Paul Goble
Staunton,
July 9 – The Buddhists of Kalmykia, one of the three predominantly Buddhist
republics in the Russian Federation (the others are Buryatia and Tuva), have
appealed to Moscow to permit the Dalai Lama to visit their republic again. His
Holiness was there in 1992 and 2004 and visited Tuva in 1992.
The
Buddhists of these republics are not optimistic that Moscow will agree: it hasn’t
been willing to give the spiritual leader of the world’s Tibetan Buddhists a
visa in the last 14 years, although in July 2012 in answer to a question at the
Seliger Forum said he was prepared “to work in this direction” (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/322739/).
But in addition to their pessimism,
at least some of them are angry that the Russian government continues to refuse
to allow the Dalai Lama to visit. “Other
countries without fuss invite [him],” Viktor Sarangov, a Kalmyk official says. “And
has Chinese declared war on them or crushed their economies?” China even
maintains normal ties with India where the Dalai Lama maintains his residence.
“It seems to me,” he continues, that
here some sort of personal interests and not the interests of Russia play a
larger role.” But can it really be,
Sarangov says, that “someone in the country feels he’s getting economic profit
from this prohibition?” The ban doesn’t make any sense at all.
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