Blackboard slogan of schoolgirl provokes Chinese re-education across Tibet

TibetanReview.net:  The Chinese authorities have cracked down massively across Markham (Chinese: Mangkang) County in Chamdo Prefecture of Tibet Autonomous Region after a middle school girl wrote “Long Live Dalai Lama” on blackboard, reported RFA.org (Radio Free Asia, Washington) Apr 22, citing local residents. Large Work Teams of party cadres were reported to have been dispatched to conduct political re-education in schools across the county. Residents have been cited as saying the campaign was being led by the county party secretary Bao Luo. In talks given to the children and staff under the campaign, the officials have been accusing the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile in India of "advocating separatism and using religion to deceive Tibetan Buddhists”.

"We had to launch this campaign to cleanse students and staff of the wrong influence of the Dalai clique, so that the students can grow up with a healthy and stable mind to [adhere] to the [directives of the] Chinese Communist Party," a resident was quoted as recalling an official’s remark. The report did not say what happened, if any, to the girl who wrote the slogan on blackboard.
http://www.tibetnewsonline.blogspot.in/2012/04/blackboard-slogan-provokes-chinese-re.html


More news from Tibet: http://www.tibetnewsonline.blogspot.in/

Wave of Tibet immolations among history's biggest; Talks possible if Dalai Lama gives up independence demand: China

Read Tibet News blogspot: http://www.tibetnewsonline.blogspot.in/


Dozens of Tibetans have set themselves on fire over the past year to protest Chinese rule, sometimes drinking kerosene to make the flames explode from within, in one of the biggest waves of political self-immolations in recent history. But the stunning protests are going largely unnoticed in the wider world — due in part to a smothering Chinese security crackdown in the region that prevents journalists from covering them. While a single fruit seller in Tunisia who lit himself on fire in December 2010 is credited with igniting the Arab Spring democracy movement, the Tibetan self-immolations have so far failed to prompt the changes the protesters demand: an end to government interference in their religion and a return of the exiled Dalai Lama. Still, experts describe self-immolations as, historically, a powerful form of protest, and the ones in Tibet might yet lead to some broader uprising or stir greater international pressure on Beijing...


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As suicide bids continued unabated in Tibetan-inhabited areas seeking return of the Dalai Lama, China, for the first time in recent months, has indicated its willingness to reopen the stalled talks with him if he "truly gives up Tibetan independence." "The central government has also made clear its willingness for talks if the Dalai Lama truly gives up Tibetan independence. The door remains open to him," the state-run 'China Daily' said today.

This is perhaps the first time that an indication has come up in the official media after the previous dialogue between Chinese officials and representatives of the Dalai Lama failed to make any headway in 2010. It follows a barrage of criticism unleashed against him in recent weeks, with China alleging that he was instigating suicides, specially among the Buddhist monks in Tibetan-inhabited areas. Besides, he wanted his authority to cover all of Tibet, including, Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan. All these regions put together constitute one fourth of China's territory, Qu said. Though the Dalai says on one hand that he renounced the independence demand, his other demands that all troops and mainland Chinese should leave the areas amounted to seeking independence, he said. Asked about the prospects of the resumption of talks, Qu had said the Chinese Central Government can consider if the Dalai abandons his "independence political objective.".. 
Read more:  http://www.tibetnewsonline.blogspot.in/

Tibetan activist who set himself alight in India dies

Wednesday, 28 March 2012. The Tibetan protester who set himself alight in the Indian capital ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit this week has died. The 27-year-old man was admitted to hospital in New Delhi Monday with 90% burns to his body, but doctors could not save him and he died on Wednesday, said L.K. Makhija, the head of the burns ward at the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.

Dramatic pictures showed the man, named by the London-based Free Tibet group as Jampa Yeshi, running along the street in flames as hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Indian parliament to protest against Chinese rule in Tibet. Many ethnic Tibetans fled Tibet for India with the Dalai Lama in 1959 after a failed uprising. President Hu was due to arrive in India for Thursday's BRICS summit of emerging economic powers, which includes India, China, Brazil, Russia and South Africa.

Self-immolation is a common form of protest for Tibetans who want genuine autonomy from China and accuse Beijing of repression. More than 30 of them took place in the last year in China, Tibetan advocacy groups say. They follow an increase in security measures by the Chinese authorities in response to unrest among Tibetans in western areas of China in recent months. Some in Tibet have advocated independence from China. But the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, and others have said they favor genuine autonomy and resent the slow erosion of their culture amid an influx of Han Chinese, the most numerous ethnic group in China.

Activists say the disturbing acts of self-immolation reflect an increasingly repressive environment under China's control. Beijing rejects accusations of oppression of Tibetans, saying that under its rule, living standards have greatly improved for the Tibetan people. Chinese officials have described the self-immolations as "extreme" acts.
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Tibetan Group Releases Photos of Chinese Crackdown

Tibetan Group Releases Photos of Chinese Crackdown: February 4, 2012

A Tibetan activist group has released photos it says are from the sites of recent protests, showing Chinese riot police beating and dragging bloodied demonstrators. The group says the photos prove China is acting brutally toward unarmed, peaceful demonstrators.

The photographs, released by the group Students for a Free Tibet, show Chinese riot police standing over and dragging protestors, one of them appearing to have blood on his head. The group says the photos were taken in Serta, in China's Sichuan province. Dorjee Tseten, the India director of the group, based in the northern Indian city of Dharamsala, says the photos show China has not been telling the truth about the demonstrations in recent weeks.

"The Chinese government says like those protestors were shot on self defense but in the picture we can clearly see the protestors are like unarmed, they are protesting with non-violent protest and then police crackdown the protest very brutally and kill Tibetans," he said. Tibetan exile Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay was quoted Thursday as saying he is “very disturbed by the growing number of Chinese military personnel” moving into Tibetan areas with truckloads of paramilitary forces and automatic machine guns. Senior Chinese officials say the demonstrations were "well planned beforehand" by "trained separatists" who tried to use violence against police. 

Dorjee, a member of Students for a Free Tibet, says getting images like the ones the group released this week is not easy. "The area around Serta and nearby place where there are lot of protest happening are totally locked down. Whether it's Internet, whether it's online, it's all locked down," he stated. "So one of his friend who is actually there and taken the picture. He actually came out of the province, out of the region and then he could able to send it from the different place to India."

Tibet analysts have expressed concerns that a younger, more restive generation of Tibetans may become embroiled in mass riots like the ones that took place in Chinese-controlled Tibet in 2008 -- especially if the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, dies without returning to his historical home.

The Dalai Lama crossed into India with tens of thousands of followers after a failed uprising in 1959. Dorjee says young Tibetans will continue to express themselves peacefully. "It is not true that Tibetans' younger generations are like frustrated and getting to violence. But then we are taking the non-violent protest, our movement in a more active way," he explained. The exiled Tibetan prime minister has called for a global vigil next week to protest events in Chinese-controlled Tibet, and is pleading with the United Nations to send a fact-finding team to the region. To view releases photos of Chinese Crackdown, please visit www.tibetnewsonline.blogspot.com

China Gets Restive Taste of post-Dalai Lama Era

(Reuters) - China over the years has derided the Dalai Lama as a jackal in Buddhist robes, choreographer of a separatist Peking opera and, lately, instigator of a plot that led some Tibetans to set themselves on fire and other forms of protest. Even so, China's hardline rulers may have reason to miss him when he's gone. The aging spiritual leader's presence and message of non-violence have kept a damper on unrest but, once he dies, things could worsen rapidly.

The protests in Tibetan plateau communities in Sichuan province in January follow a year in which at least 16 Tibetans -- most Buddhist monks and nuns -- have self-immolated in protests seeking a return of the exiled Dalai Lama and freedom for Tibet. China has branded the immolators as terrorists and, in a familiar refrain, Beijing on Wednesday blamed Tibetan separatist forces for fomenting hatred among the people and sparking the protests that were put down by armed police using deadly force.

With unrest in once-quiet areas of the Tibetan plateau and little prospect for direct talks between China and the Tibetan government-in-exile, concern is growing that violence will boil over upon the death of the Dalai Lama. If nothing changes, Beijing will likely respond with the same tough measures it has used for decades.

"Positions have hardened," Khedroob Thondup, nephew of the Dalai Lama, told Reuters from his part-time home in Taiwan. The Dalai Lama has generally managed to restrain Tibet's youth with his message of non-violence, said Thondup, a former member of the exiled government who traveled to China 15 times for official talks before negotiations went sour. The 76-year-old monk is in good health, Thondup said, exercising daily on a treadmill, with access to on-call doctors. He recently underwent cataract surgery in New Delhi but expects he'll live at least another 20 years.

"As long as His Holiness is alive, we are non-violent and respect his views," said Thondup, who runs a centre for exiled Tibetans in Darjeeling, India. "If His Holiness were to suddenly leave the scene, yes, there will be many more problems for the Chinese government."
A TASTE OF WHAT'S TO COME

The latest violence is the worst since riots killed at least 19 people throughout Tibetan parts of China in 2008. What Beijing terms the Tibet Autonomous Region has remained under tight security since. Overseas advocacy groups say up to seven Tibetans were shot dead and more than 60 wounded as police snuffed out the Sichuan protests. State media said police fired in self defence.

Security forces have since thrown a blanket across a huge swathe of Tibetan China. Hundreds of kilometres from the scene of the Sichuan violence, police surrounded the town of Danba with road checks in an effort to prevent the Tibetan defiance from spreading and foreign reporters from entering. Tibetan Buddhist monasteries were sealed off by police road blocks and an official turned back reporters, saying road conditions were unsafe.

That may be just a taste of what is to come...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/03/us-china-tibet-idUSTRE8120BQ20120203

SELF-IMMOLATION AND BUDDHISM – by Jamyang Norbu

SELF-IMMOLATION AND BUDDHISM – by Jamyang Norbu

January 05, 2012 By Jamyang Norbu

The Yiddish word “chutzpah”, pronounced “huspa”, has the exact same meaning as the Tibetan word “hamba”, and even shares a passing tonal quality to it. Leo Rosten, the humorist, defined chutzpah as “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.”

Dai Qingli, an official of the Chinese Embassy in Britain brilliantly demonstrated that quality in a letter to the Guardian (25 Nov. 2011) titled “Tibetan Deaths violate Buddhism”. Dai wrote, “The self-immolations of Tibetan monks and nuns were truly tragic. They were also a fatal violation of the spirit of peace and tolerance that defines Tibetan Buddhism. And, as such, these acts have met anger and disapproval from the local people and the religious community.”

Bhuchung K.Tsering of the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) expressed himself in a similar manner in his article “This Chinese is Right About Tibetan Self-Immolation!”

“Yesterday, i.e. December 1, 2011, I was reading an article in People’s Daily by “renowned Tibetologist” Li Decheng concerning self-immolations by Tibetans in Tibet in which he says these actions are against “core Buddhist code of ethics.” He further says, “In Buddhism, particularly Tibetan Buddhism, scripture has never encouraged killings and suicide, nor has Buddhist dogma incited others to carry out killings or commit suicide.” I have no hesitation in saying I agree with him here.’

Bhuchung went on to request the Chinese that they should pay attention to the self-immolations “as it is an important social issue for China and its future.” Bhuchung also attempts to explain why Tibetans were – and I use his exact word – “indulging” in this behavior. Bhuchung and his colleagues at ICT might not approve of the self-immolations but they should realize that the monks and nuns were hardly “indulging” themselves in any way.

The Dalai Lama chose his words more carefully. In his statement to UPI on Nov 21 he said he didn’t encourage self-immolation by monks and nuns protesting China’s control over Tibet and questioned the usefulness of the acts as a protest tool. He did acknowledge that the monks and nuns had courage, but he gave the impression that it wasn’t a Buddhist thing to do.

So is self-immolation against Buddhist teachings or not?

In 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a Vietnamese monk set fire to himself at a busy Saigon intersection. The famous Pulitzer Prize winning photograph by Malcolm Browne of the burning monk sitting serenely in the lotus position surrounded by flames, became a worldwide sensation and contributed to fall of the Diem regime. At the time Beijing openly praised the action of the Vietnamese monk and distributed millions of copies of the photo (pirated of course) throughout Asia and Africa as evidence of “US imperialism”. Other Vietnamese monks and a nun subsequently set fire to themselves to protest the war.

Self-immolation appear to be an unusual though accepted Buddhist traditio in China and parts of South East Asia. There are numerous cases in Chinese history, especially during the Qing period, of such acts being performed as political protest (see Burning for the Buddha: Self-immolation in Chinese Buddhism by James A. Benn). In 1948 in the city of Harbin a monk seated himself in the lotus position on a pile of sawdust and soybean oil and set fire to himself in protest against the treatment of Buddhism by Mao Zedong’s Communists.

The main inspiration for the practice appears to be based on a teaching in The Lotus Sutra (Tib. dam chos pad-ma dkar po’i mdo). One chapter of this sutra recounts the life story of the Bodhisattva Medicine King who demonstrated his insight into the selfless nature of his body by ritualistically setting his body aflame, spreading the “Light of the Dharma” for twelve hundred years.

But I think that the spiritual motivation for the sacrifice of our young monks and nuns in Tibet might have come from another direction. Forty-five kilometers south-east of Katmandu is one of the most popular pilgrimage sites for Tibetans visiting Nepal. The hill of Namo Buddha (or Tagmo Lujin in Tibetan) is – the Golden Light Sutra (phags pa gser ‘od dam pa’i mdo) tells us – the very place where the Buddha (in a previous incarnation) gave up his body to feed a starving tigress and her four cubs. This is a popular Jataka story with all Tibetans and is often brought up in conversations whenever an example of self-sacrifice or selfless conduct is required. There are other such Jataka or Avadana stories of the Buddha giving up his life for others, a well known one from the mahakapi jataka being the tale of the Great Monkey King who died saving the lives of his “80,000” monkey subjects.

The courageous action of the thirteen self-immolators in Tibet must be seen in this specific doctrinal light. I emphatically disagree with the opinion some people are circulating that the monks and nuns burnt themselves in despair because they were not allowed to practice their religion. If that were the main concern of these monks and nuns then the logical course of action for them to take would have been to escape to India, as many others had done so before. Kirti monastery, where most of the young self-immolators had studied, even has a large branch at Dharamshala where they would have been welcome.

Hence we must see the self-immolations in Tibet as action taken for the welfare of others, for the freedom of the Tibetan people and the independence of Tibet (as some of the self-immolators expressly stated). Even the call by most of the self-immolators for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet must be interpreted as a call for the restoration of an independent Tibet, as the Dalai Lama is regarded as the legitimate sovereign ruler of independent Tibet, and should not merely be interpreted as a plea for the return of a personal spiritual leader, as those attempting to de-politicize the events have been claiming.

The deed of the thirteen self-immolators is not only Buddhist in an unquestionably absolute sense, but furthermore comes from within a heroic and action-oriented tradition of Buddhism. Some scholars have viewed this approach as truer to the original teachings of the historical Buddha, in contrast to the quietist, passive, even escapist perception of Buddhism which has gained more widespread acceptance, especially in the West.

The historical Buddha was a member of the warrior class, a Kshatriya. Though he accepted all classes and castes into the sangha he was given to addressing his followers thus “We are Kshatriya, all”. He did this, of course, not to highlight his own caste, but probably to lay emphasis on the qualities of commitment and courage that he required of his disciples. The sutra’s tell us that Siddhartha was a tall man of powerful build, trained in the martial arts, in which he excelled, even defeating other Shakya warriors to prove his worth for the hand of the princess Yashodhara. The warrior’s fearlessness and commitment were evident in his first attempt to achieve enlightenment, and which is powerfully represented in the Gandhara image of the Buddha, after six years of extreme self-mortification had seen his body reduced to skin and bone.

Even after he realized that his first attempt was a failure his warrior’s commitment and courage were never in doubt. The Buddha’s next method, the “Middle Way” was not an excuse for inaction, weakness or impotence. When Siddhartha finally sat under the Bodhi tree he fixed his resolve on the goal of enlightenment with an unshakable resolution. A beautiful and dramatic verse is attributed to him by some early compilers of the sutras. “Let blood dry up, let flesh wither away, but I shall not stir from this spot till Enlightenment be attained.”

A few of the titles by which Siddhartha was known after his enlightenment appear to acknowledge this heroic quality, as in “jina” or “conqueror” and “mahavira” or “great hero (also the title of the founder of Jainism).

The Bodhisattva as hero is delineated clearly in a passage from the Prajnaparimita Sutra where he is said to fearlessly lead all sentient beings out of the deep forests of samsara, fighting of attacks from “inimical forces”. At the end of this passage he asks his disciple Subhuti “If, then, more and more hostile and inimical forces should rise up against him in that forest, would this heroic man decide to abandon his family and take himself alone out of that terrible and frightening forest?” and Subhuti of course replies, “No, O Lord”.

The historical Buddha himself, when stalked by the bandit and murderer Angulimala, chose not to flee or leave the problems to others. Instead he confronted and subdued the killer through what has traditionally been regarded as magical power. No matter how swiftly Angulimala ran after the casually strolling Buddha, he could not catch up with him. About a hundred years earlier the Greek philosopher Zeno posited such a situation in his “time paradox” of Achilles never being able to catch up with a tortoise. These day physicists might explain it as a “Quantum Zeno effect”, the name which E.C.G. Sudarshan and B. Misra coined to describe “the suppression of unitary time evolution caused by quantum decoherence…”

Then there is the story of how in a previous life the Buddha killed a mass-murderer on a ship to save the lives of the other travelers on board. The context in which Buddha told this avadana story to his disciples is interesting and relevant to the overall point I am trying to make. One day a disciple noticed that the Buddha had received a wound on his feet. The disciple asked how this could happen to some one who had attained nirvana. The Buddha then told his disciples the above story. The lesson being that no one can wholly escape the consequence of a violent deed even if its performance is necessary and righteous. But there is another logical corollary to the story, that if the Buddha had chosen, for reasons of cowardice or ethical fastidiousness, not to kill the murderer and not to save those many lives, he would have committed a more far more immoral and evil act.

It is this essentially non-violent yet nuanced and dynamic interpretation of Buddhist action that is completely absent from the passive, comfortable, sanitized, hands-off, and inherently self-serving interpretation of the Dharma dominating much of the contemporary Buddhist world.

A noticeable aspect of this “New Age” Buddhism is its preoccupation with money, celebrity and a kind of low-maintenance intellectualism disseminated in a plethora of unreadable self-help books with catchy Zen style titles (Watching the Watcher, Silent Mind Holy Mind, Living Through Dying and so on). Something like this is, I suppose, prevalent in institutionalized religions worldwide, and is probably a waste of time to work yourself up about it. But I think Tibetans would wholeheartedly join me in condemning Buddhist teachers charging extortionate ticket prices for their sermons, and Dharma centers discouraging, sometimes forbidding, their members from participating in political action, even for the cause of Tibetan freedom and human rights.

And how can you argue with them when even the former prime-minister of the exile government, a Tibetan lama and learned geshe has not only not participated in any Free Tibet demonstrations but has even ordered Tibetans not to demonstrate against Chinese leaders visiting the West. Yet Samdhong Rinpoche was seen on European TV, in 2006, as one of the leaders of a major demonstration against the Swiss company SYNGENTA in India, a leading agri-business company that Indian environmentalists opposed. So perhaps the spiritual lesson here is that political activism is permissible so long as it is fashionable, profitable and does not upset Beijing. The Dalai Lama has publicly joined the opposition to the proposed oil pipeline from Alberta to Texas. I am enough of an environmentalist not to take issue with the Dalai Lama’s initiative, but I wish His Holiness had been as opposed to the Beijing Olympics or China’s “population-transfer” railway line to Tibet.

Yet the most cynical thing I have seen recently, especially in relation to the self-immolations, is a fund raising letter sent out by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), asking people to donate money to it because “…13 Tibetans have set fire to themselves,” This from the organization that opposes the Tibetan independence struggle, and whose senior official wrote in enthusiastic support of China’s condemnation of self-immolation as being against Buddhism.

From: Tibet News thetibetnews@riseup.ne

The views expressed in this piece are that of the author and the publication of the piece on this website does not necessarily reflect their endorsement by the website.

Tibet’s resource curse

China plans to scale up lithium extraction to meet demand for electric cars and smart phones. But environmental damage to the fragile Tibetan plateau will be irreversible..


Chinese geologists exploring Tibet in the 1960s criss-crossed the plateau, searching for the mineral wealth they assumed must be abundant, but had not yet discovered. In remote alpine deserts, the geological expeditions came upon lakes which were slowly drying-up due to long-term climate shifts. High on the empty Chang Tang plain in western Tibet, they found lakes already dry, their beds a shimmering salt pan.

Testing the various salts, the geologists discovered a scientific curiosity. One lake in particular,Drangyer Tsaka (Zabuye), held an extraordinary concentration of lithium salts; measurements of 660 parts per million (ppm) of lithium were recorded. Only in the Atacama Desert of the Andes had such levels of lithium been discovered.

For decades, these findings were known only to a handful of geologists. Lithium was a metal in moderate demand, for unglamorous uses in the manufacture of ceramics and industrial greases and, in tiny amounts, as a psychiatric anti-depressant. China satisfied its modest need for lithium by mining a lithium-rich mineral ore atYichun, in eastern China’s Jiangxi province. Should that prove insufficient, there were other salt lakes on the Tibetan Plateau, far from lonely Drangyer Tsaka.

In the Tsaidam Basin of northern Tibet, geologists found not only salt lakes, but also oil, asbestos, lead, zinc; and in Tso Ngonpo (Qinghai Lake) they found minerals that could be used for developing submarine-based nuclear missiles.

So valuable were the lakes in the Tsaidam Basin that a railway was built more than three decades ago, enabling tanker wagons to haul millions of tonnes of oil to Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province. The availability of so many minerals in one basin, as well as gas fields discovered and exploited later, provided the raw materials for a major industrial base...


http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/4696

Dalai Lama questions wisdom of self-immolations

The Dalai Lama says he is very worried about the growing number of monks and nuns setting themselves on fire to protest against Chinese rule in Tibet. He told the BBC he was not encouraging such actions - saying there was no doubt they required courage, but questioning how effective they were.

There have been 11 cases of self-immolation so far this year. Most have resulted in death - the latest a 35-year-old nun two weeks ago. The BBC has obtained graphic footage of the moment she set herself alight, prompting horrified cries from onlookers. Later, Chinese security forces flooded the area. The shocking video footage was smuggled across the border to India and shown to the BBC.

Tibetan monks and nuns are using self-immolation as the latest tactic in their struggle against 60 years of Chinese rule, says the BBC's Andrew North. But it is a sensitive issue for the man they are dying for - the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. 

'How much effect?'

In an interview with our correspondent, he said he was not encouraging his followers to sacrifice themselves - as alleged by China. "The question is how much effect" the self-immolations have, the Dalai Lama said. "That's the question. There is courage - very strong courage. But how much effect? "Courage alone is no substitute. You must utilise your wisdom."

Asked whether he feared the actions could make life worse for people in Tibet, he said: "Many Tibetans sacrifice their lives. "Nobody knows how many people killed and tortured - I mean death through torture. Nobody knows. "But a lot of people suffer. But how much effect? The Chinese respond harder."

China has condemned the self-immolation campaign as immoral and inhuman, saying it will never succeed. The growing number of monks and nuns prepared to set themselves on fire is a sign of increasing desperation in Tibet, our correspondent says. They know while the West has backed the Arab Spring, with China it talks with a much quieter voice, he says.

That leaves Tibetans with few options to shine a light on their struggle. From inside Tibet, the word is that more monks are preparing to make the ultimate sacrifice, our correspondent adds.

Nepal's Maoist-dominated government turns hostile to Tibetan refugees

Seven Tibetans arrested in Nepal for illegal entry
November 17, 2011

November 17: As the Kalachakra initiations by His Holiness the Dalai Lama draws nearer, Nepali police on Monday night arrested seven Tibetans for illegally crossing the Tibet-Nepal border. According to reports, the Tibetans aged between 20 and 43, were arrested from Dadafaya Village en route to the Tibetan exile base of Dharamshala in northern India. Chief District Officer Bed Prasad Kharel told reporters that the group of Tibetans has been sent to the Department of Immigration in the nation’s capital for further action.

“They (Tibetans) said that they wanted to meet Dalai Lama,” the Chief District Officer was quoted by local reporters as saying. Nepali police had arrested five Tibetans last week from the Simikot Airport at the Nepal-Tibet border for illegal entry while two Tibetans were arrested from the capital, following the self-immolation by a Tibetan monk in Kathmandu.

The arrests come close on the heels of a high-ranking home ministry official in Nepal claiming that the government will employ stringent measures against Tibetan refugees. Talking to reporters, Sudhir Kumar Sah, spokesperson for Nepal’s Home Ministry had said that the government might “slash all the facilities being granted to the Tibetans residing in Nepal” including their freedom of movement.

The up coming 32nd Kalachakra to be held at Bodh Gaya, scheduled from December 31, 2011 to January 10, 2012, is expected to draw 200,000 devotees from different countries including Nepal and Tibet. However, Tibetan refugees in Nepal, numbering over 20,000, are under the fear of facing greater difficulties and restriction with the scheduled visit of Chinese Premiere Wen Jiabao on December 20.


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'Removal' of Tibet from the Movie Rockstar

November 7, 2011

To, Smt Leela Samson,

Central Board of Film Certification,

Bharat Bhavan, 91E Walkeshwar Road,

Mumbai 400006, Maharashtra, India.

 Subject: 
Respected Smt Leela Samson,


This is with reference to the recent Censor Board directive to the filmmakers of the Hindi movie Rockstar, directed by Imtiaz Ali. We are surprised and shocked to learn about the Central Board of Film Certification's decision to remove of the Tibetan National Flag and blurring the 'Free Tibet' banners from the movie sequence. We see no logic in preventing the filmmaker either from discussing Tibet or displaying the Tibetan National Flag of an occupied country when the Government of India has officially given asylum to lakhs of Tibetans in this country and has even allowed the Tibetan Government-in-Exile to function from the Indian soil for the last fifty years.


We, the concerned citizens of India and the supporters of Tibetan struggle for Independence would like to know from you the reason for such a drastic step, as there was no Indian Government directive on the use of the Tibetan National Flag in the country. Instead any Indian citizen and those Tibetans living in exile in India are free to fly the Tibetan National Flag anywhere in India. We would like to bring to your notice that we do not consider China a friendly nation as it had a long war with us in 1962 resulting in Chinese annexation and occupation of 32,000 Sq miles of Indian Territory. Recently Chinese Army had entered many places in Chumar Sector of Ladakh region. The Chinese government openly claims Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh as their territory and the Chinese Embassy continue to issue stapled visas to the residents of the state of J&K and Arunachal Pradesh to provoke the Indian people. Referring to all these 'friendly' activities of China, we cannot term the relations India has with china as cordial but aggressive


May I recall movies such as Haqeeqat by Chetan Anand and Prem Pujari by Vijay Anand that prominently highlighted the issue of Tibet and the Chinese aggression on India. Tibet is a strategic issue for India from the defence point of view and by acting against the nation’s interest. The recent controversial acts of the Central Board of Film Certification raise doubt about its loyalty to the Union of India. We would request you to explain and clarify the reasons to the concerned people in this country which may once again strengthen our beliefs in institutions such as CBFC.

Your decision to ‘remove’ the Tibetan National Flag and Free Tibet slogans from an Indian movie gives us an impression that you have either acted under the Chinese pressure or have deliberately tried to appease the Chinese Government thus jeopardising the security and integrity of the Indian nation. We protest the denial of freedom of speech and expression enshrined to us by our Constitution.


Yours Sincerely,
Rohit Singh
(Campaigns Coordinator, Friends of Tibet)
rohit.singh@friendsoftibet.org


Friends of Tibet, PO Box 16674, Bombay 400050, India
फ्रेंड्स ऑफ तिब्बत, पीओ बॉक्स १६६७४, मुम्बई ४०००५०, भारत.


Friends of Tibet is a people’s movement to keep alive the issue of Tibet through direct action. Our activities are aimed at ending China’s occupation of Tibet and the suffering of the Tibetan people. Friends of Tibet supports the continued struggle of the Tibetan people for independence. Friends of Tibet is also one of the principal organisers of World Tibet Day around the world. To know more, visit: www.friendsoftibet.org