Opinions

The next phase of Communist China’s destruction of Lhasa came innocuously enough with Deng Xiaoping’s “Liberalization”, starting from the turn of the eighties. In the groundbreaking cartographic study published by the Amnye Machen Institute, Map and Index of Lhasa City by Christophe Besuchet, a more specific time period is provided in the introduction.

Regardless of the clarion call made by Dr. Yangchen Dolkar a decade ago, then serving at one of the largest Tibetan settlements in South India, the general approach and perception of the Tibetan community towards the virus oscillate between callous indifference to frantic intensity. Ironically this paradoxical mix of approach persists despite gradual swell in HIV/AIDS infection instances and a decade long awareness campaigns spearheaded by the Department of Health (CTA), CHOICE and other NGOs, community leaders and individual volunteers.

Tsering Woeser-la’s recent clarion call ““Our Lhasa is on the Verge of Destruction! Please, Save Lhasa!”, stirred me to undertake this modest history project. I thought it would be worthwhile to provide, as aide mémoire, brief overviews of the different periods in the destruction of the Holy City, which began when the

Jamyang Norbu la, I have been reading your articles since long time. And in my opinion most of your articles are like a 57mm RCL (World War II U.S. anti tank weapon which can be fired from shoulder) “POINTING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION”

Central Tibetan Administration serves as the backbone of the Tibet movement. Tibet's freedom is dependent on the financial viability of the institution.

AS I write this, two events have taken place that once again demonstrate just how intractable the Tibet issue is and how any attempt to unravel it must address its root causes.

On 8 May, among many issues the Tibetan prime minister discussed at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, Dr Lobsang Sangay said: ‘We don't challenge, or ask for, an overthrow of the Communist Party. We don't question or challenge the present structure of the ruling party.’ The ruling party being the Communist Party of China (CCP).

Nearly three weeks (at the time of this article first published) after the death of 83 workers in a landslide near a village in Tibet, which official Chinese media characterized as a natural disaster, suspicion is rising that it resulted from improper mining activity.

On April 24, 2013, two youths, Lobsang Dawa, 20, and Kunchok Woser, 23, lit themselves on fire near their monastery in eastern Tibet. The toll of Tibetans who have chosen to self-immolate has now reached 117, one of the highest in recent world history. The prime cause of this tragedy is the profound resentment of and resistance to China’s continued occupation and repression in Tibet.

When Andrug Gompo Tashi set up the Chushigangdruk (Four Rivers Six Ranges) in Lhoka in the summer of ‘58, and commenced resistance operations, Chinese garrisons and outpost in those areas were taken by surprise. Fearing that the local population might join or support Chushigangdruk,