Sat, Mar 24, 2001 page3

• President will meet with Dalai Lama

  SPIRITUAL VISIT The meeting with Chen Shui-bian at the Presidential Office may symbolize a subtle shift in Taiwan's policy on Tibet under the DPP government

  • By Tsering Namgyal / STAFF REPORTER
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  President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will meet with the Dalai Lama, who is expected to arrive on March 31 for his second visit to Taiwan, the Presidential Office confirmed yesterday.

  Chen will meet with the Tibetan leader at the Presidential Office -- a move which symbolizes a subtle shift of Taipei's Tibet policy under the DPP government.

  

  The Dalai Lama looks up during a prayer meeting in Kaohsiung in 1997.

  TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO

  During the Dalai Lama's last visit to Taiwan in March 1997, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) met with the Dalai Lama, but the meeting place was in a last-minute arrangement transferred to the nearby Taipei Guest House.

  China last week slammed the trip as politically motivated, just as it painted the historic meeting between Lee Teng-hui and the Tibetan leader as "the summit of the splittists."

  The Dalai Lama is also expected to meet with Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), the Presidential Office confirmed yesterday.

  Lu will attend an Inter-Religious Prayer for World Peace at Taoyuan Stadium on April 1.

  Indeed, officials and organizers reiterated the spiritual nature of the trip given the Tibetan leader's popularity in the predominantly Buddhist Taiwan.

  "This is a purely religious trip," said Tsegyam, spokesperson for the His Holiness the Dalai Lama Tibet Religious Foundation in Taipei.

  Buddhist organizations in Taiwan have been persistently inviting the Tibetan leader, who is also an erudite scholar of Buddhist metaphysics.

  The coming visit will kick off with a speech on April 1 on "Ethics for the New Millennium" -- the title of an eponymous New York Times bestseller released last year -- followed by six days of religious talks, including an initiation of the Buddha of Compassion, or Avalokiteshwara, known in Chinese as Kwanyin (觀音).

  Notwithstanding the spiritual nature of the visit, the visit to Taiwan by the Nobel Laureate is bound to have unintended political consequences, analysts say.

  "Since the Dalai Lama is an internationally-renowed figure, Taipei thinks that his visit will help increase its visibility," said Wu Yu-shan (吳玉山), a professor of political science at the National Taiwan University.

  Last year, Chen brushed aside fears of provoking China and invited the Dalai Lama to attend his inaugural ceremony.

  Although the visit had to be called off due to a scheduled trip to Europe, the Dalai Lama was represented by two top-ranking Tibetan officials -- Sonam Topgyal, head of the Cabinet of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, and Samdhong Rinpoche, the chairman of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile.

  During his stay, the Dalai Lama will also meet with Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰).

  In keeping with the Dalai Lama's usual practice, organizers originally planned speeches to be delivered at the National Taiwan University in Taipei and National Sun Yat Sen University in Kaohsiung.

  But the plan failed to materialize as most schools in Taipei will be closed for spring break in the first week of April.

  During his last visit, the Tibetan leader delivered a speech at Fujen Catholic University in Taipei, and also held a talk with young people at the Taoyuan stadium.

  The public speech on April 1 will be followed by a four-day teaching on the Prajna Paramita (般若波羅蜜多) -- which deals with the Buddhist concept of emptiness -- followed by an initiation of the Buddha of Compassion on April 6 and April 7.

  "When people listen to the Dalai Lama's teachings, it is different," says Geshe Jampa Gyatso, a senior Buddhist scholar based in Taipei. "It really makes them experience the meaning of what they have read or studied."

  Locals aside, foreign residents in Taiwan are also enthusiastic about the upcoming visit.

  "It is an exceptional opportunity for people here to listen to him talk," said Hope Phillips, alumni staff at the Taipei American School. "The only other person who has venerated in the way he does is Mother Teresa."
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