By Robert King
When the Dalai Lama asked him to move to Bloomington last year to take control of the financially struggling Tibetan Cultural Center, Arjia Rinpoche wasn’t sure he wanted the job.
Although nestled on 108 picturesque acres that have become something of a lifeboat for the culture of his troubled homeland, Rinpoche knew the center had what he calls “difficulties.”
Foremost among them was a $1.7 million debt that nearly led to a bank foreclosure until the Dalai Lama’s friends stepped in and made a $200,000 down payment that bought some time.
Yet in less than a year since his arrival, observers say Rinpoche (pronounced rin-po-shay) has built on that momentum.
Rinpoche, 56, the son of Mongolian nomads who spent most of his life in monasteries, seems an unlikely choice to rebuild the financial health of a nonprofit corporation in the rolling hills of southern Indiana.
But Rinpoche is growing comfortable in his new surroundings.
“Slowly, I can see the future,” he said. “It is very wonderful.”
Born in 1950 in eastern Tibet, Rinpoche was spotted at age 2 by Buddhist monks in the Kumbum monastery who discerned that he was the reincarnation of the father of their founder, a spiritual master from the 14th century.
As such, Rinpoche and his family were invited to move into the monastery so he could begin religious studies. They were honored guests.
His training was abruptly halted in 1958, when Chinese Communists invaded Tibet and instituted “Great Leap Forward,” an effort to erase culture and religion.
The monastery was closed. Rinpoche’s relatives were imprisoned. And Rinpoche himself was sent to a Communist school, where he was dressed in the “Mao suit” millions of Chinese wore in imitation of Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong.
Four years into Rinpoche’s re-education, the restrictions on religion were temporarily eased. The monasteries reopened. He returned to his studies and met Tibetan’s Buddhism’s No. 2 spiritual leader, the Panchen Lama.
The cultural thaw proved brief, though, and restrictions on religion were made tighter than ever. The Panchen Lama was jailed. And Rinpoche, now a teenager, was ordered to work in a people’s commune, growing barley, wheat and sesame. He was there for 16 years.
Rinpoche now considers the experience useful: It removed him from his somewhat privileged status as a child prodigy and put him in the presence of “normal” people. And he learned how to grow things, and survive.
With Mao’s death in 1976 and the end of the Cultural Revolution, Rinpoche returned to Kumbum. His father had died in prison. His mother was returned to him, but remained ill until her death.
His Buddhist understandings taught him to be grateful for the time they had. “That is just life. We always said, ‘That is karma.’ ”
By the 1980s, Rinpoche was allowed to practice his faith again but only under severe restrictions and the watchful eye of the Communist Party.
Rinpoche’s willingness to compromise reached its limits in 1998, when the Chinese government asked him to teach a young boy it declared was the next Panchen Lama.
Tibetan loyalists and exiles rejected the Chinese selection, saying only the Dalai Lama could find the reincarnated Panchen Lama. So Rinpoche fled, finding refuge in America.
He hopes to return to a free Tibet. But that day doesn’t appear to be coming soon.
Founded in 1979, the Tibetan Cultural Center was the creation of Thubten Jigme Norbu, then a professor at Indiana University and elder brother of the Dalai Lama.
Norbu had managed the Kumbum monastery where Rinpoche studied. The two even shared the same teacher. When Norbu visited Tibet in 1980, he gave Rinpoche some of the ashes of their teacher’s cremated remains. The rest were put inside a monument at the center.
In that sense, Rinpoche’s arrival in Bloomington completed a “good circle,” he said. But part of Rinpoche’s job has been to straighten out the financial mess left by Norbu and his family, who managed the center until last year as a condition of the $200,000 bailout.
Now, Rinpoche and an entire new board guide the center.
Elaine Irwin-Mellencamp, a supermodel from Bloomington and wife of rocker John Mellencamp, is a member of the new board who sees her role as helping connect the center to the Bloomington community.
She says Rinpoche has been successful in going outward, and finding patrons for the center from around the country. “From what I see, it looks great. It is very solid and has a good future,” she said.
Sudha Koneru, the center’s new treasurer, said the debt is still $1.59 million. But donors are making the monthly payments and Rinpoche has lined up support to cover operating costs.
Larry Gerstein, president of the International Tibetan Independence Movement and a professor at Ball State University, said Rinpoche has made positive things happen at the center, despite stepping into a world far different from running a monastery.
“He is a strong leader. He has a clear idea of what he’d like to see happen at the center,” said Gerstein, who lives in Fishers.
Rinpoche wants the cultural center, which is already open to the public, to become more open. Efforts are under way to attract conferences and retreats. He hopes walking and biking trails can be added one day. More importantly, Rinpoche wants the center to become the Kumbum of the West, a place where Tibetan culture and religion thrive.
The Dalai Lama has accepted an invitation to visit sometime next year, probably in the fall. While the financial struggles are likely to continue, Rinpoche applies a Western saying — along with a bit of humor — to describe why people should believe the center will survive.
“We are under new management,” he said.
