Tibetan votes to elect a new prime minister of the Govt.

[Mirza Jatt]

'I will continue my family's legacy in supporting the Tibetan movement'

On March 20, Tibetans voted to elect a new prime minister of the government-in-exile headquartered at Dharamshala. This contest assumed significance as the Dalai Lama stuck to his decision of quitting as the political head of the community.

Awaiting Tibet's verdict, Harvard law scholar Dr Lobsang Sangay, the frontrunner in contest that also features Tenzin Namgyal, a Stanford teacher and Tashi Wangdi, speaks to Sriram Bala about the Dalai Lama, the threat from China and how India's cricket World Cup victory has given hope to the Tibetan cause.

How do you feel about contesting the Tibetan elections?

I am eagerly awaiting the results since the reaction of the public during the campaigning has been largely positive. It was a very healthy and amicable campaign since I am on good terms with my other competitors and have great respect for them.

You are educated at Harvard, arguably the best university in the world. What drove you to run for the Tibetan prime minister's post?

My ancestors were martyrs fighting for the Tibetan cause. My goal is to continue the legacy of my family in supporting the Tibetan movement. Harvard has provided me the educational merit, an opportunity to enhance my interactions with the rest of the world and a foundation to pursue my goal. The innate desire to contribute to the Tibetan cause has been my aim in life.

Coming to the point, what is your approach towards China going to be? What are the measures that you are going to take to liberate Tibet from the Chinese?

From a broader point of view, I would continue and follow the middle-way policy maintained by the current administration. The focus would be on seeking genuine autonomy from China via dialogue with the help of the international community. Despite the current stalemate, I am confident that a peaceful dialogue is the way forward.

If rumour mills are to be believed, China plans to select its own Dalai Lama. Your comments.

This is a futile attempt. It is like Fidel Castro appointing the next Pope. There is no historical legitimacy nor credibility for the Chinese to appoint a spiritual leader of the stature of the Dalai Lama. The power of the people is such that they will not accept such a leader even if China were to appoint one. It's high time they understand that religion is a matter of faith, you cannot buy it.

How close are you to the Dalai Lama? Has he given you his blessing for your campaign?

I do have his blessings. The Holiness has been a guiding light for the nation for generations. We do not have blind faith in him. His brilliant leadership and vision has saved Tibet and propelled it into the 21st century giving it global recognition.

Critics claim you have spent too long a time away from your homeland. How do you react to that and how will you establish the connect?

I travel very often to my homeland only to maintain a very strong connect. I travel extensively across the world spreading the Tibetan cause because Tibetans are spread across 30 countries. Moreover, I appear on radio programmes with Radio Free Asia to establish a direct connect with the people.

Indians have shown concern over the cross-border interference from the Chinese in their territory. Your comments.

It's not just Arunachal Pradesh, but Sipot in Burma and even Nepal that have been affected by the Chinese due to their inference via land, sea and air. It's very unfortunate that Indians need to spend so much on border security because of China. It's in the best interests of everyone to stop this infiltration into India. In fact, before our occupation in 1959, India to my knowledge had very little border patrol.

What is your view on the Indian people and the Indian government?

The Indian government, irrespective of whichever party, has been very supportive of the Tibetan movement. The warmth and cooperation provided by the Indian authorities is something we treasure and appreciate a lot. We would like to receive a more robust and consistent political support from the international community.

The Indian authorities had questioned Karmapa Lama in relation to money laundering. There are suggestions that he is a Chinese spy. These accusations have caused a stir among the Indian public. Your comments.

The case involving the Karmapa has been over-sensationalised by the media. The fact is that Karmapa Lama is innocent and even the Indian government has absolved him of not being a Chinese spy. After our own introspection, we feel he is innocent. Tibetans all across the world have a lot of respect for him and these allegations will be nullified since they are not true.

What will be your message to the people of India if you are elected as Tibet's PM?

India is like a second home to me since I was born and brought up there. Tibetans have immense gratitude for India, especially for their hospitality. I admire the contribution of India to Tibetan history and India's multi-culture fascinates me.

The Tibetan connect is so much with India that when India won the World Cup, we felt as if we won it. We are so inspired by the hard work of the Indian cricket team. The victory came after 28 years and this has given hope to the Tibetan movement.

 

[alphamale]

i think now Tibetans should end this Tibetan movement. they should now accept what the reality is. instead of fighting for free Tibet they should now work for betterment of Tibetans in china.

 

[Mirza Jatt]

self delete

 

[Burnz]

Tibet has been made a Buffer Zone between India and China by the Chinese.

 

[BJP*]

i think now Tibetans should end this Tibetan movement. they should now accept what the reality is. instead of fighting for free Tibet they should now work for betterment of Tibetans in china.

they do not asks for independence they mere against the chinese policies
after the occupation of tibet their culture and religious structures have been brutally crushed and destroyed by chinese, and still continues to destroy them . Tibetans are merely politely and non-violently requesting chinese government to let them live peacefully.

BBC News - Lobsang Sangay set to become Tibet's political leader

 

[BJP*]

Lobsang Sangay set to become Tibet's political leader​

Tibetans in exile have elected a new political leader - Lobsang Sangay, a 42-year-old academic with chiselled features who has spent the past 15 years at Harvard University.

Following elections in March, Mr Sangay emerged as the surprise front-runner to become Kalon Tripa - a position often referred to as "prime minister" of a "Tibetan government-in-exile" headed by the Dalai Lama.

But the new Kalon Tripa is expected to have to shoulder much of the authority previously borne by the Dalai Lama, who, at the age of 75, has announced he is to give up his political role.

He will have to lead a global movement that campaigns for Tibetan rights and freedoms under Chinese rule. He'll also manage the ramshackle "government-in-exile" that sits on a dusty hillside in northern India, in the town of Dharamsala.

But his "government" has neither country nor international recognition. And the exiled Tibetans appear to have elected a man who has almost no experience of his homeland, and none of government.
Refugee family

Lobsang Sangay was born in 1968, in India. "India is my second home. I have never been to my first home," he says, meaning Tibet, that vast tract of territory controlled by China since it sent in troops in 1950.
Lobsang Sangay Lobsang Sangay says he has cultivated contacts in China and is ready to lead

His father - a monk who saw his monastery in eastern Tibet destroyed by the Chinese military, according to Mr Sangay - fled Tibet in 1959, at the same time as the Dalai Lama. His mother left the same year, aged 17. The two met as refugees in India, and settled in a village called Lamahatta, near Darjeeling.

Mr Sangay's father ran a small business. The family kept chickens and cows, one of which was sold for 500 rupees to fund the young Lobsang's school fees.

"I owe a lot to a cow," he says.

At his boarding school in India for Tibetans - "lentil soup and rice every day for 10 years" - his teachers encouraged their students to serve the Tibetan movement.


The Tibet Divide

China says Tibet was always part of its territory
Tibet enjoyed long periods of autonomy before the 20th Century
In 1950, China launched a military assault
Opposition to Chinese rule led to a bloody uprising in 1959
Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to India
Dalai Lama now advocates a "middle way" with Beijing, seeking autonomy but not independence

At Delhi University he joined the Tibetan Youth Congress, long the most radical of the exiled groups, and demanded Tibet's independence on the streets of Delhi.

A Fulbright scholarship took Mr Sangay to the US and to Harvard University, where he acquired a doctorate in law, and a family.

The Tibetan exile boy now drives a silver four-wheel drive and wears aviator sunglasses, yet his English retains the accent, musical and sibilant, of Tibet.

He has moderated his calls for independence, and now, he says, supports the Dalai Lama's view that Tibet deserves "genuine autonomy" within the borders of China.

When Mr Sangay takes up the role of Kalon Tripa in the summer, he will move to a two-bedroom apartment in Dharamsala, and a salary worth $400 (£242) a month.

He will inherit an institution that looks less like a government and more like a large charity. The "Central Tibetan Administration" is the object of China's relentless scorn. It has 1,100 officials to its name, and ministries of health, education and security.

Last year, its expenditures, according to Mr Sangay, were about $20m dollars. It provided basic services to Tibetan exiles living in India, and lent focus and identity to a Tibetan diaspora of many tens of thousands in 30 countries.

'Genuine autonomy'​

Mr Sangay's ability to run the bureaucracy of exile will surely be a test, but the far greater test will lie in leading the Tibetan exiles as the Dalai Lama ages.

The 14th Dalai Lama has headed Tibetan Buddhism and the exiled Tibetans' movement for half a century. His calls for "genuine autonomy" for Tibet have been ignored by the Chinese state.

His successor, traditionally, would emerge through reincarnation, followed by a long, complex education over perhaps 20 years. Many Tibetans fear that on the Dalai Lama's death, the Tibetan movement will wither for lack of a charismatic leader.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

As long as this repression continues, there will be resistance from Tibetan people”



But in China, the Dalai Lama's death is viewed as an opportunity. The Chinese government in 2007 passed a law - apparently without irony - asserting that only the atheist Chinese state can appoint the religious leaders of Tibet.

China intends to ensure that the next Dalai Lama grows up inside Tibet, under the tutelage and control of the Communist Party, thus depriving the exile movement of its figurehead.

The Dalai Lama is taking two steps which appear aimed at heading off that eventuality. He has announced that he may choose his own reincarnation, outside Tibet. And he is strengthening the institution of Kalon Tripa to take the movement forward.

Mr Sangay says that he will support the Dalai Lama's positions.

"What His Holiness stands for is the 'Middle Way', which is genuine autonomy within China or within the framework of the Chinese constitution," he says.

"If Tibetans are granted genuine autonomy then his Holiness the Dalai Lama said he is willing to accept Tibet as part of China."

But when pressed on whether independence for Tibet could ever be feasible, he is cautious. "That is hypothetical so one cannot rule out or rule in."

Tibetan dilemma​

China frequently accuses the Dalai Lama of covertly supporting independence, and of fomenting unrest in Tibetan areas inside China - most recently the violent demonstrations of 2008.

"We don't encourage Tibetans inside Tibet [to demonstrate]," Mr Sangay responds, "We don't encourage, but we understand their frustration and their sentiment because of the systemic discrimination and repression."

It's a response that demonstrates the dilemma of the Tibetan exiled leadership.

Non-violence is the Dalai Lama's mantra, one that has brought him moral authority over the years in the eyes of his sympathisers. Yet non-violence has done nothing to change Tibet's status under Chinese rule.

And violent demonstrations in Tibetan cities - and the response of the Chinese state - never fail to refocus global attention on the Tibet question.
Lobsang Sangay meets people in the street during his election campaign Mr Sangay, seen here on the campaign trail, advocates dialogue with China

"As long as this repression continues, there will be resistance from Tibetan people," says Mr Sangay. "That is why the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government are saying we ought to have a peaceful dialogue [with China], to resolve this issue as soon as possible."

But there have been nine rounds of dialogue between the Dalai Lama and China, and no tangible measures - a return visit to Lhasa, Tibet's capital, by the Dalai Lama, for example - have emerged.

It is not yet clear if the Dalai Lama will continue to head the dialogue with China, even after he steps down from his political role. It seems likely the new Kalon Tripa will take on greater influence in this area than his predecessor.

Mr Sangay insists he is prepared, and has cultivated contacts in China carefully during his time at Harvard.

Not everyone is convinced.

"There is a huge amount waiting to be discovered here," says Robert Barnett, of Columbia University. "The Tibetans are taking something of a gamble."

For centuries, Tibet and China have vied for control over the strategic heights of Asia. China now considers that battle over: Tibet is subdued and firmly within China's borders.

The Tibetan exiles wage a lonely struggle to prevent their cause fading from global consciousness. As the Dalai Lama ages, Mr Sangay may find himself at the forefront of a struggle to keep his legacy alive.

BBC News - Lobsang Sangay set to become Tibet's political leader

 

[akinkhoo]

one of the first thing he did did as "pm" is to end the use of the term TGIE... looks like it is over...

 

[ephone]

Those delusional ones still dream one day their slavery glory past could be back???

They can rot wherever they are now, just not in China.

government-in-exile??? Any government in the world dare to recognize that POS???

'I will continue my family's legacy in supporting the Tibetan movement'

On March 20, Tibetans voted to elect a new prime minister of the government-in-exile headquartered at Dharamshala. This contest assumed significance as the Dalai Lama stuck to his decision of quitting as the political head of the community.

Awaiting Tibet's verdict, Harvard law scholar Dr Lobsang Sangay, the frontrunner in contest that also features Tenzin Namgyal, a Stanford teacher and Tashi Wangdi, speaks to Sriram Bala about the Dalai Lama, the threat from China and how India's cricket World Cup victory has given hope to the Tibetan cause.

How do you feel about contesting the Tibetan elections?

I am eagerly awaiting the results since the reaction of the public during the campaigning has been largely positive. It was a very healthy and amicable campaign since I am on good terms with my other competitors and have great respect for them.

You are educated at Harvard, arguably the best university in the world. What drove you to run for the Tibetan prime minister's post?

My ancestors were martyrs fighting for the Tibetan cause. My goal is to continue the legacy of my family in supporting the Tibetan movement. Harvard has provided me the educational merit, an opportunity to enhance my interactions with the rest of the world and a foundation to pursue my goal. The innate desire to contribute to the Tibetan cause has been my aim in life.

Coming to the point, what is your approach towards China going to be? What are the measures that you are going to take to liberate Tibet from the Chinese?

From a broader point of view, I would continue and follow the middle-way policy maintained by the current administration. The focus would be on seeking genuine autonomy from China via dialogue with the help of the international community. Despite the current stalemate, I am confident that a peaceful dialogue is the way forward.

If rumour mills are to be believed, China plans to select its own Dalai Lama. Your comments.

This is a futile attempt. It is like Fidel Castro appointing the next Pope. There is no historical legitimacy nor credibility for the Chinese to appoint a spiritual leader of the stature of the Dalai Lama. The power of the people is such that they will not accept such a leader even if China were to appoint one. It's high time they understand that religion is a matter of faith, you cannot buy it.

How close are you to the Dalai Lama? Has he given you his blessing for your campaign?

I do have his blessings. The Holiness has been a guiding light for the nation for generations. We do not have blind faith in him. His brilliant leadership and vision has saved Tibet and propelled it into the 21st century giving it global recognition.

Critics claim you have spent too long a time away from your homeland. How do you react to that and how will you establish the connect?

I travel very often to my homeland only to maintain a very strong connect. I travel extensively across the world spreading the Tibetan cause because Tibetans are spread across 30 countries. Moreover, I appear on radio programmes with Radio Free Asia to establish a direct connect with the people.

Indians have shown concern over the cross-border interference from the Chinese in their territory. Your comments.

It's not just Arunachal Pradesh, but Sipot in Burma and even Nepal that have been affected by the Chinese due to their inference via land, sea and air. It's very unfortunate that Indians need to spend so much on border security because of China. It's in the best interests of everyone to stop this infiltration into India. In fact, before our occupation in 1959, India to my knowledge had very little border patrol.

What is your view on the Indian people and the Indian government?

The Indian government, irrespective of whichever party, has been very supportive of the Tibetan movement. The warmth and cooperation provided by the Indian authorities is something we treasure and appreciate a lot. We would like to receive a more robust and consistent political support from the international community.

The Indian authorities had questioned Karmapa Lama in relation to money laundering. There are suggestions that he is a Chinese spy. These accusations have caused a stir among the Indian public. Your comments.

The case involving the Karmapa has been over-sensationalised by the media. The fact is that Karmapa Lama is innocent and even the Indian government has absolved him of not being a Chinese spy. After our own introspection, we feel he is innocent. Tibetans all across the world have a lot of respect for him and these allegations will be nullified since they are not true.

What will be your message to the people of India if you are elected as Tibet's PM?

India is like a second home to me since I was born and brought up there. Tibetans have immense gratitude for India, especially for their hospitality. I admire the contribution of India to Tibetan history and India's multi-culture fascinates me.

The Tibetan connect is so much with India that when India won the World Cup, we felt as if we won it. We are so inspired by the hard work of the Indian cricket team. The victory came after 28 years and this has given hope to the Tibetan movement.

 

[ephone]

Do not believe those lies that damn lama spread around the world.

do not ask for independence???

He not only asks for the current tibet under his control but also a large area from Sichuan province and Qinghua province. Overall, he gives all of that a name: greater tibet. Why does not he ask more, e.g. the whole China?

Then he asks for all of non-tibetans to leave tibet. Do you know what that mean???

Not for independence??? What is that for???

In any state of india, can you ask for only one type of people to say and drive away all other type of people???

they do not asks for independence they mere against the chinese policies
after the occupation of tibet their culture and religious structures have been brutally crushed and destroyed by chinese, and still continues to destroy them . Tibetans are merely politely and non-violently requesting chinese government to let them live peacefully.

BBC News - Lobsang Sangay set to become Tibet's political leader

 

[CardSharp]

This is a futile attempt. It is like Fidel Castro appointing the next Pope. There is no historical legitimacy nor credibility for the Chinese to appoint a spiritual leader of the stature of the Dalai Lama. The power of the people is such that they will not accept such a leader even if China were to appoint one. It's high time they understand that religion is a matter of faith, you cannot buy it.

Would be a convincing case except....

[video=google;3725573386055408291]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3725573386055408291[/video]

@54:00

 

[Imran Khan]

i dont understand what the goal of this movement now its rise of china and they can not do any thing now .

 

[below_freezing]

The Dalai Lama should realize that the age of feudalism ended in 1911. Today is 2011. Time to move on with the times, abandon feudalism and theocracy, and move into the 21st century. If Tibet became the way Dalai Lama wanted it to be, it would be another Congo and the people who suffer most will be the Tibetans.

 

[Imran Khan]

The Dalai Lama should realize that the age of feudalism ended in 1911. Today is 2011. Time to move on with the times, abandon feudalism and theocracy, and move into the 21st century. If Tibet became the way Dalai Lama wanted it to be, it would be another Congo and the people who suffer most will be the Tibetans.

he may has still hopes in his heart that one day tibet will be free lolz

 

[Imran Khan]

i will say relax and read kid then post it will learn you how to stay long here .post reported

 

[Tractor]

The Dalai Lama should realize that the age of feudalism ended in 1911. Today is 2011. Time to move on with the times, abandon feudalism and theocracy, and move into the 21st century. If Tibet became the way Dalai Lama wanted it to be, it would be another Congo and the people who suffer most will be the Tibetans.

Do not recognize Dalai Lama as a symbal of feudalism for his landlord background many years ago.He just enjoy his journey around the world from the day he left Tibet.