Reportage – 2005

Dalai Lama turns 70

MCLEOD GANJ, India, 6 July 2005

The Dalai Lama gestures to say that he has dedicated his life for three things: human values, inter-religious harmony and Free Tibet movement, during his meeting with the mediapersons on his 70th birthday. [ click here for print size   [an error occurred while processing this directive] ]

Thousands of Tibetans and foreign tourists braved pouring rain to greet and hear the Dalai Lama on his 70th birthday at his temple in the northern Indian hill town of Mcleod Ganj.

The Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, Samdhong Rinpoche, and other Tibetan government officials and revered monks shared the Dalai Lama’s dais.

"Every day is like birthday for me. Each day there are important things in life," the Dalai Lama said during a meeting with the press after the official function.

He said he strive for three things in his life: human values, inter-religious harmony and to struggle for a Free Tibet. "I will continue to work for these until I die."

The Dalai Lama during the function. Jetsun Pema, his younger sister, is also seen in the picture. [ click here for print size   [an error occurred while processing this directive] ]

However, he said he is leading a semi-retired life from active politics and hoped to pass on all the political responsibility on the elected legislators and the Prime Minister.

"As a Tibetan I have a special responsibility for our cause and my people have hope and trust in me but since there is an elected Tibetan political leadership I am trying to remain less and less involved in the political field," he said

The Dalai Lama has lived in India since he fled Tibet in 1959, and established his government-in-exile in Himalayan foothills town of Dharamshala.

As China remained reluctant to enter into dialogue with him to resolve the Tibetan issue, the Dalai Lama said Tibetans must show "more patience and more determination" to achieve reconciliation with China.

Four rounds of talks have held between his envoys and China since 2002, when direct contact was established between the two sides after a hiatus of nine years. The last meeting between the two sides was held at the end of June in Bern, Switzerland, with five Tibetan representatives meeting Chinese officials at the Chinese embassy as part of ongoing contacts between the two sides.

Students from newly arrived Tibetan refugees school performing for the Dalai Lama [ click here for print size   [an error occurred while processing this directive] ]

The Dalai Lama is now committed for an autonomy for Tibet within China, not an independent Tibet. But China regularly accuses him as a separatist and demands him to publicly declare that Tibet and China are inalienable parts of China.

Born on 6 July 1935, to a farming family in northeastern Tibetan province Amdo, he was recognised at the age of two as the incarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso.

At tender age of 15 he was accorded the full power of the state to lead his country to confront the Chinese invasion in 1950. For the next nine years he tried to keep the Tibetan sovereignty but all the efforts failed which culminated in an uprising in March 1959, which was brutally crushed forcing him to escape into exile in India.

Today he is one of the most respected and photographed world leaders. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his non-violent struggle for Tibet.