DHARAMSHALA, APRIL 13: The Chinese Embassy in Bangkok has denied visa to a prominent Thai activist to visit his ancestral home in China, reportedly for his links with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Sulak Sivaraksa, a prominent Thai activist and social worker, said that the rejection of his visa might have connections with his support to the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama.
“They may have let me know that they have felt a bit uncomfortable with my support for the Dalai Lama. But I always insist that I stand by righteousness,” The Bankok Post quoted Sulak Sivaraksa as saying.
”I intended to visit the homeland [of my ancestors] in Taechiew [Teochew in eastern Guangdong province in China] yesterday. But I learned on April 3 that they denied me the visa,” Mr Sulak said.
A close associate of Mr Sulak told the The Bankok Post that he intended to bring his close friends with him to China to see and worship wooden tablets representing his Chinese ancestors.
Sulak had met the Tibetan leader in 2008 when he led a 17-member delegation from Thailand on a visit to Dharamshala. He expressed his support for the Tibetan leader in public during his interaction with the media. “His Holiness is perhaps the one voice leading the world. People around the world now admire him for being a simple Buddhist monk full of sincerity and compassion, and one who practices what he preaches,” Sulak had said in February 2008.
“Under the Chinese hegemony, many south east Asian countries are unwilling to invite His Holiness. And Chinese fear His Holiness the Dalai Lama. When you fear ‘a man of love’, there is something wrong with you,” Sulak had told reporters.
Educated in England and Wales, Sulak returned to Thailand in 1961 at the age of 28 and founded Sangkhomsaat Paritat (Social Science Review). This became Thailand’s foremost intellectual magazine, dealing with numerous political and social issues during the time of the military dictatorship.
During the 1970s Sulak became the central figure in a number of non-governmental organisations in Thailand. Sulak was forced to remain in exile for two years in 1976 after the military coup. However, he was able to continue his activist work in the West. He lectured at the University of California Berkeley, Cornell University and the University of Toronto.
