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Why is the Dalai Lama "son of India"?

By Dhundup Gyalpo

Dhundup Gyalpo Photographer unknown

With great power comes great responsibility. However, as far as the new, powerful, China is concerned, their recent behaviours have exhibited not responsbility, but a lack of maturity and an excess of hubris. As China seeks to exploit its newfound economic and political clout, it bcomes very clear that the country is deeply embedded with a motley assortment of insecurities. There is such a huge market for conspiracy theories in China, just because: “if you are really secure, you don’t need to dabble in conspiracy theories,” noted the author of China’s Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy, Minxin Pei.

In the free world these wild theories and conjectures would be easily dismissed with contempt and ridicule, so they are mostly targeted for domestic consumption. They are meant to serve as rabble-rousers — to stir up nationalist sentiments of the Chinese people, and the mentality of “us vs them” — by regurgitating the same old plot of foreign powers acting in cahoots with domestic dissidents and separatists to scuttle the long-awaited rise of China as the new superpower of the world.

For instance, the state propaganda aggressively peddled the idea that the recent mass upheavals in Tibet and East Turkestan were products of foreign machinations. As information in China is strictly filtered and manipulated by the state, a great many people still buy these stories. Said Minxin Pei, “I am not talking about the man on the street. I’m talking about quite well-educated people, very serious people, who believe in this kind of conspiracy theory.”

The current chart of bestselling conspiracy theories in China is topped by a newfound fear that the Dalai Lama might actually be seeking Indian citizenship. According to the state-run China Tibet Information Centre/People’s Daily Online, “the Dalai Lama remarked that due to the fact that he was from purely Tibetan parents, he was Tibetan in appearance, but an Indian in spirituality. Thus, his comments and ideas originate from Indian traditions.” They quoted Bhupendra Kumar Modi as having said that the Dalai Lama would try to obtain Indian citizenship. They further claimed that the Dalai Lama’s recent statement describing himself as “son of India” show he has become subservient to his “Indian masters” and that he intends to deny his Chinese citizenship.

Even the executive vice-minister of the United Front Work Department, Zhu Wenqin, had chipped in, saying “The Dalai Lama even repeatedly called himself ‘I am a son of India’. This is indisputable, we ask people not to deal this claim, this is no simple issue, he must make some clarification on this.”

Tibetan ties with India

It is common knowledge that (Tibetan) Buddhism is the nucleus of Tibetan national identity, the quintessence of Tibetan core values and belief system. And since Buddhism emanated from India, we cannot deny its Indian origin. Why then the fuss about being Indian in spirituality!

In the lexicon of Tibetan Buddhism, there are honorific phrases like “The son of the Buddha” (rgyal sras) or “The chief of sons” (sras kyi thu bo), which in actuality mean the most prominent disciple of Buddha, who has mastered the knowledge of his teacher, and are therefore not meant to be taken literally. This whole issue over “a son of India” can be seen and understood in that context. Unfortunately, the communist capitalists of China, for whom “religion is poison”, have time and again, whether deliberately or not, proven to be simply incapable of grasping the spiritual connotations and nuances, or to read between the lines.

The Tibetan people have always taken great pride in their close spiritual affiliation with India, which is revered as a “holy land” in the Tibetan annals of history and religion. The Tibetans cherish the fact that their religion can be traced back to the ancient Indian univiersity of Nalanda. Tibetan history is full of extraordinary stories about the trials and tribulations of lotsawas (translators) who went to study in India and imported Buddhism to Tibet. The Dalai Lama has therefore often said that Indian and Tibetan peoples share a pure bond of master and disciple.

Tibetans also cherish the fact that out of over 360 million worldwide Buddhists, only Tibetans could claim to have preserved the whole corpus of exoteric and esoteric teachings of the Buddha from India. As a trademark of the authenticity and purity of the Tibetan religious texts, a great many of them begin by citing a routine phrase in Sanskrit, “gyagar sked du …” (meaning, “In the language of India …”).

The deep cultural affinity between the Tibetan and Indian peoples is not limited only to Buddhism. The Tibetan script itself was devised on the basis of the ancient Indian Devanagari script. As well, among the many theories about the origin of the first (recorded) King of Tibet, one popular view is that he was the son of an Indian king. There are various other ancient Tibetan narratives that link Tibetans with the land and people of India.

The depth of Tibetan affinity with the Indian people appears even greater when it is juxtaposed against the sheer lack of it between the Tibetan and Chinese peoples — apart of course from a handful of culinary dishes. This is exactly why many eminent intellectuals have said that Tibet belongs more to India then China, if they were ever to contest ownership over Tibet.

Although the (Indian) Buddhism that spread in Tibet was significantly different from the one that spread in China — whether in its content, social impacts or other relevant aspects — the real Chinese Buddhists should have no problem in saying that their religion had emanated from India, thus making them also, technically “Indian” in spirituality!

“The greatest living Gandhian”

Similarly, India and its people have also esteemed the Dalai Lama as India’s “honoured guest”, and, to borrow the words of present Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, “the greatest living Gandhian of the world.” It may also be noted that despite a constant flux in the coalition politics of India’s pluralist democracy, or for that matter, the various political parties of diverse ideologies that has thus far formed the Government of India, there has been not a slightest change in their Tibet policy or their commitment towards the care of Tibetan refugees.

Today, the moral authority of the Dalai Lama as an international figure transcends all borders. Those still in doubt could take a glance at some independent polls conducted on the most popular or influential global leaders of present times. The Dalai Lama is recognised not only as a beacon of peace and non-violence, but for promoting universal values and warm-heartedness that has been a source of happiness in the lives of millions across the world. It is in fact this overwhelming global popularity and influence that has come to be the proverbial prickly thorn in the flesh of China’s hubris.

This is precisely why, despite the overwhelming political and economic muscle of China, reinforced by its bellicose statements and threats to almost every country that hosts the Dalai Lama, the frequency of his foreign visits and the size of crowd that he attracts internationally have only increased over the years. The Chinese hue and cry has, on the contrary, only added to the glamour and attraction of his foreign visits — though it is an entirely different matter that he has always been extremely considerate in avoiding possible inconvenience to his hosts.

India vs China

In the 1950s, when Tibetans were desperate for help due to the Chinese military aggression in Tibet, it was India that came forward and embraced them with open arms, just as they would their own people. Since then, for over 50 years of communist Chinese rule, the Tibetans have endured devastation and carnage at various times of brutal military repression and catastrophic mass movements, like the Cultural Revolution, that resulted in the deaths of over 1.2 million Tibetans and destruction of over 6,000 monasteries. In fact, the entire bio-diversity of the once-pristine environment of Tibet has been degraded to the present critical level.

Contrary to the mass devastation in Tibet, where virtually all vestiges of Tibetan religion and culture have been so systematically and holistically destroyed that it has given rise to the new term of “cultural genocide”, India provided the proverbial home away from home to the Tibetan refugees.

We often like to boast that ours is the most successful of all the exile communities in the world. There are times when we have to remind ourselves that we are still refugees and as such, have a cause to fulfill, that the fundamental rights and freedoms that we so take for granted (in exile) are still denied to our brethren back home.

There are thus no words that could convey the profundity of Tibetan gratitude towards India and its people. This is exactly why Tibetans across the globe voluntarily organised a series of events to express their heartfelt gratitude to the people and the government of India last year. The spontaneity of Tibetan gratitude towards India is all the more visible when we compared it with the state-sponsored events that are hosted in China to celebrate with great fanfare the so-called “liberation” and “prosperity” of Tibet under communist rule.

The sheer mendacity of Chinese propaganda was exposed before the whole world when a wave of peaceful mass uprisings spread over the entire Tibetan plateau in 2008. In the light of Chinese exploitation and oppression in Tibet, it is but natural that Tibetans have only grievances and resentment towards China. This feeling of gratitude towards India and resentment towards China is bound to be extremely humiliating to the usually thick-skinned face of the Chinese regime. However, instead of performing a reality check on their wrongdoings in Tibet, the communist leaders, blinkered by their own propaganda, still have the temerity to expect Tibetans to be indebted to their oppressive rule.

A global citizen

The Dalai Lama today is not merely the legitimate leader of Tibet, but an influential international figure whose life-long mission is to promote universal values and inter-faith harmony. His views on almost everything under the sun create headlines across the world. He is counted among the greatest champions of world peace and non-violence, a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and commands a massive international following. Given the level of international admiration and respect for the Dalai Lama, he should only be viewed as a citizen of the world. Any one country, religion or group of people cannot claim him exclusively.

The catalogue of awards and honours presented to him internationally includes honorary citizenship. He is already an honorary citizen of Canada and several world cities like Paris (France), Rome (Italy), Warsaw (Poland), Wroclaw (Poland), etc. Moreover, in the case of the global Tibetan diaspora, acquiring citizenship of a country and maintaining one’s national identity are not mutually exclusive. They are in fact complementary, a practical necessity to preserve their national identity and heritage.

According to an ancient Tibetan saying — gang byams pha ma dang gang skyid pha yul (whoever loves you is your parents, wherever you find happiness is your homeland). Since the Dalai Lama has lived in India far longer than he had lived in Tibet, it is only natural that he is often quoted as saying, “I have spent most of my life in this hill station [Dharamshala]. Now I feel like a citizen of Himachal Pradesh.”

This is particularly true of the present Tibetan generation, like this writer for instance, who were born, bred and buttered in India. They feel they are Indian as much as they are Tibetan. For them, it is not compulsory to choose one. The beauty of freedom in exile is that you can choose both. Unlike those in Tibet, they are not facing the cultural imperialism of a dominant nationality that is bent on destroying their identity in the name of “national stability and security.”

As far as Tibetans in India are concerned, they have always attached a greater importance to maintaining their status of political refugee ever since they first took shelter in this country. As their ultimate aim was and is to return to Tibet, instead of diluting themselves into the teeming multitude of India, they had built from scratch their own separate and cohesive community in exile. As a result, a tiny community of merely 100,000-odd Tibetans stands out with all its unique characteristics even in a nation of a billion people today. There is now a solid foundation in exile for “retaining, nourishing and promoting” the rich Tibetan heritage for generations to come. Some people therefore say that the real Tibet survives not in Tibet, but in India.

Despite the award of honorary citizenship by various countries, there has been no change in the political status of the Dalai Lama. He is still “a political refugee”, who travels across the globe with the Identity Certificate (also known as the yellow book) issued by the Government of India to all its refugees, not only Tibetans.

Denying Chinese citizenship

Regarding the allegation of denying Chinese citizenship, when was the Dalai Lama ever a Chinese citizen in the first place? The Tibetan people, whether in or outside Tibet, have always viewed themselves more as victims rather than citizens of China. Besides, Tibetans and Chinese have been historically as different as cats and dogs. They differ in race, language, religion, tradition, custom and other relevant aspects.

The recent Op-ed article published by the official Chinese media also denounced the Dalai Lama as “a guy who betrayed southern Tibet to India”. Regarding this so-called betrayal of “southern Tibet” (which I assume refers to the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh), the border issues between Tibet and (British) India have always been resolved amicably through dialogue when Tibet independently handled its own foreign affairs.

It however goes without saying that Tibetans should be extremely happy about the fact that people in the Himalayan regions of India, who also share the Tibetan heritage of religion and culture, enjoy all the fundamental rights and freedoms that make them the masters of their own fate. Unlike the people on the other side of the Himalaya, the people on the Indian side have never been subjected to tyranny and state-sponsored mass persecution.

Furthermore, the onslaught of Chinese cultural imperialism in Tibet today is not merely diluting Tibetan religion and culture, but is posing a serious threat to the continuity of Tibetan national identity. The Chinese leadership must however understand that the spiritual domain of Tibetan religion and culture is not limited to its national boundaries. Irrespective of the eventual outcome of the ongoing, relentless Sinocisation of Tibet, the Tibetan heritage will survive and flourish in the outside world, especially amidst the people of Himalayan regions of India. This is precisely why the Dalai Lama has often said that the next Dalai Lama will be born outside Tibet, in a land where there is freedom.

Copyright © 2010 Dhundup Gyalpo

Published in Tibet Sun