Dalai Lama says trip to Canada is spiritual, he’ll discuss Tibet with Martin only if PM asks
By Douglas Todd
VANCOUVER – The Dalai Lama began a 19-day tour of Canada yesterday saying he would gladly tell Prime Minister Paul Martin about his position on Tibet, but only if he’s asked.
The exiled Tibetan leader said his trip here is spiritual. “I have no interest in politics,” he said. “I consider myself a Buddhist monk rather than politician.”
Still, the Dalai Lama told a news conference packed with more than 100 journalists that if Mr. Martin shows interest when the two meet in Ottawa on April 23, he will encourage the Canadian government to set up a “meaningful dialogue” with China about the future of Tibet.
“Otherwise, I have no political agenda,” he said.
The 68-year-old Dalai Lama fled Tibet 45 years ago after China took control of the mountainous country and cracked down on its many Buddhist monks.
He said China has it wrong when it continues to tell the world he is a “splittist” who wants to separate Tibet from China.
“A thousand times I’ve told China I’m not seeking independence,” the Dalai Lama said in a wide-ranging talk in which he also urged well-off North Americans to consume fewer resources, and joked about how his large RCMP security detail couldn’t help him if someone wanted to blow him up with a missile.
The 14th Dalai Lama, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to non-violent resistance to China’s often-brutal occupation of Tibet, said Tibet’s six million people can have “meaningful autonomy” from China at the same time that they work alongside the leaders of the world’s most populous country to create a better culture and economy for both Tibetans and Chinese.
The Chinese government, in the past few weeks, has strongly warned Mr. Martin and other Canadian politicians against meeting with the Dalai Lama, one of the world’s most famous religious leaders.
But Mr. Martin recently agreed to join the Buddhist leader at what is being billed as a spiritual event, an interfaith prayer session and reception in Ottawa — making Mr. Martin the first Canadian prime minister to do so. Many top western leaders, including U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have met the Dalai Lama on several occasions.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty also plans to meet him.
The Dalai Lama, who will take part in Vancouver on Tuesday in a round-table discussion at the University of B.C. with Nobel Peace Prize winners Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Iran’s Shirin Ebadi, played down politics yesterday to emphasize that he’s basically a spiritual leader who is actually “semi-retired,” because elected officials have taken over Tibet’s government in exile.
After leaving Vancouver on April 21, the Dalai Lama will fly to Ottawa. He will travel to Toronto on April 25, where he will lead the Kalachakra, one of the most important rituals in the Tibetan Buddhist faith, until May 5.
