China has forced a leading Sri Lanka newspaper to stop the publication of the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s autobiography in Sinhalese according to the latest report. The newspaper was publishing the story in a series of monthly episodes and after just three episodes, it has been pressurized to stop further publication.
“Irida Lankadeepa, Sri Lankan leading newspaper, recently shelved the scheduled publication of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s autobiography ‘My Land and My People’ after three weekly episodes because of concerns of reprisals from the Chinese Embassy in Colombo.” said the exclusive report in the official website of Central Tibetan Administration.
President of Sri Lankan Tibetan Buddhist Brotherhood Society, Dr Damenda Porage and main translator of His Holiness’ autobiography Mr Ruwan Harischandra have urged Irida Lankadeepa to resume publishing the Sinhanlese translation of the Dalai Lama’s autobiography according to the report.
“‘Irida Lankadeepa’ commenced publishing the Sinhala Translation of the Dalai Lama’s autobiography ‘My Land My People’ on 19th November 2017 and they continued to publish the series until 3rd December 2017. They published three articles on three consecutive Sundays and we, the members of Sri Lankan Tibetan Buddhist Brotherhood Society, were also greatly inspired by this because we have been working to promote Buddhist brotherhood between Sri Lankans and Tibetans for nearly three years in spite of difficult circumstances.” said Dr Damenda Porage according to the report.
Mr Prasanna Sanjeewa Thennakoon, editor of the segment of the newspaper told that he has been instructed by “his management to hold the article due to pressure from the Chinese Embassy in Colombo.”
“Publishing of the series of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s autobiography ‘My Land My People’ has been shelved since 10th December. The series was originally planned to be published in fifty episodes. The autobiography was translated in Sinhalese by Ruwan Harishchandra and published by Sri Lanka Tibetan Buddhist Association.” added the report.
The autobiography explains the personal accounts of the Tibetan spiritual leader from the time of his birth to early period after his escape into exile. The early part of His Holiness’s life comes under an era of independent Tibet while the Chinese troops start its actual invasion of Tibet from late 1940s, following which His Holiness finally gets forced to escape into exile to India in 1959. The autobiography is one of the most important records of the transitional period of Tibet from an independent country to be invaded by China.