30 THE WEEK • JULY 14, 2019
COVER STORY
THE DALAI LAMAt the age of 16 you lost your free-
dom; at 24 you lost your country.
You have been living in India for
the past 60 years. What was on your
mind when you fl ed Tibet, carrying
the hopes of so many people?
As Buddhist monks, in our daily med-
itation, we think as sentient beings,
what we also call mother sentient
being. So, my daily prayer is, “So long
as space remains, so long as sentient
beings remain, I remain in order to
serve them.” Acharya Shantideva
(one of the great ancient acharyas)
said these words. My eff ort is to make
a small contribution towards the
wellbeing of the seven billion human
beings. By wellbeing, I mean not just
at the physical level, but also at the
mental level.You have personally known several
Indian leaders, starting with Jawa-
harlal Nehru. How close have you
been to them?
Pandit Nehru was very kind to me; he
advised me under diffi cult circum-
stances. I followed his advice, and it
was very practical. I came to India in
1956, during Buddha Jayanti. At that
time, many Tibetan offi cials told me
that I should stay in India and not
return. Th ey were fearing the Chinesetroops. I discussed with Pandit
Nehru, who said that it was better if I
returned to Tibet. He carried a copy
of the 17-point agreement [of 1951
between the Tibetan government
and the Chinese government]. With
his own pen he marked a few points
and told me [that] on those points [I]
could struggle within Tibet. I followed
his advice. I had also been carrying
out my own investigations through
divination. I returned to Tibet in- I tried my best [to maintain
peace with the Chinese], but after
some time... there [were] uprisings. In
1959, things went out of control and I
decided to escape from Tibet.
Why did you choose India?
When I was close to the Indian bor-
der, I sent two groups of emissaries to
India and Bhutan. Th e quickest and
more favourable response came from
India. One [Indian] cabinet member
expressed concern that if they accept-
ed the Dalai Lama, it could impact
India-China relations. But Pandit
Nehru decided they must receive the
Dalai Lama. It was Nehru who took
a stand. Many years later one old
Indian offi cial, before his death, came
here and [told me] this.How was the reception in India,
politically?
In 1959, I became a refugee in India.
President Dr Rajendra Prasad, Dr S.PANDIT NEHRU WAS VERY KIND TO ME; HE ADVISED ME
UNDER DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES. I FOLLOWED HIS
ADVICE, AND IT WAS VERY PRACTICAL..
Radhakrishnan, whom I knew since
1956, and Pandit Govind Ballabh
Pant were all wonderful persons. In
the opposition, there were politicians
like Acharya Kripalani and Ashok
Mehta, who were all staunch sup-
porters of Tibet. All of them helped
me. After I had taken refuge, Nehru
advised me that in order to keep
the Tibetan issue alive, raising the