In a crispy clear morning of Dharamsala where everyone seems to chat, sing and laugh, there are a few people immersed in deep thinking. These are new arrivals from Tibet getting ready to the long-awaited audience with their spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. When, finally, the Buddha of Limitless Compassion appears among them disguised as “a simple monk” making many heads bow down in respect, the silence in the air becomes even more intense and unbearable.
He starts by thanking them all for undergoing many hardships on their way to exile and gives them various advice they have to follow in the new environment of a foreign country. He goes into detail about water, food and different diseases that won’t affect the locals but may turn lethal for the highlanders. “You must take a good care of yourself, – he sums up, – the life of every Tibetan now is very precious indeed”.
Although nobody has verified stastics of ethnic population in Tibet – now when the country’s been occupied by China for almost 40 years – we are still talking roughly about 6 million Tibetans. A very small nation, we say, very crucial for the preservation of the world treasure that is Tibetan Buddhism. If we can save these people, we go on, their life style and beliefs, their songs and dances, the whole world would benefit greately, when the time will come to leave aside our futile attempts to find happiness in material growth and turn to inconceivable richness of human mind…
The world map, however, has even smaller kingdoms, where Tibetan Buddhism was once as spread as in the Land of Snows, and where population still – after so many years of communist oppression – consider His Holiness the Dalai Lama their beloved spiritual leader.
This belief and deep trust are as much as left to 300 thousand people of the Russian Republic of Tuva after their lamas had been killed and monasteries destroyed in the 1940-s. As Russia becomes increasingly sensitive to long outdated claims of its Chinese neighbour, there is nobody to tell these people that their human lives are precious. Left like this, they tend to return to their ancient habits as widespread among them now, as they were among Tibetans and Mongolians before these nations accepted peaceful ways of Buddhism. As many centuries ago, they again resort to violence.
Highest crime rates in Russia
Endless are aweful stories shared by local people with Tibetan monks from Gyudmed Tantric monastery invited to perform powerful tantric rituals that used to be part of the nation’s once rich spiritual life. While in other Russian regions people mostly ask prayers for their sick relatives, success in business and peaceful family life, here in Tuva they beg the monks to protect their children from being murdered.
“There is no family in Tuva, – says an Asian looking woman with the Russian name of Tatiana, that wouldn’t lose a brother, or a son, or an uncle. This happens so often, that it’s already a part of our life. ”
For many years on, the Buddhist republic of Tuva has one of the highest crime rates in Russia, with the number of murders committed in the republic being two times higher than Russia’s average. When asked why, Tuvinians usually blame it on poverty and social problems. But those of them who happen to visit India come back amazed. “These people are not rich at all, – they say at home, – but even after dark you can go anywhere without fear of being killed”. There must be some other reason then. An obvious one is the lack of spiritual guidance.
“We were all happy, when His Holiness the Dalai Lama came to Tuva in 1992, says Tatiana, we thought, our ordeals will come to an end. His Holiness would come often and teach our children to be peaceful, wise and generous. But now we are in 2006, and still the weapons sold to China are more important to Russia than the moral standards of their own people”.
“They say, you should do something about high crime rates in your republic, but at the same time don’t let His Holiness come and talk to our people. Why they don’t want to see that these things are connected?”, she asks.
In Buddhism, this is called Time of Degeneration. The Buddha is here, on this Earth, but neither Tibetans, no Tuvinians – are allowed to see him and get his teachings. This Dark Age policy results in prostitutes in Lhasa amd murderers in Tuva.
“Sometimes I feel ashamed to say that I’m from a Buddhist republic, said Ayan who lost his beloved daughter and a son-in-law, awful pictures of their desecrated bodies still come up very vividly in his mind. “Buddhist republic with the highest crime rates, isn’t it a nonsense? If people never heard about karma and preciousness of human life, what can we possibly expect from them?
Russian television – main source of visual information for many young boys in Tuva – broadcasts one bloodshed action movie after another. And if in big Russian cities, people usually don’t take them seriously, here among the high peaks of snow mountains, warrior spirit is fast to awake. As many centuries ago, people still like horse racing and huresh, a national wrestling that draws thousands to an open stadium of the capital city. Respect to strength and skills still comes automatically as a deeply rooted instinct in hearts and minds of the young nomads, while love and compassion, essential part of their forefathers’ religion, need to be explained.
Who is the real hero?
Prisons in Tuva are full of heroes who tried to prove their point with a knife in the hand. Criminals sent here get increasingly younger every year, much to the surprise of the oldtimers who feel quite uneasy to find “children” as their cellmates. The newcomers, they complain, have no limits whatsoever. Before, no criminal in Tuva would touch old people, women or children. Now, they come to rob even old and destitutes.
Prison authorities think that religion is the only way to change minds and hearts of these people confused by collapsed communist ideology and burgeoning market-oriented economy. They are currently building a small Buddhist temple within its confines which they proudly show to the visiting Tibetan monks from Gyudmed. This is their second visit to the prison organised by the Tuva government and Spiritual Department concerned with the situation. Last year Lobsang Tsering addressed a group volunteers who came to listen to his talk and get transmission of six-syllable mantra of compassion. This time their visit brought together an entire prison.
“You think you are a hero, when you take a knife and stab your enemy. You feel, you are doing great. But it’s a big mistake. says Dawa Dhondhup, a senior monk from Gyudmed, in unbearable sunshine of the prison yard. The real hero is the one who is able to stop one’s hatred, jealousy and anger. The real hero is the one who can control one’s own mind”.
The war-like analogies of Buddhism suggesting that the real enemy is always inside and, although you can kill thousands, this would not bring any peace or happiness to your soul, may sound a little bit too bookish in a meditation class of Moscow or New York. But here, in a dusty prison yard of Tuva, people get the point exactly as Buddha meant it.
These people know what it means “to kill”. They know that the next morning will never bring any relief or satisfaction. They know that even if you get rid of someone who seems to make your life terrible, a couple of others will step in to take his place almost immediately… They know many things. What they don’t know is that their anger can be transfomed into compassion, and a human body is the most suitable for this transformation to happen. That is why it is called precious.
Releasing the dead
Next day brings together the other side of the conflict. People who lost their relatives get together in an open stadium where the travelling Gyudmed monks decided to perform Jangchok, a special Tantric ritual to purify unfortunate karma of the dead that will allow them to get better reincarnations in the future.
There are no smiles on the faces. They come slowly, clutching to small photographs of their near and dear whom they will never see again in their lifetime. The photographs are put together in a big plastic bag and will be burnt down at the end as a sign of final purification.
“Should I write his name too? – asks an old Tuvinian woman with a photograph of a smiling teenage boy. – He is my younger son.” “What happened to him?” “I don’t know, he was found stabbed. I hope the lamas will help him”
The lamas respond with their 500-year old traditional chanting which sounds so natural among the mountain peaks of Tuva. Everyone gets quiet, as they look at the ritual fire swallowing pictures from their family albums. Pictures of precious human lives taken by someone out of anger, ignorance and attachement – three poisons preventing us from seeing things clearly as they are. Real enemies that young nomads will fight with, when Tibetan Buddhism will once again flourish in Tuva.
Save Tibet …start from Tuva
The hard work that the exiled monks of Gyudmed are currently doing in the Buddhist territories of Russia may be considered by some as a final reherarsal of what they will have to do in Tibet, once they will be allowed back there. Of course, the situation is not exactly same. Thanks to the Dalai Lama’s efforts, Tibetans have always had a thriving community in exile, in a nearby India, where the lucky ones could go for high religious studies.
Russian Buddists were just locked behind the iron curtain for several decades – humble witnesses of great spiritual efforts of their forfathers being wiped off by devotees of a new communist ideology.
“We’ve been always told that Tibetan Buddhism was widely spread here, – say Gyudmed lamas who come to Russia annualy for the last six years, – however, sometimes it’s not easy to believe what you hear”.
“But once we saw a number of sacred texts, handwritten carefully by Tuva monks who used to study in Tibet, we have no doubts anymore. Many of the texts are exactly same as we study in Gyudmed”…
Tuva used to be a wonderful place with many Buddhist monasteries scattered all over high mountain ranges and saffron robes of monks reciting their prayers and giving teachings on tolerence and compassion. After all that happened to them in a whirlpool of heartless history, Tuvinians still refer to that time as the most beautiful one. The deeply felt nostalgia is always down there in their hearts, as well as the hope that the time will come back when their 300 thousand human lives will once again become precious.
