This week, the warring factions of American politics will lay aside their quarrels for a few hours when they come together to honor the man who has arguably become the most prominent worldwide symbol of democratic values and respect for human rights. He is Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th and current Dalai Lama.
In addition to being the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama leads a Tibetan government in exile and is an outspoken advocate of Tibetan autonomy. President George W. Bush is scheduled to receive him at the White House today and to attend a Wednesday ceremony awarding him the Congressional Gold Medal.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after years of unsuccessful resistance to China, which took over the Himalayan nation in 1951. Since then he has become a tireless promoter not only of Tibetan rights, but also of the universal values of human dignity and liberty, and the use of non-violent means to achieve these goals.
In a speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, he said, “No matter what part of the world we come from, we are all basically the same human beings. We all seek happiness and try to avoid suffering. We have the same basic human needs and concerns. All of us human beings want freedom and the right to determine our own destiny as individuals and as peoples. That is human nature.”
The echoes of our own Declaration of Independence’s words on the rights of man are loud and clear. When the bill awarding the Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama was signed by Mr. Bush last year, China said it “has sent very serious, very wrong signals to the Tibetan independence forces, seriously interfered into China’s internal affairs and damaged China-U.S. relations.”
After the Dalai Lama recently met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, China said bilateral ties had been damaged. Last week, in protest of the award, Reuters reported that China postponed a meeting with world powers to discuss further action against Iran.
But China is in the minority in its views on the Dalai Lama. India’s Amartya Sen, who won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics, has written that since 1945 democracy has become the most normal form of government — the one most people in the world expect and hope for. Mr. Sen also wrote that democracy is not just a Western phenomenon.
The Dalai Lama is the living exemplar of this truth, and his contribution to the goal of democracy as a universal value deserves recognition. Some day, perhaps, even China’s rulers will come to see the wisdom of his teaching.
