The Dalai Lama’s upcoming appearance in Middlebury is a rare and special event, but it’s particularly special for Vermont’s Tibetan community, about 150 people who regard him as their spiritual leader.

“I couldn’t believe it when I heard he would be coming to Vermont,” said Tenzin Chophel, president of the Vermont Tibetan Association. “I only ever thought that was possible in a dream. But now it has become a reality.”

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, as he is formally known, will give two talks at Middlebury College — for the college community, on Friday and and for the public on Saturday. The theme of his visit is “Cultivating Hope, Wisdom and Compassion.” Tickets are required for both events and are no longer available.

This will be the Dalai Lama’s third visit to Vermont. He previously appeared at Middlebury College for symposiums in 1984 and 1990. In between, in 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent work in support of Tibet’s liberation. The Chinese government regards Tibet as an integral part of China.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 and has been living in exile since then in Dharmsala, in northern India. Refugees from Tibet began arriving in Vermont in 1992.

“All members of the Tibetan Association of Vermont are planning on attending His Holiness’ talk on Saturday,” said Chophel, who lives in Bridport. “We wouldn’t miss it.”

“With love, with faith, and with happiness we greet his Holiness, who is here for the third time,” wrote Tseten Anak, of South Burlington, in an email. “Also, his public talk is good for the whole world, not just Tibetans.”

There are no plans for a special audience for Vermont’s Tibetans.

“In our Tibetan tradition, being in the presence of His Holiness is extremely special,” said Chophel, in an email. “So we are all so happy to receive his blessings just by being in the same place as His Holiness.”

The conflict in Tibet has taken “an unprecedented turn” in the last year, Chophel said, adding that “a tipping point living under Chinese rule and China’s repressive policies” has been reached.

“So in the last several years Tibetans have chosen to self-immolate in defiance. Such an action is an ultimate cry for freedom. Over 50 people have self-immolated, so many of them young people. These tragic actions need to be heard and reacted to by the United Nations and the world. Action really has to be taken.”

“On a local level, Tibetan communities throughout the world are trying to speak out continuously about this worsening crisis,” Chophel said. He said Tibetans in Vermont have been gathering signatures for a petition asking the United Nations to send an independent factfinding commission to Tibet to investigate.

“As Tibetans, we definitely have hope that the situation will improve between Tibet and China. Tibetans are all working very hard because we have this hope,” he said. “Until the Chinese give Tibetan people more freedom and improve the human rights situation, Tibetans will work tirelessly for Tibet. We will not give up.”

At Middlebury College, planning for the visit has been under way for two years. The Dalai Lama’s personal peace emissary, the Venerable Lama Tenzin Dhonden, spoke at the college in 2009 and delivered the college’s invitation. Laurie Jordan, college chaplain, has been working with Dhonden to arrange the event, along with a college steering committee that was formed earlier this year.

The visit is a logistical challenge that involves arrangements with many departments across campus. The Nelson Arena, where the talks will be given, has a capacity of 2,800 people, and everyone must pass through security on the way in. Protocols of the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service apply.

“Preparing for the Dalai Lama’s visit has been challenging but it is worthwhile as we are deeply honored that he accepted our invitation,” Jordan said in an email.

“We also want students and the rest of the college and local community to learn from his important messages, which seem more relevant than ever. For example, his belief that we must find common ground among faiths as we face global issues is critical to our students as they work to help solve such problems as climate change and poverty now and after they graduate from Middlebury.”

WHERE: Burlington Memorial Auditorium
250 Main Street  Burlington, VT 05401

The annual Tibet Festival, organized by the Tibetan Association of
Vermont, invites you to experience the culture of Tibet. Highlights of the
day long festival include: Tibetan food, Tibetan and Himalayan crafts,
Tibetan song and dance performances, crafts for kids, and cultural,
historical and political interactive exhibits. 11:00 – 4:00 pm.  Open to
the public, admission free, donations accepted.

While Tibet’s exiled spiritual the Dalai Lama’s security remains the centre of concern, the Tibetan-government-in-exile fears “infiltration” of Chinese undercover agents in the hill town that has been nerve centre of Tibetan movement.  Fearing China could unleash its band of army trained
undercover agents in the town, the security wing of Tibetan – government- in- exile cautioned the Indian security and intelligence agencies. Security department in its communication to Crime Investigation Department of state police anticipated Chinese infiltration in Tibetan settlements clustered across India in the garb of monks.

“Necessary steps are being taken in wake of anticipation of Tibetan administration Senior Superintendent of Police, Dr Atul Fulzele confirmed to Hindustan Times, while adding that effective steps have been taken to upgrade security of Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Police has asked Ministry of External Affairs to provide funds for installing chemical detector at Dalai Lama’s palace. Dalai Lama’s has three tier security manned by Himachal Police. Internal security is looked after close protection group of Tibetans.  More than 150 men are deployed for round the clock security of Dalai Lama’s palace.

Tibetan government fears come two months after a Chinese woman was arrested in Mcleodganj for staying without valid travel document.  Chai Sha Hung, convicted for violating foreigners act, was deported back to her home town last month, the police suspected her of being a spy but claims could not be established.

Sources in Tibetan government-in-exile maintains Chinese intelligence agencies was keeping track about the activities of Tibetan government and Non Government Organization that are at fore front of campaign to secure freedom for China administered Tibet. “Chinese government has become more wary of the Tibetans after protest scattered across Tibet ahead of Beijing Olympics” felt, senior official of Tibetan security.  China had blamed Dalai Lama and his “clique” for orchestrating protest in Tibet that turned violent killing more than 150 people. On being tipped by intelligence agencie, local police arrested a Chinese man in 2008. Intelligence gathering confirmed that arrested Chinese man Liu Xia  had served  Peoples Liberation Army.   Information gathered by Indian intelligence revealed that Liu had visited Dharamsala twice before protest spread in Tibet.

What came to the surprise of Intelligence agencies was Liu mobile phone details which confirmed that he was in touch with high ranking military official in Lhasa. Xia has reportedly revealed that he had come by road from Lhasa, and later reached Delhi after traveling through Nepal illegally. In the wake of renewed qualms of Tibetan government, local police has stepped up vigil on  Tibetan escapees, although their numbers have decreased drastically  ever since China tightened security on its borders.  According to Tibetan security agencies on and average 2000- 3000 Tibetans crossed into India from Nepal but this year only 200 have arrived in Dharamsala so far.

“We have sent an advisory to all the Tibetan welfare officer asking them to educate Tibetans about the possible infiltration of Chinese monks ” said a Tibetan security official requesting anonymity.  Police have advised Dalai Lama to maintain a particular distance while meeting the new entrants at his palace.  The Dalai Lama routinely meets the Tibetan exiles in his palace. Tibetans government has warned the exiles to remain cautious about the activities being undertaken by followers of Dorje Shugden. Dalai Lama had banned worship of Dorje Shugden. The Dalai Lama identifies Dorje Shugden as a “spirit”, and claims that tradition of propitiation associated with Shugden elevates this spirit to being equal or superior to the Buddha. He states that encouraging the worship of Dorje Shugden could contribute to reducing Tibetan Buddhism to a form of superstitious spirit worship. Tibetans exiles say that China was using Shugdens for prpoganda against Dalai Lama.

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OFFICE OF TIBET
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New York, NY 10016
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Kalon Tripa Samdhong Rinpoche Talks to Tibetans in New York

High Peaks Pure Earth

This is the second blogpost that Woeser has written from Lhasa and she vividly describes, in a poetic way, everyday life there with a lot of interesting details. For background information on her trip to Lhasa, see the introduction to the last post she wrote titled “What Is Happiness?” here on High Peaks Pure Earth.

In her final paragraph, Woeser refers to young Tibetans who are proudly asserting their Tibetan identity, she has described it as a kind of “mission” they are on. For an earlier posting on this topic by Woeser see “I Am Tibetan” and don’t miss two videos from Amdo, I Am Tibetan and the hip hop video “New Generation”.

Lhasa in February, with the arrival of Losar (Tibetan New Year), the city is slowly being swept away by sandstorms. In the past, the storms would never start this early, is global warming the only reason behind this? The Lhasa river valley used to be surrounded by a group of mountains called the “eight lotus petals” but today as it has been completely destroyed by mining machines, as soon as the wind starts to blow, sand and dust spreads everywhere. Also, on top of Lhasa valley, in the past it used to be the homeland of Tsangpo Songtsen Gompo but today even the local Medro Gongkar county government simply sold its own land to one of China Gold Group’s mining companies. The officials lined their own pockets but contaminated water has polluted farmland and even killed livestock or given the farmers strange diseases.

Lhasa in February, with the arrival of Losar, scenes on TV show officials asking the poor about their hardships; they are poor Tibetans from the city of Lhasa or from the remote countryside and pastureland. The officials with their subordinates show off the many hundred Yuan notes, which, with exaggerated gestures, they give to those Tibetans who bend and stick out their tongues (as a sign of respect) or hold out their hands. Also, those Tibetans speaking Lhasa, Shigatse, Nagchu or Chamdo dialects shed tears of gratitude; some even choke with tears, over and over again expressing their eternal gratitude. Yet, if people have to feel this overly thankful for such a little bit of money, doesn’t that mean that their poverty is in fact so widespread and alarming?
Lhasa in February, with the arrival of Losar, red lanterns of all sizes are hanging everywhere. This is by no means a Tibetan custom; it is revealing a different kind of message: the assimilation of local culture by an outside culture. For example, writing red antithetical couplets in Tibetan is really only a strange imitation of an antithetical couplet written in Chinese. They thought that this was just a transformation of old social traditions, but it really is neither fish nor fowl. We should know that all the loss is reflected in the details; every detail meant a little bit of loss and in the end, the loss is complete. It was the local government who initiated that five-starred red flags are now hanging everywhere in the city’s main roads and small alleyways. Cadres went from house to house, from door to door, from shop to shop requesting everyone to hang up a flag. Plus, they especially emphasised that this year people should hang up a particularly big flag. A red flag is also fluttering on the roof of the Potala Palace, pompously declaring  national sovereignty.

Lhasa in February, with the arrival of Losar, we can also observe some special colours: one is green, representing soldiers with weapons in their hands, running wild in the streets of Tibet. When one runs into them directly, one has to quickly give way, or else one might with sudden force be pushed aside. There are also some soldiers, who boldly stand on Tibetan people’s rooftops, looking down from above, valiantly pressuring the Tibetans walking below gasping for breath. The other colour is blue, representing the police also carrying weapons in their hands, not just a few of them are Tibetans. I witnessed myself that a young Tibetan who was paying homage to Buddha was pushed away and when he answered back defiantly, Tibetan police clutched his throat. Another colour is always changing. I am not sure how many times these plainclothes policemen have changed their outfits, I even heard that some of them pretend to be Buddhist monks wearing robes wandering around the temples. Or they pretend to be tourists wearing rosaries on their wrists.

Lhasa in February, with the arrival of Losar, I also have to mention these few people: my fellow Tibetan townspeople who I love and respect. They prostrate all their way from various different hometowns to the sacred place – Lhasa – and with the Jokhang and the Potala Palace at their centre, they still continue to prostrate. Of course, the majority of them are farmers, herdsmen and Buddhist monks and nuns, who embody the characteristics of the grassland of the snowy mountains, and who smell of yak butter. When I was walking around the Barkhor I encountered a Buddhist monk whose forehead was full of scabs. He was singing songs in praise of Guru Rinpoche at full volume while slowly prostrating. What will the passing soldiers with their guns in their hands think about Tibetan beliefs?
Lhasa in February, with the arrival of Losar, there are more and more young people who continue to go down the path which belongs to them. They have come back from Chinese universities to their hometowns, wearing Tibetan clothes, speaking their mother tongue, feeling that they are on an “I am Tibetan” mission. And in a cherishing manner they go and learn about the roots of this piece of land, also, when they climb the high mountains to make offering by burning incense, scatter wind-horses, or recite traditional scriptures, they make promises for the future. They are full of self-confidence; they are in their prime, this is exactly the hope which has existed and been multiplied for generations and generations.

Lhasa, February 24, 2010

Source: High Peaks Pure Earth

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OFFICE OF TIBET
241 East 32nd Street
New York, NY 10016
Tel: (212) 213 5010 extn. 11

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Kunchok Tsephel, 39, was convicted and sentenced Nov. 12 after a closed-door trial at the Intermediate People’s Court of Gannan prefecture in southwestern Gansu province, according to reports from Tibet received by Tibetan exiles, said the International Campaign for Tibet, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group.

Some of the charges are believed to be related to content posted on his influential Web site, Chodme, or Butter-Lamp, which promotes Tibetan culture, and also for passing on information about last year’s anti-government protests.

Kunchok Tsephel, who has been detained by police since Feb. 26, had also worked in a Chinese government environmental department.

His family, who did not know where he had been held for nine months, was summoned last Thursday to hear the verdict, the ICT group said.

There was no official comment, and no way to independently confirm the court case.

Kunchok Tsephel had founded his Web site on Tibetan art and literature in 2005 along with a fellow poet. Authorities have shut it down several times over the past few years.

Last year, mass anti-government protests broke out in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and in Tibetan communities in surrounding provinces. The occasionally violent demonstrations were the most sustained unrest in the region since the late 1980s.

Tibetan resentment against Chinese rule has been fueled by religious restrictions and competition for resources with migrants from the Han Chinese majority. Similar grievances fed ethnic rioting this year in the neighboring heavily Muslim region of Xinjiang that left nearly 200 dead.

The government says it has spent billions improving living conditions in minority areas and respects their rights.

In the wake of the Tibet protests, the Chinese government installed a heavy security presence in the region, arresting thousands in connection with the unrest.

source: AP

At least 30 Tibetan scholars in-exile assembled for the two-day meet regarding the Mc Mohan Line dividing India, Tibet and China. These scholars standing for freedom of Tibet said they believed that they were re-visiting the independence of Tibet through the Simla agreement signed in 1914.

After the meeting they said that India should not trust China after Beijing condemned the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Arunachal Pradesh.

“It is utmost important that a group of young Tibetan scholar intellectuals have decided to gather in Shimla which is also a very significant place in history of Indian and Tibet together. Especially of the Mac Mohan line agreement that we have agreed upon due to which Arunachal has been recognised by Tibet as part of India. So when Chinese has condemned India not only of his holiness’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh but also of your Prime minister’s visiting , that also shows Chinese deep intention on their policy of India.,” said Karma, Tibetan scholar.

One of the scholars also claimed the meeting was held to reinforce the importance of 1914 Shimla Agreement.

“The importance of revisiting Shimla with the independence of Tibet is directly related to Arunachal Pradesh, where India claims Arunachal Pradesh as a part of India and here we reinforce the importance of 1914 Shimla Agreement, which was signed between Tibet and British Empire and today India inherits that power,” said Tenzin Tsundue, Tibetan scholar and activist. (ANI)