From Reuters: At first sight, a 400-year-old Buddhist monastery, tucked deep in the Himalayas in a remote corner of India’s northeast, hardly seems like a highly coveted piece of real estate. But Tawang Monastery, perched on a spur surrounded by clouds, is no ordinary abode for monks or nuns. One of the last vestiges of […]
Read MoreFrom The Las Angeles Times: Three years after leaving the political stage, former Chinese President Jiang Zemin is back in the national spotlight. So is the famous slogan that seemed to have retired with its creator: the murky theory of the “Three Represents.” Jiang, who turned 80 on Thursday, engineered his comeback through the publication […]
Read MoreFrom Spiegel Online: The new railroad line, which nudges Tibet closer to the rest of the world, has also inaugurated a new way of thinking about time in the Himalayas. Residents and visitors are no longer forced to travel through the mountains on steep and tortuous roads or pay costly airfare. The train is inexpensive […]
Read MoreFrom The Times Online: China’s new top official in Tibet has embarked on a fierce campaign to crush loyalty to the exiled Dalai Lama and to extinguish religious beliefs among government officials. Zhang Qingli, was appointed Communist Party secretary of the Tibetan Autonomous Region in May. An ally of Hu Jintao, China’s President, Mr Zhang, […]
Read MoreFrom Xinhua News Agency via Danwei blog: Queues were reported in book stores around China as The Selected Works of Jiang Zemin, former Chinese President, went on sale on Thursday. Branches of the government-run Xinhua Bookstore chain have trucked in tens of thousands of copies to fill their shelves on the first day of its […]
Read MoreOn BoingBoing, Xeni Jardin writes about Internet use among Tibetan refugees, based on Hacking the Himalayas, a report she did for NPR: Even though two full generations of Tibetans have grown up outside their native land, the Tibetan community is still very close-knit, and many still harbor dreams of returning to a country free of […]
Read MoreFrom an editorial in the New York Times: A strong United Nations force is needed to halt the genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region. If it is not sent soon, it may be too late for many thousands of potential victims. The immediate cause of the delay is the refusal by Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, […]
Read MoreFrom the Guardian: The safety of passengers on the world’s highest – and newest – railway is threatened by cracks, yaks and shifting sands, the Chinese government admitted yesterday. Less than a month after the opening of the line across the Himalayas to Tibet, it has become unstable in places because the foundations are sinking […]
Read MoreFrom Reuters via the New York Times: An official Chinese commentary accused the Dalai Lama on Wednesday of collaborating with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, rejecting the Tibetan leader’s overtures and casting a shadow over fence-mending talks. The Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, has proposed […]
Read MoreFrom the New York Times: At the Doulong Store, the musty shelves are stocked with the necessities for Tibetan nomads. There are kettles for yak butter tea and bolts of colorful fabric for traditional Tibetan robes and clothing. A nomad affluent enough to use a light bulb in his tent can buy an electric generator. […]
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