Dalai Lama is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism,the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and incumbent Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso,who lives in exile as a refugee in India. The Dalai Lama is also considered to be the successor in a line of tulkus who are believed to be incarnations of Avalokiteśvara,the Bodhisattva of Compassion.
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.
The Tibetan sovereignty debate refers to two political debates. The first political debate is about whether or not the various territories which are within the People's Republic of China (PRC) that are claimed as political Tibet should separate themselves from China and become a new sovereign state. Many of the points in this political debate rest on the points which are within the second historical debate,about whether Tibet was independent or subordinate to China during certain periods of its recent history.
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 provided for an autonomous administration led by Tibet's spiritual leader,and then-political leader,the 14th Dalai Lama. During the 1959 Tibetan uprising,when Tibetans arose to prevent his possible assassination,the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet to northern India where he established the Central Tibetan Administration,which rescinded the Seventeen-point Agreement.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 in 1965 as Tibet Autonomous Region,within China.
Chhime Rigzing,also Chhime Rigzin Chhoekyapa,is a Tibetan government official and senior spokesman for Tenzin Gyatso,the 14th Dalai Lama. He functions as a private secretary and is part of the Central Tibetan Administration in exile in Dharamsala in India.
Elliot Sperling was one of the world's leading historians of Tibet and Tibetan-Chinese relations,and a MacArthur Fellow. He spent most of his scholarly career as an associate professor at Indiana University's Department of Central Eurasian Studies,with seven years as the department's chair.
The Tibetan Parliament in Exile (TPiE),officially the Parliament of the Central Tibetan Administration,is the unicameral and highest legislative organ of the Central Tibetan Administration,the government-in-exile of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It was established and is based in Dharamshala,India. The creation of this democratically elected body has been one of the major changes that the 14th Dalai Lama brought about in his efforts to introduce a democratic system of administration.
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.
The Tibet Institute Rikon is a Tibetan monastery located in Zell-Rikon im Tösstal in the Töss Valley in Switzerland. It was established as a non-profit foundation because Swiss laws resulting from the 19th century secularization movement did not allow for the establishment of new monasteries until 1973
The Tibetan diaspora are the diaspora of Tibetan people living outside Tibet.
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.
The Tibet Bureau in Geneva is the official representation of the 14th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile for Central and Eastern Europe. It was established with approval of the Swiss Federal Government in 1964.
The Tibet Bureau in Paris,one of the offices of the official representation of the 14th Dalai Lama and of the Tibetan government in exile,is in charge of France,the Iberian Peninsula,the Maghreb and the Benelux countries. Founded in September 1992 it acts as an Embassy.
Namgyal Lhamo Taklha is a member of the Tibetan community living in exile. Between 1988 and 1994 she was elected to the Parliament of the Central Tibetan Administration and held the post of Health Secretary in the Central Tibetan Administration Cabinet based in India.
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.
The Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People provides a framework for the governance of Tibet within the People's Republic of China (PRC). In 2008 a group led by the Dalai Lama presented the memorandum to China. Beijing invited Dalai Lama's delegation to talk about his middle path,which promoted autonomy rather than full independence. Beijing rejected the proposal vehemently,claiming that it was as good as giving independence to Tibet. Following the presentation of the Memorandum,talks between China and Dalai Lama's envoys that had started in 2002 broke down. The last communication was in January 2010.
