by Sherab Woser
Phayul
October 31, 2009

Tokyo, October 31 -- Interacting with the media
on his second day in Japan, His Holiness the
Dalai Lama strongly appealed to the international
community and especially to the media to go to
China and Tibet and investigate the reality of the situation.

"If you find out that what China’s Government is
saying about Tibet is correct, then I will cease
all my activities and apologise to them," said
the exiled Tibetan leader this morning at the
Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan.

In his initial address to the media, the Nobel
Peace laureate spoke in detail on his two main
commitments in life of promoting human values and religious harmony.

"The inner values of a mother’s love and
affection for her child does not come from
religious faith or a constitution -- it is our
biological, human nature," said His Holiness to
rapturous applause from the international media contingent.

Responding to a question, the Tibetan leader
expressed full support for Japan’s Prime Minister
Yukio Hatoyama’s proposed programme of basing his
Government’s policies on the ‘happiness’ of the Japanese people.

"The key thing is education," replied His
Holiness. "Along with the development of the
brain, modern education should also be able to
develop warm-heartedness and inner values.”

While extolling the Chinese President Hu Jintao’s
call for building a harmonious society, the
Tibetan leader said that harmony cannot come from
the ‘guns of PLA’ but only from trust and faith.
Speaking directly to a correspondent from a
Chinese news agency, His Holiness said that the
over 1 billion people of China have the right to
correct information and not just communist propaganda.

To a question regarding the controversy
surrounding His Holiness’s planned visit to
India’s north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh
later this month, the Tibetan leader expressed
his ‘surprise’ at China’s objections.

"In 1962 during the India-China war, the People’s
Liberation Army already occupied all these areas
but they announced a unilateral cease fire and
withdrew, accepting the current international boundary,” said His Holiness.

The exiled Tibetan leader also recollected his
deep ‘emotional attachment’ with the land of
Arunachal Pradesh being the transit place from
where His Holiness entered India during his
escape in 1959, bringing him much ‘relief’ from the ‘fearful’ journey.

China lays claim to large swaths of Arunachal
Pradesh and had officially objected to the visits
of Indian’s Prime Minister and the planned visit of Dalai Lama to the state.

Dismissing the constant objections from the
Chinese Government during his frequent visits
outside his exile home of India, the Nobel Peace
Laureate said that all his visits are ‘non-political in nature.’

His Holiness is scheduled to give public
teachings on ‘The Three Principle Paths and
Generating the Altruistic Mind (lamtso namsum and
semkyi)’ later in the afternoon.