India weighs its relationship with the Dalai Lama. China grows impatient.

A slew of anti-China protests in India since last month’s unrest in Tibet has embarrassed New Delhi, which recognises Tibet as an integral part of China but which offered the Dalai Lama a refuge after he fled Lhasa in 1959.

Dharamsala in the north Indian hills now houses the Tibetan government-in-exile and was at the centre of the recent protests.

The survey showed 47 percent of respondents endorsed India’s diplomatic position of not angering China with open support for the Dalai Lama, yet 64 percent said they didn’t want the government to stop Tibetans from protesting against Beijing.

“People have a soft corner for the Dalai Lama but they don’t want India to take an extreme stand, like say, sending him back or stopping Tibetans from demanding back their country,” Prem Chand Palety, CEO of Cfore, the pollsters, told Reuters.

Police fired on monks and civilians in Kardze in eastern Tibet, killing eight. Radio Free Asia has a lot of info on this. The monks objected to a re-education program they were forced to undergo, and the government objected to their objections. Some sources say as many as fifteen were killed, and there are also reports of at least two monks in Sichuan province committing suicide:

On Saturday, the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, based in India, said two monks committed suicide last month in Sichuan’s Aba County following government oppression. Aba County has been the scene of large protests involving hundreds of monks and citizens.

One monk, identified as Lobsang Jinpa, from the Aba Kirti Monastery killed himself March 27, leaving a signed note saying, “I do not want to live under Chinese oppression even for a minute,” the human rights group said.

The group said the second suicide occurred March 30 at the Aba Gomang Monastery, when a 75-year-old monk named Legtsok took his life, telling his followers he “can’t beat the oppression anymore.”

It was impossible to verify the information since Chinese authorities have banned foreign reporters from traveling to the region.

From Precious Metal: Outspoken activist Hu Jia arrested Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal on ethnic tensions in non-Tibetan areas of China, such as the Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang.

The government of India draws sharp criticism from its own citizens and is accused of placating China.

Rebecca Novick of the Huffington Post on why the 2008 Olympics are good for Tibet: because they expose China’s abysmal human rights to the world.

Two recent finds from the Worst Horse: The Urban Zen Foundation, founded by Donna Karan and Sonja Nuttall, which is about empowering patients and inspiring “change in the areas of well-being,” and If It’s Hip, It’s Here: a collection of Buddha-shaped items.