Dalai Lama draws frustration and love from Tibetans

DHARAMSALA, India (Reuters) - Tibetan protest leaders said on Monday they are disappointed in the Dalai Lama's conciliatory approach to China and that his "middle way" stance is not shared by the majority of Tibetans.

But still they revere him.

Dharamsala, the Indian home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile, has been the epicenter of angry protests by exiled Tibetans after Chinese troops and police locked down Lhasa, Tibet's capital, to break up violent protests.

"The middle way has been in existence for 20 years and nothing has come out of it," Tsewang Rigzin, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, told reporters in Dharamsala.

By night, hundreds of Tibetans here in Dharamsala have been holding candle-lit rallies in streets and monasteries.

In New Delhi, hundreds of protesters shouted slogans and burned Chinese flags. Police detained at least 50 of them when they tried to enter a United Nations office.

Thousands of Buddhists also marched in Ladakh, a cold desert region in Indian Kashmir, and shut down markets, offices and schools to show solidarity with Tibetan protesters in Lhasa.

The region has some 15,000 Tibetans, most of whom fled Tibet after the failed rising there.

The issue also figured in India's parliament as well when members of the Hindu nationalist opposition party walked out of the house to protest the government's "silence" on the violence in Tibet.

The protesters in Dharamsala call for a far sharper goal than the one the Dalai Lama espouses, even as they reverently display his portrait draped in scarves. He calls for a truly autonomous Tibet within China, his so-called "middle way". They want complete independence.

The protest leaders say the Dalai Lama's stance had achieved nothing and disagreed with his statement on Sunday that China "deserved" the Olympics.

Yet they were careful to balance every criticism with affirmations of admiration for the 72-year-old Buddhist leader.

"His holiness is still our leader," said B. Tsering, the leader of the Tibetan Women's Association, as she sat next to Rigzin. "He remains a source of inspiration."

Other protesters point out few have traveled as widely and drawn as much attention to the Tibetan cause as the Dalai Lama.

But, when asked how the Dalai Lama helped their campaign, Rigzin simply pointed out that the Buddhist leader was now semi-retired, and it was up to each and every Tibetan to define the movement.

Even though the gap may be widest with the youngest generations of Tibetans, rarely does such a bond of affection last for so long between a nation and its leader.

"It's like children to parents," was how Lhadon Tethong, the director of the Students for a Free Tibet, described the relationship in an interview.

"I don't think there's anything else like it ... You love your family but maybe you can have disagreements, a difference of opinion, a different path."

The Dalai Lama acknowledges that more Tibetans, both in Tibet and in exile, want independence than autonomy, his spokesman Tenzin Taklha said, but sees this as a healthy sign of his exiled government's recent move towards democracy.

COUNTERPRODUCTIVE

Many protest leaders say the Dalai Lama's moderate approach does not hamper their own cause.

But on Monday the Tibetan government-in-exile said the differing voices could be counterproductive.

The government wants all campaigning activity to be organized centrally. It had yet to speak to various protest groups, but hope they would agree to coordinate more closely with the government.

"No talk of middle path or independence," Dolma Gyati, the exiled parliament's vice speaker, told reporters at a news conference. "We all have to be together. Let the focus be inside Tibet. Our duty to be together to save Tibet is more important."

Samdhong Rimpoche, the exiled government's prime minister, said the government felt helpless as more reports of deaths came in from Tibet along with unconfirmed reports that government hospitals were turning away injured Tibetans.

The government says it has confirmed a death toll of at least 80 based on tallies of bodies spotted in different locations phoned in by Tibetans. But it said the number could end up in the hundreds.

(Additional reporting by Ashok Pahalwan; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee)