Posted on 03/10/2006 12:36:43 PM PST by gogoman
DHARMSALA, India - The Dalai Lama said Friday that he has asked China to let him to visit the country for the first time since he fled Tibet nearly a half-century ago.
His comments came in an address to thousands of followers on the anniversary of the 1959 uprising in Tibet against Chinese rule, which marked the beginning of his exile.
The supreme Tibetan spiritual leader, 70, did he did not specify an itinerary, but said he wanted to make a pilgrimage. His envoys, who recently returned from talks with officials in China, had conveyed his request to the Chinese government, he said.
"As a country with a long history of Buddhism, China has many sacred pilgrim sites," he told his followers. "As well as visiting the pilgrim sites, I hope I will be able to see for myself the changes and developments in the People's Republic of China."
In Beijing, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman reached by telephone had no immediate response.
China has claimed Tibet as part of its territory for centuries, and its forces occupied the region in 1950. Branded a separatist, the Dalai Lama fled to Dharmsala in 1959 where he formed a government-in-exile. He hasn't been back since.
The Dalai Lama has repeatedly said he wants autonomy, not independence, for Tibet.
Tibetan and Chinese officials met last month in southern China. Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, the Dalai Lama's chief representative, said there was a growing understanding between the two sides, though fundamental differences persisted.
The envoys have attended four rounds of talks with China since 2002. Specific details of those discussions have not been released, but they are believed to have focused on the Dalai Lama's demands for more autonomy for Tibet to protect its unique Buddhist culture.
"I have stated time and again that I do not wish to seek Tibet's separation from China, but that I will seek its future within the framework of the Chinese constitution," the Dalai Lama said.
In his place i wouldn'be trusting the Chinese to make change for a nickel.
They will take him out. They have to. They are Communists.
The Dalai Lama said much the same thing some ten years ago in a visit to the San Francisco Bay Area.
He started his talk with stating a couple of times that the culture of Tibet was more important to save and nuture than its religion. Dalai Lama-ism wasn't important but the Tibetan culture was. He went on to explain that Tibet's Buddhism was a relative late occurance in Tibet's history and was layered in with "Bon," Tibet's indigenous religion.
I remember being mildly "blown away" by what he said. Richard Gere and other "Free Tibet" folks seem to be diametrically opposed to what the Dalai Lama says.
I remember reading that over one million Tibetans were already living in China when the Chinese re-invaded Tibet in 1949. One million people then was almost half its population...outside of Tibet.
Apparently, the living in Tibet was so bad that living in China was preferrable to dying in Tibet.
Officially, in 1965, Tibet (Xizang) became an "Autonomous Region of Tibet." But, then, China is communist and there's no autonomy anywhere. Thus, our dear friend and most favored trade nation, China.
Prayers for him.. In regards to China and Tibet relations, I don't trust China one bit.. This would be akin to President Bush visiting Iran.
Well hopefully they a replacement lined up.... he might not come back.
Unlikely... Chinese officials probably want him back in Tibet as its spiritual leader before he dies (he is 70), so as to avoid any secession struggles. Frankly, most Chinese would be supportive of giving Tibet autonomy (self-rule), but people on both sides are dragging their feet because each feels like they have compromised something and would rather live in a fantasy of having everything still at hand. One example is that some factions of the Tibet-in-Exile government want full independence and some factions of the Chinese government are afraid that self-rule would imply a theocracy that would threaten the Chinese sovereignty in the long-run.
Basically, the issue is clouded with suspicion on both sides.
He shouldn't be in such a hurry. His reincarnation can just continue the negotiations in a few years.
China just built a new railway through Tibet. The Dalai Lama's main goal is to preserve Tibetan culture. China today has a cookie-cutter pop-influenced culture not unlike America's suburbia. That's why he is in a hurry, in a few more years, there will be strip malls and Walmart-sized supermarkets in Lhasa.
The Chinese are going to say "NO!."
Why?
Because the Chinese won: They have annexed Tibet, and they will NOT recognize The Dalai Lama as anyone special.
He good for another decade, His health seems in good condition, Its just the situation is worsening and very soon he wont have anymore options.
But unless your impprications are backed by force, China will never leave Tibet.
No nation in the world has ever seriously , nor will ever seriously, go up against China to obtain the freedom of Tibet. It is forever lost and its time to move on.And the United Nations just sat and watched it happen while the USA tried to help, but had to quie when the Tibetan Government refused to fight on.
What is left of old Tibet is in Buthan and Darmsala, India, and in Shambhala, (wherever that is.)
Soon Buthan will likely fall unless it gets help.
This is the price a nation pays when its leaders do not fight for freedom. This is a major lesson to all the world about China, especially to those who say that China is not an expansionist power.
So much for idiot compassion, now millions of Tibetans are suffering, and will suffer until completely absorbed into the Chinese genome. It would have been more compassionate to fight from the beginning.
The Dalai Lama was also the first leader of Tibet (theocracy) to point out the genocidal inequities of his own religion. Pretty horrible.
Tibet had some 50 million people (spread over China as well) in 1799 when the British and Scots visited China. The Chinese always took census and thus even the Tibetans were counted.
By the early 1900's there were less than 10 million Tibetans left. Dalai Lamaism, as their leader pointed out, allowed no books, no foreign doctors into Tibet. Theirs was the highest infant mortality in the world, with smallpox and STD (veneral diseases) taking away most people.
By the time China invaded in 1949 there were less that 2 million in Tibet.
The book Lhasa by Han SuYin is an eye-opener. She wrote many books: (Love is) A Many Splendored Thing, My House Has Two Doors, The Crippled Tree (China), a prolific and balanced writer about China.
Born on September 12th, 1917 in Sinyang, the province of Henan, China, Han Suyin is the pen name of an outstanding contemporary novelist of Belgian and Chinese origin. Born Chou Kuanghu (the Moon Guest) vee Elisabeth Rosalie Matthilde Clare Chou, Han's present official name is Dr. Elisabeth Comber. Han writes mainly in English, although some of her books have been written in French and Chinese as well. She claims to have written twenty-two books in English, and this number seems to be accurate. Han's works may generally be divided into three thematic categories: (i) autobiography/history, (ii) fiction, and (iii) sociopolitical essays and other written testimonies.
Her read on Tibet must tell you that the Tibetans were NOT worse off under the Chinese. Their numbers HAVE INCREASED since 1949. I'm no fan of the Chinese, AT ALL, but the entire system of Dalai Lamism, even according to its very holy leader, was not a good thing for Tibetans.
I agree 100%. The PRC atrocities on Tibet are barbaric. They even sterilize the women from what I heard.
Agreed.
China's mass murderer, Mao, make the rest of the monsters in all of human history, in all the world, PALE in comparison.
Of course, China enjoys the U.S.'s "most favored trade nation" status. THEY get a "pass" on their murders.
We all know the old "excuse," that we were just "following orders." Mao didn't do it alone. He had MILLIONS of helping hands. Still does.
Strange how ONE people gets a pass on genocide and another one doesn't.
Han SuYin is nothing other than a propagandist for the PRC.
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