The Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhists, expressed his support for the Beijing Olympics on Saturday, rejecting Chinese allegations that he was trying to sabotage the games.
The row broke out after the Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 following an abortive uprising against Communist rule, called for peaceful protests in China against Beijing's rule in Tibet during a television interview in January.
"His holiness the Dalai Lama has always supported the Beijing Olympics and he reaffirms this again," Chime Chhoekyapa, the Dalai Lama's secretary told Reuters by phone. "The television interview the Chinese are talking about has been distorted and taken out of context," Chhoekyapa said from the north Indian hill station, Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama lives. "His Holiness had said in the interview that boycotting the games was too radical."
China's top official in Tibet, Zhang Qingli, on Friday accused the Dalai Lama of "sabotage and threatening to cause trouble" over the Olympics, and engaging in "splittism".
Five groups that say they represent tens of thousands of exiled Tibetans are planning to march from India to Tibet ahead of the Beijing Olympics to protest against China's rule in Tibet. The groups have said they would not seek approval from the Dalai Lama, who has a more moderate line and says he wants autonomy for Tibet, not outright independence.
On Saturday, the Dalai Lama's office said the spiritual leader had only asked non-governmental organisations to remind the international community, and the Chinese people, about Chinese repression in Tibet and urgency of the situation in the Himalayan region. "On the issue of the Beijing Olympics, it is common knowledge that his Holiness the Dalai Lama has consistently supported the right of China to host the 2008 Olympic Games," a statement released from Dharamsala said.
The Dalai Lama fled the Tibetan capital Lhasa in 1959 following the failed uprising against Chinese communist troops who had marched into Tibet nine years earlier. March 10 also marks the 49th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's exile, but he remains the single most important figure in Tibetan life.