President Barack Obama has invited the Dalai Lama to the White House for talks today. The Tibetan spiritual leader has been in Washington for an 11-day Kalachakra Buddhist ritual. The meeting will be in the White House Map Room, and not the Oval Office which is reserved for visiting heads of state. “The president will highlight his enduring support for dialogue between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and the Chinese government to resolve differences” the White House said on Friday
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The Dalai Lama made it abundantly clear yesterday that China’s Communist leadership can play absolutely no role whatsoever in deciding who succeeds him as the leader of Tibetan Buddhism, according to reports from Asian News International quoted in DailyIndia.com. The mild-mannered Nobel Peace laureate called Beijing’s meddling in the issue “a disgrace”.
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A Chinese-backed foundation has entered into an agreement with the government of Nepal to transform Lord Buddha’s birthplace in southern Nepal, according to a report earlier today from Reuters. Just as Mecca is a magnet for Muslims and the Vatican for Catholics, so too is the desire to regenerate Lumbini in the foothills of the Himalayas into a magnet for Buddhists.
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Lobsang Sangay, an international law expert and Harvard scholar, was elected head of the Tibet government-in-exile (Kalon Tripa) on Wednesday. He easily beat two other candidates for the job, winning 55% of the vote. He is a former president of the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC). He will succeed current incumbent Prime Minsiter, Samdhong Rinpoche, in the aftermath of the Dalai Lama devolving his politcal role.
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