By Mike Leonard
Bloomington, After an especially rough last few weeks, the Norbu family that established the Tibetan Cultural Center sat down Monday morning to offer their perspectives on the issues surrounding the near foreclosure of the debt-strapped institution.
People have questioned the management of the center and reasons for the debt, which reached $1.7 million including interest. The foreclosure initiative stalled last week after the center was able to pay $200,000 to its mortgage-holder with the assistance of the Office of Tibet in New York.
Some have questioned the integrity and business practices of some Norbu family members. Last Friday, the Chicago Tribune reported that three members of the Norbu family were forced to resign from board of directors for the center, which is nestled into the gently rolling hills south of Bloomington.
“That is absolutely untrue,” said Kunyang Norbu, wife of the center’s founder, Thubten J. Norbu, who is the older brother of the Dalai Lama.
“We had a family meeting, we talked about the future of the center and we decided it would be best to resign from the board so that the new director can have a fresh start.” (The paper reported that Kunyang, her son, Jigme, and his wife, Yaling, were forced from the board.)
Attorney David Colman, who was recently brought on board to help the center recover from its financial problems, confirmed Mrs. Norbu’s statement. “I don’t know where that story came from, but they volunteered to step aside. They were not forced off the board in any way,” Colman said.
Arjia Rinpoche, the former abbot of the same Kumbum Monastery in Tibet that the elder Norbu once served as abbot, was hand-picked by the Dalai Lama to take the helm of the Bloomington center. He currently is associated with the Tibetan Center for Compassion & Wisdom in Mission Valley, Calif.
Money woes
The debt the Bloomington center incurred, son Jigme explained, is entirely due to the construction of the interfaith Chamtse Ling Temple
– the realization of a goal his father had set to create a place where religious leaders and scholars could congregate to promote issues of peace and harmony.
Jigme said he anticipated that a scheduled visit from the Dalai Lama in 2002 would serve as a fundraiser for the new facility. The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and head of the Tibetan government in exile was forced to cancel his visit due to illness, however. The presiding board of directors of the center decided to borrow against its holdings to complete construction of the temple in time for the Dalai Lama’s visit in 2003.
The Dalai Lama said he did not want his fourth visit to Bloomington to be a fundraiser, however, according to Jigme. And several major donors in Japan who had given oral commitments to help the center settle its debt withdrew their pledges in the wake of a sluggish economy.
“All of this talk that we mismanaged the center or used the center’s funds for our own use is just ridiculous,” Jigme said. “We all have businesses – we all have to earn a living. But you can go to the courthouse and check my properties for yourself. There’s nothing improper.”
Competing ideologies
Also aggravating matters, to the Norbus, was the arrival of a second Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Bloomington. “Their believers have been an obstacle for us. It confuses the public,” Kunyang Norbu said. “That does not help us when it comes to volunteers, getting people to come out for our Sunday teachings or events that are staged here.”
The presence of the Dagon Gaden monastery by Cascades Park in Bloomington brings an international conflict within Tibetan Buddhism to Bloomington. In essence, about 30 years ago, the Dalai Lama declared that a deity, Dorje Shugden, long recognized within Tibetan Buddhism, should be expunged from spiritual practice. Buddhists who embrace Shugden have resisted the Dalai Lama’s position on Shugden. The rift is so great that both sides of the issue charge that followers on the other side have injured and even killed other Buddhists.
The Shugden issue aside, the Norbus say they’ve spent nearly 30 years building, maintaining and programming the Tibetan Cultural Center and are extremely disappointed with the recent turn of events. “My father for some time has believed it would be best to turn over management of the center to the Gomang Monastery (in Tibet) and the committee that was formed to accomplish that was completely dysfunctional,” Jigme said. “That’s also been one of our problems. This committee just fell apart.”
Emotional toll
Kunyang Norbu said she has been reluctant to tell her husband, a retired Indiana University professor, much of what has been going on.
“This is very stressful and my husband is not well,” she explained.
Thubten J. Norbu suffered a serious stroke in 2003, and at age 83 he has not recovered as well as he or his family would like.
“I’m just extremely tired of all the negativism that has been thrown at our family,” she said. “If you read some of these things on some of these Internet sites you would think the Norbu family were monsters or something.
“We’ve devoted much of our lives to this place and to the goal of an independent Tibet, which is my husband’s greatest wish,” she said. “The good news is, when Arjia Rinpoche gets here and he gets a new board working, everything will be fine. I will be glad to not be so stressed out and I will be able to spend more quality time with my husband. I feel good about it. The legacy will not die.”
