World Tibet Network News/TibetPressHungary
2009. June 08. Monday
World Tibet Network News
Monday, June 8, 2009
Published by: The Canada Tibet Committee
Editorial Board: Nima Dorjee, Norm Steinberg, Ryszard Ciemek,
Tseten Samdup, Thubten (Sam) Samdup
WTN Editors: wtn-editors@tibet.ca
Issue ID: 2008/06/08
1. Dalai Lama hits out at China (AFP)
2. Dalai Lama meets with Chinese community in Paris (Phayul)
3. Speaker Pelosi vows to work until freedom prevails in China and Tibet
(TibetNet)
4. China Creates Specter of Dueling Dalai Lamas (The New York Times)
5. Tibetan Broadcaster Wins David Burke Distinguished Journalism Award (RFA)
6. Monk in waiting (Indian Express)
7. Playing ball gives Tibetans a sense of nationhood (The Times of India)
8. A Tibetan’s View of June Fourth: Human Rights in China Interviews Rigzin
(CRF)
9. When a 'Chosen' Tibetan Lama Says No Thanks (The Time)
10. Monk suicides on the rise in Buddhist Tibet (TCHRD)
1. Dalai Lama hits out at China
PARIS: 07 June 2009 (AFP)
The Dalai Lama accused China on Saturday of
imposing a "death sentence" on Tibet, as he arrived in Paris for a visit
that has once again chilled Franco-Chinese relations.
The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader is to be named an honorary citizen of
the French capital despite warnings from the Chinese government that his
arrival will harm relations with France.
The Dalai Lama criticised Beijing's actions in Tibet since apparent
anti-Chinese protests erupted in the region last year.
"Since March 2008 I have the feeling that a very old nation and its heritage
and culture have received a death sentence," he told reporters at Paris
airport on his arrival.
"The Chinese government makes a hard line policy, but the Chinese people are
ignorant of the situation. The international community must go there to
investigate, without restrictions."
The Dalai Lama, 73, is to be made an honorary citizen of Paris on Sunday.
On Saturday he met pro-Tibetan French lawmakers and members of the Chinese
and Tibetan community in France.
"He seem to us very pessimistic," said Lionnel Luca, president of the French
parliament's 170-strong Tibet studies group. "For the first time he told us
that the March 2008 events were a provocation by the Chinese authorities."
The lawmaker, a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, said the
Dalai Lama had accused the Chinese state of sending its agents to smash up
shops in an effort to blacken the name of Tibetan protest movements.
French officials said it was a coincidence the Dalai Lama would be in Paris
at the same time as US President Barack Obama and there are no plans for the
exiled Tibetan spiritual leader to meet top political representatives.
"Once more I'm very happy to come to France. The main reason of my visit is
to receive the honour, citizen of Paris," the Dalai Lama told reporters.
"It's an opportunity to meet my old friends among politicians, business men,
intellectuals and ordinary people."
France is the fourth and final leg of his latest European tour, which he has
insisted is not political, but China has given strong warnings to European
governments.
France and China have only just patched up relations following Beijing's
anger over Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama in December.
Last month China warned France not to make more "errors" on Tibet.
"If the Paris city government does make this award, it will definitely meet
once again with the Chinese people's firm opposition," a foreign ministry
spokesman said, describing such moves as meddling in China's internal
affairs.
The Socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, has said the award is an
initiative of the city and not of the French state.
But those assurances have done nothing to assuage the anger in Beijing,
which accuses the Dalai Lama, who has been living in exile in India since
1959, of seeking independence for Tibet from Chinese rule.
Delanoe said "there is no question of interfering" but that "there was also
no question of renouncing my convictions, without seeking to be
provocative."
The Dalai Lama kicked off his latest European tour in Denmark last Friday
and has also visited Iceland and the Netherlands.
2. Dalai Lama meets with Chinese community in Paris
By Tenam
Phayul
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Paris, June 6
His Holiness the Dalai Lama met with Chinese students,
democracy activists and exiles at his hotel today after meeting with some
French lawmakers.
The Tibetan leader was welcomed earlier this morning on his arrival from
Netherlands by a small group of Tibetans, French Buddhists and admirers.
Stressing on people to people relationship, the Dalai Lama applauded the
efforts by Tibetans and Chinese in Paris for starting a friendship
association.
"When we have interactions on a regular basis, then when a situation like
the last year's protests in Tibet happens, we have a ground for working to
solve any misunderstandings that arise. Otherwise we just end up shouting at
each other," he said.
Many Chinese participants shared their doubts about the sincerity of the
Beijing authorities and the practicability of the 'Middle Way Approach'. The
Dalai Lama responded that though he sometimes think many Tibetans support
his stance due to their faith, nevertheless, the 'Special Meeting' in
Dharamsala last year concluded in support of this path.
A group of around 50 Chinese and the Dalai Lama discussed a wide variety of
subjects - from His Holiness first visit to China, his exile and the
relation between the Tibetans in exile and the Beijing authorities.
He said that in 1956, on his first visit to India while situation in Tibet
deteriorated, at Nehru's behest, he returned instead of seeking asylum. He
said he also tried to negotiate a visit to Tibet in the early 80s and again
in 1992.
"In retrospect, I think I have been more useful being in exile. Otherwise I
might have suffered the fate of the late Panchen Lama," the Dalai Lama
pointed out.
Referring to accusations against the Tibetan Youth Congress as being
extremists, he said that they are firm in their commitment towards
non-violence though their political goal differs from his.
"Though I had some doubts about the timing of the protest, I was amazed by
the courage of the Tiananmen protesters in 1989," he said. For the Chinese
youths he reasoned that "it is important to look at all sides of an issue
and come to their own conclusion rather than blindly following the official
propaganda."
"Be firm in your commitment to truth and then persevere," advised the Dalai
Lama to the Chinese youth.
The Dalai Lama will meet with Tibetans and people from the Himalayan region
on Sunday morning and give a public conference titled 'Ethics and Society'
at Bercy sports complex. Later in the afternoon he is scheduled to meet the
Mayor of Paris and receive the 'citizen of honour’, which was passed by the
city of Paris last year.
The Green party members of the Paris council have hung portraits of the
Dalai Lama and of the Chinese dissident Hu Jia from the windows of their
offices near the city hall.
3. Speaker Pelosi vows to work until freedom prevails in China and Tibet
TibetNet
Saturday, 6 June 2009
Dharamshala
Marking the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre
on Thursday (4 June), US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined fellow members of
the US Congress and human rights activists to express their commitment to
work until freedom and openness prevails in China and in Tibet.
China's right activist Yang Jianli and the Initiatives for China organised
the gathering at the US Capitol Hill.
"Words fail me to adequately tell you what an honor it is to be on the same
stage and in the presence of so many of the heroes of June 4 - to have a
message at the same time from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in solidarity for
more openness in China and Tibet.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama's statement in Chinese and English languages
were read out on the occasion.
Addressing the gathering, Speaker Pelosi said: "We stand here in front of
the Capitol of the United States, a beacon of freedom to the world, with a
great history of free speech and open discussion.
"On this side of the Capitol, here on these grounds, we stand with people
who took to heart and to mind, the words of our Founders. In our Declaration
of Independence, in our Constitution, our words talked about every person
being equal and 'endowed by their creator.'' 'Endowed by their creator,' not
by the state, but 'endowed by their creator' of certain rights like liberty
and the pursuit of happiness. And it was for life and liberty - and some
people paid that price in Tiananmen Square. They paid with their lives and
their liberty to speak out for freedom.
"It's interesting to me that this week there are also observances in Eastern
Europe about freedom emerging there at this time 20 years ago. And for those
of you who are old enough to remember Tiananmen Square, you would have seen
that the students gathered in the square in May in the days leading up to
June 4th were an inspiration to the world, to the entire world. They
inspired others to have the courage and they had a drumbeat of liberty and
freedom that was felt around the world.
"What they wanted was dialogue with their government on openness and freedom
and freedom of speech and religion and ending the corruption in China. They
wanted that dialogue, they wanted that conversation - what they got was
crushed. Crushed. Some of those people crushed in the square and other
streets of Beijing. But they could not crush the spirit of Tiananmen.
"And that's why it's important these 20 years later - I remember meeting
Chai Ling in Paris. She was newly escaped from China - we are so proud of
her, she is so courageous, and so many others, so many other heroes of that
movement. Many of them, when they got out of China, signed my man before the
tank poster in my office, which is getting old now, but I'm very proud of
the signatures that are on there. They are the signatures to a declaration
of freedom in China and what this freedom means is openness, freedom of
speech, freedom of religion, accountability, rule of law according to the
Chinese Constitution.
"So what is important for us to do now? Who would have ever thought all of
you here who are gathered with great leaders for democracy? Who would have
ever thought that 20 years later, we would still be in this situation? That
the same cowardice that inspired - I don't know if inspired is the word -
that insisted that the regime crush the people in the square - to clear that
square at such and such a time. The same cowardice that did that - that same
fear of the people exists in China today.
"We were told 20 years ago that peaceful evolution and economic reform would
lead to political reform. Indeed, the economic reform has occurred. And I
was so pleased that Secretary Clinton said in a statement that China has
made enormous progress economically. I saw that last week in China. But she
also said that a China that had made all that progress should examine openly
the darker events of its past and provide a public accounting of those
killed at Tiananmen Square - both to learn and to heal. We need to do that
as we go forward.
"I have said over and over again: if we do not support human rights in China
and in Tibet, we lose all moral authority to speak about human rights any
place in the world. So here we are in front of the Capitol, a building
symbolic of the core values of our American independence and our
Constitution, in solidarity with those who, using our words, modeling the
Goddess of Democracy after the Statue of Liberty, having those aspirations -
people carrying those aspirations crushed in Tiananmen Square.
"Twenty years later, the spirit is still alive. In Hong Kong in the
observance of Tiananmen Square, over 150,000 people turned out last night.
150,000 people - the biggest crowd since the one-year anniversary of
Tiananmen Square. So I know that the long arm of the Chinese government will be reaching out to the media all over the world to suppress reporting
on what's happened in China, and also restricting communication from China
through the Internet and the rest, but the fact is that here we are at the
Capitol, there they were in Hong Kong, a drumbeat of activity across the
world, an echo of the voices of the heroes of Tiananmen. We will never
forget. We want a record of what happened, and we will continue to work for
more openness and improvements in human rights in China and Tibet.
"Thank you for your courage to turn out here today, to stand in front of the
Capitol, to hold us accountable to our own values, and to continue to work
together to remember the Tiananmen Square Massacre, to get a public
accounting of it.
"So our work is large. It's work that many of us have been involved in for
20 years. In 1991, I stood in the square and unfurled a banner remembering
those who sacrificed so much in Tiananmen Square. I wear white today to
signal to the families a sympathy for what they have lost. I did that in
1991 as a Member of Congress, an individual Member, to express my views and
the views of my constituents. It was a bipartisan group of us on the square
that day, Democrats and Republicans.
"Eighteen years later as Speaker of the House, I had the opportunity to sit
across from the President of China, the Premier of China, the Chairman of
the People's Congress, and to express to them the bipartisan concern in the
Congress of the United States about China's human rights record both in
China and in Tibet.
"Whatever our roles in whatever stage of our involvement, we have to use
everything at our disposal so that they know that we have not forgotten, and
that we will not rest until there is freedom of speech and expression and
assembly and openness in China and in Tibet.”
4. China Creates Specter of Dueling Dalai Lamas
By EDWARD WONG
The New York Times
June 7, 2009
DHARAMSALA, India
For centuries, the selection of the reincarnation of the
Dalai Lama has been steeped in the mysticism of a bygone world.
On the windswept Tibetan plateau, his closest aides look for divinations in
a sacred lake. A mountain god transmits oracular messages by possessing a
high lama. Monks scour villages for boys precocious in their spiritual
attunement.
All that is about to change, as the current Dalai Lama and his followers in
exile here in India compete with the Chinese government for control of how
the 15th Dalai Lama will be chosen. The issue is urgent for the Tibetans
because the current Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of all Tibetans and the
charismatic face of the exile movement, has had recent bouts of ill health.
He turns 74 in July.
Both the Chinese and the Tibetan exiles are bracing for an almost inevitable
outcome: the emergence into the world of dueling Dalai Lamas — one chosen by
the exiles, perhaps by the 14th Dalai Lama himself, and the other by Chinese
officials.
“It’s a huge but ultracritical issue, with no clear outcome or solution
except one: trouble,” said Robert Barnett, a Tibet scholar at Columbia
University. “It is going to end up with two Dalai Lamas and thus with
long-running conflict, unless the Chinese agree to a diplomatic solution
pretty soon.”
The jockeying has put the Dalai Lama and the Chinese Communist Party in
surprising positions. The Dalai Lama said late last month in an interview
with The New York Times that all options for choosing his reincarnation were
open, including ones that break from tradition. That could mean that the
next Dalai Lama would be found outside Tibet, could be a woman or might even
be named while the 14th Dalai Lama was still alive, before his soul properly
transmigrated. Meanwhile, the party, officially atheist and accused of
ravaging Tibetan culture, insists that religious customs must be followed.
A traditional selection process would be easily controlled by the Chinese
government, since the process is rooted in the landscape of Tibet, which the
Chinese seized in 1951. China has already positioned itself in other ways,
including enacting a law in 2007 that says all reincarnations of senior
lamas must be approved by the government.
Here in Dharamsala, India, where the Dalai Lama lives, religious leaders
have been debating whether to bypass the traditional process. Meanwhile,
many Tibetans say they will honor whatever the Dalai Lama decides to do.
“This is a religious matter,” the Dalai Lama said in the interview. “Of
course there’s a political implication there, but it’s mainly a religious
matter, spiritual matter, so therefore I have to discuss it with leaders,
spiritual leaders.”
The figure of the Dalai Lama, head of the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism,
is without rival in influence among Tibetans and many Buddhists worldwide.
He is revered as the reincarnation of Chenrezig, a deity who has chosen to
remain on earth to help people achieve enlightenment. Many of China’s six
million Tibetans keep photos of him in their mud-walled homes, monasteries
and nomadic tents, or hidden in the folds of their clothes, even though the
government has outlawed all images of the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in
1959.
The Chinese government accuses the Dalai Lama of being a separatist, though
he demands only genuine autonomy for Tibet.
The Communist Party, aware that Buddhism is central to Tibetans, has tried
to select and prop up lamas who will support the government while still
retaining legitimacy among the people.
In 1995, when the Dalai Lama confirmed a boy in Tibet as the reincarnation
of the Panchen Lama, the second-ranking leader of the Gelugpa sect, the
Chinese government whisked away the boy and his parents and installed its
own child lama. The Dalai Lama’s choice, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, now 20, is
still hidden from public view, while the government’s selection shows up at
official events to praise Communist policy — and is seen by many Tibetans as
a fraud.
Chinese leaders also tried to groom the Karmapa, the reincarnated head of
the Kagyu sect, but he fled to India in 1999, at age 14. He now sits by the
Dalai Lama at prayer ceremonies here.
“This is one of the chief indicators that China has failed in Tibet,” said
Mr. Barnett, the Columbia scholar. “It’s failed to find consistent
leadership in Tibet by any Tibetan lama who is really respected by Tibetan
people, and who at the same time endorses Communist Party rule.”
Chinese officials are hoping that will change with their selection of the
next Dalai Lama. Lian Xianming, a scholar at the China Tibetology Research
Center, a government-supported institution in Beijing, said that since the
Qing Dynasty, which began in the 17th century, all reincarnations of the
Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama required approval by Beijing after going through
the traditional method of selection. “The real Dalai Lama will be the one
who has gone through the historical process,” he said.
That was the process used to find the current one. After the death of the
13th Dalai Lama in 1933, senior lamas journeyed on horseback to the sacred
lake of Lhamo Lhatso, not far from Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. There, they
said, they received a vision that pointed to eastern Tibet as the site where
the reincarnation would be found. Earlier, a medium of the Nechung Oracle,
the mountain god that serves as the state fortuneteller, was said to have
turned eastward in a trance.
Three search parties were dispatched; one identified a boy in a farming
village as the reincarnation. The boy, Lhamo Dhondrub, had had to prove his
worth by, among other things, picking out objects belonging to the 13th
Dalai Lama, including spectacles, rosary beads and a walking stick. He was
enthroned as the Dalai Lama in 1940.
Although the Chinese insist the traditional process must be followed, Mr.
Barnett said Tibetan Buddhism allows great flexibility in changing old
systems.
The Dalai Lama said one possibility was that his reincarnation would be
chosen and trained even while he was alive, “so some of my sort of work is
carried continuously.” That, however, is a controversial point among lamas,
some of whom insist that a successor can be chosen only after the Dalai
Lama’s death.
Tibetans fear that a leadership vacuum after the Dalai Lama’s death could
weaken the movement. In the past, the periods that followed the deaths of
the Dalai Lama, when Tibet was governed by regents, were less stable,
because the regents did not have the mandate of the Dalai Lama. Regents also
often engaged in power struggles with rivals — stories of one lama poisoning
or imprisoning another were not uncommon.
Though the government-in-exile has an elected prime minister, many people
here now point to the Karmapa, 23, as a possible interim communal leader
following the Dalai Lama’s death. Often at the Dalai Lama’s side, he is seen
as charismatic by many Tibetans. He was once endorsed by the Chinese
government, speaks Mandarin Chinese and practices Chinese calligraphy,
making him a possible bridge to Beijing.
“Because a lot of people have faith and confidence in me, there’s kind of a
momentum for me to do something,” he said on the rooftop of a monastery near
Dharamsala. “Maybe it’s a challenging situation, but one can put oneself to
a test.”
Still, the case of the Karmapa illustrates how fraught selecting a
reincarnation can be.
Long ago, the Dalai Lama recognized the man who fled here in 1999 as the
17th Karmapa.
But a senior lama in the Kagyu sect has been promoting another Tibetan
living in India as the true successor — a conflict that presages the dilemma
of a doppelgänger Dalai Lama.
5. Tibetan Broadcaster Wins David Burke Distinguished Journalism Award
Radio Free Asia
Saturday, 6 June 2009
Dharamshala
Tseten Dolkar of the Tibetan Service of Radio Free Asia (RFA)
was honoured with the 2009 David Burke Distinguished Journalism Award for
her outstanding reporting during 10 months of 2008 covering the peaceful
Tibetan protests.
Dolkar, a member of Radio Free Asia's Tibetan service, received the award at
a ceremony held by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) in the Cohen
Building in Washington on Wednesday, 3 June.
Named after former BBG Chairman David Burke, the award recognizes courage,
integrity and originality in reporting by journalists within the BBG
broadcast organizations.
"She helped cover the earliest stories of Tibetan unrest due to the Tibetan
peoples' trust in her objectivity, as she employed multiple sources,
including the Chinese police, and triple-checked her stories before
broadcasting," said BBG Governor Blanquita Cullum.
"We are proud of Tseten Dolkar, who is deserving of this wonderful honor and
high praise, as is the staff of Radio Free Asia's Tibetan service, for their
tireless work in breaking this story," RFA's website quoted Libby Liu,
President of Radio Free Asia as saying.
"We thank the Broadcasting Board of Governors for recognizing the solid
journalism that went into covering the Chinese crackdown on Tibetan
protesters in March last year and will continue to inform RFA's listeners of
the news happening around them," Libby Liu added.
Another winners of this year's award are: Luis Ramirez of Voice of America
(VOA), the Afghanistan-based correspondents of RFE/RL's Afghan Service, the
radio news department of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), and Serwa
Abdel Wahed and Akram Alrubaiei of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks'
Alhurra TV.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent federal agency which
supervises all U.S. government-supported, civilian international
broadcasting, including the Voice of America (VOA); Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty (RFE/RL); the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and
Radio Sawa); Radio Free Asia (RFA); and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting
(Radio and TV Marti). Through its broadcast services, the BBG provides the
United States and its leaders direct and immediate access to a worldwide
audience of 155 million people.
6. Monk in waiting
Devyani Onial
Indian Express
Sunday, Jun 07, 2009
In a spacious room on the fourth floor of the Gyuto monastery in Sidhbari, a
farming village near Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, Ogyen Drodul Trinley
Dorje, the 17th Karmapa, stands with a grave expression. He is receiving a
few people who have sought a private audience with him. Some have come
merely to pay their respects and to receive his blessings, others in the
hope that he can fix their problems. Two old gentlemen bend to touch his
feet, three women have come all the way from Hong Kong—one of them with a
“business problem”. There is a reverential hush in the room, broken suddenly
by the cry of a little girl accompanying her mother. With an unfortunate
sense of timing peculiar to children, she bawls incessantly and is taken out
of the room by her crushed mother. The Karmapa finally allows himself a
half-amused look before returning to his duties with practised ease.
It’s an ease that has grown in the nine years that he has been living in
India and will come in handy if he were to eventually become, as many say he
will, the new face of the old Tibetan struggle. In the Tibetan hierarchy,
the Karmapa, who is the head of the Kagyu sect and whose role is purely
spiritual, is the third most important leader after the Dalai Lama (who
heads the Gelugpa sect, the biggest sect), and the Panchen Lama, who went
missing in China in 1995, a few days after he was chosen by the Dalai Lama.
This year marks 50 years of the Tibetans living in exile in India. It was in
March 1959 that the Dalai Lama escaped from China in the guise of a soldier,
made home in Dharamsala and in the following years, kept the Tibetan cause
alive internationally. But the Dalai Lama is 73 now and concerns of ‘what
after him’ are growing. His successor will be accepted as a reincarnation,
but the search for and the grooming of one can take years and time is a
luxury the community can ill afford. The void, they fear, will play into the
hands of the Chinese—whose policy appears to be to wait-out the Dalai Lama
after whom they hope the Tibetan movement will peter out.
That is where the Karmapa, who turns 24 this month, can play an important
role, taking on the responsibilities of the leader of the Tibetans—over
1,00,000 of them live in India—till the next Dalai Lama is ready. “After the
Dalai Lama, we need a leader who is acceptable to a majority of the
community,” says Nyima Gyaltsen, a masters’ student of political science who
has come to Gyuto for the Karmapa’s talk. “The Karmapa will be suitable. Of
course, right now he’s young, but in another decade or two, he can be an
important leader of the Tibetan struggle,” says Gyaltsen.
But Tenpa Tsering, representative of the Tibetan government-in-exile, says
such talk is just speculation. “All this talk of him being the next leader
is mere presumption. There is no official decision on this yet. Every
Tibetan has a role to play in the Tibetan struggle and of course the Karmapa
has a greater one because he’s an important figure.”
The Karmapa, too, concedes his responsibility is great, but then, as he
says, it comes with the title. “The Dalai Lama wants every Tibetan,
especially the young, to be responsible to the cause. But yes, as a Karmapa,
my responsibilities are greater,” he says in halting English, turning to the
interpreter whenever he can’t find the right words.
In the meanwhile, he’s trying to learn as much as he can. Apart from
traditional Buddhist education, he’s taking classes in English and Korean.
“I am interested in languages. I can speak a bit of Vietnamese, a bit of
Hindi and some Chinese too,” he says. Though he doesn’t get much of an
opportunity to speak in Chinese here, he tries. “I speak broken Chinese with
students who come to visit me,” says the Karmapa who, in December 1999, like
thousands of Tibetans before and after him, took the treacherous route over
frozen passes to escape out of China. “There were seven of us, including me.
We travelled by car, on foot, on horseback, for eight days and eight nights
before crossing the border,” he says.
The Karmapa had been recognised both by the Dalai Lama and the Chinese
government—which was shocked by his flight—and that places him in the
position of a key negotiator in the future. “I was fortunate that I was
recognised by both. But I had my reasons for escaping to India,” he says.
He was a seven-year-old living in east Tibet in 1992 when he was recognised
as a reincarnation and made the 17th Karmapa. But his selection was not free
of controversy—a section of the Tibetans back another as the real
reincarnation, but Ogyen Drodul Trinley Dorje has the Dalai Lama’s approval
and the backing of the majority of the community.
“I was seven when I was recognised as the reincarnation of the Karmapa. I
was taken to our main monastery, 72 km away from Lhasa. It was a remote
place. The road leading to it was quite bad so the Chinese officials
hesitated to come there. We were left to ourselves. They only came sometimes
to check on us. When I look back, I think those were simple days. I was in
my homeland and I was happy.”
But then he says he had reasons to believe that the Chinese government was
planning to give him a political position and would want him to give
statements denouncing the Dalai Lama. “There was this fear always that I
would be asked to denounce His Holiness. That was one reason why I decided
to escape.”
There were other restrictions too. “We could not call teachers of our
lineage from India, so we decided to go to them,” says the Karmapa. “We
found out the paths we would have to take. They looked very difficult but we
had to have courage. Winter months are the best to go across the border
because there is so much snow on the mountains and there are not so many
soldiers out at checkposts,” he says.
But the restrictions did not end in India. The government in India initially
suspected him of being a Chinese spy and did not let him travel much out of
his Sidhbari monastery. The restrictions are easing now and last year, he
went on his first international visit to the US. “It was always my dream to
go abroad and so when I did, I was very happy. Being in a new country can
give you many new experiences,” he says.
So, did he expect his flight to freedom to end in this? “I think my
expectations were met but yes, there were many things that could have been
different but the circumstances were such. Things have changed now but some
things still need to,” he says.
In the afternoon, a group of visitors make their way to the monastery,
register themselves and are frisked before being led in. Security for the
Karmapa is strict—no one is allowed to photograph him, permission to
journalists is rare and if granted, has to be cleared by the SP in
Dharamsala. Three security men are always around, following him even when he
takes his walk around the monastery. On Wednesday and Saturday afternoons,
the Karmapa has a public audience, which is open to all. His tall frame
fills the chair and in his rimless rectangular frames, he looks suitably
serious but during his talk, thaws a bit, occasionally smiles and sometimes
rolls his eyes for effect. The talk over, he retires to his library, and
sits there for a while, leafing through a book. In the corner of a shelf in
the book-lined room, a few DVDs of films lie stacked—Slumdog Millionaire,
Courage Under Fire, Diehard with a Vengeance. When he’s not studying, the
Karmapa likes to write stories, paint—“I like modern art”—and listen to
music. He is said to like hip hop but he’s not too sure what that is. “Hip
hop,” he asks. “I don’t know what the music I listen to is called. But I
like modern music. I like this singer, I think it’s pronounced ‘Allan’. He’s
a British singer. You heard of him,” he asks. He also plays some games on
his playstation, though, he says, he is increasingly finding less and less
time for it. “You know, Wii, it’s new,” he says and when he sees our blank
expressions, does a fair imitation of someone holding a racquet and playing.
He does a bit of calligraphy and is interested in science and computers,
though he hastens to say, “I know computers but I am not a specialist”, and
follows environmental issues closely. “I think the environment crisis is
even bigger than the global economic crisis,” he says.
In the evening, he drops in at a class being held at the monastery, before
taking a walk. The sun is still out and his securitymen and a few monks try
and keep in step with him. An elderly monk opens a big red umbrella and he
takes it from him and continues his walk. It makes a pretty picture: a tall
broad figure in maroon robes with a cloud of red above his head against an
imposing yellow monastery. After two rounds of the monastery, he retires to
his chamber, where, later in the evening, he will resume his classes.
For lessons outside the class, he often turns to his mentor, the Dalai Lama.
It was to him that he first went on arriving in Dharamsala. The relationship
has grown stronger over the years. “I meet the Dalai Lama at least once in
three months. We share a warm relationship. He’s not just my teacher, he’s
my friend, he’s like a father. We don’t always talk about serious things. We
sit together, share a joke,” says the Karmapa, whose family is still in
Tibet but he has a sister who lives in his monastery. “I meet her
sometimes,” he says.
Though some sections of the youth may be getting impatient with the Dalai
Lama’s advocacy of the middle path and demand of autonomy, and not complete
freedom, the Karmapa sounds a word of caution. “The Tibet issue has become
urgent now. One solution is autonomy. If the Chinese could trust His
Holiness, certainly it’s the faster and sweeter way. The young people often
see the immediate situation but they don’t have a sense of history, of past
experiences.”
As for China, he says, “Tibet is a big challenge for them too. But they want
to decide themselves, they don’t want to consult the Tibetans. Or maybe they
do but they have a political mind and they have their own doubts and
suspicions.”
“The Chinese people too have been brainwashed by their government but times
are changing. This is the information age and more and more Chinese are
getting information from other sources on the issue and are getting to see
it for what it really is,” he says.
In McLeodganj in Dharamsala, where the Tibetan community lives, a
candlelight march was held on Wednesday night to observe the 20th
anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests—June 4, 1989—in China. As
monks, nuns, students and tourists sit in the Namgayal monastery premises,
watching a documentary on Tiananmen, some discuss the future of the Tibetan
struggle. “We have heard that the Dalai Lama has asked the Karmapa to take
over after him,” says 19-year-old Dolkar Lhamo.
Lhundup Gyatso, who studies in a school in Dharamsala, says it’s a question
they often debate. “I lived in Tibet when the Karmapa lived there and when
he escaped. Before he escaped, he had gone to Beijing where he met Central
government officials, including Jiang Zemin, who was President then. The
Tibetans were a bit suspicious of him but then just a few weeks after that,
he escaped. Everybody—the Tibetans, the Chinese—was shocked,” says Gyatso,
who, like the Karmapa, was just 14 when he took an 18-day trek to Nepal and
then came to India. “Now 99.9 per cent of the Tibetans accept him but
whether he can lead us in the future remains a question. In school, often
our topic of discussion is the Karmapa. Some students are suspicious of him.
They say he’s young, he’s smart, but how do we know what’s at the bottom of
his heart? We’ll have to wait and watch, year by year.”
Others, like 26-year-old Neema Tsering, an assistant in a shop in
McLeodganj, have more confidence in his leadership but find it difficult to
see beyond the Dalai Lama. “The Karmapa has grown up so quickly but he’s
still very young. The Dalai Lama, well, what can one say? He’s King.”
7. Playing ball gives Tibetans a sense of nationhood
The Times of India
7 Jun 2009
Siddharth Saxena
DHARAMSALA
Watching football in Dharamsala could give you vertigo. But for
the Tibetans, it provides a high. It's the time of year when monks become
converts to soccer, discarding pious solemnity, if not their robes, as they
head in search of the global game.
The arena at the Tibetan Children Village School could rival the Bombonera -
Boca Juniors' famously steep 'Chocolate Box' stadium - but theirs is a
terrace chant with a difference. Here, the clash of cymbals, not confetti,
cascades from the rock-cut terraces of the school ground nestled in the
Shivaliks. Chhang, the local brew, is passed freely from hand to hand. The
air has the unmistakable smell of dope.
Below, in the dusty gravelly pitch, the 15th edition of the Gyalyum Chemo
Memorial Gold Cup is being played out - serious business for Tibetans from
1981. Instituted in the memory of the Dalai Lama's mother, the GCMGC (as it
is called by Tibetans the world over) is the one unifying sporting meet for
Tibetans in exile.
"Tibetans wait all year for this tournament. Apart from providing an outlet
for our love for football, it becomes a platform to present our identity. No
other sport can match this," says Dorji Tsering, the serious-minded captain
of the team from Chennai. A student of Literature at Chennai's MCC College,
22-year-old Tsering is leading a formidable Tibetan Students Association of
Madras team and is expected to make the finals of this unique knock-out
tournament.
"Team-building is of great importance here, almost like a top-flight club,"
he says, adding that his team is made up of Tibetans from Hyderabad,
Bangalore and even Gwalior.
A breeding ground for Tibet's aspiring National football dream, the GCMGC
draws teams from as far afield as Nepal, Trichy, Chennai, Varanasi and even,
Goa. "We are trying to get a team of Tibetans based in Europe," says Kelsang
Dhundup, secretary of the Tibetan National Sports Association (TNSA), the
NGO entrusted with the task of running this tournament. "But assembling them
is a problem," he adds.
After 12 years of travelling all over India and Nepal, the tournament has
returned to the venue of its birth. This year, 18 teams - mainly comprising
college students on their summer break - have assembled at Dharamsala. The
10-day-long knock-out tournament is spaced so that the final on Tuesday,
doesn't clash with Sunday's Miss Tibet contest. An added draw is the local
team. The crowd has swelled for the 4 pm kick-off. A group of local theatre
artistes, who go by the name of Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA),
blend their operatic skills with slick football, drawing gasps of
appreciation from the crowd perched precariously all along the hilly
terraces.
That TIPA is coached by the legendary Phuntsok Dorje, captain of Tibet's
first National team-in-exile, only adds to their appeal. In a famous symbol
of protest back in 2001, Dorje, who lost his left hand to frostbite while
escaping from Tibet, led the Tibetans in an 'international' tie against
Greenland. It kicked off a series of such visits to Europe and even
participation in the displaced people's World Cup in 2006 in Hamburg.
"Football is like opera," says TIPA director, Wangchuk Phasur, after his
team enters the quarter-finals, "and like opera, it has a plot and a
storyline". At the steep arena of the Tibetan Children Village School, opera
and football mix effortlessly to the tune of politics and social identity.
8. A Tibetan’s View of June Fourth: Human Rights in China Interviews Rigzin
Research and Publications / China Rights Forum / 2009: Rule of Law? / CRF
2009, no. 2 - Facing June Fourth /
How are the “Lhasa Riots” and “June Fourth Incident” related? How did
Tibetans view the 1989 Democracy Movement and the June Fourth crackdown, and
how were they affected? How would a democratized China affect Han-Tibetan
relations? Human Rights in China posed these questions in an interview with
Rigzin, former editor of a Tibet studies journal, who was in Lhasa in the
spring of 1989.
Human Rights in China [HRIC]: Before the June Fourth incident in 1989, what
was the situation in Tibet?
Rigzin: Before June Fourth, some so-called “riots” occurred in Tibet. One
was in ’87, one was in ’88, and one just happened to be in ’89. Because
these three “riots” were on a fairly large scale, each larger than the last,
the result was that in March 1989, the Chinese government declared all-out
martial law in Lhasa.
HRIC: So, in actuality, the Chinese government imposed martial law in Lhasa
earlier than in Beijing. Then what was the relationship between the riot
that occurred in Lhasa and Beijing’s democracy movement?
Rigzin: Many people believe that the events in Beijing and Lhasa resembled
one another. First, in Beijing it was students who first came out to protest
with the slogan: “Oppose corruption, demand democracy.”Then, following the
students’ lead, Beijing residents and students in other cities were
mobilized. It was similar in Lhasa. In March 1989, also in 1987 and 1988, it
was monks and nuns from several major monasteries near Lhasa who came out
first to demonstrate against the government’s policy in Tibet. Spurred on by
them, residents in the city also participated.
HRIC: Can you talk about the ’89 protest activities?
Rigzin: A considerable number of people participated then. At the time,
several government agencies had already received notifications from higher
levels saying that cadres were not permitted to participate or watch from
the side. So all of us stayed in our homes. Even though my house was far
away from central Lhasa, I could still clearly hear the sounds of the
demonstrators shouting slogans from the center of town. Several people who
participated said tens of thousands of people took part. Some scholars
believe that protests in Lhasa preceded the democracy movement in Beijing.
In some sense, they believe that Tibet’s movement gave impetus to Beijing’s
patriotic democracy movement.
HRIC: In your view, what was the link between the events in these two
places?
Rigzin: I think the nature of each of these two movements was different. The
student movement in Beijing was directed at their own government’s
corruption and systemic problems, which they hoped could be solved. However,
what Tibet’s monks and people wanted was Tibetan independence and an end to
the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) rule of Tibet.
HRIC: What were the demands of the March 1989 protests?
Rigzin: At the time, many monks said they wanted Tibetan independence. But
the protest was not organized, it was a spontaneous movement of the masses
and the monks. In actuality, Lhasa’s mass movement was even less orderly and
even less organized than the Beijing student movement. This kind of
spontaneous mass movement had its own slogans, and everyone had their own
demands.
HRIC: What kind of slogans did they have?
Rigzin: The monks said that the government had jailed a monk leader. It was
said that he published some articles that were perhaps quite sharply
critical of the government. This monk’s attainments in Buddhism were very
high, and he was very influential among the monks. That was why many monks
demanded his release and demanded that the government stop interfering in
Tibet’s religious affairs. Many people also demanded Tibetan independence.
HRIC: In 1989 during the Tibet protests, did you pay any attention to the
student movement in Beijing?
Rigzin: I paid close attention. In 1989, from about March 9, Lhasa was put
under martial law for one whole year.When the patriotic student movement
happened in Beijing, the situation in Lhasa was also extremely tense.You
could see troops stationed everywhere. Street corners and intersections were
all guarded by soldiers. Our work units organized us to study material
related to anti-separatist struggle. This made everyone very nervous. But
everyone would gather in front of the television after work.At that time
CCTV was more objective. Everyone hoped in their hearts that there would be
democracy in China soon. In Lhasa, many people, including cadres and young
people, liked to go to the teahouses. They did not go there for the tea. The
main reason was to meet and talk. They talked about many topics, domestic
ones and overseas ones. We spoke about China, about everything.
HRIC:What topics concerned you most?
Rigzin: At the time we wanted news from Beijing. Everyone discussed what in
fact was happening in Beijing. You could see that everyone’s eyes were
brimming with fervent hope. Everyone supported the Beijing student movement
and hoped that there would be a change in China, and that democracy would be
realized quickly. This mentality was very strong, including in me.
HRIC: So what sort of change did you think the democracy movement could
bring to the lives of Tibetans?
Rigzin: Back then everyone believed that only when China became a democracy
would we Tibetans have a place of our own. At the time everyone thought this
way. But there was a contradiction here. From the point of view of
righteousness and justice, Tibetans hoped that the Beijing student movement
would succeed, and that China would quickly become democratic. This was a
thought that came from the heart. But on the other hand, when many Han
cadres from Lhasa’s major offices and bureaus came to the Tibetans for
donations of money and materials, the vast majority of Tibetans in the Lhasa
area did not donate anything. In other words, in their actions they did not
support the Beijing student movement.
Why was that? I believe there are two reasons.One is that in Tibetan history
there have been many mass peaceful demonstrations. They were met with brutal
government crackdown every time, and the vast majority of Han people,
particularly Chinese intellectuals, stood on the side of the government.
They have always held double standards toward mass peaceful demonstrations.
When government crackdowns occur within China, they believe that the CCP is
wrong, but when the same thing happens in Tibet they believe that Tibetans
are wrong. Since this has happened so many times, the Tibetan people have
completely lost trust in their hearts for the Han. Many Han intellectuals
holding positions in Tibetan work units actually masterminded schemes on
behalf of the CCP’s ruling cliques, and played an active role in suppressing
Tibetans. Time and again, they have hurt the Tibetan people. Therefore, when
a large-scale student movement occurred in Beijing, Tibetans on the one hand
hoped that China would change and quickly become democratic, and on the
other hand, were unwilling to give concrete support. Of course, there was a
very small minority of Han scholars such as Liu Xiaobo and Wang Lixiong who
stood up, but the vast majority of Hans completely endorsed the government’s
way of handling the Tibetans.
Another problem was Tibetans’ sense of national identity. Tibetans have
always believed that China occupied Tibet, and not, as they say, “liberated”
it. When Tibetans peacefully demonstrated, Han people did not give them
moral support. Instead, they stood on the side of the government. This
strengthened Tibetans’ sense of national identity. Therefore, when Han
people mobilized Tibetans to donate money and materials in 1989, Tibetans
said: We are not from the same country. This is China’s internal affair.
Doesn’t the Chinese government like to say that internal affairs must not be
interfered with? So we did not interfere.
HRIC: Is this the thinking of the vast majority of Tibetans? Do you also
believe this?
Rigzin: Including myself, the vast majority of Tibetans all think this.
HRIC: After the June Fourth crackdown, what was the situation like in Tibet?
Rigzin: In Tibet people were also captured. Many Han cadres and students in
Tibet were extremely passionate and had organized fundraising activities in
Tibet. Afterwards, one by one these activists were jailed, put in isolation,
and investigated.
HRIC: When did investigations in Tibet begin?
Rigzin: Probably not long after the June Fourth crackdown, probably within
one week after it started. Many people around us were investigated,
isolated, and arrested. I had a friend that was a reporter for the Tibet
Daily agency.
HRIC: Was he Han or Tibetan?
Rigzin: He was Han. He graduated from the journalism department of one of
Sichuan’s universities. He was eventually investigated at his work unit. He
was fairly young at the time and had just been sent from Sichuan. He was
extremely active. He frequently expressed himself in our midst, saying that
we Tibetans should support the Beijing democracy movement, that it was tied
to the fate of Tibetans.
HRIC: Can you discuss how the June Fourth incident influenced you as an
individual? What were your own impressions?
Rigzin: I believe that, under a totalitarian system in which the government
controls the military and the nation’s lifelines, when the masses peacefully
and rationally hold demonstrations, the government will definitely suppress
them. The government has the absolute advantage. So these demonstrations
always fall far short of the effect anticipated at the start. And I believe
that in China, these types of large-scale democracy movements will
eventually fail. This is because the military is in the hands of the CCP. As
soon as they send in the army, there is no way out. Therefore, if China’s
system of government doesn’t change, protests that stem from the hopes
people have placed in the government will always fail to achieve results.
These are my thoughts.
Tibetans have always believed that China occupied Tibet, and not, as they
say, “liberated” it. When Tibetans peacefully demonstrated, Han people did
not give them moral support. Instead, they stood on the side of the
government. This strengthened Tibetans’ sense of national identity.
Therefore, when Han people mobilized Tibetans to donate money and materials
in 1989, Tibetans said: We are not from the same country. This is China’s
internal affair. Doesn’t the Chinese government like to say that internal
affairs must not be interfered with?
HRIC: Are you still able to recall the influence that Party Secretary Hu
Yaobang had on Tibet policy while he was in office?
Rigzin: When Hu Yaobang was in office, he came once to Tibet. A conference
for county level cadres and higher was held in Lhasa. At the time some
cadres from our work unit attended. After the conference, they said that Hu
Yaobang’s words astounded them. They said once Hu Yaobang said, “You
Tibetans should fight for yourselves. If you don’t fight for yourselves,
other people will shit on your heads, so you Tibetans should strengthen
yourselves and develop your own ethnic culture.” Many cadres were moved
because previous Han leading cadres had not said such things; they had not
dared to say such things.
When Hu Yaobang was in office, the situation in Tibet was relatively calm.
Back then the Party Secretary for the Tibet Autonomous Region was Wu
Jinghua.He was not a Han, he was an Yi. After he came to Tibet he
implemented many central policies and put into effect many policies to
rehabilitate cadres.1 He did united front work, religious work. He truly
implemented many policies that were praised by the people. For example, on
the religious front, some Tibetan government officials who had previously
been criticized were released, given compensation, and returned to their
positions. At that time in Tibet, great importance was placed on religion.
There was a major conference on Buddhism for many Tibetan religious branches
from January 1 to 15 of the Tibetan calendar. The Autonomous Region’s
leaders made personal appearances to donate to the monks. This was
unprecedented.
HRIC: If new policies had been implemented until 1989, why did authorities
then capture the monk leaders?
Rigzin: The circumstances in Tibet had twists and turns. In the past, in Mao
Zedong’s time during the Cultural Revolution, there had been ruthless
struggles, but very few people protested. I think that demonstrations by the
masses generally happen when the political atmosphere is slightly more
relaxed.Only then do their accumulated grievances get let out. Before, they
wanted to let it out but had no opportunity. During Hu Yaobang’s time,
policy was more relaxed, the masses were given a certain amount of the right
to speak, so these monks came out and started demonstrating. They used this
opportunity to settle scores, so in this way many monks came out, and
Lhasa’s masses also came out to support the monks’ actions, and eventually
the large-scale protests of 1987, 1988, and 1989 occurred.
HRIC: What effect do you think China’s democratization will have on
relations between Hans and Tibetans?
Rigzin: I believe it will have a very large effect. Let’s not talk now about
Tibetan independence, because the problem of independence does not look very
realistic. If China becomes democratic, the Tibetan people will have an
opportunity to express their hopes and demands. After China becomes
democratic, relations between Tibetans and Hans will not be like now, in
which one is the ruler and one is the ruled. Now many Han scholars believe
that they are advanced and Tibetans are backwards; they are the rulers,
Tibetans are the ruled. If China becomes democratic, then there will be
people who can fight for the rights and interests of Tibetans. Therefore,
many Tibetans hope that China will quickly democratize.
HRIC: Do you think that the demands raised by the Dalai Lama for high-level
autonomy in Tibet can be realized?
Rigzin: I believe that there isn’t much hope if we solely rely on Tibetans
to strive on their own. Since 2002, the two sides have had contact eight
times, but there hasn’t been any result. Moreover, the Dalai Lama said he
has lost faith in the Chinese government, but he still has faith in the
Chinese people. During these eight contacts over a total of six years, each
time Tibetans were hurt. So, I believe that if it is the Tibetans
participating in a one-sided talk with the Chinese government, then the
prospect is very uncertain. I believe that only if China democratizes, and
after the Tibetan people gain their rights under a democratic system, can
there be room for negotiation. However, some people say that even if China
eventually becomes democratic, if China’s nationalist sentiments aren’t
reduced, the situation for Tibetans will perhaps become even more
difficult.On this point I agree.
HRIC: Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed.
April 24, 2009
Translated by Human Rights in China
Notes
1. During the Cultural Revolution, cadres, along with intellectuals, were
sent to the “cadre schools” in the countryside to perform manual labor and
undergo ideological reeducation. ^
9. When a 'Chosen' Tibetan Lama Says No Thanks
The Time
By David Van Biema
Sunday, Jun. 07, 2009
"For the last time, I'm not your messiah," groans the title character in the
1979 comedy The Life of Brian. (They crucify him, anyway.) There's an echo
of Brian's panicked renunciation in a shakeup currently underway in Tibetan
Buddhism — in this case, nobody's laughing, although the ending will, no
doubt, be happier.
Late last month, two Spanish media outlets confirmed that 24-year-old Tenzin
Osel Rinpoche, one of the most renowned Buddhist "golden children" —
toddlers determined through dreams, oracular riddles and their own
"memories" to be tulkus, or reincarnations of high Tibetan Buddhist lamas —
has abandoned his foretold identity. Instead of a Lama, he wants to be a
filmmaker, and has reverted to his original Spanish name, Osel Hita Torres.
(See pictures of the Dalai Lama at home)
The abdication of the anointed tulku is a significant embarrassment to the
group he was supposed to head, the powerhouse Foundation for the
Preservation of the Monastic Tradition (FPMT), the foremost Tibetan teaching
organization in the West. It also challenges Westerners who have adopted
Buddhism to find more sophisticated ways of understanding its magical side.
In 1989, with the approval of his Spanish convert parents, four-year-old
Hita was tapped by FPMT monks as the reincarnation of the group's co-founder
Thubten Yeshe. Their methods will be familiar to anyone who has seen
Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha or the current documentary Unmistaken
Child: The monks reportedly heeded some dreams; the Dalai Lama consulted an
oracle; and the capper was that young Hita "recalled" the color of the dead
lama's car.
Last month, however, the magazine Babylon confirmed that the shaggy-haired
Hita had long-ago dropped out of his Tibetan University, and that he no
longer even considers himself a Buddhist. He was quoted more pointedly in
the newspaper El Mundo as saying, "I was taken away from my family and put
in a medieval situation in which I suffered a lot. It was like living a
lie."
Britain's Guardian then added the delicious factoid that at one point the
only people Hita saw were Buddhist monks and Richard Gere. Last Monday, a
statement attributed to Hita appeared on the FPMT website calling the press
reports "sensationalized," and insisting "there is no separation between
myself and FPMT." Still, his confirmation of his career change in the same
posting in fact suggests a major rift.
Josh Baran, a New York Buddhist who has facilitated the Western trips of
several high lamas, suggests that Hita's defection shouldn't cause adherents
to lower their prayer flags. The West, he says, "has a romantic ideal that
these lamas have some kind of super-vision and can look at a child and say,
he's the one." While signs and portents may play a role in monastic
successions, he explains, so do more worldly considerations. Tulkus often
inherit considerable wealth and influence, and powerful monks will jockey to
place their own candidates. The political needs of their lineage also
figure. And sometimes the consensus-based system doesn't yield a clear
winner: Tibetan history crackles with bloody battles between rival claimants
or their camps.
None of this is unfamiliar to Western religious traditions. Roman Catholic
Popes are supposedly chosen by the divine intervention of the Holy Spirit
upon a conclave of cardinals — yet many have proven less than holy, and wars
have been fought over successions. A bit like Catholics through the ages,
says Baran, Tibetan Buddhists "assess a tulku's wisdom not by his title, but
by his piety and learning." The monks try to pick the bright and promising
children, he says; but Tibetans also assume the weeding-out function of the
extensive tulku education: "no matter who they pick, the best and the
brightest will surface in the course of the process."
By that logic, Hita simply weeded himself out. Robert Thurman, a Buddhist
scholar, former monk and friend of the Dalai Lama, recounts that when told
years ago that Hita was to receive a traditional Buddhist education in India
he expressed concern. Thurman's argument: "If he wanted Tibetan traditional
[education] he could have reincarnated in a Tibetan family in exile." The
result of the misplacement, he says, is that Hita "has broken away in a
full-blown identity crisis." Thurman thinks that after some time in our
"busy postmodern world," Hita may see the value of the Tibetan tradition,
"which he will then be able to approach or not, of his own free choice."
And, he adds, "More power to him!"
10. Monk suicides on the rise in Buddhist Tibet
Emailed in by Tenzin Norgay [tenzinnorgay@TCHRD.ORG]
A report submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Freedom of Religion
or Belief on the factors and circumstances leading to the occurrences and
increase of suicides by Tibetan monks and nuns in Chinese occupied Tibet
since 10 March 2008.
The Tibetan Buddhist worldwide is currently observing this month as the holy
Buddhist month of Saka Dawa. 7 June 2009 (a full moon day), Sunday, will be
observed as the most important day of the holy month according to the
Buddhist belief due to the significance of the day being Buddha Shakyamuni's
birth, enlightenment and parinirvana falling on the same day. While the
Tibetan Buddhist - both the civil and monastic community - worldwide spend
the day with various religious activities and rituals according to the
faith, however, Tibetans inside Chinese administered Tibet face severe
religious repression enacted by the State and its agents. Restrictions and
prohibitory orders to the government officials and students from visiting
temples this month have already been issued. Reinforcement of security
forces and intelligence officials have been deployed across Lhasa city to
maintain "stability" during the holy month.
Religious freedom has been a distant dream for the Tibetan people since the
advancement of Communist China in 1949-50. The various restrictions and
conditions put forward by the Chinese authority in pursuit of one’s religion
were not only unacceptable but also contempt to the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights adopted by the United Nations. The atrocities that the Chinese
authority commit on Tibetan people, particularly monks and nuns while
pursuing their beliefs and religious practices, are not only the victim of
their power but it is also a failure of a sovereign state to protect its
people’s basic human rights.
Freedom of religion is severely curtailed in the Chinese occupied Tibet. The
monastic community has been the prime target of the authority’s crackdown
under a pretext to "reform" monks to achieve the so called "stability" in
the region. The monastic community has come under repeated attacks through
the government’s various nefarious campaigns to bring them under control and
to forge "loyalty to the motherland". Hundreds and thousands of Tibetan
people especially monks and nuns were tortured in prisons and detention
centres for practicing their religion. They were required to denounce their
own spiritual guru, to abuse their highly respected lamas and had to perform
all those acts, which are not permitted under monastic vows and code of
conduct, in name of "patriotic re-education" initiated by the Chinese
authority as a requisite to continue as monk and nuns. Though suicide is a
rare case among the Tibetan monks and nuns since they consider the human
life as precious, to acquire merits for the next lives and eventually to
attain enlightenment. However, under the ongoing persecution of monks and
nuns in Tibet’s religious institutions, they were subjected to extreme
psychological traumas and impositions of irreconcilable demands, which
eventually force them to commit suicide. The suicide has been on the rise in
Tibet’s monastic community since the Spring 2008 protests in Tibet.
Tibetan Buddhist believe that suicide is one of the heinous forms of sins
that violate the cardinal precepts of the doctrine. Buddhist monks and nuns
are known for their patience and resilience in the face of adversity. The
cases of suicides point to an indication of Tibetan monks being pushed to
the extreme limits