Editorial: Celebrating the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama turns 77 on Friday. The Tibetan community in Sikkim plans a birthday celebration stretching over two days, starting with the formal event today and continuing with cultural and religious programmes into Saturday. Even though the situation in Tibet remains grim and the official attitudes in India offer little reason for cheer, for the Tibetans, the continuing good health is reason to celebrate. The 14th Dalai Lama has now been around to comfort and guide Tibetans at home and in exile for longer than any other Dalai Lama, save the First who lived till he was 83, but then he was recognised as a Dalai Lama in retrospect and the people thus could not seek solace from him during his lifetime. 
While the reasons for the Tibetans to celebrate of the Dalai Lama’s birthday are obvious, even the nonbelievers should join the celebrations because the Dalai Lama’s contributions to the secular world are as profound as his hierarchical position in Tibetan affairs is supreme, the transfer of all his administrative and political powers to an elected body notwithstanding. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual king of a displaced people, who, when it comes to their longings for home, have only received denials and token support. In times when many religious leaders prey on faith and paranoia for varied reasons ranging from expanding their flock to pushing purity [and hence hate], the Dalai Lama has been open and accommodating. This quality, already refreshing in any leader, becomes even more significant when the Dalai Lama lives and promotes it because he has the rare knack of inspiring people. In the more than 50 years that he has led the Tibetan people in exile, he has been firm without be shrill and kept the hopes of his people alive with his logical and clear thinking. Few leaders can claim to bring such succour to their people. Although he dismisses any reference to himself as a ‘God King’, the Dalai Lama’s contribution to how the world conducts itself cannot be ignored. The Tibetan issue could have snowballed into a cold-war incinerator and imploded like Afghanistan had it not been for the Dalai Lama’s commitment to peace and 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 who joined him in exile, knew 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 people together, focussed and optimistic; not an easy task because the world has not performed too well in healing refugees beyond providing them asylum. His leadership also sustained Tibetan identity and way of life even in exile even as it was being edged out inside Tibet and communities around the world are losing their ways without even realising it. To get a sense of how successfully Tibetan culture has been sustained one needs only spend the weekend at Chandmari where the Dalai Lama’s birthday celebrations will include performances from the classical to folk to contemporary.
The Dalai is now universally respected as a unifier, saviour and a man of peace. Few can deny him this recognition and China still fears the influence he commands not only over Tibetans in exile, but also those at home. Where other leaders would have disintegrated, the Dalai Lama has adapted, improvised and grown and even though the people who have gained most from this attitude have been the Tibetans, the world at large too has learnt much from him. The near hysteria that greets his arrival everywhere does not come from blind faith alone, it is triggered because he inspires hope, instils belief and most of all, delivers. He is revered as the reincarnation of Chenrezig [Avalokiteśvara], the bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas, and has lived and led the Tibetans and all those who believe in him with compassion. His engagements with the Chinese authorities have also never been aggressive. For a man who has seen his people suffer in the hands of Communists, he displays no prejudice and has consistently endorsed that of all the modern economic theories, the economic system of Marxism is founded on moral principles. The Dalai Lama’s strength does not lie as much in the power he wields as in the conviction and commitment he harbours. Not only did the Dalai Lama look out for the Tibetans, he also gave the world peace. By keeping to the middle path, he ensured peace for India [vis a vis China] and despite all the restrictions now being imposed on his people’s right to expression by an India bending over backwards to please China, the Dalai Lama never ignores a chance to thank India for providing 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 keeps hope alive. In a world grappling with the rise of extreme rightwing posturing, the Dalai Lama also takes the lead in making organized religions adopt less regressive stands. Even as most religious leaders promote more and more parochial interpretations of their scriptures, the Dalai Lama keeps an open mind. In times when leaders, even the initially popular ones, have to be forced out of office, he has volunteered more power into the people’s hands. Despite appeals and requests not to do so, in May 2011 he ensured that the Charter for Tibetans in exile was amended and all the administrative and political powers held by him transferred to the elected Tibetan leadership. He celebrated the completion of the process as the fulfilment of his “most cherished aspiration” congratulated the Tibetan people on the responsibilities they now shouldered. The Dalai Lama opens many windows to and for the world and inspires respect with his openness...