Dalai Lama Visits Washington, DC

Here's the caption for the photo above (from SFGate.com):
Members of the Tibetan community offer traditional sweet rice to welcome the Dalai Lama as he arrives at his hotel in Washington on Monday. The Dalai Lama will receive the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor Congress can bestow, on Wednesday after being hosted at the White House by President Bush the day before. Reuters photo by Yuri Gripas

I couldn't resist putting this photo of the Dalai Lama up. I'm so happy to hear that the Chinese government (who the Dalai Lama refers to as "our friends the enemy") is upset over the U.S. honoring the Dalai Lama with the Congressional Gold Medal. He genuinely deserves the honor for all of the wisdom and compassion that he spreads wherever he goes.

Here's an excerpt from an article in The Washington Post about the envoy behind the Dalai Lama receiving this honor:

The original impetus for awarding the Dalai Lama the medal came from several members of Congress who have long championed him, particularly Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Tom Lantos, both California Democrats. But legislation bestowing the medal on a recipient must be co-sponsored by two thirds of the membership of both the House of Representatives and the Senate before their respective committees will consider it. Gyari went from one legislator's office to another, trying to explain to them what the Dalai Lama does and to convince them that he is not trying to break Tibet away from China.

Chinese diplomats, Hill staffers said, pressed hard against the Dalai Lama getting the medal, and were particularly upset when Bush announced last week that he would personally present it to him. In doing so, Bush will become the first U.S. president to meet the Dalai Lama in public.

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