His Holiness The Dalai Lama When he first became a student, Tenzin Gyatso, most commonly known as His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, admits that he was a reluctant one. This admission may be surprising to most of us—to hear that a person with a sincere interest in the depths of not only Buddhist teachings, [...]
Amidst the accusations of China’s belated response to the devastating earthquake that hit the Tibetan area of Yushu in the early hours of April 14, 2010, the downplaying in the Chinese media of the key role that Tibetan monks have played in the rescue efforts and mourning ceremonies, alongside reports of Chinese rescue workers who [...]
After snubbing him during his Washington DC visit last October, President Obama finally met with the Dalai Lama on February 18th this year. Predictably, China’s leaders had warned of damage to Sino-US relations if the administration went ahead with the meeting (while making the rather bizarre claim that by doing so the U.S. [...]
Attending the Dalai Lama’s teachings in Dharamsala, India, is quite a different experience from doing so in the West. Trade comfortable cushioned seats in a temperature-controlled environment for seats on a concrete floor under a covered rooftop exposed to the wild fluctuations of the Himalayan weather. Trade state-of-the-art bathrooms with the most basic plumbing alternative [...]
One Man’s Amazing Escape From Tibet As a child growing up in a remote village in the mountainous region of Kham, Tibet, Tsewang Dhondup loved to listen to the heroic fables recounted by the local elders. Now Tsewang’s own story is the stuff of legend and may end up marveled at by generations [...]
I actually started to be personally affected by the implications of the scientific information that was coming out,” says British biologist John Stanley. This “information” includes a shocking prediction by the UN Environmental Program and the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)which represents a consensus view of 2,000top climatologists, that the effects of habitatdestruction and [...]
With the uncertain rollercoaster state of the worlds’ economies and the vociferous political race occurring in our own country, this cacophony of tribulations has all but drowned out continued exposure to the ongoing human rights struggles still raging in places such as Burma, Darfur and Tibet. Woeser One voice that is determined not to [...]
Timeless Wisdom From The Dalai Lama For Challenging Times It was a drizzly morning as I walked up to Thunderdome, the basketball stadium at University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) to attend a day of teachings with the His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Once inside, I looked around to see that not all 3,000 [...]
As a writer, I feel that Tibet is my home. I miss Tibet all the time.” These words come from an unlikely source, a Chinese journalist who has gone from being an ardent critic of Tibetan society to one of its most passionate defenders. As a young girl growing up in Northeast China, [...]
You have the wrong house. I have no son.” This is what nineteen-year-old Legdup heard when he called his mother in Tibet from Dharamsala, India. Sitting in a dark café with a tantalizing view of the Himalayan foothills that separates the North Indian state of Himachal Pradesh with his homeland, a monk nods silently when [...]