By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Nov. 18: The Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be visiting Mongolia this week, according to a Buddhist leader from the East Asian country that shares large tract of border region with China.
According to a report by Associated Press, Davaapurev, a monk at the Gandan monastery in the nation’s capital Ulaanbaatar, yesterday said that the Dalai Lama will visit the country to receive an honorary degree, partake in religious events and meet with academics and youth.
The Tibetan leader is scheduled for a four day itinerary beginning today. The visit by the Tibetan spiritual leader is “separate from politics and for religious purposes only,” Davaapurev was quoted saying by AP.
Mongolia with more than half of its population following Buddhism, has a healthy reverence to the Tibetan leader although the particular visit is objected by the abbot of the Ikh Khuree monastery, Sanjdorj Zandan, who thinks the visit will be an interference with Mongolia’s internal affair.
Observers say that China, like in many countries around the globe, is pulling strings to pressurize the Tibetan leader’s engagement, even though the visits do not compound to political arrangements.
The last time the Dalai Lama visited Mongolia in 2006, China deliberately delayed an Air China flight to Ulaanbaatar for 12 hours which many say is a symbolic warning from Beijing. Before that in 2002, when The Tibetan leader visited Mongolia, China closed down railway lines to the country.
The private office of the Dalai Lama have maintained that the Dalai Lama do not want to cause inconvenience to any government or its people when it comes to visiting countries around the world.
