Ever since China's military invasion of Tibet in 1949-1950, the religion, the cultural heritage and sovereignty of the Tibetan people have been severely compromised.

With the signing of the 17-Point Agreement with the Chinese signed under duress on May 23, 1951, Tibet surrendered its sovereignty to the Chinese for the first time in its long history. Tibetans hoped that Beijing would comply with the Chinese side of the agreement. But that did not happen.

The situation inside Tibet deteriorated progressively, year after year following the invasion. The human rights of Tibetans were not honored.

Activists have created a petition, at The White House's We the People website, calling on the Obama administration to implore China to lift its suppression of Tibetan cultural and religious practices. If 100,000 people sign the petition by March 12., the White House must respond to it.

In 1956, violent protests began in the Kham region of Tibet. Many natives of that region, who are known as Khampas, left their homes and took refuge up in the hills with their weapons. They attacked Chinese posts whenever the situation was tactically favorable. Gradually, our Khampa warriors left Kham, and banded together in the vicinity of Lhasa and the Lhokha (southern) region.

The situation in Tibet worsened by the day, and many skirmishes between the Tibetans and Chinese forces erupted throughout Tibet.

The author, Thepo Tulku, at the re-established Ganden Monastery University in South India in 1975 at roughly 19 years of age.

During this tumultuous period in Lhasa, the Chinese military general invited the Dalai Lama to the local army headquarters for a dance performance. They insisted that the customary entourage and security detail not accompany His Holiness.

Lhasans were stunned and suspicious. They smelled danger. They were convinced that as soon as the Dalai Lama entered the military headquarters, the Chinese would kidnap him and fly him to Beijing, just as had happened with many other Tibetan freedom fighters who disappeared after accepting similar invitations from the Chinese.

On March 10, 1959, tens of thousands of Tibetans in Lhasa gathered to protest in defiance against the Chinese military, demanding they go back to China and leave Tibet to the Tibetans. The demonstrators surrounded the Norbulingkha palace, to protect the Dalai Lama. The angry crowd even stoned to death two Tibetans identified as spies, who were on the special Chinese payroll.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama escaping Tibet to take political refuge in India in March, 1959, courtesy tibetoffice.org

On the night of March 17, 1959, the Dalai Lama disguised himself as a Chinese soldier, slipped out of his summer palace, and headed south toward India. He was escorted by his loyal entourage, and by Khampa warriors.

At the time, I was five years old. I was living in the Ganden monastery in Tibet, as a reincarnated Tulku.

Word of the escape spread quickly. As people throughout Tibet learned of the Dala Lama's flight, many decided to make the perilous choice to try and follow him to India.

Some of our monastery elders fled, and they took me along with them to exile in India.

I was separated from my mother and father.

I never saw them again.

Thepo Tulku: "I am in the front row, second position from left to right. It was 1960, and I was about 6 years old, at the Tibetan Young Lamas Home School (which included all five different sects of Tibetan Buddhism), in New Delhi, India."

I have worked for my people's cause all my life. I do my best to serve as a conduit between our younger generation and older folks. I'm a follower of the Middle-Way Approach endorsed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I believe that this approach makes the most sense in our ever-changing geopolitical environment.

On March 10, 2013, I will join Tibetans around the world in protest. On that day, I will attend protests in the Bay Area, then fly to Washington DC to lobby American lawmakers to support human rights in Tibet, on March 18 and 19. There will be many Gangchenpas (“People from the Land of Snow”) in DC for our lobbying efforts, from some 20 cities throughout North America.

I urge every Tibetan reading this message to make an effort to join us in Washington, DC, for our lobbying efforts. We need the participation of as many Tibetans as possible.

The Tibetan self-immolations, which are occurring mostly inside Tibet, are our people's desperate call for justice and support from the international community. This began as a contemporary phenomenon in Tibet starting around 2009. In early 2013, the number of Tibetans who have burned themselves alive surpassed 100. In a brutally occupied land where there is no freedom of speech, immolation has emerged as a most desperate form of expression.

Each of those 100 fellow human beings demanded the restoration of fundamental human rights in Tibet, such as the freedom to practice one's spiritual beliefs in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha. They all call out as one voice for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet.

The author, at a pro-Tibet protest in the United States.

All of my fellow Tibetan families and children are suffering so much inside occupied Tibet. It is important for all conscientious netizens of the global community to amplify our collective voices on behalf of the voiceless in Tibet.

We are united in our desire to raise the awareness of the international community. We want the world to hear and see the atrocities being committed against Tibetans solely for the crime of speaking their minds; the crime of human expression. We want to continue our spiritual practices in line with the teachings of our great gurus, not under the dictates of a state entity that does not believe in the right of religious freedom, or freedom of thought.

I urge world leaders to give us a hand. We want China to abide by globally-recognized principles of basic human rights and freedoms for the people in Tibet, as enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

China, give us genuine autonomy and there will be harmony.

FREE TIBET.

PEACE ON EARTH.

—Thepo Tulku

The author, with a young fellow Tibetan

]]> http://boingboing.net/2013/03/06/tibet.html/feed 13 http://boingboing.net/2013/01/25/a-tibetan-wheel-of-life-ma.html http://boingboing.net/2013/01/25/a-tibetan-wheel-of-life-ma.html#comments Fri, 25 Jan 2013 23:05:08 +0000 Xeni Jardin http://boingboing.net/?p=208436

Tenzin Wangdu Thokme, L, and Ven. Lama Losang Samten, R. Photo: Xeni Jardin.

I traveled to Santa Barbara this week to observe the Santa Barbara Tibet Summit, and the creation of a Tibetan sand mandala under the direction of Ven. lama Lobsang Samten.

Above, a short video I shot yesterday on my iPhone in which Samten explains some of the history and symbolism behind the "Wheel of Life" mandala, which is based in a very old tradition but also encompasses some newer creative elements.

It was a beautiful thing to see and hear, over the course of days. The chakpur, those conical metal tools you see in the video that they use to "paint" with the sand, make a raspy percussive rhythmic sound. It's hypnotic. When you can hear that you've achieved just the right pace and rhythm with that sound, one monk said, you know your mind has reached a meditative state of emptiness, and that is where you're supposed to be when you are creating the mandala.

The environment was reverent but there was also some goofing around, as evidenced in the photo below, in which Ven. Thepo Rinpoche takes an iPad snapshot of Samten's head. Yes, some monks carry iPads and iPhones and other gadgets, and they sometimes use them in interesting ways.

"His bald head is a mandala!" Thepo-la said as he snapped the picture. And then they both cracked up.

Ven. Thepo Rinpoche snaps a photo of Samten's head as he works on the sand mandala. Photo: Xeni Jardin.

Tomorrow, Saturday January 26, they will ritually destroy the mandala in a ceremony that takes place at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara at 11am PT.

Why are the sand mandalas destroyed, when they are so beautiful and take so much labor and devotion to create? I asked Samten.

"They're like a birthday cake. They are meant to be eaten."

I will be there at the destruction ceremony Saturday. If you're a Boing Boing reader in Southern California, I encourage you to come, too. Schedule here; there are other things happening around the Tibet Summit over the weekend, including film screenings tonight and on Sunday (coincidentally, the Santa Barbara Film Festival is happening this week, too).

Losang Samten, working on the Wheel of Life mandala in Santa Barbara. Photo: Xeni Jardin

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama speaks during a teaching session on the first day of the Kalachakra festival in the eastern Indian city of Bodhgaya January 1, 2012. The Kalachakra is a 10-day festival comprising Buddha teachings and meditations, taking place at Bodhgaya where Buddha is said to have gained enlightenment. REUTERS/Jitendra Prakash

Ed Wong in the New York Times writes about reports that hundreds of Tibetan Buddhists who attended the Kalachakra ceremony in January in India have been detained without charge by Chinese security officers upon returning to China-controlled Tibet.

This is the first time that the Chinese authorities have detained large numbers of Tibetan pilgrims returning from the ceremony, held regularly in India among other places. Many of the pilgrims are elderly and have been detained for more than two months in central Tibet, or what China calls the Tibet Autonomous Region. The detainees are being interrogated and undergoing patriotic re-education classes, and have been ordered to denounce the Dalai Lama, who presided over the ceremony, known as the Kalachakra, say people who have researched the detentions. The detainees are being held at hotels, schools and military training centers or bases; some are being forced to pay for their lodging and meals.

Full story is here (via NgawangYonten).

Meanwhile, the desperate protest-suicides continue. 33 Tibetans have self-immolated in protest of Chinese rule since 2009, according to the Tibetan government in exile. And on April 8, a 26 year old Tibetan man in India jumped to his death in the river Ganges, a few days after texting to a friend, “It is my personal decision... Free Tibet.” According to reports, Dhondup Phuntsok was wearing a ‘Free Tibet' t-shirt.

“Ruby di, sorry I lied actually I want to do it myself and it is my personal decision whatsoever the consequences maybe tonight,” Dhondup Phuntsok texted Ruby of Ganasamnnay, an Indian organisation that works for Tibetan refugees. “This is just me and myself. I will delete all the phone numbers from my cell so that no one gets disturbed if I am caught in this act…Free Tibet,” Dhondup Phuntsok wrote.

“I want to tell my people that writing free Tibet at the gate of the consulate is a better way to protest than self-immolating oneself,” Dhonduo Phuntsok further wrote.

And today, news that China is punishing devotees who see visions of the Dalai Lama in the moon.

A report coming out of Tibet say Phurbu Namgyal, a 20-year-old youth from Lhundup district near Tibet’s capital Lhasa, saw reflection of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the moon recently. He confided his experience to his friends while working together at a club house in Lhasa. He told them that if someone gazes at the night sky one can see His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the moon. All of them then started looking at the sky to see the vision outside the club. The police from the public security bureau knew about this and arbitrarily picked up Phurbu Namgyal alleging him for committing an illegal act. His whereabouts and well-being remain unknown.

Here is the most wonderful photograph you'll ever see of a Buddhist monk sharing food with a tiger. Shot by photographer Wojtek Kalka at the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi, Thailand.

Worth noting: animal rights advocates do not think the temple itself is wonderful, as the afore-linked Wikipedia entry explains, because the big cats there are kept in abusive conditions. (via Bill Gross)]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/02/09/monk-and-tiger-share-a-meal.html/feed 21 http://boingboing.net/2011/11/02/exiled-tibetans.html http://boingboing.net/2011/11/02/exiled-tibetans.html#comments Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:46:09 +0000 Xeni Jardin http://boingboing.net/?p=127463

Photo: David Huang

This morning, a demonstration took place in McLeod Ganj, a quiet Northern Indian village adjacent to the home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile. In this town on the southern end of the Himalayas, young Tibetan exiles staged a memorial for Tibetans inside China-controlled Tibet who have burned themselves alive in recent months.

11 have self-immolated since February 2009. Most are teenagers or in their early twenties. The youngest was 17. It is an expression of despair, and an act of protest against increasingly harsh Chinese military crackdown on ethnic Tibetan cultural, religious, and social systems. For a list of the names, dates, and locations, read on (and there is more background at standupfortibet.org).

The demonstration was organized by Students for a Free Tibet and Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, Dharamsala.

Oxblood Ruffin was at the demonstration. He tells Boing Boing,

It was a very moving demonstration. Young monks carried a graphic banner with flames in the background and the text, Tibetans are dying for freedom. They were accompanied by demonstrators wearing masks of world leaders.

It would be a little dramatic to say things have come to a head. But there's a definite shift, and I suspect that the recent spate of self-immolations will continue. The desperation is palpable, and there seems to be a sense of, "What have we got to lose?"

The Chinese are playing this off as though the Dalai Lama is running around with a lighter and inciting the monks to kill themselves. But that couldn't be further from the truth. Tibetans are very depressed about what's going on. But their is a quiet respect for what the monks have done. It's viewed as the supreme sacrifice for the Tibetan people.

Below, photos, and a press release issued today by organizers.

Photo: David Huang

Photo: David Huang

[DHARAMSHALA] Celebrities, politicians and other prominent individuals, including Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu and musicians Radiohead have joined over 20,000 people in supporting a new campaign calling for coordinated global action to resolve the escalating crisis in Tibet, where ten young Tibetans have self-immolated since March 2011.

On the eve of the G20 Summit, Tibetans and their supporters are joining a Global Day of Action to highlight a Campaign for Global Intervention, an urgent call to world leaders to exert multilateral pressure on Chinese President Hu Jintao to ease tensions in Tibet.

Statements of concern following the self-immolations in Tibet have been issued by a number of governments, such as the United States, Germany and also the European Parliament. Campaigners are calling for a more coordinated, multilateral approach, including a joint demarche and the urgent creation of an appropriate and effective multi-lateral mechanism through which future diplomatic measures concerning Tibet can be agreed. Lobbying efforts have won the support of parliamentarians around the world, see www.StandupforTibet.org.

“Today, in 60 cities around the world, Tibetans and supporters are saying Enough! Enough to China's violent, military rule over Tibet, and Enough to world leaders for failing to hold Beijing accountable for its atrocities in Tibet. Inaction now will only lead to the tragic loss of countless more Tibetan lives, and we cannot stand by and let that happen,” said Dorjee Tseten, National Director of Students for a Free Tibet India.

The harsh reaction of the Chinese government authorities to the 2008 protests across Tibet and the follow-on compulsory “patriotic reeducation” or “legal education” at Tibetan monasteries. Although protests in Tibet have been initiated and joined by all sectors of the society, including students, monks and nuns are frequent targets of repression given that religious practice connected to the Dalai Lama is viewed as subversive by the Chinese government. Elements of the security crackdown in Tibet that began as a reaction to the 2008 protests are ongoing with tightened control all around the country.

Our Demands:

The People’s Republic of China must:

1. Immediately remove security personnel from the Ngaba (Ch: Aba) and Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) regions and from individual monasteries. All monks must be allowed to return unconditionally to their respective monasteries in the Ngaba and Kardze regions.

2. Release all those detained in connection to the 10 self-immolations since 16 March 2011 and account for the whereabouts and well-being of all those who have self-immolated since February 2009.

3. Allow foreign diplomats and independent foreign media unfettered access to all Tibetan areas, especially the regions of Ngaba and Kardze.

4. Immediately suspend the implementation of religious and security policies in Ngaba.

We call on G20 Leaders and other Governments to:

1. In partnership with other concerned governments, insist that the People’s Republic of China accede to the above demands, including allowing diplomats and media access to Tibetan areas.

2. Express their concern about the situation in Ngaba directly to Hu Jintao in the fringes of the G20 summit in Cannes, France.

3. Jointly démarche (officially reprimand)China concerning the situation in Ngaba, seeking a full accounting for the removal of monks from Kirti Monastery, including an explanation of the pretext or conditions under which monks were removed and their current whereabouts.

4. Urgently establish, with other concerned governments, an appropriate and effective multi-lateral mechanism through which future diplomatic measures concerning Tibet can be agreed.

NOTES TO EDITOR:

List of Self-Immolations in Tibet (11 to date; 10 in 2011 and one in 2009)

27 February 2009, Ngaba: Tapey, mid-20s, of Kirti Monastery. Whereabouts unknown.

16 March 2011, Ngaba: Lobsang Phuntsok, 20, of Kirti Monastery. Died 17 March 2011.

15 August 2011, Kardze: Tsewang Norbu, 29, monk of Nyitso Monastery. Died at the scene, 15 August 2011.

26 September 2011, Ngaba: Lobsang Kelsang, 18, monk of Kirti Monastery. In hospital. Lobsang Kunchok, 19 , a monk of Kirti Monastery. In a different hospital to Lobsang Kelsang.

3 October 2011, Ngaba: Kelsang Wangchuk, 17, monk of Kirti Monastery. In hospital.

7 October 2011, Ngaba: Choephel, 19 former monk of Kirti Monastery. Died 11 October 2011. Khaying, 18, former monk of Kirti Monastery. Died 8 October 2011.

15 October 2011, Ngaba: Norbu Dramdul, 19, former monk of Kirti Monastery. Taken away, whereabouts unknown.

17 October 2011, Ngaba: Tenzin Wangmo, 20, nun of Ngaba Mamae Choekorling Nunnery. Died at the scene, 17 October 2011.

25 October 2011, Kardze: Dawa Tsering, 38, monk of Kardze Monastery. Status unknown, possibly being cared for in Kardze Monastery after refusing hospital treatment.

Organized by Students for a Free Tibet and RTYC- Dharamsala: www.studentsforafreetibet.org www.sftindia.org