China Must Stop Sinicization of Tibetan Education

Imposition of Chinese language as medium of instruction in Tibetan schools in Tibet is going to be the last straw to break the Tibetans' patience. Chinese government is going too far in their sinister design to exterminate the Tibetan language and culture. When the 50 years of their brutal and oppressive rule failed to subjugate the Tibetans, they are now up with this dreadful policy to eradicate the very nerve and fabric of Tibetan identity that keeps the Tibetan united, resilient and peaceful.

When the free world is doing its best to preserve the dying culture and languages, China is trying to kill the language, which is not only the life and soul of the Tibetan civilization but also the indispensable medium that has kept the profound teaching of Buddha alive to this day.

Tibetan language is among the richest languages in the world. Tibetan epic, King Gesar of Ling [Ling gesar gyalpoi drung] is believed to be the longest written epic poem with 120 volume in more than one million lines and more than 20 million words. Indian mythological epic, Mahabarata, and Japanese Genji Monogatari by Murasaki Shikibi comes next to this Tibetan epic in terms of volumes. Richness of the language could be understood from the fact that it has 108 connotative words for 'sun' [nyima] and 36 for 'moon' [dawa].

It is also believed that per capita book written is highest in Tibet. The country had produced large number of Buddhist, Bon and lay literatures despite its sparse population.

Communist authority must be thinking that by destroying Tibetan language and religion they can assimilate the Tibetans into the Han majority culture; this is a very shortsighted and wrong vision. The world and the history will never forgive them if they commit this sacrilegious against Tibet, one of the respected ancient civilizations in the world.

I hope and pray that Chinese leadership listen to the demonstrating students and think twice before implementing such ominous crime against civilization.

A Fortuneteller's Tale

I saw an interesting, yet a funny news piece on television last time. This real life incident happened in Russia recently. A young unemployed man goes to consult a lady fortuneteller [a mystic], who seems to be quite popular in the neighborhood. The lady meticulously observes his hand with a magnifying glass, she also consult tarot cards. After sometime, she lifts her face, little surprised and dismayed too. She tells the young man that he needs to be careful about his conduct otherwise he will soon find himself behind the bar – a prison.

The young man gets angry and demands for further details as to how he would land into a prison. The lady tells him to calm down and says this "how" aspect could not be explained. The young man gets agitated and violent. He began to hit the lady and bang the tables and the things around. The clients waiting in line inform the police and the young man was taken in police custody. What an accurate foretelling!!

Japanese Numbers and Counting System

Japanese numbers have some similarity with Tibetan numbers. Except for number 6, 7 and 8 [roku, shichi and hachi,] sound of first ten basic digits and multiple of tens are almost same. But when it comes to counting the material objects, Japanese system is very complex compared to Tibetans'.

Japanese counting system is one of the most intricate aspects of Japanese language. Based on the shape of the material objects, the counting system differs. Objects that can be perceived in length are counted as ippon, nihon, sanbon, yonhon etc., flat items in ichmai, nimai, sanmai, etc. For small things, it is ikko, niko, sanko etc. Then you have ikken, niken, sanken for buildings and itto, nito, santo etc. for big objects. There are series of counting system based on what item you are counting.

What interested me was the whole number 4 and 7 in Japanese. First ten whole numbers are counted as; ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, kyu and ju. But they have yon and nana, which is equally used for shi and shichi. I usually use shi and shichi when counting. Many Japanese also do the same. But there are many who use yon and nana.

There is a Karate dojo in my neighborhood where some twenty to thirty people practice together every evening, the participants are required to count from one to ten, sometime to twenty in turn in a loud voice for each karate punch, kick and other techniques being practiced. I observed that 70 percent uses shi and shichi, while the remaining people use yon and nana. Now, interesting things is those who use yon for shi also uses nana for shichi. Likewise the people who use shi use shichi only. It is never mixed or crisscrossed.

I surmised that early schooling and the family environment might be behind this habit. Other possible reason for those using yon and nana may be that they wanted to avoid the sound shi, because the sound shi is associated with death. Many Japanese tends to avoid number four in their daily life. But this I find it very odd, because the sound 'shi' is also associated with teacher, poetry, city, title etc. Why be so particular about death!

I raised this riddle with my Japanese friends and acquaintances to dispel my dilemma. Some said they have not seriously thought about this. Some said, shi and shichi are onyomi [Chinese way of reading] and yon and nana kunyomi [Japanese way of reading]. Some said yon is for [ 四] when Japanese character is written and shi is for Arabic number 4. But there was no consensus among the people I inquired as to the public preference of shi for yon and shichi for nana or the vice versa. I think there is more to it.

Interesting Comment on Life

Here is an interesting comment on life by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Its funny and interesting, and very real. It says "Men work hard to amass wealth and in the process losses his health, but when he has enough wealth, he has lost his health. So he spent what has earned to regain the lost health. Man live and think of a long future, and fails to live the present. When they are on a death bed, they lament that they have never lived..."
To see the full comment, here is the blog link. It is in French, you will need to have the web translate it into English.
http://magnoug.blogspot.com/2009/12/on-demande-au-dalai-lama.html

China Needs to Open up

Tokyo: [Monday, 11 October 2010] His Holiness the Dalai Lama said that the Chinese leadership needs to accept the reality and open up. At a brief stop at Tokyo Narta on His way to schedules in US and Canada, His Holiness the Dalai Lama was interviewed by Japanese television NHK and Kyodo Tsushin . He said the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident, Mr. Liu Xiaobo is timely and appropraite. For full report visit :
http://www.tibet.net/en/index.php?id=1890.&articletype=flash&rmenuid=morenews&amps&tab=1#TabbedPanels1

Nobel Peace Prize for Liu Xiaobo

by Khawaripa Taro, [9th October 2010, Sat]

Tokyo: This year's Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese human right activist Liu Xiaobo is a clear message to Chinese communist party government that call for democracy and human right cannot be suppressed with brute force for long. China sees Liu as a criminal fit to remain shut in prison. While the World see him as a positive icon of peace, democracy and human right. This shows the real nature of the Communist regime, which had kept its people suppressed for so long.

The award has also opened the eyes of the Chinese people to the true color of the Communist government. When Dalai Lama of Tibet was awarded 1989 Nobel Peace Award, the Communist government denounced the award and instigated the Chinese people that it was a western nation's ploy to destabilize China, and that Dalai Lama was a separatist. Chinese people who had no source of information other than the government's believed it and condemned the award.

But this time it is different; the award was given to a Chinese who had sincerely fought for freedom, democracy and human right in China. Liu Xiaobo is well known to the Chinese public, he is their hero. Now that their hero is honored with the same Noble Peace Prize that Dalai Lama received twenty years ago, Chinese public has realized what the award really meant. I dawned on them how the Communist government deceived them for all these years. They are now more informed who the real 'separatist' is!!

Recent speech by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao extolling the principle of democracy and freedom of speech is really encouraging. Such positive change in the attitude of Chinese leadership is what is needed to achieve the goal of harmonious society of President Hu Jinatao. It is high time the Communist leadership realizes that they cannot go on suppressing the people's aspiration for freedom and democracy in the land. They should welcome and honor Dalai Lama and Liu Xiaobo to rebuild a prosperous China where the ideals of freedom and democracy is respected as enshrined in the Chinese constitution.

Media black out, suppressing the celebrating citizens and house arrest of Liu's wife; these kind of reactions will only tarnish the image of China abroad and hinder the progressive march to a prosperous democartic China.

Liu Xiaobo's "I have no enemies: my final statement"
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/china_law_prof_blog/2010/02/liu-xiaobo-i-have-no-enemies-my-final-statement.html

His Holliness the Dalai Lama's Message
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/china_law_prof_blog/2010/02/liu-xiaobo-i-have-no-enemies-my-final-statement.html

A Tibetan Writer Attends Tokyo International PEN Congress

Mr. Kunthar, a Tibetan writer and translator from Dharamsala, India attended the 76th International PEN Congress in Tokyo. [23rd - 30th September]. Around 600 writers from 128 countries attended the conference. The Theme of the conference was "The Environment and Literature - What can words do?"
For Full report click :
http://www.tibet.net/en/index.php?id=1866.&articletype=flash&rmenuid=morenews&amp&tab=1#TabbedPanels1