News

The Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies (Tibetan Parliament in Exile) in a press statement issued today expressed "deep sense of disappointment and regret" with the Russian decision to deny a visa to His Holiness the Dalai Lama

China on Thursday denied charges that it was dramatically altering Tibet's demographic pattern by encouraging immigration of other ethnic Chinese groups into the Himalayan region.

China today welcomed Russia's denial of visa to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama as "positive.I have seen the statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman in this regard and feel positive about this decision by the Russian Government,"

Tibet's exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, was lionized in the United States but denied a visa to meet Buddhists in Russia. Those different responses reflect China's dilemma on whether to deal or not to deal with the charismatic leader.

Your headline, as well as the report on the interview with His Holiness the Dalai Lama by Laurie Goodstein (Dalai Lama Says Terror May Need a Violent Reply, September 18, 2003), gives the misleading impression that His Holiness is endorsing violence as a way to confront terrorism.

Foreign affairs is never entirely offstage in this city — so multicultural, so multilingual, so multinational, indeed so multi-everything, and that includes tasking and tsking. But we seem to be in for an unusually heavy dose of world issues this week.

A day after the 9/11 horrific terrorist attacks, the Dalai Lama had urged President George Bush to ponder whether a violent response was the “the right thing to do and in the greater interest of the nation and people in the long run.”

The British mission to Lhasa in August 1936 was modest. Headed by Sir Basil Gould, it consisted of eight men (plus attendants). However, it brought with it a huge assortment of technical equipment, drawn by several hundred yaks, much of which was photographic.

The late Panchen Rinpoche's daughter, Rinzin Wangmo la (age-20) is currently on a ten-day visit to Switzerland. Her mother, Mrs. Dechen Wangmo (Li Jie) and a Tibetan Nima Tsewang are accompanying her.

The identity of the next Dalai Lama -- and by extension the legitimacy of Chinese rule over Tibet -- may depend on a 20-year-old Tibetan-Chinese woman. Nothing makes China more internationally unpopular than its occupation of Tibet