By Laurie Goodstein
NEW YORK – The Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and one of the world’s leading advocates of nonviolence, said in an interview that it might be necessary to fight terrorists with violence, and that it was “too early to say” whether the Iraq war is a mistake.
“I feel only history will tell,” he said Wednesday. “Terrorism is the worst kind of violence, so we have to check it, we have to take countermeasures.” The Dalai Lama spoke in New York on the last stop of a U.S. tour that has highlighted his dual roles as Buddhist avatar and head of state. In the last tw weeks, he has met with Tibetan exiles in several cities, dedicated an interfaith temple in Bloomington, Indiana, and pressed the Tibetan cause in Washington.
At a time when many political and religious leaders are saying that the U.S. antiterrorism campaign and the war in Iraq are only fueling additional terrorism, the Dalai Lama refused to pass judgment.
But he emphasized that “the real antidote” to terrorism in the long run is “compassion, dialogue – peaceful means” – even with terrorists.
“We have to deal with their motivation,” he said.” Terrorism comes out of hatred, and also short-sightedness.”
He likened Osama bin Laden to a butcher who has grown inured to slaughtering animals. With terrorists, he said, applying a Buddhist analysis, “their whole mind is dominated by negative emotions.”
He rejected the prediction popularized by some scholars that the world is headed toward a “clash of civilizations” between Christian and Muslim nations. He cited the citizens in the Soviet Union who once expressed hostility to the United States and the West, and have now changed their minds. The Arab world can do the same, he said.
The Dalai Lama, 68, was interviewed in a hotel room as he prepared for the first of four days of Buddhist teachings in his first visit to New York City since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. On a table next to his armchair sat a stack of thick paper strips with handwritten text that contained the teachings of a 17th-century Tibetan scholar. He planned to use the texts for the day’s lecture.He sat cross-legged in an armchair, his eyebrows bouncing in amusement behind his glasses. He spoke in English with occasional help from his translator and his U.S. representative, Nawang Rabgyal. He had just posed for pictures with a celebrity visitor, the singer Ricky Martin, who left wearing a long white scarf that is traditionally bestowed as a blessing.
Since he was driven out of Tibet 44 years ago by the Chinese occupation, the Dalai Lama has never been back. But he said that he “certainly” expects that China will eventually allow him and other Tibetans living in exile to return. He long ago abandoned the goal of independence from China; instead, he says, he seeks “autonomy.”
The Chinese government has relocated many Han Chinese into Tibet as part of its strategy to assimilate the region. The Dalai Lama said he was concerned about this “population transfer,” and that he pressed this point in his meetings with President George W. Bush and members of Congress.
The Chinese are now building a railroad line through Tibet that will facilitate Chinese settlement there. But the Dalai Lama said that the line was “basically welcome” because it could help economic development.
He said that one of the reasons he advocates Tibet remaining part of China is that “we are materially very much backward.”
As his entourage left the hotel, the Dalai Lama was greeted by a small crowd of Tibetans, some of them nannies pushing strollers, many of them weeping.
“We are so happy and we are so sad, too,” said Pasang Keyray, a Tibetan born in India who arrived in the United States two years ago. “We haven’t seen him for a long time. We are lucky we have such a good leader.”
Pointing up to the Tibetan flag flying from the hotel awning, she said, “I am hoping to put this flag on Tibet one day.”
