DHARAMSHALA, June 14: China has threatened to pull its Olympic athletes out of their training camp in Leeds, UK due to a scheduled visit by the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the city.

BBC has reported that Chinese officials asked Leeds City Council to put pressure on the organisers to cancel the Dalai Lama’s Friday visit to attend the Yorkshire International Business Convention as its keynote speaker.

Fabian Hamilton, Labour MP for Leeds North East and chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet, described the reported demand as “reprehensible and disgraceful” and accused China of employing "bully-boy tactics."

Source: phayul.com

June 13: European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, Lady Catherine Ashton said that the EU is concerned over the deteriorating human rights situation inside Tibet.

“The European Union is concerned by the deterioration of the situation in Tibet, as illustrated by the wave of self-immolations and clashes between the Chinese police and local Tibetans since the beginning of the year,” Ashton said in a speech on the situation in Tibet yesterday.

Source; phayul.com

DHARAMSHALA, June 11: At the conclusion of the three-day Fourth All India Tibet Support Groups Conference, organisers today said that Indian supporters will hold a massive rally for Tibet in the Indian capital New Delhi this coming February in commemoration of 2013 as the “Year of Tibetan Independence.”

“A massive rally will be organised in February in the Indian capital in which Indian Tibet support groups and supporters will actively participate,” Vijay Kranti, a long time Tibet supporter and one of the core conveners of the conference said. “We expect over one hundred-thousand supporters to take part in the rally.”

After his return from forced exile in India, His Holiness the 13th Dalai Lama on February 13, 1913 declared Tibet’s independence by making the ‘Tibetan Proclamation of Independence,’ a five-point public statement reasserting Tibetan independence.

“Rallies will be organised in all the Indian states across the nation simultaneously,” Kranti added while speaking exclusively to Phayul at the sidelines of the conference.

Source : phayul.com

DHARAMSHALA, June 11: Multiple award-winning Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden has won the “Best Narrative Feature” for his movie “Old Dog” (Khyi rgan) at the Brooklyn Film Festival which concluded yesterday.

Competing with more than 100 premieres from nearly 30 countries, “Old Dog” was voted amongst the best at the June 1 – 10, 2012 Festival, winning a total of US $57,000 in prizes and film services.

Award-winning films at the Brooklyn Film Festival, recognised as one of the “most trusted and respected arbiters of excellence in the art of filmmaking” have gone on to be nominated and awarded at both the British Academy Awards and at the American Academy Awards.

"Old Dog," a poetic story about Tibet's changing society, where old values are in direct conflict with new, has a Tibetan cast consisting of Yanbum Gyal, Drolma Kyab, Lochey, and Tamdrin Tso.

DHARAMSHALA, June 9: Speaking to a group of over 150 Indian supporters from all over India, including members of the Indian parliament and former civil servants, Kalon Tripa Dr Lobsang Sangay said success for Tibet would mean India’s success as well.

Dr Sangay was addressing the Fourth All India Tibet Support Groups Conference in the presence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama earlier today in Dharamshala.

Referring to the chain of self-immolations in Tibet, Dr Sangay said Tibet needs India more than ever.

Source : phayul.com

DHARAMSHALA, June 8: Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai yesterday paid a “courtesy visit” to Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the latter’s exile residence in Dharamshala. 

Chimme Rinzin Choekyapa, secretary of the Dalai Lama told Phayul that Secretary Mathai’s visit was a “routine courtesy call.”

Ranjan Mathai, who assumed the Foreign Secretary post in August last year, held closed-door talks with the Tibetan spiritual leader for over an hour Thursday afternoon.