By Tenzin Sangmo
New Delhi, May 15 – The Dalai Lama left for Frankfurt early this morning from New Delhi on a five day visit to Germany. He is scheduled to give a public talk on Human Rights and Globalization-Which Challenges Do We Have To Face in Bochum May 16, another on Peace and Human Rights – The Basis For A Modern Society in Moenchengladbach May 17, a third on Human Rights As Commitment – Lessons From History in Nuernberg May 18 and the last on Religion – Peacemaker Or War Monger in Bamberg May 20 wrapping up his brief visit in the German nation.
The Tibet Initiative Deutschland, the German Group hosting the Dalai Lama said the visit will also include meetings with state leaders but not German Chancellor Angela Merkel who is in Latin America and President Horst Kohler who has stated scheduling conflicts as a reason. The refusal of top German officials including Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to meet Him has created quite a buzz in the German Parliament. The press and media have accused their leaders of being spineless by avoiding the exiled spiritual leader.
Merkel said though she will not be in the country when the Dalai Lama visits Germany, "but I will certainly meet again with the Dalai Lama at a later point in the future."
Erwin Huber, leader of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of the Christian Democrats said "I would have expected Steinmeier to show more courage. The Dalai Lama is a symbolic figure for downtrodden Tibet, so you can’t reject an offer to talk to him so coolly and undiplomatically."
When Chancellor Merkel met with His Holiness for nearly an hour last September during His previous visit to Germany, she drew flak from China including the cancellation of official meetings between the two governments’ respective foreign and justice ministries. They were however, later scheduled the following month in Munich.
The Dalai Lama is nevertheless listed to meet state leaders Juergen Ruettgers and Roland Koch, the Prime Ministers of North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse respectively and the German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Ms. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul in Berlin May 19 .
As part of His Europe tour the Dalai Lama will also speak on human rights issues, a request made by the Foreign Affairs Committee of UK Parliament on May 22 following his stay in Germany. He will visit the UK May 22-30 delivering public talks and teachings.
"Given the particular interest in China’s human rights record in 2008, the Committee has requested to take oral evidence from His Holiness the Dalai Lama on a range of human rights issues when he visits the United Kingdom in May, and His Holiness has agreed to this request," said the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The Dalai Lama is also to meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The spokesman of the PM confirmed the meeting saying, "Prime Minister Gordon Brown would be meeting His Holiness in his capacity as a spiritual leader, but no doubt it would be an opportunity to discuss the recent situation in Tibet."
His Holiness will give deliver an oration on Universal Responsibility In The Modern World in London, May 22 and another one on Bringing Meaning to Our Lives in Nottigham May 24 & 25.
He will then begin a three day discourse-teaching on Je Tsongkhapa’s Praise to the Buddha for His Discourses on Dependent Origination (tendrel toepa) starting May 26. On the morning of May 28 He will bestow the Vajrasatta Empowerment.
His Holiness will also hold an essential Colloquium on Christian and Buddhist Traditions and Prayers in Oxford May 29 followed by a public address at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford on the Wider Understanding of the Buddhist tradition the next day.
