DHARAMSHALA: CTA President Dr Lobsang Sangay accompanied by Finance Kalon Karma Yeshi and Health Kalon Choekyong Wangchuk released the ‘Thank you India’ music video at a press conference today at the Kashag Secretariat.
The ‘Thank You India’ music video is performed and produced by artistes of the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) to commemorate the 60th year of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s arrival in India and thank India for their hospitality and assistance.
The press conference also saw the launch of three sets of books published by the Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR). The books are (1) India and Tibet: Ancient ties-Current bonds, (2) Indo-Tibetan Relations: Shared Heritage, Shared Culture in Tibetan & English and (3) a Photo Journal titled “Kalachakra 2017”.
Responding to questions at the press conference, CTA President Dr Lobsang Sangay explained the reasons for organising the ‘Thank You India 2018’, the issue surrounding the Indian government’s recent circular regarding the event and the yearlong events that has been lined up to mark the ‘Thank You India’ campaign.
“The government and people of India have done the most for Tibet. Every year, in all the formal and non-formal events, we Tibetans always say thank you India. I think it’s important that we should also demonstrate our gratitude in deeds,” he said.
“His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls himself a ‘son of India’. So, we should be saying thank you a lot. Even among friends, family or couples, it’s good to say thank you to your wife, husband, parents or friends from time to time. That will make our lives better. Moreover, our relationship with India is like parent and children. Therefore, we want to thank India,” he explained.
Regarding the circular issued by the Indian government on the event, Dr Sangay said that the CTA’s stand on India has always been consistent. “Whatever we do, we don’t want to cause inconvenience to our hosts or to the persons who want to meet us. They may have particular reasons as to why these coming months are sensitive. So, we completely understand and respect that. There is no disappointment at all but rather an understanding of the situation,” he said.
President Dr Lobsang Sangay also spoke about the yearlong events lined up as part of the campaign such as a mass tree plantation drive to a support a green India movement, participating in Yoga day events organised by Government of India, distribution of foods to the hungry and homeless, a mass cleanliness drive to observe the Indian government’s Swachh Bharat initiative and distribution of blankets and warm clothes to the homeless in winter.
“The Kalons as well as members of the Tibetan Parliament will visit the various states of India to meet local leaders to say thank you as part of this yearlong campaign,” he said.
Responding to a question about Indo-Tibetan relations and expectations from the Indian government, President Dr Sangay said that there is no change in India’s policy towards Tibet.
“We have been here for over 60 years. The last 60 years has been good and India has been a great host. Hence, our relationship has been like a parent and child. Sometimes, parents have certain situations, which the children have to understand. And we respect that. We have no complaints. Therefore, whatever happens in the next few months, it is for certain that nothing will take place that will be a drastic change from the last 60 years,” he said.
“For the last 60 years, the overall relationship has been very good. India has been a great host and that will remain so. About that, we are very confident,” he said.
Acknowledging the growing Chinese pressure on global leaders on the Tibet issue, Dr Sangay said: “Wherever I go, be it Europe, the US, the pressure is increasing.”
“At the same time, there is a buyer’s remorse happening. If you look at Australia, it has leaned towards Asia with China as the pivot a decade or so ago. Now, the ruling party in Australia has proposed a bill, which was passed by the parliament, to prevent foreign interference in domestic affairs and China is the prime target of the bill,” he added.
“So, it’s true that pressure is there in almost all the places I go. There is a different kind of pressure coming. But at the same time, there is a different kind of response too coming from different countries. So, nothing will happen in the next few months that we haven’t seen in the last 60 years,” he explained.
Dr Sangay also talked about China’s strategic encirclement of India known as ‘the string of pearls’ from Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Burma, and Pakistan to Nepal, Bangladesh, and Maldives etc. “The geopolitics of South Asia has been changed after the occupation of Tibet by China. If you want stability in South Asia, Tibet is the test for China and South Asia and the whole world,” he asserted, and declared that India should make Tibet a core issue for India.
Addressing the concerns borne out of the recent circular of the Indian government regarding the event, Dr Sangay said: “As I have stated in the parliament, I visited Delhi to meet the officials as soon as it happened.”
“During the meetings, we had an in-depth discussion. So, I can clearly say that there is no structural departure from past policy on Tibet or His Holiness the Dalai Lama as far as the Indian government is concerned,” he stated.
“We are confident that the official event on 31 March will be a grand success. So, there is no need to worry. India’s position on Tibet is unchanged,” he added.
Thank You India, the land of Aryas
The sacred treasure of knowledge
that brightens the whole world
The ancient accomplished scholars
that enlightens and enhances the real beauty
This is none other than the great India
The true and earnest chelas
People from the land of snows
Offer profound salutations
for the kindness and benevolence
of its noble teacher, the great India
India, you have nurtured us with your profound love and care
You have helped us protect and promote our identity, our unique culture
Dear India, you have blessed us with a second life
Land, surrounded by chains of snowcapped mountains
And, the great land of rich ancient knowledge
Cherishing thousand years of treasured bonds
With shared culture, knowledge and script
Both bright and beautiful
This is Guru India and Chela Tibet
Numerous scholar translators of Tibet
Composed scripts and grammar
Translated teachings and made commentaries on the great works of Buddha
Studied under the accomplished scholars of Nalanda and Vikramashila
People of the snow land with gifted scholar translators
Extend its heartfelt gratitude and respect
Thanks to the excellent efforts of the translators
India & Tibet could transmit and flourish
The ancient thoughts and studies of Nalanda
Bestowed the world with Summum Bonnum of Humanity
Tribute to the ancient ties and current bonds of the land of aryas and land of snow
India, you are the unifying force and mother of peace
You excel with no fear to act in peaceful as well as aggressive situations
The peaceful and spiritual land annexed
and invaded by the People’s Liberation Army of China
However, it is India that sheltered the people of the snowland
Helped survive and sustain its livelihood and promote its culture
India, you have helped maintain our cultural identity
Facilitated us with schools to teach our children
Universities to impart higher traditional learnings
Livelihood to live with happiness and dignity
Lying on your lap for sixty years and beyond
Our feelings of gratitude are deep and strong
Have no words to thank you enough
Thank you very much dear Indian brothers and sisters
We bow to you and your great-heartedness
Beautiful landscape, jewel of the world
Incomparable India, Incredible India
We prostrate to you innumerable times
Thank you the great land of Aryas
Thank you India.
གཞས་ཚིག
ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེའོ་འཕགས་པའི་ཡུལ།
འཛམ་གླིང་ཤེས་རིག་འོད་ཟེར་གང་ནས་ལེགས་པར་འཚེར།
རིག་བྱེད་དང་ནི་སྔོན་རབས་བདེན་པའི་མེ་ཏོག་བཞད།
ལྷག་པར་མཛེས་པའི་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་འདི་ཉིད་གོ་ལའི་ཕུད།
འདི་འདྲའི་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་འཛམ་གླིང་འདི་ན་རྒྱ་གར་ཙམ།
དོན་དམ་སློབ་མར་གྱུར་བའི་གངས་ལྗོངས་བོད་མི་ཚོས།
བཀའ་དྲིན་ཟླ་མེད་སློབ་དཔོན་འཕགས་པའི་ཡུལ་ལ་གུས་ཕྱག་འབུལ།
བདག་ཅག་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་བརྩེ་བས་བསྐྱངས་པའི་སྐྱེད་མོས་ཚལ།
རང་གི་ངོ་བོ་མི་བརླག་འཚོ་བ་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་དྲིན།
འགྲོ་བའི་དཔལ་ཡོན་སྐྱོང་བའི་མགོན་སྐྱབས་ཁྱེད་ཉིད་ཀྱིས།
འཛམ་གླིང་ཡང་ཐོག་བདག་ཚོར་ཚེ་སྲོག་གཉིས་པ་བྱིན།
ཁ་བའི་འདབ་མ་བྱུར་བུར་སྤུངས་པའི་རི་རྒྱལ་བཞིན།
རིག་པའི་གནས་ཀྱིས་རབ་ཏུ་ཕྱུག་པའི་འཕགས་ཡུལ་དང་།
བོད་ཡུལ་དབར་གྱི་མི་ལོ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་དུ་མའི་མཛའ་འབྲེལ་མཚར།
འཕགས་བོད་ཆོས་དང་རིག་གཞུང་སྐད་ཡིག་ལེགས་བྱང་སོགས།
མཚར་སྡུག་གཟུགས་བརྙན་ཇི་དབྱེར་མེད་རྣམ་པར་བཀྲ།
འདི་ལྟའི་རིན་བྲལ་འབྲེལ་བ་སྲིད་ན་མེད།
གྲངས་ལས་འདས་པའི་བོད་ཀྱི་ལོ་ཙྭ་གོང་མ་ཚོས།
ཚངས་པའི་ཡི་གེའི་གཟུགས་དང་མངོན་བརྗོད་འཆི་མེད་མཛོད།
ལེགས་སྦྱར་བརྡ་སྤྲོད་ཀ་ཙན་དབྱངས་གསུམ་མཐར་ཕྱིན་ནས།
བཀའ་དང་བསྟན་བཅོས་ལ་སོགས་བོད་ཀྱི་སྐད་དུ་སྒྱུར།
རྣམ་ནོན་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་དང་ནི་ནཱལཾདཱ་ཡི་ལྟེ་གནས་སུ།
མཁན་སློབ་ཇོ་གསུམ་ཞབས་ལ་བཏུད་ནས་ཐོས་བསམ་མཛད།
སྒྲ་སྒྱུར་ལོ་ཙྭ་མང་པོས་ཕྱུག་པའི་གངས་ལྗོངས་པས།
འཕགས་པའི་ཡུལ་ལ་བརྒྱ་ཕྲག་ཕྱག་དང་གུས་པས་འདུད།
ལོ་ཙྭའི་དྲིན་ལས་འཕགས་བོད་རིག་གནས་དཔལ་ཡོན་མཐུད།
པཎ་གྲུབ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཞབས་ལ་སྒོ་གསུམ་གུས་ཕྱག་འཚལ།
གོ་ལའི་ཁྱོན་ལ་ངེས་ལེགས་ལམ་གྱི་རེ་ཁ་གཏོད།
འཕགས་པའི་ཡུལ་དང་བོད་ཀྱི་མཛའ་འབྲེལ་ངོ་མཚར་ཆེ།
ཁྱེད་ནི་གོ་ལ་ཁྱིམ་གཅིག་འཛིན་པའི་ཞི་བདེའི་མ།
ཞི་དྲག་ལས་ཀྱི་གནས་ལ་མཁས་ཤིང་འཇིགས་པ་བྲལ།
ཆོས་ལྡན་བྷོ་ཊའི་ལྗོངས་སུ་རྒྱ་དམར་དཔུང་འཛུལ་གྱིས།
ས་མཐར་གྱར་བའི་བོད་མིར་སྐྱབས་བྱིན་སློབ་དཔོན་མཆོག
དོན་དམ་འགྲོ་བའི་རིན་ཐང་སྐྱོབ་པོས་རྗེས་སུ་འཇུག
བོད་ཀྱི་དཔལ་ཡོན་ལེགས་བྱང་མི་ཚེའི་འགྲོ་ལུགས་བཅས།
ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་བསྐྱབས་ཤིང་མི་རིགས་རང་གི་ངོ་བོ་བྱིན།
ཕྲུ་གུར་ཤེས་ཡོན་མཐུན་རྐྱེན་སྦྱོར་བའི་སློབ་གྲྭ་དང།
ཆོས་རིག་ལེགས་བྱང་སྲུང་བའི་མཐོ་སློབ་གསར་འཛུགས་མཛད།
གཞི་རྩའི་འཚོ་བའི་མཐུན་རྐྱེན་རང་དགར་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས།
ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་པང་དུ་མི་ལོ་དྲུག་ཅུའི་འཚོ་བར་རོལ།
དྲིན་ཤེས་ཚོར་བ་ལྕི་ཡང་ལེགས་གསོའི་ཚིག་གིས་ཕོངས།
བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ་འོ་དྲིན་ཆེན་རྒྱ་གར་མི་མང་ཚོ།
ཁྱེད་ཚོའི་ཐུགས་དཀྱེལ་ཡངས་པའི་ནུས་པ་ཤེས་བཞིན་གུས།
མཛེས་སྡུག་ལྡན་པའི་ཡུལ་འདི་གོ་ལའི་གཙུག་གི་རྒྱན།
སྲིད་ན་འདྲན་ཟླ་བྲལ་བ་རྒྱ་གར་འཕགས་པའི་ཡུལ།
རླབས་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཁྱེད་ལ་གུས་ཕྱག་གྲངས་མེད་འབུལ།
ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེའོ་བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེའོ་འཕགས་པའི་ཡུལ།
ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེའོ་བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེའོ་འཕགས་པའི་ཡུལ།