His Holiness explained about the three important ideals that he cherish as his mission. Firstly on human level, “I am one of the nearly seven billion people living in this world, we are all same and heavily dependent upon each other and interrelated. So our problems are global problem. We need to have a big concept of ‘we’ and genuine sense of concern for other irrespective of his or hers race and nationality. Promotion these inner value is very important.”
“Lastly, I am a Tibetan, and moreover being a Dalai Lama, I have certain responsibility. Politically, since 2001, we have a democratically elected political leadership and my position has been in somewhat semi-retired state. These are the three missions that I cherish, and I think media people also has great responsibility in promoting inner values, religious harmony and oneness of all human beings. Media people should have a long nose as long as an elephant’s nose to smell all the corners of the society and bring the truth and justice to the public,” said His Holiness.
His Holiness answered questions from the press. On being asked about the Tibetan students demonstrating in Tibet against Chinese language imposition, His Holiness said, “Since some time back, I said intentionally or unintentionally some sort of cultural genocide is going on in Tibet. Unintentionally means, two third of Lhasa’s three hundred thousand population is Han Chinese. Offices, restaurants, shops etc. uses Chinese language because all these utilities belongs to Chinese. If you don’t speak Chinese, you don’t get job. These are unintentional forces annihilating Tibetan ways of life.”
“Now, intentionally, since the arrival of Chen Kuiyan as the Party Secretary in Tibet, I was informed that the classical Tibetan texts in universities have been replaced by Chinese texts. In one of the Party meetings, the Communist Secretary has openly said that to clear the main obstruction to the unity of the motherland is eradication of Tibetan language. It was said that semi-cultural revolution came in Tibet around that time. Now, China wants to replace Chinese language as a medium of education in Tibet. These are intentional destruction of a living culture and the public and students are demonstrating against this is ruthless policy of Chinese government. Mao Tsetung spoke against Chinese chauvinism and narrow nationalism, but these have come back to destroy the culture and languages of the minorities,” His Holiness said.
When asked about Liu Xiaobo winning Nobel Peace Prize, His Holiness said, “unfortunate thing is hardliners in China never listen to the public and they feel it right to crush any dissents. This is gross human right violation. But the Chinese leadership should know that 1.3 billion Chinese has the right to know the reality and to judge what is right and what is wrong. Censorship is immoral, and harmful in the long run,” explained His Holiness.
About forty media representatives attended the press meeting. His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the entourages will leave Hiroshima tomorrow for Tokyo and then to New Delhi.
–Report filed by Tsewang Gyalpo Arya, Office of Tibet, Japan