World Tibet Network News Sunday, May 10, 1998

By Charles A. Radin, Globe Staff,

WALTHAM, 05/10/98 (Boston Globe) - He talked about the environment, the Internet, Judaism, and Christianity, whatever the thousands who came to Brandeis University to see him Friday and yesterday wanted to talk about. But in the end, the Dalai Lama talked about the things he and his admirers are interested in most: Tibet. Nonviolence. The power of peace.

Students star-struck and skeptical, reverential refugees, senior scholars inured to celebrity - the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize recipient wowed them all with his combination of personal humility and cosmic consciousness.

Speaking to a crowd of 8,500 in the Brandeis fieldhouse about the oppression and exile forced on him by the government of China, the 62-year-old monk said: "During such difficulties and turbulence in life ... the most-trusted protector and helper is peace of mind.

"Anger really destroys our peace of mind," he said, in English at once halting and eloquent. "Without peace of mind, how can we remain happy? Anger is the destroyer of our happiness."

A few hours earlier, in rapid, animated Tibetan, he urged about 400 fellow exiles, who came from all over New England and eastern Canada to hear him, to continue rejecting violence despite the loss of their homeland.

"All creatures have their own homeland; all creatures have their own place," he told the refugees, who squatted on the floor of the gymnasium, listening raptly. "Tibet is for Tibetans. Be strong! Hold on in your heart. Keep dreaming!"

Between the two talks, the Dalai Lama met privately with a group of about 70 scholars from China and the United States to discuss his proposals for Tibetan-Chinese reconciliation, proposals which the Chinese government has dismissed scornfully as insincere plotting.

Boston University professor Merle Goldman, a China specialist attending the meeting, said those present "asked a lot of hard questions and he answered them very well. He has a tremendous sense of inner confidence, and this wonderful laugh."

While some of those present suggested that time was not on the Tibetan side and that China could simply wait him out, Goldman said, the Dalai Lama said he believed strongly that China would change. Though the Tibetan leader advocates negotiation rather than confrontation, "his feeling also is that pressure from without does have an impact, because China wants to become a respected country internationally," she said.

Many leading American scholars of China say they are puzzled by the Chinese

government's intransigence on the issue of Tibet, which historically has sometimes been under Chinese rule and sometimes been independent.

"It's unfortunate that the Chinese government is not taking advantage of the opportunity to interact more with the Dalai Lama to find a constructive solution," said William Alford, head of East Asian legal studies at Harvard Law School, who works extensively in China. "It's not like he's extreme. He's counseling a policy of reason and nonviolence. He's not going to live forever, and who knows what will come next?"

The Dalai Lama said in an interview that he believes the Chinese attitude "is due to lack of awareness. I think they are overly suspicious. Therefore, it is extremely important to talk face to face."

Notwithstanding his ability to communicate with a mass audience on matters philosophical and political, it is in up-close and personal human exchanges that the Dalai Lama excels, as was evident on many occasions during his two days at Brandeis.

Friday night, after a day packed with meetings, interviews, speeches and travel, he attended a celebration of the Jewish sabbath at the Newton home of Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz. He had been on the go since sun-up and appeared weary as a seemingly endless line of well-wishers passed him.

As the sabbath candles were lighted and traditional songs rose from the tight-packed gathering, the change that came over the Dalai Lama was evident to all. He exchanged his Brandeis cap for a traditional Jewish head-covering; his usual ruddy color returned; he glowed.

"Being with him was electrifying, energizing ... a spiritual and emotional high," said Rabbi Albert Axelrad, the university's Jewish chaplain for the past 33 years. "I have met a lot of luminaries and hit it off with any number of them. But never was there an experience like this ... When he is with you, he is 100 percent with you. The eye contact is very moving."

The Dalai Lama's last act on campus yesterday was to thank about 40 students and faculty members who worked on various aspects of his visit. When he entered the room where they were waiting, he made a beeline for Axelrad and asked about the gift the rabbi had offered him Friday night.

At the Tibetan's request, Axelrad attached to his robe a pewter pin of two hands breaking a rifle, a symbol of nonviolence used by the War Resisters' League, which Axelrad has worn on his lapel for the past four decades.

Gordon Fellman, a Brandeis sociology professor, said he had seen students work with such dedication and intensity on a social issue only three times before this.

The first was in 1969, during demonstrations on racial matters that led to creation of the school's Martin Luther King Jr. scholarships and Afro-American Studies Department. The second was during the national student strike against the war in Vietnam, in 1970. The third followed the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

"It's been unbelievable," Fellman said as the Dalai Lama departed yesterday. "Fantastic."