Official Remembrance Resolution of Mourning and Esteem
Preamble
“Welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama back in Tibet! We demand freedom and human rights for the Tibetan people!” These are the two main slogans being raised by the heroic, patriotically inspired men and women of Tibet. A section of these Tibetans have also shouted calls for independence for Tibet and invoked Tibetan nationhood as they set themselves on fire for the sake of the fundamental cause of Tibet and the Tibetan people. Since 27 February 2009, beginning with the protest action of Tabey-la, a 27-year-old monk in Ngaba County, until 27 August 2015, a total of 142 such patriotically inspired heroic Tibetan men and women have set themselves on fire. And cumulative official remembrance resolutions of mourning and esteem have been passed by this parliament over its past 10 sessions. Such protest actions for the sake of religious and political freedom have continued unabated after that too. On 29 February 2016, Kalsang Wangdu, an 18-year-old monk of Tsokha Aryaling Monastery, located in Nyarong Dzong of Kham Kardze, carried out yet another such protest of self-immolation. This brought to 143 the clearly verified number of Tibetans, both from the religious orders and lay communities, who had set themselves on fire. Among them, 123 have died, while the situation concerning the fate of 20 others continue to remain unknown.
The government of China keeps spreading all sorts of canard in their propaganda outpouring both within China and in the outside world that the self-immolations in Tibet have been instigated by political and religious groups from outside the country. Apart from that, the government of China has been seeking to vilify through publicity and official remarks the heroic men and women of Tibet who have sacrificed their lives through protest self-immolations for the sake of the greater cause of their nation and people. In addition, it has been keeping the whole of Tibet in a state of preparedness for war and carrying out under it policies of ethnic discrimination, economic marginalization, false criminal prosecutions, colonial domination, environmental destruction and the like. To sum up, the government of China has been carrying out in Tibet policies which are patently designed to make it impossible for the Tibetan people to continue to remain in their own land and to transform the land of the Tibetan people into one overwhelmed by Chinese people. It is because of such policies that the situation in Tibet today continues to be such that it is impossible to get any complete information about the number of Tibetans throughout the land who have been falsely charged with crimes and executed, the number of those who remain under detention or who have been arrested, the number of those who have been given jail sentences, the number of those are still being tortured and in what manners of brutality, and so on. Apart from those who have sacrificed their all, including their very lives, for the sake of the fundamental basis of the Tibetan religious traditions, nationhood and people, there have been numerous cases of heroic Tibetan men and women of patriotic fervour, like in the case of Tulku Delek Rinpoche, who have died in prison, who have been subjected to secret courses of execution by the government of China. In the history of the Tibetan struggle, it will be hard to forget the contributions made by these patriotically inspired heroic Tibetan men and women for as long as this aeon endures, for they will remain a thousand-ray glowing chapter in that history. It is therefore only fitting that on this occasion we adopt a remembrance resolution of mourning and esteem for them.
Resolution
The Tibetan Parliament in Exile expresses heartfelt admiration for the patriotically inspired heroic men and women of Tibet for their deeds. We fervently pray that whatever causes for sinful conducts they may have fallen to accumulated over their past many lives will get dispelled; that coursing through the stages of the Four Great Wheels of the perfect path, they may speedily reach salvation and attain enlightenment. May those who have suffered immolation burn injuries, other types of injuries, and those who remain incarcerated in Chinese detention centres and prisons after having been detained or arrested, as the case may be, gain speedy release. On that basis, the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile expresses solidarity and oneness of feeling with those who have died or those who have survived and expresses condolences to their surviving family members and relatives. May, as wished by the heroic Tibetan men and women, whether alive or no more, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual lord of the Three Realms, be able to set foot back on his snowy homeland of Tibet in good health and freedom. May the sun of freedom rise in all speediness and urgency over the Tibetan people in Tibet and in exile. We utter these prayers with utmost vigour and urgency to the oceans of victorious beings of the Three Precious Jewels.
Adopted unanimously by the Tibetan Parliament in Exile on 22nd March, 2016.
The above resolution was adopted unanimously by the 15th Tibetan Parliament in Exile at its 11th session on 22nd March, 2016
* In case of any unintended discrepancy between this translation and its original Tibetan text, the latter should be treated as authoritative and final.
