Dalai Lama blames suicide protests on Chinese 'cultural genocide'

Singh

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Tibetan "Burning Martyrs" movement spreads

The unrest in the Tibetan areas of China ---Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan--- continues in different forms. The unrest was triggered off in March last by unhappiness among the Tibetans of Sichuan over the continued suppression of their political, religious and ethnic rights by the Chinese authorities and over their attempts to punish anyone who proclaimed his or her loyalty to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

2.The unrest in the Tibetan areas of Sichuan has taken the form of a chain of self-immolations by young Tibetan monks of the large Kirti monastery. The Chinese authorities have not been able to stop these acts or attempted acts of self-immolation despite their removing a large number of monks of the monastery to a military detention camp euphemistically called a re-education centre and punishing those present at the time of the self-immolations on charges of abetment to suicide. They have also been forcing senior monks to come out with statements condemning self-immolations as unBuddhist and have launched a campaign against His Holiness for not condemning self-immolations.

3. Despite these suppressive measures, acts or attempted acts of self-immolation continue with nine so far. In the latest incident reported on October 17, 2011, a nun is reported to have committed self-immolation. This is the first instance of a self-immolation by a nun in the history of Tibetan Buddhism. Wamgmo, the 20-year-old nun, was from the Mamo or Dechen Choekorling Nunnery, which has about 350 nuns in Ngaba. Nuns from here had also participated in the March 2008 protest movement,

4. The same day, the Chinese police opened fire on a group of protesting Tibetans, injuring two of them. There were no fatalities. The shooting followed a protest the previous day in the Khekor township of Serthar (in Chinese, Seda) county of the Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) prefecture. A group of seven Tibetans protested in front of the local police station and shouted slogans calling for freedom for Tibet, the return of His Holiness from exile and the release from jail of His Holiness the Panchen Lama, chosen by the Dalai Lama in accordance with Tibetan Buddhist traditions. The Chinese have jailed him and the Communist Party of China has nominated its own Panchen Lama who has not been accepted by the Tibetans.

5.The self-immolations in Sichuan have been accompanied by protests and commercial strikes by Tibetans in the towns and villages to which those committing self-immolation belonged. The Tibetan community of Sichuan observed a day of fasting and protest on October 19 to express solidarity with the families of those who committed self-immolation. The acts of self-immolation have not so far spread to other Tibetan areas outside Sichuan.

6. However, a Tibetan-consciousness movement has been spreading right across the Tibetan belt. The objective of the movement is to enhance the consciousness of the Tibetans---particularly the youth--- about the distinct nature of the Tibetan culture as distinguished from the Han culture and to impress upon the youth the importance of preserving the Tibetan culture and maintaining their loyalty and devotion to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The monasteries have been in the forefront of this movement.

7. As part of this Tibetan-consciousness movement, Tibetans are being encouraged to dress in typical Tibetan style, speak among themselves only in the Tibetan language, eat only Tibetan food and participate in joint prayer meetings. Reports received from Tibet and other Tibetan areas say that thousands of Tibetans---many of them youth—are participating in the peaceful gatherings organised by this movement. The Chinese authorities have till now refrained from disrupting this movement lest it lead to any violence.

8. At the Sershul monastery in the Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of the Sichuan province, more than 20,000 Tibetan monks and others gathered from Oct. 6-13 to take part in discussions on Tibetan-consciousness. In an earlier Tibetan-consciousness gathering from Oct. 2-5 at the Dzogchen monastery, also in Kardze, a senior religious leader spoke to more than 10,000 Tibetans on the Tibetan identity. Pledges to struggle for Tibetan freedom through non-violent means were taken

9.Similar gatherings were held in eight other places during September and October, including one gathering of about 1,400 monks in Nangchen in the Yulshul (in Chinese, Yushu) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai province.

10. The absence of acts of self-immolation, protest meetings and commercial strikes in Tibet itself should not be misconstrued to mean that the struggle for Tibetan rights, which led to a mass flare-up in 2008, is showing signs of subsiding. It has taken a different form. The presence of thousands of Tibetans---particularly Tibetan youth--- in the Tibetan-consciousness gatherings in Tibet speaks of the continuing pride of the Tibetans in their Tibetan personality, culture and religious faith.

11. The Tibetan struggle for the protection and preservation of their self-identity and their loyalty and devotion to His Holiness remain as strong as ever. What should be encouraging is that a new generation Tibetan activists, different from those who were in the vanguard of the 2008 flare-up, has emerged and is now leading the Tibetan struggle. The new generation believes in a peaceful struggle. It feels that the violence of March 2008 played into the hands of the Chinese and enabled them to use brutal force to suppress the movement.( 25-10-11)


Raman's strategic analysis: CHINA: TIBETAN-CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT SPREADS
 
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Ray

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So the Tibetans are not joining the progressive Hans and instead want to remain Tibetans?

I wonder why.

Maybe our Chinese posters would throw some light.

I wonder if there is any Chinese poster from Sichuan who can tell us as to what exactly is going on!
 

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Do these Tibetan sing this?

 
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Japan: Dalai Lama Blames Policies of China for Self-Immolations
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: November 7, 2011

The Dalai Lama said Monday that a recent wave of self-immolations in southwestern China was born of desperation because Tibetans faced "cultural genocide" under Chinese rule. "Some kind of policy, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place," the Dalai Lama, above, the Tibetan spiritual leader, told journalists in Tokyo. Citing hard-line policies in China over the last 10 to 15 years, he added, "so that's why you see these sad incidents have happened due to this desperate sort of situation." Eleven Tibetans have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule since March. At least five monks and two nuns have died.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/w...icies-of-china-for-self-immolations.html?_r=1

It appears that the Dalai Lama is nowadays using stronger language than before.

Must be at his tethers end
 

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TIBETAN UNREST SHOWS SIGNS OF SPREADING FROM SICHUAN TO TIBET


The unrest of Tibetan monks, which has so far led to 10 attempts to commit self-immolation ---seven of them successful resulting in deaths--- in Western Sichuan, is now showing signs of spreading to Tibet. However, there are no reports so far of any attempted self-immolation in Tibet.

2. The unrest in Tibet is showing signs of taking a more violent form directed against Han targets instead of self-immolation. The Chinese authorities have banned all religious activities at the historic Karma monastery in Tibet's Chamdo prefecture following a bomb explosion at a government building there on October 26,2011. It has been reported that nearly all the monks at the monastery in the Dzagyu Karma township where the blast occurred have fled from the area, fearing that they might be arrested and detained in a military detention camp as the Chinese have done to a large number of monks of the Kirti monastery in Western Sichuan following the first incident of self-immolation of a young monk in March last.

3.For some week now, there have been reports of anger among the Tibetans in the Dzagyu Karma area over the re-settlement of a large number of Hans from other provinces in the rural areas under the pretext of undertaking development projects for the Tibetans. Before the blast, anonymous leaflets circulating in the area had warned as follows: "Anyone who settles in the rural area should speak Tibetan. Otherwise, we will not accept them. If this policy of settling Chinese in Tibetan rural areas is not stopped, we will protest and may be forced to resort to violence."

4. After the blast, Chinese security forces surrounded the Karma monastery, located on the eastern bank of the Dzachu River in Chamdo (in Chinese, Changdu) prefecture and founded in the 12th century. They allegedly suspected that monks in the monastery were behind the blast, which badly damaged the building but caused no casualties. The Chinese security forces claimed to have found in the area of the blast posters and leaflets calling for Tibetan independence.

5. Fearing that the Tibetan refugees in Nepal ( about 20,000) may play a role in spreading the unrest to Tibet from Nepalese territory, the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu is reported to have stepped up pressure on the Nepalese Government to arrest what the Embassy described as the splittist elements in the local Tibetan refugee community. Chinese concerns have increased following an attempt by some members of the Tibetan refugee community in Nepal to hold a prayer meeting in memory of those who committed self-immolation in Sichuan. Following pressure from the Chinese Embassy, the Nepalese authorities are reported to have arrested about 100 refugees who participated in the prayer meeting.

6.In the meanwhile, Lobsang Sangay , the newly-elected head of the Tibetan Government-in-exile in Dharamshala, has arrived in Washington DC to testify before a Congressional Committee on the human rights situation in the Tibetan areas of China. While expressing his readiness for talks with the Chinese authorities, he blamed the Chinese refusal to accept the reality of the ground situation in the Tibetan areas for the continuing unrest. He added: "The actions of Tibetans who pour gasoline over themselves are clear indications of their desperation and frustration and of the urgency of the situation inside Tibet." ( 2-11-11)


Raman's strategic analysis: TIBETAN UNREST SHOWS SIGNS OF SPREADING FROM SICHUAN TO TIBET
 

no smoking

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So the Tibetans are not joining the progressive Hans and instead want to remain Tibetans?

I wonder why.

Maybe our Chinese posters would throw some light.

I wonder if there is any Chinese poster from Sichuan who can tell us as to what exactly is going on!
Why would they want to join those "progressive" Hans in an industrilised life: getting up every morning and work his ass off to get 3 meals. Worst of worse, on the other side of world, there is a group of people promising him: all these hard working won't necessary as long as Dalai Lama can come back.
 

no smoking

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It appears that the Dalai Lama is nowadays using stronger language than before.

Must be at his tethers end
Of course, he can take off his "peaceful" mask and tell the world how much ugly or brave he could be, or speak even louder and stronger.
 

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'Burning Martyrs': The Wave Of Tibetan Monks Setting Themselves On Fire

Exiled Tibetan monks in Dharmsala, India, carry portraits of Palden Choetso, a 35-year-old Tibetan Buddhist nun, who died after setting fire to herself in protest. Photograph: Ashwini Bhatia/AP

On the posters, they call them "the burning martyrs". Above photographs of the 11 Tibetan monks, former monks and nuns who have set fire to themselves this year in an unprecedented series of demonstrations in Sichuan, south-west China, the question asked is: "How many more?"

Their images line the streets of Dharamsala, the Indian Himalayan foothill town which is a refuge to the Tibetan community in exile. And with seven suicide protests in the last four weeks alone, the question is ever more urgent. Most of those who have set themselves on fire have died.

On Thursday monks who have recently made the perilous journey across the Himalayas to exile in India claimed leaflets were circulating in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in China listing the names of scores of young people ready to publicly burn themselves alive to protest against Chinese policies .

Senior monks from the Kirti monastery in Aba county, the centre of the protests so far, told the Guardian that they feared it was inevitable many more would die over the coming months.

"I am 100% sure there will be more. The situation is suffocating and there is no other way to demonstrate anger," said Kanyang Tsering, 32, a monk from Kirti living in Dharamsala.

Tsering said the towns and villages surrounding Kirti monastery were under heavy security. "There are more soldiers and police than people. All over Tibet this is happening but in Kirti it is particularly bad."

Kirti is not in the official Tibetan Autonomous Region, but exiles claim several Tibetan-dominated areas of south-west China as Tibet.

Film of the area taken by journalists from the AFP news agency last month showed a heavy presence of Chinese security authorities with patrols equipped with fire extinguishers to stop further attempts at self-immolation.

Until two years ago, when a monk burned himself to death in Aba county, the practice was unknown among Tibetan clerics. But since the start of a security clampdown provoked by the second case, in March this year, there has been a series of such suicide protests. Analysts have observed that they have taken place in locations that saw significant violence during unrest in March 2008.

Tibetan sources in Dharamsala also said two monks had been arrested in Kirti monastery in the last week and "taken away for unknown reasons". Out of 2,500 monks at the start of the year, only a few hundred remained in the monastery, the sources said, with many reportedly detained or sent home.

The sources also claimed that 200 officials were now based in the monastery, monitoring life there and interfering with day-to-day religious practices.

They said officials had renewed efforts to enforce rules that all under-18s must attend the government school, threatening families with fines of 3,000 yuan (about £300) per child – a large sum relative to local incomes – if their children had become monks or were studying at monastery schools.

Police and government officials in Aba said they knew nothing of the detentions or other restrictions. The Chinese government has said Tibetans are free to practise their faith.

The self-immolations are, however, controversial even among Tibetans.

One long-term Tibetan resident of Dharamsala said that the "emotional reaction" of the community was "oh no, not another one" whenever news broke of a further suicide, even if "people understand why they are doing it".

The Karmapa Lama, one of the most senior Tibetan religious figures, has urged Tibetans in China to find other ways to challenge Beijing's policies.

Many see the 25-year-old Karmapa Lama, who is based near Dharamsala, as a possible successor to the Dalai Lama as the spiritual leader of exiled Tibetans.

"These desperate acts "¦ are a cry against the injustice and repression under which they live. But I request the people of Tibet to preserve their lives and find other, constructive ways to work for the cause of Tibet," he said.

"In Buddhist teaching life is precious. To achieve anything worthwhile we need to preserve our lives."

His position differs, however, from that taken by the Dalai Lama himself, who – though he has expressed deep sorrow at the deaths, which he blamed on Chinese policies – has not appealed to Tibetans to halt such acts. Tsering, the Kirti monk in Dharamsala, said that the act of suicide was shocking to most Buddhists but was justified by the "motivations" of those killing themselves. "They are doing it for the good of all people in the region, nothing else," he said.

The Chinese government has accused the Dalai Lama of "terrorism in disguise" because he has led prayers for those who have set fire to themselves.

The Karmapa Lama said that "Tibetans are few in number, so every Tibetan life is of value to the cause of Tibet".

The real source of the problem lay in the "desperate circumstances" facing Tibetans, and using force was counter-productive, he said.

Professor Robert Barnett, an expert on Tibet at the University of Columbia, said that China had seen other self-immolations, often in property disputes, without the kind of security clampdown that followed this year's first death.

The reaction was "presumably because of the potential for even one Tibetan case to resonate with the entire [Tibetan] population", he said.

"For several years the authorities have been piling pressure on the monastery – and on monasteries in general. It is not just that officials were over-zealous after March. This is the state reaping rewards for years of policy "¦ [It may be] that officials are going further than Beijing expects, but that this is working on top of what is already a volcano."

A foreign ministry official accused the Dalai Lama last month of inciting further cases by glorifying those who had set themselves on fire. Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to split Tibet from China, while he says he seeks meaningful autonomy.

The tight restrictions on the area mean that it is impossible to know exactly what has driven the Tibetans to kill themselves. In some cases witnesses reported them chanting slogans demanding an end to Chinese rule, however, and according to the friend of a monk who killed himself in March, the aim of the demonstrations is "to attract international attention to [the] struggle".


'Burning martyrs': the wave of Tibetan monks setting themselves on fire | World news | The Guardian
 

Tshering22

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This is really stupid. They're just making the job of cowardly Communists easier by immolating themselves. If they were that desperate, they should at least take as many Reds as possible with them. That's what revolutionaries and fighters do. When will Tibetans realize that Peace is never realized without war?
 

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This is really stupid. They're just making the job of cowardly Communists easier by immolating themselves. If they were that desperate, they should at least take as many Reds as possible with them. That's what revolutionaries and fighters do. When will Tibetans realize that Peace is never realized without war?
Naxalites have echoed your opinion!
 

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This is really stupid. They're just making the job of cowardly Communists easier by immolating themselves. If they were that desperate, they should at least take as many Reds as possible with them. That's what revolutionaries and fighters do. When will Tibetans realize that Peace is never realized without war?
 
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How many of us are aware that Tibet under Dalai Lama was a feudal state, not a prosperous democracy that we like to think it was.
 

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Dalai Lama blames suicide protests on Chinese 'cultural genocide'

The Dalai Lama has blamed a recent wave of Tibetan self-immolations on a policy of "cultural genocide" being carried out by the Chinese government.



Eight Buddhist monks and two nuns have set themselves alight in ethnically Tibetan parts of China's Sichuan province since the death of a young monk in March sparked a government crackdown.

"Chinese communist propaganda create a very rosy picture. But actually, including many Chinese from mainland China who visit Tibet, they all have the impression things are terrible," the Dalai Lama said.

"Some kind of policy, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place," the 76-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader said, in comments that are likely to rile Beijing.

"(In the) last 10, 15 years, there were some kind of hardliner Chinese officials. So that's why you see these sad incidents have happened due to this desperate sort of situation."

Activists say that at least five monks and two nuns have died from their injuries and that Chinese police have at times responded by beating the burning protesters and their colleagues rather than providing assistance.
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In March 2008, major anti-Chinese unrest erupted in the Tibetan capital Lhasa and spread to neighbouring areas of western China with Tibetan populations.

Tibet's exiled government said more than 200 Tibetans were killed in a subsequent clampdown. Beijing said "rioters" were responsible for 21 deaths.

Many Tibetans in China are angry about what they see as growing domination by the country's majority Han ethnic group.

In the latest in a number of incidents, Buddhist nun Qiu Xiang last week died after she set herself on fire, calling for religious freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama, rights groups said.

China has accused the Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland for India in 1959, of instigating the suicide protests in a form of "terrorism in disguise."

In the past, he has condemned self-immolations, which many Buddhists believe are contrary to their faith, but has until now kept a low profile over the recent wave of protests.

He announced in March that he wanted to shed his role as political chief of the Tibetan government-in-exile but will retain the more influential role of Tibet's spiritual leader.

Dalai Lama blames suicide protests on Chinese 'cultural genocide' - Telegraph
If it was that the Tibetans loved all the economic goodies being 'showered' by China, then why this type of protest.

Unfortunately, China has its historical way of assimilating others and making them Hans, by destroying the original identity in very possible way.

Therefore, His Holiness is not wrong when he says that there is a cultural genocide on its way in Tibet perpetuate by the Chinese.
 

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"The situation is that whether intentionally or unintentionally a sort of cultural genocide is happening in Tibet. And if losing
independence is acceptable, on the contrary losing one's culture, accepting the destruction of our spirituality, of Tibetan Buddhism, is
unthinkable" The Dalai Lama


The Chinese began to force assimilation of the Tibetan culture into mainstream communist Chinese society by moving Chinese into Tibet, destroying monasteries, and setting up a public school system in which Tibetan children would learn Chinese propaganda, language and culture. This cultural genocide has dramatically changed Tibet. Today there are more Chinese living in Tibet than Tibetans, the number of monks and nuns has been dramatically reduced, and Tibetan children are growing up knowing little of their culture.

The word "genocide" must be used with care. Our world and our century have seen countless abominable massacres, and it is easy to slip into the use of the word to denote such atrocities. We should, however, restrict it to those crimes before high heaven which are truly designated by it. If we do so, and if we consider only the last sixty years, there are four such mass murders which can justifiably carry the terrible brand. They are: the Jewish Holocaust, the Stalin Terror, the bloodthirst of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, and what was done to the people and culture of Tibet during the miserable lust for death and torture unleashed by the mad Mao Tse-tung under the name of "The Cultural Revolution".
- Bernard Levin, The Times, September 7, 1990 (Introductory Quote From Mary Craig's, Tears of Blood: A Cry of Tibet)


HistoryWiz: Cultural Genocide
 

johnee

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If it was that the Tibetans loved all the economic goodies being 'showered' by China, then why this type of protest.

Unfortunately, China has its historical way of assimilating others and making them Hans, by destroying the original identity in very possible way.

Therefore, His Holiness is not wrong when he says that there is a cultural genocide on its way in Tibet perpetuate by the Chinese.
Yep, Chinese seek to make proper Hans out of Tibetans. Fortunately, Indians cannot be Hanized atleast not the physical features... Or maybe that will qualify the Indians as only potential slaves when Middle Kingdom rules the world.
 

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Culture genocide in Tibet is true, says former US diplomat

By Tendar Tsering

DHARAMSHALA, November 15: John Graham, a former US diplomat, after a ten-day private visit to Tibet, last month, has attested that reports of cultural genocide in Tibet are true.

"For ten days last month I saw first-hand what the Chinese are doing in Tibet "¦ The reports you've heard of cultural genocide are true. China is obliterating the ideas, traditions and habits of the Tibetan people," writes Graham in an article titled 'Goodbye Tibet?'

By keeping hand written notes in personal code on food wrappers mixed in with dirty socks, the former US Foreign Service Officer came out with an insightful article unveiling the on going Chinese repressive policies that have forced eleven Tibetans to set ablaze since last March.

"It was not easy to get Tibetans to talk with me, out of sight or hearing-most Tibetans made it clear how much they hated the Chinese for invading their country, but even more for deliberately trying to destroy their culture and their way of life," writes Graham.

The well-known speaker and author of several books notes that Lhasa has been turned into a Potemkin village where all the best-paying jobs are taken by Chinese while Tibetans are forced to pick through what's left.

Remarking on the resilient non-cooperation tactics employed by Tibetans, Graham writes: "Just a few hundred yards from the manicured boulevards of downtown Lhasa you'll find acres of simple Tibetan houses, made of stone and cinderblock. It's a crime not to fly the Chinese flag from your roof, but two-thirds of these little households risk a heavy fine not to do it."

Drawing attention to the forced resettlement of Tibetan nomads and farmers, Graham notes, "Tibetan houses are being bulldozed one by one, with their residents moved to Cabrini Green-type high-rises as fast as these can be built".

"Forced moves like this starve not bodies but souls. The idea is to lead Tibetans, especially young Tibetans, to forget who they are," writes Graham.
Culture genocide in Tibet is true, says former US diplomat - www.phayul.com
This is the opinion of someone who has toured Tibet and seen things with his own eyes!!
 

nitesh

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What else can be expected of commies
 

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