Blogging the Dalai Lama

Tackling Tibet

- by Thomas Laird

TIME magazine (in partnership with CNN, online)

“Since 2002, a little-known academic ritual has taken place each year at Harvard University. Academics of every stripe, from historians to constitutional lawyers, gather to discuss Tibet’s past, present and future. Uniquely, these intellectual debates have brought together Chinese and exiled Tibetan scholars. In the real world, the simplest facts about Tibet are so divisive that dialogue is impossible. Chinese speak of the 1950 peaceful liberation of the Chinese province of Tibet, and of its subsequent modernization; Tibetans speak of the invasion of an independent nation, and the suppression of its religious and cultural traditions. “

This short online article reviews many recent happenings, including the Dalai Lama’s options on reincarnation, in light of annual discussions that have been going on without much fanfare. Worth reading.

Read this article online…

Using a cool resource, we conducted a search to find video reports of His Holiness’ travels. This great resource is a search site called Everyzing that searches for audio and video on the web. It presents a text transcript of each clip that it plays. We’ve used it to locate the videos (below) from Canadian news sources, but you can use Everyzing yourself to search for online audio and video and/or read transcripts.

The clips below are from His Holiness’ travel in Canada a month ago.

Coverage of the Canadian Prime Minister’s meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

CTV NewsNet reports on the visit to Canada.

CBC reports on the Dalai Lama’s arrival and visits with political figures. His Holiness is an honorary citizen of Canada (only the third such), and most definitely welcomed here.

In a November 26th article, Fear of China Makes Japan Snub the Dalai Lama, Catherine Makino expresses the feeling that the Dalai Lama’s visit to Japan was undercovered and that the government gave him the “cold-shoulder” by not receiving him officially during the trip.

“Not one government official met one of the world’s best-known personalities either at the airport or at his prayer sessions and meetings where he confined speeches to spirituality….

“Thanks to the official aloofness, most Japanese were not even aware of the spiritual leader’s presence in their country…

“But there was another reason for the indifference. The Japanese government under Fukuda is strenuously trying to mend relations with China, soured during the tenure of Fukuda’s predecessors Shinzo Abe and, before him, Junichiro Koizumi…”

“I always love coming to Japan.” On the 15th of November, His Holiness arrived in Japan. There were no visits scheduled with political figures. The visit was a ten-day visit with many events and talks scheduled.

There weren’t many reports on this visit, and BeliefNet (which is a good source of information) have about the longest report on His Holiness’ visit to the All-Japan Buddhist Conference on the 20th of November.