The executive head of the Tibetan government in exile has called upon Tibetans scattered across 27 countries to remain “mentally” close to each other to preserve their identity.
His Holiness Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959, along with hundreds of Tibetans, and entered India following the Chinese invasion. For the past 66 years, the exiled Tibetans have been working hard to preserve their language, culture and identity on foreign soil.
“One of my responsibilities is to keep the Tibetan community intact wherever they are so that even though we are physically distant, we need to be close mentally,” Penpa Tsering said on Wednesday evening.
He is the sikyong or the executive head of the Central Tibetan Administration which is the Tibetan government in exile. Penpa Tsering was elected to the post by exiled Tibetans through voting.
The 1.3 lakh Tibetans living outside their country are spread across 27 countries. They are settled at almost 37 locations in India.
Tsering was in Darjeeling to interact with members of the community. Darjeeling and Kalimpong were the only places in India to have a direct link with Tibet through trade before the Chinese started to enter the Himalayan region in the early 1950s.
Around 7.2 million Tibetans live in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) at present.
In between two extreme polarities of a “repressive” Chinese government at one end and the “historical status” of an independent Tibet country, Thering reiterated that their efforts were to find a solution through the “middle way” based on current realities.
The middle way is a policy that was first advocated by the Dalai Lama to end the Tibetan crisis through dialogue with the Chinese.
Tibet is considered geo-statically important given its location and the availability of minerals and other natural resources like water. Tibet, which is spread over 2.5 million square kilometres, shares its boundary with India right from Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh.
The Tibetan leader, while seeking more international support, singled out India and the US for their constant support. “India has been providing huge humanitarian support,” said Tsering.
The United States is the only country that has a law for Tibet. When Joe Biden was the US President, he signed into law the “Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Act” last year.
Known as the Resolve Tibet Act in short, it seeks to foster dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama without preconditions and asserts that China is inaccurate in claiming that Tibet has been part of China since ancient times.
“China keeps saying there is no problem in Tibet and it is a social paradise. I keep saying people don’t burn themselves in paradise,” said Tsering.
Between 2009 and 2022, 157 Tibetans self-immolated. The last recorded self-immolation was by an 81-year-old Taphun from the Meuruma Nomadic village of Amdo province in Tibet.
