Chinese Tibet

For one of the world's most tenacious fighters, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is disarmingly serene. The manner is unprepossessing, almost self-effacing, as comfortable as the maroon monk's robe and lace-up oxfords he wears. The voice, rich and resonant, is given to laughter and bursts of Tibetan when the proper word is elusive in English. The cheekbones are high and sculpted, the smile as broad as the Tsangpo River that irrigates his arid, otherworldly homeland of Tibet.

A thousand miles separate this Tibetan city from the Chinese village where Fan Zhangbing was born. But you wouldn't know it during a stroll through his neighborhood. There are restaurants where Fan eats the spicy food of his native Sichuan province, and shops where he and the owners bargain in Sichuan-accented Chinese. He hangs out in bars frequented by other Chinese settlers and sings to karaoke machines blaring the latest Chinese pop tunes.

Sonam is a tall, handsome, 34-year-old taxi driver who worships both Buddha and Rambo, oblivious to any contradictions that might imply. Jigme is a 44-year-old carpenter, rebuilding a famous Buddhist monastery that was destroyed during China's 10-year Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution that sent rampaging Red Guards into the four corners of Tibet.

Sonam is a tall, handsome, 34-year-old taxi driver who worships both Buddha and Rambo, oblivious to any contradictions that might imply. Jigme is a 44-year-old carpenter, rebuilding a famous Buddhist monastery that was destroyed during China's 10-year Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution that sent rampaging Red Guards into the four corners of Tibet.

A thousand miles separate this Tibetan city from the Chinese village where Fan Zhangbing was born. But you wouldn't know it during a stroll through his neighborhood. There are restaurants where Fan eats the spicy food of his native Sichuan province, and shops where he and the owners bargain in Sichuan-accented Chinese. He hangs out in bars frequented by other Chinese settlers and sings to karaoke machines blaring the latest Chinese pop tunes.

India's tigers will vanish within a few years, environmentalists warned in a stinging indictment of the Indian and Chinese governments, which they say have done almost nothing to stem the rapid decline.

China condemned the Dalai Lama for declaring that a 6-year-old boy is the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second most important monk in Tibetan Buddhism. The official New China News Agency said the Dalai Lama's announcement Sunday of the discovery of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima in a remote corner of Chinese-controlled Tibet was a plot to undermine the Chinese government's authority there.

Authorities in India have ordered an investigation after teenage Tibetan leader Ugyen Thinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa, was accused of committing sacrilege at one of Buddhism's most revered sites. An influential leader of Buddhist monks alleged that the Karmapa, who fled Chinese-controlled Tibet in 1999, wore shoes in the sanctum of the Mahabodhi Temple in Bihar state. The Karmapa is one of the highest-ranking monks in Tibet. Hindu conventions bar devotees from entering temples wearing shoes.

In your coverage of the recent lifting of martial law in Beijing, China, you neglected to mention that martial law (harsher than what had existed in Beijing) is still in effect in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Along with martial law, Tibetans are also suffering with a system of pass laws--which even South Africa has abandoned. Martial law and the pass laws are beginning to psychologically scar Tibetan children and add to the general atmosphere of fear and repression. All of this goes on with little news coverage or public protest here.

Shame on Adam Minter and any other rich tourist who pretends that "Shangri-La" could exist in a land where peaceful Tibetan monks have lost their lives at the hands of the Chinese ("A View That Takes Your Breath Away," The Travel Issue, March 26). I weep for the beautiful woman on the cover of your magazine and for the "well-heeled explorers" whose exotic vacation has come with a terrible price for the Tibetan people. Until the Chinese free Tibet and allow the Dalai Lama to return to his homeland, rich people should spend their money elsewhere.

For one of the world's most tenacious fighters, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is disarmingly serene. The manner is unprepossessing, almost self-effacing, as comfortable as the maroon monk's robe and lace-up oxfords he wears. The voice, rich and resonant, is given to laughter and bursts of Tibetan when the proper word is elusive in English. The cheekbones are high and sculpted, the smile as broad as the Tsangpo River that irrigates his arid, otherworldly homeland of Tibet.

A 6-year-old boy in a remote corner of Chinese-controlled Tibet was designated Sunday as the reincarnation of the second most important monk in Tibetan Buddhism. Tibet's exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, announced that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima had been revealed as the reborn Panchen Lama and appealed to Chinese authorities to allow the boy to be trained as a senior monk. The announcement opens another potential quarrel between China and the Dalai Lama, who fled Chinese rule in Tibet in 1959.

The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Chinese-occupied Tibet, Friday received the first Congressional Human Rights Award and predicted that students fighting for democracy will prevail in China. The exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader received the award, named after Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, from two congressmen for his decades of efforts to end China's military occupation of Tibet.