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Elections in Bhutan
Bhutan is the world's newest democracy, having just finished its first democratic elections. Turnout was heavy (as much 80% of the population!) and the Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party party, a pro-royalist party, secured a landslide victory, grabbing 44 of 47 parliamentary seats. The other three seats went to the rival People’s Democratic Party.
What does it mean that the king's party won?
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The Facade of Tibetan Unity?
Is the Chinese media's assertion that the Tibet protesters were mainly supporters of the Dalai Lama true? Yoichi Shimatsu gets into Tibetan internal power struggles between the Black Hats (Kagyupas) and Yellow Hats (Gelugpas).
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Burma's new constitution disenfrachises monks
A picture of a cute and cuddly koala (which seem to be slightly larger than I'd imagined), plus an interview with His Holiness the Dalai Lama from Dreaming of Danzan Ravjaa:
Some images of the recent casualties have been graphic and disturbing. Have you seen them? What was your reaction? We heard you wept. Yes, I cried once. One advantage of belonging to the Tibetan Buddhist culture is that at the intellectual level there is a lot of turmoil, a lot of anxiety and worries, but at the deeper, emotional level there is calm. Every night in my Buddhist practice I give and take. I take in Chinese suspicion. I give back trust and compassion. I take their negative feeling and give them positive feeling.
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Protests Accompany the Lighting of the Torch
Protesters did briefly disrupt the Olympic torch-lighting ceremony:
Three pro-Tibet activists have briefly disrupted the ceremony in which the Olympic torch for the Beijing Games was lit in Greece.
The protestors breached a cordon of about 1,000 police officers at Olympia to display a flag demanding a boycott of the Olympics amid mounting controversy over China's crackdown in Tibet.
The men, of the French human rights group Reporters Without Borders, ran up behind Liu Qi, the head of the Beijing Olympic organising committee, as he spoke before the flame was lit.
One man unfurled a black flag portraying the Olympic rings made from handcuffs. Another tried to grab the microphone from Mr Liu and shouted "freedom, freedom".
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Video-Game Monks
Well, monks may need some visualization training to help with on-the-street situations in China (and Burma):
One of the five precepts for living a Buddhist lifestyle is that followers “do not kill,” but that doesn’t seem to extend to the world of video games.
“I never thought I’d see a monk pull out his knife and hack someone to death because he’d run out of ammo!” remarked trekker Chris Lynch to Multiplayer in an e-mail exchange. “The monks I saw were mostly teenagers, dressed in dark maroon robes, but otherwise pretty much the same as boys everywhere. They were quieter, but not in an intense, competitive way — they were having a lot of fun shooting each other, and chatting among themselves while they did.”
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Olympic Torch Lit
Will Tibet unrest deter foreign investment in the region? The Wall Street Journal dryly observes:
Even before this month's riots in Tibet, foreign investors found reasons to bypass what is a tiny market in the Himalayas with a big public-relations problem.
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Tibet News Round-up from the Center for Buddhist Studies
Nice round-up (and interesting comments following it) from the Center for Buddhist Studies at Columbia University.
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Monks in Bodh Gaya Speak Out; Himalayan Solidarity
Two stories from the Buddhist Channel:
Buddhist monks in Bodh Gaya protest China's treatment of Tibetans
Display of Solidarity by Himalayan Buddhists
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Dalai Lama with Nancy Pelosi, and Young People
Nancy Pelosi gives her support to the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. A Presidential candidate couldn't do that -- China would come calling. Anyway this trip was arranged long before the "controversy" in Tibet (but anytime is a bad time to see the DL in China's eyes.)
“If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China’s oppression in China and Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world,” Ms. Pelosi, Democrat of California, told an overwhelmingly Tibetan audience of around 2,000 people in the courtyard of the town’s main temple, Tsulakhang.
The visit by Ms. Pelosi, accompanied by nine other members of Congress, most of them Democrats, was arranged some time ago as part of a visit to India.
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China's Internet Warfare
Is Beijing attacking Darfur advocacy websites that criticize China's close cooperation with the genocidal Sudanese government?
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International Buddhist Film Festival
Shoot, missed the International Buddhist Film Festival in San Francisco (2/14 to 3/6) and so missed all the fine offerings there, including the awesomely titled Meditate and Destroy about Noah Levine, by Blue Lotus Films. We won't forget to mention this year. Ahem!
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What Started the Violence? Plus: A Stroke, Step by Step
[A young Tibetan looks at Chinese riot police officers in Kangding County, Sichuan Province.]
The indispensable Danny Fisher shows us a BBC video depicting the incidents that may have sparked the violence in Tibet. And this article is now updated -- China admits the protests have spread.
Tibet's spiritual leader Thursday said he was powerless to stop anti-Chinese violence as authorities in Beijing acknowledged for the first time that unrest had spread into neighboring Chinese provinces.
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Tibetan Youth Challenge the Dalai Lama
The Wall Street Journal has a piece on Tsewang Rigzin and the Tibetan Youth Congress, whose goals for Tibet are more ambitious and radical than the Dalai Lama's. The Times (UK) reports the Tibetan left is "frustrated" with the Dalai Lama. These are times of stress. Cracks will appear in the facade, but that doesn't necessarily foretell a permanent split or break.
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China's Firestorm
Beijing feels China's getting a raw deal in the western press.
Chinese official media condemned Western news coverage of unrest in Tibet on Thursday, in a commentary that accused the reports of being "hostile" towards China ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
China says the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, masterminded a wave of protests that were capped by a riot in Tibet's capital Lhasa last week and were followed by anti-government demonstrations in ethnic Tibetan parts of China.
"While we highly appreciate the efforts of the global media in seeking facts and providing accurate, objective and timely reporting, we are somewhat disappointed to find, from time to time, rather biased news coverage," the official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary.
The violence in Tibet is straining China's already difficult More »
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Contact info for China's U.S. Consulates; HHDL opposes Olympic boycott
In case you'd like to remind them the world cares about Tibet. Courtesy of Vichy Democrats ("still dogging Joe Lieberman until he's in his political grave.") Also see TIME magazine's China Blog, which is following the goings-on in Tibet.
The Dalai Lama fears there will be a "lot of casualties" in Tibet.
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Nirvana defined
Courtesy of BoSacks:
"NIRVANA, n. In the Buddhist religion, a state of pleasurable annihilation awarded to the wise, particularly to those wise enough to understand it."
- Ambrose Bierce (American Writer, Journalist and Editor, 1842-1914)
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Day-by-Day Account from Reuters; China warns Gordon Brown; Clarification from HHDL
Reuters has a day-by-day account of the "largest and most sustained protests Tibet has seen" since 1989.
China warns English PM Gordon Brown about getting cozy with the Dalai Lama.
And regarding his announcement that he would resign if the violence continied or esclated, the office of the Dalai Lama issued this clarification:
Dharamsala, 18 March, 2008: During a meeting with some representatives of the Media this afternoon, His Holiness repeated what he told Jonathan Mirsky of the Observer, London, more than fifteen years ago that if the majority of the Tibetans in Tibet resorted to violence in their freedom struggle, he would have no option but to resign as spokesperson of the Tibetan people.
On the issue of indepe
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Will there be a boycott? No progress in Burma. Conflicts continue in Thailand and Sri Lanka
An interesting piece in the New York Times addresses Tibetans living in western China, caught between several worlds. Not surprisingly, China is said to be tightening its grip on all Tibetan areas. Meanwhile, some western European countries flirt with an Olympic boycott. [Image © Mark Trepte/The Associated Press.]
Remember Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N.'s special envoy to Burma? He's disappointed with the lack of results from his recent trip, but he reports that Aung San Suu Kyi is in good health and good spirits.
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