World Tibet News -- January 11, 2000 (Part II)
Christian Wiedemann
## aus der Gruppe: c.wie...@lm102.link-m.de
_________________WTN-L World Tibet Network News _______________
Published by: The Canada Tibet Committee
Editorial Board: Brian Given, Conrad Richter, Nima Dorjee,
Tseten Samdup, Thubten (Sam) Samdup
WTN Editors: wtn-e...@tibet.ca
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Tuesday, January 11, 2000 (Part II)
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ISSUE ID: 00/01/11 (Part II) Compiled by Nima Dorjee
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Contents:
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1. China warns against 'hostile forces' using religion (AP)
2. China Warns Outsiders Against Stirring Unrest In Name Of Religion (AFP)
3. Clinton pushes for China-WTO deal (FT)
4. Beijing Discovers Another "Living Buddha" (AFP)
5. Tibet Lama's Exodus Revives Wrangle Over Black Hat (Reuters)
6. Centre still undecided on Karmapa (IE)
7. Tibetans organise indefinite relay hunger strike in Delhi
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For complete coverage on Karmapa Rinpoche's escape, please visit
www.nalandabodhi.org
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2. China warns against 'hostile forces' using religion (AP)
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January 11, 2000
BEIJING (AP) -- In the wake of the defection of a high-ranking Buddhist Lama
to India, China has warned that it will not tolerate what it called "hostile
overseas forces" using religion to stir up trouble.
The warning by State Councilor Ismail Amat, carried in state-run news media
on Tuesday, was made at a conference on religion in Beijing just days after
the 17th Karrmapa, the leader of an important Tibetan Buddhist sect, fled
Chinese-controlled Tibet for India.
China has prevented "hostile overseas forces from using religion to split
the nation," Amat said Monday at the beginning of the four-day conference,
the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. Amat stressed that China's
approach to religion would continue to be to strengthen control over it and
lead religion to adapt to socialism, the People's Daily reported Tuesday.
Amat, who represents members of the restive Muslim minority in western
China, did not mention the exile of the Karrmapa or any other specific
religious cases, according to reports in the state-controlled news media.
The Karrmapa's eight-day journey by foot and jeep across the Himalayas to
India, where he arrived last Wednesday, was an embarrassment for Beijing and
highlighted the communist leadership's struggle to maintain control over
religious activities.
The Karrmapa, who is 14 years old, is Tibetan Buddhism's third most
important lama and the only one upon whom the Dalai Lama and the Chinese
authorities have agreed. He was being groomed by Communist leaders as an
alternative to the Dalai Lama, who is revered by Tibetans as their top
spiritual leader but lives in exile in India.
Four years ago the officially atheist communist government intervened in the
selection of the Panchen Lama, Tibet's second most important lama, forcing
Buddhist leaders to reject the Dalai Lama's candidate and choose another.
Leaders of the Tibetan sects are revered as the reincarnations of their
predecessors and are identified by divination.
Continued protests by adherents of the multimillion-member Falun Gong
meditation movement against a nearly six-month-old crackdown have also
embarrassed the government. Although members say Falun Gong is not a
religion, it borrows ideas from Buddhism and indigenous Taoism.
The government also tries to control the Protestant and Catholic churches
and has jailed people who worship in underground "house" churches.
The divide between the millions of Chinese who remain loyal to the Pope and
the state-run Catholic church, which cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, was
underscored last week when Beijing's church ordained five of its own
bishops, just hours before Pope John Paul II ordained bishops in Rome.
While the government maintains that it protects religious freedom, it
demands that ultimate loyalties be dictated by the ruling Communist Party,
rather than any higher powers.
Speaking at the same meeting of religious officials Tuesday, Premier Zhu
Rongji praised their efforts to promote political stability, economic
development and unity, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. He also
stressed the "proper management of religious affairs."
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2. China Warns Outsiders Against Stirring Unrest In Name Of Religion (AFP)
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BEIJING, Jan 11, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) China has warned it will not
tolerate any separatist activity in the name of religion at a key
governmental meeting, the state press reported Tuesday. The four-day
national conference opened on Monday only days after a 14-year-old living
Tibetan Buddha fled China to Dharmasala, northern India, home of the Dalai
Lama's exiled Tibetan government, Xinhua news agency reported. "China will
adhere to the reform and opening up policy while firmly resisting hostile
overseas forces that use religion to infiltrate into China," said chairman
State Councillor Ismail Amat, quoted by Xinhua. "(We will) according to law
strengthen the management of religious affairs while respecting the
religious beliefs of ethnic minorities and will firmly prevent and oppose
hostile foreign forces from using religious issues to engage in ethnic
splittist activities," he said.
There was no mention of the Karmapa Rinpoche, leader of one of Tibetan
Buddhism's four major schools, but Amat reiterated that China's atheist
Marxist government would continue policies "guiding religion to adapt to
socialism." The Dalai Lama's exiled government has long been seen by Beijing
as a hostile overseas force aimed at splitting the Tibetan region from the
Chinese motherland.
The Karmapa, who had previously pledged allegiance to Beijing's rule and was
recognised by both China and the Dalai Lama, arrived in Dharmasala last week
after a week-long trek over the Himalayas. His daring escape is seen as a
damaging blow to Beijing's religious policy in Tibet, as it had tried to
push forward the Karmapa as an alternative to the exiled Dalai Lama.
However, Beijing has claimed the Karmapa has gone abroad only to fetch
"musical instruments," indicating the door is still open for his return.
India has said it has not received any formal request for asylum, and the
Karmapa has now gone into hiding in northern India. Amat's warning was seen
as an indication Beijing was prepared to crackdown on any ethnic unrest in
its southwestern Tibetan region stemming from the Karmapa's escape, analysts
said.
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3. Clinton pushes for China-WTO deal (FT)
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By Gerard Baker in Washington (London Fin. Times 1/11/00)
President Bill Clinton on Monday signalled the start of what is expected to
be a fierce election-year battle to win approval for China's admission to
the World Trade Organisation. In a brief White House ceremony, Mr Clinton
formally called on William Daley, the commerce secretary, to lead the push
for congressional approval of so-called normal trade relations with China.
This would clear the way for ratification of last year's agreement between
the US and China.
"Bringing China into the WTO is a win-win decision. It will protect our
prosperity, and it will promote the right kind of change in China," the
president said. Mr Daley, who will be backed by Steve Riccetti, the deputy
White house chief of staff, has a reputation as a deal-maker with close ties
to the congress. He was widely credited with getting congressional approval
for the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement.
Mr Clinton's announcement - marking an early start to the campaign to win
congressional backing for the deal - and the appointment of Mr Daley are
indications of how tough the White House expects the process to be. But it
is also a tacit acknowledgement that the administration's pro-free-trade
approach has run into the sands and signals a much more aggressive effort by
Mr Clinton to persuade business to back the agreement.
In a flurry of political activity over the next month, Mr Clinton will tout
the benefits of China's WTO accession and of free trade in general. He will
use his State of the Union message on January 27 and his first speech to the
World Economic Forum on 29 January to press the case. The Clinton
administration drew heavy criticism from pro-trade business lobbies for its
vacillation over the China WTO deal last year.
Last April Mr Clinton rejected an offer from the Chinese that was widely
regarded as a large concession on the opening of many of China's closed
domestic markets. That deal was dropped for fear it would not win approval
in congress. The rejection led to a frustrating seven months of further
talks with the Chinese, culminating in a new agreement that seemed to most
analysts not to be significantly better than the one that was initially
rejected.
Since then, the prospects for congressional approval have grown even more
murky with the debacle over the failed attempt to start a new round of world
trade talks in Seattle last month. In a separate development yesterday, the
US and India announced they had reached agreement to eliminate barriers in
agriculture, textiles and other key sectors. US trade representative
Charlene Barshefsky said the agreement called for India to lift more than
1,400 import restrictions.
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4. Beijing Discovers Another "Living Buddha" (AFP)
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BEIJING, Jan 11, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) China announced Tuesday the
discovery of the reincarnation of a "Living Buddha" who had played a role in
the administration of Tibet in the 1930s as well as the search for the
present Dalai Lama. A December 31 report in the Tibetan Daily, seen in
Beijing Tuesday, said religious authorities in Tibet had found the seventh
reincarnation of the Reting Rinpoche (reincarnated Lama) of northern Tibet's
Reting monastery in "accordance with divination and governmental
instructions."
No other information was given of the reincarnated spirit child, who was
discovered in accordance with "the traditions and rites" of Lamaism after a
careful and prolonged search among some 670 children in eight Tibetan
districts, the report said. The name of the youth would not be revealed
until after the final "recognition" of China's communist authorities, the
paper said.
Some 20 children had been selected as candidates to become the seventh
Reting following the death of the 6th Reting in 1997, the report said. The
Reting Rinpoche is one of several dozens of living Buddhas in Tibet, but
became noteworthy for his role during his fifth incarnation during the
aftermath of the death of the 13th Dalai Lama in 1933, Tibetan religious
experts in India told AFP.
The fourth Reting was designated as regent by the Tibetan parliament to
administer Tibet during the search and confirmation of the present Dalai
Lama who was enthroned as the 14th Dalai Lama in 1940. "China is looking for
every possible way to increase its control over religious activities in
Tibet and groom the reincarnations in the interest of the state," Richard
Oppenheimer, of the London-based Tibet Information Network, told AFP.
Oppenheimer refused to exclude the possibility that with the escape of the
sixth Karmapa Rinpoche to India last week, China would use the future of the
Reting Rinpoche to "legitimize' the eventual successor of the present Dalai
Lama, Tibet's most revered spiritual figure. The 14-year old Sixth Karmapa,
one of the four most important Tibetan spiritual leaders, was recognzied by
both Beijing and the Dalai Lama. He escaped from China on December 30 and
arrived to India last week, surprising both the Dalai Lama's exiled
government in Dharmasala as well as the Beijing leadership
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5. Tibet Lama's Exodus Revives Wrangle Over Black Hat (Reuters)
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Reuters (1/11/00)
Who is the rightful owner of the black hat? The flight of a 14-year-old
Tibetan boy lama over the icy Himalayas to India has rekindled a tussle
between Tibetan Buddhist monks over the ownership of a triangular hat, which
rightly belongs to the leader of the divided Kagyu sect.
China and the Dalai Lama, Tibet's supreme leader, both recognize the boy
monk Ugyen Trinley Dorje as the Karmapa Lama. But some of the sect's monks
question the status of the boy, who supporters say came to India to escape
religious repression and Beijing's refusal to grant him an exit visa.
Chinese official reports say he traveled to India to collect holy relics,
including the hat and musical instruments.
"The hat is very important for the Kagyu sect as only the Karmapa Lama can
wear the hat and people in the Himalayas recognize him by it," said a
spokesman for the faction which challenges the boy monk now in the glare of
the world's media.
BLACK HAT IN HIMALAYAN MONASTERY
"A Karmapa Lama already exists in India and has been here for the past five
years," the New Delhi-based spokesman added. "We will not hand over the
hat." The black hat in question has been kept in the Rumtek Monastery in the
northern Indian Himalayan state of Sikkim ever since it was taken there by
the former Karmapa Lama from Tibet in 1959, when he fled from Chinese
communist rule. "There were vague rumors for about a month that the boy lama
was coming from Tibet to get the hat," the spokesman said. "But we were very
surprised when he appeared suddenly."
As the only Tibetan Buddhist leader recognized by both Beijing and the
government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India, the Karmapa Lama represented
China's best hope as a sympathetic substitute for the 64-year-old Dalai Lama
after his death. In 1995 Beijing and Dharamsala each chose a different boy
in the search for the Panchen Lama, Tibet's second-highest lama. The Nobel
Prize-winning Dalai Lama's choice, now 10, and his family have not been seen
in public since and are believed to be under house arrest. Beijing's choice
was installed in Tashi Lhunpo monastery in Shigatse, but is regarded by many
Tibetans as a fake.
There are four main sects, or lineages, of Tibetan Buddhism. The Gelugpa
sect is considered more academic and its leader, the Dalai Lama, is
considered both the spiritual and temporal head of Tibetans. Kagyu, on the
other hand, stresses meditation and its leader, the Karmapa, is purely a
spiritual figurehead. All lineages, despite the complex political intrigues
and philosophical approaches which divide them, are united in their
opposition to Chinese control of Tibet.
TWO TEENAGE BOYS
The Kagyu sect - of which there are two sub-sects - was founded by the first
Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa (1110-1193), who is said to have started the lineage
system of incarnate lamas. When a lama dies he is believed to be
reincarnated in a newborn. The search for the reincarnation can take years.
Kagyu was the prominent school of Buddhism in the area until the 17th
century when it was overtaken by the Gelugpa school. Many monasteries were
converted to that of the Gelugpa school, and now only two Kagyu monasteries
remain in Tibet. But the row within Kagyu's Karma sub-sect over the rightful
ownership of the hat is a recent one. It erupted when the 16th Karmapa Lama
died in 1981 and a committee of regents started searching for a reinarnation
of the lama.
Shamarpa Rinpoche, Kagyu's second highest leader, backed 17-year-old Thaye
Dorje, who is believed to be in France but whose support base is just
outside Sikkim in India's West Bengal. Ugyen Trinley Dorje was chosen by
Situ Rinpoche, who ranks third in the order of Kagyu monks. "After having
studied all evidence, his holiness (Dalai Lama) came to the conclusion that
this boy was the real Karmapa Lama," said Tashi Wangdi, the Tibetan minister
for religion and culture.
But the Shamarpa Rinpoche faction says the Dalai Lama is only the spiritual
leader of his own Gelugpa sect and his recognition of an incarnation of the
head of another sect has no meaning. "This is the first time in history that
the Dalai Lama has done something like this," said the spokesman. "It is
like non-Catholic Christians appointing a Catholic Pope."
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6. Centre still undecided on Karmapa (IE)
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JYOTI MALHOTRA
Copyright (c) 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
NEW DELHI, JANUARY 10: Nearly a week after the dramatic "escape" to India of
the young Buddhist Karmapa Lama, the Government continues to maintain a
studied silence that seems to betray a certain nervousness over its
diplomatic fallout with China.
New Delhi has refused to go beyond a one-sentence official statement three
days ago, soon after the 14-year-old Orgyen Trinley Dorji was traced in
Dharamsala, and continues to maintain that it is "inquiring into the
circumstances... and the consequences" of the Lama's arrival.
In stunning contrast are the events of March-April 1959 and the public
remarks made by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru reacting to the escape
from Tibet of the Dalai Lama, then only 23 years old.
On March 23, 1959, eight days before the Dalai Lama arrived at the Chutangmu
checkpoint in Arunachal Pradesh on the Indo-Tibetan border on March 31,
Nehru appealed to none other than Beijing to assure the safety of the Dalai
Lama, who he said was "held in high veneration by ourpeople".
Addressing the Parliament, Nehru stated that India had "no intention of
interfering in the internal affairs of China". Nevertheless, he pointedly
referred to the "long tradition of cultural and religious" ties that
continue to exist between India and Tibet.
Back in January 2000, no one in the Government, including External Affairs
Minister Jaswant Singh, has made a statement about what India intends to do
with Dorji, acknowledged as the head of the Karmapa Buddhist sect by both
China and the Dalai Lama.
Government sources are only prepared to say that they will "watch the
situation for 8-10 days" before taking a final view.
New Delhi is not likely to deport young Dorji but neither is it likely to
grant him political asylum, according to sources. One view in the Government
is whether the young Karmapa and his aides may have "deliberately planned"
his arrival in India to coincide with the visit here of the US special
coordinator Julia Taft in the country.
Taft on Monday left for Dharamsala,the headquarters of the Dalai Lama in
Himachal Pradesh, near where Dorji is taking refuge. But the official
spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs stressed that she had made no
request to either meet the Dalai Lama or the Karmapa.
Note, however, the remarkable difference in tone in Nehru's statements in
March-April 1959. In Parliament on April 3, Nehru confirmed not only that
the Dalai Lama had indeed arrived in Arunachal's Tawang district, but that
the Tibetan god-king had been granted political asylum in India.
He admitted to the House that recognition of the Tibetan leader's spiritual
rights in India was a "complicated matter which would have to be
considered".The External Affairs Ministry's then press director P N Menon
was asked to go to Tezpur, Assam, on April 4, 1959, to bring the Dalai Lama
with him back to Delhi.
Ties with Beijing, however, were already getting rough by 1959 and the Dalai
Lama's decision to escape to India, mere days after the Chinese Government
ordered the Tibetanleader to report to their envoy in Tibet Gen. Chang
Ching, didn't help.
On April 18, Chinese premier Chou En-lai reiterated that the Dalai Lama had
been "abducted to India" and hoped he would "be able to free himself from
the hold of the rebels and return to the motherland".
Nehru reacted strongly, saying he was "grieved beyond measure" by Chinese
charges that India was involved in the Tibetan revolt in Lhasa, which would
not stand the "slightest scrutiny". But he also pointed out that the Chinese
action in Tibet had tended to discredit the `Panchasheel' document.
'Living Buddha' a Chinese adjective to Karmapa
Source: Times of India
Mcleodganj: The "Tibetan government in exile" Tuesday came out strongly
against the usage of 'Living Buddha' adjective before the 17th Karmapa Ugyen
Trinley Dorji saying it was a terminology used by the Chinese government to
undermine the supremacy of the Dalai Lama. "It is not an accurate
description. It is a Chinese terminology to undermine the supremacy of the
Dalai Lama. The Communists in China have no concept of Buddhism," a visibly
annoyed Thubten Samphel, who describes himself as the information secretary
of the Tibetan government in exile, said.
The Karmapa heads the Kagyu sect, one of the four sects of Tibetan Buddhism.
Samphel said "you cannot classify his hirerary either" in response to the
Karmapa being projected as the third important Lama. The other three sects
are Nyingma (meaning the oldest), Sakya and Gelug (to which the Dalai Lama
traditionally belongs).
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7. Tibetans organise indefinite relay hunger strike in Delhi
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New Delhi January 6, 2000
The indefinite relay hunger strike organised by the United Bod Cholkha Sum
(UBCS) has shot off at 10 a.m. today from the Feroze Shah Kotla Ground in
the form of procession consists of about 200 Tibetans and their supporters.
The procession ended at the Raj Ghat at 10 a.m., the venue of the hunger
strike where many dignitaries gave speeches some Indian MPs, Lama Lobsang,
MP, Mrs. Dolma Gyari, The Member of Tibetan People's Deputy, members of
Indo-Tibetan Friendship Society, Himalayan Committee for Action on Tibet,
All India Students Forum for Free Tibet and the Presidents and the General
Secretaries of the United Bod Cholkha Sum.
A memorandum addressed to Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of UNO was
handed over to the UNO office in Delhi by the Presidents of the UBCS
demanding the UNO to implement its 3 resolutions on Tibet in 1959, 1961 and
1965 and to put pressure on the Chinese to respond to the following 4 key
issues on Tibet:
1. The UNO must recognise Tibet's distinct historical features from the
Chinese and must give appropriate support to the Tibetan freedom struggle.
2. The UNO must immediately put pressure on the Chinese to stop blatant
demographic transfers of Chinese into Tibet and systematic destruction of
Tibetan culture and religion.
3. The UNO must forthright stop the Chinese from environmental degradation
through massive deforestation, rampant killings of the endangered wild
species, reckless mining and dumping of nuclear wastes in Tibet.
4. The UNO must put pressure on the Chinese to respect human rights in Tibet
and unconditionally release all the Tibetan political prisoners in general
and the youngest political prisoner, eleven-year old, the Panchen Lama in
particular.
The Presidents of UBCS in their speech reaffirmed that this relay hunger
strike will go on until some concrete results would be achieved.
The list of the UBCS's hunger strikers beginning today for 3 days are: 1.
Mr. Jampa Palden, President, U-Tsang Province; 2. Mr. Tsetop Pupatsang,
President, Dhotoe Chugang Province; 3 Mr. Lobsang Tenzin, President, Dhomed
Province; 4 Mr. Dhondup Wangyal Khankyil, General Secretary; 5. Mr. Tashi
Dorjee Kyachuktsang, General Secretary; 6. Mr. Lama Kyap Gazan, General
Secretary
They are being backed up by six Ladakhi members of the Himalayan Committee
for Action on Tibet to back up their movement by sitting with them on Dharna
from today. They are: 1. Shri Lobsang Tundup. 2. Shri Tundup Tashi. 3. Shri
Phuntsok Stobdan. 4. Shrimati Kunzes Dolma. 5. Shrimati Tsering Dolma. 6.
Shrimati Sherab Dolma.
We will carry on the hunger strike until the UNO show us some positive
indications to prove that they are making appropriate arrangements to
implement the 3 resolutions passed on Tibet and are putting enough pressure
on the Chinese to respond positively to address the above 4 key demands. We
will forced to take up some drastic measures if nothing positive comes out
of our peaceful efforts.
We are an organisation representing the three traditional provinces of Tibet
i.e. U-Tsang, Kham and Amdo involved in political, social and cultural
activities in exile under the supreme leadership of H.H. The Dalai Lama. We
are based in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, and have our branches all over
India, Nepal and Bhutan.
The relay hunger strikers consists of 6 Tibetan volunteers doing it one week
at a time. We have enough volunteers from all over India, Nepal and Bhutan
to last it indefinitely. The first relay hunger strike will be done by our
Presidents and the General Secretaries.
Mr. Jampa Palden, President, UBCS,
Room No. 405
Sera Je Tehor House No. 186
Old Tibetan Camp
Majnu Ka Tilla
Delhi-110054. Phones: 3972531; 3973053
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