The Bells of Shangri-la is a tribute to the intrepid and determined scholars, explorers, diplomats and spies who put Tibet on the world map Thubten Samphel, Hindustan Times, Jun 22, 2019 The 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries were the age of exploration and discovery. It was a time when the West ‘discovered’ the unknown world. ‘Dark Africa’ was mapped….
by TibCERT Apple has a long history of censorship when it comes to information about Tibet. In 2009, it was revealed that several apps related to the Dalai Lama were not available in the China App Store. The developers of these apps were not notified that their apps were removed. When confronted with these instances of censorship, an Apple spokesperson simply said…
by Tsewang Gyalpo Arya*, Tibet.net 23 May 2019 marks the 68th anniversary of the controversial 17-point agreement between Tibet and China. It is expected that China will once again come out with a gaudy statement to brag the unification of Tibet with the motherland. Let us review some facts about the agreement and urge China to look at the agreement…
By Thinlay Chukki*, Tibet.net China issued a white paper on Tibet titled “Democratic Reform in Tibet – Sixty Years On”. But not whole of Tibet, only a part of Tibet which it calls “Tibetan Autonomous Region” (TAR). Parking away the thoughts on the title for later, the white paper overall appears to be a sad and desperate attempt of China to…
By Dr. Tara Kartha, Firstpost There are those who say that the world has lost interest in the Tibet issue. As Chinese power grows, that interest is likely to revive. In the US for instance, Section 4 of the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018, enacted on 19 December, 2018, requires the Department of State to provide an annual…
Conceptualized as a strategy for resolving Sino-Tibetan conflict, the Middle Way Approach (MWA) has been in place since 1979 and shares a critical relationship with the Reciprocal Access Tibet Act (RATA) enacted into law in the US on December 19, 2018. Central to both is the condition of reciprocity which, according to George (1972), is based on “mutual accommodation and…
On January 10th 2019, at the opening day of the 2nd session of the 11th Tibetan People’s Congress in Lhasa, Chinese officials released an annual report detailing the arrival of 33.68 million tourist to Tibet. The Chinese government refers to the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) as Tibet, a territory consisting of less than half of the actual traditional landmass of…
Chinese authorities are requiring key Tibetan monks and nuns to act as propagandists for the government and Communist Party, Human Rights Watch said today. Under new policies for “Sinicizing” religion, the government has been compelling selected monastics in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) to undergo political training designed to create a new corps of Buddhist teachers proficient in state ideology.
Religion, particularly Buddhism, is relevant more than ever in today’s China, whose government is expected to invest more than $1 trillion in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). On one hand, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under Xi Jinping acknowledges that religion can be used to feed the social vacuum in capitalist China.
Chinese policymakers have been left searching for answers to the trade war with the US because the domestic think tanks Beijing has called on for guidance have provided “filtered information” to avoid offending supervisors, sources close to the Chinese government and diplomatic observers said.
On September 20, the TAR Tourism Commission and Lhokha (Ch: Shannan) Municipal People’s Government’s Tourism Commission, Wuhan Cultural Exchange Centre and Chengdu Airlines hosted the opening ceremony of the Winter Tour and inauguration of the Lhoka-Wuhan Direct Flight at Gonggar Airport. Ji Yue, Deputy Director of the TAR Tourism Commission, said the opening of the new route will bridge the government, tourism, civil aviation and other departments of the two provinces.
The 2008 protests in Tibet shocked Chinese leaders and policy-makers, leaving the notion of well-managed ethnic harmony in a state of disrepair. Not long after, Chinese scholars began to debate the effectiveness of existing minority policies that have been largely cited as reason for unprecedented protests in the course of modern political history of Tibet.
This month the Vatican and China signed a provisional agreement that allows the Holy See to approve bishops appointed by the Chinese Communist Party. Some commentators say the Vatican just made a deal with the devil.