Tibetan advocates yesterday joined New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) in launching a petition to invite the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan this year, and urged civic organizations, religious groups and the public to help make it happen.
The initiative was announced at the beginning of a march in Taipei to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising.
“This is the best way to show to the world that Taiwan is different from China,” Lim said, adding that he hopes all Taiwanese would join the drive.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“A visit from the Dalai Lama would only focus on religion, as he is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people and the followers of Tibetan Buddhism. He would be coming to promote religious teaching and to interact with other faiths in Taiwan,” he said. “Therefore the petition is based on efforts by ordinary people, non-governmental organizations and religious groups, and is not led by our party.”
Lim said the aim is for the visit to take place before the year ends.
NPP Chairman Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) yesterday urged Taiwanese to support the petition.
“This can be our collective message to the world, that Taiwanese are standing together with those who are suffering due to the brutality and atrocities committed by the Chinese government,” he said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉), who also participated in the march, said: “We welcome the Dalai Lama making a trip to Taiwan. He should have the freedom and the right to go wherever he wants — even to his homeland.”
Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama chairman Dawa Tsering said he and many Tibetans in Taiwan would be elated if the visit happened.
“However, we do not want to make trouble for the DPP government... It would be up to the government to decide,” he said.
The Dalai Lama has expressed his desire to visit Taiwan again, so it could happen, he said, adding that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate has three reasons for doing so.
First, the Dalai Lama would conduct special blessing ceremonies and solemn dharma services to fulfill the spiritual needs of Tibetan Buddhists in Taiwan, as it has been 10 years since he last visited Taiwan in 2009, Tsering said.
Second, the Dalai Lama wants to foster exchanges with other religious bodies in Taiwan, and bring messages of peace and compassion for all of humanity, Tsering said.
Third, the Dalai Lama has been focusing on encouraging mutual understanding between religious figures and scientists, Tsering said, adding that in November last year, he hosted a conference in Dharamsala, India, to discuss quantum physics.
At that event, the Dalai Lama presided over a session with Nobel laureate Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), who headed a delegation from Taiwan’s science community.
At that dialogue, the Dalai Lama said Taiwan would be the best place for dialogue with scientists from the Chinese-speaking world.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS