In a visit that is likely to raise the political temperature between Paris and Beijing, His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be arriving in France for a two-day, 6-7 June, visit to the French capital. It is expected that His Holiness the Dalai Lama will also be officially presented with the Citizen of Honour, a legislation that the Paris City had passed in April 2008.
After the mass protest against the Beijing torch relay in Paris, France has been the target of government and nationalist scorn in China. French supermarket chain Carefour came under increasing calls for boycott. President Sarkozy sent a delegation of high level French officials led by former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin to China. It has been widely reported that the Speaker of the French National Assembly was sent by President Sarkozy to China with an invitation for Chinese president Hu Jintao to visit France.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his French interpreter Mathieu Ricard at a press conference in Paris, August 2008. Photo: Tenam
Before the G 20 meeting in London, a joint communique by the French foreign ministry and China on 1 April, declared that France does not “support any form of Tibet’s independence,” which is credited with the eventual meeting between Sarkozy and Hu Jintao in London.
The Tibet Group in the French Senate said in response that the Tibet issue cannot be considered an internal issue of China and that the Tibetan cause is very important and sensitive to the French people and their elected officials.
In the basement and driveway of a humble Malden house, the carpenters are building a throne.
Across town, in Medford, a lab technician spends his nights sewing embroidered silk for the drapery.
Three Tibetan-American men, two of them former monks, have devoted much of the last month to constructing the 9-foot high chair on which a cross-legged Dalai Lama will sit for a pair of lectures at Gillette Stadium next month.
The resulting throne is the most visible manifestation of the efforts by Boston’s small Tibetan community to prepare for the Dalai Lama’s four-day visit to the region, which begins April 29. But the throne also sheds light on the unusual backstories of local Tibetans, many of whom escaped difficult lives in Tibet or lived in exile in India before arriving in the United States.
The needleworker, Kunga Namgyal, leads the ordinary life of a research scientist at Shire, a biopharmaceutical company. But Namgyal is also the son and grandson of famed Tibetan tailors - his father was a tailor for the Dalai Lama - and now, at night, when he can steal time from playing with his son and dining with his wife, he sits on the floor by a china cabinet filled with Buddha statues and tries to remember what his own dad taught him about sewing.
One gem: While conventional sewing often involves pointing a needle away from the artisan, Tibetan Buddhists sew with the needle pointing toward themselves, to symbolize compassion for others who won’t get poked.
The financial backer of the $5,000 throne, Lobsang Paljor, was a farmer and nomad in Tibet who in 1985 became a monk there; he fled to India in 1987 and in 1991 moved to the United States. After six years selling carpets, he started Tibet Construction Inc. in 2000.
The carpenter, Kunga Lhatse, plied his trade in Lhasa before escaping to India and then moving in 2002 to the United States. He now is a member of Paljor’s 12-man crew.
“For me, his holiness, the Dalai Lama, represents Tibet,” Lhatse said, via a translator. “He is like a teacher or a parent.”
The Dalai Lama, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, is the spiritual and political leader of Tibetan Buddhists and leads a government in exile from Dharamshala, India. Also called Tenzin Gyatso, the 73-year-old lama is believed by Tibetan Buddhists to be a reincarnation of previous Dalai Lamas; he is the 14th man to hold the title.
The throne is a conventional element of the stages from which the Dalai Lama teaches about Buddhism to large crowds. When he gives a more conventional lecture or meets with scholars, as he will do at several events in Boston and Cambridge before the Foxborough sessions, he sits in a chair.
“In our religious tradition, you show respect to your teacher, and that’s why he is put on the highest pedestal,” said Lobsang Sangay, coordinator of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Boston and also a research fellow at the East Asian Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School.
Often institutions hosting the Dalai Lama borrow a throne from another community, but the Boston-area Tibetan community, now thought to number about 600, saw itself as mature enough this year to construct a throne. After the Dalai Lama’s visit, the chair is intended to be a central element of a local Tibetan heritage center that the community hopes to construct in the area.
The throne is made of hand-carved teak - there is a single gold throne, in Lhasa - and the one built for Boston has carved into it the eight “auspicious symbols” of Buddhism: images of a parasol, fish, vase, lotus, conch, knot, wheel, and victory banner. The silk drapery features an image of a dorje, a small scepter traditionally associated with Tibetan Buddhist lamas.
“The Dalai Lama has been to Massachusetts several times, but this is the first time the Tibetan Association of Massachusetts is hosting it, and that reflects that we are now more organized and capable,” Sangay said.
The six previous visits have been hosted by local universities and interest groups, he said. “For many of us, it is like a lifelong dream coming true, to be able to host your spiritual and temporal leader.”
The Dalai Lama is coming to Boston for four days this spring. The revered 73-year-old spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism will make stops in Cambridge and Boston and also at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, according to a story in “Articles of Faith” the Boston Globe blog about religion, written by Michael Paulson. Tenzin Gyatso, the man who calls himself “a simple Buddhist monk”, has a packed itinerary.
Dalai Lama’s Boston area schedule: April 30 to May 2, 2009
Dalai Lama
Public Talk in Boston, MA on April 30:
His Holiness the Dalai Lama will give a public talk to the Harvard University Community on Educating the Heart at the Memorial Church. Contact Harvard Website for more information.
Inauguration of The Dalai Lama Center at MIT on April 30:
The Dalai Lama will inaugurate The Dalai Lama Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and will speak about Ethics and Enlightened Leadership.(…) Read the rest of Soon: Dalai Lama In Boston (323 words)
By Michael Heath, March 13 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama urged China to renew talks with the Dalai Lama’s envoys on Tibet, shortly after Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi asked the U.S. to respect his country’s position on the Himalayan region.
“The president expressed his hope there would be progress in the dialogue between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama’s representatives,” the White House said in a statement after Obama met with Yang. “The promotion of human rights is an essential aspect of U.S. global foreign policy,” it said.
Earlier yesterday, Yang said in a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies that “Tibet is an inalienable part of China’s territory and Tibetan affairs are exclusively China’s internal affairs.”
The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, ended contacts with China last November after eight rounds of talks failed to produce results. China deployed armed police in Tibet, stepped up patrols on the border with India and cut mobile telephone and Internet connections in some areas ahead of the March 10 anniversary of a 1959 uprising that led to the Dalai Lama’s exile, according to Tibetan groups.
Last March, the largest Tibetan uprising in almost two decades broke out after Chinese security forces suppressed a protest by monks in Lhasa. At least 19 people were killed in rioting in the city, most of them ethnic Han Chinese, the government in Beijing said.
In the ensuing crackdown, more than 200 Tibetans were killed, according to Tibet’s government-in-exile, based in northern India.
‘Hell on Earth’
The Dalai Lama said in a speech marking the 50th anniversary that Tibetans have suffered “hell on earth” under Chinese rule. He accuses the government in Beijing of committing “cultural genocide” in the region and says mass migration of ethnic Han Chinese has made Tibetans a minority in their own land.
Tibet is stable and peaceful overall, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao said in a press briefing in Beijing today.
The U.S. Congress passed a resolution two days ago that urged China to “cease its repression of the Tibetan people, and to lift immediately the harsh policies imposed on Tibetans.”
In a statement issued late yesterday, the National Peoples’ Congress Foreign Affairs Committee called the U.S. resolution “a gross interference in China’s domestic affairs,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Tibet, a theocratic state ruled by the Buddhist clergy before Chinese rule, has made “remarkable progress” since the launch of democratic reform 50 years ago, Yang told the CSIS. Tibet’s traditional culture has been “well preserved” and people there enjoy all the rights prescribed by law, he said.
Respect China’s Position
“I hope that people from various sectors of the United States will appreciate these facts, and understand and respect the Chinese people’s position of upholding state sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the foreign minister said.
The Chinese Communist army fought its way onto the 3.2- kilometer (2-mile) high Tibetan Plateau in 1950 and 1951, easily defeating Tibet’s horse-borne troops. The Dalai Lama, then a teenager, accepted Chinese control to save his people from war, he wrote in his 1977 book, “My Land and My People.”
In 1959, with the Chinese troops’ presence straining Tibet’s economy, citizens of Lhasa grew alarmed when a Chinese army commander summoned the Dalai Lama, without his usual bodyguard, to the army’s camp in the city. Tibetans surrounded the Dalai Lama’s palace and forced a standoff with troops.
“A vast multitude of excited, angry people” had “armed themselves with sticks, spades or knives” and a few guns, the Dalai Lama wrote in his memoir. To avoid a battle, he slipped out, disguised as a Tibetan soldier, and fled to India.
BEIJING (AFP) — China’s communist government will decide on the reincarnated successor of the Dalai Lama when Tibetan Buddhism’s highest spiritual leader passes away, state press said Thursday.
“Besides religious rites and historical conventions, there is also a very important condition for the reincarnation of the Dalai and that is the approval of the central government,” top Tibetan legislator Legqoq told Xinhua news agency.
Legqoq, who goes by only one name, was speaking on the sidelines of China’s ongoing annual session of parliament which coincided with this month’s 50th anniversary of a Tibetan uprising that led to the exile of the current Dalai Lama.
Legqoq said China’s State Religious Affairs Commission issued regulations in 2007 that mandate government approval for all reincarnated “Living Buddhas,” or lamas.
The rules were widely seen as an effort to bring Tibetan Buddhism more firmly under China’s control, after decades of unrest over religious freedom and the plight of the Dalai Lama.
Living Buddhas are an important element in Tibetan Buddhism, forming a clergy of influential religious figures who are believed to be continuously reincarnated to take up their positions anew.
Often there is more than one candidate competing to be recognised as the actual reincarnation, and the authority to decide who is the true claimant carries significant power.
This is especially true in the case of the Panchen Lama, the second-most influential figure in Tibetan Buddhism behind the Dalai Lama.
Chinese authorities detained the Dalai Lama’s choice of the Panchen Lama in 1995 when the boy was six years old, and he has not been seen in public since.
The Chinese government’s choice as the Panchen Lama has meanwhile been paraded around the country in recent years to promote China’s rule over Tibet.
He will also likely oversee the reincarnation of the next Dalai Lama, after the 73-year-old incumbent passes away.
China has issued its strongest recent criticism of Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama - calling him a political exile who directly heads an illegal theocratic government. The comments came Friday in Premier Wen Jiabao’s press conference at the end of the annual session of China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao discussed a host of issues in a news conference that stretched for more than two hours.
These topics ranged from the global economic crisis, to the Central Asia-focused Shanghai Cooperation Organization, to debt relief for developing nations in Africa.
The issue that the Chinese Premier spoke about most forcefully, though, was Tibet, which he stressed was an inalienable part of China’s territory.
Wen says Tibet-related issues are completely China’s internal affairs and that Beijing will accept no foreign interference on the matter.
The Chinese leader also had strongly critical words for Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in his homeland.
The premier said Beijing considers the Dalai Lama a political exile, not a religious figure.
Wen pointed to the Tibetan government in exile, which is based in Dharamsala, India. He called that government theocratic and illegal, and said it is under the direct leadership of the Dalai Lama.
This comment preceded his recitation of what has become a standard phrase - Beijing wants to see what the Dalai Lama does, not what he says.
Premier Wen accused the Dalai Lama of misleading political figures around the world, but added that some western leaders are also trying to use him for their own purposes.
The Chinese leader had a much different approach to Taiwan, a separately-governed island Beijing considers a renegade province and has been trying to woo.
Mr. Wen called Taiwan a “treasure island” and said he has a long-cherished hope of going to visit it someday.
In the only comments that elicited apparently spontaneous applause, Mr. Wen said he is already 67 years old, and even if he could no longer walk, he would crawl to get to the island.
On other issues, the premier said he is, in his words, “a little bit worried” about China’s “huge amount” of U.S debt, which totals about $1 trillion. He urged the United States to continue to be what he called “a credible nation” that can “ensure the safety of Chinese assets.”
Meanwhile, he said China is working very hard to cope with the negative effects of the global economic downturn. He said China is aware that no country can overcome these economic difficulties alone. But at the same time, he said his country’s view is that, in his words, “we would rather dig a well for ourselves than beg for water from others.”
On Thursday, March 12, the European Parliament (EP) held a debate and resolution to mark the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against China, calling on Beijing to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama.
On 10 March 1959 the people of Tibet rose up against the Chinese occupation of their country. The anniversary of that failed enterprise was marked this week by MEPs who passed a resolution 338 votes in favour with 131 against calling for China and the Dalai Lama to pursue dialogue based on the “Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People”.
Speaking in the debate German Christian Democrat Thomas Mann said, “the Memorandum must be the basis for further discussion with China.” He regretted that the non-violent appeal of the Dalai Lama for dialogue found no echo in Beijing.
British Labour MEP Glyn Ford said the resolution was “counter-productive” to Chinese-EU dialogue. In his view the way forward is “through dialogue and engagement not through rehash resolutions.”
EP’s official press release
In a resolution adopted by MEPs on Thursday to mark the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, the Chinese Government is urged to resume talks with the Dalai Lama’s representatives with a view to “positive, meaningful change in Tibet”, not ruling out autonomy for the region, a solution that MEPs believe need not compromise China’s territorial integrity.
The EP’s call for talks to resume came as Tibetans in many countries commemorated the 50th anniversary of the 1959 revolt against China, which led to the flight of the Dalai Lama and the beginning of his exile in India. Eight rounds of dialogue in recent years between the Dalai Lama’s envoys and Chinese Government representatives have produced no breakthrough and no further talks are planned. In recent days the Chinese authorities have tightened security in Tibet, banning journalists and foreigners from visiting the region.(…) Read the rest of European Parliament Urges China to Negotiate with Dalai Lama (347 words)
The title of “Dalai Lama”, was not granted by the Dalai Lama himself, or created by Tibetan Buddhism, or conferred by the old Tibetan ruling class and still less by any foreigners. The title was actually granted by the central government of China’s dynasties and has multi-ethnic language features.
In the late Ming dynasty, Tibetan Buddhism proliferated into a number of sects, among which Sagya, Gagya and Gadang were most popular. However, many monks failed to follow Buddhist tenets; instead, they always served the devil by seeking fame and personal interests, disrespecting senior monks, indulging in entertainment, abducting, cheating or raping women. This resulted in grievances among the public in Tibet. At that time, Tsongkapa, a monk born in Qinghai Province, was learning Buddha Dharma in Tibet. Seeing all this, he felt that what these monks did was a long way from the actual requirements of Buddhism. Then he proposed a religious reform of all sects in Tibet, and vowed to create a new sect.
In 1402 and 1406, Tsongkapa finished writing “Treaties of the Staged Enlightenment” and “Tantra in Tibet: The Grand Exposition of Secret Mantra” respectively, laying a theoretical basis for establishing the Gelug Sect. He thought that Buddhism believers ought to first respect Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, be devoted to learning Sutras, Vinaya and Sastra of Tripitaka Sutra, as well as the three trainings of precepts, concentration, and insight. That is, to abide by taboos, to esteem the Buddhas and Patriarchs, to be immersed in studying the original meaning of Buddhist scriptures, to cultivate oneself according to Buddhist doctrine, to free oneself from vulgarity, to study intensively sutras of Mahayana and Hinayana, as well as to practice both Esoteric and Exotoric Buddhism.
Tsongkapa’s reform soon won support from the Tibetan nobles and serf owners. In lunar January 1409, he held and presided over the first Pray for Blessing Dharma Assembly in Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple. Later in the same year, Tsongkapa had the Ganden Monastery built and appointed himself the chief abbot there, marking the establishment of the Gelug Sect.
With an increasingly higher influence, the Gelug sprang up in Tibet and Qinghai. As a result, more monasteries were set up, such as Drepung, Sera and Tashilhunpo, laying a solid foundation for the development of the Yellow Sect.
Tsongkapa’s success in the reformation enabled the Gelug to become the largest sect in Tibetan Buddhism. “Gelug” means that Buddhism believers should do good things and never do evil things. It is also called Huangjiao (the Yellow Sect) by the Han people because its followers always wear yellow hats.
Though it was the last to come into being, the Gelug had grown into the most powerful sect in Tibet with the energetic support of the central dynasty. This indicates that even a small sect would be able to become grand and influential in a region, so long as it gained support of the imperial court, the central government or a secular regime.
The title of “Dalai” first came from the third Dalai Lama Soinam Gyamco. “Gyamco” means the Sea in the Tibetan language, which is contained in the name of Dalai Lama of later generations.
In 1577, the 38th year of the reign of Emperor Jiajing of the Ming dynasty, Soinam Gyamco, Tsongkapa’s third-generation disciple, came to Qinghai, by traveling thousands of miles from Tibet, to publicize the doctrine of the Gelug Sect. At that time, Mongolian noble Althan Khan, who ruled Qinghai, was a Buddhist who believed in Tibetan Buddhism the most. Hearing that Soinam Gyamco had arrived, he extended a rousing welcome to the dignitary and conferred him the title of “the Overseer of the Buddhist Faith Vajra-dhara Dalai Lama” to express appreciation of his wisdom and talents.(…) Read the rest of Dalai Lama Title’s Background by Eyes of Chinese (3,730 words)
By EDWARDWONG, New York Times
Published: February 25, 2009
TONGREN, China — Snow fell across this mountain valley as red-robed monks in a prayer hall beat drums and chanted in tantric harmony, a seemingly auspicious start to Losar, the Tibetan New Year.
But a monk watching the ritual on Wednesday morning made it clear: This was a ceremony of mourning, not celebration.
“There is no Losar,” he said, standing in this monastery town on the edge of the Tibetan plateau. “They killed so many people last year.”
A few weeks ahead of the 50th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, and a year after a crackdown on renewed ethnic unrest in this area, Tibetans are quietly but irrepressibly seething. Monks, nomads and merchants have turned the joyous Losar holiday into a dirge, memorializing Tibetans who died in last year’s conflict and pining for the return of the exiled Dalai Lama.
An informal grass-roots boycott is under way. Tibetans are forsaking dancing and dinner parties for vigils with yak-butter candles and the chanting of prayers. The Losar campaign signifies the discontent that many of China’s six million Tibetans still feel toward domination by the ethnic Han Chinese. They are resisting pressure by Chinese officials to celebrate and forget.
“It’s a conscious awakening of an entire people,” said Woeser, a popular Tibetan blogger.
Tibetans here and in other towns, including in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, say government officials have handed out money to Tibetans to entice them to hold exuberant new year parties. On Wednesday, state-run television showed Tibetans in Lhasa dancing, shooting off fireworks and feasting in their homes.
At the same time, the government has drawn a curtain across Tibet. Officials have shut down access to many Tibetan regions to foreigners and sent armed guards to patrol the streets.
Here in eastern Qinghai Province, near the Dalai Lama’s birthplace, the boycott of festivities began as early as January, during the Chinese Lunar New Year. On Wednesday in Tongren, called Rebkong by Tibetans, one of the few bursts of firecrackers took place outside a Chinese paramilitary compound.
“The government thinks we should celebrate this holiday properly,” said Shartsang, the abbot of Rongwo Monastery. “Certainly this year people haven’t celebrated it in the same way they did in past years.”
Shartsang was one of more than a dozen monks interviewed over three days at Rongwo, called Longwu in Chinese. The 700-year-old monastery is a sprawling complex of golden-eaved temples and labyrinthine alleyways that is home to 400 monks. It draws pilgrims from across the Tibetan plateau.
The government has stepped up security across Tibet. Here, more than 300 security officers with riot shields were seen training in the stadium on Wednesday afternoon. On Monday night, a unit of officers marched in formation along a cordoned-off road.
Chinese officials are wary of the boycott’s mushrooming into larger protests, and of Tibetans taking to the streets next month, which marks the 50th anniversary of the uprising that led to the Dalai Lama’s flight from Lhasa. Most Tibetans revere the Dalai Lama, who advocates autonomy, but not secession, for Tibet.
Last March, China was convulsed by the largest Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in decades. It began when the suppression of protests by monks in Lhasa led to ethnic rioting by Tibetans. Eighteen civilians and one police officer were killed, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. Riots and protests flared up across western China. Tibetan exile groups say hundreds of Tibetans died in the crackdown.
Rongwo Monastery was a locus of resistance. Even before the riots in Lhasa, monks joined Tibetan townspeople to protest the way the police had handled a dispute between Tibetans and ethnic Hui Muslims. More than 200 monks were detained in that incident. During the March uprising, security forces surrounded the monastery, only to be met by stone-hurling monks.
Over the summer, leading monks were detained in a nearby school and forced to undergo patriotic education, which meant studying Chinese law and being told to denounce the Dalai Lama.
Waves of crackdowns have fueled resentment.
“They broke into my room and took away all my photos of the Dalai Lama,” said one monk, 53, as he held up a pile of five empty glass picture frames. “Then they led monks away with their wrists bound by wires.”
Exiled Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama Tuesday said he admired the resolute decision made by Tibetans both in and outside Tibet to forgo “celebratory activities” during the Tibetan New Year or, Losar, which begins tomorrow.
“I admire the determined move by Tibetans, inside and outside of Tibet, not to indulge in celebratory activities during this New Year,” the Tibetan leader said in his New Year message to the Tibetan people.
In the text message posted on the Dalai Lama’s official website, the supreme spiritual and temporal leader of Tibetan people extended his New Year greetings to them.
“On the occasion of the Earth-Ox New Year of the 17th Rabjung cycle in the Tibetan Royal Year 2136, I would like to greet all Tibetans, both inside and outside of Tibet. I pray that there be peace and prosperity, and that our just cause may see gradual resolution,” he said.
“However, last year in Tibet we witnessed hundreds of Tibetans losing their lives, and several thousands facing detention and torture, in response to the widespread display by Tibetans all over Tibet of their discontentment with the Chinese authorities’ policies,” the Dalai Lama said.
Losar is traditionally the biggest holiday for Tibetans, but Tibetans in Tibet and around the world vowed not to celebrate it this year as they want to remember those who died in last year’s protests against Chinese rule.
Tibetan exile groups say at least 200 Tibetans were killed and more than a 1000 went missing in the subsequent Chinese military crackdown.
“Therefore, since they faced immense difficulties and sufferings, the occasion of this New Year is certainly not a period when we can have the usual celebrations and gaiety,” His Holiness added.
The Dalai Lama said: “Instead, everyone should utilize this period in abandoning non-virtuous acts and engaging in positive actions …”
“The dedication should also go to those currently undergoing suffering so that they may immediately be able to enjoy the happiness of freedom. Through such an accumulation of collective merits we should all strive for an early solution to the just cause of Tibet.”
The boycott of Losar celebration, which actually comes just two weeks before the 50th anniversary of the abortive Tibetan uprising, has been a cause of concern for Chinese authorities in Tibet.China’s military last month began a crackdown in Tibetan capital Lhasa, with raids on residential areas, Internet cafes, bars and rented rooms, Chinese state-run media reported. Security forces rounded up nearly 6000 “suspects” for questioning and detained up to 81 during the operation “Strike Hard” by Jan. 24.(…) Read the rest of Dalai Lama said he admires forgoing Losar celebrations (279 words)
