DHARAMSHALA, October22: Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama who is currently on fortnight visit to the United States re-affirmed his commitment to the Middle-Way Approach to resolve the issue of Tibet on Sunday.
“Our stand is not to seek independence but genuine autonomy. We want to modernize Tibet. But we must be able to preserve our fragile natural environment, whose waters serve a billion people in Asia, and we must be able to protect our culture, language and religion,” the Dalai Lama said at a public talk on the virtue of non-violence at Beacon Theatre in New York City.
He further noted that the Middle Way Approach is in the interests of all concerned. “A small group want complete independence, but they have come up with no method for achieving it. They have no strategy. We have to be realistic.”
The Nobel laureate also explained the difference between violence and non-violence. He stressed that non-violence is not an excuse for inertia and that violence is invariably related to a strong sense of self-centredness and to the notion of ‘us’ and ‘them’.
He said, over the last 60 years four distinct eras in China can be seen. “Mao’s era of ideology, Deng Xiaoping’s era of creating wealth, Jiang Zemin’s welcoming the better-off into the party and Hu Jintao’s not entirely successful attempts to secure a harmonious society. Harmony is essential, but it is secured by trust and respect not by the use of force,” the Tibetan leader said.
“Now a new era associated with Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang has begun, in which it may be hoped they will exercise common sense and follow Deng’s admonition to seek truth from facts.”
Since 2009, 122 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in Tibet calling for freedom in Tibet and return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet.
