Dalai Lama risks Chinese ire to back Uighurs

Politician ? Human Rights activist ? CIA Agent or Dalai Lama ?

A Tibetan monk shouts anti-China slogans as he walks past riot police during a protest in Kathmandu. — Reuters pic

DHARAMSALA, March 10 — Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama voiced his support today for an ethnic minority in China’s troubled Xinjiang province, risking worsening further his fraught relations with Beijing.

In an address marking 51 years since he fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, the Dalai Lama referred to Xinjiang as “East Turkestan”, the name given to it by pro-independence exiles. The region is populated by an ethnic minority Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking largely Muslim people.

“Let us also remember the people of East Turkestan who have experienced great difficulties and increased oppression,” he told about 3,000 Tibetans in Dharamsala, the northern Indian hill town where he has lived for five decades.

“I would like to express my solidarity and stand firmly with them”.

Chinese authorities in Xinjiang have waged a heavy-handed campaign against what China calls violent separatist activity by Uighurs. Ethnic violence there last year between Uighurs and majority Han Chinese led to at least 200 deaths.

The Dalai Lama’s comments will almost certainly rile Beijing, which reviles the Nobel Peace Prize winner as a separatist and says he foments violence. The Dalai Lama denies both charges, saying he merely seeks genuine autonomy for the remote region.

In Dharamsala, thousands of exiled Tibetans, including maroon-robed monks, nuns and many Westerners, marked the day with a march carrying blue-yellow-red Tibetan flags and banners with anti-China messages.

In neighbouring Nepal, police detained about a dozen Tibetan protestors when they tried to storm a Chinese consulate office in the capital Kathmandu. The protestors, who shouted “Free Tibet”, were dragged away by riot police to waiting vans.

In a separate incident, dozens of Tibetan refugees protested against China after prayer meetings inside a Buddhist monastery.

Reaching out to Tibetans working for the Chinese government, the Dalai Lama said: “I invite Tibetan officials serving in various Tibetan autonomous areas to visit Tibetan communities living in the free world, either officially or in a private capacity, to observe the situation for themselves.”

China bans Tibetans who work for the government from visiting exile communities, but many ordinary Tibetans make the hazardous and illegal crossing to study Buddhism in Dharamsala.

The Dalai Lama also vowed he and members of his self-proclaimed government-in-exile would not take any political positions if and when the Tibet issue was resolved.

On Sunday, Tibet’s new Chinese-appointed governor said only socialism could “save” the region and guarantee its development, and blamed the Dalai Lama for Tibet’s problems.

Protests led by Buddhist monks against Chinese rule in March 2008 gave way to torrid violence, with rioters torching shops and turning on residents, including Han Chinese and Hui Muslims. Tibetans see Hans as intruders threatening their culture.

At least 19 people died in the 2008 unrest, which sparked waves of protest across Tibetan areas ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Pro-Tibet groups abroad say more than 200 Tibetans have died in a subsequent crackdown across the region. Beijing has denied that and said it used minimal force.

The Dalai Lama said Beijing had put monks and nuns “in prison-like conditions”, making “monasteries function more like museums ... to deliberately annihilate Buddhism”.

But he offered to keep talking to the Chinese, despite what he sees as “little hope” of results.

China and the Dalai Lama’s envoys have held several rounds of talks since 2002 but made little progress. — Reuters

Angry China blasts Dalai Lama’s latest speech

A Tibetan exile takes part in a candle light vigil to mark the 51st anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, in Kolkata. - Reuters pic

BEIJING, March 11 — Chinese officials have reacted with anger to a speech by exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in which he said Buddhists were living in prison-like conditions and expressed sympathy with the people of Xinjiang.

In an address marking 51 years since he fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, the Dalai Lama referred to Xinjiang as “East Turkestan”, the name given to it by pro-independence exiles.

The region is populated by the ethnic minority Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking largely Muslim people.

“He is just using Xinjiang and Tibet as platforms to achieve his goal to separate China,” said Lhasa’s Chinese-appointed mayor Doje Cezhug in remarks carried by the official China Daily today.

The Dalai Lama also said Beijing had put monks and nuns “in prison-like conditions”, making “monasteries function more like museums ... to deliberately annihilate Buddhism”.

Protests led by Buddhist monks against Chinese rule in March 2008 gave way to torrid violence, with rioters torching shops in Lhasa and turning on residents, including Han Chinese and Hui Muslims.

At least 19 people died in the unrest, which sparked waves of protest across Tibetan areas ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Pro-Tibet groups abroad say more than 200 Tibetans have died in a subsequent crackdown across the region. Beijing has denied that and said it used minimal force.

“In Tibet, people can believe whatever they want as long as it is legal. The government won’t interfere. Instead it will help people solve problems along the way,” the China Daily quoted Lhasa’s vice mayor Jigme Namgyal as saying.

Padma Choling, China’s newly appointed Tibet governor, said simply: “Let (the) Dalai Lama say whatever he wants. We will just carry on what we do”.

The overseas edition of the Communist Party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, said in a commentary today that the best way to ensure stability in Tibet and Xinjiang was to step up development there.

“Tibet and Xinjiang will certainly develop together along with the rest of the country,” it said. “If there is long-term stability in the country, then the borders will have everlasting peace.”

Ethnic violence in Xinjiang last year between Uighurs and Han led to at least 200 deaths. — Reuters

China raises profile of its choice of Dalai Lama’s No. 2

March 2009 file photo of the Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu in Wuxi, China. — Reuters pic

BEIJING, March 1 — China has moved to raise the profile of the teenage Panchen Lama, traditionally the second-most powerful figure in Tibetan Buddhism who plays a role in the controversial selection of the next Dalai Lama.

The Panchen Lama, who turns 20 this year and is being groomed to win over restive Tibetans in China, was named a member of the national committee of an advisory body that will hold its annual meeting this week, the Xinhua news agency said today.

The Panchen Lama was selected by Beijing in 1995 over a boy chosen by the Dalai Lama who has never been seen again, creating a crisis of legitimacy for devout Tibetans.

China considers the ageing Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, a dangerous separatist. The Dalai Lama says he is merely seeking greater autonomy for Tibet.

China has been gradually exposing the Panchen Lama to more public roles in the hope he will achieve the loyalty of Tibetans and international respect commanded by the ageing Dalai Lama.

He was among 13 people named to the national committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a body of private entrepreneurs, religious and cultural figures designed to provide input to the ruling Communist Party.

The CPPCC’s annual meeting, which coincides with that of China’s rubber-stamp legislature, begins this week.

He is believed to be a reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, who remained in China when the Dalai Lama left and was subsequently imprisoned for many years.

The Panchen Lama, a slight man with thick glasses, debuted with a speech in English at a Chinese-organised Buddhist congress in eastern China in 2009. — Reuters

US is a sick country with mentally sick leaders

Dalai Lama awarded in US despite China anger

The Dalai Lama was bestowed with a US award for his commitment to democracy, the latest honor for the Tibetan spiritual leader despite China's angry protests over his White House welcome.

One day after President Barack Obama met the exiled monk at the White House in defiance of Chinese warnings, the National Endowment for Democracy on Friday gave the Dalai Lama a medallion before a packed crowd at the Library of Congress.

The Endowment, which is funded by the US Congress, hailed the Dalai Lama for supporting a democratic government in exile and his willingness to even abolish a centuries-old spiritual position if Tibetans so choose.

"By demonstrating moral courage and self-assurance in the face of brute force and abusive insults, he has given hope against hope not just to his own people but also to oppressed people everywhere," Endowment president Carl Gershman said before placing the Democracy Service Medal around the monk's neck.

I have no respect for monks going round to world leaders collecting metal garbage for hanging around their necks and becoming a subservient poodle serving these evil masters in the name of human rights when the first thing you become a monk is to submit yourself to the teachings of the Buddha and to rid yourself of all material possessions . I have known of many a great monks in Thailand who hardly leave their monastery while enriching their magical powers and knowledge .

The Dalai Lama, who fled his Chinese-ruled homeland for India in 1959, voiced admiration for US and Indian democracy and said China's authoritarian system was unsustainable.

"The Chinese Communist Party, I think, did many wrong things. But at the same time, they also made a lot of contribution for a stronger China," he said.

The Dalai Lama pointed to the growing interest of many Chinese in getting rich. Calling himself a Marxist in his support for a strong social safety net, the Dalai Lama joked: "Sometimes I feel my brain is more red than those Chinese leaders."

"Sometimes I express now the time has come for the Communist Party should retire with grace," he said in English, laughing that Chinese leaders would be "furious" at his comments.

Basic international norms 'grossly violated'

China earlier protested Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama, saying the United States had "grossly violated basic norms of international relations" and summoning the US ambassador, Jon Huntsman.

"The US action seriously interfered in Chinese internal affairs, seriously hurt the feelings of China's people and seriously harmed China-US relations," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the Dalai Lama's meetings with Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were part of a longstanding US dialogue with the Tibetan leader.

"I think on this issue, obviously we just agree to disagree," Crowley told reporters.

The International Campaign for Tibet, which works closely with the Dalai Lama, quoted witnesses as saying that residents in Tibet and historically Tibetan areas of China's Sichuan province chanted prayers and set off firecrackers to celebrate the White House meeting, despite tight security.

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of trying to split China, although the exiled leader has repeatedly said he accepts Chinese rule.

In a nod to Chinese sensitivities, the Obama White House prohibited cameras from entering the meeting, which took place in the Map Room, not the seat of presidential power in the Oval Office.

But the White House later issued a statement voicing support for the Dalai Lama and his nonviolent quest for greater rights for Tibetans.

With Obama, the Dalai Lama has now met every sitting US president since George H.W. Bush in 1991.

Obama memento to Dalai Lama

Offering one tidbit from Thursday's meeting, the Dalai Lama revealed that Obama gave him a memento from a much earlier interaction with a US president - a copy of a letter Franklin Roosevelt sent him in 1942.

Roosevelt mailed the Dalai Lama, who was then seven, the letter and a golden Rolex watch as a gesture to seek relations with the remote Himalayan land.

"At that time, my only interest is the gift of the watch, not the letter," the Dalai Lama said with a laugh.

"I actually don't know where that letter goes. Now after 68 years, just yesterday, President Obama gave me a copy of that letter."

The monk frequently tells the story of the watch, saying that fiddling with it helped spur his lifelong interest in science.

In 2007, he carried the gold watch in his pocket when George W. Bush presented him with the Congressional Gold Medal, the only time a sitting US president has appeared with him in public.

Obama meets Dalai Lama, angering China

Dalai Lama waves as he arrives at a hotel in Washington. - Reuters pic

WASHINGTON, Feb 19 — President Barack Obama hosted exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at the White House yesterday, drawing an angry reaction from China and risking further damage to strained Sino-US ties.

Raising issues that quickly stoked China’s ire, Obama used his first presidential meeting with the Dalai Lama to press Beijing, under international criticism for its Tibet policies, to preserve Tibetan identity and respect human rights there.

Obama sat down with the Dalai Lama — who is reviled by the Chinese government as a dangerous separatist but admired by many around the world as a man of peace — in the face of wider tensions over US weapons sales to Taiwan, China’s currency practices and Internet censorship.

While defying Beijing’s demands to scrap the talks and showing a willingness to irritate an increasingly assertive China, the White House took pains to keep the encounter low-key, barring media coverage of the meeting. But it later posted a photo on its official website of the two men side by side in conversation.

Beijing clearly was not placated, saying it was “strongly dissatisfied” about the meeting and expected Washington to take steps to put bilateral relations back on a healthy course.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said the meeting between Obama and the Dalai Lama “violated the US government’s repeated acceptance that Tibet is a part of China and it does not support Tibetan independence”.

Beijing did not threaten retaliation and its response was in line with past denunciations of US dealings with the Dalai Lama. But the visit could complicate Obama’s efforts to secure China’s help on key issues such as imposing tougher sanctions on Iran and forging a new global accord on climate change.

Senior Chinese military officers recently had proposed their country possibly sell part of its huge stockpile of US bonds to punish Washington for the a proposed US$6.4 billion (RM21.79 billion) arms sale to Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province.

National Endowment for Democracy is an NGO set up by the American Govt in collaboration with the CIA to give grants to various countries for the purpose of freeing the country.

China (Tibet) 2008

Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet
$60,000
To provide support to Tibetan political prisoners and educate Tibetans in exile about human rights conditions in China. Gu-Chu-Sum will run a school for former political prisoners, support serving and former political prisoners in Tibet, sponsor a lecture tour and human rights workshops, maintain a human rights desk, and publish a bi-monthly human rights newsletter.

International Campaign for Tibet (ICT)
$53,000
To improve understanding of human rights and democracy-related concerns in Tibet among Chinese, both in China and abroad, and increase communication between Tibetans and Chinese. ICT will facilitate interaction between Tibetan and Chinese officials, academics, and others through meetings, conferences, and the publication of a Chinese-language newsletter and website.

Khawa Karpo -Tibet Culture Centre
$25,500 *
To provide news and analysis to the Tibetan public and promote greater discussion and debate on current issues related to Tibet and Tibetans. Khawa Karpo will publish the weekly Tibetan-language newspaper, Bo-Kyi-Bang-Chen (Tibet Express), and maintain a tri-lingual website.

International Tibet Support Network (ITSN)
$45,000 *
To coordinate and build the capacity of the worldwide Tibet movement through a series of meetings, trainings, and workshops. ITSN will coordinate international campaigns focused on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, human rights, and environmental and economic rights in Tibet.

Social Economic and Cultural Development Fund
$20,000 *
To increase Tibetans’ access to information by maintaining a library and learning center. The Fund will sponsor language and computer classes, hold discussion meetings for the general public, and maintain an Internet café to provide greater access to information for the community.

Tibetan Literacy Society
$30,000*
To provide the Tibetan public with independent and accurate information on developments in Tibet and in the exile community, and promote open discussion among intellectuals and a general readership on civic issues, including human rights and democracy. The Tibetan Literacy Society will publish and distribute throughout the Tibetan community in exile and in Tibet Bod-Kyi-Dus-Bab (Tibet Times), a Tibetan-language newspaper published three times a month.

Tibetan Parliamentary and Policy Research Centre (TPPRC)
$25,000*
To improve the understanding of elected Tibetan parliamentarians-in-exile on the Tibetan Charter and institutions of the Tibetan government-in-exile as well as the structure and functions of the Chinese political and legal systems. TPPRC will organize a six-day workshop for elected members of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile to discuss and explore the Chinese and Tibetan legal and political systems.

The Truth Of Tibet

See the videos of the truth and the lies spread by the western media particularly CNN

Fireworks in homeland ahead of Dalai Lama’s Obama meeting

The Most widely traveled Monk , The Only Monk to get a Nobel prize since the time of Buddha , the Monk who meets political leaders all over the world , the Monk who two brothers live in the US and are trained by the CIA , The Monk who is the Most Controversial ! The reason see the videos below !
Is he a Monk spreading the teachings of Buddha ? or is he a Politician wearing the robes of a Monk ? whose Master is not the Buddha but the United States of America ?

The Dalai Lama greets members of the Tibetan community as he arrives at a hotel in Washington. — Reuters pic

TONGREN (China), Feb 18 — Tibetans living near the birthplace of the Dalai Lama in northwest China welcomed today’s scheduled meeting between their exiled spiritual leader and Barack Obama with a defiant show of fireworks.

Buddhist monks in Tongren, an overwhelmingly ethnic Tibetan part of northwestern Qinghai province, said they were celebrating the meeting in Washington, which is going ahead despite warnings from Beijing that Obama’s act will hurt Sino-US ties.

Tensions with Washington have already risen over issues ranging from trade and currencies to a US plan to sell US$6.4 billion (RM21.7 billion) of weapons to self-ruled Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province.

The midnight display of fireworks along a valley dotted with Tibetan Buddhist monasteries was a bold and noisy reminder that, in spite of Chinese condemnation of the Dalai Lama, he remains a potent figure in his homeland, and his meeting with Obama will be noticed here by both supporters and opponents.

“My heart is filled with joy,” said Johkang, showing off an enormous smile, standing at his monastery in this arid and mountainous part of the Qinghai province, which lies next to the official Tibet Autonomous Region.

“It is so important for us that this is happening, that the U.S. has not given in to threats and will meet our leader,” added the monk, who like many ethnic Tibetans goes only by one name.

Qinghai, called Amdo by Tibetans, is where the Dalai Lama was born in 1935. He fled into exile from Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, and since then has campaigned for self-rule for Tibetans. China brands him a separatist.

Tibetans set off fireworks at this time of year anyway to mark the start of their traditional lunar new year.

But many Tibetan monks in Tongren told Reuters that this year they were also marking the Dalai Lama’s scheduled meeting in the White House.

“We do this whenever something big, and good happens,” said Losan, swathed in the vermillion robes of a Buddhist holy man, standing on a hillside above a monastery where monks were lighting fireworks in the early hours of today.

“He’s really going to meet Obama?” interrupted a monk standing next to him, sounding somewhat incredulous.

“I heard it on Voice Of America,” Losan told him confidently.

The sound of conch shells being blown echoed around the valley as a group of monks burnt an offering of flour and a ceremonial Tibetan scarf on a fire.

Veneration for the Dalai Lama transcends the Buddhist clergy and extends into broader Tibetan society where many resent Chinese rule and the relative wealth of Han Chinese.

“I’m very excited about who the Dalai Lama is going to meet,” said one Tibetan woman, who declined to be identified citing the sensitive nature of the topic. “But I worry about what measures the government could take against us in retaliation.”

Word of the Dalai Lama’s meeting with Obama has filtered through to Qinghai through Tibetan-language foreign radio broadcasts, monks say, though news that the meeting was happening has been mentioned in passing in state media.

Some spoke proudly of the Dalai Lama’s Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in 1989.

“That the 1.3 billion Han Chinese have never had one of their number win a Nobel prize and that we have, with just 6 million people, says something powerful,” said a monk, Tedan. “Now you understand why we love him so much.”

While technically Tibetan monasteries are not supposed to show pictures of the Dalai Lama, many in Qinghai do, the government generally having a more relaxed attitude outside of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Still, a sense of wariness pervades Tongren.

A large new paramilitary police headquarters is being built outside the county seat, and monks mutter about occasional fines if their public devotion to the Dalai Lama becomes too much.

Around 12 months ago, also during the start of the Tibetan lunar new year, Chinese security forces maintained an obvious presence in Tongren, though lighter than in some Tibetan areas, especially Lhasa, capital of the official Tibet autonomous region.

The year before had been marked by anti-Chinese violence across Tibetan-populated parts of China, centred on Lhasa, where at least 19 died after protests by monks gave way to bloody violence, with Tibetan rioters attacking Han Chinese.

China blamed the Dalai Lama for inspiring the unrest, and regularly condemns him for seeking Tibetan independence. He has repeatedly denied being a separatist or supporting violence.

“CCTV is always saying this and that about him and about us Tibetans,” said monk Tarkey, referring to China’s main state-run television network. “The world will get a better idea about who he is once he meets Obama.” — Reuters