旧闻回顾：1998年首宗自焚后达赖喇嘛立即表态

1998年，流亡藏人组织在印度新德里发起绝食抗议活动，土登额珠于现场自焚，第二天死亡，他是首位自焚死亡的流亡藏人，事件发生后的第三天，达赖喇嘛立即发表讲话，认为其中间道路在激进藏人眼里已经失败。“多年来，我一直以为能够说服西藏人民远离暴力在我们争取自由的斗争，在这个意义上说，我的努力失败了。”

2011年三月起，发生了一系列的藏人自焚事件，10月19日，精神领袖达赖喇嘛和几千人一道为九名自焚藏人祈祷，并禁食一天。11月4日，他在日本访问时就藏人自焚一事回答记者，指藏人连串自焚是因为“极度的绝望导致”，他让北京自己去“寻找悲剧产生的原因”，并说“我已经将政治责任完全交给了民选总理洛桑森格，他此刻正在华盛顿，请直接向他提问。”

以下是1998年的旧闻：



Dalai Lama Rethinks Strategy After Follower's Immolation

By Krishnan Guruswamy

The AP Thursday, April 30, 1998

NEW DELHI - For decades, the Dalai Lama has preached calm and patience to fellow Tibetans campaigning against Chinese rule in their homeland.

Now, with growing hunger strikes and the death of a man who set himself on fire, the political and spiritual leader has admitted that his moderate approach has failed in the eyes of many frustrated Tibetans.

"For many years, I'd been able to persuade the Tibetan people to eschew violence in our freedom struggle," he said Tuesday after visiting Thupten Ngodup, a protester who set himself on fire during a demonstration Monday against China's rule of Tibet. Ngodup died yesterday, the first Tibetan exile to die of self-immolation.

The Dalai Lama - a title that means Ocean of Mercy - has lobbied heads of governments, popes and potentates to push China toward more autonomy for Tibet. China, which invaded in 1950 and annexed nine years later, has not budged.

"In that sense my efforts have failed," he said.

Younger militants have expressed increasing impatience with the Dalai Lama's moderate policies.

"We, the people of Tibet, need an answer," said Tseten Norbu, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, which organized a hunger strike that culminated with Ngodup's self-immolation. "How long should we wait, wait and wait?"

The Dalai Lama's admission was a hint that the young Tibetans should go ahead with their approach, said Dawa Norbu, a professor of Tibetan studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. "The Tibetan youth are getting desperate."

The Dalai Lama is the religious and political leader for more than 100,000 fellow countrymen campaigning from exile in India.