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Taiwan-Tibet ties were strengthened yesterday when President Chen Shui-bian met with Tenzin Phuntsok Atisha, chairman of the Tibet Religious Foundation of the Dalai Lama, to discuss a third visit by the Dalai Lama late this year.

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.

The 28th Kalachakra puja came to an end this morning with a long life puja for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His Holiness conferred a long life empowerment to the devotees. Referring to Bodh Gaya as the most sacred place for the Buddhists

President Chen Shui-bian, left, greets Tibetan representative Tashi Wangdi at the inaugural ceremony of the new Taiwan-Tibet Exchange Foundation yesterday. The new Taiwan-Tibet Exchange Foundation will serve as the Tibetan government-in-exile representative office in Taiwan. (Henry Tan)

The Taiwan Tibet Exchange Foundation was inaugurated yesterday, with Day Sheng-tong at its head as chairman, Joseph Jau-shieh Wu as secretary-general, and Wong Shih-jie as vice secretary-general.

Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian, left, receives a blessed scarf from Tashi Wangdi, the Dalai Lama's envoy, during the inauguration of the Taiwan Tibet Exchange Foundation, Monday, Jan. 20, 2003 in Taipei, Taiwan. The foundation will take over relations with the Tibetan government-in-exile from the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, which will be slowly abolished. The government's move makes a break with the commission, a legacy from the Nationalist Party, which claimed sovereignty over China, Tibet and Mongolia. (AP Photo/Jerome Favre)

The government is to abolish the Cabinet-level Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, many of the functions of which will be taken over by a new Taiwan-Tibet Exchange Foundation which is to be formally established today.

Despite a threat from some Indian monks to immolate themselves, the biggest religious gathering in Tibetan Buddhism concluded peacefully Monday with the departure of the Dalai Lama.

When Dawa Norbu is not teaching graduates at the School of International Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, he is found squatting cross-legged under banyan trees on campus, sporting Bermuda shorts and worn-out flip-flops