By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, June 21: After more than a two-week long tour of Australia and New Zealand, the exiled Tibetan leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama returned to McLeod Ganj, his residential hometown in exile, this morning.
As usual, Tibetans here lined up to welcome him after his overwhelming visits abroad where he met several political leaders and addressed thousands of people at a series of public events.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s tour of Australia and NZ created a furor in Beijing.
Various media speculations, however, described the Dalai Lama’s Australia visit as a huge hit.
Despite fierce opposition from Communist China, Australian PM John Howard was forced to find a time in his diary from domestic pressure to host an official meeting with the Tibetan leader in his Sydney office on June 15.
After spending 10 minutes talking to Dalai Lama on a lounge at Brisbane Airport in Australia, NZ PM Helen Clark, in a bid to avoid a formal meeting with the Dalai Lama in Wellington, had reportedly said, “On a number of occasions I have raised with Chinese leaders the issue of the treatment of people in Tibet, and I will continue to do so.”
Meanwhile, Amnesty International has issued a press statement challenging NZ government “to demonstrate that it is making a genuine diplomatic effort to address the severe persecution of Tibetan people by the Chinese government.”
During his just concluded tour, His Holiness the Dalai Lama had warned that without genuine autonomy, he said, Tibet could face “extinction” in 15 years. His Holiness also repeated his position that Tibet should be granted autonomy within China, not full independence, to preserve its language and culture.
“Intentional or unintentional, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place.” Dalai Lama was reported as saying.
“Our approach is to bring general unity, harmony between the central government of China and Tibet,” he said. “We have to learn to live side by side,” the Dalai Lama said.
