Beijing, China (CNN) -- China summoned the U.S. ambassador on Friday to express its "strong dissatisfaction" over the Dalai Lama's meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama a day earlier. China didn't disclose what was discussed during the session with Ambassador Jon Huntsman at the Foreign Ministry. But Beijing had warned that a meeting between the president and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader would damage its ties with Washington.

"The Chinese side expresses strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to this meeting," a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement after Thursday's meeting at the White House.

"China demands the U.S. seriously consider China's stance, immediately adopt measures to wipe out the adverse impact, [and] stop conniving and supporting anti-China separatist forces."

The U.S. Embassy didn't characterize Friday's meeting, but it provided the message Huntsman delivered to Deputy Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai.

"Now is the time to move forward and cooperate in ways that benefit our two counties, the region and the world," Huntsman said, according to the U.S. Embassy.

The meeting has the potential to further complicate Sino-U.S. tensions, which have been rising in recent months. The Dalai Lama has said he favors genuine autonomy for Tibetans, not independence for Tibet. Beijing regards the Nobel Peace Prize laureate as a separatist who wishes to sever Tibet from China.

Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama "runs against the repeated commitments by the U.S. government that the U.S. recognizes Tibet as part of China and gives no support to 'Tibet independence'," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said. During the meeting, Obama stressed his "strong support for the preservation of Tibet's unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity, and the protection of human rights for Tibetans," according to a White House statement. The president praised the Dalai Lama's "commitment to nonviolence and his pursuit of dialogue with the Chinese government," the statement added. He also stressed the importance of having both sides "engage in direct dialogue to resolve differences, and was pleased to hear about the recent resumption of talks," it noted.

The Dalai Lama, while acknowledging that he raised concerns about Tibet during the meeting, did not provide further specifics about his home region's political situation while addressing reporters. He said he admired America as a "champion of democracy and ... freedom," and cited the need to promote "religious harmony" and "human value."

He also met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The meeting between the Dalai Lama and Obama could "seriously undermine the Sino-U.S. political relations," Zhu Weiqun, a senior Communist Party leader in charge of ethnic and religious affairs, warned recently. "We will take corresponding action to make relevant countries see their mistakes."

On Thursday, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman said the meeting "grossly violated the norms governing ... international relations."

Obama did not meet with the Dalai Lama when the spiritual leader visited Washington last fall, making it the first time since 1991 that such a meeting did not occur. Ahead of a summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Obama persuaded Tibetan representatives back then to postpone the meeting with the Dalai Lama. Thursday's encounter took place against the backdrop of several contentious issues already threatening to sour the relationship between America and China, including trade disputes, a recent U.S. arm sales deal for Taiwan -- which China considers an illegitimate breakaway province -- and a censorship row over Internet search engine Google Inc.

The meeting is "another event in the recent, one has to say, downward spiral in U.S.-China relations," said China scholar David Shambaugh. It's also troublesome for the Chinese for one other important reason, Shambaugh said. "He could have met him as a spiritual leader in a neutral place like a church," he said. But receiving him in the White House "is a political act. And that is going to irritate China very much." The meeting did not take place in the formal, official setting of the Oval Office. It was instead held in the White House Map Room, which is considered part of the presidential residence. The choice of settings was considered by many observers to be a sign of Washington's acknowledgment of Beijing's political sensitivities.

Some analysts said the Chinese government could retaliate by cutting off political exchanges as they did after the Dalai Lama met with the heads of state of France and Germany. And Hu could turn down an invitation to visit Washington in April.

FROM: www.cnn.com

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/19/china.obama.dalai.lama/index.html?hpt=T2

Monday, December 14th, 2009

The Rowell Fund for Tibet announced today it was awarding $42,000 to 7 Tibetan grassroots organizations and projects. The Fund strives to support environmental, conservation and research projects as well as innovative aid work in India, Nepal and Tibet. Funding decisions are made by the Fund’s Advisory Board and it is managed by the International Campaign for Tibet.

This year’s application pool of over 67 applicants came from 10 different countries. The seven selected projects will receive grants ranging from $3,150 to $6,750. Four are led by women.

Much of this year’s grants were funded by a benefit climb of the Grand Teton in 2009 with world famous mountaineers Conrad Anker, David Breashears and Jimmy Chin.

Mountaineer Conrad Anker praised the fund, stating that “the RFT is a meaningful way to foster greater civil society activity particularly to help Tibet's environment. As funding is even more difficult from within Tibet, we need to support those dedicated to environmental and educational issues in Tibet as well.”

Some of this year’s grant recipients include:*

Tenzin Yangchen’s work with the Tibet Oral History Project to record and translate the personal histories of Tibetan elders in Tibetan settlements. ($6,570) www.tibetoralhistory.org
Yosay Wangdi’s academic research project constructing a portrait of early Tibetans on the Himalayan frontier. ($3,150)
Ju Amnyi Trulchung Rinpoche’s art and cultural education project for Tibetan nomads. ($5,715) www.vistaproject.org
Tsering Yangkey’s work with the Tesi Environmental Awareness Movement to set up 50 monastery Eco-TEAMS. ($6,750) www.ecotibet.org
*Not all projects have been listed due to their confidential nature.

The Fund is named after lifelong Tibet supporters, Galen and Barbara Rowell, who died in a plane crash in 2002. As avid mountaineers and outdoor photographers, Galen and Barbara Rowell helped bring Tibet and the Himalayas into the public eye. Their fund continues this legacy, providing small grants to Tibetan writers, academics, photographers, and conservationists. To learn more about Galen and Barbara Rowell and the background of the Rowell Fund, click here. (http://www.savetibet.org/support-tibet/donate-rowell-fund)

ICT and the Rowell Fund also wishes to congratulate last year's grant recipients, whose final written reports provided concrete evidence of impact the Rowell Fund continues to have among Tibetan communities. The advisory board, made up of friends and family of Galen & Barbara, is made up of John Ackerly, Conrad Anker, David Breashears, Jimmy Chin, Bob and Beth Cushman, John Jancik and Terri Baker, Bob Palais, Tony Rowell and Ray and Nicole Rowell Ryan. The Fund is managed by the International Campaign for Tibet.

China should see the Dalai Lama as "part of the solution" on Tibet instead of trying to isolate him, US President Barack Obama's top Asia adviser said.

Jeff Bader, senior director for Asia on the White House's National Security Council, told the Committee of 100, a Chinese-American group, that it should use its influence in Beijing to encourage a different view of the Dalai Lama.

"I hope that you will use that credibility and those relationships to help persuade Chinese officials that the Dalai Lama is not part of their problem but rather part of the solution to the situation in Tibet," Bader said.

Beijing brands the Dalai Lama a separatist and has stepped up pressure on world leaders, including Obama, not to meet with him. The Buddhist leader fled to India 50 years ago as China crushed an abortive uprising in Tibet.

The Dalai Lama, an advocate of non-violence, says he is only seeking greater rights for Tibetans under Chinese rule. The Nobel Peace laureate is currently touring the United States, but he does not plan to visit Washington.

Bader acknowledged that human rights have become an irritant in US-China relations -- "unsurprisingly, because China's human rights record, as we know, is poor."

But he said Obama believed the most effective way to persuade China was to lead by example, citing the president's decision to shut down the widely condemned "war on terror" detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"President Obama does not believe in lecturing. He believes in leading by example, not finger-pointing," Bader said.

Obama has called for a broader relationship with China that includes cooperation on pressing global issues such as climate change and the economic crisis. The US leader is due to visit China later this year.

"President Obama, with his unique gifts in communication and popularity, will be looking for ways to reach out to Chinese audiences and connect," Bader said.

Before his appointment, Bader served at the Brookings Institution think-tank where he led a project encouraging Chinese academics to make contact with the Dalai Lama. He said he was pleasantly surprised at the response.

"It suggested to me that there is an openness to discussion among non-official Chinese on this subject and I hope that one of these days officials will catch up," Bader said.

But Ken Lieberthal, who held Bader's position at the end of Bill Clinton's presidency, said there was a "total disconnect" between the way the US public and the Chinese government viewed the Dalai Lama.

"So long as the Chinese refuse to understand that to most of the world this is a revered religious figure -- someone who has extraordinary ethics and is deserving of great respect ... I don't see a good future here," Lieberthal told the same forum.

"Once he passes from the scene, if there has been no progress, I think the next generation of Tibetans have the possibility to be China's worst nightmare," he said.

The Dalai Lama, 73, has frequently said he wants to retire but has kept a frenetic travel schedule. His current visit to the United States has included serving food to the homeless in San Francisco and opening an ethics center named after him at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He is expected to return to the United States in October, when he hopes to meet with Obama.

Asked this week in Boston whether he expected to return to Tibet, the Dalai Lama said with a smile: "Oh yes, every Tibetan feels like that."

"If the leadership in Beijing thinks in a more wider way ... within a few days can solve," he said in English.

From: www.savetibet.org

30 March, 2009 International Campaign for Tibet (www.savetibet.org)

Rowell Fund for Tibet Awards over $48,000 to Tibetan Projects

Photography training for young Tibetans, township level mapping of Tibetan ethnic regions and a program for newly arrived Tibetan refugee children are among the 9 projects selected by ICT’s Rowell Fund Board of Advisors to receive grants in 2009. This year, the Rowell Fund will award over $48,000 to applicants from both India and the United States carrying out projects throughout Asia in memory of lifelong Tibet supporters, Galen and Barbara Rowell, who died in a plane crash in 2002.

This year’s application pool of over 55 applicants included proposals for projects supporting the preservation of Tibetan culture through photography, cartography, academia, and environmentalism. The top 9 received grants ranging from $1,700 to $7,500. The Board’s selections include an academic treatise on early Himalayans, a translation of Tsering Woeser’s Tibet Update (http://woeser.middle-way.net/) into Tibetan, and the transcription and translations of Tibetan elders’ oral histories.

Jimmy Chin, prominent Chinese-American climber, adventure photographer and a member of the Rowell Fund Advisory Board, said, “It’s exciting to be able to give out grants to such an impressive group of entrepreneurial and dedicated Tibetans this year. I believe we are supporting some very strong and progressive projects that follow in the spirit of Galen and Barbara’s passions and commitments to Tibet.”

Much of this year’s grants were funded by a benefit climb of the Grand Tetons in August 2008 with celebrity guides Conrad Anker, David Breashears and Jimmy Chin. For more information on this summer’s Grand Teton benefit climb (July 25-29), click here or contact Leslie Butterfield at rowellfund@savetibet.org.

As avid mountaineers and outdoor photographers, Galen and Barbara Rowell helped bring Tibet and the Himalayas into the public eye. Their fund continues this legacy, providing small grants to Tibetan writers, academics, photographers, and conservationists. To learn more about Galen and Barbara Rowell and the background of the Rowell Fund, click here.

This year’s grant recipients include:

Yosay Wangdi—$3,613 for her academic narrative of the lives of early Tibetans on the Himalayan frontier

Tenzin Yangchen—$6,900 for her work recording, transcribing, and translating Tibetan elders’ interviews for the Tibet Oral History Project (http://www.tibetoralhistory.org/)

Kunthar Dhondup—$6,663 for his Tibetan translation of blogger Tsering Woeser’s day by day account of the March uprising in her Tibet Update (http://woeser.middle-way.net/)

Tsering Yangkey—$7,500 to continue environmental education projects of the Tesi Environmental Awareness Movement (http://www.ecotibet.org/)

Lhamo—$4,273 for the continuation of the Art Refuge program for newly arrived Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala and Kathmandu (http://www.fotwa.org/)

Tsering Wangyal Shawa—$7,050 for his cartographic project to map local townships of ethnic Tibetan areas

Lha Charitable Trust—$1,790 for their proposed photography training and exhibit for young Tibetan students (http://www.lhasocialwork.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&i...)

ICT and the Rowell Fund also wishes to congratulate last year's grant recipients, whose final written reports provided concrete evidence of impact the Rowell Fund continues to have among Tibetan communities. The advisory board, made up of friends and family of Galen & Barbara, is made up of John Ackerly, Conrad Anker, David Breashears, Jimmy Chin, Bob and Beth Cushman, John Jancik and Terri Baker, Bob Palais, Tony Rowell and Ray and Nicole Rowell Ryan. The Fund is managed by the International Campaign for Tibet.

In US and Europe, a Unified Message to China: Negotiate with the Dalai Lama on Tibet (March 16th, 2009 --- From: www.savetibet.org)

With Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Washington last week, both President Obama and the U.S. House of Representatives stated that the U.S. government expects Beijing to negotiate with the Dalai Lama's representatives on a durable solution for Tibet, despite repeated demands by Chinese officials to drop the Tibet issue.

"The statements by the President and the House send an unequivocal message that the United States expects the Chinese government to negotiate sincerely with the Dalai Lama,” said Todd Stein, Director of Government Relations at the International Campaign for Tibet. "The U.S. government has reminded China’s leaders that their vision for a harmonious U.S.-China relationship will not materialize until they deal with Tibetan leaders on a durable solution for Tibet.”

On Thursday, President Obama told Foreign Minister Yang of his “hope there would be progress in the dialogue between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama’s representatives,” according to a White House statement. This followed a State Department statement issued on the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s exile which “urge[d] China to reconsider its policies in Tibet that have created tensions due to their harmful impact on Tibetan religion, culture, and livelihoods.”

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a bipartisan resolution that “calls upon the Government of the People's Republic of China to respond to the Dalai Lama's initiatives to find a lasting solution to the Tibetan issue.” The resolution (H.Res. 226), which also commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s exile, was introduced by Representatives Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and approved by an overwhelming vote of 422 to one.

In debate on the House floor, Rep. Holt, the sponsor of the resolution, said, “We urge the Chinese Government to engage in a constructive dialogue with the Dalai Lama in a sustained effort to craft a permanent and just solution that protects the rights and dignity of all Tibetans.” Rep. Ros-Lehtinen, the lead cosponsor and Ranking Member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said, this resolution can serve as a response to the foreign minister. The U.S. Congress has a message for the Foreign Minister of China's Communist regime, and that is that the Dalai Lama is not only a religious figure, but a person of such renown that he was granted the Congressional Gold Medal.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “What we can do is put the moral authority of the Congress of the United States in the form of this resolution, with a broad bipartisan vote, down as a marker to say that we understand the situation there, that we encourage it to be different and … that we are on the side of the Tibetan people. On Monday, Speaker Pelosi, on behalf of the U.S. government accepted the gratitude of the Tibetan-American community as Tibetan-Americans from around the country converged on Washington to lobby Congress to continue its long-standing support for Tibet.

President Obama will met Chinese President and Party Secretary Hu Jintao in London on April 2 for the G20 Summit.

European Parliamentarians support Tibet dialogue for 50th anniversary

In a resolution adopted by the European Parliament on Thursday 12 March to mark the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, the Chinese Government is urged to resume talks with the Dalai Lama's representatives with a view to "positive, meaningful change in Tibet", not ruling out autonomy, which is a solution that the parliamentarians believe would not compromise China's territorial integrity.

The European Parliament urges the Chinese government "to consider the Memorandum for Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People of November 2008 as a basis for substantive discussion leading towards positive, meaningful change in Tibet, consistent with the principles outlined in the Constitution and laws of the People’s Republic of China". The resolution calls on the EU Council Presidency to adopt a declaration along the same lines.

The Tibetan Memorandum, presented by envoys of the Dalai Lama at the eighth round of talks in November 2008 in Beijing, respects the principles underpinning the Chinese Constitution and the territorial integrity of the People’s Republic of China, but was rejected by the Chinese Government as an attempt at 'semi-independence' and 'independence in disguise'.

In addition, Parliament's resolution "condemns all acts of violence, whether they are the work of demonstrators or disproportionate repression by the forces of law and order". It calls on the Chinese Government "to release immediately and unconditionally all those detained solely for engaging in peaceful protest and account for all those who have been killed or gone missing".

MEPs ask the Chinese authorities "to provide foreign media access to Tibet, including the Tibetan areas outside the Tibet Autonomous Region" and "to grant UN human rights experts and recognised international NGOs unimpeded access to Tibet so that they can investigate the situation there".

The resolution was adopted by 338 votes to 131 with 14 abstentions.