British MPs visit Dharamsala, concerned over Tibetans’ plight
Sep 11th, 2008 | By Sindh Today | Category: IndiaDharamsala, Sep 11 (IANS) Three British parliamentarians - Norman Baker, Julie Morgan and Tim Loughton - Thursday condemned China for ‘torture and imprisonment of Tibetans’ during a visit to this Himachal Pradesh town that houses Tibet’s government-in-exile.
The parliamentarians, who concluded their four-day visit here Thursday, told IANS that ‘they were here to meet people, officials and ministers of the Tibetan government-in-exile to know the ground realities about the situation in Tibet’.
‘We are quite concerned about the present situation in Tibet,’ said Baker, who is a member of Britain’s all-party parliamentary group on Tibet.
He termed ‘torture and imprisonment of Tibetans as an unacceptable behaviour of the Chinese administration’.
‘We will engage our government and the European Union to try to find out a peaceful resolution to the problem,’ he added.
Apart from visiting Tibetan cultural and educational institutions, the British parliamentarians observed the ongoing session of the Tibetan parliament.
‘The visit is part of an exchange programme to share experiences between the UK and Tibetan parliaments and to advocate the Tibetan people to express their opinions to the British parliamentarians, initiated by the London-based Tibet Society,’ said Lobsang Choedak, in-charge of the media cell of the government-in-exile.
The programme began with two visits by Tibetan parliamentarians to the Britain in 2005 and 2007, followed by British parliamentary delegation’s visit here in October 2007.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959. His government-in-exile is not recognised by any country.
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I don’t know if someone here saw the demonstration against the Dalai Lama that took place from Germany to England, to Australia, to North America, to France and probably soon back to Germany too. Three/four hundred monks and nuns. These people are saying that the Dalai Lama is not doing what he preaches.
Unfortunately what they are saying is true. The success of the Dalai Lama, beyond his charisma, comes from the teachings about universal love and compassion that he learned from his Gurus. But not only is he doing the opposite of what these sublime teachings teach, he’s also been persecuting the people faithful to those same Gurus -the practitioners of the Protector Dorjeshugden, a mainstream group in Tibetan Buddhism until he turned them into outcasts.
His persecution is painful for Western practitioners. Ask yourself the question: would I like to have my family, my colleagues, receive emails where I am accused of being a malignant spirit worshipper? The Western followers of the Dalai Lama are propagating this type of calumny induced by his long, insistent campaign against Dorjeshugden.
But Westerners live in countries where there is a limit to the abuse you can inflict to people. The world should know that the Dalai Lama is persecuting helpless monks and lay people in India, where they have been thrown out of their monasteries, out of their jobs, out of their schools being children of practitioners, where the rest of Tibetans had to swear in front of deities that they are never going to have human contact with them any more. This segregation was ordered by the Dalai Lama himself, in January of this year, because, he said repeatedly, he had the right to finish what he had started -meaning the ban on Dorje Shugden in 1996.
The suffering of these Tibetans is being ignored due to a reason most bizarre: because it seems outlandish, incredible, that the one who preaches religious tolerance to others is doing the opposite of what he preaches. A cruel vicious circle.
The Dalai Lama is transgressing the laws of all civilized countries and he is getting away with it, because he has on his side charisma, the precious teachings he proclaims without following, his celebrity status, his Nobel Peace Prize.
The world should open its eyes and stop his wrong actions. The Dalai Lama is not stopping them because the world has decided to close its eyes in his case.
Those who adhere to values of human rights should not allow this to happen any more.
Please investigate, go to YouTube, to websites like the Shugdensociety.info/home, like Wisdombuddhadorjeshugden.org, and others, to find the truth.
Friendoftruth
It is wonderful that British MP’s are taking an interest in the Tibetan situation. The human rights abuses and suffering inflicted upon Tibetans is beyond question and the world should be working towards preventing them happening in the future.
Unfortunately, even within the Tibetan society in India human rights abuses are continuing to be inflicted upon Tibetans. But this abuse is coming from Tibetans themselves who are following their leader the Dalai Lama in discriminating illegally against Dorje Shugden worshippers in Buddhist society.
What friendoftruth writes above can be attested to by millions of people worldwide - but the world’s governments and the world’s media are generally choosing to ignore this story.
It is very sad…
The Dalai Lama wants to have his cake and to eat it – he wants to be a politician and he wants to be a spiritual leader at the same time. These roles are incompatible. With all due respect, confusion in the media seems to stem from his ambiguous dual role – is he the political or the religious leader of Tibetans in exile? What does he want from the world and its people? Even the media is often unsure how to refer to him and world politicians are ambivalent about whether or not to meet with him. His theocratic role is unique in this modern world and, more significantly, for those who disagree with him there is no recourse because of it.
Buddhist practitioners of Dorje Shugden will probably never get the Dalai Lama’s approval, which of course makes many of them very sad, as you can see from their stories all over the Internet. But what they need from the press and world leaders is some recognition of their suffering situation. They, like Tibetans everywhere, need freedom. They are being persecuted by the Dalai Lama himself and need the freedom to practice, the freedom not to be ostracised from their communities, and the freedom not to be falsely and cruelly demonized and segregated as supposed non-Buddhists engaging in ‘cult-like’ practices worshipping an evil spirit.
Since the Dalai Lama is the source of this persecution and slander, the Western Shugden Society and other Dorje Shugden practitioners need him to retract his statements and give religious freedom; nothing more. Please check http://www.aboutwss.org for information. Please take some time to check out this unfolding story of hypocrisy and cruelty on behalf of a Nobel Peace prize winner, unbelievable as it may seem when first hearing about it.