Why the World Needs to Celebrate the Dalai Lama’s Birthday

Editorial:-
His Holiness the Dalai Lama turned 79 on Sunday. He is of advanced age, and yet he exudes a rare compassion and frank forthrightness. Now that he is no longer the political leader of his people and only their religious head, no one would fault him if he narrowed his priorities down to the [selfish] welfare of his faith and his people. But he continues to use his influence and following to speak for those whom most have forsaken and people whose plight remains largely unaddressed. Belonging to a people who have been refugees for more than five decades now, it can only be warm empathy that equips him with the faculties to call on fellow Buddhist nations [Sri Lanka and Myanmar] to stop violence against Hindu Tamils and Muslim Rohingyas respectively. This appeal, the Dalai Lama made while addressing people at Leh in Ladakh on his birthday. He could have spoken just about the situation in Tibet and the issues of faith and Tibetan refugees and no one would have found anything amiss. But he decided to speak to Buddhist-majority countries and appeal on their Buddhism to halt violence which most other are comfortable ignoring. It for such gestures and much more that the world needs to join the Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhists in celebrating the Dalai Lama’s birthday.
This is a theme that this section returns to every year around this time, and we continue to do so at the cost of repetition because some emotions need to be refreshed at least once a year. The Tibetans have reason to rejoice. Even a cursory perusal of the history of the institution of the Dalai Lama will reveal that few Dalai Lamas have reached the age that the XIVth is now healthily in. Given the importance of the XIVth Dalai Lama to the Tibetan cause and the need for his charisma to keep the issue alive in international circles makes every prayer for the Dalai Lama’s long life meaningful and important. In fact, it would be unfair to suggest that only the Tibetans celebrated the Dalai Lama’s 79th birthday; every person influenced by Tibetan Buddhism, every person inspired by the struggle of the Tibetans to preserve their way of life and every person who respects nonviolence, must have joined the Tibetans in celebrating the event. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual king of a displaced people in a foreign land. Although he dismisses any reference to himself as a ‘God King’ and prefers to be known as a ‘Simple Buddhist Monk,’ his contribution to how the world conducts itself cannot be ignored. The Tibetan issue could have snowballed into a cold-war incinerator to implode like Afghanistan had it not been for the Dalai Lama’s commitment to peace and his decision to take a rational approach to a historical wrong. The Dalai Lama was barely 24 when he was thrown into the outside world, of which, not only he, but most Tibetans knew extremely little. While this culture shock would have been too much for lesser minds to handle, the Dalai Lama conducted himself well. Not only did he learn and adapt well, he also kept his flock together and even managed something that had eluded Tibetans even in Tibet - unity. Meanwhile, by keeping to the middle path, he also brought peace to India and despite all the restrictions now being imposed on his people’s right to free expression by an India bending over backwards to please China, the Dalai Lama never ignores a chance to thank India for having provided refuge to the Tibetans. It is the Dalai Lama’s self-effacing humility that makes him tower over other powerful and important people.
The world does not have enough people like the Dalai Lama around, which is why it is so important that he stays around for as long as is possible. He will probably not live to see a Free Tibet, he might not see peace prevail in the world in his lifetime, but every day that the Dalai Lama lives among us, he will bring that possibility closer…