From time to time, the Cross-Party Group on Tibet in the Scottish Parliament publishes briefing papers on issues concerning Tibet, to provide information to MSPs, policymakers and the general public. Please find below summaries and links to these reports:
2021 – Third Pole Climate Change Inquiry
Climate Change on the Third Pole: Asia’s Water Supply in Danger
Cross Party Group Statement to Members of the Scottish Parliament, Spring 2021
(Two Page Read)
Climate Change on the Third Plateau – Causes, Processes and Consequences
A summary and analysis of recent scientific findings, by the Scottish Centre for Himalayan Research, January 2021.
(38 Page Read)
Previous CPGT Papers
Mass Relocations and Resettlement on the Tibetan Plateau (October 2018).
Since 2000, more than 2 million Tibetans have undergone an unprecedented process of relocation and resettlement under the twin policies of “Ecological Migration” and the “Comfortable
Housing Project”. This has seen the ending of Tibetan nomads’ traditional lifestyle and culture in favour of more closely regimented population management of the Plateau’s indigenous population.
Self-Immolations in Tibet and China, 2013 Update (October 2013).
An update to the 2012 briefing paper, examining the particular conditions and triggers of self-immolation within Tibet, the response of the Chinese authorities, and the relationship between self-immolation in Tibet and wider patterns of protest by public suicide across the PRC.
Self-Immolation Amongst Tibetans, 1998-2012 (June 2012).
Since 2009, an escalating number of Tibetans have committed suicide through self-immolation in protest at Chinese rule in Tibet. While a small number of self-immolations have occurred amongst the Tibetan refugee communities of South Asia, the overwhelming majority have been in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures of Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan.
The UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee Summary (2009).
Summary and analysis of the three preceding briefing papers by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee’s 2008-9 report on human rights in China, submitted as evidence by Tibet Support Group Grampian.
Religious Policy and State Control in Tibet (November 2010).
Since the twelfth century, Buddhism in Tibet has been led by “incarnate lamas” (tulku), figures such as the Dalai and Panchen Lamas, whose reincarnation from lifetime to lifetime has traditionally been recognised by their immediate followers and religious students. In 2007, the PRC introduced new legislation, placing such recognition directly under the regulation of the Central Communist Party in Beijing.
The Sino-Tibetan Dispute: Issues of Sovereignty and Legal Status (November 2009).
Was Tibet an independent nation prior to the formation of the People’s Republic of China? An introduction to the historical dispute over the legal and sovereign status of Tibet, and the respective positions of Beijng, Dharamsala and the UK.
The 2008 Protests in Tibet: Main Facts and Analysis (April 2008).
In March 2008, as the PRC was preparing for the Beijing Olympics, protest broke out in the Tibetan Autonomous Region’s capital, Lhasa, and quickly spread throughout population centres across the Tibetan Plateau. This paper describes the principal events and demographics of this turbulent period, the Chinese state’s response, and examines the various drivers and conditions that led to the protests.
Cross-Party Group on Tibet in the Scottish Parliament 