Opinions

Sacred documents in the pious Tibetan world are generally treated with great reverence – placed on the head, wrapped in silk, fumigated with incense smoke – but perhaps not read or discussed as much as they should be. To save the Great Thirteenth’s Declaration of Independence

As ongoing debate on 'Rangzen - vs- Autonomy' issue is leading to an unfortunate division among the Tibetan exile community and fault lines are being dragged to the international supporters' community -- one wonders why a community and its leaders, whose Supreme leader has the wisdom of giving up all his political powers to his people, cannot create autonomous space for its own members to take up and deliberate the Tibetan cause from different angles and perspectives?

I was sleeping in on Saturday morning when my cell phone rang several times. I picked it up without looking at the number. Over the phone I heard crying and the sounds of protest and the local dialect of my town Amchok: "Boys, don't be sad, be strong, walk this way, walk forward. Om mani padme hum, Gyalwa Tenzin Gyatso."

Tibetan people's resistance against their colonial masters has become too fiery to be ignored. On January 19, Jigjey Kyab a 17-year old Tibetan school boy of Shigtsang Pungkor town of Luchu in Eastern Tibet (now in Gansu province of China), was seen running in the street and shouting slogans demanding Tibet's freedom from China and Dalai Lama's return to Tibet. His clothes were doused in kerosene and he was holding a lighter in his hand.

With due respect for the Athenians for initiating the early democratic structure in their society and ushering in a new way of governance, the idea of democracy has evolved considerably over time to be more inclusive and comprehensive than its early manifestations. Throughout the centuries, it had fallen, regrouped, broaden its definition of citizenship and equality, especially in terms of race and gender, and finally emerged in the forms we see today around the world.

I met my old friend Sonam Topgyal la last summer – June 25th to be exact. He was in a bad way. Definitely cancer. I suspected stomach cancer of a kind, but could not bring myself to ask. He was weak from his last chemotherapy, but seemed glad to see me. As always we talked about Tibet and the

The topic of gender violence has been in the news recently, unfortunately, following the horrific rape suffered by a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi. The woman, who has not been identified, died on December 29, 2012, as a result of injuries she suffered during her attack two weeks earlier.

Last night I met with my friend, an activist, who has been involved with the Tibetan cause for many years. He was complaining against the Tibetan people for not showing enough enthusiasm and passion for our struggle.

Tenzin Wangmo was born in 1991 and joined Dechen Choekhorling nunnery in childhood. On October 17, 2011, she walked to Sumdo Bridge in Ngaba in northeastern Tibet and set herself on fire. With this she became the first female Tibetan self-immolator and as the flames engulfed her body, Wangmo called out for an end to religious repression, and the Dalai Lama’s return. She was 20. Ninety-eight people have set themselves on fire since 2009. Their average age is 25.

Beneath the wave of self-immolations that has understandably come to dominate the current discourse on Tibet, a less dramatic undercurrent of resistance is transforming the landscape of Tibetan activism. This new force is the pan-Tibetan, self-reliance grassroots movement known as Lhakar.