An Audience with the Dalai Lama (Who Has a "Small Difference of Opinion" with the US President)

In early September, I joined a group of representatives from a Taiwan-based NGO on a trip to Dharamsala. This NGO was formed by Taiwanese and Tibetan activists in Taiwan to focus on human rights issues relating to Taiwan and Tibet, and to promote communication between Taiwan and Tibetans. Its members include activists at various human rights NGOs in Taiwan, Tibetans living in Taiwan, professors, scholars and several members of the Taiwanese legislature. In fact, one legislator was originally going to join our group, but at the last minute was unable to go, though her assistant joined us (two legislators did go on a prior trip to Dharamsala with other members of the NGO). My wife is one of the founders of the NGO, along with her sister, and I joined as a volunteer (I helped with some of the English material put out by the group) and someone who has spent a fair amount of time studying the political history of China and Tibet. Over several days, we met with a number of people from the Tibetan Central Adminstration (the Tibetan government-in-exile), but the highlight came on our first morning, when our group had an audience with the Dalai Lama himself.

As might be expected, the Dalai Lama keeps a busy schedule, one that is all the more impressive when you consider that he is now 82 years old. He was leaving Dharamsala, I believe for a tour of Tibetan exile communities elsewhere in India, the day after our arrival, so we were told he might only be able to greet us briefly, as his aides hoped he could get some rest later in the day. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the security around him is quite tight. There was a layer of security around the temple in the outer part of the compound that was controlled by the Tibetans, but the security for the inner compound was controlled by the Indians. We had to leave all our things in lockers, including phones and cameras, and go through metal detectors and pat downs. My wife and I had each brought books written by the Dalai Lama for him to sign, but at first the Indian guards didn't even want to allow those. Our Tibetan chaperones persuaded them otherwise, though we weren't allowed to carry them ourselves (they were handed over to a monk in the entourage of the Dalai Lama to bring in at the end of our audience). Once into the inner compound, we were first taken to a waiting room near the entrance, where we could hear the Dalai Lama speaking to a crowd of Tibetans in the temple area. Then we were taken to another room, where after another wait, the Dalai Lama himself came in, accompanied by several aides.

The Dalai Lama briefly greeted each of us in turn as he came in (there were eleven people in our group, including two children, my daughter and her young cousin). When he came to me, he asked me in English where I was originally from, and I answered "America". I should say that I generally consider myself fairly worldly, not the kind of person to be completely overwhelmed at meeting a well-known person. I've met a few famous Taiwanese people in my life, and I once met the well-known Bangledehi writer/dissident Taslima Nasrin. Still, the Dalai Lama is on entirely different plane, so, while I can say I wasn't as obviously stunned as some others in our group, as he sat down and invited us to sit as well I couldn't help but think things like "It's the actual Dalai Lama, in person! He's sitting only less than two meters away from me! He actually spoke directly to me!" But there was even more to come.

Aside from the Dalai Lama and the eleven of us, there were several monks accompanying him, and one of his secretaries. Our group sat on two parallel couches that were facing each other, the Dalai Lama sat in an arm chair to the right of one couch and his secretary sat next to him in another chair. I was on the end of the couch nearer to the secretary, but still only a few feet from the Dalai Lama. His secretary had spent time in Taiwan and was fluent in Mandarin Chinese, so for the most part the Dalai Lama spoke in Tibetan and his secretary translated into Chinese. Though, as I said, we were told to expect a very brief meeting, he talked to us for quite some time (someone told us later the audience lasted nearly an hour), to the point where the children, especially the youngest one, got a bit restless. One of the monks fetched some treats for them, and the Dalai Lama remarked that the two children were the most free of all of us (though they probably didn't feel that way at the time). One of our group made a few remarks, but mostly we were content to listen to whatever advice the Dalai Lama had to give (not to mention the fact that we didn't want to take up any more of his time than necessary). A lot of his remarks were quite interesting. At one point, he noted that the term "Tibetan" as used by the Chinese was problematic, as the Chinese use it only for their so-called "Tibetan Autonomous Region" (which needless to say is not at all "autonomous"). This excludes historically Tibetan regions in what are now other Chinese provinces. After a quick canvass of the Tibetans in the room, he pointed out that by the Chinese definition, there were only two "Tibetans" present, and that he himself was not "Tibetan" by that definition, as he was born in Amdo, which is now part of the Chinese province of Qinghai. He also talked about the importance of developing relationships with people all over the world, including Chinese people. But the most notable part of the audience for me came toward the beginning.

After we first sat down, the Dalai Lama began by emphasizing our common humanity. He noted that whether Tibetan, Taiwanese, or even Chinese, we were all human beings first and thus had a shared responsibility for our world, including our environment. Here he suddenly switched to English, and addressed me directly (giving me another surreal moment of "The Dalai Lama is talking to me personally!"). I'm going to have to paraphrase a bit here, because since I was still somewhat discombabulated by the situation, I'm not sure of my memory of the exact words he used. But more or less, what he said, following immediately on his statement in Tibetan about the importance of all people caring about the environment, was this: "So when your president talks about America First...," he also mentioned the withdrawl of the US from the Paris Agreement, though I can't remember the precise wording he used, "...I have to say I have [here he gestured with his fingers] a small difference of opinion." I had enough presence of mind to answer, slightly unidiomatically, "Me also." But he wasn't quite done with me yet. He then said to me, "Now translate", with a wave at the others. A bit flustered, I started to stammer a rough translation in Chinese while frantically trying to review in my mind exactly what he had said. Fortunately, his secretary came to me rescue with a more smooth and complete translation.

That was the extent of my direct interaction with the Dalai Lama, except for an exchange of thank yous as he said farewell to each of us individually at the end of the audience. But he was very much like he seems in his other public appearances; relaxed, down-to-earth, wise and yet humorous and even a bit mischievous. While all the security and the different waiting rooms and just the fact of how important a person he is can't help but make his visitors tense, he is able to put people at ease, at least as much as is possible in a situation like that. So while the time we were able to spend with him was limited, my impression was that he just as much of a remarkable person as he seems.

As for his brief aside regarding the current part-time resident of the White House, this was delivered with his usual gift for ironic understatement. The Dalai Lama doesn't make harsh remarks about people. His crack to John Oliver about Chinese hardliners missing the part of the brain that generates common sense was about as strong a statement as he ever makes about people directly (in one of the early waiting areas they had an old edition of a Tibetan monthly newsletter in English with an article about John Oliver's encounter with the Dalai Lama in which they reported that a Chinese spokesman said that while the Dalai Lama "seemed humorous", the things he said were "lies" -- the latter is their usual slander, but even they had to admit he was humorous!). So the mere fact that he made a point of stating his "small" (to be honest, I can't remember for certain whether he said "small" or "little" or even "slight", but it doesn't affect the gist of his statement) difference of opinion with Don T. on the environment and "America First" made it clear to me that in truth he strongly disagrees, as the irony in his statement was obvious. Somehow, a mild, ironic rebuke from the Dalai Lama comes out as devastating as a strongly critical rant from someone else; regrettably, the narcissistic conman in question is not likely to pay any heed, even if he learns what the Dalai Lama thinks of his policies.