Tibetans fret over Dalai Lama's 'middle way'

Dharamsala, India: Tibetan protest leaders said on Monday they are disappointed in the Dalai Lama's conciliatory approach to China and that his "middle way" stance is not shared by the majority of Tibetans.

But still they revere him. "The middle way has been in existence for 20 years and nothing has come out of it," Tsewang Rigzin, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, told reporters in Dharamsala.

By night, hundreds of Tibetans here in Dharamsala have been holding candle-lit rallies in streets and monasteries.

The protesters call for a far sharper goal than the Dalai Lama has - even as they reverently display his portrait draped in scarves. He calls for a truly autonomous Tibet within China, his so-called "middle way". They want complete independence.

The protest leaders say the Dalai Lama's stance had achieved nothing and disagreed with his statement yesterday that China "deserved" the Olympics.

Still the leader

Yet they were careful to balance every criticism with affirmations of admiration for the 72-year-old Buddhist leader.

"His holiness is still our leader," said B. Tsering, the leader of the Tibetan Women's Association, as she sat next to Rigzin. "He remains a source of inspiration."

Other protesters point out few have travelled as widely and drawn as much attention to the Tibetan cause as the Dalai Lama.

But, when asked how the Dalai Lama helped their campaign, Rigzin simply pointed out that the Buddhist leader was now semi-retired, and it was up to each and every Tibetan to define the movement.

Even though the gap may be widest with the youngest generations of Tibetans, rarely does such a bond of affection last for so long between a nation and its leader.

"It's like children to parents," was how Lhadon Tethong, the director of the Students for a Free Tibet, described the relationship in an interview. "I don't think there's anything else like it ... You love your family but maybe you can have disagreements, a difference of opinion, a different path." The Dalai Lama acknowledges that more Tibetans, both in Tibet and in exile, want independence than autonomy, his spokesman Tenzin Taklha said, but sees this as a healthy sign of his exiled government's recent move towards democracy.

Many protest leaders say the Dalai Lama's moderate approach does not hamper their own cause.

But on Monday the Tibetan government-in-exile said the differing voices could be counterproductive.