china-slams-dalai-lama-s-grammy-award-calls-it-propaganda

China has lodged a strong protest against Dalai Lama’s first Grammy award win, branding the recognition for his audiobook narration and storytelling “a tool for anti-China propaganda and manipulation tactics”.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, said it is “well known that the 14th Dalai Lama is not merely a religious figure, but a political exile engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the guise of religion”.

“We firmly oppose the relevant party using the award as a tool for anti-China political manipulation,” he said.

Dalai Lama won the prestigious award on Sunday for his book, ‘Meditations: The Reflections of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’. In a statement on his official website, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader said he viewed the award “as a recognition of our shared universal responsibility". 

“I receive this recognition with gratitude and humility,” he added.

 

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Widely regarded as the face of Tibet’s struggle for autonomy, the Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since 1959, when Chinese troops crushed an uprising in Lhasa after entering Tibet and capturing the border town of Chamdo in October, 1950. Both sides subsequently signed the 17-Point Agreement in 1951.

China has governed the Tibetan Autonomous Region since 1950, and for decades, the international community has criticised China’s efforts to suppress the Tibetan language, culture and identity. 

Beijing and Dalai Lama also remain at odds over the selection of his successor. Tibetan Buddhist tradition holds that Dalai Lamas are reincarnations of a spiritual lineage dating back to 1391.

But, Beijing has categorically rejected the current Dalai Lama’s authority to select his successor, insisting that the next Dalai Lama must be born in Tibet and recognised by the ruling Communist Party.

The Tibetan leader, in contrast, has stated that his successor will be born in a free country and that China will have no role in the process of the selection.

Following the failure of the 1959 Tibetan uprising and the Dalai Lama’s escape to India, the central government dissolved the local Tibetan administration and then established the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) in 1965.