Read RFA coverage of this story in Tibetan.
A new book by the Dalai Lama documents for the first time in detail the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader’s 70-year struggle with China to secure a future for the Tibetan people.
“Voice for the Voiceless: Over Seven Decades of Struggle with China for My Land and My People,” will be released on March 11.
HarperCollins Publishers said the book’s release will coincide with the 75th anniversary of China’s invasion of Tibet and Tibetan Uprising Day, which commemorates March 10, 1959, when thousands of Tibetans rose up in protest after nearly a decade of repression by the occupying Chinese army.
As a young man, the Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in the midst of that uprising, and the Chinese government has repeatedly accused exiled Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama, of stoking dissent against its rule ever since.
“It is an account of over seven decades of my dealing with successive leaders of the People’s Republic of China on behalf of Tibet and its people,” the Dalai Lama, 89, said in a statement.
In the memoir, he shares his experiences since assuming the leadership of Tibet at the age of 16, including negotiating with a series of Chinese leaders, from Mao Zedong, whom he met as a 19-year-old, to his recent attempts to communicate with President Xi Jinping.
The book is coming out at a time when Beijing aims to select the successor to the current 14th Dalai Lama by installing a pro-Beijing monk instead of Tibetans’ traditional method of identifying their future religious leader through reincarnation.
The Dalai Lama previously said he would discuss the details of his reincarnation when he turns 90 this July and that he expects to live past the age of 100.
As for Tibet’s dealings with China, the Dalai Lama has embraced the “Middle Way,” an approach that accepts the formerly independent Himalayan nation’s status as a part of China but urges greater cultural and religious freedoms, including strengthened language rights, guaranteed for ethnic minorities in China’s constitution.
Detailed accounts
A significant aspect of the book, which has not been explored in the Dalai Lama’s other works, is a detailed account of the series of Sino-Tibetan dialogues that have taken place over the years, said Thupten Jinpa, the Dalai Lama’s longtime principal English translator.
“While these dialogues have been on pause for some time, His Holiness shares his reflections and experiences from these engagements,” he told Radio Free Asia.
In his book, the Dalai Lama delves deeply into his experiences of going into exile, rebuilding Tibetan civilization in exile, and his thinking behind initiatives to preserve Tibetan identity over the past 70 years, Jinpa said.
Though the Dalai Lama’s other autobiographies, ”My Land and My People" and “Freedom in Exile,” also document these experiences, his latest book places a stronger emphasis on his struggles and dealings with China, Jinpa said.
“Voice for the Voiceless” will be published by HarperCollins brand William Morrow in the United States and by HarperNonFiction, another HarperCollins brand, in the United Kingdom on March 11. It will be released later in Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Brazil.
“The book also recounts how, despite all the suffering and destruction, we still hold fast to the hope for a peaceful resolution of our struggle for freedom and dignity,” the Dalai Lama, who won the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, said in the statement.
“Drawing on the lessons learned from my decades of engagement with Beijing, the book also aims to offer some thoughts on what might be the way forward,” he said.
“My hope is that the book will stimulate fresh thoughts and conversations today and provide a framework for the future of Tibet even after I am gone,” he added.
Sino-Tibetan dialogue
Sino-Tibetan dialogue began in 2002 in an effort to consider prospects of “genuine autonomy” for Tibet, as called for by the Dalai Lama as part of his Middle Way policy.
While there have been some tangible outcomes from the peaceful negotiations held during the series of Sino-Tibetan dialogues over the years, the ultimate goal remains unachieved, Jinpa said.
“The claim that these dialogues were interrupted because of debates over whether Tibet was historically an independent country is not true, and I cannot agree with it,” he Jinpa.
The Sino-Tibetan talks ground to a halt in 201 without any breakthrough following nine formal rounds of discussion and one informal meeting.
Chinese officials rejected proposals by the Tibetan delegation — which included the Dalai Lama’s special envoy Lodi Gyari and senior envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen — in which they called for greater autonomy for Tibet within China.
Both Gyari and Gyaltsen resigned from their posts two years after the talks stalled, citing frustration over the lack of a positive response from the Chinese side.
“His Holiness explains in the book that the lack of progress in these dialogues is primarily due to the absence of genuine intent from the Chinese side,” Jinpa said.
“He often emphasizes that history is not something for politicians to decide; it is for historians to research and determine based on evidence,” he said. “Politicians, on the other hand, have the responsibility to shape solutions for the future.”
The book is also being translated into Chinese, Jinpa said, adding this is being done “in the hope that our Chinese friends can reflect and recognize that the Dalai Lama has done everything within his capacity.”
“As the saying goes, ‘The ball is in your court,” and now it rests with the Chinese," Jinpa said.
Edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan, and by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.