30th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Dalai Lama on top of the world

We expected Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Vaclav Havel or the Czechoslovak dissidents… It was finally the Dalai Lama who received the Nobel Peace Prize. Indeed, on October 5, 1989, in Oslo, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, exiled since his flight from Lhasa in March 1959, was rewarded for his non-violent struggle for the independence of his country. With this gesture, the Nobel Committee intended to celebrate both the thirtieth anniversary of Chinese repression in Tibet, but also the altruistic fight of the Dalai Lama for peace in the world. During the press conference, the XNUMXth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, declared that “the Tibetans today face a real possibility of elimination both as a people and as a nation”. The whole world, with the exception of Beijing which expressed its "indignation", hailed this distinction, which was to permanently change the perception of Buddhism in the West. Today, Tibet is still under Chinese occupation.