Showing posts with label Tibetan autonomy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tibetan autonomy. Show all posts

Thursday, November 9, 2023

CIA gave Dalai Lama weapons, payments

Jim Mann, LA Times, 9/15/98; Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
I may have done some things. But Mahayana has 10th precept to shut up, not tell anyone.
.
I'm a politician first, Buddhist lama second.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — For much of the 1960s, the CIA [quasi-independent US governmental spying organization] provided the [Pope-King 14th Dalai Lama and the] Tibetan exile movement with $1.7 million a year for operations against China, including an annual subsidy of $180,000 for the Dalai Lama, according to newly [circa 1998] released U.S. intelligence documents.
The money for the Tibetans and the Dalai Lama was part of the CIA’s worldwide effort during the height of its Cold War to undermine Communist governments, particularly in the Soviet Union and China.

In fact, the U.S. government committee that approved the Tibetan operations also authorized the disastrous [JFK administration] Bay of Pigs U.S. invasion of Cuba.

CIA said they wouldn't tell anyone our secret.
The documents, published last month by the U.S. State Department, illustrate the historical background of the [disastrous] situation in Tibet today, in which China continues to accuse the Dalai Lama of being an agent of foreign forces seeking to separate Tibet from China.

The CIA’s program encompassed support of Tibetan guerrillas [Spanish for "little militants"] in Nepal, a covert military training site in Colorado, USA, “Tibet Houses” [like the one run by Uma Thurman's dad, Columbia U Prof. Robert Thurmantibethouse.us?] established to promote Tibetan causes in New York and Geneva, education for Tibetan operatives at Cornell University, and supplies for reconnaissance [spying] teams.

I like Republican Bush warlords. His father was CIA director, and CIA funded our war.
Prize-winning anti-war journalist monitored by U.S. gov't and assassinated by the CIA.
Wake up. The Western media is controlled by CIA with an endless stream of lies and denials.
Free Tibet from China; no Panchen Lama!
“The purpose of the program...is to keep the political concept of an autonomous Tibet alive within Tibet and among foreign nations, principally India, and to build a capability for resistance against possible political developments inside Communist China,” explains one memo written by top U.S. intelligence officials.

Relationship Was Mutually Beneficial
Maybe I too hard on Shugden
The declassified historical documents provide the first inside details of the CIA’s decade-long covert program to support the Tibetan independence movement.

At the time of the intelligence operation, the CIA was seeking to weaken Mao Tse-tung’s hold over China.

And the [militant] Tibetan exiles were looking for help to keep their [militant] movement alive after the Dalai Lama and his supporters fled Tibet following an unsuccessful 1959 revolt against Chinese rule.
I friend of Pres. Bush. I'm trying to be consistent
Tibetan exiles and the Dalai Lama have acknowledged for many years that they once received [military and financial] support from U.S. intelligence [agency, making him an "operative" not a full "agent"].

But until now, Washington D.C. has refused to release any information about the CIA’s Tibetan operations [and its financial deals with their current or former CIA Operative the Dalai Lama]. More
Maybe the anti-Dalai Lama DS protesters were onto something?

Sharon Stone and her good friend the Dalai Lama
Sex symbol Sinophobe Sharon "Karma" Stone
Stone was criticized over her comments in an exchange on the red carpet with Hong Kong's Cable Entertainment News during the 2008 Cannes Film Festival on May 25, 2008.

When asked about the 2008 Sichuan earthquake she remarked: "Well...I'm not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don't think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. And so I have been very concerned about how to think and what to do about that because I don't like that. And...how should we deal with the Olympics because they are not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who is a good friend of mine. And then this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, 'Is that karma?' When you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?" [124]

One of China's biggest cinema chains reacted to the Basic Instinct actress's comments by declaring it would not show her films in its theaters [125].

The founder of the UME Cineplex chain and the chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers, Ng See-yuen, called Stone's comments "inappropriate" and said the UME Cineplex chain would no longer present her films [125].

Dior [the fashion house that just dumped long-time brand ambassador Bella Hadid, who is half-Palestinian and speaking up for Gaza, and replaced her with pro-Israeli Jewish model May Tager] advertisements featuring Stone's image were dropped from all ads in China amid the public uproar [126].

Stone was removed from the 2008 Shanghai International Film Festival guest list, and the event's organizers considered banning the actress permanently [127].

Dior China had originally posted an apology in Stone's name, but Stone later denied making the apology during an interview with The New York Times, saying "I'm not going to apologize. I'm certainly not going to apologize for something that isn't real and true – not for face creams," but she was willing to admit that she had "sounded like an idiot" [128] and then she apologized:

After the interview, Stone released a statement entitled "In my own words by Sharon Stone" in which she said "I could not be more regretful of that mistake. It was unintentional. I apologize. Those words were never meant to be hurtful to anyone" [129].

While Stone cited the Dalai Lama as her "good friend" when she made the remark at the Cannes film festival, the Dalai Lama [ever the slick politician] has reportedly distanced himself by saying of her only, "Yes, I've met that lady" [130]. More

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Dalai Lama may not be the LAST after all

Amber Larson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; (America.AlJazeera.com "Tibetan Buddhism’s Dalai Lama may not be the last after all," 9-10-14)
Claims that he'd be the last in a centuries-old line may be a political move, analysts say.
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Shugden Dorje protests (starcadet/flickr)
The Dalai Lama’s most recent suggestions that he may be the last in a centuries-old line may have been a political move to coax Beijing into negotiations, analysts say, three years after the religious leader “devolved” his political powers at the head of his government-in-exile to an elected official.
 
Wherever there are ethnic Tibetans in China, one can find hidden icons of the Dalai Lama, who adherents of Tibetan Buddhism believe to be an incarnation of the B[odhisattv]a of Compassion.
 

Although Beijing has called the religious leader and political figure a “wolf in monk’s clothing,” Tibet scholars say the Chinese government recognizes the Dalai Lama’s enduring authority among the nation’s restive Tibetan population.
 
That may explain why the Dalai Lama told German newspaper Die Welt this week that he may be the last, said Richard Barnett, a leading scholar on Tibet and professor at Columbia University.
 
Dalai Lama's Instructions for Life (Ashley Bolen)
“The Chinese have a real chance of winning over the Tibetan population if they allow the Dalai Lama to come back and treat him well, and he acknowledges them for doing that,” Barnett said.
 
“This remains the main bargaining chip for the Dalai Lama -- it’s hard for the Chinese to see a way forward without him, but it’s difficult to see a way with him.”

The advocacy of celebrities such as Richard Gere have put pressure on governments to push for a dialogue between the Dalai Lama and Beijing in the past, but talks on compromise have always stalled amid Tibet’s calls for autonomy from Beijing.

Nagba protest: Stop lying (dorjeshugden)
The last negotiations between Chinese officials and Tibet’s government-in-exile hit a wall in February 2010.
 
The idea “that there’s no certainty that the Dalai Lama will return as a spiritual leader or in any other role is a way to pressure China,” Barnett said.
 
Seditious mantra (America Al Jazeera)
Beijing has on occasion signaled efforts to declare its own Dalai Lama. If the Dalai Lama-in-exile rejects the following Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, that would stymie efforts for China to establish its own, more malleable religious leader. More

Saturday, May 4, 2013

California is burning! (The Fire Sermon)

Los Angeles Times (framework.latimes.com); Wisdom Quarterly

The Springs fire has scorched at least 18,000 acres [of the Santa Monica mountains next to LA County, UPDATE: 44 square miles] between Pacific Coast Highway and the 101 Freeway, damage worsened by a harrowing about-face shift in winds that sent the fire roaring back to the north. More
The Buddha's Fire Sermon
Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly based on Ñanamoli Thera translation (SN 35.28)
If only authorities could aid Buddhist protesters like Lt. John Pike (WQ)
 
Thus have I heard. Once the Buddha was living at Gaya, in Gaya Head, together with 1,000 monastics, and there he addressed them:
 
"Meditators, ALL is burning! What 'all'?
 
"The eye is burning, forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning, and whatever is felt as pleasant, painful, or neutral that arises with eye-contact as its indispensable condition, that too is burning! Burning with what? 
 
"It is burning with the fire of lust (greed), with the fire of hate (aversion), with the fire of delusion (wrong view). I say it is burning with birth, aging, and death, with sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, despair.
 
"The ear is burning, sounds are burning... The nose is burning, odors are burning... The tongue is burning, flavors are burning... The body is burning, tangibles are burning... 

The historical Buddha Gautama, Shakyamuni ("Sage of the Shakya Clan"), Thailand
  
"The mind is burning, ideas are burning, mind-consciousness is burning, mind-contact is burning, and whatever is felt as pleasant, painful, or neutral that arises with mind-contact as its indispensable condition, that too is burning! Burning with what? 

"It is burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging, and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair.
 
"Meditators, when a noble hearer who has heard (the truth) knows-and-sees this, that person finds estrangement in the eye, in forms, in eye-consciousness, in eye-contact, and whatever is felt as pleasant, painful, or neutral that arises with eye-contact as its indispensable condition, in that too one finds estrangement. ...in the ear... in sounds... in the nose... in odors... in the tongue... in flavors... in the body... in tangibles...
 
"One finds estrangement in the mind, in ideas, in mind-consciousness, in mind-contact, and whatever is felt as pleasant, painful, or neutral that arises with mind-contact as its indispensable condition, in that too one finds estrangement.
 
Golden Buddha Shakyamuni (Laurence Hunt)
"With estrangement, passion [greed, grasping, clinging] fades out. With the fading of passion, one is liberated. When liberated, there arises knowledge that one is liberated. One understands: 'Rebirth is exhausted, the supreme-life has been lived, what was to be done is done, of this there is no more beyond.'"
 
That is what the Blessed One said. The meditators were glad, and they cherished and approved the Enlightened One's words.
 
During this utterance the hearts/mind of those 1,000 meditators were liberated from the taints by letting go and clinging no more.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Burning to Save Tibet (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Al Jazeera English; Kayla Vognsen
How does China's 50-year military dismantling of Tibet relate to us? (Music: "Macrotus," Hans Zimmer, Batman Begins). WARNING: Monks' self-immolation dance ends with graphically.
 
"Self-murder" (suicide) is murder. How many more killings will the world outside or Tibet tolerate? Some prefer a horrific sudden death to life enslaved, degraded, with identity being slowly erased. Help save Tibet as we would save the remnants of Native American culture, the two of which are related. Such is the work of empire. So must our work be to counter it. How many more lives? HELP the US, help Tibet, help the one human race.


 
Dalai Lama admits Tibet failure
I failed. Let's see what Sangay does.
(AJE, Nov. 2008) The Dalai Lama says he has lost faith in the Chinese government and is giving up efforts to push for greater autonomy for Tibet.
 
Speaking during a visit to Japan...the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader [God-King] acknowledged that all talks on a settlement between China and Tibetan exiles have failed.
 
With the situation inside Tibet getting worse, he said it was now up to the Tibetan people to decide how to move forward.
 
"My trust in the Chinese government has become thinner, thinner, thinner," he said. "Suppression is increasing, and I cannot pretend that everything is okay."
 
"I have to accept failure. Meantime among Tibetans in recent years, our approach failed to bring positive change inside Tibet. So criticism has also increased."
 
The Dalai Lama's remarks came as his envoys began a fresh round of talks with Chinese officials in Beijing with little sign of any significant breakthrough in the offing.
 
The last formal talks between the two sides ended in an impasse in July [2008], with China demanding that the Dalai Lama prove he did not support Tibetan independence or the disruption of the Beijing Olympics. More

Killing in the name of
Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)
Map charting Tibetan self-immolations (protest-suicides) in capitalist China
 
Killing anyone is not what the Buddha taught. And one has to think it's not what Jesus (St. Issa), Mohammed, Krishna, or Moses had in mind -- but certainly followers of these sages have so twisted their faiths as to say this is exactly what the God and its prophets wanted.

As Christian soldiers we obediently pass ammunition and set off on crusades for the emperors; as militant Muslims we engage in the jihad of others rather than conquering ourselves, which is what jihad really means; as Hindus we fight and kill family members because we are taught that this is what Krishna told Arjuna his dharma (duty) was; and along with Moses we follow orders from a maniacal tribal war Lord who authored the Book of Judges and other accounts of Holy War.

Is Buddhism to become the same thing, a "religion" of followers killing to get justice, to get a point a cross, to get mercy from an empire? It's one thing to be murdered or "martyred" for a cause. It's an entirely different thing to lead oneself to slaughter. Killing is a (karmic) crime; killing oneself is a crime. Desperation and nationalism are no kind of excuse.

Yes, one Vietnamese monk set in motion a terrible legacy of self-immolation. Some desperate individual set in  motion the Arab Spring (or so we are told, but no successful uprising would have been possible or allowed without CIA and MIC complicity).

How long can Tibet burn?
Tibet's new political leader in exile speaks out on recent wave of self-immolations.
 
(AJE, Nov. 2012) At least 60 Tibetans have self-immolated [that is to say, committed protest-suicide] since March 2011. And in this week alone, seven have set themselves on fire to protest repressive policies by the Chinese government. This is happening just as Beijing prepares for a once-a-decade leadership transition in November. What can be done to end [Chinese crimes against humanity and] social unrest in Tibet? We speak to Lobsang Sangay, [the post Dalai Lama] head of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. More

Monday, January 14, 2013

Taiwan and Tibet: Tens of Thousands protest

Al Jazeera English; Wisdom Quarterly
Taiwanese citizens oppose unification with mainland China (The Guardian)

 
Tibetan self-immolations on the rise
Opposition supporters have staged a demonstration in Taipei to protest against the policies of Taiwan's China-friendly president, in the largest anti-government action since he was re-elected to a second four-year term a year ago. SEE VIDEO
 
"Fury" in Taipei (vcstar.com)
Waving green-colored banners emblazoned with the two Chinese characters for "fury," the theme of the protest, demonstrators called on President Ma Ying-jeou to fire Prime Minister Sean Chen over the lackluster economic performance of the island, which saw growth of less than two percent in 2012.
 
Let my people go: Tibetan Buddhist monastics still set themselves ablaze in western China. The Free Tibet, a UK-based advocacy group, said tenth self-immolation took place outside a monastery in Ganzi in Sichuan province (A.J. 2010).


 
They also demanded that government regulatory bodies stop a consortium widely seen as pro-China from purchasing a mass-circulation newspaper and called for the convening of an all-party conference to discuss Taiwan's ailing social security and pension systems.
 
Gearing up for elections (aljazeera.com)
“The economic situation is very bad,'' said one of the protesters, 29-year-old Andy Chen, who recently returned to Taiwan after several years studying abroad. “It's very difficult for college graduates to find jobs.The government needs to do a lot more.'' More
(TEDleaks) Sarah Silverman's TED talk on adoption, pee, and other discomforts

Monday, November 21, 2011

Tibetan nun sets herself on fire (video)



Tibet: Video purports to show nun on fire
(GlobalPost) Palden Choesto is one of 11 Buddhist monastics who have set themselves on fire (self-immolated) since March to protest Chinese crackdowns on Tibet. Other nuns witnessing the... This shocking new video, which Tibetan activists say they smuggled out of China, shows the most graphic images yet seen of a growing protest movement spurred by monks and nuns setting themselves on fire in often fatal displays of dissent against Chinese rule. More

Buddhist Nuns versus Invading Military

Wisdom Quarterly
Out of sight but now in mind: Tibetan Buddhist nuns walk to Ganden Jangchup Choeling nunnery, accessible only by a twisting, rocky mountain road (Daily Mail)

Imagine a world where hapless nuns are attacked by world class soldiers. Imagine an invading military government fond of destroying indigenous cultures attacking natives. Imagine a dictatorship and an unquestioning military force shooting at spiritually bound pacifists.

Invaders: a class of young Chinese military recruits gather in Beijing for a ceremony prior to their departure for Tibet.

Impossible? It is not the Cavalry versus the Old West, or Europeans, or even Columbus "discovering" and conquering an uninhabited new world. It is China's Red Army assaulting and dismantling Tibet (a culture related to Native Americans).

Tibetan Buddhist (Vajrayana) monastics under massive thangka quilt. Their culture is very different from that of Han Chinese invaders who claim their land.

Desperate Buddhist nuns seeing no alternative protest with their bodies the way a Buddhist monk protested America during its war on Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.
  1. Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress
  2. Drawing the Color Line
  3. Persons of Mean and Vile Condition
  4. Tyranny is Tyranny
  5. A Kind of Revolution
  6. The Intimately Oppressed
  7. More

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Dalai Lama: Tibet, Iraqi, Afghan wars (video)


CLICK TO PLAY VIDEO

Amy Goodman Questions the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, has wrapped up a series public lectures in New York. For the past four days, thousands have gathered at Radio City Music Hall to hear him present Buddhist teachings. On Sunday, the 74-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner spoke at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine before a crowd of 2,000. Democracy Now's Amy Goodman asked the Dalai Lama about the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the struggle for independence from China in Tibet. Source (Web exclusive)
Thursday, March 10 Headlines

Friday, January 28, 2011

The real Dalai Lama revealed (video)


We want a free Tibet. Let the Dalai Lama return. China has no business being on the plateau. China has no business engaging in human rights abuses or cultural genocide (due to Han-Chinese opposition to Tibetans, Uighurs, Taiwanese, or any other indigenous group). The CIA has no business destabilizing governments or installing operatives as US-backed dictators.

Research it. The story is out. It's unbelievable: The narrative we have been fed -- which has made us so angry at tyrannical China and portrayed pre-invasion Tibet as a Shangri-la, a mythical dreamland of spirituality, enlightenment, equality, and peace -- is wrong.

If the CIA is allowed to succeed, Tibet is doomed. It's an expendable pawn in a cold war with China, going from bad (pre-invasion) to worse (invasion) and even worse (post-invasion). It didn't take a Tibetan oracle to see what was to happen. But it has taken an honest historian to reveal the hard truth of what brought us to this point in history.

The Story behind the Dalai Lama's rule
Michael Parenti is an American historian, political scientist, and author. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. His works have been translated into at least 18 languages. His book The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome was selected as a Book of the Year for 2004 by Online Review of Books and Current Affairs.

  • "He [the Dalai Lama] headed a social system that was exploitative, terribly terribly unequal, and terribly brutal."
  • "You had a privileged priest class, living in utter luxury and opulence, and you had a mass of serfs living in utter misery."
  • "His holiness would tell you that he must return to power for the good of his people. In this case 'good' may translate to his people living in squalor and his government condoning slavery."
  • "As this State Department internal memo reveals, the Dalai Lama at one time took $180,000 a year from the CIA for his living expenses and $1.5 million a year from the spy agency to finance Tibetan guerrilla operations against the Chinese, which included, running a covert guerrilla training center in Colorado."

Richard Gere praising Bush with CNN's Wolf Blitzer

COMMENTARY
It's an abuse of Mahayana teachings (with messianic reincarnating political leaders) not seen since the exploitation of Christianity by imperial Roman rulers.

Like the "Holy Roman Catholic Church" ruled from the Vatican, the Lama system claims a "divine right" to rule Tibet as regent-kings given to them by extraterrestrial sky "gods."

It's a big deal dragging Buddhism into the mire of geopolitics.

But who will confront His Holiness, interestingly the name used for the pope, with the tough questions when Americans -- particularly influential Jewish-Buddhist-Americans often in the media -- line up to praise him while we demonize China and ignore the CIA's involvement?

Friday, June 18, 2010

Dalai Lama slams China

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, speaks to students and guests at Hunter College as part of The Bridge Conference, a Tibetan and Chinese Youth Dialogue Project.
The 14th Dalai Lama speaks to students and guests at Hunter College as part of The Bridge Conference, a Tibetan and Chinese Youth Dialogue Project.

The Dalai Lama scolded the Chinese government for its censorship and propaganda in a speech at Hunter College Sunday morning. "Openness and freedom of speech are essential," the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of about 20 million Tibetan [Vajrayana] Buddhists, told a conference of 230 Chinese and Tibetan students.

"Under fear, with police watching, how can harmony develop? Harmony by gun -- impossible." The world-renowned monk [and politician] has lived in exile in India since 1959 after a failed uprising of Tibetans against Chinese rule. He said he believes in self-governing "autonomy" for Tibet within China instead of total separation from the super-power -- but that apparently hasn't won him any friends in high places. More>>

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Tibet: China's hand in Dalai Lama succession

Ben Blanchard (Reuters)

Tibetan monks engage in a religious debate inside Jokhang temple in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, 11/24/09 (Reuters/Nir Elias/file).

TONGREN, China - For Tibetans living near the birthplace of the Dalai Lama, one question is very much on their minds these days: Who will succeed the aging exiled spiritual leader once he dies?

The possibility that scares most of them, and is seen as the most likely to happen, is that the atheist Communist government in Beijing will simply appoint its own replacement, with a veneer of tradition and religion thrown in. One of the few certainties about the political future of Tibet is that the death of the current Dalai Lama will cause major ructions in Tibet and overseas.
Some Tibetans fear a violent backlash in what is now called the Tibet Autonomous Region and surrounding provinces with large Tibetan populations -- like Qinghai, Gansu, and Sichuan -- if Beijing unilaterally appointed the next Dalai Lama. There is precedent for that happening. China chose a rival incarnation to succeed the late 10th Panchen Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's second-holiest position, shortly after the Dalai Lama announced his choice in 1995.

"We think China will try to appoint its own Dalai Lama, as it did with the Panchen Lama," said Jigme, a monk in the Tibetan region of Tongren in the arid northwestern province of Qinghai. "If that happens, we will protest," he added, punching his fists into the freezing air. "The people will be very unhappy. This is a religious decision. There should be no politics."

The worry of violence is very real. Anti-Chinese protests erupted in March 2008, in which at least 19 people were killed in riots in Lhasa. Pro-Tibet groups say hundreds died in a subsequent crackdown across the region. The Beijing-anointed Panchen Lama is spurned by most Tibetans as a fake.

The whereabouts of the Dalai Lama-recognized Panchen Lama is one of China's most tightly guarded secrets. China has in the past insisted he is safe, healthy and wants his privacy. "We will not believe in a Dalai Lama chosen by the government," said another Qinghai Tibetan, who gave his name as Jokhar. "Look what happened when they appointed their own Panchen Lama. We don't believe in that one, and never will." More>>


Pres. Obama meets with the Dalai Lama in Washington on Feb. 18, 2010, against trading partner China's wishes (White House/Pete Souza).