News

On January 20th 2003 His Holiness the Dalai-lama announced in BodhGaya at the conclusion of the Kalachakra empowerment the appointment of Khensur Lungri Namgyel rinpoche as the 101th Ganden Tripa.

Three Tibetan refugees arrested in Nepal in December while attempting to transit to India were each given three year jail sentences by a Nepalese court on January 8, 2003. The three new prisoners, including two teenagers, join at least ten other Tibetans who remain incarcerated in Kathmandu for immigration violations.

China has jailed a Tibetan for five years in connection with the cases of two religious figures sentenced to death for a series of bomb attacks, rights groups said.

The Dalai Lama said Thursday that international pressure and rapid changes within China will eventually force Beijing to grant autonomy to Tibet. "Autonomy to Tibet under the Chinese constitution has to come sooner or later,"

Pro-Tibet activists have called for more Indian pressure on China to release two Tibetans facing execution for their alleged involvement in bomb blasts.

A Chinese official confirmed Wednesday that China has sentenced three more Tibetans to prison, in a case that prompted an international outcry last month when another Tibetan was sentenced to death.

Young Buddhist children look at Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama, left, during a prayer meeting at Sarnath in Varanasi, India, Tuesday Jan. 21, 2003. Dalai Lama is on a three-day tour to Sarnath, the traditional northern India site of the Buddhas first teaching in the state of Uttar Pradesh. (AP Photo/ Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Even for Tibetan monks, it was too cold on Tuesday. Severe, icy wind made the air feel much colder than the recorded temperature of 1°C at Sarnath, the traditional northern India site of the Buddha's first teaching, and the Dalai Lama told followers to cover their heads.

In a tape-recorded message smuggled out of his Chinese jail, an influential Tibetan monk sentenced to death in December insists he had nothing to do with a series of bomb blasts in western China, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports.

A quasi-official organization was inaugurated in Taipei yesterday to help boost Taiwan's engagement with the Tibetan government-in-exile.