Tibet Watch

23/12/2025

In a historic moment, monastic scholars displayed the energy of traditional Tibetan debate as they debated scientific topics for the first time in front of the Dalai Lama at Drepung monastery in South India.

The first ever debate on 18 December by scholars from the Tenzin Gyatso Science Scholars Programme involved topics of neuroscience, physics and scientific methodology.

With a lifelong interest in science, the Dalai Lama has engaged in dialogues for decades that explore the intersections and distinctions between academic science and the enduring wisdom traditions of India and Tibet.

His Holiness advocates integrating modern science with Buddhist philosophy, believing both seek truth and can benefit humanity, particularly in understanding consciousness, ethics, and achieving inner peace through mental training. While he sees science as crucial for improving life, the Dalai Lama also notes its limits in addressing inner well-being. Since he arrived in exile in India, he has encouraged monks to study science, even accepting scientific findings that contradict Buddhist scripture to foster a more holistic worldview.

Images by Tenzin Choejor for dalailama.com

22/12/2025

14 December, the 25th day of the 10th month in the Tibetan calendar, is a sacred day in Tibet, marking the passing of the great master Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetans gather to light butter lamps in the darkness.

But the Chinese authorities have turned a spiritual occasion into a heavily securitized moment of heightened alert, where “every blade of grass is treated like an enemy soldier”, according to one Tibetan observer.

But even the presence of armed special forces and masked ranks of military police around the holy Jokhang did not prevent Tibetans from their traditional kora around the temple in the heart of Lhasa.

Images from Tibet posted by Sakar Tashi.

05/12/2025

- This was the question considered at our workshop with Gabriel Lafitte, Free Tibet and V-TAG UK last week.

Why does Tibet matter to the global climate crisis? More than you might think.

Presenting new analysis, Gabriel Lafitte demonstrated how Tibet is central to China’s long-term ambition to dominate green technology, AI, and global supply chains. He introduced the term ‘electrostate’ to describe China’s industrial model, where strategic leadership depends on access to vast energy and mineral sources - many of which are located in Tibet.

⚡ Massive hydropower projects are displacing Tibetan communities on an unprecedented scale
🔋 Tibet's lithium—essential for electric vehicle batteries—is being extracted to fuel China's EV industry, with minimal benefit to local populations
☀️ Solar and wind installations are spreading across the landscape as part of China's "electrostate" strategy
🚄 New rail corridors are designed to ‘lock’ Tibet irreversibly into China's industrial economy

In an overlooked crisis: Tibetan permafrost is thawing. This frozen ground contains organic material that releases methane and CO₂ when disturbed—yet these emissions aren't even included in China's climate reports to the UN.

As Lafitte explains, China isn't just extracting resources. It's pursuing 'green colonialism' - environmental projects presented as modernisation, but resulting in massive displacement, loss of traditional livelihoods, and ecological damage.

The bottom line: Tibet isn't just a human rights issue. It's central to global climate policy, green technology supply chains, and the future of AI and industrial development.

How China treats Tibet's land and resources has implications far beyond the plateau—for all of us.

🔗 Read Gabriel Lafitte's full analysis: https://rukor.org/economic-assimilation-of-tibet/

11/11/2025

China is weaponising sacred Buddhist rituals for political control. In October, Beijing's appointed Panchen Lama led a four-day Kalachakra empowerment at Tashi Lhunpo monastery - one of Tibetan Buddhism's most sacred ceremonies.

A new Tibet Watch report explains the significance: https://tibetwatch.org/setting-a-religious-trap/

The carefully choreographed event at Tashi Lhunpo monastery, the seat of the Panchen Lama’s incarnation line, is a deliberate step in China’s decades-long campaign to seize control of Tibetan Buddhism’s unique tradition of reincarnation, including the Dalai Lama’s, and erode Tibetan Buddhism through its policy of ‘Sinicisation.’

China has intensified its campaign to eliminate the Dalai Lama’s influence in Tibet, regarding control over his succession as a ‘protracted war’ crucial to maintaining its grip on a strategically vital region.

By requiring prominent lamas and monks from across the Tibetan plateau to attend and receive this empowerment, China is aiming to confer credibility on a state-imposed religious leader, and to forge teacher-student bonds that could prove instrumental in future when China attempts to install its chosen candidate as an imposter 15th Dalai Lama.

“China is setting a religious trap,” a Tibetan monk told us. “These sacred teachings create unbreakable bonds between master and student in Tibetan Buddhism. Beijing is forcing this ceremony now so that when they install their hand-picked Dalai Lama, Tibet’s religious leaders will be bound by their own spiritual commitments to remain silent.”

Even so, three decades after installing Gyaltsen Norbu as Panchen Lama - while the Dalai Lama's recognized candidate remains disappeared - Beijing still cannot manufacture what matters most: genuine spiritual authority. Tibetans at Tashi Lhunpo still pray to the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989.

On 9-12 October, Gyaltsen Norbu, Beijing’s appointed 11th Panchen Lama, led a four-day Kalachakra empowerment - one of the most sacred initiations in Tibetan Buddhist practice - at Tashi Lhunpo monastery in Shigatse.

17/10/2025

There are renewed concerns for the welfare of Gonpo Tsering, head of Yena Monastery in Shiba Village, Tibet, who is in critical condition in hospital following torture.

Gonpo was arrested after his involvement in peaceful protests against the construction of a major hydropower dam in Derge (Dege), Tibet, which threatens to submerge ancient Buddhist monasteries in the upper reaches of the Drichu or Yangtze river.

Gonpo was tortured in custody so severely that he is now unable to speak or swallow food, faces breathing difficulties, has lost his sight, and suffers from brain injuries, Tibet Watch has learnt. He is currently in emergency care in a hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan.

Concern for Gonpo Tsering was raised with the UN working group on arbitrary detention on 16 September 2025 following a Tibet Watch report.

Read more here:

UN raises concerns over the torture of Gonpo Tsering, and asks China to account for imprisonment and maltreatment of teenage protester Namkyi.

09/10/2025

“Supporting Tibetans is not just about speaking out for them, but also about fighting for a path to freedom for ourselves.” - Zhang Yadi

22-year-old Chinese international student Zhang Yadi has been arrested in China and may now face criminal charges for “inciting others to split the country and undermine national unity.”

The imprisonment of Zhang Yadi, who had been studying in Paris and was due to start a degree in London this September, highlights the vulnerability of Chinese international students to transnational repression.

Her arrest follows a pattern of Chinese authorities systematically targeting Han Chinese citizens for showing support for Tibetan rights.

Read the full Tibet Watch report:

Zhang Yadi (known online as Tara .Freesoul), has been incommunicado for 50 days inside China, and is feared to have been detained by state security authorities.