Author: Tsering Passang

Twenty-four years ago, on 13th May 1999, His Holiness the Dalai Lama opened and consecrated the Tibetan Peace Garden. This only Tibetan monument in the heart of London, was commissioned by Tibet Foundation and built on land kindly provided by Southwark Council. It has been donated to the people of Britain for all to enjoy.

The Tibetan Peace Garden has a unique location. The park in which it is built houses the Imperial War Museum and so attracts large numbers of visitors from all over the UK and abroad. It is within walking distance of Waterloo Station and is close to the Houses of Parliament, Lambeth Palace, the London Eye, the South Bank Centre and Tate Modern.

The Tibetan Peace Garden honours one of the principal teachings of His Holiness – the need to create understanding between different cultures and to establish places of peace and harmony in the world. It is hoped that it will create a deepening awareness of His Holiness’s thoughts and words.

This Garden of Contemplation (Samten Kyil) is a place where anyone can come and enjoy a time of peace and tranquility. For the spiritually minded, this is no longer an ordinary place, because it has been both consecrated and blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to have a spiritual life of its own.

As part of the 24th anniversary of the Tibetan Peace Garden this year, the eight visiting monks from India-based Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, on Wednesday 24th May, prayed for World Peace and for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. They also conducted Rabney – a Buddhist blessing. Friends from Southwark Council, local offices and Buddhist centres, including from Jamyang, Kagyu Samye Dzong and Lelung Dharma Centre joined the anniversary event. A small contingent of Tibetans from Belgium and Tibetan Community UK also attended the Buddhist prayer for World Peace.

HE Lelung Rinpoche, Founder and Spiritual Director of Lelung Dharma Trust, assigned Tsering Passang, a volunteer, who is also Founder and Chair of Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities, to organise this year’s anniversary event. Passang said: “It’s so wonderful to support the good work of HE Lelung Rinpoche and the Lelung Dharma Trust ensuring His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s message of Peace is continuously spread throughout the world. The monks from Tashi Lhunpo Monastery really made this year’s anniversary a special one with their presence at the Tibetan Peace Garden.”

Passang read out His Holiness the Dalai L ama’s Message, which is inscribed on the Stone Pillar in four different languages – Tibetan, English, Hindi and Chinese – in the Tibetan Peace Garden.  

“We human beings are passing through a crucial period in our development.

Conflicts and mistrust have plagued the past century, which has brought immeasurable human suffering and environmental destruction. It is in the interests of all of us on this planet that we make a joint effort to turn the next century into an era of peace and harmony.

May this peace garden become a monument to the courage of the Tibetan people and their commitment to peace.

May it remain as a symbol to remind us that human survival depends on living in harmony and always choosing the path of non-violence in resolving our differences.”

HIS HOLINESS THE 14TH DALAI LAMA

After the closing of the Tibet Foundation in 2021, the Lelung Dharma Trust agreed to and is committed to upkeep of the Tibetan Peace Garden in cooperation with the Southwark Council.

The visiting monks from Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in south India are currently on their 50th anniversary of UK Tour 2023. The original Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Shigatse (Tibet) is the official seat of the Panchen Lamas. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who is the genuine reincarnation of the previous 10th Panchen Lama, recognised by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, has been missing since May 1995. For more, please read Tsering Passang’s piece – China Must Return the Stolen Tibetan Child – The 11th Panchen Lama

Location

The Tibetan Peace Garden

Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park

St George’s Road

London SE1 6ER

Mainline train: London Waterloo; the garden is around 10 minutes’ walk from the station

Underground: Elephant & Castle (Bakerloo/Northern Lines) / Lambeth North (Bakerloo Line)

Bus: 12,45,53,63,68,159,168, 171,176,188,344 & C10 pass outside

Useful Links:

Lelung Dharma Trust

Tashi Lhunpo Monastery UK Trust

Tashi Lhunpo Monks: 50th Anniversary Year Tour 2023

Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, Bylakuppe, south India

Thanks to the amazing work of the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC), scholars and legal experts around the world, as well as the independent China Tribunal have all established that the Chinese State has “sanctioned forced organ harvesting from prisoners and prisoners of conscience in the People’s Republic of China”.

Watch this short video clip that explains the illegal organ harvesting taking place in PRC.

Extensive reports since 2006 have documented the scale and severity of state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting from prisoners and prisoners of conscience in the People’s Republic of China. Independent reporting and pressure from international medical and governmental institutions have prompted the Chinese government to announce multiple reforms. Official statements claim that reforms are designed to bring China’s transplantation system into line with international standards and enable China’s transplantation system and professionals to gain international legitimacy and acceptance. Despite these claims and the gradual development (since 2010) of a voluntary organ donation system, evidence continues to emerge regarding largescale and severe human rights violations in the sourcing of organs for transplants in China.

The most recent and comprehensive assessment of the evidence about forced organ harvesting in China was conducted by the China Tribunal. This was an independent people’s tribunal established to investigate forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China and determine what criminal offences, if any, have been committed by state or state-approved bodies, organisations or individuals in China that may have engaged in forced organ harvesting. The Tribunal’s Final Judgment, delivered in June 2019, unanimously found that forced organ harvesting continues in China.

In August 2021, 12 UN Special Rapporteurs and human rights experts issued a correspondence to China regarding credible evidence of forced organ harvesting from ethnic, religious and linguistic groups. The correspondence was made public and the UNOHCHR issued a press release.

FINDINGS OF THE CHINA TRIBUNAL

“Forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale.”

“Falun Gong practitioners have been one—and probably the main—source of organ supply.”

“In regard to the Uyghurs, the Tribunal had evidence of medical testing on a scale that could allow them, amongst other uses, to become an ‘organ bank’.”

“Commission of Crimes Against Humanity against the Falun Gong and Uyghurs has been proved beyond reasonable doubt.”

“The Tribunal has no evidence that the significant infrastructure associated with China’s transplantation industry has been dismantled and absent a satisfactory explanation as to the source of readily available organs concludes that forced organ harvesting continues till today.”

International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC)

The International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC) is a coalition of lawyers, academics, ethicists, medical professionals, researchers and human rights advocates dedicated to ending forced organ harvesting in China.

The principal object for which the International Coalition To End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC) has been established is to advance and promote the education of human rights and values with the goal of ending human rights violations associated with organ trafficking involving forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China and seeking justice for the victims of forced organ harvesting.

Useful Links:

The International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC)

China Tribunal

Exactly 72 years ago, on 23rd May 1951, the “Seventeen-Point Agreement” was signed between the representatives of the independent Tibetan Government in Lhasa and the Chinese Communist Government in Peking.

Tibetans have always maintained that the “agreement” was signed by their representatives “under duress”. His Excellency Lukhangwa, the lay Tibetan Prime Minister, plainly told Chinese Representative Zhang Jingwu in 1952 that the Tibetan “people did not accept the agreement”. Nevertheless, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, who was a young teenager at the time, decided to work with the Chinese “in order to save my people and country from total destruction”, as he wrote in his memoir, ‘My Land and My People’.

For eight years, the Dalai Lama tried to abide by the terms of that document. The Tibetan Leader even relieved his Prime Minister Lukhangwa from his post, who had made no secret of his staunch opposition to the Chinese aggression.

In 1954, the young Dalai Lama visited Peking. During his nearly 6 months of stay in mainland China the Dalai Lama had meetings with many Chinese leaders, including Chairman Mao Tsetung and Premier Chou En-lai on a few occasions. Both of them gave assurances to him on Tibet’s good future.

However, the Chinese leaders did not keep their words. The situation across Tibet was getting worse as Tibetan resistance against the invading PLA forces led to fierce fighting. The young Dalai Lama finally escaped Tibet into exile in March 1959 in India, where he set up the Tibetan Government-in-exile.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s first press conference in India, in Mussoorie in 1959, repudiating the 17 Point Agreement which was signed under duress in Beijing on May 23, 1951.

Sikyong Penpa Tsering, President of the Central Tibetan Administration, has been saying that the 17-point “Agreement” is “illegal” under the international law. On the 63rd anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising, Sikyong Penpa Tsering delivered his administration’s Official March 10th 2022 Statement and said, “When the Chinese communist assumed power on 1 October 1949, it announced the so-called “peaceful liberation” of Tibet. Soon after in 1950, the overwhelming Chinese communist forces attacked Chamdo and defeated the Tibetan army. The whole of Tibet was brought for the first time under its occupation after coercing Tibetans to sign the 17-Point Agreement in 1951.

THE AGREEMENT OF THE CENTRAL PEOPLE’S GOVERNMENT AND THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF TIBET ON MEASURES FOR THE PEACEFUL LIBERATION OF TIBET

The Tibetan nationality is one of the nationalities with a long history within the boundaries of China and, like many other nationalities, it has done its glorious duty in the course of the creation and development of the great motherland. But over the last hundred years and more, imperialist forces penetrated into China, and in consequence, also penetrated into the Tibetan region and carried out all kinds of deceptions and provocations. Like previous reactionary Governments, the KMT [Kuomintang] reactionary government continued to carry out a policy of oppression and sowing dissension among the nationalities, causing division and disunity among the Tibetan people. The Local Government of Tibet did not oppose imperialist deception and provocations, but adopted an unpatriotic attitude towards the great motherland. Under such conditions, the Tibetan nationality and people were plunged into the depths of enslavement and suffering. 

In 1949, basic victory was achieved on a nation-wide scale in the Chinese people’s war of liberation; the common domestic enemy of all nationalities–the KMT reactionary government–was overthrown; and the common foreign enemy of all nationalities–the aggressive imperialist forces–was driven out. On this basis, the founding of the People’s Republic of China and of the Central People’s Government was announced. In accordance with the Common Programme passed by the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the Central People’s Government declared that all nationalities within the boundaries of the People’s Republic of China are equal, and that they shall establish unity and mutual aid and oppose imperialism and their own public enemies, so that the People’s Republic of China may become one big family of fraternity and cooperation, composed of all its nationalities. Within this big family of nationalities of the People’s Republic of China, national regional autonomy is to be exercised in areas where national minorities are concentrated, and all national minorities are to have freedom to develop their spoken and written languages and to preserve or reform their customs, habits, and religious beliefs, and the Central People’s Government will assist all national minorities to develop their political, economic, cultural, and educational construction work. Since then, all nationalities within the country, with the exception of those in the areas of Tibet and Taiwan, have gained liberation. Under the unified leadership of the Central People’s Government and the direct leadership of the higher levels of People’s Governments, all national minorities have fully enjoyed the right of national equality and have exercised, or are exercising, national regional autonomy. 

In order that the influences of aggressive imperialist forces in Tibet may be successfully eliminated, the unification of the territory and sovereignty of the People’s Republic of China accomplished, and national defence safeguarded; in order that the Tibetan nationality and people may be freed and return to the big family of the People’s Republic of China to enjoy the same rights of national equality as all other nationalities in the country and develop their political, economic, cultural, and educational work, the Central People’s Government, when it ordered the People’s Liberation Army to march into Tibet, notified the local government of Tibet to send delegates to the Central Authorities to hold talks for the conclusion of an agreement on measures for the peaceful liberation of Tibet. 

In the latter part of April 1951, the delegates with full powers from the Local Government of Tibet arrived in Peking. The Central People’s Government appointed representatives with full powers to conduct talks on a friendly basis with the delegates of the Local Government of Tibet. The result of the talks is that both parties have agreed to establish this agreement and ensure that it be carried into effect.

1. The Tibetan people shall be united and drive out the imperialist aggressive forces from Tibet; that the Tibetan people shall return to the big family of the motherland–the People’s Republic of China.
2. The Local Government of Tibet shall actively assist the People’s Liberation Army to enter Tibet and consolidate the national defences.
3. In accordance with the policy towards nationalities laid down in the Common Programme of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the Tibetan people have the right of exercising national regional autonomy under the unified leadership of the Central People’s Government.
4. The Central Authorities will not alter the existing political system in Tibet. The Central Authorities also will not alter the established status, functions and powers of the Dalai Lama. Officials of various ranks shall hold office as usual.
5. The established status, functions, and powers of the Panchen Ngoerhtehni shall be maintained.
6. By the established status, functions and powers of the Dalai Lama and of the Panchen Ngoerhtehni is meant the status, functions and powers of the 13th Dalai Lama and of the 9th Panchen Ngoerhtehni when they were in friendly and amicable relations with each other.
7. The policy of freedom of religious belief laid down in the Common Programme of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference will be protected. The Central Authorities will not effect any change in the income of the monasteries.
8. The Tibetan troops will be reorganised step by step into the People’s Liberation Army, and become a part of the national defence forces of the Central People’s Government.
9. The spoken and written language and school education of the Tibetan nationality will be developed step by step in accordance with the actual conditions in Tibet.
10. Tibetan agriculture, livestock raising, industry and commerce will be developed step by step, and the people’s livelihood shall be improved step by step in accordance with the actual conditions in Tibet.
11. In matters related to various reforms in Tibet, there will be no compulsion on the part of the Central Authorities. The Local Government of Tibet should carry out reforms of its own accord, and when the people raise demands for reform, they must be settled through consultation with the leading personnel of Tibet.
12. In so far as former pro-imperialist and pro-KMT officials resolutely sever relations with imperialism and the KMT and do not engage in sabotage or resistance, they may continue to hold office irrespective of their past.
13. The People’s Liberation Army entering Tibet will abide by the above-mentioned policies and will also be fair in all buying and selling and will not arbitrarily take even a needle or a thread from the people.
14. The Central People’s Government will handle all external affairs of the area of Tibet; and there will be peaceful co-existence with neighboring countries and the establishment and development of fair commercial and trading relations with them on the basis of equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect for territory and sovereignty.
15. In order to ensure the implementation of this agreement, the Central People’s Government will set up a military and administrative committee and a military area headquarters in Tibet, and apart from the personnel sent there by the Central People’s Government it will absorb as many local Tibetan personnel as possible to take part in the work. Local Tibetan personnel taking part in the military and administrative committee may include patriotic elements from the Local Government of Tibet, various district and various principal monasteries; the name list is to be prepared after consultation between the representatives designated by the Central People’s Government and various quarters concerned, and is to be submitted to the Central People’s Government for approval.
16. Funds needed by the military and administrative committee, the military area headquarters and the People’s Liberation Army entering Tibet will be provided by the Central People’s Government. The Local Government of Tibet should assist the People’s Liberation Army in the purchases and transportation of food, fodder, and other daily necessities.
17. This agreement shall come into force immediately after signatures and seals are affixed to it.

[Signed by the representatives of the Central People’s Government and the Local Government of Tibet on 23 May 1951]

Useful Links:

Facts about the 17-Point Agreement Between Tibet and China

Central Tibetan Administration

The Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) met in Hiroshima for their annual Summit, from 19th to 21st May 2023. The Group of Seven is an intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union is a “non-enumerated member.” It is organised around shared values of pluralism, liberal democracy, and representative government.

It is evident from this year’s G7 Hiroshima Leaders’ Communiqué that the Leaders of these advanced economies are more united than ever before in their “determination to meet the global challenges of this moment and set the course for a better future.” The Communiqué states: “Our work is rooted in respect for the Charter of the United Nations (UN) and international partnership.”

The G7 Leaders’ Communiqué also highlighted China’s violations of human rights, including in Tibet, Xinjiang (East Turkistan) and Hong Kong, adding, “We will keep voicing our concerns about the human rights situation in China, including in Tibet and Xinjiang where forced labor is of major concern to us. We call on China to honor its commitments under the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law, which enshrine rights, freedoms and a high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong.”

In its comprehensive Communiqué, the G7 Leaders reiterated their “commitment to achieving a world without nuclear weapons with undiminished security for all, through taking a realistic, pragmatic, and responsible approach”. Tibetan spiritual leader and the 1989 Nobel Peace laureate, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who has been an avowed campaigner for “demilitarization throughout the world and the elimination of all nuclear weapons” for decades, issued a welcome statement.

His Holiness Welcomes G7 Leaders Call for ‘World Without Nuclear Weapons’

“I wholeheartedly welcome the recent statement from the G7 Leaders’ summit in Hiroshima, Japan, calling for a “world without nuclear weapons”. This joint statement reflects the reality that we live in an increasingly interdependent world, and represents an opportunity to make this 21st century an era of peace and cooperation.

As an avowed campaigner for demilitarization throughout the world and the elimination of all nuclear weapons, I firmly believe this to be a positive initiative. In January 2022, when the Five Nuclear-weapon States made a joint pledge affirming that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, I warmly commended their action.

In these times of uncertainty and upheaval across many parts of the globe, it is vitally important that all of us make earnest and concerted efforts to resolve problems through dialogue and diplomacy. Therefore, commitments like the one by the G7 countries represent a powerful message and recognition of the urgency of putting an end to the threat that these weapons pose to humanity.

A world without nuclear weapons is necessary and possible. In our interconnected world, violence brings suffering even to those far from the conflict. I sincerely hope that we can all remember the oneness of humanity, and recall that harming anyone with violence, including the use of nuclear weapons harms us all.

I pray that this 21st century becomes a more compassionate, peaceful and harmonious world.

Dalai Lama”

Useful Links:

G7 2023 Summit – Hiroshima, Japan

The White House

Office of the Dalai Lama

Charter of the United Nations (UN)

UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women Questions China on Situation of Tibetan Women in Tibet

Geneva: A group of 23-member expert committee reviewed China on the implementation of the UN International Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, on 12 May 2023, in the ongoing 85^th session of the Committee commenced on 8 May 2023. In line with the review of China by the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in its 85th session, Tibet groups, namely the Tibet Bureau, Tibetan Women Associations and Tibet Advocacy Coalition group made submissions to the committee on Tibet, individually. Furthermore, an oral joint statement to draw the committee’s attention to the situation of Tibetan women was delivered on the first day of the session held on 8 May 2023.

Representative Thinlay Chukki and UN Advocacy Officer Kalden Tsomo of the Tibet Bureau along with President of Tibetan Women Association Tenzing Dolma and Tibet Advocacy Coalition’s coordinator Gloria Montgomery took part in the review session on China.

With reference to the situation of Tibetan women in Tibet, the experts questioned China on a wide range of pertinent issues, including the forcible removal of Tibetan nomads and herders; Tibetan women subjected to military-style vocational training, low-skilled and low-paid employment; participation of women in public and diplomatic service, including Tibetan women; legal grounds for confiscation of passports, including women in Tibet; access to education in Tibetan language and issues on mental health safeguard for Tibetan children in residential schools.

During the day-long review session, the UN experts raised numerous pressing questions to the Chinese delegations concerning the situation of women in China and regions under its control including Tibet, and in special administrative areas: Hong Kong and Macau. More than 40 members of Chinese delegations attended the session. However, the delegations, yet again, failed to give sufficient responses to the experts, resulting in repeated interventions from the chair and the country’s rapporteur reminding the delegations to provide “specific replies” to the questions raised by the experts.

Raising the issues of forcible removal of Tibetan nomads, farmers and herders from their ancestral land, the expert raised, “In the name of creating employment opportunities, Tibetans, including women are subjected to military-style vocational training in Tibet”. She further referred to the findings by the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of Slavery that an extensive labour transfer program has shifted mainly farmers, herders and other rural women workers into low-skilled and low-paid employment. In light of these issues, the expert asked China to a) provide concrete figures of Tibetan farmers, herders and nomads who have been forcibly removed from their lands within the last decades and provide gender aggregated data; b) Reasons for providing Tibetan rural women workers with low skilled and low paid employment training under labour transfer program; c) Indicate a number of Tibetan women subjected to forced labour transfer program across China. The large team Chinese delegation could not respond to the issue raised by the expert during the session.

In accordance with the state’s obligation to take necessary measures to eliminate discrimination against women in political and public life, the expert raised the issue of circumstances surrounding the limited participation of women in political and public spheres. The expert asked China to indicate efforts to increase women participation or candidates for political positions and in the diplomacy corps, including Tibetans. Responding to the Chinese delegation’s hazy replies to the question raised by an expert, the chair rapporteur had to point out the delegation’s response to explicitly raise “how many of these (Chinese women) in public life are Tibetans, Uyghur…”?

The expert asked Chinese delegations to clarify and provide information on issues related to the confiscation of passports and identity documents. While acknowledging the experts’ awareness of problems faced by women, including in Tibet, on restrictions of movement, the expert asked Chinese delegations on conditions under which individuals are restricted to travelling abroad; legal grounds that state agents confiscate the passports and identity documents of the individuals. Following the un-concise response by the Chinese delegation, the expert promptly flagged-up that the question raised by the expert had not been answered.

In light of ongoing large-scale assimilatory policy by China in Tibet through residential schools, the expert raised the issue of mental health and aggregated data of Tibetan children in “forced residential schools” in Tibet.

Furthermore, the experts questioned China over the situation of women subjected to state-led interethnic marriages, the situation of women human rights defenders, including protection from harassment, punishment and retaliation against their work and the state’s support to the work of civil society organisations and Non-Governmental Organisations.

This report, filed by the Tibet Bureau in Geneva, published on www.Tibet.Net on 15th May 2023.

Useful Links:

Central Tibetan Administration

Tibet Bureau, Geneva

Voice of Tibet

Geneva: The Tibet Bureau and the Tibetan Women’s Association delivered a joint statement on the situation of Tibetan Women in Tibet during a UN public briefing for the 85^th session of the Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CEDAW), held on 08 May 2023. The 23-member expert committee will review the status of the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women by China on Friday, 12 May 2023.

Representative Thinlay Chukki along with the UN Advocacy Officer Kalden Tsomo and the President of Tibetan Women’s Association (Central) Tenzing Dolma participated in the meeting and met with the UN committee’s members and apprised them of the situation of Tibetan women in Tibet under China’s control.

During the window of a two-min oral briefing opportunity, on behalf of the Tibet Bureau and Tibetan Women Association, UN Advocacy Officer of the Tibet Bureau Kalden Tsomo highlighted Chinese discriminatory policies and patterns impacting the Tibetan women in Tibet, disproportionately. Concerning the issues of residential schools in Tibet aimed at assimilation of Tibetan children into Han majority culture, she raised harassment and sexual abuses in residential schools in Tibet are “alarming”. Furthermore, she brought forward the UN experts’ attention to the situation of Tibetan rights defenders; the continued enforced disappearance of XIth Panchen Lama of Tibet Gedhun Choekyi Nyima along with his mother Dechen Choedon and the forced eviction of Tibetan nuns from Yachen Gar, one of the Tibetan Buddhist learning centres for female Buddhist practitioners.  She said, “Between 2017 and 2018, over thousands of Tibetan nuns from Yachen Gar were evicted, subjecting them to military drill training sessions”. Since 2009, 159 Tibetans, including girls and women, have self-immolated as a political protest against Chinese repression in Tibet, she added.

In conclusion, she urged the committee to press China: to stop persecution and discrimination against Tibetans, including women and girls; to allow Tibetan children to learn its culture, language and religious traditions and to reassess its discriminatory policies and suppression of Tibetan people, which have led to a cycle of protests and unrest in Tibet.

In view of the review session of the treaty body, the Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CEDAW), The Tibet Bureau and the Tibetan Women’s Association have made a detailed written submission on the situation of Tibetan women in Tibet under China’s rule. Click here for written submission of the Tibet Bureau Geneva and click here for report submission of TWA.

China signed and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1980. The treaty body’s experts held the last review of China in 2014. The ongoing 85^th session of the CEDAW commenced on 8^th May and will be concluded on 26^th May. The Tibet team will take part in the remaining China-related sessions in a public and private setting as well.

This report, filed by the Tibet Bureau (Geneva), was first published on Tibet.net

Useful Links:

Tibet Bureau, Geneva

Central Tibetan Administration, Dharamsala

Tibetan Women’s Association, Dharamsala

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has publicly expressed concerns about reports of China gathering DNA from Tibetans, making him the senior-most US official to raise the issue to date.

As the featured speaker at Freedom House’s annual Freedom Awards on May 9, 2023, Blinken stated: “We’re also concerned by reports of the spread of mass DNA collection to Tibet as an additional form of control and surveillance over the Tibetan population.”

In September 2022, Citizen Lab reported that China’s police may have gathered about 920,000 to 1.2 million DNA samples in the Tibet Autonomous Region—which spans around half of traditional Tibet—over the prior six years. Those figures represent one-quarter to one-third of the region’s total population.

That same month, Human Rights Watch said that China’s authorities were systematically collecting DNA from residents of the TAR, including by taking blood from children as young as 5 without their parents’ consent.

Blinken’s statement met with an accusatory response from China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson. However, the International Campaign for Tibet welcomed the Secretary’s remarks.

“Throughout its brutal occupation of Tibet, China has used Tibet as a laboratory for relentless methods of social control, including this horrific campaign of mass DNA collection,” said ICT, an advocacy group based in Washington, DC and Europe.

“The best way to protect Tibetans from China’s authoritarian rule is to push for a peaceful resolution to China’s illegal occupation of Tibet. The US can and must do that by passing the bipartisan Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act that is currently in both houses of Congress.”

Watch Blinken’s remarks on mass DNA collection in Tibet at the Freedom Awards.

Mass DNA collection in Tibet

According to Citizen Lab, China’s DNA collection program is unrelated to criminal justice. “[O]ur analysis indicates that for years police across Tibet have collected DNA samples from men, women, and children, none of whom appear to be criminal suspects,” Citizen Lab says in its report.

Police are also not targeting specific groups like activists or government critics. Instead, they are collecting DNA from entire communities.

Similarly, Human Rights Watch says in its report that, “There is no publicly available evidence suggesting people can decline to participate” in the DNA collection, “or that police have credible evidence of criminal conduct that might warrant such collection.”

Some of Human Rights Watch’s most disturbing findings involve blood collection from children. That includes the taking of blood from kindergarten students in Tibet’s capital of Lhasa, and the collection of DNA from all boys ages 5 and older in a Tibetan township of Qinghai province.

Learn more about China’s reported mass DNA collection in Tibet.

China’s response

At a press briefing today, May 10, China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin responded to a question about Blinken’s remarks by claiming they “mean nothing except manufacturing sensational news items.”

Wang then accused the US military of collecting genomic data of Chinese, Arabs and “European Aryans.”

While Wang dismissed the reports of mass DNA collection in Tibet during his press conference, China does not allow journalists to travel to Tibet to report freely on the Chinese government’s activities there and verify Wang’s claims.

Lack of freedom in Tibet

In September 2022, Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya, who serves as the US Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, tweeted that she was “[d]eeply disturbed” by the reports.

“We call on the [People’s Republic of China] to stop these repressive policies and respect the fundamental freedoms of Tibetans,” Zeya tweeted.

Freedom House, the watchdog group that held the Freedom Awards, has also raised consistent alarms about China’s abuses in Tibet.

The organization previously honored the Dalai Lama at the awards. In 1991, it presented the Tibetan spiritual leader with the Advancing Human Liberty Award.

Earlier this year, Freedom House rated Tibet as the least-free country on Earth alongside South Sudan and Syria in its Global Freedom rankings.

This was the third year in a row that Tibet was at the bottom of the global freedom scores.

Resolving the Tibet-China conflict

China has illegally occupied Tibet for over 60 years, forcing the Dalai Lama into exile in 1959.

Earlier this year, Democrats and Republicans in both chambers of Congress reintroduced a bill that can help peacefully resolve the occupation.

The Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act will pressure China to resume negotiations with the Dalai Lama’s envoys for the first time since dialogue between the two sides stalled in 2010.

The legislation will recognize that Tibetans have the right to self-determination and that Tibet’s legal status is yet to be determined under international law.

Learn more about the Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act.

This original report by International Campaign for Tibet is available here.

Useful Links:

International Campaign for Tibet

6th May 2023 | Thekchen Chöling, Dharamsala, HP, India –

On the auspicious occasion of his coronation His Holiness the Dalai Lama has written to King Charles III to offer his warm congratulations.

“May Your Majesty live long,” he wrote, “and the peoples of the United Kingdom enjoy happiness and prosperity.

“Having been privileged to enjoy your friendship for many years, I am confident that you will continue to accomplish this great responsibility with kindness and affection, dedicated to the service of others.

“Today,” His Holiness added, “the international community is going through very challenging times. I believe we must make concerted efforts to achieve a more compassionate, peaceful world by resolving problems like the gap between rich and poor and protecting the natural environment of this planet that is our only home, in the spirit of the oneness of humanity.

His Holiness concluded his letter: “I wish you every success in meeting the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of the British people and contributing to the creation of a more peaceful world, free of violent conflict.”

Link: https://www.dalailama.com/news/2023/congratulating-king-charles-iii

Prof. Tashi Rabgey

Until recent weeks, the thought of having to defend the moral character of the Dalai Lama would have seemed absurd. Ever since he led the Tibetan people as a 24 year old through the shattering crisis of China’s invasion of Tibet, he has been one of the world’s most enduring symbols of moral leadership. He has lived his entire life in the public eye as a hardworking global champion of peace and nonviolence. Even now in his twilight years, he continues to spread his message of compassion and kindness every passing day.

Yet recently, along with Tibetans around the world, I felt an urgent need to speak up on the Dalai Lama’s behalf as the global media rushed to publish sensational headlines suggesting indecent behavior. With little heed to due diligence, media organizations pounced on an opportunity to cast an incriminating spotlight on an awkward public encounter with a young boy in India.[1] The televised event took place on stage in Dharmasala on February 28th. A month and a half later, a selectively edited video surfaced online accompanied by salacious text that created the impression of sexual impropriety.[2]Overnight, defamatory headlines appeared in respected publications world-wide and public slander exploded online with allegations of sexual abuse.

The viral video was in fact a short clip from a much longer interaction that was extraordinary for very different reasons. With his mother and grandfather seated on stage beside the Dalai Lama, the young boy first receives an affectionate bump on the forehead for formally presenting gifts on behalf of the honorary guests assembled. The Dalai Lama then looks up and reflects out loud that this exchange brings to mind his early childhood with his late brother Lobsang Samten — his one designated friend and playmate during an otherwise isolated childhood as a spiritual leader-in-training that began at the age of four. He proceeds to demonstrate how he and his brother once tussled with their heads.

Later in the program, the young boy approaches the microphone once more and requests a hug from the Dalai Lama. While the mother feigns exasperation and the audience is amused, the Dalai Lama acquiesces with a warm embrace. Then the 87-year old awkwardly makes an attempt at a jocular display of affection. He first requests a peck on the lips and then — to the shock of the world — he blithely sticks out his tongue and says in his halting English, “suck my tongue.”

Seen through the norms of our hypersexualized global culture, the video of the interaction is uncomfortable to watch. Even though the boy and his mother have both given media interviews expressing joy in having had this encounter with the Dalai Lama,[3] the viral video depicts an imbalance in power that leads viewers to associations with the well-known history of child abuse in many religious contexts.[4] There is also a slow-motion uncertainty as both the Dalai Lama and the boy seem not to know how to conclude this awkward performance of affection. Then by sticking out his tongue, the Dalai Lama reaches back to a gesture of play from his Tibetan traditional culture that can only be seen as bizarre for the rest of the world.

But for Tibetans from the Dalai Lama’s generation — those like my parents who had spent their formative years in an isolated Tibet — the episode was utterly free of any suspicion of abuse. In a traditional culture that does not sexualize the tongue, they could not discern what the world found offensive in this video. It was bewildering for them to learn that this innocuous encounter had turned the world’s opinion against the Dalai Lama. Many of the Tibetan elders who were asked to watch the video — from New York to Ladakh — did not hear a lewd request, but rather an innocent tease to a young boy. He was being asked to “chele sa” (eat my tongue) as was the way grandparents expressed to small children, “That’s it — all I have left to give you is my tongue.”

Taken out of both cultural and situational context, this tragic collision of norms points to a vast cultural gap that Slavoj Žižek has weighed in to describe as an otherness that is an “impenetrable abyss.”[5] What looks disturbing through one cultural lens is seen as entirely innocent through another. This ineradicable gap, together with the information economy of the digital media and the herd mentality that comes with our short modern attention span, presented a perfect storm for discrediting the symbol of the Tibetan movement.

The point of the viral video clip, it goes without saying, was to damage the image of someone China’s leaders have long publicly reviled and quietly feared. Since the Tibetan government was declared to continue in exile in India in 1959, an ongoing campaign has been conducted to malign the Dalai Lama as a respected public figure and the symbolic leader of Tibet.

This time, the attack on the Dalai Lama struck a chord. Within ten days of the public uproar, the BBC ran a breathless story on the Dalai Lama incident reigniting “Tibet’s ‘slave’ controversy.” While the term ‘slave’ appears in the sensational headline, the author buries inside the article an oblique acknowledgement of common knowledge that slavery did not exist in Tibet. Rather, Tibet’s society was comprised of people working on “estates owned by nobles, monasteries or the state” to whom taxes were paid. This desultory revelation, along with historian Tsering Shakya’s commentary on the absence of enslavement in Tibetan society, comes after a BBC shout-out to the Chinese government for recently creating ‘Tibetan Serf Emancipation Day.’ Chinese nationalist propaganda has now been dignified in mainstream media as “a long-running controversy over Tibetan history.”[6]

The startling uptick in anti-Tibet political sentiment converges with an underlying bias in the global public discourse that has contributed to the traction of the recent controversy surrounding the viral video. With the issue of Tibet stereotyped as a politically correct and hackneyed cause célèbre of global celebrities, and the Dalai Lama himself typecast as a globe-trotting religious figure carrying a message many see as naïve and underwhelming against the hard-nosed political challenge of the rising superpower of China, the real moral and political stakes of the question of Tibet have long been eviscerated by the chattering classes.

For Tibetans everywhere, this episode has felt like a collective near-death experience. Never before had it been so clear how little the Dalai Lama was understood. Over decades in exile as the world’s most famous refugee, he has often been depicted as a caricature: so much was projected onto him and so often his name was invoked and used for the interests of others — vast and small, institutional and geopolitical. And at the end of his astonishing life, the world seemed ready to abandon him without a second glance.

For Tibetans, the Dalai Lama was never the two-dimensional figure who appeared on magazine covers or who smiled back from billboards. We all grew accustomed to his buoyant manner of speech as he spoke to thousands in packed arenas in his lurching, disconnected English sentences, often punctuated by his laughter at his own linguistic limitations.

But in the world of his native Tibetan language, the Dalai Lama appeared as an entirely different person. In Tibet, he was legendary by his early 20s. No one could remember a rising intellectual star who shone so brightly and at the same time possessed the ineffable qualities to carry the weight of a nation on his shoulders. From my youth, I remember how he spoke with transcendent grace at lightning speed, in thrilling glass-cut paragraphs, with the kind of precise, incisive clarity that left no doubt that his was the sharpest mind in the room. Even today, when he speaks in Tibetan, the Dalai Lama’s voice drops several registers and his personality transforms. His lighthearted demeanor is gone. In its place is a gravitas and unyielding focus that shows us that the suffering of others is fiercely present in his heart. All through his lifetime, he has commanded authority not only because of his political and spiritual inheritance but also because of his ability to convince a tired and beleaguered people to join him on his personal moral journey.

It has been in the Tibetan language that the Dalai Lama has transmitted a set of instructions on finding a pathway through an indifferent world as a dispossessed people. Even under brutal and paralyzing oppression, he modeled a vision of forgiveness as a form of empowerment. It was a lesson that both defined the Tibetan movement and touched the struggles of dispossessed people in every forgotten corner of the world.

I have seen this in my fieldwork as a researcher of territorial autonomy and self-governance. I saw it in the eyes of the Kurdish community organizer I met in a tiny nonprofit office just over an hour away from Mosul, Iraq, during the height of the suicide bombings. He had been working in obscurity painstakingly translating the Dalai Lama’s works into the Kurdish language. “This,” he said, “is what our people need to know.” He proudly showed me his manuscript.

I also saw it in the Karen spiritual leader I met deep inside the war-torn Karen state, in what had been the world’s longest-running insurgency in modern times before a ceasefire was established in their armed conflict against the Myanmar government. After a day of sitting in meditation alongside a thousand meditators, he called me in so he could recount the importance of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan cause for his own reimagining the Karen fight for self-determination.

And I felt this in the intensity of the Sahrawi law student I met in the Moroccan-occupied territory of Western Sahara. He had been missing classes and was on track to drop out because he spent all of his time at bloody protests that went unnoticed by the world. As he pressed a book about the Sahrawi people into my hands, he said that knowing how the Dalai Lama had made the Tibetan struggle visible to the world gave him a reason to continue to fight for his people — through law instead of violence on the streets. He now felt less alone.

In other words, what the Dalai Lama passed on to Tibetans has spawned a movement of movements, teaching the dispossessed everywhere to see themselves not as victims, but as empowered by their own intrinsic seeds of potential in an interdependent reality that is in a constant state of motion and change. His model has shown a vision of how to inhabit this imperfect world, how to transcend the staggering injustices of global politics and the arbitrariness of history, and how to honor and remain committed to goals that cannot be completed in a lifetime.

Nowhere has this wisdom spread so far or flourished so deeply as in Tibet itself. In the three decades that I have been working inside Tibet, I have witnessed the bright faith of Tibetans grow only more self-assured and more determined. For every self-immolator who perishes calling for the long life of the Dalai Lama, there are countless other Tibetans who grow even more determined to choose a life-affirming path for remaking the Tibetan world.

They teach the Tibetan language at night when they are barred from teaching during the day. They travel as far as needed to provide decent healthcare to all remote Tibetan communities when the state apparatus has long called it quits. They convince their communities to join them in protecting the land and the wildlife even when it requires putting their lives on the line. Tibetans inside Tibet, in other words, are doing the hard work of preparing themselves to become the best stewards of their homeland when no one else seems to believe in their capacity to self-rule.

This Tibetan determination has been fueled by a resolute faith in the vision of the Dalai Lama. It was not surprising when Tibetans in Tibet reacted with joy when the decades-old ban on the Dalai Lama’s image was suddenly lifted so that the viral video and the international condemnation could circulate in the Chinese cybersphere.[7] Overnight, the viral video garnered over 180 million views inside the PRC. But for Tibetans in Tibet, the storm of global moral censure simply underlined how little the Dalai Lama was understood, even internationally.

For Tibetans in exile as well as the peoples across the Himalayas, this global controversy has brought them closer not only to the Dalai Lama but also to each other as a struggle. For the first time, mass rallies and demonstrations in support of the Dalai Lama have spontaneously broken out from Ladakh to Sikkim to the disputed territory of Arunachal Pradesh. The global condemnation may have caused a collective near-death experience for many Tibetans. But it also created a new sense of time and space across all Tibetan and Himalayan communities — inside and outside Tibet — that is giving rise to a regeneration of the Tibetan political movement.

The question that remains is what the symbol of the Dalai Lama and his ideas will mean for the rest of the world. One of the tragedies of his defamation is that it grows out of a caricature that was manufactured by those who never understood him or had any sense of the true measure of his life. Will the Dalai Lama be seen through their cynical eyes and be projected as a declining global celebrity open for ridicule as media clickbait? Or will the world find the decency to rise above its worst impulses and honor a life that has been given entirely to the task of growing the best of ourselves as living beings on this planet?

After all, this global moral crisis in truth illuminates less about the character of the Dalai Lama than it does about ourselves and the kind of human community we are choosing to become.

Tashi Rabgey, Research Professor of International Affairs, George Washington University

April 2023

[1] Media organizations reacted instantaneously to a statement made by the Private Office of the Dalai Lama expressing regret for the incident. The apology was not an admission of wrongdoing but a regret that the meeting might have caused any hurt. This aligns with the Tibetan cultural practice of putting the needs and interests of others first and taking on the burden of negative sentiment, regardless of the circumstances.

[2] The edited video clip was uploaded with salacious text to the Twitter account YinSun@NiSiv4 on April 8th, 2023. The clip itself had first appeared days earlier on YouTube and on Change.org in a petition created by, among others, “Joseph R. Biden.” Within days, bots propelled the video clip to 7 millions views.

[3] The boy’s mother, Dr. Payal Kanodia, Trustee of the M3M Foundation, was a convener of the event https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZViETIhJ3Ek&t=76s

[4] For survivors of child sexual abuse, it is understandable that the optics of the viral video could trigger traumatic responses. However, many civic organizations have now condemned the allegations against the Dalai Lama of any such abusive intent, including from the RAHI Foundation, a nationally prominent and pioneering organization in India for survivors of child sexual abuse. Their statement on 22nd April states that there is no indication of sexual abuse, in intent or impact, in the encounter between the Dalai Lama and the boy on stage. https://drive.google.com/file/d/17wEL5ZtZRwFrtwkTVe_5qctjy44ClR4h/view?lt_utm_source=lt_admin_share_link See also Joshua Brallier Shelton, ‘Opinion: We need to think about the Dalai Lama’s actions very carefully,’ Tricycle, April 17, 2023.

[5] Slavoj Žižek, ‘Suck my tongue, crush my balls,’ Project Syndicate, April 20, 2023 https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dalai-lama-tongue-controversy-cultural-confusions-by-slavoj-zizek-2023-04?barrier=accesspaylog

[6] Tessa Wong, ‘China: Dalai Lama furore reignites Tibet ‘slave’ controversy,’ BBC, April 20, 2023 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-65307709

[7]https://www.phayul.com/2023/04/21/48244/

Tashi Rabgey is Research Professor of International Affairs at the Elliott School where she directs the Research Initiative on Multination States (RIMS) and the Tibet Governance Lab (Tibet GovLab).

Rabgey’s primary research focuses on asymmetric governance, territoriality and the problems of contemporary statehood in the People’s Republic of China. Her interdisciplinary work draws on the fields of political and legal anthropology, international legal theory, contemporary Tibetan studies and comparative Chinese law. In conjunction with RIMS, she is also developing comparative research on asymmetric statehood, regional autonomy and self-governance in Kurdistan (Iraq) and the Basque Country (Spain).

From 2008-2014, Rabgey led the development of the TGAP Forum, a research initiative that engaged policy researchers from the Chinese State Council in Beijing, as well as global academic partners including Harvard, Université du Montréal à Québec (UQÀM), McGill and the University of Oslo. The seven-year TGAP process developed new insights and strategies for developing research into the institutional structure and dynamics of China’s policymaking in Tibet.

Her current writing projects include a long term political study of the Chinese state, as well as studies of territoriality, the rescaling of governance, the regionalization of public interests and demands in the People’s Republic of China. She is also completing a project on legal pluralism, nationality law and the effects of sovereignty in post-democratization Taiwan.

Before joining the Elliott School, Professor Rabgey was a faculty member of the University of Virginia East Asia Center where she was co-director of the University of Virginia Tibet Center. She held a lectureship in contemporary Tibetan studies and taught in comparative politics and global development studies. She is also cofounder of Machik, a nonprofit organization that has been developing strategies for creative development and social innovation in Tibet for over twenty years.

She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, as well as law degrees from Oxford and Cambridge where she was a Rhodes scholar. Following her LL.M. in public international law, she pursued advanced studies in comparative Chinese law at the Center for Asian Legal Studies at Faculty of Law of University of British Columbia.

She was a Fellow in the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on US-China Relations from 2011-2013. Rabgey is currently Visiting Professor at the University of Kurdistan in the KRG (Kurdistan Region of Iraq).

This piece was first published in Medium.com – https://medium.com/@tashirabgey/the-dalai-lama-you-never-knew-3f039c545dd0

On this auspicious remembrance of Lord Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and mahaparinirvana, I am pleased to convey my greetings to fellow Buddhists across the world.

Vajrasana, the Adamantine Seat, as Bodhgaya is known in our scriptures, is the most sacred of Buddhist pilgrimage sites associated with Shakyamuni Buddha, our compassionate and founder-teacher of our spiritual tradition. It was here that the Buddha attained Enlightenment (Mahabodhi), following which he bestowed teachings on the Four Noble Truths, the Thirty-seven Factors of Enlightenment, and others. The key to his teachings are instructions to discipline the mind for the benefit of sentient beings as infinite as space.

The heart of the Buddha’s teaching is the combined practice of compassion and wisdom. The practice of bodhicitta, the altruistic spirit of enlightenment, is the essence of all his teaching. The more we become acquainted with a concern for the welfare of others, the more we will regard others dearer than ourselves. We will recognise our dependence on each other and will remember that all 8 billion people in the world today are same in wishing to be happy and to avoid suffering.

Therefore, on this special occasion, I urge my spiritual brothers and sisters to be warm-hearted and lead a meaningful life, to be dedicated to the welfare of others. Warm heartedness is the key to peace and harmony in the world.

With my prayers and good wishes,

Dalai Lama

Useful Links:

www.DalaiLama.com

www.Tibet.net

By Tenzin Bhagen

Last few days the tide of media focus turned to a video footage in which His Holiness the Dalai Lama reportedly touches his lips to a boy’s lips on stage and then teases him if he wants to “suck” his tongue. Looking at the edited-out footage through the lens of the modern world, I can see why it is disturbing for many people at the time when the world is in trauma from sexual-misconduct by religious clergy. At the same time, looking at it from my Tibetan brain, the footage reminded me of the nonrelative elders in my village who knew children considered the older people dirty would tease us to do things, such as to eat food from their bowls, or put their old hats on our heads, or even to kiss on their faces. It was both to tease us and to test our personalities.

The question here is not just about whether the Dalai Lama would do an inappropriate act in public, but what kissing means in his view, in Tibetan traditional cultural view. It seems both the critics of this incident and supporters of the Dalai Lama are making their arguments based on the same assumption that kissing is universally a sexual behavior. So, I hope to illuminate what fundamentally is missing in these discussions.

I grew up in a remote part of Tibet where traditional Tibetan culture remained untainted by the outside world. I sometimes feel that I came from 7th century Tibet. Even though Tibet was already under Chinese occupation when I was born and much physical destruction was done, people’s view of the world, their mindset, their values and their cultural and psychological behaviors had little changed. This is the culture the 87-year-old our spiritual leader belongs to. Yes, the Dalai Lama is aware of many modern issues and he has traveled and met all types of people. However, as a genuine Buddhist monk, there are things he was not exposed to nor had the opportunity to learn about. 

In this traditional Tibetan culture, kissing only had two purposes when I was growing up. For parents to show their affection for their young children and feeding babies. It had zero functionality for the reproductive activities of men and women until young people started going to China to study about a decade later. A mother would chew food, such as meat, or moisten dry tsampa (roasted barley flour) in her mouth and then push it into her baby’s mouth using her tongue. Western -influenced modern people take this for granted today, but kissing for romance is exclusively cultural one that traditional Tibetan culture doesn’t share. However,using lips and tongues to nurture offspring is an innate and instinct act for many living beings. Tibetan mothers also suck out snot from their children’s nose. In our traditional culture, even women’s breasts had no association with sexuality, let alone lips and tongues. 

If I had seen the reaction of the world of the recent interaction between the Dalai Lama and the boy when I first came out of Tibet, I would be completely clueless about why people were so upset. This would be due to my ignorance of modern culture. Here now, you must also  not judge this out of complete ignorance of our traditional culture.  

I once had a dream that made me very happy. In this dream, I was with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and as he blessed me, he used his tongue to clean my upper lip very thoroughly. My natural interpretation both in the dream and when I awoke was that he removed the defilement and obstacles from me and gave me blessings for speech and literature. In our spiritual tradition the representation of tongue is poetry, speech and literature. Sarasvati, the goddess of arts and literature, is referred to in Tibetan poems as the “giver of a tongue.” 

So, in traditional Tibetan culture, the representation of the tongue was almost sacred. It never had any association with sexuality. I would be very surprised if anyone ever told His Holiness that westerners and modern people, including the younger generation of Tibetans, associate their tongues with that purpose. I am certain that the only experience with kissing he might have had was from his parents when he was a little boy in his village before becoming the Dalai Lama. Needless to say, the monastic education doesn’t include modern sex education, and Tibetans who have direct access to him and work for him most likely never dared to engage in any conversation with him that involves sexuality. While I understand that it’s hard for many people not to be disturbed by this video, making assumptions of the Dalai Lama’s motivation based on their own habits is not the right thing to do. If you read about other cultures around the world, you will find that it is not just Tibetan culture that doesn’t associate kissing with romance.

A high-level Tibetan delegation, comprised of Sikyong Penpa Tsering, President of Central Tibetan Administration (aka Tibetan Government-in-exile) and His Eminence Zeegkyab Rinpoche, the Abbot, and Venerable Kelkhang Rinpoche, the General Secretary of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, visited the UK Parliament on 25th April. The day coincided with the 34th birthday of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama, Tibet’s second highest spiritual leader, who has been missing since May 1995.

Hosted by The All-Party Parliamentary Group on International Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB), the special hearing on Religious Freedom in Tibet was chaired by Lord David Alton. It was attended by MPs including Jim Shannon MP, Chair of the FoRB, Fiona Bruce MP, Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief and Tim Loughton MP, Co-Chair of All-Party Parliamentary Group on Tibet as well as parliamentary staff and NGOs and representatives from different faith groups.

Following a busy day in the UK parliament, Tashi Lhunpo Monastery released an update on their social media titled – “Delegation in the UK Parliament – 25th April 2023”. It reads:

“His Eminence Zeegkyab Rinpoche, the Abbot, and Venerable Kelkhang Rinpoche, the General Secretary of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, joined Hon’ble Sikyong Penpa Tsering, President of the Central Tibetan Administration, and others to highlight the continued lack of Religious Freedom in Tibet, particularly the case of our beloved spiritual leader Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, His Holiness the 11th Panchen Lama, in the UK Parliament on his 34th birthday – 25th April.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama recognised Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the true reincarnation of the previous 10th Panchen Lama on 14th May 1995. A few days after this announcement, the young six-year old Panchen Rinpoche, along with his parents and His Eminence Jadrel Rinpoche, Head of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, Shigatse (Tibet), all went missing.

Thanks to Wera Webhouse MP, a “drop-in” session was held in the UK Parliament to highlight the plight of our spiritual leader. This first-time “drop-in” session provided a meaningful opportunity for MPs and their parliamentary staff to learn more about the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, Tibetan Buddhist culture, and the case of the missing 11th Panchen Lama.

We were all very overwhelmed by the warm support and solidarity expressed by UK parliamentarians and officials. Nearly 30 MPs and their staff also came to see us in the Portcullis House during the “drop-in” session.

Later in the afternoon, Tim Loughton MP, Co-Chair of The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Tibet hosted a special session with Hon’ble Sikyong Penpa Tsering. Whilst giving the address, Sikyong Penpa Tsering also highlighted the historical relations between the United Kingdom and independent Tibet, and he urged the UK government to extend all its support towards the resolution of the China-Tibet conflict.

This was then followed by a 90-minute Hearing with Sikyong Penpa Tsering and His Eminence Zeegkyab Rinpoche amongst others. They spoke on the lack of Religious Freedom in Tibet and specially highlighted the case of the 11th Panchen Lama. Hosted by The All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB), this special hearing was chaired by Lord David Alton, a senior political figure from the House of Lords.

The day ended with the 34th Birthday Dinner Reception in honour of His Holiness the 11th Panchen Lama, at the Cinnamon Club, which was attended by Sikyong Penpa Tsering and MPs.

The Tashi Lhunpo Monastery wishes to acknowledge and express our heartfelt appreciation and thanks to all concerned stakeholders including The Office of Tibet, The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet, The All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) and the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery UK Trust for their amazing support.”

Delivered and Submitted by the Abbot of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery

To The All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB), UK Parliament, on 25th April 2023 

“As the Abbot of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery I appreciate the opportunity to meet you on this, the 34th birthday of the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedun Choekyi Nyima.

I would like to use this precious opportunity today to make a fervent appeal to the British Government on behalf of millions of disciples of His Holiness the Panchen Lama. I would also address this appeal to the followers of Tibetan Buddhism, and any other religion throughout the world, to those who value human rights, freedom of religion and belief and to advocates of the rights of the child.

Currently, we see the Chinese Government undertaking ruthless and restrictive policies in Tibet. The situation is worsening day by day. We see human rights being trampled upon, religious freedom and rights of the child being denied. Those Tibetans who disagree with the Chinese Government are being arbitrarily detained with many being disappeared. I would like to explain this situation in Tibet in the context of the disappearance of an eminent spiritual leader, namely the 11th Panchen Lama.

In 1989, the 10th Panchen Lama died suddenly and mysteriously while in the town of Shigatse in Tibet, where our main Tashi Lhunpo monastery is located. Subsequently, according to Tibetan Buddhist convention, H.H. the Dalai Lama announced on M14th May 1995, his recognition of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima from Nagchu in Tibet as the unmistaken reincarnation. This was also in accordance with the historical tradition of the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, the father and son, being involved with the recognition of each other as well as in their teacher-student relationship.

Three days after the announcement, twenty-eight years ago, on 17th May 1995, Gedun Choekyi Nyima, a six-year-old child was abducted, along with his family, by the Chinese authorities.

Later in 1995 the Chinese Government blatantly interfered in our religious process and forcefully appointed a child by the name of Gyaltsen Norbu as a fake 11th Panchen Lama. Since then, he has been used as a political tool by the Chinese Government.

As a result of this the monastic community of Tashi Lhunpo and the greater Tibetan Buddhist community, including people of Tibet and throughout the Himalayan region, have been denied religious freedom.

Equally importantly, the Panchen Lama has been denied his rights as a normal human being. This action is one of the oldest continuing cases of enforced disappearances in the world.

According to our Tashi Lhunpo religious education system, by the age of 34 the Panchen Lama should have completed all the fundamental elements of his religious education, including gaining his Kachen degree (which is equivalent to a Doctorate), and undertaking his role to provide teachings to the community. However, we are greatly concerned that he has not received such an education. While China claims that he is leading a normal, healthy life, we cannot consider this to be believable without us – his disciples – and the wider international community witnessing that he is alive.

The issue of the 11th Panchen Lama is symbolic of the plight of Tibet and Tibetans in general. The Chinese government has clearly shown that they have no regard for their own claims that autonomy has been granted to the Tibetan people. In Tibet today, the situation is so critical that the very assertion of Tibetan identity, including upholding language rights, is regarded as a crime by the Chinese Government. Therefore, taking this opportunity today, we would like to make the following five requests.

1. We request the Parliament of the United Kingdom to request His Majesty’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, Her Excellency Caroline Wilson, to meet the 11th Panchen Lama, who was taken from his home on 17th May 1995, to ascertain information concerning his whereabouts and well-being.

2. We urge the United Kingdom Government to continue to make requests of the Chinese Government to allow representatives to meet the 11th Panchen Lama. This undertaking was made by The Rt Hon Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean during the House of Lords Debate on Tibet in 1999, when she assured the House that ‘… we have repeatedly asked the Chinese to be able to visit [the Panchen Lama] in order to check on his wellbeing. We will continue to raise his case and those of other Tibetans with the Chinese at every opportunity.’

3. To draw attention to the situation of the Panchen Lama and to bring about his early release, I urge the British Government to mark the annual anniversaries of his birth on 25th April and his forced detention on 17th May in recognition of his loss of human rights, religious freedom, his loss of rights as a child and other fundamental rights of movement, residency and action.

4. Tibetan political prisoners: Tibetans have been subject to particularly brutal treatment in the Chinese justice system and contribute disproportionately to the number of political prisoners in China. In particular we ask for specific representations to be made to call for news of the present whereabouts of Chadrel Rinpoche, former Abbot of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Tibet, who was head of the search committee for the 11th Panchen Lama and who was held in Chuandong prison for six years, and then for a further unknown period of house arrest.

5. We request the United Kingdom Government to support publicly the efforts of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to resolve the issue of Tibet and to support his efforts to find a lasting solution to the issue of Tibet through the mutually beneficial Middle Way Approach, to reiterate this policy and work with like-minded governments to craft a multilateral strategy to achieve this.

The British people and Government have been consistently supportive of the Tibetan people, and I take this opportunity to express my gratitude. The purpose of our visit to London is to highlight the critical nature of the Tibetan situation, and in particular, the case of the 11th Panchen Lama. But the appeals I have made today are also connected to the mental wellbeing of all those who believe in the rights of all individuals to enjoy freedom of religion and basic human rights. I therefore hope that you will consider my submission favourably.

Tenzin Thupten Rabyal

Abbot

Tashi Lhunpo Monastery

INDIA”

Useful links:

Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, India

Tashi Lhunpo Monastery UK Trust

Tashi Lhunpo Monks: 50th Anniversary Year Tour 2023

A high-level Tibetan delegation from India, comprising the Abbot, His Eminence Zeegkyab Rinpoche and the General Secretary, Ven. Kelkhang Rinpoche, of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery arrived in the UK to highlight the absence of religious freedom issues with British MPs and government officials.

The incumbent Sikyong Penpa Tsering, democratically elected President of the Central Tibetan Administration (aka Tibetan Government-in-exile) arrived in the UK at the weekend, partly to talk on religious freedom with the UK officials and parliamentarians. The London-based Office of Tibet is handling their official engagements.

They are due to meet and address The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Freedom of Religions or Beliefs and The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Tibet in Westminster later today in addition to other important engagements.

25th of April is the birthday of Tibet’s Second highest spiritual leader, His Holiness the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who was born in 1989. On his 34th birthday anniversary, the Office of India-based Tashi Lhunpo Monastery and the Central Association for the Panchen Lama issued a three-page official Statement. 

The young Tibetan spiritual leader has been missing since mid May 1995. Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama recognised the six-year old boy – Gedhun Choekyi Nyima – as the true reincarnation of the previous 10th Panchen Lama in May 1995. A few days after the announcement, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima went missing along with his parents and Jadrel Rinpoche, Head of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Shigatse, Tibet.

Tibetans and their international allies failed to obtain information on his whereabouts which they have been campaigning for nearly 30 years. In contrast to their ideology, the Communist Chinese government appointed its own 11th Panchen Lama six months after the Dalai Lama’s announcement, and Gyaincain Norbu is widely promoted both within Tibet, China and worldwide despite Tibetans not paying their devotion to him. 

This year’s Statement from Tashi Lhunpo Monastery reads: “… the successive throne holders of the Panchen Lama Lineage have contributed immensely to the great spiritual tradition of Tibet and to the welfare of all sentient beings. Significantly, in Tibetan history, the unique relationship of the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama is well known. The popular saying of the Tibetan people down the ages says it all: “As the Sun and the Moon in the sky, so is the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama on earth!” These two great spiritual sages have entered the human realm as teacher-disciple relationship in Tibet’s long history, and recognized each other’s reincarnation through the purity of their wisdom.

“As devotees of the Panchen Lama Lineage and in general Tibetan Buddhism, it is our birth right to practice our faith and since the Panchen Lama is our Root Teacher, and since he is vital to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan Buddhism, we shall continue to fight for his release from the clutches of the Chinese Communist designs.”

“On the occasion of the Birthday of His Holiness the 11th Panchen Lama, we take this opportunity to deeply thank all the supporters across the world for the release of the Panchen Lama and his family, and Jadrel Rinpoche. We appeal with folded hands to join hands for the immediate release of the 11th Panchen Lama at the earliest!”

The 11th Panchen lama 

Born 25th April 1989, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was recognised as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as per the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, on 14th May 1995. Within days of his public recognition, on 17th May, the six-year old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima disappeared with his parents and Jadrel Rinpoche, Head of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Shigatse, who was in secretly in touch with the Dalai Lama in India regarding the 11th Panchen Lama’s search. Jadrel Rinpoche was appointed as the Head of the Panchen Lama Search Committee, entrusted by the Chinese Government.

Six months later, China announced its own 11th Panchen Lama, Gyaincain Norbu as the reincarnation of the previous 10th Panchen Lama.

For Tibetan Buddhists, the Dalai Lama’s recognised 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is the true reincarnation of Tibet’s second highest spiritual leader. Despite repeated requests for access, the whereabouts of the Dalai Lama’s recognised Panchen Lama is not still known to anyone to this day, except to the Chinese authorities. At the time of his disappearance in 1995, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima became the world’s youngest political prisoner.

The mysterious death of the 10th Panchen Lama in 1989 is still a fresh memory to many of his followers. Tibetans suspect foul play by the Chinese authorities over their spiritual leader’s untimely death 32 years ago.

Significance of The Panchen Lama

The successive throne holders of the Panchen Lama lineage have contributed immensely to the temporal and spiritual traditions of Tibet. Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, founded in 1447 by the 1st Dalai Lama, is the traditional monastic seat of the Panchen Lama. It is a historically and culturally important Buddhist monastery based in Shigatse, Tibet’s second-largest city.

The 10th Panchen Lama’s significant contribution to the cause of the Tibetan people both in temporal and spiritual traditions, especially at a time of critical danger of being wiped out by the Chinese Communist regime cannot be discounted easily.

Lobsang Trinley Lhündrub Chökyi Gyaltsen, The 10th Panchen Lama

Following the illegal invasion of Tibet by the People’s Republic of China, and with the subsequent escape of the Dalai Lama into exile in India, in March 1959, the Chinese government courted the 10th Panchen Lama and appointed him as Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the establishments of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). In 1960, Beijing named him Vice-Chairman of the National People’s Congress (NPC) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in order that he acts as the spokesperson for Chinese policy in Tibet.

Formally established in 1965, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) became Beijing’s newly-designed political entity aimed at splitting the whole Tibetan Nation into several regions. Other traditional Tibetan regions including Amdo (north-east) and Kham (east) were incorporated into neighbouring Chinese provinces such as Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan and Sichuan. For Tibetans, Tibet comprises Dotoe (Kham), Domed (Amdo) and Utsang (central) – the three Cholkhas.

The Panchen Lama’s 70,000-character petition

After official tours across various places in Tibet, the 10th Panchen Lama started documenting his findings, started in Shigatse and completed in Beijing. Along with his recommendations, the Panchen Lama submitted the findings to Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1962 – widely known as the 70,000-character petition.

In his official report, the Panchen Lama denounced the draconian policies and actions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Tibet. He also criticised the Great Leap Forward and a multitude of “inept orders” on the part of the CCP which had caused chronic food shortages.

In Beijing, the Panchen Lama also urged Mao Tsetung to “put an end to the abuses committed against the Tibetan people, to increase their food rations, to provide adequate care for the elderly and the poor, and to respect religious liberty.” Mao listened to him but did nothing to address the matters raised.

According to British journalist Isabel Hilton, the 70,000-character petition remains the “most detailed and informed attack on China’s policies in Tibet that would ever be written.”

For several decades, the Panchen Lama’s petition remained hidden from all but the very highest levels of the Chinese leadership, until one copy surfaced in 1996. In January 1998, to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the birth of the late 10th Panchen Lama, an English translation by Tibet expert Prof. Robert Barnett entitled A Poisoned Arrow: The Secret Report of the 10th Panchen Lama, was published by the London-based Tibet Information Network (TIN), now a defunct news research agency on Tibet.

In 1964, the 10th Panchen Lama was publicly humiliated at Politburo meetings, dismissed from all posts of authority, declared ‘an enemy of the Tibetan people’, and later imprisoned. At the time he was 26 years old. The Tibetan spiritual leader’s situation worsened when the Cultural Revolution started. The Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, who was a former Red Guard, published in March 1979 a letter under his name but written by another anonymous author denouncing the conditions at Qincheng Prison, where the 10th Panchen Lama was in captivity. In October 1977 the Panchen Lama was released, but held under house arrest in Beijing until 1982. After his release, the Panchen Lama served as Vice Chairman of the National People’s Congress.

Tseten Wangchuk, a senior Tibetan journalist working for the Voice of America’s (VOA) Tibetan section in the United States, reported that during a 1980 meeting between the Secretary of the Communist Party Hu Yaobang and the Panchen Lama, the latter told Hu “how much he was moved by his reforms, and remarked that had the suggestions of the 70,000-character petition been put in place when they were proposed, the problems in Tibet would not have endured.

The 70,000-character petition was founded on the principle that the specific characteristics of Tibet should be taken into account. This premise was central to the policies of Deng Xiaoping in China during the 1980s and allowed the Panchen Lama to introduce numerous liberalisations into Tibet. However, in early 1992, the CCP removed the concession concerning the “specific characteristics” of Tibet, and current policy monitors religious practices and the monasteries, limits the instruction of Tibetan language, and has since suppressed some of the religious and cultural liberalisations implemented by Hu Yaobang and requested by the Panchen Lama.

In March 1999, during the annual commemoration of Tibetan National Uprising of Lhasa in 1959, the Dalai Lama declared that “the 70,000-character petition published in 1962 by the former Panchen Lama constitutes an eloquent historical document on the policies carried out by the Chinese in Tibet and on the draconian measures put in place there.”

In brief, pushing aside his own personal safety issues, and for the sake of the Tibetan people’s identity, spiritual practice and survival of the unique way of life, the 10th Panchen Lama struggled fearlessly and unrelentingly for their preservation and promotion. He rebuilt Tibet’s religious and cultural heritages and worked hard in the interests of Tibetans, for which he gained high prestige among the Tibetans. His efforts have spread far and wide from Tibet into the Himalayan regions, and through these into the wider world. The previous 10th Panchen Lama has dedicated his whole life to Tibet and Tibetan people.

So, why is China interfering in the religious affairs of Tibetan people?

The 10th Panchen Lama and the 14th Dalai Lama in 1954. The two Tibetan spiritual leaders were 16 and 19 years old respectively.

The “Article 36” of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China guarantees “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion.”

In the “Note on the Memorandum of Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People”, a follow-up clarification note submitted by the Envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the Chinese Government after the eighth round of talks in 2008, it states, “The spiritual relationship between master and student and the giving of religious teachings, etc. are essential components of the Dharma practice. Restricting these is a violation of religious freedom. Similarly, the interference and direct involvement by the state and its institutions in matters of recognition of reincarnated lamas, as provided in the regulation on management of reincarnated lamas adopted by the State on July 18, 2007 is a grave violation of the freedom of religious belief enshrined in the Chinese Constitution.”

The Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama share a warm and friendly relationship and have previously served as mentors and apprentices. They hold the highest decision-making power on the issue of reincarnation, and each had participated in the process of recognising each other’s reincarnation. If one of them passes away, the other has undertaken the responsibility of searching for the reincarnated soul boy of the other and vice-versa.

In his memoir, “Surviving The Dragon: A Tibetan Lama’s Account of 40 Years Under Chinese Rule”, Arjia Rinpoche, former member of the 11th Panchen Lama Search Committee, wrote, “As for the people of Tibet, no matter how politics changed, for them the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama remained the sun and the moon. To this day they believe that the reincarnations of both must be mutually recognised to be valid.”

Arjia Rinpoche, Abbott of the renowned Kumbum Monastery in Amdo, north-east Tibet, who had come to the United States via Guatemala as a political exile, wrote in his memoir, “Tibetans clearly wanted the Fourteenth Dalai Lama to be the final arbiter of the identity of the true reincarnation of the Panchen Lama.”

The real intention of the Chinese Government’s appointment of Gyaincain Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama as opposed to the Dalai Lama’s chosen candidate is crystal clear – a political matter.

After the Chinese government’s official announcement of its 11th Panchen Lama on 29th November 1995, Arjia Rinpoche, who was to become his personal tutor, recalled the remarks made by Ye Xiaowen, Director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, “When the Dalai Lama announced the name of his chosen candidate, the government immediately sent out charter jets, usually reserved for members of the Politburo, to the birthplaces of the three final candidates in the Naqu district of Tibet. They put the boys and their families on the three jets and whisked them away into hiding.”

On their return to Beijing from Lhasa, in the chartered plane, dumbfounded Arjia Rinpoche recalled Ye Xiaowen stating, “When we made our selection we left nothing to chance. In the silk pouches of the ivory pieces we put a bit of cotton at the bottom of one of them, so it would be a little higher than the others and the right candidate would be chosen”. Gyaincain Norbu’s parents are CCP officials.

In 2019, Gyaincain Norbu was made Head of the China Buddhist Association. The Chinese government will use its chosen Panchen Lama to tour the world and is expected to speak on freedom of religion enjoyed by everyone in China.

During Ye Xiaowen’s directorship at the State Administration for Religions Affair, not only did we see persecutions of Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Falun Gong followers but he was instrumental in appointing Gyancian Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama.

Further under Ye’s watch, he declared “State Religious Affairs Bureau Order No. 5” that attempted to reduce the influence of the 14th Dalai Lama and other foreign groups on the reincarnations in Tibet.

The Chinese government over the years has made concerted efforts to bring down the image of the Dalai Lama by labelling him as “separatist”. The CCP has also banned the photos of the Dalai Lama and possessing his photos is considered an act of crime.

At the heart of all these things is the issue of reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. For years the Chinese government has been grooming its own Panchen Lama. It is most likely that he will play an instrumental role in deciding the reincarnation of the next Dalai Lama in China. This is expected to lead to two Dalai Lamas in the future if the current Dalai Lama decides to keep the tradition of reincarnation of the Dalai Lama continues.

The fact of the matter is that the issue of reincarnation of the Dalai Lama is not limited to China and the Dalai Lama but it now has larger geopolitical consideration with security implications in the Himalayan regions.

The US has shown its full support for Tibet on the reincarnation issue i.e. whatever the Tibetan people decide to choose. It has, in late 2020, passed the Tibet Policy and Support Act (TPSA) and it sends a strong message to China that the US stands steadfast with the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration (aka Tibetan Government-in-exile) on the issue of Tibetan reincarnation.

Home to millions of Buddhists, especially Tibetan Buddhism, the great nation of India too can play a supporting role to His Holiness the Dalai Lama as well as to the Central Tibetan Administration towards the continuity of the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation system as per the Tibetan tradition.

Tsering Passang is the Founder & Chair of Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities.

https://www.tashi-lhunpo.org.uk/tours