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How a layman sees the Dalai Lama

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-13 19:30

A "POLITICIAN MONK"

As one leading figure of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama, believed an incarnation of Chenrezig, stands as  deity of compassion and a visible embodiment of Tibetan Buddhists' faith.    

Only three of the 14 reincarnations meaningfully ruled Tibetans, and the throne of the Dalai Lama was historically bolstered by  China's central governments of various dynasties. The reincarnation conducted by Rinpoches and the accreditation from  the imperial authority are inseparable parts of the whole system  ensuring legitimacy of the Dalai Lama and his ruling in Tibet. An angry Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) once decreed to stop reincarnation of a rebellious Tibetan Buddhist lama, which left his sect dying out.    

Gradually rising as a regional spiritual and political leader, the Dalai Lama sweated for his long journey to the world stage, with his first trip outside China and India to two Buddhist countries of Japan and Thailand in 1967, the first European trip in 1973 and the first US one in 1979, the year in which the United States and the People's Republic of China established diplomatic relations.

Going into exile subsequently made him a star. In all the 104 awards or honorary doctorates he has collected from around the world, 103 were granted after he fled China. Rubbing elbows with him somewhat became a fad or a manifestation of moral dignity.

The "simple Buddhist monk," who was said to wake up usually at 3:30 a.m. and spend his first four hours every day in meditation, frequently indulged his secular enjoyment in being interviewed by world top media outlets.

An online US Department of Justice document recorded the Dalai Lama's visit to the United States from April 10 to 24 in 2008. During the two-week trip, the monk, often with his brand big smile and deep laugh, talked politics and China's "crackdown" on the March 14 Lhasa riot in NBC, CBS and NPR, to just name a few. He also met with US Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula J. Dobriansky, who contributed to an op-ed piece to the Washington Post the day after their rendezvous.

The spiritual leader's "sideline" activities supplemented his full-time job, prayer offerings and religious teachings which were mainly arranged by the New York-based Office of Tibet and beefed up by lobbying of pro-independence groups.

Such efforts paid off. The Dalai Lama said in his latest statement on March 10, "The fact that the Tibet issue is alive and the international community is taking growing interest in it is indeed an achievement."

Influenced by his highly politicized inner circle and interest groups, the Dalai Lama, willingly or not, interwove both religious and political faces. Before his fleeing half century ago, he consulted the Nechung Oracle for the Buddha's advice. Before teachings in recent years, the self-claimed tolerant spiritual leader usually asked Dorje Shugden worshippers not to attend his ceremonies. Those who propitiated the particular Tibetan deity protested against the Dalai Lama's discrimination, which was similar to political partisanship and runs against his announced commitment to "promoting religious harmony."

TIBETAN HERITAGE IN THE BIRTHPLACE

Gonpo, who enjoyed two visits with the Dalai Lama -- each lasting for one hour -- in the 1990s in Dharamsala, India, decorated the prayer hall wall with delicate thangkas, or cloth painting scrolls bearing images of the successive Dalai Lamas and Tsong Kha Pa, the Gelug school founder back in the fifteenth century.

"These beautiful thangkas cost me roughly 10,000 yuan," Gonpo said.

What he spent was ridiculously reasonable for the top paintings created by an artistic tribe that usually served top Tibetan clerics and noble families in the feudal era.

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