Dalai Lama: Tibetans

Tibetan Buddhism Dept: The number of Tibetans burning themselves to death in protests against Chinese policy has grown very fast recently. The first self-immolation was in 2009, but 22 of the 30 incidents happened in the past year. Though at first it was only Buddhist monks and nuns who were setting themselves on fire, in the past month, a teenage girl and a mother of four have chosen to die in this gruesome way, according to Winnipeg Free Press. The state-controlled media claim the deaths are orchestrated by the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, who has lived in exile in India since 1959. They also insist that the Dalai Lama's real goal is separatism -- the revival of the independent Tibet that existed until 1951, when the Chinese troops marched back in -- although the protesters themselves demand only the return of the Dalai Lama and respect for their culture and religion and the Dalai Lama is playing the waiting game regarding Tibetan cultural and religious autonomy from the Chinese. CP The Chinese response has been repression and abuse. The affected provinces have been flooded with security forces, and Communist party officials have condemned the protesters as anarchists, terrorists and rebels -- or, in the words of one official, "rats" born of "weasels." (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.