Even the Dalai Lama, who is said to be a true Buddhist and a careful scientist, makes mistakes - perhaps intentionally.
He told New Delhi-based TimesNow TV that Chinese soldiers in the garb of Tibetan monks were indulging in violence show on Chinese television.
"A few hundred Chinese soldiers...some photos we received...they received monk's dress and then dressed like monks, " he said in front of the camera.
The statement came after a prayer in the memory of those killed in Lhasa in New Delhi on March 29.
A day after his remark, Ngaba Tsegyam, an official of Dalai Lama in Taipei, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, "We have received reports that Chinese police wearing Tibetan clothes and holding knives, which are not Tibetan knives, attacked the Han Chinese."
Some people did buy it. German weekly Der Stern reported the Dalai Lama's statement together with a photo showing a dozen Chinese soldiers carrying crimson clothing on a street with several civilians watching.
This photo, regarded by the Dalai Lama and his supporters as solid evidence, proved to be not so solid after careful examination by experts.
Actually, the photo was taken when the officers and soldiers joined in stage performances with residents several years ago, according to experts.
It was no surprise that Chinese government rejected the rumor.
"Dalai Lama's citing of rumors cannot change the truth of the incident. It only shows his guilty conscience. He was trying to pass the buck using rumors and cheating," said China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu.
But it was very interesting that the Dalai Lama's supporters denied it as well.
"We've received reports of Chinese dressing up as monks -- not instigating (the violence), but assisting in the security clampdown," Tenzin Taklha, a spokesman for the Dalai Lama, quoted by Reuters on March 31.
Being a spiritual leader, a moral authority and an emblematic truth seeker, shouldn't the Dalai Lama act more like a responsible person and at least mean what he says?
According to an article published on the latest issue of Times magazine, "as soon as you start talking to the Dalai Lama...you notice that his favorite adjectives are logical and realistic and the verbs he returns to are investigate, analyze and explore. the Buddha was a 'scientist'."
"He said...a true Buddhist should follow the course of reason." the article continues.
It is quite exaggerated.
A writer would not like to bore readers with repeated words and facts but this time there is no other choice than to say yet again that the Dalai Lama lied - again.
Why spread a rumor?
Those having the answer to this question might also know why the Dalai Lama and his supporters gave no evidence to prove their innocence in such widespread violence in such a short period of time, despite the repeated denial of evidence raised by the Chinese government.
People need to listen to both sides to seek the truth. People need to seriously study facts to seek the truth. That is the way to examine things as they are.
(Xinhua News Agency April 4, 2008)