The 14th Dalai Lama's recent Grammy win has political calculations written all over it, according to experts, who says his team cynically sought to raise his profile by pushing for the award which fundamentally goes against what Tibetan Buddhism is supposed to represent.
At the Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on February 1, the Dalai Lama was announced as the winner of the Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording category for his audiobook on meditations.
In response, the political monk posted a message on social media expressing his gratitude to the Grammys, claiming the award was "a recognition of our shared universal responsibility."
In the latest episode of the China Global Television Network (CGTN) opinion show 'The Point with Liu Xin', which aired Wednesday, experts suggest the win was a highly political decision and the latest step in the West continuing its track of seeking to enhance the political image of the Dalai Lama and his so-called "Tibet cause" as a means to contain China.
"In the recent years, it is difficult for the Western anti-China forces to simply attack China's policy on Xizang, and nowadays they chose another route -- that means they use the art forms to enhance the political image or enhance the influence of the Dalai Lama. A major purpose I think is still to [maintain] the fame of the Dalai Lama and to keep the 'Tibet cause' as a tool for containing China," said Xiao Jie, a research fellow at the China Tibetology Research Center.
Han Hua, the co-founder and secretary general of the Beijing Club for International Dialogue, says the Dalai Lama's team have been trying to build up his political legacy by seeking out such awards as a means of promoting the 90-year-old's image among younger people.
"There are many arguments and critics, which I agree [with], that the team or the so-called 'cabinet' of the Dalai Lama's team, they actually are very vigorously seeking to get some award, especially the award in the Grammys, probably next it will be an Oscar -- I don't know whether they have some documentaries on that -- but these are really politicized and I think this is linked to [it being] near the end of his leadership, and his team wants to secure [and] solidify his political legacy, especially among the much younger generation. So getting a Grammy award would definitely, in their opinion, help solidify this kind of recognition," said Han.
The Grammys, which saw the notorious Jeffrey Epstein case mocked on stage, seemed rather taciturn when it came to the Dalai Lama, who, according to reports, was mentioned 169 times in documents related to the Epstein case.
Josef Mahoney, a professor of politics and international relations at East China Normal University, raised questions over the sanctimonious attitude shown by the monk's team and its desire to pursue and receive an award which is completely at odds with the spirit and beliefs of Tibetan Buddhism.
"Interestingly, I find it sort of strange that someone who is supposed to represent a 'living god' among the people who are faithful to him would seek to be validated by an organization like this, and that such an organization would think that it were qualified to validate someone like this. We all know that that the Grammys are really about market promotion, it's about materialism, which is something that is fundamentally at odds with what Tibetan Buddhism is supposed to represent, so there are a lot of ironies here," said Mahoney.
Experts point out political calculations behind Dalai Lama's Grammy award win
