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My aim is to create a happy society with genuine friendship. Friendship between Tibetan and Chinese peoples is very essential.

I'm not Chinese. I thrive in interesting times.

As I stand here today and tell you about these, I am heavy with an awareness of the fact that I am in more than one sense a product of both the Chinese and Western cultures, in harmony and in conflict.

I find when you talk with the Chinese on most subjects, they are very practical.

The Beijing government avidly asserts its control over matters of reincarnation as a way of securing the loyalty and political complexion of influential Tibetan figures.

I think that at heart I am an old-fashioned Chinese, really I am.

In China, I realized that if you visit often enough and learn the language, you will be assimilated, but you'll still be kept at arm's length; you'll always be looked on as a foreigner.

I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want.

Chinese culture in general is not very religious. Confucianism is more a code of ethics than a religion, and ancestor worship is a way for parents to control you even after they're dead.

Even though I'm very Westernized as an individual and very Canadian, I guess I've lost some of my Chinese culture.