The Dalai Lama discusses the future of Tibet on this week’s episode of National Geographic’s Explorer documentary series.
Watch the footage below as he says: “In future Tibet, I always hope, will be a democratic, elected leadership. People’s power will win.”
He then agrees when correspondent Michael Ware says he is “playing the long game, the great patient war”.
During the episode Ware also talks to Lobsang Sangay, the Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, and asks: “Is Tibet ever coming back?”
Sangay says: “Absolutely, yeah.” He adds: “Buddhism is 2,500+ years old. Communism is just what, less than 100 years old. There is no competition between the two.
“We must have dialogue between envoys of the Dalai Lama and Chinese representatives, and Tibetans should be granted genuine autonomy — as per Chinese laws — within China.”
When Ware says the Chinese play “hard-ball” when it comes to politics, Sangay says: “We Tibetans see China in a different way. Our perspective is very different. We have lived side by side for thousands of years, so we kind of know them better than anyone in the world.
“So hence we don’t fear China, we are not amazed by China, we know exactly what they’re doing. Our time will come, our opportunity will come.”
The Dalai Lama also gives his opinion about how we could live in a better world by reforming modern education.
He says: “Today’s worlds reality is we have to live together happily as one human family. I always blame modern education. Modern education is wonderful, but not adequate.
“Modern education is very much orientated towards material values. They do not know what [is] inner peace.
“People like sports and television because, you see, we believe happiness or satisfaction comes from seeing things.”
He adds: “The modern education system should include some education about our inner value. You should need more knowledge about this whole system of our emotion, our mind.”
Explorer airs Mondays at 10/9c on National Geographic.
