An audience of the Dalai Lama drove home the need to defend not only our rights but also the rights of others, writes Tony Leon
April 6, 2006
Last week I met the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, when two of my parliamentary colleagues, Ben Skosana of the IFP and Gareth Morgan of the DA, and I were hosted by the Tibetan government-in-exile.
During our visit we had the opportunity to visit Tibetan monasteries, orphanages and refugee centres in and around Dharamsala. The stories we heard about the people’s flight from Tibet and their treatment by the Chinese administration were both harrowing and disturbing.
In 1949 the People’s Liberation Army of China marched into self-governing Tibet. Over the following decade the occupation of Tibet was consolidated, culminating in the death of 87 000 Tibetans during an uprising in 1959.
The Tibetan parliament in exile was established in Dharamsala in 1960, and is a body which has since attempted to spearhead the Tibetan people’s struggle to regain their freedom and to manage the welfare of the more than 140 000 Tibetans living abroad.
Resolutions
Since Chinese occupation, the United Nations has passed three resolutions supporting the call for Tibetan self-determination and for the protection of the Tibetan people’s distinctive cultural and religious life. Sadly, the last resolution was passed 40 years ago, and in recent years the case of Tibet has fallen somewhat off the radar of the world’s governments.
It is not difficult to see why this has occurred. Fascinated by the recent rapid growth of the Chinese economy and the immense prospects for international trade, pressure on China from the rest of the world on issues such as Tibet, Taiwan and, indeed, China’s own human rights abuses has become far less vocal.
We met Ngawang Woebar, the president of an association for ex-political prisoners, who recalled the days when he was a monk in Tibet and helped lead the September 1987 demonstrations against the Chinese. He was then arrested and imprisoned for four months. He now lives as a refugee in Dharamsala.
Tsering Yeshi, the President of the Tibet Women’s Association, spoke passionately about the case of the 11th Panchen Lama, who was kidnapped more than 10 years ago by the Chinese authorities. He has not been seen since.
The Chinese claim that he is healthy and receiving an education, although there has been no firm proof that he is, in fact, alive.
I went to Dharamsala with the preconceived notion that the Tibetan cause, although a just one, was in all likelihood a hopeless one.
It took an inspiring interaction with a woman called Rinchen Choegyal, the Director of the Tibetan Nuns Project, to convince me that the continued struggle of the Tibetan people was a vital one.
The project provides a home to more than 200 nuns in Dharamsala, many of whom have only recently escaped continued persecution by the Chinese authorities in Tibet. Traumatised by their pasts, and with many facing significant health problems after trekking across the mountainous borders between China, Nepal and India, they have been provided with new hope by the nunnery.
As Choegyal said, in a country for a countryless people, this is a home for homeless people. The nuns’ project is more than just a home, though. It is a base to retain and maintain knowledge, a sure sign that the Tibetans will not give up their fight for freedom.
With a new perspective on the Tibetan situation, we met His Holiness the Dalai Lama at a special audience on March 31 2006. The date was auspicious because it was the exact day that His Holiness fled Tibet for India 47 years ago. He has not seen his homeland since.
The Dalai Lama is recognised by his people as being the reincarnation of all previous Dalai Lamas, the spiritual rulers of Tibet. At the young age of 15, he was enthroned as the 14th Dalai Lama and leader of six million people facing the threat of a full-scale war. Fifty-six years later, he is a political and religious leader of worldwide renown and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Magnetism
The Dalai Lama is a person of great warmth, magnetism and humour. He engaged us in discourse on the Tibetan situation with great vigour, imagination and extraordinary energy.
During our audience, His Holiness stressed that he was not anti-China, and that the Chinese should have no reason to fear him. The Tibetans are not seeking independence from China, but merely genuine autonomy. He said he was committed to the promotion of religious harmony, which was something that the Chinese could benefit from as well.
He also shared with us the basis of his spiritual and religious philosophy, which he summarised as the pursuit of human values that he believes are universal, transcending race, religion, ethnicity and political labels. He says many of the great wars and eruptions of violence have happened between people whose similarities outnumber their differences.
He related to us his three visits to South Africa and spoke with great warmth and appreciation about his friendship with Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, whom he believes to be exemplars of compassion and reconciliation.
He was very grateful that a group of South African MPs had started a Tibet Friendship Group, because the only way to change things in Tibet, according to him, was to bring the country’s problems to the attention of an international audience.
When our meeting ended, he thanked us profusely, and unnecessarily, for defying the Chinese, whose embassies had protested to the DA’s Chief Whip, Douglas Gibson, and to the Deputy Speaker of the South African parliament about our visit. He presented us each with a silk scarf, and then held our hands and posed patiently for a number of photographs.
It was to me a singular privilege to have been able to meet His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, in this remote corner of the world.
As I left Dharamsala, I recalled the words of Choegyal of the nuns’ project. She said that if others had the moral courage to speak out against China, then the situation could change. She was correct to refer to others, because the Tibetans have themselves already displayed untold moral courage during their struggle.
It reminded me of our own situation at home. If we are going to defend our own rights as South Africans, we must, as a matter of course, defend the rights of others, whether it be the rights of those people geographically close to us, like the people of Zimbabwe, or those far away, like the people of Tibet.
Leon is the leader of the DA.
