By Phuntsok Yangchen
DHARAMSHALA, August 13: The Tibetan Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay said that Tibetans in exile have a special responsibility — to fulfill the aspirations of Tibetan self-immolators who had called for “the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and freedom in exile”.
Addressing a convocation of monks at Kirti monastery based here in exile, he said that out of 130 Tibetans who have set themselves on fire in Tibet since 2009 in protest against China’s occupation and its hard-line policies, many were monks from Kirti monastery and Ngaba. “China’s policies of political and religious repression, economic marginalization, social discrimination, cultural assimilation and environmental destruction in Tibet are reasons for self-immolation protests in Tibet,” Sangay noted.
Sangay also appreciated the monks of Kirti monastery in collecting information on self-immolations and other incidents from inside Tibet despite the risk involved and sharing it with international media. The monastery had also published books on self-immolations in Tibetan, English and Chinese languages.
At a modest ceremony, Sangay presented thirty-one monks with Madhyamika (U-Ma), Paramita (Pharchin) and literature (Rigney) certificates and called on the graduate monks to work for the interest of the Tibetan community.
“As guided by His Holiness the Dalai Lama during his first visit at the monastery in 1996, of importance to revive the monastery as the situation in Tibet becomes more critical and be responsible in preservation of religion and Tibetan literature Kirti Monastery led by Kirti Rinpoche has continued to serve both Tibetans inside and outside Tibet,” said the Tibetan PM who earlier last week completed three years in office after winning the elections.
He also acknowledged Kirti Rinpoche’s contribution to Tibetan politics and religion. He said Kirti Rinpoche took the initiative of challenging the Chinese propaganda by travelling around the world to talk about Tibet and self-immolation protests.
Kirti monastery in Dharamshala was established in 1990 by the 11th Kirti Rinpoche Ronchen Tenpai Donmey.
