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The 45th TYC Working Committee Meeting
Photo: TYC

More than 100 participants from India, Nepal and Bhutan gathered for the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) annual meeting. This was the 45th TYC Working Committee Meeting and was held in Gangtok in Sikkim.

TYC President, Tenzing Jigme, spoke of the vital role TYC has played as a platform for youth leadership and highlighted education, sacrifice and responsibility as central to the movement’s progress. He added, “It is time to develop new ideas and strategies,” and encouraged participants to come forward with new proposals.

Chief Guest Kasur Gyalo Dhondup, who is His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s older brother, stressed the importance of youth participation in the Tibetan movement and said that although differences of opinion are inevitable, the movement must remain united in its work for Tibet. He also stated that change is inevitable and change will come to Tibet.

Both speakers’ comments reveal an acute awareness of the existing tensions between the TYC and its commitment to total independence for Tibet, and the Central Tibetan Administration’s Middle-Way Approach. This comes after Dr Lobsang Sangay launched the Middle-Way Approach Campaign in what was described as “the administration’s most concerted effort to date to bring about basic freedom for Tibetan people”, last month.

These differences of opinion were made explicit at the TYC last year when a majority of 96 members voted against the Middle-Way policy and in favour of campaigning for complete independence. Following this controversy, the Executive Members of the TYC resolved to apologise to the Dalai Lama but to continue campaigning for independence, not autonomy.

The TYC remains conscious of a possible rift in the Tibetan movement and requires its members to agree “To dedicate oneself to the task of serving one’s country and people under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Spiritual and Temporal Ruler of Tibet”, even as they pledge to struggle for total independence.

Both Jigme’s call for new ideas and Gyalo Dhondup’s reassertion of unity at this year’s meeting speak to an ongoing willingness to negotiate these tensions in order to move forward. Their combination of innovation, optimism and solidarity sets a promising tone for the future of the movement.