Dalai Lama Honors Wiesel, Others for Work
on Tibet Cause
B. Blair Dedrick, Scripps Howard Foundation Wire
November 17th, 2005
His Holiness the Dalai Lama with the 2005 Light of
Truth Award honorees at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington DC,
November 15 2005. Photo Sonam Zoksang / ICT
Washington - A Jew and a Tibetan stood on the
same stage. They both have known the hardship of exile. They both are
refugees. They both have had to learn to carry their culture with them,
away from their homelands.
The 14th Dalai Lama and Elie Wiesel stood there
Tuesday and felt their similarities instead of their differences.
"The first question the Dalai Lama asked me, 'You
people left your land thousands of years ago, and you are still here.
Teach me how you survived,'" Wiesel said.
The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, and the
International Campaign for Tibet honored Wiesel, Lowell Thomas Jr. and
Carl Gershman with Light of Truth Awards, which are given to individuals
who have "made outstanding contributions to the public understanding of
Tibet and the plight of the Tibetan people."
The Dalai Lama's 10-day visit, which included
meetings with political leaders and leading scientists, will end Thursday.
In 1949, the Tibetan government invited Thomas, a
filmmaker and an Alaska politician, and his father, a pioneering radio
journalist and filmmaker, to Lhasa as international reporters in
anticipation of the Chinese Communist invasion. At the time, few Americans
knew about Tibet or the Dalai Lama, and the subsequent film and books
Thomas produced brought the nation into the American public's spotlight.
Gershman, president of the National Endowment for
Democracy, and his organization have fought for a democratic Tibet. Tibet
is one of the group's largest programs.
With his numerous books, Wiesel has become the
witness for millions of Holocaust survivors, said Ambassador Richard
Holbrooke, who introduced him.
"Elie has done more to change those perceptions
of events than anyone else in the world," he said. "The Dalai Lama summons
us to help save another culture in danger."
Wiesel, who is a close friend of the Dalai
Lama's, has helped bring attention to other people, including Tibetans,
enduring similar events.
"Why should the Jew that I am help Tibet?" Wiesel
asked. "Because Tibet is not free. I have learned I am not free because
others are not free."
The Dalai Lama said his vision for the next
century is one in which people and nations understand the
interconnectedness in their economy, environment and security, and he
spoke of the "atrocities" he has witnessed in Tibet because of China as
something people can learn from.
"I believe 21st century can become the most
important century of human history," he said. "I think world becoming some
new reality. Whether this view realistic or not, no harm, make effort."
The Dalai Lama spoke strongly about today's focus
on materialism instead of spirituality. In 1954-55, Marxist ideology gave
the Chinese people something to believe in, he said. Today, as the Chinese
economy is improving, that has been replaced by materialism.
"Materialism alone does not satisfy all needs,"
he said. "More and more Chinese turning to spirituality. Eventually, I
think, millions of young Chinese feeling something missing inside. I think
Tibetan Buddhism can fill that."
"So, that's my dream, he said.