Whole Awareness – Page 2 – Whole Dude

Whole Awareness – Supreme Ruler of Tibet forced to live in Exile

Tibet Awareness – Supreme Ruler of Tibet forced to live in Exile to defend Freedom in Occupied Tibet

After Communist China’s military invasion of Tibet during 1950-51, both India and Tibet earnestly tried to resolve the crisis using peaceful negotiations. China took full military advantage of India’s inability to use military force to neutralize China’s Military Expansionism. India, and Tibet obtained limited assistance from the United States to counter China’s military conquest of Tibet. Futility of their efforts became apparent in March 1959 when China killed thousands of innocent Tibetan civilians who organized massive protest on 13^th March to defend their Supreme Ruler.

**TIBET AWARENESS – SUPREME RULER OF TIBET FORCED TO LIVE IN EXILE TO DEFEND FREEDOM IN OCCUPIED TIBET. HIS HOLINESS THE 14th DALAI LAMA’S ARRIVAL IN INDIA ON MARCH 31, 1959.**

His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama, Supreme Ruler of Tibet is currently visiting Assam, and Arunachal Pradesh. He had an emotional Reunion with Assam Rifles guard Naren Chandra Das on Sunday, April 02, in Guwahati.

The Supreme Ruler of Tibet is forced to live in Exile to defend Freedom in Occupied Tibet. For that reason, His Holiness has claimed that his reincarnation will not happen inside Tibet if he dies while living in Exile.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Dalai Lama’s emotional reunion with guard who aided flight from Tibet

**Whole Awareness – Supreme Ruler of Tibet forced to live in Exile to defend Freedom of Tibetans. Dalai Lama’s reunion with Naren Chandra Das 58 Years after his escape from Occupied Tibet.**

Buddhist leader meets Naren Chandra Das 58 years after he escorted him in India after his escape from Chinese authorities.

MICHAEL SAFI in Delhi

Monday 3 April 2017

The first time they met, Indian paramilitary guard Naren Chandra Das was ordered not to talk to the bespectacled young soldier he was escorting near the Chinese border in a top-secret mission.

Nearly 60 years later, Das was reunited with the Dalai Lama in an emotional ceremony that recalled the Buddhist leader’s escape from Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese authorities.

This time the Dalai Lama had the first word. “Looking at your face, I now realize I must be very old too,” he told Das, 79, at a ceremony on Sunday in the north-eastern city of Guwahati.

The ceremony is likely to fuel anger in Beijing over the Dalai Lama’s tour of north-east India, including Arunachal Pradesh, a border state with areas that China regards as its own territory.

The Dalai Lama said: ‘Looking at your face, I now realize I must be very old too,’ on meeting Naren Chandra Das again. Photograph: Biju Boro/AFP/Getty Images

It has warned India that the tour by the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing calls an “anti-China separatist”, will do serious damage to ties between the two Asian powers.

In Guwahati on Sunday the Dalai Lama – who denies seeking Tibetan independence – remembered the “warm-hearted” welcome he received in India after a 13-day trek through the Himalayas to escape the Chinese army.

“The days prior to my arrival in India were filled with tension and the only concern was safety, but I experienced freedom when I was received warm-heartedly by the people and officials and a new chapter began in my life,” he said.

The Dalai Lama fled his Lhasa palace in March 1959 when he was 23 after years of tension between Tibetans and the Chinese government erupted into popular rebellion.

Disguised as a Chinese soldier, he and members of his cabinet slipped out of the palace and trekked by night through mountains and across the 500-metre (1,640feet) Brahmaputra river to reach the Indian border.

**TIBET AWARENESS – SUPREME RULER OF TIBET FORCED TO LIVE IN EXILE TO DEFEND FREEDOM IN OCCUPIED TIBET.**

The Dalai Lama and his escape party cross the Zsagola pass, in southern Tibet on 21 March 1959, while being pursued by Chinese military forces. The 23-year-old Dalai Lama is aboard the white horse. Photograph: HG/Associated Press

Until he appeared in India, some observers feared the Dalai Lama had been among the estimated 2,000 people killed when the Chinese crushed the uprising.

India offered him asylum and a home base in the hill town of Dharamsala, where he was permitted to set up a government-in-exile. About 80,000 Tibetan refugees soon joined him in the Himalayan town.

China argues the 1959 rebellion was the work of wealthy landowners bent on maintaining feudal rule, and that its “peaceful liberation” of the mountainous region has brought development and prosperity.

The Chinese foreign ministry on Monday reiterated its objection to the Dalai Lama’s tour of the border states, saying it was “resolutely opposed to any country’s support and facilitation for the 14th Dalai group’s anti-China separatist activities”.

Chinese anger over India’s role in sheltering the Dalai Lama was one of the factors that led to a brief war between the two countries in 1962. Cross-border incursions by Chinese troops are regularly reported and border areas of the state are highly militarized.

From the archive, 1 April 1959: Paratroops join hunt for Dalai Lama

Manchester Guardian, 1 April 1959: The Chinese were yesterday using planes and some fifty thousand troops to search the Tibetan mountain passes for the Dalai Lama

Read more

Like past Indian leaders, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, has maintained an official policy of treating the Dalai Lama as an “honored guest” in the country, inviting him to meet the Indian president in December – another event that drew Chinese condemnation.

India and Tibet share close cultural and religious ties and the Dalai Lama has regularly affirmed India’s sovereignty over the entirety of Arunachal Pradesh, including areas the Chinese government labels “south Tibet”.

Tibet remains under the tight control of the Chinese government and possessing pictures of the Dalai Lama or his writings is illegal.

On Sunday, the Dalai Lama appeared to whisper something to Das as the pair embraced during ceremony. Asked afterwards what the Buddhist leader had told him, Das said: “He was happy to see me.”

Whole Trouble – Troubles of Tibet – Tibetans Under Constant Surveillance

Trouble in Tibet – Tibetans Under Constant Surveillance

**TROUBLE IN TIBET – TIBETANS UNDER SURVEILLANCE. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN OCCUPIED TIBET.**

Red China extended indefinitely a village-based Tibet Surveillance Program which in its essence is a continuous Human Rights violation.

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

CHINA DIGITAL TIMES

Tibet: Surveillance & Living Buddhas

Human Rights Watch reports that authorities in Tibet are extending a village-based surveillance scheme that was originally scheduled to end in 2014, creating a permanent system of cadre teams to maintain political stability in the region:

“The Chinese government’s decision to extend its Tibet surveillance program indefinitely is nothing less than a continuous human rights violation,” said Sophie Richardson, China director. “The new normal is one of permanent surveillance of Tibetans.”

[…] The purpose of the village-based cadre teams was initially described as improving services and material conditions in the villages, but, according to the Party leader of the TAR in 2011, their primary requirement was to turn each village into “a fortress” in “the struggle against separatism,” a reference to support for Tibetan independence and the Dalai Lama.

This was done by setting up new Communist Party organizations in each village, establishing local security schemes, gathering information about villagers, and other measures. The teams were also required to carry out re-education with villagers on “Feeling the Party’s kindness” and other topics.

[…] The village-based teams also “screen and mediate social disputes,” which involves acting to settle and contain any disputes among villagers or families, because of official concerns in China that small disputes might lead to wider unrest or “instability.” One objective is to prevent villagers from presenting petitions to higher level officials.

[…] In August 2015, a statement posted on a government Tibetan-language website said that the TAR authorities had called for work teams “to be constantly stationed at their village committees.” It added that “on hearing that village-based-cadre work was to continue, the rural masses were overjoyed, saying that this was one of the Party and government’s best policies to benefit rural areas.”

Read Human Rights Watch’s 2013 report on the surveillance grid in Tibet, the reported use of monks’ cellphones as monitoring devices, and more on surveillance in the region, via China Digital Times.

Meanwhile, the BBC reports that the Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs has established the country’s first database of “authentic living buddhas,” complete with photos, personal details, and license numbers, that has been made available to the public for verification purposes.

Beijing has taken the unusual step of concerning itself with matters of reincarnation by releasing the names, photographs and locations of 870 “verified” buddhas on the website of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, Xinhua news agency reports. It’s a move that’s been praised by one of the men who features on the list. “As a living buddha, I feel genuinely happy about it,” Drukhang Thubten Khedrup tells the state-run news agency.

According to China’s religious affairs agency, the system has been inaugurated to counter “fake” buddhas who are undermining Tibetan Buddhism by cheating believers out of cash.
However, the spiritual cataloguing scheme has already been criticised as a means of further controlling Tibetan affairs. “This living Buddha database and the whole policy toward reincarnation is clearly a pre-emptive move by the government to control what happens after this Dalai Lama,” Amnesty International’s Nicholas Bequelin told Time magazine in December 2015, when the list was first announced. It’s also seen as a means of confirming state choices for other religious appointments.

At China Real Time, Olivia Geng and Josh Chin note that fake living buddhas were described as a national security threat on state broadcaster CCTV last year.They also point out that the Dalai Lama is not among those on the new register, despite Beijing’s repeated insistence that he must reincarnate, and that it has the right to identify his reincarnation.

Elsewhere, Jane Qiu looks at the negative impacts that a series of government grazing restrictions and fencing policies have had on the Tibetan grasslands and the health of the surrounding environment. From Nature:

The challenges that face Dodra and other Tibetan herders are at odds with glowing reports from Chinese state media about the health of Tibetan grasslands — an area of 1.5 million square kilometres — and the experiences of the millions of nomads there. Since the 1990s, the government has carried out a series of policies that moved once-mobile herders into settlements and sharply limited livestock grazing. According to the official account, these policies have helped to restore the grasslands and to improve standards of living for the nomads.

But many researchers argue that available evidence shows the opposite: that the policies are harming the environment and the herders. “Tibetan grasslands are far from safe,” says Wang Shiping, an ecologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ (CAS) Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITPR) in Beijing. “A big part of the problem is that the policies are not guided by science, and fail to take account of climate change and regional variations.”

The implications of that argument stretch far beyond the Tibetan Plateau, which spans 2.5 million square kilometres — an area bigger than Greenland — and is mostly controlled by China. The grasslands, which make up nearly two-thirds of the plateau, store water that feeds into Asia’s largest rivers. Those same pastures also serve as a gigantic reservoir of carbon, some of which could escape into the atmosphere if current trends continue. Degradation of the grasslands “will exacerbate global warming, threaten water resources for over 1.4 billion people and affect Asian monsoons”, says David Molden, director general of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, Nepal. [

Read more on threats to grasslands in Tibet and elsewhere, including a 2013 Human Rights Watch report on the forced settlement of Tibetan herders, via China Digital Times.

January 19, 2016 12:04 AM
Posted By: CINDY

China Digital Times is supported by the Berkeley Counter-Power Lab | 2011 Copyright © China Digital Times | Powered by WordPress

**TROUBLE IN TIBET – TIBETANS UNDER SURVEILLANCE – HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION IN OCCUPIED TIBET.**

**TROUBLE IN TIBET – TIBETANS UNDER SURVEILLANCE. RED CHINA’S PROPAGANDA AGENTS MOVE INTO EVERY TIBETAN VILLAGE.**

**TROUBLE IN TIBET – TIBETANS UNDER SURVEILLANCE. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS N OCCUPIED TIBET.**

Whole Trouble – The Troubles of Tibet – Communist Regime vs Climate Change

Trouble in Tibet – Climate Change is no Secret

Tibet is in deep trouble; the trouble called ‘Climate Change’ is no Secret, the trouble caused by Communist Regime occupying Tibet is indeed the bigger of the two troubles confronting Tibet. Regime Change in Tibet will resolve the problem of ‘Climate Change’.

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

EURASIA REVIEW – A JOURNAL OF ANALYSIS AND NEWS

NEW METHOD UNLOCKS CLIMATE CHANGE SECRETS FROM TIBETAN ICE

ISSN 2330-717x

The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau lies between the Himalayan range to the south and the Kunlun Range to the north. Map by Lencer, Wikipedia Commons.

By EURASIA REVIEW December 19, 2015

Identifying forest fire molecules in the Tibetan ice could give us an insight into how human activity is contributing to climate change and melting glaciers. A new study published in Talanta presents a method to help scientists identify forest fire molecules in Tibet.

The researchers behind the new method, from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research in China, say their work will enable scientists to spot the molecules produced by burning forests more easily. This will help them understand the history of fires in the region, adding to the picture of how humans are contributing to climate change.

The Tibetan Plateau is one of the cleanest regions in the world. It is a huge area, covering around 1000km north to south and 2500km west to east, in western China and India. The glaciers supply water to people in surrounding countries and are critical for people’s survival. However, they’re retreating at an alarming rate, putting the water supply in jeopardy for more than 1 billion people.

Climbing temperatures are contributing to the disappearance of the glaciers. But previous research has also pointed to molecules in the air called carbonaceous aerosols as another cause of the glaciers melting. Carbonaceous aerosols are commonly produced by burning fossil fuels. However, almost half of the carbonaceous aerosols in south Asia are produced when people burn biomass, such as trees.

Studying the aerosols trapped in the ice of the glaciers can give scientists insights into the history of biomass burning and how it is related to climate change and glacial melting. For the new study, the researchers developed a method to help scientists identify a molecule called levoglucosan, which can identify carbonaceous aerosols that came from biomass burning.
Researchers often look for levoglucosan in snow and ice in Antarctica and the Arctic. However, ice from the Tibetan Plateau contains many more complex molecules, such as sugar and sugar alcohol, making it much harder to spot the levoglucosan.

“Carbonaceous aerosols can tell the story of biomass burning in a region, helping us understand more about how human activity has shaped glaciers over time,” explained Mr. Chao You, lead author of the study from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research. “But it’s quite difficult to identify the molecules that tell us when these aerosols were released, so we wanted to come up with a better method to use in Tibet.”

Usually, researchers use a technique called High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) to identify levoglucosan in snow and ice samples. However, because of the insoluble particles in the Tibetan ice, using this method without pre-treating the samples can actually harm the system. Furthermore, levoglucosan is present at such low concentrations in the Tibetan ice that standard methods often can’t identify the molecules.

Mr. You and his colleagues developed a method that can detect levoglucosan at tiny concentrations in snow and ice samples. The researchers first melted the ice, filtered it and mixed it with acetonitrile. They then analyzed the mixture using chemistry analysis called ultra-performance liquid chromatography combined with triple tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry. They then analyzed the levoglucosan in the sample.

The method is very sensitive: the team could identify levoglucosan at a concentration of only 110 nanograms per liter of ice. They could use the method with small samples of only 0.5ml. Also, the method is not just suitable for Tibetan ice, but for samples from any low and middle latitude glaciers around the world.

“I am interested in finding more evidence of biomass burning in Tibetan glacier snow and ice. To do this, we improved and tested this new method for identifying levoglucosan quickly and accurately in Tibetan ice and snow,” explained Mr. You. “Our method can reveal more detailed information about the environmental process and changes that happened in Tibetan glaciers.”

This research was supported by the National Scientific Foundation of China.

Whole Trouble – Dalai Lama will not Reincarnate in Land where his portraits are confiscated

Trouble in Tibet – Dalai Lama Portraits Confiscated

Confiscation of Dalai Lama portraits in Occupied Tibet is a sign and symptom of deep Trouble in Tibet. To give relief from Trouble, Tibet needs Freedom From Occupation. The Dalai Lama will not reincarnate in a Land where his portraits are confiscated.

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

DALAI LAMA PORTRAITS CONFISCATED IN CHINA: REPORT

February 3, 2016 12:40 AM

A man prays below a portrait of the Dalai Lama at Kirti Monastery in Aba, a Tibetan area of China’s Sichuan province, on December 9, 2015 (AFP Photo/Benjamin Haas)

Beijing (AFP) – A Chinese province with a large Tibetan population has ordered shopkeepers to hand in portraits of the Dalai Lama, state-run media said Wednesday, quoting Beijing experts likening the Nobel laureate to executed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Sichuan in the southwest, which includes several ethnically Tibetan areas, set up a “law enforcement squad” of cultural bureau personnel, police and other officials to enforce the drive, reported the Global Times, which is close to the ruling Communist party.

The aim was to “crack down on pornography and illegal publications, which include portraits of the Dalai Lama” ahead of the Lunar New Year, it quoted Gou Yadong, director of the provincial publicity department, as saying.

People were more than welcome to put on show pictures of the country’s past and present leaders, he added, referring to former heads of the ruling party.
The Global Times also cited Lian Xiangmin, of the China Tibetology Research Centre in Beijing, as saying that for Chinese people, hanging his picture was the same as displaying Saddam Hussein’s image would be for Americans.

The former Iraqi leader was executed in 2006 after being convicted of crimes against humanity, while the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, was awarded the 1989 Nobel Peace prize.

The move in Sichuan comes as Beijing steps up a campaign against the spiritual leader, who is still widely revered by Tibetans.
Beijing brands him a dangerous separatist, despite his repeated statements condemning violence, and in Tibet it tightly controls images of him as part of what many Tibetans see as official repression of their religion and culture.

China denies repression of minorities and says its massive investment in Tibet has brought development to a formerly poverty stricken region.
Some Tibetan areas in Sichuan had seen laxer enforcement in recent years, with business owners displaying his portrait in shops.

**TROUBLE IN TIBET – DALAI LAMA PORTRAITS CONFISCATED IN OCCUPIED TIBET. 1987 Photography by Herb Ritts.**

Whole Trouble – “The World We Make” is not the World Tibet Wants

Trouble in Tibet – “The World We Make”

**The Dalai Lama, shown here speaking to the Wisconsin Legislature in 2013, will be back in Madison on March 9, 2016 to participate in a gathering billed as “The World We Make.”**

As of today, our World is in awful shape. Actually, we did not make this World. Just as in the case of Tibet, troubles are imposed upon innocent people who simply mind their own business without causing inconvenience to others. There is no choice other than that of remaking this World to give Peace and Justice to all people.

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

THE CAP TIMES

Madison, Wisconsin

Bill Berry: Wake up, Wisconsin, to impact of Dalai Lama, climate change

BILL BERRY | state columnist Jan 25, 2016 JOHN HART – State Journal

The Dalai Lama, shown here speaking to the Wisconsin Legislature in 2013, will be back in Madison on March 9 to participate in a gathering billed as “The World We Make.” An international spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama has worked for decades to building better understanding among the scientific and spiritual communities. John Hart/State Journal111

News that didn’t but should have stopped the presses as we came out of post-Christmas hibernation:

Welcome back: The Dalai Lama will make his 10th visit to Madison come March 9, as reported last week in Madison media. Beyond the Madison market, chances are the word won’t get out much on the visit from this international spiritual, ethical and moral leader. Its too bad. His international impact is immense. He’ll participate in a Capitol Theater event billed as The World We Make, a gathering of world leaders in science, health care and the media, according to its sponsor, the Center for Healthy Minds at UW-Madison. Among his many accomplishments, the Dalai Lama has been able to build better understanding among the scientific and spiritual communities.

The connection between the Dalai Lama and UW-Madison is well known in the Madison area. Outstate, not so much. But people might like to know that the connection has led to vibrant research on the healthy mind at the center, headed by Richard Davidson, and elsewhere on the UW campus. The simple idea that we can learn about humans by studying the healthy mind is transformational. Its also part of a vibrant body of research that stretches well beyond the Madison campus.

Bill Berry of Stevens Point writes a semimonthly column for The Capital Times. billnick

About the columnist

Bill Berry is a self-employed writer and editor who contributes to state and national publications. His Capital Times columns cover an array of topics, but he specializes in conservation, agriculture and sustainable land use.

Whole Problem – The Great Problem of Tibet is on the Back Burner

The Great Problem of Tibet is on the Back Burner

During the month of March, Tibet Awareness Month, I regret to report that The Great Problem of Tibet is still on the Back Burner. But, I am adamantly hopeful for the word Evil means Doom, Apocalypse, Calamity, Cataclysm, and Disaster. The global attention for Tibet has shrunk but the Evil Red Empire could be rushing ahead to meet its unavoidable Fate. My hope comes from a Biblical Prophesy.

How China has shrunk global attention for Tibet and the Dalai Lama — Quartz

Clipped from: https://qz.com/1565178/how-china-has-shrunk-global-attention-for-tibet-and-the-dalai-lama/

***The global attention for Tibet has shrunk but the Evil Red Empire could be rushing ahead to meet its unavoidable Fate. My hope comes from a Biblical Prophesy.***

March is a sensitive month in Tibet. In 1959, an uprising led to a bloody crackdown by Chinese forces, culminating in the 23-year-old Dalai Lama’s escape to India on March 17, where he arrived after two weeks of apprehension over his fate. Protests marking the Tibetan revolt were put down in 1989, and most recently in 2008, months before China was set to showcase itself to the world with the opening of the Beijing Olympics.

It’s hard to imagine such acts of defiance taking place today. In 2011, Beijing further tightened its chokehold on the autonomous region under the leadership of new Tibet Communist Party secretary Chen Quanguo (paywall), who implemented a vast array of security measures, including the incarceration and “re-education” of those who had returned from listening to the Dalai Lama’s teachings in India. Tibetans were also forced to adapt their culture to party ideology and to learn how to “revere” science, part of Beijing’s ongoing propaganda campaign that portrays its rule in Tibet as a benevolent exercise in modernization and anti-feudalism. Ten years ago today (March 28), the Chinese instituted Serfs’ Emancipation Day as a holiday to celebrate its program.

Reuters

Smoke rises from burning buildings below the Potala Palace in the Tibetan capital Lhasa during protests on March 14, 2008.

“To some extent, China has been very successful in dealing with Tibet,” said Tsering Shakya, an academic at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Beijing is applying the Tibet model to another minority considered to pose a danger to the state. In 2016, Chen became party secretary in the Xinjiang region of northwest China, where his Tibetan policies are largely seen as the foundation for repression of the Uyghur minority. Large-scale re-education camps hold hundreds of thousands of Muslims as Uyghur cultural and religious practices face systematic erosion.

From Kundun to Rock Dog

Advocates hope that growing international awareness over Xinjiang will help rekindle the world’s attention toward Tibet, which has dwindled amid the Chinese Communist Party’s relentless efforts to reshape the global conversation about the region.

Perhaps the starkest manifestation of that is in the arts. Tibet, once a cause célèbre in Hollywood as the subject of films such as Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet—in which Brad Pitt played the role of an Austrian mountaineer who tutored the young Dalai Lama—is today almost nowhere to be seen on screen. Actor Richard Gere, one of the most well-known celebrities to support Tibetan independence, said in 2017 that he has been shut out of major productions because of his outspokenness.

Reuters/Yuri Gripas

Nancy Pelosi talks to Richard Gere at a memorial event for Kasur Gyari, former special envoy of the Dalai Lama to the US, March 12, 2019.

When Tibet is still visible, said Seagh Kehoe at the University of Leicester, it is often in a watered-down and totally depoliticized fashion, as in the animated Rock Dog, a 2016 joint US-China production about a Tibetan mastiff who becomes a music star. Self-censorship over Tibet can be seen at work in London as well, with a West End theater suspending performance of a play about Tibet last year reportedly at the urging of the British Council, the UK’s international cultural organization, which is partly government funded. Following accusations of censorship by its playwright and apologies by the theater, Pah-la is now due to be staged next month.

Shaping the narrative on campus

Universities are another important battleground in Beijing’s attempt to mold its narrative. Campus activism in an earlier era was generally pro-Tibetan. That’s changing today with the ballooning number of Chinese students abroad—over 600,000 now compared with fewer than 50,000 in the late 1990s.

Chinese authorities “see overseas students as allies in their ongoing efforts to counter regime opponents” including groups sympathetic to Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan, and the Falun Gong, according to a report (pdf) last year by the Wilson Center, a Washington, DC-based think tank. The report detailed attempts by Chinese officials to put pressure on institutions to cancel invitations to the Dalai Lama and to bring more Chinese delegations to US universities to espouse the Communist Party’s line on Tibet.

Chemi Lhamo, a Tibetan student who was elected last month as a student president at the University of Toronto, received thousands of threatening Instagram messages from Chinese students. The student union decided to close her office out of concern for her safety. Chinese officials in Canada denied having anything to do with the incident or a case in which an Uyghur speaker was disrupted by Chinese students at McMaster University who had reportedly sought advice (paywall) from the consulate in Toronto. Chinese diplomats in Canada have praised the actions of students in both instances as being “patriotic.”

“Slow violence” gets less attention

Draconian restrictions on travel by Tibetans, foreign diplomats and journalists have made getting disseminating information from the region immensely more difficult.

Ever-tightening security has eliminated visible, large-scale displays of protest. The “optics of urgency” spotlighting the Xinjiang situation, such as satellite photos of camps and reporting by journalists on the ground, are missing from the Tibet narrative, wrote Gerald Roche, an anthropologist at La Trobe University in Melbourne. The “slow violence” that characterizes the plight of Tibet today, Roche added, makes it harder to get global attention.

Ahead of the 60th anniversary of the uprisings in Tibet, Chinese authorities further tightened control, restricting even foreign tourists from traveling there. Meanwhile, a white paper from China’s State Council on Tibet released yesterday (March 27) boasted of “democratic reform” over the past six decades, including a chapter titled “The People Have Become Masters of Their Own Affairs.”

During the month of March, Tibet Awareness Month, I regret to report that The Great Problem of Tibet is still on the Back Burner. But, I am adamantly hopeful for the word Evil means Doom, Apocalypse, Calamity, Cataclysm, and Disaster. The global attention for Tibet has shrunk but the Evil Red Empire could be rushing ahead to meet its unavoidable Fate. My hope comes from a Biblical Prophesy.

Reuters/Thomas Peter

Armed police attempt to prevent a photographer from taking pictures at the entrance to the village of Taktser, known in Chinese as Hongya, where the Dalai Lama was born in 1935, Qinghai province, China March 9, 2019.

Dramatic protests have continued. Since 2009, Tibetans have been self-immolating as a form of protest, with the act spreading from nuns and monks to laypeople. The International Campaign for Tibet’s latest count of self-immolations totals 155, with the last of the three known to have occurred in 2018 taking place in December. International media coverage, however, has largely disappeared. “We have some 150 cases of self-immolation, but for all, I know it could be 300,” said Kevin Carrico at Monash University in Australia. “Even for people who pay attention to this situation, we don’t really know what’s happening.”

The debate over the next Dalai Lama

Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch in Washington, said that spotlighting China’s human-rights abuses in Xinjiang can reinforce mutual support between diaspora Uyghur and Tibetan groups. There’s a common “core pathology” underlining Beijing’s actions in both places, including the “erasing of cultural identities and practices,” she said. Lhamo, the Tibetan student, told Quartz that a growing focus of her activism now involves building ties and sharing information with Uyghurs, Taiwanese, and the Falun Gong.

Advocacy groups have also welcomed renewed pressure by the US on Beijing. Congress passed the Tibet Reciprocal Act in December, which denies entry to the US any Chinese official who blocks Americans from going to Tibet. Matteo Mecacci, a former lawmaker in Italy and president for the International Campaign for Tibet, said the bill signals “enduring, bipartisan support for Tibet” in the US. The law requires annual reports detailing access to Tibet for Americans, with the first published this week.

AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia

The Dalai Lama smiles as he sits on his chair at the Tsuglakhang temple in Dharmsala, India, Feb. 27, 2019.

The fight over the Dalai Lama’s succession—and China’s obsessive control over it—could also return Tibet to headlines in the coming years.

Amid a flurry of attention this month marking the leader’s 60th anniversary in exile in Dharamsala, the 83-year-old Dalai Lama said in an interview that his next incarnation could be found in India, adding that Beijing is likely to appoint its own successor whom “nobody will trust.” Beijing, which consistently maintains that the Dalai Lama is a separatist, promptly reiterated that the selection of the next Tibetan spiritual leader must follow Chinese law.

Whole Consciousness – Tibetan Human Rights

Tibet Consciousness – World Human Rights Day

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

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

TIBET POST INTERNATIONAL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whole Spirits – Tibet Awareness of the Living Tibetan Spirits

Whole Awareness – Tibet Awareness of the Living Tibetan Spirits

Following the visit of His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama’s visit to Ann Arbor, MI, USA in 2008, I coined the phrase ‘The Living Tibetan Spirits’. I am not a monk. I am speaking of my ‘spirituality’ in the context of hosting the ‘Spirits’ of young Tibetan soldiers who gave their precious lives while taking part in a military action in the Chittagong Hill Tracts that initiated the Liberation of Bangladesh during 1971. I claim that I am Tibetan for I host their ‘Spirits’ in my Consciousness.

His Holiness The Dalai Lama – Winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize:

**Whole Dude – Whole Spirits: HIS HOLINESS THE 14th DALAI LAMA – PRINCE OF PEACE: The Dalai Lama is seen seated on his throne in Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet in this photo image from 1956/1957.**

The Dalai Lama is believed to be a manifestation of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the patron saint of Tibet. Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who have postponed their own nirvana and chosen to take rebirth in order to serve humanity.

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was born in 1935 in a small hamlet in northeastern Tibet. At the age of 2, the child who was named Lhamo Dhondup, was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso.

The 14th Dalai Lama will visit Ann Arbor for a series of talks in Crisler Arena at the University of Michigan on Saturday and Sunday April 19 and 20. His presentation of the University of Michigan’s annual Peter M. Wege Lecture on Sustainability is in celebration of Earth Day. The Wege Lecture is sponsored by the Center for Sustainable Systems at the School of Natural Resources and Environment. He will also present a two-day program with two sessions on April 19 and 20. The session will focus on “Engaging Wisdom and Compassion.” The teaching will be based on Acharya Nagarjuna’s Commentary on Ultimate Compassion and Je Tsong Khapa’s “In Praise of Dependent Origination.”

The Future of Tibet:

Whole Dude – Whole Spirits: The Vatican City State and Tibet. Just like the Pope who is the Head of the Vatican City State, H.H. Dalai Lama is the Temporal and Spiritual Leader of the Land of Tibet.

Vatican City is recognized as an ecclesiastical State. Sovereignty is exercised by the Pope upon his election as the Head of the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope has absolute executive, legislative and judicial powers within the Vatican City State. Similarly, the Dalai Lama is the spiritual and temporal Head of Tibet. The United States formulated an official policy about the Taiwan. With regards to Tibet, the United States has to first recognize the fact that the Tibet is under illegal Chinese occupation since 1951.

The Living Tibetan Spirits of Special Frontier Force:

**Whole Dude – Whole Spirits: SPIRITUALISM AND THE LIVING TIBETAN SPIRITS: In Tibetan Buddhism, Bodhisattva-Avalokitesvara is physically manifested as His Holiness The Dalai Lama.**

Special Frontier Force, Establishment 22, Vikas Regiment is a multinational defense plan to defend freedom and democracy in the occupied Land of Tibet.

Whole Dude – Whole Spirits: SPIRITUALISM – THE LIVING TIBETAN SPIRITS – OLD FLAMES NEVER DIE : The butter lamps lit in my Unit Gompa or Gonpa to pay tribute to the departed souls, the people who gave their precious lives to defend the Freedom of people.

Whole Awareness: My Body is Indian But Spiritually I’m Tibetan

The Living Tibetan Spirits: My Body is Indian but Spiritually I’m Tibetan

“Self-grasping (or self-focus) gives rise to suffering. It is the root of all afflictions.”

– The Dalai Lama, as translated Saturday by Thupten Jinpa.

“At the root of all our suffering lies a form of ignorance, a form of unknowing.”

– The Dalai Lama, as translated Saturday by Thupten Jinpa

‘My body is Tibetan but spiritually I’m an Indian,’ says the Dalai Lama

Clipped from: https://in.news.yahoo.com/body-tibetan-spiritually-apos-m-061025047.html

**Tibet Awareness: My body is Indian but spiritually I am Tibetan.**

In a freewheeling interview with HT, the Dalai Lama speaks on wide-ranging spiritual and political issues, including what he thinks of India-China ties.

On the outer periphery of Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya in Bihar, a mere few hundred steps from the Bodhi tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment more than 2,000 years ago, the 14th Dalai Lama prays and meets his followers in a monastery behind an iron security curtain. Inside the temple, Trinley Thaye Dorje, the co-claimant along with Ogyen Trinley Dorje for the title of 17th Karmapa or head of Karma Kagyu school, is preaching to his followers from all over the world on Buddhism. The 17th Karmapa will become the key leader of Tibetan Buddhism in case the 14th Dalai Lama dies without reincarnation. The two religious leaders have no common ground because of the Dalai Lama, like China, recognizes Ogyen Dorje, who left India for the US in May 2017 and acquired citizenship of Dominica in March this year, as the real Karmapa.

On Sunday morning after he discreetly meets a group of monks that has made its way from Tibet Autonomous Region of China, the frail-looking but mentally alert 84-year-old spiritual leader of the Tibetan people talked exclusively to Shishir Gupta on wide-ranging political and spiritual issues. Edited excerpts:

How is your health these days?

Quite Good… Not very good …. for an 84-year-old person, quite good. I go for morning walks in Dharamshala also…. Here I take around 600 steps each morning in the monastery.

What was the reason for the indefinite postponement of the 13th Religious Conference of the Schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Bon Tradition (November 29-December 1, 2018) in Dharamshala? The conference was called to discuss the future of the institution of Dalai Lama.

One important lama (Kathok Getse Rinpoche, Head of Nyingma school) suddenly passed away. The conference had to be postponed as it was a period of mourning. It has nothing to do with 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje not getting a visa to visit India. I could not meet Thaye Dorje as he was not present when I went for pilgrimage to the Stupa.

Do you talk to both Ogyen and Thaye?

No, I have not yet met Thaye Dorje. Recently, the two met in France. A rightful beginning. Shamar Rinpoche, the nephew of 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje who took refuge in Sikkim after 1959 uprising, told me that there were indications that Thaye Dorje was the reincarnation of the previous Karmapa. In the meantime, Situ Rinpoche (the rival regent) appointed Ogyen Dorje as the Karmapa. I mentioned to Shamar that a high lama in the 19th century had five reincarnations. It is possible for 16th Karmapa to have few reincarnations but the holder of the seat should be one. This is like the two Panchen Lamas with Gedhun Choekyi Nyima (proclaimed by Dalai Lama as reincarnation on May 14, 1995) still alive (other being Gyaltsen Norbu who was appointed by the Chinese government). But then some group told me that I should not be talking about the possibility of two or three reincarnations. I said, OK, then I will keep quiet.

Then who will decide the rightful one heir to the seat?

Situ Rinpoche found a remarkable child (Ogyen Dorje) in Tibet. They came to see me and finalize that. Then I said yes to Ogyen as the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa.

There are now two Panchen Lamas, two Karmapas, now the question comes to the tallest lama, the Dalai Lama. Have you initiated the process of your reincarnation because the Chinese government has already initiated the process?

No, no, no. That is not my business. I made it clear as early as in 1969 that it was up to the Tibetan people to decide whether the very institution of Dalai Lama should continue or not. They will decide. I have no concern. Since the 5th Dalai Lama, the (person holding the) title was the head of both temporal and spiritual affairs. Since 2001, I have proudly, voluntarily and happily given up the political role. We have already achieved elected political leadership (Centralized Tibetan Administration in Dharamshala) and they carry their full responsibility about our temporal affairs. I have totally retired since 2011. So, my thinking is more liberal than Chinese thinking which is more orthodox.

But how will people under stress in Tibet decide whether the institution of Dalai Lama should continue?

It should be decided in a free country, not in Tibet, where there is no freedom.

Have you initiated the process of dialogue on the Dalai Lama institution?

No. Formally, not yet. As the Dalai Lama institution is close to Mongolia, Mongolian people should be involved. I think there should be an international Buddhist conference involving Himalayan people and other Buddhist countries to decide on this. My main concern is that my body, speech, mind, and life should be useful to other people. So long as space remains, and suffering remains, I remain. My daily prayer is the source of my inner strength. This institution of Dalai Lama, I half-jokingly, half-seriously say, has lasted six to seven hundred years should cease with the 14th with grace. If the 15th Dalai Lama turns out to be naughty as the sixth, then the institution will cease in disgrace. The institution could voluntarily and democratically cease with the 14th Dalai Lama being quite famous (he laughs).

Has your middle way approach with China worked? Is it going to benefit Tibetans at all?

Oh yes. Like Germany and France after centuries of fighting came together after second World War to form European Union on shared common values, we also want to be part of the Peoples Republic of China provided the Tibetan culture, language, knowledge, and environment are protected. We get a more economic benefit for material development as China is rich economically but spiritually, we can help millions of Chinese Buddhists. This is mutually beneficial. Historically, Tibet has never been part of China and this even some Chinese historians admit. But past is past, we must live harmoniously and happily together rather than talk in terms of our nation and their nation. People ask me about the future of India and China relations. I say that neither India nor China has the capability to destroy each other. They must live happily side by side with minor irritants. Ultimately, Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai should be the principle. One must remember that there are around 400 million Chinese Buddhists who are inspired by Tibetan Buddhism, which in turn derives the majority of its strength from the Nalanda traditions.

There are media reports about Dr. Lobsang Sangay, President of Centralized Tibetan Administration (CTA) often disregarding the advice of the 14th Dalai Lama. How is your relationship with him?

No. As he is the head of elected political leadership, all decision-making is in his hand. I have never tried to control the political leadership. But in the meantime, he believes me and trusts me. There are some small rumors.

Will Ogyen Dorje return to India? We are told that the 17th Karmapa claimant is putting conditions to the Indian Government for his return?

That I don’t know. Most probably, I think he will return. I recently had discussions with the Ministry of External Affairs and told them that it is between the government of India and Ogyen to decide. I have no problems. It is his business. Not an important matter. There is no question of the Tibetan movement splintering in this context.

Are you looking forward to a pilgrimage to China?

Yes. Sure. As far (back) as 1954, I expressed my desire to the Chinese government to visit Wutai Shan, the home of 13th Dalai Lama. I was told that there was no road. I still have that desire, but it is up to the Chinese government. Once a high Tibetan lama wanted to go to Bodh Gaya, but his disciple said that the real Bodh Gaya is in your heart. Historically, the Wutai Shan is the seat of Deva of wisdom. Whether I am there physically or not, that wisdom from the Deva is already in my brain…. very sharp.

Is there any back channel open with the Chinese for resolving the Tibetan issue?

After we decided not to seek independence from China in 1974, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping decided to have direct contact with us through my elder brother and the dialogue started in 1979. We sent four fact-finding missions to Tibet from 1979 but the dialogue ceased with the death of Deng in 1997. The official dialogue again started under President Jiang Zemin in 2002 but ceased in June 2010. Since then there is only an informal channel open with Chinese retired officials and private businessmen coming to see me from time to time. And they have some connection with the top leader. The Chinese are not in touch with the CTA. We never used the word Tibetan Government in exile. It is the Chinese who have used this and recognized them (he laughs).

Of late various heads of government refuse to meet you fearing the reaction of a now all-powerful China? What is your reaction to it?

I have nothing to ask from any head of state or country. I think they are afraid of the Chinese reaction. I met Barack Obama as former US President and Nobel laureate as also late President George Bush Senior. My visit to Sri Lanka was canceled at the last moment. I have not visited Thailand since it established diplomatic relations with China. I am never allowed into Buddhist countries because I am a Buddhist (he laughs) except Japan.

Any plans to visit the US and meet President Donald Trump?

No because of my physical condition. Normally, I used to go to the US annually for a medical check-up. One Indian doctor found traces of prostate cancer at the Mayo Clinic in USA. A team of 10 doctors discussed and ruled out surgery due to my age and side effects. Instead, I got radiation and have been completely cured of the disease. I have not traveled to the US in the past two years as it is too far, and I cannot handle too much physical exertion. So instead of going to the US for treatment, I go to a private hospital in Delhi.

US President Donald Trump has just signed “The Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act 2018”, which allows the Tibetans to return to their homeland or else the Chinese officials stopping them face sanctions. What is your reaction to this?

The present president of the greatest democratic nation is a bit unpredictable. So, I am in no position to comment on this as I do not know enough. But both the US houses have been strong supporters of Tibet over the decades and so has been the American government. American people love Tibet.

What is your reaction when you were asked to shift “Thank You India” event to mark 60 years of your exile in New Delhi to Dharamshala in April?

The Indian government tried to avoid any obstacle to their relations with China. That is understandable. That is OK. I was not unhappy. Not much. Nothing. Basically, our relations with India are centuries old since a Nalanda master introduced Buddha Dharma in Sanskrit tradition in the 8th century. My body is Tibetan but spiritually and mentally I am an Indian. Today 10,000 monks and now nuns are studying in Nalanda Buddhist traditions with total freedom and not in any restricted environment in Tibet.

Will you or your people ever be able to return to their homeland, Tibet?

India is the only place where modern education meets ancient knowledge, which is needed to tackle emotions. I am committed to reviewing the ancient Indian knowledge to tackle emotions. For these things’ freedom is very important. My return to Tibet is of no use if there is no freedom. I prefer this country and this freedom and then I am the longest guest of India.

Whole Uprising – Because Tibet is not Free

65th Tibetan National Uprising Day

**Sunday, March 10, 2024. 65th Anniversary of Tibetan Uprising Day.**

On Sunday, March 10, 2024, the Living Tibetan Spirits commemorate events of Tibetan Uprising on Tuesday, March 10, 1959.

Tibet Uprising or Tibet Rebellion on Tuesday, March 10, 1959 makes a profound impact on the course of my life’s journey since 1971 when I joined the Tibetan Resistance Movement in support of Human Rights, Freedom, Peace and Justice in Occupied Tibet. I speak on behalf of the Living Tibetan Spirits who live in exile without a refugee status, without asylum protection, and without any entity that can be called a friend.

Sunday, March 10, 2024. 65th Anniversary of Tibetan Uprising Day: For Seventy Five years, Tibetans are living under military occupation and political oppression. What is Tibet’s Future? How to evict the illegal occupier of Tibet?

How to find Hope when the Final Destination remains unknown? Can Patience and Perseverance serve the purpose of Hope for Freedom, Peace, and Justice?

EVENTS LEADING TO THE 1959 TIBETAN UPRISING

Clipped from: https://www.thoughtco.com/the-tibetan-uprising-of-1959-195267

China Forces the Dalai Lama into Exile

The Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama’s Summer Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, which was destroyed by the Chinese Army during the 1959 Tibetan Uprising but later rebuilt. lapin.lapin on Flickr.com

Chinese artillery shells pummeled the Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama’s summer palace, sending plumes of smoke, fire, and dust into the night sky. The centuries-old building crumbled under the barrage, while the badly outnumbered Tibetan Army fought desperately to repel the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) from Lhasa…

Meanwhile, amidst the snows of the high Himalaya, the teenaged Dalai Lama and his bodyguards endured a cold and treacherous two-week-long journey into India.

Origins of the Tibetan Uprising of 1959

Tibet had an ill-defined relationship with China’s Qing Dynasty (1644-1912); at various times it could have been an ally, an opponent, a tributary state, or a region within Chinese control.

In 1724, during a Mongol invasion of Tibet, the Qing seized the opportunity to incorporate the Tibetan regions of Amdo and Kham into China proper. The central area was renamed Qinghai, while pieces of both regions were broken off and added to other western Chinese provinces. This land grab would fuel Tibetan resentment and unrest into the twentieth century.

When the last Qing Emperor fell in 1912, Tibet asserted its independence from China. The 13th Dalai Lama returned from three years of exile in Darjeeling, India, and resumed control of Tibet from his capital at Lhasa. He ruled until his death in 1933.

China, meanwhile, was under siege from a Japanese invasion of Manchuria, as well as a general breakdown of order across the country.

Between 1916 and 1938, China descended into the “Warlord Era,” as different military leaders fought for control of the headless state. In fact, the once-great empire would not pull itself back together until after World War II, when Mao Zedong and the Communists triumphed over the Nationalists in 1949.

Meanwhile, a new incarnation of the Dalai Lama was discovered in Amdo, part of Chinese “Inner Tibet.” Tenzin Gyatso, the current incarnation, was brought to Lhasa as a two-year-old in 1937 and was enthroned as the leader of Tibet in 1950, at 15.

China Moves in and Tensions Rise

In 1950, Mao’s gaze turned west. He decided to “liberate” Tibet from the Dalai Lama’s rule and bring it into the People’s Republic of China. The PLA crushed Tibet’s tiny armed forces in a matter of weeks; Beijing then imposed the Seventeen Point Agreement, which Tibetan officials were forced to sign (but later renounced).

According to the Seventeen Point Agreement, privately-held land would be socialized and then redistributed, and farmers would work communally. This system would first be imposed on Kham and Amdo (along with other areas of the Sichuan and Qinghai Provinces), before being instituted in Tibet proper.

All the barley and other crops produced on the communal land went to the Chinese government, according to Communist principles, and then some was redistributed to the farmers. So much of the grain was appropriated for use by the PLA that the Tibetans did not have enough to eat.

By June of 1956, the ethnic Tibetan people of Amdo and Kham were up in arms.

As more and more farmers were stripped of their land, tens of thousands organized themselves into armed resistance groups and began to fight back. Chinese army reprisals grew increasingly brutal and included wide-spread abuse of Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns. (China alleged that many of the monastic Tibetans acted as messengers for the guerrilla fighters.)

The Dalai Lama visited India in 1956 and admitted to Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that he was considering asking for asylum. Nehru advised him to return home, and the Chinese Government promised that communist reforms in Tibet would be postponed and that the number of Chinese officials in Lhasa would be reduced by half. Beijing did not follow through on these pledges.

By 1958, as many as 80,000 people had joined the Tibetan resistance fighters.

Alarmed, the Dalai Lama’s government sent a delegation to Inner Tibet to try and negotiate an end to the fighting. Ironically, the guerrillas convinced the delegates of the righteousness of the fight, and Lhasa’s representatives soon joined in the resistance!

Meanwhile, a flood of refugees and freedom fighters moved into Lhasa, bringing their anger against China with them. Beijing’s representatives in Lhasa kept careful tabs on the growing unrest within Tibet’s capital city.

March 1959 – The Uprising Erupts in Tibet Proper

Important religious leaders had disappeared suddenly in Amdo and Kham, so the people of Lhasa were quite concerned about the safety of the Dalai Lama. The people’s suspicions therefore were raised immediately when the Chinese Army in Lhasa invited His Holiness to watch a drama at the military barracks on March 10, 1959. Those suspicions were reinforced by a none-too-subtle order, issued to the head of the Dalai Lama’s security detail on March 9, that the Dalai Lama should not bring along his bodyguards.

On the appointed day, March 10, some 300,000 protesting Tibetans poured into the streets and formed a massive human cordon around Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama’s Summer Palace, to protect him from the planned Chinese abduction. The protestors stayed for several days, and calls for the Chinese to pull out of Tibet altogether grew louder each day. By March 12, the crowd had begun to barricade the streets of the capital, while both armies moved into strategic positions around the city and began to reinforce them.

Ever the moderate, the Dalai Lama pleaded with his people to go home and sent placatory letters to the Chinese PLA commander in Lhasa. and sent placatory letters to the Chinese PLA commander in Lhasa.

When the PLA moved artillery into range of the Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama agreed to evacuate the building. Tibetan troops prepared a secure escape route out of the besieged capital on March 15. When two artillery shells struck the palace two days later, the young Dalai Lama and his ministers began the arduous 14-day trek over the Himalayas for India.

On March 19, 1959, fighting broke out in earnest in Lhasa. The Tibetan army fought bravely, but they were vastly outnumbered by the PLA. In addition, the Tibetans had antiquated weapons.

The firefight lasted just two days. The Summer Palace, Norbulingka, sustained over 800 artillery shell strikes that killed an unknown number of people inside; the major monasteries were bombed, looted and burned. Priceless Tibetan Buddhist texts and works of art were piled in the streets and burned. All remaining members of the Dalai Lama’s bodyguard corps were lined up and publicly executed, as were any Tibetans discovered with weapons. In all, some 87,000 Tibetans were killed, while another 80,000 arrived in neighboring countries as refugees. An unknown number tried to flee but did not make it.

In fact, by the time of the next regional census, a total of about 300,000 Tibetans were “missing” – killed, secretly jailed, or gone into exile.

Aftermath of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising

Since the 1959 Uprising, the central government of China has been steadily tightening its grip on the Tibet.

Although Beijing has invested in infrastructure improvements for the region, particularly in Lhasa itself, it has also encouraged thousands of ethnic Han Chinese to move to Tibet. In fact, Tibetans have been swamped in their own capital; they now constitute a minority of the population of Lhasa.

Today, the Dalai Lama continues to head the Tibetan government-in-exile from Dharamshala, India. He advocates increased autonomy for Tibet, rather than full independence, but Chinese government generally refuses to negotiate with him.

Periodic unrest still sweeps through Tibet, especially around important dates such as March 10 to 19 – the anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising.

Your Citation

Szczepanski, Kallie. “The Tibetan Uprising of 1959.” ThoughtCo, Feb. 6, 2017, thoughtco.com/the-tibetan-uprising-of-1959-195267. Szczepanski, Kallie. (2017, February 6). The Tibetan Uprising of 1959. https://www.thoughtco.com/the-tibetan-uprising-of-1959-195267