China has sentenced a revered Tibetan living Buddha to eight-and-a-half years in jail on charges of illegally occupying government land and possession of weapons.

China has sentenced a revered Tibetan living Buddha to eight-and-a-half years in jail on charges of illegally occupying government land and possession of weapons.

The court in the western town of Kangding handed down the conviction more than eight months after Phurbu Tsering Rinpoche’s trial. It marked the first time a Tibetan arrested following last year’s riots had been allowed to select his own defence lawyers.

The monk was arrested on March 28 last year, four days after nuns from two religious houses over which he presides took to the streets in demonstrations shortly after deadly rioting erupted in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

A police search of the home of the living Buddha, who presides over several religious houses and runs an old people’s home, turned up an imitation pistol and 100 rounds of ammunition that police said could cause severe injury or even be fatal.

Local officials, unaware that his lawyers had a background in human rights, had told them when they arrived that the leaders had decided that the living Buddha must be jailed as an example to prevent other reincarnations from using their influence to stir up anti-Chinese unrest.


Read the entire article at the TimesOnline web site

..."my main aim is to provide education to the younger Tibetan people..."

During a press conference on Friday, the Dalai Lama said, "I am acting here like a free spokesman for Tibet and my main aim is to provide education to the younger Tibetan people."

"We are political refugees. We are carrying out certain duties on behalf of six million Tibetan people," he said.

The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since fleeing China in 1959.


This full story is available on the DailyIndia.com web site.
Photo uncredited, found on the internet

Thich Nhat Hanh in Hospital with Pneumonia

Thich Nhat Hanh in Hospital with Pneumonia
Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh is in Massachusetts General Hospital being treated for pneumonia.

Our brother and teacher, the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, is presently in Massachusetts General Hospital with an infection of pseudomonas aeruginosa (wiki), which is a serious but treatable pathogen. He had planned to lead a retreat during this time but will remain in the hospital for at least two weeks.

"Dear Friends and Co-practitioners at the Retreat One Buddha is not enough, Estes Park, CO.

My dear friends,
I am writing to you from the Massachusettes General Hospital in Boston. I know the Sangha has manifested today in Estes Park. I miss the Reterat. I miss the beautiful setting of the REtreat. Especially I miss the Sangha, I miss you. I always enjoy sitting with the Sangha, walking with the Sangha, breathing with the Sangha. The joy of being together, sharing the Dharma and the practice together is always very nourishing and healing...

But I do not suffer, because I know I am taking care of myself. And taking care of myself is to take care of you. The doctors here decided that I should stay 14 days here for the treatment of a lung infection by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Please do not worry. It is only an infection. But it has to be treated right away. My kidneys, my liver, my heart, my digestive tract all function well. I am given two strong anti-biotics, from I.V. injections per day. And the clinicians here are monitoring closely the process of treatment. I am allowed to go out of the hospital to the park nearby one hour per day to do walking meditation.

Written by hand, you can also read or download a PDF copy of this letter from Thay to his community.

Limited additional information is available at this time.

His Holiness considers a temporal and spiritual leader for Tibet

"The Dalai Lamas held temporal and spiritual leadership over the last 400-500 years. It may have been quite useful. But that period is over..."
- The Dalai Lama

In a speech that underscored the pressures he has had to bear during his life serving as both a spiritual and political leader, the Dalai Lama has said there is no need for his successor to perform the two roles.

"Today, it is clear to the whole world that democracy is the best system despite its minor negativities. That is why it is important that Tibetans also move with the larger world community."

In a video clip shown to hundreds of monks, nuns and lay people gathered in the mountain town of Dharamsala, the 73-year-old said it was essential that the Tibetan community in exile embraced democracy if it were to keep step with the wider world.

Robert Thurman, professor of Indo-Tibetan studies at Columbia University, said that while the Dalai Lama had managed to perform both a political and religious role, it was his belief that the Tibetan people would benefit from more secular education and taking more personal responsibility. "He thinks that democracy is the best way for this. He has dealt with Chinese autocracy for more than 60 years and he has seen what that has done," he said.

Despite the Dalai Lama's stated commitment to democracy, some observers believe a "regent" could be appointed to lead the freedom struggle in the form of Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who is the Karmapa, or spiritual head of the Kagyu order of Tibetan Buddhism and the third highest-ranking figure across the various schools. Whilst the 17th Karmapa could not inherit the title of Dalai Lama, he could act as a figurehead and help fill the void should the Dalai Lama fall ill or die. Such a move has been publicly discussed amid concerns last year about the Dalai Lama's health.

Earlier this year, the 23-year-old Karmapa, who was born and raised in Tibet but who escaped to India in 2000, told reporters: "His Holiness has been very successful in laying the foundations for the Tibetan struggle. He has done a great job. Now it is time for the next generation to build on this and carry it forward."



Read the entire article at the independent.co.uk web site
From a story by By Andrew Buncombe

• Related, and a very nice piece: Adapting to change: Dalai Lama suggests two people take his two roles

"...the Chinese are awaiting my death ..."

I am getting old, and the Chinese are especially preoccupied with that!
They are awaiting my death...

During his recent Europe tour, the Dalai Lama gave talks on "Compassion in Turbulent Times" to large gatherings. Speaking to the press, however, he bluntly decried conditions in Tibet as a "hell on earth," and spoke of official Chinese "cruelty." He repeated a statement he made in Rome in February that now is the "darkest period in Tibetan history."

Yet, with reporters asking about Tibet and China, he offered that: "'I am getting old, and the Chinese are especially preoccupied with that! They are awaiting my death.... I have little hope of reaching a negotiated solution with the Chinese government. My trust in that government is very thin, because the whole communist political system is based on lies and hypocrisy. The local authorities lie to the regional leaders, who lie to Beijing, who then broadcasts those lies to the rest of the world!"

Pico Iyer, author of "The Open Road: The Global Journey of the 14th Dalai Lama," noted in a recent New York Review of Books article that "in the 34 years I've been regularly talking and listening to him, I've grown used to seeing the [Dalai Lama] begin each day by praying for his 'Chinese brothers and sisters,' and constantly asking his fellow Tibetans to 'reach out to the Chinese people and make better relations,'" but that "for the first time … he could no longer contain his impatience and disappointment with Beijing."


Read the entire article at Phayul.com