Tibetans back Dalai Lama's 'middle way,' despite impatience

NEW DELHI - At the end of a conference called to consider the future of the Tibetan movement, the Dalai Lama and his delegates spoke of continuity – maintaining his "middle way" policy of negotiations with China.
Yet the legacy of these six days in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala could well be one of change. For the first time, Tibetan leaders said there was a limit to their support of the nonconfrontational "middle way." Without progress soon, they said, they would abandon it.
This robust debate clearly demonstrated that even the most moderate Tibetans are growing impatient at China's apparent unwillingness to grant Tibet a greater degree of autonomy. The result is that the Dalai Lama now has a clear mandate to take a harder line on China, should he choose.
"His stances [toward China] have been very soft," says Vijay Kranti, editor of Tibbat Desh, a newspaper for the Tibetan community in India. "Now he may take a stronger stand."
The Dalai Lama called the conference at a time of mounting frustration. He recently called his attempts to find a negotiated settlement to the Tibet question a failure. Not long after, Chinese officials and envoys from the Dalai Lama acknowledged that talks between the two had broken down.
Some Tibetan exiles – particularly youths – have increasingly questioned the Dalai Lama's methods and goals. They are pushing for greater agitation worldwide to force China's hand. Many also want a fully independent Tibet.
The intent of bringing 600 Tibetan exiles to Dharamsala – the home of the Tibetan government in exile – was to allow the Tibetan community to question the Dalai Lama's policy openly. The result was essentially a vote of confidence for the Dalai Lama. But the voices of dissent are growing louder.
"The majority were for a continuation of the 'middle way' policy," Karma Chophel, speaker of the Tibetan government in exile, told AFP. "But quite a number said if the 'middle way' did not produce any results in the near future, then the people will be forced to switch the policy to complete independence or a demand for self-determination."
The Dalai Lama himself acknowledged in a press conference Sunday: "My trust in Chinese officials has become thinner and thinner."
For a leader who is acknowledged as a god by many Tibetans, the notion of seeking public support might seem perfunctory. But for the past 20 years, the Dalai Lama has sought to expand the Tibetan movement beyond himself – to make it a sustainable campaign controlled and fueled by Tibetan exiles. He engineered the establishment of the democratic government in exile in Dharmasala. With his "middle way" faltering, last week's conference was an attempt to accelerate this process.
"It was a robust debate," says Srikanth Kondapalli, a Tibet expert at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. "The momentum of the movement has increased."
On Sunday, the Dalai Lama ruled out retirement – something he had hinted at before – saying he would continue to lead the movement until he succeeded or died.
The gathering of 600 Tibetans sent a message to Beijing that he is not alone, says Tibbat Desh editor Mr. Kranti. If policy changes, "these are the people with whom you will have to deal," he adds

Dalai Lama's envoys say Tibet at crossroads

DHARAMSALA, India (Reuters) - Tibetans voiced frustration on Sunday at a lack of progress in autonomy talks with China, on the eve of a meeting of exiles that could challenge the Dalai Lama's moderate line toward Beijing.
"We have told the Chinese very clearly this time that we have now reached the crossroads," said Lodi Gyari, a special envoy for the exiled spiritual leader.
Gyari took part in talks in Beijing from October 31 to November 5 at which China rejected a long-standing demand for autonomy.
"As far as our task is concerned, it has certainly come to a crucial stage. We did not even talk about future meetings," Gyari said at a briefing in Dharamsala, the north Indian hill station that is the seat of the Dalai Lama's exiled government.
Gyari declined to be drawn on the options now available to the Tibetan side. But many exiles are frustrated at the lack of progress, despite several rounds of talks with China, and favor more radical demands going beyond the Dalai Lama's talk of autonomy.
Hundreds of exiles will consider the way forward at talks beginning on Monday in Dharamsala and due to run until November 22, which could pose a political challenge to the 73-year-old Nobel Peace laureate.
SUCCESSION TALK
The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959 after a failed uprising, recently hinted his "middle way" for Tibet had failed, and speculation has grown he wants to step back from day-to-day political leadership.
After being hospitalized with abdominal pain in August and undergoing gallstone surgery last month, he is not attending the meeting in Dharamsala. Some Tibetan activists say he is laying the ground for a possible successor.
At the latest talks in Beijing, the Tibetans presented a "memorandum on genuine autonomy" -- released to reporters on Sunday -- which stressed their right to create their own regional government and to be represented in decision-making in the Chinese government.
It also called for protecting the culture and identity of minority nationalities in Tibet, and preserving the environment.
But Gyari said China was unyielding and the Tibetans were disappointed by the "total lack of willingness to seriously reciprocate our sincere and serious efforts".
"Our biggest disappointment, and the only reason why His Holiness (Dalai Lama) in the recent past had to publicly express his own despair, is the situation on the ground, the situation inside Tibet," Gyari said.
The Dalai Lama and other critics of China's rule say it stifles religious and cultural freedom and promotes development that skews wealth and opportunities away from poor Tibetans while encouraging influxes of Chinese labor from other parts.
Chinese officials last week said while the door to Tibetan independence or semi-independence would never open, the door to talks was always open. Gyari rejected the notion.
"(The) so-called very wide open door is locked as hard as a horn," he said, referring to an old Tibetan saying. "The door is so closely shut we did not even ask for the next round."
(Writing by Rina Chandran; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

China cracks down in Tibet, exiles say

Reporting from Dharamsala, India -- China has further tightened control in its ethnic Tibetan region in recent weeks, exile groups say, even as it was ostensibly negotiating in good faith with the Dalai Lama's envoys.Stepped-up patrols and increased paramilitary presence in Lhasa, the regional capital, and along major transport arteries coincide with a strategy meeting attended by exiles in northern India this week, members of exile groups say.
"We've monitored an even more intense crackdown in the past couple of weeks," Kate Saunders, communications director with the advocacy group International Campaign for Tibet, said Thursday.The group said a source inside China this week reported seeing three convoys of up to 15 Chinese military vehicles west of the town of Kangding in Sichuan province, an area of significant unrest, along with roadblocks, bunkers and armed forces around bridges and government buildings.Chinese officials and envoys of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, this month wrapped up several days of talks, the seventh inconclusive round in six years, after widespread unrest in the nation's ethnically Tibetan region in March.
More than 500 delegates from around the world have descended on Dharamsala, a mountain village near the Chinese border, home of the self-declared Tibetan government in exile, for six days of meetings on Tibet's future.After supporting the Dalai Lama's "middle way" approach for two decades, which acknowledges Beijing's right to sovereignty amid hope of securing greater autonomy over Tibetan religious and cultural affairs, a growing number of exiles have concluded the strategy is not working.This week's meetings are designed to explore a new approach amid concern that the 73-year-old Dalai Lama may not have too many years of good health left. Last month, he was hospitalized and had an operation to remove gallstones.One of the biggest challenges for the exile community is communicating with the 6 million Tibetans in their homeland, given Chinese restrictions on information and travel.China seized control of Tibet in 1951, and since then the government has invested billions of dollars in roads, schools and other infrastructure, but it has fallen short in winning over hearts and minds. Beijing is bracing for the 50th anniversary of its March 1959 crackdown that saw the Dalai Lama flee to India.Tsering, a senior monk at the Kirti Jepa monastery in Dharamsala, said his religious order relied primarily on telephone calls or hand-delivered messages to communicate with two affiliated monasteries in the eastern part of China's ethnically Tibetan region, referred to as Amdo by exiles. That became necessary after Chinese authorities seized the monks' laptops in March. "I don't know about a new crackdown, but we heard the number of military has increased not only in Amdo but Lhasa [as a] show to the Tibetan people," said Tsering, speaking through an interpreter.The affiliated monasteries in China, the Aba Kirti monastery with about 2,700 monks and the Taktsang with about 700, have come under increased pressure since riots broke out in March, said Tsering, who goes by one name.Dharamsala is a focal point for most of the estimated 500,000 exiles spread around the world. But the contrast is stark between this politically astute, cosmopolitan, often well-educated group and the largely rural, often illiterate Tibetans in the homeland.The government in exile contends that its views are in line with those of many Tibetans. It says a secret survey conducted in China shows nearly 50% of Tibetans supported the Dalai Lama's policies.But some are skeptical."Many say 'the Tibetan youth wants this or that,' " said Andrew Fischer, a lecturer with the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands. "Give me a break. Who knows what the Tibetan youth wants when 95% of them are in Tibet?"Tsering fled across the Himalayas at 19 because he faced arrest for posting "Free Tibet" posters and organizing fellow monks to resist Chinese indoctrination. A decade later, he is responsible for communicating with the two monasteries in the ethnically Tibetan region and acting as a liaison with the outside world.He said several of the estimated 1,000 monks who participated in the March protests had received jail terms of four to nine years, with more sentences expected.After the protests, China stepped up its "patriotic education" program at the monasteries. On May 23, a Communist Party work team asked monks at the Aba Kirti monastery to admit mistakes, renounce the Dalai Lama as a "splittist," state that Tibet is an inalienable part of China and acknowledge China's kindness, Tsering said.He said China had in many ways won the decades-long standoff over Tibet and it was time for a new approach.Magnier is a Times staff writer.mark.magnier@latimes.com

Tibetans Look to Future, Without Dalai Lama

Hundreds of Tibetan political leaders, activists and individuals from all over the world have begun a meeting in Dharamsala, India, that is unprecedented in its ambition: to bring all Tibetans together to decide their own future, without the direct guidance of the Dalai Lama.
The weeklong summit, which includes elected members of Tibet's parliament-in-exile, nongovernmental organizations and protest groups, comes at a critical time. After the Dalai Lama indicated recently that he had all but given up on negotiations with China over autonomy for Tibet, there has been increasing tension between Tibetan conservatives, who favor continuing talks, and younger radicals, who want to push for a free Tibet. After protests this March in Lhasa that turned violent, the radicals were energized. But since then they have been unable to channel their efforts constructively. "The community is feeling slightly lost and helpless," says Tsering Shakya, a Tibetan scholar and professor at the University of British Columbia who has written extensively about modern Tibetan history. This week's meeting is an attempt on the part of Tibetan leadership to allow Tibetans to voice their views openly — i.e., without feeling inhibited about criticizing the Dalai Lama — and perhaps to restore some sense of unity.
But the choice that Tibetans are facing isn't a simple fork in the road between seeking independence or seeking autonomy. That's clear from looking at the people expected to play a key role in the talks, which are closed to the public. The central voices of the Tibetan establishment include Lodi Gyari, the Dalai Lama's envoy to Washington and chief negotiator with the Chinese, and Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche, who is also seen as a conservative force, along with several Cabinet ministers. Those pushing for radical change include the Tibetan Youth Congress, which is vocal and visible but to date has had little sway over the Tibetan political system; Students for a Free Tibet, which is well organized but whose influence has been limited to the English-speaking world; and individuals like Jamyang Norbu, a writer and fiery orator who could have an outsize influence in this kind of forum. There are also several NGOs and individuals with regional influence over different parts of the Tibetan diaspora, and a secularist group pushing for more lay leadership.
But perhaps the biggest wild card in the talks will be Tibetans inside Tibet, says Robbie Barnett, a professor of Tibetan studies at Columbia University in New York City. (There are 5.5 million, compared with about 130,000 in the global diaspora.) They won't be able to attend in person, but many of them are making their views heard through informal or secret communications. And with this group, too, there is a wide range of views, from radicalized former prisoners to those who are pushing for more concessions to China in the hopes of bringing the Dalai Lama back to Tibet before the end of his life.

Tibetans plot future after Dalai Lama admits failure

DHARAMSHALA, India (AFP) — Leading Tibetan exiles began a week-long meeting Monday in northern India that could usher in a more radical approach to their long struggle against Chinese rule in Tibet.
The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, called the gathering after admitting that his attempts to secure greater autonomy for the region through negotiation with the Chinese government had failed.
Before the talks began, he urged the 500 participants to consider all aspects of policy regarding China -- ensuring that the thorny issue of whether to push for full independence would be tackled.
The meeting should air "the real opinions and views of the Tibetan people through free and frank discussions," said the Dalai Lama, who has expressed uncharacteristic frustration over failing to win concessions from Beijing.
Many exiles feel that his campaign for "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet -- which he fled in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule -- should now be replaced by a more aggressive pro-independence stance.
"We certainly hope the cause of independence for Tibet is stronger by the end of the week," said Tsewang Rigzin, president of the influential Tibetan Youth Congress.
"I was a bit surprised when the Dalai Lama called this meeting," Rigzin told AFP. "But it was high time. As he says, he has done everything in his power and not made progress."
The Dalai Lama, speaking earlier this month in Japan, said he accepted that his "middle path" approach had been exhausted, and that there was now "no other alternative than to ask people" about how to proceed.
Tenzin Bayul, one of the delegates attending the conclave at the exiles' base in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala, said she felt it was a moment of historic importance.
"Non-violence is central to our culture, but frustration is strong among young Tibetans and people get very angry about the lack of success," said Bayul, a 28-year-old activist studying at Tufts University in Boston.
"This situation has gone on for so long, and the Dalai Lama is tired."
The meeting has no policy-making power -- any recommendations would require the approval of the exiled Tibetan parliament -- but it comes as the Tibetan movement braces for change.
One looming issue is the health of the Dalai Lama, 73, who had to cancel trips abroad after being hospitalised in August and undergoing gallstone surgery last month.
He has since returned to his gruelling schedule and still commands huge respect from Tibetans and supporters around the world, but he now describes himself as semi-retired.
The meeting will also discuss current conditions in restive Tibet.
In March, protests against Chinese rule in the capital, Lhasa, erupted into violence which spread to other areas of western China with Tibetan populations.
Tibet's government-in-exile said more than 200 Tibetans were killed in the subsequent Chinese crackdown.
The clashes were cited by some Tibetans as proof that a new, and more radical, strategy was needed.
But any such policy shift could divide the Tibetan movement and see much of its international support seep away.
A Chinese government spokesman earlier dismissed the meeting, saying that such "separatist attempts will get nowhere."
The Dalai Lama will not attend the meeting in an attempt to ensure that any decisions are independent of his own views, officials say.

Dalai Lama to visit Prague in November

Prague - Dalai Lama is to visit Prague again after two years since his last visit. The Tibetan leader has been invited by former president Václav Havel and Forum 2000 foundation.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, is to spend a few days in the country - from 29 November to 2 December.
According to the Forum 2000 spokersperson Filip Šebek, the Dalai Lama will present a teaching titled "Understanding - a Way to Happiness" in Prague's Congress Centre.
"The presentation is to start at 1.30 pm and after that there will be a public talk with the Dalai Lama," said Šebek.
During his visit, the Dalai Lama, one of the world´s most famous spiritual leaders, is to meet Václav Havel and MP Group of Friends of Tibet.
The seventy-three year old Dalai Lama, winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize, was supposed to visit the Czech Republic in October this year but owing to his health problems he was forced to cancel his October visit.
The Dalai Lama has been a frequent visitor of the Czech Republic. He first visited the country in February 1990 upon the invitation of former Czechoslovak president Václav Havel.

In 1959 China started to occupy Tibet and the 14th Dalai Lama sought refuge in India. He has been living in Dharamsala, northern India since that time.

China says no progress in talks with Dalai envoys

BEIJING (AFP) — China said Monday that talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama on the future of Tibet had failed to make progress and insisted it would not compromise on the status of the Himalayan region.
Officials said the talks had been candid and the door would remain open for future discussions, but that "serious divergences" remained.
"Our contacts and talks failed to make progress and they (the Dalai Lama's representatives) should assume full responsibility for it," said Zhu Weiqun, executive vice minister of the Communist Party's United Work Front Department.
"In our conversations, we pointed out that the unification of the motherland, territorial integrity and national dignity are the greatest interests of the Chinese people.
"On these fronts, we won't make any concessions, at any time and for anyone," Zhu -- whose department is in charge of contacts with individuals and organisations outside the party -- told reporters.
Envoys of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader who has lived in India for nearly half a century, ended two days of talks Wednesday with Chinese officials in Beijing -- their third round of negotiations this year.
Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, Kelsang Gyaltsen and three aides arrived in the Chinese capital on October 30 but only began formal discussions on Tuesday, according to the Tibet government-in-exile in India.
Zhu said that "though there existed serious divergences of views in this talk, the atmosphere in general was candid."
The Dalai Lama has sought "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet since he fled his homeland following a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule, nine years after Chinese troops invaded the region.
China claims he actually seeks full independence -- a "separatist" action which it opposes.
Tensions came to a head on March 14 this year when violence erupted in the Tibetan capital Lhasa against Chinese rule, before spreading to other areas of western China with Tibetan populations.
Tibet's government-in-exile said more than 200 Tibetans were killed and about 1,000 hurt in a subsequent Chinese crackdown, but China reported police killing one "insurgent" and blamed Tibetan "rioters" for 21 deaths.
During the visit last week, the envoys were taken to the Muslim autonomous region of Ningxia by Chinese authorities to demonstrate Beijing's handling of minority concerns.
Zhu said the talks had centred mostly on the Dalai Lama and his policies.
"We merely talked about how the Dalai Lama should completely give up his splittist opinions and actions and strive for the understanding of the central authorities and all Chinese people so as to solve the issue concerning his own prospects," he said.
But even before talks started, the Dalai Lama said earlier this month that his drive for greater autonomy had ended in failure, and urged Tibetans to be open to all options in negotiations with Beijing over the region's future.
He has called a meeting among Tibetans for later this month to decide on a future strategy toward the Chinese government -- with some suggesting a shift to demanding full independence could be adopted.
Sita, an ethnic Tibetan vice minister of the United Front Work department, insisted Monday that "the door for contacts and talks is always open."
However, he added the "door for independence" was closed, in response to a question on whether the possibility of further talks was discussed.
"What he (the Dalai Lama) can do includes... stopping separatist activities, openly recognising Tibet as part of China and openly recognising that Taiwan is part of China," Zhu added.
"On such a basis, we will continue to conduct contacts and talks with him."

Dalai Lama 'disappointed' by Sarkozy

Paris: Tibetan religious leader the Dalai Lama would not attend a planned meeting of Nobel Prize recipients in Paris out of "disappointment" with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, French media reported on Sunday.
"No visit is planned. There had never been any official invitation," Matthieu Ricard, a spokesman for the Dalai Lama, was quoted by the weekly Journal du Dimanche as saying.
Sarkozy was not present at the most recent visit to France by the Dalai Lama, who was instead greeted by Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni. Critics accused Sarkozy of not meeting the Dalai Lama in order placate China, which considers the Dalai Lama a separatist leader.
Dalai Lama nominated for EU's human rights award
France's Elysee Palace announced that a number of Nobel laureates - including the Dalai Lama - had been invited to the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights.

Tibetan Envoys End Visit to China

By EDWARD WONG
Published: November 6, 2008
BEIJING — Senior envoys of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetans worldwide, announced on Thursday that they had presented Chinese officials in Beijing with a memorandum on “genuine autonomy” for Tibetans living under Chinese rule.
Two senior envoys of the Dalai Lama, Kasur Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, left Beijing on Wednesday. They had arrived in China on Oct. 30 for an eighth round of talks between Tibetan and Chinese officials.
The envoys represent the Tibetan government in exile that is based in the mountain town of Dharamsala in northern India. The envoys returned to India on Thursday and released a written statement in the evening.
The statement did not give further details on the talks or on the memorandum that was presented to Chinese officials, although it seems likely to have set out details of the Dalai Lama’s longstanding call for autonomy within China, rather than independence, a stance that in the past has been met with deep suspicion by Chinese authorities.
Mr. Gyari said in the statement that the envoys had been asked by Tibetan leaders not to discuss the negotiations with the Chinese because a special meeting of Tibetan exiles is to take place later this month. The meeting has been called by the Dalai Lama to discuss the future of Tibet, which has emerged this year as one of the most volatile issues facing the Chinese government.
The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 from the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and has been advocating for autonomy, rather than independence, in what the Chinese now call the Tibet Autonomous Region, a high-altitude desert plateau in western China that is the heartland of the Tibetans.
The Dalai Lama has also said he would like to see real autonomy in other regions of China with significant Tibetan populations. These would include parts of the provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu.
The People’s Liberation Army, under orders from Mao Zedong, invaded Tibet in 1950, leading to the annexation of all Tibetan regions by the Communist government.
Despite the eight rounds of talks, China has made no real concessions on its Tibet policy. The Dalai Lama has said in recent weeks that he is ready to accept the fact that he has failed to win true autonomy for his people and now wants other Tibetans to advise on a path forward. The meeting later in November could be a turning point in policies toward China adopted by the Tibetan government in exile.
The Dalai Lama has been under pressure from younger Tibetans to take a more aggressive stand and to veer away from the moderate “middle way” approach toward China that he has long advocated.
Lhasa was engulfed on March 14 by an ethnic riot that Chinese authorities said left at least 18 people dead. Following peaceful protests by monks, angry Tibetans attacked ethnic Han Chinese settlers in Lhasa and set fire to buildings and cars. Protests flared up in other Tibetan areas of China, and the Chinese government responded with a severe crackdown that exile groups say left dozens of Tibetans dead and many more imprisoned.
The Chinese government accused the Dalai Lama of orchestrating the March riot to derail the Olympic Games, which took place in August in China. Xinhua, the official Chinese state news agency, reported on Wednesday that 55 Tibetans had received prison sentences ranging from three years to life imprisonment for their roles in the March 14 riot.
In the statement released on Thursday, Mr. Gyari said the Tibetan envoys met with various Chinese officials and also visited the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, a small area in northern China that has a large population of ethnic Hui Chinese, who are traditionally Muslims.
Mr. Gyari also said the envoys received a briefing on the Chinese Constitution and on a national law concerning regional autonomy.
Mr. Gyari and Mr. Gyaltsen were accompanied on the visit to Beijing by three other senior Tibetan officials. On Thursday morning, after landing in New Delhi, they briefed Samdhong Rinpoche, the elected prime minister of the Tibetan government in exile.

Dalai Lama in Japan after health scare

NARITA, Japan (AFP) — Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Friday started a week-long visit to Japan for talks on spirituality, his first trip overseas since a health scare.
The 73-year-old Nobel Peace laureate began his tour days after saying he saw no hope in current dialogue with Beijing, despite a new round of talks due to begin soon between his envoys and Chinese officials.
The Dalai Lama smiled and waved as he was welcomed at Narita airport near Tokyo by dozens of Tibetan expatriates, Japanese well-wishers and fellow Buddhist monks.
"I'm very happy to be once more in this country and to have the opportunity to meet all my friends," he said.
Some 50 plain-clothes police officers kept watch and escorted the Dalai Lama into a waiting car as Tibetans chanted "Free Tibet."
During his stay, the Dalai Lama is scheduled to give speeches arranged by a Japanese Buddhist group and Tibetan supporters. He will also visit children and monks.
He is due to travel to the southwestern city of Fukuoka to deliver an address on compassion and happiness and to speak in Tokyo about the nature of the mind, organisers said.
In October the Dalai Lama spent nearly a week in a New Delhi hospital after tests revealed he had gallstones.
Ahead of his illness, the revered monk had pursued a hectic international schedule as he campaigned for improved human rights in Tibet while China hosted the Olympic Games.
The Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since fleeing Tibet in 1959, is a frequent visitor to Japan where he enjoys an active following.
However, unlike many Western nations, Japan -- which has an uncomfortable relationship with China -- has almost always refused high-level official contacts with the Dalai Lama and no officials are scheduled to meet him on the current trip.
China accuses the Dalai Lama of trying to split Tibet from Beijing through his travels overseas.
The Dalai Lama's position has been one of seeking meaningful autonomy for Tibet within China. However, last weekend he said he had all but given hope of reaching a mutually acceptable solution.