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Mixed blessings on Dalai Lama's
birthday
By Sonny Inbaraj
DHARAMSALA, India - There is a sense of
celebration in this small north Indian town, at
the foothills of the snow-capped Himalayas, as the
cool mountain air carries strains of melodious
songs for the Dalai Lama's long life, sung at the
nearby Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts.
On Wednesday, thousands of Tibetans
celebrated the spiritual leader's 70th birthday in
Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama based himself
after fleeing his homeland in 1959 when China
crushed a Tibetan uprising. More than 200,000
Tibetan refugees now live in India by official
count.
"My birthday wish for the Dalai
Lama is that he will be able to return to a free
and democratic Tibet within his lifetime," Tseyang
Tsetenyangkyi, head coordinator of Volunteer
Tibet, told Inter Press Service.
Dalai
means "ocean" in Mongolian, and "Lama" is the
Tibetan translation equivalent for the Sanskrit
word "guru". The title refers to the extent of the
lama's presumed wisdom and was first bestowed by
the Mongolian ruler Altan Khan on the third Dalai
Lama. It is now applied to every incarnation in
the lineage.
The present Dalai Lama,
Tenzin Gyatso, born on July 6, 1935, is regarded
as the 14th incarnation of the Buddha of
compassion, Chenrezig (the "Seeing-Eye" Lord), who
long has been considered to be the patron deity of
Tibet. Buddhism was introduced to Tibet in the
seventh century by King Songsten Gampo, and is the
primary religion of contemporary Tibetans.
While the Dalai Lama in 2001 introduced
the first democratic elections for the Tibetan
government-in-exile based in Dharamsala and
declared himself spiritual leader rather than a
temporal one to his people, in the hearts of most
Tibetans he remains their leader in every sense of
the word.
"From the religious point of
view he [Tenzin Gyatso] is a lama to us. A lama is
to be respected because we have taken refuge in
him," pointed out Tseyang. "From the political
point of view, he is our leader. He's everything
for the Tibetan cause," added the female activist
who in 1991, at the age of 10, escaped from Tibet
to India by walking for 23 days across the
Himalayan range.
If Tibet remains an
occupied country, beyond the lifetime of this
Dalai Lama, Tibetans will undoubtedly still need a
respected, charismatic figure to remind the world
of their existence.
"If I were to die in
the next few months or before we are able to
return to Tibet, there will be a new Dalai Lama,"
the spiritual leader was quoted as telling the
Hindustan Times newspaper recently. "But if we
cease to be a refugee community and live in
democratic Tibet, then I don't think there should
be a successor to me after I die," he reportedly
said.
On October 7, 1950, as United
Nations troops under US General Douglas MacArthur
crossed the 38th parallel in Korea, 40,000 Chinese
soldiers invaded Kham in eastern Tibet - advancing
rapidly to the capital Lhasa, following a military
plan laid down by Deng Xiaoping. The Tibetan
forces engaged in several skirmishes, but were
soon encircled.
Explaining China's
motivation for invading Tibet, Chinese premier
Zhou Enlai said, "The People's Liberation Army is
determined to march westward to liberate the
Tibetan people and defend the frontiers of China
... The patriots in Tibet have expressed and
welcomed this."
In reality, only very few
Tibetans felt any affection for China, or saw the
country as the "glorious motherland".
By
the beginning of 1959, anti-Chinese sentiment had
taken hold among all sections of the Tibetan
community and revolt had spread throughout Tibet.
There were strong rumors in Lhasa that the Dalai
Lama was to be abducted by the Chinese, to quell
the dissent.
The Dalai Lama, dressed as a
soldier, left Lhasa on the night of March 17 for
India, just after Chinese troops began shelling
parts of the capital. Two days of intense fighting
ensued and the Tibetans, who were kept in the dark
of the Dalai Lama's fate and feared he had been
captured, started to surrender - often using white
prayer scarves tied to sticks to do so.
A
Chinese military document captured by the Tibetans
estimated that between March 1959 and September
1960 there had been at least 87,000 Tibetan deaths
as a result of military action.
Today in
Tibet, according to the London-based Free Tibet
Campaign, 80% of political prisoners are monks and
nuns, who have historically been at the forefront
of the freedom struggle, speaking out in support
of the Dalai Lama.
There is no special
treatment for minors; Ngawang Sangdrol, a nun, was
tortured at the age of 13 when she was first
imprisoned for nine months. She was arrested again
at 15 and served 11 years of a 21-year sentence.
Ngawang's crime at 13 was to shout
"'Independence for Tibet" and "Long live the Dalai
Lama" during a protest in Lhasa. As of January
2005, says the Free Tibet Campaign, there are
estimated to be at least 140 political prisoners
in the Himalayan nation.
The Chinese
government, excusing its failure to win the hearts
and minds of the Tibetan people over the past 50
years, blames the Dalai Lama for all its troubles
in Tibet. Beijing has called him an "arch criminal
who splits the motherland" and a "wolf in a monk's
clothing".
The Dalai Lama, awarded the
1989 Nobel Peace Prize for his dedication to
Tibet's non-violent liberation, has given up his
original demands for his homeland's independence
and instead talks of a "meaningful autonomy" to
preserve Tibet's culture, language and
environment.
But the spiritual leader's
non-violent approach, known as the "middle way",
in addressing Tibet's future has its critics -
especially among the Tibetan youth.
"We
have had four rounds of talks with the Chinese
over Tibet, but I really see them as being
futile," said Tsering Kelsang, a Tibetan student
from the south Indian state of Karnataka. "We are
prepared to take the radical path to independence,
but have been stopped in our tracks by the Dalai
Lama," added Tsering, who lost three uncles in the
1959 Lhasa uprising.
Direct communication
between the Tibetan government-in-exile and
Beijing was severed in 1993. In 2002, however,
they were renewed. Since then, China and Tibetan
representatives have met four times to discuss a
possible return of Tibetan exiles as well as the
question of autonomy for Tibet. The latest round
of talks was in the Swiss capital of Berne from
June 29 to 30.
"I'm for the 'middle way'
approach. But it doesn't mean that those who are
calling for more radical action are wrong. They
just have different ideas; maybe they are just
tired that four rounds of talks with the Chinese
have not produced anything," said Volunteer
Tibet's Tseyang.
"But whether one
advocates the peaceful 'middle way' or a radical
approach, the goal is still the same, though the
methods might differ. Different Tibetans have
different ideologies, we must all try to
accommodate that. That's the Dalai Lama's way,"
she added.
(Inter Press Service) |
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