Tibetan Elections in Exile: From Theocratic Monarchy to a Developing Exile Democracy, 1959-2009 Sophie Behrens Lehman A thesis submitted to the Department of History for honors Duke University Durham, NC April 2009 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgements......................................................................................................i Glossary of Tibetan Names and Terms.......................................................................iii Glossary of Acronyms ...............................................................................................iv Map of Tibet...............................................................................................................v List of Tables, Figures, and Images............................................................................vi Introduction ................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: A People in Flight and the Founding of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile: The Beginning of Electoral Forms of Constitutional Politics, 1959-1990 ..................14 Chapter 2: The Tibetan Exile Polity as Seen by the Tibetan Review: The Dalai Lama and the Origin of the Constitutional Reforms of 1990-1991 ......................................40 Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Elections Under the New Constitution: Continuity and Democratic Change, 1991-2009................................................................................64 Conclusion.............................................................................................................. 107 Bibliography........................................................................................................... 113 Primary Sources.......................................................................................... 113 Government, UN, and Party/NGO Documents................................. 113 The Tibetan Review ......................................................................... 114 Interviews........................................................................................ 130 Tibetan Autobiographies.................................................................. 131 The Dalai Lama’s Speeches............................................................. 131 March 10 Addresses............................................................... 132 Newspaper and Web sources ........................................................... 137 2 Secondary Sources ...................................................................................... 143 Appendix A: Graphic Depiction of Proportions of Constituencies Represented in Each Exile Parliament............................................................................................. 146 Appendix B: Data from the 2006 ATPD Election, Final Round (in Tibetan) ........... 148 Appendix C: English Translation of 2006 ATPD Election Data, Final Round ......... 149 Appendix D: Graph of the 2006 ATPD Election Data, Final Round by Region ....... 150 Appendix E: Graph of the 2006 ATPD Election Data, Final Round by Sect ............ 151 Appendix F: Copy of Dhome Ballot for the Preliminary Election of the 14th ATPD.152 Appendix G: Copy of U-Tsang Ballot for the Final Election of the 14th ATPD........ 153 Appendix H: Compiled Data from National Elections............................................. 154 Appendix I: North American Population Data, 1994 ............................................... 156 Appendix J: English Translation of the Tibetan in Exile Election Commission Act.. 157 3 Acknowledgements This thesis is the culmination of a year and a half experience that began with my time abroad in India, Nepal, and Tibet where I participated in a Tibetan and Himalayan studies program run by the School for International Training. That semester inspired me in many ways that I am still learning to appreciate. I’d like to thank my fellow program participants for making it such a memorable experience and of course our Academic Directors, Pamela Novak and Manuel Lopez for their support and guidance. Naturally, the abiding inspiration for this project is the Tibetans I’ve met who have been so friendly and open in sharing their stories and experiences. I am grateful to the warmth and hospitality shown to me, and am awed by the resilience and dedication embodied in the exile community. This has been both a personal and academic pursuit in which I have tried to honor the Tibetan tradition while developing a useful approach for grappling with some of the electoral and political issues facing the exiles. It has been a privilege to listen and to learn. I’d like to thank Palmo Dorjee for undertaking the first English translation of the Tibetan in Exile Election Commission Act, as well as the history department at Duke for generously funding the project and making it possible for me to interview Lobsang Sangay. This assistance allowed me to fully access sources that have served as crucial components in my work. A special shout out to all of my classmates in the Monday afternoon thesis seminar for reviewing my many outlines and drafts, and for helping me clarify my thoughts along the way. i Most importantly I'd like to thank my adviser—and thesis seminar instructor—John French, for the countless and unending hours he put into this project. I am deeply indebted to him for his invaluable support, working as a sounding board, offering feedback and guidance, and keeping me on task as necessary. I cannot begin to quantify his role in making this project a reality. Thank you. Lastly, to everyone who stopped by and visited me in Perkins, I couldn't have done it without you. This year in Dharamsala, next year in Lhasa! zôh-¼P-z®mü ii Glossary of Tibetan Names and Terms Chemey Yungdrung: President of the National Democratic Party of Tibet Chitue: Elected legislature cholka: Region Cholka sum: The three provinces of Tibet Kalon: Government minister Kalon Tripa: Executive head of the CTA, prime minister Karma Choephel: Speaker of the Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies Kashag: Executive body of the CTA, comprised of the prime minister and cabinet Lobsang Sangay: Research Fellow at Harvard Law School Lodoe Sangpo: Candidate for Dharamsala Welfare Officer in the Nov. 29, 2007 election mangtso: Rule by the majority Rangzen Lakhdeb: Annual “voluntary freedom tax” contributed to the Central Tibetan Administration by exiled Tibetans Samdhong Rinpoche: The first popularly and directly elected Kalon Tripa Sonam Shosur: Dharamsala Welfare Officer and Regional Election Commissioner Tashi: Dharamsala election pollworker, November 17 and 29, 2007 Tashi Phuntsok: CTA Central Election Commissioner Tenzin Namdul: Doctor, Men Tsee Khang Research Department Tenzin Dorjee: Young Tibetan woman, resident of McLeod Ganj, India Tsering Phuntsok: Candidate for Dharamsala Welfare Officer in the Nov. 29, 2007 election Tsuglagkhang: The temple of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama located in McLeod Ganj, India iii Glossary of Acronyms ATPD Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies CENTREX Executive Committee of the Tibetan Youth Congress CTA Central Tibetan Administration CTPD Commission of Tibetan People’s Deputies NDPT National Democratic Party of Tibet NWC National Working Committee TPPRC Tibetan Parliamentary and Policy Research Centre TWA Tibetan Women’s Association TYC Tibetan Youth Congress iv Map of Tibet1 1 Taken from the Central Tibetan Administration website, http://www.tibet.net/en/image/tibet-map.jpg. v List of Tables, Figures, and Images Introduction Table I.1: Use of the Tibetan Review by Main Secondary Sources Table I.2: Use of the Tibetan Review Main Secondary Sources and This Thesis Chapter 1 Table 1.1: List of Tibetan Exile Legislative Bodies, Dates Served, No. Representatives Chapter 2 Image 2.1: The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile Building in Dharamsala, India Chapter 3 Table 3.1: Data from the 1991 Election of Cabinet Ministers by the ATPD Image 3.1: Political Cartoon from the Tibetan Review 27, no. 9 (1992): 5, on Regionalism Figure 3.1: Graphs of the Population Distribution of Tibetan Exiles in 1994 and 1998 Image 3.2: Portrait of Karma Choephel Image 3.3: Photo of a Monk Voting in a Local Election Table 3.2: The Results of the 2006 Kalon Tripa Preliminary Election Image 3.4: Photo of a Ballot from the Preliminary Round of a Local Election Image 3.5: Portrait of Sonam Shosur Image 3.6: Photo of Pollworkers on November 29, 2007 Table 3.3: Breakdown of the Candidates for the Final Round of the 2006 ATPD Election Image 3.7: Political Cartoon from the Tibetan Review 36, no. 6 (2001): 31, on the Dalai Lama Conclusion C.1: Tibetan Protester in Washington D.C. vi Introduction November emergency meeting. 581 delegates descend on Dharamsala. Tibet at crossroads. “Talk is brewing of kicking off the world’s next separatist movement.”2 Headlines splashed across papers from New York to Bangkok spoke of a meeting in India of Tibetan exiles from around the world, answering the call of the Dalai Lama.3 However, few news reports paid attention to the elected Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the Tibetan government-in-exile, which claims to speak for all Tibetans, both in Tibet and abroad. A November 20, 2008 Los Angeles Times article provides a clear illustration: The six-day meeting was called by the Dalai Lama here in the home of his government in exile to consider fundamental questions: Should Tibetans maintain his “middle way” approach, which acknowledges China's sovereignty over their land…Or should they adopt a more