Rev. Danny Fisher

Richard Gere may have important company in his call for a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics if China continues to disrespect human rights in their response to the recent Tibetan protests. ABC News is reporting on comments made to the Bild am Sonntag newspaper in Germany by International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) vice-president Thomas Bach regarding the sentiments of some of the athletes. It turns out that a number of would-be Olympiads are actively concerned about what is occurring in Tibet.

…Bach says a number of top athletes are considering boycotting the games in China over the bloody crackdown on protesters in Tibet.

“Several sports stars are feeling ill at ease when they think about the Olympic Games. Some are even considering cancelling,” Mr Bach, of Germany, told Sunday’s edition of the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Bach expressed hope that the athletes would not boycott the games, saying he did not feel that the Olympics could be “a panacea.” This is an opinion shared by I.O.C. president Jacques Rogge as well.

I have thoughs about an Olympic boycott, but I’ll save them for a longer post. Keep your eyes peeled for that.

Here’s the latest on the situation in Tibet from the Associated Press:

Protests against Chinese rule of Tibet were reported in neighboring Sichuan and Qinghai provinces and also in western Gansu province. All are home to sizable Tibetan populations.

[...]

“Whether intentionally or unintentionally, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place,” said the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. He was referring to China’s policy of encouraging the ethnic Han majority to migrate to Tibet, restrictions on Buddhist temples and re-education programs for monks.

He told reporters in Dharmsala, the north Indian town where Tibet’s self-declared government-in-exile is based, that an international body should investigate the government’s crackdown on the Lhasa protests.

[...]

Thubten Samphel, a spokesman for the Dalai Lama’s government in exile, said multiple sources inside Tibet had counted at least 80 corpses since the violence broke out Friday. He did not know how many of the bodies were protesters. On Friday, the exiled government said at least 30 protesters had been killed by Chinese authorities and the number could be as high as 100.

The official Chinese Xinhua News Agency has said at least 10 civilians were burned to death Friday. The figures could not be independently verified because China restricts foreign media access to Tibet.

In Sichuan province, Tibetan monks and police clashed Sunday in Aba county after the monks staged a protest, said a resident there who refused to give his name. He said one policeman had been killed and three or four police vans had been set on fire.

The India-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy said at least seven people have been shot dead in the county. There was no way of immediately confirming the claim.

In Qinghai province, 100 monks defied a directive confining them to Rongwo Monastery in Tongren city by climbing a hill behind the monastery, where they set off fireworks and burned incense to protest the crackdown in Tibet.

Businesses were shuttered, and about 30 riot police with shields took up posts near the monastery. Police forced journalists to delete photographs of police.

In western Gansu province, more than 100 students protested at a university in Lanzhou, according to Matt Whitticase of London-based activist group Free Tibet.

A curfew was imposed in Xiahe city in Gansu province on Sunday, a day after police fired tear gas on a 1,000 protesters, including Buddhist monks and ordinary citizens, who had marched from the historic Labrang monastery.

Large communities of ethnic Tibetans live far outside modern Tibet in areas that were the Himalayan region’s eastern and northeastern provinces of Amdo and Kham until the communist takeover in 1951. Those areas were later split off by Beijing to become the Chinese province of Qinghai and part of Sichuan province.

Lhasa appeared to remain under a curfew on Sunday, though some people and cars were seen on the streets during daylight. The government has not announced the curfew but residents said authorities have warned them not to go outside for several days now.

Hong Kong Cable TV said about 200 military vehicles each carrying dozens of armed soldiers, drove into the center of Lhasa on Sunday. The footage showed mostly empty streets, but for armored and military vehicles patrolling and soldiers searching buildings.

Loudspeakers on the streets repeatedly broadcast slogans urging residents to “discern between enemies and friends, maintain order.”

Xinhua said most shops in the Old Town area of Lhasa, which saw the brunt of the violence, were still closed Sunday. It said some shops in other parts of the town had reopened.

Phil Ryan over at the Tricycle Editors’ Blog makes us aware of a sad development in Myanmar:

A monastery in Kyauktaw Township was set on fire after being bulldozed by army authorities because the abbot of the monastery was involved in the recent Saffron Revolution.

The 79-year-old abbot, Tilawka, told Narinjara News about the incident soon after he arrived in Bangladesh from Burma.

“The army authority set fire to my monastery after bulldozing it for two reasons. The first reason is that I was involved in the Saffron Revolution and the second reason is that I accepted four monks, who were also involved in the revolution, to take shelter in my monastery,” the abbot said.

The monastery that was razed was the Theik Thapon monastery in Theik Thapon Khami Village near the ancient Mahamuni temple in Kyauktaw Township, 80 miles north of Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State.

The abbot said, “We all escaped from arrest by the army as we received information early, before an army platoon reached our monastery. When they reached the monastery, they bulldozed it and set it on fire angrily because they could not arrest any monks from there.”

After the incident, the abbot left the area for Bangladesh to seek refuge. The monk’s journey to Bangladesh took nearly six months, and he luckily arrived on Bangladesh soil on 8 March, 2008.

“It was impossible for me to come here wearing my robes, so I came to Bangladesh dressed as a layperson, but Nasaka forces were looking for me at several monasteries in Maungdaw,” the monk said.

A local resident in Maungdaw said that the man who secretly ferried the monk to Bangladesh in his row boat, Bo Thein Dan, was arrested by authorities in Aung Bala ward of Maungdaw by authorities on 10 March.

Tilawka has been a monk for 13 years, and is now staying in Bangladesh to seek asylum with the UNHCR office in Dhaka.

Here’s a light but welcome break from all the distressing but important news: Leonard Cohen, one of American Buddhism’s favorite sons, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last week. (Mr. Cohen is pictured to the right on the cover of an old issue of the Shambhala Sun along with his teacher Kyozan Joshu Sasaki, Roshi.) Below are some snippets from the ceremony.

As an added bonus to this story, Mr. Cohen has just announced plans for a 2008 World Tour–his first in fifteen years. Find out more at his official website.