Former Secretary to His Holiness The Dalai Lama withdraw his candidacy from Kalon Tripa Election

New York , Tuesday 11/30/2010

Former Secretary to His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Mr. Lobsang Jinpa has formally withdrew his name from the candidacy for Kalon Tripa( Prime Minister) election. In his letter to the Regional Election Office, New York, Mr Jinpa has expressed his sincere gratitude to his well wishers and volunteers who worked tirelessly on his behalf.
Original Letter is attached here.

Final election will be held in March 2011.
TashidelekAmerica.com wishes Mr. Lobsang Jinpa la very best and hope he will further contribute to Tibetan Administration in exile headed by His Holiness The Dalai lama.

With this announcement, the Facebook Group initiated by Volunteers for Lobsang Jinpa for Kalon Tripa 2011 will officially closed. We thanks all the members for their support and good wishes. Your interest in ensuring the election of right candidate for kalon Trip should continue unwavered.

Reported by Jangchup Lingpa (INDIA)
                   Tashi C. Kongtsa (USA)
Global Volunteers for Lobsang Jinpa la for Kalon Tripa 2011

How China ‘punishes’ those who receive Dalai Lama

Source: Daily News & Analysis(DNA)
When jailed Chinese political dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, China responded angrily. It warned Norway, where the Nobel Peace Committee is based, that bilateral relations would be harmed; furthermore, it is now campaigning for third countries to boycott the award ceremony — or face Chinese retribution. It’s a threat that cannot be taken lightly, in the light of a recent research study that illustrates how China leverages its trade clout for political gain and “punishes” countries that antagonise it. Andreas Fuchs and Nils-Hendrik Klann, research scholars at the University of Goettingen, note that countries that receive the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama — against China’s wishes — see their exports to China contract in the two years following such meetings.
 In an interview to DNA, Klann explains the ‘Dalai Lama effect’ on trade with China and the implications for China’s trading partners. Edited excerpts
What precisely is the ‘Dalai Lama effect’?
It’s the negative effect on exports to China that a country experiences if its political leaders receive the Dalai Lama in the current or the previous year. These countries experience a contraction of exports to China because China punishes countries that receive the Dalai Lama at a political level. The extent of this export contraction varies between 8.1% and 16.9%. The effect depends on the level of importance of the foreign dignitary who meets the Dalai Lama: if the dignitary is important, the effect is more pronounced. Exports of machinery and transport equipment to China are typically impacted. The Dalai Lama effect wears off after about two years
What levers of bilateral trade does China employ to advance its political interests?
China communicates its displeasure with countries that receive the Dalai Lama in many ways. For one, it scales back the number of trade delegations. For example, around 2008, France, which was experiencing some bilateral conflicts with China, was excluded from two trade missions that went from China to Europe.
That happened because the French president met the Dalai Lama the previous year, and there had been protests against the Beijing Olympic torch relay in Paris. In 2009, after France signalled it respected Chinese sovereignty over Tibet, France received a trading delegation.
Which countries are most significantly affected by the Dalai Lama effect?
Our model plots the effect over 159 countries, and we give the average effect for them. Looking at individual countries drastically reduces the amount of data and the model becomes less reliable.
How does India fare, given that the Dalai Lama spends most of his year in India?
The effect seems to hold with India, but it would be difficult to estimate the precise extent. India is a statistical outlier
because the Dalai Lama lives there. To test the robustness of our model, if we exclude India — and France, which also has many Tibet support groups — the findings don’t change. But it appears that the Dalai Lama is received less in the Asian region; we speculate that countries that are geographically close to China avoid receiving the Dalai Lama. But it could also be that there is less interest in the Dalai Lama’s ideas or his talks in the region.
Are China’s trade partners buckling to pressure and not meeting the Dalai Lama?
We see anecdotal evidence of this. For example, the Dalai Lama is popular in South America, but around 2006, we noticed he was no longer received by a politician. At the same time, a lot of trade agreements were signed between China and these countries. It appears that politicians avoided meeting the Dalai Lama so as not to jeopardise trade agreements. The same was the case with Germany. We surmise that countries are wary of antagonising China, but they also don’t want to be seen to be doing what China dictates.
Does China too lose anything from such punishment mechanisms? If so, why do Chinese administrators persist with it?
When China imports less from Europe, of course European countries suffer, but China too suffers: it would have a hard time substituting these imports. But the Chinese administration gains politically at home, and that’s the trade-off it makes. But these political games wear off at some point: the loss from trade outweighs the political gains achieved, and at that point, the administration rolls it back.
Is China alone in leveraging its economic and trade clout for political gain?
Our study shows that trade relations between established industrialised countries and rising emerging economies work in a different way from trade between industrialised countries. In the former, bilateral relations are more important and these emerging economies place a larger weight on other countries respecting their political preferences. We believe the same findings might apply, for example, to Russia. But China is unique for two reasons: its economic size and the fact that the administration has a stronger leverage over its economy. Over time, China has
become less covert about exerting its influence and warning its trade partners.
Since China plays one country off against another, how can China’s trading partners protect their interests?
At a theoretical level, countries could move towards coordinated receptions and joint meetings with the Dalai Lama. Of course, it could work the other way as well: if I know my neighbour is planning to receive the Dalai Lama, I may decide not to receive himin the expectation of being ‘rewarded’ by China.
But we don’t want to give countries’ leaders the message that they should not receive the Dalai Lama because it’s bad for trade. In fact, meeting the Dalai Lama lends credibility to these leaders’ message that they care about human rights and democracy — because it’s a ‘costly message’: it hurts them a little and for that reason is more credible.
Are fears that China might cut back exports of rare earth minerals as a strategic lever valid?
We believe that it’s possible that China could leverage its position as one of the largest suppliers of rare earth minerals. But it should be careful not to overplay its hand: other countries will probably anticipate such a move and look for alternatives and be less dependent on China than in the past. China might appear to be a trading partner they might not be able to rely on. And there are other big markets — like India — which too are growing fast. Many Germany companies now look at India the way they saw China. So, there’s a certain potential for China to use its trade policies to leverage its political interest, but there’s also a certain efficiency of using it. It’s like a trump card: you can’t use it too often.

Dalai Lama won't exit any time soon

Source: Economic Times

: Even if the Dalai Lama decides to quit public life, as he indicated recently, his aides say the entire process is likely to take about a year's time.

In any case, the Tibetan spiritual leader is bound to discuss his retirement plan with the Tibetan parliament-in-exile which is based here, they say.

Tenzin Taklha, joint secretary at the Dalai Lama's office, told IANS: "His Holiness only told (a) journalist that he is considering the feasibility of retirement from public life."

According to Tibetan sources, the entire process of retirement for the Dalai Lama is likely to take around one year.

First, the Tibetan parliament does not meet before March 2011. And if it approves the Dalai Lama's exit, that process will take another six months or so.

The Nobel peace laureate's recent retirement statement has left Tibetans worried. The reason is obvious.

They are perplexed about who will lead their struggle for greater autonomy for Tibet once the iconic Dalai Lama retires from public life. There would be a leadership vacuum.

It was half a century ago that the Dalai Lama, whom China brands a separatist, fled Tibet after an anti-Communist revolt in 1959 and established his government-in-exile in this India . town.

The Dalai Lama has indicated on a number of occasions that he is looking for retirement. He had already transferred most of his political powers to the prime minister-in-exile, Samdhong Rinpoche, whom he has addressed as his "boss".

The Dalai Lama had said last week that the continuation of the Dalai Lama as an institution depended on what the Tibetan people wanted.

"I made it very clear as early as (19)69, if the majority of Tibetan people feel that now the Dalai Lama institution is no more needed, we can finish it," he said.

In the meantime, the election commission of the government-in-exile has started the process to hold general elections March 20 next year. The Tibetans attach greater importance to the polls as they feel the major political leadership of the government-in-exile is going to rest on the shoulders of the prime minister.

Incumbent Rinpoche, who became the first directly elected prime minister in September 2001, can't re-contest as the Tibetan charter bars any individual from holding the office for more than two terms.

Lobsang Sangey, a senior fellow from Harvard Law School, has emerged as the frontrunner during the primary poll held Oct 3 to nominate candidates for the prime minister.

Sangey, asked by the voters what he sees as the key responsibilities of the next prime minister, has said: "First, we have to define whether the Kalon Tripa (prime minister) is a leader or an administrator. If Kalon Tripa is simply an administrator, then experience, both institutional and personal, is a must.

"However, His Holiness (the Dalai Lama) himself has stressed ... the Kalon Tripa should assume more political leadership."

He said the primary responsibility was to resolve the Chinese occupation of Tibet and support "our brave compatriots in Tibet"

Nearly six million Tibetans live in Tibet while over 150,000 live in other countries, most of them in India.

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Dalai Lama hangs up his ceremonial yellow hat

BEIJING – Amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, a tragic stampede in Cambodia that killed more than 350 people, and continuing complaints about censorship in China after last week’s Shanghai fire, the news that the Dalai Lama wants to give up his ceremonial duties was buried in Asian press round-ups.
Although the duties themselves are exactly as they appear – ceremonial and therefore of no great substance – the move indicated yet again that Tibet’s spiritual leader is preparing his people for life after he is gone.
“It means that he’s continuing a decades-long attempt to try to make his exile administration more democratic and less dependent on him,” said Robbie Barnett, a Tibet scholar at Columbia University.
The 75-year-old Dalai Lama is the leader of the Gelugpa (Yellow Hat) branch of Tibetan Buddhism.  He led Tibet’s government until he fled his homeland in 1959, nine years after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army marched into the region. Then he became the head of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, northern India.

In recent years, the Dalai Lama has looked to reduce his political leadership role.  One of his spokesmen was quoted by The Associated Press as saying he has considered himself semi-retired since 2001, when a Tibetan prime minister was elected.

The duties the Dalai Lama is seeking to give up include addressing the Tibetan parliament-in-exile and signing resolutions.  He’s expected to bring up the issue at the parliament’s next session in March.

“What’s interesting here is that he’s becoming more specific in terms of when this might happen and what this retirement might mean,” Barnett said.

Beijing does not recognize the government-in-exile and maintains Tibet is a part of the People’s Republic of China, an assertion disputed by many Tibetans.  Furthermore, Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of pursuing Tibetan independence, whereas he claims he is interested in securing autonomy for the former kingdom.

As such, the Chinese leadership will be happy to see the back of the Dalai Lama, but it’s just possible his stepping down as leader of the Tibetan people will create – not solve – problems for Beijing.

The exiled Tibetan community “does have fracture lines,” said Barnett.  “Because people come from different regions of Tibet and different schools of religion, and now there are differences between very religious and very secular groups.”

Without the current Dalai Lama to unify the community, senior members of the Tibetan exile community are concerned about their future.

“Does [China] really want a fractured Tibet exile population?”  Barnett asked.  “A fractured community is sure to produce pockets of violence and much more anger and to make it that much harder for anyone to negotiate with.”

India boosts troop level near Tibet border

NEW DELHI, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- India is readying two army divisions totaling more than 36,000 troops for deployment by March along a disputed northern border with China.
The divisions are to defend against a possible Chinese attack on India's state of Arunachal Pradesh. But China, which roundly condemns the move, has been claiming for more 50 years that the area is part of its autonomous Tibet region.
The intended deployment of India's 56th Army Division was announced in November last year and it will be based in the state of Nagaland, immediately southeast of Arunachal Pradesh. The intention is to guard against a Chinese attack through Myanmar, formerly called Burma.
The other new formation, the 71st Army Division, will be based in Assam, the second of two states that borders Arunachal Pradesh to the south.
Indian Defense Ministry officials said the two infantry mountain divisions will be fully "operational with specialized equipment" by 2011.
"The two divisions are now virtually in place, with officers and soldiers already being posted for them. They are in process of getting new equipment, which includes armored personnel carriers and light Howitzers," said an unnamed defense official.
Also, a new battalion of highly mobile and versatile paramilitary Arunachal Scouts and Sikkim Scouts will be up and running by May next year. "All the men in these formations will be drawn from mountain-fit local tribesmen but the officers will be from the army, at least for a while," a corps commander said.
But Chinese officials have called the deployment unproductive and it sends the wrong signals to Beijing.
India's announcement comes three weeks before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's official visit to India. His trip is to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and China, which became a communist state in 1949 after defeating of the governing nationalist forces of Chang Kai-shek.
China and India fought a brief border war in 1962 but Chinese troops pulled back into Tibet. Since then periodic talks have taken place to ease tensions in an attempt to resolve their dispute. India and China signed a Peace and Tranquility treaty in 1993 whereby both sides were to scale down their military strengths in the area.
But despite attempts at rapprochement over the territorial issue, a large military presence by both sides close to the frontier has been maintained to varying degrees.
"Since a war with China in 1962, the Indian army has set up a total of 10 mountain divisions in the region," Wang Dehua, a Chinese expert on India at the Shanghai International Studies Center said in an article in the state run Global Times newspaper.
"Such a move aims to add chips to the upcoming China-India talks on border disputes."
Wang said, "Those hawkish groups in New Delhi are getting above themselves after the U.S. voiced support for India's bid to become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council."
Sun Shihai of the Asia Pacific studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said India's increase in troops in the region "showed its unwillingness to make a concession during the demarcation talks."
In October 2009, China strongly criticized a visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Arunachal Pradesh, the first such high level visit to the state in a decade.
Chinese foreign ministry officials said Singh ignored Beijing's sensitivities over the disputed area.
The following month, China condemned a visit to the state by the Tibetan self-exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. Since he fled Tibet in 1959 when Chinese troops marched into what was an independent country, Beijing has considered the Dalai Lama a political threat who foments separatist movements within Tibet.
Beijing's condemnation his visit was business as usual, said the Dalai Lama at the time.
"It is quite usual for China to step up the campaign against me wherever I go," he said after opening a museum at a 400-year-old monastery in Tawang, at the heart of the border row between the two countries. "My visit here is non-political."

Dalai Lama wants to relinquish role as leader of Tibet government

Reporting from New Delhi — Source: LA Times

The Dalai Lama plans on giving up his largely ceremonial role as head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, an aide said Tuesday, in what appeared to be part of a long-term strategy to make the movement less vulnerable to Chinese strong-arm tactics.

But the 75-year-old leader would retain his role as spiritual head of the Tibetan community and remain a focal point for efforts to achieve greater religious and cultural autonomy for the Tibetan people, said spokesman Tenzen Takhla.

Beijing, which views the Dalai Lama as a pariah bent on splitting China, has adopted various tactics in its bid to weaken the leader and undercut his efforts to expand Tibetan autonomy in China.

The Chinese Communist Party has named its own Panchan Lama, the second highest-ranking lama after the Dalai Lama, in competition with the Dalai Lama's choice. It has issued regulations forbidding "reincarnation without authorization."

Beijing has also outlawed photos of the Dalai Lama on the Tibetan plateau, which accounts for about 25% of Chinese territory, and used its diplomatic clout to discourage foreign leaders from meeting the religious leader.

In response, the Dalai Lama has tried to decentralize the structure and make the Tibetan movement less dependent on him and less vulnerable to Chinese pressure, analysts said, even as he's considered innovative ways to ensure a smooth succession after his death.

He "has always been advising Tibetans for quite awhile now that they must carry out their responsibilities as if he weren't there," Takhla added. "This is not an issue of one person but 6 million people."

China assumed sovereignty over Tibet in late 1950 and maintains that Tibet has always been an integral part of its territory, while many Tibetans say their ancestors enjoyed de facto independence from their giant neighbor for centuries.

The Dalai Lama's advanced age has sparked concerns inside and outside China that his eventual death could splinter the diverse Tibetan community.

The Dalai Lama is expected to propose an end to his ceremonial role at the next session of the parliament-in-exile in March in Dharamsala, the Indian hill town he settled in after fleeing Tibet in 1959 to evade advancing Chinese troops.

It is not a given, however, that the parliament-in-exile will agree.

"The parliament may refuse to let him resign," said Matthew Akester, an independent Tibet researcher based in Dharamsala. "As we've seen in the past, other leaders may say 'We can't do without you' and 'We don't want democracy,' because he's holding everything together."

While China, which in the past has called the Dalai Lama a "wolf in monk's robes," tends to respond often in scathing terms to every bit of news about the exiled leader, Akester said he didn't expect Beijing to go "particularly crazy" with this development.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been working to reduce his role in the exiled government for the past decade, the spokesman Takhla said, considering himself in semi-retirement since the 2001 election of a Tibetan prime minister-in-exile.

If parliament accepts his request to relinquish such ceremonial duties as addressing parliament and signing resolutions, the change would take effect next fall.

"But he'll always be the Dalai Lama, and in terms of the political struggle, he'll always be looked upon by the Tibetan people as their political leader," Takhla said. "And promoting human values, he's made very clear, is his lifelong commitment."

Chinese regions fight back against surge of Mandarin

(Reuters) - From the remote mountains of Tibet to the soaring skyscrapers of Shanghai and Guangzhou, an unlikely issue has emerged to both anger and unite China's disparate peoples -- their language.
The country's 1.3 billion people may be almost all exclusively educated in one tongue, the official medium of Mandarin, but decades of its promotion has failed to stifle popular attachment to regional vernaculars and dialects.
The banishing or planned banishment from the airwaves and classrooms of languages such as Cantonese, Shanghainese and Tibetan has sparked rare public protests, as people push back against a government with little time for cultural diversity.
At a rally in the booming southern city of Guangzhou in late July, protesters thronged against police and shouted obscenities, demanding the protection of their mother tongue, Cantonese.
"The protesters were very united. We all had just one aim: to protect our own language," said Michelle, one of the self-proclaimed "cultural defenders" at the rally who asked her full name not be used because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Protests against cornerstones of government policy are rare
in a country where the ruling Communist Party values stability above all and comes down hard on dissent.
"Cantonese people speak Cantonese!" many yelled, in a surprisingly venomous retort to authorities, and a passionate defense of culture that caught officials -- more accustomed to simmering unrest over issues like land grabs, corruption and pollution -- off guard.
A subsequent protest, organized via an online campaign and buzzing chatrooms was soon smothered by police and Internet censors in a sign of unease by the Party at any challenge to its rule.
Still, the government did back down slightly, promising that Cantonese broadcasting would continue in Guangzhou, making it one of the few places in China where state-run radio and television make wide use of the vernacular.
POWERFUL POLICY LEVER
Only about half of China's 1.3 billion people speak Mandarin, according to government surveys. Visit the vast and poor countryside and the chances of hearing pure Mandarin spoken as an everyday language are practically nil.
Throughout China's long and turbulent history, the nation's emperors and rulers have been driven by a desire to unite the country and to standardize speech as a powerful policy lever.
Diversity hasn't been a priority for Beijing when seen in this context, and critics sometimes say Beijing's pro-Mandarin policies can amount to cultural intimidation.
In October, ethnic Tibetan students took to the streets in the western province of Qinghai to protest against what they view as the marginalization of Tibetan in the education system in favor of Mandarin.
The requirement of Mandarin to succeed professionally in China has forced many young Tibetans and others to prioritize Mandarin over their mother tongues.
While such pockets of linguistic angst across China almost certainly won't snowball into broader unrest, continued erosion of language variety could feed deeper-rooted resentment given the centrality of speech to cultures.
"It's really a worry for us, because we've seen the cultures of other ethnic minorities, including the Tibetans, slowly fade and become assimilated. If Beijing can persuade the next generation of kids to use Mandarin, then they've succeeded to an extent," said Hong Kong-based activist Choi Suk-fong who helped organized protect Cantonese protests in the financial hub.
Cantonese does at least have a powerful backer in Hong Kong's popular Cantopop music and film culture. Many young Chinese can sing in Cantonese at karaoke without being able to speak a word.
MIGRANT INFLUX
Part of the problem in Guangzhou is that growth over the last few decades has bought an influx of non-Cantonese speakers, leading many to feel alienated in their own city.
That's a situation many in glitzy Shanghai feel keenly, where it is not unusual to find shops run by migrants with signs in their windows asking customers to speak Mandarin.
In Shanghai, the demise of the sing-song vernacular has led to calls for a rethink of China's monolithic language policies.
"I think we need to loosen the city's language environment," said Qian Nairong, 65, a professor and author of a dictionary on the Shanghainese language.
"Children should be allowed to speak their mother tongue from when they are small," Qian told Reuters.
Traditionally fiercely protective of its culture and language, Shanghai residents have a snooty reputation for often refusing to converse in anything but "Shanghai hua."
The noticeable drop in Shanghainese speakers has stoked anger and concern that the language may fade within a generation or two, unless measures are taken to reverse the decline.
A television clip posted on Ku6.com, a Chinese lifestyle website, ignited a debate after it showed Shanghainese children unable to string together basic words.
There is no official support for Shanghainese, which the government terms a dialect though is technically a separate language with its own grammar and vocabulary.
TAIWAN EXAMPLE
Nervous officials could perhaps look across the water at self-ruled and democratic Taiwan for a taste of how languages can co-exist.
After the defeated Nationalists were driven into exile to Taiwan following the Chinese civil war, the promotion of Mandarin was upheld as a pillar of unity and link to the motherland.
Taiwan's dominant Hokkien dialect -- also spoken in China's coastal Fujian province and parts of Southeast Asia including Singapore -- was repressed by the Nationalists and children could be beaten for speaking it at school.
Yet in the 1990s its usage surged again after democracy took root. Politicians now speak Hokkien as much as Mandarin and Hokkien soap operas are a mainstay on Taiwan television.
"You restrict a language for so long then when it's suddenly OK, it becomes excessively popular," said Hsu Yung-ming, a political scientist at Soochow University in Taipei. "It has always been the dominant language."
In Shanghai, however, even with a growing middle class that is becoming more confident and vocal, there has been no sign of language-related unrest, something put down by some to a traditional reluctance to get involved in politics.
"People don't have time to safeguard the Shanghainese dialect," bemoaned Shanghai born Miao, a smartly dressed young banker, shrugging her shoulders. "Shanghainese needs more than the effort we're currently seeing if it is to survive."

Starwood makes Tibet debut

Starwood Hotels & Resorts has opened the St. Regis Lhasa Resort, its first property in Tibet.

The five-star, 162-room resort boasts views of the Himalayas. It features three restaurants, tea room, wine bar and 1,086 sqm Iridium Spa.

St. Regis global brand leader Paul James said: "With the region's unrivalled natural beauty and enchanting cultural heritage, Lhasa is one of the world's most coveted destinations for global travellers, and the St. Regis Lhasa Resort is destined to be an unparalleled way to discover Tibet."

Sustainable features include solar panels, locally sourced produce and herbs for the resort's restaurants and an underground water recycling system.

Dalai Lama says he is contemplating retirement within months

NEW DELHI: Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama has said he was contemplating retirement within months and a final decision on it will be taken after consultations with the political leadership and Parliament-in-exile.
The 76-year-old leader, who has been living in India in exile since 1959, expressed hope that he could return to his homeland before his death.
"I think within next six months," the Tibetan leader said in an interview programme when asked whether he was retiring as was being speculated.

He, however, promptly added that "I do not know. May be next few months. I think may be."
The Dalai Lama said he will firm up his decision on retirement after discussions with the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile.
"I want to inform them about my intention although I briefly mentioned (about it) already," he said.
Justifying his decision, he said the Tibetans in exile have already put in place a political set-up in 2001 and since then major decisions are being taken by the political leadership.
"Since then my position is something like semi-retired position. The major decisions are in the hands of political leadership. In order to utilise full democracy, I felt better I am not involved in any sort of these works," he said.
Asked whether the institution of Dalai Lama would continue even after his demise, he said if his death came within next few years, then most probably the people concerned including Mongolian and the Himalayan range of Buddhists would like to keep it.
On how the next Dalai Lama will be chosen as China is apparently not sympathetic to the institution, he said "I think they (China) are more concerned about the next Dalai Lama."
When asked whether he was reluctant to nominate his successor, he only suggested that if people really want, then a having a deputy Dalai Lama can be considered in the event of his death or being too old.
"If people really want to keep this institution, then at the time of my sort of death or too old, then if necessary some kind of deputy Dalai Lama or something, I do not know what kind of appropriate name (should be)..I do not know...someone carrying my sort of work," he said.
Asked whether his successor should be from Tibet or from the diaspora community, the spiritual leader said if his death occured while remaining "outside" then logically the next reincarnation should be from outside Tibet to carry forward his works.

Source: The Economic Times

Why is New Delhi silent on Tibet?

Source: Gulf Daily News

CAMP Hale at Colorado in the US is long way from Tibet. But what joins them together is the training of some 2,000 Tibetan warriors who were taught the art of guerilla warfare from 1957 to 1972 to fight China's Peoples' Liberation Army. The warriors were late because China attacked Tibet in 1947 and annexed the Buddhist kingdom within two years. Yet the warriors have not given up and continue to put up resistance, if not at Lhasa, Tibet's capital, but the places around. Beijing sees the hands of New Delhi in the independence war the Tibetans have waged against China. Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna told China this week that Tibet was like Kashmir, "our core problem". In fact, the Tibetans have a grievance against India which accepted China's suzerainty over their country after the British left the region in 1947. Their complaint is that New Delhi bends backward to assure China that India has no locus standi in Tibet. This is also the complaint of the Dalai Lama who took refuge in India in 1954 when he could not tolerate communist shoes trampling upon the spiritual and traditional ways of his people. India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru could see that the Dalai Lama was not safe in Tibet and sent officials to receive him on the border of India. This was a great gesture, applauded throughout the world. The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan leaders accompanying him saw in India a country which gave shelter to the persecuted in the world. But even during the 1962 war with China, initiated by Beijing, Nehru did not utter a word about Tibet. Nor did he draw the world's attention to the ethnic cleansing going on in Tibet. And that has been the policy of all successor governments to Nehru's. At times, the Dalai Lama has felt "suffocating" and complained to New Delhi. But there has been no change in India's policy even when Beijing is taking thousands of Chinese to Tibet to settle them there. A lonely Dalai Lama has pointed out that the centuries-old Buddhist culture in Tibet was being destroyed with a new complexion of population. But except for odd protests here and there, nothing concerted or concrete has come out. And the Chinese are squeezing out even the semblance of lofty religious practices the Tibetans have defiantly followed. Essentially, it is India which has to come out of the make-believe world and realise that good relations with China do not depend upon the curbs on the Dalai Lama or the silence over what is happening in Tibet. Beijing would probably respect New Delhi more if it were to find the latter saying openly what it feels about Tibet. Eighty per cent of India's population, the Hindus, have always considered Tibet part of Kailash - the mountains where lord Shiva rests. They have religious ties with Buddhism and see in the Dalai Lama a religious head. No doubt, India accepted China's suzerainty over Tibet in the wake of departure by the British because that is how they dealt with Lhasa. After more than five decades, New Delhi cannot question the suzerainty but can at least raise a voice against the atrocities committed in Tibet and the recurring violation of human rights. A suzerain is a ruler or government that exercises political control. There is no challenging of that because Beijing has Lhasa under its authority. But a suzerain cannot go beyond political control. When China is changing the very complexion of population in Tibet and when the ethnic population is being annihilated, it is not suzerainty but a position of being lord and master. Power can destroy anything, more so any tiny Tibetan protest, but cannot silence humanity over the extinction of people, however small in number. When India with all its tradition of tolerance buttressed by Mahatma Gandhi's example of dignified defiance, fails to speak out, it only proves the dictum: the weakest goes to the wall. www.kuldipnayar.com kuldipnayar09@gmail.com

Cultural genocide taking place in Tibet, says Dalai Lama

Indo-Asian News Service

For the past 20 years, intentionally or unintentionally, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place in Tibet, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said Friday. "I have heard that many monasteries in Tibet are becoming more like museums and monks just caretakers. For the last 20 years, I have

But the Nobel laureate said: "We need more research work to confirm this."

On promotion of Mandarin as a medium of instruction in schools in Tibet, the Dalai Lama said some Tibetans told him that some kind of 'semi-cultural revolution' is taking place in Tibet and Tibetan language might well get wiped out soon.

On being asked what Tibetans were doing to fight the threats posed to their language and culture, he said: "By asking for genuine autonomy in People's Republic of China."

The interview will be aired Nov 21 at 8 p.m. on CNN-IBN news channel.

Dalai Lama hails release of AUNG SAN SUU KYI

DHARAMSHALA (India) - TIBETAN spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Monday hailed the release of Myanmar's democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi.
'I welcome the release of fellow Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and extend my appreciation to the military regime in Burma (Myanmar),' the Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, said in a statement.
'I extend my full support and solidarity to the movement for democracy in Burma and take this opportunity to appeal to freedom-loving people all over the world to support such non-violent movements,' he said.
Suu Kyi, who was freed from house arrest on Saturday, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
The Dalai Lama also urged China to set free Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, who was jailed for 11 years last December on subversion charges.
The Tibetan leader issued his statement from the Indian hill town of Dharamshala, where he has been based since fleeing Tibet following a failed anti-Chinese uprising in 1959. -- AFP

Dalai Lama says he is confident he will return to Tibet

The Dalai Lama expressed confidence he would one day return to Tibet, and called on China's leaders to liberalise to avoid alienating the international community, on a visit to Hungary Monday.
"I'm an optimist, I think I will return to Tibet with a Chinese passport," the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader told the Hungarian parliament in Budapest on the last day of his four-day visit.
Describing China's Tibet policies as "hardline and rigid," the 75-year-old Dalai Lama nevertheless pressed that he had "no ambitions for Tibet to break away from China."
Beijing accuses him of inciting unrest with a hidden pro-independence agenda.
"The Chinese leaders sooner or later have to realise that they must start some sort of political liberalisation, or otherwise they will lose the world's trust," the Dalai Lama told Hungarian MPs.
He urged: "A solution must be found that is good for both China and Tibet."
A decade of dialogue between representatives of the Tibetan leader and China's communist government has failed to reach any substantive progress.
The Dalai Lama also noted in his speech, which he gave in English: "if you are dissatisfied with your politicians you must use freedom of speech to convey your opinion."
During his visit to Hungary -- his seventh in 28 years -- the Dalai Lama held lectures in front of over 20,000 people and was made an honorary citizen of Budapest by Mayor Gabor Demszky.
He also met with the 30-member Tibet Parliamentary Group as well as the vice-president of the European Parliament Laszlo Tokes.
The Dalai Lama already visited Hungary on six other occasions, the first in 1982, four times in the 1990s and in 2000.

Beautiful Sign Embracing Religion Tolerance in India

I found this sign in one of the website and it really captivated my mind. Thought it nice to share with all the readers of TashiDelekAmerica.com.

China dams Brahmaputra river in Tibet

BEIJING: China has dammed the Brahmaputra river in Tibet for the first time in order to begin the main construction work on a 510 MW hydropower station project, notwithstanding concerns raised by India in this regard.
The river was dammed on November 12 to help in the construction of the Zangmu Hydropower Station project in the middle reaches of the Brahmaputra river in Gyaca County of Lhoka Prefecture in Tibet Autonomous Region, according to 'Tibet Online' of the state-run People's Daily.
With a total investment of nearly 7.9 billion yuan (USD 1.18 billion), the station will have six 85-megawatt generating units installed, which will bring the total installed capacity to 510 megawatts.
It will be the first large hydropower station in Tibet and its first unit will be put into operation in 2014, which will greatly alleviate the power shortage in central Tibet.
The hydropower station is about 325 kilometres away from the Tibetan capital Lhasa and its average annual generating capacity is expected to reach 2.5 billion kilowatt hours.
Its main function is power generation, but it can also be used for flood control and irrigation, the report said.
The Indian government, during its talks with China earlier this year, had raised concerns over the possible downstream impact of the project.
However, China had assured India that the project would be "run of the river" having little impact downstream.
Run-of-the-river is a type of hydroelectric generation whereby the natural flow and elevation drop of a river are used to generate electricity.
China had also said that the project was only for hydropower generation and was not aimed at diverting the water of the Brahmaputra river, which originates in China's Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and is the world's highest river.
The huge gap between the highest and lowest points of the river and the heavy river flow help ensure abundant water resources.
The Zangmu hydropower station is a key project included in Tibet's 11th Five-Year Plan.
At present, Tibet has only hydropower stations with the installed capacity of up to 100 megawatts.
News Credit: Economic Times

Nobel Peace Laureates Visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial

Hiroshima, Japan: On a grey and chilly morning, His Holiness began the penultimate day of this year's autumn tour in Japan by traveling to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial along with his five fellow Nobel laureates, F.W. de Klerk, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Mohamed ElBaradei, Jody Williams and Dr Shirin Ebadi. With crowds lining the walkway and filling seats in front of the memorial, the six Nobel Peace Prize winners walked to the cenotaph of what President de Klerk called "a sacred place" and offered their flowers and their prayers. "Every citizen in every part of the world," said the co-chair of the Summit, Walter Veltroni, "feels like a citizen of Hiroshima." It was already an auspicious day for Nobel Peace laureates, since Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma was released from house arrest after more than seven years of virtual imprisonment. And as the sun came through the clouds above the rebuilt city, each of the laureates in turn came up to a podium, an eternal flame burning behind, and spoke of a commitment to peace and liberation from nuclear weapons. The last of the six to speak, His Holiness talked about how the "spirit and message of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" had moved him ever since his first visit, more than forty years before, and expressed the hope that that spirit "reached every part of the world.
"The past is past; we must look forward," he continued, in sharing his admiration for the forgiveness embodied in both cities, and in the Japanese and German people he had spoken to who had no bad feelings towards the nations that had bombed them. "Using force is outdated," His Holiness said. "Some nearly seven billion people should know that."
Finally, His Holiness declared, with transparent conviction, "I want to appeal from this site to various leaders of different religious traditions: all major religions talk about compassion, forgiveness, love. So, please, religious leaders, take a more active role! Not just praying in your church or temple, but coming out and doing something to promote their values." Scientists, too, should speak out, he said, since they know fully the horrors that nuclear weapons can have. Even businessmen stand to gain from thinking about what effects nuclear weapons can have on their livelihoods as well as their lives.
"Ulimately, people have the power to change the world," he emphasized. "Each of us has the potential to make some contribution to the people's movement." And in the latter part of the 20th century, change came not from governments, often, but from real people. "I believe that action is the final decision-maker," he concluded.
After he sat down, the Mayor of Hiroshima spoke of how "human beings and nuclear weapons cannot coexist indefinitely." The Governor of Hiroshima spoke. Then the Summit presented its annual award for humanitarian work to Roberto Baggio, the former Italian soccer star who has worked tirelessly on behalf of earthquake victims in Haiti and freedom for Aung San Suu Kyi. It gave its special award to the Japanese Cofederation of Atomic Hydrogen Bomb Sufferers, and a 85 year-old man, full of vigor and spirit, came up to speak about how he had endured two bouts of cancer, many assaults on his system and the atom bomb itself. Then Jody Williams read the charter that His Holiness and other of the laureates had signed, calling for the elimination of all nuclear weapons
Asked at a brief press conference in the Memorial Hall about Liu Xiaobo, the 2010 Nobel Peace laureate still being held in Chinese prison, His Holiness explained, "Actually, I am a Marxist. Of course a Buddhist at the same time. But insofar as socio-economic theory is concerned, I am a Marxist." Since 1956, however, Communism in China had often created a culture of hardship and suspicion. So he was glad that the Nobel Committee had rewarded Liu, and thousands of other Chinese, who are promoting "more openness, more liberalisation."
As he was walking out of the auditorium, he was thronged by reporters and cameramen asking how he felt about the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
His simple answer: "I'm overjoyed!"

Report filed by Office of Tibet, Japan

TCV Alumni of NY & NJ Annual Fund Raising Nite! PLEASE JOIN!

By Tashi C Kongtsa

TCV Alumni Association of NY & NJ-Annual Fundraising Nite. This event start at 8:00 pm on Nov 20, 2010 at Queens Palace in Woodside,Queens, NY.

Alumni Association sponsor 5 Tibetan children to attend full board and one child to attend half day school education in TCV Dharamsala. , PLease join us and help support our noble cause:) THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Location: Queens Palace Hall
37-11 57 street, Woodside, NY 11377

Direction: Take 7 train to 61 st, woodside

Time: 8:00PM
Saturday, November 20, 2010

Any Question? Please call 908-251-7985

Dalai Lama calls for a world free of war

Dharamsala, Nov 13 (IANS) Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has called for eliminating nuclear weapons and for creating a world free of war, according to a post on the Central Tibetan Administration's website Saturday. 'We all must seek and work for a world without nuclear weapons, we also need to work for demilitarisation of each nation in order to create a world free of war and weapons,' the Dalai Lama said at the annual World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Hiroshima, Japan, Friday.
'For this, we must first achieve inner peace and realise that we are all interdependent. Concept of war is outdated, defeat of your enemy is no longer your victory. Destruction of your neighbour is destruction of yourself,' the spiritual leader said.
The Dalai Lama is currently on a nine-day trip to Japan.
He also talked about the importance of cooperation and friendship in building a more harmonious society.
'We all need to work in full cooperation, but it should be based on friendship and friendship comes from trust. But trust cannot come from fear. A society or a nation which rules by fear and intimidation is very dangerous,' he said in the summit on non-violence.
At the start of the session, Weur Kaixi, a prominent student leader who participated in the 1989 pro-democracy protests in China's Tiananmen Square, called for the release of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo -- this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Others attending the three-day summit include former South African president F.W. de Klerk; Jody Williams, a 1997 recipient for her work to eliminate landmines; Egyptian Mohamed ElBaradei, 2005 winner for his efforts to divert nuclear resources from being used in weapons, and Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi.
Hiroshima was hit by the world's first atomic bomb attack Aug 6, 1945.

Tashi Namgyal of Seatle is front runner for North American (Chitue) Assembly

New York:
According to List published by the Office of Chief Election Commission of Tibetan Administration in Exile,

Mr. Tashi Namgyal, of Seattle, USA and  Mr. Norbu Tsering of Toronto, Canada are front runners for North American seats in the Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies.  There are other eight candidates who made to the final ten.
Final election to the Kalon Tripa ( Prime Minister) and the Chitues(Parliament) will be held in March 2011.
Two candidates will be elected to the Parliament to represents Tibetans in North America.

Our heartiest congratulation to all the victorious candidates.

Preliminary Vote Results for Kalon Tripa Announced

New York:
Office of the Chief Election Commission of the Tibetan Government in Exile has announced the result of preliminary elections for Kalon Tripa ( equivalent of Prime Minister) and Tibetan Parliament. Tibetan Government in exile is based in Dharamsala, India.

Names of the candidates making it to the final list is published in Tibetan Government in Exile's official website- www.tibet.net. Harvard Scholar, Dr. Lobsang Sangay is the front runner. This blogsite has endorsed Lobsang Jinpa, Former President of Tibetan Youth Congress also based in India. Mr. Jinpa has also made to the final list of six candidates. We will stand by his candidacy because we strongly believe he has all the requisite quality that is needed in the next Kalon Tripa. Now the list has narrowed to six, voters will get time to look into the candidates from now until the final election in March, 2011.

We at TashiDelekAmerica.com congratulate Mr. Lobsang Jinpa la and rest of the victorious candidates.

Dalai Lama in Japan, backs Chinese dissident Liu

NARITA, Japan (Reuters) - Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, in Japan for a visit that will likely overlap with Chinese leader Hu Jintao's attendance at a regional summit, repeated on Saturday his support for jailed Chinese dissident and fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.
Relations between Japan and China have chilled since September, when Japan detained the Chinese skipper of a boat that collided with Japanese patrol vessels near disputed isles in the East China Sea, the site of vast potential gas and oil reserves.

"In his movement, (Liu is) not toppling the government, but trying to bring more openness, more accountability," the Dalai Lama told reporters in Narita, near Tokyo.

"China remaining a secretive society is very very harmful for making significant contributions regarding world affairs ... China, sooner or later, you have to open, it's the only way," the 75-year-old said.

China expressed anger to the award of the prize in October to Liu, who is serving a 11-year jail term on subversion charges for his role in advocating democracy and multi-party rule, and warned European nations that supporting him would be seen as an affront to China's legal system.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has said last month that it would be "desirable" for China to free Liu, but has stopped short of an explicit call for his release.

Speculation is simmering over whether Kan and Hu, leaders of Asia's two biggest economies, will meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting next week in Yokohama, near Tokyo.

The Dalai Lama, who has called for Liu to be freed, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, the same year as the Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protesters by Chinese authorities.

He is set to take part in a November 12-14 meeting of Nobel Peace laureates in Hiroshima, western Japan. U.S. President Barack Obama, who won the prize last year, is unlikely to attend.

China accuses the Dalai Lama of fanning a violent campaign for separatism. He denies China's charges against him, and says he only seeks more meaningful autonomy for Tibet through peaceful means.

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Alex Richardson)