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Expert: - 2/1/2008


Question
What was the Dalai Lama's legacy?
What are the positive/negative effects did he have on when the Chinese
invaded Tibet?
Please contact me as soon as possible. This is not homework, but i am
just wondering for my own knowledge, and i do not know how to get the
answers elsewhere.
Thank you
Ilana

Answer
Dear Ilana,
The question you ask is very hard to answer, mainly because any good answer would be huge! There are many books, biographies and histories that have been written on this question.
The present Dalai Lama was quite young when the Chinese invaded, and had not had much time to influence the country. It is clear that he was thinking in terms of reforming the way the Tibetan political system operated. His main contribution since the occupation and uprising has been to balancing two things:
a) keeping the "Tibetan question" alive on the world stage and drawing attention to the plight of the Tibetan people while
b) at the same time steering both the refugees who came out of Tibet and those left behind away from the path of violence.
You might like to look at the Tibetan Government in Exile's web site at http://www.tibet.com/ or at http://www.phayul.com/
I hope this helps a bit!  

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Alex Wilding

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I have practiced and studied Tibetan Buddhism in the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions since the early 1970s, and have a good knowledge of theory, history and of the struggles of trying to practice the teachings, including meditation, while leading a normal, modern life. I am also available to provide background information for journalists.

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I have been a practitioner since the early 1970s; have run a small Buddhist centre in the English Midlands and was vice-president of Kagyu Benchen Ling e.V. in Germany, for whom I managed three large Buddhist summer-camps. More importantly, I maintain a habit of personal practice. I am the "owner" of the Kagyu list at Yahoo.

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My first degree was an M.A. from Oxford. I later obtained a Master of Philosophy degree for a research thesis in "Initiation in Tibetan Buddhism" from Leicester University. I also have engineering and educational qualifications.

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