Civic groups commemorating the 1959 Tibetan uprising in Taipei yesterday called for an end to China’s use of state-run residential schools to “exterminate” Tibet’s culture and language.
Kelsang Gyaltsen Bawa, representative to Taiwan of the Tibetan government in exile, one of the organizers of yesterday’s event, said that students at the schools are taught exclusively in Mandarin and forbidden from learning about Tibet’s history.
The Chinese government should cease its attempts to “exterminate” Tibet’s religious and cultural traditions by forcing people to study a Han-centric curriculum, Bawa said.
Photo: CNA
The UN said that as of last year, nearly 1 million Tibetan students attended state-run residential schools, which have been described as a form of “abduction and forced assimilation” by the European Parliament.
Tibetan Youth Association in Taiwan president Kunchok Lhakpa called on China to stop construction of a hydroelectric dam in Sichuan Province, which opponents say would submerge several ancient Tibetan monasteries.
Chinese police last month arrested more than 1,000 people protesting against the dam, nearly all of whom are still in detention, Lhakpa said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Since the Tibetan uprising against Chinese communist rule on March 10, 1959, Tibetans have had no freedom and no human rights, Lhakpa said.
“The Chinese communists claim Tibet has become more open these past decades, and that Tibetans are living a great life. These claims are not true — no matter how beautiful Tibetans are on the outside, nothing compares to a lack of freedom on the inside,” Lhakpa said.
Li Wen (李問), who represented the Democratic Progressive Party at the commemoration, said that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army “forced” Tibetans to agree to the Seventeen-Point Agreement a year after invading in 1950.
Yet within less than a decade, Beijing breached the clauses in the agreement that said religion and customs should be respected, leading to the uprising in March 1959.
Following a violent crackdown by the Chinese government, the Dalai Lama fled to India, where he later formed a Tibetan government in exile.
An annual commemoration of the uprising has been held in Taipei since 2004.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
An exhibition celebrating Taiwan and Japan’s comic culture opened on Saturday in Taichung, featuring a section that explores Taiwanese reproductions of Japanese comics from when martial law limited Japanese representation. “A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan’s Youth” held its Taiwan opening ceremony at Taichung’s National Taiwan Museum of Comics after an initial one-month run in Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum between May 24 and June 24. Much like the Kyoto exhibition, the show mainly celebrates the comic connection between Taiwan and Japan through late Taiwanese comic book
RSS