Dalai Lama to visit Latvia again

RIGA - In 1950 Chinese soldiers marched into Tibet and quickly seized control. Most of the government fled to India, including Tenzin Gyatso better known as His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

A special committee has been formed in Latvia to prepare for the Dalai Lama's visit next year. Heading the Dalai Lama in Latvia 2001 committee is Latvian Buddhist Uldis Balodis, who has already met with His Holiness half a dozen times.

"It is planned that the Dalai Lama will visit Latvia for two full days at the end of June next year," Balodis said. "During his stay he will probably hold at least one big speech."

The prominent visit has caused a stir in Latvian politics since relations with China are highly cherished, and China does not want any other government to maintain any contacts with the Tibetan exile government, since it does not recognize the Chinese administration of Tibet.

In Lithuania there's a Tibetan support group set up in Parliament, but not so in Latvia.

MP Juris Sinka of the Fatherland and Freedom party, also chairing the Dalai Lama in Latvia 2001 committee, said there used to be one, but MPs don't have much time left over after their obligatory duties in Parliament, so maintaining a Tibetan support group nobody would attend would defeat its purpose.

Latvian Foreign Minister Indulis Berzins has been too busy to comment on the Dalai Lama's visit to Latvia.

The Dalai Lama's visit will be a private one, just like the previous visit in 1991 when he held a lecture at a university and spoke to local intellectuals. So far no government officials have expressed any wishes of meeting with the Tibetan government official.

"He [the Dalai Lama] always travels as a private person because no government has recognized Tibet as an independent country," Balodis said.

The Chinese Embassy is against letting the Dalai Lama enter Latvia.

"Since the middle of the 13th century, Tibet has been an integral part of China and administrated by the central government of China," Wang Wenqi, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy, said. "The Dalai Lama issue is not a religious one but rather a political one."

Wenqi said the Dalai Lama is the leader of a separatist political group which is trying to sever Tibet from China, which his government is categorically against.

"We are also against the fact that foreign countries give the Dalai Lama the possibility to engage in separatist activities, regardless of the capacity he is traveling in," Wenqi said.

Balodis is looking forward to seeing his source of inspiration when he arrives in Latvia. Still, if Balodis were only given permission to ask the Dalai Lama one question, he would not know what to ask.

"I really don't know what I would ask him since I have been to many of his lectures," Balodis said. "It's more like an inspiration for me just to be near him."