Kaohsiung (Taiwan), Sep 1 (DPA) The Dalai Lama led thousands of people at a public ceremony Tuesday in Taiwan in prayers for typhoon victims despite protests by China over his visit.
He also met with the leader of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in a meeting that was certain to irritate China even more.
In the two-hour prayer service – his first large-scale public activity since arriving in Taiwan Sunday – the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader stressed that he was in Taiwan to pray for the victims of Typhoon Morakot, which killed hundreds when it unleashed landslides and flooding in Taiwan early last month.
“The purpose of my visit is to pray for the deceased,” he said at a stadium packed with 15,000 people.
The two-hour service saw the Dalai Lama chanting sutras, or Buddhist scriptures, and making remarks to comfort the families of those killed in the typhoon-triggered disaster.
Close to 700 people were killed when Morakot slammed into Taiwan, triggering flash floods that inundated thousands of houses in southern and eastern Taiwan, and causing rockslides and mudslides that killed many residents of mountain villages.
Half an hour before the ceremony, the Dalai Lama, who has repeatedly stressed his Taiwan visit was non-political, met with DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen.
The Dalai Lama told Tsai he came to Taiwan to pray for the typhoon victims and he greatly treasured his friendship with the Taiwanese people. He said he hoped his current visit, his third since 1997, would be able to continue to win friendship from the Taiwanese, according to DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsan who was at the meeting.
Cheng said Tsai told the Dalai Lama many people in Taiwan welcomed his visit, but because of the “complex political situation” on the island, it had created inconvenience for the Dalai Lama.
Cheng was referring to the reluctance of China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou to display the due respect and necessary decorum to the Dalai Lama during his five-day Taiwan visit. In his 1997 and 2001 trips, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader was well received by presidents Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian respectively.
The Dalai Lama was invited by Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chu of the DPP to visit Taiwan to comfort survivors and pray for the deceased.
The China-friendly Ma government, whose image was seriously tarnished by its poor performance in tackling the disaster, was forced to declare it would allow the Dalai Lama to visit in a bid to save its sagging popularity.
But Beijing resolutely opposed the Dalai Lama’s Taiwan visit, seeing it as an attempt to join Taiwan independence activists to promote separation from China.
It has warned the Ma government of “negative influence” on gradually warming cross-strait relations and has postponed several high-level exchange activities, including a visit by Chinese banking officials.
In a bid to soothe Beijing, the Ma government and the ruling Nationalist Party have refrained from sending top officials to meet the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama himself said, however, that he does not want independence for Tibet but greater autonomy for the region within China. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet after a failed rebellion there against Chinese forces in 1959.
Meanwhile, in addition to the cool reception from the Ma government, the Dalai Lama has also been confronted by protestors since he arrived in Taiwan Sunday night.
On Tuesday, some 100 Buddhist monks and dozens of pro-China activists demonstrated outside the Dalai Lama’s hotel.
Waving banners denouncing the Dalai Lama’s visit, the protesting monks claimed the Dalai Lama was too political, lacking pure Buddhist nature and was therefore not welcome in Taiwan.
The pro-China activists who have staged protests against the 74-year-old Tibetan monk since Sunday, also joined the monks in scuffling with police when they attempted to force their way into the venue where the Dalai Lama was holding a prayer ceremony. The
protestors were later dispersed by police.
