DHARAMSHALA, November 21: The Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama Wednesday said that the self-immolation protests in Tibet are sad and that it was difficult for him to dissuade them. “I can’t ask them to act differently because I have nothing to offer them,” the Tibetan leader currently on tour to Japan said in his address to around 150 Japanese legislators in Tokyo.
The 1989 Nobel peace laureate said these (self-immolation) events are sad and that it is in protest against the great difficulties they face.”These people are prepared to give up their lives, it’s not because they are drunk or beset by domestic problems.”
He called on Chinese authorities to investigate the situation thoroughly to establish why so many Tibet have chosen this path.
Since 2009, 123 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in Tibet protesting against Chinese occupation of Tibet and its hard-line policies.
The Tibetan leader was invited by headed by All Party Parliamentary Group in Japan at the National Diet Building in Tokyo, Japan. Eriko Yamatani, Chairperson of the Committee of Eight Political Parties and senior parliamentarian Takeo Hiranuma escorted the Tibetan leader.
The Tibetan spiritual leader also expressed his sadness over the violence in Burma between Muslims and Buddhists. “I have appealed to the Buddhist monks there, when conflict flares up, to remember the face of the Buddha. I am convinced that if the Buddha were there he would offer protection to those Muslims who find themselves under threat.”
