A rather momentous event will happen tomorrow, July 1: China will officially open its railway to Tibet. It is a hugely contested issue and stands to benefit the Chinese more than Tibetans in many respects. Most of the articles coming out of China laud the railway as a progressive step towards modernizing Tibet and building up its economy. However, given China's track record in economic development, and given the number of Tibetans already adversely affected by the railway's construction, this praise is excessive. In brief, to mention some of the negative results of this massive $4.1 [View Full Entry]

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I wrote the following article in order to spread awareness on what is still occuring, not only to Tibetans, but to Uighurs, ethnic minorities, and even citizens in the People's Republic of China today. While I am not actually there now, travelling is about being there and about how you are affected by, how you affect, people from the places in which you travel. So, these people affected me a great deal. And I can try to help affect their shameful circumstances. Besides, I did kind of travel... to Toronto...just over an hour away... that's travelling. Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, [View Full Entry]

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After having spent two months in Tibet (that is including the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai), over a month in Nepali Tibetan areas, and another 2 months in Tibet-in-exile, I have had a chance to see different forms of Tibetan life. I'm still learning, don't have the answers to the problems, can't predict the future or even the best way to continue. What I have seen in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala is a mixture of continuing efforts at changing the system from within and outside. There are 7 or 8 established NGOs in McLeod Ganj, including the Tibetan Centre for Human [View Full Entry]

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Who am I to pretend to understand impermanence? I am the most sentimental, backward-looking fool, despite years of goodbyes. Less than a day away from boarding a flight to return home, I thought I'd take a bit of time to summarize some of the nice aspects of my time in McLeod Ganj during the past couple of months. My initial goal in going was to learn a bit about the Tibetan exile community, to contrast it with what I saw in Tibet and in Nepal, to get an idea of where Tibetans stand on independence and what they are doing to [View Full Entry]

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Following last week's events at Drepung monastery in Lhasa, Tibet, where the Chinese authorities sealed off the monastery, strictly controlling who enters and exits, Tibetans in exile have taken up the protests. In a march and rally organized by the Tibetan Youth Congress in McLeod Ganj, Tibetans, locals, and foreigners streamed to lower Dharamsala where a number of speakers from the Youth Congress and local committess talked about the current situation in Lhasa. Speakers urged Tibetans in exile to continue to be vocal and active, reminding that Tibetans in exile have the freedom to sp [View Full Entry]

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...the title of a 35 minute documentary produced by International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) in 2004. Devotion and Defiance: Buddhism and the Struggle for Religious Freedom in Tibet is a vivid declaration of religious control in occupied Tibet. Containing footage from inside monasteries as well as from the Lhasa demonstrations in the late 1980s, it reveals what limitations prevail in and out of the "T.A.R." even today. For example, in 2001 the well-known and attended Larung Gar Buddhist Institute, in Serthar Co., Eastern Tibet (Chinese-claimed) was the target of the Communist P [View Full Entry]

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As I walked with the demonstrators, an American man on the road paused to tell us we were wasting our time and angering people. The only way to make your voice heard, according to him, is by appointment in court. Feasible, perhaps, for someone from a country where it is permissible and possible to voice your difference of opinion in a court of law. The mass of protesters, however, represented Tibetans inside of Tibet, those who have been and are still affected by Chinese rule in their country. November 3rd marked an International Day of Protest against Bombardier's involvement in the [View Full Entry]

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Dalai Lama: Rail Link 'Cultural Genocide' AP September 12th, 2005 HAILEY, Idaho — A rail link being built between Tibet and several major Chinese cities could lead to "cultural genocide" by luring more Chinese workers to the region, the Dalai Lama said. Tibet's spiritual leader said following a speech in Idaho Sunday that more pressure will be placed on native Tibetans by the rail line scheduled for completion in 2007. "Some kind of cultural genocide is taking place," the Dalai Lama told reporters. "In gene [View Full Entry]

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Entry into India from Nepal was easy, like walking from one neighbourhood to another. The only trying aspect was the frustrating slowness and pointlessness of the questions at immigration. Having just arrived in India, the only logical point I could have come from, in that small border town, was the Nepali border. Yet, the procedure entailed that very much-repeated question, "Where have you come from?" which required setting sarcasm and impatience aside, just in case this was a test. The first big city from my entry point was Lucknow, a city rife with fantastic architecture. Unfortunat [View Full Entry]

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not about India or Nepal, but I wanted to post it anyway: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/09/17/china11754.htm The incident occurred during a heightened security alert before September 1, when China celebrated the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region. “Given the poor treatment often meted out to Tibetans in detention, we are very concerned about Sonam’s physical condition.” also, a very vivid website: www.guchusum.org http://studentsforafreetibet.org/downloads/BombardierCartoon.pdf [View Full Entry]

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