There are a number of key issues about which we should all be concerned —

• Invasion & Repression
• Human Rights Abuses
• Religious Repression
• Cultural Destruction
• Environmental Damage
• Population Transfer & Birth Control Policy
• The Dalai Lama

1. Invasion & Repression

Tibet was, as an independent country, in control of all its foreign, military and domestic affairs prior to China’s 1949 invasion. Since that time more than 1.2 million Tibetans, a sixth of the population, have died as a direct result of Chinese occupation. Tibet now accounts for one quarter of China’s land mass.

China continues its authoritarian, oppressive rule over Tibet, denying the Tibetan people their fundamental human, social, political, economic and religious rights.

2. Human Rights Abuses

Tibetans have no freedom of speech or assembly, no political autonomy, no access to self-determination, little religious freedom and increasing arbitrary arrests, political imprisonments and accounts of torture. There are currently hundreds of political prisoners in jails and labour camps across Tibet.

Documented methods of torture include beatings with chains and sticks rotruding nails, iron bars, shocks with electric cattle prods, hanging by the arms twisted behind the back and exposure to extreme temperatures.

3. Religious Oppression

In 1997 Chinese leaders labelled Buddhism a ‘foreign culture’. Tibetan Buddhism is subject to intense scrutiny and control by local government, police and Party bodies. Monks and nuns are asked to denounce the Dalai Lama and his photos are banned. Arrest and imprisonment are common occurrences for maintaining ties or loyalty with the Dalai Lama.

Monks and nuns account for the majority of prisoners incarcerated in Tibet and include Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, now 17, recognised by the Dalai Lama as the incarnation of the Panchen Lama.

4. Cultural Destruction

Since the Chinese invasion more than 6,000 monasteries have been destroyed. Many religious artefacts and cultural icons have been looted and destroyed while most of Tibet’s traditional literature has been eradicated. Chinese is taught as the first language in Tibetan schools and is required for most employment and higher education opportunities. In Lhasa, many Tibetan houses and entire neighbourhoods have been demolished to make way for Chinese development.

5. Environment

With an average elevation of 14,000 feet, Tibet is the highest country on earth. Tibet’s fragile high-altitude environment is increasingly endangered by China’s exploitative policies.

This matters to the rest of Asia and the world. Five of Asia’s great rivers have their headwaters in Tibet and nearly half the world’s population lives downstream. Deforestation in Tibet has already been linked to severe floods in the lower reaches of the Yangtze in China.

The high plains, forests and mountains of Tibet are home to rare and endangered wildlife such as the snow leopard, blue sheep and Tibetan antelope (chiru). Due to extensive resource extraction, poaching and unsustainable development, these ecosystems and many of their species are now endangered.

The forced settlement of nomads is wiping out a unique way of life, increasing poverty and contributing to grassland degradation.

6. Population Transfer

Deliberate population transfer policies have been introduced in Tibet to dilute and assimilate Tibetan language and culture. Chinese workers are offered wage incentives, better living conditions and employment and exemptions from the strict ‘one-child’ policy. Tibetans now make up less than half the population in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital.

7. The Dalai Lama

Tibetans consider Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama to be a living Buddha, the embodiment of Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion, and their spiritual and temporal leader. Throughout more than 45 years of exile, he has worked to raise international awareness of Tibet and to achieve justice for the Tibetan people through non-violent means.

In 1988, the Dalai Lama put forward the ‘Strasbourg Proposal’ in which he called for genuine autonomy for Tibet rather independence - a major concession.

The Government-in-Exile has drafted a constitution for an autonomous and democratic Tibet and holds elections for the Tibetan Parliament.