Dalai Lama becomes citizen of Rome
Dharmshala: His Holiness the Dalai Lama recalled a predecessor who stopped Kublai Khan slaughtering people in Marco Polo’s time as he received the keys to Venice , a day after being made a citizen of Rome.
”It was a Tibetan lama who persuaded the Grand Khan to suspend the executions of 100,000 people who were thrown into the river each year; the lama was a friend of Marco Polo,” said His Holiness the Dalai Lama as he was made an honourary citizen by Venice Mayor Massimo Cacciari.
This was disclosed by the official spokesman of the Tibetan government in-exile at Dharmshala today.
He quated Dalai Lama as saying, ”But the past is the past and today the communist Chinese authorities have an extremely restrictive and short-sighted view,” His Holiness said, accusing China of ”deliberately seeking to eliminate Tibetan people, culture and religion”.
Monks in Lhasa now only numbered ”around 50,” down from 100 a couple of years ago and thousands in 1959, the year the Tibetan people rose up peacefully against China’s invasion ten years before, His Holiness said.
The situation has deteriorated since a crackdown on peaceful Tibetan protesters in March last year, His Holiness said.
”Many people are still being arrested in Tibet, many disappear, are beaten, have their legs and arms broken and are prohibited from opening Tibetan schools”.
”In such a difficult period, receiving your sympathy and feeling it passed from heart to heart encourages me and makes me happy,” said His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who is seeking genuine autonomy for Tibet.
Venice Mayor Cacciari praised ”the intelligence with which His Holiness the Dalai Lama has conducted his battle for the freedom and self-determination of Tibet”.
”The battle is not over and we intend to show our support by giving you honourary citizenship,” said the mayor, who is a leading Italian philosopher.
The Lama was accompanied on his trip to Venice by the head of the Italian parliament’s Tibet support group, Radical MP Matteo Mecacci. As in Rome the previous day, Mecacci criticised the Italian government’s decision to ”ignore” His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s visit, as well as its response to Chinese criticism.
He said the government should have taken the opportunity to voice support, as the European Union has repeatedly done, for Tibetan autonomy.
