Huge crowds yesterday gathered at the Dalai Lama’s temple in India to commemorate 60 years since the failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule that drove the spiritual leader into exile.
Supporters of the 83-year-old peace icon chanted and prayed at the Buddhist shrine in mountainous Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama established a government-in-exile after fleeing a deadly Chinese crackdown in Tibet in 1959.
Devotees in the Indian hill station the Dalai Lama has called home for six decades waved Tibet’s colourful “snow lion” flag, which China has outlawed as a symbol of separatism. Some had “Free Tibet” painted on their faces, along with the colors and golden sun of the flag.
Photo:AFP
“This is a proud day,” said Lhakpa Tsering, a Tibetan living in exile in India. “Sixty years we’ve been in exile. Still, our struggle is young and fresh and strong, so we can give a message to China that until Tibetans remain, our struggle will never end.”
The Dalai Lama himself was not present at the anniversary ceremony, but chief representatives of the exiled Tibetan administration and foreign dignitaries gathered for the solemn occasion.
Performers dressed in traditional attire danced and recited Tibetan songs at the temple for guests, which organizers said included lawmakers from 10 nations.
A minute’s silence was held at the outset to remember those killed when China brutally crushed the fledgling Tibetan revolt, a crackdown the government-in-exile claims killed tens of thousands.
Tibet declared independence from China in the early 20th century, but Beijing took back control in 1951, having sent in thousands of troops.
The Dalai Lama — chosen at the age of two in 1937 as the 14th incarnation of Tibetan Buddhism’s supreme religious leader — was enthroned as head of state after the Chinese invasion.
His coexistence with the Beijing authorities was tense and when China summoned him to an event without his bodyguards on March 10, Tibetans feared a trap that could endanger their leader.
Thousands of his supporters assembled at his summer palace to prevent him from leaving; and thousands more demonstrated in Lhasa to demand that the Chinese depart, the Dalai Lama later said.
Beijing sent more troops into Tibet, and in the bloodshed that followed, refugees poured over the border into Dharamsala — already then a sanctuary for Tibetan exiles fleeing Chinese repression.
The Dalai Lama evaded Chinese authorities and slipped away dressed as a soldier, escaping to India.
There he formed a government-in-exile and demanded autonomy for Tibet, a decades-long quest that would earn him worldwide respect as a figure of non-violence. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
Beijing continues to be accused of political and religious repression in the region, but says that Tibetans enjoy extensive freedoms and that it has brought economic growth.
“If [China] earnestly believes that co-operation can bring more peace, it should renew dialogue with the envoys of His Holiness Dalai Lama,” President of the Tibetan government-in-exile Lobsang Sangay said. “As we have seen repeatedly, the envoys are ready to talk and peacefully resolve the issue of Tibet through the ‘middle-way approach.’”
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