Tibet

When the Chinese armies marched into Tibet in 1950 it brought a sudden and violent end to centuries of isolation beyond the Himalayas. Since then more than a million Tibetans have died of torture, starvation and execution at the hands of the invaders.

More than 6,000 monasteries and their contents, irreplaceable jewels of Tibetan culture, have been destroyed. Monks, and nuns, have been slaughtered because of their non violent Buddhist faith. For decades the world has tried to forget Tibet, and even now with growing community awareness of the plight of the Tibetan people, governments do little to bring China to a realization of the wrongness of its ongoing policy of cultural and literal genocide within the so-called Tibetan Autonomous Region.

Everyone of us can do something to help. The following sites may help you to find your way of supporting Tibetans:

http://www.tibet.com/
http://www.tibet.org/Activism/Rights/religion.html
http://www.savetibet.org/
http://www.tchrd.org/

The religion of Tibet is a modified form of Buddhism introduced from neighbouring countries between the seventh and eleventh centuries. The Dalai Lama has been the spiritual and political leader of Tibet since approximately 1543. The title was bestowed by a Mongolian Khan and is translated "All Embracing Lama" or "Great Ocean". However, Tibetans may also refer to him as "The Precious Protector", "The Presence", or "The Inmost One". He is believed to be an incarnation of Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion. The fourteenth, Tenzin Gyatso, was forced to flee his homeland in 1959 because of Chinese aggression. In the tradition of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, he has become one of the great exponents of non-violence. For this, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

During 1995 His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso recognized Gendun Chokyi Nyima as the 11th incarnation of the Panchen Rinpoche. Within a few days of the announcement the Chinese government had placed the boy, his family and several senior monks from the Tashilhunpo monastery under arrest. They then proceeded to enthrone their own puppet Panchen Rinpoche, a boy known as Norbu Rinpoche. Gendun Chokyi Nyima is still missing making him the youngest political prisoner in the world.

The status of the Panchen Rinpoche as the second most senior lama in the Tibetan theocracy is such that he may play a major role in identifying the next Dalai Lama. Norbu Rinpoche as a stooge of the totalitarian Beijing regime has the potential to create significant problems concerning the recognition of any future Dalai Lama. This could lead to widespread confusion allowing the Chinese to exercise even more repressive control over the Tibetan homeland. As Australians we are in a position to register our concerns both with the Chinese and Australian governments by writing to:-

President of the People's Republic of China
C/- The Ambassador, Embassy of the People's Republic of China,
Canberra, ACT 2600

or

Hon Kevin Rudd, MHR

Prime Minister of Australia,
Parliament House,
Canberra, ACT 2600