Tensions persist daily between the Dalai Lama and Beijing which has Buddhists here in Syracuse and elsewhere concerned as usual. Recently things have been so tense in dealing with China and the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan issue that India has blocked a doctorate for the Dalai Lama due to fears of a Chinese backlash. Breitbart.com, http://www.breitbart.com, has reported on this in an article titled "India blocks doctorate to Dalai Lama, fearing Chinese backlash".
Breitbart.com has reported that The Hindustan Times, http://www.hindustantimes.com, has said that India's foreign ministry has blocked a plan by a university to award an honorary doctorate to the Dalai Lama due to fears of a Chinese backlash. The Hindustan Times said the foreign ministry told the education ministry it would be inappropriate at this stage for Jamia Millia Islamia, http://www.jmi.ac.in,which is a national university located in New Delhi, to go forward with a plan to give the Dalai Lama an honorary doctorate.
The Hindustan Times has gone on to report that this posture by India in dealing with an honorary doctorate for the Dalai Lama shows that India wants to avoid any further confrontation with China. China considers the Dalai Lama to be a traitor. The Tibetan spiritual leader flew from Tibet to India in 1959 in the aftermath of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. He has been honored with a Nobel Peace Prize and he has created a Tibetan government in exile from Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh state in India.
Although the Dalai Lama has been granted honorary doctorates from other leading international institutions around the world, Jamia Millia Islamia would have been the first Indian university to give him one. The tensions between the Dalai Lama and China have gone on for decades and often have effects on already tense relations between the largest democracy in the world, India, and the largest Communist power in the world, China.
China has objected to the Dalai Lama's visit last November to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims is its territory. However, even after Beijing grew hostile in comments about a meeting between the Dalai Lama and the Prime Minister of India in August, Indian Prime Minister Singh still made it clear to the world that the Dalai Lama was an honored guest in India.
Now Buddhists here in Syracuse are as usual joining Buddhists elsewhere in prayers for the well being of the Dalai Lama with hopes China will not bring harm to him and the Tibetan people.
Mandel News Service: www.mandelnews.com
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