Opinions

Seventy Tibetans have, one after the other, in relentless and purposeful succession, set themselves on fire for the cause of their people’s freedom. If anything so heroic, selfless, spontaneous, non-instigated, and entirely non-violent*

It has to be understood that Tibetans at no point invited or accepted Chinese rule. The Chinese communists invaded Tibet in 1949 and occupied the country against the will of the Tibetans.

In an exciting development, Tibet Fund has been awarded a $2 million grant by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to implement USAID’s Tibet Education Project. At a time when Tibet Fund looks to replace its recently-departed Executive Director, this grant presents a major opportunity but also a challenge.

The officially stated purpose of the event is "to bring women from the entire Himalayan region onto one platform to celebrate the beautiful cultures, people, and nature of the Himalayan region.' However, since the creation of beauty pageants in exile in 2002,

When someone kills a man, he is put in prison. When someone kills twenty people, he is declared mentally insane. But when someone kills 200,000 people, he is invited to Geneva for peace negotiation- Sarajevo joke, circa 1994

A certain defensiveness is settling over the elected leadership of the Tibetan government-in-exile (TGIE). The self-immolation crisis in Tibet and the resignations of the Tibetan Envoys have placed extreme pressure on the TGIE

Now that His Holiness has devolved all his political powers and the Kalon Tripa is the political leader, the time has come for Tibetan democracy to adapt to the fact that the Kalon Tripa is truly in charge. This includes developing the necessary back-up structures to provide for what is called “Continuity of Government”, or COG.

At a time when Tibetans mourn the 49th self-immolation in Tibet, some uplifting news comes out of Washington DC. Two members of Congress have released an August 9 letter they sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, calling on the Obama Administration to strengthen public diplomacy and form a multilateral forum to resolve the Tibet crisis.

Dharamsala, like all political centers, is awash in games. Nevertheless, I hope that a more mainstream audience will hear what I have to say, considering the merit of my points rather than my lack of power or prestige.

Things are happening in Tibet today that rip my heart apart. Independencelessness has always been one of them. Back in 1985 at Bodhgaya we were reassured by the Dalai Lama that the dawn of independence had arrived and that the sunrise of independence was a matter of minutes.