Many of us who have traveled to Tibet throughout the years have passed through Chengdu along the way, often staying at the famous Sam’s Guesthouse or one of the other well-known pit stops before flying to Lhasa. While definitely sharing some of the less than favourable aesthetic traits of rapidly growing Chinese cities, Chengdu does have a certain charm and beauty that peeks through, not to mention some excellent cuisine. There is also a large Tibetan Quarter in Chengdu.
For a few moments, we can put politics aside and hope for better times for our Tibetan and Chinese brothers and sisters who have died or lost love ones during this recent earthquake.
Early Wednesday, Beijing time, a spokesman for China’s Olympic Committee issued an ominous threat: “The command centre has given its order for the final assault tomorrow.” He was referring to China’s climbing team that took the Olympic torch to the summit of Mt. Everest early Thursday. But never before has the mountaineering term ‘assault’ been used more appropriately. China’s assault on Mount Everest – sacred Mount Chomolungma to Tibetans – is in fact an assault on Tibet and the Tibetan people, not to mention the Olympic ideals.
Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, will
be on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos on Thursday, May 8 at 11
p.m. on CBC.
The interview also can be viewed online after it airs at
http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=2112
I knew there was a reason they are my favorite band of all time and forever!
“Radiohead used the opening show of their world tour last night (May 5th) to send an obvious message about China’s political and humanitarian actions in Tibet. The stage for the band’s show at the Cruzan Amphitheatre in Florida was decorated with two Tibetan flags.”
Two members of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) were barred from entering Hong Kong today, the same day that 17 Tibetans were sentenced in Lhasa to between three years and life in prison in connection to the March protests against China’s occupation of Tibet. The two Canadians deported from Hong Kong, Tsering Lama, 24, from Toronto, and Kate Woznow, 27, from New York, were detained and questioned for three hours upon their respective arrivals at Hong Kong International airport. The activists had planned to hold a press conference in Hong Kong to coincide with the Olympic torch run through the city on May 2nd.
Author Mikel Dunham has posted a dramatic account of a Tibetan refugee in Mongolia on his blog. His brother was murdered during the Chinese crackdown inside Tibet and when he spoke out, he himself became a target of Mongolian and Chinese government searches. He is currently in hiding in Mongolia and greatly fears for his […]
MountEverest.net reports that “an American climber is first man down in the recent ban of pro-Tibetan props on the south side of Everest. The mountaineer has been footed from the peak after police found a Tibetan flag on him. ” What is crazy to us is that it seems the climber simply had the flag IN HIS BAG, and hadn’t even performed a political act… though who know what he could have been planning.
Tibetans and supporters are reiterating their call for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to withdraw all Tibetan areas from the Olympic torch relay route in the wake of fresh protests in Tibet, and threats from the Nepalese government to use deadly force against protesters. On Thursday, Chinese forces beat and detained at least 100 Tibetans from Rebkong County (Ch: Tongren Xian) who were demonstrating for the release of monks and other protesters who have been held since a Tibetan uprising began last month. Rebkong is just one hour from Xining, where the Olympic torch is scheduled to arrive in June. Just two days later, the Nepalese government announced that it had authorized the use of deadly force to stop protests during the torch ascent of Mt. Everest, scheduled for May.
Three of the biggest sponsors of the Olympic Torch Relay; Coca-cola, Lenovo and Samsung, have pulled out of the Japanese leg of the international torch relay amid fears that they may be targetted by protestors. A spokesperson for Coca-cola stated that they would be unable to operate under the ‘maximum security’ environment of the Torch Relay in Japan. This news comes after monks at the Zenkoji Temple in Nagano said that due to China’s violent repression of the protests in Tibet, the Temple could no longer be used as the starting point for the relay in Japan.
The Olympic torch made a strange and lonely procession through central Delhi on Thursday, with the event so comprehensively overshadowed by fears of the anti-Chinese protests that had marred its appearances in other cities that no members of the public were allowed close enough to witness it.
