27th anniversary of Nobel Peace Prize for Dalai Lama celebrated

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Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay, Speaker Khenpo Sonam Tenphel and other dignitaries at the official function to celebrate 27th anniversary of Nobel Peace Prize day. (Photo courtesy: tibet.net)
Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay, Speaker Khenpo Sonam Tenphel and other dignitaries at the official function to celebrate 27th anniversary of Nobel Peace Prize day. (Photo courtesy: tibet.net)

(TibetanReview.net, Dec12, 2016) – Hundreds of Tibetans gathered on the courtyard of the Tsuglakhang, the main Buddhist temple at Mcleod Ganj, Dharamshala, to celebrate the 27th anniversary of the conferment of the Noble Peace Prize on the Dalai Lama. The day was also acknowledged as the World Human Rights day.

The Sikyong, the executive head of the exile Tibetan administration, used the occasion to highlight the situation at Larung Gar and Yachen Gar in Serta (Chinese: Seda) County of Sichuan Province where China has since Jul 2016 been evicting student monks and nuns and demolishing residences.

He urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid, to visit Tibet and assess the human rights situation there, especially at Larung Gar and Yachen Gar, probably the world’s largest Buddhist learning centre. He said the ongoing destruction at these relgious learning centres reminded one of the Cultural Revolution, China’s lost decade which encompassed 1966-76.

He called for the resolution of the issue of Tibet on the basis of the middle way policy, saying it was only through constructive dialogue between envoys of the Dalai Lama and representatives of the Chinese leadership that the Tibet issue could be resolved.

In his official statement, Speaker Khenpo Sonam Tenphel of the Tibetan parliament in exile, also emphasized the importance and need to resolve the issue of Tibet through the middle way policy for assuring autonomy, not independence, for Tibet.

At the conclusion of the official function, the Kashag of the Central Tibetan Administration and the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile held a joint prayer service to express solidarity with the monks and nuns of Larung Gar and to express condolences over the death of the latest Tibetan protest self-immolator Tashi Rabten.

In association with the Central Tibetan Administration, the Indo-Tibetan Friendship Association organized a two-day Himalayan Festival of cultural shows over Dec 10-11.

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