A Conversation with His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Contributed by Ian Chan

It’s not every day that you get to shake the hand of a Nobel Peace Prize winner and be padded down by CIA agents. One such day for me was Thursday, October 22^nd, 2010. I had given up going to a Model UN conference to Yale with my new team to attend this event, and I have not regretted it for one second. Meeting the Dalai Lama was and will remain one of the most memorable experiences in my life.

It all started with a very strict security checkpoint in an obscure hotel off El Camino Real. Only 4 people were allowed into the sign-in at any one time, and there were men in suits and sunglasses everywhere staring at people, checking bags and jackets. After I sat down in the courtyard, I saw multiple agents standing beside windows of hotel rooms looking down into the courtyard with binoculars. There was a tense murmur among the crowd as no one really knew what to expect nor did they really know when the Dalai Lama was coming. We were all instructed to keep the event on the down low and to arrive at the premise two hours early. I sat with a group of Stanford students and around me I saw not only students of all years, but also activists distributing information packets about Tibet, journalists, academics from Stanford and the UCs, and Tibetan-Americans. The majority of students were all from mainland China and coming from Hong Kong, it was amusing to see the look of mixed emotions on their face. Some were clearly apprehensive about being seen present at an event where the Dalai Lama is attending. Others were clearly excited to be able to meet a stalwart of peace and dialogue in close quarters. And yet others just had a look of indifference or confusion about them. My guess is that most of these students probably grew up only hearing one side of the story about Tibet and the Dalai Lama, and that story was either incomplete or unsatisfying.

Suddenly sirens burst out and we hear a motorcade pull in a fast pace. After a long silence came His Holiness, with a gait that was at moments grave and serious and at others light and relaxed. He seemed like a grandpa who was clearly physically limited but was bursting with positive energy and conversation. He spoke in careful English to the crowd and beckoned them to move closer to the podium. He greeted the guests in Mandarin, English, and Tibetan. He then proceeded to talk about compassion, international understanding, experiences he had meeting different personalities, and his views on life and interaction. The conflict between his government-in-exile and the Community Party was not mentioned with any particular specifics but he stressed dialogue and willingness to talk as the most important elements in any interactions.

The most fascinating part about meeting His Holiness was not the content of his speech, which of course was respectable and well delivered, but the way he interacted with people and the manner in which he spoke. He joked a great deal both in his greetings and his in answers to questions, and he generally smiled whenever he was speaking. Only when he was in contemplation or listening to a translation would he stop smiling, but that would be a fleeting second. For a man who has been put under massive ridicule and official persecution for most of his lifetime His Holiness was extremely optimistic and energetic about life. Any lesser being would sink into depression or at least adopt a more cynical view on life. The Dalai Lama exhibited none of these emotions. His answers to questions were straightforward and honest. Often he would answer right after the question is asked without much self-censoring, and this straightforwardness gave the audience an impression of a frank and honest man, not fearing what he says is wrong but believing in everything he says. I am not saying that I take everything he says as the established law of the land, but his frankness makes hiding anything harder undoubtedly. And when he didn’t know something, such as when someone asked him how he thought the new leadership in Beijing would deal with him and the Tibet issue, he flatly responded with “I don’t know.” Many would expect him to give some kind of guess but he just said he didn’t know and there was no way we can predict the future. For a man of his stature, this was an admirable admittance of human limitations that one does not find from leaders these days.

In all, meeting the Dalai Lama was an experience worth remembering not only because of the peculiar circumstances in which I shook an old man’s hand, but also because of the way he acts, the substance of what he said, and the body of work he represents in pursuit of peace, freedom of expression and religion, rights we in America often take for granted but are not available for a large part of this world.