Report points to November visit by Dalai Lama

A local Internet news service, tTimes, yesterday reported that the Dalai Lama (達賴喇嘛) will arrive in Taiwan on Nov. 28, but the Tibetan spiritual leader's representative office said no date for his second visit to Taiwan had been confirmed.

"He may visit Taiwan at the end of November or the beginning of December. Details of his visit are still being finalized," managing director of the Tibet Religions (sic) Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama (達賴喇嘛西藏宗教基金會) Tencin Atisha said, adding that, "The only thing confirmed is that the Dalai Lama will be giving a teaching to Buddhists" during his stay in Taiwan.

A government official at the Presidential Office also confirmed the Dalai Lama will meet with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), however, details of the date, time and content of any such meeting were not available yesterday.

"The Dalai Lama's visit is at the invitation of and organized by private organizations, including the Buddhism Association of the ROC (BAROC, 中國佛教會), the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations (世台會) and the Dalai Lama's representative office in Taipei. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and related government agencies will also provide necessary assistance," the source said.

The BAROC yesterday, however, refused to reveal any information, saying "nothing is confirmed yet."

The Dalai Lama had been invited to attend Chen's inauguration on May 20, however, he failed to attend saying it was "not convenient."

The Dalai Lama has also publicly expressed his wish to visit Taiwan again at an appropriate time.

According to the tTimes report, Chen will greet the Dalai Lama in the Presidential Office "as a state guest in order to acknowledge Tibet as an independent sovereign state."

"No matter how [Taiwan] deals with the Tibetan issue, domestically, it will not affect the fact that the Dalai Lama's Tibetan government in exile is acknowledged by the international community as an independent country," deputy representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the US, Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) said yesterday, adding that the Dalai Lama was respected and treated as a national leader worldwide.

The report also said that the Dalai Lama would travel on his American passport, but Atisha denied this, saying, "The Dalai Lama doesn't have an American passport. He will visit Taiwan with travel documents issued by the government of India."

The Dalai Lama visited Taiwan three years ago and met with former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), but he was not treated as a state visitor as the KMT still regards Tibet as a part of China.