Insights From The Roof Of The World: Conversations on Tibet

Tibet in Context is a podcast series that gears in gaining a deeper understanding of Tibet through conversations with Tibetans, China Watchers, Tibetologists, Environmentalist and Security Experts.

In this episode, our host Kate Saunders engages with Dr. Gyal Lo la on the life of the 10th Panchen Rinpoche in Tibet, who worked to protect the Tibetan language, culture and religion with the 6th Gungthang Rinpoche, whom many consider to be the right hand of the 10th Panchen Rinpoche - from the perspective of a Tibetan educationalist with personal experience of this very period and interaction with both Rinpoche’s.After escaping from Tibet in 2020, Dr. Gyal Lo presented His Holiness the Dalai Lama with his book about the remarkable life of Gungthang Rinpoche. He also reflects on the entwined lives of these three great religious leaders, including, the harsh atrocities and imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution and the politics involved in the selection of the 11th Panchen Lama.

Unsilenced: Voices of Young Tibetans is a podcast series where we have conversations with young Tibetans who will offer an interesting view of their lives as exiled Tibetans and their future aspiration. The podcast is also a tribute to all those brave Tibetans in Tibet who were silenced both physically and mentally by the Chinese occupiers.

In this Episode we engage with Tenzin Tsangpa, a Tibetan student in France - dwells on how he was confronted, harassed and assaulted by a group of misinformed Chinese mainlanders during the recently concluded 2023 Counter Strike: Global Offensive Finals at Paris on 21st May, 2023. Further indicating the level of Chinese Transnational Aggression and Policing for that matter at such an international event as well, also illustrating how it has gone berserk with even common citizens who have been brainwashed taking part in it as it continues to be left unchecked.. He only raised and displayed his Tibetan national flag proudly at this major event when rooting for his #teamvitality but was not only harmed personally but the whole event that was live stream even in Mainland China was disrupted and censored because of the Tibetan National Flag.

Tibet in Context is a podcast series that gears in gaining a deeper understanding of Tibet through conversations with Tibetans, China Watchers, Tibetologists, Environmentalist and Security Experts.

A conversation with Professor Gyal Lo la.

Tibetan scholar Professor Gyal Lo is a remarkable witness to China's accelerated assimilationist policies, aimed at the extinction of a separate Tibetan identity and sense of history.

In this podcast, he reflects on why he had to defect from the PRC in 2020, his fears for the future and the immense emotional impact of his meeting with the Dalai Lama. In this conversation with FNVA, Professor Gyal Lo speaks to FNVA about the importance of India to the survival of Tibetan Buddhist culture, and warns India to watch what China does, not what it says. He gives personal testimony of the impacts of China's colonial boarding school system on the lives of children in his own family, and the struggles of Tibetan intellectuals to maintain their language and spirit.

Born in Amdo, eastern Tibet, Dr Gyal Lo obtained his master's degree from the Tibetan Language and Culture Department at the Northwestern University for Nationalities in Lanzhou. He became an assistant professor in the same department, where he taught for the next decade, undertaking intensive research into education in Tibet. After leaving home to obtain his PhD from the University of Toronto, Dr Lo returned home, and was troubled to find evidence in his own family of detrimental impacts of China's kindergarten and boarding school education on Tibetan children. For the next five years he visited over 50 of these boarding schools and documented their impacts on children and the community.

He obtained a professorship at Yunnan Normal University in 2017, but in a worsening political climate, his position was terminated, and he was compelled to leave the PRC in December 2020. After resettling in Canada, where he now lives, Dr Lo decided to speak out about his experiences and his fears for the future survival of Tibetan language, culture and religion. He has testified in numerous international fora with his extensive knowledge of China's colonial boarding schools in Tibet, including in the UK Parliament, UN committees and in February 2023 at Canada's House of Commons' Subcommittee on International Human Rights.

Unsilenced: Voices of Young Tibetans is a podcast series where we have conversations with young Tibetans who will offer an interesting view of their lives as exiled Tibetans and their future aspiration. The podcast is also a tribute to all those brave Tibetans in Tibet who were silenced both physically and mentally by the Chinese occupiers.

In this Episode we engage with New Delhi Executive of the Global Tibetan People's Movement for Middle Way Approach (GTPMMWA) and YouTube Vlogger Tenzin Wangchuk sees him engage on the Middle Way Approach, which is the official policy by the Tibetan Government in Exile, who represents Tibetans in resolving the Tibet-China Conflict. He also shares to us his experience at TCV Suja where he did his schooling after escaping from China Occupied Tibet and likewise tells us about his popular YouTube Channel 'The International Commentator'.

This talk is part of the FNVA’s Round Table titled as “Next Decade of India-China Relations: Scope for Policy Alternatives?”, held at the India International Centre, New Delhi – 2013.Jayadev Ranade, president of Centre for China Analysis Strategy and author Xi Jinping China's Third New Era elaborately explains how China had successfully handed over its leadership to a new corp of Chinese communist leaders. He further highlights the 18th Party Congress and the composition of the party's top leader. On India, he asserted Beijing's continual inroads in border encroachment which has increased drastically, destabilising India's neighbour (Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar), military deployment in occupied Tibet and restricting India's growing aspirations in its region.

Unsilenced: Voices of Young Tibetans is a podcast series where we have conversations with young Tibetans who will offer an interesting view of their lives as exiled Tibetans and their future aspiration. The podcast is also a tribute to all those brave Tibetans in Tibet who were silenced both physically and mentally by the Chinese occupiers.

In this episode we engage with Tibetan Researcher and Rangtsen Advocate Tenzin Nyinjey on Tibet, The Tibetan Freedom Movement, The Tibetan Uprising Day, The Exile Tibetan Democracy and the Tibetan Youths. He also shares to us his time in Dharamshala, the stark differences he observes between India and Canada, and how Tibetans being predominately bilingual and experiencing both the Global South and the Global North can be unique bridges.

Unsilenced: Voices of Young Tibetans is a podcast series where we have conversations with young Tibetans who will offer an interesting view of their lives as exiled Tibetans and their future aspiration. The podcast is also a tribute to all those brave Tibetans in Tibet who were silenced both physically and mentally by the Chinese occupiers.

In this episode, we engage with Tibetan activist and Tibetan Youth Congress General Secretary Sonam Tsering sees him share to us his journey from Tibet. how he came to exile? how he crossed the Himalayas?. Came to Nepal and then India where he met His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and continued his journey in exile to now become the General Secretary of the largest Tibetan NGO in exile, The Tibetan Youth Congress. His journey continues and he holds the flame of truth and freedom for Tibet close to his always, remembering his sisters and brothers in Tibet.

The policy document was launched on 27th January, 2023 at the India International Centre, Annexe, New Delhi.

This report is meant for the long-term projection of issues between INDIA, TIBET and CHINA and for their possible resolution in a peaceful manner.

Tibet in Context is a podcast series that gears in gaining a deeper understanding of Tibet through conversations with Tibetans, China Watchers, Tibetologists, Environmentalist and Security Experts.

In this episode, Kate Saunders from FNVA engages with Martin Bursík, Shao Jiang and Anders Højmark Andersen. Discussing on how Europe Kowtows to China and Beijing and also how they along with other leaders have fought back on this front.

This podcast takes the temperature of China’s influence on European democracies after a series of shocking incidents in capitals including London, Prague and Copenhagen when police and the authorities appeared to collude with Chinese Communist Party objectives to prevent and block peaceful protests by Tibet activists.

The protests coincided with major state visits by Chinese leaders – previous leaders Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, and current Party Secretary Xi Jinping.

In Copenhagen, it was revealed in 2021 that the Danish government pressured the police to be heavy handed with protesters during official visits of Chinese officials in Denmark (https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/authorities-accused-of-pressuring-copenhagen-police-over-china-critical-protests/)

In Prague, during the state visit of the Chinese president Xi Jinping in 2016, over several hundred Czech pro-justice and Tibet supporters rallied in Prague, waving Tibetan national flags and chanting slogans including ‘Freedom for Tibet’. The Czech police closed the main square to protesters, who were confronted by Chinese, including a Chinese couple who snatched the Tibetan national flag from a Czech woman and threw it into the river.

In search of justice for the ‘shameful’ response by Czech authorities, the organisers of the peaceful demonstration - Martin Bursík, Katerina Bursik Jacques, Tomas Pikola, and Katerina Kudlackova filed a lawsuit. In a historic win, the Czech court ruled in favour of democratic rights and announced the Czech police’s response as “unlawful”.

In London, Shao Jiang, a Tiananmen Square survivor who fled China and was granted political asylum, was arrested in London in October 2015 during a state visit by President Xi Jinping together with two Tibetan women, who were also peaceful protesters. Video footage shows Shao holding two A4 sheets of paper, one saying “End Autocracy” and the other saying “Democracy Now” before being aggressively detained by officers.

Police watchdog investigators then found evidence that the MET’s treatment of Shao, one of the last protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989, was influenced by pressure from Beijing to ensure Xi was not “embarrassed” by protests during his visit.

This talk is part of the FNVA’s Round Table titled as “Next Decade of India-China Relations: Scope for Policy Alternatives?”, held at the India International Centre, New Delhi – 2013.

Gordon Chang, the author of ‘The Coming Collapse of China’ and ‘The Great US-China Tech War’ calls out the rouse of the Chinese economy. He further asserts how the Chinese economy which needs reform to continue its growth requires necessary political if they were to fulfil its ambitions. He explains the key points that led to the unprecedented rise of the Chinese economy and argues that the current polices like the ‘One-Child policy’ contradicts its vision, leading to ghost cities. He predicts how the infighting in the Chinese leadership would lead to an eventual disarray, which we witnessed during the recently concluded 20th National Party Congress, 2022 when former president Hu Jintao was sidelined and removed from the dais. Similarly on the foreign policy front he accurately predicts a more aggressive China in the coming years and how India would be confronted by it on various fronts as China sees India as its true rival and enemy in the long run.