Tibetan struggle has better side: Kalon Tempa Tsering

Kalon Tempa Tsering addressing the workshop

Dharamshala: Apart from the fact that the Tibetan struggle today stands at dire straits, people should also reflect on the brighter side of the larger picture, Kalon Tempa said, citing that the Tibetan struggle has truth on its side, the able leadership of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the indomitable spirit of the Tibetan people, especially those in Tibet, and the swelling tide of international support.

Addressing some 80 students at a youth leadership workshop here yesterday, organised by the New Delhi-based Tibetan Parliamentary Policy Research Centre and the International Campaign for Tibet based in Europe, the Kalon for Information and International Relations said that the indomitabled spirit of defiance and resistance demonstrated by the Tibetans inside Tibet, even in the face of oppression, is ubiquitous and manifests in ways the Tibetan exiles could not even begin to fathom.

"The Tibetan exiles must conscientously ask themselves that when their bretherens in Tibet, even in the face of oppression, could do so much for the Tibetan cause, how much (more) should the exiles, who live in (hired) freedom, should exert themselves in furtherance of the cause."

Students putting up questions to the Kalon

As a Tibetan, any failure to perform one's bounden-duties will also weigh heavily upon the balance sheet of one's karmic merits, Kalon Tempa Tsering added.

However, there is no denying the alarming gravity of the situation in Tibet, the Kalon added, citing for instance, every day since the Gormo-Lhasa railway began operation, about 5,000 people arrive in the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region, of which some 2,000 reportedly settle down in the country.

"Now, you do the maths for the probable demographic pyramid of Tibet after a span of five or ten years."

Asked if the protest demonstrations by the Tibetans, along with a significant Indian supporters from all walks of life, when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited India last month, were likely to effect the ongoing dialogue between representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the People's Republic of China, the Kalon responded by saying that "It should not, if China chose to see the broader picture of this issue."

India is a democratic country and the Tibetans and their supporters were only exercising the right to freedom of expression, the Kalon said. "The Tibetan Administration has made repeated appeals on this issue."

Prior to Mr Hu's India visit, Kalon Tripa Samdhong Rinpoche has reiterated his earlier appeal to the Tibetan exiles and their supporters to refrain from staging any aggressive demonstrations against the vising Chinese leaders.

When asked if the ongoing process of dialogue is only a political gimmick of China to allay protest demonstrations during 2008 Olympic, the Kalon said that speculations or schools of thought abound on both for and against the Chinese sincereity in resolving the Tibet issue, ranging from the equation of moderates vs conservatives, state of power consolidation, tactics of negotiations, and so on.

  (www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.)

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