Dalai Lama Plans Travel To Mongolia Via Tokyo
(AP | Dharamshala | November 1, 2002)
The Dalai Lama plans to travel to Mongolia on Sunday for his first visit there in seven years, an official with Tibet's government-in-exile said Wednesday.
The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, whose plans to travel to Mongolia in September were canceled when both Russia and South Korea refused to grant him a transit visa, will make the trip via Japan, the official said on condition of anonymity.
There are no direct flights between New Delhi, India's capital, and Ulan Bator, Mongolia's capital. After the cancellation of the September trip, supporters of the Buddhist spiritual leader accused Russia and South Korea of caving in to pressure from the Chinese government, which doesn't want him to travel to Mongolia — a landlocked nation sandwiched between Russia and China.
Some 90 percent of Mongolia's 2.4 million people consider themselves Buddhists, and its largest monastery, Gandantegchillen, was an important seat of Buddhist learning until Mongolia was founded as a Communist country in 1924.
Communist rule did not recognize any religions, and banned their practice during Stalin's tenure in Moscow. Mongolia's traditional Buddhist heritage began a gradual comeback after Communists gave way to multiparty elections and a more liberal Constitution in 1990.
The official said he didn't foresee any last-minute problems with the Dalai Lama's travel plans this time, as Japan was unlikely to be influenced by any pressure.
The Buddhist leader's stay in Mongolia has been cut short, to three days, due to the extremely cold weather there, the official said. The Dalai Lama's last visit to Mongolia was in 1995, in the company of Hollywood actor Richard Gere. Mongolia and Tibet have centuries of religious and cultural links. A 16th-century Mongolian king is thought to have bestowed the first Dalai Lama title — a designation which means "Ocean of Wisdom." In 1904, the 13th Dalai Lama took refuge in Mongolia when the British invaded Lhasa, Tibet's capital.
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