Representatives of Dalai Lama discuss future plans, Shugden group meet in Dharamsala

Representatives of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama from all over the world gathered to discuss and plan future activities and asses present anti-Dalai Lama activities carried out by Shugden group as they participated in a meet at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.

Representatives of Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) including Tibetan Prime Minister in-exile Lobsang Sangay, speaker of Tibetan Parliament in-exile, Penpa Tsering and ministers in-exile also joined the closed door meeting on Saturday.

"There are 10 of my other collogues who are gathered here from 10 different cities across the world and the primary purpose here is, this is an annual meeting of all the representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration. So this is the time for us to come together as a group collectively and discuss, strategise and plan and assess where we are and then plan for future," said Kaydor Aukatsang, representative of the Dalai Lama for America.

More than 100 Tibetans have set themselves alight in protest against Chinese rule since 2009, mostly in heavily Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces rather than in what China terms the Tibet Autonomous Region. A majority of these victims succumbed to burns.

Aukatsang also said that he has been getting a good response from people and the government regarding the Tibetan issue in spite of China's growing status.

"Well EU (European Union) is not my portfolio but I can definitely speak that my responsibility is mostly North America but response has been generally positive. I mean obviously the Tibetan issue is quite difficult politically and China is growing... rise but economically and politically and makes very difficult environment for us to operate but still there is lot of support, both at the people's level and at the government's level," said Aukatsang.

Soon after the publication of a wrong report in media on Losar (Tibetan New Year) on March 02 this year, the anti-Dalai Lama group Shugden started campaigning against Dalai Lama more aggressively.

They started distributing post cards containing media reports showing Tibetan government in-exile favouring them. They also staged several protests against the Dalai Lama in March during his recent visit to America.

All this campaign led CTA and representatives to discuss planning to nab the anti-Dalai Lama campaign by the group.

"Yes there is little bit of that because as you have been following the news, most recently when His Holiness (Dalai Lama) visited the United States, there were several protests in different cities so we are looking at what's the reason behind that and how in future we can address some of the propaganda and the false (news) that have been coming from that group," Aukatsang added.

In that report the official deity of Tibetans was inadvertently misquoted by media as Dorjee Shugden instead of Palden Lhamo. The news was later rectified.