https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Intern ... 4&si=44594

Dalai Lama says China can learn a lot from Taiwan
Relations between Beijing and Taipei 'delicate,' spiritual leader says


Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama speaks from his home in India during an online press conference on Wednesday. (Screenshot from FCCJ Youtube)
ANDREW SHARP, Nikkei Asia deputy politics and economics editorNovember 10, 2021 16:50 JST

TOKYO -- The Dalai Lama said that China can learn a lot from Taiwan and described relations between Beijing and Taipei as "delicate."

Speaking in a sometimes rambling online press conference to the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, the Buddhist monk mostly discussed spiritual matters but was steered by questions into political affairs.

When asked if Taiwan could become the next Tibet -- a Chinese territory since 1951 -- the 86-year-old said that the democratic island has a lot that China can learn from.

"I really find that the true Chinese heritage and traditions are in Taiwan. Taiwan has kept a 1,000-year-old Chinese tradition and culture," he said from his home in Dharamsala, India. "Economically, Taiwan gets a lot of help from Mainland China. But Chinese culture, including Buddhism, many Chinese brothers and sisters can learn a lot from Taiwanese brothers and sisters."

"I really pray that Taiwan and mainland China are unified peacefully," he said, without clarifying whether that should be under the government in Beijing or Taipei.

Tensions across the Taiwan Strait have grown increasingly fraught since President Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016. Beijing frequently flies warplanes near the island, and Taiwan's defense minister recently warned that China already has the ability to invade and will be capable of mounting a "full scale" invasion by 2025.

The Dalai Lama said he had no plans to visit Taiwan.

"The relations between Taiwan and China are quite delicate. I don't want to cause local political difficulties," he said. "I can communicate with people in Taiwan like I am talking to you now [online]."

The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in northern India since he fled his Chinese-ruled homeland in 1959. China considers him a separatist even though he long ago abandoned the goal of Tibetan independence in favor of it gaining greater autonomy.

At least 130,000 Tibetans live in exile, including 85,000 in India. But most of the world's 6 million Tibetans live in the autonomous Tibetan region of western China and regard the Dalai Lama as their spiritual leader.

Asked if he wanted to return to Tibet one day, the Dalai Lama said he is happy to remain in exile in India.

"I'm very happy in India. We see snow mountains, lakes, forests. I love this place," he said. "India has complete freedom and religious harmony... The followers of all religious traditions exist in India. It has very good harmony."

His word could be interpreted that the Dalai Lama wants Indian government of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party to continue supporting Tibetan refugees. New Delhi has been offering citizenship to Tibetans in India instead of abandoning refugee status. In 2017, at the behest of the Indian government, the Tibetan government-in-exile changed the English name for its political leader from "prime minister" to "president."

The Dalai Lama said he was willing to travel to Beijing to meet with Chinese leaders including President Xi Jinping.

"China itself is changing," he said. "[Chinese leaders] are sometimes too extreme. They try to control [people]."

On spiritual matters, the Dalai Lama said "religion is too politicized, that's a problem."

"Your enemy is your best teacher. With an enemy, you can practice patience. That is one of the important factors for peace of mind," he said. "Tibetans generally have a peaceful mind. Inside Tibet also, you can see they are very faithful and often have a smiling face."

He is getting well up in years now. I have always found his comments sensible and often ironically humorous.

Everything I know about the Dalai Lama is based off of that movie Seven Years in Tibet, (pretty good movie I know) that alone tells me he's not wrong.

His original flight from Tibet was funded by the CIA.
Funding continued for a number of years to establish the community at Dharamsala
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

@nemo We can do better than the 2 nd City tribune to establish the CIA's role in Tibet and aiding the Dalai Lama's flight, jus sayin. What covert national security force with international reach wouldn't have taken some quick victories against the reds had they the chances the men in black had in that time?
Dalai Lama probably is as cool as he appears to be, his comments are searingly accurate and often seem to be something like what Yogi Berra would have said had he been a Rinpoche instead of ballplayer.
@Darkcel , If you got a lot of the movie "7 years in Tibet", I encourage more looking around - check out Trungpa Rinpoche (alcoholic, banged a lot of his students, hard to argue with his writing however). Trungpa was a real live wild man and proponet of "Crazy Wisdom", he started Naropa Institute and School for Disembodied Poets in Colorado ( along with Allen Ginsburg, spurred on very much by William Burroughs) Check out the dramatic mystery around the Panchen Lama, the child Rinpoche abducted by the Chinese government in 1995 along with his family and not seen since. Chinese officials instead introduced their own choice of the Panchen Lama which has been an awful sore spot to any Tibetans that are with the Dalai Lama as Panchen Lama is key in recognizing the reincarnated lamas when they return as new births. This will include the selection of the next Dalai Lama, or the recognition of future Lamas might be a better way of describing it.

One of my professors hired Trungpa, pre Naropa days, to teach at the largest public uni in the state of Colorado and he was not a prude at all but he also had to fire him. I can't recall the exact details but maybe it was Trungpa's habit of lecturing 150-300 undergrads with 16 oz. of Scotch slipped into a can of Sprite as disguise. I guess he prepped the lectures but after a little meditation to start he was known to cast notes aside and ad lib the 75 minute lectures and maybe that chafed the Board of Regents, who were a bunch of prudes.

I ought to include that I take none of this magical Lama/reincarnated guru stuff as fact because I have no direct experience with those things, but I believe the Tibetans we are discussing here and their community whole heartedly believe in these reincarnated Lamas and the powers they are said to possess. Understanding that, this Panchen Lama affair is a hugely important dishonor in the gravest and most central piece to Tibetan Buddhism going forward with the current leader at the very impermanent age of 86.

Tibetan death cult.

John Bingham wrote: ↑Sat Nov 13, 2021 1:21 am Tibetan death cult.

i deserved that, but, yeah, they are a trippy buncb... but so is Catholicism.

Is that some lama's relic by chance?

Piss China off? Is there anything less than boot licking and ardent admiration that doesn’t piss China off?

The PRC banned Disney for releasing the movie 7 years in Tibet.

The official people’s narrative is that the PLA liberated the Tibetans from religious slavery and oppression. The high speed rail line direct into Tibet will hasten this liberation by allowing millions of Chinese citizens (a couple cities worth) to easily move in.

The CIA is not just some mindless evil bogeyman. It’s made up of people. Caring people who couldn’t just stand by and watch the PRC kill the Dalai Lama and wipe out an entire culture.

Kudos to the Dalai Lama. The People’s Republic tried to replace him with one in Tibet. Now they control the person who is supposed to acknowledge who next the next Dalai Lama. All the PRC needs to do is play the long game. Wait until he dies.