Danny Fisher quotes Robert Thurman on why China needs the Dalai Lama, an interesting read. What will the 21st century be like?

Tricycle contributing editor Pico Iyer writes about the Dalai Lama in TIME. And excerpts of the Dalai Lama’s interview with Newsweek.

Is Sri Lanka silent on Tibet because they get the arms to fight their civil war from China? The island nation, though “constitutionally bound” to protect Buddhism, has been silent because they are “heavily indebted” to China. But who isn’t?

Not much new here: More arrests, as China says 660 “surrendered” in the wake of the protests.

The Dalai Lama reiterated his pledge to resign if the violence goes on. The LA Times writes that this has shaken Buddhism. The LA Times article revives the bewhiskered “god-king” description of the Dalai Lama that journalists have been cutting and pasting for years. And unpack the following if you dare:

If he quit as political leader but still headed the faith, it would go against his religion’s centuries-old tenet of church-state unity.

Moving on to some Chinese propaganda about, among other things, how Tibet has “belonged” to China since the days of the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century. . . These kinds of things are instructive to those who can’t fathom the Chinese position.

The E.U. invites the Dalai Lama to come speak. (Easy for them; they have a decent currency.)

Several EU lawmakers called for a boycott of the Olympics or at least of the opening ceremony.

Several Greens, liberals and leftists brandished Tibetan flags in the chamber and some wore black T-shirts emblazoned with the Olympic rings transformed into handcuffs.

Greens floor leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a leader of leftist student protests in France in May 1968, compared the Beijing Games with the 1936 Berlin Olympics staged by Nazi Germany.

“The EU must altogether refuse to attend the opening ceremony, because it is a political act,” he told the house.

British Conservative Edward McMillan-Scott accused China of committing genocide in Tibet and said that for politicians of principle, it was no long a question of “whether a boycott of the Olympics but what sort of boycott”.

Taiwan has used this crisis to put widen the Straits of Formosa a bit.  The DL thanked Taiwan for its friendship and support (while calling the Indian government “too cautious.”) The U.S. has praised Taiwan recently as well, this time for the nation’s “moderation” in voting for a president interested in engaging, not antagonizing, the dragon (and for returning those misplaced missiles!) Wall Street cheered. The dragon licked its lips.

At a press conference held on March 18, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Tibet and Taiwan are inseparable parts of Chinese territory, urging the Dalai Lama and Taiwan to accept the one-China principle.

However, [new president-elect Ma Ying-jeou], despite a conciliatory reputation toward China, holds that “the Republic of China [Taiwan] is a sovereign independent country.”

After seeing the bloody suppression of Tibet, the Taiwan people will have become more wary of China. As such, democratized Taiwan will have to maintain just the right amount of distance between it and China to ensure its survival.

As Konchog pointed out a few posts back, violence continues in Nepal, with police cracking down hard on protesters. Many people have been injured and hundreds arrested so far. The U.N. has expressed concern over Nepal’s actions. Nepal is troubled. At least one person has been killed in the escalating pre-election violence as well, the tension over which may partially explain the brutal repression of the Tibet protests.

Konchog also has some solid links for you all to chew on: Students for a Free Tibet has a petition to keep the Olympic torch out of Tibet, thank you very much, and Chinese intellectuals write a courageous open letter to the government.

UPDATE: Then again, the New York Times on Nepal: As turmoil subsides, tourism surges.

Rickshaws drive the economy of Dhaka, while in neighboring (or at least nearby) Kolkata, they are seen as a relic of imperialism and are being phased out. In New Delhi the rickshaw-wallahs are fighting to stay. The Kolkata link is to National Geographic and is pretty incredible.

The web tells us rickshaws were invented by a European missionary in Japan in the 1870s or 1880s. They’re sometimes touted as earth-friendly because they’re exhaustless, but of course we’ve all heard the extremely dubious counter argument that physical labor demands more food as fuel and so walking is harder on the earth than driving.

There is no point to this. Just something to think about.

China is still struggling to contain the crisis:

China sought on Wednesday to contain ongoing protests in its ethnic Tibetan regions, as it stepped up detentions in Tibet’s capital Lhasa and vowed tighter control over monasteries.

The western province of Qinghai was the latest area to report anti-government activities, with hundreds of civilians staging a sit-down protest after paramilitary police stopped them from marching, a Beijing-based source who spoke to residents said.

“They were beating up monks, which will only infuriate ordinary people,” the source said of the protest on Tuesday in Qinghai’s Xinghai county.

A resident in the area confirmed the demonstration, saying that paramilitaries dispersed the 200 to 300 protesters after half and hour, that the area was crawling with armed security forces and that workers were kept inside their offices.

China is said to be allowing (escorted) journalists into the country, but not diplomats.

Video of NYPD cops beating up pro-Tibet protesters near the U.N. in New York. It’s pretty clear the U.S. has little tolerance for peaceful demonstrations itself.

Radio Free Asia has great coverage of happenings in Tibet.

Archbishop Tutu speaks up for the Dalai Lama.

And finally, China is reported to be under pressure at the UN. This is great news, but don’t expect much from this. The UN’s toothlessness in these matters was revealed by Burma. The alternative, Bush riding bareback into Beijing on an ICBM, isn’t a possibility either (thankfully) — so what will get results? What will outrage the world enough, and who in the world will stand up to China?

If you want to do something for peace and you’re in the New York area, you can join the Be the Change Walk, courtesy of the Satya Graha Forum, this April 6th. Don’t worry about the NYPD: they’ve got the guns but we’ve got the numbers.