Colombo – Sri Lanka said on Thursday it will follow its longstanding ‘one-China’ policy amid moves by Buddhist groups here to invite the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama for a key celebration.
Media Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said the government which came to power in November will continue to recognise only ‘one China’, but local individuals and companies were free to trade with partners in Taiwan.
Asked if the government would allow the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader to visit Sri Lanka, an important seat of Theravada Buddhism, Yapa said he could not respond immediately.
“We need a little time to get back on this one,” he told reporters after the cabinet was informed on Wednesday by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera that Colombo was maintaining its stance on China.
Two private charities are planning to invite the Dalai Lama for a ‘Buddha Jayanthi’ ceremony marking the 2,550th anniversary of the Buddha’s death.
During a similar move in 1999, the Sri Lankan government said that while it endorsed the peace message of Tibet’s spiritual leader, it would not allow him to visit the island.
China regularly protests to countries which allow visits by the Dalai Lama. Beijing sees him as a supporter of independence for Tibet, which it regards as Chinese territory.
The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in 1959.
Buddhist leaders here complain that Sri Lanka is the only Buddhist nation which has prevented a visit by the Dalai Lama, who has said he would like to visit two Sri Lankan shrines – the Temple of the Tooth and the Sri Mahabodi.
The Temple of the Tooth in the central town of Kandy is one of the most sacred Buddhist shrines as a tooth relic of the Buddha is believed enshrined there.
