Car of Tibetan PM-in-exile candidate vandalised

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, March 24

Miscreants vandalized the car of Lukar Jam Atsock, a contestant in the elections for the Tibetan Prime Minister in exile, near his residence at Norbulingka in Dharamsala. Lukar Jam has also been a Tibetan freedom activist and former political prisoner. He has been in the eye of storm for posting a poem on social media site which to some is disrespect to spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

In the written complaint to the police, Lukar and his wife Pema Choedon alleged that they were feeling threatened by anti-social elements in the Tibetan community.

Lukar is a former director of Gu-Chu-Sum, an organization of former political prisoners of Tibet.

In a Facebook post Choedon, Lukar Jams wife wrote that the attack on property was preceded by incidents when her husband was openly challenged and warned of physical harm.

Lukar recently drew criticism from Tibetans around the world for a poem which appears to denigrate the Dalai Lama. Lukar on February 5 published a poetry tribute on his Facebook page to Professor Elliot Sperling, a historian of Tibet and Tibetan-Chinese relations, who had passed away on 1 February 2017. The poem was titled “You are the one who should have lived for 113 years!”

Exile community members took objection to the words 113 years, which, they said, seemed to refer to the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama, on several occasions, has predicted that he would be living for 113 years. The Tibetans inferred that the title of Lukar Jam’s poem implied that Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is not the one to live for 113 years.

Exile Tibetan lawmakers, including Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay, condemned him for his remarks. The matter also came up for discussion in the ongoing session of Tibetan Parliament-in-exile where Sangay said that remarks of Lukar Jam were objectionable and unfortunate and that he has a history of making denigrating remarks to the Tibetan spiritual leader.