Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 4, 1 April 1994 — Dalai Lama to address Hawaiian sovereignty during Hawaiʻi visit [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Dalai Lama to address Hawaiian sovereignty during Hawaiʻi visit

This month, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual and secular leader of Tibet, is expected to address the issue of Hawaiian sovereignty when he comes to Hawai'i for a short visit. The Dalai Lama is held to be the reincarnation of Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of Compassion. The recipient of the 1989 Nobel Peaee Prize, his name is Tenzin Gyatso, and he is the 14th Dalai Lama. The People's Republic of China invaded Tibet in 1949-50. In 1959, the Dalai Lama escaped to India and was given political asylum. Today there are more than 120,000 Tibetan refugees in India, Nepal, Bhutan and in the West.

He estabhshed the Tibetan Government-in-exile and promulgated in 1963 a eonstitution for an independent Tibet. He founded 53 largescale agricultural settlements and an autonomous Tibetan school system for refugees. The govemment holds that the Chinese occupation of Tibet is illegal, while China holds that its relationship with Tibet is an internal affair because Tibet has been part of China for centuries. The exiled government claims 1 .2 million Tibetans - 20 percent of the population - have died as a result of the occupation, and that there has been wholesale destruction of monasteries, temples, and other historic and cultural structures at the hands of the Chinese. There are also rampant human rights violations, and thousands have been imprisoned for participating in demonstrations against Chinese rule, according to the govemment.