Exile

By Yangchen Lhamu

DHARAMSALA, 18 Sept: The Centre for Middle Way Initiative (Umay Lam), a Tibetan non-profit organization, celebrated a major milestone today: its 16th anniversary. The occasion was marked with a special celebration held at the Dharamshala Tibetan Settlement Office Hall in McLeod Ganj.

By Yangchen Lhamu

DHARAMSALA, 13 Sept: An art exhibition celebrating the creativity of Tibetan students from five different schools in Himachal Pradesh opened today at the Kangra Art Museum in Kotwali Bazar near here on Friday.

DHARAMSALA, 12 Sept: The 17th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile(TPiE) commenced its 8th session on Wednesday amid calls for amending the Charter regarding qualifications of Justice Commissioners of the Tibetan Supreme Justice Commission (TSJC) of the Central Tibetan Administration(CTA). The calls came from a group known as ‘The Advocacy of the General Public for the Sustainability of CTA,’ which also demanded the resignation of all lawmakers if amendments were not made.

By Yangchen Lhamu

DHARAMSALA, 11 Sept: Tibet Policy Institute (TPI), the research wing of the Central Tibetan Administration(CTA), held a day-long International Symposium on Finding Common Ground: Strategic Responses in a Changing Global Order at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives here on Tuesday.

By Tsering Choephel

DHARAMSALA, 2 Sept: Four delegates from the Estonian Parliamentary Support Group for Tibet attended the sixty-fourth anniversary of Tibetan Democracy Day today, despite strong opposition from Beijing. Mr Juku-Kalle Raid, an Estonian MP and chairman of the Tibet Support Group, referred to China’s warning as a ‘love letter’ and denounced the Chinese Communist Party’s dictatorship as ‘dictator-shit.’

DHARAMSALA, 28 August: Christopher Elms, spokesperson for the US Embassy in New Delhi, emphasized that a long-term solution to bring stability to the Tibet-China dispute will come through negotiations between the Dalai Lama or his representatives and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), rather than from US statements. Elms made these remarks on Tuesday while visiting the Tibet Express bureau as part of his three-day visit to Dharamsala, the exile headquarters of the Tibetan people.

By Tsering Choephel

DHARAMSALA, 8 August: Pro Tem Speaker of the 18th Lok Sabha and BJP MP Shri Bhartruhari Mahtab was appointed Convener of the All Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet (APIPFT), while Shri Tapir Gao, BJP MP, was appointed Co-convener on 7 August, according to tibet.net, the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the Tibetan government in exile.

By Tsering Choephel
DHARAMSALA, 30 July: A petition calling for an end to China’s ongoing forced closure of Tibetan private and monastic schools in Tibet, as well as the restoration of those that have already been closed, has been submitted to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on 29 July. Initiated by Tibet Times, a Tibetan media agency based in Dharamsala, the four-point petition has been signed by 100 Tibetan professors, PhDs, and scholars from the exile community, as stated in their press release today.

By Tsering Choephel

DHARAMSALA, 29 July: A reception, marking the signing of “Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Act” into law, was hosted in Washington DC, US on Thursday. Co-organised by the Office of Tibet North America and International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), the event was attended by Central Tibetan Administration’s(CTA) Sikyong (President) Penpa Tsering along with former US speaker Nancy Pelosi, Chairman Michael McCaul, Congressman Jim McGovern, and Congressman Joe Wilson, as reported on Tibet.net, the CTA’s official website.

DHARAMSALA, 22 July: The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, a Tibetan advocacy group based in Dharamsala, declared today that the Chinese authorities’ forceful shutdown of the renowned Ragya Jigme Gyaltsen Nationalities Vocational High School in Golok, within the traditional Tibetan Province of Amdo, “signals the intensification of the Chinese government’s accelerated and systematic campaign to assimilate Tibetan cultural identity into the dominant Han Chinese majority.”