Tibetreport’s Blog

A view of Tawang (tawang.nic.in)

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has arrived at the famed Tawang Monastery in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, in north-east India on Sunday morning.

The people of Arunachal Pradesh, as represented by their Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, have extended a grand reception to His Holiness when he arrived in Tawang. Many Arunachalis interviewed by the Tibetan language radios have expressed their strong positive emotions at the visit of their spiritual leader. In his first day in Tawang, His Holiness has already opened an exhibition (being the monastery’s collection and composing of both religious and secular artifacts) at Tawang Monastery and received a report of the monastery’s activities from its abbot, Guru Rinpoche.

It was a bit amusing to see how the political pundits, primarily in India, were having a field day in recent times dissecting China’s statements concerning the visit and predicting grave calamities. The latest among them was the Indian politician, Dr. Subramanium Swamy, who tweetered on November 4 saying, “I hope the Indian governmrnt is ready for a violent reaction from the Chinese once Dalai Lama sets foot in Tawang on Nov 6th.” Was he predicting China’s declaration of war against India by his use of the term “violent reaction”? Others were advising the Indian Government to discourage His Holiness from visiting Tawang with the implied meaning that this might assuage the Chinese Government.

Despite Chicken Little’s fears, the sky has not fallen. I would be greatly surprised if the sky did fall. It is my view that these commentators had fallen prey to Beijing’s public relations strategy.  My hunch is that the recent Chinese unusual outburst is not because they believe that it would be in their interest if the Dalai Lama did not visit Tawang. It is more to do with the natural India-China competition as emerging regional and global powers.  To me, it seems China is using the issue to gain political points  that could be used later on and to make India owe them one.

May be some in China have the view, as spelled out by the Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo in a writeup on YaleGlobal on September 8, 2009, about Tawang’s implication to China for the future. The Singapore Minister had referred to the Dalai Lama saying “In a recent TV interview, he said that he was born to accomplish certain tasks, and as those tasks were not completed, it was ‘logical’ that he would be reincarnated outside China. Many believe that ‘outside China’ means Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh where the 6th Dalai Lama came from, a Tibetan area controlled by India but claimed by China. This would greatly complicate the border demarcation between China and India. Beijing, of course, insists on the old rule that the appointment of high lamas must have its approval.”

If that indeed is the Chinese fear, anyone who understands the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual process would know that a true lama will choose to take a rebirth in a place where he is needed most and from where he can serve his congregation and the broader humanity. In the past, when there was an appropriate spiritual environment and need, one of the Dalai Lamas was born in Mongolia. So, the answer to this possible Chinese concern can be got from the answer to the question whether there is a possibility of an appropriate spiritual environment in Tibet or China when that time comes. Just a thought!

Namgyal Institute of Tibetology in Sikkim (www.tibetology.net)

Sikkimese media are reporting the beginning of a Tibet Festival in Gangtok, Sikkim’s capital, today as a symbol of gratitude from the Tibetan community to the state of Sikkim and to India. There is going to be several events in the next couple of days, including exhibitions, panel discussions and performances.

In his message on the occasion, His Holiness the Dalai Lama talks about the close historical relationship between the Sikkimese and the Tibetan people and also recalls his visits to Sikkim.

The close cultural affinity can be seen from the fact that the first research institute for Tibetan studies, now known as the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, was established in Gangtok in 1958, and the first illustrated magazine in Tibetan was published from Sikkim. It was called Yargyey Gongphel and I remember seeing some of the issues. It has now become defunct, unfortunately. Sikkim used to publish a newspaper in Tibetan called Dejong Jamata, edited by Tsewang Tamding la, but I don’t know if it is still in circulation.

I have been to Sikkim only once, the year His Holiness the Dalai Lama bestowed the sacred Kalachakra Initiation in Gangtok in 1993.  In between my official duties (I was then with the Tibetan Department of Information & International Relations) handling the media and overseeing an exhibition, I was able to visit some of the historical places like the Choegyal’s Palace, the Tsuglakhang, Tashiding, the Enchi Monastery, as well as institutions like the Namgyal Institute of Tibetlogy etc.  It was interesting to see the hillside around virtually covered with rows of prayer flags.

I still recall the well organized arrangements made for the Kalachakra Initiation. Quite many officials of the Sikkimese Government were deputed for the same. In my interaction with these officials, I noticed an interesting trend of using three languages, simultaneously, when they conversed among themselves.  They would start in Sikkimese (Bhutia language), continue in English and conclude in Nepali, or something along these lines, thus giving an indication of the sort of cultural development they were undergoing.

While going around Gangtok one day,  a friend pointed to an ordinary looking building on a hillside, I think, and told me that this was the place where the Tibetan gold was stored when they were sent from Lhasa to India. As followers of contemporary Tibetan history know, the gold belonged to the Tibetan Government and it was later converted into cash, invested in some not-too-successful ventures, and also became the initial financial source for the Central Tibetan Administration in undertaking its socio-economic activities.

www.voanews.com/tibetan

One way to get a deeper understanding of the situation of Tibetans in Tibet is to get a visual perspective through interviews with the people directly.  Today’s edition of Voice of America’s TV program in Tibetan, Kunleng, was devoted to a discussion with Ven. Rinchen Sangpo, who had made a film documenting the experience of Tibetan nomads in the Golok area of Amdo, presently under Qinghai Province.

The discussion is of course in Tibetan, but the footage that are shown now and then from the documentary, although brief, can clearly give a vivid idea. One of the topics these nomads raise is their reverence for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and how the authorities’ effort to distance them from him is affecting their basic religious practice. The more than half a dozen people who spoke on this (as shown the broadcast) mention the historical “divine allocation” that His Holiness is to the Tibetan people and how their sole desire is to have a glimpse of him before they pass away. One of the images is that of an old lady talking about His Holiness in a dark smoky room (you can see the smoke behind her).

The producer Rinchen Sangpo had shot these interviews in October 2008, according to Phayul.net and had subsequently fled to India in December 2008. An edited version of the documentary was released in Dharamsala in September 2009.

According to a report on www.tibet.net, Ven. Rinchen Sangpo had “interviewed a large number of Tibetans from all walks of life in Machen (Chinese:Maqin) County and Gade (Chinese: Gande) County in Golog TAP, throughout October 2008. He sought the views of the interviewees on three issues – 1) What was the old world look like? 2) What sufferings they endured under the current Chinese government? 3) What actually happened in 1958?”

He was speaking to Kunleng from Dharamsala.

Khewang Tsering Shakya la

Anyone interested in the contemporary history of Tibet would know Prof. Tsering Shakya. He currently teaches at the University of British Columbia.  His “The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947″ is essential reading for an understanding of the status of Tibet and of the complex Tibetan-Chinese relationship.

Some years back, I had the opportunity to watch a video recording of a lecture he gave at the University of California in Berkeley on the intriguing topic: “Tibet: Does History Matter?” It was more than an hour long but it was a pleasure getting his incisive view on the issue. Yesterday, as I was returning home from work this lecture by him came back in my mind. It could be that I was reminded of it as I was coming after hearing a panel discussion organized by ICT on “Buddhism as a bridge between China and Tibet?” with Prof. Gray Tuttle, Professor of Modern Tibetan Studies, Columbia University, being one of the panelists. Prof. Tuttle’s book, “Tibetan Buddhists in the Making of Modern China” is self-explanatory and goes deep into history in making his case of this special relationship.

Therefore, I just had to find this lecture by Prof. Tsering Shakya to share with you all. I give below UC Berkeley’s description of the lecture.

“Tsering Shakya, University of British Columbia
“Tibet: Does History Matter?
“Public Lecture from the “Tibetan Religion and State in the 17th and 18th Centuries: Tibetan, Chinese, and Mongolian Perspectives” conference
Friday, May 5, 2006, 7:00 pm

“In this lecture, Professor Shakya compares Tibetan histories — folk and scholarly, religious and secular, Chinese and Tibetan, local and exiled — to examine the process of selective remembering and evaluate how historical accounts reflect and construct different images of Tibet. He concludes that for people whose history is denied, history does indeed matter, because it is intrinsically tied to the formation of individual and national identities, to issues of justice, and to their precarious futures.

“Tsering Shakya is Canadian Research Chair in Religion and Contemporary Society in Asia at the University of British Columbia. His primary research interests are the political, cultural, and literary histories of twentieth-century Tibet. His publications include Fire Under the Snow: The Testimony of a Tibetan Prisoner (1997) and The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 (1999). He also co-edited the first anthology of modern Tibetan short stories and poems, Song of the Snow Lion, New Writings from Tibet (2000) and Seeing Lhasa: British Depictions of the Tibetan Capital 1936-1947 (2003).”