The WikiLeaks Dalai Lama report

WikiLeaks reveals that the Dalai Lama told US diplomats to prioritize climate change rather than politics in Tibet.

Rod Meade Sperry
17 December 2010

As the Guardian reported earlier today:

The Dalai Lama told US diplomats last year that the international community should focus on climate change rather than politics in Tibet because environmental problems were more urgent, secret American cables [via WikiLeaks] reveal.

…Now, in a newer Guardian post, Isabel Hilton posits that “the Dalai Lama is right to put climate change first,” due to the “irreversible impacts of dramatic environmental changes,” including in the Himalayan region. She writes:

This [news] will certainly dismay some of the more radical elements of [Tibet’s] independence movement. Many of the younger Tibetans in exile are already frustrated with their spiritual leader’s moderate and non-violent approach. For them, independence will always trump the environment. But if the concern is the survival of the nomadic peoples of the Tibetan plateau, the Dalai Lama is right.

See Hilton’s post in its entirety, here.

Rod Meade Sperry. Photo by Megumi Yoshida, 2024

Rod Meade Sperry

Rod Meade Sperry is the editor of Buddhadharma, Lion’s Roar’s online source for committed Buddhists, and the book A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation: Practical Advice and Inspiration from Contemporary Buddhist Teachers. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with his partner and their tiny pup, Sid.