Religion: October 2007 Archives

By Ashleigh Patterson | CTV.ca
28 October 2007

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will host the first-ever formal meeting between a Canadian prime minister and the Dalai Lama -- a controversial move that could signal an unprecedented push for Tibetan autonomy.

The 72-year-old exiled spiritual leader will visit Ottawa today and publicly meet with Harper in the Prime Minister's Office on Monday.

That meeting is expected to go further than former prime minister Paul Martin's informal private talk with the Tibetan leader in 2004 -- the first time the Dalai Lama had ever met with a Canadian prime minister.

"For us, no matter what they talk about in the meeting, the significance is that they are meeting," Norbu Tsering, president of the Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario, told CTV.ca from Toronto.

October's visit will be the Dalai Lama's sixth trip to Canada and his third to Ottawa since he began travelling to the West in the 1970s:

• The Dalai Lama first visited Canada in 1980 and was met by then-governor general Ed Schreyer.
• In 1990, he visited Ottawa for the first time and met former secretary of state for multiculturalism Gerry Weiner on the government's behalf.
• The Dalai Lama's 1990 visit prompted an amendment to Sino-Canadian diplomatic policy, which was officially established in 1970. Canada continued to recognize the People's Republic of China as the official government but would take no position on territorial claims.
• In 2004, former prime minister Paul Martin courted controversy by becoming the first Canadian leader to meet the Dalai Lama. The one-hour talk on human rights took place at the home of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Ottawa. Martin's predecessor, Jean Chrétien, refused such a meeting.
• The Dalai Lama was personally recognized when he last visited Canada in 2006 and received an honorary Canadian citizenship -- a measure protested by Chinese officials. He joins Holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg, Nelson Mandela and, most recently, Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi in receiving the honour.

Currently, Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade recognizes China as the legitimate government of both China and Tibet -- but has "great respect" for the Dalai Lama.

Dermod Travis, executive director of Canada Tibet Committee, says western nations have made a distinct shift in recent years toward a negotiated solution for an autonomous Tibet within China.

>> Read the complete article

The Epoch Times
October 24, 2007

A confronation between monks in Zhaibung Monastery and the police broke out on October 17. Four days after the confrontation, the largest monastery in Lhasa, Tibet is still sealed off with over 1,000 monks and dozens of pilgrims inside. Over 3,000 armed police have surrounded the monastery.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Ends Celebrations for Dalai Lama's Award

According to the Central News Agency's (CAN) report, on October 16, monks in the monastery attempted to celebrate inside the monastery President Bush giving the Dalai Lama a Congressional Gold Medal on the 17th. Authorities put a halt to the celebrations.

On the morning of the 17th, after the monks chanted Buddhist scriptures in the Coqen Hall, they attempted to hold another celebration. A confrontation ensued when armed officers injured a monk in the head trying to stop the celebration. About 900 monks were involved and there were about 350 armed officers inside and about 1,000 outside the monastery at the time. The monks were not allowed to leave the monastery. The military blocked traffic west of Lhasa leading into the downtown to prevent the monks going downtown to protest.

It was reported that there was confrontation between civilians and police in Neqoin Monastery, an affiliate monastery outside the walls of Zhaibung Monastery. Some people said the police shot at people in the street of Lhasa but those in the Temple claimed they didn't hear any gunfire.

>> Read the complete article

By Stephen Collinson | AFP | via (uncensored) Yahoo! News
October 18, 2007

President George W. Bush Wednesday called for an end to "religious repression" in China as he defiantly became the first US leader to appear in public with the Dalai Lama.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader accepted the Congressional Gold Medal, lawmakers' highest civilian honor, in a formal ceremony in the US Capitol's ornate Rotunda -- a move certain to further enrage leaders in Beijing.

Bush praised the 72-year-old Buddhist icon for keeping the "flame" of Tibet's people alive, and called on Beijing to open political talks with him about the region's future.

"They will find this good man to be a man of peace and reconciliation," Bush said in the decorous room beneath the soaring dome of the US Capitol building, watched by lawmakers, Tibetan exiles and Buddhist monks.

"Americans cannot look to the plight of the religiously oppressed and close our eyes or turn away," Bush said.

"That is why I will continue to urge the leaders of China to welcome the Dalai Lama to China," said the president, in a ceremony broadcast live to China by radio, television and the Internet by Voice of America.

The Dalai Lama reiterated that he was not seeking independence from China but wanted greater autonomy, and he said he was sorry that his presence in the United States had ruffled Sino-US relations.

"The consistency of American support for Tibet has not gone unnoticed in China," he said during the ceremony.

"Where this has caused some tension in the US-China relations I feel a sense of regret."

Bush had earlier provoked a fresh outburst of anger from Beijing, for his previous private meeting on Tuesday with the Dalai Lama, a style of encounter preferred by previous US presidents.

The Dalai Lama fled to India following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, and currently lives in the northern hill town of Dharamsala, which is also the seat of his government in exile.

China has ruled Tibet since sending troops into the region in 1950, and officially "liberating" it from feudal rule a year later.

Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell praised Bush for appearing at the public event with the Dalai Lama.

"US presidents have met privately with the Dalai Lama for years, but it wasn't until today that any of them had lent the prestige of the office to a public event," McConnell said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi earlier warned that Bush's private meeting with the Dalai Lama and the Congress ceremony represented "a severe violation of the norms of international relations."

He accused the United States of having "severely hurt" China's feelings and interfered in its internal affairs.

>> Read the complete article

By Mark Magnier | Los Angeles Times
October 17, 2007

Beijing says Bush's meeting with the Tibetan will damage relations and calls on the U.S. to cancel plans to grant him a medal.

China lashed out Tuesday at President Bush's White House meeting with the Dalai Lama, arguing that it would seriously damage relations between Washington and Beijing, and called on the U.S. to cancel plans to honor the famous Tibetan figure with a Congressional Gold Medal.

"We solemnly demand that the U.S. cancel the extremely wrong arrangements," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told reporters hours before the meeting. "It seriously violates the norm of international relations and seriously wounded the feelings of the Chinese people and interfered with China's internal affairs."

The Dalai Lama, recipient of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, has been based in India since fleeing his homeland during a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. China has condemned him as a "splittist" intent on undermining Chinese sovereignty by working for the independence of Tibet. The Dalai Lama says he is only seeking to expand autonomy, not establish a separate state.

The White House dismissed China's concerns, saying the president has had private meetings with many religious leaders, including the pope.

"The president believes that people all over the world should be able to express their religion and practice their religion in freedom. And that's why the president wants to meet with him," White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said. "He believes he should be honored as a great spiritual leader."

>> Read the complete report

By REUTERS | The New York Times
October 16, 2007

China expressed fury on Tuesday that the United States is to honor the Dalai Lama with an award and warned that the activities of his supporters were increasing in Chinese-controlled Tibet.

The Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since staging a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, is to receive the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday after being hosted at the White House by President George W. Bush.

"We are furious," Tibet's Communist Party boss, Zhang Qingli, told reporters. "If the Dalai Lama can receive such an award, there must be no justice or good people in the world."

China, which views the Dalai Lama as a separatist and a traitor, pulled out of a meeting this week at which world powers were to discuss Iran in protest at the U.S. plan to honor him.

China has also cancelled an annual human rights dialogue with Germany to show is displeasure over German Chancellor Angela Merkel's September meeting with the Dalai Lama.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said China had expressed its "resolute opposition" to the award.

"China has solemnly demanded the United States cancel the above-mentioned and extremely wrongful arrangement," Yang told reporters on the sidelines of the 17th Communist Party Congress.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said that if the decision to honor the Dalai Lama was not reversed it would have an "extremely serious impact" on bilateral relations.

China had pulled out of the meeting on Iran for "technical reasons," he told a news conference.

China's rhetoric against the Dalai Lama, whom Tibetan Buddhists consider their spiritual leader, has been increasing in line with his accolades abroad, even though the government and the Dalai's envoys are engaged in a tentative dialogue process.

>> Read complete news item

By REUTERS | The New York Times
October 09, 2007

China, in its latest tirade against Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, on Tuesday accused the exiled Nobel peace prize laureate of supporting "evil cults" like Falun Gong and Japan's Aum Shinrikyo.

China has ruled the mountainous Himalayan region of Tibet with an iron fist since Chinese troops marched in there in 1950.

The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India after a failed uprising against communist rule in 1959 and is branded by China as a "separatist." He says he only wants greater autonomy for the region.

In a lengthy signed commentary in English carried by the official Xinhua news agency, the piece said the Dalai Lama "not only has no hatred toward evil cults but instead shows a great deal of compassion for them."

The Dalai Lama supported Shoko Asahara and his Aum Shinrikyo cult, who carried out a sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995 which killed 12 and made thousands sick, Xinhua said, in a piece signed by somebody calling themselves Shi Shan.

"It was the support and connivance of the 14th Dalai Lama who took the foe for his friend that made Asahara feel secure in the knowledge that he had strong backing," Xinhua said, in typically strong language.

"It is the 14th Dalai Lama's own deeds that have step by step betrayed his real intentions and political ambitions put under the guise of Buddhism and peace," it added.

The Dalai Lama also provided succor to the Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned by China as an "evil cult," and its leader Li Hongzhi, Xinhua said.

"... Even such an evil cult leader who is denounced by many people and had to flee abroad to escape the punishment of laws secured compassion and admiration from the 14th Dalai Lama," it added.

Critics have accused China of repressing religious freedom in Tibet and other parts of the country, but Beijing counters by saying it guarantees religious freedom and invests large amounts of money every year to modernize the underdeveloped Tibetan region.

Last month, China chided German Chancellor Angela Merkel for hosting the Dalai Lama and demanded Berlin take action to repair damage to bilateral ties.