Exile

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.”

By Tsering Choephel

DHARAMSALA, 18 July: The New York and New Jersy Chapter of the Tibetan National Congress has written to US President Joe Biden in protest of his reiterating the US policy that recognises Tibet as part of China while announcing the passage of the “Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Act” on 12 July.

By Tsering Choephel

DHARAMSALA, 18 July: The most recent round of back-channel negotiations between the Tibetan government-in-exile and Beijing happened “at the beginning of this month”, said Penpa Tsering, the President of the Tibetan government-in-exile now known as Central Tibetan Administration (CTA).

By Tsering Choephel

DHARAMSALA, 16 July: A four-point statement and a nine-point resolution were released Monday at the conclusion of the 7th International Rangzen Conference, held in Toronto, Canada, from July 13th to 15th.

Brad Redkopp, a sitting member of the Canadian Parliament, attended the conference as the chief guest, with seven members of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile attending the opening ceremony as special guests. Approximately 250 people gathered on the day, and nearly 200 individuals from the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, and India participated in the three-day conference.

DHARAMSALA, 13 July: US President Joe Biden has signed into law the ‘‘Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Act,’’

By Tsering Choephel

DHARAMSALA, 6 July: Hundreds of Tibetans gathered today at the Tsuklakhang courtyard as the Central Tibetan Administration celebrated the 89th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Prem Singh Tamang, the Chief Minister of Sikkim, was the chief guest, and several other special guests including Member of Lok Sabha Arunachal Pradesh Shri Tapir Gao; Speaker of the Sikkim Legislative Assembly Mingma Norbu Sherpa; and Bhutila Karpoche, Deputy Speaker of the Ontario State Parliament, were also present at the celebration.

By Tsering Choephel

DHARAMSALA, 4 July: The Tibetan spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, is rapidly recovering and able to walk after a successful knee replacement surgery in the US, as confirmed by two of his personal physicians in a video announcement on Thursday.