![[China Hiking Adventures Logo]](chilogo.gif)
To clarify: Dalai Lama and his so called "Tibetan independence"
Potala Palace is the symbol of Tibet, China
Video: Documentary "The past of Tibet" sheds new light on Tibet .
Video: Tibetan tell how life has changed .
Video: Tibet museum; History tells the truth .
Video: Documentary: The Dalai Lama .
On July 1, 2006 Qinghai-Tibet Railway put into operation
which changed the History of Tibet forever !!
click here
Ride Qinghai-Tibet Railway with us to visit Potala Palace
'a breathe of fresh air' Click here
We are operating these tours and its profit goes to provide
hearing aids to children living in the remote regions of China.
We do this to foster people-to-people relations between USA and China.
In this world today everywhere is full of hatred, greed, terrorism and nature disaster.
Our project is like a 'breathe of fresh air'. Hope that you can join our project.
Tibet official on Dalai Lama's "autonomy for Tibet"
UPDATED: 11:12, June 21, 2007
Qiangba Puncog, The Chairman of China's Tibet Autonomous Region
(Qiangba Puncog is a native Tibetan, born and raised in Tibet)
The Chairman of China's Tibet Autonomous Region said on Wednesday that the "high-degree autonomy for Tibet" advocated by the Dalai Lama goes against not only the aspiration of the people in Tibet, but also the Constitution of China and the basic system currently in place.
Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the regional government, made the remark at a news briefing on Tibet's social and economic development held in Beijing, responding to a question raised by a reporter.
"To know the Dalai Lama we should not only listen to what he says, but also look at what he has done," said the Tibetan official.
"The region gained its autonomy in 1965. The system of regional autonomy for minority nationalities has made Tibetan people masters of their own destiny. Affairs relating to Tibetans have been well managed, making possible huge progress in present-day Tibet," said Qiangba.
The Dalai Lama's call for a "high-degree autonomy for Tibet" is against the people's wishes and against the Constitution and basic system in place, he said.
Qiangba took issue with the Dalai Lama's calls for a "greater Tibet". "If we look at history, we can see there has not been such an area since the dismantling of the Tubo kingdom in the ninth century, and there have been different administrative systems for Tibetans in Sichuan, Tibet and other regions," he said.
"The Dalai Lama travels around the world in Buddhist robes not out of religious zeal but to internationalize the Tibet issue and achieve his own political purposes," Qiangba said.
He said the Dalai Lama's pursuit of autonomy or establishment of the greater Tibetan area were staging houses to conceal his pursuit of independence.
"People from the Dalai Lama side believe, 'once this succeeds, then (Tibet's) independence is not far away', and this reveals their real intentions," he said.
The official was asked to comment on letters asking for permission to let the Dalai Lama come back to Tibet.
"I have not seen the letters but I have heard about the content. The ideas expressed differ greatly from the opinions held by the most Tibetan people," he said.
"His opinions do not represent the view of the majority of Tibetan people, nor do they represent the views of the majority of officials in Tibet. They only represent a handful of people," said Puncog.
Puncog said the channel of communication with the Dalai Lama and his personal representative has always been open. "The Dalai Lama has to give up his independence goal and his separatist activities," he said, "we all expect him to be sincere and to do some good deeds for the Tibetan people and the country during his lifetime."
The official said he deeply regretted the recent meeting between the Australian Prime Minister John Howard and the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama is not a religious figure but a politician, said the official, adding that people in Tibet know what kind of person the Dalai Lama is.
"Dalai Lama has been involved in activities to split the country since he went into exile abroad 48 years ago," said the official. "I believe that meetings between foreign political leaders and the Dalai Lama are matters that concern the unity of our nation and the integrity of Chinese territory."
"People in Tibet, just like the Chinese government, are firmly against foreign political leaders meeting with the Dalai Lama," said Qiangba Puncog.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman last Friday protested to Australia about the Dalai Lama's visit there.
"Turning a deaf ear to China's representations, the Australian side has allowed the Dalai Lama to visit Australia and meet with Australian political leaders, including Prime Minister John Howard. We consider this a rude intervention in China's internal affairs", spokesman Qin Gang said.
"We hope the Australian side will correct its attitude to the Dalai Lama in the interests of overall bilateral relations", Qin said, urging Australia to take effective measures to eliminate the "negative influence" of the Dalai Lama's visit and to offer no platform for his "secessionist activities".
Source: Xinhua
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200706/21/eng20070621_386169.html
Tibetologist: 14th Dalai Lama political figure bent on "Tibet independence"
www.chinaview.cn 2008-05-04 00:08:54
NEW YORK, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The 14th Dalai Lama, described as a "spiritual leader" by some Western media outlets, is actually a political figure who has never given up "Tibet independence," a Tibetologist said here Friday.
"Painting him as a 'spiritual leader' is totally misleading," said Renzhen Luose, an ethnic Tibetan native of Yajiang County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province who once served as director of the province's Institute of Tibetan Studies.
The "Tibet Government-in-exile" amended its so-called draft "constitution" of 1963 in 1991, expressly stated Tibet as an "independent nation" where all matters must be approved by the Dalai Lama before they become effective, and on the Dalai Lama's official website, a so-called "draft for future political system" provides plans for "political construction" and "establishing ties with the United Nations," said the Tibetologist.
All these prove that the 14th Dalai Lama's claim that he had never sought independence is a total lie, said the Tibetologist.
In his autobiography, the 14th Dalai Lama himself has also described his role as mainly secular, as the leader of the "Tibet government-in-exile," Renzhen Luose said, adding that describing the 14th Dalai Lama only as a "spiritual leader," as has been the case with many Western media outlets, is mistaken and does not accord with reality.
Renzhen Luose, who is a consul at the Chinese Consulate-General in New York, also discussed the relationship between Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan culture and whether the Dalai Lama is the only leader of Tibetan Buddhism during a two-hour meeting with reporters from New York-based Chinese-language media organizations.
He said Tibetan Buddhism has four major sects -- Gelug, Sakya, Kagyu and Nyingma -- and many sub-sects, and in the past, their influence changed as the Chinese central government's support differed.
In the late Qing Dynasty, Renzhen Luose said, the sect of Gelug, where the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama were institutionalized, achieved dominance with the support of the central government and established a theocracy that integrates religion with government.
During that period, despite efforts by the Gelug sect to crack down on other sects, the Dalai Lama had never had unified leadership over Tibetan Buddhism, the Tibetologist added.
Born and raised in a Tibetan region, Renzhen Luose said he has maintained contact with fellow Tibetan Chinese all along, visited nearly all areas with Tibetan communities and worked at different levels of grassroots governments. Long being a scholar of Tibetan history and culture, Renzhen Luose has published dozens of research papers on Tibetans' ethnic origins and on the origin and evolution of the Tibet question.
"Having myself experienced and witnessed the changes in Tibet and other areas with Tibetan community, I believe I am more qualified than the Dalai Lama to comment on the current situation in Tibet," he said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/04/content_8096455.htm
Interview: British invasions probed as root cause of Tibetan separatism
www.chinaview.cn 2008-04-06 21:33:25
BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Tibet, a region coveted by western nations since the Opium War in the 1840s, has long been an inalienable part of Chinese territory and the Tibetans have been part of the big multi-national Chinese family. The so-called issue of "Tibet Independence," is originally an outcome of aggression by imperialist nations, said a Chinese expert.
Britain launched two invasions into Tibet, in 1888 and during 1903 and 1904, in an attempt to build up an exclusive colonial influence in the region. It also tried to separate Tibet from China and ultimately turn it into a "buffer zone" against British-controlled northern India.
"These two wars shall never be forgotten," said Hu Yan, a professor from the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
"You may tell those Tibet separatists that Chinese people will never forget history and it was imperialist nations that had invaded Tibet and had been trying to separate Tibet from China," he said.
FIRST INVASION: VIOLATION OF CHINESE SOVEREIGNTY
After the Opium War, Britain planned to build a road as a trade channel between China's southwestern Yunnan province and Myanmar in a move to scramble for more economic benefits in the region.
During the pre-construction research session in 1875, a translator named Augustus Raymond Margary from the British consulate in Shanghai was killed as a result of local protests. Britain grabbed the opportunity and managed to force the Chinese Qing government to sign the Chefoo Convention, which allowed the British to "visit and explore" Tibet.
Having realized the greedy nature of the British invaders, the local Tibetan government built heavy fortifications on Ling Tu mountain along the border between Tibet and Sikkim in 1886.
Britain, outraged and which allegedly claimed the fortified area within the British-controlled Sikkim territory, warned the Qing government of military action unless the defensive measures were dismantled in time. Having tried in vain with warnings, in 1888 Britain launched military attacks against Tibet. Tibetan troops were defeated largely due to their outdated weapons and shortage of supplies.
After the war, the Qing government signed two more unfair treaties with Britain in 1890 and 1893. As a result, the Qing government acknowledged that Sikkim remained under British control and accepted Britain's proposal of border divisions between Tibet and Sikkim.
The Qing government also agreed to open the southern Tibetan city of Yadong (Chomo) as a business hub where Britain was granted extraterritoriality and exempted from trade duties on both imports and exports and five years.
The unfair treaties not only violated China's sovereignty but also infringed the interests of the local Tibetan government.
In spite of the treaties signed, Tibetans continued to herd in their home pasture land. They even managed to destroy the border stones erected by Britain in an open protest against the border division and the unfair treaties.
SECOND INVASION: MASSACRE OF TIBETAN SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS
At a time when Britain used India as its staging ground to press ahead its invasion plan of Tibet, the Qinghai-Tibet plateau also became the target of aggression by czarist Russia.
Britain considered the Himalayas as the barrier of the Indian subcontinent and Tibet, located just on the other side of the mountains, should belong to Britain's sphere of influence.
If Tibet were to fall into the hands of Russia, British India would be completely exposed to the threat of Russia. Governor-General and Viceroy of British India Goerge Curzon believed that Britain should pursue the Forward Policy to preempt Russia in the scramble for control of Tibet.
In July 1901, Secretary of State for British India George Hamilton delivered a note to the Russian Foreign Ministry, claiming that Britain would not keep silent on the contacts between Russia and Tibet.
In a letter to Hamilton, Curzon even proclaimed that "We regard the so-called suzerainty of China over Tibet as a constitutional fiction -- a political affectation which has only been maintained because of its convenience for both parties." He urged the government to approve the plan of the British invasion of Tibet.
In 1903, under the name of negotiations, an invading army sent by the government of British India crossed the border line and intruded into Tibet.
Led by F.E. Young husband, the British Army went into Pagri through Yadong. On March 31, 1904, the invading troops clashed with Tibetan troops in Qumigxung, north of Pagri.
Armed with outdated weapons including swords, spears and matchlock guns, most of the 1000-odd Tibetan troops were injured or killed by the British troops, an old colonial power, with maxim guns and big guns, the most advanced weapons of the day.
This was the British imperialists' savage and impudent massacre of Tibetan soldiers and civilians.
Gyangze County fell twice, on April 11 and on July 6, 1904. On August 3, British troops invaded Lhasa, first time the ancient holy city was trampled under the iron heel of imperialists throughout the ages.
Days before the British invasion, the 13th Dalai Lama left the Potala Palace with a handful of his followers and fled to Outer Mongolia through China's Qinghai province.
The British invading troops withdrew from Lhasa in late September 1904, as supplies and communications could not be guaranteed.
Britain's two invasions in Tibet were blatant armed aggression, Hu said, adding that it has been the longest among all the aggressive activities launched by imperialists in Tibet.
ILL INTENTIONS, INTRIGUES NO SECRET
Britain expanded its influence in Tibet after the two wars of aggression, which also fostered a hotbed for the emergence of the pro-Britain upper-class elements of Tibet, Hu said.
After realizing that the plateau could not be conquered by armed forces, the Britain imperialists began to build up their influence in the upper-class elements of Tibet, instigating them to oppose the Chinese government in a bid to separate Tibet from China, bring it into the British sphere of influence and become its dependency as well as a buffer zone in protection of the northeastern border of British India, Hu said.
"This was an invasion," said Patrick French, a British scholar and author of "Young husband, the Last Great Imperial Adventurer," when talking about Great Britain's invasion of Tibet in 1999.
During a small workshop held in London in the Fall of 2003, a few British scholars including French reached consensus that robbery admittedly occurred in the Tibet war.
In his book "Duel In The Snows" published in 2004, British scholar Charles Allen points out that in order to become the first group of Europeans in that area, F. E. Young husband and his clique created all kinds of conspiracies and intrigues to cheat the public and the media.
These were the most commonly used despicable means by imperialists at the time. History is a mirror of reality. Anyone's attempt to agitate for "Tibetan independence", like the serious crimes of aggression against Tibet committed by imperialist powers in the past, is doomed to failure.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/06/content_7929882.htm
Video: Living Buddha condems monks .
Tibet issue is not about religion
BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhua) -- The People's Daily newspaper on Tuesday posted a commentary saying the Tibet issue was not a religious issue.
The Dalai clique called for the international community's concern for the Tibet issue, claiming Tibetans lacked religious freedom, the commentary said.
|
|
|
An open court session
in connection with the Lhasa violence on March 14 is held at
the Intermediate People's Court of Lhasa, capital of
southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, April 29, 2008.
(Xinhua Photo) |
However, the Dalai clique's accusation against China contradicts the facts, the commentary quoted Narasimhan Ram, editor-in-chief of the Hindu Newspaper Group, as saying.
It said the living Buddha reincarnation, various ritual ceremonies and resumption of academic degrees of monks showed that religious activities in Tibet were normal.
Currently, Tibet has over 1,700 monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism,46,000 monks and nuns, four mosques and one Catholic church, the commentary said, stressing all religious activities go on smoothly in Tibet.
On average, there was one religious venue for every 1,600 Tibetans, but only one church for every 3,125 people in England, it said.
In recent years, many learned monks won Gexe Lharampa, the highest academic degree of the four ranks in the Gexe system, from the yellow sect, or the Gelugba school of Tibetan Buddhism, annually.
|
|
|
An open court session
in connection with the Lhasa violence on March 14 is held at
the Intermediate People's Court of Lhasa, capital of
southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, April 29, 2008.
(Xinhua Photo) |
The commentary also said common followers have religious freedom. Sutra streamers, prayer wheels and other religious instruments are ubiquitous in Tibet.
Most followers have built scripture chambers in their own houses and over 1 million Tibetans went to Lhasa to pay homage to Buddha.
The Chinese government has allocated more than 700 million yuan(about 100 million U.S. dollars) since 1980 to maintain 1,400 monasteries and cultural relics. The Potala Palace, Norbu Linkag and the Sakya Monastery were renovated with central government funding.
The central government has also made efforts to collect and publish Tibetan Buddhism classics, including the Tibetan Tripitaka.
Many Tibetan traditional festivals have been preserved, including Spring Festival according to the Tibetan Calendar, and Shoton (Yogurt) Festival.
The commentary said the government respected and protected the religious freedom in conformity with the law.
Nowadays, religious freedom is the basic right of Chinese citizens. In addition, the legitimate rights of religious staff and followers are protected by law.
In the dark ages, only Tibetan Buddhism could be followed but nowadays religion in the autonomous region had developed with time. With Tibetan Buddhism dominating, more religions have been introduced to this area, including Muslim and Catholicism with 3,000 and 700 followers, respectively.
The above facts have showed explicitly the Tibet issue was not about religion but only a card played by the Dalai clique to woo sympathy from others, the commentary said.
The essence of the Tibet issue was a scheme for "Tibet independence" and this couldn't be disguised as a religious problem, it stressed.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/29/content_8073148.htm
"Tibet issue" is definitely not human rights issue
15:37, April 30, 2008
Dalai clique has worked to promote the "Tibetan Human Rights issues" on its tours of Europe and the United states since the 50s and 60s of the 20th century. So, the human rights have been solemnly turned into a trump card in their hands as well as the weaponry they exploit to call the attention of the international community to the so-called "Tibet issue".
Then, is the "Tibet issue" an issue of human rights?
Concerning the human rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights made a clear and explicit explanation. "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights," says the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "No one shall be held in slavery and servitude¡&endash;"
Old Tibetan society under the rule of the Dalai clique was rigidly stratified, however, and local Tibetans were divided into three social strata within nine grades, where once five percent superstructure (monks and aristocracy) ruled the serfs, making up over 95 percent of the total population, who were economically exploited ruthlessly, politically oppressed and mentally controlled, and even their right to live could not be guaranteed.
Tibetologist Alexander Daweinier of France in her "Old Face of New China in Tibet", said all (serf) farmers were life-long liabilities in old Tibet, and that all serfs then lost all the freedom as human beings. With the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, the one million serfs then began to enjoy genuine democracy, freedom and human rights.
How can the endeavor to let former slaves be masters of their own destiny be termed as the act of "encroaching upon human rights" and how can there be such an absurdity is in the world today! Late senior leader Dang Xiaoping said, "what are human rights, how many people are there meant for; and whether these rights belong to the minority, to the majority or ¡&endash;"
If some people are said to have lost their "human rights" in Tibet, it is meant to the Dalai clique, which represents the handful of serf owners who lost their absolute "special privileges" to kill the innocent at will.
In fact, it is better for the Dalai clique to resolve their own human rights issues rather give heed to the non-existent Tibetan Human Rights issues. The Dalai clique is composed of high-level or upper-class monks and aristocrats to be represented by the Dalai families, and ordinary Tibetan exiles, nevertheless, remain in the status of being enslaved, with most of them huddling in slums in Dharamsala, India, and yet they still have to pay a type of "independence fee' for the Tibetan government in exile; they do not have any human rights to speak of at all, and at what time has Dalai clique ever paid any attention to this reality.
The Declaration on the Right to Development, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 4, 1986, confirmed that the right to development is an inalienable human right. Since the peaceful liberation of Tibet, local economy has retained an annual growth of up to 12 percent for years, local farmers and herders are covered by the government-sponsored medical care system and their kids enjoy free boarding and education at their schools. Moreover, recent years represent the fastest period of growth in history for Tibetans to own their private homes.
In sharp contrast, the Dalai clique, who has bent on propagating or promoting the so-called "human rights," has not contributed in the least to the development of Tibet, and instead repeatedly infringed upon the rights and interests of people of various ethnicities in the Tibet region. They harassed the life and production of Tibetans residing inside Tibet in early years and, in recent years they turned to infiltrations for disruption, and successively plotted violent incidents to undermine the rights of Tibetans for survival and to development.
Dalai clique has kept up hyping the so-called Tibetan Human Rights issues with a lot of publicity simply for the reason that it poses a"fashionable topic". Meanwhile, there are always some Western politicians to work in coordination with them and speak in "all seriousness" to hoodwink people who are not aware of the truth. Hoisting the banner as "the defenders of human rights", they tried all means to denigrate the development and progress scored in new Tibet, while not uttering a single word on how old Tibet had trampled upon human rights of local Tibetans.
A noted Russian Tibetologist has referred to "three factors" in citing Dalai Lama, who had ruthlessly persecuted serfs in old Tibet, as the defender of the "human rights", namely, ignorance, shamefulness and betrayal of justice for selfish private interests. And an ace Canadian scholar is even more to the point when he said some people who "interested" themselves in the Tibet issue, not out of their "moral support" or "sympathy", but to serve the needs for their strategic global layout.
Espousing "Tibetan human rights" to stir up ethnical sentiments and to draw on the support of the West and ultimately to achieve Tibetan independence and separate China - Consequently, we can see therefrom what issue really is the Tibetan Human rights issue of the Dalai clique.
By People's Daily Online and its author is He Zhenhua
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90780/91342/6401910.html
Please click here to view
Video: Where does Dalai Lama's "middle path" lead to? .
What issue is "Tibet issue"?
17:00, April 16, 2008
Dalai Lama clique has made repeated appeals and statements to impose pressure or punitive measues upon China, and Nancy Pelosi of the United States and others of her ilk also kept up noises and uproars. Meanwhile, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, and the European Parliament (EP) have passed resolutions on Tibet one after another. So the so-called "Tibet issue" has become increasingly fashionable.
So, people cannot but ask what issue is actually the "Tibet issue"?
To answer this question, people'd better ask Ms. Pelosi first. In her view, the Tibet issue has originated from the suppression of the Chinese government in Tibet. So, if she and her peers do not interfere in the "Tibet issue", she said with anxieties, "we have lost all more authority to speak on behalf of human rights."
Of course, we might as well see the appeals and statements of the Dalai clique, and the "Tibet issue" it is here being referred to includes "the lack of freedom in religious belief" and the so-called "ethnic inequalities".
Then, what is the "human rights issue" of the "Tibet question"? We first of all cite an example of the recent Lhasa riots. Faced with such violent actions as beating, smashing, looting and arson in Lhasa and other ethnic Tibetan areas since March 14, how can the government sit idle, and who will then come over to protect the human rights of innocent civilians? If the government's settlement of this incident is meant to encroach upon the human rights, Ms. Pelosi should better ask herself about the Los Angeles civil unrest happened right before her eyes 16 years ago, in which the US government aroused much military and police power and arrested more than 100,000 people.
The riots of 1992 in Los Angeles stunned the entire U.S. with its resultant 53 deaths, 2,325 injuries and an immense loss of property damage.
As for the Dalai Clique, people will never forget that Tibet was still under the semi-feudal serfdom till the first half of the 20th century, which was much darker and more sinister and vicious than the days under the "integration of the state and religion" in the Middle Age Europe. The ecclesiastical and secular serf owners, though accounting to less than five percent of the population of Tibet, controlled the personal freedom of serfs and slaves, who then made up 95 percent of the Tibetan population. These wretched of the earth could have their hands and feet chopped off, eyes gouged out, tongues cut or be subjected to other tortures and fatal penalties; and so they could hardly have a guaranteed right for survival under serfdom.
Afterward, it is ascribed to the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951 and the ensuing democratic reform in 1959 in the region that let serfs of old Tibet to gain their dignity and human rights.
Tibet's total population has increased from 1.14 million in 1951 to more than 2.8 million today; compulsory education, medical services and a minimum living allowance system have covered the whole of the Tibetan autonomous region. With such a historical background and present reality, how the Dalai clique, the chieftains of serfdom in old Tibet, are qualified to talk excessively and glibly about the "human rights" issue of Tibet?
The "Tibet issue" is also not a "religious issue". If Tibet is lacking the "freedom in religious belief', then how can people explain scenes of Lamaseries across the region crowded with believers or worshippers of varied ages to burn incenses, thousands upon thousands of Tibetans make pilgrimages to Lhasa, and suspending sutra streamers and Mani stone mounds put up by devout believers can be seen everywhere in Tibet?
It is even more absurd for the Dalai clique to clamor the so-called "ethnic inequalities". Let alone huge state appropriations made for developing traditional Tibetan medical science and Tibetan medicine, China has input more than 700 million yuan (about 100 million US dollars) to overhaul the imposing Potala Palace in Lhasa over recent years and to overhaul, rescue-repair and preserve traditional Tibetan culture.
Thanks to increased allocations from the central government, the Tibetans are the first among ethnic minority groups in China to have an international standard language, so that the Tibetan is currently an ethnic miority language with a permit to enter global information super highway networks.
In fact, it is crystal clear what the exact issue of the "Tibet issue" is. Dalai clique tries to seek "Tibet independence" under the signboard of varied "issues" -- This can seen from the "middle way" solution he has kept to, from their negation of the existing political system in Tibet, from their attempt to create the "Greater Tibet' that had been non-existent in history, and from their request urging other ethnicities to move out of Tibet and for the pullout of troops from the "Greater Tibet".
In the final analysis, the "Tibet issue" is not at all a "human rights issue", a religious issue, or an ethnical issue, but an issue concerning China's state sovereignty and territorial integrity, and an issue of core interests for the Chinese nation. Not a single nation on earth can tolerate to see its sovereignty sustain losses or sit idle to see its territory being seceded. On this issue, the Chinese government has made it very clear that the unity of the Chinese nation is the supreme, overriding principle, and there is no room whatsoever for any bargain on the issue of sovereignty. So any scheme to encroach upon China's sovereignty and meddle in China's internal affairs on the Tibet issue is only futile under whatever banner is hoisted.
By People's Daily Online and its author is He Zhenhua
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90780/91342/6393934.html
On the 14th Dalai Lama's betrayal of Buddhism
+ - 13:28, October 11, 2007
Thursday's People's Daily (overseas edition) carried a signed article titled "Why does the "Buddhist leader" frequently violate dharma and break faith: on the 14th Dalai Lama's betrayal of Buddhism".
The basic criterion to distinguish pious Buddhists from bogus ones is "taking precepts as masters" and "abiding by precepts to practice Buddhadharma". dGe-lugs-pa Sect, the Yellow Sect of Lamaism, of the Tibetan Buddhism is even better known for its strict observance of those commandments. Master Tsongkha-pa wrote in his book, the Great Exposition on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, that "the great achievers will be so only in name if they fail to fully follow Buddhist precepts and teachings". Though the commandments followed by Tibetan Buddhists vary, they are all based on the common ground of four precepts, namely no killing, stealing, adultery and lying. Monks would be seen as committing serious offenses if they betrayed one of the four precepts. However, the 14th Dalai Lama, a self-claimed "Buddhist leader", repeatedly broke the commandments and betrayed his faith by violating the precepts of no killing and lying.
Firstly, let's look at how he betrayed the precept of no killing. In the late 1950s, Tibetan reactionary leaders launched an armed rebellion in an attempt to permanently maintain the feudal serfdom and their autocratic rule. The 14th Dalai Lama was the chief representative of the feudal serfdom. The armed rebels set houses on fire, looted Tibetan people and raped women. What happened then still lingers in Tibetan people's minds today. In the late 1980s, the Dalai Lama clique stirred up unrest in Lhasa, which seriously harmed people's lives and damaged their property. Moreover, who was behind the mid 1970s assassination of Gung-thangTshul-khrims, one of the leaders of the Group 13, who failed to obey Dalai's orders? Who nodded to plot and implement the assassination of Li-thang A-thar? Who, in the late 1990s, sent killers to the home of Rin-po-che Kun-bde-gling and seriously wounded him? Who threatened to exterminate the "life and activities" of two young Rin-po-ches, Chi-jang and Sun-po? Vjigs-med Tshe-ring, who once was one of the key members of the Dalai Lama clique, said that at least ten Tibetans, who disagreed with the Dalai Lama, had been assassinated.
Secondly, let's have a look at how the 14th Dalai Lama violated the precept of no lying. The Dalai Lama sent a telegram in 1951 after the signing of the agreement on the peaceful liberation of Tibet, in which he said that the agreement, signed on May 23, 1951,was based on friendship and thus won unanimous support from the local government of Tibet, Tibetan monks and the people. But on March 10, 1961, the 14th Dalai Lama said in a speech that the agreement was written fully in the will of the "Red Han" and was signed by his representative, who was put under house arrest. In 1953, the 14th Dalai Lama wrote an article, saying that Tibetans were one of the ethnic communities in China, which enjoyed long and rich history and Tibetan people enjoyed freedom and equality as all the other ethnic groups did in China after they returned to the great family of the motherland. But on March 10, 1960, he said in another speech that Tibet has been "a completely independent country" with its own political system and government ever since the Tibetan people created their own written language.
In 1954, I accompanied the 14th Dalai Lama and the 10th Panchen Lama to Beijing. Till now, the zealous and respectful manner that the Dalai Lama demonstrated during that visit is still vivid in my mind. In the eulogy he presented to Chairman Mao Zedong in both Tibetan and Chinese, he extolled Chairman Mao as the "red sun", which "glorifies the whole nation, drives away invaders, and brings peace and blessing to people of all ethnic groups". However, when he fled abroad, he went back on his words and broke the precept of no lying by wantonly attacking and defaming his home country and calling on the so-called free world to unite to block the development of his own people and motherland.
It is known to all that in the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Fifth Dalai Lama paid respects to Emperor Shunzhi and was conferred by the Emperor with honorific title. The title and position of Dalai Lama was also legalized by the central authorities during the visit. The move not only helped maintain the unification of China, but also boosted the social stability and economic development in Tibet. The Tibetan people, who were profoundly grateful to the Fifth Dalai Lama, commended him as "theGreat Fifth". It was shocking to many people that as a descendent of the Fifth Dalai Lama, the 14th Dalai Lama unabashedly attacked the Fifth Dalai Lama in May 1986 at a gathering of Tibetan people in the Netherlands, saying that it was shameful for the Fifth Dalai Lama to have "joyously accepted the mandarin jacket conferred by the Qing emperor." He also derided the Fifth Dalai Lama for paying respects to the central authorities, saying he had" lost face by setting up the relations." Those sayings were Dalai Lama's real thoughts, which also proved that he had totally betrayed his ancestors and his religion.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the 14th Dalai Lama believed that the dramatic changes in the former Soviet Union and east Europe brought new opportunities for "Tibet independence". In August 1991, he said in France and Switzerland that it would take no more than five or ten years for Tibet to be separated from China. In January 1992, he said again that Tibet would achieve independence in five or ten years. In 1995, it seemed that Dalai Lama gained more "magic power" even though his clique was low in morale. In March of the same year, he formally issued a prophecy, proclaiming that great changes would take place in China that year or in the following year. In August, he said in public that the "upcoming changes in 1995 or 1996" would benefit his group. As a matter of fact, Tibet did witness "great changes" in 1995. During that year, Tibetan people celebrated the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region, and most of the 62 key construction projects in Tibet financially supported by the whole nation were completed. Also in 1995, the divine reincarnation of Panchen Lama was successfully completed. The development of Tibet played a joke with the "magic power" of the 14th Dalai Lama, which, perhaps, is the judgment on Dalai Lama for his betrayal of the precept of no lying.
The spiritual essence of the tenets and canons of the Tibetan Buddhism include the basic essentials of observing the rules, sincerity, equilibrium, even share of wealth, altruism and harmony, which are also the basics of the healthy practice of Buddhism over the past 2,000 years and grounds for Buddhists to cultivate themselves through meditation and encourage people to do good. All Buddhists should follow the tenets to distinguish right from wrong on cardinal issues and make further progress in their religious accomplishment. However, the 14th Dalai Lama has been playing with the divine Buddhism to achieve political goals and purposely mislead the public, which fully demonstrates his hypocrisy in faith.
By Shi Shan, the author is a research fellow in Tibetan Buddhism, who used to work in Tibet for a long time.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90780/91342/6280976.html
Official: Dalai Lama's U.S. award not to affect Tibet's stability
15:30, October 16, 2007
The planned award to the Dalai Lama by the U.S. Congress will not affect Tibet's stability, an official of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region said Tuesday in Beijing.
"It will only be an injection of cardiotonic to secessionist activities," Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the regional government of Tibet, told reporters at the ongoing 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
The Dalai Lama is to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, a top U.S. civilian award, on Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol. The ceremony is said to be attended by U.S. President George W. Bush.
"The award won't have much influence on the stable development of Tibet," said Qiangba Puncog, a delegate to the Party congress.
He said the Dalai Lama has received dozens of awards in the West, and has been taking advantage of his special identity to be a cat's paw for some people. "This is not the first time, nor will it be the last. But his influence is very limited."
The awarding plan has sparked a discussion Tuesday in the Tibet delegation to the Party congress, which opens to Chinese and overseas journalists.
Tibet's Party chief Zhang Qingli voiced indignation and discontent.
"The Dalai Lama has never stopped, or slowed down his secessionist activities since he fled China 48 years ago," he said.
What the Dalai Lama has been doing runs contrary to his status as a "spiritual leader", said Zhang. "How can someone who does not love -- and even seeks to split -- his own country receive a welcome in some countries and even get awards? It's actually trampling on such awards."
The Tibetans have experienced great improvement in their lives in the past decades and know very well who really care for their well-being, Zhang said. "The Tibetans whole-heartedly uphold the CPC, and the will of the people is quite clear."
Qiangba Puncog said it depends largely on the Dalai Lama himself and his group whether his consultation with the Chinese government could make any progress, whether he would return to China and whether he would be able to do something beneficial to the Tibetan people in his life.
"The central government's policy is consistent: the precondition and fundamental requirement for the consultation on Dalai's return is that he has to give up his 'Tibet independence' claim and all secessionist activities, and admit that Tibet is an inalienable part of China," Qiangba Puncog said, adding this is also the key to resolving the issue.
"(Tibet's) independence is not acceptable, nor is semi-independence or independence in any disguised form," he said.
Qiangba Puncog said the central government had shown "utmost forbearance" by leaving him a post of vice chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee until 1964. "The central government never closed the door to consultation and contacts with Dalai Lama even though he did a lot to undermine Tibet's social stability."
Another Party delegate from Tibet pointed a finger to U.S. leaders, hoping they should do more things which are conducive to the relations with China.
"(We) hope the U.S. leaders will refrain from doing anything detrimental to Sino-U.S. friendship and the Chinese people, and from interfering in China's internal affairs," said Ragdi, a Tibet-born vice chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, China's top legislature.
Source: Xinhua
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/6284184.html
Forum on development of China's Tibet opens in Vienna
by: 2007-11-30 09:58:39
Nyima Tsering, vice chairman of China's Tibet Autonomous Region, addresses the First Forum on the Development of Tibet, China, in Vienna, Nov. 29, 2007. (Xinhua/Liu Gang)
The First Forum on the Development of Tibet, China is held in Vienna, Nov. 29, 2007. (Xinhua/Liu Gang)
Qian Xiaoqian, deputy director of State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China is making a speech in the forum, Nov. 29, 2007.
Tibet will further open up to the outside world and attract more direct foreign investment while promoting ecological and environmental protection, Nyima Tsering, vice chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, said here Thursday.
"We shall participate in domestic and international economic cooperation and competition in more fields and on a higher level, and strengthen cross-regional economic and technological exchanges and cooperation," Tsering said at the opening of "the First Forum on the Development of Tibet, China" in Vienna.
He said Tibet would work hard to develop an open economy and promote regional economic and trade cooperation on different levels and by various means, especially with southern Asian countries, in the wake of the launch of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
In his speech, Nyima Tsering elaborated on the progress achieved by Tibet over the past four decades and the challenges facing Tibetans.
He said that to pursue sustainable and balanced development of the autonomous region, Tibet must continuously push forward the "frog-leap" mode in economic and social development, accelerate infrastructure construction and promote the construction of "a new countryside."
It is a priority of the Tibetan government to improve the working and living conditions of farmers and herdsmen and increase their incomes, he said.
Tibet will also deepen reform and innovate systems, he added.
"We shall follow the established path of market economy development, treat the market as a guiding force, and continue to actively reform the investment and financing mechanism so as to attract more investment," he said.
According to Nyima Tsering, since the establishment of the Tibetan autonomous region, Tibet has been in the best period of economic development with the fastest economic growth thanks to the strong support of the central government of China and unselfish assistance by other parts of the country.
Tibet has maintained an economic growth rate of over 12 percent for the past six consecutive years, and in 2006, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the region reached 29.1 billion yuan (about 3.93 billion U.S. dollars), 89 times that of 1965, he said.
Over the last four decades, Tibet has witnessed comprehensive progress in social construction, he said.
"A fairly complete modern educational and medical care system has been installed in Tibet," he added.
There are six universities, 118 high schools, seven intermediate vocational schools and 880 elementary schools in Tibet, with a total enrollment of 540,000 students and attendance of 96.5 percent of the school-age population, he elaborated.
The life of the Tibetan people has improved significantly over the past four decades, he said.
"Social stability is being continuously maintained and people are enjoying their life and work," he said.
In his words, Tibet is a region rich in local resources, such as abundant grasslands, mineral, water, forest, flora and fauna, and tourist resources, which have created great conditions for Tibet's development.
But to achieve further progress, Tibet faces much challenges, he pointed out, citing weak infrastructure basis, investment and vulnerable ecological environment among others.
"We deeply understand we must make a lore more effort in the long run, and will sincerely implement a human-oriented and scientific outlook for coordinated and sustainable development, and work hard to solve existing problems while adhering to a policy of reform and development," he added.
The senior Tibetan leader encouraged people around the world to visit Tibet more instead of listening to "untrue" and "unfriendly" reports about the region.
"Tibet is a place where people live happily and also a beautiful tourist resort," he said. "I believe a fast-growing and new Tibet will leave every visitor an unforgettable memory."
The two-day forum on Tibet is jointly sponsored by the State Council Information Office of China, the Chinese embassy in Austria, the permanent mission of China to the United Nations and other international organizations in Vienna and Austrian organizations including the Organization to Support the Austrian and Chinese Economic Cooperations.
http://en.tibet.cn/news/tin/t20071130_289252.htm
Tibet's progress
by: 2007-06-22 09:39:36
Six consecutive years of GDP growth above 12 percent. Double-digit increases in per capita net income for farmers and herdsmen four years in a row.
Such strides mean a lot to the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
As TAR Chairman Qiangba Puncog told a press yesterday in Beijing, the Tibetans owe a lot to stronger financial support from the central government as well as assistance from the rest of the country.
For more than 50 years, financial expenditures and investments in Tibet's infrastructure have relied mainly on central financial backup. As Qiangba Puncog explained, of every 10 yuan the local government spent, 9 came from the central government.
Handsome investment in local infrastructure over the decades is now upgrading the local economy and improving people's lives.
We see no harm from better roads, more convenient communications and broader availability of power supplies.
The Tibet ethnic groups' cultural identity will not be compromised by traveling by bus, talking on cell phones, or using electric rice cookers. The people of Tibet deserve the benefits and conveniences of all the modern technology the world has to offer.
We have seen from the rise of China's coastal belt the importance of solid infrastructure for an area's development. Tibet's infrastructure is among the poorest nationwide. So Beijing's investment in Tibet of 77.8 billion yuan ($9.6 billion) in 180 basic construction projects during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) is of far-reaching significance for the region's future.
Tibet needs a degree of economic development to improve people's lives. But single-minded pursuit of growth may do more harm than good, considering the extremely fragile ecology of the plateau.
We are glad to learn from Qiangba Puncog that local leaders agree with Beijing's concern for environmental preservation.
Blindly chasing GDP growth has resulted in devastating environmental consequences in many areas of our country. The same should not be repeated in Tibet.
It was wise for Tibet to focus on improving living conditions, rather than GDP figures.
Qiangba Puncog told the press that the blue sky and clear water of Tibet remain as clean as ever.
http://en.tibet.cn/news/tin/t20070622_257799.htm
Dalai Lama urged to abandon stance
09:58, July 30, 2007
(Nyima Cering is a native Tibetan, born and raised in Tibet)
LHASA: The Dalai Lama must take concrete actions to end his advocacy of "Tibetan independence", which is a premise for him to negotiate with the government, a senior official with Tibet Autonomous Region said here Saturday.
The Dalai Lama's pursuit of "Tibet independence" infringes on China's sovereignty, and any negotiations with him shall be pointless if he sticks to his secessionist stance, Nyima Cering, vice-chairman of Tibet Autonomous Region, told a group of 32 foreign journalists representing 19 media organizations.
The Dalai Lama's call for a "high-degree of autonomy for Tibet" and the establishment of a "greater Tibet area" was just a tactical readjustment on his part and did not reflect any substantial change in his stance, said the official.
"If he has really abandoned his pursuit of 'Tibet independence', he would have taken solid actions. But so far we have not seen any such actions," the vice-chairman said.
The channel of communication with the Dalai Lama has been open. Since 1979, 20 personal delegations of the Dalai Lama have visited Tibet or other Tibetan areas, he said.
"The Dalai Lama is not only a religious figure. He is first and foremost a politician. We are against the Dalai Lama and his separatist activities, not his religion," said Nyima Cering.
The majority of Tibetan people support the leadership of the Communist Party of China. However, some people are attempting to overthrow the socialist system with the help of the Dalai Lama and in the name of protecting national interests or religion, he said.
Source: Xinhua
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90785/6226931.html
To learn about Dalai Lama's experience of Democratic System
click here
Click the following to view the White Papers on Tibet issues:
Tibet -- Its Ownership And Human Rights Situation
New Progress in Human Rights in the Tibet Autonomous Region
Tibet's March Toward Modernization
White Paper on Tibetan Culture
White Paper on Ecological Improvement and Environmental Protection in Tibet
Tibet's Compulsory and Free-of-Charge Education
White Paper: Regional Ethnic Autonomy in Tibet
Click the above for full text of White paper on Tibet issued
China issued Sunday a white paper to acquaint the world with its ethnic policy and the truth about Tibet, and urged the Dalai Lama to "truly relinquish" his stand for "Tibet independence."
"The Central Government's policy as regards the Dalai Lama is consistent and clear. It is hoped that the Dalai Lama will look reality in the face, make a correct judgment of the situation, truly relinquish his stand for 'Tibet independence,' and do something beneficial to the progress of China and the region of Tibet in his remaining years," says the white paper, titled Regional Ethnic Autonomy in Tibet.
The 30-page white paper, released by the Information Office of the State Council, or the cabinet, is the first of its kind to focus on the "regional ethnic autonomy" policy long practiced in China's ethnic minority regions, as well as the substantial benefits this policy has brought to Tibet, which formally became one of China's five province-level autonomous regions in 1965.
"Regional ethnic autonomy means, under the unified leadership of the state, regional autonomy is exercised and organs of self-government are established in areas where various ethnic minorities live in compact communities, so that the people of ethnic minorities are their own masters exercising the right of self-government to administer local affairs and the internal affairs of their own ethnic groups," explains the paper.
With the implementation of the policy of regional ethnic autonomy, the Tibetan people enjoy full political right of autonomy, have full decision-making power in economic and social development, and have the freedom to inherit and develop their traditional culture and to practice their religious belief, says the paper, citing a series of facts and figures.
"Regional ethnic autonomy is the fundamental guarantee for the Tibetan people as masters of their own affairs," the paper concludes.
The issuance of the white paper appears to be a counteroffensive against the international propaganda and lobbying by the Dalai Lama, who alleged that the regional ethnic autonomy in Tibet was "devoid of essential contents" and proposed the exercise of "one country, two systems" and "a high degree of autonomy" in Tibet after the model of Hong Kong and Macao.
The white paper refuted the "attack" and "argument" of the "Dalai clique" as "totally untenable."
"The regional ethnic autonomy in Tibet the Dalai clique attacks is the very regional ethnic autonomy for Tibet which the 14th Dalai supported and whose preparation he was involved in," says the paper, citing the fact that the Dalai Lama was the chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region when the committee was established in 1956.
"The Dalai's attack against the regional ethnic autonomy in Tibet runs counter not only to the reality of present-day Tibet but also to the words he once uttered in all seriousness," it adds.
The white paper says that the situation in Tibet is "entirely different from that in Hong Kong and Macao". "...the Central Government has always exercised effective sovereign jurisdiction over the region (of Tibet). So the issue of resuming exercise of sovereignty does not exist (as it had existed in Hong Kong and Macao)," it says. "...the possibility of implementing another social system (in Tibet) does not exist either."
The paper also states that regional ethnic autonomy is a basic political system of China and the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region and the scope of its area are based on the provisions of the Chinese Constitution, the laws on regional ethnic autonomy and decided by the conditions past and present.
"Any act aimed at undermining and changing the regional ethnic autonomy in Tibet is in violation of the Constitution and law, and it is unacceptable to the entire Chinese people, including the broad masses of the Tibetan people," the paper stresses.
It goes on to point out that the local government of Tibet headed by the Dalai Lama representing feudal serfdom under theocracy has long since been replaced by the democratic administration established by the Tibetan people themselves.
"The destiny and future of Tibet can no longer be decided by the Dalai Lama and his clique. Rather, it can only be decided by the whole Chinese nation, including the Tibetan people," says the paper. "This is an objective political fact in Tibet that cannot be denied or shaken."
The Dalai Lama fled China in 1959 after a failed armed rebellion aimed at separating Tibet from China. The rebellion was staged by "some people in the upper ruling strata of Tibet" "in order to preserve feudal serfdom," with the support of "imperialist forces," says the white paper.
After leading the Tibetan people to "quickly quell the rebellion," the central government implemented the Democratic Reform which overthrew the feudal serfdom under theocracy, abolished the feudal hierarchic system and emancipated a million serfs and slaves. "The Democratic Reform cleared the way for regional ethnic autonomy in Tibet," says the paper.
The paper notes that under the reign of the Dalai Lama, "even in the first half of the 20th century, Tibet remained a society ...even darker and more backward than medieval Europe." But after nearly 40 years of practice of regional ethnic autonomy, Tibet has "recorded rapid economic growth and all-round social progress," and the Tibetans have "become the creators and beneficiaries of the material and cultural wealth of Tibetan society."
"Historical facts indicate that the institution of regional ethnic autonomy in Tibet was the natural result of social progress in Tibet, and that it accords with the fundamental interests of the Tibetan people and the inexorable law of development of human society," the paper says.
http://www.tibetinfor.com.cn/english/news/2004-5-24/News0200452491638.htm
Visiting Tibet could become easier
UPDATED: 14:57, June 21, 2007
TheTibet Autonomous Region (TAR) could become easier for foreigners because the local government is considering doing away with the laissez-passer system, a senior Tibet official said yesterday.
"The system may not be stamped out this year, but we are actively mulling its removal and will definitely do away with the practice at a proper time to make the entry of overseas visitors into Tibet more convenient," TAR Chairman Qiangba Puncog said at a press conference in Beijing.
Another project that would attract more overseas visitors is a highway on Mount Qomolangma, known in the West as Mount Everest, Qiangba said. The road to the world's highest peak will be completed before August 2008, in time for the Beijing Olympic Games. The project will turn a 110-km rough road linking Tingri County of Xigaze Prefecture at the foot of the Qomolangma Base Camp into a blacktop highway fenced by undulating guardrails.
Some tourists who visited the Base Camp later complained about the poor and unsafe condition of the road, prompting the TAR authorities to "rebuild" it, Qiangba said. The highway will become the major route for tourists and mountaineers.
Listing the infrastructure projects in the region, Qiangba said environmental protection has always got priority whenever a big scheme has been planned to protect the region's fragile and complicated ecological system.
For instance, vast tracks of land along the landmark Qinghai-Tibet Railway have been effectively protected since it opened in July last year. Measures have been taken to preserve the ecology along the 1,956-km tracks, the first ever to link Tibet with the rest of the country.
A recent field investigation along the route found no evidence of damage to the environment, he said. The landscape and lakes have been well preserved and wildlife migration patterns have not changed.
The central government will invest 77.8 billion yuan ($10.23 billion) on 180 projects and in implementing a range of preferential policies. Qiangba welcomed the central government's help and dismissed allegations that the Tibetan people would lose their culture to the Han way of life.
Of the 2.8 million people in Tibet, 92 percent are of Tibetan ethnic group, 5 percent are Hans and the rest are from other ethnic groups, Qiangba said.
"Their custom and traditional festivals remain unchanged even after millions of tourists have been there the region following the central government's massive investment in the region," said the official.
The TAR is also considering allocating hundreds of millions of yuan for maintenance and renovation of world heritage sites and major cultural relics in the region in the next five years, the official said.
Source: China Daily
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200706/21/eng20070621_386404.html
Tibet policies enrich region's development
by: 2007-04-24 10:33:53 China Daily
During an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel published on March 26, the 14th Dalai Lama attacked the Chinese government as "dividing Tibet by letting other provinces govern parts of Tibet". He also claimed that Tibet was "suffering cultural homicide".
The Dalai Lama named himself "the spokesperson of all 6 million Tibetan people" and peddled his idea of "greater autonomy" in Tibet and the Tibetan habitats in provinces neighboring the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The Dalai Lama is playing with words by adding the modifier "greater" to "autonomy" in an attempt to mislead people. It is actually another word for "Tibet independence" sought by the Dalai Lama over the last decades.
The 14th Dalai Lama fervently pursues separating Tibet from China. Ever since he fled Tibet in 1959, the Dalai Lama has stressed in all his public statements, speeches and talks that Tibet should be an independent state.
To prepare for his secessionist efforts, the Dalai Lama also set up the so-called "Tibetan government in exile" and "people's congress of Tibet" in the early 1960s in Dharamsala, India. A "constitution" was promulgated, and an armed force named "Religion Guards of the Four Rivers and Six Ranges" was built in Mustang, Nepal.
The Dalai clique also set up organizations in many countries to enhance its influence among Tibetans living there, such as "the Tibetan Youth Congress" and "the National Democratic Party of Tibet". All these organizations are still working for "Tibet independence" except the "Religion Guards of the Four Rivers and Six Ranges". They were wiped out by the national army of Nepal in 1974.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the world saw dramatic changes. Many countries, including India and the United States, began to have closer ties with China. The Dalai clique received less support from these countries in both financial and political terms. The Dalai Lama was forced to tone down his announcements in that period by declaring that he would give up claiming "Tibetan independence".
The central government actively responded to this declaration. It formulated and practiced the policy of free movement in and out of the country for local and overseas Tibetan people.
However, the Dalai Lama and his followers drew wrong conclusions after some paid several visits to the country, thinking they still had the trust and faith of many local Tibetans.
In the mid-1980s, the Dalai Lama and his followers tried to draw global attention to Tibet.
On September 21, 1987, the Dalai Lama made a speech to the human rights sub-committee of the US House of Representatives, raising a five-point proposal on the status of Tibet.
This proposal was strongly objected to by the Chinese people, including those in the Tibet Autonomous Region. But it was wrongly taken as a signal for a new round of separatist activities by those seeking separatism within the country.
Six days later, on September 27, Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, witnessed the start of riots aimed at realizing so-called Tibetan independence. The four riots and dozens of demonstrations in Lhasa in the following two years were reported by Western media and triggered international concern.
Against this backdrop, the Dalai clique became increasingly arrogant in its ambitions. On June 15, 1988, the Dalai Lama delivered a speech in Strasbourg, France, adding new points to his five-point proposal.
As China achieved miraculous economic prosperity as well as political stability in the early 1990s, the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Tibetan habitats in other provinces saw robust progress in nearly all aspects of social life. The Tibetan people's lives improved remarkably.
During this period, the Dalai Lama began to lose support. Internal disputes within his clique were also growing.
By 1994, the Dalai Lama had to stress that he had dropped the pursuit of "Tibetan independence" but started to seek "a greater autonomy of Tibet under the framework of the Chinese Constitution". The "greater autonomy" of Tibet has been peddled by the Dalai Lama in recent years as his major point.
However, people never fail to notice that this concept is only a disguise for his real target of "Tibetan independence" and a strategic concession to gain more advantages on the issue.
Despite the evolution of his slogans as well as the key points, the Dalai Lama has never changed his framework of "negotiation" with the central government.
He has insisted that Tibet had been an independent state in both historic and cultural terms instead of part of China; that the central government should withdraw all military forces and facilities out of Tibet; that Tibet should keep diplomatic ties with other states and international organizations; that the Tibetan settlement areas in the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai and Gansu should be integrated into Tibet, that the Dalai Lama should be in charge of this "greater Tibet", and that the non-Tibetan ethnic groups should be cleared out of this area.
If the central government of a state cannot have military forces on its territory or allow its local government to have diplomatic ties with other nations, it actually has no sovereignty over this territory. Therefore, the so-called "greater autonomy" demanded by the Dalai Lama is an attempt to change the legal position of Tibet and deny the sovereignty of the central government over the region.
The "greater autonomy" of Tibet is actually a slogan of the Dalai Lama and his followers to win the sympathy of the global community and the support of the Tibetan people as well as to put pressure on the central government. At the same time, the clique has never stopped its separatist activities.
As a country with 55 ethnic minorities, China has adopted a policy of regional autonomy for ethnic minorities in areas where these minorities live in compact communities.
Under the unified leadership of the central government, organs of self-government have been established for the exercise of autonomy. The implementation of this policy is critical to enhancing the relationship of equality, unity and mutual assistance among different ethnic groups, to upholding national unification, and to accelerating the development of places where regional autonomy is practiced.
The Tibet Autonomous Region was established on September 1, 1965. Since then, Tibetans, under the leadership of the central government, have actively participated in the administration of national and local affairs, fully exercising the right of autonomy guaranteed by the Constitution and other laws.
The Tibetans have real autonomy, which they enjoy much more than what "greater autonomy" could offer.
With the founding of the autonomous region, the Tibetans have exercised their right to vote and stand for election as provided by the Constitution. They participate in the election of deputies to national and local people's congresses.
Tibetan and other ethnic minority deputies account for more than 80 percent of the total number of deputies to the people's congresses at regional and prefecture levels. Tibetan and other ethnic minority people account for 87.5 percent of the chairperson and vice-chairperson positions of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region and 69.23 percent of the total members of the committee. They make up 57 percent of the governor and vice-governor positions of the region, 89.4 percent of the members of the local People's Political Consultative Conference and 90.42 percent of the standing committee.
Over the past 40 years, the Tibet Autonomous Region has exercised full economic autonomy. The region has drawn up 10 five-year plans for local economic and social development, arranging development projects on its own.
Farmers and herders in Tibet are exempt from all fees and taxes. In addition, farmers and herders enjoy free medical care and their children receive free food and board in schools.
In August 2005, a special document was issued by the central government to accelerate the economic and social development in Tibet by granting a series of favourable policies to the autonomous region.
As a result, the Tibet Autonomous Region saw a GDP of 29.03 billion Yuan ($3.72 billion) in 2006, up 13.2 percent from the previous year.
The Tibetan language has been widely learned and used. People of Tibetan ethnicity account for more than 95 percent of the total population in the region. The Tibetan language and the national common language are used simultaneously at all important meetings. All documents of the governments at all levels in the region appear in both languages.
The central government respects and protects the freedom of religious belief of Tibetans and other ethnic minorities. They are free to follow their traditional lifestyle and carry out social activities. They are also free to pray and make pilgrimages.
The central government and the regional government have earmarked a large sum of money to renovate monasteries and palaces of religious value as well as historic value.
Tibet has also seen huge progress in education in the last decades. The region brought 95.9 percent of the children of school age into classrooms by 2006. It has four universities and colleges.
The status of women in Tibet in political, economic and cultural spheres as well as in families has been fundamentally improved.
The Tibet Autonomous Region has also done significant work in protecting the environment. A number of projects have been carried out under the sponsorship of both the central government and local government.
http://en.tibet.cn/news/tin/t20070424_229988.htm
Dalai Lama's ethnic fight will harm Tibet
UPDATED: 17:22, April 26, 2007
The 14th Dalai Lama made clear his real thoughts on Tibet in his recent interview with the Der Spiegel. He told the German magazine, "The fight over Tibet is between different ethnic groups, and it will carry on no matter I live or die."
When the Dalai Lama describes the issue as "a fight between different ethnic groups", isn't he talking about a fight between the Tibetans and the Hans? If the issue is positioned in this manner, what does it mean for Tibet?
We have seen a lot of sad cases of ethnic conflict after the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was dissolved at the end of 1991.
Before that, the USSR managed to keep a stable relationship among different ethnic communities. But after the 15 republics became independent, the conflicts between different ethnic groups were on the rise for all kinds of reasons.
Russians were the largest ethnic group in the former USSR, but they became an ethnic minority in many of the independent states. Along with the dramatic change in the demographic majorities, the ethnic Russians saw an increase in conflicts with other ethnic groups.
The most dramatic political conflict occurred between the Russian Federation and Ukraine over the Black Sea Fleet. One of the most important fleets in Russia, the Black Sea Fleet was based in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. But the port became part of Ukraine after 1991.
The two countries undertook extensive negotiations before reaching a bilateral agreement in 1997. Russia was allowed to use the base in Sevastopol until 2017 by paying Ukraine a large annual fee. The two countries have yet to reach a final agreement.
This is only one of the less tragic events following the collapse of the USSR. Other events had far more personal impact on the ethnic groups living on former Soviet soil.
Tibet is certainly different from the former USSR, but ethnic conflicts would be no less tragic.
The Dalai Lama declared that he had dropped the pursuit of "Tibetan independence" and turned to seek a "greater autonomy" for Tibet. But in fact, his blueprint for so-called Tibet autonomy would only trigger conflicts among different ethnic groups.
After the development of the last decades, people from different ethnic groups have formed a harmonious community in Tibet and its neighboring provinces.
According to the Dalai Lama's plan, the Tibet under "greater autonomy" would definitely witness a rise in the supporters of "Tibetan independence". They would try to instigate populism among the Tibetans and treat people of other ethnic groups, especially the Hans, as trespassers. It is also possible that extremist movements would start to drive other ethnic groups out of Tibet.
Such a situation would be devastating to Tibet as well as to Tibetans.
The Dalai Lama has resorted to a convenient tool to set off Tibetan populism: democracy. He made this point in the interview with Der Spiegel.
Admittedly, democracy is a commonly accepted value of all people. However, it is often manipulated to serve the targets of certain individuals. We cannot afford to ignore such behavior.
One of the essentials of democracy lies in governance by the people. Pitifully, democracy is often wrongly reduced to "elections".
In the complexity of real life, elections can be manipulated to the benefit of certain individuals or groups. An issue devised by demagogues could be put to a referendum.
The election process could easily turn into an occasion where the populist movement is triggered, nurtured and escalated. Numerous examples can be seen in Taiwan.
When the Dalai Lama is trying his best to peddle his idea of "greater autonomy" in Tibet and "democracy", his followers or the people who have been hoodwinked by his proposals will probably claim that "Tibet only belongs to the Tibetans." Such slogan may also gain support from the Tibetans who are contaminated with the populist sentiment.
This is how populism works: It helps politicians arouse public sentiment to benefit the politicians, but these benefits are most probably not in the public interest.
It is easy to see that if the Tibet issue is positioned as "a fight between different ethnic groups" and if the Dalai Lama's roadmap for the future of Tibet is succesful, it would be a demoralizing situation.
When the Dalai Lama resorted to "democracy" as a tool to sell his ideas, he was only distorting the concept.
It would be devastating to Tibet and people living on the snow land to instigate ethnic conflicts there, as the Dalai Lama has done.
Source: China Daily; By Ren Xiao, a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200704/26/eng20070426_369948.html
Ethnic Regional Autonomy System and its practice in Tibet Autonomous Region
by:ChangWeiMin 2005-03-09 14:51:14
1. The Ethnic Regional Autonomy System Is the Basic Policy and Political System for the Solution of China's Nationality Problems
China is a united multi-ethnic country with 55 minorities besides the Han nationality. All nationalities have made glorious contributions to expanding boundaries and creating cultures in the history of China.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Central People's Government has attached great importance to the nationality problems and kept upholding the policy of equality, unity, mutual assistance, co-development and co-prosperity among all nationalities and regarding it as the basic principle of handling nationality problems and relations among nationalities. Adopting the policy of ethnic regional autonomy in the area of minorities is the certain result of Chinese history and the economic and social development in late times. Firstly all nationalities have been lived together in a unitary country and created a united country, history and culture, with contact and mutual assistance never interrupted. Their societies, economies and cultures have integrated over the long history and inseparability has been formed among them. Secondly from the economic point of view, the minority areas have vast land and rich resources but relatively backward economic and cultural development. On the contrary, areas of Han nationality have better economy but inadequate resources. Only with both the two areas integrated and helping each other can the whole country be developed and all nationalities be prosperous. Thirdly respecting the characteristics of different nationalities and securing their rights request an appropriate system, which is the ethnic regional autonomy system with Chinese characteristics.
Up till now, China has set up 155 autonomous local areas, including 5 autonomous regions (including Tibet Autonomous Region), 30 autonomous prefectures(including 10 Tibetan autonomy prefecture in Sichuan province, Qinghai Province, Gansu Province and Yunnan Province), 120 autonomous counties. The population of minorities amounts to 108 million, which accounts for 98% of the total population. Among them Tibet Autonomous Region has a population of 2.44 million with 96.3% of them are Tibetans.
2. The Basic Meanings of Ethnic Regional Autonomy System
The ethnic regional autonomy means practicing regional autonomy, setting up autonomous organs and exercising autonomous power. The autonomous organs are People's Congress, People's Government. Local Ethnic Autonomous Organizations are the direct local authority and administrative organs of the country.
To be specific, the basic meanings of China's Ethnic Regional Autonomy Policy have two sides. On the one hand, it means setting up organs of self-government and giving minorities the autonomy to handle local and internal affairs based on the principle of equality among nationalities and under the leadership of Central People's Government. On the other hand, ethnic regional autonomous regions, like other administrative regions in China, are inseparable parts of China. The autonomous jurisdiction of ethnic autonomous regions is local self-government power given by the Central People's Government to handle the internal affairs of ethnic regions. Being a part of the China's complete authority system, it's under the control of Central People's Government, just like all levels of autonomous organs exercising this authority and the other local government.
3. Autonomous Rights Enjoyed By the Ethnic Autonomous Region
According to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the Law of the People's Republic of China Governing Regional National Autonomy, people's congresses in the areas of national autonomy have the right to formulate regulations on the exercise of autonomy or specific regulations in accordance with the political, economic and cultural characteristics of the local nationalities, besides the authority shared by all organs at the same level. It mainly includes Right to enact regulations on the exercise of autonomy and separate regulations in light of local political, economic and cultural characteristics.
Right to implement laws and policies set by Central People's Government in accordance with local practices.
Autonomous right to administer local finance and right to manage local economic construction.
Right to protect, explore and utilize local natural resources in accordance with laws set by Central People's Government.
Right to administer local projects of education, science, culture, sanitation, sports, and protecting national cultural relics, as well as developing national cultures.
Right to freely use and develop national spoken and written languages.
The chairman or vice chairman of the standing committee of the autonomous regions, the chairman of an autonomous region, head of an autonomous prefecture or an autonomous county should be citizens of the ethnic groups.
Rights illustrated above are important reflections of minorities exercising autonomous power on the country's and local matters.
4. The Practice of Ethnic Regional Autonomy System in China's Tibet Autonomous Region
The old Tibet was under the despotic feudal serf system marked by combination of government and religion and the dictatorship of lamas and nobles, which seriously handicapped the development of social productive forces and social progress, keeping Tibet in a state of extreme backwardness and obturation for a long time. Although they accounted for less than 5 percent of Tibet's population, they owned all of Tibet's farmland, pastures, forests, mountains and rivers as well as most livestock. On the contrary, the serfs engaged in hard labor year in and year out and yet had no guaranteed food or clothing. They had no basic human rights and certainly no political rights as well.
The central people's government and the local government of Tibet signed in 1951 the 17-Article Agreement on measures for the peaceful liberation of Tibet, which brought hope to the Tibetan people in their struggle for equal personal and political rights. The 3rd article stipulates, in accordance with the nationality policy in the Common Document of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (acting as constitutions in a short period of time after the founding of PRC), Tibetan citizens have the rights of exercising the power of ethnic regional autonomy.
In April 1956, the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region was set up in accordance with the Central People's Government's decision, with Dalai as the directive commissary and Penchen Erdeny as the 1st deputy directive commissary. Being a consultative organ with regime power, its basic tasks are, organize the democratic reform and create necessary conditions for the establishment of ethnic regional autonomy system.
In 1959, armed rebellion occurred in Tibet and Dalai fled China. The State Council issued an ordination in March 28th to dissolve the Tibetan local government and empower the Preparatory Committee for Autonomous Region to exercise its authority instead. In several years later, democratic reforms had taken place in Tibet, and feudal serfdom was abolished. Citizens of the Tibet Autonomous Region voted to establish political organs at all level, which showed that the conditions for setting up Tibet Autonomous Region was mature.
The Tibet Autonomous Region was formally founded in 1965, representing the realization of ethnic regional autonomous rights of the Tibetan people. The Tibetan people stepped into the equal, united and prosperous road of socialism as all the other nationalities in China.
Over the past thirty years, the Tibetan people have been working hard together and have brought world-shaking political and economic changes to Tibet. Here are some examples.
Legislation----The People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region has since 1965 formulated more than 120 local rules and decrees which covers areas of regime construction, social and economic development, marriage, culture, education, sanitation, languages, jurisdictions, and protection of forests, grasslands, wild animals and natural resources. The formulation and implementation of these local rules and regulations have furnished an important legal guarantee to the realization of democratic rights for the Tibetan people and to the development of local social, economic and cultural undertakings.
These local rules and regulations have apparent characteristics of the Tibetan local ethnic regional autonomy. For instance, regarding the regime construction, it's clearly stipulated that Tibetans and people of other minorities must account for over 80% in the People's Congress of the autonomous regions. Currently, Tibetan and other minority representatives in the autonomous region, city, county, village account for 82.18%, 81.96%, 90% and 99% respectively.
Team of minority cadres----Training, choosing and appointing minority cadres is an important part of implementing ethnic regional autonomy. In order to help Tibetan citizens to better exercise their rights of managing and national and local affairs, the Central People's Government have attached great importance to training cadres of Tibetan nationality. Currently, there are 49,752 cadres of Tibetan and other minority nationalities, which accounts for 73.88% of all cadres. All the main leading posts in the people's congresses, governments, and people's political consultative conferences at various levels are filled by Tibetans and other minority nationalities. Tibetan women were in the lowest echelon of society in old Tibet. Today, many of them take posts in the autonomous governments at all levels and some of them even hold leading posts.
In order to develop Tibetan economy and improve the cause of Tibetan science and culture, the Central People's Government has attached great importance to the training of Tibetan cadres with technical expertise. Currently, there are about 20 thousand cadres of this kind in the region. These cadres, including scholars, researchers, architectures, engineers, agriculturists, doctors, authors, journalists, artists, etc, take important roles in all kinds of fields in Tibet.
The Tibetan language----the spoken and written Tibetan language is widely used throughout the whole Tibetan Autonomous Region. The Autonomous Government of Tibet promulgated and implemented Some Provisions of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the Study, Use and Development of the Spoken and Written Tibetan Language (Draft) and the Rules for the Implementation of Some Provisions of the Tibet Autonomous Region on the Study, Use and Development of the Spoken and Written Tibetan Language (Draft) in 1987 and 1988, respectively, explicitly stipulated the principle of using both Tibetan and Han Chinese languages should be used in the Tibetan Autonomous Region with precedence given to the Tibetan language. Now both the two languages are used for all work units' official seals, certificates, forms, stationery, hotels, cinemas, theaters and gymnasiums, street and road signs, and traffic signs. Tibetan languages are used in all big conferences attended by the public and the Tibetan language is the main course in all schools.
On August 2nd to 4th, 2000, the Tibetan Autonomous Region held Conference of Work on Regional Tibetan Language, making a summary to the work on regional Tibetan language I recent years and arranging the work on Tibetan languages in the next period of time. In August 2000, the Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China release a report on the Study, Using and Development of Tibetan Language.
According to the news on April 20th, 1997 from the Xinhua News Agency, the Tibetan language has reached standardization and the promotion as an Internet communication tool. In the Conference of International Standard Examination of Multi-coding held in 1996, Chinese pattern of encoded Tibetan Language was formally recognized and currently being used as the international standard by Microsoft Corp. U.S.A.
Protection of cultural relics----Since 1980, the People's Government of Tibetan Autonomous Region have conducted archeological work extensively on the more than 20 cultural sited under state-level or region-level protection and ancient buildings and places of interests. Recent years, China has invested more than 50 million yuan, as well as human resources and materials to repair the Potala Palace. The maintenance project of Ganden Monastery costing 2.5 million was finished in September 1997. Ever since then, another 56 cultural relics have been listed as the autonomous-level unit under protection, and 5 ones including Sakye Monastery are under state-level protection. Besides, the Tibet Autonomous Region Museum, one of 62 projects conducted by the Central People's Government to aid Tibet was established in 1997.
Protection of zoology and environment----Statistics shows that Tibet has about 7.17 million-hectare woodland, 64 hundred categories of highland plants, more than 10 hundred kinds of medical plants and 2.3 hundred kinds of wild animals, among which 141 kinds are under state-level or autonomous-level protection.
While vigorously developing Tibetan economy, the people's government attaches great importance to environmental protection in Tibet. Conscientiously carrying out the state's basic policy on environmental protection, the Tibet Autonomous Region perseveres in its basic state strategy of synchronized planning and undertaking of economic, urban, rural and environmental construction and have published and implemented a series of laws and regulations, such as the Regulations for the Protection of Forests in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Provisional Regulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region on Administration of Grasslands, and so on. In the field of wildlife protection alone, there are more than 20 documents on related regulations and systems. The autonomous government has set up the Everest Mountain Environmental Protection District, protection districts of wild animals, etc, and established the Environmental Protection Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region, which is in charge of such undertakings in the whole region. According to the monitoring station, environmental conditions are good in Tibet. Generally speaking, there is no pollution of the atmosphere or water. The industrial and other pollution is very slight. No accident of environmental pollution has ever occurred.
Currently, the Tibetan Autonomous Region is seizing the historical chance of China's developing the west region to set programs for a faster pace of the social and economic development.
Decades of practices of regional autonomy for ethnic minorities, especially in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, are proved to be a political system in conformity with China's national conditions. It has enhanced the cohesion among all nationalities in China and secured the unity of the country and nationalities, as well as facilitated the prosperity and development of the ethnic regions. Being a fundamental state policy, it will exist for a long time and will keep developing and being better and better.
http://en.tibet.cn/history/nra/t20050309_14774.htm
Tibet-An Inseparable part of China
http://zt.tibet.cn/english/zt/041225_xzsh/index.html
From the 7th to the 10th century
In the Tang Dynasty: Close Relations between Tibet and Central China
The friendly relations between the Tibetan nationality and the Han nationality of the main areas of China can be traced to ancient times, as is proved by archaeological findings and historical documents in Tibetan and Chinese. In the seventh century the Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo unified the tribes on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and established the Tubo Dynasty. King Songtsen Gampo married Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty in 641, after which the Tang emperor conferred on him the titles of "Imperial Son-in-Law Governor", "West Sea Prince", and "Treasured Prince."
- Marriage relations between the Tang dynasty and the Tubo rulers
- Eight conferences between Tang and Tubo to pledge peaceful relations.
- Exchanges of emissaries between Tang and Tubo
http://zt.tibet.cn/english/zt/041225_xzsh/1-1.htm
************
In the 13th century
In the Yuan Dynasty Tibet Became an administrative Region of China
In the thirteenth century Temujin (Genghis Khan), who succeeded in subjugating other independent tribes and local forces, founded the Mongol Khanate. In 1247 Sakya Pandita, the chief of the Sakya Buddhist sect in Tibet, and his nephew Phagpa, conferred with the Mongol Prince Godan, grandson of Genghis khan, at Liangzhou (in present-day Gansu province) on problems concerning Tibet giving its allegiance to the MongolKhanate. On his accession to the throne in 1260, Kublai Khan granted Phagpa the title of "Imperial Tutor" as well as a jade seal symbolizing the politico-religious power over Tibet, with which Phagpa was entrusted. This initiated the combination of temporal and spiritual authority in the Tibetan local regime. In 1271 Kublai Khan named his state the Yuan dynasty. In 1279 he unified China's entire territory. It was then that Tibet became an administrative region under the direct jurisdiction of the central government of China.
- Tibetan pledged allegiance to the Yuan dynasty
- The Yuan dynasty conducted a census and set up poststage stations in Tibet
- The Yuan dynasty established administrative organs and appointed officials in Tibet
http://zt.tibet.cn/english/zt/041225_xzsh/1-2.htm
**********
From the 14th to the 17th century
The Ming Imperial Court's Administration of Tibet
In the Ming Dynasty the policy towards Tibet mainly continued that of the previous Yuan Dynasty. The governorship for U-Tsang and a Marshal's Headquarters were created. The system of official posts in Tibet ranking from commanders, commissioners to wan hu, qian hu, and bai hu was improved. Officials in Tibet were appointed by the central government. In carrying out a pacificatory policy, the Ming Dynasty granted various new offices and titles of honor to officials and dignitaries in the Tibetan areas. Thus the title of "Prince of Dharma" was granted to Khon Drakpa of the Sakya sect, "Prince of Great Treasure" to Karma Lama of the Kagyupa sect, "Prince of the Western Deities and Grand Imperial Tutor" and later "The Great Compassionate Prince of the Dharma" to Shakya Yeshe of the Gelugpa (Yellow-Hat) sect. Among many other titles of honor were those of "Initiation State Tutor", "Promotion Prince of Virtue", "Guardian Prince of the Doctrine", "Propagation Prince of the Doctrine".
- The Ming dynasty carried on the institutions set up by the Yuan in Tibet and adjusted administrative apparatus for the Tibetan areas
- The Central government of the Ming dynasty held judicial power
- Carrying out a pacificatory policy, the Ming dynasty granted various new office and titles of honor to officials and dignitaries as well as the influential religious leader in Tibetan areas. The tribute-paying system encouraged trade
http://zt.tibet.cn/english/zt/041225_xzsh/1-3.htm
**********
From the 17th to the 20th century
The Qing Imperial Court Improving the Administration of Tibet
Under the succeeding Qing dynasty, the central government of China further strengthened its administration of Tibet. In 1652 the fifth Dalai Lama paid his respects in Beijing to the emperor, who, in the following year, granted him the title of "Buddha of Great Compassion in the West, Leader of the Buddhist Faith Beneath the Sky, Holder of the Vajra, the Dalai Lama" and a certificate on sheets of gold inscribed and a gold seal of authority. In 1713 the 5th Panchen Lama was granted the title of "Panchen Erdeni" as well as gold. From that time on, the Qing central government officially recognized the political and religious status and powers of the Dalai and Panchen Lamas.
- The Qing dynasty conferred title of honor on the Dalai and the Panchen
- The institution of "drawing lots from the golden urn" prescribed by the Qing dynasty in 1793 for the confirmation of reincarnation of the Dalai Lama
- The Qing court instituted the office of Grand Minister Residents of Tibet
- The Tibetan local government (Kashag) was established by the order of the Qing emperor of China
- The Qing government prescribed a local standing army system in Tibet
- Silver coins were minted in Tibet under tpervision of the Qing central government
- Imperial Ordinance for the More Effective Governing of Tibet
http://zt.tibet.cn/english/zt/041225_xzsh/1-4.htm
********
From 1912 to 1949
The Nationalist Government Safeguards China's Sovereignty over Tibet
In 1912, after the founding of the Republic of China, the central government termed itself a republic of five nationalities -Han, Manchu, Mongolian, Hui, and Tibetan - with a unified territory, The Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China stipulated:" The territories of the Republic of China include twenty-two provinces as well as Inner and Outer Mongolia, Tibet, and Qinghai. "In 1912, the restoration of the title of the 13th Dalai Lama "The Loyally Submissive Vicegerent, Great, Good, Self-Existent Buddha of West Heaven" was decreed by the president of the Republic of China.
- The republic of five nationalities founded in 1911, expressing the unity of the territory of China
- Restoration of the title of honor to the Dalai Lama
- Tibetan delegates attending China's National Congress and being elected as members of the National Congress.
- The Nationalist Government issued the following decree:" Lhoma Dondrup shall be enthroned as the Fourteenth Dalai Lama without the confirmation formalities."
http://zt.tibet.cn/english/zt/041225_xzsh/1-5.htm
*******
1951
Peaceful Liberation of Tibet
On May 23, 1951, delegates with full powers of the Local Government of Tibet and delegates with full powers of the Central People's Government signed "The Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet." The Fourteenth Dalai Lama and the Tenth Panchen Erdeni cabled the central authorities to express their support of the Agreement.
- The Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the peaceful Liberation of Tibet (Abridged).
http://zt.tibet.cn/english/zt/041225_xzsh/1-6.htm
************************************************************************************
From peaceful liberation to founding of Tibet Autonomous Region
by: 2005-09-02 09:30:31
The central government of China adopted the principle of peaceful liberation of Tibet in light of historic and actual situation in the region after the founding of People's Republic of China in 1949.
In May 1951: representatives of the central and local governments signed the Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Tibetan Local Government on Measures for Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, widely known as the 17 Pacts.
In 1954: Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama went to Beijing to attend the first session of the National People's Congress (NPC), at which Dalai was elected vice chairman of the NPC standing committee, while Panchen was elected a member of the NPC standing committee.
Chairman Mao with Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama
In 1956: The preparatory committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region was set up and Dalai served as head of the committee.
Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama casting their ballots
In March
