Word: dharamsala
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...years ago, on a desperately cold day in the Himalayan winter of 2006, Tashi and his two friends reached Lhasa after a long trek from their nomadic settlement in Tibet's Ambdo province. From there, they telephoned their families to tell them they were going across the border, to Dharamsala in India, to see the Dalai Lama and get an education. The families were worried - in addition to the risk of being caught fleeing Tibet, the boys faced an even more arduous, monthlong trek through innumerable snow-covered passes. Each was barely out of his teens and had paid...
With access denied, pro-Tibet activists have been left with a trickle of information - mostly nebulous or incomplete. "We're hoping, rather ominously, for some news," says Tenzin Tsundue, a prominent writer and Tibet independence activist in Dharamsala, site of the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile. The last piece of news came on February 25, with a phone call from the Aba region, a largely ethnic Tibetan community in China's Sichuan province, that indicated that a monk had set himself on fire.(See pictures of the Dalai Lama's spiritual journey...
Tibetan exiles in Dharamsala hate Xizang TV - the propaganda channel in the Tibetan language operated by Beijing - yet hardly anyone misses a show. "It's the only place you can hear Tibetan and see Tibet," says Tsundue. They also take solace in the music of two singers who work in Chinese-occupied Tibet and whose CD's are hot sellers: Yadong, who sings of the beauty of his homeland, and Kunga, a young heartthrob loved as much for his voice as for his boyish good looks. "Their lyrics are very clever," says Losel. "They might seem to sing of natural...
With little clue to the situation inside Tibet, the mood on Dharamsala's streets is muted. A handful of protesters are selling yellow-and-maroon Tibetan flags ahead of demonstrations scheduled for Tuesday. A few youngsters on motor-bikes are cruising around hoisting flags, and a lone painter is making a black-and-white sign reading "Tibet: One Struggle, One Nation" near the Namgyal monastery that forms the heart of the town. But there's none of the optimism and the energy of last year. "Last year's protests pushed the Tibet issue to the top of the international news...
...engaged in a security crackdown code named Strike Hard since Jan. 18 in an attempt to head off trouble. "They have conducted house-to-house searches. They have military in plain clothes everywhere and snipers on the roofs," says Tsewang Rigzin, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress based in Dharamsala, India. According to one nomadic herdsman I meet at the Longwu monastery in Tongren, one of the most important outside the Tibet Autonomous Region, the attempt by the authorities to force celebrations - and the Tibetan resistance that has followed - has extended even into some remote areas. The 53-year...