_________________WTN-L World Tibet Network News _________________
Published by: The Canada Tibet Committee
Editorial Board: Brian Given, Conrad Richter, Nima Dorjee,
Tseten Samdup, Thubten (Sam) Samdup
WTN Editors: wtn-editors@tibet.ca
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ISSUE ID: 00/01/23 Compiled by Tseten Samdup
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Sunday, January 23, 2000
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Contents:
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1. Dalai Lama stops short of pleading asylum for Karmapa (IE)
2. India protesters urge asylum for Karmapa Lama (Reuters)
3. China to Create Nature Reserve at Yarlung Zangbo (Xinhua)
4. Monks' painting returned 'as offering' (TP)
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1. Dalai Lama stops short of pleading asylum for Karmapa (IE)
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Indian Express
January 23, 2000
By Neerja Chowdhury
NEW DELHI, JANUARY 22: The Dalai Lama has written to Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee urging him to accord protection to Orgyen Trinley Dorje,
the 17th Karmapa of the Kagyu sect who fled Tibet and arrived in India
early this month, and to allow him to stay in India and get his education
here.The Tibetan leader's missive to Vajpayee is an endorsement of the
request made by the Karmapa himself to the Government to be allowed to stay
on in India and pursue his religious activities.
The Dalai Lama is learnt to have said that the 14-year-old Karmapa was a
person of immense spiritual significance and he should be allowed to go
through appropriate and traditional training by teachers who were all in
India.
Confirming this, Tashi Wangdi, Minister of Religious Affairs of the Tibetan
Government-in-exile in Dharamsala, told The Indian Express that now the
Government had all the information it had sought. ``We are waiting for the
Government's response.''
Asked if the Karmapa had also sent his request in writing, Tashi Wangdi
said: ``Technically, the first step has to be taken by the person himself.
Only then can others plead his case. Whatever the Karmapa wants, to carry
out his religious responsibilities, would have the support of His Holiness
and the support of the Tibetan administration.''
The Government appears to be in no hurry to decide. It is buying time and
has written to the Chinese Government seeking information about the
circumstances surrounding the 14-year-old Lama's flight from Tsurphu
monastery in Tibet. It has yet to hear from the Chinese.
Caught by surprise, the Ministry of External Affairs has been extremely
cautious in its response, even though Defence Minister George Fernandes
said that he could be allowed to stay on for a while.
The Lama's arrival has put New Delhi in a dilemma. It runs the risk of
annoying the Chinese, with whom its relations are slowly improving. Sending
him back would show India in a bad light as not only inhospitable, but also
as having succumbed to China.
While not inclined to give the Karmapa ``political asylum,'' it is trying
to evolve what kind of status it should confer on him. Some hope that it
may be possible for a third country like the US to take him.
In his note to Vajpayee, the Dalai Lama has reportedly not sought
``political asylum'' for the Karmapa. Asked about it, Wangdi replied, ``I
have never used that term.''
Ajit Panja, Minister of State for External Affairs, possibly gave a clue to
what might be a way out when he said that India was a home of all religions
and it welcomed all kinds of religious leaders.
The Government is also concerned about the ``Sikkim angle.'' A couple of
years ago, the Chief Minister of Sikkim had written to the Centre urging it
to let the Lama come to Sikkim. When the 16th Karmapa fled Tibet in 1959,
the then Chogyal of Sikkim had offered him a site not far from Gangtok at
Rumtek to build his monastery there on the lines of the Tsurphu monastery,
which is the original seat of the Kagyu sect.
The 17th Karmapa's advisors would like him to head the Rumtek monastery but
there are other claimants to it even though the Dalai Lama, who is
considered the highest religious authority of Tibetans, had in 1992 given
recognition to Dorje as the incarnation of the 16th Karmapa who died in
1981. South Block is worried that the conflict over Rumtek may come to
destabilise the political situation in Sikkim. As it is, China does not
recognise the union of Sikkim with India.
Aware of the concerns of the Government, both the Dalai Lama and the
Karmapa have made themselves incommunicado. And Tashi Wangdi said: ``Though
we are waiting for the Indian Government's decision, we would not be
surprised if it takes a few weeks.''
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2. India protesters urge asylum for Karmapa Lama (Reuters)
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JAMMU, India, Jan 22 (Reuters) - More than 5,000 Buddhists braved Himalayan
cold on Saturday in a demonstration that urged the Indian government to
grant political asylum to a high-ranking Tibetan lama who left his homeland
for India.
The 17th Karmapa Lama, the highest Tibetan lama whose authority is
recognised by China, fled Lhasa and arrived in Dharamsala in India on
January 5 after an arduous 1,400-km (875 mile) journey through the
snowbound Himalayas.
An organisation representing Buddhists in Ladakh, the mountainous enclave
of the Kashmir region whose culture is close to that of Tibet, said in a
statement that a delegation of Ladakhis would soon meet Indian Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in Delhi to press for the teenaged lama to be
given asylum.
"Our country stands for humanitarian values and ideals. Granting of asylum
and hospitality...will stand with those lofty ideals of the country,"
Tsering Samphel, president of the Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA) was
quoted as saying in a statement faxed to Reuters in Jammu, winter capital
of the Jammu and Kashmir province.
The statement said the protesters walked through the streets of Leh, the
headquarters of Ladakh, after which Samphel addressed them. Leh, located at
a height of 11,500 feet, is one of India's coldest places.
Indian officials say the lama has not asked yet for asylum.
The boy monk's journey revived memories of the escape of Tibetan spiritual
leader Dalai Lama to India four decades ago.
Thousands of Tibetans led by the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959, nine
years after China's communist army entered Tibet and overthrew the Buddhist
theocracy there.
The 14-year-old Karmapa Lama created a religious and diplomatic storm when
he arrived in Dharamsala, the Indian headquarters of the Dalai Lama, who
runs a Tibetan government in exile from the Himalayan town.
The Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for advocating a
non-violent campaign for genuine autonomy to preserve Tibetan language and
culture.
China says the boy lama left Tibet to collect symbolic ritual implments
that belonged to the previous Karmapa Lama, leaving the door open for his
return.
In a rare act of unity between Beijing and the Dalai Lama, both sides
approved the boy as the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa Lama in 1992.
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3. China to Create Nature Reserve at Yarlung Zangbo (Xinhua)
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XINHUA is the official news agency of the People's Republic of China
LHASA (Jan. 21) XINHUA - The Forestry Department of Tibet Autonomous
Region recently approved a plan to create a state-level natural reserve at
the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon.
The decision to establish the reserve was made on the basis of a
scientific survey, during which the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon was
confirmed as the world's longest, deepest, and perhaps most dangerous
gorge.
At the conclusion of the survey, scientists in Tibet and at the
Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Sciences drew up a detailed plan for the
protection of animal, plants and geological features at the canyon.
The nature reserve will encompass 9,618 square kilometers in southeastern
Tibet where some 14,900 people now live. To protect the canyon, the
regional government has banned any form of development before a scientific
development program is worked out.
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4. Monks' painting returned 'as offering' (TP)
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(The Press - Christchurch, 17 January 2000)
DUNEDIN -- About 160 hours work on a traditional Tibetan sand mandala
(painting) has been swept up and poured into Otago Harbour.
The mandala, which took three southern Indian Buddhist monks seven days to
create, had been on display at Otago Museum for the last week.
Yesterday it was swept into vases and poured into the harbour as a
traditional offering, nun Jampa Drolma, of Dunedin's Dhargyey Buddhist
Centre, said.
"This mandala design represents compassion and has been handed down for the
past 2500 years. Its design never changes," she said.
Mandalas were created from enlightened Buddhist meditations.
Creation of the mandala -- overseen by the venerable Geshe Dr Sangyey
Trinley was done by pouring dyed sands into place with metal funnels.
The sand was returned to the sea to show the painting's impermanence.
It was also an offering to underwater deities held in esteem in the
Buddhist faith.
--NZPA
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