In early September of 2020, Joe Biden, then the Democratic nominee for president, promised to place values—values held in contempt, he argued, by the person he would go on to defeat—on the middle of American overseas coverage. To behave on his promise, he mentioned, he would do one thing Donald Trump had uncared for to do. “I’ll meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” Biden mentioned.
For American presidents, assembly the 14th Dalai Lama can carry stress and discord, as a result of Communist Occasion leaders in Beijing contemplate Tibet to be part of China. They contemplate any recognition of the Dalai Lama—a Mandela-level icon, an emblem of Tibet’s will to outlive, and likewise (by the way in which) a residing Buddha, a bodhisattva, to his tens of millions of followers—a horrible insult to Chinese language sensitivities. (To be honest, Chinese language leaders are omnidirectionally offended, by supporters of Taiwanese independence and Hong Kong democracy; by Christians and Uyghurs and Mongols; and by anybody else who threatens their Center Kingdom sense of imperial entitlement.)
Greater than three years into his time period, Biden has not made good on his promise, although he has a believable excuse: The Dalai Lama is 88 years outdated and in declining well being, and he seldom leaves his house in exile in Dharamsala, within the Himalayan foothills of India. However the Dalai Lama’s age now supplies a path for Biden to maintain his promise: The bodhisattva has unhealthy knees and has determined, after a lot procrastination, to come back to New York this summer time to research the potential of alternative.
A go to by Biden to the Dalai Lama’s hospital—or an after-surgery invitation to the White Home—would sign persevering with American concern over the oppression of Tibet and Tibetans, in addition to help for one of the vital heroic and pacific humanitarian leaders of our age. Such a go to would additionally take pleasure in signaling to the Chinese language authorities {that a} U.S. president makes choices unbiased of Chinese language Communist emotions. (American CEOs are significantly feeble at signaling such independence.) A name on the Dalai Lama couldn’t presumably harm Biden’s standing amongst voters, particularly contemplating the Dalai Lama’s earlier lack of curiosity in assembly with Trump when he was president. 5 years in the past, after I visited the Dalai Lama at his monastery in Manali, he advised me that he didn’t look favorably on Trump’s jingoistic “America First” rhetoric. “Everybody first,” he mentioned, laughing. “A significantly better thought.”
The precise timing of his journey to america—his first in seven years—has not but been determined, however it can observe one other occasion of some significance: a go to later this month to Dharamsala by Consultant Nancy Pelosi, the previous speaker of the Home, and a congressional delegation. Pelosi has championed the Tibetan trigger for many years, and, to her credit score, she is loathed by Beijing for her complete criticism of China’s human-rights file. In one in all Pelosi’s earliest conferences with the Dalai Lama, she was so ferocious in her criticism of China’s human-rights abuses that the Dalai Lama mentioned, impishly, “Now allow us to all pray in order that we may rid Nancy of her adverse attitudes.” (Pelosi’s journey has not but been introduced, and her spokesperson declined to remark, citing safety issues; information of the Dalai Lama’s proposed go to this summer time was confirmed to me by sources concerned in planning the journey.)
The reemergence of the Dalai Lama into American politics within the months previous the 2024 presidential election is sweet information for the unlucky Tibetan trigger, continuously steamrollered as it’s by the uncooked deployment of Chinese language energy. In Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan authorities in exile, worry is ever current that the Dalai Lama’s eventual demise will make much more marginal the reason for Tibetan cultural and political independence. (As is implied by his standing because the 14th Dalai Lama, the invention of a fifteenth Dalai Lama is probably going, although he might be reincarnated, in keeping with Tibetan Buddhist custom, as a small baby, not as somebody prepared for worldwide diplomacy. And the Chinese language authorities has its personal plan to establish and elevate a quisling lama.)
Two months in the past, I visited Dharamsala with, amongst others, Arthur Brooks, the Atlantic columnist and frequent writing collaborator of the Dalai Lama’s. We each skilled a non secular chief who, although hobbled by knee ache and slowed by age, was nonetheless lucid and eloquent on the good topics of freedom and happiness. I referred to as Arthur immediately to ask him what he makes of this information.
“In a contentious election 12 months, it’s good to remind Individuals of our core values as a individuals, and amongst these values are spiritual freedom and standing up for the dignity of all individuals world wide,” he mentioned. “His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as we noticed in Dharamsala in April, nonetheless has the flexibility to remind individuals world wide of what’s good and true. For a Tibetan monk, he has an uncanny present for bringing out the very best of what it means to be an individual and an American. This is a chance that President Biden can not and mustn’t miss.”