Tell China to stop attacks on Tibetans

How maddening to see yet another case of brutal repression of Buddhists in Asia. And yet how uplifting to see that the people of Tibet bravely continue to speak out for democracy and self-determination! The international activist group AVAAZ has started a petition to Chienese President Hu Jintao, calling for "restraint and respect for human rights" and supporting dialog with the Dalai Lama. Sign it now.

The Buddhist Peace Fellowship has issued a strong statement in solidarity of the people of Tibet. Here's an excerpt...

As hundreds of Buddhist monks and ordinary citizens take to the streets of Lhasa protesting Chinese occupation of Tibet, like their brothers & sisters in Burma last September, they have been met with beatings and bullets. Lhasa’s Drepung, Sera, and Ganden monasteries have been closed and surrounded by troops for the last three days. Yet the monks are undeterred, and continue to protest in Tibet’s cities wherever possible.

In solidarity with the people of Tibet, our brothers and sisters in dharma, we condemn the Chinese government’s suppression of peaceful demonstrations, the closing of monasteries, and the broad imposition of martial law. The violent response Chinese security forces only adds fuel to fires that they set many years ago.

The Chinese occupation, in place since 1951, continues throughout Tibet, amounting to de facto ethnic cleansing, destroying indigenous Tibetan culture by a massive Chinese population transfer and economic infiltration, backed up by the barrel of a gun. According to the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), “In Tibet's cities and fertile valleys, particularly in eastern Tibet, Chinese outnumber Tibetans by two and sometimes three to one.”