The US Department of State released its first Tibetan translation of the Tibet Appendix for the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom on Wednesday. The State Department has recently added 148 translations in order to increase the report’s accessibility. This is the first time the State Department has published a portion of its major reports in the Tibetan language.
The annual report, which was most recently released in October 2009, details the current state of religious freedom in almost 200 countries. The State Department reported that religious repression in Tibet is “high” and Chinese government control over monasteries and other religious institutions is “extraordinarily tight.”
Measures targeting religious practice have tightened as part of the ongoing government crackdown that followed the protests in Tibet that began in March 2008. On Monday the Dalai Lama sent a Tibetan negotiating team headed by Special Envoy Lodi Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen to China for the 9th round of dialogue with officials from China’s United Front Work Department.