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A Free Monthly Publication For Tibetan Issues & Community Information Rgd No. HPENG/2013/51798
A Tibetan Student Succumbs to Self-immolation Lhamo Tashi, 22, set fire to himself at midnight on September 17, outside a police station in Tsoe city, Kanlho, in the traditional Amdo region. Tashi’s parents Chopa Tsering and Dhukar Tso, who live in Drukdo village, Amchok township, were informed of their son’s self-immolation by the security police who told them that he had died. They travelled to Tsoe to request their son’s body but were told that Lhamo Tashi had already been cremated, and were then given some ashes which they were told were Tashi’s. Lhamo Tashi, a student, is the 132nd Tibetan to self-immolate inside Tibet since 2009. It is not yet known whether he left behind a statement. Sources say that Tashi called for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and freedom for Tibetans. Tashi took part in the 2008 protests and was detained at the time, then subsequently released. A relative has described him as “a student dedicated to preserving his Tibetan heritage”. The Central Tibetan Administration held a prayer service for Lhamo Tashi and all the Tibetan self-immolators at Tsuglakhang, Dharamshala. His Eminence Kirti Rinpoche presided over the prayer service.
Volume: XVI Issue: 8
30 September 2014
Xi Jinping: Investment, Border Spats and Silence on Tibet By Rohini Kejriwal Chinese president Xi Jinping, in a historic visit to India, has opened up new windows of opportunity and signed landmark deals with the country. Not only will India see China investing $20 billion in infrastructure over the next five years, but both sides also focused on increasing cooperation in trade, space exploration and civil nuclear energy. Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s hospitality had a notable personal touch as the visit began in his own state of Gujarat, rather than the capital, New Delhi, as is conventional. For the Tibetan community in India, one of the largest in the world outside Tibet, this visit symbolised a hope for the bringing up the issue of Tibet, one that has consequences for India too and not Tibet alone. Petitions were sent to Modi by various activist groups, including international Free Tibet organisations Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) and the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), urging him to raise the issue with Xi. The two organisations also spearheaded peaceful demonstrations staged in New Delhi and Ahmedabad, which were both visited by Xi during his three-day visit. During past visits of Chinese officials, Indian police have prevented Tibetans from protesting against China’s control of Tibet, which Beijing claims as its own territory. Since Xi’s arrival, groups of protesters, many of whom were college-going students, were escorted away from the Chinese embassy in New Delhi, while shouting
anti-China slogans. In New Delhi’s main Tibetan neighbourhood, Majnu Ka Tilla, hundreds of Tibetans took to the streets after they were barred from carrying out a protest march from Ram Lila Maidan to Jantar Mantar in central Delhi. As talks took place between Modi and Xi, protests in Gujarat were also curbed, with around 60 Tibetan students being detained by the Gujarat police as a pre-emptive measure. The connectedness of the three countries in question – India, Tibet and China – goes back a long way. India had a long and complex relationship with Tibet, even before its own independence. When China’s military
Indian PM Modi with Chinese President Xi Photo: BBC/EPA
pushed into Tibet a half-century ago, thousands of people - including the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, His Holiness the Dalai Lama - fled to India, who welcomed them with open arms, a move that has since strained India-China relations. Between India and China, two emerging superpowers in the world, mutual suspicion has always been the chosen mode of conduct. The two countries share a long militarised border, went to war Continued on page 6