A Prized Leader : Followers Rejoice for Dalai Lama

While the Dalai Lama received news of his Nobel Peace Prize with characteristic serenity Thursday, his followers and fellow Tibetans were thrilled by the announcement and encouraged by its implicit slap at China.

Participants in the Harmonia Mundi, the science and peace conference that the Dalai Lama is attending in Newport Beach, hugged each other as news of the prize spread through the crowd. Roman Catholic, Hindu and Buddhist monks congratulated each other and praised the Dalai Lama, many with tears in their eyes.

The Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is expected to avoid any official celebration.

“It would be, well, inconsistent,” an aide said. But Tibetans and others expected to celebrate enthusiastically.

Kal Wangden, a Tibetan native who now lives in Anaheim, said that many would drape white scarves upon the Dalai Lama’s picture; later, many would “tilt a few,” he added. He is one of about 75 Tibetans living in Southern California.

“For me, he is still a spiritual and political leader,” said Tseten Phanucharas, a Tibetan native who emigrated in 1958 and is now administrative director of the lab at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica. “He’s the ultimate example of the way I want to be.”

Religious and spiritual devotees of the Dalai Lama saw the prize as evidence that the exiled Tibetan leader’s gospel of inner peace and nonviolence is finding adherents in a materialistic world. For those followers, the award pointedly signaled that the heart of the world had opened to their beliefs.

“The Dalai Lama, being an embodiment of realized Buddhahood, has always possessed a Nobel Peace, and only now has been recognized by the world as worthy of a prize to go with it,” said Dr. Sivaj, an Indian Hindu attending the conference.

Swami Gopi Krishan, a native of India who now lives in Garden Grove, called the award a “Nobel Peace Prize for the world. The Dalai Lama is a symbol of human values and values that are the best of humanity.”

Krishan, also a conference participant, spoke in a room filled with candles and incense. Just across a roped barrier, dozens of journalists scurried to prepare for the Dalai Lama’s entrance, and Krishan eyed them bemusedly.

“Today is a graduation of humanity into super-humanity,” Krishan said. “You see, everyone is here to see him.”

Religious leaders of diverse faiths joined in praising the Dalai Lama, whose appearance at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Tennis Club caused a ripple of reverent enthusiasm.

The Dalai Lama “brings us together in our various religious traditions,” said Edward McCorkell, a Cistercian monk from Berryville, Va. “He is a bridge builder. There is no one quite like him.”

The award will allow millions to discover that, McCorkell and other conference participants predicted hopefully. “It will be brought to the world’s attention that his contribution to the whole human family transcends local or religious boundaries,” he said.

Dr. Winafred B. Lucas, a conference participant and psychologist from Lake Arrowhead, wholeheartedly agreed. “The whole planet now is going to have to come to a wish for peace, a recognition that we are one organism.”

There is no peacemaker like the Dalai Lama, she added. “It’s as though he allows the trends of life to flow through him.”

Tibetan emigres said Thursday that they saw the prize as a tool for focusing

international anger on China and its occupation of Tibet.

Deke Samchock, 25, who lives in Canada and is visiting relatives in Huntington Beach, said the peace prize raises new hope for world attention to focus on Tibet’s plight.

“It emphasizes the fact that he is promoting peace, and that’s a direct affront to the Chinese government,” Samchock said. “We’ve been working for the last 30 years to raise public awareness. I think this single award will be the most important event.”

For Tibetans who have fled their homeland and sometimes their families, the Dalai Lama stands as the enduring symbol of their heritage and a constant reminder to the West of the atrocities perpetrated by the Chinese. That has elevated him to messianic status with many emigre Tibetans.

“We never let go of our faith in the Dalai Lama,” said Tseten Phanucharas of Santa Monica.

* NOBEL PRIZE Tibet’s exiled Dalai Lama wins the peace award for his nonviolent struggle to free his people from Chinese rule. Part I, Page 1