News

About 200 monks sit cross-legged in a shady courtyard at the 585-year-old Sera Monastery and loudly debate Buddhist scriptures on a sunny afternoon.

Mr. Tashi Phuntsok, formerly the secretary of the administrative division of the Department of Security, has been appointed the Election Commissioner and Public Service Commissioner of the Central Tibetan Administration.

The boy picked by the Chinese authorities as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama has visited Tibet's most sacred temple, Jokhang. Gyaltsen Norbu who rates second after the Dalai Lama in Tibetan Buddhism was shown on Chinese state television being eagerly greeted by monks.

Unfurling a giant cloth painting of the Buddha over a mountainside beside the great Drepung monastery, monks gave Tibetan pilgrims an annual glimpse Sunday of one of Tibet's great ceremonies.

The Dalai Lama may only return to his homeland if he renounces aspirations for Tibetan independence and any talks can be held only with his personal representative, a senior Chinese official has said.

Tibetan government-in-exile has accused China of carrying out extensive construction on the river Pareechu, resulting in the formation of an artificial lake in Tibet, which is threatening flash floods in northern parts of India.

The Beijing-backed 11th Panchen Lama was in Lhasa on his third visit to the Himalayan capital since his disputed selection as a leading Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader by the atheist Chinese communist government in 1995.

The threat of a lake burst in Tibet portending a catastrophic flood in Himachal Pradesh has exposed India's vulnerability to environmental warfare where nature's forces are manipulated to create deadly weapons, a senior defence official has said.

A rights group expressed concern that China was stepping up prosecution of Tibetans who return after completing religious studies in India, where the Dalai Lama lives in exile.

The three newly elected Tibetan legislators today took oath of office of the Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies from Ms. Dolma Gyari, the vice-chairperson of ATPD.