by Louisa Lim February 22, 2012

Wednesday marks the traditional Tibetan New Year, but many Tibetans won't be celebrating. They'll be mourning the almost two-dozen people who set themselves on fire in the past year as a protest against Chinese rule. Eyewitnesses say the town of Aba, site of many of the self-immolations, resembles a Chinese military camp, with soldiers and riot police every few feet. NPR's Louisa Lim traveled elsewhere on the Tibetan plateau to cover the story and sent this dispatch.

By Moni Basu, CNN, 22 February 2012
 
Wednesday marks Losar, or the Tibetan New Year, but there will be no music, chanting, spectacular costumes or pageantry this year. Instead, Tibetans across the world plan to observe Losar with the solemnity their government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India, has proclaimed it deserves.
 
Lobsang Sangay, the Tibetan prime minister-in-exile, issued a statement asking Tibetans to refrain from celebration.

From Sara Sidner, CNN, February 22, 2012
 
On the Nepal-China border (CNN) -- The smell of incense burning and the sound of deep-throated chants greet you at the gate of one of Kathmandu's massive stupas, a Buddhist holy place where Tibetans gather to pray. For decades, Nepal has been a safe haven for Tibetans who escape China. But Tibetan activists say their people's peaceful existence here is being disturbed because of China's growing influence in Nepal.

Saturday 25 February 2012

André Alexander, who has died aged 47, was the leading figure in the effort to preserve the old city of Lhasa in Tibet.
 
He was born André Teichman on January 17 1965 in Berlin, where his background did little to suggest a future as a scholar. His father was a chimney sweep, while his mother had until her marriage been a hairdresser; although André studied History and then Architecture at university in the city, he did not complete his studies. Instead he was more interested in comic books, and even hoped to become a comic book artist himself. A favourite character was the sailor Corto Maltese, and throughout his life André dressed like a cross between a naval captain and a flower-shirted hippy.

Sign the petition at https://secure.avaaz.org/en/save_tibetan_lives/ To Presidents Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy, Prime Ministers David Cameron, Julia Gillard and Manmohan Singh, and EU Commissioner Catherine Ashton:
 
A rising number of Tibetans are taking their lives through self immolation in a desperate cry to the world to stop the escalating Chinese crackdown. As shocked citizens, we call on you to urgently send an independent high-level mission to the area and to speak out against the ongoing repression. Only coordinated and swift diplomatic action can stop this crisis.
 
682,183 have signed [by 25 Feb., ed.]. Help us get to 1,000,000

Distr.: General: 16 February 2010

Summary

In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief gives an account of communications transmitted by her between 1 December 2008 and 30 November 2009. The report also contains summaries of the replies received from Governments by 8 February 2010 and observations of the Special Rapporteur where considered appropriate.

Date: 11/01/2011 09:25AM
 
GENEVA (1 November 2011) – A group of United Nations independent experts voiced grave concern over reports of heavy security measures, in and around the area of the Tibetan Buddhist Kirti monastery - which houses some 2,500 monks- and other monasteries in Aba County, an area of Sichuan province with many ethnic Tibetans in south-west China.