

Ironically, it is by agreeing to open a circuitous alternative route for pilgrims via Sikkim’s Nathula crossing that Beijing extracted the appreciation from India to China’s Tibet government. Given that Kailash-Mansarovar is located close to the Uttarakhand-Nepal-Tibet tri-junction, the new route entails a long, arduous detour—pilgrims must first cross eastern Himalayas and then head toward western Himalayas through a frigid, high-altitude terrain.

Unsurprisingly, the meandering route has kicked up controversy, with the Uttarakhand chief minister also injecting religion to contend that scriptures “recognize only the traditional paths for pilgrimage passing through Uttarakhand”. China currently permits entry of a very small number of Indian pilgrims through just one point—Uttarakhand’s Lipulekh Pass. The foreign ministry, which organizes the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage, is to take a maximum of 1,080 pilgrims in batches this year, with no more than 60 travellers in each lot.

One obvious reason China chose the roundabout route via Sikkim is that the only section of the Indo-Tibetan border it does not dispute is the Sikkim-Tibet frontier, except for the tiny Finger Area there. Beijing recognizes the 1890 Anglo-Sikkim Convention, which demarcated the 206-km Sikkim-Tibet frontier, yet paradoxically rejects as a colonial relic Tibet’s 1914 McMahon Line with India, though not with Myanmar.

The more important reason is that China is seeking to advance its strategic interests in the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction, which overlooks the narrow neck of land that connects India’s northeast with the rest of the country. Should the chicken’s neck ever be blocked, the northeast would be cut off from the Indian mainland. In the event of a war, China could seek to do just that.

Two developments underscore its strategic designs. China is offering Bhutan a territorial settlement in which it would cede most of its other claims in return for being given the strategic area that directly overlooks India’s chokepoint. At the same time, Beijing is working systematically to shape a Sino-friendly Kagyu sect, which controls important Indian monasteries along the Tibetan border and is headed by the China-anointed but now India-based Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley.

The Indian government has barred Ogyen Trinley—who raised suspicion in 1999 by escaping from Tibet with astonishing ease—from visiting the sect’s headquarters at Rumtek, Sikkim.
Yet—redounding poorly on Indian intelligence—the Mandarin-speaking Ogyen Trinley has been regularly receiving envoys sent by Beijing. In recent years, he has met Han religious figures as well as Xiao Wunan, the effective head of the Asia-Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation. This dubious foundation, created to project China’s soft power, has unveiled plans with questionable motives to invest $3 billion at Lord Buddha’s birthplace in Nepal—Lumbini, located virtually on the open border with India.

Trinley—the first Tibetan lama living in exile to include Han Buddhist rituals in traditional Tibetan practices—was recently accused by the head of the Drukpa sect in India of aiding Beijing’s frontier designs by using his money power to take over Drukpa Himalayan monasteries, including in the Kailash-Mansarovar area. Indeed, Himachal Pradesh police in 2011 seized large sums of Chinese currency from the Karmapa’s office.

Since coming up to power, Modi has pursued a nimble foreign policy. His government, hopefully, can learn from its dual mistakes. With China now challenging Indian interests even in the Indian Ocean region, it has become imperative for India to find ways to blunt Chinese trans-Himalayan pressures.

One key challenge Modi faces is how to build leverage against China, which largely sets the bilateral agenda, yet savours a galloping, $36-plus billion trade surplus with India. Modi’s Make in India mission cannot gain traction as long as Chinese dumping of goods undercuts Indian manufacturing.

Also, past blunders on Tibet by leaders from Nehru to Vajpayee have helped narrow the focus of Himalayan disputes to what China claims. The spotlight now is on China’s Tibet-linked claim to Arunachal, rather than on Tibet’s status itself.

To correct that, Modi must find ways to add elasticity and nuance to India’s Tibet stance.

One way for India to gradually reclaim its leverage over the Tibet issue is to start emphasizing that its acceptance of China’s claim over Tibet hinged on a grant of genuine autonomy to that region. But instead of granting autonomy, China has made Tibet autonomous in name only, bringing the region under its tight political control and unleashing increasing repression.

India must not shy away from urging China to begin a process of reconciliation and healing in Tibet in its own interest and in the interest of stable Sino-Indian relations. China’s hydro-engineering projects are another reminder that Tibet is at the heart of the India-China divide and why India must regain leverage over the Tibet issue.

That a settlement of the Tibet issue is imperative for regional stability and for improved Sino-Indian relations should become India’s consistent diplomatic refrain. India must also call on Beijing to help build harmonious bilateral relations by renouncing its claims to Indian-administered territories.

Through such calls, and by using expressions such as the Indo-Tibetan border and by identifying the plateau to the north of its Himalayas as Tibet (not China) in its official maps, India can subtly reopen Tibet as an outstanding issue, without having to formally renounce any of its previously stated positions.

Tibet ceased to be a political buffer when China occupied it in 1950-51. But Tibet can still turn into a political bridge between China and India. For that to happen, China must start a process of political reconciliation in Tibet, repudiate claims to Indian territories on the basis of their alleged Tibetan links, and turn water into a source of cooperation, not conflict.

Brahma Chellaney is professor of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research.

This entry was posted on November 13, 2014 by Tenzin Gaphel.