Interview: French writer faces up to difficulties in telling truth about Dalai Lama

An award-winning French author who revealed the true colors of the Dalai Lama in a previous book has finished a new one aimed at helping more people understand China's Tibet.

In the new book, to be published by a Chinese publisher, Maxime Vivas described the animosity he has endured since the earlier book, "The Dalai Lama: Not So Zen", came out.

"The Dalai Lama's French friends insulted, disparaged, threatened me, and even tried to have a television channel which had invited me to appear sanctioned," he told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"I tell it all in detail in the book so that the Chinese public understands the difficulties in saying certain truths regarding China and its Tibetan province," he added.

The retired civil servant visited Tibet in 2010 as a journalist for alternative news site Le Grand Soir, and his book "The Dalai Lama: Not So Zen" surprised readers around the world by unmasking the well-known religious figure.

The new book, which focuses on secularism, is likely to stir up more controversy. Yet Vivas appears unfazed.

He said he wants to show that major French intellectuals, including Victor Hugo and Charles De Gaulle, have or had a grand vision about France's relations with China, yet some politicians and media fail to see it.

Explaining why he chose to have his new book first published in China, he said it is to show the Chinese readers that they have friends in France and that China is not an enemy of France.

Meanwhile, the new book also gave him the opportunity to discuss a subject which he considered to be a "diamond" of the French Republic yet which the Dalai Lama could never accept in Tibet: secularism.

Vivas, who has already presented his ideas for Tibetan secularism at an international development forum for Tibet in 2011, insists that religions, in order to be respected, must not encroach on the political domain.

To those readers who already know his work on Tibet, he has a message on mutual tolerance and honesty.

"China and France are different countries and they should stay that way. ... The work of an intellectual is never to succumb to dishonesty -- which fosters hate and undermines peace -- and to always commit to the truth," he said.

Truth, for Vivas, is of paramount importance. He has developed a particular approach to writing. Rather than basing his claims just on information which suits his argument, Vivas does almost the opposite, citing the same people who would appear to be his opponents.

Among all the Dalai Lama's supporters "who attacked me, not one brought to light, to this day, a single inaccurate line in my book or one place where I distorted the truth. The reason: my sources are the Dalai Lama himself and his friends," Vivas said.

By using the Dalai Lama's own words, drawn for example from his published memoirs, Vivas builds an argument that silences critics once they have read the book. In fact, the effect has even created what Vivas refers to as an "amusing phenomenon."

"My friends and acquaintances who, without having read it, reproached me for having written the book no longer reproach me for a thing after having read it," Vivas said.

The new book on Tibetan secularism, he stressed, is composed in the same manner, in order to avoid "the slightest untruth or unverified affirmation." Endi