The Dalai Lama will be visiting Toronto at the end of this coming April to confer the Kalachakra Initiation, one of the most important of the Buddhist rituals and teachings. During this time, he will be receiving an honorary doctor of laws degree at a special convocation ceremony at U of T. He will also be awarded the International Acharya Sushil Kumar Peace Award.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was born in 1935 in northern Tibet and was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of two. He is the spiritual and the political leader of the Tibetan people, and has been living in exile in Dharamsala, India, since 1959. Since then, he has continuously represented the Tibetan people and fought for Tibet’s freedom through non-violence. The Dalai Lama’s commitment to peace and non-violence has been recognized internationally, and in 1989 he was awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.
For over half a century, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people have been working to obtain religious freedoms and political autonomy from China. And for over half a century, they have been promoting their cause peacefully, while those still living in Tibet continually face violence from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Since the invasion of Tibet by the communist Chinese in 1949, over one million Tibetans have died. Presently in Tibet, there is no freedom of speech, religion, or press. To show a picture of the Dalai Lama in public is forbidden. Tibetans are arrested and imprisoned without trial, and sometimes tortured or executed. The resettlement of Han Chinese into Tibet by the Chinese government has made the Tibetans a minority in their own land. They have been marginalized economically and are, in effect, second-class citizens.
The Chinese government has also wreaked havoc on Tibet’s fragile environment through extraction of natural resources, extensive deforestation and dumping of nuclear waste.
Presently, the international community has put minimal effort to pressure China to improve its human rights record. Although discussion has begun between the two groups, development has been slow and international support will most likely be needed to ensure success and fairness in the negotiation process.
The Dalai Lama’s honourary degree ceremony will be Tuesday, April 27 at 4pm at Convocation Hall. His Holiness will be in Toronto from April 25 to May 5 to lead the Kalachakra Initiation. At U of T, students can learn about the issue more through Students for a Free Tibet (SFT).
