Tibet Information Office Australia

DHARAMSHALA: The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile today sent its congratulatory message to the newly elected Australian House Speaker Peter Slipper, lauding his kind support towards the issue of Tibet.
 
TPiE Deputy Speaker Khenpo Sonam Tenphel wished Mr Slipper “great success and expressed hope that the Australian Parliament would achieve many milestones under his leadership”.  
 
“We are highly grateful and extend our appreciation for your kind support towards the Tibetan cause. We continue to look for your greater role in the eventual resolution of the Tibetan issue,” the deputy speaker wrote in the message.
 
“The Tibetan Parliament in Exile is looking for re-strengthen its close ties with the Australian Parliament in years to come,” the message noted.
 
Mr Peter Slipper serves as the vice-chair of the Australian All Parliamentary Group for Tibet and a long time supporter of Tibet.

Co-hosting a visit by His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Australian Parliament in June 2009, Mr Slipper, deputy speaker at that time, received an invitation from His Holiness to visit the Tibetan community in Dharamsala.

He became part of the first-ever Australian All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet delegation to visit Dharamsala in July 2009.

Dharamshala: The Kashag of the Central Tibetan Administration last Friday sent its heartfelt congratulations to Mr Peter Slipper on becoming the 27th Speaker of the

Australian Parliament.
“We would like to express our heartfelt congratulations on your elevation to the post of Speaker of the Australian Parliament’s House of Representatives,” the Kashag said in its congratulatory message.

“The Central Tibetan Administration appreciate the fact that you, in your capacity as Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, co-hosted a visit by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the Australian Parliament in June 2009. The Central Tibetan Administration fondly remembers your visit to the Dharamshala as part of the first Australian All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet to visit Dharamshala in July 2009”, the Kashag said.

“Tibet today is under martial law all but in name as been evidenced by the 11 Tibetans who self-immolated in the recent months. In this regard, we appeal to you to use your unique position for the speedy resolution of the issue of Tibet” the Kashag said.

Mr Peter Slipper became the 27th Speaker of the Australian Parliament House of Representatives on 24 November 2011.

DHARAMSHALA: In an interview with Deutsche Welle in Berlin on Thursday, Kalon Tripa Dr Lobsang Sangay said that China’s moral authority in the world hinged upon it finding a solution to the Tibetan question.

Without morality, Beijing will be feared perhaps but it won’t be respected, he said, and yet this is intrinsic to great power status.

Kalon Tripa said the self-immolations by Tibetans were an act of despair committed by desperate people and that they were in reaction to the repressive policies of the Chinese government.

“However, we do not encourage anybody to choose this form of protest,” he insisted. “Life is very valuable,” he said and pointed out that the Dalai Lama had also spoken out against them,” Dr Sangay added.

“The self-immolations are a sign of hopelessness because many Tibetans believe that the world is no longer interested in their fate,” he said, adding that any sign of support from famous people or governments was important. He said such support could once again create hope.

Dr Lobsang Sangay said he was very disappointed that South Africa had refused the Dalai Lama an entry visa in October to attend Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu’s birthday celebrations. “A friend of the greatest South African leader, who worked so hard for democracy and Nelson Mandela’s release, refuses him entry. That makes me very sad.”

He said he had nothing against doing business with China but that one should not throw all one’s principles overboard.

In the past 50 years, Dr Lobsang Sangay explained, Tibet has invested in non-violence, democracy and dialogue. If the Tibetans are dropped the message sent out to others struggling for autonomy will be devastating – that violence does not pay.

Dr Lobsang Sangay pointed out that it would be in China’s own interest to help Tibet find a “middle way” for autonomy within a Chinese state structure. He even said this would work with the current Chinese constitution. “The ‘one country, two systems’ model is already practiced in Hong Kong and Macau. Beijing even seems willing to grant Taiwan more autonomy,” he said but added that this was perhaps because Chinese people live there, whereas Beijing is wary of Tibetans.

DHARAMSHALA: Jadrel Jampa Trinley Rinpoche, the president of the 11th Panchen Lama’s search committee, who remained missing after serving a six-year imprisonment since 2002 for allegedly disclosing secrets of the case to the outside world, has died at the age of 72, according to reports coming out of Tibet.

On 17 July 1995, he was taken into custody and sentenced to six years in prison when he rejected the Chinese government’s plan to impose their own choice of the Panchen’s

Lama incarnation.

Jadrel Rinpoche served his jail term in Chuandong prison in China’s Sichuan province from 1995 – 2002, during which he once sat on a hunger strike to protest the Chinese government’s unjust verdict.

The Chinese government violated its own law by keeping Jadrel Rinpoche in secret detention even after the latter completed his prison term without committing any additional crimes. His whereabouts has remained unknown since the completion of his imprisonment in 2001/2002.

The report of Jadrel Rinpoche’s death, apparently due to poisoning, was revealed in a tape by his close associate, who is a high official working in the Association of Tibetan Buddhism. The revelation has corroborated the fact of why his whereabouts remained unknown for nearly 10 years.

Jadrel Rinpoche was born in 1940 in Namling in Shigatse and he also served as the director of the Democratic Management Committee of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, the traditional of the Panchen Lamas.

Last November, another senior Tibetan official of the search committee, Jampa Chungla, succumbed to his illness sustained after being denied medical assistance during the long period of incarceration and house arrest. Jampa Chungla’s involvement in the search for Eleventh Panchen began in 1989 when he was appointed as the secretary-general of the committee headed by Jadrel Rinpoche. From 1990 he made great efforts in assisting Jadrel Rinpoche in the search process.

Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the six-year-old boy identified by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama, disappeared on 17 May 1995, two months before the arrest of Jadrel Rinpoche. The Chinese government later admitted to holding the boy and his family in “protective custody”.

Despite repeated appeals to gain access to the boy, no international agency or human rights organisation has been granted contact with the young Panchen Lama or his family. To date, their well-being and whereabouts remain unconfirmed.

 

 

DHARAMSHALA: Kalon Tripa Dr Lobsang Sangay left Dharamsala yesterday for a 12-day visit to Europe from 21 November – 2 December.

Prior to leaving Delhi for Europe, Dr Sangay will attend a conference of Asian youth leaders in New Delhi on 19 November.

Kalon Tripa will visit seven European countries including Switzerland, during which he will meet members of parliament, political analysts, support groups and the media. He will also meet and speak to members of the Tibetan communities based in these countries.

Kalon Tripa will return to Dharamsala on 5 December.