IMPATIENT with his path of peace - Tibet protesters

THEY want action, not diplomacy.

The Dalai Lama wants to resolve the dispute through 'dialogue' with China.
They want independence, not autonomy.

While their revered leader, the Dalai Lama, urges Tibetans to take the pacifist approach to resolve problems in their homeland, the angry faces of Buddhist monks and nuns who have marched up the steep paths of Dharamsala in recent days showed that they had other plans.

The exiles succeeded in grabbing some global attention as the world's eyes are trained on China ahead of the Olympics.

But they didn't expect their protests to spread into Tibet and so violently at that. Now they're scrambling to react.

The Dalai Lama, 72, has said he will resign as their leader if violence in Tibet spirals out of control.

'Whether we like it or not, we have to live together side by side,' said the Dalai Lama, clearly troubled that much of last week's violence appeared to have been committed by Tibetans.
'We must oppose Chinese policy but not the Chinese. Not on a racist basis.'

But his urging Tibetans to work with the Chinese stood in stark contrast to the 'Free Tibet' chants of thousands of Tibetan youths.

Said Tibetan Youth Congress head Tsewang Rigzin: 'I appeal to the protesters in Tibet to continue in their protests until China gets out of Tibet.'

The younger activists believe the Dalai Lama is squandering a golden opportunity by not opposing China hosting the Olympics.

As the first march got under way in India last week, monks began holding peaceful protests in Lhasa, Tibet's capital.

But the protests soon spread and turned violent, with Tibetans attacking China's majority ethnic Han Chinese.

Beijing has encouraged the Han to settle in Tibet, where they are deeply resented.

China said rioters killed 13 'innocent civilians' in Lhasa last Friday.

And Tibet's prime minister-in-exile said on Monday that about 100 people had been killed in China's crackdown.

The Dalai Lama says that he understands young people's frustrations and that disagreements are proof that the democratic values he has pushed for among Tibetans have taken root.

But he insists his path is the only one that can save Tibet from 'cultural genocide' in the face of massive Chinese migration and religious restrictions. 'Our only strengths are justice and truth,' he said. 'Force is immediate, but the effects of truth sometimes take longer.'

As Ms B Tsering, head of the Tibetan Women's Association, told The New York Times: 'We are not all holy, spiritual people, we are just ordinary folks.

'We are not all like the Dalai Lama. He genuinely and sincerely believes in non-violence, but sometimes the ordinary people get frustrated and angry.'

From the look of it, the whole thing is well planned but when it turned violent then it has defected it's main purpose. These protesters should blamed themselves for the screwed-up.
They should have known that their actions are encouraged by the westerners hoping to discredit China....and now back-fired on the Dalai Lama himself. Even the Dalai Lama....should have known the violent will happened. He is supposed to be a god-king! So....he also cannot escaped the blame too. For those protesters in other countries....guessed they have abused the trust of those countries and they should be sent back to China for causing trouble.

It is always sad to see people killing or get killed in the name of religion. We are now living in 2008 but seem like there are always people out there encouraging some weak-minded people to do their deeds. Plain stupid....if you asked me.