Pelosi Meets with 14th Dalai Lama in India, Reaffirms Congressional Support for Tibet
Dharamsala, India – Today, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and a bipartisan Congressional delegation met with His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, in Dharamsala, India. The visit is Speaker Pelosi's third official trip to Dharamsala, leading Congressional delegations in 2008 and 2017.
Following their meeting, the delegation was honored at a felicitation ceremony hosted by the Central Tibetan Administration. In her remarks at the ceremony, Pelosi strongly reaffirmed Congressional support for the people of Tibet and spoke out against the Chinese government's oppressive human rights record.
Watch Speaker Emerita Pelosi's full remarks at the ceremony here. Read Speaker Emerita Pelosi’s remarks below:
Speaker Emerita Pelosi. Tashi delek. Tashi delek. Again and again. Thank you all for your very warm welcome.
Everyone who has spoken has said what an honor it is for us to be on this visit, to have the privilege of meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama earlier today. Yes, it is an honor – but for us, it is truly a blessing. It is a blessing to see all of you, to say ‘thank you’ to you. It has been said earlier that you're saying ‘thank you’ to us. But we're saying ‘thank you’ to you. Because you heard our colleagues talk about this legislation that was passed last week. We have been fighting this fight, all of us, for a long time. And in the spirituality of His Holiness, with the maneuvering inside the Congress, we've made progress. But it's different now with the passage of this bill, because this bill is a message to the Chinese government that we all have clarity in our thinking and our understanding of this issue of the freedom of Tibet.
[Applause]
Mr. [McCaul], who is the leader of our delegation and the leader of the Foreign Affairs Committee, was so masterful in the – not only the policy, but in the process of getting it passed in the most bipartisan way. Mr. Meeks, the ranking Democrat on the Committee, was relentless in his persistence in getting the bill passed with the right policy, again, with the biggest vote. And the author of the bill, Jim McGovern – well, he's just been there for us. I call him the ‘patron saint’ of our Tibet policy in the Congress of the United States.
[Applause]
Mr. McGovern mentioned our visit to Tibet a number of years ago. And when we went there, we saw for ourselves. They have spoken to you officially and all that; I want to talk to you personally for a moment. There was a visit of the current President of China to Washington, D.C., and Dianne Feinstein and I said to him, ‘We are objecting to what you are doing to the culture of Tibet. You're trying to erase it.’ And he said, ‘You don’t know what you're talking about. You should go there. See for yourself, all the improvements that China is making in Tibet.’ I said ‘Thank you, because I've been trying for 25 years to get a visa to go to Tibet when you would never give me one, and now I assume that is fine.’
So we went. Mr. McGovern, his wife Lisa and other Members. A strong delegation. We went to the palace, the Potala Palace, we saw the room where His Holiness grew up, his bedroom and that to see how it is there for him to return to. We mentioned his name all over Lhasa. And I can tell you this: they are trying to erase the culture with reduced use of the language. Hans coming into the population there. They are trying something that we cannot let them get away with. Now in the spirit of His Holiness, I'll be gracious to the Chinese people. I don't know that they're up to this. But we do know that the Chinese government is, and we do know that they must get the message. And this legislation sends the message, the House and the Senate and soon to be signed by Joe Biden, the President of the United States.
[Applause]
Everybody has talked about the children. And that's really what our mission is – to see these beautiful children perform the arts, the Tibetan arts, is really our purpose is to make the future better for them. When we see in Tibet that they're trying to, again, send them to school, educate them in the Chinese way to reduce their knowledge of the Tibetan language, to have surveillance of everything that they do and that their families do in a way that is not respectful of their dignity and worth – we just can't let that happen.
But let me just thank you. Before I came here today, I spoke to Richard Gere on the phone, and he said to send you his respects. He wishes that he could be here. A family matter keeps him. But Tibet has no better a friend in the outside world outside of government than Richard Gere. And I mention him because it's about you. We are able, with our inside maneuvering, to get legislation on the move. We are able, with your outside mobilization, to get the votes to pass the bill. Know your power in this. When you call in, when you show your visibility, as you have done in Congresswoman Malliotakis’s district – but in my district in San Francisco and in California. Let's hear for San Francisco and California, okay?
[Applause]
We have many Tibetans. They're very active, very active. But in any event, know that you made this bill possible. Your communication with the, with the diaspora throughout – the Tibetan diaspora throughout the world made all the difference. So thank you for making this bill the policy of the United States of America, which says to the Chinese government: things have changed now, get ready for that.
[Applause]
And also understand this: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, with his message of knowledge, and tradition and compassion and purity of soul and love, he will live a long time, and his legacy will live forever. But to you, President of China, you'll be gone, and nobody will give you credit for anything.
[Applause]
So in that spirit of – now, the Dalai Lama would not approve of my saying that. When I criticize the Chinese government, he says, ‘Let's pray for Nancy to rid her of her negative attitudes.’ But I think he will – I hope he will indulge me today to say that change is on the way, as our colleagues have said. Hope springs from faith, and the faith of the Tibetan people in the goodness of others is what is going to make all the difference. And then we can say freely in Lhasa and every other place: Tashi delek. Thank you all very much. God bless Tibet. And God bless America. Thank you.