The Dalai Lama Turns 90: A Look at Tibet’s Future
- info775148
- před 5 dny
- Minut čtení: 7
His Holiness is aging, but his birthday is a day of joy and hope, not despair.
By Ugyen Gyalpo
July 3, 2025
Last month, I flew from New York to Dharamshala, India, to attend the Tenshug, long-life prayer offering, organized by the alumni of the Central School for Tibetans, Darjeeling. On the day before the Tenshug ceremony, thanks to the organizing committee, all the ex-students of CST Darjeeling were fortunate to receive an audience. As our winding line grew closer to meeting His Holiness outside his tranquil residence in the freshness of the early morning, punctuated by the chirping of the birds perched on the pine trees, all the questions I had conjured in my mind that I would ask His Holiness melted away. Finally, when his radiant face dawned directly upon me, while I was in total supplication, his compassionate loving-kindness smile welled up the brim of my eyes. I felt like an electric divine current had flowed through my body, as I stood there in awe, inundated by unconditional joy and barely able to utter more than the customary greetings.
Even through all of this in a flash of a second, when I regained my earthly senses hitherto lost in the transcendental realm and spiritual awakening before his divine presence, I felt a little tap on my shoulder from his aides to move on. In that instant frozen in time, I could not ignore the sagging, wrinkled skin of His Holiness under arms, a reminder that aging had certainly taken a toll on his heavenly abode, and the truth of impermanence unapologetically loomed large.
Dharamshala, the political capital of the Tibetan Government in Exile and the home of the Dalai Lama since he fled from his homeland in 1959, had a different tone and vibrant rhythm of its own. The only impermanence was the ever-changing landscape. The last time I was here was fifteen years ago. Much has changed around McLeod Ganj and Gangchen Kyishong, the DC of Tibetan politics.
Walking around, a resounding message to the Chinese Government was what I heard loud and clear through the imposing administrative buildings of a functioning democracy, with its executive branches and civil servants, prepared to replace the illegitimate CCP rule when the day shall come. It was a mental and physical construction hard to ignore! The Tibetan Government in Exile is the de facto continuation of the government that ruled Tibet before 1959 and is also the legal representative of the Tibetan people to act in the interest of Tibet.
When His Holiness the Dalai Lama recently said and also reiterated in his latest autobiography, “Voice for the Voiceless,” that he would be reborn in a free country to complete an unfinished task, the significance of the continuity of the Tibetan Government in Exile, even after he succumbs to the law of impermanence, remains stronger than before. Even though the Dalai Lama divested himself of all his political roles, there should not be any analysis or paralysis that Tibet still remains synonymous with the Dalai Lama, and no symbolic Sikyong or elected representative at the helm can replace his influence.
Today, when he is about to turn ninety, the Tibetan cause he has been shepherding for a long time has come to an inflection point. It is a moment of self-analysis and political realization to face the scope of the uncertainty that lies ahead, or certainty, because of the reassuring comments made by the Dalai Lama recently.
China’s stratagem of the “long wait game” to see the collapse of Tibetan cause after His Holiness is destined to fail, since the fruit of the labor that His Holiness sowed with his long term vision in setting up the Tibetan Government in Exile, schools for education, Tibetan Buddhist monasteries from all three major sects, and the formation of a democratic set up of governance, has Tibetans in diaspora self-reliant, resilient, custodian of the Tibetan culture and civilization, and capable leaders to carry the mantle of the Tibetan cause.
Tibetans still sustain their eternal struggle upon the theory of impermanence and totally believe that one day Tibet will outlive the CCP occupation, which is just seventy years old. To quote His Holiness, “Today’s dark period of Communist Chinese occupation may seem endless, but in our long history, it is but a brief nightmare. As our Buddhist faith teaches us, nothing is immune to the law of impermanence.”
As Tibetans, we cannot be frustrated and lose hope. Even the Dalai Lama has repeatedly said that the Tibetan struggle, if necessary, would continue beyond his lifetime. We must acknowledge the fact that the inherently unstable totalitarian system does not have time on its side. Time is on the side of the Tibetan people, as are the Chinese who aspire to freedom.
China’s most important goal in the last three decades has been to obtain legitimacy for its contested rule in Tibet. But they have failed drastically, as evidenced by the fact that the U.S in recent years has countered the Chinese campaign of seeking legitimacy by designating the issue of Tibet as an “unresolved conflict” with China. Despite countries forced to kowtow to accept Chinese demand of seeking legitimacy over Tibet as a precondition for any trade talks or market penetration, Tibet has existed in the minds of the global psyche and remains relevant. This is summed up by this statement from the Dalai Lama: “The only leverage Tibetan people have left is the moral rightness of their cause and the power of the truth. The simple fact is Tibet today remains an occupied territory, and it is only the Tibetan people who can confer or deny legitimacy to the presence of China on the Tibetan plateau.”
The Dalai Lama has tried all his life to solve the issue of Tibet at the cost of even giving up its calls for independence. He has sought genuine autonomy to preserve the Tibetan civilization, identity, and culture, which are on the brink of imminent extinction. But the Chinese always fooled the Tibetans by futile rounds of dialogue to buy time to play their sinister long wait game. Besides, the hardcore CCP leadership has vehemently announced that any dialogue would be based on the premise of a precondition, that the Dalai Lama would have to publicly announce to the world that Tibet has been an inseparable part of China since ancient times.
His frustration with the Chinese Communist leadership can be summed up by this comment he made: “All my life I have advocated for nonviolence. I have done my utmost to restrain the understandable impulses of frustrated Tibetans both within and outside Tibet by persuading them to seek a realistic solution. I must admit that I remain deeply disappointed that Beijing has chosen not to acknowledge this huge accommodation and failed to capitalize on the genuine potential for a lasting solution. If no resolution is found while I am alive, the Tibetan people will blame the Chinese leadership for its failure to reach a settlement with me. I sincerely hope that Beijing will find the necessary courage to resolve the longstanding issue of Tibet before it is too late.”
As the Dalai Lama is turning ninety, many non-Tibetan journalists and writers have written about the uncertainty surrounding Tibet’s and the Tibetans’ political future. But reading through the sentiments and pulses of the Tibetans both within and outside Tibet, the unshakable spirit of the Tibetan people is manifested time and again.
Even to this day, ruthless goons of the CCP are randomly storming into the privacy of Tibetans by searching on their phones and also into the walls of monasteries for pictures of the Dalai Lama. The monks are forced under the barrel of the gun to sign a pledge renouncing all ties to the Dalai Lama, labeled as a separatist on the declaration. Many who are caught exchanging messages with Tibetans in diaspora are arbitrarily arrested as well. The firewall of technological surveillance would even make the Orwellian world feel less draconian.
Even the fake Panchen Lama imposed to worship has become a laughingstock amongst the Tibetans. Recently, a Rinpoche was killed by the Chinese thugs for not showing reverence to the dummy Panchen Lama. The unsettling precedent for the Chinese leadership is that the Dalai Lama still remains the ultimate symbol and hope for all Tibetans.
China has definitely won the geographic land of Tibet. Still, they have failed to win the minds of the Tibetan people and also the desperately sought legitimacy over their rule in Tibet. Some had concurred with the dire straits of danger in putting so much faith in one person as in the Dalai Lama, something with which I totally agree. But regardless, I can bring some calmness to the anxious punditry by reiterating that Tibetans continue to foster their unshakable faith in the Dalai Lama. Tibetans are less concerned with his advanced age due to the barrage of hints from the Dalai Lama himself that he would, first, live up to 113 years of age and, secondly, reincarnate to carry the unfinished task of the Tibetan freedom struggle. Even more comforting was the recent statement that he made about the possibility of self-emanating into the body of an adult as the 15th Dalai Lama while the 14th is still alive, an instant solution to the political and spiritual vacuum between the reincarnations that had proven tumultuous historically, something China is dying to capitalize upon.
Source: bitterwinter.org
Comments