(TibetanReview.net, Jul14’25) – The Dalai Lama has on Jul 13 spoken of having received many invitations to visit China but declined because of lack of freedom to give Buddhist teachings there, according to the hindustantimes.com Jul 13. The exile spiritual leader of Tibet has made his remark while speaking at his Shewatsel Phodrang residence in Ladakh’s capital Leh where he had arrived the day before for a month-long sojourn in the Union Territory.
“In China, the political situation is not stable, but interest in Buddhism is growing. I have received many messages inviting me to visit China, but I feel it would be difficult to teach about Buddhism in a country where there is no freedom—I feel it’s more effective to teach about Buddhism in India,” he was quoted as telling a public gathering.
The Dalai Lama has not explained the sources of those many messages of invitations. Mainland Chinese Buddhists have increasingly been receiving teachings from the Dalai Lama and many had enrolled in the famed Larung Gar Buddhist academy run by Tibetan Buddhist masters in Serta County of Sichuan Province before China expelled everyone who did not belong to the historically local Tibetan area.
He has also spoken of having received invitations from Mongolia and parts of Russia, both of which have succumbed to China’s pressure to deny him visas in recent years.
The Dalai Lama was also stated to have alluded to the destruction the Chinese authorities had wrought upon the traditions of studying the great Buddhist treatises in Tibet. He has therefore stressed the importance of scholars from the Himalayan region working to keep these traditions of study alive.
“The precious traditions that we can learn and implement in daily life, have declined in Tibet. Those who fled to India have had the responsibility of preserving these traditions. In Tibet, many experienced harsh Chinese treatment, so here in the freedom of India we must do whatever we can to preserve these precious traditions,” he was quoted as saying.
He has spoken of having felt sad for these losses as he casted a last glance at Tibet’s capital Lhasa before he escaped to India to seek asylum in 1959. “The night I left Norbulingka in 1959 I did a lot of investigation, including consulting the Nechung Oracle, and doing divinations. I decided to go. We crossed the river running through Lhasa and climbed the pass. From there I looked back at the city where the Chinese authorities had imposed such tight controls that citizens were under great pressure and stress. I felt sad that whereas in the past Lhasa had been a great place to study and learn from the great treatises, it was no more.”