Category: Commentaries & Opinions

Robert D. Sloane

Tibet, cynical Sinicism and the tragedy of self-immolations

  By Robert D. Sloane East Asia Forum | May 9th, 2012 In a recent article, Barry Sautman ascribes recent self-immolations in Tibet to a few disgruntled monks at a single monastery. Their complaints, he says, reflect general social and economic issues rather than a genuine concern for the Tibetan people’s political and religious rights. [...]

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama proves an endearing icon – Editorial

  Editorial –  Union Tribune San Diago Anyone who spends a significant amount of time with well-known public figures can offer up horror stories about the gap between the persona some of these folks present via the media and how they actually behave. So when a famous person comes to San Diego whose reputation seems [...]

How many Tibetans must burn to death before we wake up?

How many Tibetans must burn to death before we wake up?

  Shobhan Saxena | The Times ofIndia 26 March 2012 Today at12.25 pm, a young Tibetan set himself on fire at a protest rally organized by the Tibetan Youth Congress at Jantar Mantar in the heart of the Capital. The Tibetans were protesting against the forthcoming visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao toIndia, when Jampa [...]

The hunger strike by three Tibetans (Shingza Rinpoche, Yeshi Tenzing and Dorjee Gyalpo) in front of the UN  headquarters hit a month now

Why are Tibetans burning In Tibet and starving in New York?

  By Matteo Pistono | The Washington Post March 21, 2012 China is on high alert in Tibet every March due to sensitive political anniversaries. Tibetans commemorate the March 1959 uprising against Chinese rule and the flight into exile of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Beijing annually deploys a massive military force to discourage [...]

Thubten Samphel, Executive Director of Tibet Policy Institute, a think tank that functions as a research-oriented intellectual platform for the Central Tibetan Administration.

The Art of Nonviolence: Winning China Over to Tibet’s Story

  Thubten Samphel, Tibet Policy Institute March 13, 2012 With the possible exception of the island nation of Taiwan, never in its more than 5,000 years of history has China’s imperial throne met a match like that of Tibet. The Mongols, on whose mighty imperial enterprise communist China lays its claim of legitimacy to rule [...]

Thupten Jinpa, adjunct professor at McGill University and the principal English translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Losing Tibet Forever

Beijing has only a narrow window of opportunity to convince Tibetans they have a stake in China. By Thupten Jinpa The Wall Street Journal | Opinion Asia March 8, 2012 This year’s anniversary of the Mar. 10, 1959 uprising in Tibet and the escape into exile of the Dalai Lama takes place at a time [...]

Robert Barnett, Director of the Modern Tibet Studies Program at Columbia University

Interview: Robert Barnett on Why Tibetans Are Setting Themselves on Fire

  Alex Ortolani | Asia Society February 24, 2012 Earlier this week a Tibetan monk became at least the 22nd person in the past year to commit self-immolation in protest at the Chinese government’s rule in Tibet. Robert Barnett, Director of the Modern Tibet Studies Program at Columbia University, says this is a new type [...]

Tibetans’ are forced to bow down as they are taken away by Chinese security forces. (From a Chinese military forum)

Tibetans Burn Selves for Freedom – by Ming Xia

  By Ming Xia | The Diplomat | February 7, 2012 News today that three Tibetan herders may have set themselves alight highlights the increasing frequency with which Tibetans (usually monks or nuns) have been turning to self-immolation, bringing to 19 the total that have done so in the past year. Why are Tibetans setting themselves [...]

His Holiness the Dalai with Anirudh Mathur

Interview: The Dalai Lama – by Anirudh Mathur

  By Anirudh Mathur |27 January 2012 The Dalai Lama spoke to Anirudh Mathur about Chinese protests, the future of the Tibetan movement, the stagnancy of capitalism, and his amazing vitality. The full interview can be found in Outlook Magazine,India: A Bodhissatva is an enlightened being; one who has postponed their own Nirvana in order [...]

The Potala Palace in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet

Self-immolation tests China – by Abanti Bhattacharya

By Abanti Bhattacharya The Asia Times Online Dec 16, 2011 Among other implications, the self-immolation of  Tibetans in China overwhelmingly suggests the failure of minority policy carved out by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to deal with the ethnic nationality question in the 1950s. The failure is particularly significant as it comes on the [...]