Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Nov. 9: Tibetan environment activist Padma Wangyal delivered an address at the “Rivers of the Sky: Glaciers of the Sky” exhibition, which is currently on display at the Central Tibetan Administration’s Tibet Museum. The exhibition organised by Tibet Museum and researchers from the Tibet Policy Institute (TPI), highlights Tibet’s major rivers and exposes China’s exploitation of these vital resources as political tools.
Padma Wangyal, who has spent decades advocating for environmental preservation in both Tibet and Nepal, shared insights from his visits to Tibet between 1987 and 2008. He emphasized the extensive logging activities along Tibet’s border with China, particularly in the region of Dhartsedo, where large-scale timber extraction has continued for decades. Citing figures from his observations, Wangyal reported that between 1987 and 1989, as many as 100 trucks transported timber out of Tibet on a daily basis. By 1996, this number had risen to 300 trucks, signalling an escalation in deforestation activities.
Reflecting on his experiences, Padma explained that his initial trips to Tibet were not focused on environmental research but on gaining a broader understanding of the conditions in his homeland. It was only after repeatedly witnessing the Chinese government’s extensive deforestation and environmental damage that he became deeply concerned. “Prior to the 1980s, Tibet’s road infrastructure was limited,” he noted, “but since then, the Chinese government has built roads specifically to facilitate the large-scale extraction and transport of Tibetan timber.” Wangyal referred to the Chinese authorities as “red thugs,” a term he used to underscore his view of the communist regime’s exploitative policies in Tibet.
In response to the environmental destruction he witnessed, Padma initiated a tree plantation project in 2000 at Tsurphu Monastery, the seat of His Holiness the Gyalwang Karmapa in Central Tibet. Funded by His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Private Office, the project received additional support from then-German President Johannes Rau. “I was able to carry out the tree plantation project in Tibet by bringing two forestry experts from Germany, as I had no expertise in afforestation myself,” he shared. The German experts provided training to local Tibetans and monastery monks on afforestation methods and sustainable vegetable cultivation around the monastery grounds.
Since 2009, Padma has been unable to return to Tibet. After retiring as an industrial baker in Germany, he dedicated himself to environmental and humanitarian causes, serving as the Khoryug Coordinator for monasteries in Nepal under the guidance of His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa from 2009 to 2023. Wangyal also contributed to earthquake relief efforts from 2015 to 2018, furthering his commitment to community resilience and environmental protection.
The exhibition’s inauguration, held on Friday morning, saw Tibetan Parliament in Exile Deputy Speaker Dolma Tsering attend as the chief guest. Also present were Karma Choeying, Secretary of the Department of Information and International Relations, and Padma Wangyal’s wife, Magda.
Communist China was economically on its knees when it came to power after the disastrous civil war between US supported Nationalist Kuomintang and the Soviet backed Chinese communists. The Government of Republican China made baseless claims over Tibet and the Chinese communist latched on it and made attempts to subvert the Tibetan Government by insinuating the Tibetan people to revolt against the Tibetan Government. They also made good use of the thirteen year old Panchen Lama to do the same by exhorting him to write a letter the Tibetan people! When their crass communist sabotage tactics didn’t succeed, they used force to invade Tibet from the East in the Amdo region and towards Kham. One of the principal reason for communist China to invade Tibet is extraction of immensely rich natural resources which was indispensable to uplift China from poverty! Both Tibet and East Turkistan are blessed with extremely rich natural resources with both having huge land mass and sparse population. Since the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1949/50, Communist China has been extracting Tibet’s rich natural resources. Tibetans knew, their country was rich in natural resources for centuries but Tibetans did not exploit their resources for economic gain or any other development due to the Tibetan Buddhist believe that nature must not be disturbed. Taking out the rich natural resources diminished the richness of the land and so mining and hunting were prohibited. Unfortunately, once the Chinese communists occupied Tibet, the Chinese communists lost no time to sent hundreds of geological prospecting teams across Tibet to gain access to the rich natural resources deposits of Tibet. They lost no time to exploit Tibet’s untapped natural resources from 1956. There are 126 identified minerals spread all across the three provinces of Amdo, Kham and U-Tsang. Tibet has huge reserves of uranium, second only to South Africa! It has chromite,boron, lithium, borax (salt) iron, corundum, vanadium, titanium, magnesite, sulphur, mica, caesium, rubidium, arsenic, graphite, lepidolite, timber and potash! It has one of the largest deposits of copper, gold, silver, zinc, oil and gas and other minerals! From 1952 to 1990, mining in Tibet generated US 2 billion (15.4 billion Yuan). Today, mining is the pillar of Tibet’s economy which is facilitating the colonisation of occupied Tibet by transferring Chinese population from China! The reckless exploitation of Tibet’s mineral resources without checks and balances and environmental safety concerns have caused immeasurable environmental degradation and contributed to the permanent alteration of landscape, leaving massive debris, gaping holes of abandoned mines and permanent scars on the land. Pristine Tibetan rivers have been poisoned with mysterious deaths of human and animals caused by poisoning of the land and rivers in the process of extraction of resources. Earthquakes, which was unheard of in Tibet for centuries are happening more and frequently owing to the tectonic shift of plates owing the excessive mining! The massive earthquake in Sichuan in 2008 was a direct result of rampant mining! As recently as a month ago, there has been earthquake in Meldro Gongkar which is the result of Chinese mining activities that is causing it that is keeping the Tibetan population on tenterhooks! The Chinese are the beneficiaries while the custodians of Tibet, the Tibetan people are made the victims of Communist China’s unmitigated greed and wanton destruction of Tibet!
As the tenth Panchen Lama declared, “China has taken more from Tibet than it has given back to Tibet” is a testimony to the rampant plunder of Tibet for the last seven decades including brutal occupation, assimilation and environmental degradation under communist China! 160 brave Tibetans have set their precious body on fire to highlight the sheer brutality Chinese communist occupation! Tibetans are brutalised by the Chinese communist coloniser that has murdered 1.2 million Tibetans and is hellbent to EARASE TIBET FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH BY abducting one million Tibetan children from their homes against their will and deprived them of their religion, culture and language to be transformed into Chinese!!! IT IS ALSO EXPUNGING THE HISTORICAL NAME OF TIBET IN ORDER TO OBLITERATE TIBET!!! THIS IS EXTERMINATION OF THE TIBETAN NATION AND THE TIBETAN RACE!!! THIS IS GENOCIDE PLAIN AND SIMPLE!