The United States and India reached out on Tuesday to greet Tibet’s exiled Dalai Lama on his 86th birthday—a gesture likely to anger Beijing, which regards the exiled spiritual leader as a separatist working to split Tibet from Chinese rule.
Writing in a Tweet, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi—whose country has clashed with China over disputed border areas in the last year—said he had greeted the Dalai Lama personally by phone to convey his good wishes.
“We wish him a long and healthy life,” Modi wrote.
It was a rare public statement of personal support from a leader of India, which has traditionally tried to balance its decades-long support for the Dalai Lama and a large Tibetan exile community in the country with concern for stable relations with Beijing.
In Washington, State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Tuesday conveyed birthday greetings from the United States, saying, “Today, we wish a Happy Birthday to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whose grace and compassion have served as an inspiration to all of us.”
“We commend his dedication to the global Tibetan community and to all those around the world who share in his important message of peace and kindness and his commitment to equality, and importantly to human dignity,” Price said.
“We join all of those in wishing His Holiness many more years to come.”
Also writing in a Tweet, House Speaker of the U.S. Congress Nancy Pelosi sent her own birthday greetings to the Dalai Lama, calling the exiled spiritual leader’s birthday an opportunity to celebrate “the message of hope and spiritual guidance that he has shared with the world.”
“And it is an opportunity for all people to recommit to ensuring the Tibetan people can practice their religion, speak their language and celebrate their culture freely without interference or intimidation from Beijing.”
“May his birthday bring happiness, health and security to all,” Pelosi wrote.
Good wishes from Taiwan
Birthday greetings also came from Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen, who thanked the Dalai Lama in a Tweet “for teaching us the importance of coming together to help one another through this [COVID-19] pandemic.”
Taiwan’s foreign ministry in July 2020 said the self-governing island would welcome a visit by the Dalai Lama in his role as a spiritual leader “in accordance with the principle of mutual respect and at a time of convenience for both sides.”
A visit to Taiwan by the Dalai Lama would be his first since 2009 and would certainly anger Beijing, which claims democratic Taiwan as a renegade province and has threatened to take it by force.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet into exile in India in the midst of a failed 1959 Tibetan national uprising against rule by China, which marched into the formerly independent Himalayan country in 1950.
Displays by Tibetans of the Dalai Lama’s photo, public celebrations of his birthday, and the sharing of his teachings on mobile phones or other social media are often harshly punished.
Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on Tibet and on Tibetan-populated regions of western China, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to imprisonment, torture, and extrajudicial killings.
Reported by RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.