Tale of two lamas: The battle for Tibet's soul By Kent Ewing
HONG KONG - The Chinese leadership's answer to the Dalai Lama, the 19-year-old
Panchen Lama, has emerged after a prolonged childhood-to-adolescence
hibernation. He speaks Tibetan, Puthongua and - rev up the global PR machine -
scripted English. Whatever language he chooses, however, he invariably uses it
to back the central government.
As Beijing last week marked the 50th anniversary of the failed Tibetan uprising
that prompted the Dalai Lama's flight into exile in India, the Panchen Lama had
nothing but praise for Chinese rule of the troubled Himalayan region.
Meanwhile, stewing in his headquarters-in-exile in Dharamsala, the 73-year-old
Dalai Lama
accused China of creating "hell on Earth" in Tibet.
This week the Tibetan spiritual leader in exile made a point of traveling to
New Delhi to thank India for taking him in as a "refugee" and offering "care
and support" following his dramatic escape on horseback in 1959. Also this
week, scientists at the University of Toronto's Munk Center for International
Studies issued a report claiming that hackers based in China had infiltrated at
least 1,295 computers of governments and private offices in 103 countries,
including the Dalai Lama's headquarters.
The fact that the Chinese chose to celebrate the Dalai Lama's 50th year in
exile by inaugurating a new holiday on March 28 - Serfs Emancipation Day - no
doubt added insult to injury in Dharamsala. And the Panchen Lama, traditionally
regarded as the second-highest religious figure in Tibetan Buddhism, did his
part to support Beijing's portrayal of the Tibet Autonomous Region as a
backwater of feudalism before the Chinese takeover and clearly denounced the
Dalai Lama, albeit without naming him.
"I want to sincerely thank the Communist Party for giving me a set of clear
eyes, so I can tell right from wrong," the Panchen Lama said at a forum marking
the new holiday. "I can clearly recognize who loves the Tibetan people and who
for personal motives unscrupulously wrecks Tibet's tranquility and stability."
In addition, the party's chief mouthpiece, the People's Daily, carried an essay
by the Panchen Lama in which he described himself as a "descendent of serfs"
and stated: "Facts show that it is only under the leadership of the Communist
Party of China that Tibet can enjoy its current prosperity and an even better
future."
The Panchen Lama also made a splash at the Second World Buddhist Forum, which
started in the lakeside city of Wuxi in eastern Jiangsu province last week, and
this week moved to Taiwan's capital of Taipei. He was the only one of the 1,300
monks, nuns and scholars from around the world to arrive in Wuxi accompanied by
a security detail.
It was at the first such forum - held in Zhejiang province in 2006 - that the
Panchen Lama gave his maiden speech as a religious leader. At that time, he
spoke in Tibetan.
Significantly, targeting a worldwide audience for whom the Dalai Lama has
become an enduring symbol of resistance to Beijing's heavy-handed policies in
Tibet, he used English in his six-minute Wuxi address last Saturday.
"I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to our central government for
their kindly concern in hosting this forum," he said. "This event fully
demonstrates that today's China enjoys social harmony, stability and religious
freedom, and also shows that China is a nation that safeguards and promotes
world peace."
Different language, same message: all praise to the Chinese leadership for its
wise and compassionate rule. The Wuxi leg of the forum certainly provided a
grand backdrop for this theme with its imposing recreations of Buddhist prayer
palaces situated in a large park that is also home to an ancient Buddhist site.
A 300-member orchestra and choir opened the conference, which was attended by
representatives of more than 50 countries and regions and titled "A Harmonious
World, a Synergy of Conditions". Kung Fu film star Jet Li made an appearance in
what, in the end, amounted to a show that was more style than substance.
Overall, the forum was a slickly staged attempt by Beijing, whose officially
atheist communist doctrine has persecuted Buddhists in the past, to reclaim
China's 2,000-year-old ties to Buddhism - minus, of course, the Dalai Lama and
anyone who supports him.
It won't work.
The youthful Panchen Lama, son of two Communist Party members, apparently will
be leading the charge against the aging patriarch of Tibetan Buddhism. But no
grandiose architectural recreation of China's Buddhist past - even if
supplemented by a choir, an orchestra and a movie star - is going to compensate
for his patent illegitimacy.
Born Gyaincain Norbu, the Panchen Lama was enthroned in 1995 as the 11th
reincarnation of the second-most revered figure in the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan
Buddhism. The ceremony was organized by the Communist Party. His predecessor,
who died in 1989, was at times imprisoned by Chinese leaders for refusing to
toe the party line.
The child chosen as successor by the Dalai Lama disappeared from public view
soon after his selection and has never been seen again.
Throughout his childhood and adolescence, the Panchen Lama was kept under tight
wraps by Chinese authorities, so the last few weeks represent a kind of
coming-out party for him. But its effectiveness has not, and will not,
reverberate beyond China.
The Panchen Lama has never been interviewed by foreign media and is not,
despite his grand title, accepted by Tibetans as a spiritual leader. While
photographs of his predecessor are common in Tibetan temples, it is rare to see
one of him.
In the region, the Tibetan diaspora and beyond, he is seen for what he is:
another propaganda tool wielded to undermine the authority of the Dalai Lama.
No objective observer can take seriously anything he says - no matter how many
languages it is packaged in.
By all indications, when the Dalai Lama dies, Beijing will also select a faux
reincarnation born to loyal members of the party. But the farcical result will
be the same. This Dalai Lama, the 14th, could very well be the last whom
Tibetans - and most of the rest of the world - will recognize.
Chinese leaders may hope that the Buddhist forum will project a new image of
China as a bastion of religious tolerance, but that is unlikely to happen. For
too many, there was a huge void where the Dalai Lama - winner of the 1989 Nobel
Peace Prize and the internationally recognized face of Tibetan Buddhism -
should have been sitting.
The forum was intended to serve as an exemplar of Beijing's use of soft power,
but instead, at least outside China, it is likely to be perceived as another
glitzy propaganda show with a callow impostor taking center stage.
Indeed, Beijing has been far more effective in brandishing its economic might
against the Dalai Lama than in any softer approach it has chosen. Naked threats
seem to work, especially now that the global financial crisis has left the
United States and its European allies in a weak economic position as China's
gross domestic product continues to grow, although not by the leaps and bounds
of the past.
Propaganda ploys, on the other hand, because they are so often as specious and
unconvincing as the Panchen Lama's forum performance, ultimately wind up
redounding against Chinese authorities while giving the Dalai Lama the moral
upper hand.
The South African government certainly heard Beijing's economic message loud
and clear when it refused to grant a visa to the Dalai Lama to attend a peace
conference in Johannesburg last week. A government spokesman, after an initial
denial, admitted that the country, China's largest trading partner on the
continent, did not want to jeopardize relations with Beijing by appearing to
embrace one of its enemies.
Even after two fellow winners of the Nobel Peace Prize from South Africa -
retired Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the country's last white
president, F W de Klerk - announced that they were boycotting the conference
because of the visa flap, government officials stuck to their guns. The
conference has since been postponed indefinitely.
President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan, who has made warmer relations and enhanced
economic ties with Beijing a priority since he assumed office last May, has
also stated clearly that the Dalai Lama is not welcome on the island - during
the Buddhist forum or at any other time. The fact that Taiwan, regarded as a
renegade province of China by the central government, is co-hosting this
conference with the mainland is less about promoting Buddhism than continuing a
political thaw in relations after eight rocky years under former Taiwanese
president Chen Shui-bian, who is currently on trial for graft.
It is through its economic strength, backed by increasing military power, that
Beijing aims to push Taiwan toward reunification with the motherland.
On the sidelines of the Group of 20 London summit, Chinese President Hu Jintao
met his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday. The meeting came hours
after China and France issued a press communique in which France pledged not to
support "Tibet independence" in any form. And in the meeting, Sarkozy said that
no matter how France-China relations changed, he believed there was only one
China in the world, with Taiwan and Tibet constituting inalienable parts of
Chinese territory, according to Xinhua News Agency. Relations between China and
France worsened last December when Sarkozy decided to meet with the Dalai Lama
in Poland.
As the global economy tanks, China is sitting on more than US$2 trillion in
foreign-exchange reserves. If Chinese leaders are to succeed, among their many
other goals, in marginalizing the Dalai Lama and his followers, it will be with
cold, hard cash, not lama puppets on a string.
Kent Ewing is a Hong Kong-based teacher and writer. He can be reached at
kewing@hkis.edu.hk.
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