Written by Raymond Johnston
The Dalai Lama was the first foreign visitor greeted by Havel in 1990
Former Czech President Václav Havel left behind a strong legacy in the human rights area. That was exemplified by his long friendship with the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people.
The friendship lasted up until the end, with the Dalai Lama visiting Havel a week before he died in December 2011.
The only serving member of the government at the time to also meet the Dalai Lama was Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.
“Our friendship is based on us being human beings,” the Dalai Lama said about that meeting. “It’s not based on power. We talked as friends, and he asked about the situation in Tibet.”
As to Havel’s health at the time, the Dalai Lama was concerned. “His physical condition was quite weak,” he said. “I told him I would act like a Tibetan physician to him. I will give him some suggestions.”
The Dalai Lama and Havel signed an appeal to the international community asking leaders to support political dissidents, and the two appeared on a panel discussion along with Chinese dissident and scholar Yang Jianli and former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
The friendship dated back to 1990. “President Havel honored me with an invitation to visit Czechoslovakia in February 1990, apparently his first foreign guest, soon after he became president of the country. I will never forget the emotional crowd who greeted me, men and women jubilant in their new-found freedom,” the Dalai Lama said in a statement after Havel died.
“President Havel himself impressed me as being utterly free of pretense and on the many occasions that we met overt the years, he remained a true champion of human rights and freedom everywhere. On that first evening of our meeting, he told me how much he identified with one of my predecessors, the Sixth Dalai Lama, who had a reputation for worldliness and literary flair,” he added.
“Most recently, I was touched that he made time for us to meet once more, in spite of his failing health, on International Human Rights Day, a week before he died. Since this time I seem to have been his last foreign visitor, I cannot help thinking that from a spiritual point of view there was a strong connection between us,” he said.
Earlier in the statement, the Dalai Lama praised Havel. “Gentle, honest, humble and full of humour, he was motivated by the idea that truth must ultimately prevail. It was this insistence on the truth that got him into trouble with the authorities when he was young. The same quality inspired his people to choose him to be the President when they threw off totalitarianism during the Velvet Revolution, which Havel led with an extraordinary display of people power,” he said.
The legacy of their friendship continues, and a car with a trailer carrying a large picture of the two was visible in Prague during the March 28–30 visit of Chinese Presisent Xi Jinping, and banners with the Havel and the Dalai Lama could be seen at a human rights rally.