The Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, was named winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which announced the award in Oslo, cited the Dalai Lama's nonviolent struggles to regain autonomy for his homeland from China and his advocacy of "peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people."
Egil Aarvik, chairman of the Nobel Committee, said the award was intended to send a message of support and a plea for nonviolence to all those struggling for human rights and national liberation across the globe, including China, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Senior aides in the Dalai Lama's exile government, based in India, declared the prize an important morale boost for the Tibetan cause as well as a slap at China in the aftermath of the massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing in June. Chinese officials expressed irritation, accusing the Norwegian Nobel Committee of meddling in China's internal affairs.
At a press conference in Newport Beach, where he has been attending a weeklong peace conference, the world's best-known Buddhist leader, revered by his followers as a god-king, shrugged off the award.
"Many friends were overjoyed," said the Dalai Lama, 54, grinning broadly. "I myself, not so much. . . . I'm still just a Buddhist monk, no more, no less."
But "from the Tibetan point of view, it's fantastic," said Tenzin Geyche Tethong, his personal secretary for 25 years. "Indirectly, it's a tremendous morale boost and sort of worldwide recognition of the Tibetan tragedy."
The Dalai Lama, clad in a maroon and saffron robe and plastic sandals, indicated to reporters that he might spend the $469,000 prize on famine relief or peace studies. The peace prize, the first to be won by an Asian, will be formally awarded Dec. 10 in Oslo.
The Dalai Lama and his staff said they hope the prize will help focus attention on the plight of the people living inside Tibet--a Himalayan region more than three times the size of Texas that, under the label "'Tibet Autonomous Region," has been firmly controlled by the Chinese since 1951.
According to the Dalai Lama's aides, 1.2 million Tibetans have died as a result of the Chinese occupation and more than 6,000 monasteries have been destroyed. Beijing, which imposed martial law on the region in March, vigorously disputes these figures.
