Dalai's Arunachal visit reopens old wounds

TEZPUR (ASSAM): Much water has flown down the Brahmaputra — or Tsangpo (the purifier) in Tibetan — since the Dalai Lama first set foot in Tezpur as
a fugitive head-of-state 50 years ago. Although the foothill town has grown into a prosperous commercial centre, mainly because of huge military installations built after the 1962 conflict, nothing seems to have changed in the embittered terms between the Tibetan leader and Communist China.

The Dalai Lama's ongoing visit to Arunachal Pradesh has revived the "wounding of the monk with words" by Beijing — an exercise that began right after he made his first statement against the annexation of Tibet on reaching Tezpur in the spring of 1959. China had angrily dismissed his first reaction from foreign soil as "a crude document full of lies and loopholes".

Ever since the 75-year-old leader spoke about touring Tawang — the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama — Beijing has upped the ante against him and India. It has not only challenged New Delhi's authority over Tawang by describing the frontier district as its own but has also repeatedly warned him against indulging in "anti-China" activities.

On his part, the Tibetan leader, quite symbolically, chose Tawang, barely 40 km from the MacMahon Line, to answer China's sharp retorts. On the very first day of his weeklong tour on November 8, he described Beijing's opposition to his visit as "baseless". He also made it clear that Tawang belongs to India, not China. Besides, he blamed Beijing for the failure of previous talks on the Tibetan question.

While at Tawang, the Dalai Lama turned nostalgic and gave details of his flight from Lhasa. He also wondered why the Chinese did not pursue him as he fled. Faced with such embarrassing questions, Beijing accused India of ignoring its request to stop the Tibetan leader from visiting the "disputed area".

What this tour, just like his other visits, has proved, is the Dalai Lama's immense popularity across the Himalayas, a fact that may never allow New Delhi to completely distance itself from the Tibetan cause. This despite India's recognition of Tibet as an integral part of China.

People who follow Tibetan Buddhism and support the free-Tibet movement dominate the Himalayas — from Ladakh to Nepal, Darjeeling, Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh. The Monpas, in an overwhelming majority in Tawang, not only follow Tibetan Buddhism but also have close historic ties to Tibet. Keeping this in view, Beijing describes Tawang as "southern Tibet".

Like elsewhere in the world, the Dalai Lama has been drawing thousands of Buddhists from within and outside India during his tour. Be it Tawang, Bomdi-la or Dirang, people have turned up with their entire families to hear his discourses. "We'll follow him wherever he goes. We'll go to Tibet only if he goes there," said Yeshe Jamyang (77), who had fled Lhasa along with the Dalai Lama in 1959 and later served in a special force of Tibetans raised by India that saw action in the Bangladesh War. The Dalai Lama had spent 10 days at Bomdi-la during his escape from Tibet.

At Tawang and Dirang, a number of Nepalese and Bhutanese Buddhists were present at his congregations. "The Dalai Lama is our supreme god," remarked Nima Tamang, a Nepalese Buddhist, as she rushed to listen to the Tibetan leader with her husband and children.

Many Buddhists fear that the hostility between Dharamshala and Beijing may further complicate the dispute over the reincarnation of the 11th Panchen Lama, the second most important leader after the Dalai Lama. Tibetans allege that China has imprisoned the Panchen Lama recognized by the Dalai Lama and propped up its own Panchen Lama to divide the Tibetans. "We can't rule out the possibility of such interference by Beijing in the selection of future Dalai Lamas," said a monk from Tawang.

The Last Time: Tawang’s dreaded phrase for Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama in Tawang. (Reuters)
Tawang, Nov.12: She had been there at the ground the last two days, too. But today was different for the 80-year-old mother of Lobsang Nima.

Frail and barely able to walk on her own, she cried and pleaded with her son to take her to the ground again so that she could listen to the last public teaching session of the Dalai Lama here this morning.

This was the last time, she thought, she would see and listen to her “God” because he might not come here again in her lifetime.

Lobsang, who worked in a hotel here, took her to the “teaching” but he had a different reason from his mother’s. He has heard people say this could be the last Dalai Lama. He didn’t have the heart to tell his mother so. She wouldn’t believe it even if he did.

“Everybody says China can put up a fake one. You know what it did with the Panchen Lama chosen by the Dalai Lama,” he said in broken Hindi.
As the Dalai Lama wound up the last day of his stay in this monastery town — he leaves for other places in Arunachal Pradesh tomorrow — the question if he was the last Dalai Lama seemed to have gripped the minds of many here.

Not that ordinary people would really believe it. They simply can’t imagine a world and their own life without a Dalai Lama. But even the humblest of his flock had heard of the Chinese plan to end the institution of the Dalai Lama.

As a monk at the monastery explained it, the Dalai Lama wasn’t just their spiritual leader. “He is their God as much as the Buddha is. He is the Bodhisatta.”
For the monastic community here, too, the question about the end of the institution, as Tibetans have known it for several hundred years, could no longer be avoided. Apart from the fact that the Dalai Lama is 75 years old, his own assertions on the issue are known to have introduced many uncertain elements in a hitherto unassailable tradition.

The Dalai Lama, who is known to have a scientific and democratic mind, is known to have said many different things on the issue on different occasions. He has himself said he may be the last Dalai Lama. He has also said that his successor can be chosen in a democratic way. On another occasion, he has said his successor could be a woman, an unprecedented thing in the history of the institution.

Then there is always the question what happens if his successor — the reincarnation of his soul — is born within Tibet and the Chinese lay their hands on the child. On at least one occasion, the Dalai Lama has said that his successor could be born in India, which would again be an unprecedented happening.

A monk who lived in Dharamsala and knew about the functioning of the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile there said: “Everybody in the government and the religious hierarchy will abide by whatever His Holiness decides. But for the common people, a democratically elected Dalai Lama would be such an impossible thing. You can have an elected Prime Minister of this government, but it would be hard to make Tibetan Buddhists accept an elected Dalai Lama.”

One possibility, he said, is that the Dalai Lama himself can select a “board of regents” in his lifetime to oversee the selection of his successor.

But he was confident that the Dalai Lama knew about the impossibility of letting the line die and thereby plunge the Tibetan people and their future in a worse tragedy than they are facing now.

For the 45 lakh Tibetans within Tibet and another lakh or so outside it, the end of the Dalai Lama lineage would mean a crisis not only of their religion but also of their culture.

During his visit here, the 14th Dalai Lama repeatedly emphasised the importance of keeping Tibetan culture alive. But he himself is the ultimate symbol of the hope for the continuity of Tibetan culture.

No one knows better how difficult the challenge is. In China’s Tibet, despite all the recent moves to make the promotion of Tibetan culture a tourism tool, the government and the communist party try everything to “sinicise” Tibetan culture. In India, for all the efforts of Dharamsala and Tibetan activists, the younger generation of Tibetans find it hard to survive economically without imbibing Indian mores.

Like Lobsang Nima, most people of his generation here speaks Hindi. “It came with the Indian Army. We have always been so dependent on the army for so many things. Hindi has given us much advantage. And now English-medium schools are sprouting here.”

Tibetan culture, like Tibetan Buddhism, survived unscathed for generations as long as outsiders had not climbed the mountain passes and ridges to penetrate that forbidden world.

The Dalai Lama faces a daunting task that none of his predecessors faced — to take Tibet to the world and also keep it Tibetan.