Word: lamas
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...glittering afternoon sunshine that drenched the surrounding fir trees and the distant snowy peaks of the Himalayas. A line of Tibetan officials bowed to Nehru, presented him with an armload of ceremonial white scarves. The curtains parted in the main doorway, and out stepped the smiling Dalai Lama for his first meeting with Nehru since the God-King of Tibet fled the Red Chinese reconquest of his homeland (TIME, April 13). "How are you?" asked Nehru. Answered the Dalai Lama in his best English: "I am quite nice...
Peking had obviously concluded that the way to handle Nehru was to menace him. Though an articulate denouncer of distant injustices, Nehru now told the press outside the Dalai Lama's house that he did not want "this matter to become a subject of heated exchanges and heated debates. I want to avoid the situation's getting worse." To newsmen eager to talk to the God-King, Nehru replied that he was sure the Dalai Lama was "more interested in a peaceful solution of the Tibetan problem than in press interviews...
Nehru suggested that Red China send its own puppet ruler of Tibet, the Panchen Lama, plus any interested Red Chinese emissaries, to visit the Dalai Lama and see for themselves that he was not being held "under duress" as the Red radio proclaimed. Nehru hoped that conditions would "some day" relax so that the God-King might go home to Tibet. His own contribution, whether intentionally or not, was to deaden the world's outrage, while the Red Chinese put down the rebellion...
After a four-hour conference with the Dalai Lama, Nehru emerged from Birla House and, faced by a battery of cameras and microphones, gave reporters a two-minute interview. It had been, said Nehru, "a very full talk, I hope a helpful talk." Then he offered an unintentional assist to the Red propagandists by conceding that, while in Lhasa, the Dalai Lama had indeed written "friendly" letters to the Red commandant because he 1) was passing through difficult and troubled times, and 2) was trying to avoid open conflict with Peking...
After having given the lie to the Reds' noisy protestations of good faith, the Dalai Lama appeared before a sweltering crowd of 10,000 Buddhists and, standing beneath a golden umbrella, gave them his blessing. Then, with his retinue, the Dalai Lama boarded an air-conditioned railway coach to go to the former British hill station of Mussoorie, where he will take up his residence in exile and "rest and reflect on recent events" in his crushed and suffering homeland...