The Dalai Lama is visiting Estonia, where he is meeting the country’s president and other leading politicians. China has protested over the visit and high-profile meetings. From Estonia, Tibet’s spiritual leader continues on to Finland.
The Dalai Lama had unofficial meetings with Estonia’s president Toomas Hendrik Ilves and former Prime Minister, current Minister of Defence Mart Laar, as well as a number of MPs. He also made a speech in the capital Tallinn’s Freedom Square on Wednesday.
A representative of the Chinese Embassy told Estonian newspaper Poostimees that the visit and meetings would harm relations between China and Estonia. China sees any visits by the Dalai Lama as interfering in the country’s internal affairs.
The fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzing Gyatso has lived in exile in India since the Chinese communist occupation of Tibet in 1959. China has maintained that Tibet is a part of it, and has vehemently protested against any visits of the spiritual leader to foreign countries.
Despite the Dalai Lama having long since renounced claims for Tibetan independence, instead calling for meaningful Tibetan autonomy within the People’s Republic, China continues to label him a “splittist”, intent on breaking up the country.
China fears that the Dalai Lama’s visits help to fuel Tibetans' nationalistic feelings, which have been violently repressed by the Chinese government in recent years.
The Dalai Lama in Finland
Tibet’s spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate will arrive in Finland on Thursday from Estonia.
Unlike the leaders in Finland’s small Baltic neighbour, Finland’s highest political leadership will not meet the Dalai Lama, with the exception of Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala. The two are due to meet unofficially on Friday.
The popular spiritual teacher is giving two public talks in Espoo’s Barona Arena on Saturday.
This is the fifth visit of the Dalai Lama, now 76 years old, to Finland. His last visit was in the autumn of 2006.
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