January 13, 2025
January 13, 2025
Nobel Laureate disagrees with Trump anti-immigration policy
Our CORRESPONDENT
TAWANG, Apr 08: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Saturday said Beijing’s bid to name his successor to undermine the Tibetans cause was “nonsense”. He also feels Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s China policy is “more or less the same” as that of the Congress earlier.
Beijing had years ago confined the Dalai Lama-nominated Panchen Lama and projected its own Panchen Lama. The communist regime in China now wants to have its own Dalai Lama.
Panchen Lama is a monk immediately below the Dalai Lama.
“As early as 1969, I had said the Tibetan people will decided if this very institution of Dalai Lama should continue or not. If this institution is no longer relevant, it should stop,” the 82-year-old exiled Tibetan spiritual leader told reporters after a spiritual discourse at the Yid-Ga-Choezin ground here.
“Nobody knows who or where the next Dalai Lama will be born or come from. Some indication (about his reincarnation) might come at the time of my death, but now there is no such indication,” he said, not ruling out the possibility of the next Dalai Lama being a woman.
The Dalai Lama said there have been discussions that the Chinese government should finalise about his successor. “That I say is nonsense. In the past, Chinese emperors did have involvement in the reincarnation of some lamas but they were disciplies of certain Tibetan lamas,” he said.
China’s interest in the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, the Tibetan leader felt, was illogical unless it first recognises the reincarnation of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
On whether his visit to Tawang, a place Beijing claims as its own, will affect India-China ties, he said: “We will have to wait and see. But it is normal for China to give political colour to my spiritual visits.”
But his visit to Arunachal Pradesh, he felt, should not have angered China because “the whole world knows I am not seeking independence of Tibet”. He added: “I wish Chinese officials accompany me during my visits to find out if I am doing or saying anything against them.”
Forgiving China for the atrocities on Tibetans “similar to Pol Pot’s in Cambodia”, the Dalai Lama wondered why despite his middle-path the Chinese government continued to call him a separatist, show a negative attitude.
“Tibet has had very good relations with China for thousands of years. I have no issues with One China policy ensuring economic benefit to Tibet provide we have the right to preserve our culture and language,” he said.
The way forward is to solve the 60-year-old problem (Tibetan crisis) which exists whether China admits or not. A solution could bring stability to the region, he said.
Sitting in Tawang, closest to his homeland, the spiritual leader said he wished to visit Taktser, the village in Amdo region of Tibet where he was born. “Almost 99% of Tibetans and many Chinese Buddhists want me to go…”
The Dalai Lama said the Chinese people were being fed wrong information about him, and they realise this when they meet him in other countries. “The Chinese people have every right to know the reality, but totalitarianism had done a great damage,” he said.
Praising Taiwan for preserving Chinese culture, the Dalai Lama felt China needs another cultural revolution based on compassion and not on hatred and anger as was the case with the one led by Mao Zedong.
On the BJP-led NDA government’s China policy, the Tibetan leader said: “It is more or less the same as that of the Congress from the days of Narasimha Rao… but I admire Modi, he is active and seeks development.”
The Nobel laureate said he disagreed with US President Donald Trump’s policy that does not suit America, the “leading nation of free world”.
“I disagree with the America First policy, it is not becoming of a country that encourages free thinking,” he said. The US has a sizeable number of Tibetan refugees besides other Asian communities. Rather than pursue anti-immigration and protectionism, the world should follow the European Union for better economy and social cohesion. “The exit of Britain was the people’s choice, but EU is something Africa, the Americas and even Asia can follow. I admire Germany for sticking to EU despite a very strong Deutsche Mark,” the Dalai Lama said.
India, China and Pakistan can also have a similar economic and cultural collaboration for greater stability in the region, the 82-year-old spiritual leader said, indicating Delhi and Beijing should mend fences.