(TibetanReview.net, May04’24) —Sikyong (executive head) Mr Penpa Tsering of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has on May 2 met with President Mr Arno Kompatscher of South Tyrol (full name: Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol) in northern Italy and invited him to visit Dharamshala later this year.
He has briefed Mr Kompatscher on the current dire situation in Tibet marked by China’s campaign to destroy its cultural identity, including by forced separation of children from their parents and placing them in a boarding school system designed to mould them as Chinese in their mentality, attitude, and personal loyalty.
He has called South Tyrol a meaningful model of autonomy for the Tibetan people, given the exile Tibetan administration’s stand of seeking self-rule, rather than independence for Tibet.
The Sikyong invited President Kompatscher to visit the CTA at Dharamshala for a forthcoming event later their year, which the latter graciously accepted, said the CTA on its Tibet.net website May 4.
The report also said President Kompatscher undertook to lead parliamentary initiatives to spotlight the deteriorating situation in Tibet.
Besides, committing himself to furthering collaborations between South Tyrol and Tibet, the President has unveiled plans for a new Provincial Library in capital Bolzano, ensuring representation for Tibet and the Tibetan movement in the Library’s Documentation Centre for the Protection of Minorities and Autonomy.
Together with the autonomous province of Trento, South Tyrol forms the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in northernmost Italy. The province is the second largest with an area of 7,400 square kilometres and a total population of about 534,000 inhabitants as of 2021.
The province enjoys considerable level of self-government, with a large range of exclusive legislative and executive powers and a fiscal regime that allows it to retain 90% of revenue. As of 2016, South Tyrol was the wealthiest province in Italy and among the wealthiest in the European Union as well, according to a Wikipedia report on it.
After South Tyrol, the Sikyong has visited Trentino to attend the ‘Ice Stupa Zanskar’ exhibition at the invitation of Roberto Pinter, a former councillor of Trentino and president of Trentino For Tibet. He was warmly welcomed by the Vice Mayor of Trento.
Italy is home to a small community of some 198 Tibetans.