Kalon Tripa Samdhong Rinpoche, head of the Kashag (the Cabnet) of the Central Tibetan Administration delivered a keynote address on the ‘Future Prospects for Tibet’ at the India International Centre in New Delhi on Monday.
The lecture was convened by Dalip Mehta, the former ambassador of India to Bhutan and Trustee of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Around thirty people, including officials serving in the Indian government, retired officials and senior correspondents attended at the lecture.
Speaking on the nature of the Tibetan struggle, Kalon Tripa said it was not a political, ideological conflict or an ethnic conflict, nor was it a power struggle, but an issue between truth and false, justice and injustice.
Kalon Tripa said true the nature of the Tibetan struggle is the Tibetan people’s universal responsibility to preserve the precious Buddhist tradition, which is of immense value to all living beings, which originated from the great land of India and is today available in any part of the world.
Kalon Tripa also gave a detail background on the formulation of the Middle-Way Approach to seek meaningful autonomy instead of independence in the mid-1970s and after Deng Xiaoping’s declaration that “except independence” all other issues can be discussed through negotiations.
Kalon Tripa spoke on the prospects of implementing the provisions of national regional autonomy to all the Tibetan inhabited areas, as enshrined in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. If these provisions of Constitution and autonomy law are implemented in true spirit it will ensure the welfare of Tibetan people and the protection of Tibet’s unique culture, religion, tradition and language.