By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, APR. 3: In a separate meeting with the Tibetan community in North-East India on Sunday in Guwahati, the Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama assured the audience that change will come for the Tibetans.
“The sun will come out once more,’ the Nobel laureate told the gathering in relation to the changes that are taking place within China and also be happy, self-confident and ensure continuance of Tibetan language through the younger generations,” the Tibetan leader, who is on a twelve day tour to Assam and Arunachal told the Tibetans.
Yesterday, about 400 Tibetans from Shillong, Dimapur, Kohima and Itnagar and other places met the Tibetan leader in Guwahati, Assam in between his schedule in the afternoon.
The soon to be 82 year old Tibetan leader told his people, “We Tibetans have a karmic connection due to our past prayers, but as a result of the misfortune that befell our country we had to leave. The people who remain there still face difficulties, but their spirit remains strong. When we reached here in 1959, the only things we knew for sure were the sky above and the earth below. In the steaming hot climate of India we felt lost. We appealed to the UN for help, but Nehru warned that the US would not go to war with China over Tibet.”
Also looking back on the attempts to establish global contacts and build diplomacy, he recalled, “In an earlier effort to reach out to the world the 13th Dalai Lama sent some Tibetan children to Rugby school in Britain to receive modern education. Last year representatives of the school came to see me to mark the centenary of their arrival. If that project had gone forward things might have been different. We might have established relations with the wider world.”
Tomorrow, the Tibetan leader will begin the second leg of his trip to North-East India by visiting Tawang region in the border state of Arunachal Pradesh. He is scheduled to give teachings at Yiga Choezin, Tawang, as well as in Thupsung Dhargyeling Monastery in Drirang region.
Senior leaders from New Delhi has maintained that the Dalai Lama, an “honored guest” is free to go anywhere in India despite China’s repeated opposition. Beijing regards the Tibetan leader a “separatist” although the Dalai Lama who enjoys support and admiration for his advocacy for peace and global harmony has said that he is not seeking independence from China and is willing to live under the framework of the Chinese constitution for a “genuine autonomy” for Tibet.
