Prizes

In the past 20 years, Tibet's exiled leader, Tenzin Gyatso, 54, has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. His nonviolent Buddhist philosophy and advocacy of a peaceful approach to determining Tibet's future would seem to make the 14th Dalai Lama (meaning "Ocean of Wisdom") a natural for the honor. So when the Nobel Committee in Oslo finally named him the winner of the $445,000 cash award last week, the question was not "Why him?" but "Why now?" Surely the choice of the Dalai Lama, who has been living in India since he fled Chinese occupation forces in 1959, was meant as a slap at Beijing: a symbol of international condemnation of the Chinese government for its crackdown on the students' democracy movement in Tiananmen Square last June and imposition of martial law in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, following anti-Chinese riots last March.

Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman Egil Aarvik admitted the choice could be interpreted that way. "If I were a Chinese student, I would be fully in support of the decision," he told reporters. The Chinese embassy in Oslo read it the same way. It denounced the award as an intervention in China's internal affairs. Wang Guisheng, the embassy press attache, accused the Dalai Lama of "subverting the unity of the nation."

At the Dalai Lama's headquarters in Dharmsala, India, news of the award prompted 1,000 exiled Tibetans to dance in the streets. "It is a victory for oppressed people everywhere," read an official statement. The Dalai Lama, attending a spiritual conference in Newport Beach, Calif., responded to the fuss with characteristic humility. "My case is nothing special," he said. "I am a simple Buddhist monk -- no more, no less." Authorities in Beijing, who have been struggling to convey an image of national calm and restored normality, only wish that were true.