Brave Mr Dhamchoe Nyima is tired of Tibetan government in Dharamsala

Amongst all those who vehemently attack Dorje Shugden practitioners online, one person seems to stand out like a sore thumb – Tenzin Peljor. He is even said to be operating several websites registered under various aliases to negatively influence online discussion regarding the Shugden controversy and sway opinion in his favour. These websites claim to be the premier sources for “authoritative and independent information” on the subject.

The investigation uncovered the hidden agenda behind his websites and his connections with the leadership of the Tibetans in-exile. Apparently, he was hired to ensure that propaganda ostracizing and persecuting Shugden practitioners continues unabated, even to the level of inciting violence on innocent people.

Tenzin Peljor – Disgruntled Monk or CTA Puppet?
Updated, & there is now a further article connected to this subject here.
In researching the issues around the Dalai Lama controversy I was surprised to see the same group of names kept cropping up. There appeared to be a small Dalai Lama fan club that was aggressively promoting its “anti-protest” stance and within that group there was one name that seemed to dominate all their activities – Tenzin Peljor.
I stumbled across Mr Peljor early in my research, or to be more precise I had been directed to several of his websites for “authoritative and independent information” on the subject. It would appear that he has become an “unbiased expert” according to his friends in the group, but what they don’t mention are his close ties to the Dalai Lama and the exile leadership.
They also fail to mention that he has been aggressively campaigning against the protests for over 8 years and that he runs numerous websites registered under different aliases and tries to influence online discussions using several false identities. On further inspection Mr Peljor’s activities are anything but “unbiased and independent”, and more closely resemble those of an activist promoting a specific and clearly defined agenda.
His “independent websites” are listed as resources for journalists by the Tibetan exile leadership, he is promoted to journalists by Tibetan NGOs, he is the media spokesperson for the German Buddhist organisation DBO, and he targets any journalist and publication that portrays the protests in a positive light. For a monk whose main activities are teaching at a Buddhist centre in Berlin he is remarkably active and engaged in this controversy, almost as if it was his full-time job.
As with all the sources I come across in my research I did some background checks to see if he was as independent as he claims and to what degree his presentation of information could be influenced by those it benefits. Scratching the surface of his ‘independent monk’ facade revealed quite a bit more than I had initially suspected.
An ex-NKT Member
Tenzin Peljor is often very up front about his prior involvement with the NKT, after all he uses this as a basis for his credibility when it comes to the protests. He joined the NKT in 1995/96 according to his biography, becoming ordained in 1998 and later disrobing and leaving the group in 2000.
Both Tenzin and the teacher he had in the NKT decided to leave at the same time, after which he continued to be her student. He took ordination again in 2002 in Nepal, but disrobed after only 2 months and began studying with a new teacher from the Rime tradition.
In March 2006 after 4 years in Rime he then took ordination from the Dalai Lama in India, who gave him the name Tenzin Peljor.
It was soon after his ordination, that Mr Peljor began to take an interest in countering the protests. His approach followed much the same modus operandi as the Tibetan government, namely to try and undermine the credibility of the protests by attacking the NKT.
It’s worth noting at this point that prior to the protests the Dalai Lama had no problem with Geshe Kelsang Gyatso or the NKT. He had written the foreword to Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’s book, “Buddhism in the Tibetan Tradition”, and a note of praise in another of his books, “Meaningful to Behold”. It was only after the protests began that the Tibetan exile leadership started to attack Geshe Kelsang Gyatso and smear the NKT, attempting to label it as a cult.
Following his ordination by the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Peljor remained in India and began to assist the Tibetan government (CTA) with their disinformation campaign. He began by editing pages on Wikipedia, rapidly becoming the main editor for the page about the NKT.
His attempts to redefine the NKT on Wikipedia however seem to have been so clumsy that it aroused the suspicion of other editors. In describing Tenzin’s approach one of the Wikipedia editors stated:
“I’m very concerned that the opinions and viewpoints of a relatively small number of individuals is drawn upon as the source material for a large portion of the article, which is representative of the point of view of a single editor who, in his determination to ensure that the article fully describes his own perspective, has dominated the editing process.” (ClockworkSoul, 23rd October 2006)
The Birth of the Survivors
As Tenzin’s campaign to discredit the NKT on Wikipedia was starting to lose ground he then switched tack and focussed his attention towards online Buddhist chat groups, in particular he became very active on a group called e-Sangha. It was on this group that he struck up a friendship with David Cutshaw, a disillusioned ex-NKT member and encouraged him to start a new discussion group.
The group that Tenzin wanted Mr Cutshaw to set up was to be focussed only on the negative aspects of the NKT, it was to be named the “NKT Survivors” group and any pro-NKT messages were to be strictly forbidden. The idea was that the group would encourage people to leave the NKT and only post their negative experiences and opinions of them. Their rules state:
“No NKT members/followers/students are allowed.
If you are happy with the NKT, and have no desire to leave, this group is not for you. If you join anyway trying to post and try to get Yahoo to delete this group, we can only assume you are a troll trying to cause disharmony. Such people will be banned and removed at once from the group.”
Tenzin offered to support David in the creation of the group, but wanted to avoid being directly linked to it as its creator. In this way Tenzin had found the perfect surrogate to continue his online activities against the NKT.
The group was created on May 22nd 2007 and Tenzin was the first person other than David to post on it. He assisted with moderating the group, approving new members, editing its settings, and profile.
At the time of the groups creation Tenzin was still residing within the Tibetan exile community in India, however a few weeks later he was promoted to the position of Resident Monk at Bodhicharya Centre in Berlin. From his new base in Berlin he continued to be central to its development, shaping the “survivors” group and focussing its narrative portraying the NKT as a cult.
After a few months the group appeared to be achieving the goal Tenzin had failed to accomplish the previous year with Wikipedia.
On 31st Dec 2007 he posted to the group stating, “At the New Years Day I will move to Italy, Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, and pick up a qualified study there for the next 6 years.”, adding, “I will leave the forum at the New Years Day…If there is anybody who feel he can support David’s moderator activities, please let him know privately.”
Instituto Lama Tzong Khapa is a centre of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) a Tibetan group that follows the Dalai Lama. Clearly the FPMT centre approved of Tenzin’s activities because within 2 months of his arrival there he resumed his activities on the “survivors” group.
Weaving Websites and Alliances
In April 2008 another series of protests began as the Dalai Lama visited the US. In response to these Tenzin created two websites registered under an alias which according to him offered, “fair, neutral, and balanced information regarding NKT and Buddhist cults in general.”
The websites were registered under the false name of Losang Tashi, to an address in Gotha, the town in East Germany where Tenzin was born. In a post on May 21st 2008 to the “survivors” group he said, “maybe we use the power of the many people here and the motivation to protect others (giving fearlesness) by setting up 1-2 websites.”
Rather than offering fair or neutral information both websites were a continuation of his online campaign to undermine the protests by attempting to discredit the NKT. Had his intention been wholesome you would need to ask why a Buddhist monk with vows against lying was using a false name when registering websites?
Then in July 2008 Jamyang Khedrup posted a comment promoting one of Tenzin’s websites under a New York Times article about the protests. What I found interesting was that as I dug deeper into Tenzin’s background I found the same people who have been involved with his campaigning for a long time.
By this point in my research I had already encountered Jamyang Khedrup whilst investigating his involvement with the LamaGate hacking scandal, but I had no idea his involvement with Tenzin stretched as far back as 2008.
The reason I didn’t know Khedrup’s involvement went so far back is because he was posting to the ‘survivors’ group using a false identity. For 6 months in 2008 Khedrup used the name Lobsang Jangchub in numerous posts to the group. Many people responded to his comments addressing him by the name Lobsang. At no time did he ever try to correct them or explain that wasn’t his name.
The fact that both Tenzin and Khedrup were using false identities whilst posting comments to the ‘survivors’ group raises significant questions about the accuracy of other users identities and claims.
Significant discrepancies have already been uncovered with Khedrup’s accounts of his involvement with LamaGate, and here is yet another occasion where his credibility is called into question.
The Hidden Hand
Seeking to expand his sphere of influence beyond his own websites and the “survivors” group Tenzin began to strike up a relationship with Dialogue Ireland, a website which focuses on religious movements. Prior to Tenzin’s involvement his friend, Joanne Clark had also been in touch with them to offer her services as a self-proclaimed”expert” on Tibetan Buddhism.
Tenzin and Joanne’s approach in the Dialogue Ireland forums seemed to follow a pattern of promoting both Tenzin’s websites and the “survivors” group. In his attempt to form a stronger bond with Dialogue Ireland, Tenzin wrote to them explaining his position:
“I am much interested into the dynamics of Nazi, Stasi, dictatorship, totalitarian systems, and I am an admirer of Jay Lifton and Margaret Thaler Singer. I run also a website about the dynamics of Buddhist cults in German language. So we share quite a lot.”
Yet when they tried to ask him questions about his background he became very defensive, refusing to answer them. Tenzin said, “I don’t see any use to answer. My experience recently at DI [Dialogue Ireland] was that whatever I say will be misunderstood or misinterpreted and finally twisted.” adding, “Also I am not interested in any online discussion about me. East German biographies can be complex.”
A common theme in Tenzin’s response to critics is that they are “twisting” the facts, especially when someone is trying to pin him down on a specific point. It’s interesting that Tenzin used to be in the National People’s Army (NPA) in East Germany, which was strongly influenced by the Soviet Armed Forces, working as a radio operator.
His comments about the protests often accuse them of using ‘agitprop’, which is a Soviet style of propaganda, a methodology he would have been all too familiar with from his previous training. Unfortunately he didn’t expand on his “complex” biography, so we don’t know what type of activities he was employed to perform by the NPA, or what areas his training encompassed.
In 2013 Dialogue Ireland started to use Chris Chandler as their expert on Tibetan Buddhism and approached the issue as a problem with Lamaism, rather than just one or two specific traditions. Chris, who had been involved with Tibetan Buddhism for 30 years, raised the issue that Lamaism is a form of Tantric Hinduism. So it was not a question of focussing on the NKT as a cultish form of Buddhism, but was a case of finding the exact same tendencies and attitudes in all forms of Tibetan Buddhism, including those following the Dalai Lama.
Their new outlook limited the degree to which Tenzin could manipulate their website to promote his own agenda and when they began to look into Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, one of Tenzin’s teachers, he disengaged from them completely. (You can read Dialogue Ireland’s article about Tenzin Peljor in full here https://dialogueireland.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/tenzin-peljor-ordained-by-the-dalai-lama-and-connected-to-ringu-tulku/)
By this point Joanne had already left the Dialogue Ireland site, but when she heard that Chris was their new expert she returned with a vengence. As one person said, “She was like someone high on drink, totally under the influence.”
Dialogue Ireland stated:
“However since Chris has been the catalyst for our understanding of Lamaism as the cultist form of Buddhism Joanne has been like a Banshee on our site morning, noon and night. She disagrees with Chris’s analysis but can’t just get up and go. She is now camping on the site.”
A Sudden Increase
Following his failed attempt at using Dialogue Ireland to undermine the NKT, Tenzin Peljor spent the following years expanding the number of his own websites that he could control and direct, rather than having to rely upon others. During this period his group of websites grew from two to eight, and everything was proceeding as normal for him until 2014.
Prior to 2014 the protests generally garnered a relatively small degree of media coverage. Whilst they were mentioned on several newscasts in the mainstream media it was often along the lines of the Tibetan government’s media briefing notes, so the issues behind the protests were rarely covered.
That all changed in Oslo when the Dalai Lama returned to celebrate his Nobel Peace Prize and the media took a greater interest in the protests. This attention seemed to gradually build from one protest to another which prompted a corresponding increase in activity from Tenzin Peljor and his compatriots.
In the 8 months prior to May 2014 there were on average 16 messages a month posted on the “survivors” discussion board, however in May this figure jumped up to 144 messages. The vast majority of them were posted over the days when the protests were taking place in Oslo.
At the same time the “survivors” were asking what they could do to counter the protests the exile leadership were asking the exact same question, and before long the two groups were working hand in hand. The “NKT Survivors” became the “NKT Survivor Activists”, and at the request of people associated with the exile leadership they began a new phase in their campaign to try and discredit the protesters.
One of their first actions involved the creation of a declaration against the protests by ex-members of the NKT. Originally this was presented as coming from Carol McQuire and Tenzin as a spontaneous idea of their own.
On 5th November however Carol admitted that it wasn’t their idea saying, “we were asked to do the declaration, it didn’t come from us, but we thought it was a great idea and agreed to do this as it would help the situation.”, adding, “Once we were asked to join in, we haven’t looked back – it’s been so inspiring working with a load of amazing people”
There was a slight problem with the first version of the declaration though, it included the following text, “We acknowledge there may be some problems within the Tibetan community that need to be addressed”. This had to be removed from subsequent versions of the declaration before the exile leadership would allow it to be put on the CTA’s official website.
In explaining this on his own website Tenzin let slip, “One of the initiators of the declaration wished for a change”, then he presented both the old version and the changed version.
The declaration was then added to the Tibetan government’s official website (Tibet.net) at the very top of the page dedicated to the Dorje Shugden controversy. The significance of its placement should not be underestimated. It appears before any statements from the CTA and the Dalai Lama, which is somewhat unusual for a declaration signed by only 24 ex-NKT members who are supposedly unconnected to the exile leadership.
A New Website
Despite all the best efforts of Tenzin and the CTA the media was undeterred. They continued to take an interest in the protests and the Dalai Lama found himself facing questions about them during every press conference. The coverage in Hamburg seemed pivotal in that it was both widespread and also became the top news story on Google about the Dalai Lama.
Following Hamburg a new website was created specifically for the media to counteract the protests. It was a website that was designed to be both anonymous, yet have the support of Tibet House in the US. No name was associated with it, no contact details, and it was registered through a domain proxy service, designed to keep the registrant’s details hidden.
At the bottom of the website the disclaimer stated:
“Official Tibet Houses are cultural centers of HH the Dalai Lama, non-profit organizations devoted to the preservation of Tibetan culture. This site appears with their approval since, while not responsible for producing the site or its content, the misrepresentations of Tibetan culture generated by this controversy distort and negatively affect the public perception of Tibetan culture.”
It was all very mysterious and Tenzin Peljor made no mention of the website until someone posted a comment on his website drawing his attention to it. He pretended to know nothing about the website until this comment on October 19th, however he had set one of his own websites to redirect to this new website two days previously, on October 17th.
The mystery deepened when I was discussing some of the controversy with Professor Robert Thurman on the fateful night of the LamaGate incident. It seemed that Professor Thurman was confused about who I am and was convinced that I had suggested to him that he should create the website.
On 30th October Prof. Thurman stated to me that, “we prepared shugdeninfo.com for you @IndyHack”, adding, “We produced this site on your suggestion @IndyHack”
I was a little baffled to say the least. Prof. Thurman was saying quite clearly that he was involved with the creation of the new website (shugdeninfo.com) and yet Tenzin Peljor had redirected his own domain name (shugden.info) to Thurman’s new site. It was too much of a coincidence for me to drop and I was encouraged that there was now a direct link between Thurman and Peljor, albeit a slightly difficult one to prove categorically.
Fortunately Tenzin helped out with that a few weeks later.
When is a Coincidence not a Coincidence?
When you’re dealing with investigations it’s tricky to pin down exact evidence to prove your case – people sometimes lie and when you catch them out they usually refuse to admit it. Often times you also have to deal with associations of probabilities, you look for groupings of supposedly unconnected events that push the boundaries of coincidence.
The fact Prof. Thurman had admitted direct involvement with the shugdeninfo.com website was a welcome and unexpected gift. It went beyond the mere approval of the site by Tibet House US and indicated that he had been directly involved in its creation with one or more other people. The fact that Tenzin was redirecting his domain to the site before anyone had told him about it on his blog was also helpful, as was his pretense not to know about it until that point, but it still wasn’t enough.
Then there was another unexpected gift, Tenzin updated the registration of his domain (shugden.info) through the same anonymous service as shugdeninfo.com and hosted it on the same servers as shugdeninfo.com. Now both domain names had exactly the same settings.
Conclusions
When delving beyond the facade of a ‘simple monk’ or ‘independent expert’ we find that Tenzin Peljor’s background is far from simple or independent.
Here we have someone who in their youth was a Radio Operator in the National People’s Army, and who is familiar with the Soviet style of government propaganda. By his own admission he is, “interested into the dynamics of Nazi, Stasi, dictatorship, totalitarian systems” and has a complex East German biography (including his own Stasi file).
He’s an ex-NKT member, so that would account for his interest in speaking out against them, but there’s a huge gap of 6 years between him leaving the NKT and beginning his online campaign against them, which doesn’t tally. The timing of his campaign seems more closely related to his ordination by the Dalai Lama than his experiences within the NKT.
Moreover his approach to attacking the NKT seems to be in response to their involvement with the protests, rather than being a “survivor”. He began to develop his own websites only in response to the protests in 2008.
Tenzin claims the purpose of his websites are, “to counter the misinformation campaign of the NKT”, yet his own approach appears to be promoting the disinformation campaign of the Tibetan exile leadership. He also created a declaration and canvassed for signatures on it because he was instructed to by people who objected to even the slightest criticism of the Tibetan community.
His new website in response to the media coverage of the protests in 2014 appears to have been created in collaboration with Professor Thurman, who is alleged to have tried to solicit anonymous to hack protesters Twitter accounts (more here). His domain which redirects to the new website is also now hidden behind the same anonymous registration service that Thurman used.
Overall Tenzin Peljor’s campaign against the NKT seems more related to the protests than any negative experiences he had whilst being a member of the group. The level and depth of his involvement over such an extensive time period goes beyond the expected response of a disgruntled “survivor”.
Mr Peljor appears to be an activist who is promoting a clearly defined and well structured campaign. The fact that his campaign started whilst he was living within the Tibetan exile community in India seems to indicate the main influencing factor behind it.
He is well funded and has significant resources and time to invest in this issue that don’t fit with his role as a resident monk at Bodhicharya Centre. For instance at one point he offered to fly to Ireland to discuss his Stasi background when issues about it arose.
The logical conclusion is that Tenzin Peljor is acting in accordance with the wishes of the CTA as one of their de facto agents. The persona he projects as being an ex-NKT “survivor” simply trying to right the wrongs he experienced is nothing other than a smokescreen.
The problem he has with this facade is that it is poorly crafted and badly executed. When exposed to a sustained investigation it crumbles to reveal his close involvement with, and oversight from, the Tibetan exile leadership.
Update – 30th Dec 2014
Today Carol McQuire has publicly accused me of lying and taking advantage of Tenzin’s current ‘absent’ status. In a recent post on social media she said that Tenzin is currently on retreat at Drepung Monastery until April, so she has sprung valiantly to his defense.
Amongst the various inaccuracies in Carol’s post she has likened the timing of this article to, “someone in a boxing ring deliberately hitting a last strike after the whistle has been blown”, claiming it is published at a time when Tenzin is unable to respond to it. This is untrue.
Carol posted her comments a few hours after Tenzin had posted a new article on his blog. Tenzin had also posted a comment on social media about his new article 2 hours prior to Carol’s post. So her claim that Tenzin is somehow absent from this situation is incorrect.
If he is on retreat at Drepung Monastery as claimed then it is a retreat which allows him to continue to work on his blog and social media. As usual with Tenzin and his friends their accounts often crumble when a small degree of scrutiny is applied to them.
She is also incorrect in stating that the initial version of the ex-NKT declaration was posted on the CTA website – Tibet.net. It is only the version which contains no reference to any criticism of the Tibetan community that was ever posted on Tibet.net.
Carol said, “the first version of the declaration was already published on the CTA’s website before the second had even been thought of. How sad that such an enormous theory of political intrigue that IndyHack has developed has quite differing origins.”
Unfortunately for Carol her desperate attempt to try and refute the claims made in my article only destroys her own credibility.
http://www.arebuddhistsracist.com/tenzin_peljor.html

It is due to the kindness of the Indian Government that the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans have been living safely in exile. They do not even have to pay a single cent in tax. Some may say it is only fair because the Dalai Lama is not only a refugee but a spiritual leader who speaks about peace and compassion.

This article highlights a very dodgy system that lacks transparency. It is not even clear where the millions of dollars donated to the trust actually go. With the Dalai Lama’s ‘personal emissary’ suspended over allegations of corruption, and a US$1.5 million loan that went ‘missing’ under Sikyong Lobsang Sangay’s administration, will an investigation into the Dalai Lama’s Charitable Trust reveal more dirt on the Tibetan leadership?

Questions Raised on Dalai Lama Charitable Trust
April 14, 2018 Artvoice
By Indy Mack
Throughout his time in exile the Indian Government has allowed the Dalai Lama to live tax-free and turned a blind eye to his audacious international tax avoidance scheme. Many of the profits from his overseas tours are funneled back to India into a fund called, “His Holiness the Dalai Lama Charitable Trust”, and people are told that profits from his events are used for charitable purposes that the Dalai Lama deems appropriate. However many believe that this is not a charitable trust, but opine that is instead the Dalai Lama’s own private trust fund, that according to at least one trustee he treats as “his personal bank account”.
Although its name implies that it is a charitable trust, “His Holiness the Dalai Lama Charitable Trust”, was registered under the Indian Trusts Act in Calcutta in 1964, which could allow a private trust to manage the Dalai Lama’s personal investments, not as a charitable trust. In its opinion Allied Legal, beloveds that “Despite popular belief a Charitable Trust will be registered under the Indian Registration Act not under the Indian Trusts Act.”
Being a charitable trust allows for Millions of dollars of tax avoidance preventing any levy for his public appearances being paid the host the nationt. Furthermore the trust fund is also believed to pay for the Dalai Lama’s own activities and entertainment. Whilst it does make many charitable donations the Dahli Lama seems to also use this fund to indulge his lavish lifestyle such as his 15 Rolex watches, his pastry chef, and his entourage of servants.
Since this mechanism was first discovered the Dalai Lama published a website claiming the trust, “was established…as an irrevocable public trust”, which is untrue. According to R&A Associates, a specialist Indian law firm, “The provisions of the Indian Trusts Act do not apply to Public Trusts”. As the fund was established under the Indian Trusts Act it was created as a private trust, not a public one.
The Dalai Lama also started to publish limited financial records of its activities. However these records don’t reveal the amounts that are used for the Dalai Lama’s own personal activities, they only cover 4 years of expenditures, and are highly condensed.
From the limited records released it’s impossible for the public to tell exactly what the money is being spent on, or to what degree the Dalai Lama personally benefits from the fund. In addition, all of the funds trustees are close subordinates to the Dalai Lama and they follow his exact instructions on how the money is used.
One current trustee of “His Holiness the Dalai Lama Charitable Trust” admitted privately that the Dalai Lama uses the fund as “his personal bank account”. They explained that in Tibet there was a government treasury that belonged to the Dalai Lama and that he sees this as “the same thing”.
They admitted it was common knowledge among all the trustees that after each event overseas the Dalai Lama would be “paid his share of the profits” through the trust. They also stated the Dalai Lama would often demand “a minimum donation” before he would agree to a visit.
The key difference between whether a fund is private or charitable lies in where the money goes. A charitable trust can only use its funds to fulfill its defined charitable aims. Although it can reimburse people who work for it, it cannot use its assets to fund someone’s personal lifestyle. Since “His Holiness the Dalai Lama Charitable Trust” uses some of its funds to pay for the Dalai Lama’s personal living expenses it functions as a private fund. The fact that all of its trustees are under the direct control of the Dalai Lama also raises doubts over its authenticity.
https://artvoice.com/2018/04/14/questions-raised-dalai-lama-charitable-trust/#.WtPG4y5uaM-

While the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA; the Tibetan leadership based in Dharamsala) are not capable at all of making a positive difference in the lives of Tibetans in-exile, they are more than capable of blaming others for their failures. They like to call critics and those who challenge their authority “Chinese spies”.

The CTA has no intention to fight for the welfare and future of the Tibetan people. All the CTA does is lie, manipulate, abuse its power, discriminate, ostracize, embezzle funds and squander Chatrel money (contributions from Tibetans) to persecute those who do not follow or agree with them. Welcome to the CTA’s version of ‘democracy’.

How the Tibetan government in exile embraced “post-truth” and fake news
Communists, fake news and Chinese spies: the authoritarian’s propaganda playbook of the Dalai Lama runs out of steam…
Tenzin Jigme
Tibetan writer and voice of the absent Tibetan democracy
Apr 14 | 10 min read
The Tibetan government in exile appears to have embraced a simple yet effective tactic when dealing with critics who question its ineffectiveness, alleged suppression of even minor opposition or seeming tolerance of corruption within its ranks: simply accusing them of being spies in the pay of China has to date proved an effective way of forcing those critics to shut up and slink off quietly.
The Central Tibetan Authority (CTA), the government in exile, is responsible for looking after Buddhist communities across India who initially fled their homeland when fleeing from Chinese repression following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. Ever since their flight, the common CTA mantra has been to “blame China”, whenever things went wrong.
Those in command at the CTA have levelled the “Chinese spies” charge against virtually everyone who has opposed the body, which has faced numerous accusations of vested interests, corruption and ineptitude in its perceived role of taking care of the 95,000 Tibetan exiles under its authority.
They have even taken issue with the Dorje Shugden devotion, a centuries-old tradition of worship, claiming its practitioners are in league with China to undermine the authority of the Dalai Lama, widely recognised as the spiritual leader of the Tibetan exiles, who has spoken forcefully against the practice. His position on the matter has widely been seen as a de facto ban.
By branding all Dorje Shugden practitioners as “Chinese spies”, the CTA sidesteps some important questions, most strikingly how ostracising those who follow the 350-year-old tradition sits with the Tibetan constitution, and with Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which embodies the concept of religious freedom. It has also left Shugden groups open to the blandishments of the Chinese, who have not been averse to exploiting the rift.
By accusing any and all opponents of being Chinese spies, the CTA has sought to keep alive concerns that were initially justifiable in the aftermath of the community’s flight from Tibet, when the Chinese threat to its very existence was all too real. By doing so, it has sought to mask its own lack of progress in improving the lot of the exiles in its care. Many of these exiles continue to live in precarious conditions and remain virtually stateless, almost 60 years after their displacement and despite international support from several governments and a large number of non-governmental organisations.
China probably does keep a close watch on CTA activities and on sentiment both within Tibet and in the communities in exile, given that Tibet accounts for just over a quarter of China’s total land mass and it is in the country’s interest to ensure stability in the region. But if all the CTA’s accusations were indeed correct, “Chinese spies” would likely outnumber the rest of the population in the Tibetan exile communities.
Cato’s lesson
Already in the 2nd century BC, the Roman senator Cato the Elder had understood that if one repeats an idea often enough, it can eventually gain a foothold in the public conscious. He was to use this understanding to great effect.
Cato had been worried. He saw Carthage, Rome’s powerful Phoenician rival, as a continuing threat to the Roman Empire. Even after the Roman army had defeated Carthage, located in modern-day Tunisia, in the first and second Punic Wars, the city continued to flourish, something Cato found intolerable. Whether relevant to his speeches before the senate or not, Cato would, for a period, end each one with a phrase very roughly translated as “and by the way, I’d just like to add that Carthage must be destroyed”.
In the end, either convinced by Cato’s repetitiveness or just to get him to shut up, the Roman Senate agreed to send its forces under Scipio Aemilianus to wipe Carthage from the face of the earth. The focus on the “Carthage problem” certainly helped divert attention from problems at home — there was plenty of dissatisfaction to go round among Ancient Rome’s slaves and lower classes, who formed the bulk of the empire’s population. This dissatisfaction flared up less than fifteen years later in a slave revolt which shook Rome to her foundations, and which would be followed by two more rebellions, the last led by the fabled slave Spartacus.
Numerous historians point to the sack of Carthage, when Rome destroyed her last great competitor, as the beginning of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
Even so, Cato’s lesson was not lost on future generations. Unscrupulous would-be autocrats soon learned that if they could focus the attention of the ruled on a common enemy, real or imagined, they might be prepared to forgive their rulers a multitude of sins rather than risk being tarred with the “enemy” brush themselves.
“Post-truth” on the march
Jason Stanley, a professor of philosophy at Yale and the author of How Propaganda Works, published in 2015, says that authoritarian propaganda is a form of communication in which a leader creates a narrative explaining why the problems afflicting certain groups of people have a simple origin and an even simpler solution. Much of the time, the “problems” are of the would-be autocrat’s own invention, he said, a simple expedient to drag the disaffected into his or her camp.
Oxford Dictionaries flagged “post-truth” as 2016’s international word of the year, a concept it defines as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” It was a nod to the Trump presidential campaign and to Brexit, the UK vote to exit the European Union. Both campaigns owed much of their success to their ability in stoking the fears of certain voters, seeking to identify the “danger” posed by immigrants, people of colour or the “dishonest press”, and to completely ignoring any real-world details that might not fit in with their world view.
One example is U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump’s identification of “inner city carnage” as one of the major problems facing Americans today, a demonstrably false claim but one that served to rally his base. Despite the fact that the U.S. murder rate had been in overall decline for some two decades or more, Trump focused on a handful of cities where there had been a spike in violent crime, attributing it to immigrant gangs, convincing his base that the phenomenon was out of control and that only he could solve the problem.
He also alleged the 2016 election would be rigged by millions of illegal votes marshalled by the perfidious Democrats, despite minimal empirical evidence of voter fraud, which had identified fewer than 10 cases of voter impersonation in the previous election. Among other ludicrous claims, Trump’s boast that his election would ensure people would be allowed to say “Happy Christmas” again belied the fact that the conveying of Christmas wishes had never actually been banned.
Prior to his election, Trump had adopted the tactic of accusing any and all of his critics of being purveyors of “fake new” — at least he would have done had he known the word “purveyors”. Since then, he has ably used the occasional factual error in unfavourable press articles as “proof” that every media critic is out to get him, while giving a pass to friendly press such as Fox News, even on the numerous occasions that their purported news stories have been thoroughly debunked.
Since his election, Trump has attacked friend or foe when the mood takes him. He has a well-known tendency of threatening to visit “fire and fury” on anyone who attempts to hold him to account, and of levelling accusations of “fake news” at any news article that dares to imply he isn’t actually the greatest human being in history. Steve Coll wrote in the New Yorker, “fake news” is credible reporting that he (Trump) doesn’t like.”
Incredibly, the mainstream press has generally failed to hold Trump to account for his numerous lies, like those concerning his tax returns which, during the elections, he promised to release as soon as his audit was over; or regarding the press conference he said he would hold to explain how his wife Melania was awarded a green card, usually reserved for people with “special talents” like nuclear physicists or sporting prodigies. He has rarely been asked to explain, on the record, why he failed to deliver on his promises in either case, or numerous others.
For over a year he has continued to say he was willing, nay anxious, to testify to the Mueller investigation into whether he or the Republican party under whose banner he swept to power in the 2016 U.S. elections colluded with the Russians in order to achieve the electoral victory. In the meantime, on the back of legal advice, he has strenuously resisted providing any such testimony, and referred to the growing body of evidence linking numerous close associates and other Republicans to high level Russian operators as… fake news.
Elsewhere, Philippines autocrat Rodrigo Duterte, famous for his machismo and misogyny, deflects by accusing his critics of being gay, paedophiles or drug addicts. In March, he asked the head of the country’s Commission on Human Rights (CHR) if the latter was a paedophile because he had protested the killing of teenagers in the government’s bloody war on drugs, which has already left thousands dead. In the meantime, his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses all his critics, be they politicians, members of the military or journalists, of plotting a coup to take control of Turkey, and throws them all in jail.
Not the internet
Many analysts have blamed the internet, Facebook and Twitter for facilitating the spread of spurious news stories — such as Infowars’ story that Trump’s presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton, was involved in a paedophile ring headquartered in a Washington pizza parlour, the so-called “Pizzagate” affair, or the so-called Uranium One scandal. The latter was thoroughly debunked by Sam Shephard on Fox News, leading several viewers to call for his resignation because they preferred their pro-Trump, anti-everyone-else stories to pass without question, whether true or not.
But Trump, Duterte and others probably learned much about deception, deflection and self-serving propaganda from a past-master at these arts, four times Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi. For twenty years, the Mediaset and Fininvest kingpin, who had made much of his fortune by “convincing” politicians to grease the wheels of his many projects, dodged accusations of corruption, conflicts of interests, tax evasion, and mafia associations by simply denying all the evidence and berating his accusers. His supporters lapped it all up, even when his lies were, on occasion, laid bare.
The great British author George Orwell saw it all coming, of course. In his splendid 1984, written almost seventy years ago, “the Party” (for, like Highlander, there can be only one) maintains its control over the “proles” by reducing all opposition to a simple concept — so-called “thoughtcrime”, or ideas which run contrary to the desired orthodoxy. Anyone guilty of gainsaying this orthodoxy is an enemy, and must be destroyed.
In much the same way Berlusconi’s opponents were “communists” and Trump’s promote “fake news”. The CTA has berated its enemies as “Chinese spies” in much the same way, and with much the same aim — to shut down debate.
For example “Chinese spy” accusation were levelled against the following people the CTA regarded as opponents or threats: all Dorje Shugden monks and lay people for opposing the Dalai Lama’s anti-Constitutional religious ban; against Milla Rangzen, the owner and editor of Tibetan magazine, who is critical of Lobsang Sangay; against Lukar Jam, who was a candidate for the post of CTA’s president in most recent past CTA elections; against Sharchock Cookta who was critical of the CTA and was targeted by the headline: “shocking news: MP Sharchock Cookta Chinese spy suspicion in Tibetan Parliament”; against the head of the Karma Kagyu when they wanted to bring the Buddhist leader under CTA’s excessive control; against Dudjom Rinpoche who was head of the Nyingma sect when he was extremely popular in the 1960’s and was regarded as a threat to the political line of the CTA; against Serkong Tritul Rinpoche who is a successful lama — when he visited Taiwan, the CTA accused him to be a Chinese spy, forgetting the Dalai Lama also visited Taiwan; against all Tibetans who are advocating full independence from China (rangzen) in opposition to the Dalai Lama’s ‘Middle Way’ approach, as was expressed by Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche who was the CTA President before Lobsang Sangay…
But the CTA is fast losing the faith of many Tibetans in exile. In recent years, several have left the exile communities in search of a better life elsewhere — an increasing number of them even choosing to return to China-controlled Tibet when possible — and the numbers are accelerating. Commitment to the Tibetan struggle is weakening as exiles begin to focus on their more mundane needs which the CTA has singularly failed to address despite the time, resources and goodwill at its disposal.
Simplistic accusations tend to lose their power over time. Like the boy who cried wolf, authoritarian propagandists may convince a less critical section of society for a period, but eventually even their most staunch enthusiasts begin to waver when they understand they are being toyed with, and that the autocrat whose pretexts they have so devoutly supported never had any intention of working to satisfy their needs. This is as true for the CTA as for other autocrats and their cohorts.
Even so, for the moment, “post-truth” remains in the ascendant. There is a shorter word for the concept, of course: lies.
https://medium.com/@TenzinJigme59/how-the-tibetan-government-in-exile-embraced-post-truth-and-fake-news-236885b7bcc8

It sure looks like both China and India are determined to achieve successful reconciliation, something that will mark a new milestone in the history of India-China relations. This will continue to impede the Tibetan leadership’s attempts to spew anti-China rhetoric and propaganda. India already began its clampdown on the Tibetans in March, when they banned key Tibetan events, including cancelling celebrations marking the Tibetans’ 60 years in exile, which were going to be held in Delhi.

India changed her strategy after recognising that a hard-line approach with China did not work. Rather, there is much more to gain if Asia’s two giants come together for the common goal of mutual benefit. If all goes well, India may even be the one cutting a deal with China to allow the Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet. After all, the Tibetan leadership in-exile have failed miserably in making progress in this regard. Nonetheless, we know for sure that India will no longer tolerate nonsense from Tibetans in-exile that would jeopardize their relations with China any further.

India’s Modi to visit China this week as rapprochement gathers pace
Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China this week for an informal meeting with President Xi Jinping, as efforts at rapprochement gather pace following a testing year in ties between the two giant neighbors.
The Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said the two would meet on Friday and Saturday in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
“Our common interests far outweigh our differences. The two countries have no choice other than pursuing everlasting friendship, mutually beneficial cooperation and common development,” Wang told reporters after meeting Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in Beijing.
“The summit will go a long way towards deepening the mutual trust between the two great neighbors,” he added. “We will make sure that the informal summit will be a complete success and a new milestone in the history of China-India relations.”
Modi has sought to re-set ties after disputes over issues including their disputed border with Tibet and other issues.
The discussion with Wang was to prepare for the informal summit, Swaraj said.
“It will be an important occasion for them (Modi and Xi) to exchange views on bilateral and international matters, from an overarching and long-term perspective with the objective of enhancing mutual communication,” Swaraj said.
The Asian giants were locked in a 73-day military stand-off in a remote, high-altitude stretch of that boundary last year. At one point, soldiers from the two sides threw stones and punches.
The confrontation between the nuclear-armed powers in the Himalayas underscored Indian alarm at China’s expanding security and economic links in South Asia.
China’s ambitious Belt and Road initiative of transport and energy links bypasses India, apart from a corner of the disputed Kashmir region, also claimed by Pakistan, but involves India’s neighbors Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Maldives.Modi’s previously unannounced Wuhan trip is even more unusual in that he will visit China again in June for a summit in Qingdao of the China and Russia-led security grouping, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which India joined last year.
It is almost unheard of for foreign leaders to visit China twice in such close succession. Xi is also extending Modi the rare honor of a meeting outside of Beijing, which almost never happens unless there is a multilateral summit taking place.
Modi’s nationalist government has reversed course on its relationship with Beijing apparently after realizing its hard line on China was not working.
Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who lives in India and who China considers a dangerous separatist, is also facing the cold shoulder.
In March, India issued an unprecedented ban on Tibetans holding a rally with the Dalai Lama in New Delhi to mark the 60th anniversary of the start of the failed uprising against Chinese rule.
Other areas of disagreement remain however between Beijing and New Delhi.
China has blocked India’s membership of a nuclear cartel and it has also been blocking U.N. sanctions against a Pakistan-based militant leader blamed for attacks on India.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-india-xi/indias-modi-to-visit-china-this-week-as-rapprochement-gathers-pace-idUSKBN1HT0G2

The beginning of the end for Tibetan leadership in India.

Now the Dalai Lama and his exiled govt better keep quiet about China and be humble. They better remain silent on the unjust treatment of Dorje Shugden people and ‘allow’ religious freedom. They are losing power and losing support fast. Now the time has come they will have to swallow their own bitter pills they so happily doled out to others previously. Tibetan govt leaders better keep quiet and be humble now. The Tibetan govt in-exile should not have segregated Dorje Shugden people. Now Dorje Shugden people should go and become friends with China and return to Tibet to live also. The Dalai Lama wants to return to Tibet so bad but China does not want him. Too bad. India does not want him either. Too bad. Should have been friends with Dorje Shugden people in order to have more support in the hundreds of thousands. They should not have made trouble. Too bad the Tibetan leadership is so corrupt. So narrow minded, they trampled on their own people’s religious rights. Now we will see who wins. The Tibetan leadership or Dorje Shugden. I have a feeling Dorje Shugden will win.

PM Narendra Modi arrives in China, his goal clear: Bridge the trust deficit
The Chinese President has not hosted any leader in an “informal summit”, which is how the Xi-Modi meeting has been described. In fact, Xi is travelling out of Beijing to central China to spend over two days with the Indian PM, the first time he is extending such a gesture to a visiting foreign leader.
Written by Shubhajit Roy | Wuhan (china) | Updated: April 27, 2018 8:07:29 am
Past midnight Thursday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in this picturesque city of lakes, parks and gardens along the Yangtze river, the big question that followed him was this: Can he bridge the trust deficit with China, and its powerful President Xi Jinping?
The answer, The Indian Express has learnt, could possibly lie in a new “modus vivendi”, an arrangement for two conflicting sides to co-exist in peace, that the two leaders will work on over the next two days.
“The modus vivendi, which was reaffirmed and arrived at during (then PM) Rajiv Gandhi’s 1988 visit, has frayed considerably. It has been felt on both sides that it needs to be reframed,” sources told The Indian Express.
Officials feel the 1988 framework to develop bilateral relations in all spheres, while carrying out border negotiations without any use of force, has outlived its utility.
“China has now emerged as a hegemonic power and has been stepping on our toes repeatedly. We are competing with each other everywhere, from South Asia to Africa, from Southeast Asia to Indo-Pacific. There is a realisation that both sides have reached a tipping point,” sources said.
The Chinese President has not hosted any leader in an “informal summit”, which is how the Xi-Modi meeting has been described. In fact, Xi is travelling out of Beijing to central China to spend over two days with the Indian PM, the first time he is extending such a gesture to a visiting foreign leader.
The two leaders have met at least 10 times over the last four years, but this will be their first meeting since Xi has been re-elected, with the Constitutional limit for a presidential term done away with.
“There has been a lack of strategic trust between the two countries, and this summit will be looking at repairing that damage and how to move forward,” sources said.
“Wuhan was recently named China’s happiest city…we hope to give some happy news about the summit,” a Chinese official told The Indian Express.
Modi will meet Xi at about 3 pm Friday at the Hubei provincial museum. The two leaders will head for a one-on-one meeting at the premises and also tour the museum together.
Later, a structured meeting between Modi and Xi, with six officials on each side, will be held at the museum premises. The two sides will then move to the State Guest House, a palatial complex in the heart of the city along the East lake, where the leaders will meet once again accompanied by the officials. Modi and Xi will again meet for dinner at the guest house Friday evening.
This structured delegation-level talks is the first indication that the “informal summit” is being crafted in a calibrated and choreographed manner.
Some of Friday’s meetings will be attended by senior officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale. But Saturday will see the two leaders meeting mostly in a one-on-one format, including a “lakeside walk” and a “boat-ride”. The leaders will also travel on a ferry, where they will “discuss issues over a cup of tea”.
Ahead of his departure for Wuhan, Modi said, “President Xi and I will exchange views on a range of issues of bilateral and global importance. We will discuss our respective visions and priorities for national development, particularly in the context of the current and future international situation. We will also review developments in India-China relations from a strategic and long-term perspective.”
Sources said the talks will not be on “specific issues” but “the future direction of the relationship”, including concerns and sensitivities such as the China-Pakistan-Economic Corridor, Belt and Road Initiative, listing of Masood Azhar and India’s membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group. From the Chinese perspective, the Tibetan issue and how India handles the refugees are key questions.
Preparatory work on the new arrangement has been taking place since last September, when the two leaders met in Xiamen on the sidelines of the BRICS summit and wanted to talk “in detail”, but could not due to paucity of time.
In Wuhan, Modi was received by Chinese Vice Foreign minister Kong Xuanyou at the airport.
Indicating the mood within the Chinese leadership, a commentary published in China Daily, a media outlet run by the ruling Communist Party of China, carried the headline: “Summit may herald Century of Asia”.
In the piece, Fu Xiaoqiang, research fellow at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, wrote: “Of course, Xi and Modi will also address each other’s concerns, but they are not likely to indulge in strategic distrust and geopolitical competition by ignoring the necessity of strengthening win-win cooperation.”
Incidentally, a part of the Wuhan State Guest House complex houses Mao Zedong’s summer villa by the lake side, which is now open to visitors. Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, has also hosted Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore during his tour of China 94 years ago to engage with writers, poets and intellectuals.
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/narendra-modi-xi-jinping-meeting-pm-china-visit-india-relations-5153506/

Breaking news!

In March 2018, Tibetan protestors gathered near the Tibetan parliament, seeking to impeach Lobsang Sangay because his actions are unjust and akin to those of a dictator. Protestors also questioned his sudden termination of Penpa Tsering, the former Representative of the Office of Tibet in Washington, DC, who was his arch-rival during the 2016 Tibetan election.

But this is not all, Lobsang Sangay’s CV includes a long list of deceitful actions, such as hiding the loan trail of $1.5-million taken by his office from Tibet Fund to purchase a building to house the Office of Tibet in DC. He even ordered the Auditor General to remove any mention of the loan in various financial reports. Lobsang Sangay is also alleged to have sexually assaulted an intern of the International Campaign for Tibet advocacy group. Even before he became the Sikyong (the president of the Central Tibetan Administration), scandals surrounding his actions were rampant. Four years after buying a house near Boston, his US$227,000 mortgage disappeared overnight, one week before he became the president of the CTA. It is no wonder that Tibetans like Pelgyamo express their dissatisfaction by posting sarcastic comments on Lobsang Sangay’s Instagram page.

The Dalai Lama Fears that He Might be Expelled from India!

The situation in India is not getting better for the Tibetan government in-exile or the Dalai Lama. Since India is getting closer to China, this trend will not slow down. Whether it is the current Prime Minister Modi, or the next Prime Minister of India making efforts to get close to China, it does not matter because the momentum has started. It benefits both India and China tremendously to be friendly and on good terms with each other. The parasite-like Tibetans leeching off India brings no benefit whatsoever to India and India realizes this sad fact finally. The Dalai Lama and his team in the Tibetan government in-exile have created so many problems externally for India and internally within the Tibetan communities, enough is enough. Tibetans like to use India to irk China. They have done that for decades and now it’s over. The Tibetans have been put in their place. The Indian government has been snubbing the Dalai Lama this year. The Dalai Lama and his cohorts have created tremendous problems, segregation, hatred, and violence towards thousands of Dorje Shugden practitioners, now that karma is coming back. Too bad. The Tibetan leadership is losing support from India, in fact, Modi purposely humiliated the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama and cohorts have less power to create so much schism and trouble now. If you read this article carefully, the Dalai Lama himself has expressed concerns he might be kicked out of India. It has reached this level that the Dalai Lama is unsure of his footing in India now. Too bad.

Aditya Sinha: Paying For Our Bull In A China Shop
May 14, 2018, 07:40 IST | Aditya Sinha
The Dalai Lama’s humiliation, our encircling neighbours and, most crucially, the lack of Modi’s signature bear hug, signify altered relations
In the two days of staged photographs, there is not one photo of Modi hugging Xi, his trademark personalised diplomacy of forcibly embracing other leaders.
One of the better things during the Karnataka Assembly election, no matter who emerges the single largest party tomorrow, was Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s press conference in Bangalore. You may not have seen it on TV. It is on YouTube, however. Rahul again comes across in a light different to the whispers about him during the past two decades, proving how it was all the doing of a well-oiled BJP machine. My favourite part was Rahul’s take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Wuhan in central China for an “informal” summit with President Xi Jinping.
Here’s what he said:
“I expected the PM to go to China as the leader of our country [and] speak to them about Doklam… He didn’t say a word. [He] had a conversation with the Chinese President with no agenda. Are you telling me there’s no agenda? There is an agenda, it’s called Doklam; there is an agenda, it’s called the Maldives; there is an agenda, it’s called Nepal… The agenda is that we’re surrounded on all sides; it’s pretty clear. But you guys don’t like to raise that, I don’t know why.
“Our foreign policy has been completely decimated. And it’s because the PM views foreign policy as an individual exercise. He’s of the impression that he can go have a conversation with the president of China, or he can go have a conversation with the president of Nepal, and everything will magically happen.
“The PM needs to carry his own people with him. Are there any conversations going on with the finance minister, with the defence minister about this type of strategy? No. It’s a one-man show.”
Briefly: China tried to seize the Doklam plateau in Bhutan last year but after a 73-day standoff against our troops, it backed down. It has reportedly since built an infrastructure leading to Doklam. In the Maldives, China is displacing India: President Abdulla Gameen last year welcomed three Chinese warships, and last month hosted the Pakistan army chief. In Nepal, despite Modi’s visit this weekend to promote Janakpur, Sita’s birthplace, as a religious tourism spot, the Nepalese have drifted from us after India’s five-month blockade in 2015 – we were pushing for greater political inclusion of the Madhesis. Modi is a villain for the Nepalese, as evident on social media.
China has seized advantage of India’s pathetic neighbourhood behaviour, and, as Rahul said, has India surrounded. No wonder many think Modi went to beg Xi to keep relations calm in the run-up to the 2019 parliamentary election. That Modi’s governance is election-oriented is no secret. Will the Chinese will play ball? When the two-day “informal” summit ended, the Indian side issued a statement and reportedly urged the Chinese to issue their own. Compare the two and you see a difference: while India mentioned a strategic direction to our respective armies to avoid tension on the Line of Actual Control, China only said the armies would follow past protocols. Joint statements are never easy, but individual statements are a piece of cake.
Modi had to supplicate himself because he cannot afford to go into the 2019 election after a showdown with China. Even a short skirmish will humiliate India. Unlike tension on the Line of Control with Pakistan, which benefits Modi since it can be dovetailed into communal rhetoric, tension with China gives Modi no benefit. Modi cannot help but humour China.
The Chinese were amenable to being humoured since they have now what they wanted in Doklam. China nowadays also wants to be seen as a responsible global power: hence it has nudged North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un into meeting his South Korean counterpart and, next month, with Donald Trump. China has also reached out to Japan, with whom relations are more complicated than with India.
Mainly, it was because Modi agreed to humiliate the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader who has lived in India since 1959. India prohibited its ministers from attending a Dalai Lama function (ironically, to thank India) and asked him to shift it from Delhi to his base in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh. It was an insult; worse, he privately expressed the fear that he might be expelled.
The Chinese gave us time but they did not give Modi a hug. In the two days of staged photographs, there is not one photo of Modi hugging Xi, his trademark personalised diplomacy of forcibly embracing other leaders. Rahul Gandhi is right: Modi has decimated India’s foreign policy. It’s too bad that this and other aspects of his press conference were ignored by the TV media. But then, after Gujarat, Karnataka has been good practice for him. Modi’s obsession with the 2019 election means that governance will suffer, so Rahul will get more occasions to show the public his mettle.
https://www.mid-day.com/articles/aditya-sinha-paying-for-our-bull-in-a-china-shop/19420166

India tightening its grip on the Dalai Lama and Tibetans

The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has directed Himachal police to tighten its grip on Tibetans meeting His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Those Tibetans without paperwork showing individual identity and establishing legal credentials of their arrival in India will be turned away from seeing the religious leader. Undocumented Tibetans have been arriving in India, usually from Nepal, where they are aided by the Tibetan communities there. India seems to clamping down of Tibetan activity, from cancelling Thank You India events in Delhi and now restricting Tibetans from seeing the Dalai Lama. What else with the Indian government do next?

Ex-Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche caught sleeping in a meeting

The representative of the Dalai Lama and former prime minister of the Tibetan government in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche during an important meeting having a nice sleep. The Tibetan government in-exile are run by people like this who have no control over their body and manners. They only stay awake in the meeting if there is FREE aid money coming their way to line their pockets. Shameful how Samdong Rinpoche is sleeping in the middle of a meeting and he represents the Tibetan government in-exile. This is why after 60 years Tibetan leaders have failed to get Tibet back but blame others for their failures. Shame!

http://video.dorjeshugden.com/comment-videos/comment-1528941530.mp4