As Trump prepares to meet with Xi Jinping [11] at the White House, a small group of exiled Tibetans has departed from New York City for a cross-country march on Washington, to join a demonstration planned there against the Chinese dictator. The group departed Sept. 17 from the gates of the United Nations, where Lobga Rangzen [12], a longtime New York Tibetan activist, self-immolated [13] on July 2. After a stop at Philadelphia's Independence Hall—clearly chosen for its symbolic value—the "Independence Walk" will arrive in DC Sept. 24, the date of both the rally against Xi and the dinner honoring him at the White House (also to be attended by giants of the tech industry [14]).
Led by two Tibetan mothers, the group of 13 Tibetans also includes one Kalmyk, representing Europe's one Mongol indigenous minority people, who follow the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and have long faced persecution [15] in their homeland in Russia's Volga region. The Kalmyks are facing renewed [16] repression [16] at this moment, with some leaders broaching independence [17] from Russia. (The Tibet Post [18])
Lobga Rangzen's sacrifice and the growing demands for independence from the Tibetan diaspora are placing pressure of the Tibetan exile government in Dharmasala, India. The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile on Sept. 21 passed a resolution noting the quickly worsening [19] rights situation in Tibet, and reiterating support for the Middle Way Approach [20] long advanced by the Dalai Lama, which calls for meaningful Tibetan autonomy within the People's Republic of China. Three days earlier, however, the parliament voted down a bill named for Lobga Rangzen that called for demanding Tibet's full independence. After heated debate on crossing a line that the exiled Central Tibetan Administration [21] has resisted since its establishment [22], the measure was defeated by a vote of 23-to-15. (Tibetan Review [23], Tibetan Review [24])
Photos by Ella Krvova
