09. Nov 2009
Kathmandu-Lhasa bus service to restart
(Nepalnews; TibetInfoNet) The bus service between Kathmandu and Lhasa, which effectively stopped operating in 2006, will resume service from February 2010. The trans-Himalayan bus service, which commenced on 01 May 2005, was suspended in 2006 due to transportation permit disputes. Unlike the period between 2005-06, the bus line will in future be run by Chinese operators.
11. Nov 2009
China opposed to foreign leaders' contact with Dalai Lama
(Xinhua) Beijing said it firmly opposes foreign leaders' contact with the Dalai Lama after a White House official said that President Barack Obama would be ready to meet the Tibetan leader "at the appropriate time". "China firmly opposes foreign leaders' and officials' contact with the Dalai Lama. Our position on this issue is consistent and clear", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in response to a question about the White House official's remarks. The US official made the statement at a news briefing immediately before President Obama's first state visit to China.
11. Nov 2009
Mustang 'secret meeting' hoax
(Global Village; TibetInfoNet) Various Nepali media outlets reported a 'secret meeting' between Nepal's ex-Prince Paras and the Dalai Lama's envoy Thinley Gyatso on 10 November 2009 at the Tibet-Nepal border in the Mustang district of Nepal. The reports, however, later turned out to be untrue. While ex-Prince Paras was confirmed to have been visiting Mustang on a leisure tour, Thinley Gyatso never left Kathmandu in the said time.
12. Nov 2009
Tibetan writer sentenced to five years
(Tibet.net) Tibetan writer and photographer Gunga Tsangyang has been sentenced to five years imprisonment by a Chinese People's Intermediate Court. Gunga Tsangyang, whose pen name is 'Snow Sun' (Tib: Gangnyi), was convicted on three counts. He faced charges of writing 'splittist' articles, breaching national security, and communicating with Shingsa Rinpoche, an exiled Buddhist leader who lives in south India. The arrest was apparently made because of political essays Gunga Tsangyang published on the website 'Jottings' (Tib: Zindris). Before his arrest, he was planning to establish a Tibetan School for Higher Studies (Tib: Gangjong Thorim Sherig Lobling). Gunga Tsangyang had often spoken about the deterioration of the education standard in Tibet. "The establishment of this school is one of my life's most important goals", he said.
16. Nov 2009
Dalai Lama in Rome to attend convention on Tibet
(IANS) The Dalai Lama arrived in Rome to attend the fifth World Parliamentarians' Convention on Tibet. Samdong Rinpoche, the Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Authority (CTA), will also address the convention, together with an 18-member Tibetan parliamentary delegation led by speaker Penpa Tsering. The convention has been organised jointly by the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, the Italian Parliamentarian Group for Tibet and the International Campaign for Tibet, Europe.
16. Nov 2009
Tibetan cultural website founder sentenced to 15 years
(ICT) The International Campaign for Tibet reports that Kunchok Tsephel, an official in a Chinese government environmental department and founder of the influential Tibetan literary website, 'Butter-Lamp' (Tib: Chodme), has been sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of disclosing state secrets. Some of the charges are believed to relate to content on his website, which aims to protect Tibetan culture, and passing information about protests in Tibet in 2008. Kunchok Tsephel was detained in the early hours of the morning on 26 February 2009. He received his sentence after a closed-door trial at the Intermediate People's Court of Kanlho (Chin: Gannan) TAP, Gansu province.
16. Nov 2009
Document details executed Tibetan's sentence
(RFA) Court documents relating to one of three Tibetans executed by Chinese authorities for their part in the Lhasa unrest of March 2008 have positively confirmed the identity of one of the men, according to RFA. The documents confirm that the Lhasa municipal People's Intermediate Court handed down the death sentence and the "revocation of his life-long political rights" to Lobsang Gyaltsen "for committing arson". The Lhasa municipal procuratorate, or government prosecution service, accused Lobsang Gyaltsen of "actively participating in assault, smashing, looting, and burning" in the Ramoche street area of Lhasa on 14 March 2008. "During the afternoon of that day, Lobsang Gyaltsen set fire to the Hongyu Kuye Garment on Qingnian Lu with the help of fellow accused Pen Kyi", the court judgment said. "The victim Zhao Rancun was a Han Chinese national, 45 years old, who died due to burns2, the judgment said.
17. Nov 2009
Obama urges China to resume dialogue with Dalai Lama
(IANS) President Barack Obama has urged his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Speaking alongside Mr. Hu after talks in Beijing, President Obama said they had also discussed the sensitive issue of human rights. Obama acknowledged that Tibet was an integral part of China, but he encouraged his Chinese host to continue negotiations with the Dalai Lama. The two leaders agreed in March to address issues related to climate change and global economic recovery, but on human rights there is still a deep divide.
17. Nov 2009
16,000 nomadic households in Qinghai 'settled'
(Xinhua) Xinhua reports that there are still 134,000 households of Tibetan nomads in 33 counties of Qinghai province remaining to be settled in permanent homes. So far, 16,000 Tibetan households have been moved into permanent settlements under a compulsory five-year scheme that involves a total of 560,000 nomads. The report cited Vice Governor Deng Bentai as saying the province would spare no efforts to move the remaining herders into permanent homes.
17. Nov 2009
Dalai Lama ready for talks with Beijing
(AFP) The Dalai Lama's office has said the Tibetan leader was ready for the resumption of talks with China as suggested by President Barack Obama during his trip to Beijing. "We are always willing to have talks with China and we hope both sides - the Chinese as well as the Tibetans - are true to their intentions", Chime Choekyapa, spokesman for the Dalai Lama, told AFP. He acknowledged that more radical Tibetan groups were against talks, but said the Dalai Lama was committed to dialogue in his quest for "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet from China.
18. Nov 2009
Dalai Lama appeals to China on drying Tibet rivers
(Reuters) The Dalai Lama has appealed to China to take action to act against Tibet's glaciers melting, saying the environmental crisis was more urgent than a political solution over Tibet's future. Attending a U.N. summit on global hunger in Rome, the Dalai Lama warned that rivers from Tibet's glaciers and snow-covered mountains may dry up in 15 to 20 years and asked Beijing to study the problem together with Tibetan experts. "A political solution (for Tibet) may take time, but that's okay, we can wait", the Dalai Lama told reporters. "But damaging the ecology, year by year, is happening, so we really need serious studies and to make a plan to protect the environment. That is very, very important".
19. Nov 2009
New school for Chinese immigrants in Lhasa?
(Xinhua) Beijing is to spend 46 million Yuan (UK£4m; US$6.7m; EUR€4.5m) to build a middle school in Lhasa, according to Xinhua. The report said the construction of the school, to be located in Liuwu New District, would be completed in 2010. Liuwu (Tib: Ne'u) is a newly-created district dominated by Chinese businesses. The report said the school would provide both junior and senior middle school education to 2,000 students.
20. Nov 2009
NZ PM urged to meet Dalai Lama
(NZ Herald) The Dalai Lama Trust in New Zealand has urged Prime Minister John Key to keep his pre-election promise to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader. The Prime Minister he would not meet the Dalai Lama when he comes to Auckland in December 2009 because there "is no particular reason" to do so. However, Thupten Kesang, chairman of the trust, said: "The reason is for him to keep his promise". The New Zealand Parliament was told that Mr Key had sought advice on foreign policy consequences of meeting the Dalai Lama before deciding not to. Green MP Keith Locke said the refusal to meet the Tibetan monk was an "unofficial boycott".
20. Nov 2009
Tibetan antelope hides destroyed "to show anti-poaching resolution"
(Xinhua) Chinese animal protection authorities in Qinghai province destroyed 2,282 Tibetan antelope hides confiscated from poachers to "show resolution against killing of the rare species". "The hides were seized from poachers over the past ten years", said Cedain Zhou, director of the Hoh Xil Nature Reserve Administration. "We want to show our unswerving attitude in combating poaching". He said the move had been the largest of its kind since 1998 when China began coming down hard on armed poachers in the region. Over the past decade, more than 4,000 Tibetan antelope skins have been confiscated by the administration. To curb the slaughter of Tibetan antelopes, and protect the long term survival of the species, the Chinese government set up the Hoh Xil Nature Reserve in 1995, and upgraded it to a state-listed reserve in 1997.
