Tibetreport’s Blog

Sir Mark Tully reporting for BBC

In the era of digital television, the radio may appear to have been given a back seat. However, in the heavily vehicle-dependent societies, short wave radios have given way to FM and AM car radios, which have a captured audience, unless someone is playing CD or an audio tape.

In the English-speaking Tibetan community, if you will, BBC World Service radio broadcasts, used to be a part of the daily life of the individuals, until the early 1990s. A joke used to go around (may be I am making this up) that an official of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in Dharamsala was so addicted to the BBC World Service that he would neglect listening to any local radio or TV broadcasts. At one time he returned from an official trip to a nearby town complaining that the entire town was closed because of a “bandh” that he was not aware of.  A friend of his responded that this was because he only listened to BBC as the local radio and TV had broadcast news about the strike in that town. Be that as it may, even His Holiness the Dalai Lama has publicly said that BBC was one of the stations that he listened to on a daily basis.

Among the many BBC journalists, the name of Mark Tully is someone that is familiar to many of us. He reported for BBC for countless years from New Delhi.  While serving in Dharamsala, I was assigned to accompany him at one time when he came up to Dharamsala to interview the Dalai Lama. I don’t expect him to remember me, but I just wanted to put it out there. Similar to most of the Tibetan refugees, he too has come to adopt India as his second home.

Even after retirement, Mark Tully has continued to do programs for BBC.  This weekend  BBC radio is broadcasting an interview with the Dalai Lama by Mark Tully.  I am giving here the announcement.

Happy Listening for those of us who still resort to the radio for news.

In conversation with the Dalai Lama
Tenzin Gyatso

Mark Tully meets the 14th Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama is an extraordinary figure on the international scene. The temporal leader of Tibet in exile, he is also revered as a spiritual leader, not only by his own countrymen, but by Buddhists all over the world. He is a figure held in respect by both spiritual and political leaders of other faiths too.

In an exclusive interview Sir Mark Tully talks to His Holiness the Dalai Lama about the way he manages to match the temporal with the spiritual in his personal and his public life.

Heart and Soul: In Conversation with The Dalai Lama – this weekend

All time are in GMT

East Africa
Sunday 19:30

West Africa
Sunday 11:30

Americas
Saturday 22:30

East Asia
Sunday 01:30

South Asia
Saturday 06:30
Sunday 01:30

Europe
Sunday 10:30

Middle East
Saturday 08:30

Australia
Saturday 9:30

UK
Sunday 10:30

I have learnt about yet another sad news about the passing away of an eminent individual, who made a distinct mark in the world of Tibetan studies.  Mr. Sonam T. Kazi, a scholar on Dzogchen and who served as aide to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for over 13 years, passed away in mid-June. His cremation took place on June 22, 2009, after he was in meditation poise for seven days, according to a source. He was 84.

While I am not capable of talking about his spiritual expertise (he has written quite a bit on Dzogchen), I have always been fascinated by individuals like him who play critical roles in political developments as assistants to the major players. Since March 1959, when he was sent by the Government of India to receive His Holiness the Dalai Lama when he crossed over into Indian territory from Tibet, Yapa la, as he is known to Sikkimese and Tibetans, in his own words “was attached to H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama as his Chief Interpreter for thirteen years in Dharamsala, until 1972.”

Even before 1959, Yapa la had interaction with the Dalai Lama in Tibet, which he had visited a few times, as official of British Indian Government.  You can read about his experience in a remark he made in London in 1994. Yapa la was there when Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru hosted a lunch attended by visiting Chinese Premier Chou En Lai, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. You can see him, in his young self, in the news clip of the first meeting between Pandit Nehru and the Dalai Lama, after his escape, which took place in Mussoorie on April 30, 1959. He is handing over a khata to the Prime Minister that is offered to His Holiness.

Thomas Merton also talks about meeting Yapa la during his travel to Dharamsala in 1968. He writes, “We had walked up, Harold and I, to Upper Dharamsala by the back road to McLeod Ganj, which is where the Dalai Lama lives. It is really the top of the mountain we are on now. Suddenly we were in a Tibetan village with a new, spanking white chorten in the middle of it. There we met Sonam Kazi, who was expecting us to come by bus.” In another noting, Merton recalls, “The Dalai Lama told me that Sonam Kazi knew all about Dzogchen and could help me, which of course he already has.”

Among the “burning issues” in Washington, D.C. (actually among those who follow US-China relations and Tibet) currently is what is Speaker Nancy Pelosi is saying in China regarding human rights and Tibet during her first ever visit as the Speaker.

Given her background everyone expected that Speaker Pelosi would be raising issues such as Tibet during this trip. However, developments in the days leading to her departure for China made people feel that Speaker Pelosi may play a different tune in China. First, it appears that the Chinese Government was the one that actually announced her visit.  Subsequently, Pelosi confirmed the trip. Secondly, she announced that she was visiting China to talk about climate change thus avoiding the mentioning of human rights.

Today, Speaker Pelosi met with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao. The media reports do not speak of any topics raised, other than climate change and broad US China relations.  A statement on the Speaker’s website though talks about her delegation raising Tibet with President Hu Jintao.  It says, “Our delegation also emphasized the bipartisan concern in Congress on China’s poor record on human rights in China and Tibet.”

Xinhua’s coverage of Pelosi’s meeting with Hu Jintao is interesting. This version of the report contains eight paragraphs out of which six are devoted to what President Hu told her. What Speaker Pelosi said is restricted to one paragraph while the last paragraph is about her travel schedule.  There is of course no mention of her raising human rights, not to speak of Tibet, with the Chinese leaders.