Three-city trip by revered spiritual leader has drawn angry response from China
By MICHAEL VALPY
The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibet’s Buddhists and internationally acclaimed as an advocate for global peace and harmony, will be celebrated in three Canadian cities this spring while the government of the world’s most populous nation fumes.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Ottawa said yesterday: “We strongly oppose the Dalai Lama’s planned visit. [He] is not simply a religious figure. . . . He is now engaged in activities aimed at splitting China and undermining national unity.”
The 69-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been an opponent of China’s rule of Tibet for half a century and intends to ask Prime Minister Paul Martin to broker talks between the Chinese government and the India-based Tibetan government-in-exile, which the Dalai Lama leads.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister was unable to confirm last night whether a meeting had been scheduled.
The Chinese embassy spokesman said his government had at all times a door open to contacts and negotiations with the Dalai Lama, but “he has been reluctant to renounce his stance on [Tibetan] independence and abandon his splitting actions. On the one hand, he claims he does not ask for Tibetan independence. On the other hand, he refuses to admit Tibet is part of China.”
However official Ottawa intends diplomatically to handle the Dalai Lama’s visit, Canadian universities, scholars, musicians and Buddhists plan to lionize him in Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto.
He will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of British Columbia on April 19 and open an academic conference on Tibet in the Contemporary World. A musical tribute for him that night at Vancouver’s Orpheum Theatre, sponsored by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the West Coast Sacred Arts Society, is already sold out.
On April 20, Simon Fraser University has arranged a round-table discussion entitled Balancing Educating the Mind with Educating the Heart, in which the Dalai Lama, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shrin Ebadi and former Czech president Vaclav Havel will take part . The moderator will be Anglican Bishop Michael Ingham of Vancouver.
He visits Ottawa April 21-24 to “build support for the Tibet-China Negotiation campaign,” according to the city’s Website. No other events involving the spiritual leader are listed on the Website .
He then comes to Toronto April 24 to May 5.
He will give a public address at the SkyDome April 25, lead an interfaith service at the National Trade Centre on May 1, receive an honorary degree from the University of Toronto and a peace award named after the revered Jain teacher, Acharya Sushil Kumarji, who died in 1994.
