His Holiness the Dalai Lama Returns to Dharamsala
Dharamsala, 23 October 2003: His Holiness the Dalai Lama returned to Dharamsala this afternoon and received a warm welcome-reception by senior Tibetan officials and the local Tibetan population after the completion of successful visits to the Indian capital, Spain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.
During the visit to Spain, His Holiness received the Jaime Brunet Prize for Human Rights at Madrid offices of the European Parliament. He met with Spanish opposition politicians, but senior government officials were not present at the ceremony ” a gesture broadly criticized by the Spanish media, which attributed the absence to political pressure from China, wire reports wrote.
During a press meeting in Madrid on 9 October, His Holiness highlighted that “cultural genocide” was taking place in Tibet, with a wave of Chinese settlers making Tibetans a minority in their own region.
“Some kind of cultural genocide is taking place,” the Dalai Lama told a press meeting in the Spanish capital. “The culture (in danger) is very relevant to today’s world.” His Holiness spoke on his demands greater autonomy, not independence, for Tibet. However, the Dalai Lama said when a native population becomes a minority, autonomy becomes meaningless, adding he had discussed his concerns about Tibet’s growing Chinese population with U.S. President George W. Bush during a September meeting.
During a public talk in Madrid, His Holiness the Dalai Lama appealed to the West not to embrace Buddhism as a mere cultural fashion. “I am Buddhist,” the Dalai Lama added. “Therefore, Buddhism is the only truth for me, the only religion. To my Christian friend, Christianity is the only truth, the only religion. To my Muslim friend, Mohammedanism is the only truth, the only religion. In the meantime, I respect and admire my Christian friend and my Muslim friend. If by unifying you mean mixing, that is impossible, useless.”
His Holiness arrived in the French capital on 11 October calling on world luminaries to band together for peace, saying governments need help in defusing crises such as the turmoil in Iraq and suggested to get fellow Nobel laureates President Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu or Czech Republic’s Former President Vaclav Havel and others to join forces to push for nonviolent solutions. Such people could go to Baghdad as a group and say: “This is dangerous. No interest for everyone. Must find peaceful solution,” His Holiness said. “Even (if) that fails, no regrets.” His Holiness’ Teaching in Paris was attended by more than 10,000 devotees according to the Office of Tibet in the city.
When His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived in the German capital Berlin on 18 October to give a public talk, the Chinese authorities wasted no time in lodging their usual protest to the German authorities. His Holiness arrived in Prague, the Czech capital on 19 October to address the inaugural session of the Fourth International Conference of Tibet Support Groups. In the address, His Holiness talked about his concern for the environmental situation in Tibet, including the extreme exploitation of resources. He stressed on the need for the preservation of the Tibetan culture. His Holiness said he was fully committed to his Middle Way Approach and is not separatist or splittist. He also urged the conference to discuss and think over this and to see how this situation could be changed and what kind of effort is needed to achieve our goal. He welcomed suggestions, including constructive criticism. Referring to the demonstrations just before the Iraq War, His Holiness said demonstrations alone cannot achieve peace. He said what is needed is to support the nonviolence movement like the Tibetans so that an alternative can be provided
Today, the official website of the Foreign Ministry of the People’s Republic of China commenting on the Prague meeting said: “Recent years, the Dalai Lama Group, by using various tricks and chances, has been engaged in activities of splitting China and pushed for the internationalization of the Tibet issue in order to create conditions for the “independence of Tibet”. The conference is just one of its tricks. China opposes the fact that countries having diplomatic ties with China provide any convenience or venue for the Dalai Lama’s splitting activities. China lodged solemn representations with the Czech side prior to the conference.”
While in the Czech capital, His Holiness also attended an interfaith ceremony which was attended by Prince Hassan bin Tallal of Jordan, Bosnian Islamic cleric Mustapha Cerie and representatives of Jewish and Christian faiths.
On 20 October, His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived in Zurich to address the largest Tibetan Community in Europe.
According to the Office of H. H. the Dalai Lama, His Holiness is scheduled to visit Japan, Italy and several parts of northeastern India in November and December 2003.