Contact is taking a holiday!

An old monastery behind the Tibetan Parliament in exile

By Pravin Sawhney and Ghazala Wahab, Force Magazine ( May 2015 Issue )

Like the countless prayer flags in myriad colours fluttering in the cool breeze, hope floats in the twin towns, despite the abjectness of their circumstances. The Dalai Lama’s temple over-looking the Dauladhar range, has a continuous flow of devotees who leave behind an array of interesting offerings, from party pack of soft drinks to large packs of milk powder, biscuits, imported chocolates and chips. At the end of the day, the offerings are accounted for and distributed amongst the lamas.

The offerings at the temple are as much reflective of devotion as pragmatism on the part of the believers. They bring what they think the lamas would like, and maybe need. After all, having renounced the world, why must they be denied occasional pleasures? Yet another of the Dalai Lama’s influence, who has pulled his faith out of the boring, sombre confines of joylessness into the glorious world of satiation and fun.

It is no wonder then that for the Tibetans, life, religion and the Dalai Lama are intertwined in such a manner that no meaningful conversation is possible on their future without the saint playing a stellar role in it. He is not just a source of hope, but the captain who the Tibetans worldwide trust will steer their boat ashore through turbulent seas. Even in Tibetan traditions, mired in folklore and mysticism, his position is unprecedented and incontestable.

Though it has been four years since the Dalai Lama gave up his political role in favour of a democratically elected head of the government, now called Sikyong, his larger than life persona dominates Tibetan administration and social life in exile. Not just through his portraits that adorn the walls of all government offices, restaurants and cafés in Mcleodganj, but through his near omniscient presence that permeates all aspects of Tibetan politics, where it is difficult to imagine that a decision could be taken without the ‘blessings’ of His Holiness.

In his office, sitting below the portrait of the Dalai Lama, the first Sikyong (or the prime minister) Lobsang sangay says as much. “I am very close to His Holiness,” he says. “I meet him very regularly.”

Does he consult him before his foreign visits and debriefs him subsequently? “As I said, there is nothing formal about my interactions with him. I meet him on a very regular basis,” says Sikyong Sangay who is in the penultimate year of his first tenure.

According to the Tibetan constitution, a Sikyong can contest the second term. ThoughSsangay is reluctant to say it, it is quite likely that he will successfully contest the second term, elections to which will be held next year. That the Dalai Lama thinks of him as the right man for the right job at the right time is an open secret in the Tibetan community. Even in the last elections, which he won by 55 per cent votes, despite being viewed almost as an outsider, he was the candidate the Dalai Lama quietly favoured.

It is not difficult to see why. Being the first Tibetan to get a doctorate from Harvard law school on ‘democracy and history of the Tibetan government in exile from 1959-2004’, and several post-doctoral diplomas, on subjects as varied as environmental law and advanced study of non-violent conflict from such institutions like Fletcher summer institute and Tufts University, Sangay probably has unmatched educational qualifications in the entire Tibetan diaspora.

Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay

His qualifications and years of employment in the United States give him a clear edge as far as representing the Dalai Lama or the Tibetan cause is concerned. As usually happens, the Ivy League colleges of the US provide the student with not just education but an alumni’s network which seldom fails to deliver. The Dalai Lama has not been oblivious to this. He couldn’t have found a better candidate to take on his temporal duties even as he continues to be the benign overseer.

There is unity of purpose in this duality; a purpose both unambiguous and uncomplicated: to ensure that the Tibetan cause does not fall off the radar of the global community of sympathetic governments and well-meaning celebirities after the 14th Dalai Lama passes away. Conscious of his own mortality and his people’s complete dependence upon him, for spiritual as well as political deliverance, the 14th Dalai Lama progressively started devolving administrative powers to his compatriots over a decade and half ago, even though he created the Central Tibetan administration (CTA) way back in 1959, when he and his fellow refugees settled down in Mcleodganj.

The primary idea behind CTA was to look after the stream of refugees who continued to pour into India, following their leader’s footsteps for a few years before china clamped down on the border. Through CTA, the Dalai Lama created an administrative infrastructure with ministers/secretaries responsible for various aspects of welfare, education and settlement of the refugee population. It was a selected body of people directly answerable to the Dalai Lama.

However, in 2001, the Dalai Lama embraced democracy and progressed from selection to election. The Tibetan diaspora was urged for the first time to vote for the people they wanted to see in the assembly as well as elect the Kalon Tripa, which, loosely translated, meant the minister-in-chief or the senior-most whom the other ministers would report to. The Kalon Tripa, in turn, was to continue to report to the Dalai Lama.

But such was Tibetan people’s absolute faith in the clergy that they could not look beyond a Rinpoche (a senior lama) as the political leader. The first elected Kalon Tripa was professor Samdhong Rinpoche, formerly the vice chancellor of the Central institute of Higher Tibetan Studies at Varanasi. Born in 1939, he was recognised as the reincarnation of Samdhong Rinpoche at the age of five.

Responding to Rinpoche’s election, the Dalai Lama had joked that he asked his people to choose their own political leader and they chose an old monk, instead of ‘a young, energetic, educated and secular person’. Perhaps, the people didn’t have much to choose from, which is why, the final authority rested with the Dalai Lama. He continued to be as much the face of Tibetan struggle, as the guiding light for the increasing tribe of restless people worldwide in need of spiritual succor and a cause to devote their energies to.

In a conversation with author Pico Iyer for his book, The open road, the Dalai Lama told him that he tells his people to carry their work as if he didn’t exist. However, he was aware that even if the members of his immediate staff, including cabinet ministers, wanted to talk with ‘important’ foreign dignitaries, “nobody would come” to hear them.

Hence, the Dalai Lama’s biggest challenge was to create a corpus of well-educated (preferably western-educated) professionals who would be taken seriously by the world, when they spoke of Tibet. This was no easy task. The Tibetan society traditionally was very primitive and the people who fled to India were not only impoverished but largely illiterate too. The literate and the learned ones were the lamas who only studied religious texts.

Apparently, Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who regarded the Dalai Lama as his friend, advised him to focus on the education of his people more than anything else. “If the Tibetan people were educated, everything else will follow,” a former member of the CTA and now director, Tibetan policy institute, Thupten Samphel, recalls Nehru telling the Tibetan leader. The Dalai Lama heeded the advice, with fulsome support from India. The consecutive Indian governments supported the establishment and running of Tibetan schools and institutes of higher learning throughout the country.

The effort took time to bear fruit, but it did for sure. “Today, amongst the Tibetans in exile, we have professionally qualified people from different streams,” says the Sikyong. “From chartered accountants to lawyers, we don’t have to look outside the community.”

For people like Sangay, the Tibetan struggle has many layers to it, with right to return to a fully autonomous Tibet being one part of it. Equally important is the overall uplift of the Tibetan people, who despite 56 years of living in exile and hence no longer in the splendid isolation of the plateau, are still quite backward. This is ironical because the Dalai Lama, himself home-schooled and self-tutored frequently holds discussions with experts not only on religion but scientific subjects as well. He is also credited with running ‘by far the most serious’ government in exile, according to the economist.

For this reason, when Sangay took charge in 2011, skill development and dissemination was one of his primary objectives. This, he tried to do through a four prong programme, at the heart of which is education. “My vision is that in about a decades’ time every member of the CTA should have a post-graduate degree from the best institutions of the world, right down to the junior-most person and not just the prime minister and the ministers,” says Sangay. In the last few years, the Tibetan administration has been focused on promoting higher and professional education.

The second prong of nurturing an intellectual corpus is the think-tank Tibetan policy institute (TPI), which was inaugurated by Sangay in February 2012. For far too long, the biggest spokespersons of the Tibetan issue, after the Dalai Lama, have been the western celebrities, academicians and the speechless self-immolating monks on the plateau. But with TPI, the CTA wants to reclaim the narrative, through personal histories, research and information dissemination.

Amongst the objectives of TPI is to create Tibetan-origin human resource on its history, religion, culture and present-day politics which could gradually help change the worldwide perspective on the Tibet-China issue. In popular perception, while the Tibetans have moral ascendancy because of their peaceful resistance and spiritual living, China has the economic clout to subvert that.

In the short term, TPI is supposed to hold either one major conference on Tibet spread over a few days every year or a few day-long conferences. It also invites the experts on Tibet-china issue once a month to give a talk to CTA scholars and other members of Tibetan diaspora, including non-governmental organisations. TPI is also supposed to make efforts to participate in international seminars or conferences on Tibet or china. However, the most important responsibility of the institute is to produce at least one authoritative paper on a subject that may impinge upon the Tibet-China issue.

Recently, the institute brought out a detailed dossier on the Chinese power structure starting with the president and down to the lowest party functionary in the government. The document lists their past and present positions with conjectures about possible future positions. This document has also been shared with the government of India.

The third prong of developing educated and intellectually stimulating human resource is Tibet corps. “With our emphasis on encouraging Tibetans to seek education abroad, there was a fear in the community that this youth would be- come self-centred and would forget about the Tibetan cause,” says the Sikyong.

“Tibet corps is a voluntary organisation for Tibetans settled in around 40 countries. The members of corps return to Dharamshala once a year and work with the CTA; thereby they not only renew their connections but also bring global perspective, which will overtime better equip the members of the CTA to address developing issues in our area of interest. The idea is, no matter how far he goes, a Tibetan must remain rooted to his land, culture, tradition and struggle,” he adds.

The final prong is a replication of the concept of twin cities, albeit on a smaller scale. In the last few years Tibet administration has got sympathetic countries interested in adopting various Tibetan settlements across India and Nepal whereby small investments come in for welfare and infrastructural projects.

Doesn’t all this tantamount to making oneself comfortable in exile and putting the core issue of Tibet, whether complete independence or genuine autonomy on the back-burner?

The sikyong does not agree. Having been a student of non-violent conflicts across the world, Sangay believes that the Tibetans have time on their side. According to him, conflict has various stages from the time its breaks out. The most important of these are surviving the conflict and sustaining the resistance movement.

“The early decades after His Holiness escaped from Tibet were spent merely in surviving the changed circumstances,” he says, referring to the survival not merely of the human beings, but of religion, language, culture and cuisine. Through personal example, piety and development of Tibet-specific educational and cultural centers, the Dalai Lama and his CTA ensured that even as his exiled people learned the ways of the host country, they did not forget their own. To ascertain this fact one doesn’t need empirical evidence. One only needs to eavesdrop on any two Tibetans talking to one another, whether in Delhi’s Majnu ka tila settlement of Tibetans or anywhere in Dharamshala. Even those born in exile as late as in the nineties, use Tibetan as the first language.

As if giving voice to the Dalai Lama’s and Sikyong’s thoughts, Samphel had told force the previous day that, “The biggest indicator of the success of our movement is this. Despite being in exile and dispersed all over the world, we have retained our Tibetanness. If you see the odds, this is no mean achievement.” having survived the displacement and a vicious campaign of vilification by the Chinese against their supreme leader, the Tibetans are now at a stage of sustaining their movement. Matching each Chinese step with their own, which sometimes may appear reactionary, the Tibetan movement has successfully managed to keep the Chinese government on tenterhooks, forcing it to continuously issue statements, criticise the Dalai Lama or insist that Tibetans inside the Tibet autonomous region (TAR) are happier under the Chinese government. Even while force was in dharamshala, news came that the state council information office of the people’s re- public of China (PRC) had issued yet another white paper on Tibet. titled, ‘Tibet’s path of development is driven by an irresistible historical tide’, the 13th white paper since early nineties (when China started to issue them periodically) repeats the contents of the previous such papers. Running into over 30 pages, the document chronicles Tibetan history as one of barbaric feudalism on the one hand and abject poverty on the other. Given this, the people’s army’s peaceful liberation of Tibet was for the betterment of the Tibetans and to integrate them better into the mainland.
 It was the Dalai Lama who forced China’s hand into issuing the first white paper. In 1988, addressing the European parliament in Strasbourg on March 4, he enunciated the Tibetan demands for the first time in public, offering China, what came to be known as the Strasbourg proposal. The Strasbourg proposal underlined his moderate, middle way approach towards the resolution. Giving up the earlier demand for complete independence, he now proposed ‘genuine’ autonomy for Tibet under the Chinese constitution. Since then, this has been referred to as the middle path. The key point of the proposal was that Tibet autonomous government would function alongside the PRC. While the functions of defense and foreign relations would be with the Chinese government, all the other powers would be vested in the elected government of Tibet. Incidentally, the Tibet demanded by the Dalai Lama included the entire three Tibetan populated provinces of Amdo (the 14th Dalai Lama belongs to Amdo), which is now part of the Qinghai province; Kham, now part of Sichuan; and u-tsang. The portion that the Chinese refer to as TAR was constituted in 1965 by incorporating parts of western Kham and u-tsang provinces. This was the total area controlled by the 13th Dalai Lama since 1912.

The Tibetan power on the plateau had waxed and waned over the centuries. By the beginning of the 20th century, the political control of the central authorities of Lhasa over the border provinces had considerably declined. A measure of this decline was that they had started paying annual taxes and tributes to other rulers, with some paying to the Chinese regent or governor.

“We consider all these areas as spiritually, linguistically, culturally Tibetan,” asserts secretary, department of information,CTA, Tashi Phuntsok. “Since Tibet is a vast region, with very poor means of communications, retaining political control over all parts at all times were not possible. Yet, at no point in history did these regions give up the Tibetan way of life or paying religious obeisance to the Dalai Lama.”

Anyhow, the middle path espoused by the Dalai Lama received a lot of attention in the world community, which saw in it a reasonable and peaceful approach towards conflict resolution. China was viewed as recalcitrant country, closed to reason. It did not help China’s global image that soon a vicious cycle of protest and repression started in Tibet which eventually coincided with the students’ movement for democracy on the mainland. The situation deteriorated to such an extent that a year later the government ordered its armored vehicles to roll down on the Tiananmen square to subdue the protesting students. Even today, the total casualties at Tiananmen square remain in the realm of speculation, with figures swinging from hundreds to thousands.

While the Tiananmen Square protests ended in a massacre in 1989, China imposed martial law in Tibet and closed it to the world, including the foreign aid workers. With international sanctions and condemnation, in complete contrast to the growing stature of the Dalai Lama (he also received the Nobel peace prize in December 1989) China was forced to issue a white paper on Tibet. Since then, China has issued a white paper on Tibet once every two years.

A day before the 13th white paper was issued in April 2015, force was chatting with Thupten Samphel at Tibet policy institute. According to him, “many Tibetans see hope in the new Chinese dispensation. Ever since he has assumed office, President Xi Jinping has not made any statement on Tibet. Perhaps, he is still making up his mind. This is a positive sign. This shows that he is not carrying the baggage of his predecessors.” That Xi Jinping’s mother and wife are sympathetic to Buddhism and have often engaged with lamas added to his optimism.

Samphel spoke too soon. The 13th white paper concludes with Xi Jinping’s statement. Jinping says, “The central government has followed a clear and consistent policy towards the 14th Dalai Lama. Only when he makes a public statement acknowledging that Tibet has been an integral part of China since antiquity, and abandons his stance on independence and his attempts to divide China, can he improve his relationship with the central government in any real sense.”

Innumerable historical accounts would disprove China’s assertion that Tibet has been its integral part since antiquity. The concept of nation-state is just a few centuries old. In ancient, and even medieval, times borders were fluid and determined by the prevailing military power. The boundaries of the countries continued to expand and shrink depending upon the influence and intent of the ruling class. For instance, Indian border once included parts of Afghanistan but not the region south of the Deccan plateau! In another period it encompassed several parts of East Asia, including some portions of Indonesia, but not the West Indian states.

The ancient and medieval Tibetan and Chinese history was also determined by the logic of the sword. Whoever had more power, subordinated the other. In most cases the subordinate state retained its administrative independence, paying only annual tributes to the powerful one. But history itself is susceptible to subversion by the powerful and hence china doesn’t even hesitate in dismissing the Tibetan narrative as imaginary.

Ironically, some Chinese historians too dispute the government’s version of history. In an article in the China review magazine, director of the institute of Chinese historical geography and the research center for historical geographic studies at Fudan university in Shanghai, professor Ge Jianxiong recently wrote that during the tang dynasty (the largest dynasty during 7th to 10th century), “we cannot include the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, which was ruled by tubo/tufan… tubo/tufan was sovereignty independent of the tang dynasty. At least, it was not administered by the tang dynasty.”

According to Ge, “it would be a defiance of history to claim that Tibet has always been a part of China since the tang dynasty; the fact that the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau subsequently became a part of the Chinese dynasties does not substantiate such a claim.”

This article also questions the concept of Chinese nationhood as asserted by his government. He writes that in different periods throughout history, the Chinese nation sometimes referred to the ‘Qing state’, and included all the territory that fell within the boundaries of the Qing empire; but during other periods, it referred to only ‘18 interior provinces’, excluding Manchuria, inner Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang.

The struggle for self-determination is not led by historical traditions, but by the will of the people. And here the will of the people has remained steadfast, that is the reason why the Tibet issue is China’s core concern, in its own words. Yet, ironically, China insists that there is no Tibet issue.

“According to them, the only issue is the future of the institution of the Dalai Lama,” says general secretary, Tibet youth congress (TYC), Tashi Lamsang. Xi Jinping’s statement in the white paper corroborates this. He only talks of the Dalai Lama’s relationship with the central government.

Clearly, on the future of the Dalai Lama rests the future of the Tibetan struggle. The Chinese government has repeatedly said that only it has the right to identify and appoint the 15th Dalai Lama. Clearly, it has rightly understood that no amount of assault has been able to shake people’s faith in the supreme leader. Not only have Tibetans rejected Chinese assertions, the 14th Dalai Lama has been extremely cautious and clever in speaking in multiple voices on this subject so as to retain the initiative vis a vis China. In his address to the Tibetan people on 24 September 2011, he said that he would decide at the age of 90 whether the institution should continue or not. Elsewhere he said that perhaps there will be no Dalai Lama after him. In yet another conversation with a journalist he suggested that the next Dalai Lama could be a woman. He further added to the haze around the subject by asserting that if the 14th Dalai Lama would die with unfinished task, then the 15th Dalai Lama would have to complete that task, which will be winning back the homeland for the Tibetan people. And because the homeland is shackled at the moment, the 15th Dalai Lama would have to reincarnate in exile! He has also made it clear that if the Tibetan people desire, then he will reincarnate.

In the Tibetan belief, a high lama can reincarnate in three ways. One, he can be reborn after death and is recognised through a mystical process; two, he himself identifies his reincarnation while alive. Apparently, exceptional lamas have the capacity to be present in different bodies at the same time; and three, the Dalai Lama appoints his own successor (referred to as emanation) from among his disciples and personally groom him to take over his responsibilities.

Given the way that both the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama have been trying to outpace one another, the possibility of the latter selecting his own successor at the time of his choosing is high. By saying that it will depend upon the will of the people, the Dalai Lama has ensured that his choice will have the support of all Tibetans across the world; support that will be steered through the office of Sikyong and CTA.

By helping the office of the Sikyong to grow outside his shadow, the Dalai Lama wants to make certain that after him the widespread Tibetan diaspora and the international community takes the Sikyong seriously, so that the unquestioning devotion that people have towards his holiness is also extended to the political dispensation. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why the Dalai Lama is waiting before taking the final call on his reincarnation. He wants the office of the Sikyong to attain a degree of authority and credibility worldwide, so that it is able to hold out on its own against china in the diplomatic arena.

In the last four years, Sangay has been a peripatetic leader travelling all over the world capitals showing his credentials; with many governments according him the status of a foreign minister. He has frequently been interviewed by the international media and has written signed articles in magazines like time on the subject of the 15th Dalai Lama. Perhaps, with a second term, his stature would grow enough to not only nurture the young reincarnation, but to also keep the Tibetans together under his leadership.

However, because of the Dalai Lama’s conflicting statements, China was forced into a reactionary mode. The country, which is ideologically opposed to religion, took offence at the suggestion that the institution of the Dalai Lama may end with the death of the incumbent. But now it is near impossible for china to find favour for the 15th Dalai Lama of its choice. After all, it is not about a religious head, it is about the people’s faith. And faith understands no strategy or logic.

Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama has been strengthening the Tibetan administration to not only look after the day to day affairs of the diaspora but also to ensure that the flock stays together despite the multiplicity of voices. For instance, in spite of demanding ‘rangzen’ or complete freedom, the TYC, which the Chinese white paper refers to as a terrorist organisation, passed a resolution in 2013, promising that if the Tibetan issue is resolved, it will respect the majority decision; implying that it will forfeit claims of Rangzen in favour of the middle path.

In another show of foresight, all the departments of the CTA have been registered in India as independent societies. “The reason for that is very obvious,” winks secretary, department of international relations, CTA, Sonam Dagpu. “For China, Tibet is the core issue. For India, border is the core issue. What if China tells India that it is willing to resolve the border issue if India orders closure of the CTA? It will be difficult for India to resist an offer like this,” Dagpo says, adding that, “in the last few years, China has started to refer to us as the government in exile, even though we don’t call ourselves that. It is a matter of time before its ratchets up the issue of the illegality of CTA. ”

One of the Dalai Lama’s recurring messages to his people is that ‘anything is possible in the future’, hence one must always be prepared. Clearly, he believes in following what he says. In this long-drawn battle of imaginary history and the will of the people, the time, as Sikyong asserts, is on the side of the Tibetans. But in India’s case, time is running out against China. Perhaps, it will help if India can borrow some time from the Dalai Lama.