Dharamshala: The United Nations has expressed deep concern over the Nepalese government's move to forcibly deporting three Tibetan refugees to Chinese border police in early June this year.

“It is a very serious issue and we are extremely concerned," Nini Gurung, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency in Kathmandu, was quoted as saying by AFP.

The UN refugee agency said it had written to the Nepalese government about the incident in early June.

Two of the refugees, a Buddhist monk and a young woman, are serving jail sentence in Tibet after they were detained in western Nepal and handed over to Chinese security forces in Tibet, according to International Campaign for Tibet (ICT).

Nepal is duty-bound under the “Gentlemen's Agreement” with the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) to ensure the safe transit of Tibetan refugees through its territory," said ICT president Mary Beth Markey.

New York: The Washington State Governor has appointed a Tibetan American and resident of Seattle, Tashi Namgyal Khamshitsang, to the State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs.

The State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs looks after the well-being of Asian Pacific Americans in the Washington State by ensuring their access to participation in the fields of government, business, education, and other areas.  The Commission also serves as an Asian Advisory Council to the Governor.  The Commission was instituted by the 43rd State legislation passed on February 26, 1974.

In her appointment letter, Governor Christine O Gregoire says, “We need people like you, who are willing to give of their time and abilities to our state”.  She further adds that “As a member of my team I ask you to take personal responsibility and hold our boards and commissions and their management accountable for results”.

Tashi Namgyal is appointed for a three-year term, which begins on 1 July 2010 and ends on 30 June 2013.

He is a former President of the Tibetan Association of Washington State.  Tashi Namgyal, before migrating to the United States in 1999, served the Tibetan Administration-in-Exile for 26 years in various capacities including the Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Nepal.   

source tibet.net

Frank Rudolph Wolf, Member of the US House of Representatives/Wikipedia photo

Dharamshala: US Congressman Frank Wolf, co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and a long-time advocate of human rights around the world, delivered a major speech in the House of Representatives on Friday (23 July) urging the Obama Administration to "find its voice" on human rights.

In his statement, Mr Wolf informed the House about the current inadequate staffing levels at the office of the Special Coordinator for Tibetans. Approved as a part of its Tibet policy act of 2002, Congress had approved that the office 'consist three professional full-time staff members and additional support staff, as needed, in addition to the special coordinator, he said.

Mr Wolf also brought to the notice of the House about the delay in submission of the “congressionally mandated Report on Tibet Negotiations” to Congress as on 31 March every year.

He called on the Obama administration to place more priority on the issue of Tibet.

Mr Wolf presented a comprehensive assessment of the US government's role in promoting and protecting the basic human rights and religious freedom in countries such as Sudan, China, Vietnam, North Korea, Iraq, Egypt and Morocco. He specifically highlighted the struggles of different faith communities, including Uighur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Ahmadi Muslims, Coptic Christians and Baha'is.

Dharamshala: A 70-year-old monk named Ngawang Gyatso committed suicide due to intolerable depression caused by the Chinese government's draconian measures to oppress Tibetan monks and forcing them to denounce His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Ronpo monastery in Tibet's Nagchu region on 20 July, according to reliable information received by the Central Tibetan Administration.

The events leading to the monk's suicide started with the stepping up of patriotic education campaign and the subsequent arrest of Rongpo monastery's Lama Dawa Rinpoche, a monk official named Dhungphuk Ngawang Thokmey and Tashi Dhondup in Lhasa under the suspicion of contacting the outside world concerning the reincarnation of Rongpo Choje. They were later released from the custody.

༄༅། །རྒྱ་ནག་གི་རྩོམ་པ་པོ་གྲགས་ཅན་སྐུ་ཞབས་ཝང་ལི་ཞུང་བརྒྱུད་རྒྱ་རིགས་མི་གྲངས་ 1558 ཀྱིས་ྋགོང་ ས་མཆོག་ལ་དྲི་བ་ 317 ཕུལ་ཡོད། དྲི་བ་དེ་དག་ལ་འདེམ་ཤོག་བླུགས་མཁན་མི་གྲངས་ 11705 བྱུང་འདུག་པ་དང་། དེ་དག་གི་ནང་ནས་དོ་སྣང་ཆེ་ཤོས་བྱེད་པའི་གལ་གནད་ཅན་གྱི་དྲི་བ་བཅུ་ལ་ཕྱི་ཟླ་ 7 ཚིས་ 16 ཉིན་སྤྱི་ནོར་ྋགོང་ས་ྋསྐྱབས་མགོན་ཆེན་པོས་བཞུགས་སྒར་ཕོ་བྲང་ནས་བཀའ་ལན་སྩལ་བ་དེ་དག་ཕྱི་ཚེས་ 19 ཉིན་ནས་བཟུང་ྋགོང་ས་མཆོག་གི་རྒྱ་ཡིག་འཕྲུལ་སྒྲའི་དྲ་གནས་ཐོག་བཏོན་ཡོད།

His Holiness the Dalai Lama opening the name plate of the newly installed statue of Gyalwa Jampa at Disket Monastery in Ladakh's Nubra valley, on 25 July 2010/Photos by Tibetonline TV

Nubra, Ladakh: His Holiness the Dalai Lama blessed a newly installed Matreya statue during a ceremony at Ladakh's oldest and largest Disket Monastery (Dekyi Gonpa in Tibetan) on Sunday. (Watch)

Dressed in their best traditional costumes, a large number of local people attended the ceremony during which many important dignitaries including His Eminence the 102nd Gaden Tripa, J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Thiksey Rinpoche were present.

The 100 feet high statue of Matreya (Gyalwa Jampa) was build at a cost of around Rs 2 crores with the collaboration of Disket Kunrog Tsogpa and Disket Jamgon Sarsheng Nyamrog Thundel Tsogpa.

While laying the foundation stone in 2007 His Holiness the Dalai Lama had said he has started the construction work and would give the final touch by blessing the statue on its completion.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama being welcomed by Chogon Rinpoche and Abbot of Yarma Gonbo Monastery in Nubra valley, Ladakh, on 23 July 2010/Photos by Tibetonline TV

Nubra, Ladakh: With the arrival of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the remote Buddhist hamlet at Yarma Gonbo Monastery located about 65 km from Samtenling Monastery in Ladakh's Nubra Valley on last Friday, the long-held wishes of the people living in the region to meet their spiritual leader were finally fulfilled.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama inaugurated and consecrated a Phodrang (palace of His Holiness) newly built by the residents.

Over 7,000 Buddhist devotees received the oral transmission of The Diamond Sutra (dorje chotpa) from His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the monastery.

This is His Holiness the Dalai Lama's first-ever visit to Yarma Gonbo Monastery, which is considered one the most important religious and historical artifacts of Ladakh. The monastery was build by spiritual sons of Gyalwa Gotsangpa to provide shelter to visiting pilgrims and conduct daily religious rituals.

Gotsangpa, one of the most important yogi in Drukpa lineage of Ladakh, formally charted the route for circumambulation of Mount Kailash for the later pilgrims. He meditated in various places, performed many miracles and left his foot-print, hand-print and also the imprint of his forehead in the rocks of caves where he had meditated.

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a blogpost by Dolkar Tso which was posted on her blog on July 21, 2010. Dolkar Tso is the wife of businessman, environmentalist and philanthropist Karma Samdrup, sentenced to 15 years in prison on June 24, 2010 in Xinjiang on charges of alleged "grave-robbing".
 

Dolkar Tso started blogging in June 2010 during her husband's trial, providing a personal insight into the case. Her blogs, hosted on Chinese site Sohu.com, have been repeatedly closed down and she is currently on her 5th blog.

Whilst the case of Karma Samdrup and his imprisoned brothers Rinchen Samdrup and Chime Namgyal fades out of the news, Dolkar Tso's blogpost is a portrait of a distressed woman trying to imagine how best to carry on for the sake of the family. The blogpost starts with the summer, usually the time of the year when the family would leave the city of Xining and go home to the grasslands. The English translation reflects the original Chinese language nostalgic internal monologue style and confused grammar.

Follow this link to see all posts by Dolkar Tso that High Peaks Pure Earth has translated to date.

Dharamshala: Kalon Tripa Prof Samdhong Rinpoche is on a nine-day visit to Tibetan communities located in India's northern state of Himachal Pradesh to educate them about the policies of the Central Tibetan Administration.

During his visits to settlements in Shimla, Dholanji and Mandi from 19 – 22 July, Kalon Tripa spoke on the administration's effort to seek genuine autonomy for Tibet through the mutually beneficial Middle-Way Approach.

Kalon Tripa briefed the Tibetan settlers on the financial position of the Central Tibetan Administration and the upcoming election of Kalon Tripa.  He also answered questions from the audience.

Kalon Tripa spoke on the importance of specialisation in academic fields during his interaction with schoolchildren at the Central School for Tibetans in Shimla and Dholanji.

The visit will take him to Chauntara, Bir and Tashi Jong.