by Tenzin Gelek
ghangri rawae kor-wae, shing kham na
phaen-dhang dhewa-malue, juung-wae nae
chaenrae szigwang, Tenzin Gyatso yee
shapae siithii bhar dhu, taen gyur chiig
In the heavenly realm surrounded by a chain of snow mountains (Tibet)
The source of all happiness and welfare for all beings
Is Tenzin Gyatso – Chenrezi in person –
May his life be secure for hundreds of eons!
This short prayer, along with everything else that has any association with the 14th Dalai Lama is banned in Tibet and a violation of that ban is considered a reactionary act worthy of imprisonment for years followed by an ambush of patriotic reeducation. One might wonder what is so unique or rather political about this harmless looking verse that triggers such a reaction from the Chinese authority. To realize that, we have to first understand the exclusive nature of the Tibetan socio-political structure and as an extension of that knowledge, comprehend the unwavering Tibetan faith in the Dalai Lama.
Since 1959, Tibetans have settled down in exile after a rude awakening from hundreds of years of deep slumber behind the Himalayas and among the very first things that His Holiness embarked upon during that time was the creation of a functional democracy within the Tibetan community. However, what was initiated with the best of motivations is still a democracy with many shortcomings, some trivial while others glaring. But these shortcomings were and still continue to be a part of the maturing of an exile government, which in itself is an achievement. Even though unrecognized by any other nation as a valid government, we have managed to stand our ground and function today as an independent entity, something no refugee population can boast of.
Some people define the Tibetan form of governance as a feudal theocracy overseen by a Buddhist hierarchy and I believe that this definition is both insufficiently true and abhorrently false. It is true strictly due to the technicality of its description because for an outsider with no understanding of the deep Tibetan spiritual faith, it would seem as such. When in fact, it is much more than what a political theorist or a sociologist can define. A description that comes relatively close is one offered by the sociologist, Max Weber. In his Tripartite classification of authority, Weber puts forth this concept called Charismatic authority which is defined as a socio-political structure “resting on devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person, and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him.” It is to be noted that this definition by Weber is not limited to just positive forces and some examples of such a form of authority include absolute dictators like Hitler and Mussolini. While the common denominator lies in the acceptance and total submission of the people perceiving this form of authority, both these forces have their conscience and motivation in different places. One is a devotion that exists partly due to coercion and mostly due to a blind and fanatical trust in the authority but in the case of the other, this unwavering reverence stems from a more reasoned recognition of gratitude as well as a tradition that is more than 600 years old.
And even so, irrespective of your spiritual inclinations or of your beliefs in the legitimacy of reincarnations, one thing is certain that even in the most water-tight reasoning, the 14th Dalai Lama has achieved more than what some of the most illustrious international leaders have even dared to pursue. And due to these endeavors and achievements, of which there are many, His Holiness has earned the respect of so many established individuals around the world. In international politics today, the conscience of a nation and the ethics of its head are judged by how they conduct themselves with regards to meeting with the Dalai Lama under pressure from Beijing. In a way, it has become almost a standard for global morality, if there is such a thing. This is the moral authority exuded by the Dalai Lama that is seen as a threat by the PRC’s bumbling leaders. Thus, leading to various attempts through the means of propaganda to counter this “threat” such as the ones we have seen in their preposterous name-calling in the past – “wolf in a sheep’s clothing”, “splittist”, “separatist”, “feudal lord” and quite recently, “traitor” when his holiness endorsed the fact that Tawang belongs to the Indian nation. As half-brained and naïve as it sounds to us, these labels are meant to serve a critical purpose, i.e, creating a doubt. To me, this oft-repeated strategy of “character assassination” seems almost inspired by one of Mao’s outlandish quotes from history – “A lie repeated a hundred times becomes the truth.”
But the heart of the matter is that in a political struggle or a resistance of any proportion, what decides the outcome is not the military might nor the diplomatic prowess but the resilience of the oppressed. And to that effect, in his popular book on military strategy, The Art of War, Sun Tzu writes, “To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting. “ His Holiness is the source of that resilience for Tibetans everywhere, especially our brethren inside Tibet. His Holiness represents the hope for a tomorrow that each one of us is struggling for. This is our greatest unifying strength against the overwhelming Chinese might. And this is what we should strive to protect at all cost not only for the continuation of the resistance but also for when we finally achieve what we have set our sights on.
In their efforts to invalidate this authority of the Dalai Lama and in that process, demoralize the Tibetan struggle, the Chinese govt. have pursued and will continue to propagate large-scale erroneous media campaigns. That notwithstanding, there have been certain mishaps on our side in the last few months that can only be attributed to a clear lack of political foresight.
Not so long ago, in the recent past, using selective quotes from an article by Jamyang Norbu entitled Waiting for Mangtso, the PRC’s official mouthpiece People’s Daily bolstered their hackneyed campaign against His Holiness. Their propaganda piece screamed – Tibetan separatist exposes Dalai Lama’s “democracy myth”. Now, there could be various theories to explain this calculated move by the PRC. Either, they are as usual trying to gather more arsenals against His Holiness and thus weaken his growing influence around the world as a proponent of truth and democracy. Or the more apparent scenario – pitting conflicting exile views against each other akin to the “divide and rule” policy. Whatever be the strategy and irrespective of whether the original Jamyang Norbu article may or may not have hinted at such insinuations, it has brought out one nagging issue in our exile community – the limitations of our freedom of expression. I am sure that there are certain advocates of “free speech”, who would argue in favor of such voices to be given space but when one of the most corrupt and oppressive regimes employs your words to support their argument against someone like the Dalai Lama, then it should hit you as a clear indication that you are going wrong somewhere. I strongly believe that democracy demands responsibilities more than it begets rights and by responsibility, I mean writing, speaking and using your influence in a responsible way.
Additionally, most of us have seen or heard about the Tibetan exile parliament debacle in the last month. Personally, I went through different stages of emotions while watching that widely circulated video of our elected officials at conflict with each other over something remotely related to the more prominent issues. With pressing issues like the sino-Tibet negotiations and the state of present Tibetan Diaspora, the session took a disastrous turn over the most trivial thing and finally ended with some dramatic walkouts and without any consensus. My initial reaction was that of shock and anger at the absurdity of the entire episode, which I consider as nothing short of glorified shenanigans. In Tibetan, there is a term called lang-dhor, which loosely translated means retain and discard. I believe that there are certain things from our old value system that we should preserve at all costs but there are others that we need to abandon.
That preliminary anger was followed by a deep embarrassment at the petty politics that violated the sanctity of the parliament. I was ashamed to be a part of the exile community that made such a mockery of the gift of democracy bestowed upon us by the Dalai Lama. However, in trying to make sense of the whole incident, I realized that perhaps, what we saw is the reflection of our own failures as responsible citizens. A democracy is only as successful as the political awareness of the demos, the people. Therefore, we are as guilty as the ones we elected.
We have to understand that no system is without flaws and while the reference to cholka-chulug is culturally very essential, politically it is very divisive.
For the Tibetans inside Tibet, hope is not just a comforting word but it is also what inspires them to keep the resistance alive and none of us has the right to defeat that aspiration with our shortsighted conflicts. So, let’s not lose ourselves in exposing our Achilles’ heels but rather protect and celebrate what unifies us as Tibetans.
The writer is a Tibetan student of Public Relations at the Emerson College, Boston.
[OPINION-DISCLAIMER]
