Founded | 7 October 1970 |
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Type | Non-profit |
Purpose | Political Advocacy For Tibet |
Location |
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Website | tibetanyouthcongress.org |
The Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) is an international non-governmental organization that advocates the independence of Tibet from China. [1] With around 30,000 members in the Tibetan diaspora, [2] it is the largest of the pro-independence organizations of Tibetan exiles with 87 branches in 10 countries listed on the organisation's website. [3] [4] The current president of the Tibetan Youth Congress is Gonpo Dhundup. [5] [6]
The organization claims no particular religious or party political affiliation.
The TYC was founded on October 7, 1970, in Dharamsala, India, with the 14th Dalai Lama delivering the inaugural address. The organization was founded by young Tibetans from the first generation to graduate from contemporary schools and colleges. The founding members were Tenzin Geyche Tethong (the Congress's first President), Lodi G. Gyari, Sonam Topgyal and Tenzin N. Tethong.
The TYC advocates for the independence from China of Tibet, including the three provinces of U-Tsang, Do-toe, and Do-med. The group organises cultural exhibitions and festivals to promote global awareness of Tibetan culture. Its members also undertake social welfare activities, according to the maxim "Service to the people", with the aim of alleviating social, cultural, and educational problems in the exile community. The group's activities include adult education, health education, and infrastructure activities from building public facilities like toilets to planting trees.
It also serves as an international pressure group, working to bring international attention to Tibet, and criticises Tibet's government-in-exile. The organization publishes a quarterly journal, Rangzen, for its members and sponsors. It uses mailing lists to circulate news from time to time.
Membership in the TYC is open to any Tibetan who subscribes to the organization's aims and objectives and agrees to abide by its rules, including working within the framework of the democratic Constitution of Tibet. Despite the name, membership is not limited to young people, though most members and the leadership are young.
The Congress has held protests at Chinese embassies and in India. [7] The TYC observes several annual events, including the anniversary of its founding, Human Rights Day, the anniversaries of what they consider to be key events in Tibetan political history, and a number of Buddhist and traditional Tibetan holidays. In 2008, members of the group protested at the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay through India. [8] In January 2017 at Bodh Gaya, India, a variety of social services were provided 250 TYC volunteers at the 34th Kalachakra Initiation given by the 14th Dalai Lama and organized by the Central Tibetan Administration. [9]
The BBC news described the Congress as "radical but influential". [10] The Chinese state Xinhua news agency reported the view shared by several Chinese tibetologists that the group was a terrorist organization. [11] The TYC in 2008 denied Chinese accusations that it would resort to suicide bombing to achieve Tibetan independence. [12]
The Central Tibetan Administration is a non-profit political organization based in Dharamshala, India. Its organization is modeled after an elective parliamentary government, composed of a judiciary branch, a legislative branch, and an executive branch, and is sometimes labelled as a government in exile for Tibet.
The Tibetan independence movement is the political movement advocating for the reversal of the 1950 annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China, and the separation and independence of Tibet from China.
Jetsun Pema is the sister of the 14th Dalai Lama. For 42 years she was the President of the Tibetan Children's Villages (TCV) school system for Tibetan refugee students.
The history of Tibet from 1950 to the present includes the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, and the Battle of Chamdo. Before then, Tibet had been a de facto independent nation. In 1951, Tibetan representatives in Beijing signed the Seventeen Point Agreement under duress, which affirmed China's sovereignty over Tibet while it simultaneously supported the establishment of an autonomous administration which would be led by Tibet's spiritual leader, and then-political leader, the 14th Dalai Lama. During the 1959 Tibetan uprising, when Tibetans attempted to prevent his possible assassination, the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet and moved to northern India, where he established the Central Tibetan Administration, which rescinded the Seventeen Point Agreement. The majority of Tibet's land mass, including all of U-Tsang and areas of Kham and Amdo, was officially established as the Tibet Autonomous Region, within China, in 1965.
The 1959 Tibetan uprising began on 10 March 1959, when a revolt erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, which had been under the effective control of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since the Seventeen Point Agreement was reached in 1951. The initial uprising occurred amid general Chinese-Tibetan tensions and a context of confusion, because Tibetan protesters feared that the Chinese government might arrest the 14th Dalai Lama. The protests were also fueled by anti-Chinese sentiment and separatism. At first, the uprising mostly consisted of peaceful protests, but clashes quickly erupted and the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) eventually used force to quell the protests, some of the protesters had captured arms. The last stages of the uprising included heavy fighting, with high civilian and military losses. The 14th Dalai Lama escaped from Lhasa, while the city was fully retaken by Chinese security forces on 23 March 1959. Thousands of Tibetans were killed during the 1959 uprising, but the exact number of deaths is disputed.
The 2008 Tibetan unrest, also referred to as the 2008 Tibetan uprising in Tibetan media, was a series of protests and demonstrations over the Chinese government's treatment and persecution of Tibetans. Protests in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, by monks and nuns on 10 March have been viewed as the start of the demonstrations. Numerous peaceful protests and demonstrations were held to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising Day, when the 14th Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet. The protests and demonstrations spread spontaneously to a number of monasteries and throughout the Tibetan plateau, including into counties located outside the designated Tibet Autonomous Region. The arrest of monks at Labrang Monastery increased the tension of the situation. Violence began when Chinese police and People's Liberation Army units used force on non-violent protests by monks and nuns, and spread when protesting Tibetans later clashed with security forces. Clashes also occurred between Tibetans and Chinese Han and Hui residents, resulting in Han and Hui stores and buildings being destroyed and numerous Chinese civilians being injured or killed.
Tibetan Uprising Day, observed on March 10, commemorates the 1959 Tibetan uprising against the presence of the People's Republic of China in Tibet. The failure of the armed rebellion ultimately resulted in a violent crackdown on Tibetan independence movements, and the flight of the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso into exile.
10 Questions For The Dalai Lama is a 2006 documentary film in which filmmaker Rick Ray meets with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama at his monastery in Dharamsala, India. The film maker asks him ten questions during the course of the interview which is inter-cut with a biography of Tenzin Gyatso, a history of modern Tibet and a chronicle of Ray's journey securing the interview.
The 14th Dalai Lama, known to the Tibetan people as Gyalwa Rinpoche, is, as the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibet. He is considered a living Bodhisattva; specifically, an emanation of Avalokiteśvara in Sanskrit, and Chenrezig in Tibetan. He is also the leader and a monk of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism, formally headed by the Ganden Tripa. The central government of Tibet, the Ganden Phodrang, invested the Dalai Lama with temporal duties until his exile in 1959.
Serfs' Emancipation Day, observed annually on 28 March, is a holiday in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China that celebrates the emancipation of serfs in Tibet. The holiday was adopted by the Tibetan legislature on 19 January 2009 and it was promulgated that same year. In modern Tibetan history, the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai declared the dissolution of the Tibetan government on 28 March 1959 and he replaced it with the temporary Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region (PCTAR), with the Panchen Lama also replacing the Dalai Lama as its acting chairman.
Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari Rinpoche, Kasur Lodi Gyari or "as he is universally known to the Tibetan-speaking world, Gyari Rinpoche" was a Tibetan politician, and journalist who served as the 14th Dalai Lama's special envoy to the United States. Exiled to India in 1959, he was also the executive chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet.
Human rights in Tibet is a contentious issue. Reported abuses of human rights in Tibet include restricted freedom of religion, belief, and association; arbitrary arrest; maltreatment in custody, including torture; and forced abortion and sterilization. The status of religion, mainly as it relates to figures who are both religious and political, such as the exile of the 14th Dalai Lama, is a regular object of criticism. Additionally, freedom of the press in China is absent, with Tibet's media tightly controlled by the Chinese leadership, making it difficult to accurately determine the scope of human rights abuses.
Protests and uprisings in Tibet against the government of the People's Republic of China have occurred since 1950, and include the 1959 uprising, the 2008 uprising, and the subsequent self-immolation protests.
Tethong Tenzin Namgyal is a Tibetan politician and a former Prime Minister of Central Tibetan Administration.
Tsewang Rigzin is a Tibetan freedom activist who is the current president of the Tibetan Youth Congress. He has held the position since September 2007, and on August 8, 2008 he was re-elected to serve through August 2013. Prior to attaining his current position he served as the president of the Portland/Vancouver regional chapter of the Tibetan Youth Congress.
Lobsang Nyandak, sometimes written Lobsang Nyendak also called Lobsang Nyandak Zayul is a Tibetan diplomat and politician. born in 1965 in Kalimpong, India where he performed his studies in Herbertpur and at Panjab University in Chandigarh. There, he held functions at Tibetan Youth Congress before becoming the founding Executive Director of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. Member of the National Democratic Party of Tibet, he was elected deputy and was selected as a minister by Samdhong Rinpoche, the first elected Kalon Tripa of Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). He then was the Representative of the 14th Dalai Lama to the Americas and became president of The Tibet Fund.
Tibet–India relations are said to have begun during the spread of Buddhism to Tibet from India during the 6th century AD. In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to India after the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising. Since then, Tibetans-in-exile have been given asylum in India, with the Indian government accommodating them into 45 residential settlements across 10 states in the country. From around 150,000 Tibetan refugees in 2011, the number fell to 85,000 in 2018, according to government data. Many Tibetans are now leaving India to go back to Tibet and other countries such as United States or Germany. The Government of India, soon after India's independence in 1947, treated Tibet as a de facto independent country. However, more recently India's policy on Tibet has been mindful of Chinese sensibilities, and has recognized Tibet as a part of China.
Tibetan Review is a Tibetan monthly journal and news website published in English, based in Delhi, India. It was first published in Darjeeling, West Bengal in April 1967 by Lodi Gyari. It is well known for its open and vibrant democratic forum for the discussion of the Tibetan problem and other related governmental and social issues on Tibet.
Lobsang Samten Taklha was a Tibetan politician and one of three elder brothers of the 14th Dalai Lama. He was 53 years old and since 1978 had been director of the Tibetan Medical Institute in Dharamsala, India, where the Dalai Lama lives in exile.
Kelsang Chukie Tethong or Chukie Tethong is a Tibetan exile singer who was traditionally trained in India. She performs Tibetan music and she has twice performed for the Dalai Llama