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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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101689
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10168900.046
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1990-09-19
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WORLD, Page 44PRIZESA Bow to TibetThe Dalai Lama's Nobel Prize is also a slap at Beijing
In the past 20 years, Tibet's exiled leader, Tenzin Gyatso, 54,
has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. His
nonviolent Buddhist philosophy and advocacy of a peaceful approach
to determining Tibet's future would seem to make the 14th Dalai
Lama (meaning "Ocean of Wisdom") a natural for the honor. So when
the Nobel Committee in Oslo finally named him the winner of the
$445,000 cash award last week, the question was not "Why him?" but
"Why now?" Surely the choice of the Dalai Lama, who has been living
in India since he fled Chinese occupation forces in 1959, was meant
as a slap at Beijing: a symbol of international condemnation of the
Chinese government for its crackdown on the students' democracy
movement in Tiananmen Square last June and imposition of martial
law in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, following anti-Chinese riots
last March.
Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman Egil Aarvik admitted the
choice could be interpreted that way. "If I were a Chinese student,
I would be fully in support of the decision," he told reporters.
The Chinese embassy in Oslo read it the same way. It denounced the
award as an intervention in China's internal affairs. Wang
Guisheng, the embassy press attache, accused the Dalai Lama of
"subverting the unity of the nation."
At the Dalai Lama's headquarters in Dharmsala, India, news of
the award prompted 1,000 exiled Tibetans to dance in the streets.
"It is a victory for oppressed people everywhere," read an official
statement. The Dalai Lama, attending a spiritual conference in
Newport Beach, Calif., responded to the fuss with characteristic
humility. "My case is nothing special," he said. "I am a simple
Buddhist monk -- no more, no less." Authorities in Beijing, who
have been struggling to convey an image of national calm and
restored normality, only wish that were true.