The Aug. 10 meeting with Ngodup Dongchung—a representative of the Dharamsala, India-based Tibetan exile government, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA)—followed an earlier meeting in July between Dongchung and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The CTA representative and Atul Keshap, now named as the new U.S. ambassador to India, had met briefly during the July 28 meeting with Blinken, Dongchung told RFA.

“This time we went to welcome Ambassador Keshap in his new post in New Delhi,” Dongchung said.

“We had a great conversation with the ambassador where he assured us that the U.S. supports Tibet’s religious freedom and the preservation of Tibet’s cultural and linguistic identities and respects the Dalai Lama’s vision for the equal rights of all people,” he said.

“He also asked about His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s health,” he said.

Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet into India with thousands of his followers amid a failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, and has lived in exile in India ever since.

The Chinese Embassy in India on Aug. 11 slammed Dongchung’s meeting with Keshap, calling it “a provocative act” and saying “Tibetan affairs are purely China’s internal affairs that allow no foreign interference.”

“Cordial meetings that take place in a free and democratic country do not need anybody’s approval,” Dongchung said, adding, “These accusations of ‘interfering in China’s internal affairs,' and calling these meetings a ‘separatist act’ are baseless, and no one should pay any attention to them.”

Delivering on promises

The recent series of U.S. contacts with the CTA shows that President Joe Biden is delivering on his campaign promises regarding Tibet, said Tenzin Lhadon, a research fellow at the Dharamshala, India-based Tibet Policy Institute, speaking to RFA in an earlier report.

“President Joe Biden said that if elected, his administration will meet with the Dalai Lama and work on resolving the Tibetan issue, as mandated by last year’s Tibet Policy and Support Act 2020,” Lhadon said.

“I think this visit reassures us of the Biden administration’s commitment to the Tibetan issue," he said.

The Tibetan Policy Support Act of 2020 affirms as U.S. policy the right of Tibetans to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose advancing age has underscored uncertainties in recent years over his possible successor.

Beijing claims the right to name the Dalai Lama’s successor, while the 86-year-old spiritual leader himself says that any future Dalai Lama will be born outside of territory controlled by China.

Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force 70 years ago.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.

Reported by RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Sherab Dorje, age 19 and a resident of Trotsik township in the Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, was taken into custody near his home and led away in handcuffs, a local resident told RFA’s Tibetan Service.

“A few police officers recently arrived in Trotsik to enforce the Communist Party’s political education campaign for young Tibetans to ensure they don’t rebel against the government’s policies,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Sherab Dorje didn’t attend the meeting, so he was arrested later near his house and put in handcuffs,” the source said, adding, “He’s still being held in custody.”

Dorje, a graduate of the Machu County Middle School in Gansu province's Kanlho (Gannan) prefecture, may also have come to the attention of police by joining with students in submitting a petition opposing county government orders to give classroom instruction only in Chinese when schools reopen at the end of this year’s summer vacation, sources said.

Language rights have become a particular focus for Tibetan efforts to assert national identity in recent years, with Tibetan schools including kindergartens and elementary schools now teaching almost entirely in Chinese.

Informally organized language courses in the monasteries and towns are typically deemed “illegal associations” and teachers are subject to detention and arrest, sources say.

Politically sensitive discussions

Police in Trotsik also arrested a senior monk at a local monastery last month on suspicion of holding politically sensitive discussions on the popular WeChat social media platform, sources told RFA in an earlier report.

Konmey, a 45-year-old monk in charge of discipline at Ngaba’s Trotsik monastery, was taken into custody on July 20, a source in Ngaba told RFA.

“He had performed prayers on his WeChat group, but he only talked about the number of prayers he had accumulated,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He said nothing at all about political issues.”

Communications clampdowns in Tibet and Tibetan areas of western China have made it difficult to learn the details of protests, arrests, or other information considered politically sensitive by Chinese authorities, sources have told RFA.

Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force 70 years ago.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.

Reported by Sangyal Kunchok for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney.

"Only by following the [Chinese Communist party] leadership and pursuing the path of socialism, can Tibet achieve development and prosperity," Wang Yang, a member of the powerful politburo standing committee, told a crowd in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the traditional home of Tibet’s Buddhist leaders, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

The intense security and restrictions on movement in the run up to the Aug. 19 anniversary event, however, prompted Tibetans to mock China’s description of the armed invasion 70 years ago as the “Peaceful Liberation” of their region.

“The Chinese government claims that they have liberated Tibet in the last 70 years, but in reality, Tibetans have been under constant restrictions and scrutiny,” said a resident of Lhasa, the regional capital, who complained that local residents had to endure “the same situation of heavy restrictions in place all around Lhasa” at the 60^th anniversary in 2011.

“It’s been 70 years since China forcefully invaded Tibet, but they have not been able to win the hearts of the Tibetans,” said another source in Lhasa, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

 “In attempting to legitimize the invasion of Tibet, Chinese government has been spreading propaganda for the last 70 years using their state media and distorting the historic facts of Tibet and Tibetan identity, which is very disturbing,” the source added.

'Occupation and oppression'

An independent nation for centuries, Tibet’s incorporation into China by force has been enforced, by tight restrictions on the six million Tibetans’ political activities and expression of cultural and religious identity, as well as a catalog of well-documented persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.

“For us Tibetans, what China celebrates as ‘Liberation Day’ is the anniversary of occupation and oppression,” Sikyong Penpa Tsering, the elected head of the exile Tibetan government in Dharamsala, India said during India’s 75^th Independence Day celebration on Aug. 15.

“With human rights violations still ongoing in Tibet and other regions under Chinese occupation, the CCP’s claims of the ‘liberation of Tibet’ begs the question: ‘From what or whom was Tibet liberated?’” he said.

Gonpo Dhundup, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress in Dharamsala said his people had experienced “70 years of sweat and tears” since the Chinese takeover.

“The Chinese government is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the so -called peaceful liberation of Tibet in Lhasa today but for us Tibetans it's a dark day,” he told RFA.

Wang Yang and the 22-member CCP delegation gave “washing machines to farmers and herdsmen, and present souvenirs such as medical and health kits to cadres and employees, which fully reflects the special support for work in Tibet, care and concern for cadres and masses of all ethnic groups in Tibet from Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core,” said Zhao Huinian, deputy CCP secretary-general of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

“After 70 years of oppression, the only thing the Tibetan people need ‘peaceful liberation’ from today is China’s brutality,” said the International Campaign for Tibet.

“Rather than force an empty celebration on the Tibetan people, the Chinese government should sit down with Tibetan leaders and the Dalai Lama’s representatives to negotiate meaningful autonomy that will bring actual peace and basic freedoms back to Tibet,” the Washington, DC-based advocacy group said.

Broken promises

The Dalai Lama, who turned 86 last month, fled Tibet for India in 1959, eight years after he signed a 17-point agreement with Beijing under duress that promised Tibet would enjoy full autonomy without interference by the Chinese government in the region’s religion, customs, and internal administration.

None of the promises were kept, and Beijing has stepped up its effort to assimilate the Tibetans, while imposing strict surveillance and controls on communications in Tibet and Tibetan areas of western China that make it difficult to learn details of protests, arrests, or other information considered politically sensitive.

“China’s government has relentlessly assaulted the human rights, ​the unique religious, linguistic, cultural freedoms, and dignity of Tibetans,” a U.S. State Department spokesman told RFA’s Tibetan Service.

“We will work with our allies and partners to press Beijing to return to direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives to achieve meaningful autonomy for Tibetans, respect for human rights, and the preservation of Tibet’s environment as well as its unique cultural, linguistic, and religious traditions,” the spokesman said when asked about China’s violation of the 1951 pact.

The secrecy and tight security surrounding the 70^th anniversary event “signifies that there is no stability in Tibet,” Ngawang Woebar, a monk in Dharamsala who participated in big 1987 protests in Tibet against Chinese rule, told RFA.

“Those who have not experienced life in Tibet will feel that everything is prosperous. But the Tibetans who have experienced Tibetan religion, culture and customs will know that everything in Tibet about ‘peaceful liberation’ is a façade,” he said.

“If they let Tibetans speak freely. they would know the real aspirations of Tibetans in Tibet.”

Reported by Kalden Lodoe and Yangdon Demo for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickey. Written in English by Paul Eckert.

Ajaja, formerly a monk at Kirti monastery in Sichuan’s Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, was released on Dec. 10 and returned to his family home, Tibetan sources living in India said.

“Ajaja arrived at his home earlier this month,” Kanyak Tsering—a spokesman at Kirti’s Dharamsla-based branch monastery in exile—said, citing contacts in Ngaba.

“He was believed to have been arrested for organizing a grand celebration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s birthday in Ngaba,” Tsering said.

“It was a rare public celebration of the Dalai Lama’s birthday, and Ajaja along with most of the organizers were arrested following the event,” he added.

Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is widely reviled by Chinese leaders as a dangerous separatist intent on splitting Tibet, a formerly independent Himalayan country which was invaded and incorporated into Communist China by force in 1950, from Beijing’s control.

The Dalai Lama himself says only that he seeks a greater autonomy for Tibet as a part of China, though, with guaranteed protections for Tibet’s language, culture, and religion.

Tightened restrictions

Chinese authorities had tightened restrictions across Tibetan-populated regions in 2016 in advance of the Dalai Lama’s July 6 birthday, posting warnings against celebrations of the politically sensitive event and blocking public gatherings that could be linked to it.

Ajaja had been jailed once before, Kanyak Tsering said, serving a three-year prison term for an anti-government protest following the death of Kirti monk Lobsang Phuntsok, who set himself ablaze and died in March 2011 to oppose China’s rule in Tibetan areas.

“So this is his second release from prison,” Tsering said.

No word was immediately available concerning Ajaja’s present state of health following his second three-year term in a Chinese prison, where Tibetans convicted of political offenses are often tortured, beaten, or otherwise harshly treated.

Nine other Tibetans jailed alongside Ajaja, and serving prison terms ranging from five to 14 years, have still not been released, Tibetan sources said.

Reported by Lobe Socktsang for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Phakdon. Written in English by Richard Finney.

The TPSA will “dramatically upgrade US support for Tibetans in key areas,” the Washington D.C.-based International Campaign for Tibet said in statement following the bill’s passage as part of a spending bill Monday.

It will also present “a direct challenge to China’s continuing repression of the Tibetan people,” ICT said.

Introduced with bipartisan support in the House by Representatives James McGovern and Chris Smith, and by Senators Marco Rubio and Ben Cardin, the legislation will provide funding for Tibetan humanitarian and development assistance projects both inside and outside Tibet until at least 2025.

It will also address water security and climate change issues in Tibet, recognizing the strategic importance of the Tibetan plateau, whose rivers provide sources of water to more than a billion people living downstream in Asia.

The bill also requires China to allow the opening of a U.S. consulate in Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa before any new Chinese consulate can open in the United States.

Finally, it will establish a U.S. policy that the selection of Tibetan religious leaders, including future successors to exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, is a decision to be made only by Tibetans, free from Chinese government interference.

Sanctions targeting Chinese officials attempting to name a new Dalai Lama will be mandated under the Act.

Concerns over the advancing age of the Dalai Lama, now 85, have renewed uncertainties in recent years over his possible successor after he dies, with Beijing claiming the right to name his successor and the Dalai Lama himself saying that any future Dalai Lama will be born outside of China.

The Tibetan Policy and Support Act passed by the Congress also commends Tibetan exile communities around the world for adopting through the CTA “a system of self-governance with democratic institutions to choose their leaders,” with elections in 2011 and again in 2016 deemed free and fair by international observers.

“[But] the Dalai Lama has said that the CTA will cease to exist once a negotiated settlement [with China] has been achieved that allows Tibetans to freely enjoy their culture, religion, and language in Tibet,” the Act points out.

'Significant signal to Beijing'

Reached for comment on Monday, CTA president Sikyong Lobsang Sangay welcomed U.S. acknowledgement of the Central Tibetan Administration and its leaders, calling the move “a significant signal to Beijing,” which had strongly objected to a Nov. 20 visit by Sangay to the White House to meet with administration officials.

Talks on greater autonomy in Tibet held between Chinese officials and envoys of the Dalai Lama stalled in 2010 and were never resumed, noted ICT vice president Bhuchung Tsering.

“Now, the TPSA has strengthened the responsibility and authority of the [State Department’s] U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues to press for the dialogue to begin again,” Tsering said.

In Beijing on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a daily news briefing that Tibet, Taiwan, and Hong Kong "are China's internal affairs that allow no foreign interference."

“We urge the United States to stop meddling in our domestic affairs under those pretexts, refrain from signing the bills or implementing the negative contents and items in them that target China and undercut China's interests, so as to avoid further damaging overall China-U.S. cooperation and bilateral relations,” Wang said.

A formerly independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force nearly 70 years ago, following which the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled into exile in India and other countries around the world.

The United States has officially recognized Tibet as a part of the People’s Republic of China ever since, but presses in diplomatic exchanges with Beijing for greater autonomy and protections for Tibet’s culture, language, and religion in Tibetan regions of China.

Chinese authorities meanwhile maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of ethnic and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.

Reported by Tashi Wangchuk and Nordhey Dolma for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tashi Wangchuk. Written in English by Richard Finney.

The first three days of the New Year, beginning this year on Feb. 12 and called Losar in Tibetan, are usually packed with festivals and religious ceremonies, with most Tibetan Buddhists across the region visiting monasteries and temples for traditional observances.

Responsibility for traditional prayer festivals at Gansu province’s Labrang Tashi Kyil and Qinghai’s Rebgong Rongwo monastery has now been taken from the monasteries themselves and put in the hands of local religious affairs committees, one local source told RFA’s Tibetan Service.

“According to strict guidelines, the monasteries will not be allowed to independently arrange the routines of the Choetrul Monlam prayer festival,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Also called Monlam Chenmo, the annual prayer festival traditionally draws thousands of participants, but attendance at Labrang and Rebgong will be limited this year to monastery residents and a few selected locals “as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus,” the source said, quoting official notices.

“Monasteries in the Qinghai region have also been barred from hanging decorated tapestries related to the annual prayers and from performing the traditional Cham religious dances,” a source living in Rebgong said.

In Gansu, Labrang monastery will remain closed to visitors from Feb. 12 to Feb. 28, while at Kumbum monastery in Qinghai, members of the public have been barred from taking part in a special flower ritual usually performed on the 15^th day of Losar—this year on Feb. 26—with concerns over the spread of COVID-19 cited by authorities as the reason for the ban.

“Local Tibetans are also barred from taking part in Choetrul Monlam in Dargye monastery in [Sichuan’s] Kardze [Ganzi] prefecture, and in other monasteries nearby,” another source said. “According to notices sent out by local Chinese officials, the guidelines and restrictions must be obeyed in order to contain the spread of coronavirus.”

Buddhist monasteries in Tibet and Tibetan-populated regions of western China have frequently become the focus of efforts to promote not just religious but Tibetan cultural values, and residents in some areas have voiced doubts over official reasons for the restrictions on attendance at traditional events.

Reported by Lhuboom and Chakmo Tso for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Driven by state interests, Beijing’s plans for developing Tibet have left Tibetans “alienated and isolated from meaningful development and modernization,” says the report by the Dharamsala, India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, “Distorted Development: Chinese Discourses on the Right to Development and its Implementation in Tibet.”

“The international community has repeatedly condemned the Chinese government for their violations of human rights inside Tibet,” said TCHRD director Tsering Tsomo, speaking at a press conference in Dharamsala on Tuesday to announce the release of the report.

“But the Chinese Communist Party has explicitly ignored this by highlighting what it calls the heightened Chinese model of development and infrastructure,” which it says is lifting Tibetans out of poverty in Tibet, Tsomo said.

“The Chinese government insists that the economic welfare of the people is their most important right,” Tsomo said, adding, “However, they have threatened all other fundamental rights by making them subordinate to economic rights.”

“And the government has also failed to provide any disaggregated data to show the number of Tibetans who are actually benefiting from this development,” she said.

China’s development policies in Tibet are designed “to assimilate the region and its people into the framework of a single Chinese national identity rather than to meaningfully improve the lives of Tibetans,” TCHRD says in its report, pointing to the widespread forced removal of Tibetan herders from traditional grazing grounds.

“Because China’s development policy has succeeded in urbanizing rural Tibetans and erasing their land rights, it has succeeded in creating pristine wilderness through depopulation, sinicizing economic centres in towns and cities ensuring investments and profits flow back to China Proper,” the rights group says.

It has also built infrastructure, including highways and railways, to pull Tibet and its resources “closer to China, extracting natural minerals and resources, and building hydroelectric power to fulfill distant coastal China’s thirst for energy.”

'Remittance economy'

Bilingual education schemes that undermine the teaching of the Tibetan language have further disadvantaged Tibetans looking for employment in profitable sectors of the economy, while Tibetan herders forced from their land have been left unprepared for a shift to the modern job market now dominated by Chinese migrants, TCHRD says in its report.

Preferential investment by China in Chinese companies in Tibetan urban areas has meanwhile ensured that profits flow out of Tibet and back to China, making Tibet a “remittance economy.”

“In the future, as China accelerates and intensified efforts to move Tibetans to urban centres, this will mean a continued pattern of marginalization and alienation from economic opportunities that are already dominated by migrants,” TCHRD sayds.

“Tibetans insufficiently prepared for the socioeconomic shift from rural living to the modern job market will continue to be relegated in job opportunities in favor of migrants, and directly marginalized by policy implemented in the name of development.”

Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force nearly 70 years ago, and the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled into exile in India and other countries around the world following a failed 1959 national uprising against Chinese rule.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.

Reported by Ugyen Tenzin for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney.

On Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, RFA’s Tibetan Service remembers five long-serving political prisoners who passed away this year inside Tibet or in exile:

Takna Jigme Sangpo, famous as Tibet’s longest-serving political prisoner, died on Oct. 17 in Switzerland at the age of 91 after spending 37 years in Chinese prisons and 18 years in exile, where he spoke out against Chinese human rights abuses in Tibet.

Ama Adhe, who spent more than a quarter century as a political prisoner for her role in supporting the armed resistance to Chinese invaders in eastern Tibet in the 1950s, died on Aug. 3 in Dharamsala, India, at the age of 88. Captured by the Chinese in 1958, she spent the next 27 years in prison, enduring torture, forced labor, and constant hunger, before finally being released in 1985 and later escaping into exile in India.

Tsering Bakdro, died on April 26 at the age of 51 at his home in Maldro Gongkar county in the Tibet Autonomous Region’s Lhasa municipality after suffering years of poor health following his release from a prison term served for challenging Chinese rule in Tibetan areas. Formerly a monk in Tibet’s Ganden monastery, Bakdro was arrested in 1992 after launching a protest with others in Lhasa in which they called for Tibet’s independence and carried the banned Tibetan national flag.

Choekyi, a former political prisoner, died on May 7 at his home in China’s Sichuan province after authorities repeatedly denied his requests to seek medical treatment for failing health resulting from harsh treatment in prison. He had served a four-year term in Sichuan’s Mianyang Prison for making a T-shirt celebrating the 80^th birthday of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and was released on Jan. 18, 2019. During his detention, Chinese police severely tortured him, resulting in damage to his liver and kidneys.

Lhamo, a 36-year-old herder and mother of three in Nagchu prefecture’s Driru county, died in August after being tortured in Chinese custody. She was detained by police in June for sending money to India and died shortly after being sent to a hospital by police. Chinese authorities did not allow Lhamo’s family to perform traditional funeral ceremonies and forced them to cremate her body immediately.

Many held this year

The Chinese government in 2020 detained many Tibetans for the peaceful expression of their views in a political climate in which almost any expression of Tibetan identity or culture is considered illegal. A few are named here:

Lhundrub Drakpa, a Tibetan singer, was sentenced in June to six years in prison for a song criticizing repressive Chinese government policies in Nagchu’s Driru county. He was detained in May 2019, two months after his song “Black Hat” was released, and was held in pre-trial detention for more than a year without access to legal representation.

Khandro Tsetan, a songwriter, and Tsego, a singer, were charged this year with “subversion” and “leaking state secrets” after composing and circulating a song praising exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. A Chinese court in northeastern Tibet in July sentenced Tsetan to seven years in prison, and Tsego to a three-year term.

Tsering Tso, a Tibetan woman known for her advocacy on social media of democracy and the rule of law, was fined and held in administrative detention for 10 days in Trika county in northwestern China’s Qinghai province before being released under continuing surveillance.

Tharpa, a 39-year-old Driru county businessman and former monk at the Larung Bar Buddhist Academy in Sichuan, was detained in June for sending books of religious teachings to India and for sending money to family members and other Tibetans living in exile. Tharpa had worked for the protection and preservation of Tibetan language, culture, and national identity under Chinese rule.

 Gendun Lhundrub, aged 46 and formerly a monk at the Rongwo monastery in Rebgong county in Qinghai, was arrested on Dec. 2 by police who had monitored his activities for signs of political dissent, and is now being held in an undisclosed location. In October, Lhundrub had released an anthology of poetry and wrote on social media that writers and artists require freedom to express their thoughts and emotions without restriction.

Kunsang Gyaltsen, a native of Qinghai’s Mangra county and researcher at Tibet University in Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa, was arrested in June for circulating booklets containing unauthorized views of Tibet’s political history. Word of Gyaltsen’s arrest was delayed in reaching outside contacts, and no word has been received on his present whereabouts despite numerous attempts by family members to learn where he is being held.

Only a few cases identified

Speaking to RFA in an interview, Tenzin Dawa—a researcher at the Dharamsala, India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD)—said that these are only the cases that have come to light during the year.

“There were many more incidents and cases that we haven’t identified yet,” Dawa said. “The Chinese government is violating the [U.N.] International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which China signed and agreed to abide by.”

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is one of some 60 rights instruments under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Dec. 10, 1948.

Estimates of political prisoners in Tibet range from more than 500 in U.S. Congressional reports to more than 2,000 in a database kept by the TCHRD.

Reported by Urgen Tenzin for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama declared his intention on Thursday to live a long life, citing an eighteenth-century prophecy that he could live to the age of 113.

Speaking in Dharamsala, India—where he has lived since fleeing his homeland in a failed 1959 national uprising against Chinese rule—the 85-year-old Dalai Lama said that his life has been strengthened by the Tibetan people’s faith and trust.

“It is due to the unwavering faith, trust and devotion that millions of Tibetans have vested in me that I sincerely hope and pray to live as long as I could,” the Dalai Lama said, speaking on the 31^st anniversary of winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

“In the past decades, I have been able to significantly contribute to the flourishing of Tibetan culture and Buddhism, and it is my wish to live long enough to continue to fulfill the hopes of the six million Tibetans,” the exiled spiritual leader said.

A divination by the eighteenth-century lama Getse Pandita, who lived at the time of the 7th Dalai Lama, prophesied that the  present 14th Dalai Lama would live to at least the age of 113, the Dalai Lama said, adding that the prophecy was confirmed by another lama, Kathok Getse Rinpoche, who died in December 2018.

An estimated 6.3 million Tibetans live in China, and a diaspora estimated at 150,000 reside in India, Nepal, North America, and Europe.

Uncertainties over succession

Concerns over the health of the Dalai Lama have renewed uncertainties in recent years over his possible successor after he dies, with Beijing claiming the right to name his successor and the Dalai Lama himself saying that any future Dalai Lama will be born outside of China.

Meetings between the Dalai Lama and foreign leaders have meanwhile drawn the anger of Beijing, which regards the exiled spiritual leader and Nobel laureate as a separatist seeking to split Tibet from China’s rule.

In what he calls a Middle Way Approach, though, the Dalai Lama says that he seeks only a “meaningful autonomy” for Tibet as a part of China, with guaranteed protections for the region’s language, religion, and culture.

A formerly independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force nearly 70 years ago, following which the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled into exile in India and other countries around the world.

Chinese authorities meanwhile maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of ethnic and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.

Falling this year on Feb. 12, the first three days of the New Year are usually packed with festivals and religious ceremonies, with most Tibetan Buddhists in Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa visiting temples during the holiday.

Major religious sites in Lhasa including the Potala Palace and Drepung and Sera monasteries are now shuttered, though, with authorities citing coronavirus concerns as the reason they were closed, sources in Lhasa say.

“I wanted to celebrate Losar openly,” one Lhasa resident told RFA’s Tibetan Service, speaking on condition of anonymity. “But then due to harassment and restrictions put in place by the Chinese authorities, I don’t feel like celebrating at all.”

Traditional Losar activities such as horse racing and other cultural activities have also been banned by Chinese authorities, a resident of Tibet’s Chamdo prefecture said, adding, “We are not even allowed to hold small gatherings indoors.”

Tibetans are also barred from holding social gatherings and visits to monasteries and temples during Losar in Nyagrong (in Chinese, Xinlong) county in Sichuan’s Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, a county resident said.

“Anyone found violating these restrictions will be punished,” he said.

“The local authorities held a meeting before Losar and told us we had to stay at home during the New Year,” added a resident of Sichuan’s Lithang (Litang) county. “We are not allowed to hold gatherings or even to go outside,” he added.

Qinghai province’s Kumbum monastery was meanwhile closed until the third day of Losar, with the sale of visitors’ tickets ended two days ahead of the start of the holiday, effectively blocking pilgrims’ participation in the monastery’s scheduled ceremonies, local sources told RFA.

Many Tibetans were not aware of the notice limiting hours of access, which was issued by monastery managers citing the need to control the spread of COVID-19, one source said. “So Tibetans who came to visit the monastery from far away ended up staying in nearby hotels, waiting for the monastery to reopen.”

Buddhist monasteries in Tibet and Tibetan-populated provinces of western China have frequently become the focus of efforts to promote not just religion but Tibetan cultural values, and Chinese security forces often monitor and sometimes close down events involving large crowds.

United States pledges support

The U.S. State Department In a show of support for Tibetans’ cultural freedoms held a virtual celebration of the Losar holiday on Feb. 12, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledging the commitment of U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to “preserving, protecting and honoring the Tibetans’ linguistic, religious and cultural heritage.”

“We look forward to celebrating this tradition with you during Losar and on many other occasions for years to come,” Blinken said.

Lisa Peterson—Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor—said the United States “will continue to work with our partners and allies to press the People’s Republic of China to grant meaningful autonomy to Tibetans, respect their human rights, and preserve Tibet’s environment as well as its rich historical, cultural, and religious traditions.”

“We will not tolerate the Chinese government’s relentless assault on the dignity and human rights of Tibetans and other minority groups,” Peterson said.

Also speaking at the virtual celebration, Ngodup Tsering—representative in Washington D.C. of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama—thanked the State Department for its hosting of the event, adding, “Although Losar is an occasion for celebration, I cannot help but think of our brothers and sisters who continue to suffer in Tibet.”

Chinese forced-labor programs, policies marginalizing the Tibetan language, and the Sinicization of Tibetan religion are “aimed at nothing but the total assimilation and elimination of Tibetan identity,” Tsering said.

“But the Chinese Communist Party will not succeed, as the Tibetans will not let them succeed,” he said.

A formerly independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force nearly 70 years ago, and the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled into exile in India and other countries around the world following a failed 1959 national uprising against Chinese rule.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.

Reported by Lobsang Choephel and Taklha Gyal for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Kunchok Jinpa, aged 51 and a resident of Driru (in Chinese, Biru) county in Tibet’s Nagchu (Naqu) municipality, had vanished in custody after being detained on Nov. 8, 2013, and died on Feb. 6, three months after being admitted to hospital suffering from paralysis and a brain hemorrhage, according to local sources.

Jinpa had gone to live and study in exile in India in 1989 and returned to Tibet in 1998 to work as a tour guide, and was widely respected in his community, sources told RFA’s Tibetan Service.

“Following Kunchok Jinpa’s return to Driru from India, he made a huge impact on Tibetans living inside Tibet by providing guidance and advice on the need for unity and education to preserve Tibetan identity,” Yarthar—a former Driru resident now living in India—said.

“People adored and trusted him immensely.”

“Kunchok Jinpa’s death [at the hands of China] is a clear picture of the cost of disclosing true information from inside Tibet to the outside world,” Yarthar said.

After Jinpa was detained in 2013, Tibetans living in India faced an almost complete shutdown of news coming from Driru, a member of Tibet’s India-based parliament in exile named Ngawang Tharpa said, adding, “Many of us have had hardly any communication at all with our people there for six or seven years.”

“Kunchok Jinpa was a very important source for us, and he was a very brave man,” Tharpa said.

Also speaking to RFA, a close friend in Tibet said that Jinpa had often performed long-life prayer rituals for exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, including once by prostrating himself along the length of a trip made from Driru to Tibet's regional capital Lhasa, hundreds of miles away.

"And in a display of support for the Dalai Lama's call to end the use of animal skins in Tibet, he encouraged others to stop using animal skins for clothes," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"He also refused to hoist the Chinese national flag on the roof of his house," he said, adding that since Jinpa had once lived in India, he was "aware of many things" and had often helped and guided Tibetans wanting to go there.

"And since he was educated himself, he considered education and economic empowerment to be the younger generation's most important requirements for living a decent life."

'Just the latest case'

One of hundreds detained in Driru protests in October 2013 against Chinese orders that Tibetans fly China’s national flag from their homes, Jinpa was also suspected of supplying information to outside media sources on a Tibetan protest against mining on a sacred mountain, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a Feb. 16 statement.

“Kunchok Jinpa’s death is yet another grim case of a wrongfully imprisoned Tibetan dying from mistreatment,” said HRW China director Sophie Richardson. “Chinese authorities responsible for arbitrary detention, torture or ill-treatment, and the death of people in their custody should be held accountable.”

“This is just the latest case of a Tibetan dying after being imprisoned for daring to defy the occupying Chinese government,” added John Jones, Campaigns Manager at London-based Free Tibet, in a Feb. 17 statement. Jones noted that news of the death of a young Tibetan monk detained for taking part in a peaceful protest had only recently been smuggled out of Tibet.

Tenzin Nyima, 19, was detained in August 2020 after distributing leaflets and shouting slogans calling for Tibetan independence, and died in January in Sichuan’s Dartsedo (Kangding) county of injuries sustained from beatings and torture in a Chinese prison, sources told RFA in an earlier report.

Of the estimated thousand Tibetans detained by Chinese authorities in Driru since 2013, the whereabouts of around 600 are still unknown, Pema Gyal—a researcher at the Dharamsala, India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy—told RFA.

“The Chinese government over the years has imprisoned many Tibetans like Kunchok Jinpa on false allegations, and many have reportedly died due to torture in the prisons,” Gyal said.

U.S. promises support for Tibet

In a statement Wednesday, a U.S. State Department spokesman said "The United States stands with the many Tibetans oppressed and imprisoned by the [People’s Republic of China] for the peaceful exercise of their human rights.”

“We urge PRC authorities to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” the department said, adding that the U.S. will work with its partners and allies to press Beijing to engage in direct dialogue with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama or his representatives to resolve differences.

“The United States supports meaningful autonomy for Tibetans,” the State Department said.

A formerly independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force nearly 70 years ago, and the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled into exile in India and other countries around the world following a failed 1959 national uprising against Chinese rule.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.

Reported by Lobsang Gelek and Lobsang Choephel for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney.

“We urge Chinese authorities to respect the human rights of Tibetans, and the preservation of Tibet’s environment as well as the unique cultural, linguistic, and religious identity of Tibetan traditions,” a State Department spokesperson told RFA’s Tibetan Service on Tuesday.

“The United States supports meaningful autonomy for Tibetans,” the spokesperson said.

The U.S. will also consider the use of “all appropriate tools,” including visa restrictions and financial sanctions to hold accountable any Chinese officials found responsible for human rights abuses in Tibet, the official said.

It will also press for access to Tibetan areas of China for travel by U.S. officials, journalists, and tourists, the spokesperson said.

Pursuant to the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act, signed into law in 2018 by former President Donald Trump, “the Department has [already] applied visa restrictions on PRC officials who have restricted access of foreigners to Tibet,” the Department said.

Washington has long complained that Chinese diplomats, scholars, and journalists enjoy unrestricted travel in the United States, while China tightly restricts the access of U.S. counterparts to Tibet and other areas.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pledged to quickly appoint a new State Department Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues to replace former coordinator Robert Destro, who resigned with other officials appointed by the outgoing administration of President Trump, the Department said.

“The Secretary is committed to working with the United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues at the State Department and with the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom to promote religious freedom for Tibetans in China and around the world.”

'The right message'

The Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet on Wednesday welcomed the State Department’s statement to RFA calling for a resumption of talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama or his representatives, adding, “We hope to see this statement followed by concrete actions encouraging the dialogue that has not taken place since 2010.”

”The statement sends the right message to China by echoing the commitments on Tibet made by then-presidential candidate Biden during the campaign, including on holding China accountable for its refusal to allow U.S. access to Tibet and its denial of religious freedom to the Tibetan people,” ICT said.

Secretary of State Blinken should now fulfill those commitments by fully implementing all legislation supporting Tibet passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump, including the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018 and the Tibetan Policy Support Act of 2020, which affirms the absolute right of Tibetans to choose their next Dalai Lama, ICT said.

Concerns over the advancing age of the Dalai Lama, now 85, have renewed uncertainties in recent years over his possible successor after he dies, with Beijing claiming the right to name his successor and the Dalai Lama himself saying that any future Dalai Lama will be born outside of China.

Also speaking in a statement on Wednesday, Ngodup Tsering—Representative of the Dalai Lama in Washington D.C.—welcomed what he called the “extremely positive and encouraging response from the new U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.”

“I wish to express my sincere gratitude to him and to President Biden,” Tsering said.

“[Progress] on all the major issues that we have been taking up with the U.S. administration is now assured, and on behalf of the CTA I greatly welcome this commitment to Tibet on the part of the new U.S. administration,” Tsering said, referring to Tibet’s India-based exile government, the Central Tibetan Administration.

A formerly independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force nearly 70 years ago, and the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled into exile in India and other countries around the world following a failed 1959 national uprising against Chinese rule.

Beijing objects to high-level foreign contacts with the Dalai Lama and attacks foreign expressions of concern and support for Tibetans’ rights as interference in China’s internal affairs.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.

Reported by Tashi Wangchuk for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Participation in the Games will only encourage China to commit further abuses, the joint letter signed by rights campaigners told the Lausanne, Switzerland-based IOC while calling on foreign athletes and governments to boycott the event, scheduled to be held in Beijing from Feb. 4 to 20, 2022.

“The IOC refused to listen in 2008, defending its decision with claims that they would prove to be a catalyst for improved human rights,” read the letter, referring to controversy surrounding Beijing’s hosting the 2008 Summer Games.

“As human rights experts predicted, this decision proved to be hugely misplaced; not only did China’s human rights record not improve but violations increased substantially without rebuke. Now, in 2021, we find ourselves back in the same position with the IOC who are refusing to act despite the clear evidence of genocide and widespread and worsening human rights failures,” it said.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Jan. 19 announced that China’s abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) met the definition of genocide -- a designation that Uyghur exile groups have advocated since the revelation in 2017 of mass internment camps that have held as many as 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

In a protest held outside IOC offices in Lausanne on Feb. 3, members of the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe (TYAE) shouted slogans calling for freedom in Tibet, where Chinese authorities have jailed activists for cultural and religious freedoms, environmental protection, and language rights, and where over 150 Tibetans have burned themselves to death to oppose Chinese rule.

“The IOC knows full well the extent of China’s human rights abuses,” TYAE member Tashi Shitsetsang told RFA’s Tibetan Service during the protest, adding, “We have told them directly.”

“But they have actively chosen to ignore us and to turn a blind eye to the brutal occupation of Tibet, the crackdown in Hong Kong, and the genocide that is happening in East Turkestan,” he said, referring to the XUAR.

“The IOC has the blood of our people on its hands,” Shitsetsang said.

Also speaking to RFA, Tibetan activist Tenzin Netsang added that without strong IOC polices put in place to address Beijing’s abuses, “the Games will be [only] an effective endorsement of its failure to improve human rights since 2008, not an incentive for future improvements.”

Many broken promises

In a Feb. 3 statement, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that China had made “numerous promises” to protect human rights in its successful bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, also held in Beijing.

“Yet, during the 2008 Games, the authorities repeatedly violated the fundamental rights they had pledged to uphold, including by censoring the media and the internet, arbitrarily arresting journalists, and abusing workers’ rights,” HRW said.

Since that time, the Chinese authorities have only deepened their repression, the rights group said, adding, “President Xi Jinping’s government has crushed nascent civil society, targeted labor rights activists, imposed draconian policies in Xinjiang and Tibet, and trampled fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong.”

China imposed a draconian national security law on Hong Kong in mid-2020, effectively ending the autonomy the city was promised through 2047 under the “One Country, Two Systems” arrangement that governed the former British colony’s handover to China.

Now the IOC has failed to conduct a human rights risk assessment ahead of the 2022 Winter Games, and has ignored detailed expressions of concern sent by HRW about the Chinese government’s rights record, the rights group said.

“The IOC knows the Chinese authorities are arbitrarily detaining Uyghurs and other Muslims, expanding state surveillance, and silencing numerous peaceful critics,” said HRW China director Sophie Richardson. “Its failure to publicly confront Beijing’s serious human rights violations makes a mockery of its own commitments and claims that the Olympics are a ‘force for good.’”

“The IOC can’t hold itself out as an exemplar on human rights when it only defends them where doing so is easy,” added Minky Worden—director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch.

“[And] despite the IOC’s expressed commitments to push for positive change, there is no visible evidence it has pressed Chinese authorities to meet any human rights obligations,” Worden said.

Reported and translated by Tashi Wangchuk for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Tsering, former speaker of Tibet’s exile parliament in Dharamsala, won a closely fought April 11 election held in Tibetan communities worldwide over Kelsang Dorjee Aukatsang, with the turnout the highest in the history of Tibetan elections held in exile.

In his inaugural address, at a ceremony held with a small audience because of Indian’s coronavirus restrictions, he hailed the high turnout of 77 percent of registered voters as “a victorious step forward in the democratic polity” and thanked the Dalai Lama for contributing to democratization.

“I reiterate my commitment to direct all my energies in carrying out the responsibility of finding a lasting solution for the Sino-Tibet conflict and looking after the welfare of the Tibetan people,” he said.

Divisions persist in the Tibetan exile community -- about 150,000 people living in 40 countries, mainly Indian, Nepal, North America, and in Europe -- over how best to advance the rights of the 6.3 million Tibetans living in China, with some calling for a restoration of the independence lost when Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1950.

The CTA and the Dalai Lama have instead adopted a policy approach called the Middle Way, which accepts Tibet’s status as a part of China but urges greater cultural and religious freedom, including strengthened language rights, for Tibetans living under Beijing’s rule.

"We will reach out to the Chinese government to find a mutually beneficial, negotiated, non-violent solution to the Sino-Tibet conflict,” Tsering said, stressing his fidelity to the 85-year-old Dalai Lama’s approach.

'Gross mistakes' by China

“We shall not dither from pointing out the gross mistakes of the Chinese government’s policies and programs and seek to redress, withdraw or amend the wrong policies,” he added.

Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force 70 years ago, following which Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled into exile in India and other countries around the world.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.

In his congratulatory message to Tsering, the Dalai Lama highlighted the success in the transition that has delivered the fifth elected CTA leader.

“Despite criticism from the Chinese Communist government, Tibetan democracy have thrived and been able to establish a proper administration in exile. And the Middle Way approach proposed by us will peacefully resolve the issue and bring co-existence between Tibetan and Chinese people,” he said.

“What is unique in our community is also how democracy is allowed to thrive within the framework of Buddhist ideology,” said the Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

In a message to Tsering earlier this week, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said “the resilience of the Tibetan people continues to inspire the world” 60 years after the Dalai Lama was driven into exile.

“Courageously standing strong against Beijing’s repressive grip, the CTA has helped ensure the survival of your beautiful language, vibrant culture, and religious harmony,” she wrote.

'Escalating belligerence'

Tsering replaced Lobsang Sangay, a Harvard-trained scholar of law, who had served two consecutive five-year terms as Sikyong, an office in the northern Indian city of Dharamsala filled by candidates elected since 2011 by popular vote.

“Over the last decade or so, we have witnessed China’s increasing power, and an escalating belligerence in refusing to engage in any discussion about human rights and democracy,” he said in his farewell address Wednesday.

The inauguration of Tsering came after the resolution of a two-month constitutional crisis in Dharamsala, after the removal on March 25 of Chief Justice Sonam Norbu Dagpo and commissioners Karma Damdul and Tenzin Lungtok of the Tibetan Supreme Justice Commission by the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, who accused the trio of interfering in the internal proceedings of the legislature.

The ouster of the justices was triggered after the justices penalized the parliament’s speaker, deputy Speaker, and the 11-member standing committee by revoking their voting rights for six months after they cancelled the September session of the parliament.

The justices resumed office on Monday, after 21 members of parliament sent them a letter, admitting the sacking of the justices on March 25 had violated provisions of the Tibetan charter.

Speaker Pema Jungney of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, who led the sacking of the justices in March, resigned both as speaker and Member of Parliament on April 8, denying any wrongdoing.

The newly elected parliament is slated to be sworn on Sunday, but a COVID-19- related curfew in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, where Dharamsala is located, has been being extended to May 31, amid international travel restrictions, creating uncertainty about the schedule.

RFA attempted to contact the parliament but had not received a response as of Thursday.

Reported by RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickey. Written in English by Paul Eckert.