Dear Guest 11:40,

Then we will have to agree to differ...

The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan exile communities certainly are in a difficult political position being as they are exiles in a country with an increasingly fundamentalist but nevertheless powerful minority faction. I have been in the Tibetan Settlements in Karnataka State and have spoken with many Tibetans about this.

The Dalai Lama is not "cozy" with any form of fundamentalism nor does he support any form of religious fundamentalism. A quick read of his numerous books, speeches, essays and other works will quickly confirm this. Nor does he claim to be infallible. I do not know of a Buddhist, at least here, who would claim otherwise although naturally he is held in high esteem (and not just by Buddhists). He is, by his own admission, just a "simple monk" forced into being a political leader for exiled Tibetans by virtue of that exile and the atrocities visited upon Tibet by the Chinese.

Tashi delek

mooman