Explore every episode of the podcast Tibet Talks

Tibet is the source of the headwaters of the 8 major rivers of Asia. These rivers are the lifeblood of South and Southeast Asia, providing sustenance, livelihoods, and economic opportunity to 1.8 billion people downstream. However, the Chinese government is continuing its a dam building spree that is imperiling the lives and communities of the Tibetan people, destroying homes and religious sites, degrading the natural ecosystem, destabilizing the region, and driving climate chaos.

Language rights expert Gerald Roche stops by Tibet Talk to discuss Chinese language oppression in Tibet, the suppression of minority languages like Manegacha, and his new book. What are the contradictions in China's language policy? What is the status of Manegacha, Ngandehua, and other languages spoken by smaller populations?

This month on Tibet Talks join us as we speak with John Ackerly, an eyewitness to the Oct. 1 1987 Lhasa uprising who went on to work at the International Campaign for Tibet for two decades.

This month for Tibet Talks we sat down with Jamyang Norbu, activist and author of “Echoes from Forgotten Mountains.” Join us as he discusses the people and history behind his fascinating new book.

Human Rights Watch's recent report on forced relocations in Tibet is the culmination of years of meticulous research and analysis, drawing from over 1,000 official Chinese media sources and academic studies. In this episode of Tibet Talk, Maya Wang, Interim China Director of Human Rights Watch, sheds light on the scale of China's relocation programs in Tibet that displaces Tibetans from their traditional lands.

Penpa Tsering is the Sikyong (President) of the Central Tibetan Administration. He is the democratically elected leader of Tibetans in exile. In this chat with ICT, Sikyong Tsering will discuss the role of the CTA, the importance of US support for Tibet and more. Join us for this special conversation!

In this live Tibet Talk, ICT Research Analyst Tenzin Norgay and President Tencho Gyatso will answer your questions about the Derge dam protests. Together they’ll explain what the protests mean, how the international community has responded and where we go from here.

In this Tibet Talk, your questions about the Resolve Tibet Act will be answered live by ICT President Tencho Gyatso and Director of Government Relations Franz Matzner. These ICT leaders will also discuss the upcoming Tibet Lobby Day in Washington, DC and other efforts to mark 65 years of Tibetan resilience and resistance against China’s occupation of Tibet.

ICT Germany Executive Director Kai Mueller will be there in Geneva to monitor the UPR and to help organize a side event spotlighting China’s human rights abuses against Tibetans. In this Tibet Talk, we’ll speak to Kai about the UPR, the state of human rights in Tibet and the ability of the international community to pressure China into changing its policies.

In this Tibet Talk, we'll speak to Lhadon Tethong, director of Tibet Action Institute, an organization that has been raising awareness about the boarding schools. In conversation with ICT President Tencho Gyatso, Lhadon will discuss the impact of these schools on Tibetan families, the response from the global community and what needs to happen next.

In this Tibet Talk, we speak to Amy Yee, author of the new book, "Far from the Rooftop of the World: Travels among Tibetan Refugees on Four Continents." We discuss the 15-year journey—and the life-changing interaction with the Dalai Lama—that led her to write the book. We also go over the lives of the Tibetan exiles she got to know and the warmth they showed her as a Chinese American. Plus, we speak to ICT President Tencho Gyatso about the visit of the Tibetan Sikyong (President) to Washington, DC.

Tibet’s rivers are beautiful, but they’re also life-sustaining. And not just for people in Tibet, but for nearly 2 billion people across Asia who depend on the rivers’ flow. But China’s large-scale water diversion projects and hydropower development are having a dangerous effect on these rivers, imperiling downstream countries, furthering China’s agenda of regional control and threatening the Tibetan way of life.

In our final episode on His Holiness’ Four Principal Commitments, we’ll discuss his commitment to reviving India’s civilizational heritage and its value to today with Rajiv Mehrotra, an acclaimed Indian former TV host and the secretary and trustee of the Foundation For Universal Responsibility of His Holiness The Dalai Lama, which was started with seed money from His Holiness’ Nobel Peace Prize award. Mehrotra has been a student of the Dalai Lama for over 40 years.

In our third episode on His Holiness’ Four Principal Commitments, we’ll discuss his efforts to preserve Tibetan culture and strive for Tibet’s cause with Tenzin Namgyal Tethong, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Representative to North America (1973-86), former Kalon Tripa (Minister and Chair of the Cabinet) of the Central Tibetan Administration, as well as the founding President of ICT.

In our second episode on His Holiness’ Four Principal Commitments, we’ll discuss his commitment to religious harmony with Professor Siddiq Wahid, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research.

In our first episode on His Holiness’ Four Principal Commitments, we’ll discuss his commitment to human values with Dr. Richie Davidson, a neuro-scientist known for his groundbreaking work in the study of emotion and the brain.

Join us every Thursday in August for a special series celebrating the four principal commitments of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Tibet’s premier filmmaker has died. By writing and directing movies that won acclaim across the globe, Pema Tseden put Tibetan cinema on the map.

The media have a vital role to play in telling the world Tibet’s story. But the Chinese government makes it nearly impossible for foreign journalists to enter Tibet and report on China’s human rights abuses against the Tibetan people. In fact, a Washington Post reporter said in 2016 that the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region, which spans roughly half of Tibet, is harder to visit as a journalist than even North Korea.

When Xi Jinping took over as China’s top leader in 2012, there were hopes that his reputation as a moderate and his father’s relationship with the Dalai Lama would lead to a softening of policies. Instead, Xi has proven to be a hardliner whose indefinite rule began this past month, unforeseen a decade ago.

At ICT, we just wrapped up our 2023 Tibet Lobby Day. It was a record-setting event that brought over 150 Tibetan Americans and Tibet supporters to Washington, DC to build Congressional support for the Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act.

Losar Tashi Delek! That’s the greeting Tibetans will use next week when they celebrate Losar, the Tibetan New Year. And on this episode of Tibet Talks, you can celebrate this beautiful holiday with ICT.

At the Dalai Lama’s residence in India, an unusual visitor has arrived: a troubled Giant Panda who has traveled from many miles away. Welcoming him as a friend, His Holiness invites the Panda on a walk through a cedar forest. There, in the shadow of the Himalayas, surrounded by beauty, they discuss matters great and small. 

Tibet’s fate is one of tragedy and hope. Because of China’s illegal occupation, the people of Tibet have lost the right to determine their own destiny.

In the history of Tibetans in exile, Lodi Gyari holds a special place. As the late President and Executive Chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, Mr. Gyari helped build lasting support for Tibet from governments around the world.

Tsering Yangzom Lama’s debut novel, “We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies,” has become an international bestseller and been longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.

China’s government has illegally occupied Tibet for over 60 years. It has refused to negotiate with Tibetan leaders for more than a decade. But a new bill in Congress will pressure China’s officials to get back to the negotiating table.

For ages, Indians saw the Himalayas as a wall that protected them. But when China’s Communist army invaded Tibet over 70 years ago, an Indian diplomat said, “The Chinese have entered Tibet. The Himalayas no longer exist.”

“When the Iron Bird Flies: China’s Secret War in Tibet” is the second book about Tibet from independent scholar and writer Jianglin Li. In it, Jianglin takes a comprehensive look at six crucial years in modern Tibetan history (1956-62) that culminated in the Tibetan National Uprising of 1959 and the subsequent total Chinese occupation of Tibet.

On Dec. 26, the world lost Archbishop Desmond Tutu, an iconic leader of South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement and a beloved friend of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Planting a seed for a more compassionate world with a sense of the oneness of humanity—this is the message of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which he shares in his first children’s book, “The Seed of Compassion: Lessons from the Life and Teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.”

With the Olympics about to return to China for the 2022 Winter Games—which begin Feb. 4 in Beijing—these three experts on sports and human rights join us to discuss what the Olympics mean for Tibet, and what the international community should do about it.

Rima Fujita is a fine artist and a descendant of Japan’s last samurai whose creative aesthetic was strongly influenced by both Bushido and Buddhism.

The US has a new special coordinator for Tibetan issues! On Dec. 20, 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the appointment of Under Secretary Uzra Zeya to this important role.

Have you come across the terms “common prosperity,” “ecological civilization” or “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble?” Tibetans in Tibet have been bombarded with such slogans every day of their lives over more than 60 years of Beijing’s rule in Tibet.

As daunting as the climate challenge is, it’s important to know what we’re trying to conserve—and it’s vital to find the inspiration to do so. In this episode of Tibet Talks, we have the perfect guest to help with that. Michael Buckley is the editor of the new book, “This Fragile Planet,” a collection of 80 inspiring quotes about the environment from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, matched with 120 eye-catching photos and visuals from a dozen professional photographers.

In 1991, the US Congress passed the Tibetan Immigration Act of 1990, which provided 1,000 immigrant visas for natives of Tibet in India or Nepal.

Join us for this special ask-me-anything edition of Tibet Talks! Three of our leaders—Bhuchung K. Tsering, interim president of ICT, Kai Mueller, executive director of ICT Germany, and Vincent Metten, ICT’s EU policy director—kick off the show with updates from their offices.

Penpa Dorje and Jose Cabezon are the authors of Sera Monastery, a definitive history of one of Tibet's greatest monastic universities, located just north of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

The new book “Tibet Brief 20/20” by Michael van Walt van Praag and Miek Boltjes is a call to action for governments to rethink their stance on Tibet.

Ambassador Scott DeLisi collaborated with ICT member and award-winning American artist Jane Lillian Vance to create a beautiful illustrated book called “The Ambassador’s Dog.”

Blessed by the Dalai Lama himself, Tenzin Geyche Tethong’s new biography of His Holiness features previously unpublished photos and unparalleled insights into the Dalai Lama’s leadership, compassion and gentle humor.

Tibetans in exile have a borderless democratic governance system. In over 30 countries, they go to the polls every five years to elect the sikyong, their political leader, and the 45 members of their parliament in exile.

On March 10, 1959, thousands of Tibetans took to the streets of their capital city, Lhasa. Although their uprising was eventually crushed—with the Chinese government killing thousands of Tibetans in the process—they succeeded in keeping their struggle alive, including by helping their leader, the Dalai Lama, escape to safety in neighboring India.

In the early 1990s, China’s notorious prisons in Tibet held hundreds of political prisoners. Among them was a group of 14 young nuns imprisoned in the dreaded Drapchi Prison.

Late into the night of Dec. 21, 2020, the Tibetan Policy and Support Act finally completed its journey to passing the US Congress. Early the next morning, the president and vice president of the International Campaign for Tibet reflected on what the bill means for Tibet and Tibetans, where we go from here and why ICT members are so wonderful.

In this moving episode of Tibet Talks, Geshe Thupten Jinpa, a Buddhist scholar and the primary English translator for the Dalai Lama, joins ICT to celebrate the 31st anniversary of His Holiness’ Nobel Peace Prize. The conversation also touches on the reindeer ride His Holiness took on that glorious day in Oslo, Norway in 1989.

Assistant Secretary Robert A. Destro was appointed the new special coordinator for Tibetan issues in the US State Department on Oct. 14, 2020. In this conversation, Destro joins ICT to speak directly to Tibetan American youth. Three alumni of ICT’s Tibetan Youth Leadership Program take part in the discussion, along with several other young Tibetans.

Ambassador Paula Dobriansky, the former undersecretary of state for global affairs, served as the special coordinator for Tibetan issues during the George W. Bush presidency (2001-09). She played a pivotal role in coordinating US policy on Tibet at the highest levels of government, both in the US and internationally.

Rick Hanson, PhD, is a psychologist, senior fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley and bestselling author. His books include "Resilient," "Hardwiring Happiness," "Buddha's Brain," "Just One Thing" and "Mother Nurture."