Contact is taking a holiday!

His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Chinese friends and scholars after their meeting in Melbourne, Australia on June 20, 2013.
Photo/Jeremy Russell/OHHDL

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is reaching out to Chinese scholars with his recent teachings and conferences.  Last month, he met up with Chinese scholars and friends while he was attending the forum on Happiness and Causes in Australia, and has also participated in a friendly conversation with Chinese scholars during his visit in Madison, USA in May.

His Holiness has remarked that there has been an increasing number of Chinese visitors to Dharamsala and that some of these visitors have connections with senior Communist party leaders. He said, “These are very, very encouraging signs.” Sikyong Lobsang Sangay said that the Dalai Lama’s outreach to Chinese students and scholars is shaping their attitudes towards Tibet.

Jin Wei, the director of ethnic and religious studies at the Central Party School in Beijing, publicly said in an interview in Asia Weekly that the way the Communist Party treats every cultural and religious problem in Tibet as subversive is making things worse. She called for an immediate recommencement of talks with the Dalai Lama’s representatives.

There has been speculation that Jin’s remarks show that there is discussion about Tibet policy in China.  However, public criticisms of the Chinese leadership’s handling of the Tibetan issue are rare and the majority of Chinese scholars in Beijing persist in the view that the issue will be solved when the Dalai Lama dies, focussing the blame for fueling the “Tibetan issue” onto His Holiness.

In March, the Xinhua News Agency accused the Central Tibetan Administration and the Dalai Lama of encouraging self-immolations. Within the same period, Zhang Dongsheng, deputy director of the Sichuan People’s Congress said, “So I wonder how they learnt to do it. The Dalai clique taught them, for sure.” In response to these allegations, Sikyong Lobsang Sangay said, “We once again invite the Chinese authorities to Dharamsala to prove their allegations of our alleged role in the self-immolation[s].” The New York Times also reported that “Despite the accusations, Chinese officials have never provided evidence of any connection between the acts and the Dalai Lama or other Tibetan leaders in exile.”