Col J P Singh
14th Dalai Lama today is the most respected spiritual leader of the world with a legacy of relentless peace struggle for freedom and justice for his Himalayan Kingdom of Tibet which he lost to China in nineteen fifties. He was awarded 1989 Noble Peace Prize in recognition of his tireless non-violent crusade of over 30 years to end Chinese occupation and suppression of his Homeland. While receiving it, His Holiness dedicated it to Mahatma Gandhi saying, “I accept it as a tribute to the man who founded the tradition of non-violent actions for change. Life of Mahatma Gandhi inspired me”.
His Holiness was born on July 6, 1935 in Taktser, a Northeastern village of Tibet, under Chinese control even then, to a peasant family, as Lhamo Thondup. He was the fifth of 16 children, seven of whom died at a young age. After several months of searching for a successor to the 13th Dalai Lama and following many significant traditional spiritual signs, religious officials (Monks) located Lhamo Thondup, when he was 2 years old and identified him as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. Young Lhamo was brought to Lahasa, renamed Tenzin Gyatso and proclaimed the 14th Dalai Lama from where the story of his fateful life began.
In 1950, when 15, he took the throne as the temporal leader of Tibet just as the Chinese invaded Tibet. Nine years later, fearing assassination, he and thousands of his followers fled to India and settled in Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh), our neighboring state, where he established a ‘govt in exile’. Before 1959 His Holiness ruled Tibet from his magnificent official residence called ‘the Potala Palace’ in Lahasa, the capital of Tibet. Potala Palace, which was bombed by the Chinese military in 1959 to kill Dalai Lama is a site of great attraction for the tourists. Disguised, somehow he managed to flee from his Palace to India after which he continued his struggle for the freedom of Tibet. His Holiness, 14th Dalai Lama continued to be the political and spiritual ruler of Tibet even though in exile. Over six million Tibetan followers look up to him for religious and spiritual guidance. Here in India, he is just a spiritual leader of 100,000 Tibetans, the world’s most prominent politically suppressed refugees. “India is our home not just for the past 60 years but all our knowledge and traditions have come from India” he reiterates.
Dalai Lamas are believed to be the reincarnation of Avalokitesvara, an important Buddhist deity and the personification of compassion. Dalai Lamas are also enlightened beings who have postponed their own afterlife and chosen to take rebirth to benefit humanity. Each Dalai Lama is considered a reincarnation of the previous one. Lamaness is infact a Mongolian gift to Tibet. It was a Mongolian Khan who invented Dalai Lamas as the head monks of Tibetan Buddhism and accepted them traditionally responsible for governing Tibet as political heads. Centuries ago, Kublai Khan, the founding emperor of the Yuan dynasty, an era when Mongolians ruled China, had become interested in Tibetan Buddhism and gave lot of importance to their spiritual heads. But it was Altan Khan who made Tibetan Buddhism an official religion among Mongols and gave their spiritual leader the title of Dalai Lama. Dalai means ‘ocean’ in Mongolian and Lama means a spiritual teacher; the title translates to ‘Ocean of Wisdom’. His Holiness is indeed an embodiment of this title. That bound the Mongols and Tibetans. Since then, the position of the Dalai Lama has been tied to complex politics in Asia, especially between China and India, Bhutan & Mongolia. In December 2008, the Dalai Lama announced his semi-retirement from politics after his gallstone surgery.
Since exile, Dalai Lama has trodden a careful line which has kept him spiritually pure and politically crafty. He has taken numerous initiatives and actions ranging from quest for complete freedom from China to establishing an ‘Autonomous Tibetan State’ within the People’s Republic of China. Finally he has come up with a ‘middle way’ to resolve the status of Tibet by getting some sort of autonomy within China. His campaigning for autonomy for Tibet, in the face of political reality, has encouraged hopes among Tibetans. However, the Chinese Government has shown no signs of moving toward peace and reconciliation. He has a life-long commitment to peace and freedom for his homeland. But Chinese authorities have been flooding Tibet with Chinese immigrants. This is the real cause of the deep resentment among Tibetans.
His Holiness is ardent supporter of a peaceful, resourceful and understanding humanity for which he preaches integration of modern education with ancient Indian traditions. The Dalai Lama has also conducted thousands of conferences, lectures and workshops worldwide, as part of his humanitarian efforts for world peace. He heaps praises on the ancient Indian civilisation which gave rise to Nalanda traditions of Buddhism.
His Holiness visited Tawang in April 2017 which invited Chinese ire. Tawang is home to the Monpa people, who practice Tibetan Buddhism and once paid tribute to rulers in Lhasa, 316 miles to their North. Though the town’s population is about 11,000, as many as 60,000 gathered for Dalai Lama’s appearances (Darshan) at Tawang Monastery. By visiting Tawang, a Tibetan Buddhist stronghold that was the birthplace of a previous Dalai Lama, His Holiness has given a needling message to Beijing, which maintains that Tawang should be part of China. He is also consolidating his sect’s deep roots among the population, potentially laying the groundwork for a reincarnation some where there. During this visit His Holiness met Sep. Naren Chandra Das, 76, an Indian soldier who escorted him on the last three days march to Tawang in 1959. The two embraced each other before the cameras. “I became old, but he stays the same. He is a big man, the king of Tibet” said Mr. Das after being blessed.
His Holiness has taken Buddhism to Hollywood. Mickey Lemle, a Western filmmaker wrote and directed a documentary on His Holiness ‘Compassion in Exile’ in 1993. ‘The Last Dalai Lama’ is a full fledged commercial film made by the same filmmaker about the Buddhist Spiritual leader. The movie is more re-collection of his past moments than a linear fateful story of present. Many documentaries have been made on the life of Dalai Lama. Let us hope that Bollywood makes commercial movies on His Holiness for the benefit of posterity.
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