Dalai Lama says he looks forward to meet Obama, leaves for Australia, New Zeaalnd

News Courtesy: phayul.com

Dharamsala November 29 – His Holiness the Dalai Lama said he hope to meet US President Barack Obama early next year. The Tibetan leader said he did not "insist" on meeting Obama earlier as the US was "slightly hesitant" to meet him before Obama's visit to Beijing.

His Holiness was speaking to some 142 Indian journalists who yesterday concluded a two-day seminar organized by the Indian Federation of Working Journalists at the TCV School.

“They (US authorities) were perhaps of the view that President Obama could take up the Tibet issue with the Chinese government in a more conducive environment if he did not meet me before his visit (to China),” His Holiness said.

The 1989 Nobel peace laureate said he was not a "separatist" as accused by Beijing. He said that his side is only seeking genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people within the framework of the People's Republic of China as enshrined in the Chinese constitution.

His Holiness left here yesterday for New Delhi. He is scheduled to begin his ten-day tour of Australia and New Zealand on December 1, 2009 during which he will confer a series of teachings and public talks including a lecture at the Closing Plenary of the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

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A response to China's Lincoln comparisons

Article Courtesy: phayul.com

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.”

– Abraham Lincoln

By: Josh Schrei

The Chinese Government’s most recent abomination — comparing Abraham Lincoln’s war on slavery to the PRC’s brutal invasion and occupation of Tibet (and wrapping it all up with a ‘you-should-understand-slavery-because-you’re-black’ message to President Obama) — is only worth commenting on because there may be those uninformed unfortunates that actually give pause to the PRC’s stance.

Fundamentally, there is no comparison. Yes, President Lincoln declared war on secessionists. He also strongly championed the values of individual liberty and freedom and took considerable political risks to ensure that all people were entitled to these freedoms. None of the freedoms that Lincoln championed are on display in Tibet or China. And drawing reference to one of the great champions of individual liberty from a government that has no interest in such liberty is — to any student of American history — insulting. Lincoln’s name should not even be mentioned in the same sentence as Beijing’s current cronies. Luckily, most thinking people know this.

President Obama, we will not insult your intelligence — as your current hosts have – by explaining to you why it is racist, colonialist, and utterly unfounded to make comparisons between the Confederate South and Tibet. I’m sure you are as shocked and outraged as we are, as is the entire world community.

What we do question is why the world community continues to legitimize, fund, and coddle a dictatorship that is so dangerously out of touch with the norms of modern society. The Chinese government is positioning itself as — and quickly becoming — the next great world superpower, and we are busily helping them. It is high time this stopped. You did not meet with the Dalai Lama before you left for China. But you can make a difference now. We urge you to publicly distance yourself from the Chinese Government’s recent statements and to push for immediate improvements in Tibet, where the people enjoy no freedom of speech and are still suffering the results of a brutal crackdown after last year’s March protests. As someone who respects Lincoln’s name and has an understanding of his politics, this is the least you can do.

The simple truth is that the people of China and Tibet have no freedom, and the fundamental issue is the right of people to determine their own future, which our President Lincoln was a champion of to the end. In the absence of that right — and in defense of the repression of it — mad minds make ludicrous claims. Comparing Lincoln to the current leadership in Beijing is a violation of all that we as Americans value. We trust that — as our President — you will respond accordingly.

Josh Schrei may be contacted at josh.schrei@gmail.com


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Dalai Lama As A Slave Owner

Article Courtesy: phayul.com

By: Bhuchung D. Sonam

It is basic human nature to accuse, name-call and to use strange analogies when you have an internal crisis that cannot be solved. Beijing has been under the spell of this abnormal behaviour for a long time. The problem is that it does not want to look for a permanent cure. Instead it wants to remain in this irksome state.

First it was Zhang Qingli, the Party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region, who called the Dalai Lama "a wolf in monk's robes, a devil with a human face." Zhang was, perhaps, seeing the world's revered icon through skewed glasses issued by Beijing. In May 2009, while speaking to a large crowd at MIT in Boston, the Tibetan leader formed two horns with his fingers and said, "A demon with compassion is not bad after all." Laughter boomed across the hall.

On November 12, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, described the Nobel Laureate as "the former head of a slave state." "In 1959, China abolished the feudal serf system just as President Lincoln freed the black slaves,” he said.

Let's get what Qin is saying − the PRC is analogous to Abraham Lincoln; and Old Tibet comparable to the slavery of black Americans.

Before China's occupation in 1959, Tibet was neither the 'Nectar-filled Shangri-la' of foreign fantasy nor a total serfdom as Beijing claims. It was a viable independent nation with its own army, legal and taxation systems. Like any other nation, it had problems too − such as lack of modern education and economic infrastructure.

It is also true that many Tibetan peasants worked on estates of the rich land-owning families and monasteries, for which they were paid, and they enjoyed freedom and had comfortable rapport with their employers. It was a relationship quite similar to today's workers at large factories. If such a system is called serfdom, as Beijing does, and compared with black slavery in America before 1865, then pretty much the whole world practiced a kind of slavery.

President Abraham Lincoln's War of Independence and eventual abolishment of slavery in the US was based on the principle of basic human equality and the urgent need to assert such rights. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and later made the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which "officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime." It was adopted on December 6, 1865.

"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong," Lincoln said.
China's coming into Tibet was neither a war of independence nor 'liberation' from the onset. It was an illegal annexation of an independent country. Beijing's gifts were the death of over a million Tibetans, destruction of thousands of monasteries and making the Tibetans sign the 17-Point Agreement under duress.

Beijing's record in China is not much brighter. In Mao: The Unknown Story, Jung Chang and Jon Halliday estimate that over 70 million people died in China by 1976. To add onto this are mauling of its students in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the countless crackdowns on poor rural people, and the execution of political prisoners in Tibet and East Turkestan (Chinese: Xinjiang).

Despite its economic growth, today's China is no fairer than serfdom, Beijing is loudly shouting about. In The Dark Side of China's Rise, Minxin Pei writes that Beijing oversees a vast patronage system that secures the loyalty of supporters and allocates privileges to favored groups. "The party appoints 81 percent of the chief executives of state-owned enterprises and 56 percent of all senior corporate executives."

In recent times there were cases of ugly racism in China, where individuals were targeted because of their skin colour. The Wall Street Journal reports Hung Huang, a publisher, writer and one of China's most popular media personalities as saying, "It pains me to see that a people who themselves were discriminated against by the West and called 'the sick man of Asia,' would have such short memories, and start discriminating against groups that are in a disadvantaged position."

Lincoln said that blacks had the rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" and his legacy is putting an end to slavery and giving the blacks a permanent freedom in the US.

The opposite can be said about China's record in Tibet which includes the denial of basic rights resulting in the 2008 peaceful protests in Tibet; arbitrary arrests and the disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama Gendun Choekyi Nyima and writer-blogger Kunga Tsangyang among many others.

Qin Gang's analogy about slavery and Lincoln is a new addition to China's long list of propaganda designed to hide the fact that "beyond the new high-rises and churning factories lie rampant corruption, vast waste, and an elite with little interest in making things better."

For a "former slave owner" Dalai Lama is doing very well. Apart from being a Nobel Laureate, the Tibetan leader is a respected spiritual teacher and tirelessly works to promote non-violence and equal rights based on respect and genuine compassion.

Qin said, “So we hope President Obama more than any other foreign state leader can have a better understanding on China's position on opposing the Dalai's splitting activities."

Obama, being a man of conscience and a new Nobel Laureate, has the power to stop Beijing's meaningless lectures.

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Does India Need to Accept Philosophy of Making 21st Century as an ‘Asian Century’?

Since last few years there has been well crafted strategic attempt to create the concept of ‘Asian Century’ by the political leadership of Communist China. The recent one is the meeting between Indian Prime Minister – Mr. Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao’s meeting held in the last week of October 2009 at Cha-Am Hua Hin in Thaliland. However, the fact is that, Indian people culturally & philosophically don’t believe in the concept of making 21st century as an Asian century’ but believes in the philosophy of ‘one democratic world’, which has it semblance with the United Nations resolutions on ‘Dialogue among civilizations’ and Indian philosophy of ‘Vasudaiva kutumbakam’ (the whole world is one single family). The very concept of espousing cause of continental century (Asian Century) like earlier ‘European Century’ creates rivalry among continents and makes another worse political tool to exploit resources of developing and under-developed nations of Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia like colonial period of ‘European Century’.


The United Nations resolution on ‘dialogue among civilization’ was first floated by Republic of Iran’s letter dated 6th January 1999 in UN General Assembly fifty-fourth session. And the concept had its roots in the ‘Declaration of Athens’, entitled “The heritage of ancient civilizations: Implications for the modern world”, signed by representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Egypt, Italy and Greece at the European Cultural Centre at Delphi, Greece, on 11 November 1998, which also contradicts with the very philosophy of ‘continental century’ like – ‘Asian Century’ of ‘Communist China’ or colonial theory of ‘European Century’. Later on after many meetings since 6th of January 1999, the United Nations decided to observe year 2001 as the Year of ‘Dialogue among Civilizations’. So it is for the Indian leadership to re-think, whether India’s cultural heritage & philosophy believes in ‘Vasudaiva kutumbakam’ (the whole world is one single family) / the UN concept of ‘dialogue among civilization’ or in the philosophy & political theory of making 21st century as an ‘Asian Century’?

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ICT urges Obama to offer mediator's role for China -Tibet dialogue

News Courtesy: phayul.com

Dharamsala, November 11 – The International Campaign for Tibet has urged the US President Barack Obama to offer a third party assistance to the Chinese government and His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s representatives in “defining a common goal for their dialogue, and push for an invitation for the Tibetan leader to visit China.

A letter signed by Hollywood actor Richard Gere on behalf of the board of directors for the Washington D.C based organization said, "If by not meeting [in October 2009] with His Holiness [the Dalai Lama] you intended to signal to General Secretary and President Hu Jintao that you expect an equally significant action from the Chinese government, there are a number of specific objectives that should be pursued."

In its first 10 months in office, the Obama Administration has made statements indicating a desire for meaningful results in the Tibetan-Chinese dialogue. It has also expressed its interest in new, creative approaches to resolve intractable issues, such as Tibet. Observers will be watching to see whether the President uses the opportunity of the US-China summit to rise to the challenge that his administration has set for itself.

In September, President Obama sent his Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett and Under Secretary of State and Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Maria Otero to Dharamsala, India, to convey his administration’s position. Jarrett revealed that the President and the Dalai Lama would meet sometime after the summit in November, and that the Dalai Lama "would value an opportunity to hear directly from the President about what transpired during the Beijing summit with regard to Tibet," according to the Tibetan leader’s Special Envoy, Lodi Gyari.

The letter acknowledged the magnanimous approach that the Dalai Lama took to the President's proposal that they meet only after the US-China Summit but aligns itself with the concern expressed by Vaclav Havel (a member of the ICT International Council of Advisors) that what might appear to be a "minor compromise" will in fact lead to further accommodation.

"We have always believed that America is essential to progress on Tibet. At the November summit, we urge you to bring the weight of your high office, the will of the American people, and your considerable commitment to human rights, nonviolence and peace to help move ahead on this very important issue."

The letter further said that no efforts will yield positive results as long as the Chinese government continues to vilify His Holiness the Dalai Lama and propagandize against the Tibetan people who remain committed to a peaceful resolution.

The letter was sent on behalf of the board Vice Chairman Gare Smith and board members Ellen Bork, Joel McCleary, Steve Schroeder, Marco Antonio Karam, Grace Spring, Melissa Mathison, Keith Pitts, Jim Kane and John Ackerly.

Barack Obama's first Asia trip as the US President begins November 12 and includes Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai, Seoul, and Beijing.

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Why is China scared?

(Article Courtesy: phayul.com, first published in “Asian Age”, Tuesday, November 03, 2009, Burma Review thanks Ms. Maura Moynihan for truth speaking and her love for Tibetan people)

By: Maura Moynihan

A special ritual of life in Dharamsala is welcoming His Holiness the Dalai Lama back to his exile home. A victory banner is strung over the road as a multinational crowd pours into the lanes of Mcleodganj and down Temple Road to His Holiness’ residence, waiting for a glimpse of the great spiritual master and honorary citizen of India, waving from the window of a vehicle escorted by a crack team of Indian commandos.


The Dalai Lama never seems to rest; he just returned from North America, to commence a week of teachings on the Diamond Sutra and the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha. It’s impossible to find a hotel room — Dharamsala quivers from the weight of tourists and pilgrims from five continents who have come to this refugee town in Himachal Pradesh to touch a piece of old Tibet that fell upon this hillside 50 years ago.


There is disquiet among Tibetan refugees and their supporters over escalating Chinese repression in Tibet and Beijing’s success in pressuring world leaders to back off from the Tibet issue.


Last month United States President Barack Obama declined to meet the Dalai Lama as it would upset the Chinese Communist Party bosses in Beijing. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said: “The stronger relationship that we have with China benefits the Tibetan people.” A statement so credulous, or cynical, it seems to have been crafted expressly by the Beijing bureau of propaganda.

The grim reality of life in China’s Tibet is told in every corner of this refugee town, especially at the Gu Chu Sum Society created by ex-political prisoners from Tibet. The office stairwell is lined with drawings depicting the torture Tibetan nationalists endured in Chinese custody. One man was hung by his ankles for hours and whipped with barbed wire. Another had his legs and arms broken, was tossed into a sewage pit and pelted with rocks. A Buddhist nun was repeatedly raped with an electric cattle prod.

This is how China governs Tibet, and the most dangerous outcome of Mr Obama’s refusal to meet the Dalai Lama is the message it sends to the Chinese Communist Party: that their barbarous rule in Tibet can continue without impediment, that they can proceed with the plunder of Tibet’s lands and the yoking of Tibet’s rivers.

China has made the mere mention of Tibet so toxic that delegates at last month’s climate change summit in Bangkok refused to address climate change on the Tibetan plateau and its deleterious effect on the rivers of nation states in south and southeast Asia, hardly a small matter.


Control of the Tibetan plateau and its vast riches is a priority for Hu Jintao’s government. Since March 2008, China has mobilised an estimated 50,000 troops along the Tibet-India border, while protesting against visits by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Arunachal Pradesh and excising Kashmir from India in a new map and website. China is supplying Nepal with aid and weaponry, which fuels the advance of Maoist insurgencies across India. Himachal This Week just ran a two-page story on Chinese spies working in Dharamsala, with a timeline of a decade of arrests and confessions of agents with plans to attack the Dalai Lama.

Why does Beijing so fear this gentle Tibetan Buddhist master and purveyor of the Gandhian legacy of non-violence? On October 1, 2009, the Chinese Communist Party celebrated 60 years of one-party rule with a Cold War parade of massive weaponry and Maoist sloganeering. On October 2, India paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 140th birth anniversary with an inter-faith service at New Delhi’s Gandhi Smriti. Dr Singh sat upon the grass amid citizens and guests as prayers from all religions were read and sung, then scattered rose petals on the site of the Mahatma’s martyrdom with quiet dignity.


These twin ceremonies just a day apart reveal the vast gap between Mao’s and Gandhi’s visions of power. His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls Gandhi his political guru and has steadfastly pursued the path of ahimsa with the Chinese Communists who call him “an incestuous murderer with evil intentions”. But the Dalai Lama has not been broken. Witness him upon his lama’s throne, imparting the wisdom of the Buddha into the golden light of the Kangra Valley, to students from Mongolia, Vietnam and Laos, whose sanghas were laid waste by the Communists, who regard him as the Living Buddha.


“Look how much power China has, and they are so paranoid, they take such desperate measures to keep politicians away from the Dalai Lama,” says celebrated Tibetan poet Tenzing Tsundue. “The Dalai Lama has no aircraft, no money, he’s a refugee. China has weapons and banks, but they are terrified of this simple monk who wants to make peace with them. It shows their great insecurity. Our power lies in our faith in non-violence. The Tibet movement is still here after 50 years. We continue to inspire the people of the world who are looking for solutions to violence and conflict.”

(Ms Maura Moynihan is a writer who has worked with Tibetan refugees in India for many years. Now based in New York, she is researching a book on America’s failed China policy)

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Tawang Set to Welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama

News Courtesy: tibet.net

(Burma Review wishes for a very successful visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, India and welcomes US Administration supportive statement on the visit of His Holiness to Tawang Monastery)


The historic ‘Galden Namgyal Lhatse’, populary known as Tawang Monastery, located in India's north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, has got a facelift and adorned with welcome banners to receive His Holiness the Dalai Lama due to arrive on Sunday, according to media reports. His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be in Arunachal Pradesh from 8 – 13 November, during which he will give religious teachings at Tawang, Dirang and Bombila. His Holiness will also inaugurate a super-speciality hospital at Tawang. It will be the fifth visit of His Holiness to the Indian Himalayan state, earlier he visited in 1959, 1996, 1997 and 2003. Tsona Gontsa Rinpoche, a senior Buddhist spiritual leader and chairperson of the state-level reception committee, said preparations are almost complete with 700 to 800 monks all set to give His Holiness the Dalai Lama a religious welcome.

T G Rinpoche is overseeing preparations at the Tawang monastery and also at a school playground here where His Holiness the Dalai Lama will hold a three-day religious discourse from Monday. Monasteries in Tawang are also conducting special prayers for a successful visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

'The entire town and the monastery have got a facelift. Devotees are excited about the Dalai Lama's visit,' T G Rinpoche was quoted as saying by Indo Asian News Service. The Tawang monastery was established in mid-17th century by Mera Lama, a contemporary of the Great fifth Dalai Lama. The monastery is a virtual treasure trove of Tibetan Buddhist culture. The Parkhang hall within the monastery has a library that houses a good collection of rare Buddhist manuscripts and “thanka” paintings (traditional Tibetan paintings on cloth). The sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, was born 1683 at Urgelling Monastery, 5 km from Tawang.


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Say Apple – An Apple, Mango – A Mango, Monkey – A Monkey, don’t make a monk - Thief!

By: Vijay ‘Bidrohi’

A curious student, hungry for knowledge, asked his teacher a very difficult question – “how to follow Gandhi’s philosophy in current materialistic world to serve humanity”? After a little pause & thought, the teacher replied, it is very simple, start saying – apple – an apple, mango – a mango, monkey – a monkey but don’t make a monk & spiritual person like –Holy Dalai Lama – a thief!

Then equally difficult student asked, if I have to say - a Dragon - a Rabbit, a Monkey - a Parrot, a Mango – an Apple, a Chimpanzee – a Fox, a lovely tender Rose – a Stone, what I would do? The teacher replied - "become an Ambassador or join diplomatic service" or "membership of ruling political party of walled kingdom". Then, the curious student unsatisfied with the answers of his master asked again – "diplomatic services of which country"? The teacher quickly replied – Ambassadorship of any country will work, art of contemporary diplomacy is very scientific. It can make very simple thing appear complicated and complicated thing appear very simple. Student little confused with the answers, asked again – how come political party of walled kingdom figures into this? The teacher replied – ‘don’t you see my loved one, that, sometime, detention & house arrest of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi loved by the people of pagoda kingdom becomes an international problem for walled kingdom and sometimes an internal one! Student satisfied with answers, thanked his master, left him & walked towards countryside to spread the message singing - “Say apple – an apple, mango – a mango, monkey – a monkey, don’t make a monk thief...don't make a monk thief...don't make a monk thief...o...o...o...Great Holy Dalai Lama accept my salute!”

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Tibetan Parliament Sad Over Brutal Killings in Communist China

News Courtesy: tibet.net

Note: Burma Review stands with the innocent non-violent peace loving Buddhist people of Tibet in their hour of great pain.

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(22 October 2009) Voicing strong opposition to the arbitrary killing of Tibetans by the Chinese government, the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile expressed "great sadness" over the death of four Tibetans, who were executed in Lhasa Tuesday for their alleged role in the peaceful protests against China's wrong policies in Tibet last year.

"The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile has come to know with great sadness that on the 20th October, 2009, the government of China has executed Lobsang Gyaltsen and three other Tibetans at Lhasa, who had participated in the Lhasa Protest of 2008, on the alleged charge that they had indulged in bloody killings in that protest," the Parliament said in a statement issued today.

"We pray that the three precious souls may rest in peace."

"Since the uprisings in Tibet last year, the Chinese Communist regime has been carrying out random arrests, imprisonments, torture and summary executions of Tibetans without the due processes of law."

"We strongly oppose such unlawful acts and call upon the government of China to put a stop to them forthwith. We also call upon all those who support the Tibetan cause to help redress the utter grievances of our people which they have been voicing peacefully for the last nearly sixty years. The Chinese government must also implement the rightful demands of the Tibetan people."

Those executed have been identified as Lobsang Gyaltsen, aged 27, born in Lhasa; Loyak, aged 25, of Tashi Khang, Shol Township, Lhasa and Penkyi, aged 21, born in Sakya County. The identity of the fourth person is still unknown.

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Tibetans arrested for supporting His Holiness Dalai Lama

News Courtesy: tibet.net
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(19 October 2009) Three Tibetans were arrested for uploading pictures and speeches of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on their blogs amid intense restrictions on the Internet in Tibet on 1 October, China's 60th founding anniversary.


Writing on the blogs and internet chatting are being closely monitored by the Chinese government agents.


The three youths from Rata village in Sog Dzong, Nagchu Prefecture, have been identified as Gyalseng, aged 25; Nyima Wangchu, 24 and Yeshi Namkha, 25.

They were also charged for keeping contacts with the outside world using the Internet.

They are being held in solitary confinement, having no contacts with any of their families and relatives.

The three youths are known to be regular user of the Internet.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government continues to force the patriotic education campaign among both the lay and monastic community in Sog Dzong.

Under the heightened indoctrination campaign, the customary celebration of the end of the monks' retreat at Tsenden monastery was also prohibited.

Both the monastic community and lay people feel deeply annoyed by the forced indoctrination sessions. The Tibetans are compelled to denounce their spiritual leader and temporal leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and the Central Tibetan Administration.

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