Repression and Environmental Damage Renew Tibetan Calls for Occupied Tibet to Become a “No Extraction Zone”

UN human rights experts have raised urgent concern and pressed the Chinese government to provide information about nine Tibetan environmental human rights defenders serving prison sentences of up to 11 years. 

Tibet: mass detention; systematic surveillance; widespread torture

Millions in forced labour camps. And the attempt to erase a people’s history and culture. These abuses are the product of one man, Chen Quanguo. And worst of all, the world allowed him to carry them out twice.

Four Tibetans detained for possessing 'politically sensitive' content on their phones

On 4 July 2021, Public Security Bureau (PSB) in Dartsang Township in Serthar County carried out an investigative campaign in the area and searched individual mobile phones of local Tibetans through phone numbers that had been registered with identity cards. The records of identity cards and linked phone numbers are kept at the local security department. During the search operation, the PSB arrested four Tibetans, including a local village leader, under suspicion of possessing ‘politically sensitive’ content. But currently, the names of the detainees and their whereabouts remain unknown

June 4 marked the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre

June 4 marked the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The Chinese government's attacks on freedom of expression have continued in the years since, with Tibet recently ranked the least free country in the world. But the fight for freedom will never cease.

Today, World Press Freedom Day, is a reminder that the struggle for freedom in Tibet is also a struggle for information

Tibetans who blog, share information or contact Tibetans in exile about their experiences of CCP rule are inevitably imprisoned. Meanwhile, independent journalists are blocked from accessing Tibet. Information that makes its way out of Tibet does so rarely and at great risk.

Tibetan monasteries barred from organising religious festival

These days all the religious activities in Tibetan monasteries are directly controlled by Monastic Management Committees, which comprises a group of Chinese government officials who are permanently stationed in the monasteries. The committee replaces the centuries-old tradition of senior lamas overseeing the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism. 

Tibet ranked as the joint-worst place in the world for civil rights and political freedoms

summary of political rights and civil liberties in Tibet is expected to be released later this year. It is likely to include further restrictions on freedom of religion, the detention of Tibetans who criticise the Chinese government or carry out peaceful protests, torture and the ongoing “vocational training” programme, which last year saw at least 500,000 rural Tibetans encouraged or coerced to move from the land they have historically stewarded and into menial jobs.

Iron Ox year of 2148

some local people refer to Losar as Bal Gyal Lo, where Bal refers to Tibet, Gyal to the King and Lo to the Year

US Congress passes bill to support Tibet

US lawmakers have approved legislation that may lead to sanctioning China if it interferes in the Tibetan people's process of choosing a successor to their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

#LhamoAct

Just one day after Lhamo’s death, Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, told a U.N. conference on women that the “protection of women’s rights and interests must become a national commitment.” The Chinese internet seized on the speech. And soon, people were calling for stronger enforcement of the domestic violence law using the hashtag #LhamoAct. Within a day, the hashtag had been censored on Weibo, one of China’s most popular social media platforms. 

བདེ་​བར་​གཤེགས་​པའི་​བསྟན་​པ་​ཐམས་​ཅད་​ཀྱི་​སྙིང་​པོ་​རིག་​པ་​འཛིན་​པའི་​སྡེ་​སྣོད་​རྡོ་​རྗེ་​ཐེག་​པ་​སྔ་​འགྱུར་​རྒྱུད་​འབུམ།

The Collected Tantras of the Ancients are organized with varying degrees of precision according to doxographical category. The three major rubrics under which the tantras of this collection are classified are Atiyoga, Anuyoga, and Mahāyoga. Each of these categories can be further divided into sub-categories, though the various editions differ as to whether they follow those sub-categories or not. This edition, the Degé, also contains a volume of supplemental tantric texts and a volume containing the index of titles by volume.

A millennium ago

A millennium ago, Buddhist domination of Tibet spawned a new civilization, one in which the celebrated Lamaist religions of Bön and Buddhism came to hold sway. The inexorable march of time and the ascent of the new religious order slowly but surely clouded the memory of the earlier cultural heritage. As a result, many of the ancient achievements of the Upper Tibetan people were forgotten. All that remains are preserved in the impressive monumental traces of the region. Antiquities of Zhang Zhung attempts to reclaim these past glories by systematically describing the visible physical remains left by the ancient inhabitants of Upper Tibet.

Free Tibet and the world’s oldest pro-Tibet group, the Tibet Society have completed a merger

in a move which will see both organisations combine their strengths in support of the Tibetan cause. The merger has been welcomed by the Tibetan community, activists and supporters from across the Tibet movement. Free Tibet is globally known for its public campaigns, advocacy and research, becoming one of the biggest and most influential Tibet organisations in the world. As the secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Tibet, a group of MPs committed to supporting Tibet, Tibet Society has strong links with decision makers and politicians to keep Tibet on the agenda of the British Government. 

Stop buying "made in China"!

The construction of defensive infrastructure is in direct violation of the bilateral agreement that both nations made to de-escalate the militarisation of the region. The construction of camps, gun emplacements and roads was one of the reasons for the conflict earlier in June that saw the death of tens of Indian and Chinese soldiers. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in the violence

Urging The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, the Sydney Morning Herald and Handelsblatt to #CancelChinaPropaganda

The Chinese government has stifled media freedoms for decades; imprisoning more journalists than anywhere else in the world; banning social media and non-compliant foreign websites, an resorting to extreme measures to prevent all information about its human rights abuses and unrest getting out, including by routinely locking up anyone who speaks out. 

To further efforts to control and censor Chinese Communist Party state media has struck highly lucrative deals with numerous highly regarded news outlets, offering large sums of money for them to carry supplements or 'advertorials'. These outlets include the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and Sydney Morning Herald. 

These supplements or 'advertorials' enable the promotion of the Chinese government’s propaganda, which is far factual reporting and includes articles hailing the celebration by Tibetans of “democratic reforms” in occupied Tibet; reports whitewashing the arbitrary detention of at least 2 million Uyghurs and other Muslims in ‘re-education camps’; and stories claiming that the repressive and internationally condemned National Security legislation in Hong Kong will only “better protect” freedoms on the island.

By accepting money from the Chinese government to hold this propaganda, these media outlets are performing as a mouthpiece for Beijing and are complicity in the crackdown on the freedom of Tibetans, Uyghurs,Chinese and all human rights defenders who risk their lives on the frontlines to expose the realities of life under Chinese rule.

Over 1.2 millions Tibetans have died as a direct result of China’s occupation of Tibet

"As a Tibetan refugee born and raised in India, I consider India to be my second home, which has given asylum to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people. For centuries, Tibet and India enjoyed peace and friendship; China did not share a border with India until 1959. Over 1.2 millions Tibetans have died as a direct result of China’s occupation of Tibet. However, Tibetans inside Tibet and in exile have never wavered in our struggle against the colonial occupation of our homeland"

མ་གཅིག་ལབ་སྒྲོན

Tibetan Chöd practice – cutting through the ego

The tantric practice of Chöd originated in India but was greatly developed in Tibet by the great female practitioner or yogini of the 11th century, Machig Labdrön. She originated a new lineage of the practice that is the only tantric Buddhist practice that was introduced back to India from Tibet.

For the Dalai Lama, finding inner peace is as easy as deciding that whatever is bothering you simply doesn’t exist

meditation, His Holiness said, is not merely sitting there in “thoughtlessness,” but instead using our brains to concentrate on a particular subject or noise or destructive emotion (like anger) bothering us as a way to “reduce the intensity” of the emotion, and then let it go.

Free Tibet School Pack is an educational material designed for children interested in the world around them