Trouble in Tibet – Page 2 – Whole Dude

Whole Climate – Tibet’s Climate relates to the destiny of billions of people

Tibet Consciousness – Climate Action – Too Little, Too Late

**TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – TIBET CLIMATE ACTION. TIBET HOME FOR 46, 000 GLACIERS AND IS KNOWN AS THIRD POLE OF PLANET EARTH. DEMANDING FREEDOM, PEACE, AND JUSTICE FOR TIBET.**

The problems of severe environmental degradation of Tibet and its melting glaciers cannot be resolved by 2015 Paris Climate Treaty. It is too little, too late. Tibet’s Climate in fact determines the destiny of billions of people. In my analysis, the problem of environmental degradation must be resolved by restoring the natural conditions that operate across the Tibetan Plateau and it includes the sense of natural freedom that shapes Tibetan existence.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA
Special Frontier Force- Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment

THE NEW YORK TIMES

An Accelerating Threat

TIBET GLACIERS RETREAT SIGNALS TROUBLE FOR ASIAN WATER SUPPLY

By EDWARD WONG DEC. 8, 2015

**Tibet Consciousness – Climate Action – Too Little – Too Late. 2015 Paris Climate Treaty will not resolve problem of melting glaciers of Tibet. IMAGE. THE MENGKE GLACIER.**

The Mengke Glacier, one of Tibet’s largest, retreated an average of 54 feet a year from 2005 to 2014. From 1993 to 2005, it retreated 26 feet a year. Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times

MENGKE GLACIER, Over the years, Qin Xiang and his fellow scientists at a high and lonely research station in the Qilian Mountains of northwest Tibet have tracked the inexorable effects of rising temperatures on one of world’s most important water sources.

The thing most sensitive to climate change is a glacier, said Dr. Qin, 42, as he slowly tread across an icy field of the Mengke Glacier, one of Tibet’s largest. In the 1970s, people thought glaciers were permanent. They didn’t think that glaciers would recede. They thought this glacier would endure. But then the climate began changing, and temperatures climbed.
Beneath Dr. Qin’s feet, the cracking ice signaled the second-by-second shifting of the glacier.

**Tibet Consciousness – Climate Action – Too Little – Too Late. 2015 Paris Climate Treaty will not fix problems of Glacier Melt in Tibet. Climate Change in Shibaocheng in Gansu Province, Tibet.**

The extreme effects predicted of global climate change are already happening in Tibet. Glacier retreat here and across the so-called Third Pole, the glaciers of the Himalayas and related mountain ranges, threatens Asia’s water supply. Towns and villages along the arid Hexi Corridor, a passage on the historic Silk Road where camels still roam, have suffered floods and landslides caused by sudden summer rainstorms. Permafrost is disappearing from the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau, jeopardizing the existence of plants and animals, the livelihoods of its people and even the integrity of infrastructure like China’s high-altitude railway to Lhasa, Tibet.

Zhao Tingyu, 66, in front of homes built by the government to resettle villagers whose homes were destroyed by severe flooding caused by heavy rains in the town of Shibaocheng in Gansu Province. Shibaocheng is at the foot of the Qilian range, which has been devastated by recent storms. Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times

The fact that Chinese scientists are raising alarms about these changes is a key reason that the Chinese government has been engaging fully in climate change negotiations in recent years.
Another is the deadly urban air pollution, caused mostly by industrial coal burning, that resulted in Beijing’s first RED ALERT over air quality on Monday.

China, which remains the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gas, pledged last year to begin lowering carbon dioxide emissions around 2030, and in Paris this month, President Xi Jinping reiterated his resolve to help slow climate change. There are no vocal climate change deniers among top Chinese officials.

In November, China released a detailed scientific report on climate change that predicted disastrous consequences for its 1.4 billion people. Those included rising sea levels along the urbanized coast, floods from storms across China and the erosion of glaciers. More than 80 percent of the permafrost on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau could disappear by the next century, the report said. Temperatures in China are expected to rise by 1.3 to 5 degrees Celsius, or 2.3 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit, by the end of the century, and temperatures have risen faster in China in the last half-century than the global average.

People across China are already feeling the impact. The most obvious devastation comes from flooding. The report said an increase in urban floods attributed to climate change has destroyed homes and infrastructure. From 2008 to 2010, 62 percent of Chinese cities had floods; 173 had three or more.

China is more prone to the adverse effects of climate change because China is vast, has diverse types of ecology and has relatively fragile natural conditions, Du Xiangwan, chairman of the National Expert Committee on Climate Change, wrote in the report’s introduction.

Last weekend, Chinese scientists released a separate report that said the surface area of glaciers on Mount Everest, which straddles the Tibet-Nepal border, have shrunk nearly 30 percent in the last 40 years.

Vanishing glaciers raise urgent concerns beyond Tibet and China.

By one estimate, the 46,000 glaciers of the Third Pole region help sustain 1.5 billion people in 10 countries its waters flowing to places as distant as the tropical Mekong Delta of Vietnam, the hills of eastern Myanmar and the southern plains of Bangladesh. Scattered across nearly two million square miles, these glaciers are receding at an ever-quickening pace, producing a rise in levels of rivers and lakes in the short term and threatening Asia’s water supply in the long run.

A paper published this year by The Journal of Glaciology said the retreat of Asian glaciers was emblematic of a historically unprecedented global glacier decline.
I would say that climatologically, we are in unfamiliar territory, and the world’s ice cover is responding dramatically, said Lonnie G. Thompson, a glaciologist at Ohio State University who helped found a project to study climate change on the Tibetan Plateau.

Across China, the surface area of glaciers has decreased more than 10 percent since the 1960s, according to the climate change report. The report linked the expected water scarcity to national security, noting that in the future, disputes between China and neighboring countries on regional environmental resources will keep growing.

The Qilian range, on the north end of the Tibetan Plateau, straddles three provinces and towers to 18,200 feet. Scientists here at the Mengke Glacier have been studying it from a permanent research station since 2007, one of about 10 major glacier research stations in Tibet. The glacier is six miles long and covers nearly eight square miles.

As it recedes more rapidly, floods here have become more frequent and more powerful. In July, the road to the research station flooded, with water rising more than six feet.

Zhao Shangxue, who manages logistics here, said that he had had to abandon his car and walk four hours to the station.
The glacier has always melted in the summertime, but now it melts even more, he said.

A report by the research center said the retreat of the Mengke Glacier and two others in the Qilian range accelerated gradually in the 1990s, then tripled their speed in the 2000s. In the last decade, the glaciers have been disappearing at a faster rate than at any time since 1960.

From 2005 to 2014, the Mengke Glacier retreated an average of 54 feet a year, while from 1993 to 2005, it retreated 26 feet a year.
As scientists like Mr. Qin study the glacier and the consequences of its retreat, towns and villages in the region are grappling with a worsening cycle of drought, sudden rainstorms and floods.

The town closest to the glacier, Shibaocheng, has been devastated by recent storms. Its 1,250 residents, mostly ethnic Mongolian, graze yaks, horses and sheep in high pastures below the glacier during the summer. In 2012, a sudden rainstorm set off flooding that destroyed about 200 homes. Nearly 14,000 animals were killed or lost.

Old people here say they hadn’t seen such a flood in 50 or 60 years, said Gu Wei, the deputy mayor. She said rain mixed with hail came down for three days.

Scientists have no easy way to determine the exact relationship between the rainfall and the changes in the nearby glacier, Dr. Qin said. The retreat of glaciers of course has an effect on the climate and on rain patterns, but we can’t measure it, he said.

Southeast of Mengke Glacier, 180 miles away along the Hexi Corridor, Sunan County at the foot of the Qilian Mountains has experienced some of the region’s worst flooding. It is home to ethnic Yugurs and has flooded a half-dozen times since 2006.

Five years ago, at least 11 people died in floods and landslides. In July, heavy rains led to similar disasters in 13 villages, destroying more than 150 homes and causing more than $6 million of damage, an official report said.

**Tibet Consciousness – Climate Action – Too Little – Too Late. 2015 Paris Climate Treaty cannot fix problems of Climate Change in Tibet. Floods in the Hexi Corridor.**

Floods in the Hexi Corridor are related to torrential rains and precipitation from fronts, said Wang Ninglian, a glaciologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Its caused by climate change.

Kiki Zhao and Mia Li contributed research.

A version of this article appears in print on December 9, 2015, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Chinese Glacier’s Retreat Signals Trouble for Asian Water Supply.

Tibet Consciousness – Climate Action – Too Little – Too Late. Tibet Glacier Retreat, 2015 Paris Climate Treaty has no cure for this environmental degradation. Asian Water Supply under great threat.

**Tibet Consciousness – Climate Action – Too Little – Too Late.**

The problems of severe environmental degradation of Tibet and its melting glaciers cannot be resolved by 2015 Paris Climate Treaty. It is too little, too late. Tibet’s Climate in fact determines the destiny of billions of people. In my analysis, the problem of environmental degradation must be resolved by restoring the natural conditions that operate across the Tibetan Plateau and it includes the sense of natural freedom that shapes Tibetan existence.

Whole Misery – Poverty in Occupied Tibet

Poverty in Tibet – A Petition to the Colonial Masters

Hundreds of Tibetans signed a petition to the Colonial Masters to secure improvement of their living conditions. Red China’s propaganda claiming economic development and improvement of quality of Tibetan lives is not supported by hard evidence. Poverty in Tibet is real.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA
Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment

Hundreds sign petition for improvement of living condition in Tibet

Tibet post International

Tuesday, 24 May 2016 19:07 Kalsang Sherab, Tibet Post International

Tibet-Kham-Drakgo-Karze-2016 — Hundreds of Tibetans signed a petition to the Colonial Masters to secure improvement of their living conditions. Red China’s propaganda claiming economic development and improvement of quality of Tibetan lives is not supported by hard evidence. Poverty in Tibet is real. Modern Face of Trouble in Tibet. Ugly Face of Occupation has New Dimension.

Dharamshala — Hundreds of Tibetans in Khanya Township (Ch: Kaniang), Drakgo County (Ch: Luhuo), just signed a petition to plead with the local government to investigate the severe living condition in the township of Kham region, eastern Tibet. The latest development indicates clearly that Tibetans who live in rural areas are still facing deepening poverty in the face of China’s so-called economic prosperity.

The collective petition also urges the government to solve local troubles as soon as possible, including deteriorate transportation, insufficiency of electricity, difficult water access, backward in public health and education, and forest destruction, etc.

According to local contact, the Chinese government has deliberately ceased poverty alleviation and construction projects in Khanya Township since 2008, which has left the township in extreme poverty ever since. Collapsed road in the raining season, and snow-sealed mountain passes in the winter had trapped villagers in the mountains for several times. Food and accommodation in the township was in serious shortage during these natural disasters, while the government remains unresponsive.

Besides this, due to the lack of water and electricity, inconvenient communication, and malfunctioning transportation, schoolteachers were unwilling to stay. The only school in the township becomes the ’empty house’, and children in the township were thus deprived of educational opportunities, sources told the Tibet Post International (TPI).

By contrast, the local government started to deforest without constraints, which facilitated water and soil loss as well as natural disasters. Regarding this, local Tibetans have reported to the relevant higher authorities for several times, but no response was given. They now hope to call for attention from institutions inside and outside of Tibet through media report.

Multiple pictures of the local situation, include the signed petition received by the RFA Mandarin service showed that the Chinese government propagates their achievement in economic development and improvement of people’s livelihood; but in fact, the difficult situation in Khanya Township is a valid evidence to debunk this claim.
One local source pointed out six needs;
Our Khanya Township has 400 households, and is 80 kilometers away from the Drakgo County. Due to the terrible road condition, collapse commonly happens along the way, and many car accidents thus occur; this is the first problem. Secondly, the government constructed a small power station, which is almost derelict nowadays. Thus the electricity for living and production in this township has also been paralyzed. The seriously damaged electricity pole and low quality electricity cables have resulted in multiple accidents. During these accidents, some people died and some other were permanently disabled, but no compensation was provided. Thirdly, the issue of water access is still not solved by the government, which has seriously impacted the health of both villagers and livestock. Fourth, the telephone facility was not well built by the government. Almost in half of the full year, the telephone cannot be connected, but villagers have been required to pay for the telephone fee for the full year. Fifth, the only school in the township is an empty shell, without teachers or students. This directly affects kids’ study and future. Sixth, the housing quality and public health in our township are largely lagged behind, and remain insecure. The so-called house-construction compensation, poverty alleviation subsidy, and health insurance allowance are not broadly implemented. Villagers are complaining a lot about this.

In order to solve the issues above, 400 households in Khanya Township appealed again to the relevant authorities of the government, but no response was given.

The informant reflected, ‘On December 23 last year, all of the villagers signed the letter appealing to the local government, calling for relevant officials to investigate whether CCP’s beneficiation policy has been implemented. However, no response has been given ever since. Thus, we recently submitted a collective petition to the County’s government, calling for the government taking steps to alleviate the severe situation at the moment.’ According to another local contact, this time, the collective case of appeal mainly mentions the problems of water and electricity, transportation, and deforestation, and so on.

The sources also revealed, ‘in our Khanya Township, trans-village roads, local power station, and mobile communication equipment are all jerry-built projects. For example, the tap water only works at summer, and it is almost gone in the winter. The quality of the road is poor, and once it rains or snows, even motorbike cannot go through. The electricity and communication facility is usually cut off for long intervals.

‘The facility is terrible, and even it breaks down, no people are sent to repair them. It caused accidents including, Jigme Wangchuk, a Khanya villager from Gyeda Village (Ch: Jizha, Luhuo county in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China), was shocked to death by high-tension electricity cable; and Konchok Gyaltsen, another Khanya villager from Khanya Village, was disabled by mobile communication cables, and Metok Dolma, a Khanya villager from Lharo Village was crippled by deforestation; and so on. And those people who are killed or disabled did not receive any compensation from the government.’

The informant added, ‘the cow-stealing cases are becoming more and more serious in our township. It often happens, but the government has no response despite of our report. Deforestation is becoming more and more severe. Recently, the government cut down overtly amount of trees in our holy mountain, and reaped exorbitant profits. The whole mountain has been devastated, and forestry resource has severely damaged, which may result further water and soil loss, and frequent natural disasters.’

The informant told TPI that after submitting the signed statement again, the government has promised to take measurements. However, based upon past experience, in order to urge the Chinese government to improve the current situation of Khanya Township, Khanya villagers still wish for external attention and support.

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by The The Tibet Post International.

Whole Future – The Future of Tibet Hangs in the Balance

The Future of Tibet Hangs in the Balance

**TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET. THE GREAT TIBET PROBLEM WILL EXIST UNTIL BALANCE OF POWER IS RESTORED IN OCCUPIED TIBET.**

Trouble in Tibet as Future of Tibet Hangs in the Balance. Tibetans enjoyed natural sense of Independence for several centuries which includes extended periods of foreign conquests by Mongol China and Manchu China. As Dalai Lama admits the need for ‘Skepticism’, Tibetans have become highly skeptical as Future of Tibet got intertwined with the vexing problem of Red China’s oppressive regime. I predict the sudden, catastrophic downfall of the mighty Chinese Empire any time before or after the Dalai Lama.

Whole Future – The Future of Tibet hangs in the balance. **I predict the sudden, catastrophic downfall of the mighty Chinese Empire any time before or after the Dalai Lama.**

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA
Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment

WWW.SLTRIB.COM
JUN 24, 2016

More from the Dalai Lama on the afterlife, science, China and Tibet’s future

Peggy Fletcher Stack
First Published Jun 22 2016 09:51AM • Last Updated Jun 22 2016 12:14 pm

THE FUTURE OF RED CHINA WITHOUT DALAI LAMA. I PREDICT SUDDEN CATASTROPHIC DOWNFALL OF THE EVIL RED EMPIRE AFTER DALAI LAMA WITH OR WITHOUT HIS REINCARNATION.

(The Dalai Lama waves goodbye to the crowd after speaking at the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. (Chris Detrick/The Salt Lake Tribune) via AP)

The Dalai Lama captivated thousands of Utahns this week with his speech Tuesday at the Huntsman Center, emphasizing the power of individuals in bringing about change and pointing out that actions, more than prayer, can lead to global peace.

But the Tibetan Buddhist leader touched on many more topics — from the afterlife to Chinese relations and the value of science — during a question-and-answer session. Here are some of his responses:

• What does he say about the afterlife to a man whose father committed suicide?

“That is sufficient reason to feel sad, but then think that sadness will not bring your father back,” he said. “Now you should work hard and make an effort to fulfill your late father’s wish, and somehow he will know of your condition.”

• What happens after death?

That, he said, is “a more complicated question.” In some Indian traditions, including Hinduism and Buddhism, there is no central authority as creator, “just self-creation,” he said. “Actions bring positive or negative results or karma. … Basically the life continues, no beginning or end until people reach nirvana,” akin to enlightenment, and escape from the cycle.

• What is the most effective approach to climate change?

“I don’t know,” he said. “Ask some specialist.”

• What role does scientific education play in universal responsibility?

“I especially like scientific research that involves the brain,” he said. ” … Such research is now showing interest in the nature of compassion — love — based on the oneness of the individual … and how anger and fear destroy the mind and the physical health.”

The Dalai Lama said he has had many discussions with scientists who are “neutral and unbiased — so that’s a true scientist — that mental attitude is very necessary to further research or knowledge. … There is no progress without investigation. Your mind must be open. It is also necessary to have skepticism. That brings questions and questions bring an effort to find any answer. … If you are contented, if you feel ‘I know everything,’ then no further progress.” ” … I am nearly 81, but I consider myself still a student,” said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

• Will he ever return to Tibet?

Nine years after the Chinese took over Tibet in 1950, the Dalai Lama fled to India with a small party of his associates. He has lived in exile for more than five decades, he said Tuesday, and most of the people with his group are either dead or too old to travel. “I don’t know if they will see Tibet or not,” he said, “but most of us feel that one day will come when we meet back home.”

China, of course, sees Tibet as part of its sovereign territory and has opposed any move toward independence, which the Dalai Lama also has given up. But the Tibetan leader hopes China will allow the Tibetans to continue their traditions and culture. “I feel for their own [Chinese] future and for society,” he said, “if they don’t change.”

Younger Chinese who travel, study, tour or do business outside the country are more open, he said. “If you have an opportunity to meet them, tell them the reality.” He was, he said, “optimistic.”

Peggy Fletcher Stack

Copyright @ 2016, The Salt Lake Tribune

THE FUTURE OF RED CHINA’S EXPANSIONISM – BEIJING DOOMED.

Whole Disaster – Biblical Prophesy Brings Hope to Tibet

Trouble in Tibet – Hope comes from the prophesy discovered by Doomsayer of Doom Dooma

K. N. Raghavan author of book on Tibet titled ‘Vanishing Shangri La: Tibet and Dalai Lama in 20th Century) expressed deep concern for the future of Tibet after Dalai Lama.

Communist China’s military occupation of Tibet in 1950 is a true disaster. In my analysis, Red China’s actions are Evil and the consequence of Evil is described by the meaning of the term Evil; it means calamity, disaster, catastrophe, apocalypse, and Doom. Beijing is Doomed and Red China’s fate is sealed. As Doomsayer of Doom Dooma, I share prophesy of Prophet Isaiah (Book of Isaiah, Chapter 47:10&11) to declare Red China’s unexpected, unavoidable, inevitable, sudden downfall and there is no nation that can save Red China from her predicament.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA

SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE

As Doomsayer of Doom Dooma, I share prophesy of Prophet Isaiah (Book of Isaiah, Chapter 47:10&11) to declare Red China’s unexpected, unavoidable, inevitable, sudden downfall and there is no nation that can save Red China from her predicament.

Trouble in Tibet – Hope From Doomsayer of Doom Dooma. Author K.N. Raghavan expressed deep concerns about future of Tibet after Dalai Lama. As Doomsayer of Doom Dooma, I share prophesy of Prophet Isaiah (Book of Isaiah, Chapter 47:10&11) to declare Red China’s unexpected, unavoidable, inevitable, sudden downfall and there is no nation that can save Red China from her predicament.

THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS

The Glory of Tibet and the Tragedy of Tibetans;A Scholarly Book Puts Them In Perspective

By T J S George
Published: 17th April 2016 04:00 AM

India has always been in a lose-lose situation vis-à-vis Tibet. And China always in a win-win situation. Which means that, in realpolitik terms, the Tibetan refugees of today will remain refugees for ever and Tibetan Buddhism will never again have a home of its own. The plight of the displaced Tibetans has attracted world attention because of the international respect the present Dalai Lama has won with his humanity and championship of peace. But after him?

India has always been handicapped by a cultural inability to understand the intricacies of Tibetan politics and mores. On the other hand, China’s perception of Tibet as part of its geography and history has remained constant during the era of the emperors, the interregnum of Chiang Kaishek’s nationalism, and the triumphalist communism of Mao Zedong.

In 1956, when the Dalai Lama visited Bombay, Delhi directed governor M C Chagla to serve the guest strict vegetarian fare. Chagla arranged a grand thali-style dinner at the state banquet. The next morning, the ADC conveyed a message to the governor that the Dalai Lama would like to have kidney and sausages for breakfast. “So much for Delhi’s knowledge about the culinary habits and tastes of important visitors,” noted Chagla in his autobiography Roses in December.

Delhi’s knowledge of diplomatic delicacies was no better. In October 1950, as Tibet’s attempt to strike a deal with the new Communist rulers of China came to nothing, China invaded Tibet and paused at Chamdo. India had two options. It chose the first, apparently at the behest of the then foreign policy boss Girija Shankar Bajpai, and sent a strongly worded protest note to Peking. The Chinese replied by calling India a “running dog of Anglo-American imperialism”. Thereupon India adopted its second option, proposed by K M Panikkar, ambassador to China.

The position now was that India should make a gesture of friendship towards the new Communist country by not opposing the occupation of Tibet. (The official Indian note mentioned that India recognised the sovereignty of China over Tibet. It turned out that the word intended was suzerainty, but sovereignty crept into the message wrongly because of oversight at the Cypher Bureau in Delhi. The External Affairs Ministry tried to correct the mistake with another message to China, but was dissuaded from doing so on the ground that such a major correction would cause serious misunderstandings besides damaging India’s reputation.)

Facing imminent conquest, Tibet appealed to all the big nations of the world and to the UN for help. Nobody showed any interest. And nobody was to blame but Tibet itself. K N Raghavan, author of the latest book on Tibet (Vanishing Shangri La: History of Tibet and Dalai Lama in 20th century) says, “Tibet’s inaccessibility, solitude and its unfriendly response to even the friendliest of overtures all combined to ensure that it would not receive any support from other nations during its hour of need.”

Raghavan is not in unfamiliar territory. Author of the definitive Dividing Lines: Contours of India China Conflict, he has an extraordinary eye for detail and a gift to put complex issues in simple terms. He shows how the Dalai Lama began his rule with “a period of honeymoon” with China. He even visited China as an honoured guest in 1954, was ardently cultivated by Mao, and appointed a Vice-President of the Steering Committee of the People’s Republic of China. But relations soured in a few years. When rumours spread of Chinese plans to arrest the Dalai Lama, Tibetans rose in anger against the Chinese. Amid chaos in Lhasa, the Dalai Lama and party managed to leave the capital in disguise and, sick and tired, entered India on March 31, 1959. Raghavan argues convincingly that China had allowed the escape in order to avoid the adverse world reactions his capture would have invited. With the Dalai Lama out of the scene,

China “brought the entire might of the PLA to crush the incipient rebellion” by the Tibetans.
With a comprehensive and scholarly analysis of China’s policies in Tibet after the Dalai Lama left, the soft power Tibetan exiles have been exerting on western intelligentsia and the Middle Way Approach conceived by the Dalai Lama, Raghavan provides an exhaustive overview of Tibet in its transformatory age—an account that is both inspirational and sad. The resilience shown by the Tibetans wins our admiration but their homelessness leaves us feeling sorry for them.

The Dalai Lama, Nobel Prize and all, carried the helpless diaspora on his brave shoulders. But after him.

**Trouble in Tibet – Hope From Doomsayer of Doom Dooma. Beijing is Doomed. Doom Dooma, Assam is known as Tea City of India.On bhavanajagat.com**

Whole Disaster – Occupation of Tibet is a Disaster and Heavenly Strike will come as a Blessing

Trouble in Tibet – Compassion delivers a Heavenly Strike on the Evil Empire

**Whole Disaster – Occupation of Tibet is a Disaster and Heavenly Strike will come as a Blessing. The Fall of Babylon. Revelation, Chapter 19.**

Trouble in Tibet. World can be changed in three or four decades through education. I speak of ‘Compassion’ as an instinctual response in recognition of pain and suffering of another human being.

Compassion acts like a Physical Force and it can transform man and the world in which man exists. To uplift Tibetans from pain and suffering, Compassion Strikes the Evil Empire to change her heart and mind.

Beijing is Doomed. Evil Empire’s Fate is Sealed. Doom, Disaster, Calamity, or Cataclysmic Event to Strike the Evil Empire is destined as an act of Compassion for it is purposive, goal-Oriented, and not a random, unguided collision event.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA
SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE

LESSONS FROM THE DALAI LAMA

**Trouble in Tibet – Which Type of Force Can Evict China? Dalai Lama Opens California Temple With Message of Compassion.**

Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, visited Boulder for two talks on compassion, education, and training the mind.

By KIRAN HERBERT June 24 2016, 10:45 AM

“We are all the same human beings—mentally, physically, and emotionally,” says the Dalai Lama, beginning the first of two sold-out appearances at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Coors Events Center. For someone who carries the title His Holiness, it might seem an interesting place to start, but not if you’re familiar with the 14th Dalai Lama and his major tenets.

The 80-year-old monk was born Tenzin Gyatso on a straw mat in rural Tibet. In Tibetan Buddhist culture, which believes in reincarnation, there exists a select subset of enlightened individuals who are said to be able to control the time and place of their future births. The Dalai Lamas are the most famous example and are believed to be manifestations of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, continually eschewing nirvana in order to serve humanity—Gyatso was discovered at the age of two, after an extensive process that included consulting an oracle and interpreting numerous signs.

For non-Buddhists, the Dalai Lama still serves as a spiritual leader, touting a message of secular ethics, peace, non-violence, inter-religious harmony, and the preservation of Tibetan culture. He touched on all those themes during his two talks: “Eight Verses for Training the Mind” (which was heady and focused on Buddhist dharma) and “Educating the Heart and the Mind” (where the Dalai Lama answered audience questions). Throughout, he spoke with a sense of humor, approachability, and humility seldom associated with world leaders.
Colorado has about 300 Tibetans living in exile and that community’s children kicked off the day’s events with traditional costumes, dancing, and song. After introductions from

Congressman Jared Polis (who earned a standing ovation after announcing he was returning to D.C. for the sit in ) and Boulder Mayor Suzanne Jones (who fittingly gifted the Dalai Lama a bike helmet and jersey), the Dalai Lama began speaking with an accent, occasionally using a translator to ruminate on everything from globalization and materialism to analytical thinking and forgiveness.

When the talks concluded, the audience—old Tibetan women, folks in Burning Man garb, college students—were left with a lot to digest. Here are our takeaways.

The Dalai Lama meets with students. It was the Dalai Lama’s third visit to the university campus and his first in nearly 20 years. (Photo courtesy of the University of Colorado-Boulder, Glenn Asakawa)

A NEW REALITY

“Reality has changed, but our thinking is old and dated: In order to gain you destroy the other,” says the Dalai Lama. “The new reality: the destruction of your neighbor is the destruction of yourself.” In a globalized world, he continued, things like climate change and the global economy have no national boundaries, and we’re in for “the same miserable century,” filled with starvation, poverty, and death, unless we ignite change.

Change Begins With One

Small transformations have a butterfly effect—as one individual becomes more compassionate she spreads it to a friend and then more friends, until gradually thousands have been drawn into the fold.

A More Compassionate Humanity

“We need to make an effort through education so that we can achieve a happier, more compassionate world,” says the Dalai Lama, calling on politicians, the media, and educational institutions to lead the charge. Again and again, the Dalai Lama stressed the importance of cultivating tolerance, contentment, and forgiveness in order to practice altruism. “If we think one goal—a happier, more compassionate world—then I think it’s possible the second half of the century will be a happier world.”

Take the High Road

“Our enemies are our greatest teachers,” says the Dalai Lama, expounding on the need to always practice humility in dealing with others and be aware of our own afflictions in order to counter them. When others are negative, be tolerant and patient, remaining unperturbed.

Mind Your Materialism
Inner beauty trumps outer beauty. Technology used only for temporary entertainment is a waste of time. We need to move away from an emphasis on materialism in our lives and culture.

Our Only Hope is Education

“Our only hope is through education—to change our thinking and our way and life,” says the Dalai Lama, emphasizing the importance of dialectical thought, as well as the use of both the head and the heart. “We need teaching and education in the existing secular education field which covers the entirety of humanity.” Maybe then, in three or four decades, our children will be born into a better world.

Trouble in Tibet – Have Hope – Compassion Will Strike The Evil Red Empire. **Whole Disaster – Occupation of Tibet is a Disaster and Heavenly Strike will come as a Blessing. The Fall of Babylon. Revelation, Chapter 19.**

Whole Resistance – Tribute to March 10, 1959 Photographer Jigme Taring

Remembering historical events of March 10, 1959, I am very happy to share J. Norbu’s tribute to Tibetan official photographer Jigme Taring.

The Mystery of the March 10 Photographer

By J. Norbu

Last year, when putting together the March 10th Memorial website, a major problem I encountered was obtaining photographs and film footage for this critical period in our modern history. Three black-&-white photographs were all there was of the public demonstration on the morning of March 10th.

**REMEMBERING MARCH 10, 1959. TRIBUTE TO TIBETAN OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER JIGME TARING.**

Possibly the most reproduced of these three photos is that of the enormous crowd gathered before the eastern gate of the Norbulingka palace. A snow lion statue is in the right foreground with the scene extending back to somewhere near the Chango bridge on the Norbulingka–Lhasa road.

The second photo gives us an even further view of the crowd and shows people from Lhasa streaming to joining the gathering. You also get a glimpse of the Chakpori in the distance. The third photo is disturbing. We have a partial view of the mutilated body of Phakpala Khenchung Sonam Gyaltsen behind one of the two snow lion statues in front of the main gate, surrounded by people brandishing daggers, swords and even a hatchet.

A few of the people are looking up at the photographer who evidently took his picture from one of the two squarish turrets on either side of the main gate, most likely the one on the right as the head of the snow-lion is turned to the left. All three photographs have most likely been taken by the same photographer as the vantage point of all three images appear to be the same.

My guess is that the photographer was probably Jigme Taring. The people knew him as the Dalai Lama’s official photographer and perhaps that’s why don’t appear particularly hostile to him. We know the public was otherwise very angry, even violent that day. Of course, we cannot be certain that Taring took these photographs, but so far, I have not come across any mention of another official in the Norbulingka that day who might have taken these photographs.

It is further possible that Jigme Taring also took the two photographs we have of the women’s demonstrations before the Potala Palace at the Dribu Yukhai Thang (where government barley was threshed).

Photo of Jigme Taring shooting a cine-camera, with his still-camera and flash by his side. Photo by Chen Zonglie, Xinhua News Agency.

Jigme Taring was in and out of Norbulingka in the subsequent days, but during the night of the artillery barrage and the next day of the PLA attack he was inside the Summer Palace. It is therefore more than possible that the color images below of armed Tibetan volunteer fighters inside and outside the Norbulingka walls were taken by Jigme Taring. These scenes were shot on color film, most probably on the “official” cine-camera that Jigme Taring had earlier used to film the Dalai Lama’s Geshe examinations.

**Remembering March 10, 1959. Tribute to photographer Jigme Taring. H.H. The Dalai Lama at his Geshe examination.**

The Dalai Lama debating at his Geshe examination. From the official film shot by Jigme Taring.

He had probably used what was left of his color film stock to record the scenes at the Norbulingka. We now know that in the chaos Taring left the cine-camera behind in Norbulingka with a young official, and it is almost certain that the Chinese later obtained the camera and film. Some of the footage taken by Taring later appeared (in black& white) in the Chinese propaganda film Putting Down the Rebellion in Tibet. The Chinese Propaganda Department was then using black and white film, and only a few years later used color film for their documentary, By The Lhasa River. The color footage of the Taring film have also appeared in other documentaries and are probably now available somewhere in Beijing.

The following images are screenshots taken off a video made from the color film. In the first image the person sitting in the foreground, right, looks very much like a young Juchen Thupten Namgyal of Derge, who in his 22 volume (!) autobiography mentions that he was a volunteer defender at the Norbulingka.

**Remembering March 10, 1959. Tribute to photographer Jigme Taring.**

We cannot be sure but the next three images are possibly scenes inside and outside the Norbulingka. The neat walls in the second and third image could be the outer wall of the Norbulingka and the yellow wall in the fourth image could be that of the interior compound, which was traditionally painted yellow.

The Chinese also shot some black & white footage of Tibetan volunteers outside the Norbulingka though it was understandably taken from a distance. A Chinese journalist Shan Chao [1] accompanied some PLA officers in a convoy of three armored cars on Monday the 16th to survey the trenches and fortifications the “rebels” were building at the northern end of the Norbulingka. A cameraman from the propaganda department recorded the scene on film.

In conclusion, I would like to dedicate this post to the memory of Jigme Taring – photographer and man of courage. In March 1959, he went to the Norbulingka to serve and protect the Dalai Lama and remained there through the period of the Dalai Lama’s escape, and during the subsequent fighting. In his autobiography, the monk official (tsedrung) Tenpa Soepa [2] mentions meeting Jigme Taring during an intense artillery bombardment.

Taring Dzasak who asked me for help, and we went inside the Phodrang Sarpa (New Palace). All the window panes were broken and the floor was filled with shards of glass. Taring Dzasak took out a (cine?) camera and a few rolls of film from a room below the Phodrang and said, pointing his gun to his head said, ‘Let’s get going, If worse comes to worst, this is the way’. He clearly meant that if nothing worked, we would have to take our own lives. As we came out of the Phodrang, a shell landed near us and exploded; when the smoke cleared, Taring Dzasak was nowhere to be seen.”

According to Mrs. Taring [1] her husband told her (in exile) that he had taken the official cine-camera from the Dalai Lama’s palace and shot scenes of the fighting and artillery bombardments. He then gave the camera to a junior official to look after, but never met him again. He then took a rifle from an official who did not know how to handle it and joined in the fighting. Finally, he and a soldier, Pasang Thondup, attempted to escape. “To avoid being tortured by the Chinese they made a pact that if either of them was hit by a shell, then the injured one should be shot dead by the other.” But both of them managed to escape. “His only possessions when he fled was a camera, some film, a pair of binoculars and a revolver.”

On his way, south he was stopped by Chushigangdruk fighters but convinced them that he was Taring Dzasak and that the photographs in his camera were invaluable and should reach the Dalai Lama. They let him go. This camera was most likely his still camera with which he took the three black-&-white photographs (and the women’s rally photos) discussed at the beginning of this article – which have immeasurably benefited our history and struggle.

Notes:

[1] Tenpa Soepa, 20 Years of My Life in China’s Death Camp, Author House, Bloomington IN, 2008, p.30

[2] Shan Chao, “Sunshine After Rain: From a Lhasa Diary”, Peking Review May 5, 1959 No:18, Special Tibet Number.

Dolma

[3] Rinchen Taring, Daughter of Tibet, John Murray, London, 1970. p.297-298

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.