14 August, 2017
A message published on the website of his office stated: "The Dalai Lama has written today to both His Excellency Ian Khama, President of the Republic of Botswana, and Dr Susan Bauer-Wu, President of Mind & Life Institute, expressing profound regret at having to cancel his impending visit to Botswana due to exhaustion".
Twenty-five years after his documentary Compassion in Exile (1992) on the Dalai Lama, filmmaker Mickey Lemle returned to shoot with the Tibetan leader on the eve of his 80th birthday in 2015.
Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama has cancelled a scheduled trip to Botswana out of concern for his health.
"His Holiness has reluctantly had to concede that his 82-year-old body was telling him to rest".
Botswana confirmed that it will allow the Dalai Lama to visit next month as "a foreign dignitary" though it is a "purely private visit" despite firm opposition from China.
In the weeks leading up to the conference, Beijing warned Botswana multiple times not to invite the Dalai Lama into the country, demanding that Botswana "respect China's core interests and make the correct political decision on this matter". The Tibetan leader's statement also says that "during the past few weeks, His Holiness has found that carrying out his activities has left him unusually exhausted". He fled from Tibet after a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. It consistently condemns other countries which let him visit.
In the past, China has exacted revenge on those countries who have welcomed the exiled spiritual leader by imposing sanctions or by giving high-ranking officials the cold shoulder.
"China will not interfere in other countries' internal affairs, and we will not accept that other countries do things that would harm the core interests of China", he said.
