By Tenzin Dharpo
Dharamsala, August 12: The Prime Minister (Sikyong) Dr. Lobsang Sangay of the exile Tibetan government, officially known as the Central Tibetan Administration, launched a Tibetan language documentary titled ‘Middle way approach’ along with the Tibet TV online mobile app at a press conference here today.
The documentary on the CTA’s official policy of middle way is an initiative by the Department of Information and International Relations and documents excerpts by prominent religious leaders, former political prisoners and Nobel laureates such as Sakya Ghongma Rinpoche, Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorjee and Jody Williams, among others.
Earlier, a shorter documentary on the same subject had been launched by the DIIR in English and Tibetan but the current documentary of 30 minutes runtime is only in Tibetan and will be promoted throughout the Tibetan Diaspora scattered across several settlements in India and clustered communities abroad.
The ‘Middle way policy’ was adopted unanimously by the Tibetan parliament in exile as the ‘official stand’ of the Tibetan struggle yet almost half of the Tibetan exile populace do not comprehend it fully, said Sangay.
“According to a survey by the Planning Commission four or five years ago, only 51% of Tibetans knew about the policy and 49% of the exile Tibetan people do not fully understand the policy”, said Sangay.
The Tibetan PM expressed his pleasure that the awareness levels and the popularity of this approach have grown over the years but that the policy conceived by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1974 needs to be uniformly grasped and comprehended by the pan-Tibetan mass.
Sangay also unveiled a new mobile app for the Tibet TV online. A new and revitalized icon and user-friendly component bears multiple options such as news flash, press conference video footage and live streaming among other things, according to the App developer Jigme Tsering, who heads the DIIR’s Audio Visual Section.
Jigme said that the fast changing technological dynamics have resulted in the need to create the particular app. “Tibet.net’s 90% readership is accessed through mobile devices and since majority of the people own smart phones, the app with its multipurpose utility will serve any user,” said Jigme.
The free of charge mobile app has only been launched for Android based devices with the Apple ios format scheduled to be launched shortly.
