By Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, April 3: Tibetans should take pride in knowing that their unique religion and culture can benefit the world, Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama, told a group of Tibetan devotees on Monday during an audience at his residence here.
“Tibetan Buddhism and culture is receiving a new found recognition and attention these days and my name ‘Dalai Lama’ is also drawing attention from various parts of the world. The rich Tibetan Buddhism and culture is garnering esteem for Tibetans. Hence, you must take pride in being in a Tibetan and have compassion for all sentient beings,” the octogenarian Tibetan leader said.
The Tibetan leader also said that being a Tibetan should be synonymous with being compassionate and having a good heart, “Tibetans should have the trait of having a good heart and a beautiful smile. Tibetans should never be associated with being a bad human being.” The foremost Buddhist leader, who considers the revival of the ancient Nalanda tradition as one of his lifelong commitments also advised Tibetans to study and imbibe the Buddhist teachings that has so much potential to make the world a better place.
“I have led the Tibetans for all these years and I will live for another 15-20 years. So be happy and calm,” the 87 year old said while assuring the audience about his health and commitment to Tibetans.
The exiled Tibetan leader’s age and the political sensitivity surrounding his reincarnation has been a much talked about issue in global as well as Sino-Tibetan discourses. Despite Beijing’s aggressive politicization of the Tibetan leader’s reincarnation, the Dalai Lama has maintained that only Tibetans have the ultimate authority over the subject.
2 Responses
Tibetans have a lot to be proud of as HH The Dalai Lama has been telling Tibetans. We have a highly developed Buddhist philosophy that guides Tibetans in their daily life and beyond. Our ancestors have made incredible sacrifice to bring Buddha Dharma to Tibet from India. They walked on foot to learn the teachings from Indian Gurus by climbing high mountains, crossing mighty rivers and traversing endless valleys despite the dangers of robbers, heat, hunger and physical fatigue! In his biography, Chak Lotsawa (ཆག་ལོ་ཙྩ་བ་) tells the story of having to wait seven long days just to escape from buffaloes. Tibet is a very cold country. We don’t wash except during a short period when a star called སྐར་མ་སྨིན་དྲུག་ is in the heavens. During this brief period of a week or so, Tibetans bath in the rivers with the belief, it’s good for health. Other than that, there is no such thing as taking a shower in pre-1959 Tibet. So, when Tibetans come to warmer countries like Nepal and India with their unwashed clothes and unwashed body, the sweat induced by the heat gives a pungent smell that attracts the buffaloes like the red rag to the bull and come to attack Tibetan travellers. That’s why Chak Lotsawa had to wait for seven days to clear the road of the beasts that were ready to gore him to death. Tibetan emperor Songtsen Gampo sent sixteen students to India to craft our calligraphy on the lines of Nagari and Brahmic writings of the Gupta period. Thomi Sambhota introduced the Tibetan writing and grammar as we know today and commenced translation of Indian Buddhist texts into Tibetan language. As it were, Buddhism is the life blood of the Tibetan people. Our everyday existence is guided by the teachings of the holy Buddha. HH The Dalai Lama himself is an exceptional example of the influence of Buddhism as are many other lesser luminaries among all four traditions. It is the duty of every Tibetan Buddhist parent to teach their children the tenets of Buddhism from childhood so the immense sacrifice made by the great Tibetan translators, yogis, ascetics and scholars made for Tibet do not go to waste. If Tibetan parents don’t introduce our Buddhist belief system to their children at a young age, there is every danger, they will go astray and get separated from their religion since we are living in foreign countries where young people are exposed to many other faiths who often deliberately induce vulnerable people to their religion with inducements.
Tibetan Buddhism is based on ahimsa or non-violence. As Heinrich Harrier writes in his world famous book, SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET: if a fly falls into a cup of tea, “it’s a catastrophe”. Tibetans are compassionate people by virtue of our Buddhist faith. That’s why when a fly falls into a tea cup, we say དཔེ་བསག་སོང་ Harrier got it right when he said, “catastrophe”!
Meanwhile, our host India must support the Tibet cause much more robustly than it has done until now. Communist China is getting aggressive and has been disregarding India’s sensitivities about Arunachal Pradesh by naming names to make claims as it did to Tibet. India would have learnt by now the monumental folly it made to endorse Chinese baseless claims over Tibet which has now come home to roost. The British Indian Government never endorsed Chinese claims and never recognised Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. How did India’s leader’s got it so wrong is beyond our comprehension! India has become much more powerful than it was before. With a stable democratic political system, the potential to become a global power to reckon with is assured. What it needs is the gut not just guns. India has been psychologically traumatised by the 1962 humiliation and has self-confidence deficiency. It lacks the courage and determination to confront communist China. It must realise that Tibet holds the key to India’s national security. It is common knowledge that before the illegal occupation of Tibet by communist China, there was perennial tranquility in the Himalayas for centuries. Neither India invaded Tibet nor the Tibetans ever envisaged to invade Indian territory. After the Chinese occupation, Tibet was militarised to the hilt. Building at least seven airports for both civilian and military purposes and stationing missiles in Nakchuka targeting India not to speak of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Track that has greatly enhanced China’s troop mobility across the Line of Actual Control (LAC). China has stationed an estimated 500,000 PLA troops to maintain military occupation of Tibet and also with an eye on expanding southwards into Indian territory. However, the CCP dictatorship can’t be sustained. We are witness to the people’s anger and frustration against CCP dictatorship during the “white paper” revolution. It’s just the tip of the iceberg. The alienation of the Chinese people are evident with thousands leaving China and travelling to far away America through Ecuador and making the long journey like the rest of the exodus from the Latin America. The people who are fleeing China are the rich and the middle class Chinese. The rich take to the skies while the middle class pay the people smugglers to go to Ecuador where Chinese don’t have to have a visa to visit that country. The zero covet policy of the CCP has severely hampered economic growth and young people have no jobs in China. It is reported that half of the population visiting Buddhist temples especially the Lama Temple in Central Beijing are young people! They are jobless and are stressed and frustrated by three long years of look down. If the Chinese economy doesn’t recover, there will be social instability that can catapult into open revolt against the CCP regime. It is trying to compete with America and has the ambition to over throw America but it hasn’t got the wherewithal. America has many like minded friends in the democratic camp to stand together but communist China has only few dictatorial regimes like Putin’s Russia and Kim’s North Korea. There is no match between the powers America can muster together and those of communist China. Ultimately, the communist regime will kill itself by its over zealous ambition to expand and conquer Taiwan which will lead to a clash of ideologically opposed gladiators that might very well seal the fate of the gangster regime! རྒྱལ་གཅེས་པ་
Warm-heartedness