By Indy Hack
This may come as a shock to most people, but the Dalai Lama is in the last stages of advanced prostate cancer. In January 2016, I exclusively revealed that he was travelling to the Mayo Clinic in the US to undergo treatment for prostate cancer.
Since then he has returned to the clinic several times to undergo surgeries and proton beam therapy to try and cure the disease, however it has continued to spread from his prostate into other parts of his body and is now incurable.
Despite repeated denials that he has cancer, the Dalai Lama’s health has continued to deteriorate leading him to cancel several overseas trips. Now in 2018 all of his foreign trips are cancelled with the exception of a planned September visit to Switzerland.
I can however exclusively reveal that he will not attend the Rikon 50th anniversary celebrations in Switzerland. The unusual events surrounding this visit, arranged at the same time all other trips were being cancelled, owe more to the Dalai Lama fulfilling a promise to attend the event rather than an ability to attend.
The Dalai Lama has agreed to attend and indeed hopes he can attend but even his most trusted physicians have told him there is no likelihood he will be able to make the journey. In fact he will be lucky to still be alive in September, let alone able to travel anywhere.
During his most recent public appearances the Dalai Lama has been unsteady on his feet, walking with the aid of three assistants and having a style of movement that indicates he has severe lower back pain and restricted lower back movement [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3048239/].
The most telltale signs of his cancer progression have been during events where he is expected to hold items or pass them across to people, such as the Jammu University event on March 18th 2018 and the Thank You India event in Dharamsala on March 31st.
During both events there were occasions where the Dalai Lama was supposed to hold items to be given to other people, however due to the fact that he has a weakened lower spine and back muscles he was unable to. Instead other people held the items and he simply placed his hands on them so that the photographs would appear normal.
During one phase of the Jammu University event the Dalai Lama was to confer on students small medals, the ribbons of which were to be placed over their heads. He was so weak he had to use one hand to support himself just so that he could stay standing up meaning he only had one hand to hold the ribbon.
This caused one of the most bizarre awards ceremonies I have ever seen. The Dalai Lama was only able to hold the medals up and the students had to push their heads through the ribbon as if it were some kind of party game [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wldc5QmwHZ4&feature=youtu.be&t=2h8m19s] .
For some reason this is considered normal and all suggestions that the Dalai Lama has serious health problems are dismissed, yet his most recent hospitalization gives a greater insight into just how vulnerable he is.
As the cancer has spread throughout his body he has undergone several surgeries to remove tumors, one of which resulted in the removal of parts of his bowel which is why he now uses a colostomy bag. After the special pouch he has added to his Buddhist robes was pictured he has taken to always wearing an outer garment in public to hide the bag [https://twitter.com/IndyHack/status/908245718569287682].
Over the past 9 months the Dalai Lama has also engaged in an new ritual with his public appearances. Everywhere he goes he has an assistant tasked with carrying hand sanitiser and tissues, whenever he shakes hands or touches someone he has a squirt of sanitiser and tissue wipes.
Initially I thought this was just an added eccentricity but his recent flight to Delhi over a simple common cold suggests this is all part of a cancer treatment protocol because he has a compromised immune system.
Sources in the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) today confirmed to me that the Dalai Lama is riddled with cancer but is refusing to stop trying treatments to cure it despite his doctors repeatedly explaining to him that there is no cure. Most recently the Dalai Lama underwent a stem cell transplant even though this treatment isn’t suitable for his type of cancer.
Publicly the Dalai Lama’s representatives state that he is suffering from exhaustion which is why he has curtailed his travels, which is to some extent true. What they’re not saying is why he is exhausted, his exhaustion is coming from the treatments he is undergoing to try and stop his cancer.
In addition to causing exhaustion the cancer treatments also greatly weaken the Dalai Lama’s immune system which is why he is so careful about germs and uses hand sanitiser so frequently. This is also why he was recently hospitalized.
Yesterday (7th April 2018) Phayul reported that he had been rushed to Delhi for specialist medical tests following a throat irritation [http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=40329&t=1].
Whilst in the hospital they treated the Dalai Lama for a minor throat infection and the common cold, issues that don’t usually involve hospital visits, unless you’re undergoing cancer treatment.
A 2010 study in the journal, “Blood”, revealed that 50% of stem cell transplant patients develop a respiratory infection within the first 100 days of treatment. According to sources within the CTA, the Dalai Lama underwent a stem cell transplant in Delhi at the end of January 2018 which means he is still within the first 100 days of treatment and highly susceptible to a respiratory infection.
During his talk at the Thank You India event on March 31st he was coughing and at times visibly struggling with his speech. The rush to send him for medical checks in Delhi was entirely proportionate for someone undergoing cancer treatment as the article, “When a cold can kill”, by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center explains [https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2014/10/cancer-patients-at-risk-for-colds.html].
Those who are close to the Dalai Lama or his medical staff know how severe the prognosis is; they are fully aware that he is expected to die this year, which is why they are celebrating 60 years in exile 1 year early. It’s not that they can’t count, it’s simply that they can’t count on the Dalai Lama to be alive in 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wldc5QmwHZ4&t=2h8m19s&authuser=0
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Indy Hack is an Independent UK journalist covering allegations of human rights abuses by the Tibetan Government and the Dalai Lama. Follow Hack on Twitter
