Ahead of President Xi Jinping’s visit to India this month, China has made statements about talks with the Dalai Lama’s personal envoys on the subject of his return.
The Tibetan Autonomous Region’s Communist party Deputy Secretary, Wu Yingjie said, “The Dalai Lama is welcome to return, as long as he accepts Tibet as a part of China. Our talks with his envoys have always been smooth and are ongoing. However, it is his future, not Tibet’s that we are discussing.”
Those words don’t make the prospect of the Dalai Lama’s return sound imminent. But for the thousands that come into Norbulingka each day, they pray that the fact that they can now see his old possessions and pray freely in front of them, could make their wish for his return a possibility some day. Norbulingka allows no images of the Dalai Lama and activists say Tibetans can be harassed for possessing photos of him.
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