By Kunsang Thokmay* In late October 2019, Sam Brownback, the United States ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, reported that he had told the 84-year-old Dalai Lama that the United States would seek to build global support for the principle that the choice of the next Dalai Lama should “belongs to the Tibetan Buddhists and not the Chinese government”. Two weeks later,…
By Dolma Tsering* Recently the Hindustan Times published an article by the Chinese government diplomat to India, titled “China’s Tibet: A story of Progress”. The article gives a quick overview of how Tibet had progressed in the last 60 years under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Among hosts of topics that he covers, economic development of the region…
This collection of short stories is the first attempt to provide a common and influential platform to some of the best Tibetan writers. People say don’t judge a book by its cover. That’s a fair comment. Some of the greatest books had lousy covers. But these books with lousy covers shaped people’s thinking and sustained their chosen way of life….
Claude Arpi shows that the 1954 Panchsheel Agreement’s guiding principle of non-interference in and respect for each other’s territorial integrity left China to do in Tibet whatever it willed Claude Arpi’s third volume on relations between India and Tibet covers the deepening Chinese penetration of the plateau and Beijing’s administrative and military consolidation there. The free hand given to China…
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.