03 March 2008
Dalai Lama praises Lithang spirit
(Phayul) The Dalai Lama said the time was bound to come for the Tibetan issue to be resolved peacefully and praised the people of Lithang in Kham for their commitment to the cause of Tibet. He made a short speech during a long life ceremony (Tib: Tenshug) held in Dharamsala and led by the Lithang Tenshug Committee on behalf of people from Lithang, both inside and outside of Tibet. During the ceremony, Dr Lobsang Sangay, a Lithangpa by birth and a Tibetan scholar at the Harvard Law School, made a speech in which he called on Lithang people to maintain their nationalist spirit. Citing the cases of Trulku Tenzin Delek, Rongye Adrak and others from Lithang, he called on people to continue their struggle for Tibetan unity and freedom, and the Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet. Lithang, in Kardze (Chin: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP) is in the area that Tibetans traditionally refer to as Kham, which is spread between the TAR and Sichuan province. This area continues to be the most restive since the advent of Chinese rule over Tibet in the 1950s.