Dalai Lama tweets to Chinese web users

by Robert Saiget Robert Saiget –

Fri May 21

BEIJING:

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, held his first Internet chat with Chinese web users Friday, in a wide-ranging dialogue touching on politics and his eventual successor.

The webcast was seen on the micro-blogging website Twitter and on Internet sites inside China despite Beijing's long-standing efforts to police the web and silence the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner on the Chinese mainland.

During the 90-minute chat, the Dalai Lama said a decade of negotiations with Beijing on autonomy for Tibet and his eventual return home had failed to move forward because the government refused to acknowledge the problems Tibet faces.

The lack of progress "is because the central government has all along maintained that there is no problems in Tibet -- there are only problems with the Dalai Lama," he said from New York.

China has called the Dalai Lama a "wolf in monk's clothing" and accused him of seeking to split the country, but he has repeatedly said he accepts Beijing's rule and is only seeking "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet.

"I personally have no demands -- my main concerns are the problems with Tibetan culture and the religion and environment of the Tibetan people," he told web users.

"In some Tibetan areas, because the population of Han Chinese has increased, the Tibetan language and culture are facing a crisis."

Two years ago, protests in Tibet's capital Lhasa marking the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule escalated into deadly violence, prompting a massive security clampdown in the Himalayan region that is ongoing.

The Dalai Lama said Beijing's present course of action in his homeland was "coercive", adding: "They are always laying importance on Tibet's stability -- I think stability comes from the faith within one's own heart."

Over 12,500 people selected 289 questions for the monk by online voting done on a Google Moderator site, which was blocked in China on Thursday, said Wang Lixiong, a long-time critic of China's policy in Tibet, who helped run the chat.

The 74-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader, able to answer only a few questions, elaborated on the coming reincarnation of the 15th Dalai Lama who will take his place after he passes away, in accordance with Buddhist ritual.

"In 1969, I made an official statement, that said that in the future if the Dalai Lama line should be continued, this should be decided by the people of Tibet," he said.

"In 1992 I made a statement that stressed that if in the future Tibet really got formal administration (of the Tibet region), I would transfer all of my rights to the democratically elected leaders of Tibet."

He refused to respond directly when asked whether he feared China's atheist government would control the reincarnation process much like it did in 1995 when picking the boy chosen as the Panchen Lama -- Tibet's second-most revered spiritual leader.

"As far as I understand, he (the new Panchen Lama) is very intelligent -- as far as Buddhist scriptures, he is making a lot of effort," the exiled leader said.

"But the people have certain suspicions about him, on whether or not his interpretations of Buddhist scriptures will be effective. This is very important and it will depend on he himself."

Although Twitter is blocked in China, Chinese users were able to access the chat, as Twitter allows third-party applications and servers to freely use its data both inside and outside China.

This has made Twitter largely available in China despite the vast web of government Internet censorship sometimes dubbed the "Great Firewall of China", said Xiao Qiang, who heads the US-based China Digital Times.

"The Great Firewall has actually helped the Twitter community to grow in China in a way not seen around the world," he told AFP by telephone.

Up to 150,000 Chinese are estimated have Twitter accounts, with as many as 100,000 of them physically living in the mainland, Xiao said.

The Dalai Lama joined Twitter, the popular micro-blogging site, earlier this year.