Section: THE Christian Century


TIBET HAS REPRESENTED many things to the West: a remote and forbidden land,
an exotic region of magic and mystery, and a source of spiritual wisdom and
insight. In recent months, Hollywood has brought images of Tibet to
American consciousness through two major movies. Seven Years in Tibet,
directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, is based on the adventures of Austrian
mountain climber Heinrich Harrer in the 1940s. Kundun, directed by Martin
Scorsese, is about the early life of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama.
(Kundun, which means "presence," is a title of respect used for the Dalai
Lama.) Both movies include images of traditional Tibetan life and also of
China's invasion and oppressive rule of Tibet.

Many Americans, from Hollywood actor Richard Gere to conservative
Republicans in Congress, have recently protested the. treatment of Tibet by
the Chinese government and demanded a stronger U.S. response. Last year,
when Chinese president Jiang Zemin was honored at a state dinner at the
White House, a "stateless dinner" was held in Washington, D.C., to
commemorate the sufferings of Tibetans at the hands of the Chinese.

Understanding Tibet, however, has proved difficult because of its remote
location and its distinctive history, customs and religion. Tibetans even
have difficulty communicating with other Buddhists. Some years ago, a
leading Tibetan Buddhist teacher, Kalu Rimpoche, met with Korean Zen master
Seung Sahn for dharma combat--an encounter that tests and challenges each
master's understanding of Buddhist teaching. As the Tibetan lame sat
fingering his prayer beads and murmuring a mantra, the younger Korean Zen
master began the exchange by reaching inside his robe, drawing out an
orange and holding it up. In a defiant and challenging tone, he asked,
"What is this?"

It was a classic Zen question, and Seung Sahn waited to pounce on any
response that would betray ignorance. The Tibetan simply sat quietly
without saying anything in reply. Seung Sahn moved closer, held the orange
under the lame's nose and repeated his question: "What is this?" Kalu
Rimpoche bent over to discuss the situation with his translator. The two
Tibetans talked for several minutes, then the translator spoke to everyone
in the room: "Rimpoche says, `What is the matter with him? Don't they have
oranges where he comes from?"' The dharma combat went no further.

For centuries, Western images of Tibet have stressed the exotic and
incredible. Medieval Christians like Odoric of Pordenone, William of
Rubruck and Marco Polo brought back reports of Tibetans' magical powers and
strange customs. Some 19th-century Europeans believed that Tibet was the
homeland of the Padaeans who, Herodotus reported, lived east of India and
had the custom of eating their dead.

More recently, in Magic and Mystery in Tibet (1929), Parisian-born scholar
Alexandra David-Neel recounted her experiences in Tibet at the beginning of
the 20th century. She told of Tibetan monks who could survive in freezing
temperatures with little or no clothing, who could float on air or walk
over water, become invisible at will, send messages across large distances
by telepathy, and choose to die by dissolving their bodies at will, leaving
no trace behind. David-Neel reported that when the Tashi Lama departed from
the city of Shigatse he allegedly left behind a "phantom perfectly
resembling him who played his part so thoroughly and naturally that every
one who saw him was deceived. When the lame was safe beyond the border, the
phantom vanished."

David-Neel claimed to have learned the skill of magical formation herself.
She created the image of a monk who was her servant, visible to herself and
sometimes to others. He would perform various actions for her, and he would
occasionally touch her shoulder. As her relationship with the phantom
developed, he underwent changes in appearance and behavior, eventually
escaping the control of his creator.

At length, David-Neel decided to dissolve the phantom, but this required
six months of difficult struggle. "My mind-creature was tenacious of life,"
she later reflected. "There is nothing strange in the fact that I may have
created my own hallucination. The interesting point is that in these cases
of materialization, others see the thought forms that have been created."
When I was in Tibet in 1988, a Tibetan tour guide affirmed that the stories
of such monastic feats were historically true, but lamented that Tibetan
monks today are not as strong as those of earlier days.

Western visitors to Tibet from the 17th through the 20th centuries were
most impressed by the humanity of the Tibetan people--their kind and gentle
spirit, their cheerful demeanor, their generosity to travelers and above
all their devotion to Buddhist practice. Jesuit missionary Ippolito
Desideri, who lived in Lhasa from 1716 to 1721, immersed himself in the
study of Tibet's language and religious customs. He was deeply impressed by
the practice of Tibetan Buddhism, contrasting it with the lesser devotion
of Christians; and he mourned that he himself had not been able to follow
Jesus as faithfully as the Tibetans served their leader. Desideri learned
Tibetan well enough to present learned arguments against Buddhist
teachings. His writings were read with great interest and admiration by the
people of Lhasa--without, however, leading to many conversions.

The most prominent image of Tibet in Western consciousness today is the
smiling face of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, whose life is one of
the most dramatic of the 12th century. The position of the Dalai Lama is
not hereditary but depends upon the identification of a new incarnation in
a young boy, usually about two years old, often from a simple family. The
Dalai Lama is viewed as the reincarnation of the Bodhisattva,
Avalokiteshvara, also known in Tibet as Chenrezi. In the Buddhist tradition
a Bodhisattva is an enlightened being who defers entrance into nirvana and
returns to earth to help suffering beings attain enlightenment.

The institution began in 1578, when Sonam Gyatso converted Mongol ruler
Altan Khan to Buddhism and accepted the title of Dalai Lama ("Broad Ocean"
in Mongolian). Because Sonam Gyatso was already seen as the reincarnation
of two earlier leaders, he became known as the Third Dalai Lama. Originally
the title implied only a spiritual authority, but in the mid-17th century
the Fifth Dalai Lama became the temporal ruler of Tibet, uniting spiritual
and political responsibilities and reorganizing the government structures.

His successors, however, were not of the same stature. The Sixth Dalai Lama
was a libertine and a poet. The Manchu rulers of China attempted to depose
him and appoint another Dalai Lama, but this move was overwhelmingly
rejected by the Tibetan people. At the age of 24 or 25, the Sixth Dalai
Lama was taken on a journey to China. He died en route amid suspicions of
Chinese treachery, and the Chinese emperor ordered that his body be
disgraced.

The institution continued to face many challenges. From the early 18th to
the late 19th century, no Dalai Lama emerged as a ruler. Several died
young, either before their accession to power at age 18 or soon thereafter.
The regents were often suspected of killing the young leaders in order to
preserve their own power.

The 13th Dalai Lama survived an attempt on his life and became a forceful
leader who restored Tibet's independence in 1912. He worked to open Tibet
to the outside world, fostering close ties to the British Empire, founding
English schools in Lhasa and Gyantse in the 1920s, introducing electricity
and telegraph lines and sending Tibetans abroad for studies. He launched
reforms in land use and taxes and sought to place limits on the most
powerful monasteries.

In 1931 he warned his compatriots of the coming danger of communism: "It
will not be long before we find the red onslaught at our own front door. It
is only a matter of time before we come into a direct confrontation with
it, either from within our own ranks or else as a threat from an external
nation. And when that happens we must be ready to defend ourselves.
Otherwise our spiritual and cultural conditions will be completely
eradicated." The 13th Dalai Lama died at the age of 58 in 1933.

After the death of their leader, Tibetans looked for signs as to where the
new leader would be born. The Panchen Lama, the second most important
leader of Tibetan Buddhism and a critical authority for recognizing the
reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, identified three boys as likely
candidates. To identify a reincarnation, search parties traditionally test
the young boys by presenting them with various objects, including some
which belonged to the earlier Dalai Lama. If a boy can consistently
recognize the objects that belonged to the late Dalai Lama, this is a
strong indication that he is the reincarnation. A candidates should also be
able to recognize people who were familiar to the deceased Dalai Lama.

THE MOVIE Kundun presents the recognition of the 14th Dalai Lama and
follows the events of his early life as recounted in his autobiography and
other sources. In 1937, a search party entered a home in Takster, a village
in northeastern Tibet, a region then ruled by a Muslim governor and
nominally part of China. A two-year-old boy named Lhamo Dhondup asked for a
rosary worn by a monk who was dressed as a servant in the search party. The
"servant" told the boy he could have the rosary, which had belonged to the
13th Dalai Lama, if the boy knew who the man wearing it was. The young boy
replied correctly that the man was a lame of the Sera monastery.

Lhamo Dhondup also knew the name of the monk who was pretending to be the
master of the search party and the name of the real servant in the search
party. Later on, the boy was presented with several pairs of objects; one
of each pair had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama. The boy correctly claimed
those objects that had belonged to the late leader and was able to speak
the refined dialect spoken at the court in Lhasa. One of the state oracles
affirmed that Lhamo Dhondup was indeed the 14th Dalai Lama.

As Kundun shows, the boy, who would be renamed Tenzin Gyatso, was taken at
the age of four to live in the Potala Palace, the great residence built by
the Fifth Dalai Lama in Lhasa. What impressed British observers such as Sir
Charles Bell and Hugh Richardson was that the young boy adapted easily to
his new role and home. During the long ceremony of homage, the boy's
attention did not flag. Tenzin Gyatso was given a rigorous course of
instruction in Tibetan Buddhist teachings, but he lived an isolated life.
His mother, known as "The Great Mother," could visit him freely but was not
allowed to spend the night at the Potala Palace.

Regent and senior tutor Reting Rimpoche and his allies were corrupt,
seeking personal profit more than the good of Tibet. Kundun includes the
story of how Reting was forced to resign before administering the vow of
celibacy to the Dalai Lama because Tibetans feared that someone who was not
observing the vow could not validly administer it to someone else.

In 1947 Reting was implicated in an antigovernment plot that was supported
by monks from the Sera Monastery; he died under mysterious circumstances in
the dungeons of the Potala Palace. In fighting at the Sera monastery, 200
monks were killed by government troops.

Tibet in the 1940s was extremely isolated. It had no modern roads or
bridges, so access was difficult. Tibet had closed its doors to the outside
world in 1792, and the 13th Dalai Lama had not sought to join the League of
Nations or to obtain widespread international recognition of the
independence of Tibet. As both Kundun and Seven Years indicate, the young
14th Dalai Lama was very curious about the outside world and loved to look
out on his people and his city through a telescope. In 1943, Heinrich
Harrer escaped from a British internment camp in India and fled into Tibet.
After many difficulties, recounted in his memoir Seven Years in Tibet,
Harrer and companion Peter Aufschmaiter reached Lhasa and were given
asylum. Harrer became a friend to the Dalai Lama's brother Lobsang Samten,
and then a companion and mentor to the young Dalai Lama.

Like many foreign observers, Harrer was struck by the gentleness and
peacefulness of Tibetan life, and wondered about the so-called advantages
of Western civilization: "Here no one is made to lose face, and
aggressiveness is unknown. Even political enemies treat each other with
consideration and politeness, and greet each other cordially when they meet
in the street." The repeated intrigues at court, however, indicate that not
everyone was as benign as Harrer remembered.

SINCE imperial times, Chinese governments had had pretensions of authority
over Tibet, but they had never exercised long-term governmental control
over the region. Tibetans viewed themselves as an independent nation, while
the Chinese viewed the region as part of the Chinese empire. On October 7,
1950, the Chinese invaded Tibet from the east and northwest and quickly
crushed organized resistance. Both movies dramatically portray how the
poorly equipped Tibetan army of 8,500 soldiers could hardly withstand the
onslaught of Chinese veterans who had fought both Japanese and Chinese
armies for years. In this time of national crisis, there was a widespread
demand for the young Dalai Lama to assume full responsibilities for the
nation even though he was not yet of age. Thus Tenzin Gyatso was invested
with full authority as the 14th Dalai Lama in 1950 when he was 15 years
old. Seven Years in Tibet concludes with the ceremony of the investiture of
the Dalai Lama and the departure of Harrer.

At the recommendation of his ministers, the Dalai Lama withdrew to a
monastery near the Indian border. Some months later Tibetan representative
Ngapo Ngawang Jigme went beyond his delegated authority and signed an
accord with the Chinese in Beijing. The Seventeen-Point Agreement of May
23, 1951, which was eventually accepted by the Dalai Lama, stated that
Tibet was part of China, but promised: "the central authorities [of the
Chinese People's Government] will not alter the existing political system
in Tibet. The central authorities also will not alter the established
status, functions and powers of the Dalai Lama." It also promised that "the
religious beliefs, customs and habits of the Tibetan people shall be
respected and lame monasteries shall be protected." These promises were not
kept.

Under the pretense of "liberating" Tibet from allegedly oppressive feudal
and monastic rule, the Chinese government confiscated land and goods,
imprisoned upper-class families and forced the population into near
starvation by demanding food, gold and silver for the maintenance of
Chinese soldiers.

In an effort to destroy Tibetan Buddhism, Chinese authorities ordered
religious leaders to be humiliated, tortured and put to death. Chinese
troops and farmers settled in Tibet. Children were removed from their
families for indoctrination. When the Chinese found it difficult to destroy
the religious convictions of Tibetan children, they seized Tibetan babies
and took them to China to be trained as communists. Tibetans increasingly
took up arms against the Chinese forces, and by 1956 Tibetan guerrilla
forces were destroying roads and bridges and raiding supply posts.

In response, the Chinese tortured and killed more monks and lay Buddhists,
deported people from their homes and sent them to forced labor, and raped
many women. Monasteries were shelled and destroyed by Chinese troops.
Children were forced to abuse, beat or even shoot their own parents. In
villages where men had gone to fight with the guerrillas, women and
children were slaughtered by machine gun. The Chinese sterilized the men
and women of some villages. In 1958 they expelled many men from Lhasa, but
most of these joined the guerrilla forces in the mountains. In 1958, one
Chinese garrison of 1,000 men was wiped out; another garrison of 3,000
soldiers was destroyed.

Kundun presents selected images of the violence, often through the Dalai
Lama's visions or dreams. In one dramatic boom shot the Dalai Lama stands
in the middle of the bodies of slain monks. At first, only a few are
visible, but as the camera pulls away, a vast field of bloodstained bodies
fills the screen.

In 1959, when the Chinese invited the Dalai Lama to attend a performance in
the Chinese barracks without any bodyguards, most Tibetans suspected that
the Chinese intended to seize the Dalai Lama. Thousands surrounded the
summer palace to protect him. The Chinese moved artillery pieces within
range of the palace and on March 17, two shells fell into the grounds of
Norbu Lingka. The Dalai Lama was persuaded to flee the country. He left the
summer palace in disguise in the middle of the night. Tibetan guerrillas
escorted him along mountain trails to the Indian border, where he was
offered asylum (this is the concluding scene of Kundun).

He settled in Dharamsala, India, where he has since resided in exile. When
the Chinese realized that the Dalai Lama had fled, they abolished the
Tibetan government and established a military dictatorship. The Dalai Lama
appealed to the United Nations, insisting that Tibet was an independent
nation, but to no avail. The International Commission of Jurists, an
independent body supported by 30,000 lawyers from 50 countries, concluded
that Tibet was a sovereign nation and that the Chinese were committing
genocide by seeking to eliminate the Buddhists of Tibet.

THE SUFFERINGS of Tibet have continued. In the 1960s, during China's
Cultural Revolution, the Chinese destroyed 6,400 (or 99.9 percent) of the
monasteries in Tibet, according to the Dalai Lama's estimates. Chinese
occupation policies directly caused the deaths of approximately 1.2 million
people (out of a population of 6 million). China's order to replace barley
with wheat, combined with the confiscation of food for Chinese soldiers,
led to mass starvation in 1961. The Chinese arrested, tortured and killed
thousands of Tibetans who engaged in peaceful demonstrations and protests.
The Chinese government continues to settle large numbers of Chinese in
Tibet, and these settlers currently hold all positions of political,
cultural and economic power. The Tibetans live a marginalized existence in
their own land.

Despite the tremendous sufferings of his people, the Dalai Lama continues
to have a peaceful demeanor and resilient spirit. A Western reporter once
asked him how it could be that the Chinese had taken his land and his
people, had killed so many Tibetans, and yet the Dalai Lama was not angry
at them. The Dalai Lama acknowledged that the Chinese had indeed taken his
country's freedom and possessions and had taken the lives of many Tibetans.
But he posed his own question. "Why should I give them my mind as well?"

This principle is at the heart of Tibetanpracticed by the Dalai Lama
religious practice develops the mind so that we can live more peacefully
and happily ourselves and bring peace and happiness to others. Following a
basic principle of Shakyamuni Buddha, the Dalai Lama teaches that "all
pleasures and pains basically derive from the mind." Cultivating the mind
allows one to respond to anger with compassion and patience. "We regard
inner strength, gentleness, love, compassion, wisdom and a stable mind as
the most important treasures a human being can collect in his or her
lifetime." Genuine religious practice cultivates generosity, wisdom,
compassion, love and tolerance in the most difficult sufferings.

This principle also illumines the Dalai Lama's acceptance of the plurality
of the world's religions: "In this world, just as there are many medicines
for a particular disease, so there are many religious systems that serve as
methods for achieving happiness for all sentient beings, human and
otherwise. Though each of these systems has a different mode of practice
and a different mode of expression, I think that they are all similar in
that they improve the body, speech and mind of those who practice them, and
in that they all have good aims."

Tibetans have become a minority in their own land. Religious freedom and
freedom of speech are rigorously restricted. Any show of allegiance to the
Dalai Lama is harshly punished. The Dalai Lama calls for dialogue: "I am
not asking for the independence of Tibet. While Tibet was historically an
independent and separate nation from China, I am aware of the possibility
that in a changing world, a smaller community or nation could benefit by
being associated with a larger state. I do not want to debate history; I
want to look to the future. Concerns over military and foreign matters,
which I assume are high on the list of the Chinese, can be handled by
Beijing. What is essential is that the Tibetans have genuine self-rule."
The Dalai Lama has called for genuine democracy in Tibet and "for Tibet to
be gradually transformed into a zone of `Ahimsa,' a zone of nonconflict."

He has been recognized for his nonviolent struggle for his people and was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. The inspirations of his life are the
teachings of the Buddha and the witness of Mahatma Gandhi. In 1956, in the
middle of his struggles in Tibet, he traveled to India to celebrate the
anniversary of the Buddha and visited the place where Mahatma Gandhi's
remains were cremated. He reflected on the life and witness of this man,
"perhaps the greatest of our age," and resolved to "follow his lead
whatever difficulties might confront me. I determined more strongly than
ever that I could never associate myself with acts of violence." In a
century of mass murder and exile, of refugees without passports, perhaps
the greatest gift that Tibet has to give to the world is this witness of
nonviolent compassion, endurance and faithfulness amid horrible sufferings.

[PHOTO (COLOR): KUNDUN: Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong (l) plays the young Tenzin ... ]

 KUNDUN: Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong (l) plays the young Tenzin Gyatso in Martin
                 Scorsese's film about the 14th Dalai Lama.

~~~~~~~~

by Leo D. Lefebure

Leo D. Lefebure is professor of systematic theology at University of Saint
Mary of the Lake in Mundelein Illinois.
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