FW: [WTNN] World Tibet Network News -- January 1, 2011
Alex Bunjes
WTN Editors wish all the readers a very healthy and happy new year
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Issue ID: 2011/1/1Compiled by Nima Dorjee
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Contents
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1. Mining and the new colonization of Tibet
2. A Tibetan Political Prisoner's Life Under Threat: Report
3. Tibetan Writers Sentenced
4. Dharamsala Hosts Discussion on Significance of 1913 Tibeto-Mongol Treaty
5. India lacks gumption
6. The end of Shangrila
7. Chinese migrants¹ children have educational right in Tibet, unlike in
China
8. Central Tibetan Relief Committee Convenes General Body Meeting
9. Monks enter the modern age
10. The Dalai Lama's Great Escape
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1. Mining and the new colonization of Tibet
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Vancouver-based mining companies implicit in government repression of
villagers
by STEPHANIE LAW, DOMINION STORIES
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/story/mining-and-new-colonization-tibet/5523
In the next five to 10 years, there might be a change in what comes to
mind when thinking about Tibet.
The 2008 Olympics in Beijing saw an international outcry against the
Chinese government¹s oppressive policies and practices in Tibet. Mass
riots within Tibet and rallies across the globe informed the general
public of human rights violations in the disputed area, Tibetans¹ loss
of culture and identity, and their desire for independence from China.
But the 2010 WikiLeaks have exposed something different.
A leaked U.S. Embassy cable showed that the Dalai Lama is urging the
international community to focus on environmental issues in Tibet
instead of political ones, for at least the next half-decade. He
specifically referred to increasingly polluted water from mining
projects in Tibet as a major problem that ³cannot wait.²
Tsering Woeser, a Tibetan poet/blogger and recipient of the
International Women¹s Media Foundation¹s Courage in Journalism award
this year, said the number of mines in Tibet has increased dramatically
since 2006.
³For the past few years, Tibetan villagers have been protesting against
the mines and writing letters to the Chinese government asking for their
concerns to be addressed,² Woeser said. ³But the government never cared.²
In 2006, only one-percent of discovered mines in Tibet were prospected
due to limited infrastructure and investment. But mining operations
boomed after the opening of theQinghai-Tibet railway, which connects all
72 counties in Tibet to the rest of China. There are now over 90 mining
sites, with at least one in each county.
The impact of mining operations
The Chinese government announced plans in March to develop Tibet by
exploiting over 3,000 mineral reserves, potentially worth more than USD
125 billion.
Dorje, director of the region¹s Bureau of Geology and Mineral
Exploration and Development, told state-run China Daily that
exploitation of the mineral resources would boost Tibet¹s development.
"We must make sure the exploitation serves the interests of the Tibetan
people, and minimize its impact on the environment,² Dorje said.
The plan aims to boost the mining industry¹s contribution to Tibet¹s GDP
from three to 30 percent by 2020. At the same time, the state government
will continue to pour investment into the region to further develop it
and provide over 1,400 new jobs for locals via mining operations.
But Woeser said compared to the few thousand Tibetan miners, migrant Han
workers have flocked to Tibet on the railroad and have taken up over
10,000 mining jobs.
³This has caused a lot of resentment among locals, widespread
discrimination against Tibetans, and a loss of cultural identity among
locals,² she said.
Pempa Dondrup, a villager in Nanggarze County of Shannan Prefecture,
told China Daily that the government must respect local customs and
religious beliefs. ³For example, they must not excavate into our holy
mountains.²
But likely to the Dondrup¹s dismay, there are at least six mining
operations in the great Tibetan emperor Songtsan Gampo¹s hometown,
Gyama. It now has the highest daily output among all mining pits in the
Qinghai-Tibet plateau.
In Han Chinese culture, the hometown of any emperor is sacred and
carries the Œdragon¹s pulse¹ (lóng mài). It brings fortune and happiness
to the nation, and warrants ritual sacrifices.
³According to this, Gyama should be protected from environmental
destruction by the mining taking place today,² Woeser said. ³But it¹s
not. And protests so far have been silenced by Chinese troops.²
Woeser added that local Tibetans have lost much more than they have
gained from the wealth the government claims mining would bring. They
have also received little to no financial compensation.
³There has been damage to both the environment and the lifestyles of
Tibetan villagers, farmers and nomads,² Woeser said. ³Now there are
diseases that are new and untreatable for the villagers. The livestock,
like lamb and cows, are also getting diseases and dying at alarming rates.²
Almost 20 years of mining in the Gyama valley has led to elevated
concentrations of various minerals - including copper, lead, iron and
aluminium in the surface water and streambed, according to a study
published in the September issue of Science of the Total Environment.
The Gyama stream water drains into the Lhasa River, which flows into the
great Yarlong Tsangpo. Over a third of the world population lives
downstream of the rivers flowing from the Plateau.
³Uptake of heavy metal into local agricultural products from
contaminated irrigation water may therefore pose a health risk to the
local population,² the authors of the study wrote.
Over 3,500 local inhabitants live in this valley just east of Lhasa
city. There are also nomads who frequent the semi-agricultural area,
which is used for growing crops and animal husbandry. But nearly 182,000
residents live in Lhasa city just downstream from the valley. The main
drinking water source for the city is from wells located in the banks of
the Lhasa River.
The authors of the study warned that large-scale mining activities in
the valley ³pose a great future risk for the regional and downstream
environment.²
Tibetans have limited opposition power
Contaminated water, loss of lands and the heavy influx of Han migrants
into Tibet caused by the mining industry boom have led to numerous
conflicts and riots in the region in past 20 years.
Huatailong, China¹s largest mining project in Gyama, used the villagers¹
water during a drought in June 2010. This led to riots in the village to
which a great number of military police, including special police
forces, were allegedly sent from Lhasa, according to witness reports.
The police arrested many villagers and three of them, including the
village head, are still in jail.
Woeser said military forces and police always quickly crush any local
dissent against mines.
³The problem is most mines are state-owned and backed by the
government,² Woeser said. ³So when the conflict erupted, it got
politicized. The government decided the villagers weren¹t protesting
against the mine but were rioting for Tibetan independence.²
More recently, about 100 protesters carried Chinese flags outside
government offices in a protest between Aug. 15 and 17 against the
expansion of a gold mine in the Kham region of Tibet, administratively
in China¹s Sichuan province. They were upset about the heavy equipment
being brought in and damaging their farmlands, according to U.S.-funded
Radio Free Asia.
³The farmers were scared, so they carried Chinese flags to show that
they weren¹t protesting for political reasons or independence,² Woeser
said. ³They just wanted to point out that the mines were impacting their
life.²
But despite taking extra precaution, the government still sent troops to
quell their protest. According to various reports, at least three
protesters were fatally shot, over 30 injured and more than 35 were
arrested. Two police officers were also injured.
Almost two weeks after the incident, conflicting news reports appeared
in China Daily, Xinhua News Agency and Reuters. They reported only one
death from the incident and cited a different reason for the protests.
³The protest was sparked after police detained a businessman from the
Sichuan city of Mianyang "for illegally exploiting gold mines with some
villagers in Jiaxu village and damaging the grassland in the county,²
according to Reuters.
Exerting pressure outside of Tibet
It is evident that local Tibetans are left powerless against large-scale
mining operations. If they protest, they face disproportionate force
from the military and police as well as imprisonment. Many face jail
terms of seven to eight years, partly due to the politicization of their
dissent.
Woeser said the conflict in August was one of very few protests covered
in state and international media, albeit inconsistently.
³I think this really needs outside help and requires outsiders to
understand the mining situation in Tibet,² she said. ³Only through the
outside, like international environmental agencies and human right
organizations, and through international investigations might there be a
positive impact on Tibetans¹ lives that are affected by mining.²
In the recent years, there has been a growing presence of foreign-owned
mining companies in Tibet.
³These operations have also faced local protests, but not to the same
extent as Chinese-owned mines,² Woeser said. ³This is in part due to
minor improvement in environmental impact, but largely due to higher
financial compensation offered by foreign firms to silence dissent.²
In addition to protests in Tibet, some companies have faced opposition
from activists in their own countries. Pressure from the Australia Tibet
Council and the Central Tibetan Administration, also known as the
Tibetan government-in-exile, allegedly caused Australia-based Sino Gold
to pull out of an exploratory gold mine in eastern Tibet in 2003.
Sino Gold was later acquired by Canadian-based Eldorado Gold in December
2009. Eldorado Gold is now the largest foreign gold producer in China
and owns a mine in Tanjianshan, which is located in northern Tibet.
There are six Canadian-based mining companies currently or soon to be
operating in Tibet: China Gold International Resources Corp Ltd,
Inter-Citic Minerals Inc, Silk Road Resources Ltd., Eldorado Gold Corp,
Maxy Gold Corp, Silvercorp Metals Inc., and Sterling Group Ventures Inc.
Vancouver-based China Gold International announced on Dec. 1 it
completed the acquisition of Skyland Mining Ltd., formerly owned by
Rapid Result Investments Ltd. and China National Gold Group Honk Kong
Ltd., a subsidiary of China National Gold Group Corp. It is now the sole
owner of the Jiama Mine, one of the largest copper poly-metallic mines
in China, according to its website.
The acquisition of the Jiama mine in Gyama completed in spite of
protests staged in Toronto,Vancouver and Hong Kong.
Frank Lagiglia, investor relations spokesperson for China Gold
International, said he does not share the concerns of the protesters. He
said the company¹s technical report shows the mine has full support of
the local people, and that it is on track to becoming the most
environmentally friendly mine in the world.
³They talk about contamination of water; we use a recycling water
program so there is no contamination,² Lagiglia said. ³I don¹t know the
issues that they¹re talking about, when we were there, we went with
Tibetan officials and we were talking to the Tibetan people there, and
really everyone is glad to be working.²
But Raymond Yee, a Vancouver activist and member of the Canada Tibet
Committee, said their worries go beyond environmental damages endured by
local villagers.
³Our main concern is that the Chinese don¹t seem at all concerned with
the needs and the wants of the Tibetans,² Yee said. ³And the Canadian
firms will refuse, even though we know they know better, to get their
heads wrapped around the whole concept of free, prior, informed consent
of the local Tibet people about what¹s happening.²
Although China Gold International is based in Vancouver, the
Chinese-owned China National Gold Group owns a 39 percent stake,
according to a Bloomberg news report.
³We¹re against this kind of activity that exploits people that are
occupied,² Yee said. ³It¹s occupied land in an environment where there¹s
a real climate of fear because most people are pretty privy to how the
Chinese government cracks down on dissent.²
Tibet enjoyed de facto independence between 1912 and 1951, before China
annexed the region. Annexation became official when the Chinese
government and delegates from the Tibetan administration signed the
17-point agreement.
But the agreement has been widely disputed and the annexation is widely
viewed as an occupation. A report published by The International
Commission of Jurists in 1959 supported claims that the agreement was
signed under military pressure and significant duress.
Large mining companies such as Rio Tinto have reportedly ruled out
mining in Tibet because it is too politically sensitive.
³We¹d be more open to it if they, for example, had consultations with
the Tibetan government-in-exile to talk about mining and to see what it
would have to say,² Yee said. ³We¹re just against mining under these
kinds of conditions.²
Looking to the future
The future of Canadian-based mining companies operating in Tibet might
have been different if Bill C-300, known as the Corporate Accountability
Act or Responsible Mining Bill, had passed the House of Commons vote on
October 27. But the bill was defeated 140 to 134.
If passed, the Bill would have enforced financial and political
sanctions against mining companies operating in foreign countries
without free, prior and informed consultation from local indigenous
peoples.
Catherine Coumans, a research coordinator at MiningWatch Canada, said
that under the bill there could have been a strong case made against
mining companies, like China Gold International, even if they claim to
have support from local Tibetans.
³The free part is the part that we would be really addressing,² Coumans
said. ³How free were the people they talked to? Given the political
realities in Tibet, it would be very difficult [to have free
consultation].²
Since the bill was defeated, there is no legal or formal mechanism for
complaints against foreign practices by mining companies. However,
Coumans said the Canadian Network for Corporate Accountability, of which
MiningWatch is a member, is currently discussing other options.
One alternative is private member¹s Bill C-354, which was tabled by NDP
MP Peter Julian and passed first reading on March 3. The bill had
remained dormant after its first reading, but resurfaced on Oct. 21 when
Julian submitted a petition in support of the bill to the house.
The Bill seeks to amend the Federal Courts Act to permit non-Canadians
to initiate lawsuits against Canadian companies based on violations in
foreign countries - of international law or treaties to which Canada has
ratified.
³The bill would ensure corporate accountability for Canadian firms
operating abroad,² Julian told the house on April 1, 2009.
But regardless of what happens in the future, Coumans argues that the
mining industry as a whole generally accepts International Finance
Corporation¹s performance standards as de facto international standards.
These standards include having free, prior and informed consultation
with local peoples.
³Based on these standards, one can definitely make the argument that a
company cannot call itself a responsible mining company and mine in
Tibet,² Coumans said, ³because it cannot possibly poll the community in
a free way.²
Given the recent acquisition of the copper mine in Gyama by China Gold
International, as well as the leaked U.S. embassy cable regarding the
Dalai Lama¹s concerns with widespread environmental destruction caused
by mining project, there is hope of increased international and Canadian
pressure against mining in Chinese-occupied Tibetan land.
But if the discussion around Tibet sees no change in the next five to 10
years, then the imagery one usually conjures when thinking of Tibet will
change. What is often known as Shangri-La and rooftop of the world will
be extensively mined away, and a culture with thousands of years of
history will fade away along with the land.
³Tibet is the earth¹s highest ecosystem and is extremely vulnerable: its
rivers flow and are connected to many other areas and countries,² Woeser
said. ³But the mining companies are operating for their own profits and
are blatantly neglecting any environmental concerns. Over time, the
local area won¹t be the only region affected; but a vast area of the
world will be too.²
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2. A Tibetan Political Prisoner's Life Under Threat: Report
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Friday, 31 December 2010 13:09 Tibetan Official Media: Tibet Net
Dharamshala: A Tibetan political prisoner named Jigme Gyatso serving a
17-year long prison sentence in Chushul prison near Tibet's capital
Lhasa is in critical health condition due to severe torture, according
to a report received by the Central Tibetan Administration.
In 1996, the Intermediate People's Court in Lhasa levelled alleged
charges of counter revolutionary activities against Jigme Gyatso along
with a group of Tibetan residents of Lhasa. Jigme Gyatso was
subsequently locked up in Drachi prison to serve a 15 year jail term
with hard labour.
While in prison, Jigme raised slogans of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's
long life which resulted in a 2-year extension of his incarceration.
Nevertheless, he remained firm in his resolve for which he was severely
tortured and beaten up rendering him physically very weak.
The severe beatings continued after he was shifted from Drapchi to
Chusul prison and presently his survival is on stake due to the
debilitating health condition.
Jigme was born in 1961 in Sangchu in Tibet's Amdo Province.
He used to live in Lhasa before the arrest and his mother passed away
two years after he was arrested.
He was one of the first Tibetans who worked for the just cause of Tibet
in Sanghcu, Ladrang in Amdo Province. During his stay in Lhasa he joined
Tibetan friends and dedicated sincere efforts in number of activities
for Tibet.
Notwithstanding physical weakness caused by beatings under the Chinese
government's captivity, many Tibetans like Jigme have kept up their
spirit of determination and courage to brave the repression.
Last Updated ( Friday, 31 December 2010 13:17 )
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3. Tibetan Writers Sentenced
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2010-12-31
Jail terms handed down without any representations.
Three Tibetan writers detained earlier this year by Chinese authorities
have been handed jail terms of three to four years for "inciting
activities to split the nation," according to sources in the region.
The three writers‹Jangtse Donkho, Buddha, and Kalsang Jinpa‹were tried
on Oct. 28 by the Aba [in Tibetan, Ngaba] Intermediate People's Court,
but the sentences were not handed down until Thursday.
"The three Tibetan writers were sentenced for three-to-four years in
jail by the Ngaba Intermediate Court on Dec. 30, 2010," said a source
from inside Tibet.
"Jangtse Donkho and Buddha were given four years and Kalsang Jinpa was
sentenced to three years in prison," the source said.
Clapped hands
The sentences were handed down without any representations by the
defendants or their family or legal counsel, the source added.
"None of the Tibetan writers or their lawyers or family members were
allowed to speak in the court at the time of verdict," the source said.
"When the judge ordered all in the court to rise for the verdict, all
three did not comply and remained seated."
When the judge announced that Jangste Donkho would receive a jail term
of four years, he clapped his hands, the source added.
"This could be a sarcastic gesture against the judgement," the source
said. "The other two remained silent."
The three men have 15 days to appeal the sentence. They were first
detained in June and July, and were charged primarily because of
articles they wrote about the 2008 Tibetan
protest movement in a local newsletter, Shar Dungri ("Eastern Snow
Mountain"). Each of the men pleaded not guilty during the trial, which
lasted half a day.
Buddha had earlier spoken in court in fluent Chinese to say that
articles of the kind that he and the other men were accused of writing
were also published by Han Chinese.
He said the punishment handed down to the three writers was biased
because of their ethnicity, accusing the authorities of perpetrating
"injustice among different nationalities."
Hampered
The other men spoke in Tibetan in their own defense, but witnesses said
they were hampered by poor interpreting.
China has jailed scores of Tibetan writers, artists, singers, and
educators for asserting Tibetan national identity and civil rights in
the two years since widespread protests swept the region, according to a
report released earlier this year by the Washington- based International
Campaign for Tibet (ICT).
Reported by Chakmo Tso for RFA's Tibetan service. Translated by Karma
Dorjee. Written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
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4. Dharamsala Hosts Discussion on Significance of 1913 Tibeto-Mongol Treaty
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Friday, December 31 2010 @ 11:44 am GMT
DHARAMSHALA: A two-day discussion*censormode*debate on the historic
significance of 1913 treaty between Mongolia and Tibet is being
organised by the Department of Information and International Relations
at Gangchen Kyishong from 30-31 December.
A group of seven scholars and historians have been invited to make their
presentations and shed lights on the treaty and Tibet's relationship
with Manchu dynasty and Mongolia.
The highlights of the opening session includes a presentation on
"Tibet's relationship with Manchu dynasty before signing the treaty with
Mongolia in 1913" by Mr Kelsang Gyaltsen, a Member of Tibetan
Parliament-in-Exile.
Prof Elliot Sperling, Associate Professor of Tibetan Studies, Indiana
University's Department of Central Eurasian Studies, spoke on the
international reception and circulation of the 1913 Tibeto-Mongol Treaty.
Mr Sonam Gyaltsen, a Tibetan historian presently teaching at the College
of Higher Tibetan Studies near Dharamsala, shed light on Tibet's
relationship with Mongolia before and after the signing of the 1913 treaty.
Prof Tsering Shakya, noted historian and expert on Tibetan studies who
is currently Canadian Research Chair in Religion and Contemporary
Society in Asia at the Institute for Asian Research at the University of
British Columbia, presented a "Comparative study of Mongolia and Tibet
in their search for nationhood in the early part of 20th century".
The presentation was followed by an interactive question and answer with
the members of the audience consisting of senior officials of the
Central Tibetan Administration and members of NGOs.
On the second day, Prof Jampa Samten of the Central University of
Tibetan Studies in Varansi, Mr Chung Tsering, researcher at the
Department of Education of the Central Tibetan Administration and Mr
Tashi Tsering, noted historian and director of Amnye Machen Institute in
Dharamsala, will make their presentations on the treaty.
Earlier on 13-14 October this year, twenty-seven experts from Mongolia,
India, America, Korea, Russia, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, Holland and
Germany gathered for a two-day symposium on the treaty in Monglia's
capital Ulaanbaatar. On the basis of profound research done in Tibetan,
Mongolian, Russian, English and Chinese, the members had concluded the
debate; unanimously agreeing that 99 per cent of "1913 Treaty between
Mongolia and Tibet" is factual and official.
The historic ³Treaty of Friendship and Alliance Between the Government
of Mongolia and Tibet² was signed at Urga in January 1913. The treaty,
consisting of 9 Articles, proclaimed the formation of independent states
of Tibet and Mongolia.
source tibet.net
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5. India lacks gumption
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January 02, 2011 12:37:36 AM
SUNANDA K DATTA-RAY, Daily Pioneer, Sunday
New Delhi¹s willing-to-wound-afraid-to-strike attitude towards Beijing
doesn't suggest a robust candidate for the world's high table
A recent lunch at one of our Raj Bhavans exposed an anomaly that might
be more than ceremonial. When the Rajyapal ushered in the Dalai Lama,
all of us dutifully stood up for Jana Mana Gana. Listening to the
familiar strains, I wondered what the Tibetan national anthem which I
expected to follow sounded like. But lo and behold! no Tibetan national
anthem was played. India¹s anthem over, we formed a line to be received
by His Holiness.
This intriguing breach of protocol reflected a confusion that, one
hopes, will be cleared in the New Year. It indicated an anomalous
self-view and an inability to shape a realistic foreign policy to
realise India¹s national aims. The routine was especially curious
because a senior official from New Delhi had told me earlier that the
Dalai Lama enjoys the status of a visiting head of state. If so, his
national anthem should have been played immediately after the host
country¹s. That norm is followed at national day celebrations in New
Delhi and State capitals.
It is possible ‹ though unlikely ‹ that the Tibetan administration
doesn¹t have a national anthem. Or that though it has one, the Dalai
Lama has decided that it need not be played when it should so that New
Delhi isn¹t embarrassed. But both seem unlikely since the Dalai Lama has
a standard and flies it. In fact, the Dharamsala administration has all
the trappings of statehood, and will soon even boast an elected Prime
Minister. Watching the start of the process in Brussels some months ago,
it occurred to me that while territorial Tibet might be a vassal of the
People¹s Republic of China, the exiled administration, with
representatives in major world capitals, is acquiring all the trappings
of a virtual state.
The staggered elections also reveal the extent to which even the
diaspora is subject to diplomatic vicissitudes. The seizure of Tibetan
ballot boxes in Nepal received extensive coverage; apparently, similar
restrictive measures in Bhutan passed unnoticed. Since the actions in
both countries are attributed to Chinese pressure rather than indigenous
sentiment, Kathmandu and Thimphu cannot be blamed too much. Small
landlocked countries like Nepal and Bhutan cannot logically be expected
to defy a bigger neighbour without some assurance of alternative
support. India alone could have offered countervailing reassurance, but
obviously did not.
What does this say of External Affairs Ministry thinking? What does it
portend for the future? The questions acquire additional relevance in
the light of the controversy over the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the
dissident Chinese writer, Mr Liu Xiaobo. The 19 countries that boycotted
the Oslo ceremony are at par with the 23 countries that still recognise
Taiwan as China. Both groups have decided that it pays them most to be
on a particular side. But India on the cusp of change is not quite the
Caribbean state of St Vincent and the Grenadines which has maintained
unbroken diplomatic ties with Taiwan for 25 years. Nor is it Pakistan
which boycotted the Oslo ceremony because it needs China to bolster the
anti-India position that has become almost its only raison d¹etre.
A country that prides itself on being the world¹s largest democracy,
which has formidable scientific and technological achievements to its
credit and makes no secret (which is tactical foolishness) of its great
power aspirations, need not succumb to pressure. Nor need it go out of
its way to strike moral positions. India has shown realism over Myanmar
and Palestine, setting aside previous positions based on idealism that
offered no political dividend. But that adherence to the old adage about
countries having permanent interests and not permanent friends will not
in itself realise India¹s goal unless vigorous steps are also
immediately taken to address domestic abuses.
It did not need the WikiLeaks secret US State Department documents to
tell us that the ³police and security forces are overworked and hampered
by bad police practices, including widespread use of torture in
interrogations, rampant corruption, poor training, and a general
inability to conduct solid forensic investigations². Indeed, a Uttar
Pradesh judge long ago denounced the State¹s police force as the largest
group of uniformed criminals in the country.
No wonder the American memorandum is so scathing. ³India¹s security
forces also regularly cut corners to avoid working through India¹s
lagging justice system, which has approximately 13 judges per million
people. Thus, Indian police officials often do not respond to our
requests for information about attacks or about offers of support
because they are covering up poor practices, rather than rejecting our
help outright.² Surprisingly, there was no mention of ramshackle
courtrooms, dilatory court officials, exploitative lawyers and ‹ as is
now emerging ‹ venal judges even at the highest levels.
Police inefficiency and worse can be blamed on State Governments, but
the Americans are equally sceptical about India¹s armed forces,
dismissing the so-called ŒCold Start Doctrine¹ ‹ a rapid, short and
limited reprisal attack against Pakistan ‹ as a ³mixture of myth and
reality². Ambassador Timothy Roemer does not think India¹s armed forces
would ever be able to carry out such an operation, and that it¹s
theoretical existence only gives psychological comfort to the authors in
Delhi. ³The value of the doctrine to the Government of India may lie
more in the plan¹s existence than in any real-world application.²
Mr Roemer¹s reason for analysing India¹s effectiveness or otherwise is
to find reasons for the Government¹s reluctance wholeheartedly to throw
in its lot with American strategic measures. That is not of paramount
interest to Indians. What matters far more to us is that a weak Army,
Navy and Air Force, a corrupt and ineffective police and a dilatory and
costly judiciary means that the ordinary Indian is without protection in
his own country.
Add to that the diplomatic wobbling evident in promises that the Dalai
Lama will not be allowed to indulge in politics and claims that he does
not run a Government in exile. If New Delhi really doesn¹t want the
Tibetans, let it unambiguously say so and deport the lot. If the only
reason for accommodating them is humanitarian, that, too, could be made
explicit. But the willing-to-wound-afraid-to-strike attitude that the
national anthem episode illustrated didn¹t suggest a robust candidate
for the world¹s high table. It indicated a country that is afraid of its
own shadow as it steps diffidently into 2011.
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6. The end of Shangrila
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January 02, 2011 12:43:08 AM
Claude Arpi, Daily Pioneer
A new highway being built in southern Tibet, close to MacMahon Line, has
ominous implications for India¹s national security
As the year comes to a close, one could ask: What was the most
depressing news during 2010? There were so many contenders for this
description ‹ from the shoddy preparations for the Commonwealth Games
and the several financial irregularities surrounding the event to the
different ŒG¹ scams; the increasing criminalisation of politics to the
renewed terrorist and Maoist threats. There is, indeed, no dearth of
choice.
However, there is something which has passed largely unnoticed and which
is bad news for India: It is the new road to Metok, north of Arunachal
Pradesh. It has worrisome implications for the country. As China¹s
Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in India for purportedly important talks with
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, CCTV of China showed several videos of a
new tunnel (and soon a road) reaching Metok (or Motuo as the Chinese
pronounce the word), the most remote area in southern Tibet. Metok is
located a few kilometres north of the McMahon Line which separates India
from China.
Though ignored by media, this event is bound to have incalculable
consequences for the border defences as well as the future flow of
Brahmaputra. According to the CCTV report, ³For the people of Motuo
County in Tibet, the 4,700 metre-high Galongla mountain is a formidable
barrier to enter or leave. And it¹s a massive challenge for the
construction workers tunneling from both ends to create a passageway.²
Chen, a Chinese construction worker, told CCTV: ³When the tunnel breaks
through, we are going to have tears, laughter and bear hugs to express
our setbacks and solidarity.² Bu Qiong, the only Tibetan armed police
soldier on the site, said, ³The Motuo is an isolated island on the
plateau and is the only county in China with no vehicle access. The
people in Motuo desire lots of goods, and they have to carry them by
back from outside, walking. We hope that we get this tunnel finished as
fast as we can, so the people of Motuo can leave easily and outsiders
can enter the county to enjoy the beautiful scenery.²
Perhaps it is true that Metok was the last county with no highway link
in China. But who can believe that all these efforts are only for the
welfare and benefit of a population of 11,000 people?
Located in the south-eastern part of Tibet, the 117-km Metok Highway
will link the Indian border to National Highway 318 which, starting from
Shanghai, runs across the provinces of Zhejiang, Anhui, Hubei, Chongqing
(municipality) and Sichuan before entering eastern Tibet through Litang,
Batang, Markan and Bomi, before continuing unto Lhasa and ending at the
Nepal border (Zhangmu).
CCTV gave more details on the road that is being built: ³Once completed,
(the tunnel) will be over 3.3 km long, cutting 24 km from the original
rugged mountain road. Meanwhile, 29 bridges and 227 culverts will be
constructed. The highway negotiates the complicated terrain of the Grand
Yalunzangpo (Brahmaputra) gorge. The drop between the highest and the
lowest point is over 3,100 metres. (Now) people have to cross more than
six rivers before approaching Motuo County.²
The new road, costing $150 million, will join the Roof of the World¹s
strategic axis at Bomi by 2012. Xinhua has affirmed that the tunnel
³will shorten the time dramatically as the journey through the tunnel
will take just half-an-hour², adding that ³90 km of highway between the
end of the tunnel and Metok County, in Nyingchi Prefecture, is yet to be
built². Nyingchi town, which is located some 200 km from Bomi, is
already served by one of the largest airports in Tibet. It can annually
cater for lakhs of tourists attracted by the gorges of Brahmaputra.
The Chinese media has, however, forgotten important Œdetails¹ while
reporting the opening of the tunnel. The place is so remote that for
centuries no one knew if the mighty Brahmaputra was flowing towards
South-East Asia like Mekong or Irrawaddy to BurmaŠ or to India? During
the 19th century, the British thought that the best way to Œconquer¹ the
sub-continent was to map it; they were, however, left with this enigma.
The Great Trigonometrical Survey, the ancestor of the Survey of India
often sent Œlocals¹ (they called them Œpundits¹) for surveying these
remote Himalayan areas. One of these Œpundits¹ was Kintup, alias KP, a
native of Sikkim. He travelled to Tibet to chart the course of Yarlung
Tsangpo.
KP could not reach Metok, but tried to throw marked logs down the stream
of Tsangpo and see if they would reach India. Unfortunately, nobody got
his message and when he returned to Assam in 1884 (after four years on
the mountain tracks), Yarlung Tsangpo and Brahmaputra were still two
different rivers. It is only several years later that the Survey found
some of the logs in Bengal and that KP became famous.
For Tibetans, it is one of the most pristine regions of their country.
They consider the area around the ŒGreat Bend¹ of Brahmaputra as the
home of Goddess Dorjee Pagmo, Tibet¹s ŒProtecting Deity¹. Many believe
that Pemakoe is the sacred realm often referred to in their scriptures:
the last hidden Shangrila. It is also said that the great Indian tantric
master, Padmasambhava, visited the place during the eighth century and
tamed the local spirits to conceal scriptures for future generations.
The region unlike other parts of Tibet receives plenty of rain and
within the Great Bend area one finds the rarest species of flora and
fauna. Though not yet fully documented, the Chinese authorities admit
that the region is home for more than 60 per cent of the biological
resources of Tibet.
But the particularly bad news for India is that the engineers who have
worked for the northward diversion of the waters of Yarlung Tsangpo
across hundreds of kilometres of mountainous regions to China¹s
north-western provinces of Xinjiang and Gansu, have planned the main
hydropower plant in Metok area. The gorges of Brahmaputra can provide
one of the greatest hydropower potentials available in the world. For
South Asia and more particularly for India, the enormity of the scheme
and its closeness to the Indian border cannot be ignored. It will of
course be a political decision, but the new road makes it now
practically conceivable. The road will not only trigger the
disappearance of one of the last sacred places of this planet, but will
also have strategic and military consequences for India.
Contrary to India, China thinks in terms of the Œdual use¹ for its
infrastructure. Mr Xi Jinping, the future party boss (he takes over in
2012) is a great supporter of Chairman Mao Tse-tung¹s theory of ³the
synthesis between the requirements of peacetime and war.² For Mao,
civilian sectors had always a major role to play in military
preparedness. For example, infrastructure projects such as airports and
railways should be designed to also serve war-time needs.
Some years ago, when Mr Xi Jinping was party secretary of Zhejiang
province, he had said, ³We must implement (Mao¹s) strategic concept of
the Œunity between soldiers and civilians¹ and both the Army and
regional civilian authorities should assiduously pool our resources in
the preparation for military struggle against China¹s enemies.² The new
road will clearly serve more purposes than is being claimed.
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7. Chinese migrants¹ children have educational right in Tibet, unlike in
China
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(TibetanReview.net, Dec31, 2010) As part of its programmes to encourage
Chinese from mainland China to come and work in Tibet, despite severe
employment problems for the local Tibetans, the authorities in capital
Lhasa have ensured that their children¹s educational needs are fully
looked after, according to China¹s online Tibet news service
eng.tibet.cn Dec 219. In China itself, denial of educational opportunity
is one of the major disadvantages facing migrant workers in the cities.
The report said that over 10,000 children from migrant workers' families
were attending schools in Lhasa. It added that the figure amounted to 80
percent of the city¹s floating population aged for compulsory education.
What is more, they make up 37 percent of the total number of urban
primary and middle school students in the city.
The report cited a local official in the city¹s educational
administration as saying Lhasa had, in recent years, taken various
measures to ensure children from migrant workers' families go to public
schools, as well as private ones on a supplementary basis, to guarantee
their rights to education.
The result, the report said, was that children from migrant workers'
families had no difficulties in accessing compulsory education,
including for the fact that no additional fees are required from them.
Following the large scale Tibetan protests in Mar¹08, a task force was
set up, headed by Padma Choling, who was then a deputy regional
government Chairman, to welcome Chinese migrants and to look after their
interests and take care of all their needs to feel secure and welcome.
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8. Central Tibetan Relief Committee Convenes General Body Meeting
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Thursday, 30 December 2010 13:29 Tibetan Official Media: Tibet Net
The General Body Meeting of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Central
Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC) was presided over by the committee's
vice-chairman Prof Samdhong Rinpoche on Wednesday (29 December) at
Gangchen Kyishong.
The Tibetan settlement officers in the north Indian state of Himachal
Pradesh, who are members of the general body of the CTRC, attended the
meeting. His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Central Tibetan Relief Committee
was registered under Societies Registration Act, 1860, in 1981.
The Himachal Pradesh government had made recent amendments to the
Societies Registration Act, 1860, in conformity with the provisions of
The Himachal Pradesh Societies Registration Act 2006.
Accordingly, the CTRC as a registered society is required to make
amendments in its Memorandum and Rules and Regulations with the
provisions of HP Societies Registration Act, 2006, Mr Ngodup Dorjee,
Executive Secretary of the CTRC, told Tibet TV.
The governing body of the CTRC made the amendments during its meeting on
27 December 2010, which were tabled and ratified in yesterday's general
body meeting, Mr Dorjee said.
The governing body of the CTRC has asked all our general body members to
make necessary amendments in their respective societies' rules and
regulations/bye-laws with the provisions of the HP Societies
Registration Act, 2006, he said.
Some of the new amendments made in the objectives of the society were
(1) Promotion of the social welfare (2) Promotion of rural development
and (3) Promotion of religious or charitable purpose including
establishment of funds for welfare of military orphans, welfare of
political sufferers and welfare of the like.
Other ancillary objectives include (1) initiate, conduct and assist
family welfare and health and community development programmes (2)
initiate, administer and assist programmes for providing better
nutrition to children and adults especially amongst the poorer and more
backward sections (3) promote agricultural practices and projects for
improving food production (4) undertake to coordinate and guide
international charities, agencies and individual donors to wherever the
need is most felt within the Tibetan community and give them access to
materials about the socio-economic conditions of Tibetan refugees in exile.
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9. Monks enter the modern age
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* Dorie Turner, Atlanta
* From:The Advertiser Adelaide Now
* January 01, 2011 1:13am
Some of the newest students at Emory University's student body may act
like typical college kids but there's a key difference: They're Tibetan
monks sent by the Dalai Lama to the United States to learn science.
Wearing the traditional crimson robes and closely shorn heads of Tibetan
monastics, the six men - most in their 30s - are taking physics, biology
and chemistry classes with hopes of returning to Tibetan monasteries in
India to teach science to other monks and nuns.
It's the first established program for Tibetan monks from India to train
at a Western university, said Geshe Lhakdor, director of the Library of
Tibetan Works and Archives in India.
"They are pioneers," he said in a recent interview while visiting Atlanta.
The program is the newest evolution of the Emory-Tibet Science
Initiative, which is helping the Dalai Lama with his goal of training
monastics for the 21st century. Monks and nuns are masters of the mind
through the practice of ancient traditions but they must also master
modern concepts of science and technology, the exiled Tibetan spiritual
leader said in a recent visit to Emory University.
"The monastic institution is traditionally the learning center, so we
must put science in this institution," the Dalai Lama said.
"Even Buddha himself said 'All my followers shouldn't accept my
teachings out of faith, but out of constant investigation'."
For the monks, the year spent at Emory in Atlanta means long hours
sitting in classes conducted in a language they struggle with and terms
they've never studied before.
Try explaining the concept of photosynthesis - a process where plants
turn carbon dioxide into oxygen with the help of sunlight - to someone
who has never even heard of a chemical compound.
"My mother wasn't happy about my coming here," said Ngawang Norbu, 36,
who is from Bylakuppe, the largest Tibetan settlement in India. "But
when I told her it was part of His Holiness's vision, she was very
happy. I'm taking a small step toward fulfilling his wishes."
Each morning the monks wake up early to meditate in their bedrooms
before heading to classes, meetings with professors or English tutoring
sessions. They cook meals at their off-campus apartment to save money
and shop together at Indian food markets and the dollar store.
In their free time, the monks pore over their lessons, revise homework,
watch science teachings in English on YouTube and play sports with Emory
classmates. Some of the monks listen to the Dalai Lama's teachings on
mp3 players on the way to class or watch videos of the spiritual leader
online.
Dylan Kady, 18, an Emory freshman from Holland, Pennsylvania, invited
the monks to play tennis a few times during the semester and took a
freshman seminar class with two of them.
"I asked if they had shorts and shirts to wear," said Kady, who is on
the Emory tennis team. "The only time they would take their robes off
was on the tennis court. They would wear them on to the court and then
take them off, play in shorts and shirts, and then put their robes right
back on."
The monks use Facebook as a way to connect with classmates at Emory and
keep up with their fellow monks and nuns back home. Some of the monks
had to take a crash course in using a computer when they got to campus
because they don't have much access to technology at the monasteries.
"In the monastery, we don't use the Internet that much," said monk Kunjo
Baiji, 30, adding that the connection is slow and undependable in India.
The Emory-Tibet Partnership hopes to bring a handful of monks and nuns
to campus each year to take science classes. The relationship between
Emory and Tibet began in 1991 when former Tibetan monk Geshe Lobsang
Negi moved to Atlanta with the blessing of the Dalai Lama to establish
the Drepung Loseling Institute, a Buddhist monastery and learning center
near campus. Slowly a partnership began to evolve and, in 1998, the
university formally launched the Emory-Tibet Partnership.
Three years ago, Emory professors published a general science textbook
translated into Tibetan.
They travel each year to Dharamsala, India, home of the Dalai Lama's
headquarters, to teach science to monks and nuns.
And dozens of Emory students go to Dharamsala annually to study at the
Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, where the Dalai Lama is the founder
and a top teacher.
"I'm constantly amazed it's got as far as it has," said Arri Eisen, an
Emory professor who teaches in Dharamsala each year and has monks in his
biology classes in Atlanta. "A lot of it is the sheer energy or power of
His Holiness."
The close ties with Emory led the Dalai Lama to accept a five-year
appointment as a distinguished professor at the private university in
2007 - with regular visits to campus to give lectures and work with
faculty and students.
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10. The Dalai Lama's Great Escape
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Escape from the Land of Snows: The Young Dalai Lama's Harrowing Flight
to Freedom and the Making of a Spiritual Hero.
Talty, Stephan (author).
Jan. 2011. 320p. illus. Crown, hardcover, $26 (9780307460950). 294.3.
by Stephan Talty
A new book gives the fullest account yet of the Dalai Lama¹s 1959 escape
from Tibet and the CIA¹s role. Author Stephan Talty says in the process
he lost a country but gained an international movement‹and surprisingly
a belief in Buddhism.
In the middle of a Saturday night in the spring of 1959, a phone rang on
a quiet suburban block in Chevy Chase, Maryland. John Greaney mumbled an
apology to his pregnant wife and reached for the nightstand. The clipped
voice on the other end said that an ³OpIm² had just come in and, after
giving a few details, promptly hung up. Greaney sat on the edge of his
bed in his pajamas, wondering just what in God's name was going on.
Unknown to his neighbors, John Greaney was not the gray-faced government
functionary he appeared to be. He was in fact the deputy chief of a
small unit at the CIA known as the Tibet Task Force. It sounded dashing,
but in fact the work of the five or six men that comprised the unit was
so lacking in excitement that Greaney compared it to running an
import-export firm. All the action was down the hall, where the Latin
American group would soon be planning the Bay of Pigs invasion.
But beginning that Saturday, Tibet‹through the story of the Dalai Lama
's great escape‹was about to become famous.
The OpIm message‹short for Operation Immediate, the second-highest
category of urgency at the agency‹came from a CIA-trained guerrilla in
the desolate back-country of southern Tibet. Over that weekend, a series
of messages from this guerrilla would make it clear that the Dalai Lama
had fled from his summer palace in the capital of Lhasa and was heading
for the Indian border. His people were in revolt behind him, fighting
against better-armed and trained Chinese soldiers. In the next 17 days,
thousands would die, tens of thousands would follow their spiritual
leader to India, and Tibet as a global cause would be born.
Before that weekend, Tibet had been a beguiling, but complete, enigma to
the world. Greaney still remembers the time John Foster Dulles,
secretary of State under President Eisenhower, interrupted a briefing
Greaney was giving him on Tibet to ask him a simple question: Where,
exactly, is Tibet? Dulles, who made Tibet policy as much as anyone did,
had no idea where the place was. Greaney had to climb up on Dulles'
leather couch to point out the relevant blotch of color on a National
Geographic map hanging on Dulles' wall.
And in fact, as he drove to the CIA's Signal Center in the middle of the
night to get the message from Tibet, Greaney, who knew more about the
country than 99.99 percent of the American population, had to admit he
had no idea what was happening inside the country either.
What was happening was that two revolutions, one personal and one
political, were unfolding simultaneously.
The personal had to do with the Dalai Lama himself. For many years,
until the age of 15 or 16, His Holiness was not religious at all. Or
spiritual. He cared more about war games than he did the Buddha. He had
a ferocious temper, growing so angry at times his body shook as he stood
on the shiny floor of his winter palace in Lhasa. Religious studies
bored him so much he would make up adventure stories about the people in
them.
That had all changed at the same time the Chinese invaded in 1950. The
Tibetans, who mistrusted the aristocrats and bureaucrats who ruled them,
looked to His Holiness in their time of need. Their country was divided
and at times verging on civil war, and the Dalai Lama was the only thing
that could possibly save them.
Isolated from his loved ones, deeply lonely, poorly educated, the young
lama had no idea how to be a leader. And so he turned to Buddhism, not
as the reincarnation of a holy line who is finally taking up his
destiny, but as a frightened young man searching frantically for a
compass. Not only did he find Buddhism, but he also dove deep into its
lessons and emerged a different man, who is very much the person we know
today, a monk who has given himself over to Buddhism utterly.
As he fled with a small group of relatives across the moonscape of
southern Tibet, guarded by hardened Tibetan guerrillas known as the
Chushi Gangdrug, the Dalai Lama was not only fleeing the increasing
oppression and brutality of the Chinese, he was fleeing the cage of
Tibet itself. Before the escape, he lived a life of less-than-splendid
isolation. In his two palaces, one for summer and one for winter, every
moment of the Dalai Lama's life was scripted and formalized. He was
barely allowed to think or speak for himself. And it was sacrilege for
his followers to look him in the eye or touch him.
As much as he loved his homeland, the freedom he found beginning on the
rough trail to India allowed the Dalai Lama to remake the institution in
his own image. He was the 14th reincarnation of the line of lamas and
rulers, but his predecessors would hardly have recognized themselves in
this compassionate and warmly approachable man. He shed the oppressive
weight of tradition as one would slip out of a badly fitting coat, and
the process began in those high Himalayan passes.
The second, political revolution was the Chinese snuffing out of the
idea of Tibetan sovereignty once and for all. And the birth of the
effort to free Tibet that still goes on today.
As the Dalai Lama's escape progressed, the story made headlines and TV
news worldwide. ³Will he make it out alive?² was the question all of
them asked. Tibet became famous as it disappeared from the world map,
with even President Eisenhower following His Holiness' progress by
sticking pins into a map. John Greaney and his tiny group of men were
suddenly the hottest unit at the CIA.
At last, 17 days after he left his summer palace, His Holiness,
seriously ill with dysentery, crossed the Indian border. He was free.
And Tibet had entered the modern conversation. The escape had changed
Tibet utterly. Today, the Dalai Lama's face and basic outlines of his
cause are famous throughout the world. And tens of thousands are
dedicated to getting dignity and autonomy for its people.
But in some ways all the attention changed nothing. Some 80,000 refugees
followed His Holiness into India. And they are still there. I met some
of them in the tiny, bare apartments that the Indian government has
provided them in places like Dharamsala, the halls smelling strongly of
the rancid butter tea that the older Tibetans drink from the moment they
wake up. In their eighties now and frail, they are the soldiers, the
lamas, and the mothers who brought their families out because they
couldn't bear to live apart from His Holiness. They're free now, in a
manner of speaking, and the Dalai Lama lives only a stone's throw away.
But ask them about Tibet and they will hold their hands in front of
their faces and gasp through their tears. They'll trace the shape of the
hills they grew up near and tell you stories of how sweet life was
before the Chinese came. Probably it was a hard, rural life with small
joys and many frustrations and time and distance have burnished it more
than it deserves. But they cry unreservedly. And these are not soft
people, not at all.
What the refugees got in exchange for their suffering was the knowledge
that the Dalai Lama has made them known to the world, and made the
Dharma known. And that Tibet, which was for centuries a hidden kingdom
and which today no longer even officially exists, is in a sense,
everywhere.
John Greaney and the few surviving members of his task force can be
proud of the role they played in the Tibetan diaspora. It was Greaney
who sent the cable to Prime Minister Nehru's office in New Delhi,
seeking permission for the escape party to cross the border. The fact
that the whole adventure happened on a quiet weekend in D.C. was a
stroke of luck. If the State Department had been open for business,
everything might have played out differently. ³If it hadn't been a
Saturday night,² the retired Greaney told me, ³the Dalai Lama might
still be in Tibet.²
The CIA would support the Tibetan rebels secretly for years, until
everything changed in 1971 with Nixon's visit to China. The
rapprochement meant that the White House would no longer risk supplying
guerrillas fighting the Peoples' Liberation Army. Each of the 1,500
remaining rebels got 10,000 rupees to buy land in India or open a
business. Many joined the refugees who'd fled with His Holiness.
There¹s an irony to this story. The Tibetans who left achieved a kind of
freedom. But they lost their Tibet, and in exchange the rest of the
world got a small piece of it. But you can't sit and visit with these
people and believe that, in the Buddhist spirit of things, they got the
better part of the bargain.
They didn't. We did.
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