The Tibetan Community

Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhism are inextricably linked. In the West, whilst many would proclaim to have some religious affiliation, Tibetan people – young and old, male and female - live and breathe Buddhism every day.

As much as a general philosophy as it is a religion, Buddhism holds appeal to many. Acceptance of others, love, compassion, as of course, peace to all sentient beings - all pretty cool stuff.

Although in India, McLeod Ganj boasts a large Tibetan community and is often known as "Little Lhasa". Indeed, there are more Tibetans than Indians in the village. As home to the Dalai Lama, many Tibetan refugees flock here from religious and political persecution. This contrasts with Lhasa which boasts as many Han Chinese as it does Tibetans. The Ganj is also the centre for the Tibetan Government in Exile.

As the World is now pretty much well aware, Tibetans have faced cultural genocide since the Chinese invasion and colonisation of their land in 1949. The behaviour of the Chinese has broken all sense of human rights and simple humanitarian decency.

Very much aware of the dangers his people have faced, Dalai Lama has dedicated his time not only travelling the World to highlight their plight, single-handedly developed a Government in Exile, but perhaps most importantly, has also done much to preserve what remains of the Tibetan culture. The projects at TIPA- The Tibetan Institute of the Performing Arts and the Norbulingka Institute are outstanding example of this – teaching, educating and training artisans in dance, drama, music and cultural handicrafts.

This does not mean that Tibetan life and culture can´t develop and move on however. In recent speeches, Dalai Lama has asked Tibetans to throw out old superstitions and prepare to be 21st Century global citizens.

Every Tibetan in the village has a tragic story to tell. I have been grateful to work as a teacher of English conversation classes for Gu Chu Sum – a charity for Tibetan refugees, and my students like Rinchen and Panden provided me with interesting first-hand insights - as well as sharing family stories and good food; friends as well as students.

all have a story to tell

The students have all oozed enthusiasm, as much for the company as for developing English skills. Although my true “environment” is in Early Years classrooms teaching across many curricular areas, i have still thoroughly enjoyed the experience and it has further enriched my stay in The Ganj.

The World has a moral obligation to preserve all its beauty. How can i not feel so disappointed that the World has done so little for the Tibetan people? Time is running out and the World needs to take action now.

Fortunately, we are all in a position to help. Wear the Tibetan flag and talk about it to others to highlight Tibet´s plight. Boycott all Chinese goods. Write to your leaders, both local and National asking for them to take a moral stance on Tibet. Write to Obama demanding an end to China´s colonization. Petition China demanding it stops human rights abuses in Tibet.

All "great" empires eventually fall (and if nothing else, doesn´t Buddhism constantly remind us that nothing is permanent?) – Greeks, Romans, Hapsburgs, Nazis et al. Take comfort in the fact the PRC is in the process of dying as i write and it will eventually be usurped. I just wish it would hurry up.

Death at Mount Kailash

Mount Kailash is the probably the holiest mountain on the planet. Revered by the Bonnists (pre-Buddhist Tibetans) as the point of all creation, whilst Buddhist believe it is the home of the Buddha Demchok who represents supreme bliss. It is even revered by Hindus as the recreational playground of Lord Shiva, who spends his time dancing and smoking copious amounts of cannabis.

Hidden away in the barren deserts of western Tibet, to circumnavigate the mountain is said to wipe away all the sins of ones´ lifetime. Indeed, according to Buddhists, 108 circuits will ensure enlightenment.

It takes about 8 days to make the journey from Lhasa to the sacred mountain in a rented Toyota Land-cruiser 4x4, but Hong Kong Kev, K, Tera and I are determined to make the pilgrimage.

The altitude outside of Lhasa never drops below 4000 metres. Roads, sealed or unsealed, rarely exist, and the drive is long and arduous. The scenery is stunning, and hours can go by before there is any sign of human life. Settlements of any form are very few and far between, and the only people around are the occasional pilgrims and nomads.
a Tibetan pilgrim

We are within a day of arriving in Darcha, the start of the pilgrimage trail, and we stop off late in the evening at an army out-post. Despite it being summer, temperatures drop alarmingly as the sun begins to set. We grab a quick dinner of instant noodles and retire to our “tourist barrack” for some cards before bed. There is no electricity and we sit huddled up in blankets around the light of a candle.

At about 8.30pm there is a knock at the door and a thirty something Chinese guy asks if we have any bottled oxygen for his wife who is “ill”. For a laugh, I had picked up a bottle in Lhasa, and having not long re-qualified for my Red Cross First Aid (pretty much mandatory for a teacher), i offer to go along.

I grab my torch and follow this somewhat troubled guy. He leads me across the rubble into a small hut (no more than 4 by 3) which is lit by a single kerosene lamp. It is a small barrack room filled with about 12 army soldiers. The young Chinese woman is unconscious on the bed and the soldiers are standing watching on. I ask which one of them is the doctor. None of them it transpires, they just want to watch. I make a futile gesture to try and remove some of the spectators, before quickly trying to focus on the situation. I certainly wasn´t expecting anything quite like this and my heart is racing in consuming panic.

The woman (probably in her mid twenties) is exceedingly pale and cold. I check first for breathing in the first instance. Nothing - so much for needing bottled oxygen. I ask questions as i try and locate a pulse. Her husband says they are returning back to Guangzhou (south China) after completing the kora around Kailash. She has been sick for more than a week and hasn´t eaten in more than 5 days. I distinctly remember having to bite my tongue – i am furious at him. However, this is not the time or place to berate his poor judgement. Why hasn´t he brought her down from the kora? – it´s the only way to survive Acute Mountain Sickness.

I try her wrist. I can´t swear to it, but i think i can detect a light pulse. It´s difficult to confirm as my own pulse is now hammering away. I check her neck, but find nothing. I return to her wrist and i am still uncertain if i can feel anything.

I know this is really bad and strip off my bulkier clothes (coat, gloves, hat scarf, etc.) and begin to administer CPR to the unconscious body. The soldiers watch my antics in somewhat confused silence, and i am sure i detect glances of horror as i administer mouth-to-mouth. Her husband understandably is getting more frantic and muttering to himself in Cantonese. I complete the first cycle of three, desperately checking for a pulse, but nada.

After what feels like an hour, but i guess would be no more than 10 minutes, i´m feeling exhausted and sweating like a donkey, despite the encroaching cold. Her husband now wants to give it a go and i count out for him. With no positive results, after a few minutes, he asks me to take over again. By this stage i´m aware of the utter futility in this, but with tears in his eyes, he begs and pleads with me to try, try again. Hell! I am not in a position to say no.

This macabre pantomime continues for a further 20 minutes. Her lips and face are now blue and i stop abruptly. I am not going to be able to raise the dead here. I hug the weeping widower close and stroke his hair. I don´t know what else to do and i certainly don´t know what to say. He cries his tears into me, nestling like a kitten, and again i am aware of the Chinese soldiers staring at us silently.

I collect my coat and gloves and make my way quietly back to the tourist barrack seriously humbled and somewhat dazed by the experience. It´s about 9.30 and the others have been waiting up for me. I´m shaking both through the cold and the scenario, and i briefly retell the story. We´re all very silent, and there is nothing else to do but try and get some sleep. K. hugs me tight as i shudder continuously, and i think we both fail to get any sleep that night.

What else can you do? Early next morning we travel onwards.
Aubs ties a Watford football shirt on Drolma Pass - at 5636 metres it marks the highest point of the Kailash Kora

Judicial Murders Return to Tibet

Last week The Guardian newspaper reported last week that two executions took place in Tibet.

LJ says

"No surprises really. Many more have been executed over the Xinjiang unrest (Chinese and Uighurs) Don't you love the British hypocrisy? We have been involved in two illegal wars (occupations) in Iraq and Afghanistan which have cause the death of hundreds of thousands and will not bring the man responsible to justice! (Not having the death penalty is of course one of Britain's good points.)

The EU were quick to condemn these murders and questioned whether the two convicted Tibetans had had fair trials.

China have been quick to respond.

"We express strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to the statement issued by the European side," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a response posted on the ministry's website late on Friday.

Ma said on Tuesday that the two Tibetans had been executed for their role in deadly ethnic unrest that rocked the region in March of last year, the first known use of capital punishment over the violence.

Fierce anti-China protests erupted in Lhasa and spread across Tibet and adjacent areas with Tibetan populations, embarrassing the government as it sought to play up national unity in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

Ma repeated China's insistence that the unrest was planned and organised by what it calls a Dalai Lama "clique," a claim that it has never publicly backed up with any evidence.

He said China rejected "interference" in its domestic affairs.

"We ask that Europe adhere to the principle of equality and mutual respect, and not send wrong signals to 'Tibet independence' separatist forces, so that healthy and stable development of China-Europe relations can be maintained."

China has said "rioters" were responsible for 21 deaths in last year's violence, while its security forces killed only one "insurgent."

But the exiled Tibetan government has said more than 200 Tibetans were killed in the subsequent crackdown.

Lhasa, Fun-Fun and Big Alaskan Bears

To celebrate the arrival of the millennium, I wanted to do something special. Thus I headed to Lhasa for my first trip into Tibet. I don´t think i could have chosen a better destination.

Alright, it was bloody freezing and snows had blocked up all the main transport arteries in and out of the city, so travel was limited to the city and immediate surround. But when that sun came out (and it did for several hours almost every day), it was both fascinating and beautiful.

Only a few die-hard travellers selected Lhasa for the Millennium, and together we had a total riot. Of course i meet a lot of travellists out on the road, and share several special moments, but there are only a very few that i keep in contact with. One of these is Fun-Fun, a young British Born Chinese woman from Derbyshire in England who also decided to brave the cold in the middle of a Tibetan winter.

Fun-Fun is rather appropriate name for her, but Mad n´ Wild would be even more so. She has brought a tent along with and she persuades Theo, a lovely South African guy to head to the wilderness. There is absolutely no way i´m leaving the fairly ineffectual central heating.

We´ve managed to catch up a few times now, including watching the 2002 World Cup in a Hong Kong pub and one of just three friends that “braved the dangers” of Colombia to visit whilst i was based in Bogotá. Respect!

An engineer by trade, Fun-Fun works on aeroplane engines and is currently based in Seattle, but not for long. She faces a move down to Waco, Texas. A keen hiker and climber, she is making the most of her time in the north. She sent me some real beautiful photos of wild bears on her recent trip up to Alaska.





Many thanks to L.J. for helping sort out my blogspot account. Photographs can now be added after a couple of weeks break.

Karmapa Hip-Hop Lama

LJ comes up trumps again with this very interesting interview with the Karmapa Lama taken from the Times of India.

Labelled the Hip Hop Lama over his fondness for gangsta rap and violent video games, (both of which are touched upon in the interview), Karmapa, aged 24 is the head of the Black Hat sect, and he is a much loved and well-respected young man. His popularity with young Tibetans both first and second generation is huge. His unique position as the only high lama recognised by both Tibetans and Chinese, encourage the view that he is the ideal “successor” to His Holiness Dalai Lama.

Karmapa also boasts a large number of Lama-ites, Western women groupies aged from 20 – 45 who regularly head to his open blessing held at nearby Sidphur every Wednesday and Saturday. They come back giggling and showing off their latest blessed bangle.

This might not seem so strange after all. Sarah McDonald in her book Holy Cow claims that there are about 40 Tibetan monks each year defrock to take up a relationship with Western women.

This quest for the unattainable, comes as no surprise to me. Rich, Nygate and I set up a Celibate Society at Bristol Polytechnic in 1990. Talk about flies to the jam-pot- it was shocking and sometimes very entertaining!

Karmapa Lama´s snapshot now outsells pictures of the Dalai Lama in McLeod Ganj´s photo kiosks.

Clearly very shrewd and eloquent, he is sure to play a major part in the continued struggle for a free Tibet.

Obama Lets Tibetans Down

Now i´ve only rarely come across the Wall Street Journal, and was never overly impressed. However, again courtesy of LJ, this is a really good editorial. Good on ya´ WSJ! I think LJ has a lot of quality time at the moment.

The Obama Administration may think its decision to cold shoulder the Dalai Lama on the Tibetan leader's upcoming trip to Washington is smart politics. But if the leader of the free world doesn't stand up for religious freedom, who will?
The news broke earlier this week when an Obama aide told the Tibetans that the President wants to meet Chinese leaders before he meets the Dalai Lama. This is par for the course for an Administration that gave only lackluster support to Iran's democrats and has made conciliatory overtures to Putin's Russia and Kim Jong Il's North Korea.
But it's still a big departure from a significant and important tradition: President George Bush met the Dalai Lama every time the monk visited Washington; as did President Bill Clinton. The Tibetans hadn't formally scheduled a meeting with President Obama for next month, but the Dalai Lama had expressed his hope to meet the President on the trip.
Mr. Obama may be trying to smooth the waters after raising tariffs on Chinese tire imports Friday. Or he may think that a Tibet snub will buy him concessions from China when he visits Beijing in November. Or he may be simply caving to Chinese pressure not to have the meeting. China has bullied Australia, Germany, Canada and France in recent years for welcoming the man they label a "splittist."
By delaying his meeting with the Dalai Lama, Mr. Obama is only rewarding that choleric behavior and giving Beijing more leeway to protest whenever he does work up the nerve to meet the Dalai Lama. It also sends a message to other democracies that it's acceptable to cave to Chinese pressure.
Also missing from this picture is any understanding of why the Dalai Lama's cause is so important to both Chinese and U.S. interests. The Dalai Lama advocates the same human freedoms on which the U.S. was founded: Democracy and the right to exercise basic civil liberties, including freedom of worship. China won't be a stable and prosperous country until it respects these freedoms. And a peaceful China is in everyone's interests.
President Obama has been in office nearly eight months; that's twice as long as it took for Messrs. Bush or Clinton to meet the Dalai Lama. The Tibetans certainly understand what's going on: Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche said Tuesday that "a lot of nations are adopting a policy of appeasement" toward China "even the U.S. government." This is change we can believe in?

We´re No Monks

K. and I recently watched the film “We´re No Monks” directed by Pema Dhondup, a Tibetan graduate from UCLA film school in 2004.

It tells of the frustrations of four young Tibetan refugees living in McLeod Ganj who have lost patience with the Middle Path. They decide to take direct action and kidnap the Chinese Ambassador to India to draw attention to the Tibetan cause. It´s a great movie made even more interesting as we know almost all the locations used.

Dhondup says he shot the film on a "zero budget. Everything was donated, no one was paid".

Much of the funding came from benefactors such as Wilderness Films, a New Delhi production company that makes documentaries for the National Geographic and Discovery Channels. It was shot in what Dhondup calls a "neorealist style" meshing fiction with real life, using real crowds, including a scene which shows the Dalai Lama's convoy moving through the town.

While all the Tibetan actors in the movie are amateurs, one well-known Bollywood actor, Gulshan Grover, appears as the ubiquitous policeman trying to maintain order despite the boisterous, nocturnal social life of dancing, dope smoking and drinking of the disenchanted exiles. He gives a great performance.

Aub´s Verdict: Definitely worth watching, if somewhat protracted in parts

Where On Earth is the Real Panchen Lama?

The Panchen lamas form a tulku reincarnation lineage which are said to be the incarnations of Amitabha Buddha. The name, meaning "great scholar", is a Tibetan contraction of the Sanskrit paṇḍita (scholar) and the Tibetan chenpo (great). Seen as the 2nd most important lama, the role also requires the Panchen Lama to assist in the identification of the Dalai Lama.

The 11th reincarnate was identified as Gedhun Choekyi Nyima on 14th May 1995 by the Dalai Lama. Not happy with this decision, the Chinese government named their own Panchen Lama, named Gyancain Norbu as the “genuine” reincarnate. Not surprisingly, both this boy´s parents are members of the Communist party. The Tibetan recognised Panchen Lama was shortly after kidnapped alongside his family, and they have not been seen since.

The Chinese government claim to have taken him into “protective custody”and has not been seen since. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima remains the youngest ever political prisoner. The Chinese recognised Panchen Lama was crowned at Tashilumpo Monastery, the holy seat in Shigatze, Tibet, but lives in Beijing and is hardly ever seen in public. He is not recognised by Tibetans. It is believed he will be given a seat on the Communist operated Standing Committee of the National People´s Congress when he turns 18 years of age.

Every Friday a yellow ribbon is tied on a tree at the Tsuglagkhang temple in memoriam to the incarcerated Gedhun Choekyi Nyima. A short video can be found here.

Momos

Momos are the Tibetan contribution to world cuisine. They are like little dumplings and come either fried or steamed. Available with a variety of different fillings including mutton, chicken, vegetables or cheese, they are an excellent inexpensive snack. Food-stalls and restaurants sell them in abundance. There is even a restaurant devoted to this culinary delicacy – Momos – A Taste of Tibet! Perhaps strangely, our favourite momos in town are from Palwan Dhabar, a Punjabi restaurant on Temple Road. Their fried chicken momos are top quality and served with a sweet soy sauce and spicy red chilli.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama is back in his adopted home town to deliver teachings to a group of Singaporean Buddhists. Kemmy is clearly very excited about the prospect, although knows no-one coming over. This is a fairly common event whereby he receives funding for the Pro-Tibetan cause for his lessons. As a spiritual leader for the Tibetan people he needs wide shoulders to carry this heavy burden, not least due to the global travelling he undertakes to promote the Tibetan cause. Now aged 73, he was taken to hospital last month for stomach problems brought upon by exhaustion.

Mcleod Ganj fills up with a wide variety of disciples to partake in the teachings. Live translations are given in English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, etc. and most of the students are armed with FM radios to tune in to these.

Last month he was giving teachings to a Korean delegation. Between each lesson, HHDL walks through the throngs. He stops right in front of me to have a conversation with a very wrinkled and old Tibetan woman. On completion he walks vigorously down the aisle and stops in front of a European woman on the opposite side. She immediately breaks down to uncontrollable tears which he attempts to subside with little success. He moves with vigour and vitality, and whatever your religious background, he clearly has a serene and enlightened aura around him.