Comments on: US$1.5 million siphoned by Tibetan government

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 17:18:03 +0000

By: T

Tue, 24 Dec 2019 07:43:13 +0000

It is indeed very sad to see how a government is abusing its own people. The CTA has been taking advantage of the Tibetan plight to get money for themselves. What has the CTA achieved in the past 60 years? What is the result of the free Tibet movement? The CTA encourage the Tibetans to self-immolate to create awareness on the Tibetan plight in the hope that more people will support them, but is it working? If the CTA wants to see some progress in the free Tibet movement, they should first solve the conflicts in the Tibetan community, unite the people and work together using the peaceful method. Condemning the Chinese government and sacrificing more lives will not help at all.

By: Yangtso

Yangtso — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 08:58:58 +0000

For many years, people have been contributing towards Tibetan cause either by giving financial support or by participating in various protests and etc, I believe the reasons behind it are not solely for the Tibetan cause itself, but because people believe in the Dalai Lama, therefore they also believe in what he is fighting for.

It will be too naive for the CTA to think they will continue to enjoy all the support even after the passing of the Dalai Lama. The world now is very different from half a century ago where the information exchange is slow and ineffective. If the CTA think that they can continue to manipulate their own people and the world, they will soon facing the consequence of losing everything.

By: John

John — Sat, 07 Dec 2019 08:31:26 +0000

The funding of Tibetan cause can be considered one of the biggest funding in the world. Many people sympathize with the Tibetan condition and many people like and respect the Dalai Lama and willing to contribute. Unfortunately, they cannot see where actually the money has been spent and there is more and more news of the money laundering and misused by the CTA.

These cause many people around the world to question whether their contribution has been used correctly. CTA had caused all this to themselves by not being honest and by not carrying out their duty well to protect and take care of the Tibetan welfare.

The people around the world should really stop funding and question how CTA uses the money and show their account and be transparent. We cannot have a group of people uses donation money which supposed to help the needy.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 06:23:36 +0000

The CTA has received so much money from the sponsors for the last 60 years, but where have all the money gone? The CTA will not disclose to the public how they use the money sponsors have been giving to them. If they have used the money appropriately, there should be some progress in the Tibet cause, but there isn’t. They use the money to do things that separate the Tibetan community, for examples, printing books and releasing videos that lie about Dorje Shugden. Apart from that, they also used the money to print guides on how to self-immolate! The things that they do with the money don’t bring benefits to the Tibetans but further separate the Tibetans apart.

By: Chokey

Chokey — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 04:09:26 +0000

Lobsang Sangay has been the president for the Tibetans in exile for the past 7 years but he has not done anything significant for the Tibetans. As a president, he is not very effective or aggressive. Apart from continuously asking money from the sponsors, I don’t really see him doing anything good.

When Lobsang Sangay first became the president, it seemed like there is a hope for the Tibetans. He is a graduate from the renowned Harvard University with a law degree. Who else in the Tibetan community has a qualification as high as him? Sadly, with such an impressive resume, Tibetans are still refugees.

He has given enough time for him to prove his capability, but so far, he has not produced any result. Since Tibetans are not united, no one has the power to scrutinise Lobsang Sangay and take charge of the CTA. In fact, CTA has created so much problems that no one wants to clean the mess.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 17:43:03 +0000

Lobsang Sangay cares only about his pocket and nothing else. He wants to become the leader of Tibetans in exile community for personal gain, not to serve the Tibetans. He shamelessly confessed that he actually didn’t have a plan in mind when he contested for the presidency.

No doubt Lobsang Sangay has a qualification from a renown institution which is the Harvard. But this is all he has, a paper qualification. He is not capable of leading, he is not capable of producing results. What has he achieved so far? He only creates problems for people.

The Tibetans have been waiting for 60 years to go back to Tibet but this is not happening, the Tibetans are still refugees now. But Lobsang Sangay himself has a US passport, how come? If he doesn’t like to be a refugee, what makes him think the rest of the Tibetans like to remain stateless?

By: Drolma

Drolma — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 23:19:36 +0000

Even though the Tibetans might be the luckiest refugees in the world, they are also the most unfortunate ones in the world. They are allowed to have their own government in India who is supposed to take care of their welfare but their government only exploit them. The CTA has no intention to give a better future to the Tibetans and they want the Tibetans to continue to remain as refugees so that the CTA can get free money from the donors.

For the past 60 years, the CTA has received millions and millions of dollars from the west but no one knows where did the money go. No other refugees in the world have received so much financial aid. Most of the refugees after a few years would have been accepted by different countries and given the citizenship but for the Tibetans, this is just a dream. The CTA does not want them to become a citizen of another country.

No one likes to remain as refugees or someone without an identity but the CTA does not care. Many Tibetans have realised how the CTA is using them, as a result, they migrate to overseas, go back to Tibet or just integrate and become the citizen of India. As more negative news about the CTA surfaces, they will lose more credibility and trust from the people. Sooner or later, the CTA will collapse, they might not even survive for the next 5 years!

By: Maya

Maya — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 15:49:44 +0000

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

By: Vardaniya

Vardaniya — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 13:21:06 +0000

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