A Diplomatic Coup for the Dalai Lama : Tibetan Spiritual Leader Wins Support from Clinton, Helms

In a city puffed up with self-importance, the Dalai Lama stands out as much for his ability to laugh at himself as for his flowing saffron and maroon robes--the standard garb of the “simple Buddhist monk” he insists he is.

But make no mistake about it, the Dalai Lama is a skilled diplomat who, while in Washington this week, managed to gain expressions of support from both President Clinton and North Carolina Republican Sen. Jesse Helms, two men who rarely agree on anything.

Tibetan tradition holds that the Dalai Lama is the 14th incarnation of a deity known as the Buddha of Compassion. But when asked this week by Ted Koppel on ABC-TV’s “Nightline” whether he could remember his past lives, the Dalai Lama playfully replied that he had trouble remembering what had happened to him the previous day.

But don’t underestimate a man whose full name in Tibetan translates as Holy Lord, Gentle Glory, Eloquent, Compassionate, Learned Defender of the Faith, Ocean of Wisdom.

The Dalai Lama--his nation’s exiled spiritual and political leader--is a diplomat of considerable skill who unceasingly circles the globe championing Tibetan political autonomy and cultural preservation in the face of Chinese insistence that Tibet, conquered by Beijing in 1950, is rightfully part of China.

His success gaining expressions of support from both Clinton and Helms, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, prompted Beijing to lodge a formal protest Thursday with American officials in China.

Clinton’s meeting with the Dalai Lama was a low-key, unofficial affair; the President happened to drop by while the Dalai Lama was visiting with Vice President Al Gore in the White House’s West Wing.

Chinese officials termed the meeting a “connivance” and a “gross interference in China’s internal affairs.” Their upset comes at a time when U.S.-China relations are already strained by several issues, including China’s concern with what it interprets as growing U.S. support for Taiwan--which Beijing also claims is part of China.

The irony is that the Dalai Lama, winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, relies on a message that seems better suited for the spiritual realm than the world of Realpolitik: the importance of cultivating love and compassion, even for one’s enemies.

“Genuine compassion is unbiased and can extend up to your enemy,” he said this week. “Compassion can lead to inner disarmament, which can often lead to outer disarmament.”

The Dalai Lama, who has lived in northern India since fleeing Tibet with about 90,000 followers in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, came to Washington after a weeklong series of stops in Atlanta, Houston and Boston. He first came to the United States in 1979 and has returned many times to put a face on the Tibetan cause and, as the world’s best-known Buddhist leader, to lecture on his faith.

This visit his agenda was unabashedly political. His aides said he specifically came to make contact with the new Republican leadership in Congress.

The Dalai Lama believes that once China’s aged and ailing ruler Deng Xiaoping dies, that nation is likely to undergo a historic transformation. That could provide a window of opportunity for China to relax its hold on Tibet and grant it the degree of autonomy short of full independence that the Dalai Lama said he is willing to settle for.

However, that will only occur if the international community can nudge China toward greater democracy, said the Dalai Lama. Continued dialogue with Chinese leaders is key; confrontation will not work, he said.

“Confrontation . . . will lead to nowhere,” the Dalai Lama told journalists at a breakfast meeting. What is needed is “face-to-face contact . . . to make close friends and influence them.”

Avoiding confrontation is a Dalai Lama hallmark, in keeping with the vows of nonviolence taken by Buddhist monks.

“Whenever I go I always prefer to avoid inconvenience,” he said, when asked if he was upset at the President’s reluctance to meet openly with him.

But the Dalai Lama is no ordinary diplomat, despite the Secret Service-led motorcades that carried him around official Washington this week, as he rushed from one meeting to another.

He told reporters that if the issue of Tibet “was just pure politics, then it’s questionable whether a Buddhist monk should be involved.”

The deeper issue, he said, is spiritual; preservation of Tibetan Buddhism, a distinct branch of the faith characterized by its elaborate cosmology and ornate ritual practices.

Without their faith, he said, Tibetans would be lost. Religion’s “responsibility” is to “cultivate a kind, compassionate heart,” he said. Without that, he added, there can be no real happiness.