Situation of Tibetans in Nepal after the Recent Earthquake

April 28, 2015 1:21 pm
DHARAMSHALA: According to reports received from the Office of Tibet, Kathmandu, Nepal on 27 April 2015, there has been much damage to property and minimum loss of lives of Tibetans in Nepal as a result of the recent earthquake.
As the telephone and net services are down because of the major earthquake and several aftershocks, the following report is what the Office of Tibet has gathered and gleaned from reports from various settlement offices spread across Nepal.
Solokhumbu/ Walung/ Rasogiri
According to the information sent by the Settlement Officer of these three regions, the wall of the public kitchen in Deling Solokhumbu settlement has cracked; otherwise there are no other major damages to life and property.
In upper Solokhumbu, a house has collapsed. Complete information is still not available.
In Rasogiri, a wall in the school building and house has cracked. No loss of lives has been reported so far.
The Office of Tibet has not been able to contact Tibetans in Walung region, which is at the border of Nepal and Tibet.
Kathmandu/ Swayambhu/ Lo-tserok
According to the information sent by the Settlement Officer and others from these regions, several walls of Tibetan homes in Lo-Tserok settlement have cracked. Cracks in the fields and agricultural lands have also been reported.
In Swayambhu, the red building near the Swayambhu stupa has not sustained any serious damage. However, a building had collapsed in nearby Kimtrol where two Tibetan brothers are staying in a rented room. One of them has died while the other has received severe injuries and is currently admitted in a hospital.
Boudha/ Jorpati
According to the information sent by the Settlement Officer and others in Boudha and Jorpati, a building housing 37 Tibetan families had sustained severe damages and is in danger of collapsing.
A 30-year-old Tibetan named Chime from Boudha has died after walls collapsed on him during the earthquake. Many people from Boudha have also reported damages to their homes and rented houses.
Libing Sendrak Rinpoche’s monastery had also sustained severe damage. Most of the monk’s quarters in the monastery have reported damages. However, there has been no loss of lives or injuries.
Many nunneries in the area have also reported damages. One nun has died in the earthquake while three nuns have sustained severe injuries and three others have reported minor injuries. Fortunately, Snow Lion Foundation’s medical aid team led by Mr. Sonam Tsering was on a visit to the monastery at that time, and doctors are currently treating the injured.
Pokhra
The Office of Tibet has not been able to contact the settlement office in Pokhra. However, private sources have confirmed that there wasn’t any loss of lives or major damages to property.
Jwalakhel Tibetan handicraft settlement
The main office of the Jwalakhel Tibetan handicraft center has sustained damages as a result of the earthquake. Moreover, the boundary walls of the settlement have cracked. However, no loss of lives has been reported.
Frontier Tibetan settlements in Dothang, Manang, Tsum, Nubri

The Office of Tibet has been unable to contact the Tibetan settlements and families residing in frontier regions like Dothang, Manang, Tsum and Nubri.
Office of Tibet, Kathmandu
The old staff quarters have developed major cracks and the pathway to the office is blocked with debris after walls from one side of the road collapsed.
(Almost all Tibetans in Nepal are currently staying in tents outside of their homes in open areas. People are still unable to go back to their homes fearing more aftershocks of the earthquake)

China: Greater Autonomy for Tibet ‘Not Up For Discussion’
VOA News
April 15, 2015 4:54 AM
The Chinese government has announced that a greater degree of autonomy for Tibet is “not up for discussion,” casting renewed doubts on the resumption of dialogue between Beijing and the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
In a harshly worded white paper released Wednesday, China said the Dalai Lama must first abandon what it views as his attempts to provoke violence and create an independent state in Tibet – things the exiled leader vigorously denies supporting.
“Any negotiations will be limited to seeking solutions for the Dalai Lama to completely abandon separatist claims and activities and gain the forgiveness of the central government and the Chinese people, and to working out what he will do with the rest of his life,” said the report.
“As the political status and system of Tibet is stipulated by the Chinese Constitution and laws, the ‘Tibet issue’ and ‘a high degree of autonomy’ are not up for discussion,” it continued.
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in the 1950s following a Chinese takeover, has for decades insisted he is not pushing for independence in his homeland. The Nobel Peace Prize winner says instead he is seeking greater autonomy and other rights under what is referred to as the “Middle Way Approach.”
In the white paper, Beijing criticized the Middle Way as a deceptive attempt to “create a state within a state.” It also said the recent wave of Tibetan self-immolations was “manipulated and instigated” by the 79-year-old and his supporters.
More than 130 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in Tibetan areas of China since 2009 as part of a desperate protest against China’s rule and repressive policies in Tibet. China says the suicide protests are acts of terrorism.
The Dalai Lama and the Chinese government last held talks in 2010. In recent months, the Dalai Lama has said he is optimistic that Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, who came to power in 2012, could resume the negotiations.
One area of disagreement is over which party would represent Tibet. Beijing prefers to meet with the Dalai Lama and his representatives. The Dalai Lama, who retired from politics in 2011, says Beijing must meet with the Tibetan government-in-exile.
The Chinese government recently has stepped up its verbal attacks on the Dalai Lama. Most recently, it slammed the spiritual leader for suggesting he may not be reincarnated when he dies. Beijing exercises tight control over religious matters in China, and has said it alone can decide whether the Dalai Lama will be reincarnated.

Tibet Chief demands monasteries display Chinese flags
April 13, 2015
By Christopher Bodeen
Associated Press, April 9, 2015 – Tibet’s Communist Party chief has demanded that Buddhist monasteries display the national flag as part of efforts to shore up Chinese control over the restive region.
In an editorial appearing in state newspapers, Chen Quanguo wrote that national flags should be among the key elements found in monasteries.
Demands to display Chinese flags have frequently sparked protests by Tibetans who complain of heavy-handed Chinese rule. Tibetan monks and nuns are among the most active opponents of Chinese rule in the region and face some of the harshest restrictions on their activities.
Chen also called for stepping-up legal and patriotic education in the monasteries — particularly on China’s regulations and restrictions on religious life and institutions — along with activities to select model temples, nuns and monks who display “advanced patriotism and obedience to law.”
“Let the broad masses of monks and nuns be even more conscious of patriotism, obedience to law, and the promotion of religious harmony,” Chen wrote. “Guide them in the adaption of Tibetan Buddhism to socialist society.”
The flag display demand violates Tibetan Buddhist tradition and underscores the extent of China’s determination to control all aspects of the religion, said Bhuchung Tsering, vice president of the London-based advocacy group International Campaign for Tibet.
“While China continues to tell the world that Tibetans enjoy religious freedom and autonomy, its top official in Lhasa is engaged in an ideological campaign to turn Tibetan monasteries into ‘patriotic centers,'” he said in a statement.
Chen also said that newspapers, television, telephones and water and electrical connections should be made available in monasteries. He said measures would be taken to improve health care, stipends and pensions for monks and nuns to permit them to “personally feel the concern and warmth of the party and government.”
Chen’s demand was contained in a lengthy editorial that first appeared Wednesday in the party flagship People’s Daily and was reprinted in other papers on Thursday.
China claims Tibet has been part of its territory for seven centuries, but many Tibetans say they were effectively independent for most of that time. Communist forces occupied the region in 1951 following victory in the Chinese civil war.
Buddhist clergy objects particularly to demands to take part in patriotic education activities to enforce loyalty to the Communist Party, complaining that they waste time and resources from their religious studies.
Those activities and other restrictions were intensified after the 2008 riots in Tibet’s capital Lhasa sparked widespread protests across Tibetan areas. Troops were stationed in monasteries and monks and nuns deemed politically suspect were forced out.

Tibetan nun burns self in Kardze, total self-immolation reaches 137
April 10, 2015 2:58 pm
DHARAMSHALA: Yeshi Khando, a 47-year-old Tibetan nun in Kardze, set herself on fire on 8 April in an apparent protest against the Chinese government, media reports say. She is the 137th Tibetan since 2009 to self-immolate in protest against the Chinese government’s repressive policies in Tibet.
Yeshi Khando is a nun from Chogri Ngangang nunnery in Kardze town, Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (incorporated into China’s Sichuan Province). She burned herself near a local police station in Kardze at around 09:00 am in the morning.
During her self-immolation protest, she raised slogans calling for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and freedom for Tibetans. She also shouted prayers for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and called for unity amongst the Tibetan people.
Chinese security forces arrived shortly after the incident and seized her body. It is currently not clear whether she is alive or dead. However, it is reported that eye witnesses and local people believe she may have expired after her fiery demonstration.
“Chinese authorities have summoned Yeshi Khando’s family to the police station on 9 April to inform them that she has died. However, they refused to hand over her body to the family members. So, it’s quite difficult to ascertain whether she is dead or alive,” a reliable source informed.

Top Chinese official in Tibet wants Buddhist temples to spread propaganda
By Ishaan Tharoor April 3
China’s top-ranking official in Tibet wants monks in the restive far western region to “revere” science and embrace the “warmth” of Chinese Communist Party ideology.
An article, cited by Reuters, written in a prominent fortnightly party magazine by Chen Quanguo, Tibet’s Communist Party boss, urged Tibet’s nearly 50,000 monks to see Beijing officialdom as “friends.”
That’s a bit of a tricky sell, given China’s long history of repression in Tibet, its demonizing of the exiled Dalai Lama and the recurring gruesome tactic of self-immolation practiced by Tibetan monks protesting the Chinese state.
But Chen espouses the longstanding party line, arguing that, since its annexation by China in 1950, Tibetans have benefited from throwing off the shackles of their thralldom to Tibet’s powerful lamas. In his article, Chen indicates that Tibet’s hundreds of temples should recognize Beijing’s vision of modernity.
“Let the monks and nuns in the temples and monasteries have a personal feeling of the party and government’s care and warmth; let them feel the party’s benevolence, listen to the party’s words and follow the party’s path,” Chen writes in party journal Qiushi, which means “seeking truth.”
He adds: “Monks and nuns should not have to go out of their temples or monasteries to understand the party and government’s policies and social progress, or Tibet’s peace, stability and good fortune, so as to be guided to follow a path of revering scientific culture.”
This may sound benign, but there is an edge to the message. Stability and vigilance against any inkling of separatism are mantras of Beijing’s one-party authoritarian state. Religion — particularly the Buddhism of Tibetans and the Islam of Uighurs in the neighboring restive region of Xinjiang — have long posed an implicit threat to Communist party ideology.
Chen’s insistence on reverence for “scientific culture” is Beijing’s way of saying minority religious practices need to be better controlled. Last year, in remarks addressing counterterrorism measures, Chinese President Xi Jinping insisted “patriotic clergy” in Xinjiang should help their co-religionists “adapt to a socialist society.”
In the months since, Chinese authorities in the region have embarked on a widespread crackdown on Islamic and Uighur cultural practices, including the wearing of burqas and bans even on the growing of lengthy beards. According to my colleagues, they have even embarked on an Orwellian scheme where families in parts of Xinjiang sign “de-radicalization pledges” and encourage locals to report on each other.
This wasn’t the first time Chen made a strong statement regarding religion in Tibet. Two years ago, also in Qiushi, he insisted that China must instruct people in Tibet “to be grateful to the Party, listen to the Party and follow the Party.”
A spokesman from the toothless Tibetan-government-in-exile, based in India, offered this retort: “Ironically, [Chen] is expressing the kind of imperialist mentality that the Communist Party criticizes and claims to fight against.”
Ishaan Tharoor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor at TIME, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York.