Tibetans taking Indian citizenship worries Tibetan leadership

Lobsang Wangyal proudly brandishes his Indian passport, which will allow him to vote in the upcoming Indian elections. As more Tibetans gain Indian citizenship, the Tibetan leadership’s control over their lives will begin to wane.

The opinion piece below was sent to dorjeshugden.com for publication. We accept submissions from the public, please send in your articles to [email protected].

 


 

By: Jangchup Wangmo

One of the most difficult aspects of life as a refugee must surely be the uncertainty that accompanies such an existence. This uncertainty reflects a lack of control over one’s life – where do I live? How will I get money? What work can I do? Who will take me in? Where will I raise my kids? Hence in most refugee communities around the world, the predominant trait that drives the life of a refugee is the determination, willingness and desire to get out of such a state.

When the Tibetan community is analyzed, it is very difficult for any honest individual to classify the community as refugees. As a result of 60 years of publicity and awareness-raising, and thanks to the reputation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan exile community is one of the most famous and most wealthy so-called refugee communities around the world.

The Tibetan Parliament in Exile in Dharamsala, North India. The men and women who occupy this building often have more than one passport, and own properties in other countries. The Tibetan Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay, for example, owns a home in the United States with a fully-paid mortgage. Is it any wonder the leadership want their people to stay as refugees in the eyes of the world, when it has been such a lucrative scheme?

A casual visit to any of the Tibetan settlements makes this plainly obvious. The homes are large, some with swimming pools, and in their well-manicured gardens sit large cars. Side by side to these large homes are huge golden temples filled with jewels and offerings, large statues and precious relics, and surrounding the settlements are bountiful farms to produce food for the world’s wealthiest refugees. This is in stark contrast to the hundreds of millions of Indians all around them, who struggle to get enough to eat every day.

 

Tibetans Today

But it is precisely this situation that the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) are reluctant to leave behind, and precisely why after 60 years the CTA (the Tibetan leadership based in Dharamsala) continue to falsely refer to themselves as refugees. This life of luxury and wealth, which is not seen in any other refugee community in the world, has been funded for six decades by many countries who wanted to help them preserve their religion and unique way of life. But here are some points everyone needs to seriously consider:

  • After so many years of financial and moral support, how can anyone still be a refugee? How can anyone be happy to call themselves a refugee after six decades of exploiting other people’s goodwill towards them? Perhaps 30 or 40 years ago, it would have been easy to believe the CTA kept their people as refugees and refused to allow them to become citizens of other countries because they wanted to keep alive the hope of returning to their homeland. But after so many years and so little progress on the Tibetan cause, how can the CTA continue to justify enforcing the refugee mentality on their people, instead of helping them put down roots and improve their lives?
  • Today, there is definitely nothing about the Tibetan community that is actually refugee-like. Of the approximately 150,000 exiled Tibetans, a large group of them have naturalized into the USA, Europe and Australia as citizens. The remainder who live in India languish in a state of limbo – not wealthy enough to go to Western countries to seek refuge, they are also not Indian enough to access all the rights and privileges afforded to Indian citizens. What’s more, if they try to, their own Tibetan leadership sabotages their efforts to improve their lives.

A home for retired staff from the Tibetan leadership. Most Indians can only dream of living in such a home. What other supposedly besieged refugee community in the world provides such comfortable living quarters for their staff?

  • History has shown that the CTA keeps the Tibetans as refugees because it serves their own interests. In their corruptness, they became spoiled from the funding they received for free from many generous, well-meaning nations who believed their refugee sales pitch. The evidence of this? The fact that as of 2012, the CTA has received over US$2bil in funding but the settlements, while wealthier than many other refugee communities, certainly do not reflect US$2bil worth of investment. There have been accusations from long-term Tibet supporters of financial mismanagement and wasteful aid and spending.
  • It is clear that the CTA fields the refugee card because it denotes poverty, separation, disease, insecurity, torture, hunger, sickness and human rights abuses. The refugee card is an easy way to tell the public, without requiring much explanation, exactly why they should give their hard-earned money to the Tibetan leadership. Tibetans however, do not fit into any of these categories because they do not face any of these problems, unlike other refugees. Tibetans have schools, hospitals, shops, restaurants, businesses, and can send their children to Western countries to further their education. They have huge tracts of land, own hotels, operate tour agencies, hire and rent cars and buses. Do the refugees of Syria, for example, all have that?

Playing the refugee card has been a lucrative business for the Tibetan leadership. This is Dharamsala in North India, where the Tibetan leadership is based. This is not how most people would imagine refugees to be living.

  • Their actions indicate that the CTA thinks fielding the refugee card works in their favor. Once they stop being identified as refugees, and once they become citizens of any country, their Free Money Tap is switched off and the flow of easy cash into their pockets will dry up. So it is not that the CTA actually cares about their people’s welfare or the preservation of the Tibetan culture. In actuality, it would be more accurate to say that the CTA is afraid of their people naturalizing into any nation because when the number of refugees shrink, it will reduce their opportunities to exploit their people’s situation, in order to line their own pockets with more money.

 

Everyone Is Not Created Equal

The CTA’s reluctance for their people to take on citizenship from other countries would be easier to bear if they were reluctant towards all citizenships, but this is not the case. Shockingly, the CTA continues to have double standards towards who can naturalize as a citizen and who may not. In essence:

  • The Tibetan leadership appears to be practicing race-based politics. Tibetans who wish to naturalize as American, European or Australian citizens are encouraged; Tibetans who have no way of getting to those countries and instead seek to become Indian citizens, are lambasted and accused of being traitors to Tibet. In fact, the CTA intentionally creates obstacles and difficulties for Tibetans who wish to seek Indian citizenship, but they create no such obstacles for those hoping to get to the US, Europe or Australia.

This Tibetan man carries both his green Tibetan tax book (which allows him to vote in Tibetan elections) and his American passport. As time goes on, and as more exiled Tibetans leave the Tibetan settlements for other countries, the Tibetan leadership’s control over their people will wane as Tibetans get a taste of real freedom outside the purview of their leadership.

  • What this highlights is the Tibetan leadership’s racist belief that it is good to be American, European and Australian, but it is bad to be Indian. And what is shocking about that is the fact that India, out of all the nations in the world, has been the kindest to the Tibetans, being the very first to take them in as refugees in 1959. Without India’s kindness, the Tibetan community would not have had safe haven when they fled into exile; without India’s kindness, the Tibetan community would not even exist today.
  • How come Tibetan-Americans are considered Tibetan and they are not accused of abandoning the Tibetan cause, but Tibetan-Indians are insulted as traitors to Tibet? Why does the CTA consider Tibetan-Indians to be less “Tibetan” than Tibetan-Americans? The simple reason for this disparity is that the CTA considers Tibetan-Indians to be less desirable than Tibetan-Americans.

As the old adage goes, beggars cannot be choosers and if they were real refugees, would the CTA really care who their people gained citizenship from, as long as their people received refuge and a safe place to live and raise their kids?

And although the Tibetan leadership have been insulting India as a second-rate option for citizenship, the Indian government continues to be kind to the Tibetan community. After 60 years of generosity, the Indian government are still making it easier and easier for Tibetans to become Indians. Understanding that not all Tibetans can go to Western countries to improve their lives, but that Tibetans in India deserve opportunities too, India has been making it possible for more Tibetans to receive Indian citizenship, and therefore improving their access to greater employment and entrepreneurial opportunities.

 

What It All Boils Down To

It is therefore a good thing that Tibetans will be participating in the upcoming Himachal Pradesh elections, and getting more involved in Indian affairs. The fact is that India has been very kind to the Tibetans and it is time for Tibetans to contribute to India through their votes. Of course the Tibetan leadership will not be happy with this and would prefer to keep their people in an insular state of blissful ignorance, focused only on Tibetan affairs. To allow their people to become aware of the workings of the wider world, is to broaden their people’s opportunities beyond the control of the leadership.

At the end of the day, it is not whether someone is Tibetan-American or Tibetan-European or Tibetan-Indian. What it really boils down to is that the Tibetan leadership are motivated by money and power, and by keeping their people as refugees, they have access to an easy income stream from the donations people funnel to Tibetan refugees. When Tibetans start becoming Indians, when they start participating in local elections and when they identify with the laws and activities of their host nations, the CTA loses control because now, their people have options. And what these options really translate to is the option not to listen to the CTA because if the Tibetan leadership is too oppressive in the future, the Tibetans now have another citizenship to fall back on.

Hence losing their refugee status which they use to get money basically means the CTA falling flat on their faces; without their refugee status, they have no money and without their refugee status, they have no Tibetans to control. What we are witnessing is, in effect, the beginning of the end of the CTA as more and more Tibetans wake up to the abuse and exploitation they have suffered under their leadership for the last 60 years.

 

Tibetans excited about voting in
Himachal Pradesh polls but exiles voice worries

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  1. Instead of creating employment opportunities, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has nurtured a culture where Tibetans expect handouts and foreign aids to get by. As a result, they created a new generation of Tibetan refugees who are volatile and vulnerable, and always depend on others to help them out of circumstances. Now, Tibetan refugees in India do not even hesitate to compromise the security of their host country, India, who has been so kind to them, in exchange for monetary gain.

    China luring Tibetan refugees in India to work as its spies, Intelligence Bureau warns
    ANANYA BHARDWAJ | 5 January, 2018
    IB issues alert that many refugees settled in northeast India are being paid and offered jobs by China in exchange for strategic information.
    New Delhi: Amid rising India-China tensions along the Line of Actual Control, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has issued a string of alerts warning that Tibetan refugees settled in northeast India are being approached by China to provide strategic information about the area.
    While China has reportedly managed to convince a number of young Tibetan refugees to work as its spies in exchange for money, it is aiming to recruit many more, IB sources told ThePrint.
    According to the alert, based on which a detailed report will soon be submitted to the government, China had been eyeing disgruntled Tibetan refugees in the region for the past two years. Sources said that many of the refugees it has recruited have already left for China.
    “We received an alert stating that young Tibetan refugees settled in areas of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and other parts of northeast India are moving to China. We learnt that China is trying to recruit the refugees as spies in the area,” a source said. 
    “It appears to be China’s strategy to make a base in India to create a channel, through which it can constantly receive relevant strategic information.”
    The local police in the concerned states have also been sounded out about the alert. A report is being prepared and will be submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs, following which a scrutiny of Tibetan refugees in the area may start.
    “The present generation of Tibetan refugees is very volatile and vulnerable. While they wish to have a good lifestyle, they do not have any job opportunities. This is what the Chinese took advantage of to plant their spies,” the source said.
    “The Chinese reportedly not only promise them good money in exchange for information, but also a good job and education for their children in China. However, it is still not known as to how many refugees the Chinese have been able to mobilise.”
    Asked about the IB alert, a Home ministry official said: “It may be a possibility. We will look into it.”
    https://theprint.in/2018/01/05/china-luring-tibetan-refugees-india-to-spy-intelligence-bureau-warns/

    china-luring-tibetan-refugees-india-to-spy

  2. China has been liberal towards Buddhist practitioners including those who are practicing Shugden deity. In fact, there are 250 million Buddhists in China currently, almost three times more than communist party members. On the contrary, the Tibetan leadership in exile continues to discriminate against Shugden practitioners and politicizes the Shugden controversy to their benefit instead of promoting harmony among Buddhist practitioners. How ironic that the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) continuously criticizes China for their human rights issue, and yet the CTA fails to respect even the most basic human rights of other people, freedom of religion.

    Three times as many Buddhists as Communists in China: Dalai Lama’s Tibet wish may require rapprochement with former adversaries
    01/16/2018 07:27 am ET
    By: Martin Desai, Contributor
    Journalist and financial investigator
    Whilst China technically remains a communist country, it has over the last two or three decades relaxed draconian Mao-era rules, for example by opening the door to private sector capitalism and by allowing individuals to practice a religion of their choice, so long as it is not to be perceived as a potential threat to the stability of the state or of the Communist Party.
    There are now almost three times as many Buddhists in China as there are Party members. An official communiqué released in July this year estimated the membership of the Communist Party of China at just under 90 million. Meanwhile, the State Bureau of Religious Affairs estimates there are some 250 million Buddhists in China, more or less evenly split between Tibetan Buddhism and Han Buddhism, and 200,000 registered Buddhist monks.
    Chinese authorities monitor religious adherence closely, and are extremely sensitive to any challenge, real or imagined, that certain religions may represent. While the Chinese regime’s approach to Buddhism has been liberal – for example, no bans have been issued and open religious expression is permitted – it clearly takes the religion’s influence seriously, given its importance in Chinese society.
    Above all the regime fears religious divisions or unrest, as evidenced by the swift outlawing of the Falun Gong movement and imprisonment of its leaders after a series of demonstrations by Falun Gong members prompted fears that the group’s swelling support could one day rival the Party. The regime is also acutely sensitive to the possibility of what it sees as external interference – especially on the delicate subject of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism.
    A particularly divisive issue for the Buddhist community, both within Tibet and abroad is the devotion to the Dorje Shugden deity, a 400-year old practice that began in the 17th century and has become a major practice in Tibetan Buddhism. Critics of Shugden devotion say worship of the deity promotes divisions among the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism, all of which share the same fundamental philosophy, and whose differences lie in their interpretation of the extensive collection of Buddhist scriptures and the emphasis they place on various aspects of Buddhist philosophy.
    At the origin of the controversy lie a number of ambiguous declarations from the current (14th) Dalai Lama. On the one hand, he has appealed for non-sectarian cooperation among all branches of Tibet’s religions. However, he has also effectively excluded Shugden practitioners from such cooperation despite once regarding Dorje Shugden as an enlightened being and authoring one of the most popular liturgies to this deity. Some Shugden devotees have claimed that these ambiguous declarations amount to a de facto ban on their practice and this exclusion is tantamount to being exiled in their own communities. The Shugden de facto exclusion has already existed for two decades since it was initiated by the current Dalai Lama and has slowly stirred disunity in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China and among the exiled Tibetan communities.
    In 2014 the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet, which is chaired by the actor Richard Gere, said it had obtained a ‘directive’ from the Communist Party Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) in China in February 2014 whose title translates as, “Some opinions on dealing correctly with the ‘Gyalchen Shugden’ issue”[1].
    The International Campaign for Tibet’s evaluation of the directive accuses China of seeking to gain a political advantage from the controversy. Entitled “China’s new directive on (the) controversial Shugden spirit in Tibet in (a) further bid to discredit Dalai Lama”[2], even the title of the critique dispels any expectation of objectivity.
    While the Chinese position is that the authorities are aiming to guarantee the right of all Tibetans to choose who and how they worship, the directive issued by the Communist Party Committee of TAR is couched in rather divisive language. It calls the Shugden controversy “an important front in our struggle with the Dalai clique” and “a deceitful ploy by the 14th Dalai’s clique to split the country…”
    The Chinese directive was made in response to the de facto religious ban implemented by the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Government in Exile, and to their suspected destabilizing activities inside the TAR. The directive proposes educational and law enforcement measures to be implemented inside the TAR to mitigate the risk of division and unrest that the controversy may cause. Tashi Tadchen, a representative of the European Dorje Shugden Society which was set up to create awareness of the supposed ban, says that following the exiled Tibetan leadership’s edict against the Shugden practice, there have been frequent clashes which at times have led to loss of lives between those who feel obliged to follow the Dalai Lama’s decree and adherents of the Shugden practice.
    The directive mirrors Chinese fear of discord within Tibetan Buddhism and Buddhism in general. What it does not do, despite the International Campaign for Tibet’s claims, is take a specific position on Shugden devotion outside the TAR. In spite of the content of the directive, the Exiled Tibetan Government and related NGOs around the World have repeatedly used it as evidence to attest that Shugden practitioners are “spies of the Chinese Communist Party.”
    A late 2015 report from the news agency Reuters looking into the Shugden controversy relied heavily on the Communist Party Committee of TAR directive, and especially the International Campaign for Tibet’s interpretation of it, as solid evidence that China is financing various Shugden groups in the West, in particular the International Shugden Community (ISC) which has seen strong support from individual members of the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) and Tibetans living in the West. The NKT has meditation centres around the world and has been vocal in its public opposition to the Dalai Lama’s position.
    Even so, no concrete evidence has ever been supplied. However, whilst the intended objective is unclear, the Dalai Lama’s Shugden exclusion has created unrest amongst Tibetans inside the TAR. This is precisely what China fears. China sustains a “One China” policy to maintain stability and prosperity of the state. Any divisive conflict in the TAR such as the Shugden split, does not augur well for it’s objectives. This is not an objective the exile Tibetan Government necessarily shares and its ability to influence affairs in the TAR is one of it key bargaining chips.
    What we have, in effect, is both sides calling for unity while at the same time continuing to bicker. The Communist Party of TAR has certainly sought to politicise the rift, as the Dalai Lama and his supporters also appear to have done. The Dalai Lama’s comments have served to alienate Shugden devotees from other Tibetan Buddhists, and are somewhat jarring when considered alongside his calls for unity in the Tibetan diaspora. Shugden adherents have insisted that if indeed the exiled Tibetan leadership believes that the Communist Party of China is leveraging this issue, then a simple pronouncement by the Dalai Lama declaring an end to the de facto ban would have the effect of rendering it harmless.
    Could the time now be ripe to call for closure of hostilities? The Dalai Lama has recently expressed a desire to return to his Tibetan homeland, a wish that would have no chance of fulfilment without a significant thawing of China’s attitude towards Tibet’s spiritual leader.
    Harmony among Tibetan Buddhists is in the interests of both sides. Moreover, having said in November 2017 that “Tibetans want to stay with China” and that he would return to Tibet at once, if China agrees, the Dalai Lama has flagged a willingness to try and overcome the longstanding political impasse. In addition, a high ranking emissary of the Dalai Lama, Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche – former Prime Minister of the Tibetan exile Government – was nominated in the autumn as the Dalai Lama’s envoy for talks with the Chinese authorities and is believed to have held secret meetings with senior Communist party leaders.
    Given that one of His Holiness’ early reasons for his criticism of Shugden worship – that it “harms the life of the Dalai Lama” – no longer seems justified given his longevity and continuing fair health, a rapprochement with Shugden acolytes may be a good starting point if his desired return to Tibet is to be anything more than a pipe dream.
    [1] http://www.savetibet.org/the-official-line-on-shugden-translation/
    [2] http://www.savetibet.org/chinas-new-directive-on-controversial-shugden-spirit-in-tibet-in-bid-to-further-discredit-dalai-lama/
    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/three-times-as-many-buddhists-as-communists-in-china_us_5a5dedb8e4b003efadb6b0d1

    three-times-as-many-buddhists-as-communists-in-china

  3. Lobsang Sangay’s dismissal of Penpa Tsering with various accusations backfired, contrary to Lobsang Sangay’s expectation. Now, Tibetans are protesting and expressing their loss of trust in his leadership. Lobsang Sangay has to clarify a lot of things to the public, including the USD1.5 million loan with Tibet Fund. Tibetans are now beginning to see Lobsang Sangay’s true colours and are speaking up against him now.

    Sikyong Sangay, the ball is in your court now!

    By Mila Rangzen
    KOLLEGAL, India, 20 January 2018
    On 5 December 2017 former speaker Penpa Tsering made a detailed clarification rejecting every allegation, categorically, that Sikyong Sangay lobbed on him on 6 November 2017. But to Sikyong’s shock, the 10-point grenade of accusations didn’t burst on PT. It just refused to do so. It backfired.
    Sikyong’s attempt to tarnish the image of a dedicated public servant for both political and personal reasons has failed. With the vigilance and quick action from the public, the humble Tibetan people have spoken! The grenade burst back on Sikyong in the form of protest and loss of trust in his leadership.
    Sikyong never imagined even in his dreams that the Tibetan public would one day rise and speak truth to power right in his face. Terminating PT is the enormous miscalculation Sikyong made after being in office for nearly two years in his second term, and he is now paying the price.
    Many, including those who voted for Lobsang Sangay, are now beginning to see him as a shallow, fake, narcissistic, crooked, unreliable, cowardly, small-minded, touchy, egotistical, arrogant, greedy, deceptive, unappreciative of criticism, irresponsible, vindictive man, and also a sack full of outrageous lies. These are the characteristics of a wicked conman that HH abhors and does not wish to see in any human being, let alone Sikyong whose office is tied to the destiny of the six million Tibetan people.
    1. The claim that LS gave the representative post to PT by recalling his friend Kaydor Aukatsang to Dharamshala even before his tenure was numbered is a lie. The fact is that Gaden Phodrang was not happy with Kaydor’s performance in general and his election controversy in particular, so LS had no choice but to recall Kaydor and appoint Ngodup Tsering in his spot. This decision was taken long before LS posted PT to Washington DC. Yes, LS decided to name PT to the post of representative in Brussels. But that decision had to change later, and the credit goes to Gaden Phodrang, not Lobsang Sangay.
    2. What hurt Sikyong’s ego most was when PT, like an honest statesman, suggested that there should be a payable record with Office of Tibet when there exists a receivable record with the Tibet Fund regarding the $1.5-million loan. This process, he argued, sits well with both the accounting practices and the local laws. Article 6 of the exile charter states that the local laws must be respected at all cost. However, LS violated this critical article in the charter, as usual with a straight face.
    3. Narcissistic. LS asked former MP Koren from Europe to submit a Nobel Peace Prize nomination for him. Remember the picture of himself with Buddha in the background on a thangka hanging on the wall beside his desk? Thangkas are usually reserved for Buddhas and bodhisattvas. He has no shame in hanging such a thangka in his office. 
The irony is that he prefers to call himself Senge “Lion” instead of Sangay “Buddha.” When it was found out that his actual name is spelled Sangay in Tibetan in his Green Book, he insisted and changed to call himself Senge rather than Sangay. Also, his portrait photo lined up on par with HH during elections. His framed picture was carried by well over 60 supporters at the JFK airport recently, an act that is usually reserved for a religious figure like the Dalai Lama. This is all coming from a remote control in LS’ hand. Sangay wishes to be listed as a Nobel laureate alongside the Dalai Lama. He’s a dreamer, but that’s LS for you. How can he even think of competing with His Holiness?
    4. Egoistic. LS also asked MP Pema Chazoetsang from the US to submit his name for the Templeton nomination, a prize worth around $2 million which is usually awarded to a scientist who is prepared to say something nice about religion.
    5. Vindictive. LS terminated PT because PT raised questions with facts and compelling reasons whenever his duty required him to do so. You rarely see this kind of leader in our community except for MP Dolma Tsering who stands her ground and speaks up and grills powers that be. I salute her from the bottom of my heart because our community needs more leaders like her.
    6. Can’t stand criticism. The fact is he is a highly vindictive person. He can’t stand criticism let alone appreciate it. That’s the height of childishness sitting in the character of a man whom we expect to lead us through these dark times.
    7. About two months after the election was over on 20 March 2016, HH gave LS a dressing-down in front of the staff of Gaden Phodrang, Penpa Tsering, and the Justice Commissioners. His Holiness reminded him that he was telling everybody he met that LS was his political boss to create a decent image (but LS gets carried away as usual) of the Sikyong on both the domestic and global stages so that the Tibetan cause could benefit from it. But when LS blatantly indulged in lie after lie and falsehood after falsehood, HH asked him point-blank what was the point in HH continuing to live any longer if the man he praised publicly is full of lies. 
The entire dressing-down episode took only minutes. LS was the only one who refused to keep a copy. He merely wanted to feign ignorance of the contents if people demanded a copy of the same. He wept after the Speaker and Justice Commissioners left in front of HH. He wept perhaps realizing his outrageous lies could cost him his political career any time. Had HH dressed him down in public that would be the end of LS not only as a leader but even as an individual. HH can’t keep LS at a distance because he is an elected leader and it would look bad on the Sikyong if HH did, although the nature of his personality warrants otherwise. This is the problematic position HH is in. Long ago one of my brothers was a monk, carrying Nechung in a trance, at Namgyal Dratsang, HH own monastery. And with a connection in the right place, it is not hard to find a reliable, eyewitness source of information.
    8. It was LS who leaked the secret visit Samdhong Rinpoche made to China recently. Why? To put that on his list of achievements if any. To boost his political image, he makes sure the Tibetan public and the media are not left in the dark even on this secret visit of the former president! LS tipped off Indian intelligence anonymously, and Indian intelligence passed it to an Indian journalist who wrote about it first.
    If the current nightmare is to end soon, then it’s time Sikyong either declares PT’s clarification a bag of lies, or answers his conscience honestly and offers an apology to PT in public. The ball has been in Sikyong’s court for more than 40 days now. But there has been no response whatsoever from Sikyong. PT did not accept even a single accusation as real, and if Sikyong continues to remain silent, then it only means the truth is on PT’s side. Sikyong should also immediately apologize for deceiving the Tibetan public and creating chaos and rift in our community.
    Failing this, PT will have no choice but to leave no stone unturned in seeking justice, and that could include the taking of Sikyong to the Tibetan court and possibly the US court too on defamation charges. The clock ticks now!
    PS: Two pieces of good news! LS cannot come back in 2021. To do so, he has to win 30 votes in the Parliament. Both U-Tsang and Amdo parliamentarians won’t let that happen! PT is eligible to fight in the Sikyong election in 2021!
    https://www.tibetsun.com/opinions/2018/01/20/sikyong-sangay-the-ball-is-in-your-court-now

    Sikyong Sangay, the ball is in your court

  4. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is again, expressing his wish to visit China. This is not the first time His Holiness mentioned about visiting or returning to China. In fact, His Holiness made a strong statement in November 2017 that he “would return to Tibet at once, if China agrees”. Could this be another sign from the Tibetan leadership that rapprochement with China is happening soon?

    Dalai Lama Waiting For A Pilgrimage Visit to China One Day
    By TJ editor
    January 23, 2018
    The Buddhist spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama during the course of teaching at Bodh Gaya today told that he is praying for a pilgrimage visit China’s Mount Wutai one day. His Holiness concluded the Diamond Cutter Sutra teachings specially dedicated to the Chinese disciples presently attending in Bodh Gaya on Tuesday.
    While explaining about the significance of the holy place in China, Wu Tai Shan, the five peaked mountain, His Holiness told that he is praying to have an opportunity to visit the holy place to receive the blessings of Manjushri.
    “China has a special connection with Manjushri, and Wu Tai Shan—the Five Peaked Mountain is the sacred place associated with him. If you Chinese can do the practices of these two, Manjushri and Sarasvati, it will be of special benefit to you. Meanwhile, I pray that one day I may visit Wu Tai Shan to receive Manjushri’s blessings—and you can pray for that too. To make your having come to Bodhgaya worthwhile, try to develop an understanding of emptiness and cultivate a good heart.” His Holiness the Dalai Lama explained at the third and last day of teachings for the Chinese disciples in Bodh Gaya today.
    The Tibetan spiritual leader fled from Tibet in 1959, following the military coup by the People’s Liberation Army of China and sought refuge in India since then. Over the last six decades, the Tibetan exile community thrived to rebuild a national struggle and His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been very optimistic that he will be able to return to Tibet within his life time.
    Since His Holiness’s arrival to Bodh Gaya since the beginning of this month, he has conducted three series of teachings to thousands of devotees gathered at the holy place. While the first teaching was organised at the request of his Indian devotees, the third teaching was specially dedicated to the disciples from the Mainland China.
    The Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama is expected to stay in Bodh Gaya till the beginning of February, there will be public talk Education for Universal Ethics in Schools and Colleges to students from private and government schools at the Kalachakra ground on Thursday.
    http://www.tibetanjournal.com/index.php/2018/01/23/dalai-lama-waiting-pilgrimage-visit-china-one-day/

    dalai-lama-waiting-pilgrimage-visit-china-one-day

  5. Dorje Shugden practitioners have been victims of unfounded blame for more than half a decade, with news reports initiated by the Tibetan leadership, alerting the public that Shugden fundamentalist groups posed huge security threat to His Holiness the Dalai Lama as they were covertly backed up by China. The reality is that terrorists are out to harm His Holiness, with two bombs found amid His Holiness’ tight security, thanks to the intensive combing operation by Indian police. The Central Tibetan Administration should stop spreading lies that Shugden practitioners or more absurdly, Shugden practice imperil the life of the Dalai Lama, and pay more attention to real threats such as this.

    One Suspect of Bodhgaya Blast Appear to Be Nepali Origin, JMB the Terror Group

    January 29, 2018 | By TJ editor
    Five suspects in the Bodhgaya blast have been picked out from the video footage in the CCTV cameras installed around the Mahabodhi temple and the police believes one of them to be of Nepali origin. Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terror group is being suspected as the primary outfit behind the Bodh Gaya incident and less likely for the Students Islamic Movement of India or Indian Mujahideen’s hand.
    Gaya police is seeking the assistance of investigating agencies across the country to find out the identity details of five suspects they have found from the CCTV video footage. While the pictures of the five suspects are being circulated among the agencies by Gaya police, an officer informed that one of the suspects appears to be of Nepali origin.
    “The officer, who requested anonymity, said that one of the five suspects appeared to be of Nepali origin. Their movements have been traced with the help of CCTVs. One of the suspects abandoned a bag containing explosives near gate number four of the temple. Another bomb was planted near the Tibetan monastery.” said the report in the Telegraph.
    According to the investigations, JMB could have activated a module in Bihar to carry out the attack, suggesting that the attack was controlled from West Bengal. There is a call made from Bihar to West Bengal after planting the three bombs in Bodh Gaya is what has led the investigators to believe that the JMB could be behind the incident.
    “The officer said the evidence strongly indicates JMB’s involvement in the failed terror attack, which had aimed to kill Buddhist monks and foreigners present in Bodh Gaya to listen to the sermons of Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. ” said the report in Times of India.
    http://www.tibetanjournal.com/index.php/2018/01/29/suspects-bodhgaya-blast-appear-nepali-origin/

    One Suspect of Bodhgaya Blast Appear

  6. Comic drawn by Tendor, a prominent Free Tibet activist.

    @IMG_0977d

  7. Breaking news!

    Well, all the people who was saying China-backed Panchen Lama is fake sure look ridiculous now. They attacked all the Tibetans and supporters who respected the China-backed Panchen Lama calling them all types of dirty and foul names in person and on social media. Calling them China stooges and China paid vulgar names for believing in the China-backed Panchen Lama. Now who looks so ridiculous? Now the Dalai Lama says the China-backed Panchen Lama is good and has a good teacher. If he has a good teacher it means he is turning into a good teacher himself. So he is qualified to teach. The end.

    Dalai Lama says the China-backed Panchen Lama is an emanation of the previous Panchen Lama because high lamas can incarnate back as several lamas at the same time. So the Panchen Lama recognized by the Dalai Lama and the China-backed Panchen Lama are both good and both are incarnations of the previous Panchen Lama. How the tables have turned. Now all the people who criticized China-backed Panchen Lama can keep quiet and remember how ridiculous they look now. Listen to what the Dalai Lama says now as of April 2018 about the China-backed Panchen Rinpoche http://video.dorjeshugden.com/videos/11PanchenLamaIsAlive.mp4

    The Panchen Lama recognized by Dalai Lama is alive and well also according to Dalai Lama himself.


  8. Is it time to save the sinking ship that is the Tibetan cause? But wait a minute, the ship has already been sunk for the likes of Mr Ugyen Gyalpo.

    Gone are the days when Tibet’s independence was possible, yet Tibetans like Mr Gyalpo are still living in a fantasy, asking the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) to go against the Dalai Lama’s goal of meaningful autonomy for Tibet, and advocate full independence instead. On top of that, he wants India to help Tibet gain its independence, disregarding how these actions would jeopardize India’s relationship with China.

    This is the same kind of illogical, self-centred, wishful thinking that caused the Tibetans to lose their country to China by signing the 17-Point Agreement in 1951. Why ask someone to fight for a lost cause? Perhaps Mr Gyalpo was on holiday and did not catch the latest media flurry about the Dalai Lama stating that he is happy for Tibet to be in China. The CTA President Lobsang Sangay even urged Tibetans to make the Dalai Lama’s dream of returning to Tibet come true.

    It is time for My Gyalpo and other pro-independence activists to seriously wake up from their self-imposed slumber and plan what they can actually do if and when the Dalai Lama gets the green light to go back to Tibet. Do they want to support the Dalai Lama, their spiritual leader? Or will they betray and abandon him?
    Time to save the sinking ship of the Tibetan cause
    By Ugyen Gyalpo
    NEW YORK, US, 28 April 2018
    Gone are the days when Tibetan solidarity was demonstrated through inter-organisational unity, and transparency and teamwork were not conundrums. The architects of endemic ideologies, the clash of mighty egos, and our flawed democracy, a system without multiple parties to represent different voices, has our community deeply divided and entrenched on regional grounds.
    A short-circuit motherboard, like that which existed on an imaginary level before His Holiness’ devolution of his political role, that managed different flows of energy and controlled frequencies of differential arrays with a single switch, is surely missing in these rather difficult days of our newly-minted, hard-to-understand, infant democracy.
    Every organisation or group has different agendas to put forth, even though the supposedly ultimate goal of solving Tibet’s issue for that matter is unequivocally shared by our same moral obligations. Every organisation in itself has become a marshy pond, where viruses of egocentrism are birthed and thrive. Every organisation and everyone leading them has somehow made islands of isolationist groups of like-minded people.
    There is a silent battle of ‘creditworthiness’ brewing within our bureaucracy, and a hunger to ‘monetize’ by the many Tibet Support Groups of the cult-like brand Tibet, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s name has become detrimental to our cause and to the unity that we critically need.
    Furthermore, the millions in American aid has intoxicated our movement and has us habituated to seeking monetary help, while losing sight of our goal. And the supposed leader of the free world in the United States, having lost completely the needle of its moral compass, shoves our greater issues silently under the political rug, while we rejoice in their perennial candy aid. Whilst our elected leader impatiently awaits for applause on the issues of such aid, has only added mileage to the charade that exists. It is ever too clear how wolfishly the world led by the US have sidelined the Tibet issue with the changing dynamic and symbiosis and the dominant political clout of China in its newly-found realm.
    Just like Africa remains poor because of the surplus Western food that is dumped as ‘humanitarian aid’ into the market, which in turn debilitates and destroys the local farming there and makes them lazy and cyclically dependent, the Tibetan diaspora’s dependence on Western aid is no different. it has trapped them into the eternal hypocrisy of the West and made them complacent and numbingly patient.
    The dynamics of what the West could have done some twenty years ago when China was easy to contain, and the empty promises and hypocrisy that exist now through reaffirmation of their help by way of lobbying and institutionalisation of the Tibetan cause, has got us nowhere but to a cycle of regimental renewal of oaths and vacant promises, and deepening of the pockets of those who exploit our cause.
    The long-wished-for occasion of China one day crumbling under the weight of their capitalistic boom, which would hopefully propel uts people to yearn for greater rights and freedom guaranteed on democratic grounds that comes along with flowering seeds of prosperity, seems to be dead on arrival ever since President Xi, who seems to be Mao’s incarnate, rewrote the constitution in his own terms and vowed to rule the country indefinitely as a dictator. The likelihood of the collapse of communist China like the former USSR is far from reality now. And so are the chances of any possibility of coming to an agreement on the call for autonomy that Tibetans have been pushing for decades now.
    I am not a political analyst nor an expert pundit on geopolitical changes, but my gut instinct tells me that our struggle for freedom should be waged from India of all other places. As of now realizing through this sad awakening, the Tibetan issue has become a case of the leper that no one wants to touch but only sympathise with. We have had enough of world sympathy, and of countries that once supported Tibet kowtowing to China. We should take matters into our own hands now. What we need more than anything is only our own self-help.
    Having said that, the era of dependency on Western help and lobbying is a farce. We need to gather support from our natural and genuine automatic half-brother in India. Through the era of leadership of Modi’s courage, we will be able to stand up against the Chinese might in unison. Tibetans are scattered like broken rosary beads all over the world, but since the thread that brings us together is based in India, it’s but natural to wage our campaigns from there.
    These last two decades have transformed not just China but India too. Having grown far from their third-world stigma, and now a leader in an emerging economy, India has become a dominant player in world politics as well. Any or all help from our half-brothers, who have given us refuge along with our religion and our script, is what we should look forward to now. India ranks among the world’s top five armed forces. No matter what, China can’t bully India lest they risk an all-out war that neither would want in the real world.
    Tibet has evidently been a thorny issue in China-India bilateral relations ever since His Holiness was given refuge. As of late, the diplomatic fall-out from the slippery tongue of CTA’s President that flashed out covert secretive mission by an emissary to China, inadvertently keeping India out of the loop has caused some mistrust within the Indian politburo. India has much to lose if Tibet is ever given genuine autonomy and if China reclaims all of Tibet based on the McMahon line. As of late, India’s snubbing of Tibet and the Dalai Lama’s related programmes and events is evidence of their intentional withdrawal. The only way we Tibetans can earn back India’s hitherto undeniable moral support and trust is if we vehemently change our political course and steer this sinking ship on chartered waves of reclaiming total independence that will reshape the paradigm of where we stand as refugees in the eyes of the Indian government, and where our ultimate goal lies.
    It is time that the CTA should reverse its ideology and go back to its original and genuine aim of reclaiming everything we have lost, to follow the shadow of truth of Tibet being once an independent country and nothing more. The only strong answer to China is the reaffirmation of our calls for complete independence. We must send them a strong message that we are not one of their ethnic minorities, but proud Tibetans who once ruled over their subservience.
    https://www.tibetsun.com/opinions/2018/04/28/time-to-save-the-sinking-ship-of-the-tibetan-cause

    Time to save the sinking ship of the Tibetan cause

  9. In March 2018, Tibetan protestors gathered near the Tibetan parliament, seeking to impeach Lobsang Sangay because his actions are unjust and akin to those of a dictator. Protestors also questioned his sudden termination of Penpa Tsering, the former Representative of the Office of Tibet in Washington, DC, who was his arch-rival during the 2016 Tibetan election.

    But this is not all, Lobsang Sangay’s CV includes a long list of deceitful actions, such as hiding the loan trail of $1.5-million taken by his office from Tibet Fund to purchase a building to house the Office of Tibet in DC. He even ordered the Auditor General to remove any mention of the loan in various financial reports. Lobsang Sangay is also alleged to have sexually assaulted an intern of the International Campaign for Tibet advocacy group. Even before he became the Sikyong (the president of the Central Tibetan Administration), scandals surrounding his actions were rampant. Four years after buying a house near Boston, his US$227,000 mortgage disappeared overnight, one week before he became the president of the CTA. It is no wonder that Tibetans like Pelgyamo express their dissatisfaction by posting sarcastic comments on Lobsang Sangay’s Instagram page.

    LobsangSangay

  10. The Foreigners Registration Office (FRO) in Dharamsala refusing to accept Tibetan RCs (Registration Certificates) is yet another example of interference by the Central Tibetan Administration. Tibetans need this document to apply for an Indian passport. The CTA does not want to lose its grip on Tibetan refugees, as fewer refugees under their control means less foreign aid. That translates to less money that they can line their own pockets with.

    This is not the first time that the CTA has created problems for Tibetans who wish to apply for Indian citizenship. Last July, the CTA ordered all its departments to stop issuing NOC (No Objection Certificates) to Tibetans applying for Indian passports, effectively sabotaging India’s goodwill of offering citizenship to eligible Tibetans. Perhaps that is a reason why many Tibetans are leaving their settlements in India, some of them even returning to Tibet! The CTA’s days as a ‘government’ are numbered, as more and more Tibetans apply for Indian citizenship or leave the CTA’s influence in India altogether.
    No obstruction surrendering RC in Dehra Dun: Police
    Tibet Sun Newsroom
    McLEOD GANJ, India, 27 April 2018
    Tibetans living in Dehra Dun can surrender their Registration Certificates (RC) to apply for their passport, according to a communication from the Office of the Superintendent of Police Dehra Dun.
    Tibet Sun had learned about Tibetan complaints that the authorities were refusing to accept requests by Tibetans to surrender their RCs, required in order to apply for a passport. Seeking information about the matter, Tibet Sun filed a Right to Information (RTI) application, to which Dehra Dun Superintendent of Police Sarita Dobhal replied refuting the complaints.
    The SP said in her reply that they have not refused RC surrender by those Tibetans seeking Indian passport, and they have accepted RCs from seven Tibetans so far.
    Tibetans who spoke to Tibet Sun said that the authorities who actually handle the RC surrender at the Foreigners Registration Office (FRO) within the SP Office had told them to bring court orders to be able to surrender their RC.
    Following a High Court of Delhi judgment asking the Government of India to issue passport to Tibetans, the Ministry of External Affairs in March 2017 has ordered all passport-issuing authorities to issue passport to those Tibetans who fulfil the requirements as in the Citizenship Act of India.
    The RC surrender process has been suspended at the FRO Dharamshala. An official confirmed the same, saying the halt has been in place since two weeks, but didn’t give details as to why they have stopped the process.
    He said that it is a temporary matter and that the surrender process will resume soon.
    https://www.tibetsun.com/news/2018/04/27/no-obstruction-of-tibetan-rc-surrender-for-passport-dehra-dun-sp

    No obstruction surrendering RC in Dehra Dun

  11. The Dalai Lama Fears that He Might be Expelled from India!

    The situation in India is not getting better for the Tibetan government in-exile or the Dalai Lama. Since India is getting closer to China, this trend will not slow down. Whether it is the current Prime Minister Modi, or the next Prime Minister of India making efforts to get close to China, it does not matter because the momentum has started. It benefits both India and China tremendously to be friendly and on good terms with each other. The parasite-like Tibetans leeching off India brings no benefit whatsoever to India and India realizes this sad fact finally. The Dalai Lama and his team in the Tibetan government in-exile have created so many problems externally for India and internally within the Tibetan communities, enough is enough. Tibetans like to use India to irk China. They have done that for decades and now it’s over. The Tibetans have been put in their place. The Indian government has been snubbing the Dalai Lama this year. The Dalai Lama and his cohorts have created tremendous problems, segregation, hatred, and violence towards thousands of Dorje Shugden practitioners, now that karma is coming back. Too bad. The Tibetan leadership is losing support from India, in fact, Modi purposely humiliated the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama and cohorts have less power to create so much schism and trouble now. If you read this article carefully, the Dalai Lama himself has expressed concerns he might be kicked out of India. It has reached this level that the Dalai Lama is unsure of his footing in India now. Too bad.

    Aditya Sinha: Paying For Our Bull In A China Shop
    May 14, 2018, 07:40 IST | Aditya Sinha
    The Dalai Lama’s humiliation, our encircling neighbours and, most crucially, the lack of Modi’s signature bear hug, signify altered relations
    In the two days of staged photographs, there is not one photo of Modi hugging Xi, his trademark personalised diplomacy of forcibly embracing other leaders.
    One of the better things during the Karnataka Assembly election, no matter who emerges the single largest party tomorrow, was Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s press conference in Bangalore. You may not have seen it on TV. It is on YouTube, however. Rahul again comes across in a light different to the whispers about him during the past two decades, proving how it was all the doing of a well-oiled BJP machine. My favourite part was Rahul’s take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Wuhan in central China for an “informal” summit with President Xi Jinping.
    Here’s what he said:
    “I expected the PM to go to China as the leader of our country [and] speak to them about Doklam… He didn’t say a word. [He] had a conversation with the Chinese President with no agenda. Are you telling me there’s no agenda? There is an agenda, it’s called Doklam; there is an agenda, it’s called the Maldives; there is an agenda, it’s called Nepal… The agenda is that we’re surrounded on all sides; it’s pretty clear. But you guys don’t like to raise that, I don’t know why.
    “Our foreign policy has been completely decimated. And it’s because the PM views foreign policy as an individual exercise. He’s of the impression that he can go have a conversation with the president of China, or he can go have a conversation with the president of Nepal, and everything will magically happen.
    “The PM needs to carry his own people with him. Are there any conversations going on with the finance minister, with the defence minister about this type of strategy? No. It’s a one-man show.”
    Briefly: China tried to seize the Doklam plateau in Bhutan last year but after a 73-day standoff against our troops, it backed down. It has reportedly since built an infrastructure leading to Doklam. In the Maldives, China is displacing India: President Abdulla Gameen last year welcomed three Chinese warships, and last month hosted the Pakistan army chief. In Nepal, despite Modi’s visit this weekend to promote Janakpur, Sita’s birthplace, as a religious tourism spot, the Nepalese have drifted from us after India’s five-month blockade in 2015 – we were pushing for greater political inclusion of the Madhesis. Modi is a villain for the Nepalese, as evident on social media.
    China has seized advantage of India’s pathetic neighbourhood behaviour, and, as Rahul said, has India surrounded. No wonder many think Modi went to beg Xi to keep relations calm in the run-up to the 2019 parliamentary election. That Modi’s governance is election-oriented is no secret. Will the Chinese will play ball? When the two-day “informal” summit ended, the Indian side issued a statement and reportedly urged the Chinese to issue their own. Compare the two and you see a difference: while India mentioned a strategic direction to our respective armies to avoid tension on the Line of Actual Control, China only said the armies would follow past protocols. Joint statements are never easy, but individual statements are a piece of cake.
    Modi had to supplicate himself because he cannot afford to go into the 2019 election after a showdown with China. Even a short skirmish will humiliate India. Unlike tension on the Line of Control with Pakistan, which benefits Modi since it can be dovetailed into communal rhetoric, tension with China gives Modi no benefit. Modi cannot help but humour China.
    The Chinese were amenable to being humoured since they have now what they wanted in Doklam. China nowadays also wants to be seen as a responsible global power: hence it has nudged North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un into meeting his South Korean counterpart and, next month, with Donald Trump. China has also reached out to Japan, with whom relations are more complicated than with India.
    Mainly, it was because Modi agreed to humiliate the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader who has lived in India since 1959. India prohibited its ministers from attending a Dalai Lama function (ironically, to thank India) and asked him to shift it from Delhi to his base in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh. It was an insult; worse, he privately expressed the fear that he might be expelled.
    The Chinese gave us time but they did not give Modi a hug. In the two days of staged photographs, there is not one photo of Modi hugging Xi, his trademark personalised diplomacy of forcibly embracing other leaders. Rahul Gandhi is right: Modi has decimated India’s foreign policy. It’s too bad that this and other aspects of his press conference were ignored by the TV media. But then, after Gujarat, Karnataka has been good practice for him. Modi’s obsession with the 2019 election means that governance will suffer, so Rahul will get more occasions to show the public his mettle.
    https://www.mid-day.com/articles/aditya-sinha-paying-for-our-bull-in-a-china-shop/19420166

    Aditya Sinha Paying For Our Bull In A China Shop

  12. More and more Tibetans are expressing their dissatisfaction with the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). This even extends to accusing them of ruling without legal precedence. This is a serious matter as their management of funds, administrative procedures, and even their governing constitution are all flawed. From the simple of choice of words used for the translation of a title, the CTA have exposed the way in which they run their “nationless government” in an egotistical and self-serving manner. The CTA simply do things based on their personal agendas and needs, using the title of democracy as a cover.

    Clearly, there is no system of governance for what the CTA do and how they spend the money they gain from people sympathetic to the Tibetan plight, aid from their host and donors from around the world. Since law is at the core of any administration, their underhanded tactic of finding loopholes and bending the rules to suit their individual needs has failed the Tibetan people. As an ex-Senior Fellow of Harvard Law School and a self-proclaimed expert in international human rights law, Sangay deters people’s faith in the integrity of a leader and the legal system, instead of upholding the cause of justice. After the public apology during his swearing in ceremony in 2016 and his firm pledge not to repeat his misconduct, it looks like Sangay is at it again.

    The title “President” for Sikyong is not legal
    By Sharchok Khukta
    McLEOD GANJ, India, 14 May 2018
    Since there have been many who have put forth questions regarding the usage of the title “President” in English for “Sikyong”, I will answer in one presentation for all.
    It would become a long talk to give answer as regards this. Nonetheless, because, to keep the public in the dark is objected to in a democratic system, I will try to present insight that is complete and not mistaken.
    Initially, the exile Tibetan Parliament had established through general consensus that the title “Sikyong” is to be used instead of “Kalon Tripa”. In connection with that a resolution was passed by the members of the 15th Tibetan Parliament-in-exile during the fourth sitting of the second session on 21 September 2012, that “Sikyong” solely is to be used in writing, as phonetically, without the need for using the translation “Political Leader”.
    The first stage of this process took place with the publication in 2015 of a compilation of rules and regulations of the exile Tibetan administration by the office of the Parliamentary Secretary of the Tibetan people’s deputies, where it appears on page 181 in Appendix 8 [Zur-hzar nya], of sub-section 3 of article 66 of the electoral rules of the exile Tibetans.
    Then, on 26 April 2016, the exile Tibetan administration made the announcement on its official website tibet.net that “when the term ‘sikyong’ is to be translated into English it should be written as “president”, and that has been used up to the present day.
    It is the honourable Kashag which says that “it was established [formally decided] that ‘president’ is to be the term to be used,” and the honourable Kashag claim that they had decided thus on the advice of His Holiness Dalai Lama. The Kashag had cited many other reasons, but I will not refer to them at this time. Everyone knows that at that time there was much expression of displeasure regarding this from the public.
    In the second stage, as regards the usage “President” there was guidance by His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the reception ceremony accorded to the high-level Representatives’ Committee of the United States, at Tsuklagkhang Temple on 10 May 2017.
    The third stage is that the Kashag have, both orally and in writing, said insistently that such guidance by His Holiness the Dalai Lama was as per the provision of Article 1 of the Charter of the Tibetans in exile. I am not able to know whether His Holiness the Dalai Lama has advised thus as the intent of Article 1 of the Charter. I do not consider that to be case, because if there had been the guidance advising “President” to be appropriate for the title of Sikyong, as per Article 1, then even after 25 famous amendments to the Charter such a guidance would have a procedure of discussion in the Parliament, as in the past, a procedure that has been clearly laid out.
    It has been laid out in the sub-section 1 and 2 of Article 17 of clause 6 of the rules for procedure of meeting and carrying out of works by the the deputies of the Tibetan Parliament. For example, to cite the sub-section 1: “As per the sub-section 2 of Article 1 of the charter, the Speaker, in discussion with Sikyong, is to set aside time for discussion on the suggestion of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.” But, without going through any recommendation from the Parliament or legal process, the Kashag said that the title in English as “President” has been decided on and designated as such, and they continue to use this title. As such that title has not became legal title. That is stage three.
    Then, the fourth stage is that it may be assumed that the Sikyong and the Kashag continue to do so as it is known clearly only by most government service personnel, former and present, and People’s Deputies, former and present. Yet since the public do not know the details, when we put forth questions on the this issue in the Parliament it may be conjectured that it is an electoral grudge. Besides, when the honourable Sikyong also talks of it to the public by attaching it to electoral grudge, we are not able to have at the matter a valid rule by law. Instead everything is stirred here and there into dirty politics, so that eventually when there is too much dwelling on personal name and prestige, the common administration incurs losses.
    If things go on like this there is the danger of the collapse of rule by law. From that point of view, for this issue to be clearly sorted out, the Secretaries of Gadhen Phodang must make it clear whether or not that guidance — as per Article 1 of the Charter — was given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. If it was, since it would be related with the rules, the messages, advice, notice and so on be bestowed to the Parliament, and then whatever is to be established (passed as resolution) by the Parliament when implemented by all the central and regional branches of the administration, it would become concordant with the law.
    So that is the issue if explained clearly.
    In the end, nowadays at Gangchen Kyishong the administration relies upon one person and makes changes to the Rules; while there are able staff members in all sorts of appointments, through equal qualifications and pledges, and so on; such instances are taking place many times, not just once. In such a situation it appears that there is not sufficient supervision and watching, by the public and writers, of whether or not this Administration — set up with such effort by His Holiness the Dalai Lama — is being administered by rule of law.
    I request all to put more effort and power as regarding this issue.
    https://www.tibetsun.com/opinions/2018/05/14/the-title-president-for-sikyong-is-not-legal

    The title President for Sikyong is not legal

  13. Things are going to be very different for Tibetans in India from now on as Sino-Indian relations get warmer by the day. India has vowed to firmly adhere to the one-China policy and ensure Tibet-related issues are handled ‘properly’. This means India will tighten her grip on all Tibetan-related activities. So, the trouble-making Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) better watch themselves and not create further problems that may antagonise China. This is something India will no longer tolerate.

    China, India Vow To Strengthen Ties
    China and India have extensive common interests and they have far more consensus than differences, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.
    All India | Indo-Asian News Service | Updated: June 06, 2018 17:05 IST
    PRETORIA: China and India working together will accelerate their common development and contribute to the progress of human civilization, Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.
    Mr Wang made the remarks on Monday in South Africa’s capital Pretoria during a meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on the sidelines of the formal meeting of the BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.
    China and India have extensive common interests and they have far more consensus than differences, Mr Wang said.
    The two sides should take bilateral relations and people’s fundamental interests as a starting point at all times, properly handle problems and differences and prevent the interests of one party from affecting the overall interest, Mr Wang said.
    The two sides should earnestly safeguard peace and tranquillity in the border areas in accordance with the consensus reached by their leaders and avoid taking actions that might complicate and aggravate the situation, Mr Wang said.
    China and India should strengthen coordination and play a constructive role in promoting the development of BRICS cooperation, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and other multilateral mechanisms, he said.
    Sushma Swaraj said the informal Wuhan meeting between the leaders of India and China enhanced mutual trust between the two countries, strengthened cooperation, made the parties more comfortable with each other and achieved unprecedented success.
    She said India will firmly adhere to the one-China policy and properly handle issues involving the core interests of China such asTaiwan and Tibet-related issues.
    India and China, as the two largest emerging markets and developing countries, share a common position in safeguarding the international political and economic order and promoting the improvement of global governance, the Indian Minister said.
    https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/china-india-vow-to-strengthen-ties-1863429

    ChinaIndiaVowToStrengthenTies

  14. Ex-Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche caught sleeping in a meeting

    The representative of the Dalai Lama and former prime minister of the Tibetan government in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche during an important meeting having a nice sleep. The Tibetan government in-exile are run by people like this who have no control over their body and manners. They only stay awake in the meeting if there is FREE aid money coming their way to line their pockets. Shameful how Samdong Rinpoche is sleeping in the middle of a meeting and he represents the Tibetan government in-exile. This is why after 60 years Tibetan leaders have failed to get Tibet back but blame others for their failures. Shame!

    http://video.dorjeshugden.com/comment-videos/comment-1528941530.mp4


  15. UNRULY TIBETANS FIGHTING AT DALAI LAMA BIRTHDAY PARTY AGAIN

    July 2018-NYC- Tibetans fighting at some birthday celebratory event for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. They set up a throne in the back, place Dalai Lama’s picture, and they fight, push, shout, scream at each other right in front of the throne of Dalai Lama and it’s filmed. That is the level of the Tibetans overall. Tibetans are not gentle, Buddhist, peace-loving, tolerant people as they portray to the world. They are rough, rude, hateful, vengeful, violent, regionalistic, narrow minded and will create trouble wherever they go. Very feudal. They always resort to vulgar words and violence. There are some moderate Tibetans, but on the whole they are very violent people who do not practice Buddhism. The average Tibetan know nothing of Buddhism and do not practice. Buddhism is just a meal ticket for them to get to another country. Their support of Dalai Lama is blind and only to be politically correct and they never practice what he teaches. Disgraceful to see a group of violent Tibetans fighting at a Dalai Lama birthday event. Shameful.☹

    Tibetans are not welcomed wherever they go. Bhutanese kicked them out. Nepal hates Tibetans. India has no more use for the ‘refugee’ Tibetans and their temples made of gold. After 60 years they cannot get their own country back. What a bunch of losers and useless government people they have.

    http://video.dorjeshugden.com/comment-videos/comment-1531033672.mp4


    • The letter:

      It is about the incident that happened at His Holiness’s birthday celebration in NYC recently July 6, 2018. Some members of Tibetan woman association approached to Parliamentarian Tenpa Yarphel during the ceremony and complained that his comments regarding Nechung was disrespect to the protector and His Holiness. They also said him that he made many Tibetan people sad with his comments. And told him not to do that again in the future. Then Dhondup Tseten stood up and shamelessly touched those women. That incident almost made the ceremony stopped. To keep maintaining the relationship between Tibetan Woman Association and Tibetan Parliament Representative, TWA are asking for an apology letter from Dhondup Tseten for touching their members.

      (It is so sad that in the fake democracy of the Tibetan leadership in Dharamsala you cannot say anything against a leader or criticize. Too bad)

      Letter01

  16. WHY DOES RICHARD GERE AND DALAI LAMA SUPPORT SOGYAL THE DISGUSTING ABUSER?

    As long as you are friends with the Dalai Lama, your actions are excusable, no matter how horrendous they may be. Even something as heinous as sexual abuse of over 60 women can be overlooked when the perpetrator is friends with the Dalai Lama namely Sogyal Rinpoche. Why rush to join the chorus of Hollywood voices condemning Harvey Weinstein’s criminality, but remain silent against Sogyal’s exploitation and abuse of women? Richard Gere was vocal in condemning against all the abuses and attacks against women by Harvey Weinstein. But silent on Sogyal Rinpoche. BBC has a full length documentary on Sogyal’s abuses as you can view here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWhIivvmMnk. Yet Richard Gere can take photos with the disgusting and abusive Sogyal. Is it because one group of women are worth protecting and the other are not? If it is not for that reason, then it can only be because Sogyal is the Dalai Lama’s friend. The Dalai Lama’s condemnation against Sogyal is very light and it’s disappointing. I guess since Dalai Lama supported Sogyal so much, he can’t be seen as wrong in doing so. Politics is sad.

    Richard Gere and Sogyal

  17. Hollywood is one of the most influential groups of people who have promoted the mysticism of Buddhist Tantra to the world. Together with the media, they have packaged Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan lamas into a fantasy Utopia, filled with God-like beings who are able to lead people along the quick path to enlightenment.

    This propaganda has been widely exploited by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) to garner support, especially financial aid, for the so-called Tibetan Cause and the Tibetan struggle against Chinese rule. Little does the West, including Richard Gere and the so-called Buddhist Professor Robert Thurman, know that efforts from China to improve the infrastructure and standard of living for the Tibetans in China have created opportunities for Tibetans to grow and be successful. This is something that is rarely seen in exile under the governance of the CTA.

    This false image that has been promoted for the past 60 years or so is now slowly fading away as more and more victims come forward, exposing the sexual abuse they have suffered under the hands of Tibetan lamas like Sogyal Rinpoche. The root of the problem is clear, people are greedy and lazy while wanting quick success and attention. Since they get these from the Tibetan lamas like Sogyal, they are willing to accept the exploitation. This is further driven by fear that they would no longer be seen as the privileged ones in the inner circle if they do not clutch at their lamas and be seen showing tremendous devotion to their gurus. With only a superficial knowledge of Buddhism, this cult-like group of Hollywood stars and American politicians like Richard Gere continue to generate respect and love for their skewed version of the “Dharma”, while real Buddhist masters are relegated to the side lines.

    This Sexual Abuser Hollywood Doesn’t Want You To See
    Feb 28, 2018 | Posted by Christine A. Chandler
    Why is the mainstream media ignoring this Elephant in the Room?
    Is it because, once they peel the curtain back on this little sexually abusive, predator Lama,  Lama Sogyal Rinpoche, best friend of the Dalai Lama and his major benefactor, helping to spread Mindfulness throughout the West, the whole edifice of deception, corruption, cover-ups of  institutional sexual abuse, and Shangri-la pretenses will be exposed?
    Never mind that these Tibetan lamas have fooled a large part of the Western psychology profession, most  all of journalism, and certain parts of academia as well as CEO’s of major corporations.  Those who also want to jump on the billion-dollar Mindfulness bandwagon; the first cult technique these Tibetan lamas used to get us to think as a herd.
    Perhaps it is also because the  news media coverage, for the last twenty-five years, of  Saint Dalai Lama, keeper of slaves and life-time serfs less than sixty years ago, is one of the icons of the Hollywood jet-set, certain politicians like Nancy Pelosi,  Congressman Tim Ryan,  academics, like Uma’s dad- Robert Thurman,  and such Hollywood stars, as Richard Gere, Harrison Ford, Scarlett Johansson, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Sharon Stone, the list goes on and on,  who will now be seen, not just as  enablers of Weinstein, but also of the Tantric cult of Tibetan Lamaism and its Tantra that has infused Hollywood with its amorality and  sexual abuse for the last four decades, given it permission for their long history of accepting this behavior as ‘normal.’
    It was not so long ago, that Trungpa fooled our sixties generation, with the help of rock and roll stars, and Allen Ginsberg, modern poet extraordinaire of the Howl, and member of NAMBLA. Ginsberg also controlled the narrative of how these Tibetan Lamas were to be seen by the public, for the next forty-plus years.
    Marxists have been in collusion with the lamas, as well,  for a very long time.  As have certain institutions on the right, of the C-Street variety. The Dalai Lama boldly sends messages of being a friend to democracy to every President since his “escape” from China. But declares himself a Marxist in India.
    Australian CEOs in the article link above are now questioning the wisdom of having Lama  Sogyal of Rigpa, the Dalai Lama’s best friend all these years, who has been their icon for mindfulness meditation  at the workplace. They are not willing to cover-up for his sexual abuse and demeaning and degrading of women, his keeping a harem, just as Chogyam Trungpa did but it was ignored, and his Tantra was allowed to spread. Thanks to Hollywood giving him a featured role in Little Buddha with Keanu Reeves.
    Isn’t it time we peeled the whole onion back to see part of what’s at the core of this sexual abuse and confusion about right and wrong?
    Nancy Pelosi goes to the Dalai Lama for advice, and gets crazier every year; Tim Ryan, groomed to take her place, writes a book about Tantric Mindfulness for a Mindless nation  and called: Mindfulness Nation .
    Ryan hangs out with Lama Sogyal’s friend, Lama Tsoknyi who is Sogyal’s strongest supporter and pal.
    Tim Ryan and Lama Tsoknyi, speak together about Global Warming. Tsoknyi surely helped Ryan write his book and Tim Ryan helps Lama Tsoknyi pretend he is a ‘scientific lama’ who also can bless books to make them understandable and can infuse statues with living mojo inside his cult groups of western followers around the world, and now in Asia, fooling the Han and Chan Buddhists that he is teaching what the Buddha taught when it is Tantra and its institutionalized sexual abuse and Lamaist corruptions.
    The occult, crazy-making Tantra of Tibetan Lamas  has been infusing Hollywood, Journalism, Academia, Psychology, Third-wave Feminism, and the Entertainment Industry and Left-Wing Politics, for the last forty years.  Recently, we have been seeing its results implode as the sexual abuses of celebrities and journalists, politicians makes explosive media news.
    Chogyam Trungpa, the Tantric Lama darling of the sixties Drugs, Rock and Roll crowd was the first Tibetan Lama to illegally keep a harem of sexual consorts on American soil. His Regent gave his students AIDS, with unprotected sex, but was never criminally charged. Instead he was allowed to brainwash his students into believing this was ‘openness’ and freedom, on the way to the realization of a non-duality mind.  They  have reinvented his ‘lineage’ along the coast of Maine, to turn that State back into Massachusetts.
     “Democracy was a failed experiment” said Trungpa’s mouthpiece, Ginsberg, who believed a totalitarian dictatorship of Tribal warlords would be so much better.  
    Time to unpeel the whole onion and get to the core of what has been making the West crazy, immoral and stupid: the civilization jihad that comes with a smiling face and a Lamaist peaceful facade. 
    https://extibetanbuddhist.com/this-sexual-abuser-hollywood-doesnt-want-you-to-see/

    This Sexual Abuser Hollywood Doesn't Want You To See

  18. While the government of Nepal has framed a policy to tighten the noose around non-governmental organisations, they have welcomed 30 Chinese NGOs to enter the country. These NGOs will penetrate the country’s social sector at the grassroots level. This is the first time such a large number of Chinese NGOs have entered Nepal at one time. Nepal is increasingly open to Chinese influence, a sign that ties between both countries are strengthening, while India’s influence is being reduced. The time has passed for India’s monopoly to remain uninterrupted in Nepal as opportunities to engage with China are being welcomed.

    30 Chinese NGOs all set to work in Nepal
    REWATI SAPKOTA
    Kathmandu, July 30
    At a time when the government has framed a policy to tighten the noose around non-governmental organisations, 30 Chinese NGOs have entered Nepal to penetrate the country’s social sector and the grassroots.
    The Social Welfare Council Nepal and China NGO Network for International Exchanges, an umbrella body of Chinese NGOs, have signed a memorandum of understanding to enable Chinese NGOs to work in Nepal. The agreement was signed yesterday between SWCN Member Secretary Dilli Prasad Bhatt and CNIE General Secretary Zhu Rui in the presence of Minister of Women, Children and Senior Citizen Tham Maya Thapa and Chinese Deputy Minister of External Affairs Wang Yajun.
    The agreement has paved the way for the first batch of 30 Chinese NGOs to work in Nepal for a period of three years. Their contract will be extended based on the consent of SWCN and CNIE. Representatives of these 30 Chinese NGOs were also present during yesterday’s signing ceremony. They have agreed to work in partnership with local NGOs to implement their programmes and projects.
    The Chinese NGOs are eyeing areas such as livelihood, healthcare, education, skill-based training, community development and disaster management. This is the first time such a large number of Chinese NGOs has entered Nepal at one time. The Chinese assistance so far in Nepal has largely been limited to development of infrastructure projects. But the entry of these NGOs indicates China is keen on making its presence felt in Nepal’s social sector and the grassroots, which, till date, have remained domains of the West and countries such as Japan and India.
    The MoU signed between SWCN and CNIE states that Chinese NGOs will be mobilised for ‘the benefit of needy Nepalis and to enhance ties between China and Nepal through people-to-people support programmes’.
    “The Chinese NGOs will abide by the law of Nepal in its entirety while carrying out development cooperation in Nepal,” says the MoU, adding, “Chinese NGOs will submit programmes to the SWCN to carry out development activities in partnership with Nepali NGOs and SWCN in line with plans and policies of the government of Nepal.”
    The MoU was signed at a time when the government has drafted the National Integrity Policy to limit activities of NGOs and INGOs, as some of them were found ‘trying to break communal harmony and proselytising Nepalis’. There were also concerns that high administrative cost of many NGOs and INGOs was preventing money from reaching the real beneficiaries. The policy clearly states that NGOs and INGOs cannot spend more than specified amount under administrative and consultant headings. They will also be barred from working against Nepal’s interests, culture and communal harmony and conducting activities to promote their religious, social or other agenda, adds the policy.
    Around 48,000 NGOs are currently registered in Nepal, of which only 1,600 have been receiving funds from INGOs, as per SWCN. The SWCN has directed INGOs and NGOs to spend 60 per cent of the budget to generate tangible results, while the remaining can be used to cover administrative costs and organise training, meetings and seminars.
    https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/30-chinese-ngos-all-set-to-work-in-nepal/

    DS.com China NGOs enter Nepal

  19. What will the all the people around the world and in Tibet do now? Dalai Lama says he is happy that Tibet is a part of China and should remain a part of China. So many Tibetans self-immolated for Tibet to be independent and now Dalai Lama did a 360 degree turn and says he wants to go back to Tibet and China and Tibet should be a part of China. So unbelievable. So many are angry and disappointed.

    Tibetans ready to be part of China: Dalai Lama
    Organised by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the event was a part of “Thank You India – 2018″ held by the Tibetan community across India to mark 60 years of its exile in the country.
    Indo-Asian News Service
    Bengaluru
    Tibetans are ready to be a part of China if guaranteed full rights to preserve their culture, the Dalai Lama said on Friday.
    “Tibetans are not asking for independence. We are okay with remaining with the People’s Republic of China, provided we have full rights to preserve our culture,” the 83-year-old spiritual leader said at “Thank You Karnataka” event here in the city.
    Organised by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the event was a part of “Thank You India – 2018″ held by the Tibetan community across India to mark 60 years of its exile in the country.
    “Several of Chinese citizens practicing Buddhism are keen on Tibetan Buddhism as it is considered scientific,” the Nobel laureate said.
    Born in Taktser hamlet in northeastern Tibet, the Dalai Lama was recognized at the age of two as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. He fled to India from Tibet after a failed uprising against the Chinese rule in 1959.
    China annexed Tibet in 1950, forcing thousands of Tibetans, including monks, to flee the mountain country and settle in India as refugees.
    Since then, India has been home to over 100,000 Tibetans majorly settled in Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh among other states.
    https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/india/tibetans-ready-to-be-part-of-china-dalai-lama/293109.html

    d

  20. Dear Dalai Lama,

    Since you started the cruel ban against the 350 year Dorje Shugden practice, how has it benefit your Tibetan society and Buddhism in the world? Things have become worse and most educated Tibetans can see this. They don’t speak out not because they don’t see your ban as wrong, but you instill fear in them and not respect. It is like fear of a dictator. I am sorry to say so. Everyone is divided. There is no harmony. Before your ban there was more harmony and unity.

    By enacting the ban, you split the monasteries, split so many families, split regions in Tibet apart, split your disciples from you, split your own gurus from you, split Tibetan Buddhism apart. You have created so much disharmony.

    It is not democratic what you have done to ban a religion within your community. You always talk of tolerance and acceptance and democracy and yet you do not accept and tolerate something different from your beliefs. When people practice Dorje Shugden you ostracize them, ban them from seeing you, ban them from using Tibetan facilities. You know you have done that. There are videos that capture your speech and prove this point. You even had people expelled from monasteries just because they practice Dorje Shugden. Some of the monks you expelled have been in the monastery for over 40 years. Many older monks shed tears because of this.

    Many young educated Tibetans lost confidence in you as they saw the damage the Dorje Shugden ban created and they lose hope. Many have become free thinkers. They reject what you have done. So many people in the west left Buddhism because of the confusion you created with this ban against Dorje Shugden which is immoral.

    You could of had millions of people who practice Dorje Shugden to support, love and follow you, but you scared them away. They are hurt and very disappointed. They loved you and respected you deeply before the ban. It has been 60 years and you have failed to get Tibet back. Your biggest failure is not getting Tibet back after 57 years in exile. Now you are begging China to allow you to return to Tibet to the disappointment of thousands of people who fought for a free Tibet believing in you. So many self-immolated for a free Tibet and now you want Tibet to be a part of China with no referendum from Tibetans. Just like a dictator, you decide on your own. It was your government and you that lost Tibet in the first place. Your policies and style of doing things do not benefit Tibet and Buddhism. You have been the sole ruler of Tibet your whole life and you still have not gotten our country of Tibet back for us. Our families and us are separated. Yet you create more pain by creating a ban to further divide people. Please have compassion.

    No other Buddhist leader has banned or condemned any religion except for you. It looks very bad. You are a Nobel laureate and this is not fitting of a laureate. You should unite people and not separate them by religious differences.

    You said Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi did not do right to the Rohingya people in Myanmar due to religious differences, but you are doing the same thing to the Shugden Buddhists within your own society. There is a parallel in this. You separate the Shugden Buddhists from the others in Tibetan society.

    You have lost so many people who would have loved and supported you. You have lost so much support around the world. The Shugden Buddhists who love you number in the millions. When you are fast losing support from governments and private people, it will not do you well to lose more.

    After you are passed away in the future, the rift you created between the Dorje Shugden and non-Dorje Shugden people will remain for a while and that will be your legacy. Disharmony. You will be remembered for this. Not as a hero but a disharmony creator.

    Dorje Shugden will spread and further grow, but you will be no more as you are a human. No one wishes you bad and in fact we hope you have a long and healthy life, but we have lost so much hope and have so much despair because of you. All the hundreds of Dorje Shugden lamas, tulkus and geshes are maturing and there are hundreds of Dorje Shugden monasteries in Tibet who will not give up Dorje Shugden. You have made a mistake. These hundreds of teachers and teachers to be will spread Dorje Shugden further in the future.

    The gurus that gave us Dorje Shugden as a spiritual practice and you have called these holy gurus wrong and they are mistaken in giving us Dorje Shugden. How can you insult our gurus whom we respect so much? If they can be wrong, then you can be wrong. Then all gurus can be wrong. So no one needs to listen to any guru? You have created this trend. It is not healthy. Your own gurus practiced Dorje Shugden their whole lives. Your own gurus were exemplary and highly learned.

    Dalai Lama you have created so much pain with this ban against so many people due to religion. You are ageing fast. Are you going to do anything about it or stay stubborn, hard and un-moving. You show a smile and preach peace and harmony wherever you go. But will you do the same to your own people? Please rectify the wrong you have done. Please before it is too late. You can create harmony again or you can pass away in the future with this legacy of peace. May you live long and think carefully and admit what was a mistake in having this unethical ban against Dorje Shugden religion.

  21. Until today, many Tibetan in India is still stateless, all they have is a Yellow Book. It is so difficult for them to travel, nearly impossible. Besides, isn’t it unfair to ask those Tibetans who are born in India to fight for a country where they have never been before and have not idea how it looks like? Shouldn’t CTA consider that and make a better plan for the Tibetans?

    The only reason why the CTA discourages Tibetans to take up Indian citizenship is that they still need sympathy from the western world so they better make sure they have a certain number of refugees who are still ‘suffering’, they want financial support from them. Just imagine, the CTA has not really run a country before, they have no idea what national debts or national GDP is, they have never made a plan for the economic development of a country, they are just some politicians managing a political party. I think they know they will not be able to run a country, so deep down inside, they don’t really wish to get their country back. The best strategy for them is to make sure the Tibetans in exile stay stateless.

    The ironic thing is that many of the CTA leaders are holding a passport of another country. They have the freedom to travel, to purchase property and do what a normal citizen can do but yet the normal Tibetans are not giving access to all of these. Tibetans have to understand the CTA is not reliable at all, for the past 60 years nothing good has happened to them, so don’t think this will change. They better find ways to get their Indian passports and don’t be a money making tool for the CTA.

  22. Why doesn’t the United States and its allies end Refugee Status for the useless Tibetans? They have been refugees for 60 years now and don’t tell me they still cannot get their lives back in order?

    Tibetans really know how to put on a good show and use people, take their money and do nothing in return.

    Trump and Allies Seek End to Refugee Status for Millions of Palestinians
    In internal emails, Jared Kushner advocated a “sincere effort to disrupt” the U.N.’s relief agency for Palestinians.
    BY COLUM LYNCH, ROBBIE GRAMER | AUGUST 3, 2018, 2:12 PM
    Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, has quietly been trying to do away with the U.N. relief agency that has provided food and essential services to millions of Palestinian refugees for decades, according to internal emails obtained by Foreign Policy.
    His initiative is part of a broader push by the Trump administration and its allies in Congress to strip these Palestinians of their refugee status in the region and take their issue off the table in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, according to both American and Palestinian officials. At least two bills now making their way through Congress address the issue.
    Kushner, whom Trump has charged with solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has been reluctant to speak publicly about any aspect of his Middle East diplomacy. A peace plan he’s been working on with other U.S. officials for some 18 months has been one of Washington’s most closely held documents.
    But his position on the refugee issue and his animus toward the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is evident in internal emails written by Kushner and others earlier this year.
    “It is important to have an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA,” Kushner wrote about the agency in one of those emails, dated Jan. 11 and addressed to several other senior officials, including Trump’s Middle East peace envoy, Jason Greenblatt.
    “This [agency] perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn’t help peace,” he wrote.
    The United States has helped fund UNRWA since it was formed in 1949 to provide relief for Palestinians displaced from their homes following the establishment of the State of Israel and ensuing international war. Previous administrations have viewed the agency as a critical contributor to stability in the region.
    But many Israel supporters in the United States today see UNRWA as part of an international infrastructure that has artificially kept the refugee issue alive and kindled hopes among the exiled Palestinians that they might someday return home—a possibility Israel flatly rules out.
    Critics of the agency point in particular to its policy of granting refugee status not just to those who fled Mandatory Palestine 70 years ago but to their descendants as well—accounting that puts the refugee population at around 5 million, nearly one-third of whom live in camps across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and Gaza.
    By trying to unwind UNRWA, the Trump administration appears ready to reset the terms of the Palestinian refugee issue in Israel’s favor—as it did on another key issue in December, when Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
    In the same January email, Kushner wrote: “Our goal can’t be to keep things stable and as they are. … Sometimes you have to strategically risk breaking things in order to get there.”
    Kushner raised the refugee issue with officials in Jordan during a visit to the region in June, along with Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt. According to Palestinian officials, he pressed the Jordan to strip its more than 2 million registered Palestinians of their refugee status so that UNRWA would no longer need to operate there.
    “[Kushner said] the resettlement has to take place in the host countries and these governments can do the job that UNRWA was doing,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
    She said the Trump administration wanted rich Arab Gulf states to cover the costs Jordan might incur in the process.
    “They want to take a really irresponsible, dangerous decision and the whole region will suffer,” Ashrawi said.
    Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians’ chief negotiator, told reporters in June that Kushner’s delegation had said it was ready to stop funding UNRWA altogether and instead direct the money—$300 million annually—to Jordan and other countries that host Palestinian refugees.
    “All this is actually aimed at liquidating the issue of the Palestinian refugees,” hesaid.
    The White House declined to comment on the record for this story. A senior executive branch official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. policy regarding the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee program “has been under frequent evaluation and internal discussion. The administration will announce its policy in due course.”
    Jordanian officials in New York and Washington did not respond to queries about the initiative.
    Kushner and Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, both proposed ending funding for UNRWA back in January. But the State Department, the Pentagon, and the U.S. intelligence community all opposed the idea, fearing in part that it could fuel violence in the region.
    The following week, the State Department announced that that United States would cut the first $125 million installment of its annual payment to UNRWA by more than half, to $60 million.
    “UNRWA has been threatening us for six months that if they don’t get a check they will close schools. Nothing has happened,” Kushner wrote in the same email.
    State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said at the time that the U.S. had no intention of eliminating funding for Palestinian refugees, and that it was taking time to explore ways to reform UNRWA and to convince other countries to help Washington shoulder the financial burden of aiding the Palestinians.
    But the following day, Victoria Coates, a senior advisor to Greenblatt, sent an email to the White House’s national security staff indicating that the White House was mulling a way to eliminate the U.N.’s agency for Palestinian refugees.
    “UNRWA should come up with a plan to unwind itself and become part of the UNHCR by the time its charter comes up again in 2019,” Coates wrote.
    She noted that the proposal was one of a number of “spitball ideas that I’ve had that are also informed by some thoughts I’ve picked up from Jared, Jason and Nikki.”
    Other ideas included a suggestion that the U.N. relief agency be asked to operate on a month-to-month budget and devise “a plan to remove all anti-Semitism from educational materials.”
    The ideas seemed to track closely with proposals Israel has been making for some time.
    “We believe that UNRWA needs to pass from the world as it is an organization that advocates politically against Israel and perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem,” said Elad Strohmayer, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington.
    Strohmayer said that Palestinians are the only population that is able to transfer its refugee status down through generations.
    The claim, though long advanced by Israel, is not entirely true.
    In an internal report from 2015, the State Department noted that the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees “recognizes descendants of refugees as refugees for purposes of their operations.” The report, which was recently declassified, said the descendants of Afghan, Bhutanese, Burmese, Somali, and Tibetan refugees are all recognized by the U.N. as refugees themselves.
    Of the roughly 700,000 original Palestinian refugees, only a few tens of thousands are still alive, according to estimates.
    The push to deny the status to most Palestinians refugees is also gaining traction in Congress.
    Last week, Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Republican from Colorado, introduced a bill that would limit the United States to assisting only the original refugees. Most savings in U.N. contributions would be directed to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United States’ principal international development agency. But USAID is currently constrained by the Taylor Force Act, which restricts the provision of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian Authority until it ends a policy of providing aid to families of fallen terrorists.
    “Instead of resettling Palestinian refugees displaced as a result of the Arab-Israeli Conflict of 1948, UNRWA provides aid to those they define as Palestinian refugees until there is a solution they deem acceptable to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Lamborn’s bill states.
    “This policy does not help resettle the refugees from 1948 but instead maintains a refugee population in perpetuity.”
    A congressional aide familiar with the legislation said its intent isn’t to gut UNRWA funding, but redirect assistance to descendants through USAID.
    “The people that are suffering should still get assistance, but through appropriately defined humanitarian channels and aid programs,” the aide said.
    Similarly, Sen. James Lankford, (R-Okla.), has drafted legislation that would redirect U.S. funding away from UNRWA and to other local and international agencies.
    The bill, which has not yet officially been introduced, would require the U.S. secretary of state certify by 2020 that the United Nations has ended its recognition of Palestinian descendants as refugees.
    “The United Nations should provide assistance to the Palestinians in a way that makes clear that the United Nations does not recognize the vast majority of Palestinians currently registered by UNRWA as refugees deserving refugee status,” reads a draft obtained by Foreign Policy.
    Previous U.S. administrations have maintained that the vast majority of Palestinian refugees will ultimately have to be absorbed in a new Palestinian state or naturalized in the countries that have hosted them for generations.
    But the fate of the refugee issue was expected to be agreed to as part of a comprehensive peace pact that resulted in the establishment of a Palestinian state.
    “It’s very clear that the overarching goal here is to eliminate the Palestinian refugees as an issue by defining them out of existence,” said Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.
    “This isn’t going to make peace any easier. It’s going to make it harder.”
    https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/03/trump-palestinians-israel-refugees-unrwaand-allies-seek-end-to-refugee-status-for-millions-of-palestinians-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-unrwa-israel-palestine-peace-plan-jared-kushner-greenb/

    DS.com Trump and Allies Seek End to Refugee Status for Millions of Palestinians (1)

  23. Supreme Court of India JUSTICE Mr. MARKANDEY KATJU (RETD) writes that Tibet is much better under the Chinese than it was under the lamas who only wanted to make the populace slaves. It was feudal and it will never return to the backwardness again.

    Time has come to acknowledge that Tibet has vastly improved under Chinese rule
    JUSTICE MARKANDEY KATJU (RETD) | 12 August, 2018
    From a terribly poor state hinged on a feudal system, Tibet has modernised and grows faster than the rest of China
    This article has been prompted by Jyoti Malhotra’s article in ThePrint ‘Tibetan government quietly changed its PM’s designation. India won’t be unhappy about it‘.
    China’s annexation of Tibet in 1959, ousting the Dalai Lama, had attracted it worldwide criticism. The Dalai Lama fled and was granted asylum in India, where he set up a government-in-exile with its headquarters in Dharamshala.
    The Chinese claim Tibet on the grounds that it has been part of the country since the Yuan dynasty of the 13th century, which is disputed by the government-in-exile. But let us leave this that matter aside.
    The more important question is whether Chinese rule has benefited Tibet.
    The answer is that it undoubtedly has. As the Reuters’ Ben Blanchard writes: “Today Tibet is richer and more developed than it has ever been, its people healthier, more literate, better dressed and fed”.
    Although Ben goes on to argue that this development masks “a deep sense of unhappiness among many Tibetans”, I will disagree. How can anyone be unhappy if s/he is healthier, better fed and better clothed?
    Under the rule of the Dalai Lamas (Buddhist priests), the people of Tibet were terribly poor, almost entirely illiterate, and lived like feudal serfs.
    Today, Tibet presents a totally different picture. The illiteracy rate in Tibet has gone down from 95 per cent in the 1950s to 42 per cent in 2000. It has modern schools, universities, engineering and medical colleges, modern hospitals, freeways, supermarkets, fast food restaurants, mobile stores and apartment buildings. The capital Lhasa is like any other modern city.
    While the economic growth in the rest of China has slowed down to about 7 per cent, Tibet has had a 10 per cent growth rate in the last two decades.
    Tibet has huge mineral wealth, which was only awaiting Chinese technology to be tapped. Nowadays, it has numerous hydro and solar power plants and industries running with Chinese help.
    Tibetan literature is flourishing, contrary to claims that the Chinese want to crush Tibetan culture.
    Of course, now the lamas cannot treat their people as slaves.
    The so-called ‘government-in-exile’, of which Lobsang Sangay claims to be the President, is a fake organisation, funded by foreign countries. They only want to restore the feudal Tibet, ruled by the reactionary lamas, something which will never happen.
    The writer is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India
    https://theprint.in/opinion/time-has-come-to-acknowledge-that-tibet-has-vastly-improved-under-chinese-rule/97172/

  24. The cracks in Tibetan society are starting to show, and it is now coming to the attention of local Indians who have all but identified the Tibetan leadership as the source of the divisions. According to this author, disunity amongst the Tibetans is now creating problems for Indian law enforcement agencies, and this disunity may culminate in young Tibetans holding silent grudges against their host country. It is incredible that after six decades of generosity from India, Indians are now facing the very real possibility Tibetans can be ungrateful towards India. The Tibetan leadership totally failed to impart positive values upon their exiled community, like gratitude for those kindest to them and the need to repay these kindnesses with real, tangible results. It’s also very unlikely that the Tibetan leadership will now start to do this, after six decades of failing to do so. Indians need to realise this, and see that there is no benefit for their nation to align themselves with the Tibetan leadership, and there never will be.
    Tibetan disunity not in India’s interest
    John S. Shilshi
    Updated: August 7, 2018, 11:00 AM
    India is home to the Dalai Lama and an estimated 120,000 Tibetan refugees. Though this humanitarian gesture on India’s part comes at the cost of risking New Delhi’s relations with China, India has never wavered in ensuring that Tibetans live with dignity and respect. Notified settlements across the country were made available so that they can live as independently as possible and practice Tibetan religion and culture. They are also allowed to establish centres of higher learning in Tibetan Buddhism. As a result, several reputed Buddhist institutes came up in Karnataka, and in the Indian Himalayan belt. In what may be termed as a gesture well reciprocated, and because of the respect and influence His Holiness the Dalai Lama commands, the Tibetan diaspora also lived as a peaceful community, rarely creating problems for India’s law enforcement agencies.
    The situation, however, changed from 2000 onwards when unity amongst Tibetans suffered some setback due to developments like the Karmapa succession controversy and the controversy over worshiping of Dorje Shugden. In a unique case of politics getting the better of religion, two senior monks of the Karma kargyue sect of Tibetan Buddhism, Tai Situ Rinpoche and late Shamar Rinpoche, developed serious differences after the demise of Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the 16th Karmapa, in 1981. This animosity ultimately led to emergence of two 17th Karmapa candidates in the early nineties. While Tai Situ Rinpoche identified and recognised UghyanThinley Dorje, late Shamar Rinpoche anointed Thinley Thaye Dorje as his Karmapa candidate. Enthronement of their respective protégés at the Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, the supreme seat of the Karma Kargue linage, being their primary objective, both started indulging in activities monks normally are expected to, and bitterness spewed against each other.
    The bitter rivalry assumed a new dimension when UghyenThinley Dorje suddenly appeared in India in January 2000. The competition became fiercer and hectic political lobbying, never known in the history of Tibetan Buddhism on Indian soil, became common place. Apart from pulling strings at their disposal in Sikkim as well as in the power corridors of New Delhi, these senior monks spat against each other with allegations and counter allegations, widening the gaps between their supporters. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, choosing to favour one of the candidates—a decision many Tibet watchers felt was ill-timed—had also limited possible scope of rapprochement. Hence, the Karma Kargyue followers are now vertically divided, while the camps are dragged into a long drawn legal battle.
    Another development that unfortunately split the Tibetans is the controversy over Shugden worshipping, which again is an internal matter of the Gelugpa sect, to which the Dalai Lama belongs. It erupted as a result of the Dalai Lama urging Tibetans to refrain from worshiping Dorje Shugden, a deity believed to be a protector, according to Tibetan legend. Shugden practitioners, who felt offended by the call, describe it as an attack on freedom of religion, a right, which Dalai Lama himself tirelessly fought for. On the other hand, die hard Dalai Lama followers perceived the questioning of the decision as one challenging the wisdom of the Dalai Lama and mounted massive pressure on Dorje Shugden practitioners to relent, with some even demolishing the statues of the deity. The rivalry ultimately led to split in two Gelug monasteries in Karnataka, and Serpom and Shar Garden monasteries in Bylakupe and Mundgod respectively came under the control of Shugden followers. The bitterness associated with the split is exemplified by the fact that till today, members of these monasteries are treated as some sort of outcasts by the others. Thus, for the first time, the Tibetan diaspora in India gave birth to sections opposed to the Dalai Lama, with spillover effects in Tibet and elsewhere.
    For India, with a fragile internal security profile, a divided Tibetan population on its soil is not good news. It has several long-term implications. It is common knowledge that China considers Dalai Lama as a secessionist, one plotting to divide their country. The latter’s claim of “all that Tibetans were asking for, was a status of genuine autonomy within the Constitution of the Peoples’ Republic of China”, had fallen into deaf ears. China also considers him as someone who plays to the Indian tune to tickle China. Therefore, at a time when China has successfully shrunk the Dalai Lama’s space internationally, India continuing to extend the usual space for him is viewed as complicity. Sharp reaction from China when he was allowed to visit Arunachal Pradesh in April 2017, is a recent example. Such being the delicate nature of India-China relations on matters and issues concerning Tibetans, India can hardly afford to ignore the division within the diaspora. Past experience of dubious elements from Tibet having succeeded in infiltrating the Central Tibetan Administration, including the security wing, should be a warning.
    It is also time India understands the reason behind Tibetans seeking Indian passports, despite an existing arrangement for issue of Identity Certificates, which is passport equivalent. Some had even successfully taken recourse to legal remedy on the issue, and left the government of India red-faced. These changing moods should not be viewed as desires by Tibetans to become Indian citizens. They are triggered by the pathetic state of affairs associated with issuing of Identity Certificates, where delays in most cases are anything between six months to one year. Early streamlining of the process will drastically reduce their desire to hold Indian passport. It will also remove the wrongly perceived notion among some educated Tibetan youth, that the cumbersome process was a ploy by India to confine them in this country. While India should not shy from requesting the Dalai Lama to use his good offices to end all differences within the community in the interest of India’s internal security, it will also be necessary to ensure that young Tibetans do not nurse a silent grudge against the very country they called their second home.
    https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/tibetan-disunity-not-indias-interest

  25. Although the Dalai Lama has offered an apology, the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) still expressed their disappointment over his controversial comment on Nehru, the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC). Dalai Lama called Nehru self-centred.

    The Congress said Dalai Lama being a foreigner should shun and refrain from interfering in the internal as well as external affairs of India.

    Dalai Lama should abstain from imparting controversial information to students: Arunachal Congress
    Dalai Lama should know that a spiritual leader like him is shouldering great expectation: APCC
    | DAMIEN LEPCHA | ITANAGAR | August 12, 2018 9:58 pm
    disappointment over the recent statement made by Tibetan Spiritual Leader the 14th Dalai Lama in which he called Jawaharlal Nehru, the former Prime Minister of India as “self-centered” and the one responsible for parting India and Pakistan.
    “Although Dalai Lama expressed regret over his controversial comment, the APCC is extremely thwarted by it. A Tibetan spiritual leader calling names to an Indian leader who sweated most to keep him and his followers safe from Chinese aggression is simply not acceptable. Today, India is home to lakhs of Tibetan refugees who are living in 37 settlements and 70 scattered communities across different states of India,” APCC vice-president Minkir Lollen said in a statement on Sunday.
    “Dalai Lama may have forgotten that India provided a beam of light and hope to Tibetans remaining in Chinese-dominated Tibet and in the neighbouring Chinese provinces politically cut off from the Tibetan heart land. All these happened only because India has great leaders like Gandhi and Nehru who took the responsibility of social burden to shelter thousands of persecuted Tibetans then in 1959,” Lollen added.
    Minkir said Dalai Lama should know that a spiritual leader like him is shouldering great expectation, hope and trust of millions on record and the same are watching his contribution towards the mankind.
    “In such circumstances, Dalai Lama should abstain from imparting partial and controversial information to the students who are the torch bearer of the nation,” the Congress said.
    Further stating that the statement of the spiritual leader could be a politically motivated one and made with an effort to approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi for survival of his continuation in the country, the Congress said Dalai Lama being a foreigner should shun and refrain from interfering in the internal as well as external affairs of India.
    https://nenow.in/north-east-news/dalai-lama-should-abstain-from-imparting-controversial-information.html

  26. The CTA is completely right to be worried. I mean who if not paid by the CTA does listen to them? Their interests lie beyond the Tibetans and the Tibetans are right to take the Indian citizenship as nothing has improved for them since so long.

    I guess there is not much choice, either go back to Tibet or become an Indian citizen. Who would like to stay under the Central Tibetan Administration, who is not known to have much success in their politics…

  27. The obvious reason for Tibetan leadership to be worried about Tibetan taking up Indian citizenship is they will lose opportunity to use Tibetan to ask for a donation. What else expenses CTA will have since the majority already turn as Indian and this directly also affects the Tibetan leadership to put the money into their pocket. That’s why Tibetan leadership makes things very hard for the Tibetan to take up Indian citizenship.

  28. Tibetans are taking up the Indian citizenship because the CTA is not doing their job to try to bring the Tibetans back to Tibet. People with sense know that the CTA and the Tibetans in exile do not have anything to bargain with China, let alone a dialogue. They should really humble down and request China to kindly let them return to Tibet. But Lobsang Sangay still wants to act arrogant. He travels around the world to condemn China, trying to disturb China’s social stability.

    On one hand, the CTA keeps saying they want to have a dialogue with China but on the other, they are trying to undermine China. If the CTA continues to do that, what makes the CTA think China should talk to them? The CTA is not showing sincerity in wanting to reconcile with China.

  29. Do Tibetans have more freedom in India than in China? As long as Tibetans are still refugees, their movements will be restricted, they will not be able to travel to many places. They will not be allowed to purchase any property or own a business, they have to rely on a proxy in order to have these things. Even though some Tibetans are born and raised in India, but they cannot enjoy the benefits and welfare provided by the Indian government unless they decide to become Indian citizens. Their future is actually very uncertain and risky. Will the CTA do something to give security to Tibetans? I doubt so.

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.…Instead of turning away people who practise Dorje Shugden, we should be kind to them. Give them logic and wisdom without fear, then in time they give up the ‘wrong’ practice. Actually Shugden practitioners are not doing anything wrong. But hypothetically, if they are, wouldn’t it be more Buddhistic to be accepting? So those who have views against Dorje Shugden should contemplate this. Those practicing Dorje Shugden should forbear with extreme patience, fortitude and keep your commitments. The time will come as predicted that Dorje Shugden’s practice and it’s terrific quick benefits will be embraced by the world and it will be a practice of many beings.

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