The racist, misogynist Dalai Lama!

[Diable Rouge]

Tenzing Gyatso has long been noted for giving forthright opinions to various topics, but for an individual long given a virtually free pass in Western media, some views wouldn't be out of place on the European right. He has declared that Europe should be for the Europeans, and that migrants should return to their home countries upon acquiring a new skill. Equally controversially, he has declared that a female Dalai Lama should have beauty as well as intelligence, or less she wouldn't be taken seriously!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48772175

[G-Man]

Without clicking on the link, and therefore not qualified to comment on the DL's utterances, many people in countries where the migrants to Europe come from would agree that they should bring their experience and skill home, where it is needed. The brain-drain -- I'd call it skills-drain -- is a serious problem in the underdeveloped world.

Is that perhaps the position from which the DL was speaking?

[Hot Pepsi]

Yeah, well, he is, after all, just a man. He may have direct perception of emptiness, but that doesn't mean he knows a lot about economics and what not.

The fact that he's willing to entertain the idea of a female Dalai Lama is probably pretty progressive for Tibetans of his generation, but I could be wrong. At least he included "intelligence" among the traits she'll need to be taken seriously. And, unfortunately, he's probably right about the beauty thing, although I don't know how that works in Asian culture. I don't think it would matter much in the West. Westerners inclined to listen to a Tibetan Buddhist would probably rather listen to somebody who looked like their favorite grandma or aunt.

And as G-Man's post implies, ultimately the solution to the worlds problems cannot be everyone packing into the developed countries and leaving their home countries without much skilled labor. Likewise, within developed countries, its not working out to have everyone try to cram into New York, San Francisco, London, etc, and leave the former mill towns to rot. So he may be onto something, albeit phrased in an unfortunate way.

That's still different than the right. I suspect the Dalai Lama really does care what happens to people in the developing world, whereas the North American/European/Australian (and maybe the Japanese) right doesn't actually give a shit what happens to Mexico or Poland or Nigeria or China. You don't see Republicans offering to plow billions a year into helping develop Mexico's economy or do what really needs to be done to solve the humanitarian crises in Central America. I occasionally hear white Christians say things like that - they're trying to serve both their Nationalism and Jesus - but it's not a serious policy consideration in either party.

[Patrick Thistle]

Without clicking on the link, and therefore not qualified to comment on the DL's utterances, many people in countries where the migrants to Europe come from would agree that they should bring their experience and skill home, where it is needed. The brain-drain -- I'd call it skills-drain -- is a serious problem in the underdeveloped world.

Is that perhaps the position from which the DL was speaking?

My Dad, who worked as a doctor for many years, and did a stint working in Africa, often said it was immoral how many doctors and nurses were recruited from the developing world given how this fueled a lack of adequate healthcare in those countries. Especially as he felt the doctors who moved to Europe were usually the best and the brightest (and often were better doctors than native white British ones)

[Stumpy Pepys]

Equally controversially, he has declared that a female Dalai Lama should have beauty as well as intelligence, or less she wouldn't be taken seriously!

Well, he has the power of reincarnation, so I'm sure he could sort that out.

[Satchmo Distel]

Without clicking on the link, and therefore not qualified to comment on the DL's utterances, many people in countries where the migrants to Europe come from would agree that they should bring their experience and skill home, where it is needed. The brain-drain -- I'd call it skills-drain -- is a serious problem in the underdeveloped world.

Is that perhaps the position from which the DL was speaking?

I have clicked and would say, yes, this is his position but also he does think Europe should retain a non-Muslim majority, with only limited immigrant settlement.

Overall his views should be taken with the same latitude we would give to any 84 year old who lives in a bubble of uncritical worship.

Calling him racist or misogynistic based on this interview is a massive overstretch. He has some conservative leanings but displays no sign of being hostile to any group in a way that dehumanizes them.

[Hot Pepsi]

I cannot imagine a series of events in which the majority of Europe is Muslim. Is this something anyone reasonable actually thinks could happen?

[Guy Profumo]

I cannot imagine a series of events in which the majority of Europe is Muslim. Is this something anyone reasonable actually thinks could happen?

The journalists Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, Katie Hopkins, and Richard Littlejohn?

[Hot Pepsi]

I said "anyone reasonable."

[DCI Harry Batt]

What a horrible man he is.

[Satchmo Distel]

Yes, on reflection, his imagery on Muslims in Europe is racist and it might be better if he snuffs it and is replaced by someone not born during the 1930s

[Tactical Genius]

What a horrible man he is.

Like Ton Ton, I have always wondered why this man and Buddahism is so revered in the west. Were it not Buddist Monks who were at the vanguard of the ethnic cleansing of the Rohinga in Burma?

[ChrisJ]

Like Ton Ton, I have always wondered why this man and Buddahism is so revered in the west. Were it not Buddist Monks who were at the vanguard of the ethnic cleansing of the Rohinga in Burma?

Different kind of monks, as with the Sri Lankan anti-Muslim pogroms. A bit like blaming the Russian Orthodox Church for the nastiness of the DUP.

Buddhism (NB, no 'a') is widely misunderstood in the west. Two examples I often point out to people that Glen Hoddle was sacked for expressing views that are mainstream in Vajrayana and that the concept of rebirth (as distinct from reincarnation, which even many Buddhists fail to distinguish), a source of horror and peril in Asia is often seen as a consolation among westerners. (Perhaps because the more egocentric culture leads them to assume human rebirth?)

Having said that, the idea that Buddhism is a homogenous entity is massively wide of the mark. Stephen Batchelor makes the case very well that all traditions are completely culturally loaded. A former monk said to me that he returned to lay life because putting on robes felt less like dressing as a monk and more like dressing up as a Tibetan.

The value of Dharma tends to lie in it's insights into personal psychology and the practices that support it.

I'd dispute that HHDL is a horrible man. His track record is better than that, but here he's talking bollocks about things he knows little about. The last video I saw of him, he was shaking and looked every year of his considerable age.

[Patrick Thistle]

On the female DL having to be beautiful as well, isn't that commentary on our disappointing global culture rather than necessarily his own view. A bit like Jesus saying there will always be poor people (which republican Christians seem to think means God approves of social inequality)?

[ChrisJ]

On the female DL having to be beautiful as well, isn't that commentary on our disappointing global culture rather than necessarily his own view. A bit like Jesus saying there will always be poor people (which republican Christians seem to think means God approves of social inequality)?

That appears to be the explanation being offered - for that part anyway.

[Balderdasha]

It's a bit of a mealy-mouthed apology. It's "I'm sorry that you were offended" instead of "I'm sorry for what I said". He's also pulled the language / cultural misinterpretation card. I'm not convinced.

[Lang Spoon]

Was Tibet a feudal theocracy pre 1950, and was the current Dalai Lama really a force against serfdom and such? I'm not trolling, it seems genuinely difficult for the ignorant to find sources that aren't tainted as Pro Mao Chinese or the converse. As an ignorant eejit but, the worship of him by Gere types seems similar to Haile Selassie's standing among Rastafarians (though Selassie was probably more a rum deal as a ruler, (not least from actually ruling for a length of time) almost as much as the Shah in Iran).