Tibetan radicals defy Dalai Lama

"LONG live the Dalai Lama!" is the most common cry on the streets of Dharamsala.

Even so, the 72-year-old monk's refusal to call for independence from China more forcefully as it has cracked down on the protests in Tibet has sharpened disagreement with younger and more aggressive Tibetan exiles in India.

Tenzin Wangdue, who has spent the past 11 days shouting slogans, including some that the Dalai Lama would shun, is typical of the new generation. While not rejecting the Dalai Lama's authority, he believes Tibetans have to push harder if they are going to get anywhere.

"They're not going to give total independence," he said of China. "But I think there's hope they're going to accept genuine autonomy if we say we want total autonomy."

Since March 10, the Dalai Lama has stuck to his "middle way" script and appeared remarkably affable, at least publicly, even as China accused him of masterminding the uprising and called him "a devil with a human face".

He has repeatedly said he advocates only non-violence, presses not for independence but a "preservation of Tibetan culture", endorses China's role as host of the Olympic Games in August, and is happy to speak to Chinese authorities, including President Hu Jintao. "I'm fully committed to eliminate negative feelings among Tibetans and fear, distrust among Chinese," he said last week.

Yet, a handful of radical Tibetan exile groups have said angrily that the "middle way" has achieved nothing in nearly 30 years. They have called for an Olympic Games boycott, burned Chinese flags and refused to call off a march from India to Lhasa, Tibet's capital, which he has called impractical.

So the question arises as to whether the Dalai Lama, who has spent the past 49 years in India and built one of the most powerful exile movements in the world, is out of touch with his own people. Or is this monk, regarded by his followers as a reincarnation of Buddha, the ultimate political pragmatist?

There is no clear answer.

But a hint of his influence here bleeds through the often angry, inventive protests that have gone on nearly nonstop for over a week. For all the slogans of fury – "Free Tibet" and "Death to Hu Jintao" – the most common is a call-and-response homage: "Long live the Dalai Lama."

Nuns chant it. Scruffy young men with painted faces shout it. Indeed, half the town seemed to have gone hoarse last week calling out his name. He remains revered.

Wangdue, 26, is representative of the foot soldiers of the Tibetan exile movement. Born to refugee parents, he has never seen Tibet, but dreams of going there one day and coaching the first Tibetan football team. He will go back when there is freedom, he said.

He was educated in Tibetan schools in India, raised on a curriculum that emphasised Tibetan suffering and Chinese atrocities, and studied politics and sociology in Delhi University, in the Indian capital. Twice he was arrested for protesting in front of the Chinese embassy there.

Last week, he was shouting "Free Tibet!" up and down the hills. During the protests, several Chinese flags were burned. "I'm a supporter of the Dalai Lama," he confessed. "But when I saw these demonstrations, the blood was boiling in me."

The most explicit face-off in Dharamsala came when the Dalai Lama summoned the groups organising the Lhasa march. He said they would risk not only alienating their Indian hosts, but also invite fire from Chinese troops on the border.

"I have no authority, no power to say: 'Shut up!'" he said. "I'm always telling them: 'You are fighting for our rights. But today we are almost a nation dying. This moment important is survival. Practical solution is necessary.'"

But voices of Tibetans in the seat of the government in exile made it plain that while they had reverence for the Dalai Lama's leadership, they did not feel bound by his directives.

Tashi Phuntshok, 40, a resident of a dormitory for new refugees in Dharamsala, said he understood that the Dalai Lama's political strategy was intended to spare more Tibetan lives. If he called for independence, Phuntshok said, there would be outright war. "His Holiness, he is kind-hearted," Phuntshok explained. "For us, it should be full independence".

Onpo Lobsang, rushing up the road on his way to pick up a banner for a demonstration, said he backed the march to Lhasa despite the Dalai Lama's reservations. "Our goal is the same, we need both sides," said Lobsang, 29, who arrived in India with his parents at the age of nine. "He's the supreme leader, but we don't need to listen to everything he says."

The Dalai Lama has flatly said that to call for independence would be to lose the support of world leaders. He and the government in exile have had talks with the Chinese government since 2002, most recently last summer. Last week, he said he was ready to talk again, but not in Beijing, unless there was "a concrete development" in government policies toward Tibet. China has said it will talk only if he gives up on a claim of independence. The Dalai Lama has said repeatedly that he has. "It is my mantra – we are not seeking independence."

A tale of two nations

TIBETANS

• Mostly Buddhist Tibetans have lived on remote, high-altitude plateaus and grasslands by the Himalayas for centuries. Hundreds of thousands still follow a nomadic lifestyle, raising yaks, sheep, goats and horses on grasslands.

• Generally calling themselves 'Bodpa', they speak dialects derived from written Tibetan.

• Tibetans have been formally classed as one of China's 56 ethnic groups since Chinese troops were sent in 1950.

TIBETAN EXILES

• Tibet's Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, has lived in Dharamsala, India, since 1960, after fleeing Lhasa following a failed 1959 uprising.

• The founder and leader of Tibet's government-in-exile, the 72-year-old says he wants autonomy, not independence for Tibet. China brands him a separatist and blames him for last week's riots.

• The Tibetan government-in-exile says more than 111,000 Tibetans live in exile, the majority in India.