Meanwhile, in other news

The path of non-violence is not working even for the Dalai Lama.

A Chinese crackdown can test even a monk’s patience.

What else could explain the dozens of monks who burned a Chinese flag in Dharamsala a few hundred feet from the Dalai Lama’s home on Tuesday? What else could explain the 500 monks in Choephel Shing Dogo, Tibet who on Tuesday walked willingly into waiting, armed police, according to Tibetan exile groups?

Their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has preached a “third-way” politics for more than 20 years, a policy that insists on non-violence protest and diplomacy with the Chinese government.

But the man Buddhists believe is Buddha reincarnated acknowledged on Tuesday that after so many years of Chinese control in Tibet, his politics have led to no change. And he said he understands why many of the protestors who follow him are resorting to a more violent and aggressive stance against the Chinese than the one he won a Nobel Peace Prize for preaching.

At some point, you reach a limit.

“Our only weapon, our only strength, is justice, truth,” he said. “But effect of truth, justice sometimes take longer time. Weapons power — immediate effect.”