TIBETANS MEETING in the North Indian hill station of Dharamsala are becoming increasingly frustrated with what they see as Chinese intransigence on their demands for more autonomy, and calls for a more radical response are growing, writes Clifford Coonanin Dharamsala
More than 500 Tibetan exiles from all over the world met in the Tibetan Village School in Dharamsala, which is run by the Dalai Lama's younger sister.
Schoolchildren ran around the venue, which looks over a stunning Himalayan valley.
While the overall tone was optimistic, the meeting could see a strong challenge to the Dalai Lama's moderate "Middle Way" towards Beijing, and could provide an opportunity for more combative elements in the Tibetan movement who favour full independence to push their agenda, which would pose a political challenge to the 73-year-old Nobel Peace laureate.
"Everybody is in the mood that the dialogue has come to a standstill - there is no headway and people are rethinking their policies," said Tseten Norbu, an MP from Kathmandu in Nepal.
"We've been talking for 30 years and there has been no result at all. This is the big question mark. In other regional disputes people have resolved ther disputes, like in Ireland, for example. Now we have to think and strategise. Step one is to stop negotiations," said Mr Norbu. He had been briefed by Lodi Gyari, the chief negotiator with the Chinese, who again left Beijing empty-handed earlier this month after talks when China rejected the Tibetan movement's long-standing demand for autonomy.
"We need a middle man, someone like the United Nations. They have to come up with something. The protests in March happened because of repression, it was an outburst at Chinese rule," said Mr Norbu.
The Dalai Lama's envoys and China have held eight rounds of talks since 2002 on the Tibet issue without any progress. In a stark acknowledgment of his frustration, he recently said that his efforts have failed.
The meeting takes place in McLeod Ganj in Dharamsala or "Little Lhasa", where the Dalai Lama and his supporters fled in 1959, at the invitation of India's then-prime minister Nehru, following a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
"The majority want a peaceful way but as we saw in March, some people are demonstrating," Tsering Lama, from the Jawalakhel refugee camp for Tibetan exiles in Nepal.
After gallstone surgery last month, the Dalai Lama is not attending the meeting in Dharamsala, although he is said to be in the town. Some Tibetan activists say he is laying the ground for a possible successor.
Beijing describes the Dalai Lama as a "dangerous splittist" and a "wolf in sheep's clothing" and blames him for inciting anti-Chinese riots in the region in March, when protests against Chinese rule in the capital, Lhasa, erupted into violence against Han Chinese settlers and spread to other areas of western China with Tibetan populations. Tibet's government-in-exile said more than 200 Tibetans were killed in a subsequent Chinese crackdown.
For the Chinese, Tibet is, was and always will be China and Beijing says it is freeing the people of Tibet from the yoke of a malevolent theocracy that treated Tibetans like slaves for hundreds of years. China says it is helping the territory by investing billions of yuan in the local economy, although Tibetans say the Chinese are sending ethnic Han Chinese to the region to colonise the area.
The Chinese angrily reacted last week to French president Nicholas Sarkozy's announcement that he would meet the Dalai Lama during a visit to Gdansk, in Poland, suggesting bilateral relations could face a new setback if it goes ahead.
Speaking at a screening of a performance of traditional dance at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, Karma Pangring, the leader of Tibet's exiles in Switzerland, said the talks face a major challenge.
"It's fundamentally a good idea to ask the majority what they think. We met in the afternoon and we heard various opinions. But what can we do? What form will that take. This meeting won't decide that question," said Mr Pangring.
"The older generation is loyal to the Middle Way and wants to strengthen it it, but the younger groups want a different way and their voices are getting louder," said Mr Pangring.
Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, pledged that any decision about a new path needs to have "the clear mandate of the people".