Tibet's government-in-exile said yesterday it was hopeful India would respond favorably if it sought asylum for the top lama who had fled Lhasa.
"India has this great tradition of being very generous to people seeking shelter and as such we have been coming here for many decades. If there is a strong request for asylum it should be a humanitarian consideration," Tashi Wangdi, the Tibetan minister for religion and culture, said.
Wangdi said the Indian government had been informed immediately after the boy lama arrived in the country.
PHOTO: AFP
"India has given refuge to over 100,000 Tibetans and it should be considered in that context. He is not a political figure and this is not a political issue," he said.
Late on Sunday, the exiled government blamed China for the flight of the 14-year-old Karmapa Lama, third highest-ranking in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy.
"[In light of] the harsh conditions for religion, arrests of monks and nuns, serious violations of human rights and the indifferent attitude of the Chinese vis-a-vis the Karmapa Rimpoche for the last few years ... it is for these reasons that he had to flee," Wangdi said.
Wangdi said the Karmapa Lama -- who arrived in Dharamsala on Jan. 5 after an arduous 1,400km trek through the snowbound Himalayas -- had to be shifted to a secret hideaway on Sunday because they feared for his safety.
"He is being kept in secret confinement, away from the public for security reasons. There could be a threat to his life."
The United News of India (UNI) said police had tightened security for the lama. "We are taking all possible measures to ward off threats to his life," UNI quoted Dharamsala's superintendent of police K.C. Shadyal as saying.
The 17th Karmapa Lama is the highest Tibetan lama whose authority is recognized by both Beijing and by the Nobel Prize-winning Dalai Lama, who lives in exile at Dharamsala.
Karmapa Lama, his sister and two lamas trekked through the snowbound Himalayas to reach Dharamsala in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh on Jan. 5.
Chinese official reports insisted the lama's departure did not mean he had betrayed Beijing. They said he had travelled to India to collect holy relics -- musical instruments and black hats -- used by a previous incarnation of the Karmapa Lama.
Wangdi said the escape of the lama, born Ugyen Trinley Dorje, was prompted by the "revival of cultural revolution" by Chinese authorities in Tibet.
In 1950, China's Communist army, fresh from victory in the Chinese civil war, entered Tibet and overthrew its Buddhist theocracy. Nine years later, a large-scale uprising exploded and the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, fled to India with thousands of followers.
The Indian government has refused to comment on whether the Karmapa Lama had asked for political asylum.
Tibetans in Dharamsala, overjoyed at the Karmapa Lama's arrival, said they wanted the Indian government to officially accept the monk's arrival.
"I would like to plead with the Indian government to grant asylum to Karmapa Lama," said Tenzing, a 25-year-old Tibetan.
John McLeod, an American Buddhist in Dharamsala for the last seven months with his family said: "He [the lama] is a jewel and people have to protect this jewel."
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from