On 14 December, I took part in the celebrations held at the Ghe Pel Ling Center, the Institute for Tibetan Buddhist Studies in Milan, marking International Human Rights Day and the anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Dalai Lama in 1989. It was an opportunity to meet the Tibetan Community in Italy and its President, Tsering Namgyal, to whom I conveyed the greetings of Sen. Giulio Terzi President of the Global Committee for the Rule of Law “Marco Pannella”. Roberto Rampi, former Senator and Honorary member of the GCRL, also joined the visit.
It was also a great privilege to meet Master Thamthog Rinpoche, the spiritual guide of Ghe Pel Ling and, since 2009, Abbot of the Namgyal Monastery in Dharamsala, India. The Monastery is located opposite the Dalai Lama’s residence and serves as the seat of his teachings. I had the honor to donate to him my book on Marco Pannella, “Una libertà felice” (A Happy Freedom).
During the meeting, I reiterated our support for the Tibetan people and the Tibetan diaspora in the face of the ongoing abuses committed by the Chinese authorities—abuses that have taken on an even more pervasive turn under Xi Jinping. In recent years, the indoctrination affecting thousands of Tibetan children forcibly enrolled in “boarding schools,” where only Mandarin is taught, has become increasingly destructive of TIbetan identity. The disastrous environmental impact of infrastructure development, particularly the construction of dams on the Tibetan Plateau, is another source of devastation that the Tibetan people is speaking out against. Finally, the process of the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation is facing dangerous interferences from Beijing as Chinese authorities claim that the successor must be acceptable to the officially atheist People’s Republic of China.
Matteo Angioli