Assignment 03
Part 1 THE DALAI LAMA
Identify two of the reputations of the Dalai Lama revealed in this newspaper extract and discuss them in relation to Book 1, Chapter 7.
This essay will discuss and consider two of the several reputations that surround the 14th Dalai Lama, as found in the newspaper extract and other sources. well done for giving your reader an idea of the discussion that will follow, however, try to avoid single-sentence paragraphs. Also, it would be a good idea to identify the newspaper extract and the two reputations you will discuss.
The first reputation to be explored will be that of the Chinese government’s opinion of the Dalai
Lama. Now exiled by the Chinese, his home is in Dharamsala, India. Due to the Chinese intervention of Tibet in 1950 under the label of liberation, the Dalai Lama is regarded as an enemy of China because he passively refuses to accept Chinese rule in Tibet and has spoken out about this, particularly during his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. His desire to return to Tibet and continue with the traditional autonomous rule is, on the surface, the total opposite to the current Chinese political system of Communism. This is a good overview of the Chinese view, though as the question asks you to identify two reputations in the newspaper article, it would be a good idea to start with this before you bring in discussion in the Waterhouse chapter.
The Chinese, certainly within their country, present the Dalai Lama as one who is intolerant of all other religions and as a leader that who refuses to negotiate, despite the proposals he brought to the table in 1987, known as the Five Point Plan. The Chinese refused to consider or concede to this proposal in any way. In a statement released by the Chinese embassy in May, 2004, the Chinese government made it very clear that as far as they were concerned, the Dalai Lama is holding back progress, is preventing religious freedom and needs to ‘do
Bibliography: Muldoon, P. (2010) The Faber Book of Beasts (ed.P.Muldoon), London, Faber and Faber Ltd. What about the poetry chapter in Tradition and Dissent?