General•Obama and the Dalai Lama

  • http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/world/asia/19prexy.html?hp

    — President Obama met with the Dalai Lama on Thursday, welcoming the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader to the White House for a low-profile meeting that nonetheless raised the hackles of China.

    The two men spoke about democracy, human rights and the need to preserve Tibet’s religious identity and culture — all issues that, predictably, irritated Beijing.

    In a written statement, the White House said Mr. Obama had expressed support for the preservation of Tibet’s “unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity and the protection of human rights for Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China.”

    The meeting, which the White House put off last year so as not to interfere with Mr. Obama’s trip to Beijing in November, is the latest evidence of the more muscular posture that the Obama administration has been adopting with China, after a year in which China has taken a firm stance in its relations with the United States on a number of issues.

    Last month, the administration announced a $6 billion arms sales package to Taiwan, infuriating Chinese officials.

    The meeting on Thursday between Mr. Obama and Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, did not please Chinese officials, either. China, which regards the Dalai Lama as an advocate of Tibetan independence, said that it was “strongly dissatisfied” and that it expected the United States to try to make amends.

  • Any person or nation that could be against the Dalai Lama is not one that I would care to deal with anyway

  • Dealing with China is not a choice at this point

  • I suppose you're right...at least I personally don't have to deal with them...

  • yeah at least not for now, and hopefully not ever! I bet if they invade us they will torture us by making us play Dance Dance Revolution for hours on end. Or is that just Japan. Oh well.

  • hmmm...INTERESTING

  • BTW hi

  • Just to play a devil's avocate here...
    Dalai Lama is a spiritual leader BUT is a POLITICAL leader as well.

  • and?

  • nothing...just nothing at all
    just a point I made...thats it

  • but what are you implying. He is a spiritual leader and a political leader, so therefore _________

    Are you saying you think this is a conflict of interest?

    Can politics and spirituality not be harmonious?

  • no...I am not saying that at all !!
    Politics and Spirituality can be definitely harmonius...infact very much so. I was just thinking about LAND. nevermind its not related to what we are talking about here.

  • ok = )

  • I don't really know the context of the Dalai Lama. I know he's a spiritual leader but does anyone know WHY he was exiled?

  • Because the government claims control over all high monks and identification of reincarnated "lama's" (Dalai or Panchen). I just learned that this Dalai Lama is the 14th recognized incarnation of the Dalai Lama. Seems like something there is probably about 12392123 great documentaries about on google video.

    Here's the wiki page. The tibetan recognized Panchen Lama has been missing, abducted by the chinese government since 1995. EU and US have tried to insist china guarantee that him and his family are safe, but they refuse. Pretty wild stuff.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalai_Lama

  • So really it's the Tibetans who were exiled, and the Dalai Lama is the name they give their leader who is chosen based on a system hundreds of years old for recognizing his reincarnation.

  • Starting with the 5th Dalai Lama and until the 14th Dalai Lama's flight into exile during 1959, the Dalai Lamas spent the winter at the Potala Palace and the summer at the Norbulingka palace and park. Both are in Lhasa and approximately 3 km apart.

    During 1959, after the start of the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the 14th Dalai Lama sought refuge in India. The then Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was instrumental in granting safe refuge to the Dalai Lama and his fellow Tibetans. The Dalai Lama has since lived in exile in Dharamsala, in the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India, where the Central Tibetan Administration (the Tibetan government-in-exile) is also established. Tibetan refugees have constructed and opened many schools and Buddhist temples in Dharamsala.[22]

  • The Sixth Dalai Lama had an Interesting Story
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    Tsangyang Gyatso, the Sixth Dalai Lama, was not enthroned until 1697. Tsangyang Gyatso enjoyed a lifestyle that included drinking, the company of women, and writing love songs.[13] In 1705, Lobzang Khan of the Khoshud used the sixth Dalai Lama's escapades as excuse to take control of Tibet. The regent was murdered, and the Dalai Lama sent to Beijing. He died on the way, near Koko Nur, ostensibly from illness.

  • Man I would love to get a copy of one of those Love songs.

  • Also,
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Dalai_Lama

    In 1951 the Chinese military pressured the Dalai Lama to ratify a seventeen-point agreement which permitted the People's Republic of China to take control of Tibet. He fled through the mountains to India soon after the failed 1959 uprising, and the effective collapse of the Tibetan resistance movement. In India he established a government-in-exile.
    The most influential member of the Gelugpa or Yellow Hat sect, he has considerable influence over the other sects of Tibetan Buddhism.[5] The Chinese government regards him as the symbol of an outmoded theocratic system.[6] Along with the 80,000 or so exiles that followed him, the Dalai Lama strives to preserve traditional Tibetan education and culture.

    AND...
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theocracy

  • Very nice information Divya

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