Dharamsala, January 2: Tibetan Women’s Association and Tibet Third Pole have launched a petition to the Ministry of Environment Protection of The People’s Republic of China. The petition appeals to the PRC to halt the forced removal of nomads from Tibet’s pastureland since this is not a climate mitigation measure but rather a disastrous environmental policy that threatens the survival of the ten downstream countries. We also alert the Ministry of Environment of Nine Downstream Nations dependent on Tibet’s rivers (India, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal) to the urgency of this issue and beseech that immediate pressure is put upon the PRC government to cease current policies of forced and coerced displacement.
The petition was launched at the Buddhist Kalachakra teaching in Bodh Gaya this month, where TWA have a stall campaigning for nomads’ rights and showcasing TWA’s recent activities, including the November 2011 publication of a book on the critical situation currently facing Tibet’s nomads – Purging the Treaure House: displacement and the status of the Tibetan nomad.
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gaby lane
January 4, 2012 at 9:12 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
I stand in full solidarity with TWA and the Tibet Third Pole to pressure governments to stand up to China on this tragedy and pending disaster, let alone another case of extreme human rights abuses by the PRC government.
When, oh when, will this horror end?
Karen Smith
January 4, 2012 at 8:28 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Stop the displacement!!!
Tsalung Dechen
January 16, 2012 at 7:53 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Böd Gyalo!
Janna Weiss
November 11, 2012 at 7:16 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Böd Gyalo!
70 Tibetans have self-immolated for human rights, freedom, and an end to over 60 years of oppression.
Tibet is a #1 global issue:
1. environment http://www.tew.org
2. non-violence http://tinyurl.com/cp44k3y
3. health http://www.mindandlife.org
Cultural genocide in Tibet: http://therealjannaweiss.blogspot.com/2012/07/lhasa-impressions.html
Tenzin Gyaltsen
December 31, 2012 at 12:03 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Tibetan nomads maintain the perfect balance of grass land and act as a natural guardian of vast untapped mineral resources in Tibet “The Third Pole”. PRC’s policy of forcefully shifting and concentrating them in the urban areas have not only jeopardized their very way of life but indirectly created an environment in which, they are indulging into bad habits which will erase the existence of “Tibetan Nomads” in near future.
I can pin point some of the underlying motives of PRC’s nomad shifting policy:
1) Free access to vast area of land inhibited by nomads (approx.60% of total area of Tibet)
2) Cultural assimilation
3) Exploitation of nomads (cheap labor), as they are mostly illiterate
4) Extraction of mineral resources & building of road and railway lines
Direct consequences due to PRC’s nomad shifting policy are numerous:
1) Landslides and Soil erosion due to excessive mining
2) Desertification
3) Degradation of permafrost
4) Imbalance in flow of major rivers (indirectly affects the lower riparian regions)
5) Drying up of swamps & extinctions of native plants and animals
There are avalanche of irreversible damages sprouting due to short sided approach of by PRC. Through this platform, May i humbly request all the people and govt. of the world to land their supports and take proactive steps for the betterment of the green planet. “Bhoe Gyalo”