Exiled Tibetans place hopes in history
AS China shows no compromise and the Dalai Lama ages, the elected leader of Tibetans in exile is looking to history as he plans for the future.
Penpa Tsering was elected in 2021 as the second-ever leader, or sikyong, of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, part of a plan by the now 87-year-old Dalai Lama to pass the baton.
On a visit to Washington, Tsering met lawmakers about a bill that would recognize that Tibet - ruled with an iron fist by China since the 1950s - was historically an independent country and that its current status is ‘unresolved.’
‘We have adopted a different tactic to gain the right leverage,’ Tsering, who has spent his whole life in exile since his birth in 1967 in India, told AFP in an interview.
Tsering insists he is not seeking independence for Tibet, in line with the ‘Middle Way’ of the Dalai Lama.
But the Dalai Lama has also rejected Beijing’s longstanding demands to say that Tibet was historically part of China.
An independent Tibet, Tsering explained, would have been an occupied country when it formalized Chinese rule in 1951, making the agreement ‘null and void.’
‘We tell governments that if you keep repeating the statement that Tibet is part of People’s Republic of China, then you’re going against international law,’ Tsering said.
Tsering hoped more countries would follow the US on the historical position, and acknowledged it was ‘difficult’ to see a resumption soon of talks with China but did not give up hope.
‘As Buddhists we don’t believe in permanence. Change is the only constant,’ he said.