Tibet Consciousness – Glimpses of Tibetan Identity – Images of Yamdrok Lake
TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – THE YAMDROK LAKE – LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW FOR FREEDOM IS NEAR. TIBET’S FREEDOM AS WHITE AS SNOW.
Tibet, known as the Land ofSnows, is a country of immense natural beauty. The landscape is intrinsically linked to the lives of holy enlightened beings and imbued with the mystique of powerful mountain gods and goddesses. There are many places of power and natural beauty in the country and one such place is Yamdrok Yumtso Lake.
Yamdrok Yumtso is a freshwater lake that lies around 90 kilometres to the east of Gyantse and 100 kilometres southwest of Lhasa. The largest lake in all of southern Tibet, it is roughly 638 kilometres2 and its average depth is about 30 metres, although it can reach 60 metres at its deepest. Its waters are a deep turquoise which is where it gets its name — roughly translated as ‘Turquoise Lake of the Upper Pasture‘ — and is fed by numerous streams from the surrounding snow-capped mountains.
Yamdrok Yumtso is considered to be one of the four largest sacred lakes of Tibet, the other three being Lhamo La Tso, Namtso and Manasarovar. According to local legend, the lake is the physical manifestation of the goddess known as Dorje Geg Kyi Tso.
The landscape of Tibet is sacred to the Tibetan people. Just as how mountains are believed to be the homes of gods and goddesses, so are Tibet’s great lakes. As they are considered the earthly abodes of powerful protective deities, Tibet’s lakes are intrinsically invested with spiritual power. Yamdrok Yumtso is one such lake and is believed to have the power to grant divinatory visions to those who meditate upon her serene yet supernatural waters.
Local villagers and high lamas alike make the pilgrimage to her shores, and they can be seen walking along the lake’s shores in prayer. To complete a circumambulation of the lake within seven days is said to purify tremendous amounts of negative karma.
Tibet, known as the Land ofSnows, is a country of immense natural beauty. The landscape is intrinsically linked to the lives of holy enlightened beings and imbued with the mystique of powerful mountain gods and goddesses. There are many places of power and natural beauty in the country and one such place is Yamdrok Yumtso Lake.
Her waters are said to have powerful properties, which include healing diseases, granting long-life and increasing one’s intellect. The lake is so revered that it is said if her waters dry up, the entire land of Tibet will no longer be habitable for humans.
Together with Lhamo La Tso, it is one of two lakes which are said to provide visions that can help locate the reincarnations of high lamas. According to tradition, an appointed search party will travel to the lake to engage in lengthy prayers. Throwing a khata, a Tibetan silk scarf, into the waters along with other ritual objects and medicines, one of the party then has visions. When correctly interpreted, these visions can lead to the successful recognition of a high lama’s reincarnation.
Dorje Geg Kyi Tso, the goddess of Yamdrok Yumtso, is part of a group of such deities known as the Tenma Chunyi, who opposed the growth of Buddhism in Tibet.
The lake and its islands are closely associated with Guru Rinpoche or Padmasambhava, the great 8th century Indian mahasiddha who was invited to Tibet to tame the local deities that hindered the spread of Buddhism in the country.
Dorje Geg Kyi Tso, the goddess of Yamdrok Yumtso, is part of a group of such deities known as the Tenma Chunyi, who opposed the growth of Buddhism in Tibet.
I am pleased to share pictures of The Yamdrok Lake taken on October 31, 2015. The Lake is covered with fresh snow and its pure whiteness gives me a sense of Hope and my heart tells me that ‘Freedom is Near.’
TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, FOR I HEAR THE BELLS OF FREEDOM RINGING, FREEDOM IS NEAR, TIBET BLANKETED BY FREEDOM.
Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow,
For I hear the Bells of Freedom ringing,
Freedom is Near, Tibet blanketed by Freedom.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
Snow scenery of Yamdrok Lake in Tibet
2015-11-02 10:22 Xinhua Editor:Li Yan 1
TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – THE YAMDROK LAKE – LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, FREEDOM IS NEAR, TIBET’S FREEDOM ASWHITE AS SNOW.
Photo taken on Oct. 31 shows the snow scenery at the Yamdrok Lake in Nagarze County of Shannan Prefecture, southwest Tibet.The Yamdrok Lake, about 100 kilometers south of Lhasa, is one of the four holy lakes in Tibet. (Photo: Xinhua/Liu Dongjun)
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Lhasa is the cultural and historical Capital of the Land of Tibet. The reincarnation of the Spirit of Dalai Lama may happen at a place according to the manner chosen by the present Dalai Lama. The child, a male or a female could take birth inside occupied territory of Tibet or in a place where Tibetan exiles currently live. United States and India must demand to establish their Consular Services at Lhasa to protect the cultural and religious rights and practices of Tibetans and of Tibetan Buddhism.
Tibetan Buddhism is comprised of four main schools: Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug. Each school has its own unique lineage, philosophical emphasis, and practices, while all sharing the common goal of liberation from suffering.
The Four Schools:
Nyingma (Ancient School):The oldest of the four, Nyingma emphasizes the early translations of Buddhist texts from India into Tibetan. It is known for its emphasis on Dzogchen (Great Perfection) practice, which is considered the highest and most direct path to enlightenment.
Kagyu (Oral Transmission School):Kagyu emphasizes the lineage of oral instructions passed down from teacher to student, particularly the Mahamudra (Great Seal) teachings. The Kagyu school is known for its practice of meditation and its focus on direct experience of reality.
Sakya (Pale Earth School):Sakya is known for its emphasis on the philosophical teachings of the Bodhisattva path, particularly the union of sutrayana (teachings on emptiness) and tantrayana (teachings on skillful means). The Sakya school is also known for its scholarly approach to Buddhism.
Gelug (Virtuous Ones School):Gelug emphasizes monastic discipline, scholarship, and rigorous debate. The Gelug school is known for its emphasis on the sutra path and its systematic approach to Buddhist philosophy. The Gelug school was founded by Je Tsongkhapa in the 14th century and is often associated with the Dalai Lamas.
Key Differences:
While all four schools share the common goal of liberation and the path of the Bodhisattva, they differ in their emphasis and specific practices. Nyingma emphasizes Dzogchen, Kagyu emphasizes Mahamudra, Sakya emphasizes the union of sutra and tantra, and Gelug emphasizes monastic discipline and scholarship.
Special Frontier Force extends appreciation and gives thanks to Culture24 Reporter for publishing an interesting story on Wellcome Museum, London hosting Exhibition on Body, Mind, Meditation in Tantric Buddhism.
TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – TANTRIC BUDDHISM – BODY, MIND AND MEDITATION METHODOLOGY AT LUKHANG TEMPLE, LHASA.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA
Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
CULTURE 24
Tibet’s Secret Temple: Wellcome opens Body, Mind and Meditation in Tantric Buddhism exhibition
By Culture24 Reporter | 18 November 2015
the lukhang temple lhasa murals
Inspired by a series of intricate murals adorning the walls of the Lukhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet, the Wellcome’s new exhibition illuminates the secrets of the temple once used exclusively by Tibet’s Dalai Lamas
Lukhang means ˜Temple to the Serpent Spirits” and refers to its origins in a vision that came to Tibet’s Fifth Dalai Lama (1617 – 1682). A serpent-like water deity called a lu appeared to him during his meditations and warned that construction of the Potala Palace was disturbing the subterranean realm of the lu.
In an act of reconciliation, the Fifth Dalai Lama vowed to build a temple to appease the lu once the Potala Palace was completed. This promise was fulfilled during the lifetime of the Sixth Dalai Lama (1683 – 1706) who made the resulting island temple his primary residence.
Once there, he satisfied his controversial preference for romantic trysts and poetic composition over affairs of state. Over succeeding centuries the Lukhang continued to serve Tibet’s Dalai Lamas as a place of spiritual inspiration and contemplative retreat.
The wall paintings in the Lukhang’s uppermost chamber illustrate Dzogchen, or Great Perfection, teachings of the eighth-century Tantric master Padmasambhava.
The wall paintings in the Lukhang’s uppermost chamber illustrate Dzogchen, or Great Perfection, teachings of the eighth-century Tantric master Padmasambhava. These teachings were revealed in a text by Orgyen Pema Lingpa (1450 – 1521), an enlightened Tantric master from Bhutan who was a direct ancestor of Tibet’s Sixth Dalai Lama.
The Lukhang murals are believed to have been commissioned by Desi Sangye Gyatso (1653 -1705), the acting governor of Tibet between the death of the Fifth Dalai Lama in 1682 and the enthronement of the Sixth Dalai Lama in 1697.
In the same period, Sangye Gyatso also commissioned a series of 79 scroll paintings outlining Tibetan medicine’s understanding of the human body and approach to optimal health.
TIBET AWARENESS – DALAI LAMA’S WELCOME TO BRITISH BUDDHISTS IN SEPTEMBER 1922.
Rising out of a copse of willows on an island beneath the Dalai Lama’s Potala Palace, the Lukhang could originally only be reached by boat.
The temple’s symmetrical design and ascending levels form a three-dimensional mandala, a Buddhist representation of the integral harmony of the cosmos and the human psyche.
This ideal of harmony is further reflected in the Lukhang’s integration of three distinct architectural styles Tibetan, Chinese and Mongolian representing Tibet’s complex political alliances at the turn of the 17th century.
The Lukhang’s lower level, built in Tibetan style, honours the elemental, serpentine forces of nature that Tibetans call lu. The temple’s second storey, in Chinese style, houses a shrine to the mythical Lord of the lu, flanked by statues of the Sixth Dalai Lama and Padmasambhava, the revered Indian master who introduced Tantric Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century.
A sweeping Mongolian-style roof shelters the meditation chamber on the Lukhang’s uppermost floor and its wall paintings depicting advanced practices of Tantric yoga and Great Perfection teachings on the essence of enlightenment.
A thousand-armed statue of Avalokites´vara, the embodiment of universal compassion that Tibet’s Dalai Lamas are said to represent, stands at the heart of the once-secret chamber.
Tantra arose in medieval India as a cultural movement that sought to reconcile spirituality with sensory experience and the creative imagination. With the Sanskrit root tan, meaning to expand, and tra, meaning methodology, Buddhist texts called Tantras expanded the scope of existing Buddhist doctrines and extended their applicability beyond monastic institutions.
The core texts of Tantric Buddhism appeared in India between the eighth and 11th centuries. The anonymously authored works modulate Buddhism’s earlier emphasis on life’s inevitable dissatisfactions and promote actively cultivating joy and compassion.
Unbound from Buddhism’s originally ascetic character, the indestructible vehicle of Vajrayana (or Tantric) Buddhism offered a means for positive change in individual and collective lives. To that end, Tantric deities were not conceived as objects of worship but as representations of the human potential to transcend egocentric concerns and embody universal qualities of wisdom and compassion.
The Tantric journey depicted in the Lukhang murals encompasses rapture, terror and self-transcendence. The murals and the following rooms present specific methods used in Tantric Buddhism for freeing the mind from its limitations and embracing all experience with insight and compassion.
The daemonic divine
Tibetan monasteries typically include chapels dedicated to wrathful guardian deities representing wisdom and compassion in dynamic form. As can be seen on this panel, the doors leading into the Lukhang’s ground-floor chapel are adorned with intertwining lu volatile serpent spirits that also signify untamed energies of human consciousness.
The Tantric Buddhist deity visible at the shrine beyond Senge Dra rides on a snow lion and, wielding a ritual trident, both subdues and illuminates the psychic forces that the lu embody.
Pilgrims in Tibet typically pay homage to these integral forces of mind and body in their journey towards a state of being beyond self-identification, suffering and strife.
Beyond Tibetan Buddhism’s outward forms lies a hidden world of yogic practices that cultivate subtle awareness through physical exercises, breath control and focused visualisation.
Based on Tantric principles of bringing all aspects of experience onto the spiritual path, practices of Tibetan yoga range from masked dance ceremonies to sequenced exercises that concentrate attention, energy and sensation in the body’s central core to induce self-transcendent awareness.
YOGAS OF FIRE AND LIGHT
In Tibetan Buddhism, the physically demanding practices of trul khor commonly precede more subtle Tantric practices undertaken during states of waking, sexual union, sleeping, dreaming and dying.
The so-called Six Yogas are designed to cultivate lucid awareness within all phases of human experience and, as shown in the photograph on this panel, to focus energy and concentration in the heart centre.
Visualising the body as a translucent network of energy channels (Illusory Body Yoga), practitioners engage in the Yoga of Inner Fire (tummo) to increase vitality and sensation.
The Yoga of Radiant Light and the Yoga of Conscious Dreaming are practised while sleeping and reveal possibilities that normal waking consciousness obscures.
The Yoga of Transitional States (bardo) prepares practitioners for the possibility of psychological continuity after death, and the Yoga of Transference (powa) offers a method of projecting the mind into a paradisiacal Buddha Realm at the moment of death.
The supplementary Yoga of Union, practiced either with a real or visualised partner, further enhances subjective states of bliss and luminosity.
Mindfulness, meditation and beyond
The Tibetan word for meditation is gom, meaning mindfulness of one’s inherent Buddha nature, a self-transcendent state of empathy, insight and spontaneous altruism.
Although Tantric Buddhism includes a multitude of meditation techniques, the Lukhang murals reveal a system of mental cultivation called Dzogchen, or Great Perfection, that was introduced in Tibet in the eighth century by Padmasambhava.
Based on present moment awareness of the mind’s intrinsic freedom from discursive thought processes and conditioned behaviour, Dzogchen is presented as the innate human potential to live beyond limiting beliefs or psychological stress.
When integrated into all aspects of one’s experience, Dzogchen is upheld as the culmination of the spiritual path in which mind and body, reason and intuition, and intention and application function in unison.
Although physical yoga, breathing practices and mindfulness training help to align the mind with its fundamental nature, Dzogchen ultimately does not require them.
Padmasambhava described Dzogchen as the mind looking directly into its own essence, a seamless continuum of perceiver, perceived and the act of perception. This open presence and non-dual awareness at the heart of Tantric Buddhism is vividly illustrated throughout the Lukhang murals.
Tibetan Buddhism, meditation and mindfulness today
The Tibetan Buddhist teachings depicted on the walls of the Lukhang are widely practised today both within and outside of Tibet. Tibetan Buddhism’s diverse approaches to mental cultivation are also the subject of scientific investigations into their potential impact on physiological and psychological health and the enhancement of human potential.
The health benefits of diverse meditation practices from an array of Asian Buddhist lineages awakened the interest of Western scientists in the 1960s, when fascination with Eastern spiritual traditions was burgeoning in the West.
Collaborations between Tibetan Buddhism and Western science began after the (current) Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s first visit to the USA in 1979.
His interest in science coupled with his willingness to allow Tibetan Buddhist monks to participate in scientific experiments encouraged a range of investigations into the neurological correlates of meditation, which continue to this day through initiatives of the Mind and Life Institute and related organisations.
The health benefits of mindfulness, a practice central to all Buddhist lineages, have also been the subject of scientific research in the past 35 years, which has led to the development of a variety of stress-reduction programmes.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, for example, has become a clinical tool recognised by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for the treatment of anxiety and depression.
With the encouragement of the Dalai Lama, scientists are beginning to investigate the reputed physiological and cognitive benefits of Tibet’s once highly secret Tantric yogas of breath control and dynamic movement, as illustrated in the Lukhang murals.
Tibet’s Secret Temple: Body, Mind and Meditation in Tantric Buddhism is at the Wellcome Collection, London from November 19 2015 to February 28 2016.
Tibet Consciousness – The Complex Relations between Tibet, Taiwan and the United States
Tibet represents one-quarter of Red China’s landmass. Tibet is about 965, 000 square miles in area and it includes Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), and Tibetan territory found in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces.
Tibet represents one-quarter of Red China’s landmass. Tibet is about 965, 000 square miles in area and it includes Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), and Tibetan territory found in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces. Tibet is apparently three times larger than Texas (Area. 267, 338 square miles), the largest state in the coterminous United States. Tibet is by far the largest nation in Asia when compared to Red China’s regional neighbors like Taiwan (Area. 13, 885 square miles), Philippines (Area. 115, 830 square miles), Japan (Area. 142, 811 square miles), Malaysia (Area. 128, 430 square miles), Vietnam (Area. 125, 622 square miles), Indonesia (Area. 741, 096 square miles), and Brunei (Area. 2, 228 square miles). Taiwan has population of about 23, 434, 000 people and ranks No. 54 among 196 countries.
United States policy towards Tibet is flawed for it failed to take into account the size of Tibetan territory and its geopolitical importance to hold the Balance of Power in Asia. It is encouraging to note Taiwan’s support for Free Tibet. The resolution of Tibet-China Border dispute will help to resolve all other border disputes of China and its regional neighbors.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
United States policy towards Tibet is flawed for it failed to take into account the size of Tibetan territory and its geopolitical importance to hold the Balance of Power in Asia.
The Republic of China (ROC)
The term “Republic of China” (ROC) refers to the government that ruled mainland China from 1912 to 1949. This era, also known as the Republican Era, saw the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of a republic based on Sun Yat-sen’s Three Principles of the People. After a period of internal struggles including warlordism and a civil war between the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the ROC government retreated to Taiwan in 1949 following the Communist victory on the mainland.
Since then, the Republic of China has continued to exist on Taiwan and its surrounding islands (Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu), while the Communist Party established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on mainland China. Both the ROC and the PRC claim to be the legitimate government of all of China.
The resolution of Tibet-China Border dispute will help to resolve all other border disputes of China and its regional neighbors.
THE DIPLOMAT
It is encouraging to note Taiwan’s support for Free Tibet. The resolution of Tibet-China Border dispute will help to resolve all other border disputes of China and its regional neighbors.
A pro-Tibet rally in Taipei Image Credit: REUTERS/Pichi Chuang
TIBET, TAIWAN AND CHINA – A COMPLEX NEXUS
TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – TIBET, TAIWAN, AND UNITED STATES RELATIONS. TAIWAN FOR FREE TIBET. FREE TIBET RALLY, CHIANG KAI SHEK MEMORIAL SQUARE, TAIPEI, TAIWAN.
Recent developments in cross-strait relations raise interesting questions for Tibet’s leadership in exile.
By Tshering Chonzom Bhutia for The Diplomat November 24, 2015
The historic meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou is relevant to the Tibet issue in many ways. In 1979, when the post-Mao Chinese leadership decided to “solve old problems,” Tibet and Taiwan were both on the list. After having reached out to the Dalai Lama through his brother in 1978, Beijing turned its attention to Taiwan. “A Message to Compatriots in Taiwan” was issued by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) on January 1, 1979 that sought to end the military confrontation across the straits and resolve the crisis through dialogue. This marked a shift in Beijing’s Taiwan policy from “military liberation of Taiwan” to “peaceful reunification of the motherland.”
Later, in September 1981, Beijing issued a “Nine Point Proposal” to Taiwan. It was enunciated by Ye Jianying, the then NPC Standing Committee chairman, which promised the island a “high degree of autonomy as a special administrative region,” retention of its armed forces, socio-economic system, way of life, and cultural and economic relations with foreign countries, and non-interference in its local affairs. Later, Deng suggested that this proposal could also be considered as “one country, two systems.” This was the first (p.23) time that such a concept was put forward. It was later formalized during the second session of the sixth NPC in 1984.
On July 28, 1981, about two months before the proposal to Taiwan, Beijing had issued a “Five Point Proposal to the Dalai Lama.” It basically echoed Chinese concerns in mid-1981 about how to achieve the return of the Dalai Lama and “his followers.” Since Beijing was not comfortable with the idea of having the Dalai Lama live in the Tibetan region (point four) – possibly fearing that his presence there might evoke nationalist sentiment – it was proposed that he return, but reside in Beijing. The Dalai Lama was promised that he would “enjoy the same political status and living conditions as he had before 1959,” while the returnees were promised better jobs and living conditions. This was nowhere close to what the Tibetans had in mind. Even though the Dalai Lama had decided by the early 1970s that he would not seek independence/separation from China, the Five Point Proposal was not an acceptable proposition, for it sought to reduce the Tibet issue to that of the Dalai Lama.
Meanwhile, Taiwan too had rejected the Nine Point proposal put forward by Beijing. Interestingly, the Tibetan delegates during the talks in 1982 argued that if Taiwan was being offered such concessions, then the same or greater concessions should be granted to Tibet, given the fact that the Tibetans were different from the Chinese in race, culture, religion, customs, language, natural habitat, and history.
INCOMPARABLE
Tibet and Taiwan were incomparable for Beijing, which argued, “Tibet has already been liberated 33 years ago and decisions have already been made. Because Taiwan is not liberated that is the reason why we presented these nine-point offer. It is not the case for Tibet.” For that matter, without bringing up Taiwan, in its White Paper on Tibet in 2004, “Regional Ethnic Autonomy in Tibet,” Beijing rightly alleged that the Dalai Lama was seeking “one country, two systems…after the model of Hong Kong and Macao.” Such an “argument [was] totally untenable” according to China. A similar argument was made:
“The situation in Tibet is entirely different from that in Hong Kong and Macao. The Hong Kong and Macao issue was a product of imperialist aggression against China; it was an issue of China’s resumption of exercise of its sovereignty. Since ancient times Tibet has been an inseparable part of Chinese territory, where the Central Government has always exercised effective sovereign jurisdiction over the region. So the issue of resuming exercise of sovereignty does not exist.”
The differences in Beijing’s approach to the Tibetans on the one hand and to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan on the other, has not gone unnoticed among the Tibetan leadership. The Tibetan leader, Sikyong Lobsang Sangay, in an interview with the World Policy Institute in 2012 wondered whether Beijing’s discriminatory approach owed to the fact that the Tibetans are “racially different” from the Han Chinese?
TIBET – TAIWAN RELATIONS
Meanwhile, following a changing of the guard in Taiwanese leadership and politics starting from the early 1990s, Beijing’s two primary opponents, the Tibetans and the Taiwanese, began to coalesce. Prior to 1992, Tibet-Taiwan relations were almost non-existent, and what exchange existed was in fact quite contentious. One factor was the role played by Taiwan’s Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission (MTAC), an agency set up under the Kuomintang (KMT) government to administer Republican China’s sovereignty over Tibet. The Tibetan government in exile always held that the MTAC had for a very long time been funding “conflicts and discords in the Tibetan community.” Since 1992, after relations began to normalize, the Dalai Lama has travelled three times to Taiwan, in March 1997, March 2001, and September 2009. The first trip was during the tenure of President Lee Teng-hui, the second was after the victory of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) under the leadership of President Chen Shui-bian, and the third was right after the KMT had been reelected to power under President Ma Ying-jeou. All visits evoked fierce condemnation from China.
The Dalai Lama’s visit to Taiwan in 1997 resulted in Beijing adding a third precondition to restarting the Sino-Tibetan talks: “As long as the Dalai Lama makes a public commitment that Tibet is an inalienable part of China and Taiwan is a province of China, then the door to dialogue and negotiation is open.” Beijing’s reformulation of the preconditions to include Taiwan was perhaps its response to the increasing closeness in Taiwan-Tibet relations. A symposium on “International Relations vs Tibetan Issue” organized jointly by the International Relations College of Peking University and China’s Tibet on September 10, 2000, dismissed the coming together of Tibetans and Taiwanese as meaningless, though it agreed that “it deserves our close attention” (China’s Tibet 2000).
But is this coalescing of Tibet-Taiwan forces meant to counter Beijing? At least the Dalai Lama’s strategic imperative for building a coalition with the Taiwanese seems to be limited in its scope and goals. Even though it may be considered as an attempt at building coalition, it did not necessarily mean that the Dalai Lama was contravening his position on dialogue with China through the middle way approach. For instance, in his March 10 statement in 1994, when the Tibetans had just begun stabilizing relations with Taiwan, the Dalai Lama had argued that better relations with the “Chinese living in free countries, especially in Taiwan” would help in explaining the Tibetan situation to them, which he hoped “will gradually percolate to China.”
A similar view was expressed in 1997, when he said that the Taiwan trip might serve “as a gesture of reconciliation.” An additional reason was “to stop the misdeeds of these people forthwith.” The Dalai Lama was referring to the secret agreement signed between the exile organization Chushi Gangdruk and Taiwan on March 31, 1994, without consulting the exile leadership. By the terms of the agreement, the Taiwanese are reported to have promised that once China is “unified under a free, democratic system” they would guarantee “rights of self-governance for Tibet” and recognize the Dalai Lama as “the political and religious leader of the Tibetan people.” The Tibetan leadership in exile were probably concerned because the agreement not only questioned the authority of the exile government to represent the Tibetans in exile, but also had the potential to give rise to a trend of separate agreements by groups with either the PRC or the ROC/Taiwan. The seriousness of the issue is evident in the fact that a referendum was held in exile on the matter.
According to a source in Taiwan’s National Security Bureau, the possibility of establishing bilateral diplomatic relations between Taipei and the Central Tibetan Administration was raised by the Taiwanese during the visit of the Dalai Lama to Taiwan in March 1997, but both sides decided to shelve the matter for fear that the PRC authorities would accuse them of “cooperating in activities to split the Chinese motherland.” The same source said that an invitation to the Dalai Lama to attend Chen Shui-bian’s inauguration in 2000 did not materialize because the Dalai Lama did not want to provoke Beijing.
These inhibitions were later cast aside somewhat as Taiwan set up the Taiwan-Tibet Exchange Foundation in January 2003, with a view to phasing out the Mongolian Tibetan Affairs Commission (MTAC). Though this foundation was touted as “a nongovernmental agency charged with handling relations with the Tibetan government-in-exile,” its launch was presided over by President Chen Shui-bian himself. The leader openly invited the “Tibetan government in exile to join Taiwan in defying China,” thus suggesting a DPP-led Taiwan’s interest in forming a coalition with the Tibetans. The Tibetan leadership in exile seems to have been wary, given that talks were ongoing with Beijing on an annual basis since 2002. The then Kalon Tripa Samdhong Rinpoche, for instance, distanced the Dharamsala establishment from the Taiwan-Tibet Exchange Foundation by commenting that it had no role in the founding of the foundation. Taiwan has also yet to do away with the MTAC, since the DPP lost power to the KMT in 2008. In fact, increasingly, the body has come under fire for focusing on relations with the Inner Mongolia and Tibetan regions in China, for its lack of engagement with the Tibetan exile government, and for “failing to provide any report on alleged Chinese human rights violations in Tibet.” This again is owing to Taiwan’s own political dynamics, as much of the aforementioned criticism of the MTAC has come from DPP legislators. Taiwan’s KMT leader Ma Ying-jeou has focused his attention on normalization of cross-strait economic relations under his policy of “Three Nos”: No unification, No independence and No use of force.
If the DPP is triumphant in the upcoming Taiwan elections, Taiwan’s ties with the Tibetan government in exile are bound to increase. The MTAC may be dissolved, as previously planned. Might Taiwan even consider making a formal statement on the status of Tibet? If so, it would be interesting to see Beijing’s response, and the implications for Sino-Tibetan relations. To recall, the Dalai Lama’s trip to Taiwan in 1997 coincided with the opening of informal channels of communication between the exiled Tibetan leadership and Beijing. The 2001 visit was followed by the opening of formal talks in 2002. By this logic, perhaps it is time for the Dalai Lama to make a fourth visit to Taiwan. Earlier in the year, that is in March 2015, a 12-member Taiwanese delegation met with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala and presented him with an invitation from “15 Taiwanese civic organizations,” to which the Dalai Lama readily gave consent. As we have seen though, the visits also led to the addition of Taiwan to the list of preconditions Beijing set for the restart of a Sino-Tibetan dialogue.
Historically, while Beijing’s outreach to the Tibetans preceded its formal outreach to Taiwan, contemporaneously, Sino-Tibetan talks have lagged far behind. The last round of formal meetings between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and Chinese leaders were held in 2010. How likely is a meeting between Xi Jinping and the Dalai Lama, similar to the one between Xi and Ma? Not very.
One problem is the proliferation over the past few years of the Chinese bureaucracy overseeing Tibet. For a long time, Beijing’s lack of insight into Tibet and the misrepresentation of the ground reality by local leaders were considered key reasons for the failure of Beijing’s Tibet policy. Increasingly, though, bureaucratization and the creation of groups with a vested interest in the status quo are seen as a major hurdle to any substantive talks. Still, many in the Dharamsala establishment seem optimistic that Xi will be able to overcome this hurdle and initiate a major breakthrough on Tibet in his second term when he has consolidated his position.
In late 1978, when Deng decided to get in touch with the Dalai Lama’s brother Gyalo Thondup to discuss the Tibet issue, he may have wanted to make Tibet an example of Chinese sincerity in resolving its outstanding issues. Certainly, the Tibetan delegates who went to Beijing for talks in 1982 were reported to have felt this way. Yang Jingren, the Chinese interlocutor to the talks, is reported to have conveyed to the Tibetan delegates China’s interest in solving the Tibetan problem as an important step to normalizing relations with India.
So, we see an interesting nexus of issues and imperatives that Beijing may be looking at, and, if not, then the Tibetans have been pushing China to consider the links. For example, the Dalai Lama in his March 10 statements of 1994 and 1996 suggested that successful negotiations on Tibet would positively influence sentiment in Hong Kong and Taiwan towards China. These statements were made at a time when the Sino-Tibetan talks had reached a stalemate and all communication had ceased between the two sides. When the announcement of the Xi-Ma meeting in Singapore was made, the Tibetan leadership in exile is likely to have assessed it positively and as an affirmation of their belief in Xi. As to whether that assessment is justified, only Xi can tell.
Tshering Chonzom Bhutia is an Associate Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies, in Delhi, India.
It is encouraging to note Taiwan’s support for Free Tibet. The resolution of Tibet-China Border dispute will help to resolve all other border disputes of China and its regional neighbors.
TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – TIBET, TAIWAN, AND UNITED STATES. TAIWAN FOR FREE TIBET. DALAI LAMA’S VISIT TO TAIWAN IN 2001.It is encouraging to note Taiwan’s support for Free Tibet. The resolution of Tibet-China Border dispute will help to resolve all other border disputes of China and its regional neighbors.Tibet Consciousness – Taiwan for Free Tibet. Dalai Lama praying for village destroyed by typhoon Morakot.Tibet Consciousness – Taiwan For Tibet. Dalai Lama’s visit to Taiwan.TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – TAIWAN FOR FREE TIBET. RALLY IN TAIPEI TO SHOW SUPPORT FOR FREE TIBET.It is encouraging to note Taiwan’s support for Free Tibet. The resolution of Tibet-China Border dispute will help to resolve all other border disputes of China and its regional neighbors.TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – TAIWAN FOR FREE TIBET. PRO-TIBET RALLY IN TAIPEI ON TIBETAN NATIONAL UPRISING DAY, MARCH 10, 2013.It is encouraging to note Taiwan’s support for Free Tibet. The resolution of Tibet-China Border dispute will help to resolve all other border disputes of China and its regional neighbors.
Tibet Consciousness – Art and Reality of Tibetan Suffering
TIBET AWARENESS – TIBET BURNING – CAMPAIGN TO SAVE TIBET.
It is not easy to visualize the reality of Tibetan pain and suffering by using the power of imagination. Some artists have ventured to capture this reality using their artistic talent to transform pictures into short films. World has to honor the memories of these Tibetans who gave their precious lives to get our attention to their pain and suffering.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
ODISHA SUN TIMES
Art for a Tibetan cause
New Delhi, Dec 17: A video, “Funeral #1” follows Ani Palden Choetso, a Buddhist nun and her trail of self-immolation on a street corner in Tawu town in eastern Tibet.
The eight-minute footage, smuggled out of Tibet, shows Choetso standing rock still, engulfed in flames, before collapsing. Later, a crowd gathers and prevents security officials from taking her body away. It shows her funeral at the local monastery, where thousands hold a sombre candlelight vigil. Two days later, a hurriedly filmed mobile phone video shows soldiers attacking the monastery.
The video is a part of a of mixed media installations and video works of the exhibition “Burning Against the Dying of the Light”, by veteran film makers Ritu Sarin and Tensing Sonam, who are also the founders of the Dharamshala International Film Festival. On display at Khoj Studios, the exhibition brings forth the struggle of a land that those living in exile in India and elsewhere still hope to return to.
“We had a lot of footage lying around for many years. We decided to put together a show because it will help the Tibetan struggle to move in the right direction, said Sarin, who along with Sonam made the Tibetan feature film, “Dreaming Lhasa”, that premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.
“Burning Against the Dying of the Light” – also the centrepiece of the show – examines the recent self-immolation protests in Tibet. A number of these fiery protests have been captured on mobile phones and, at great risk to the sender, secretly made available to the outside world. These bring home in graphic and horrific detail, the physical reality of self-immolations. In this, the Wheel of Light and Darkness is created like a mixed-media sculpture.
Then there is the “Funeral #2” video which had made headlines in the capital three years ago. It follows the self-immolation and cremation of Jamphel Yeshi who set himself alight during a peaceful demonstration in the heart of Delhi on March 26, 2012.
Another work, “Nets in the Sky, Traps on the Ground, Video, printed material” is a series of Orwellian phrases taken from official Chinese documents that describe some of the many control mechanisms and restrictive measures aimed at Tibetans will be projected on the walls and ceiling.
“Memorial”, a mixed-media installation, consists of a recreation of the self-immolator, Jamphel Yeshi’s sleeping area in his rented room in Majnu ka Tila, the Tibetan refugee settlement in Delhi, exactly as he left it on the morning of his self-immolation.
The “Taking Tiger Mountain by Storm” video installation, being shown for the first time, redeploys recently acquired Chinese police footage of a large-scale raid on a small village in Central Tibet, converting it from a security apparatus archival record to a parody of what Communism means today in Tibet.
“Two Friends” is a 10-minute-long single-channel video of Ngawang Norphel, 22, and Tenzin Khedup, 24, both monks, who took a vow to die together.
Apart from these works, the “Stranger in My Native Land” documentary by Tenzing Sonam, a poignant and personal account of his first visit to his homeland, is also being shown.
The show is on at Khoj Studios, S-17, Khirkee Extension till December 31 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (IANS)
Whole Suffering – Sixth Self Immolation Tibet in 2015
Tibet Consciousness – Tibet Under Occupation is No Man’s Land
TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – OCCUPIED TIBET – NO MAN’S LAND. NOTES FROM TSERING WANGMO DHOMPA.
The loss of natural freedom in Occupied Tibet has alienated Tibetans from their own Land. Tibet is the natural home for Tibetans and they have a natural right to reclaim Tibet as their own.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
NOTES FROM NO MAN’S LAND
By Shevlin Sebastian
Published: 02nd January 2016 10:00 PM
TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – OCCUPIED TIBET – NO MAN’S LAND. NOTES FROM TSERING WANGMO DHOMPA.
Tsering Wangmo Dhompa | Albin Mathew
In 1994, Tsering Wangmo Dhompa went from Kathmandu to Nangchen in East Tibet, to meet her aunt Parchen, as well as her cousins. Her aunt had recently been freed after being imprisoned for 20 years. Her husband had been a part of the resistance movement against the Chinese. He was killed and Parchen was jailed, for being his wife.
And very often, they would do physical labour. One day, the authorities made the prisoners dig a part of a hillside. As Parchen was doing so, she saw several dogs running around. And she thought, ‘‘How lucky the dogs were.’’
“It was a moving moment for me,” says Tsering, the first female Tibetan poet writing in English. “Parchen did not feel bitter. She would laugh and sometimes cry when she recounted her experiences.”
Later, when Tsering went to Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, she was taken aback by the presence of a large number of policemen and the near-total surveillance. “That feeling of always being watched is a terrifying experience,” she says.
In Lhasa, today, the Chinese outnumber the Tibetans. The younger Tibetans have no option, but to study at Chinese universities. “Unfortunately, they feel marginalised, because they are not treated as equals,” says Tsering, whose parents fled to India in 1959. “But such experiences have helped them to develop a sense of identity.”
Later, Tsering made three more trips to Tibet, the last being in 2009. Her sojourns laid the seeds for her well-received non-fiction book, A Home in Tibet (2013). “While growing up, I read books on Tibet, but they were by Westerners,” she says. “I wanted to read a book by a Tibetan who lived outside, but could also be on the inside. So I thought I would write such a book targeted towards young Tibetans in exile.”
Here is an extract which reflects the pain of exile: ‘‘The flowers in Tibet were always taller, more fragrant and vivid. My mother’s descriptions, imprecise but unchanging, from year to year, had led me to an inevitable acceptance that her past was unequalled by our present lives. She would tell me of the knee-deep fields of purple, red and white, that over time served to create an idea of her fatherland, as a riotous garden. ’’
Tsering had recently come to Kochi, at the invitation of the Kochi chapter of Friends of Tibet, to interact with literature students at the St. Albert’s and Union Christian colleges. She read a few of her poems, and gave them an idea of life in Tibet. “The students asked many questions, because it was so far outside their experience,” she says.
One experience which all of them did not have is to live without a country. “To be stateless is painful,” says Tsering. “Initially, when I wanted to travel to the US, I had to apply for an identity certificate.” This is not a passport, but is recognised internationally. However, an explanation has to be given to every immigration officer about it. In India, Tsering had a refugee card which is issued by the Central government.
But Tsering has no problems living in India. “I was treated very well,” she says. “In my school [Wynberg Allen school at Mussoorie], and college [Lady Shri Ram at Delhi], I have never experienced any discrimination. But the sense of not being at home is an inner feeling. This happens, regardless of where you live.”
Today, Tsering is a naturalised US citizen and lives in San Francisco. She is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. And her subject is Tibetan nationalism and identity. Tsering has published three books of poetry: Rules of the House, (a finalist for the 2003 Asian Literary Awards), My Rice Tastes Like the Lake, and In the Absent Everyday.
“In my poetry, I have always returned to the idea of place, memory and storytelling,” she says. “Stories help people, who are stateless, to experience a sense of place.”
TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – OCCUPIED TIBET – NO MAN’S LAND. NOTES FROM TSERING WANGMO DHOMPA.TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – OCCUPIED TIBET – NO MAN’S LAND – NOTES FROM TSERING WANGMO DHOMPA.TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – OCCUPIED TIBET – NO MAN’S LAND. CRY OF THE SAINTS. A CALL FOR HELP.
Tibet Awareness – A Tribute to Lhadon Tethong for promoting Digital Awareness
TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – TRIBUTE TO ACTIVIST LHADON TETHONG, TIBET ACTION INSTITUTE, CANADA AND FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF STUDENTS FOR FREE TIBET.
I dedicate this blog post to Tibetan Freedom Movement activist Ms. Lhadon Tethong as my special tribute in recognition of her untiring efforts to promote Tibet Awareness particularly using the tool of digital hygiene practices.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
Tibet Consciousness – Tribute to Activist Lhadon Tethong. Design by Tenzing Gaychey.
Design by Tenzing Gaychey
Photo. Alex John Beck
Lhadon Tethong is one of the most prominent and recognizable leaders in the Tibetan freedom movement. She first became a spokeswoman on Tibetan issues after her speech at the 1998 TIBETAN FREEDOM CONCERTS inspired a new generation of Tibetan supporters. Lhadon then went on to serve as Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet, where she led a high-profile global campaign to condemn China’s rule of Tibet in the lead-up to and during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. In 2011, she was awarded the first annual James Lawson Award for Nonviolent Achievement by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.
A Tibetan born in Canada, she recently founded the Tibet Action Institute, which combines digital communication tools with strategic nonviolent action to build and strengthen the Tibet movement for human rights and freedom.
In this interview, Lhadon speaks with Rignam Wangkhang about her work, Chinese cyber surveillance, and the future of digital rights in Tibet.
According to Freedom House’s recent ‘Freedom on the Net’ 2015 report, China was the year’s worst abuser of internet freedom. How would you rank Tibet?
In terms of digital rights in Tibet, we just have to assume it’s the worst of the worst. When we compare the ability of a Chinese person to speak their mind to that of a Tibetan in Tibet, the cost for Tibetans, and the surveillance over Tibetans, is usually much higher. China is extremely paranoid about any challenge to its authority from Tibet.
What is the general situation with respect to surveillance?
Tibetans inside Tibet understand surveillance. Whether it’s online or not, they have been living with unbelievably restrictive and pervasive surveillance inside central Tibet, which the Chinese government calls the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). Outside of the TAR, and in most of the areas of historical Tibet that had been absorbed into the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu, Tibetans have faced increasing restrictions and surveillance in recent years.
It’s not that you just make a comment online and you might get caught. People are stopped at roadblocks, and in Lhasa their phones will be taken and searched.
Post-2008, in the wake of the uprising that rocked the entire Tibetan plateau, the Chinese went to great lengths to physically search, digitally monitor, and root out the key people they believed to be behind the protests. They couldn’t accept that it was a spontaneous and a true expression of Tibetan frustration and anger with their treatment under Chinese occupation.
How is the removal, blocking and filtering of content affecting internet freedom inside and outside Tibet?
It’s very easy for Chinese authorities, who have unlimited resources, to take down websites or take content offline. One day it’s there, then the next day, the next minute, it’s gone – whether it’s a comment or an entire website.
Tom-Skype is a special version of Skype that they use in China and Tibet. We know for a fact that certain keywords are filtered. You can send a message that won’t be delivered because that message has been blocked and censored in transit, by the company itself.
Almost every Tibetan uses WeChat [Chinese messaging and social media app]. We know that in times of heightened sensitivity, people will be arrested for what they post on WeChat. A Tibetan man in Qinghai, Eastern Tibet, in Tibet’s traditional province of Amdo, posted content related to the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday. He was arrested, disappeared, and no one has any information on his whereabouts.
Even those who self-censor, and aren’t necessarily doing anything political, are mapped, and their channels of communication are understood. The biggest risk is that when Tibetans are all using a single service, like WeChat, it’s very easy for the Chinese government to centralize surveillance and map people’s networks.
“The biggest risk is that when Tibetans are all using a single service, like WeChat, it’s very easy for the Chinese government to centralize surveillance and map people’s networks.”
In this photo released by China’s Xinhua news agency, lamas try laptop computers at the square before the Potala Palace in central Lhasa, capital of southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region AP Photo/Xinhua, Gaesang Dawa
Some people tell me that Tibetans cannot let fear consume them, and everyone needs to go back to posting online content as they see fit. They bring up Amdo as an example of people posting so much that the Chinese government began allowing certain things, because they can’t arrest everyone.
Tibetans need to express themselves and I think they do that. Some people are very outspoken and take greater risks than others who speak more in metaphors. Other people are more reticent, and from this place of comfort and freedom that I sit in the U.S., I can’t say what Tibetans inside should or shouldn’t do. Those of us on the outside should not assume we know what’s best, but rather try to hear what they’re talking about, what they’re doing, and support them.
How do we navigate this landscape without self-censoring ourselves?
I think with the case of WeChat, the key is to understand how the technology works, and understand the potential obstacles or risks that can come from using it. Tibetans need to know how to do it in a more smart and secure way, to protect sources on the ground and protect communities.
From your personal experience, how extensive and sophisticated is the surveillance apparatus of the Chinese government?
A lot of the attacks that they launch, hacking attacks or phishing attacks towards Tibetans, aren’t very sophisticated. The reality is that the way Chinese online attackers are going after Tibetans can be pretty crude. Sometimes, because Tibetans aren’t updating their software, it’s as simple as that they’re using an outdated version of Word. If they’re using an outdated version of software, it is more prone to viruses that have been circulating around the web.
We tend to believe Chinese cyber attacks must be sophisticated, but even when the attacks are on the highest levels of the American government, it can be simply that they sent an instant message to some government employee with the right level of clearance and pretended to be that person’s mother, and the person got tricked into clicking on a link and letting the Chinese in. That’s just human error that can be corrected through basic education and awareness. It is a good indication that we have more control than we think.
To me, the situation requires a holistic approach. I don’t think we gain anything from scaring people and disempowering them. It’s a good thing that Tibetans are not easily scared, and I think that is the most hopeful, and encouraging foundational reality of our movement.
Knowing that, how are you educating Tibetans on these matters and what has been the most effective way to educate them so far?
First, by focusing broadly on public awareness and education campaigns. We’ve thought of it like a public health campaign. If there are ways to help people stay healthy and alive online, then that’s where we will put our efforts. There is a need for broad scale public education and awareness about better digital hygiene practices. We’re actually ahead of the curve in the Tibetan world because of our situation.
Next to that is targeted trainings. We can know this afternoon whether a protest happened in Tibet last night. We can see video footage or photos of that protest, and this is an incredible development. By doing targeted training with Tibetan activists and people who are actively getting information out of Tibet, or communicating with people inside Tibet, we hope to establish digital hygiene best practices.
Linkedin is trying to expand into China, and due to pressure from government authorities, it is proactively restricting politically sensitive material from its users in China. Why is this happening?
I think it’s an absolute shame, there’s no other way to put it. I think that these tech giants, whether it is LinkedIn, Facebook, Google or Twitter, have incredible influence and opportunity to push the Chinese government in the right direction, and instead, it’s a race to the bottom. People are so eager to get into the Chinese market, we’re going to see more tech companies doing anything the Chinese ask them to. The entire reason that these tech giants have become giants is because they have built their success on the free and open internet. To then go and help the Chinese government shut it down for Chinese citizens and Tibetans is short sighted.
“The entire reason that these tech giants have become giants is because they have built their success on the free and open internet. To then go and help the Chinese government shut it down for Chinese citizens and Tibetans is short sighted.”
How do you create change with regard to internet freedoms and surveillance in countries like China and Tibet that do not have the same potential for legislative or judicial change as the West?
First and foremost, those of us living in a free and democratic world can lead by example. Stigmatizing encryption tools as something only terrorists use, like in the U.K., is counter productive to the cause of freedom around the world. It’s in the interest of our governments to educate the public about how these tools work, to be more digitally literate, and understand safety and security online. Once people understand these tools and technology more, they will be less likely to have a knee jerk reaction to ban encryption tools. They’ll understand the importance of people being able to have secure speech online.
Next, American, British or Canadian companies like Gamma International and Hacking Team, who are actively helping authoritarian governments use surveillance over their citizens, must be held accountable. These corporations should be outlawed, controlled, fined, made pariahs. That kind of behaviour should not be tolerated, but whether the political will is there is another question.
And finally, no one is engaging with China directly. There are plenty of diplomatic tools in the toolbox to help Tibetans in Tibet and citizens in China who are fighting for rights and freedoms, and our governments should not shy away from engaging with the Chinese openly and directly.
Tendor’s [prominent Tibetan writer and activist] monograph on “The History of Tibetan Non-Violence Struggle” states that the Tibetan struggle is going through transformative resistance. How does this apply to the digital sphere, and what does the future of resistance in Tibet look like with regard to internet freedom, security and digital activism?
The ability for Tibetans to share ideas, joys and sorrows, and hopes and dreams through these advances in ICTs [information and communication technologies] has completely revolutionized the struggle. More Tibetans than ever before are informed and connected to their brothers and sisters in all corners of the world.
We have seen Tibetans wield culture as a weapon, an unbelievably powerful weapon in the struggle. All of this has been fuelled and spread through social media, mobile phones and the Internet. We have this incredible back-and-forth between Tibetans inside Tibet and Tibetans in exile, young Tibetans studying in China. Ultimately nothing that the Chinese do can stem the tide of this change that has started.
The protests in 2008 were predominately non-violent protests by Tibetans as young as middle school, and from all walks of life. Not just monks and nuns, but schoolteachers, farmers, nomads, students. What started then is not finished, and in fact the next generation has become empowered, emboldened and intrigued by what’s out there.
I don’t think that anything can really stand in their way or in the way of the Chinese who want and deserve the same rights and freedoms as we have. The question will just be how quickly the big change comes, and whether our governments and we as individuals and organizations help or stand in the way of that change. Rignam Wangkhang is the Campaigns and Advocacy Officer at Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE). He is also a freelance writer who is a board member with Students for a Free Tibet Canada.
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Tibet Awareness – Full Independence is the Only Solution
For all practical purposes, Full Independence of Tibet is the only solution for Tibet issue.
For all practical purposes, Full Independence of Tibet is the only solution for Tibet issue. Red China is opposed to relaxing its military grip and is promising to continue ruling Tibet with Iron Fist without conceding a genuine demand of meaningful autonomy for Tibet. United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee held 6th Tibet Work Forum in Beijing on August 24-25, 2015. It announced, “The Central Government neither did in the past, nor now or in the future will ever accept the Middle Way solution to the Tibet issue.” Red China’s President Xi Jinping repeated the same statement confirming that the ‘Middle Way’ proposed by the Dalai Lama group will never be accepted.
Tibet’s Full Independence is achieved by cracking those knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist. I coined the phrase “Whole Separatism” to assert my Whole Determination to crack open all the Knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist.
The phrase ‘Tibet Separatism’ is not acceptable as Tibet is never a part of China despite the military conquests of the past Chinese Emperors. However, it must be acknowledged that China subjugates Tibet with her Iron Fist. Tibet’s Full Independence is achieved by cracking those knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist. I coined the phrase “Whole Separatism” to assert my Whole Determination to crack open and “separate” all the Knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist.
Tibet’s Full Independence is achieved by cracking those knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist. I coined the phrase “Whole Separatism” to assert my Whole Determination to crack open all the Knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
Tibet’s Full Independence is achieved by cracking those knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist. I coined the phrase “Whole Separatism” to assert my Whole Determination to crack open all the Knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist.
China’s Xi vows unceasing fight against Tibet separatism | Reuters
REUTERS
Edition: U.S.
World | Wed Aug 26, 2015 12:11am EDT
BEIJING | By BEN BLANCHARD
Tibet’s Full Independence is achieved by cracking those knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist. I coined the phrase “Whole Separatism” to assert my Whole Determination to crack open all the Knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist.
Chinese President Xi Jinping applauds during the opening ceremony of the 15th IAAF World Championships at the National Stadium in Beijing, China August 22, 2015. Reuters/Damir Sagolj
BEIJING China will wage an unceasing fight against separatism in its restive mountainous region of Tibet, President Xi Jinping said, as the government repeated it would never accept exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama’s genuine autonomy proposals.
This year marks several sensitive anniversaries for the remote region that China has ruled with an iron fist since 1950, when Communist troops marched in and took control in what Beijing calls a “peaceful liberation”.
It is 50 years since China established what it calls the Tibet Autonomous Region and the 80th birthday of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since fleeing Tibet in 1959 following an abortive uprising.
At a two-day conference this week of the senior leadership about Tibet, only the sixth ever held, Xi repeated the government’s standard opposition to Tibetan independence, saying he would fight an “an unswerving anti-separatism battle”, state media said in comments reported late on Tuesday. “We should fight against separatist activities by the Dalai group,” Xi was quoted as saying.
The Dalai Lama denies seeking independence, saying he only wants genuine autonomy for Tibet, something he calls the Middle Way and which Beijing believes is merely a smokescreen for independence, arguing Tibet already has real autonomy.
An accompanying commentary published by the United Front Work Department, which has led unsuccessful on-off talks with the Dalai Lama’s envoys, said the government had not accepted, and would never accept, the Middle Way.
The Middle Way seeks to cleave off one-quarter of China, as it would include historic parts of Tibet in neighboring Chinese provinces, the commentary, carried on the department’s WeChat account, said. “The so-called ‘Middle Way’ is in essence a splittist political demand,” it said.
Activists say China has violently tried to stamp out religious freedom and culture in Tibet. China rejects the criticism, saying its rule has ended serfdom and brought development to a backward region.
Xi called for efforts to promote “patriotism among the Tibetan Buddhist circle and effectively manage monasteries in the long run, encouraging interpretations of religious doctrines that are compatible with a socialist society”, state media said.
There should also be more campaigns to promote ethnic unity and promote a sense “of belonging to the same Chinese nationality”, he added. Tibet remains under heavy security, with visits by foreign media tightly restricted, making an independent assessment of the situation difficult.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Tibet’s Full Independence is achieved by cracking those knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist. I coined the phrase “Whole Separatism” to assert my Whole Determination to crack open all the Knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist.Tibet’s Full Independence is achieved by cracking those knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist. I coined the phrase “Whole Separatism” to assert my Whole Determination to crack open all the Knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist.Tibet’s Full Independence is achieved by cracking those knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist. I coined the phrase “Whole Separatism” to assert my Whole Determination to crack open all the Knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist. Tibet’s Full Independence is achieved by cracking those knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist. I coined the phrase “Whole Separatism” to assert my Whole Determination to crack open all the Knuckles of Red China’s Iron Fist.
Tibet Awareness – Mount Qomolangma Speaks the Truth
The Plain and Simple Truth, Nothing but Truth, the Whole Truth, a Truth that is tall and high like the highest Mountain known to us as Mount Everest; Tibet is Never a Part of China.
As the fair weather increases in autumn, lots of tourists are attracted to the Mount Everest Base Camp to enjoy the distant view of Mount Qomolangma at an altitude of 5,200 meters. These tourists are afraid of speaking the Truth. But, if you care to ask Mount Qomolangma, the Truth will be known in one instant. The Plain and Simple Truth, Nothing but Truth, the Whole Truth, a Truth that is tall and high like the highest Mountain known to us as Mount Everest; Tibet is Never a Part of China.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
Tourists attracted by Mount Qomolangma in autumn Xinhua, September 21, 2015 Photo taken on Sept. 16, 2015 shows the scenery of Mount Qomolangma, southwest Tibet. As the fair weather increases in autumn, lots of tourists were attracted to the Everest Base Camp to enjoy the distant view of Mount Qomolangma at an altitude of 5,200 meters. (Xinhua/Zhang Rufeng)
The Plain and Simple Truth, Nothing but Truth, the Whole Truth, a Truth that is tall and high like the highest Mountain known to us as Mount Everest; Tibet is Never a Part of China.The Plain and Simple Truth, Nothing but Truth, the Whole Truth, a Truth that is tall and high like the highest Mountain known to us as Mount Everest; Tibet is Never a Part of China.The Plain and Simple Truth, Nothing but Truth, the Whole Truth, a Truth that is tall and high like the highest Mountain known to us as Mount Everest; Tibet is Never a Part of China.The Plain and Simple Truth, Nothing but Truth, the Whole Truth, a Truth that is tall and high like the highest Mountain known to us as Mount Everest; Tibet is Never a Part of China.The Plain and Simple Truth, Nothing but Truth, the Whole Truth, a Truth that is tall and high like the highest Mountain known to us as Mount Everest; Tibet is Never a Part of China.The Plain and Simple Truth, Nothing but Truth, the Whole Truth, a Truth that is tall and high like the highest Mountain known to us as Mount Everest; Tibet is Never a Part of China.The Plain and Simple Truth, Nothing but Truth, the Whole Truth, a Truth that is tall and high like the highest Mountain known to us as Mount Everest; Tibet is Never a Part of China.The Plain and Simple Truth, Nothing but Truth, the Whole Truth, a Truth that is tall and high like the highest Mountain known to us as Mount Everest; Tibet is Never a Part of China.The Plain and Simple Truth, Nothing but Truth, the Whole Truth, a Truth that is tall and high like the highest Mountain known to us as Mount Everest; Tibet is Never a Part of China.The Plain and Simple Truth, Nothing but Truth, the Whole Truth, a Truth that is tall and high like the highest Mountain known to us as Mount Everest; Tibet is Never a Part of China.The Plain and Simple Truth, Nothing but Truth, the Whole Truth, a Truth that is tall and high like the highest Mountain known to us as Mount Everest; Tibet is Never a Part of China.The Plain and Simple Truth, Nothing but Truth, the Whole Truth, a Truth that is tall and high like the highest Mountain known to us as Mount Everest; Tibet is Never a Part of China.
The Supreme Ruler of Tibet cannot be chosen by any foreign government. Red China is a Liar for she deliberately distorts historical information and reinvents history to justify her evil actions.
On behalf of Special Frontier Force I am pleased to share an article published by ‘The Tibet Post’ which categorically asserts that “Tibet Was Never Part of China.” I thank Central Tibetan Administration(CTA) for releasing their 21-page document which debunks Red China’s claims about Tibet’s status.
Red China is a Liar for she deliberately distorts historical information and reinvents history to justify her evil actions. The Supreme Ruler of Tibet cannot be chosen by any foreign government.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
HISTORY IS AGAINST CHINA; CTA SAYS TIBET WAS NEVER PART OF CHINA
Monday, 07 September 2015 12:32 Molly Lortie, Tibet Post International
Red China is a Liar for she deliberately distorts historical information and reinvents history to justify her evil actions. The Supreme Ruler of Tibet cannot be chosen by any foreign government.
Dharamshala — In response to the most recent white paper regarding Tibet issued by the Chinese Communist Party in August, the India based Central Tibetan Administration has released a 21-page document attempting to set the record straight regarding the historical timeline China has claimed.
While China observed its 50th anniversary of the establishment of the ‘Tibet Autonomous Region,’ the 21-page document entitled “TIBET WAS NOT A PART OF CHINA BUT MIDDLE WAY REMAINS A VIABLE SOLUTION,” was released by Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay, accompanied by DIIR Secretary Sonam Norbu Dagpo, DIIR Secretary Tashi Phuntsok and Tibet Policy director, Thubten Samphel.
The CTA revisits the elongating historical claims that China stakes over Tibet. Reminding us that, “the white paper on Tibet in 2004 claims that ‘Tibet became part of the territory of China in the 13th century.’ On the other hand, the Chinese Republican-era scholars assert that Tibet became a vassal state of China during the Qing period (1644-1911). Now, with its latest white paper, China has again shifted the goal post and states that Tibet has been an integral part of China since ‘antiquity’.”
The CTA goes on to refute each of China’s claims, revisiting the history of the region. In terms of the vague ‘antiquity’ that China most recently claims, the rise of the Tibetan Empire was in the seventh century CE, when both the King of Nepal and Emperor of China courted the Tibetan Empire and each offered their daughters to the Tibetan Emperor for marriage.
The first to suggest that this claim to Tibet holds no weight was the former Vice-chairman, of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress of China, who refuted his own government’s claim in 1989, saying, “some historians claim that Tibet had been a part of China from antiquity, some others claim since the time of Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo through his marriage to the Chinese princess. I do not agree with both these views. When you talk about antiquity, there is no time line or if it is from the time of Songtsen Gampo’s marriage, we all know that the first queen of Songtsen Gampo was Nepal’s princess in which case Tibet should be part of Nepal. How can we explain this?”
Going on to counter the claim that Tibet became a part of China during the 13th century, the CTA revisits Tibet’s history with Mongolia at the time. “The Yuan dynasty was a Mongol empire and its ruler Genghis Khan and his successors conquered vast territories in Europe and Asia, including China. By 1279, the Chinese Song dynasty in southern China fell before the advancing Mongols. The Mongols’ conquest of China was complete. Today, China claims the Yuan Dynasty to be its own dynasty and, by doing so, it lays claim to all Mongol conquests, at least in the eastern half of the Mongol Empire.”
However, a Tibeto-Mongol relationship was established in 1240, when a Mongol expedition was launched to Tibet, thus leading to a religious relationship between the Mongol leaders and Tibetan religious hierarchs. It is well known that Kublai Khan embraced Tibetan Buddhism, adopting it as the official religion of his empire. “In gratitude, Kublai Khan offered his Tibetan lama political authority over all Tibet in 1254, conferring various titles on him. This Tibeto-Mongol relationship continued to exist even after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty.”
The dates of these expeditions, relations and invasions fail to match the timeline that the Chinese government claims. “The year of Mongol military expedition to Tibet in 1240 preceded the Mongol invasion of China’s Song Empire in 1279 by 39 years. This debunks China’s claim over Tibet based on the relations between Mongol Empire and Tibet’s Sakya Lamas.” The CTA concludes that even if by transitive property all Mongol conquests were in fact Chinese conquests, the Tibeto-Mongol relationship predated the fall of the Chinese Song Empire.
Finally, in opposition to China’s final claim that Tibet was acquired during the Qing Dynasty, the CTA’s response uses a statement made by the imperial envoy and commander of the Manchu army, General Fu K’angan, to the Eighth Dalai Lama in 1792, showing the nature of the ‘regulations’ imparted by the Manchu emperor after he assisted the Tibetans in expelling the Gorkhas from Tibet. The statement clearly exudes the Emperor’s context as a protector or assister, rather than a ruler ordering his subjects, as the statement ends with, “The Tibetans may, therefore, decide for themselves as to what is in their favour and what is not or what is heavy and what is light, and make a choice on their own.”
Furthermore, after the conclusion of all the history that China claims made Tibet a part of China, it was in 1914 that Tibet signed a bilateral treaty with British India called the Simla Agreement, legitimizing Tibet’s independent status. Mao Zedong himself remarked after the long march that China’s only foreign debt was to the Tibetans for the provisions we owe them.
The CTA succeeded in using the history against China to refute their broken record that Tibet was at any point in history, part of China. The CTA suggests that the recent most intrusion into Tibet’s history is a blatant attempt of the Communist party to doctor history, to literally stretch the truth, in attempt to legitimize their continued occupation of the region, when in reality the history is against them.
Red China is a Liar for she deliberately distorts historical information and reinvents history to justify her evil actions. The Supreme Ruler of Tibet cannot be chosen by any foreign government.Red China is a Liar for she deliberately distorts historical information and reinvents history to justify her evil actions. The Supreme Ruler of Tibet cannot be chosen by any foreign government.Red China is a Liar for she deliberately distorts historical information and reinvents history to justify her evil actions. The Supreme Ruler of Tibet cannot be chosen by any foreign government.Red China is a Liar for she deliberately distorts historical information and reinvents history to justify her evil actions. The Supreme Ruler of Tibet cannot be chosen by any foreign government.Red China is a Liar for she deliberately distorts historical information and reinvents history to justify her evil actions. The Supreme Ruler of Tibet cannot be chosen by any foreign government.Red China is a Liar for she deliberately distorts historical information and reinvents history to justify her evil actions. The Supreme Ruler of Tibet cannot be chosen by any foreign government.Red China is a Liar for she deliberately distorts historical information and reinvents history to justify her evil actions. The Supreme Ruler of Tibet cannot be chosen by any foreign government.Red China is a Liar for she deliberately distorts historical information and reinvents history to justify her evil actions. The Supreme Ruler of Tibet cannot be chosen by any foreign government.Red China is a Liar for she deliberately distorts historical information and reinvents history to justify her evil actions. The Supreme Ruler of Tibet cannot be chosen by any foreign government.
Tibet Awareness – Dalai Lama’s Welcome to British Buddhists on September 26, 1922
TIBET AWARENESS – DALAI LAMA’S WELCOME TO BRITISH BUDDHISTS IN SEPTEMBER 1922.
I am pleased to share this news story published by The Guardian. Tibet declared its full independence on February 13, 1913 and Dalai Lama was keen to develop contacts with Europe while preserving Tibetan Identity and defending Tibetan Freedom.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA Special Frontier Force- Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
From the Archive, 26 September 1922: Dalai Lama to Welcome British Buddhists
TIBET AWARENESS – DALAI LAMA’S WELCOME TO BRITISH BUDDHISTS IN SEPTEMBER 1922.
Pilgrims at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, 2007. Photograph:
Saturday 26 September 2015 00.00 ED
Reuter’s Agency learns that cablegrams from the Indian frontier, just received in London, show that the members of the British Buddhist Mission to Tibet have crossed the Jelepla Pass, through which the great trade route traverses the Himalayas at a height of some 14,500 feet, and have reached Chumbi. The first and one of the most difficult stages of the great journey has thus been safely accomplished.
The special transport devised for the carriage of stores and gifts for the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan notabilities has answered the severest test, and the Mission reports that everything is going well. The next stage of the journey, that to Gyangtse, is now being made. It has been learned that the Dalai Lama is already acquainted with the approach of the Mission, and is sending a deputation of High Lamas to meet it at Gyangtse. To these will be presented the credentials which are expected to secure for the party permission to proceed to Lhasa itself.
This final stage will be along a route running in a north-westerly direction to the Brahmaputra at Shigatse. Thence a 160-mile journey will be made down the river by boat, the transport being convertible into pontoons for the purpose, to a point about 30 miles south of Lhasa.
This river journey has never yet been made by Europeans. It is at present practically unmapped, and is expected to prove of the greatest interest and importance from the geographical point of view.
In a letter just received, Captain J. E. Ellam, joint leader of the Mission, writes that according to information received in India at the time of writing, the Dalai Lama is anxious to meet representative Buddhists from outside, especially those from the West. “What the Tibetans are afraid of,” Captain Ellam continues, “is an inroad of European adventurers who might seize the country, exploit its resources, and interfere with their religion, laws, customs, &c. Rather than submit to this they would fight or even throw themselves into the arms of the Russian Bolsheviks, some of whose emissaries are now in Lhasa.
“The Dalai Lama wants to develop the resources of his country, which are immense, and to enter into less trammelled relations with the outer world. If,” Captain Ellam says, “the Tibetans can work through the agency of recognised Buddhists upon whom they can rely to protect them from undesirable influences, they will welcome any suggestion to this end with enthusiasm. They realise that their wealth should be the means of procuring for them more of the amenities of that civilisation with which the Dalai Lama and many of his people have already come into contact.
“It is not generally known that several Tibetans have visited England in the guise of Chinese, returning with an account of their experiences.”
Captain Ellam adds that as he is informed that travelling in Tibet is not difficult after the first snows have fallen, and as they will be invited to visit parts of the country where no European has ever been before, he proposes that the Mission shall spend the whole of the winter in the Unknown Land.
