Dharamsala, February 7 – The Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been listed by TIME magazine among “Top 25 Political Icons” of all time, along with India’s Mahatma Gandhi, the father of nation.
The list was released February 6 coinciding with the 100th birth anniversary of the late US President Ronald Reagan. The Dalai Lama, who has often admitted the Mahatma Gandhi’s influence on him, has also been lauded for the non-violence and tolerance message that he has passed on to the generations.
The prestigious magazine described the Tibetan leader as “a spiritual leader and a head of state in absentia.” It said the Dalai Lama is a “not only the greatest and most public advocate for Tibetan rights and the virtues of Tibetan Buddhism, but for interfaith tolerance and peace as well.”
“For decades — and from exile since 1959 — he has worked to resolve tensions between Tibet and the People’s Republic of China. And like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. before him, the Dalai Lama done so in a manner defined by nonviolence and tolerance. In 1989, he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts,” the magazine said on its website.
“The Dalai Lama’s humility has endeared him to presidents and religious leaders of several countries, affording him the opportunity to raise awareness and drum up support for Tibet on a global scale. His 1998 book, The Art of Happiness, sold more than 1.5 million copies in the U.S. and made him a New York Times bestselling author for nearly two years.
“Yet little the 14th Dalai Lama can do seems to endear him to the authorities in Beijing, who have rebuffed his overtures, label him a “wolf in monk’s robes,” and seem intent on waiting for the iconic figure to die. For all the global compassion and sympathy the Dalai Lama has won, his lasting legacy may be one of sad, crestfallen failure,” the magazine added.
The other figures in the list are Mughal Emperor Akbar, Alexander the Great, Mao Zedong, Winston Churchill, Genghis Khan, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Cleopatra, Franklin Roosevelt, Queen Victoria, Mussolini, Lenin, Margaret Thatcher, Simon Bolivar, Qin Shi Huang, Kim Il-Sung, Charles de Gaulle, Louis XIV, Haile Selassie, King Richard the Lionheart, and Saladin.
