By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, July 11: The President of Tibetan government in exile (officially known as Central Tibetan Administration) Dr. Lobsang Sangay has denied claims by Chinese media that he raised the Tibetan national flag at Pangong Lake in Ladakh on July 5.
In a corrigendum issued today, Sangay said, “Despite much media speculation I didn’t hoist the Tibetan national flag at Pangong Lake. Upon my arrival at the lake, I saw the national flag unfurled at the premises of a local resident at Pangong and paid respect as you could infer from the pictures posted on CTA official sites.”
The CTA also provided a link to a video showing President Sangay only hoisting prayer flags.
Sonam Norbu Dagpo, Official CTA Spokesperson and Secretary of Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR) on July 9 was quoted by The Wire saying, ‘This is the first visit by the CTA president to Ladakh and, therefore, the first time that he offered prayers, hoisted the prayer flag and hoisted the national flag by himself at the lake.”
Correcting himself in the corrigendum, he said, “I would like to clarify that President Dr Lobsang Sangay visited Ladakh several times in the past but first time to the Pangong lake. He hoisted the Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags and offered prayers. I have mistakenly mentioned that President Dr Sangay hoisted the Tibetan flag. I made a wrong speculation going by the pictures on CTA official news sites. Therefore I would like to retract my statement.”
The Chinese state-run English daily, The Global Times, had criticized the hoisting of Tibetan national flag at the Pangong Lake and also questioned the timing of it given the border tension between India and China at Doklam region.
