Shoot, missed the International Buddhist Film Festival in San Francisco (2/14 to 3/6) and so missed all the fine offerings there, including the awesomely titled Meditate and Destroy about Noah Levine, by Blue Lotus Films. We won’t forget to mention this year. Ahem!

[A young Tibetan looks at Chinese riot police officers in Kangding County, Sichuan Province.]

The indispensable Danny Fisher shows us a BBC video depicting the incidents that may have sparked the violence in Tibet. And this article is now updated — China admits the protests have spread.

Tibet’s spiritual leader Thursday said he was powerless to stop anti-Chinese violence as authorities in Beijing acknowledged for the first time that unrest had spread into neighboring Chinese provinces.

var CNN_ArticleChanger = new CNN_imageChanger(’cnnImgChngr’,'/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/20/tibet.unrest/imgChng/p1-0.init.exclude.html’,3,1); //CNN.imageChanger.load(’cnnImgChngr’,'imgChng/p1-0.exclude.html’); The official Xinhua News Agency said there were “riots in Tibetan-inhabited areas in the provinces of Sichuan and Gansu.” Both provinces neighbor Tibet. The Xinhua report blamed the incidents on supporters of the Dalai Lama.

On Thursday, Xinhua quoted police as saying officers opened fire and wounded four rioters “out of self-defense” on Sunday in what it called “Tibetan-inhabited Aba County in southwestern Sichuan Province.”

Loden Jinpa has a great video on neuroanatomist Jill Taylor describing a massive stroke step by step — her own stroke.

The Wall Street Journal has a piece on Tsewang Rigzin and the Tibetan Youth Congress, whose goals for Tibet are more ambitious and radical than the Dalai Lama’s. The Times (UK) reports the Tibetan left is “frustrated” with the Dalai Lama. These are times of stress. Cracks will appear in the facade, but that doesn’t necessarily foretell a permanent split or break.

Beijing feels China’s getting a raw deal in the western press.

Chinese official media condemned Western news coverage of unrest in Tibet on Thursday, in a commentary that accused the reports of being “hostile” towards China ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

China says the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, masterminded a wave of protests that were capped by a riot in Tibet’s capital Lhasa last week and were followed by anti-government demonstrations in ethnic Tibetan parts of China.

“While we highly appreciate the efforts of the global media in seeking facts and providing accurate, objective and timely reporting, we are somewhat disappointed to find, from time to time, rather biased news coverage,” the official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary.

The violence in Tibet is straining China’s already difficult relationship with India and Nepal. And Germany, recently browbeaten by Beijing over daring to speak to the Dalai Lama.

Ripples throughout western China and Nepal, as reported by The Age.

Tibet’s not the only controversy going on in China right now. Don’t forget “breakaway province” Taiwan, whose upcoming election is being influenced by the crackdown on the Tibet protests, to the detriment of a candidate who wants closer economic ies with mainland China, Ma Ying-jeou.

Some countries (North Korea, Sierra Leone, Pakistan, and others) express qualified support for China during this time as China admits protests are spreading.

In case you’d like to remind them the world cares about Tibet. Courtesy of Vichy Democrats (”still dogging Joe Lieberman until he’s in his political grave.”) Also see TIME magazine’s China Blog, which is following the goings-on in Tibet.

The Dalai Lama fears there will be a “lot of casualties” in Tibet. He’s still willing to meet with the Chinese, who still accuse him of plotting the whole thing.

Despite it all, the DL is against an Olympic boycott:

The Olympic Games do not take place in Lhasa — the Olympic Games take place in Beijing. It is illogical to blame millions of Chinese,” he told reporters in Dharamshala, northern India, where he lives in exile.

And China’s Olympic Delusion, which, despite the DL’s charitable attitude, questions the wisdom of China’s hosting the event this year. This piece from the Nation was found by Danny Fisher (who also has a great post on the five years of the Iraq war.)

Courtesy of BoSacks:

 ”NIRVANA, n. In the Buddhist religion, a state of pleasurable annihilation awarded to the wise, particularly to those wise enough to understand it.”

- Ambrose Bierce  (American Writer, Journalist and Editor, 1842-1914)

Reuters has a day-by-day account of the “largest and most sustained protests Tibet has seen” since 1989.

China warns English PM Gordon Brown about getting cozy with the Dalai Lama.

And regarding his announcement that he would resign if the violence continied or esclated, the office of the Dalai Lama issued this clarification:

Dharamsala, 18 March, 2008: During a meeting with some representatives of the Media this afternoon, His Holiness repeated what he told Jonathan Mirsky of the Observer, London, more than fifteen years ago that if the majority of the Tibetans in Tibet resorted to violence in their freedom struggle, he would have no option but to resign as spokesperson of the Tibetan people.

On the issue of independence, he reiterated that what he is seeking is meaningful autonomy for the Tibetan people.

He also reminded the Media not to quote him out of context.

Chhime R. Chhoekyappa
Secretary to His Holiness the Dalai Lama