| A religious visit is on |
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The Dalai Lama, spiritual head of Tibetan or Vajrayana Buddhism which
is followed in Mongolia also, is now on an eight-day visit to Mongolia.
He arrived late on Monday evening on a MIAT Mongolian National Airlines flight from Tokyo, Japan and was greeted at the Chinggis Khaan International Airport by representatives from the Indian Embassy, officials from the Gandantegchenlin Monastery, and a small group of around 30 individuals. There was no representative from the Mongolian Government which is treating the visit as a private one. China refers to the Dalai Lama, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, as a Tibetan separatist and does not approve of any Government according him any formal temporal status. On Monday Air China delayed its flight to Ulaanbaatar for reasons of “poor weather”, even though it was a bright and sunny day. When the Dalai Lama was last here, in 2002, the Chinese kept railway links with Mongolia closed for over two days. Associated Press has quoted a senior lama as saying that the high-ranking clergy decided at a meeting to keep the visit a low-key affair so as not to upset China. A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing said on Tuesday that the Dalai Lama “is not merely a religious figure, but a political exile who over a lengthy period has engaged in splittist activities and hurt national unity. China is resolutely opposed to any country offering him a stage to engage in the above-mentioned activities.” On August 8, Xinhua press agency quoted Zhang Qingli , a Communist leader in Tibet , as saying that the Dalai Lama’s “visits abroad are merely for the purpose of scraping together anti-Chinese elements and propagandizing and peddling his Tibetan independence thinking.” On Tuesday, thousands of Mongolian Buddhists, curious onlookers, and tourists were present at Gandantegchenlin, the center of Buddhism in Mongolia, when he arrived there for worship and to interact with lamas, many of whom have been to Dharamsala in India for religious training. This is the place where the Dalai Lama has his ‘government-in-exile’. He left Tibet for India in 1959. At the Gandantegcheling monastery meeting, when the Dalai Lama arrived, the crowd cheered and there was widespread rejoicing among the lamas, old and young, dressed in their traditional saffron and maroon robes. He shook hands in greeting and touched people on the forehead in blessing. His speech of about 20 minutes stressed on the need to maintain family values in leading a good and righteous life. Later, there was a rush to touch the chair on which he had sat. The Dalai Lama, who was taken from the airport to the Ikh Tenger Presidential Compound outside of Ulaanbaatar and where he will be staying, has a busy schedule in Mongolia, much of which has been kept secret and subjected to unannounced changes. He will take part in numerous private and public teaching sessions. The biggest of these have been scheduled at the Central Stadium, which can accommodate thousands. The Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on August 21 saying the Dalai Lama’s visit was “at the invitation of Gandantegchenlin Monastery”. His several earlier visits, too, had been “through religious channels” and he had restricted himself to “only religious activities”. The statement expressed the hope that since the Dalai Lama “did not attempt to make any political activities in the past when he was in Mongolia… and this visit will (also) be similar.” A spokesman for the Office of the President said there was no official meeting planned between President N.Enkhbayar and the Dalai Lama, but a private meeting was more than likely. Since 1979 the Dalai Lama has made seven trips to Mongolia. The honorific itself is Mongolian and means “the ocean of wisdom”. It was a Mongolian emperor who appointed the first Dalai Lamas to the exalted status. |
