Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama delivers teachings to Buddhist followers at the Yiga Choezin ground in Tawang near the India-China border. AFP/Getty Images/Biju Boro
By Biju Boro | AFP
ON THE WEB, 8 April 2017
The Dalai Lama on Saturday accused China of spreading false information about his trip to a monastery near India’s border that drew protests from Beijing which claims the Himalayan area as its territory.
“People have the wrong information,” the 81-year-old monk told reporters in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang where he took shelter on his flight from Tibet decades ago.
“I wish one Chinese official would accompany me while I’m visiting here, what I’m doing, what I’m saying. They should know the reality.”
Beijing this week lodged an official protest with the Indian ambassador, accusing New Delhi of arranging a platform for the Dalai Lama to “hold anti-China and separatist activities”.
After addressing devotees at the monastery, considered one of the holiest sites in Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama fired back at Beijing, accusing the country’s communist officials of misleading its people over the nature of his visit.
“The 1.3-4 billion Chinese people have every right to know the reality…. They only have one-sided information and wrong information is morally wrong, they’re fooling their own people.”
The Indian government has insisted the trip is purely religious and pointed out that the Dalai Lama has been to Tawang before, accusing China of creating an “artificial controversy”.
But some analysts say New Delhi has adopted a firmer approach to China since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in 2014 and invited the head of the India-based Tibetan government-in-exile to attend his swearing-in ceremony.
“The Dalai Lama has always been welcome to travel wherever he wants in India. But this government has been a bit firmer on issues of sovereignty,” said Jayadeva Ranade, head of the Delhi-based Centre for China Analysis and Strategy.
Huge crowds, at least 20,000 by some estimates, turned out to hear the monk’s nearly three-hour religious discourse.
Reincarnation concerns
New Delhi is currently pushing to expand its infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh, building new roads and conducting a feasibility study for a railway.
India and China fought a border war in 1962 over the region, which has a large ethnic Tibetan population.
En route to Arunachal, the Dalai Lama was reunited with the Indian border guard who escorted him into the country after he fled his native Tibet following a failed uprising nearly 60 years ago.
Speaking to reporters a few days later, the Dalai Lama said the meeting had been “very emotional”, bringing back memories of his dramatic flight across the Himalayas disguised as a soldier.
Ranade said the visit to Tawang — birthplace of an earlier incarnation of the Dalai Lama — had also raised Chinese concerns over the ageing monk’s succession.
The Dalai Lama has stated that his reincarnation may be found outside Chinese Tibet, and Arunachal, with its rich Tibetan culture, is an obvious contender.
Under Tibetan Buddhist tradition, senior monks identify a young boy who shows signs he is a reincarnation of a late leader.
But China’s officially atheist Communist rulers maintain that they have the sole authority to decide reincarnation.
“The Chinese reaction has been very elevated, they’ve been using tough language,” Ranade told AFP. “This indicates Chinese anxiety about the reincarnation.”
Mr. Ngokhangla, I agree ‘little knowledge is dangerous’ but I am trying to crystallize the factual issue why we are so behind and lost our country at the peak of Chinese political crisis between 1949-1959. Majority of our people read and digest only one of the coin but we never bother to actualize the other side of the coin. Gaden Phodrang has never accepted our educated and intellectual Tibetans like Amdo Gedun Chophel, Baba Phuntsok Wangyal, Pomdatsang, Dawa Norbu, Gungthang Tsultrim, Jamyang Norbu, Ngabo Jigmay etc.etc. to reform and run the Tibetan administration in Tibet and exile. Tibetan community would not realize it at this critical juncture because they see only one side of the coin. We keep sleep walking until the last long breathe.
Dorje, only when a nation has full continental and navel power can a nation be classified as a super power. The United States is the only super power today.
China has achieved a lot under the communist ideology system but by using capitalistic means. It’s the theological system that still keeps the Tibet cause alive today and of late gaining momentum in India where many Indian scholars, think tanks, students, women, etc. are ameliorating the Tibet cause as a result of immense injustice suffered by the Tibetans.
Chinese are Chinese. They do relatively well whether in China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan or wherever under different systems. Whereas, some of our gangchenpas, especially those stricken with the adage “Little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” often seem to dwell on finding fault and finger-pointing.
Chinese are not Tibetan and they have become a world super power nation under the same communist ideological system. HH Dalai Lama can not criticize Chinese leaders from this point of view. But the residue of our theological system still exist in the exile community and that is why we never grow up as a nation together. Our change in leadership is just a physical and not a genuine one. Our democracy in the exile is a mirage, because it is not started from grass root level.