达赖喇嘛:自焚并非完全错误

2014年5月9日,正在挪威访问的达赖喇嘛呼吁国际社会对过去五年超过130名藏人自焚展开调查,他认为在某种情形下,这种抗议行动可以理解,并非完全错误。

达赖喇嘛还认为应该区别对待由同情驱动的自焚和被愤怒驱动的自焚,他承认围绕自焚的宗教问题非常非常复杂。

2012年7月,达赖喇嘛曾在接受《印度教徒报》(The Hindu)专访时表达他对藏人自焚的态度,称之为“非常、非常微妙的政治问题”(very, very delicate political issue)。当时,达赖喇嘛明确表明自己的中立态度,不偏向任何一方。他说:“我不能对这么多藏人的自焚作出负面评价,那会伤害了他们的家庭。我又不能肯定他们,那样北京会立即谴责我。”(The Dalai Lama has said he cannot be negative about the spate of self-immolations by Tibetans in China because it would hurt their families. "Now, the reality is that if I say something positive, then the Chinese immediately blame me,")

以下是5月9日纽约时报原文:

Dalai Lama Urges Outside Inquiry Into Spate of Self-Immolations Among Tibetans

By RICK GLADSTONE and HENRIK PRYSER LIBELLMAY 9, 2014

The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader in exile, on Friday called for an outside inquiry into the self-immolations of more than 130 Tibetans in anti-China demonstrations over the past five years, and he suggested that in some cases, such acts of protest were understandable and not entirely wrong.

If compassion is the reason driving those who immolate themselves, the Dalai Lama said, they should be viewed differently from those motivated by anger. The religious issues surrounding the self-immolations, he said, “are very, very complicated.”

The remarks by the Dalai Lama, 78, a soft-spoken Buddhist theologian, were ambiguous compared with his previous criticisms of self-immolations, carried out mainly by Tibetan Buddhist monks frustrated with what they view as China’s repressive policies toward Tibet’s culture and religion.

The Dalai Lama made the remarks on the final day of a three-day visit to Norway, where he received the Nobel Peace Prize 25 years ago for his nonviolent philosophy in opposing China’s domination of his Himalayan homeland, which he fled in 1959.

China, which considers the Dalai Lama a subversive separatist, has accused him and his loyalists in exile of fomenting the self-immolations, which have embarrassed the Chinese authorities despite government attempts to thwart them. The International Campaign for Tibet, an advocacy group, has chronicled at least 131 self-immolations since February 2009, mostly in Tibetan-populated areas of western China adjoining Tibet.

Norwegian lawmakers in Oslo, who were among the Dalai Lama’s hosts, met with him in Parliament, where he appeared at a forum on Friday and answered questions that included whether he had urged a halt to the self-immolations.

“This is a very sensitive issue,” the Dalai Lama said, speaking in English. He said the self-immolations were “very sad” and that such “drastic action” probably had little effect on the underlying issue of Chinese policy on Tibet.

The Dalai Lama also said outsiders, like his hosts in Parliament, should conduct their own fact-finding visit to determine the causes. “I think sometimes Chinese leaders also need these things, too,” he said, because they are not given accurate information by their subordinates.

There was no immediate reaction from Chinese officials, who have described the self-immolations as a form of terrorism.

Whether self-immolations are religiously wrong, the Dalai Lama said, “entirely depends on motivation.”

“If such a drastic action takes place with full anger, then negative,” he said. “But more compassionate, more calm mind, then sometimes maybe less negative.”

The Dalai Lama’s visit to Norway has drawn particular attention because senior Norwegian government leaders decided against meeting with him in deference to China.

The Norwegian prime minister, Erna Solberg, justified the decision on the grounds that Norway has been trying to improve relations with China, which has been angry at Norway ever since the Nobel Peace Prize committee gave the award to the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010. Ms. Solberg elaborated on the decision on Friday, telling the national broadcaster NRK that it was a “necessary sacrifice” to improve relations with China.

Surveys suggested that many Norwegians were critical of the official snub, viewing it as a cowardly capitulation that sacrificed human rights in favor of economics. Thousands of well-wishers turned out to greet the Dalai Lama when he arrived in Oslo on Wednesday.

China’s state-run news media have not reported on the Dalai Lama’s trip, but the Chinese Foreign Ministry acknowledged the Norwegian government’s decision to snub him. “China pays attention to the announcement by the Norwegian side,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, said on April 28.

Rick Gladstone reported from New York, and Henrik Pryser Libell from Oslo.

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