The Secret Tibet (The Forbidden world)

The Tibet Post International-Access to IMDb.com - a user-generated movie review website - was blocked in China this week, thus adding yet another site to the fast-growing list of banned websites in China. Others banned sites include YouTube, FaceBook and Twitter, all of which are user-generated sites, but IMDb is the first from the movie business.

The site, fully named the Internet Movie Database, claims over 57 million visitors monthly. It can be accessed it English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, but, notably, not Chinese, which has industry insiders wondering why its been shut down since Wednesday, 6 Jan.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one Hollywood executive in Beijing asserted her disbelief of the censorship, particularly as she said her friends at the state-run China Film Group rely on IMDb all the time, reported The Hollywood Reporter.

Typically the government's censorship efforts stick to online pornography, violence and, of course, anything that supports the Tibetan freedom movement. And that latter reason may be the cause for this particular banning. The site turned up a full page of search results for inquiries such as "Dalai Lama" and "Rebiya Kadeer", two so-called separatists according to the occupying Chinese government. And the 2009 documentary, "The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet's Struggle for Freedom", has received 37 percent more hits than usual in the last couple weeks, likely due to the upset that happened at the Palm Springs International Film Festival when the China Film Group pulled its two movies so as to protest this documentary that depicts the Tibetan struggle.

But even now there's not a single comment under the "User Reviews" section regarding "The Sun Behind the Clouds", the turmoil at the film festival, the Tibetan movement, the Chinese government or anything at all, for that matter. But The Hollywood Reporter reports that "web watchers in China say that increasingly it's the potential to display offending user-generated content that matters." In other words, they're censoring prophylactically.

"China's censors are most interested in blocking sites with user-generated content and comments," said Jeremy Goldkorn to The Hollywood Reporter. Based in Beijing, Goldkorn faced similar problems with his own user-generated, media-watching website, which also was shut down in China just days before the bloody Xinjiang riots last year. Coincidence? Definitely not.

Likewise, FaceBook was cut off suddenly after the government caught on to the fact that it was being used to circulate Kadeer's message against Chinese oppression. YouTube and Twitter were censored for similar reasons: to restrain one from gaining an informed opinion that might stray from the government's official perspective.

www.tibetnewsonline.com-"Bodhgaya: Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama yesterday arrived in Bodhgaya, the holy site in Bihar where Buddha achieved enlightenment thousands of years ago. Today His Holiness began a five-day teaching as part of the seven-day Gelug Monlam, the biggest religious festival of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism.

His Holiness proceeded to the Tibetan Mahayana Institute called Gaden Phelgyeling Namgyal Monastery after stopping at the Mahabodhi temple, where he offered prayers inside the sanctum before moving to the Bodhi tree peepal, a direct descendant of the tree under which Gautama Buddha is said to have become enlightened about 2,500 years ago. His Holiness also inaugurated a multi-media museum, where he admired new stone carvings depicting Buddha's life in the Mahavihara premises.

The exiled Tibetan leader addressed more than 50,000 Buddhist devotees who had congregated in Bodh Gaya on the importance of pure sincerity, or morality, on the part of both preachers and listeners, rather than the desire for fame or self-benefit.   Among the 50,000 who have gathered in Bodh Gaya for the Tibetan monk's annual World Peace Lecture that began today, at least 1,000 — most of them between 20 and 40 — are from non-Buddhist countries like Australia, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain, England, Brazil and several African and Asian countries.

This afternoon, the Noble Peace Prize laureate lectured on the master Nagarjuna's “In Praise of the Transcendentall” (jigten ley depar toepa) and Atisha's “Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment” (jangchup lamdron). Over the next few days, he is scheduled to teach on Longchen Rinpoche's “Mind In Comfort and Ease”(semnyid nyelso) and Tsongkhapa's “Short Version of the Stages of the Path To Enlightenment” (lamrim dhuedhon). At the end of the five-day teaching, the Monlam organizing committee will perform a grand long-life prayer offering for His Holiness.

www.tibetnewsonline.com-"The 20th century belonged to science and technology. The present 21st century would belong to spirituality and nonviolence," Tibet's political and spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, told reporters yesterday.

His Holiness asserted that Jainism and Buddhism are at the forefront in promoting peace and nonviolence around the world. "Jainism and Buddhism are like twins who have brought along with them the message of one-ness and nonviolence for the world," he stated.

The exiled leader also visited a camp for the physically challenged, where over 25,000 disabled people are being treated free of cost. The "Mobility Camp", held in Palitana, began on 23 December and will continue till 9 January. His Holiness later visited the Jain temples in Palitana and interacted with Jain scholars.

"There can never be world peace until there is inner peace, so we have to first achieve that," said His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in a discussion with around 1000 Jain monks.

He added, "World peace can be achieved only if all the religions get together."

His Holiness will visit Gujarat again on 16 January, when he is scheduled to grace the International Buddhist Conference in Vadodara.

His Holiness today arrived in Bodhgaya, where he will give a five-day sermon. Over 50,000 people from all over the world are expected to assemble at Bodhgaya's Kalachakra ground to hear the discourse by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, IANS report stated.

Thousands of Tibetans, foreigners, and Chinese have already arrived in Bodhgaya from many international locations, including India, the US, Taiwan and European countries, to attend His Holiness's teachings.

The 1500 year-old Mahabodhi temple at Bodhgaya, 110 km from Patna, marks the legendary site where the Buddha attained enlightenment 2,550 years ago. It is considered the holiest of all Buddhist shrines.

The Tibet Post International-The Tibetan official who was seen as a leading director of the harsh crackdown against the 2008 March protests in Lhasa was today appointed the deputy party secretary of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR).

Pema Thinley, 58, was formerly the executive vice chairman of TAR before today’s promotion. The report, which came in from the China Daily on Thursday, said that Thinley was named the vice secretary of the Region’s Party committee.

Thinley’s appointment was perhaps predictable but controversial, nonetheless. His notoriety among Tibetans may have started after his involvement against the March 2008 protests, but it continued well into last year when, in April 2009 during the confrontation between Tibetan protesters and Chinese security forces at Markham, a group of angry Tibetans outright ignored Thinley’s efforts to negotiate. Security guards had to escort Thinley back to Lhasa so as to avoid conflict.

Now, as the defending demonstrators from the March 2008 protests are churning through the Chinese court systems, Thinley has been quoted as urging “the usage of law as a tool to strike back at the enemies” (Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy). But it seems the jury is still out as to which “enemy” Thinley is referring.