Dalai Lama Says Tawang Visit Is to Teach, Not Find Successor

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, said his planned visit to Buddhist monasteries on the India-China border next month is solely for teaching and shouldn’t anger China’s government.

The Dalai Lama will visit the town of Tawang in a disputed border region of Arunachal Pradesh state next month. The town is where he crossed into India in 1959 while fleeing Chinese rule over Tibet, as well as the birthplace in the 17th-century of the sixth Dalai Lama.
“If my visit creates problems, I’m very sad, that’s all,” the 74 year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner told reporters in Tokyo today. “It was a fearful journey with great anxiety, and when I reached the Tawang area it was an immense relief. I have great feelings about the area.”
Tawang is home to one of the largest monasteries of his Gelugpa sect of Buddhism. Local leaders invited him to teach and dedicate a new hospital, built in part with funds he donated. Next month’s visit was the first opportunity to accept, and was not meant to surprise the Chinese government, he said.
Asked whether his successor may be found in Tawang, he restated that he will play no role in such efforts. Tibetans believe the Dalai Lama is the reincarnation of Avalokitsevara, the Buddha of Compassion.
“If I was communist then I would have to be concerned about my successor but I’m not communist,” he said. “If the majority of Tibetan people want to keep the Dalai Lama as an institution, they will carry it on. It’s not my business.”
‘Propaganda Won’t Work’
The Dalai Lama repeated his call for reporters to be allowed to visit Tibet to assess conditions without the presence of security officers. Tibet’s biggest pro-independence demonstrations in almost 20 years took place in March 2008 when hundreds of monks marched to demand an end to religious restrictions and the release of imprisoned colleagues.
“If the reality in Tibet is what the government says and that Tibetan people are happy, then our information is wrong. We would have to apologize and we would cease all our activities,” he said. “But if it’s not as the government says, then they should take a realistic approach at solving the situation because propaganda isn’t going to work.”
Allowing the media to report the truth about Tibet would help China build trust with other countries that would increase its authority in global affairs, he said.
“People should have full knowledge of the reality, good or bad, and that is lacking in all authoritarian countries and especially in mainland China,” he said. “This must change. If China is going to take a more constructive role on this planet, trust is essential.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net.