Congressional Gold Medal for Dalai Lama, Bronze Duplicates for Public
Today, President Bush honored Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, with the Congressional Gold Medal.
The medal was given in recognition of his many enduring and outstanding contributions to peace, non-violence, human rights, and religious understanding.
President Bush was actually the first US leader to appear publicly with the Dalai Lama. Previous presidents have met with him privately, minimizing friction with China.
China’s attitude toward the Dalai Lama is one of anger, feeling he’s a separatist trying to pull Tibet away from China.
For background, you can view the Reuters video news clip from yesterday. You can also watch the Associated Press video clip of the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony.
