Thursday, January 16, 2014

Week Ending January 17, 2014

International Tibet Network News Digest & Analysis: 17 January 2014

Protests, Restrictions, Releases in Tibet
Action: Release Khenpo Kartse Now - International Tibet Network
17 January | On 6th December 2013, Chinese authorities arrested a highly respected Buddhist Abbot, Khenpo Kartse, for allegedly "endangering state security." Khenpo is well known in the community for promoting unity, language rights and culture amongst the Tibetan people. A futher sixteen monks were also detained for peacefully protesting for his immediate release. Take Action NOW! Urge Liu Zhiqiang, Director of Qinghai Province Public Security Bureau, to immediate release Khenpo Kartse and the sixteen monks.

Residents Rally for Detained Tibetan Monk in China - ABC News
16 January | Hundreds of residents and monks in western China's Qinghai province gathered in front of a jail this week in a rare rally to demand the release of a highly respected Tibetan monk, a Tibetan writer and a local person said Thursday.

Tibetan writer Kunga Tsayang released from prison after 5 years - TCHRD
15 January | Writer, essayist, blogger, chronicler, environmentalist and amateur photographer Kunga Tsayang has been released after serving almost five years’ of imprisonment for allegedly writing political essays criticizing Chinese policies in Tibet.

News
China media: Tibetan blaze probe - BBC
15 January | On Monday, the Shangri-la county government told a news briefing that a guesthouse operator setting her window curtains alight in an electrical accident was the initial cause of the fire, the Beijing Times said. But four hours later, the deputy police chief of Deqen prefecture, which governs Shangri-la, held an emergency press conference to say the cause of the fire was still under investigation.

Congress funds again Tibet programs in 2014 spending bill - ITC
15 January | The U.S. Congress continued its steady support for Tibet through the provision of approximately $19 million for Tibet programs through the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2014. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the bill on January 15, and the Senate soon thereafter.

Opinion and Analysis
Chinese-Flag-Resisting Driru County Keeps Tibetan Struggle Alive - RFA
15 January | Driru, a Tibetan county that has attracted global attention for waging a persistent struggle against a Chinese campaign of forced displays of loyalty, has for nearly a decade been a major center of resistance to Beijing’s rule, analysts say.

China’s Brand New, Centuries Old, Shangri-la - The Atlantic
14 January | Locals I met told me that tourism and investment had robbed Dukezong of its identity, and to find the genuine article I had to wander away from the town and into the surrounding villages, where Tibetan and Naxi people lived in basic, shabby homes.

Taking Control of Our Own Narratives: A Tibetan Writer Speaks - Huffington Post
16 January | High school student Sophia Slater interviews Tibetan writer Bhuchung D Sonam about his past, his work in exile, and what he sees as important for Tibet’s future.


Week Ending January 12, 2014

International Tibet Network News Digest & Analysis: 12 January 2013
Protests and Restrictions in Tibet
Twenty Tibetans held in protest against tunnel digging in Sichuan County RFA
9 January | More than 1,000 People's Armed Police, a paramilitary force, swooped on
Pondha town in Dege county to contain rising opposition to the project, nabbing those
leading the protests, the sources said.
Three Tibetans sentenced over self-immolation in Gansu RFA
9 January | Dorje Rabten, Kalsang Jinpa, and Dorje Tashi were sentenced on Jan. 2 by the
Tsoe city court in Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, according to a source in Tibet.
News
Fire at important Tibetan Buddhist institute ICT
10 January | According to Tibetans in the area who posted the photos on social media, the
fire affected the area where nuns live at Larung Gar, home to Serthar Buddhist Institute in
Kardze prefecture in Sichuan, with at least 100 homes of nuns being burnt down.
Related
Blaze ravages ancient Tibetan town BBC
11 January | Casualties have not so far been reported. The blaze was put out by
2,000 firefighters, police and volunteers, according to local media. Many residents
had to be evacuated and the damage was estimated to be worth 100m yuan ($16m,
£10m), state TV reports.
Fire partially destroys ancient Tibetan town Al Jazeera
11 January | He Yu, a resident, said she woke to loud, explosion-like sounds. "The
fire was huge. The wind was blowing hard, and the air was dry. I was scared
because my home is a little distance away from the ancient town,'' she told news
agency AP. "It kept burning, and the firefighters were there, but there was little they
could do because they could not get the fire engines onto the old town's narrow
streets."
World’s largest Tibetan Buddhist institute ravaged by fire Time
10 January | The fire broke out at 7.30 p.m. on Thursday and around 450 people
joined the rescue operations, where uniformed personnel could be seen working
through the debris side by side with people in Buddhist robes.
Opinion and Analysis
How Xi can solve the Tibet problem  The Diplomat
11 January | Xi Jinping could help quiet unrest in Tibet simply by making sure existing
policies are enacted more efficiently.
The dispossession of Tibet’s nomads  Counterpunch
10 January | As unjust as the Israeli nation building policy is, as a program of coercive
nomadic resettlement it pales in comparison, in scope and in scale, with a much larger
catastrophe for global nomadic culture currently playing out in the great plains of western
China-the Western Development Program, Xabu Da Kaifa in Chinese.
Stumbling toward a more level-headed debate on independence v autonomy in 2014?
TPR
9 January | We believe that Tibetan society must develop a better way to constructively
discuss the independence/autonomy issue. This is one of the most important existential
issues Tibet faces. There must be a way to have a passionate debate without resorting to
personal attacks, emotional outbursts, or insinuations of disloyalty. It is not an exaggeration
to say that the success of the Tibetan cause may depend on it.