White Paper: Why Tibet is Burning…

Published by:
Tibetan Policy Institute
Kashag Secretariat
Central Tibetan Administration
Gangchen Kyishong, Dharamshala-176
ISBN: 978-93-80091-35-8
First Edition, 2013
©TPI

Description:
This white paper examines the underlying causes of the increasing number of self-immolations that are currently engulfing Tibet. The Central Tibetan Administration has made many appeals to the Tibetans in Tibet to desist from self-immolation. Despite the Central Tibetan Administration’s repeated appeals to stop the self-immolations, unfortunately the numbers of Tibetans setting themselves ablaze are adding up at an alarming rate and frequency. All Tibetans who have set themselves ablaze have called for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to his homeland and freedom for Tibet. What are the causes which drive Tibetans to such acts of extreme desperation?

The reason lies in China’s massive policy failure in Tibet over the course of more than 60 years of its rule. The revolution that is brewing in Tibet is driven by political repression, cultural assimilation, social discrimination, economic marginalisation and environmental destruction. 107 Tibetans so far, most of them in their teens and early twenties, have set themselves ablaze. According to Chinese communist propaganda, this is the generation that was supposed to have benefitted most from Chinese rule in Tibet. Clearly, though, China’s spectacular policy failure in Tibet has totally alienated the new generations of Tibetans and they express this alienation by asserting their loyalty to His Holiness the Dalai Lama whom they have not seen in their entire lives and who has not set foot in Tibet for more than 50 years...

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