Speaker and members of US Congress honor His Holiness

Friday, 19 October 2007, 9:20 a.m.

A file photo of US Congress Speaker Mrs Nancy Pelosi

Members of Congress are afforded many special opportunities. The opportunity to join the President of the United States and Congressional leaders to award His Holiness the Dalai Lama with the Congressional Gold Medal is an unsurpassed honor.

I thank the co-sponsors of the legislation for making today possible. With this Gold Medal, we affirm the special relationship between the United States and the Dalai Lama.

It is a relationship that began with a gold watch. As a boy,the Dalai Lama enjoyed science and mechanics. Knowing this, President Franklin Roosevelt gave the very young Dalai Lama a watch showing the phases of the moon and the days of the week.

The Dalai Lama described the gold watch as magnificent and even took it with him when he fled Tibet in 1959. His Holiness still uses the watch today and his teaching about the connection between science and religion is an inspiring part of his message.

American presidents and the American people have been inspired by His Holiness, who describes himself as a simple monk, no more, no less.

To Tibetan Buddhists, he is the earthly manifestation of the living Buddha.To the international community, he is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. To millions of believers and admirers, he is a source of wisdom and compassion. To young people, His Holiness is a positive example of how to make the world a better place.

I will always be grateful to Chairman Tom Lantos for affording many Members of Congress our first meeting with His Holiness in 1987. It was then that His Holiness described a Middle Way Approach that seeks real autonomy for Tibetans within the framework of the People's Republic of China. This was a historic moment because His Holiness was relinquishing his goal of independence in favor of a compromise solution.

The Dalai Lama has expressed a willingness to visit China to engage directly with high level officials. It is my sincere hope that Beijing will take advantage of this opportunity and extend an invitation to His Holiness for substantive discussions. It is easy for us to gather here today to honor the Dalai Lama, especially when we consider how difficult it is for Tibetans to do so.

To meet with the Dalai Lama, Tibetans flee the repression in their own country, under the threat of torture and imprisonment for even having a picture of His Holiness. They walk for weeks, without adequate food or clothing, across the freezing Himalayan mountain passes. It is the most perilous escape route on earth. After their audience, they make the trip once again, returning to Tibet to rejoin their families.

When the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, the Nobel Committee affirmed its unstinting support for his work for peace, and for the unarmed masses on the march in many lands for liberty, peace and human dignity. And in doing so, the Nobel Committee honored the Tibetans who march across the Himalayas, and the many others who cannot.

Today, with this Congressional Gold Medal, we honor the Tibetan people again and His Holiness the Dalai Lama for his many enduring and outstanding contributions to peace, nonviolence, human rights and religious understanding.

Your Holiness: you bring luster to this award, and a challenge to the conscience of the world.

Address of Congressman Mr Tom Lantos

US Congressman Mr Tom Lantos

Almost a quarter century ago, my wife, Annette, and I were in Nepal where we met the Tibetan community. And it was through their passionate commitment to this incredible man of peace that Annette and I became involved with His Holiness.

And it was Annette who, over two decades ago, first invited him to the Congress. There was no such a meeting as we have here today. A half-dozen of us met in a small committee room, and His Holiness issued his principles of peace, to which he is so passionately committed today.

What accounts for the rise of this humble Buddhist monk from near-obscurity to the global phenomenon that he has become It is not lobbies. It is not economic power. It is not political influence. It is moral authority.

At a moment in world history when nothing is in as short a supply as moral authority, this humble Buddhist monk has an inexhaustible supply. And this accounts for the respect, the admiration, the love that people have for him across the globe.

So let me take this opportunity again to turn to the people in Beijing with good advice. There is nothing that will guarantee the right atmosphere for the Beijing Olympics more certainly and more forcefully than you inviting this man of peace to Beijing for serious discussions and, once and for all, resolving the dispute between you and His Holiness.

He accepts the sovereignty of China. He is not a "splittist." He merely wants religious and cultural autonomy for his own people, that they so richly deserve.

I want our friends in Beijing to know that while occasionally we look like a divided country, we are all united, the President and Mrs. Bush and the Speaker and all of us across the aisle in making this plea: Let this man of peace visit Beijing.

Address of Senator Mrs Dianne Feinstein

Senator Mrs Dianne Feinstein

Mr. President, Madam Speaker, Mr. Majority Leader, and honored guests.

I want to begin by recognizing Senator Craig Thomas, who passed away earlier this year.

Senator Thomas was my cosponsor on the Senate resolution which authorized this Congressional Gold Medal and also on the Tibetan Policy Act, which outlined for the first time U.S. policy toward Tibet.

Senator Thomas' wife, Susan, is present today, along with several members of his family.

Susan, would you please stand and be acknowledged.

Now, a few words about His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

This world is filled with conflict and strife. But the Dalai Lama transcends this world and inspires us with hope.

"To know him is to know compassion".

"To listen to him is to learn wisdom".

"To be close to him is to feel the presence of something very special".

This man has been a quiet force for peace and compassion. He moves people to look beyond their narrow, selfish interests and to find the strength to help others.

I have been blessed to call the Dalai Lama a friend for nearly 30 years.

I first met him in Dharamsala through my husband-to-be, Richard Blum, in the fall of 1978. I was awed by his presence and moved to action.

In September 1979, as Mayor of San Francisco, I was the first official to invite and welcome His Holiness to San Francisco to present him with a key to the City. This was his first visit to America.

As I came to know His Holiness, I have tried to be a bridge between His Holiness and the Chinese leadership.

In fact, on three separate occasions since 1991, my husband and I hand-delivered letters from His Holiness to the Chinese leadership:Asking for direct talks, reiterating his Middle Way approach and clearly stating that he does not seek independence for Tibet, but is looking to secure Tibet's religious and cultural autonomy.

Through our many talks, I know the Dalai Lama is a reasonable man. He is not seeking independence, but meaningful autonomy within the People's Republic of China.

And I truly believe that if the Chinese leadership were to sit down with the Dalai Lama, they together could work out a solution whereby he would be able to return to his native Tibet, which has long been his hope and dream.

This has sadly been a lost opportunity.

The simple truth is this: I can think of no one who more embodies the spirit of the Congressional Gold Medal than His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.

People flock by the thousands to his lectures all over the world.They yearn to hear his voice, to be enveloped by his spirit of compassion.

His teachings resonate across religions, cultures, and ethnic lines. And his message of peace, non-violence and understanding has never been more relevant.

So let me offer my deepest congratulations, and offer my personal thanks to His Holiness for spreading his message of compassion around the world.

Thank you.

Address of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell

'Your holiness, America admires you and we thank you. You are always welcome here at the The Rotunda, U.S. Capitol, October 17, 2007.

Your Holiness, Mr. President, distinguished congressional colleagues and friends.

One of the people we have to thank for this event isn't with us. Senator Craig Thomas of Wyoming was a strong but serene man who admired the Dalai Lama and worked with him closely for a long time as chairman of the Foreign Relations panel that deals with Asia. Along with Senator Feinstein, he introduced the bill that got us here. We remember him and we thank Susan, his wife, for being with us.

I also want to recognize someone who could have stayed home this afternoon but didn't U.S. Presidents have met privately with the Dalai Lama for years. But it wasn't until today that any of them had lent the prestige of the office to a public event in his honor. Mr.President, good to see you. You join a growing list of world leaders who are stepping forward to say in public what the world has long known the Tibetan people have a right to their heritage, their freedom, and the man we honor today is not only courageous but also right to demand both.

Congress has expressed this view in sixteen resolutions since 2001. We've delivered funds to preserve the Tibetan culture and to help refugees who've escaped through the mountains to India and Nepal. We've educated some of these refugees at U.S. schools through the Tibet Fulbright program. And we've broadcast a message of hope across Tibet through Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.

Again and again, we've reached out in solidarity to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people, and the Chinese government needs to know that we will continue to do so. The U.S. Congress stands with Tibet.

Truth is persistent, and in the case of the Dalai Lama, so is the messenger. He's carried the plight of his people to the world for nearly fifty years, never growing tired or frustrated. It's this constancy and hope in the face of violence and intimidation that inspires Tibetan teenagers and grandfathers to risk arrest, or worse, by keeping pictures of him in their homes or by scrawling his name on a schoolhouse wall. In recent weeks he has inspired the suffering people of Burma to similar acts of heroism. And he has inspired Congress to give him the greatest honor in our power to bestow.

Your holiness, America admires you and we thank you. You are always welcome here.

  (www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.)

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