Dalai Lama sends envoys to China

Envoys from the Dalai Lama are to hold talks with China aimed at ending the crisis in Tibet.

The meeting will be the first official contact between representatives of the exiled former Tibetan leader and the Chinese government since violent protests erupted in March.

The two envoys will arrive in China tomorrow for “informal talks with representatives of the Chinese leadership,” a statement from the Darecogniselai Lama said, but gave no further details.

It said they would convey the Dalai Lama’s “deep concerns” over China’s handling of the situation and would put forward “suggestions to bring peace to the region.”

Last week, Beijing said that it would meet an envoy of the Dalai Lama, but repeated long-established preconditions for negotiations, including that the Dalai Lama unambiguously recognize Tibet as a part of China.

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet amid a failed uprising in 1959, says he seeks meaningful autonomy for Tibet rather than independence from Chinese rule.

China and representatives of the Dalai Lama’s government in exile held six rounds of inconclusive talks that foundered in 2006.

Despite long-running tensions, both sides have kept open back channels for dialogue, although they do not often talk about them, and China does not acknowledge the existence of formal negotiations. Recent discussions have been led by the Dalai Lama’s special envoy, Lodi Gyari.

Friday’s statement said he and another envoy, Kelsang Gyaltsen, would lead these talks and “raise the issue of moving forward on the process for a mutually satisfactory solution to the Tibetan issue.”

Beijing has faced a chorus of calls from world leaders to open talks and the decision comes as something of a reversal in the face of Beijing’s relentless claims that the Dalai Lama and his followers had orchestrated the violence in Tibet.

The protests marked the most widespread and sustained action against Beijing’s rule in decades, focusing attention on accusations that China’s policies in the Himalayan region are eroding its traditional Buddhist culture and mainly benefit Chinese who moved there since its 1951 occupation by Communist troops.