By Mayank Chhaya
New Delhi March 4 – The village of Tengster in northeastern Tibet barely even fits the definition of obscurity with its few hundred inhabitants living under the benign gaze of Mount Kyeri. To be born here would normally mean a life of lofty anonymity. Not so with a child born on July 6, 1935 and named Lhamo Thondup.
Some seven decades later, and pretty much through them, he has grown to profoundly impact not just the Tibetan people but millions around the world as the 14th Dalai Lama. In 1997, when by some inexplicable quirk of fate I was authorised to write his biography the first thing came to mind was the title Man, Monk, Mystic. Alliteration was the least of one’s intention, although it did help in defining the vantage points from which one would go about exploring an extraordinary life.
Rising from surroundings where nuanced silences of the enormous Himalayan mountains were occasionally stirred up by twirling prayer wheels and harmonious Buddhist chants and emerging as one of the world’s most revered and mystifying figures has been quite a story to tell. Why a biography of the Dalai Lama is the question asked from time to time. The answer is so obvious that one does not even offer it.
Although the mystique of the Dalai Lama has only intensified in the past couple of decades, little has been written by way of a biography for the uninitiated reader around the world. The superficial trimmings of the person of the Dalai Lama are so overpowering that most people either do not bother to go beyond the obvious or do not know where to find a perspective that makes them understand what it is all about. Hopefully, this biography would take care of some of those gaps.
For nearly seven decades the Dalai Lama has had to balance three often competing roles as man, monk and mystic. Because of his preoccupations as the predominant figure of the Tibetan cause his leadership role has frequently taken precedence over the other two aspects of life. In this book I try to explore all three even while putting the Tibetan context in the more immediate geopolitical context with the dramatic rise of China and India and the thaw in their bilateral relations.
With the West in general and the United States in particular single-mindedly focused on its “war on terror”, the prospects of a five-decade long non-violent struggle being waged by the Dalai Lama attracting any attention are rather bleak. However, despite the odds he and the Tibetan exile community have kept up their quest to preserve a fascinating culture and tradition.
While Beijing has remained engaged in fits and starts with the Dalai Lama’s representatives to resolve the issue, it is hard to say how much real progress has been achieved. The very fact that the Chinese leadership has kept the dialogue going, albeit sporadically, is in itself a hopeful sign.
In the West, which has increasingly become the Dalai Lama’s main constituency of operation, his image is that of a profoundly learned and charmingly humourous monk who might just hold the answer to all the stress and tension of their modern life. However, there is little understanding of all the complex factors behind not just the person and institution of the Dalai Lama but even the Sino-Tibetan question. This biography attempts to address some of the very challenge.
Of course, beyond all the attendant complexities there is a single individual from a nondescript village from the permafrost-laden Tibetan plateau whose life has a dizzying trajectory. To call him the most consequential Dalai Lama will be stating the obvious. The more important debate is whether and how in his lifetime the seemingly intractable Tibetan dispute will play out, if not get resolved altogether. My personal hope converges with the Dalai Lama’s hope of returning to Tibet on terms that are acceptable to his people.
The author has written the Dalai Lama’s biography titled Dalai Lama, Man, Monk, Mystic, published by MapinLit, which was released on Saturday in Delhi, and is priced at Rs 595
