THE WORLD: The Dalai Lama hugs the guard who escorted him during his escape from Tibet, 60 years later

VICTOR M. OLAZÁBAL
New Delhi 03/04/2017 19:32

@vic_Olazabal


The Dalai Lama emotionally received by the Assam Rifles,
oldest paramilitary group in India. AFP

 

The first time they saw each other, in 1959, Tenzin Gyatso had 23 years and Naren Chandra Das, 21. The second time, this sunday, 81 and 79. Gyatso, for those who don't know, It's the Dalai Lama and Chandra Das, the Indian border guard who accompanied him in his escape from Tibet almost ago 60 years. The years it took to see each other again. Los años que han tardado en decirse las primeras palabras."Mirándote a la cara, me doy cuenta de que debo de ser muy viejo también", joked the exiled Tibetan leader after seeing Das in an emotional ceremony held in the Indian city of Guwahati during a trip that the Dalai Lama is making through the northeast of the country.

The guard, retired, He stated that during that secret operation in which the Dalai Lama said goodbye to his homeland, he was not allowed to speak with him. "Nuestro deber sólo era protegerle y acompañarle durante su viaje", said the Indian. Esta vez sí han podido hablar y el líder tibetano le ha reconocido sentirse "muy, very happy" to be able to meet the person who accompanied him in his first steps in India, his new home.The Dalai Lama left Lhasa, capital tibetana, In March of 1959, after a popular uprising against China failed. To flee from the Chinese troops, He disguised himself as a soldier from that country and headed with two dozen men towards the border with India.. for two weeks, They crossed the Himalayan mountains and were finally picked up by a group of border guards near the border.. Behind them was a Lhasa taken by the army, a city I would never set foot in again.

 

The spiritual leader of 81 years, hugging a retired Indian paramilitary. AFP

 

"Los días antes de mi llegada a la India estuvieron marcados por la tensión y la única preocupación era la seguridad, pero vi la libertad cuando me recibieron con entusiasmo", The Dalai Lama remembered yesterday in Guwahati. "Un nuevo capítulo comenzó en mi vida". A life in exile. He initially stayed in the Tawang monastery but finally settled in the city of Dharamsala, northwest, where he was received by the Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to address a thorny issue: what to do with the tens of thousands of Tibetans who followed their path. Most of the 150.000 who left live in India, Nepal and Bhutan. Today the Tibetan Government in exile resides in Dharamsala. The Dalai Lama's trip to northeast India has not gone down well in Beijing since a visit to Arunachal Pradesh is on the agenda., a border Indian state that has areas claimed by China. The tension between China and India over that region has been alive for more than half a century, It is usually fired when troop incursions occur on enemy soil and led to a war between both countries in 1962. Given this historical dispute, It is not surprising that Beijing has warned the Indian authorities of the danger that the Buddhist leader's trip may pose for the bilateral relations of both powers.. China le ha dejado caer a India que "no facilite una plataforma para las actividades separatistas del decimocuarto dalai lama" y "evite tomar cualquier decisión que complique aún más la cuestión en la frontera", According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Beijing does not accept the treatment that India usually gives to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan exile. Nevertheless, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, ha tratado al líder espiritual como un "invitado de honor", something common when you make trips of this type. It is not the first time that the Dalai Lama visits that region. The last occasion was in 2009.The Dalai Lama, who renounced the independence of Tibet to demand respected autonomy within China, ha dicho en alguna ocasión que se siente "un hijo de la India" -since he has lived more in this country than in his own- but he hopes to return to Lhasa one day. However, The relationship between the Tibetan exile and Beijing remains stagnant and only gains some international attention when some Buddhist monk goes on a rampage in the name of a free Tibet or when the Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, takes one of his usual trips. Exiled Tibetans fear the health of their spiritual leader, your emblem, do not allow him to continue carrying the voice of Tibet to the world for long. They know that this will weaken their fight even more..