Japanese Buddhist Monks Speak Out About Tibet

More Recent Quotes on the Ongoing Crisis in Tibet

“We are like prisoners here. There are soldiers all over the place…It’s all lies. The worshippers are really government officials. They are lying. They are treating us very badly.”
Monks speaking out at the Jokhang temple, during the carefully orchestrated tour for the Western media

“How many people watching these images in the West will buy China’s story? Instead, what you see are these heroic monks who are risking a lot for their cause. That’s something your average Westerner is very sympathetic with.”
Steve Tsang, Oxford University

“It is absolutely clear that there are human rights abuses in Tibet. It’s clear-cut; we need to be upfront and absolutely straight about what’s going on.”"
Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd (who, incidentally, speaks Chinese)

“China has a lot to answer for, and I’ve been struggling with it; obviously I condemn what they’re doing. I think the situation is terrible, and I think that anyone who is doing [the relay] should speak out on their views.”
British TV Presenter Konnie Huq, on the moral dilemma of being an Olympic torch bearer in London

“China may rail against those seeking to “politicise” a sporting occasion. But it knows that it has itself introduced the most political elements: a torch relay taking the Olympic flame round the world and, provocatively, through Tibet; and an opening ceremony to which it has invited the world’s leaders.”
The Economist

“The most efficient route to peace in Tibet is through the Dalai Lama, whose return to Tibet would immediately alleviate a number of problems. Much of the current ill will, after all, is a direct result of the Chinese government’s verbal attacks on the Dalai Lama, who, for Tibetan monks, has an incomparably lofty status. To demand that monks denounce him is about as practical as asking that they vilify their own parents.”
Wang Lixong, leading Chinese intellectual, Wall Street Journal

“Of all world leaders at this time, the Dalai Lama most convincingly provides spiritual, intellectual, and ethical leadership, exemplifying and elucidating the most reasonable path to peace and happiness. This is the secret of his worldwide popularity. His person and teaching really do matter, to the Tibetans, to the Chinese, and to all of us and our future generations.”
Professor Robert Thurman, ‘China Needs the Dalai Lama’, Washington Post

More recent quotes

“China must resolutely crush the conspiracy of sabotage and smash ‘Tibet independence forces’”
People’s Daily, Newspaper of China’s Communist Party

“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 every day.”
His Holiness the Dalai Lama

“Beijing must decide itself, it should immediately negotiate with the Dalai Lama.”
Hans-Gert Poettering, European Parliament President

“The opening of peaceful dialogue now would have a symbolic dimension, especially in the context of the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing.”
Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland

“The present protests, supported from overseas, will bring only more suffering. China is not a democracy, and it will not budge.”
Patrick French, The New York Times

“I don’t hate Han people. But the government keeps using violence to suppress us, and that won’t solve any problems between the Tibetans and the Han.”
Tibetan monk from Gansu’s Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, quoted in BBC interview

Join the Facebook Group

If you are on Facebook, please join the group “Support the Monks’ Protest in Tibet“. And while you are at it, why not join the International Campaign for Tibet cause, which is in there too.

Reports from Inside Tibet, etc.

Away from the main headlines on the major news sites, Mikel Dunham is featuring some eye witness accounts from Lhasa over on his blog. Meanwhile, TibetNet is reporting a protest at Kirti monastery in Amdo, involving over a thousand monks and a thousand lay people on the 16th, and another protest in Amdo on the 15th in which 5000-6000 people took part. The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is also reporting fresh protests in Amdo involving 300 monks in Rebkong.

A group of French lawmakers are urging China to grant them visas for an emergency fact-finding visit to Tibet, and Amnesty International are calling for an independent United Nations investigation.

News on Tibetan Protests

There is so much going on at the moment, it is quite a challenge to keep up-to-date. The best way to do so, aside from monitoring Google News, is probably to subscribe to the World Tibet Network email updates.

The largest protests since 1989 have been taking place in Lhasa, the March to Tibet set out from Dharamsala, Tibetan women have been protesting outside the Chinese embassy in Delhi, and scores of other protests have taken place around the world.

On March 11th, Chinese police used teargas and electric prods to disperse a crowd of 500 demonstrators, who were demanding the release of fellow monks held after the protests the previous day. The police response has been condemned by Amnesty International.

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy has released photos of 15 monks who staged a peaceful protest in Lhasa on March 10th. It is thought that around 50 monks were detained around the capital on that day, many of them from the monasteries of Drepung and Sera, which were said to have been sealed off by authorities. There are fears that the detained monks will be tortured. The protests on March 10th were witnessed by tourists Steve Dubois and Ulrike Lakiere, who posted photos and video of what they saw on their own travel blog.

Early in the morning of March 13th, at Dehra bridge approximately 50km from Dharamsala, Indian police arrested all of around 100 Tibetan activists taking part in the March to Tibet.