Dalai Lama’s visit in Argentina marked by Chinese conflict

Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso began his visit in Buenos Aires in the midst of the conflict with China which disabled him from being decorated by the City and national government.

Both administrations desisted from decorating the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader as a National Distinguished Guest and with the Buenos Aires City Honour Medal after China requested it, sources reported.

The visit of the Dalai Lama began two days after Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman returned from Beijing, where he headed a trade mission to strengthen political bonds and promote the investment of the Asian country in Argentina.

In his first days in Buenos Aires, the Nobel Prize laureate said he was “very glad” of delegating his political power to Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay.

Gyatso, who was accompanied by Argentina’s Nobel Prize Laurate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, called for the union of the religions beyond the “philosophical differences” and questioned the “new age” techniques that “take a little from each discipline.”

In his fourth visit to Argentina, he highlighted the “increasing interest” of Europe, United States and Australia in Buddhism “to control the destructive emotions” and praised the advance in the relationship between scientists and their religion.