Dalai Lama: China Policy Caused Monk Immolations

TOKYO -- Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, pointed to what he called China's "ruthless policy" as prompting the recent deaths of Tibetan monks who set themselves on fire in protest.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate called on Beijing to change its approach to ruling over the Himalayan region.

"For their own interest, not just the interest for certain sort of problem here and there, but for the whole country's sort of future, they have to act (with a) realistic sort of policy," he told reporters Saturday at a Tokyo hotel, while in Japan to visit victims of the devastating March 11 tsunami.

At least nine Tibetans in their late teens and 20s have self-immolated since March in protest of Chinese rule, and five of them have died of their injuries. Many Tibetans consider the Dalai Lama as their rightful leader.

The self-declared Tibetan government-in-exile has described the self-immolations as tragic acts and called for the international community to urge Beijing to open a dialogue on its policies in Tibet and traditionally Tibetan regions of western China.

"Actually, the local leader must look what's the real causes of death," the Dalai Lama said of the China. "It's their own sort of wrong policy, ruthless policy, illogical policy."

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama and his supporters of encouraging the immolations.

The Dalai Lama fled the Himalayan region in 1959 amid an abortive anti-Beijing uprising and is reviled by China's communist government.

Comments

[JAY WILCOX]

02:12 AM on 11/02/2011

They.. set... themselves...on fire....Rrrriiiiiiiight .

[22Keys]

02:02 PM on 11/01/2011

I guess all religions are not equally likely to create suicide bombers.

[OtayPanky]

01:29 PM on 11/01/2011

There's a lot to like about HHDL, and a lot to dislike about the Chicom fascists - but that's just bogus.

The Chicoms didn't set these monks on fire. They set themselves on fire.

It's like the kid who does something incredibly stupid and self-destructive, and then says to the parents, "Look what you made me do".

Really, that's bad psychology and worse Buddhism.

[Nizhenben]

10:22 AM on 11/02/2011

Should have said..Anyone who does not believe in buddhism will go to HELL. this is good psychology.Or do some car bomb suicide thing..thats even better psychology...

[LMPE]

07:58 PM on 10/31/2011

Get this: China teaches its children that DL is on vacation.

Wouldn't we all like a fifty-year vacation.

[UnicornsOccur]

07:42 AM on 10/31/2011

If the Lama is going to blame china for this he also has to blame Buddhism. Buddhism has a history of using self-immolation as protest, and the rationale for setting oneself on fire comes from the lotus sutra of the Mahayana. So well oppression by the Chinese government put the idea of protest in the monk's head, the Buddhist narrative put the idea that self-immolating is a valid means of protest.

[Nizhenben]

04:09 PM on 10/31/2011

Its the individual's decision that would count.

[HanMeiRen]

05:34 PM on 10/30/2011

For anyone who is really interested in the reality of the Tibet issue (instead of using the issue to curse the Chinese for convenience) the following article is an interesting read:

http://topics.scmp.com/news/china-news-watch/article/Tibetan-exiles-learn-to-seek-new-paths

[Cindbird]

12:41 AM on 10/31/2011

If you want the truth instead of Chinese government owned newspapers:

http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/11th-self-immolation-tibet-kardze-monk-sets-fire-himself-during-religious-ceremony

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=30261&article=Chinese+propaganda%3a+Fake+films+on+self-immolation

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?article=%E2%80%98Self-immolation+sign+of+deep+desperation%E2%80%99+says+the+Dalai+Lama&id=30255

[HanMeiRen]

10:17 AM on 10/31/2011

Thank you for the links. I have read them all.

For your information the South China Morning Post, published in Hong Kong, is a well-respected news media in Asia. It is not a mouth piece of the Chinese government.

On the other hand all your links are from the pro-Tibetan-Independence organization. When these organizations stopped their accusations of China’s genocide that caused the 1.2 million Tibetans being slaughtered I will lend more credibility to them.

This comes from someone who did not know about the 1962 war between India and China before coming to the United States, who was brought up under the propaganda that Tibetans are out brothers and sisters, who had seen the parents of his friends sent into Tibet with medical teams to help the local Tibetans year after year despite of the hardship.

PS: Under different situations I would be honored to take you as a friend because of your compassion and kindness.

[FACTISFACT]

08:49 AM on 10/30/2011

If China wants to harm Tibet I suppose except lips service there will be none to help not even India.

[HanMeiRen]

05:43 PM on 10/30/2011

This Tibet issue can turn real ugly when China decides to.

[FACTISFACT]

06:34 AM on 10/31/2011

HanMeiRen, Yes, India's mingling with it is but notoriety to make the lives of the Tibetans hell. China is more after India than the Tibetans

[sweetlilthing]

02:13 AM on 10/30/2011

I would be interested in hearing what the "ruthless policy" is. This article doesn't seem complete. I've read that despite the fact that the Dalai Lama wants to be the leader of Tibet again the country is actually doing better and the people have a better standard of living under China's rule.
The Dalai Lama always appears well dressed and fed at his fundraisers... a stark difference from the Tibetian people who eked out an exsistence under the Dalai Lama.
As far as monks who self-immolated more info is needed as to why they choose to do this.

[Richy Vaughan]

10:44 AM on 10/30/2011

This is a good point. What is "ruthless" about Beijing presently spending millions of yuan to rebuild Tibetan monasteries? or building new bridges, roads and hi-speed rail to bring commerce and greater economic opportunity to rural Tibet? RichFromTampa

[Cindbird]

12:49 AM on 10/31/2011

These policies:
http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/tibetan-scholar-monk-who-gave-torture-testimony-detained-fourth-time

http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/troops-surround-monastery-tibetan-monk-dies-after-setting-himself-fire-and-calling-return-

http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/crackdown-ngaba-monks-detained-giving-wrong-answers-%E2%80%98patriotic-education%E2%80%99

http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/list-prisoners-and-%E2%80%9Cdisappeared%E2%80%9D-tibetans-ngaba-crackdown-situation-provokes-us-government

http://www.savetibet.org/files/documents/Health%20Care%20paper.pdf

http://www.savetibet.org/policy-center/obama-administration-statements-tibet

This is the truth of what is going on in Tibet.

[beatlebabe]

08:37 PM on 11/02/2011

Isn't that benevolent of the Chinese government to "rebuild Tibetan monasteries" when they are ones who tore them down in the first place. If the Chinese government cares so much about the Tibetan people, why are they moving in ethnic Han to out number the native Tibetans? They are "building new bridges, roads and hi-speed rail" to pad their pockets and exploit and take from the Tibetan people what is rightfully theirs. The Tibetan people deserve better, much better than that!

[wilkesgm]

11:18 AM on 10/30/2011

You can read what you want, but China is a totalitarian country. A full belly and a gun to your head is not something the celebrate. It is ironic that people who live in a country founded in the concept of individual liberty have no problem tipping their collective hats to regimes that allow none of it.

[plansmaker]

12:13 AM on 10/30/2011

Lets get the Tibet arguments into a proper perspective...
China has conquered "Tibet Plateau" over 750 years ago. Since then Tibet was incorporated into saverign terriorty of China.
This occured about 250 years before Christopher Colombus discovered The New World.
450 years before The Declaration of Independence.
Now, Tibet wants to become an independent nation because it was an independent nation, 750 years ago before Chinese rule.
Same argument can apply to American Indians, who has its own nations 300 years ago before European colonization. Cherokee Nation can demand Independence from United States of America because Cherokee was an indepnedent nation.
Do we see the slippery slope of historic claims...Jews vs Palistine independence etc.

[abhorson]

02:39 AM on 10/30/2011

PRC gov giving you money ? How about the brutal murders of thousands of innocent monks and people, the systematic destruction of their culture through forced Chinese population of their land, the RAPE and TORTURE of monks and nuns...

Chinese regime is a brutal, thinly disguised dictatorship, an EXTREMELY corrupt system which has survived using cheap labor to export goods and get RICH on the backs of over 1 billion people.

Free Tiber and FREE the Chinese people by giving them FREE ELECTIONS !

[plansmaker]

09:04 AM on 10/30/2011

abhorson, I am not a supporter of Communist regime in China. I am only raising some questions, I think is valid for debate purpose. We know how brutal the crackdown can be and has been to not only in Tibet but also in the greater China.

Tibetans and Chinese are historically brothers and shall continue to be after the fall of communisim in China. I am looking forward to that day. I have great respect for Dalai Lama and his peaceful messages. His is very much like my hero Mother Theresa.

With that said, you must recongnize a stable China is good for Asia. This is beyond Tibet issue. A stable and open China is an very important for world peace and economy. There are too many important areas America and the West can work in partnership with China.
Real world problems need real world solutions not some slogans and I believe we have pass that point.
Peace.

[wwchak]

11:27 PM on 10/29/2011

China please, please perform another miracle, make dalai lama immolate himself, world peace will be in sight.

[rich3324]

12:13 PM on 10/30/2011

So how in the pay in the PLA?

[HawaiiSteve]

04:10 PM on 10/30/2011

Why do you show us how its done?

[HanMeiRen]

11:15 PM on 10/29/2011

I will take the accusation of the Dalai Lama more seriously after he is done denouncing the Iraq war as ruthless.

[MIKEinNYC]

10:29 PM on 10/29/2011

What's the logic here? You set yourself on fire and the government changes its policy? That works?

[Ram Samudrala]

02:51 AM on 10/30/2011

Has had somewhat of a track record... (except that it's the people that change the policy).

[esblofeld]

11:17 AM on 10/30/2011

That's how the Tunisia (and by extension the entire Arab Spring) protests started.

[adam646l]

08:55 PM on 10/29/2011

With all due respect, Hoiliness, violence is never the answer. The Japanese did not cause the monks to set themselves on fire. The monks themselves caused themselves to set themselves on fire.

[abhorson]

02:41 AM on 10/30/2011

in a sign of protest over the systematic destruction of their culture, lands, temples and people... Chinese Communist Party is a brutal brutal regime which puts out constant propaganda to remain in power.

[Views from the Middle]

07:41 PM on 10/29/2011

For you Star Trek fans, the Chinese are, essentially, the Borg. One by one, all nations and cultures will be eaten up by their oppressive government and we will be homogenous.

[peacechants]

09:19 PM on 10/29/2011

Disagree with your comparison as an oversimplification in the real world, yet one would expect to see a "Borg-like" supression of individuality in practically any form of totalitarian state. Western materialism has thoroughly supplanted the proletariat idealism of Mao's Cultural Revolution, a truism that proves the susceptibility of the Chinese to outside influence, despite the continuity within their society of intolerance toward, and the vigorous suppression of all forms of dissent.

[AstorsCatfish]

10:36 PM on 10/29/2011

There is nothing small enough to fit into a post here that wouldn't also be an oversimplification. And while your post may be academically enticing, it is devoid of the visceral sense, conveyed by Views, of the dark, imperial motives of the Chinese government.
As a two sentence primer on the Chinese agenda I think Views did well for his target audience.

[wilkesgm]

11:23 AM on 10/30/2011

Laughable distortion. The Commies were greedy. They can't feed their people. They took Hong Kong and saw it as a way to prop up their regime. Mao killed between 50-80 million people for his ideals - that's one of the reasons that collectivism doesn't work. To gain control over all means of production, you can't have a little thing like an individual say no to the government. China as a country is like those cheap fake-gold plated decorations you see in a Mandarin restaurant...shiny on the outside and bogus underneath. How do you think they offer transplants on demand, typed to your blood, on a specific date?

[plansmaker]

10:45 PM on 10/29/2011

Chinese are not the same as Chinese Communists...
Chinese Communists are the ruling elite with iron hand...
Chinese wants individual freedom as seen in Tainanman Square Uprising in 1989? I think.
Infact, I think Arab Spring took pages from Tainanman Square Uprising.

[henriette and hube]

11:52 PM on 10/29/2011

I had to reply here for the usual reasons.

I love Chinese History and movies even up to the the most recent ones though it's terribly sad the way the Chinese people have been treated. I think about their cultural history and find it very sad.

My grandparents spent some time in the old China and I can remember their memories and photos. I've no desire to visit for some reason though I continue to read books on China and probably always will.

Have you read the fairly recent "The Man Who Loved China"? He was a professor at Cambridge and spend much time in China before the Japanese invaded and after. Fascinating reading. Another book that I love, I know the author, is Zen Baggage about an American who has spent much time in China and in Taiwan as a monk. It's a fascinating journey to many old monasteries that are being restored. I've watch several documentaries on the whole Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism and China. If you are interested, netflix has a good selection.

Glad we were able to sort out any confusion we began with in a civil manner. Please keep in touch.

fanned.........

[abhorson]

02:43 AM on 10/30/2011

Ruling THUGS who put out propaganda in order to enrich themselves on the backs of 1 billion Chinese workers... nothing "elite" about endemic corruption ... "IRON HAND" ...

yes - don't forget 50million or MORE dead at the hands of Mao's land nationalizations, thousands languishing in jails, and freedom of expression doesn't exist ...

the propaganda in the press is paper thin...

[Doris Willis]

06:56 PM on 10/29/2011

The value of the Tibetan people is that they have very useful skills specific for that region. Therefore, when the Chinese invaded their land, the thing to do was to stop making/having children. China need the people of Tibet. No new Tibetans give the Chinese at max. one generation to solve a situation that must be solved in favor of the Tibetan people.

So far, the Tibetan people have failed to see their value. Electing instead, to play with matches. Two burn, four born says the Chinese. So why China don't care.

May Tibetans find their path that leads to life, in Tibet, in peace.