Stand with the monks

(Lhasa monks speaking to foreign journalists on March 27th)


Vigil for Peace and Human Rights in Tibet

You are invited to stand up with Tibet’s monks — and with DC’s Tibetan community and Friends of Tibet from Virginia and Maryland — this weekend and continuing through Monday, March 31st.

Tibetan monks from the Drepung monastery in India will be here in Washington, DC to do what their brothers in Tibet cannot do — stand up freely for human rights in Tibet, for freedom of speech and freedom of religion in their homeland — and for the very survival of Tibet.

Along with hundreds of other Tibetans, many monks from Tibet’s Drepung Monastery arrested during the peaceful march of 400 monks from Drepung to Lhasa on March 10th are still missing and unaccounted for.

Join the Drepung monks for prayers and their Vigil for Peace and Human Rights in Tibet on Saturday, and Sunday at the Chinese embassy in DC’s Kalorama area to let China know that the world is watching them. Make your voice heard by standing with them and Tibetans from all over the east coast on Monday, March 31, in Lafayette Park in front of the White House. Every voice counts — Tibet needs your support today more than ever!

Vigil for Peace and Human Rights in Tibet
Saturday: Chinese embassy 3-5pm
Sunday: Chinese embassy, 3-5pm
Monday: White House, 12:30-2pm

IMPORTANT: Please check the website of the Capital Area Tibetan Association in advance for the latest information on times and locations.

Jetsunma's advice to fight with Bodhicitta

(Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, Spiritual Director, Kunzang Palyul Choling)


On March 15th, Jetsunma gave a teaching to students of Kunzang Palyul Choling (KPC) in Poolesville, Maryland (just outside Washington, D.C.). The following statements are adapted from her remarks that day:

We saw it in Tiananmen Square. In Rangoon and the Burmese countryside. Now, as in 1959, in Lhasa and throughout Tibet. In this uncertain time, selfishness, unwholesome actions, brutality, and force . . . and for the time being, darkness seems to have the upper hand.

The attack on Dharma is happening all over the world. For as long as we can hold out as Dharma practitioners, we are charged with defending our faith. We have a right to defend against the darkness. The Tibetan people have a right to defend their faith. The monks and nuns who are standing up in Tibet, in Burma as well . . . I join them in body, speech, and mind. They have seen that it is time we cannot be pushed any further.

This is the time to rely most on our deepest and purest intention and our most wholesome qualities. It means being solid practitioners. It means not being afraid to speak up to defend one's sangha, or one's temple, or one's monastery. Remember that we are fighting, not with weapons, but with Bodhicitta, with virtue. So when we defend the Dharma, we want to do it for the intention of all sentient beings.

If those monks and nuns in Tibet are willing to be shot dead, we should be willing to stand with them.

For further information on upcoming teachings on Bodhicitta (The Great Compassion), as well as a retreat with Jetsunma, please visit the Events section of KPC's website here.

A Prince, a Polish Prime Minister and Lhasa Monks

(Photo of Lhasa Buddhist monk courtesy of AP Photo via www.cnn.com)

Today in Lhasa:

One monk shouted "Tibet is not free, Tibet is not free" before he started to cry, an Associated Press journalist at the scene, Charles Hutzler, reported.

Another monk said the rioting on 14 March "had nothing to do with the Dalai Lama".

This occurred at Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple while two dozen foreign journalists hand-picked by China, were allowed back in Tibet on a three-day, carefully scripted visit to Tibet. In the presence of the reporters, a group of about 30 monks shouted that there was no religious freedom and that the Dalai Lama was not to blame for recent violence there.

It took a lot of courage for the monks to voice the suppression they have suffered under Chinese rule, given the closely monitored visit of the foreign journalists.

Also courtesy of Students for a Free Tibet, we’ve also learned that Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk is also boycotting the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. This followed the French Foreign Minister’s suggestion that nations boycott the opening ceremonies.

Prince Charles is boycotting the entire Olympics.

If you are in the Washington, D.C. area, check the website of the Capital Area Tibetan Association (CATA) regularly for updates on the daily protests that are occurring, and do participate in them.

On March 31st, please join the International Campaign for Tibet and CATA to “publicly urge President Bush to make a statement, and to not stand next to the Communist Party Officials at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.”

Monday, March 31, 2008
12:30pm - 2:00pm
Lafayette Park at the White House
16th and H street NW, Washington, DC
Metro Stops: Mcpherson Square(Orange and Blue) Farragut North(Red)

After the rally, participants led by a group of Monks will march up Connecticut Ave to the Chinese Embassy to demand that China dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Media Contact : Mr. Namkha Tenzin (703) 673 8860

Show your solidarity with the Tibetans

(The above photo: Buddhist monks marched in Xiahe, Gansu Province last Friday. Photo by Agence France-Presse - Getty Images)

United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari’s recent third visit to Burma ended in failure, an outcome expected after he was informed on arrival that the junta was in no mood to change its political battle plans. The military government refused to budge with regards to meaningful dialogues with detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The situation in Burma remains in a gridlock.

Yesterday, what His Holiness the Dalai Lama had to say about the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule might as well apply to the Burma situation: "They have no experience how to deal with problems through talk, only suppress."

Last week, as Gambari flew out of Burma empty-handed, the violent suppression of protests by Tibetans in Tibet were beginning. Today, the uprising in Tibet has spread. Click on the map posted today on the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT)website.

The courageous Tibetans who are speaking out need our support. We just received this from the Students for a Free Tibet (with some edits):

Just today, 100 Tibetan middle school students in Ngaba, Amdo (Sichuan) staged a spontaneous demonstration on their school grounds calling for the return of the Dalai Lama. It is reported that 40 of the students were severely beaten and arrested. 700 additional Tibetan students from the same middle school are now bravely conducting a demonstration to demand the release of their peers outside the Public Security Bureau building where the students are being held.

Reports of protests in cities across Tibet, including the Tibetan provinces of Amdo and Kham (now annexed into China's Qinghai, Sichuan, and Gansu provinces) counter the Chinese government claims that the unrest is the result of a handful of “troublemakers” and demonstrate the widespread Tibetan opposition to China’s occupation.

The Chinese authorities in Lhasa have threatened an increased crackdown after midnight Monday (4pm GMT) and according to Chinese state-run media, “Those who harbor or hide criminal elements shall be punished severely according to law upon completion of investigations.”

Already, armed Chinese police have been conducting house-to-house searches and making arbitrary arrests. There is no reliable estimate of the number of detentions but reports suggest wide-scale raids and arrests across Lhasa. According to eyewitness reports received by the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, "mothers and elderlies in the families helplessly plea at security forces upon seeing their sons and loved ones being beaten and dragged away."

Please, show your support for the Tibetans living under China's "rule of terror." Contact your Congressperson today, and urge him or her to demand that the U.S. support immediate international intervention in Tibet. CLICK HERE to search for the phone number for your Congressperson.

Call and ask to speak to someone about the situation in Tibet. You may be passed to a legislative aide or simply have your comments recorded by an office administrator, which is fine.

Tell them:

The U.S. should speak out forcefully against China's brutal crackdown in Tibet.
Please urge the U.S. government to strongly support the Dalai Lama's call for a United Nations team of investigators to go to Tibet as soon as possible.
The U.S. should do everything in its power to urge China to withdraw military and security forces, release those detained, and allow peaceful protest. China must halt house-to-house searches; and authorities must refrain from any further arrests of Tibetan protesters even after its so-called surrender deadline has passed on Monday at midnight. China must immediately allow foreign journalists back into all Tibetan areas (Tibetan Autonomous Region as well as the Tibetan areas of Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan).

This is an urgent matter because the "surrender deadline" is fast approaching – and may actually have passed as you're reading this – so please call immediately.

Please stay tuned to the situation in Tibet as it unfolds by visiting the SFT website and the SFT blog. Both are filled with breaking news and analysis.

Bod Rangzen - Free Tibet,
Lobsang, Kate, Dechen, Mel, Han, Kunsang, Gaphel, Nick, Kala, Lhakyi, Tenzin and everyone else at SFT International Headquarters in New York

Likewise, Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys is also requesting that you urgently contact your Congressperson.

Please stand in solidarity with the people of Tibet and hold the line against the darkness.