Rev. Danny Fisher

“His Holiness the Dalai Lama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma from Dr. Jakob Sverdrup in Oslo on December 10, 1989.” Photo by Rajiv Mehrotra.

Twenty years ago today, His Holiness the Dalai Lama received the Nobel Peace Prize. In citing him for the award, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wrote:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize to the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, the religious and political leader of the Tibetan people.

The Committee wants to emphasize the fact that the Dalai Lama in his struggle for the liberation of Tibet consistently has opposed the use of violence. He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people.

The Dalai Lama has developed his philosophy of peace from a great reverence for all things living and upon the concept of universal responsibility embracing all mankind as well as nature. In the opinion of the Committee the Dalai Lama has come forward with constructive and forward-looking proposals for the solution of international conflicts, human rights issues, and global environmental problems. 

You can read His Holiness’ full acceptance speech here–and I recommend it. It’s widely considered to be one of the great pieces of writing that he has produced.

Earlier this year, the great Pico Iyer, a longtime friend of His Holiness and author of The Open Road: The Global Journey of the 14th Dalai Lama, wrote a powerful reflection for Time Magazine on a meeting between the two that occured immediately following news of the prize. It’s well worth a read. Here’s a snippet:

…20 years on, the Dalai Lama’s circumspection on that sunny day looks like prescience, as Tibet is ever more in Beijing’s grip, and 20 years closer to losing its distinctive identity. In Burma Aung San Suu Kyi, who was placed under house arrest that July (and rewarded with her own Nobel Prize two years later), is still in confinement, trying to outwit a brutal dictatorship. If 1989 means anything in Asia, it is that no hero of conscience can be sure of quick success.

But what the Tibetan leader — and others — were offering in that year sowed the seeds for a new sense of global responsibility. The first obligation of any Tibetan, the Dalai Lama was stressing with his new policy, was to work with China and look for common ground; in a planetary neighborhood, attacking what you see as your enemy is as senseless as punching yourself. And if China truly saw Tibet as part of itself, then it should try to help Tibet, with much-needed material and modern developments, without feeling the need to oppress it. The Nobel Committee effectively underlined this sense of interdependence by helping turn the Dalai Lama and his people from remote characters in a faraway kingdom to members of the global neighborhood.