What Will Tibetans Do?

Possibly the greatest test for the future of Tibetan Buddhism has begun. Whether or not this assembly will reach consensus, I believe the young people will go their own way, much like my generation did in the 60s. While fearing for their safety and ability to maintain their virtue and dignity as Tibetans, I understand the impatience of youth and how suseptible they are to delusions and grandiouse thinking. Change is the only constant. Pray and hope for the best future for all Tibetans.
Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008
Tibetans Look to Future, Without Dalai Lama
By Jyoti Thottam
Hundreds of Tibetan political leaders, activists and individuals from all over the world have just 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 week-long summit, which includes elected members of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, non-governmental 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 is 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 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 them to voice their views openly — without feeling inhibited about criticizing the Dalai Lama — and perhaps 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, who are vocal and visible, but to date have had little sway over the Tibetan political system; Students for a Free Tibet, who are very well organized but whose influence has been limited to English-speaking world; and individuals like Jamyang Norbu, a writer and fiery orator who could have an outsized 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 to 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 here too, there is a wide range of views, from radicalized former prisoners to those who are actually pushing for more concessions to China in the hopes of bringing the Dalai Lama back to Tibet before the end of his life.
It will be up to the chair of the meeting, Karma Choepel, the speaker of the Tibetan parliament, to allow open and frank discussion. The Dalai Lama will not participate in any of the talks, although he is expected to address the gathering after the end of the summit. The meeting, Barnett says, is "explicitly a response by the Dalai Lama to criticism that his charisma has cramped any space for real discussion." But no one is expecting Tibetans to suddenly shift course from the "Middle Path," which advocates for negotiating with Beijing for autonomy, not independence, and has been steered so carefully by their spiritual leader for the last 30 years. Instead, the summit will be considered a success if it reaches some consensus about how to choose the Dalai Lama's successor, and if it brings Tibetans together to discuss issues like education and how to involve young Tibetans in the political process. Barnett notes that China may find it more difficult to control a movement that is strong and unified around a common purpose. "If they can achieve that, it will really be quite significant." And perhaps the most radical move of all.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1859974,00.html?xid=feed-rss-netzero

Tibet Lives After Olympics

Lhasa on my mind...







A rally for Tibet is planned for Sunday, August 24 (the closing day of the Beijing Olympics) to be held in front of the United Nations in New York City. The organizers of the rally include Students for a Free Tibet, the Tibetan Women’s Association and the Tibetan Youth Congress, and they have asked the International Campaign for Tibet and our supporters to join in sending a message to China that the Tibetan struggle continues long after the Olympics conclude.
The event is planned to start at 11:00 in the morning at
Dag Hammarskjold Park, 47th Street and 1st Avenue.
Thousands of Tibetans from all over the United States are expected to attend. The Tibetan people and their supporters made sure that China’s crackdown in Tibet this spring and summer was known to the Olympics audience, in spite of the Chinese government’s determination to control every element of its Olympics story.
I hope you will join the rally to amplify the call for human rights in Tibet and basic freedoms for the Tibetan people! For more information, please email Mr. Tsering Palden at tsering.palden@gmail.com.

Pro-China Propagandists Determined to Strike in the US Media

Now that I have your attention, please observe the tactics being used by an increasingly frustrated mob with little factual evidence to back their claims.
Today's blogs are regurgitating a report, allegedly from the Italian sports daily, Corriere della Sera:

Chief Tibet separatist clamors for suicide attacks
(Xinhua), Updated: 2008-04-20 08:38
ROME -- Cewang Rigzin, president of the separatist "Tibetan Youth Congress" (TYC), has preached seeking "Tibet independence" through suicide attacks.
"Maybe it is time now for the 'Tibetan People's Uprising Movement' to use the means of suicide attacks to carry on the struggle," Cewang Rigzin said in an interview with Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper recently.
http://chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-04/20/content_6629515.htm

I searched for the original link on the Internet and the newspaper itself, but could not find it or any direct references to this plot, except for those which came from the Chinese news agencies. Click below for a bigger picture to see for yourself:

But time is short and more important are the issues of why this disinformation is getting serious attention and who is behind the campaign. Every time I try to watch one of those “informative” videos put out by the anti-CNN’ers, the creepy, sickeningly-sweet or rousing patriotic music puts me off so badly that I must immediately turn it off. (BTW--Why does their “truth” need a soundtrack, and why do they have such bad taste in music? Is that part of their PsyOps?)
This bit of "news" was reproduced in many forms and on many sites, obviously to boost morale, such as this one:

Chinese protest Tibet independence
Sat Apr 19, 2008 10:52am EDT
By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese people took to the streets in several cities on Saturday to denounce calls for Tibetan independence and demand a French goods boycott following anti-China protests on the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay.
Pictures from the central city of Wuhan showed large crowds marching with banners reading: "Oppose Tibet independence, support the Olympics", and "Say no to French goods".
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSPEK27628620080419

Whooh! Shades of neo-cons and fleedom flies! And this one:

Demonstrators in U.S. call Dalai Lama a liar
Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:50pm EDT
By Eric Olsen
ANN ARBOR, Michigan (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama on Sunday urged the world to work for a sustainable planet while pro-China demonstrators accused him of lying about the turmoil in his homeland.
There were no arrests among the 300 to 400 people who showed up outside his speech at a University of Michigan sports arena where the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader spoke to about 8,300 people in an Earth Day-themed lecture.
The demonstrators repeatedly chanted "Dalai Liar!" and cheered when a plane circled overhead trailing a large banner reading "Dalai Please Stop Attacking Olympic Flame."
The vast majority of the demonstrators appeared to be of Chinese ancestry and wore white shirts emblazoned with "Support Beijing Olympics 2008" and red shirts printed with the Chinese flag.
"Tibet Belongs to China and So Do I" read one sign in the crowd.
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1836025720080420

How nicely the police behaved for them, almost as nicely as they did here in NYC when the Falun Gong suddenly appeared everywhere (and all at once) during the RNC. Anyone who wore a peace sign did so knowing they could be arrested just for crossing the street, while these folks trotted out stage sets on every other corner, complete with music and costumed "police" beating the practitioners. And where did these people get the money for a PLANE?
The question remains: If they were given an honest assessment of the problems faced by minorities and the inevitable resistance that would accompany occupation, why would the people of China not want independence for Tibetans? The whole of China’s future certainly isn't contingent upon Tibet. People go about their daily lives and don’t want trouble, whether they are Hans or Tibetans, Mongols or Muslem Uyghus.
But these propagandists fear any dissent or alternative to the great Motherland. (Say it all together now: "One World!")
It’s really bad over there, but too much is spilling over into our own left wing by people who should know they are being used. It's bad and sad and completely unproductive unless the goal is to spill blood.
Let people live their lives according to their cultural traditions and all will be well. I think I've said enough about Tibet and China for today.

Bomb-Throwing Monks and Nancy Pelosi

Things seem to be going from bad to worse in China. Information is so hard to come by and worse, hard to rely on. Here's a real thriller from the South China Morning Post, followed by Al-Jazeera providing hard news.
World warned about Tibetan 'terrorist' group
Beijing goes on verbal offensive against activists,
Nancy Pelosi
Josephine Ma in Beijing and Reuter, Apr 14, 2008
Beijing has gone on the offensive against western critics of its handling of the riots in Tibet by slamming US politician Nancy Pelosi as "the least popular person in China" and labelling the Tibetan Youth Congress as the No1 common enemy of humankind.
http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2c913216495213d5df646910cba0a0a0/?vgnextoid=56d95afa63849110VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=teaser&ss=China&s=News
Get this: you have to pay to read the rest!!! Now that's real communism, BushCo Style!
Tibetan monks held for 'bomb plot'
Al-Jazeera, April 13, 2008
Lhasa, Tibet (China) -- Nine Tibetan Buddhist monks have been arrested for involvement in an alleged bomb attack on a government building in China's Tibetan region, the official Xinhua News Agency says.
The monks from the Tongxia monastery fled after the homemade bomb exploded at the building in Gyanbe township on March 23, and later confessed to planting the explosive, Xinhua said late on Saturday.
Arrests confirmed
Xinhua did not explain why the alleged incident was not reported earlier, and it did mention any casualties or damage in the explosion.
A man who answered the phone at the Gongjue county "public security bureau" confirmed that nine suspects had been detained.
Six were planting the bomb and three were shielding the suspects and covering up their crimes, he said.
The man refused to give his name because he said he was not authorised to talk to the media.
A woman at the Tibetan regional public security department said she was not sure about the case because it was still under investigation.
The attack was the first alleged bombing reported in Tibet since anti-China protests began on March 10 in the capital, Lhasa.
[...] Hu Jintao, the Chinese premier, spoke on the issue for the first time on Saturday, during a meeting with Kevin Rudd, the Australian prime minister, on the sidelines of a regional economic forum in Hainan.
"Our conflict with the Dalai clique is not an ethnic problem, not a religious problem, nor a human rights problem," Xinhua quoted Hu as saying, referring to supporters of the Dalai Lama.
"It is a problem either to safeguard national unification or to split the motherland."
Earlier this month, Beijing accused Tibetan independence forces of organising suicide squads of launching violent attacks against China.
Wu Heping, a spokesman for China's public security ministry, also claimed that searches of monasteries in Lhasa had uncovered a large cache of weapons.
On Friday, China labelled a group linked to the Tibetan government-in-exile a "terrorist organisation".[…]
http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=46,6220,0,0,1,0