Bodhgaya January 8 – At a press briefing this evening, the DM expressed his displeasure on the news item published by UNI headlined as “Attack on Karmapa aborted”, which is completely untrue. The DM scolded Mr. Rishi Lal, a reporter of UNI based in Gaya who sent this false news to his agency, in front of the other mediapersons present in the press meeting. The DM told Mr. Lal that he had deliberately done this for which he can’t pardon him and said, “You want to achieve success in your profession by stepping on my head”. The DM requested all the reporters to call him to verify any news before going for the print. Mr. Dheeraj, Reporter cum Sub-Editor of UNI based in Patna has come here with Mr. Rishi Lal to apologize on behalf of their agency.
Ms. Yun-Han Chen from Taiwan was also present there and submitted the following press statement from her to the DM, and then distributed to the press reporters in the presence of the DM. Yesterday in the evening at the press briefing, the Secretary of Department of Security of Central Tibetan Administration, Mr. Dhonchung Ngodup, gave a clarification to the press reporters in the presence of the DM, DIG, and SP of Gaya District that the person named Jigme Gyatso is not a staff of the Department of Security nor an official of Central Tibetan Administration. In some of the newspapers, Mr. Jigme Gyatso has been referred as a “Tibetan security person” as claimed to be found with a Taiwanese girl.
Masood Butt
Press Coordinator, DIIR @ Bodh Gaya
January 8, 2003
PRESS STATEMENT
Jan. 08, 2003
This statement is made for correcting the wrong information given in the front-page news, titled “Karmapa aide’s affair alerts govt.” on Jan. 7th, 2003. Due to the telephone number change in Bodhgaya, it was impossible for me to contact the Taiwanese Temple here from Taiwan. Then I requested a Tibetan monk friend who came here earlier to arrange a room for me. When I arrived in the morning of Jan. 5th., he told me that he finally got me a room in the Chinese Temple (with my limited budget). He has also been to the Taiwanese Temple, but he found the monks there could not speak English. The same afternoon, I went to the Taiwanese Temple and got a room there. Then I went to the Mahayana Hotel to receive H.H. Garmapa, and met Mr. Jigme in the lobby. In our conversation, he learned that I was about to move from one place to another. It was very kind of him to help me to move. It was the reason why he came to my room. During my visit to Dharamsala last year, Mr. Jigme had been very nice and helpful to me and my friends. His bilingual, both in Tibetan and Mandarin, had been essential for those visitors of H.H. Garmapa who can only speak Mandarin, no matter they came from U.S.A., Singapore, or Taiwan. Without his help, it would be impossible for these visitors come to India and receive teachings from H.H. Garmapa.
In Taiwan, there are many people who has very strong faith in H.H. Dalai Lama, H.H. Garmapa, and Tibetan Buddhism. As the direct flight between Taipei and New Delhi started last April, it motivated a lot more Taiwanese coming to India for tourism and business. However, it would definitely discourage Taiwanese to visit India if they would be mistreated as Chinese from China and made against H.H. Garmapa in the headline news in India.
Moreover, the official name of Taiwan is “Republic of China.” The official name of China is “People’s Republic of China.” Even if some ignorant Indian journalists do not possess such a commonsense, at least the Indian Intelligence staff must do.
Citizen of Taiwan, Republic of China
Yun-Han Chen
