ANI
September 7th, 2008 National

Exiled Tibetan monks, living in India and neighbouring countries, have 
gathered here to take part in a human rights conference.

Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), a Tibetan NGO, 
has organised seven days workshop exclusively for monks and nuns of 
India, Nepal and Bhutan to make them aware about the principles of 
democracy and human rights.

The organizers feel that this is necessary for the Buddhists monks and 
nuns as they are mostly tied up in the work of the monasteries or with 
the Buddhist studies.

"We have to teach the monks how to practice the human rights also, 
because mostly these monks stay in monasteries and they practice 
Buddhism. They don't get much time to know about system of democracy, 
the principles and all these things that's why we are specially 
focusing on monks and nuns," said Lobsang, Program coordinator, TCHRD.

This is for the first time that such an effort has been initiated by 
the exiled Tibetans. About 72 Buddhists including 12 nuns are 
participating in this workshop.

Encouraged by the enthusiasm of the monks, the organisers plan another 
workshop on the same lines in Bangalore soon.

According to reports, monks have been spearheading the struggle 
against the Chinese rule in Tibet. Several monks are alleged to have 
been killed by the Chinese troops during the riots in Tibetan capital 
Lhasa in March this year. (ANI)