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Life Arts    H2'ed 3/16/12

India -- and a visit to 'Little Tibet'

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Crossposted from Axis of Logic


The golden statue of Buddha in the center of the temple by S. O'Neall
We were thrilled to find out that on our first day in McLeod Ganj there was going to be a Memorial service in the Temple for the refugees from Tibet in 1959. It was February 8, but it was still a memorial service for the violent strike-down of the rebellion on March 10, 1959.
 
The temple was crammed with thousands of monks in their burgundy colored robes and shaved heads, many of them actually, for once, wearing warm clothes under the robes, " and tourists, with cameras. Everybody was sitting cross-legged, even Westerners if they could manage it, and after a while we were all served chai (marsala tea) by monks who were walking around with huge "tea pots'. Very good and nice on a bone chilling day like this. And no segregation either. We were all allowed our paper cup of chai and a small loaf of Tibetan bread.
 
Chai is being served
Chai is being served
(Image by S. O'Neall)
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Chai is being served by S. O'Neall
In the evening there was supposed to be a candle light procession from the temple to the downtown area of McLeod Ganj. We saw a glimpse of it, the monks all carrying the candles you always see in their temples, walking down towards the lower situated town. However, as we were watching them with much awe, the snow began to fall and we escaped back inside. We later heard that they had actually gone back up to the temple from the downtown, in the snow. And we also found on the following morning, that the snow had continued to fall during the night.
 
Many of the monks in their scanty robes seemed eerily resistant to the cold. Lots of them were showing at least one bare arm, the way you usually see the Dalai Lama himself portrayed. On a different occasion we asked a monk how they could stand the cold weather in such thin clothing. They said they learned "through meditation'.
 
The Tibetan Children's Village in McLeod Ganj
 
Also we got some very useful information from our hotel managers about a Tibetan Children's Village (TCV) close by. We immediately decided we were going to pay a visit. After making the acquaintance of a cow and some lively monkeys (tourists, watch out, they are thieves and they can bite too!), the whole Children's village opened up in front of us with its school buildings, its dormitories, its playing fields and its management buildings. We were shown by a friendly man to the building of one of the managers of the community, a woman named Tsering.
 
The Tibetan Children's Village
The Tibetan Children's Village by S. O'Neall
The Tibetan Children's Village by S. O'Neall
After having a long chat about the whole organization with this dignified and extraordinarily friendly woman, we were given the grand tour of the precincts by a younger woman, Lima. They all spoke excellent English. January and February are winter vacation time so classes were not in session. We were shown some of the very comfortable dormitories though and the whole village was beautiful and well-kept.
 
From TIBETAN CHILDREN'S VILLAGE SCHOOL, Dharamsala Cantt.:
On 17 May 1960, fifty-one children arrived from the road construction camps in Jammu, ill and malnourished. Mrs. Tsering Dolma Takla, the elder sister of His Holiness, volunteered to look after them.

Tsering (a common Tibetan man's or woman's name, meaning "Long Life', first or last name) told us how children, sometimes orphans, who have grown up in a Chinese family can not even speak their own Tibetan language and know nothing about their cultural heritage. They do, however, sometimes manage to secretly cross over into India via the Himalayas, thus repeating the trek the Dalai Lama himself made in 1959. An almost incredible feat, considering the height even of the low passes of the Himalayas. The Chinese do allow a limited number of Tibetans to leave their country, but the numbers are steadily decreasing. It is now down to 500 a year, a mere trickle.
 
The 'Baby Room' in the Tibetan Children's Village
The 'Baby Room' in the Tibetan Village by S. O'Neall
We were greatly impressed by Tsering and by the whole organization. This TCV is not financed by any foundation, but by various small organizations and by people like you and me. Having a foster child who really needs your financial help can be a most fulfilling experience.[2] This community is extremely well equipped with Day Care Centers, a Health Center, an Old Age Home and they are more or less self-sufficient, with the help they get from various international organizations.
 
Their brochure states that:

"Today the TCV is a self-contained integrated community with family homes, schooling facilities, vocational training centers and teachers' training centers."

The big surprise -- Tsering also told us that the Dalai Lama himself was going to be present at a very important event, together with his guest, Archbishop Desmond Tutu from South Africa, on the very next day, February 10.
 
Historic event in the Temple of the Dalai Lama in McLeod Ganj
 
The very top of the Dalai Lama's temple could be seen from the terrace of our hotel
The very top of the Dalai Lama's temple could be seen from the terrace of our hotel by S. O'Neall
The very top of the Dalai Lama's temple could be seen from the terrace of our hotel by S. O'Neall
For the big event when we were going to see the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah, we had received many different opinions about when the event was to take place. Tsering had told us to be there well before 10. At our hotel someone even said to be there at 9.
 
We arrived in good time before 10 but were told on the way in that we were not allowed to bring cameras. Oh well, so John had to go back downhill and up on the hill where our hotel was and back again.
 
I entered the crammed temple, the area more or less outside the temple building itself under a huge canopy that had been added for this kind of huge event. Right away I saw Tsering sitting in the inner circle where she would have a very good view of the stage. Here I was, over 6000 km from my home in France, a total stranger to everybody, in a place that I had never really dreamed that I would ever see in my life, in a Buddhist temple filled with thousands of monks, nuns, Tibetan refugee families" and tourists. I then see a woman, Tsering of course, turning her head towards me and saying "Where is John?" I should have been thunderstruck, but somehow it all seemed fairly natural. I told her that he'd had to go back to our hotel with the cameras. She said that I could probably find some sitting room further down against the wall. With a big smile, as if I was talking to an old friend, I asked her if she would please tell John where I was if she saw him coming in.
 
I didn't find any sitting room, but I was actually pleased to find standing room at all. All in all we must have been standing up for a  couple of hours for the event. John arrived and told me that Tsering had, just as I had asked her, told him about where he could find me. It all seemed somewhat unreal. Here we were in a country and a small town and a Buddhist temple where we were as foreign and as anonymous as can be. And here is a woman turning her head towards me, saying "Where is John?".
 
Some people must have been waiting, standing or sitting cross-legged, literally for hours. But finally, just after 11, something was stirring on the other side of the enormous seating area. They had arrived. Dancers dressed in gorgeous black white and red costumes and wearing face masks were starting their wild dance that we could see quite well.[3] A monk had given me his seat on a bench at one point and since he was nowhere to be seen, I got up, with others, onto the bench and had a very good view of what was going on. The dancing was accompanied by wild screams, somewhat pagan sounding. Behind them came the notables, the Archbishop with a broad smile.
 
In October, the globe-trotting monk had called off his South Africa visit as it was "inconvenient" for the government there to grant him a visa as it had close ties with China. They later changed their minds on this but the preparations for Desmond Tutu's trip to India had already been made by then. He had been invited by Tutu on the latter's 80th birthday.
 
The Dalai Lama spoke to his fellow countrymen in Tibetan, and was afterwards translated into English for those of us who didn't understand Tibetan.
 
He spoke of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, his much honored guest:
 
"I welcome a great person today. He is a great and world-renowned personality," the Dalai Lama said in his welcome address.
 
"He's a person who strongly advocates the importance of love, compassion and equality. Even in his own country South Africa, he along with Nelson Mandela has worked wholeheartedly through non-violence for equal rights and genuine democracy," he said.
 
"The most important thing is that, even after the victory of democracy and equal rights in his country, uneasy feelings of animosity and ill-will have remained within people. Archbishop Tutu has made special efforts to reconcile the people and do away with the feelings of unease and ill-will towards each other."
 
The Dalai Lama appealed to his fellow Nobel laureate to pray for the well-being of Tibetans suffering repression in Tibet.
 
"Tibetans are passing through a difficult period. Our sophisticated and compassionate Tibetan culture is really facing a lot of difficulty," the elderly monk said.
 
"Another thing is that he works tirelessly for truth, honesty and equality. He doesn't see any differences. Wherever there is abuse of human rights or people's freedom is being snatched away, be it Burma or Tibet, he is always the first person to speak against it," the Dalai Lama said about Tutu." (Dalai Lama is not a separatist: Archbishop Tutu)

In spite of the very serious words, the whole event was marked by a lot of joking, and Desmond Tutu was the leader in the pleasantries. But they both laughed a lot and you got the impression from both of these Nobel Peace Prize laureates that they had just been leading quiet and good lives since their childhood -- whereas the truth is just the opposite.
 
Before getting into the serious part of his speech Desmond Tutu was kidding a lot about the enormous popularity of the Dalai Lama. He said , "When he was in Seattle, there were 60000 people who had filled a football stadium to listen to him. But I'm not jealous', he said and repeated: "I'm not jealous.' Laughs from the audience. And, said Tutu, he can't even speak English properly. Big laughs again.
 
On a more serious note he said that the Dalai Lama was the holiest man he had ever met and that he wanted to say to the Chinese government that "His Holiness is the most peace loving person on earth'. 
 
"The discussion also saw Tutu and the Dalai Lama poking fun at each other and making jokes at the expense of the South African and Chinese governments.
 
"Do you have an army? Why does the Chinese government fear you?" Tutu asked the exiled Tibetan leader at one point.
 
"Tutu even managed to inject humour into his praise for the Dalai Lama, describing him as: Someone who has amazed me, who has been in exile for over 15 years -- you'd expected him to be bitter and angry, he's actually a bundle of joy. He's in fact quite mischievous, I have to warn him sometimes and say hey, hey, hey, the cameras are on us, you need to behave like a holy man."  (memeburn)
 
Archbishop Desmond Tutu continued, addressing the Chinese in speaking to the Tibetan spiritual leader.
 
"I want to say to the Chinese government that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the most peace-loving person on this earth. I want to say to the Chinese government that the Dalai Lama has no army, he cannot command his people with guns, he's not a separatist," Tutu said at a public ceremony organised by the Tibetan government-in-exile on his visit.
 
"Seeking more autonomy for the people of Tibet, Tutu said: "Please, you leaders in Beijing, we beg you, allow Tibet to be what the constitution of the People's Republic of China commits. The constitution allows for autonomy and that is all His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his people want." [4]
 
"We beg you and at the same time remind you too that this is a moral universe. There is no way in which injustice, oppression and evil can ever have the last word," the former archbishop said in his message to the Chinese leadership.
 
"To the Tibetan people, he said: "We will visit you in Tibet. We will enter a free Tibet." (Dalai Lama is not a separatist: Archbishop Tutu)
 
Afterword
 
This our 7th visit to India turned out to be possibly the most eventful and exciting one of them all. There was one surprise after another and our final visit to our "home town' of Varanasi was anything but a let-down. Our meeting with our foster child, 13-year-old Sampa, an extremely bright girl who speaks excellent English, and her mother whom we also know very well, was just one of the wonderful events. The get-togethers with other old and new friends connected to DEVA/DISCC, some being total surprises, made it a series of festive encounters while visiting various of the very important DISCC projects.
 
I do believe India will be calling us back at least once again.
 _________________________

For a detailed background of the Chinese invasion of Tibet go to:
The Dalai Lama's Press Statements (issued at Tezpur), 18th April, 1959

 
Notes:

[1] The Dalai Lama's Press Statements (issued at Tezpur), 18th April, 1959 "In 1951, under pressure of the Chinese Government, a 17-Point Agreement was made between China and Tibet. In that Agreement, the suzerainty of China was accepted as there was no alternative left to the Tibetans. But even in the Agreement, it was stated that Tibet would enjoy full autonomy."
 
[2] If you consider sponsoring a Tibetan child, please go to their site

[3] His Holiness the Dalai Lama Welcomes Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Dharamsala

[4] In "the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet' from 1951 the Chinese have the sovereignty over Tibet, but the Tibetan people have the right of exercising national regional autonomy under the unified leadership of China.

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Siv O'Neall was born and raised in Sweden where she graduated from Lund University. She has lived in Paris, France and New Rochelle, N.Y. and traveled extensively throughout the U.S, Europe, and other continents, including several trips to (more...)
 

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