Please take a minute to vote on this poll. Scroll down to bottom right and just click (no emails, addresses or names needed)

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/ for political leaders to  boycott the Olympics opening ceremony.

Please circulate the petition.

Here's a link to a few photos of the Dublin, Ireland, Tibet Support  march. Great support from the passers-by, many of whom joined in spointaneously, and lots of media coverage, TV, radio, newspapers etc.

http://public.fotki.com/Chaiwallah/tibet-support-demo-/

Again many thanks to those who supported the Avaaz petition.

Cheers,

Chaiwallah

And here's an update on the situation in Tibet, which you may be helping to change.

THE PRESENT SITUATION IN TIBET

 

Recent reports from inside Tibet paint a grim picture of life under Chinese rule for most Tibetans. In the twenty years since economic "liberalisation" was unleashed in China, the Chinese authorities have made much publicity concerning the huge amounts of money and resources they have poured into the "modernisation and development" of Tibet.

 

Sadly, while there has been significant growth of infrastructure, and, as is clearly visible, a vast array of new building in Tibetan towns and cities, the great majority of this primarily benefits the Han Chinese immigrant population, now the majority population in Tibet as a whole. (Recent estimates: 8 million Chinese: 6 million Tibetans in greater Tibet.)

 

Compared with the time of the protests twenty years ago, (as a result of which PRC President Hu Jintao, then Party Chief in Tibet, imposed martial law and instituted a policy of "merciless repression" as an asnwer to the "Tibetan Problem"), conditions in Tibet now are worse.

 

1). The vast influx of Han Chinese immigrants includes not just Party cadres, military personnel and business entrepreneurs, but also huge numbers of the unskilled labourers who are also flocking to China's coastal cities and industrial zones. This means that in Tibet, even the most menial jobs are taken by Han Chinese. Any hope of skilled employment depends on the ability to speak Mandarin, which leaves the majority of Tibetans at a severe disadvantage. Unemployment among Tibetans is estimated at around 85%.

 

2). The recently constructed Golmud to Lhasa railway facilitates the rapid influx of ever more Han immigrants, but also increases the speed and efficiency with which China can exploit and export to the industrial heartland of China the vast mineral wealth of the Tibetan plateau. A recent figure has put Tibet's oil reserves in trillions of barrels, not to mention the 120 other industrially valuable minerals (including gold, coal and uranium) in Tibet. The exploitation of these resources is via a colonial model of the most rapacious kind. The benefit to Tibet and Tibetans is virtually nil.

 

3). Tibet's strategic position on the borders of India and the old Soviet satellite states accounts in part for the massive military presence on the plateau. Observers tell of military convoys several miles long moving through Tibet on a regular basis. But as the Lhasa railway is due to be extended down to the Himalayan border regions, including the cities of Shigatse and Gyantse, there is every indication that this railway has a significant military purpose, over and above its publicised role in promoting tourism to Tibet. China has an arsenal of rail-based nuclear missiles near Golmud, which can now be moved in a matter of hours from the north of Tibet to the Indian border, should China feel the need to direct them south of the Himalayas.

 

4). In terms of direct human rights abuses, reports tell that Tibetan women who have more than two children are required to pay a huge  fine, several thousand yuan, as much as a year's income, or face enforced sterilisation, routinely without anaesthetics.

(The fact that in Tibet people are allowed to have two, rather than just one child, is another motivation behind Han immigration.). In the northern province of Amdo, now Chinese Qinghai, the nomadic herdsmen have been forced off their grasslands into huge settlement camps, with few resources and virtually no prospect of employment. These camps are effectively prisons, as travel through Tibet is tightly controlled and severely restricted.

 

5). Religious freedom is effectively non-existent, as we have seen in recnt days from the monks who broke through the police cordons to talk to foreign journalists in the Jokhang in Lhasa. The monasteries, nunneries and temples are tightly controlled, and have resident party officials to ensure adherence to the "Patriotic Re-education" programme. As the current Party Chief in Tibet, Zhang Qinli, said recently,"The Chinese Communist Party is the only true Buddha for Tibetans...people who do not love the Motherland are not qualified to be human beings"

 

Displaying, carrying or even owning a photograph of HH the Dalai Lama ( whom Mr.Zhang decribed as a "wolf in monk's clothing, a devil with a human face,") carries a likelihood of at least three year's imprisonment on the charge of "splittism."Imprisonment invariably entails torture, and a loss of political rights and hopes of employment upon release.

 

6). Finally, in the wake of the recent uprisings all across greater Tibet, reports tell of house-to-house searches for anyone suspected of taking part in protests. Arbitrary large-scale arrests have left Tibet's prisons so overcrowded that prisoners are being transported to prisons in mainland China. Reports tell of heaps of dead bodies in the prisons, and hundreds of severely beaten and tortured prisoners recieving neither food, water nor medical aid. Water and food supplies have been cut off, not only to the major monasteries in and  around Lhasa, but also to whole Tibetan communities in some of the "Chinese" provinces of former Tibet.

 

The situation in Tibet is critical. Whether or not the Olympic Games are an issue, there is no doubt that endorsing China's plans to carry the Olympic torch through Lhasa, Tibet and up Mount Everest is to condone China's grotesque propaganda farrago in a country that is suffering under China's harsh colonial regime.

 

It would be a serious mistake for the international community to assume that after the passing on of the present Dalai Lama, or even before, the populace of greater Tibet will continue to adhere to His Holiness's policy of non-violence. Most of the younger Tibetans feel that after twenty years, there is nothing to show by way of improvement in their situation, for a policy of non-violence. They have been forgotten and ignored by the international media, except when there are significant protests. After 60 years of Chinese rule, many Tibetans have declared they would rather die than continue to live under their present conditions.

1,329,894 SIGNED FOR TIBET, DID YOU?

Monday 31st. March Global Action Day for Tibet, and petition handing-in day. It's not too late to help Tibet.


http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/

1,058,716 have signed - 1 million target reached in just 7 days!

BRILLIANT. CONGRATULATIONS AND THANKS TO ALL WHO HELPED.

2 MILLION BY MARCH 31ST?????

Here's an update. 952,000 people have signed the petition. It would be brilliant to get it up to 1 million before the World Day of Action for Tibet, next Monday, March 31st. That's also the day that the Olympic torch arrives in Beijing. If you can think of anyone who might not have signed the petition, please forward this email to them again.

If you have already signed and circulated this petition, thank you so much. News of this will bring hope and joy to thousands of Tibetans who are imprisoned right now for resisting Chinese oppression, who are being physically tortured for their Buddhist beliefs, for their loyalty to HH the Dalai Lama.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/

BTW some of you may feel by this stage that my blog has become a bit too strident and politic al, not quite laid back enough for a confessed advaitin. Remember Krishna's advice to Arjuna on the battlefield of the Kurus and Pandavas,"Established in Being, perform action!"

It's so easy for us in the West not only to venerate, but actually to meet HH the Dalai Lama, and other spiritual luminaries, Tibetan, Zen, Vedic etc.   In Tibet, to carry a photo of HH the Dalai Lama is to risk arrest, imprisonment without trial, torture, even death. In China, to pronounce belief in "Truth, Forbearance and Compassion" will get you arrested as a Falun Gong "evil-cultist". Same fate as the Tibetans.

We owe it to their courage to support them in their hour of need. Which is what is happening now.

Cheers,

Chaiwallah

 Dear Gaia friends,

Nearly there.


LET'S TRY TO REACH 1 MILLION BY MARCH 31ST

The global outcry over Tibet is rising fast - In just 5 days, 751,472 of us from 192 countries have come together to call for restraint and dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Even more amazing, we have told over 5 million of our friends about this important campaign - that's 1 million people per day!

A personal email from a friend is a powerful thing – it is helping to drive the global tide of concern. Let's push now to tell 5 million more friends, get over 1 million signatures this week, and deliver the largest global online petition in history to the Chinese government. Just forward the email below to a few more friends and family with a personal note from you…

------------------

Dear friends,

After decades of repression, the Tibetan people are crying out to the world for change. The spotlight of the upcoming Olympic Games is now on China, and Tibetan Nobel peace prize winner the Dalai Lama is calling to end all riots and violence through restraint and dialogue--he urgently needs the support of the world's people.

China's hardliners are lashing out publicly at the Dalai Lama--but we're told that President Hu Jintao may believe dialogue is the best hope for stability in Tibet. China's leadership is right now considering a crucial choice between repression and dialogue that could determine Tibet's--and China's--future.

We can affect this historic choice – for President Hu, China's global reputation matters. He needs to hear from us that the 'Made in China' brand and the upcoming Olympics in Beijing will succeed only if he chooses dialogue over the hardliners' repression. An avalanche of global people power is moving to get his attention. We're closing on our goal of 1 million signatures and the largest global online petition in history - click below to join the global outcry, and then forward this email to friends and family right away:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/39.php?cl=65939797

"The Communist Party is like the parent to the Tibetan people, and it is always considerate about what the children need. The Central Party Committee is the real Buddha for Tibetans."

Quoye from Zang Qingli, Communist Party boss in Tibet.

THE TORCH OF SHAME

The Olympic torch is bleeding
In a harsh and cruel hand
As it crushes Tibetan voices
Spilling blood upon the land.

If we all say "Yes" to China
Who will be to blame
When the torch of hope and beauty
Has become the Torch of Shame.

Chaiwallah
Easter Sunday. 23rd March 2008

In a recent interview with Melinda Liu of Newsweek, HH the Dalai Lama admitted he wept at the news from Tibet, but practises "giving and taking,"...in a word, tonglen.

Newsweek:Some images of the recent casualties have been graphic and disturbing. Have you seen them? What was your reaction? We heard you wept.

HH the Dalai Lama:Yes I cried once. One advantage of belonging to the Tibetan Buddhist culture is that at the intellectual level there is a lot of turmoil, a lot of anxiety and worries but at the deeper, emotional level there is calm. Every night in my Buddhist practice I give and take. I take in Chinese suspicion. I give back trust and compassion. I take their negative feeling and give them positive feeling. I do that everyday. This practice helps tremendously in keeping the emotional level stable and steady. So during the last few days, despite a lot of worries and anxiety, there is no disturbance in my sleep. (Laughs).

 Dear Gaia friends,

We believe in peace, love and reconciliation, in non-violent solutioons to ancient fears and animosities. Here's a chance to take direct non-violent action to promote a peaceful solution to the situation in Tibet.

Please act now and circulate the link to all your friends.

Shanti, shanti, shanti,

Chaiwallah

In just 36 hours, 253,553 of us have supported the Dalai Lama's call for dialogue and human rights in Tibet. This is an incredible response--if each of us can get 4 more of our friends to sign the petition, we'll hit 1 million this week! Just quickly forward the email below to your friends and family with a personal note from you-

---------------------------

Dear friends,

After decades of suffering, the Tibetan people have burst onto the streets in protests and riots. The spotlight of the upcoming Olympic Games is now on China, and Tibetan Nobel peace prize winner the Dalai Lama is calling to end all violence through restraint and dialogue--he urgently needs the world's people to support him.

China's leaders are lashing out publicly at the Dalai Lama--but we're told many Chinese officials believe dialogue is the best hope for stability in Tibet. China's leadership is right now considering a crucial choice between crackdown and dialogue that could determine Tibet's--and China's--future.

We can affect this historic choice--China does care about its international reputation, and we can help them choose the right path. China's President Hu Jintao needs to hear that the 'Made in China' brand and the upcoming Olympics in Beijing will succeed only if he makes the right choice. But it will take an avalanche of global people power to get his attention. Click below now to join 250,000 others and sign the petition--and tell absolutely everyone you can right away--our goal is 1 million voices united for Tibet:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/19.php