A very political monk

Why do we think the Dalai Lama is a living saint?

This Sunday, the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu will be awarded the Fetzer Prize for Love and Forgiveness at the 2009 Vancouver Peace Summit. I have to admit that I’d never heard of this prize until today, but I can tell you that it’s worth $100,000 (£63,000) and that the Fetzer Institute is based in the town of Kalamazoo, Michigan, previously best known as the place where, according to the 1942 hit record, the Glenn Miller band’s singer had a girl (or rather, a gal).

I am delighted for Archbishop Tutu, who has always seemed to combine astounding cheerfulness and compassion with a highly accurate moral barometer, calling it right, for instance, on Robert Mugabe — he described him as “a caricature of an African dictator” — when too many of his fellow countrymen chose to keep silent about “Comrade Bob’s” destructive behaviour.

The Dalai Lama, though, I’m not so sure about. It’s not just that I’m suspicious of the amount of time he appears to spend hanging around with Hollywood stars struck dumb by being in the presence of a “God-King”, and a “Boodist” one to boot. Nor is it just that I’ve not been totally convinced of his great holiness since my old colleague at the Independent Johann Hari came back from interviewing him and declared to the startled office: “I’ve just been called ‘fat’ by the Dalai Lama.” The exchange appeared in the paper as follows:

“Why do the rich need so much? We each only have one stomach. Well, not you,” he says, looking at my belly. “You appear to have two.”

Every action he takes carries the possibility of political repercussions, and it is misleading simply to see him as a religious leader. He and Tibet have become pet causes in the west, while the Dalai Lama is now such an icon that nobody ever questions the wisdom of what he does any more. Now, I’m not saying that Tibetans may not have very good cause to feel that they have been conquered and oppressed by the Chinese. But so do the Uighurs of Xinjiang, of whom the world became briefly aware in July when 200 died in riots in the province. They, however, have since been completely forgotten again. If only they had a great spiritual leader to capture our attention . . .

This August “His Holiness” visited Taiwan after the island had been hit by a typhoon, and in November he is due to visit the Tawang monastery in Arunachal Pradesh — a region China calls Southern Tibet. The Chinese claim both areas as theirs, and just as his trip to Taiwan infuriated Beijing, so will his forthcoming jaunt. “The visit further reveals the Dalai clique’s anti-China and separatist essence,” a spokesman from the Chinese foreign ministry told a reporter from Asia Sentinel. “China’s stance on the so-called Arunachal Pradesh is consistent. We firmly oppose Dalai visiting the so-called Arunachal Pradesh.”

He can claim that his activities are spiritual, but the Dalai Lama’s appeal to the west has political ends, and as a result of that he deserves a little more scrutiny. Rarely aired, for instance, are the views of some who think he has actually set back the cause of Tibetan independence, or those who argue that China’s invasion released Tibet’s population from feudal serfdom, in which the peasants were slaves of the lamas.

So three cheers for “Arch” Tutu in being awarded this prize. But I think I’ll hold off the ovation for the very political monk whom we’ve elevated into a living saint.