Leadership-Interview-Transkript - Sozialpsychologie - Goethe ...

The 14 th Dalai Lama of Tibet
Short biography
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is both the head of state and the spiritual
leader of Tibet. He was born on 6 July 1935, to a farming family, in a small hamlet located in
northeastern Tibet. At the age of two the child was recognized as the reincarnation of the
13th Dalai Lama. The family was relocated to Lhasa, the administrative capital of the Tibet
Autonomous Region in the Republic of China. His Holiness began his monastic education at
the age of six. At the age of 11 he met the Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer (†2006),
who became his videographer and tutor about the world outside Lhasa. At the age of 15, the
14th Dalai Lama was enthroned formally as the temporal ruler of Tibet. In 1959, at the outset
of the Tibetan uprising, the Dalai Lama and his retinue fled Tibet and set up the Government
of Tibet in Exile in Dharamsala, India. The Dalai Lama’s appeal to the United Nations on the
rights of Tibetans resulted in three resolutions in 1959, 1961, and 1965, which called on
China to respect the human rights of Tibetans. In 1963 His Holiness presented a draft
democratic constitution for Tibet that was followed by a number of reforms to democratize
the administrative set-up. In 1987, the Dalai Lama gave a speech outlining his ideas for the
future status of Tibet and proposed the Five Point Peace Plan for Tibet as the first step
towards a peaceful solution. The Dalai Lama has received numerous awards over his spiritual
and political career. In 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent
struggle for the liberation of Tibet. Recently, he was listed by the Watkins Review as the
second most spiritually influential person in the world. In a speech given in March 2011, the
Dalai Lama stated that he will propose changes to the constitution of the Tibetan government
in exile which will remove the Dalai Lama's role as head of state, replacing him with an
elected leader. If accepted by the Tibetan parliament in exile, this will constitute the Dalai
Lama's retirement from his formal political role, although he will retain his position as a
religious dignitary.
Interview conducted in Frankfurt am Main on August 22 nd , 2011
Rolf van Dick: Your Holiness, thank you very much, this was very insightful [refers to the
Dalai Lama’s speech that he held before]. Before I open up to the audience, I would have one
or two short questions. The first question sounds rather simple – do we need leadership at all?
Is leadership important? Or are most people intrinsically motivated to do the right and good
thing, and can we abandon all leaders?
Dalai Lama: You cannot abandon your government. To govern is necessary. So there must
be leaders in any way. The democratic system is, I think, the best system. The reason: the
world belongs to humanity. Not kings or religious leaders, but to the people. So, Germany
belongs to German people. In order to rule the people by the people, that’s the democratic
system. Now, the change, or some sort of big change, under one individual leader is, I think,
difficult. I think leaders who come from a community where there is not much concern about
moral ethics or short-sighted. Then, leaders who come from the middle of society, of course,
they are also part of the society. So now, to education. I usually tell the people like my age,
over 70 and also 60, I see many of you – my generation, who belongs to the previous century.
So now, those young people, below 20, you are the generation who belongs to the twentyfirst
century. Now, my generation, almost now, is gone. So ready to say ‘bye bye’. So, this
century, about 10 years past, now almost 90 years yet to come!So, the generation who belongs