Supreme Ruler of Tibet – Page 2 – Whole Dude

Whole Quest – Tibet declares its own Full Independence

Tibet Awareness – Tibet’s Quest to Declare Full Independence

***“The Great Game” of rivalry between the empires of Czarist Russia and Queen Victoria’s Great Britain to control Asia changed the fortunes of Tibet forever.***

The Great Fifth Dalai Lama founded the ‘Ganden Phodrang’ Government of Tibet in 1642. The successive Dalai Lamas have headed Tibetan State for nearly four centuries without any disruption despite Mongol conquest of Tibet in 1279. During the reign of Seventh Dalai Lama (1708-57), Tibet came under nominal protection of Ch’ing or Manchu Dynasty (1644 – 1912) that ruled China while Tibetans enjoyed their natural freedom and independence. At no time in history, the Chinese Emperor required Tibet to pay taxes or tribute. Qing, Ch’ing, or Manchu China made no attempt to directly rule or govern Tibet. Manchu China’s influence in Tibet was almost nonexistent. “The Great Game” of rivalry between the empires of Czarist Russia and Queen Victoria’s Great Britain to control Asia changed the fortunes of Tibet forever.

TIBET AWARENESS - TIBET'S QUEST FOR FULL INDEPENDENCE. THE INSTITUTION OF DALAI LAMA, GANDEN PHODRANG GOVERNMENT OF TIBET BEGAN IN 1642. — ***“The Great Game” of rivalry between the empires of Czarist Russia and Queen Victoria’s Great Britain to control Asia changed the fortunes of Tibet forever.***

During the reign of Thirteenth Dalai Lama, who ascended the throne at Potala Palace in 1895, Tibet repeatedly rebuffed overtures from Great Britain who at first saw Tibet as a trade route to Manchu China and later as countenancing Czarist Russian advances that might endanger British India. Eventually, in 1903, after failure to get Manchu China to control Tibet, Great Britain dispatched a political mission to Lhasa from British India to secure understanding on frontier and trade relations. When Tibet resisted, Great Britain sent a military expedition in 1904 forcing the Dalai Lama to seek shelter in Mongolia in June 1904. The British Expedition in 1905 imposed a treaty that made Tibet a protectorate of Britain without Chinese adherence. After declaring Tibet as her Protectorate, Great Britain lost interest in keeping that commitment, went ahead and achieved a treaty with Qing China without Tibetan participation. In this treaty of 1906, Great Britain conceded to Qing China’s suzerainty over Tibet as Britain was only interested in blocking Czarist Russia’s expansion of power from Central Asia. In 1906, the 13th Dalai Lama returned to Kumbun monastery in southern Tibet and stayed there for over a year. Qing China in an attempt to control Tibet dispatched a military force that launched a brutal attack on Kham killing several Tibetans including monks. In his quest for Tibetan Independence, the 13th Dalai Lama visited Peking during September 1908 to initiate direct diplomatic efforts with Qing Court and other foreign missions in Peking. However, the 13th Dalai Lama could not find any success in Peking, returned to Lhasa at the end of 1909. This success in keeping Britain away from Tibet emboldened Qing China to seek direct control of Tibet by using force against the Tibetans for the first time in 10 centuries. Soon after the 13th Dalai Lama’s arrival in Lhasa, in early 1910, Chinese General Zhao Erfeng marched into Tibet. Great Britain was unwilling to take any role in the dispute between China and Tibet. He had narrowly escaped getting captured by the Chinese and fled to India reaching there on February 21, 1910. The British allowed him to live in Darjeeling, and Kalimpong. The situation in Lhasa changed suddenly in 1911, when the Xinhai Revolution overthrew the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China. Taking advantage of the fall of Qing China, the 13th Dalai Lama directed operations from Sikkim defeating the Chinese occupying force in 1912. Tibet expelled all Chinese nationals including diplomats living in Lhasa. He returned to Lhasa in January 1913 and made public the “five-point” statement fully asserting Tibet’s Independence on February 13, 1913.

That dying burst of military aggression by the Qing or Manchu Dynasty converted Tibetan indifference into enmity. From 1913, Tibet functioned as an independent government and defended its frontier against China in occasional fighting as late as 1931. The Great 13th Dalai Lama died on December 17, 1933 while Tibet existed as a fully independent nation. In 1949, Red China, the Evil Empire founded by China’s Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong, heralded “Liberation” of Tibet. In 1950, Red Army invaded eastern Tibet, overwhelming the poorly equipped Tibetan troops. An appeal by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama to the United Nations was denied as support from Republic of India, and Great Britain was not forthcoming. A Tibetan delegation summoned to Peking in 1951 had to sign a treaty dictated by the Communist conquerors. Red China, a Liar, a Jackal, used deception, and trickery while she promised to guarantee Tibetan autonomy in exchange for keeping her civil and military headquarters at Lhasa. This story of enmity between Tibet and China that began with Manchu China’s military invasion of Tibet in 1910 continues to survive and majority of Tibetans seek full independence and not a meaningful autonomy to which the 14th Dalai Lama has agreed to find a ‘Middle Way’ to placate Red China. As Doomsayer of Doom Dooma, I predict the downfall of Red China and announce Tibet’s destiny to regain full Independence.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment

THE 13th DALAI LAMA’S DIPLOMATIC PARLEYS IN PEKING IN 1908

August 19, 2015 11:54 pm

The Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thupten Gyatso

This article appeared in the March-April 2015 edition of Tibetan Review.

Matteo Miele* examines the diplomatic activities of the 13th Dalai Lama in Beijing during his escape there in the aftermath of the British invasion of Tibet in 1903-04, which explains why he made the 1912 declaration of Tibet’s independence: that whereas Tibet viewed itself as an independent country forced to remain subservient to the wishes of its powerful neighbour, China not only considered Tibet a part of its empire but also looked to fully integrate it in ways unprecedented in history and which the communist Chinese eventually carried out in 1959.

The western diplomats

The thirteenth Dalai Lama Thubten Gyatsho (Thub-bstan-rgya-mtsho) arrived in Peking on September 28, 1908[1]. He reached the city by train, at two in the afternoon, greeted by representatives of the Wai-wu pu[2], Li-fan yüan[3] and of the imperial family[4].
Among the conditions for the audience that the Emperor Kuang-hsü and the Empress Dowager Tz’u-hsi would have granted the Dalai Lama there was the k’ou-tou[5], or the act of prostration before the emperor. The reason for the different treatment given to the thirteenth Dalai Lama, in comparison to the one of the visit in the seventeenth century by the Great Fifth, was the intervention of Chang Yin-t’ang who had advised the government on the procedure to follow with the spiritual leader of the Gelug-pa[6]. Thubten Gyatsho had made no secret of his opposition to such a gesture, which would have been therefore replaced by a simple kneel[7]. The successor of Thubten Gyatsho, the fourteenth and current Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatsho (Bstan-’dzin-rgya-mtsho), gave a purely religious interpretation to that genuflection: Tibetans considered the emperor as the body of manifestation of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī (tib. ’Jam-dpal-dbyangs) and therefore Thubten Gyatsho knelt to the sprul-sku and not to the political leader of the Empire[8]. The audience, originally scheduled for October 6, also because of ceremonial matters, was then fixed for October 14, 1908[9].
While in Peking, Thubten Gyatsho had the opportunity to have direct or indirect contacts with several Western representatives: an envoy had gone to the British, Russian, German, American and French legations and Ministers of Washington and Paris had a private audience with the Dalai Lama. This created a certain discomfort with the Government of China[10]. For this reason, on October 8, 1908, the Wai-wu pu informed the Doyen of Diplomatic Body the days and times at which the foreign delegates could meet with the Dalai Lama, and only after they have been received and presented by a Chinese officer[11]. Just two days before, on October 6, the Dalai Lama met with William Woodville Rockhill, the US ambassador[12]. At the meeting there were no Chinese, and the American diplomat found Thubten Gyatsho “in a much less happy frame of mind than when I had seen him last; he was evidently irritable, preoccupied, and uncommunicative”[13]. A couple of weeks later, Dorjiev, who was in Peking with the Dalai Lama, shared the latter’s worries with Rockhill: Thubten Gyatsho saw his temporal power over Tibet threatened: after less than two centuries of substantial autonomy within the Manchu imperial system, Ch’ing Dynasty was rethinking the political and administrative status of Tibet[14]. The country, to be divided into administrative districts «as in China proper», would have been then hit by a series of reforms, to regulate the military, the infrastructures, monetary system, education and agriculture[15].

The US ambassador, however, although he was a connoisseur of historical and cultural issues of Asia, could not avoid comparing the Ch’ing Empire with a federal state and about this he wrote to President :
If these were really the reforms contemplated, I could not see what objections the Dalai Lama could have to them. Furthermore, military questions, relations with foreign States, educational questions (in some countries) were all Imperial matters which could not be left to the various States to deal with independently[16].
The Dalai Lama was concerned about a marginalization of Dge-lugs school and asked to continue to exercise the right to submit memorials to the emperor, after consultation with the Amban in Lhasa, without being obliged to go through the Viceroy of Ssu-ch’uan and the Li-fan yüan, a right that had been denied to him during his stay in Peking by the Li-fan yüan itself[17].

Before any meeting with the Dalai Lama, the British Ambassador to China Sir John Jordan consulted with his Russian counterpart Korostovetz, agreeing on a «purely ceremonial visit», to be made after the audience of the Dalai Lama to the court, and in any case informing the Wai-wu pu[18]
The problem was the political nature that the Dalai Lama seemed intent on giving to these contacts with Western diplomats. In fact, the envoy of the Dalai Lama had spoken to Korostovetz about the contrariety of Thubten Gyatsho about the k’ou-tou and reiterated the claims on the temporal power of Tibet[19].
Shortly after, the meetings with the Russians and the British were held[20]. The visit of Jordan took place on October 20, 1908[21]. After passing the entrance, controlled by two Tibetan soldiers with Russian rifles, the English delegates found themselves in front of the thirteenth Dalai Lama who «was seated cross-legged on yellow satin cushions placed on an altar-like table about 4 feet high, which stood in a recess or alcove»[22]. To his left, five seats for the delegation, to his right, the abbot of Drepung (’Bras-spungs) and the Tibetan-Chinese interpreter, a lama from the bordering area with Ssu-ch’uan[23]. The only Chinese in the room was a young interpreter of the Wai-wu pu, translating into English the Chinese and vice versa[24]. It was a very formal meeting, which lasted about eight minutes[25]. The Dalai Lama expressed his desire to erase the conflicts of the past, wishing a happy new course in relations between Tibet and the Raj and Jordan agreed to his request of handing his message of friendship to Edward VII[26].

The meeting with the Prince of Sikkim

On 25 November 1908, the Dalai Lama also met with Sidkeong Tulku Namgyel (Srid-skyong-sprul-sku-rnam-rgyal), Prince of Sikkim («Maharaj Kumar»)[27]. The young man had arrived at the Yellow Temple[28] around two in the afternoon, and stayed with the Dalai Lama for over two hours[29]. The two talked about their experiences abroad, the Prince in England and Europe, while the Dalai Lama of his travels after the escape from Lhasa and during which he had the opportunity to learn the Mongolian and Chinese languages[30]. In particular, during his stay in Mongolia, the Dalai Lama had been able to meet the Buddhist Mongols and receive affection and respect from them and hoped «to strengthen this influence and to extend it still further over other Buddhist countries in course of time»[31]. The Dalai Lama did not have a good impression of the Jetsun Dampa (Rje-btsun dam-pa)[32]. With regard to the relations with China, the Sikkimese Prince became aware that Thubten Gyatsho had little sympathy towards the Empire, with which he had to continue a forced coexistence[33]. At the same time the Dalai Lama had shown himself well-disposed towards the British and the Raj[34]. In this regard he was interested in the visit of the Panchen Lama in India and the very good hospitality that he had received from the British authorities[35]. Furthermore the Dalai Lama «said that he had been told that the English were the most honest amongst all the nations, and was that so? The Kumar replied in the affirmative, and added that they were the most powerful as well»[36]. The Dalai Lama had the intention, after his return to the Potala, to send some Tibetan students to the Raj to study medicine and other scientific subjects[37]. Another topic of conversation was the project to return the control to the Buddhists of the shrine of Bodh Gaya (at the time controlled by the Hindus), the place where Siddhārtha attained enlightenment[38]. The Dalai Lama would have participated actively in the project, at the request of the Prince, as «joint President» (together with the Panchen Lama) of the company that had to bring the issue forward and of which the Prince would have been the vice-president[39].

Going back to Lhasa

On November 14, 1908, the Emperor Kuang-hsü died, probably poisoned on the orders of Tz’u-hsi[40]. The Empress Dowager died the following day. The Celestial Empire was in the hands of a two-year old child, P’u-i. The thirteenth Dalai Lama left Peking on the morning of December 21, 1908[41]. He headed towards the monastery of Kumbum (Sku-’bum byams-pa gling), in Amdo (A-mdo), waiting “until he receives an Imperial letter, when he will be free to proceed to Lhassa”[42]. While the Dalai Lama was travelling, Sir Jordan received in
Peking, on January 4, 1909, a letter from the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Sir Edward Grey informing him of the response of a grateful Edward VII to the Dalai Lama[43]. Of course, at the time, it was not possible to deliver the message directly to Thubten Gyatsho and Jordan was not enthusiastic of the idea to go through the Wai-wu pu[44]. The alternative, suggested by Jordan, was to inform him through the Government of India on his arrival in Lhasa[45].

However, within the ceremonial dimension, the new friendship between the head of Tibet and the British was now clear. The meetings with foreign diplomats and the audience at court were the prelude to a radical reversal of the geopolitical map in which Tibet was inserted. Those that between 1903 and 1904 had invaded the Land of Snows would become, in early 1910, the new protectors of the Dalai Lama, again fleeing from Lhasa, but this time running away from a Manchu imperial power that will show its most cruel face in its last months of life.

* Matteo Miele (Frosinone, 1984) holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences, Program in Geopolitics from the University of Pisa,
where he is a Cultore della materia at the Department of Political Sciences. Between August, 2011 and July, 2012 he was a lecturer at the Sherubtse College, Royal University of Bhutan.

[1] The National Archives, Kew (TNA), Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey, September 30, 1908, FO 535/11, No. 112, p. 96.
[2] Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
[3] The ministry responsible for outer territories; in Manchu language: Tulergi golo be dasara jurgan. Rowe, William T., China’s Last Empire: The Great Qing, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Ma, 2009, p. 39.
[4] TNA, Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey, September 30, 1908, FO 535/11, No. 112, p. 96.
[5] TNA, Rules for the Reception of the Dalai Lama sent from the Grand Council to the Board of Dependencies, the Board of the Interior, and the Comptrollers of the Imperial Household, Inclosure in No. 112 (Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey, September 30, 1908), FO 535/11, pp. 97-98.
[6] Ya Han-chang, Ta lai la ma chuan, Jen min ch’u pan she: Hsin hua shu tien fa hsing, Pei-ching, 1984, p. 215.
[7] TNA, Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey, October 12, 1908, No. 114, FO 535/11, p. 99.
[8] Laird, Thomas, The Story of Tibet. Conversations with the Dalai Lama, Grove Press, New York, 2006, p. 232.
[9] TNA, Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey, October 12, 1908, No. 114, FO 535/11, p. 100. The visit and its political and religious meanings were analysed with particular attention in Jagou, Fabienne, The Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s Visit to Beijing in 1908: In Search of a New Kind of Chaplain-Donor Relationship, in Kapstein, Matthew T. (ed.), Buddhism Between Tibet and China, Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2009, pp. 349-378.
[10] TNA, Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey, October 12, 1908, FO 535/11, No. 114, pp. 98-99.
[11] Ivi, p. 99; TNA, Wai-wu Pu to Doyen of Diplomatic Body, October 8, 1908, FO 535/11, Inclosure in No. 114, p. 99.
[12] TNA, Mr. Rockhill to President Roosevelt, November 8, 1908, Inclosure 1 in No. 3, FO 535/12, p. 3.
[13] Ibidem.
[14] Ivi, pp. 3-4.
[15] Ibidem.
[16] Ibidem.
[17] Ibidem; TNA, Draft of Paragraphs which the Dalai Lama wished to include in his Memorial to the Empress-Dowager thanking for honours conferred, but which the Li-fan Pu refused to allow him to do. (Given to Mr. Rockhill by one of the Dalai Lama’s Khampos in Chinese, November 5, 1908.), FO 535/12, Inclosure 3, in No. 3, pp. 6-7.
[18] TNA, Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey, October 12, 1908, FO 535/11, No. 114, pp. 98-99.
[19] Ivi, p. 99.
[20] TNA, Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey, October 25, 1908, FO 535/11, No. 117, p. 101.
[21] Ibidem.
[22] TNA, Memorandum by Mr. Mayers, FO 535/11, Inclosure in No. 117 (Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey, October 25, 1908), pp. 102.
[23] Ivi, pp.102-103.
[24] Ivi, p. 103.
[25] Ibidem.
[26] Ibidem.
[27] TNA, Memorandum of an interview between the Dalai Lama and the Maharaj Kumar of Sikkim held at the Yellow Temple Peking on November 25th 1908 (signed by W.A. O’Connor, Major), FO 800/244, pp. 260-262. Sidkeong Tulku was born in 1879, the second son of the ninth Choegyal of Sikkim Thutob Namgyal (Mthu-stobs-rnam-rgyal). Ascending to the throne in 1914, he would die the same year, succeeded by his younger brother Tashi Namgyel (Bkra-shis-rnam-rgyal). Chos dbang gting skyes dgon pa byang mkhan po chos dbang, Sbas yul ’bras mo ljongs kyi chos srid dang ’brel ba’i rgyal rabs lo rgyus bden don kun gsal me long, Rnam rgyal bod kyi shes rig nyams zhib khang, Gangtok, 2003, TBRC Resource ID: W00EGS1016728, p. 273 and p. 280.
[28] Chinese: Huang-ssu.
[29] TNA, Memorandum of an interview between the Dalai Lama and the Maharaj Kumar of Sikkim held at the Yellow Temple Peking on November 25th 1908 (signed by W.A. O’Connor, Major), FO 800/244, p. 260.
[30] Ivi, p. 260 and p. 262.
[31] Ivi, p. 260.
[32] Ivi, p. 262. Indeed, the popular devotion of the Mongols had fuelled some jealousy on the part of the Jetsun Dampa and the latter had subjected the Dalai Lama to several provocations forcing him to move to another monastery. Zhwa sgab pa dbang phyug bde ldan, Bod kyi srid don rgyal rabs, Vol. II, T. Tsepal Taikhang, Kalimpong, W.B., 1976, TBRC Resource ID: W28263, pp. 135-136.
[33] TNA, Memorandum of an interview between the Dalai Lama and the Maharaj Kumar of Sikkim held at the Yellow Temple Peking on November 25th 1908 (signed by W.A. O’Connor, Major), FO 800/244, p. 261.
[34] Ibidem.
[35] Ibidem.
[36] Ibidem.
[37] Ibidem.
[38] Ivi, p. 262.
[39] Ibidem.
[40] Crossley, Pamela Kyle, The wobbling pivot, China since 1800: an interpretive history, Wiley-Blackwell, New York, 2010, p. 141.
[41] TNA, Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey, December 21, 1908, FO 535/11, No. 119, p. 104.
[42] Ibidem.
[43] TNA, Sir Edward Grey to Sir J. Jordan, January 4, 1909, FO 535/12, No. 1, p. 1.
[44] TNA, Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey, January 6, 1909, FO 535/12, No. 2, p. 1.
[45] Ibidem.

Whole Awareness – The Quest for Natural Balance of Power in Occupied Tibet

The Celebration of World Tibet Day – The Concept of Tibet Equilibrium

Thursday, July 06, 2017, 82nd Birthday of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is observed as ‘World Tibet Day’ to promote Tibet Awareness.

I coined the phrase ‘Tibet Equilibrium’ to describe a Natural Condition that restores Natural Freedom, Natural Order, Natural Balance of Power, and Natural Harmony in Occupied Tibet.

Rudra Narasimham, Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment

The Statesman: Dalai Lama’s 82nd Birthday celebrated, Tibetans seek Trump’s Intervention

World Tibet Day – Tibet Awareness – Tibet Equilibrium. I coined the phrase ‘Tibet Equilibrium to describe a Natural Condition that restores Natural Freedom, Natural Order, Natural Balance of Power and Natural Harmony in Occupied Tibet.

Clipped from: http://www.thestatesman.com/india/dalai-lama-s-82nd-birthday-celebrated-tibetans-seeks-trump-s-intervention-1499342813.html

World Tibet Day – Tibet Awareness – Tibet Equilibrium. 82nd Birthday of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama on Thursday, July 06, 2017. I coined the phrase ‘Tibet Equilibrium to describe a Natural Condition that restores Natural Freedom, Natural Order, Natural Balance of Power and Natural Harmony in Occupied Tibet.

(Photo: AFP)

Thousands of Tibetans on Thursday morning joined in the 82nd birthday celebrations of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama here. On this occasion, the Tibetan cabinet urged US President Donald Trump to initiate steps to restart dialogue on Tibet’s future.

Large crowds donning traditional dresses began to assemble since morning at the Shiwatsel Phodrang complex on the city’s outskirts for the birthday celebrations.

“Special prayer sessions were held for the long life of His Holiness,” a Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) spokesperson told IANS.

The Dalai Lama, revered by the Tibetans as a “living god”, attended the prayers and blessed the gathering.

Tibetan Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay also attended the celebrations, while his cabinet urged Trump to initiate steps for restarting the dialogue process on the future of Tibet.

“We also urge President Trump to support the middle-way approach and dialogue between the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the representatives of the Chinese government,” said the cabinet in a statement.

Expressing gratitude to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for his support for dialogue, it said: “We also thank Terry Branstad, the US Ambassador to China, for calling on China to provide meaningful autonomy for Tibetans.”

The cabinet reiterated its commitment to “middle-way” approach as the mutually beneficial solution to resolving the long-standing issue of Tibet.

Meanwhile, officials of the Dalai Lama’s office said the spiritual leader would stay in Shiwatsel Phodrang in Leh till July 30.

During his visit, he would participate in religious ceremonies, conduct meditational retreat and deliver teachings at Diskit Monastery in the Nubra Valley, Padum in Zanskar area and the Shiwatsel teaching ground here.

The Dalai Lama’s sermons on ethics, non-violence, peace and religious harmony have made him one of the 20th century’s most revered spiritual leaders.

Born on July 6, 1935, at Taktser hamlet in northeastern Tibet, the Dalai Lama was recognized at the age of two as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso.

He fled Tibet after a failed uprising against the Chinese rule in 1959 and has been based in India since then.

The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his non-violent campaign for democracy and freedom in his homeland.

However, the Chinese view him as a hostile element bent on splitting Tibet from China.

India is home to around 100,000 Tibetans. The Tibetan government-in-exile is not recognized by any country.

**World Tibet Day – Tibet Awareness – Tibet Equilibrium. Thursday, July 06, 2017.**

Whole Campaign – Dalai Lama’s Thank You India Campaign

Thank You India Campaign of 2018 – Living Tibetan Spirits

**Whole Campaign – Dalai Lama’s Thank You India Campaign**

I identify myself as host of ‘The Living Tibetan Spirits’. His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived in India sixty-six-years ago. I count the days of my life-in-exile since January 10, 1984. I live as a Refugee in the United States without knowing my Refuge. Many Tibetan refugees may understand my claims about life-in-exile for it is not a personal choice. It’s a choice imposed upon us.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment

As Dalai Lama Event is Shifted From Delhi, Modi’s Line on Tibet Remains a Puzzle – The Wire

Clipped from: https://thewire.in/229509/experts-unravel-the-puzzle-of-indian-govts-circular-on-distancing-from-dalai-lama-event/

The MEA says India’s position on the Dalai Lama is the same but the fact that a circular was issued advising officials to keep their distance suggests a change had occurred which is now being corrected.

The Dalai Lama waves as he leaves after speaking on “Embracing the Beauty of Diversity in our World” to thousands at the UC San Diego campus in San Diego, California, US, June 16, 2017. Credit: Reuters/ Mike Blake/Files

New Delhi: Days after newspaper reports of a top official directing all government functionaries to avoid events commemorating 60 years of the Dalai Lama’s exile in India, the Tibetan ‘government in exile’ has decided to shift major programmes slotted for Delhi on March 31 April 1 to Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.

While officials from the Central Tibet Administration (CTA) – the NGO that the exiles run – denied receiving any instructions from the Indian government, China-watchers in Delhi say they are puzzled by the underlying message the Modi government is sending with its new circular, given how it had earlier projected a willingness to play the ‘Tibet card’.

The Indian Express reported on March 4 that Cabinet Secretary P.K. Sinha had issued a classified circular “discouraging” government functionaries – political and bureaucratic – from attending events organised by the Tibetan government-in-exile to mark the key anniversary over the next few months.

The circular was apparently issued to central ministries and state governments on the urging of the new foreign secretary, Vijay Gokhale. The letter from Gokhale to Sinha was dated February 22, as per the newspaper. A day later, Gokhale travelled to Beijing on his first visit to China as foreign secretary.

The Ministry of External Affairs responded to reporters queries on the Indian Express report by stating that India has not changed its position on the Dalai Lama. Describing him as a “revered religious leader” who is “deeply respected” by Indians, the MEA added that the Dalai Lama is “accorded all freedom to carry out his religious activities in India”.

Speaking to The Wire, Dhardon Sharling, information secretary, CTA, did not want to comment on the circular “since this was not officially communicated to us”.

She added that there had been a change in plans for the main ‘Thank you India’ event. “It is true that the ‘thank you India’ public event is rescheduled and will take place on March 31 – the 60th year since his Holiness stepped on the Indian soil and the venue is shifted from Delhi to Dharamshala,” Sharling said.

While the March 31 inter-faith meeting of Raj Ghat had been cancelled, the main event was to be held in Delhi on April 1, which has now been shifted a day earlier to Dharamshala.

Sharling said that the events were planned throughout the year “to publicly express our gratitude to the government and people of India”.

“India has been our second home for six decades,” she added.

When asked about the cause behind the change in plans, she said, “I cannot cite the key reason behind but we are following directives from our leadership to hold the event in Dharamshala instead”.

The CTA Sangay is in Delhi on an “official visit” this week, during which he will meet with “officials and dignitaries”.

According to some sources, similar circulars have been sent out in previous years as periodic reminders to government officials to keep their distance.

However, according to another former Indian diplomat, it was a “little surprising” that a formal circular was issued. “Government does at times discourage people from attending a meeting, but this was a pre-emptive move…and done on a formal circular,” he said.

Former director of the Institute of Chinese studies Alka Acharya also wondered if these notes were a normal routine. “It would not be surprising if such notes were sent around by the MEA from time to time in the past as well, possibly on the eve of state visits or when some very high-profile functions were organised,” she said.

The Cabinet Secretary’s circular gave the reasoning that the Dalai Lama’s upcoming commemorative events would be held at a “very sensitive time in the context of India’s relations with China”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend the SCO summit in June. The Times of India reported that there are important bilateral meets planned ahead of that high-level visit by Modi.

India-based French expert on Sino-India ties and Tibet, Claude Arpi, described himself as “sad” at the issuing of the circular, adding that “sensitive time means nothing”. “Times have been ‘sensitive’ since the Dalai Lama crossed the border at Khenzimane on March 31, 1959. It will remain ‘sensitive’,” asserted Arpi.

China has frequently raised the issue of presence of Tibetan refugees and activities of Dalai Lama with the Indian government. The default Indian position has always been that India is a “open society” and there are not many restrictions on freedom of expression, including for refugees.

“It is a sensitive issue that has always been managed. The Dalai Lama has been meeting senior government functionaries. A complete restriction on him is something we have never accepted,” said the former Indian diplomat.

In fact, he pointed out that the circular could give the impression to the Chinese that the government has more leverage on the activities of the Tibetan exiles. “It raises expectations,” he said.

Arpi agreed that China will also ‘note’ that India agreed “to their demand and ask more”. “It will not help India in the long run,” he argued, adding, “…if the time was really sensitive, one or two ministers could be told not to meet HHDL (His Holiness Dalai Lama). Why a circular? [This is] uncalled for.”

He asked whether China would have been ‘nicer’ and supported Indian aspirations at the UN Security council if India had capitulated at Doklam. “The answer is No”.

Strategic expert Bharat Karnad had more scathing phrases for the cabinet secretary’s circular – “Sheer cravenness”.

When asked if he thought that it was justified for India to be circumspect at this moment, Karnad said, “Not in the least. If anything, Xi’s assumption of dictatorial powers is the time to stand up to China, not display what in my books I have called “bovine pacifism” where big powerful states are concerned”

The CTA president Lobsang Sangay had announced in January that the 60 years anniversary would be marked by year-long events, with the highlight being a public gathering at New Delhi’s Thyagaraj sports complex on April 1.

Termed the ‘Thank you India’ campaign, Sangay had said at the launch that the April 1 event “will feature public addresses by Indian dignitaries and Tibetan cultural performances and is expected to draw over 5000 people”.

Acharya pointed out that there had seemed to be a “rethinking” in official circles, “and most certainly a hardening of views on the Tibetan issue, within the strategic community”.

She was referring to the earlier playing up of the so-called ‘Tibet card’ by this government, which was to have a more visible relationship with the Tibetan leader and high-profile visits to Arunachal Pradesh. Ministers like Kiren Rijiju and Mahesh Sharma have met with the spiritual leader, though the prime minister has not yet done so.

The Dalai Lama shared the stage with Indian president in 2016 in Rashtrapati Bhawan at an event described as “non-political” after a Chinese protest. When the Dalai Lama visited Arunachal last year on his sixth visit, he was received by the chief minister and other state officials.

India had also allowed the US ambassador Richard Varma to visit Tawang for the first time. China claims the entire Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and calls it “southern Tibet”.

The Indian government had also asserted that its steadfast response to China during the Doklam crisis was one of the reason for Chinese troops to withdraw from the confrontation site. The Chinese troops may have gone away from the eyeball-to-eyeball situation, but they continue to maintain a presence in the region.

While relations has been tense between India and China over a number of issues, there had been tactical cooperation recently between the two neighbours. Despite initial objections, China allowed Pakistan to be put on the ‘grey list’ of the Financial Action Task Force for not taking steps to stop financial transactions by terror groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Acharya believed that given that the foreign secretary’s note to the cabinet secretary went out a day before he left for Bejing, “there seems to be a prima facie case for a quid pro quo having occurred”.

However, she does not believe that this amounts to a downgrading in ties with the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA).

“…this is probably not the first time that such notes have been circulated and the government’s note orcCircular by itself does not amount to any dramatic shift or change. In fact, there have been numerous occasions in the past when the government has taken a step backwards or reconsidered its decision with regard to either hosting specific events or cancelled meetings scheduled with the Dalai Lama. Often to our discomfiture,” she said.

The cancellation of the scheduled meeting of the BJP president Amit Shah with Dalai Lama in May 2015 ahead of the prime minister’s visit to China was cited as an example.

She argued that the circular may not be a downgrading, as much as “reverting to the earlier approach of distancing the government from events and activities organised by the Dalai Lama or the CTA”.

Acharya pointed out that that as joint secretary of East Asia division, “the current Foreign Secretary had ensured that there was no government participation in the “50 Years in Exile events” organised in 2009″.

As per sources in the Tibetan government-in-exile, the events around the golden jubilee anniversary had been rather subdued. “There was no media, PR or social media then. There was a different leadership then. Things have changed a lot in ten years”.

Arpi was not convinced. “Perhaps not,” he said on the possibility of downgrading of links between the Indian government and the CTA due to the circular, adding, “JS (XP) said that nothing has changed. It remains unfortunate, but hopefully temporary”.

He added that there was “no doubt that the coming months will be hot, especially when the passes in the central and eastern sectors open”. Arpi was pointing to the possibility of more Chinese ‘incursions’ across the un-demarcated boundary.

However, Karnad noted that if this was the “first step in India’s surrendering the ‘Tibet card’ then more trouble is heading this way”. “Especially because NSA Doval has got nothing from the Chinese special representative on border talks on paper to say this is the exchange. Time and again, Chinese leaders have said something, gotten India to commit, and then backed off – but Delhi has never shown the guts to do the same,” he added.

Whole Supreme – The Temporal and the Spiritual Ruler of Tibet Living in Exile

The Supreme Ruler of Tibet is unlike any spiritual leader or king

I am pleased to share the photo images of the 14th Dalai Lama, the Supreme Ruler of Tibet, living in exile.

All photographs are part of the book, ‘A God in Exile: The Fourteenth Dalai Lama by Raghu Rai’, published by Roli Books.

The BBC News shared these photo images describing the Dalai Lama as a ‘spiritual leader’. Photographer and author Raghu Rai went a step further in recognizing the Dalai Lama as “A God in Exile.”

In my analysis, the relevance of the 14th Dalai Lama relates to the Institution of Dalai Lama that governs Tibet giving a sense of reality to the Tibetan Living Experience. If the Dalai Lama is just a Spiritual Leader, he would not be living in exile. If the Dalai Lama is indeed a ‘God’, Communist China would have utterly failed in crushing the massive Tibetan Uprising of March 1959.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment

The Dalai Lama: Intimate portrait of a spiritual leader – BBC News

Clipped from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45585890

The 14th Dalai Lama. The Supreme Ruler of Tibet living in exile. **The Supreme Ruler of Tibet is unlike any spiritual leader or king**

Image copyright Raghu Rai Image caption The Dalai Lama watching the TV series, Mahabharata

A new book by acclaimed Indian photographer Raghu Rai offers an unprecedented glimpse into the life of one of the world’s leading religious figures.

A God In Exile is the result of a photographer’s decades-long insight into his muse. Rai took his first picture of the iconic Tibetan spiritual leader in 1975.

He recalled being stopped by the Dalai Lama’s security. “I somehow managed to make eye contact with His Holiness and asked him if I could take some photos of him. He smiled and said yes,” Rai told the BBC.

Over the years, he has photographed the Dalai Lama many times and has cultivated a “deep friendship”.

In March 1959, as Chinese troops crushed an attempted uprising in Tibet, the 14th Dalai Lama, who was born Tenzin Gyatso, fled into India. He was then a young man in his mid-20s.

Image copyright Raghu Rai

The Indian government granted him asylum and he settled in the northern town of Dharamshala. About 80,000 Tibetans followed him into exile, most of whom settled in the same area.

Image copyright Raghu Rai

Thronged by Tibetan worshippers and tourists, the Dalai Lama is seen in the above image blessing a woman at a ceremony.

“When he sees his Tibetans, my god! You should see his eyes! It’s like a grandfather doting on his grandchildren,” Rai says.

In 2014, Rai decided to curate the hundreds of photos he had taken of the Dalai Lama and compile them into a book – a project which, he said, has been in the making for 40 years.

· The ancient wisdom the Dalai Lama hopes will enrich the world

Image copyright Raghu Rai

Many of the photos in the collection capture the Dalai Lama in candid moments, giving us an intimate glimpse into his everyday life.

“He loves to play with animals – I was waiting for him one day when he suddenly showed up with a cat,” Rai says.

Image copyright Raghu Rai

Rai also captured scenes from the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday celebrations in 2015 at home in Dharamshala.

He hosted his siblings, including his older brother, Gyalo Thondup (pictured above), whom he introduced to guests as a “troublemaker”.

The book’s preface, written by Rai, offers readers an account of his interactions with the Dalai Lama.

“He left an indelible impression on me – gentle, gracious, humble and full of wonder. It is peculiar to say such a thing, but I got the strange yet pleasant feeling of being equals, despite his position. In hindsight, I realise it was because His Holiness behaved with such unfeigned kindness and lack of vanity.”

Image copyright Raghu Rai

Many images in the book feature the Dalai Lama performing innocuous chores such as repairing his TV or gardening in his home – tasks that he always did himself, Rai says.

Image copyright Raghu Rai

“In a lot of ways, he gave me everything a photographer ever wants from a subject,” the photographer says.

Image copyright Raghu Rai

Among the Dalai Lama’s favorite places at his home is the garden, where he grows all sorts of plants.

All photographs are part of the book, ‘A God in Exile: The Fourteenth Dalai Lama by Raghu Rai’, published by Roli Books.

Whole Exile – The Supreme Ruler of Tibet is in Exile for 66-Years

The Supreme Ruler of Tibet is trapped in Exile for 66-Years

**The Supreme Ruler of Tibet is Living in Exile for Sixty-Six-Years.**

On Saturday, July 12, 2025 I want to remind my readers that the Supreme Ruler of Tibet is trapped in exile for sixty-six- years. My concern is not about the Face of Tibetan Buddhism. I am helplessly watching the Face of Tibetan Ruler changing under influence of relentless trappings of Time.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment

**TIBET AWARENESS – SUPREME RULER OF TIBET FORCED TO LIVE IN EXILE. A GUARD OF HONOR BY ASSAM RIFLES, MARCH 31, 1959.**

The Dalai Lama on Donald Trump, China and His Search for Joy | Time

Clipped from: http://time.com/longform/dalai-lama-60-year-exile/

Morning has broken on the cedar-strewn foothills of the Himalayas. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama sits in meditation in his private chapel in Dharamsala, a ramshackle town perched on the upper reaches of North India’s Kangra Valley. Rousing slowly, he unfolds his legs with remarkable agility for a man of 83, finds the red felt slippers placed neatly beneath his seat and heads outside to where a crowd has already gathered.

Around 300 people brave the February chill to offer white khata scarves and receive the Dalai Lama’s blessing. There’s a group from Bhutan in traditional checkered dress. A man from Thailand has brought his Liverpool F.C. scarf, seeking divine benediction for the U.K. soccer team’s title bid. Two women lose all control as they approach the Dalai Lama’s throne and are carried away shaking in rapture, clutching prayer beads and muttering incantations.

The Dalai Lama engages each visitor like a big kid: slapping bald pates, grabbing onto one devotee’s single braid, waggling another’s nose. Every conversation is peppered with giggles and guffaws. “We 7 billion human beings — emotionally, mentally, physically — are the same,” he tells TIME in a 90-minute interview. “Everyone wants a joyful life.”

**The Supreme Ruler of Tibet is Living in Exile for Sixty-Six-Years. Ruven Afanador for TIME**

His own has reached a critical point. The Dalai Lama is considered a living Buddha of compassion, a reincarnation of the bodhisattva Chenrezig, who renounced Nirvana in order to help mankind. The title originally only signified the preeminent Buddhist monk in Tibet, a remote land about twice the size of Texas that sits veiled behind the Himalayas. But starting in the 17th century, the Dalai Lama also wielded full political authority over the secretive kingdom. That changed with Mao Zedong’s conquest of Tibet, which brought the rule of the current Dalai Lama to an end. On March 17, 1959, he was forced to escape to India.

In the six decades since, the leader of the world’s most secluded people has become the most recognizable face of a religion practiced by nearly 500 million people worldwide. But his prominence extends beyond the borders of his own faith, with many practices endorsed by Buddhists, like mindfulness and meditation, permeating the lives of millions more around the world. What’s more, the lowly farmer’s son named as a “God-King” in his childhood has been embraced by the West since his exile. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and was heralded in Martin Scorcese’s 1997 biopic. The cause of Tibetan self-rule remains alive in Western minds thanks to admirers ranging from Richard Gere to the Beastie Boys to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who calls him a “messenger of hope for millions of people around the world.”

Yet as old age makes travel more difficult, and as China’s political clout has grown, the Dalai Lama’s influence has waned. Today the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that drove him out of Tibet is working to co-opt Buddhist principles — as well as the succession process itself. Officially atheist, the party has proved as adaptive to religion as it is to capitalism, claiming a home for faith in the nationalism Beijing has activated under Xi Jinping. In January, the CCP announced it would “Sinicize” Buddhism over the next five years, completing a multimillion-dollar rebranding of the faith as an ancient Chinese religion.

The Dalai Lama delivers a lecture from his throne on Feb. 18, 2019 to mark Losar, the Tibetan new year.

From Pakistan to Myanmar, Chinese money has rejuvenated ancient Buddhist sites and promoted Buddhist studies. Beijing has spent $3 billion transforming the Nepalese town of Lumbini, birthplace of Lord Buddha, into a luxury pilgrimage site, boasting an airport, hotels, convention center, temples and a university. China has hosted World Buddhist Forums since 2006, inviting monks from all over the world.

Although not, of course, the world’s most famous. Beijing still sees the Dalai Lama as a dangerous threat and swiftly rebukes any nation that entertains him. That appears to be working too. Once the toast of capitals around the world, the Dalai Lama has not met a world leader since 2016. Even India, which has granted asylum to him as well as to about 100,000 other Tibetans, is not sending senior representatives to the diaspora’s commemoration of his 60th year in exile, citing a “very sensitive time” for bilateral relations with Beijing. Every U.S. President since George H.W. Bush has made a point of meeting the Dalai Lama until Donald Trump, who is in negotiations with China over reforming its state-controlled economy.

Still, the Dalai Lama holds out hope for a return to his birthplace. Despite his renown and celebrity friends, he remains a man aching for home and a leader removed from his people. Having retired from “political responsibility” within the exiled community in 2011, he merely wants “the opportunity to visit some holy places in China for pilgrimage,” he tells TIME. “I sincerely just want to serve Chinese Buddhists.”

Despite that, the CCP still regards the Dalai Lama as a “wolf in monk’s robes” and a dangerous “splittist,” as Chinese officials call him. He has rejected calls for Tibetan independence since 1974 — acknowledging the geopolitical reality that any settlement must keep Tibet within the People’s Republic of China. He instead advocates for greater autonomy and religious and cultural freedom for his people. It matters little.

“It’s hard to believe a return would happen at this point,” says Gray Tuttle, a professor of modern Tibetan studies at Columbia. “China holds all the cards.”

The boy born Lhamo Thondup was identified as the 14th incarnation of the Dalai Lama at just 2 years old, when a retinue of top lamas, or senior Buddhist Tibetan monks, followed a series of oracles and prophecies to his village in northeastern Tibet. The precocious toddler seemed to recognize objects belonging to the 13th Dalai Lama, prompting the lamas to proclaim him the celestial heir. At age 4, he was carried on a golden palanquin into the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, and ensconced in its resplendent Potala Palace. A daily routine of spiritual teaching by top religious scholars followed.

“Sometimes my tutor kept a whip to threaten me,” the Dalai Lama recalls, smiling. “The whip was yellow in color, as it was for a holy person, the Dalai Lama. But I knew that if the whip was used, it made no difference — holy pain!”

It was a lonely childhood. The Dalai Lama rarely saw his parents and had no contact with peers of his own age, save his elder brother Lobsang Samden, who served as head of household. Despite his tutors’ focus on spiritual matters, or perhaps because of it, he was fascinated by science and technology. He would gaze from the Potala’s roof at Lhasa street life through a telescope. He took apart and reassembled a projector and camera to see how they functioned. “He continually astonished me by his powers of comprehension, his pertinacity and his industry,” wrote the Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer, who became the Dalai Lama’s tutor and was one of six Europeans permitted to live in Lhasa at the time. Today the Dalai Lama proudly describes himself as “half Buddhist monk, half scientist.”

The Dalai Lama was only supposed to assume a political role on his 18th birthday, with a regent ruling until then. But the arrival of Mao’s troops to reclaim dominion over Tibet in 1950 caused the Tibetan government to give him full authority at just 15. With no political experience or knowledge of the outside world, he was thrust into negotiations with an invading army while trying to calm his fervent but poorly armed subjects.

Conditions worsened over the next nine years of occupation. Chinese proclamations calling Lord Buddha a “reactionary” enraged a pious populace of 2.7 million. By March 1959, rumors spread that the Dalai Lama would be abducted or assassinated, fomenting a doomed popular uprising that looked likely to spill into serious bloodshed. “Just in front of the Potala [Palace], on the other side of the river, there was a Chinese artillery division,” the Dalai Lama recalls. “Previously all the guns were covered, but around the 15th or 16th, all the covers were removed. So, then we knew it was very serious. On the 17th morning, I decided to escape.”

The two-week journey to India was fraught, as Chinese troops hunted the party across some of the world’s most unforgiving terrain. The Dalai Lama reached India incognito atop a dzo, a cross between a yak and a cow. Every building in which he slept en route was immediately consecrated as a chapel, but the land he left behind was ravaged by Mao’s disastrous Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Hundreds of thousands died. By some reckonings, 99.9% of the country’s 6,400 monasteries were destroyed.

Tibet’s desire to remain isolated and undisturbed had served it poorly. The kingdom had no useful allies, the government of Lhasa having declined to establish official diplomatic relations with any other nation or join international organizations. The Dalai Lama’s supplications were thus easy to ignore. Tibet had remained staunchly neutral during World War II, and the U.S. was already mired in a fresh conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

“[First Indian Prime Minister] Pandit Nehru told me, ‘America will not fight the Chinese communists in order to liberate Tibet, so sooner or later you have to talk with the Chinese government,'” the Dalai Lama recalls.

Around 300 devotees line up early at Tsuglagkhang temple to offer the Dalai Lama traditional khata scarves and to receive his blessing.

When Tibetans first followed the Dalai Lama into India, they lived with bags packed and did not build proper houses, believing a glorious return would come at a moment’s notice. It never did.

Four decades of conversations between China and exiled Tibetan leadership have led nowhere. Consolatory talks began in the 1970s between the Dalai Lama’s envoys and reformist Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and continued under Deng’s successor, Jiang Zemin. The talks stipulated that Tibetan independence was off the table, but even so, the drawn-out process was suspended in 1994 and after briefly resuming in the 2000s is again at a standstill.

Meanwhile, Tibet remains firmly under the thumb of Beijing. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has lamented that conditions are “fast deteriorating” in the region. In May, Tibetan businessman Tashi Wangchuk was jailed for five years merely for promoting the Tibetan language. In December, the government issued a directive to stop Tibetan language and culture from being taught in monasteries. Once known as the “abode of the gods,” Lhasa has become a warren of neon and concrete like any other Chinese city. Although the U.S. officially recognizes Tibet as part of China, Vice President Mike Pence said in July that the Tibetan people “have been brutally repressed by the Chinese government.”

Many allege their cultural and religious freedom is under attack by the Beijing government. Some in Tibet resort to extreme measures to protest their treatment. Since 2009, more than 150 Tibetans — monks, nuns and ordinary civilians — have set themselves ablaze in protest. Often self-immolators exalt the Dalai Lama with their final breaths. Despite his message of nonviolence, the Dalai Lama has been criticized for refusing to condemn the practice. “It’s a very difficult situation,” he says. “If I criticize [self-immolators], then their family members may feel very sad.” He adds, however, that their sacrifice has “no effect and creates more problems.”

Beijing vehemently refutes accusations of human-rights violations in Tibet, insisting that it fully respects the religious and cultural rights of the Tibetan people, and highlights how development has raised living standards in the previously isolated and impoverished land. China has spent more than $450 million renovating Tibet’s major monasteries and religious sites since the 1980s, according to official figures, with $290 million more budgeted through 2023. The world’s No. 2 economy has also greenlighted massive infrastructure projects worth $97 billion, with new airports and highways carving through the world’s highest mountains, nominally to boost the prosperity of the 6 million ethnic Tibetans.

This level of investment presents a dilemma to Tibetans stranded in exile. The majority live in India, under a special “guest” arrangement by which they can work and receive an education but, crucially, not buy property. Many toil as roadside laborers or make trinkets to sell to tourists. And so large numbers of young Tibetans are making the choice to return, lured to a homeland they have never known. “If you want a safe and secure future for your children, then either you go back to Tibet or some other country where you can get citizenship,” says Dorji Kyi, director of the Lha NGO in Dharamsala, which supports Tibetan exiles.

At 83, the Buddhist leader reflects on a life spent away from his native Tibet.

Many of the returnees are armed with better education and world experience than their peers who grew up in Tibet. “Some of them do well,” says Thupten Dorjee, president of Tibetan Children’s Village, a network of five orphanages and eight schools that has cared for 52,000 young Tibetans in India. “But if they get involved in political things then they land into trouble.”

Tibet still has a government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) in Dharamsala, but it is dogged by infighting and scandal. Exiles are instead forging their own path. Last September, the Dalai Lama himself was filmed at his temple telling young Tibetans that it was better to live under Beijing’s rule than stay as “beggars” in exile. Speaking to TIME, he said it was “no problem” if exiled Tibetans chose to return to China.

Even those who have achieved prosperity elsewhere are opting to return. Songtsen Gyalzur, 45, sold his real estate business in Switzerland, where his Tibet-born parents immigrated after first fleeing to India, to start China’s Shangri-La Highland Craft Brewery in 2014. Today his award-winning brewery has an annual capacity of 2.6 million gallons of lagers, ales and porters. He recruits 80% of the staff from orphanages his mother set up in Tibetan areas in the 1990s. “Tibet has so many well-educated, well-trained professionals abroad who a real impact on people’s lives could have here,” he says.

Despite the “Lost Horizon” legend, the kingdom was never a spiritual and agrarian utopia. Most residents lived a Hobbesian existence. Nobles were strictly ranked in seven classes, with only the Dalai Lama belonging to the first. Few commoners had any sort of education. Modern medicine was forbidden, especially surgery, meaning even minor ailments were fatal. The sick was typically treated with a gruel of barley meal, butter and the urine of a holy monk. Life expectancy was 36 years. Criminals had limbs amputated and cauterized in boiling butter. Even the wheel wasn’t commonly employed, given the dearth of passable roads.

The Dalai Lama has admitted that Tibet was “very, very backward” and insists he would have enacted reforms. But he also emphasizes that traditional Tibetan life was more in communion with nature than the present. Tibet hosts the largest store of fresh water outside the Arctic and Antarctic, leading some environmentalists to term its frozen plateau the “third pole,” and especially vulnerable to the choking development unleashed by the Beijing government.

“Global warming does not make any sort of exception — just this continent or that continent, or this nation or that nation,” the Dalai Lama says. Asked who is responsible for fixing the crisis, he points not to Beijing but to Washington. “America, as a leading nation of the free world, should take more serious consideration about global issues.”

The Dalai Lama meditates in his private chapel inside his residence on Feb. 18, 2019.

The Dalai Lama is a refreshingly unabashed figure in person. His frequent laughter and protuberant ears make him seem cuddly and inoffensive, and it’s difficult to overstate how tactile he is. He appears equally at home with both the physical and the spiritual, tradition and modernity. He meditated within reach of an iPad tuned to an image of a babbling brook and mountains and a few minutes later turned to Tibetan scriptures written on wide, single sheets, unbound. He retires at 6 p.m. and rises at 4 a.m. and spends the first hours of his day in meditation.

“Western civilization, including America, is very much oriented toward materialistic life,” he says. “But that culture generates too much stress, anxiety and jealousy, all these things. So, my No. 1 commitment is to try to promote awareness of our inner values.” From kindergarten onward, he says, children should be taught about “taking care of emotion.”

“Whether religious or not, as a human being we should learn more about our system of emotion so that we can tackle destructive emotion, in order to become calmer, have more inner peace.”

The Dalai Lama said his second commitment is to religious harmony. Conflicts in the Middle East tend to involve sectarian strife within Islam. “Iran is mainly Shi’ite. Saudi Arabia, plus their money, is Sunni. So, this is a problem,” he says, lamenting “too much narrow-mindedness” and urging people of all faiths to “broaden” their thinking.

Buddhism has its own extremists. The themes of Buddhism, as a nontheistic religion with no single creator deity, are more accessible to followers of other faiths and even ardent atheists, emphasizing harmony and mental cleanliness. But the Dalai Lama says he is “very sad” about the situation in Myanmar, where firebrand Buddhist monks have incited the genocide of Rohingya Muslims. “All religions have within them a tradition of human loving kindness,” he says, “but instead are causing violence, division.”

He keeps a sharp eye on global affairs and is happy to weigh in. Trump’s “America first” foreign policy and obsession with a wall on the southern U.S. border make him feel “uncomfortable,” he says, calling Mexico “a good neighbor” of the U.S. Britain’s impending exit from the European Union also warrants a rebuke, as he has “always admired” the E.U.

Six decades on, the Dalai Lama still hopes he will visit his birthplace again.

In his ninth decade and moving with the help of assistants, the Dalai Lama continues to explore human consciousness and question long-held shibboleths. During a series of lectures in February to mark the Tibetan new year, he pontificates on everything from artificial intelligence — it can never compete with the human mind, he says — to blind deference to religious dogma. “Buddha himself told us, ‘Do not believe my teaching on faith, but rather through thorough investigation and experiment,'” he says. “So, if some teaching goes against reason, we should not accept it.”

This includes the institution of the Dalai Lama itself. Even as a young boy, his scientific mind led him to question the idea that he was the 14th incarnation of a deity king. His former tutor recalled that he found it odd that the prior Dalai Lama “was so fond of horses and that they mean so little to me.” Today the Dalai Lama says the institution he embodies appears “feudal” in nature. Leaving the spiritual element aside, he says he doesn’t believe any political authority should be conferred when he dies. “On one occasion the Dalai Lama institution started,” he says. “That means there must be one occasion when the institution is no longer relevant. Stop. No problem. This is not my concern. China’s communists, I think, are showing more concern.”

Indeed, they are. In a blow to the Tibetan exile community, China has set about bringing the leadership of Tibetan Buddhism into the party fold. When the Dalai Lama named a Tibetan child as the reincarnation of the previous Panchen Lama in 1995 — the second highest position in Tibetan Buddhism after himself — China put the boy into “protective custody” and installed a more pliant figure instead. The whereabouts of the Dalai Lama’s choice remain unknown.

So, when the Dalai Lama leaves this plane of existence, it’s highly likely a 15th incarnation will be chosen by the godless CCP. “It’s pretty obvious the Chinese state is preparing for it, which is absurd,” Tuttle says. Tibetan Buddhists will be forced to choose between the party’s Dalai Lama and the selection of Tibetan exiles. On this point, at least, the incumbent is very clear. Any decision on the next Dalai Lama, he says, should be “up to the Tibetan people.”

No doubt the party’s desire to name a Dalai Lama stems from the fact that there are 244 million Buddhists in China — a cohort that dwarfs the CCP membership by 3 to 1. The party craves legitimizing its power above all else and believes yoking it to the institution of the Dalai Lama will provide that. But Beijing clearly also hopes it will be a symbolic final nail in the coffin of Tibetan self-rule, completing the absorption of Tibet into the People’s Republic of China that began seven decades ago.

So, in a twist of irony, it seems the incumbent God-King’s wish will eventually be granted. One day a Dalai Lama will return to China — in this body or the next, with his blessing or without.

Write to Charlie Campbell at charlie.campbell@time.com.

The Dalai Lama preaches to Buddhist worshipers and monks at the Buyant Ukhaa sport complex in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, 20 November 2016. The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled Buddhist leader is on a four -day visit to Mongolia despite China’s objection, testing Mongolia’s ties with it neighbour.

Whole Compassion – The Year of Compassion in celebration of Dalai Lama’s 90th Birthday

Whole Compassion – The Bodhisattva of Compassion

On Sunday, July 06, 2025, I declare that I am a Refugee and I need a Refuge for I do not have either “willpower,” or “Free Will.” I join the Tibetan community in the celebration of the 90th Birth Anniversary of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. May God Bless Him with a Long Life.

**In Tibetan Buddhism, Bodhisattva-Avalokitesvara is physically manifested as His Holiness The Dalai Lama.**

90th Birthday MessageJuly 5, 2025

On the occasion of my 90th birthday, I understand that well-wishers and friends in many places, including Tibetan communities, are gathering for celebrations. I particularly appreciate the fact that many of you are using the occasion to engage in initiatives that highlight the importance of compassion, warm-heartedness, and altruism.

I am just a simple Buddhist monk; I don’t normally engage in birthday celebrations. However, since you are organizing events focused on my birthday I wish to share some thoughts.

While it is important to work for material development, it is vital to focus on achieving peace of mind through cultivating a good heart and by being compassionate, not just toward near and dear ones, but toward everyone. Through this, you will contribute to making the world a better place.

As for myself, I will continue to focus on my commitments of promoting human values, religious harmony, drawing attention to the ancient Indian wisdom which explains the workings of mind and emotions, and Tibetan culture and heritage, which has so much potential to contribute to the world through its emphasis on peace of mind and compassion.

I develop determination and courage in my daily life through the teachings of the Buddha and Indian masters such as Shantideva, whose following aspiration I strive to uphold.

As long as space endures,
As long as sentient being remain,
Until then, may I too remain
To dispel the miseries of the world.

Thank you for using the opportunity of my birthday to cultivate peace of mind and compassion.

Tashi Deleg and with prayers,

Dalai Lama

5 July 2025

I am a Refugee, and Who is my Refuge? Musings on the 84th Birthday of the Dalai Lama

On Saturday, July 06, 2019, I declare that I am a Refugee and I need a Refuge for I do not have either “willpower,” or “Free Will.” I join the Tibetan community in the celebration of the 84th Birth Anniversary of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. May God Bless Him with a Long Life.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment

**I am a Refugee. Who is my Refuge? I have neither ‘willpower’ nor free-will.**

Dalai Lama 84th birthday | 10 Inspirational quotes from Tibetan spiritual leader Tenzin Gyatso

Clipped from: https://newsroompost.com/lifestyle/dalai-lama-84th-birthday-10-inspirational-quotes-from-tibetan-spiritual-leader-tenzin-gyatso/460036.html

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.

New Delhi: The 84th birthday of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is being celebrated today in the main Tibetan temple Tsuglagkhang in Mcleodganj, Dharamshala.

10 Inspirational quotes from Tenzin Gyatso

#Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.

#Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.

Happiness is not something readymade. It comes from your own actions.

#My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

#If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

#Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.

#Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.

#Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.

#The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

#We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

Whole Resistance – Tibet Resisting Foreign Occupying Force

Tibet Awareness – Tibetan Resistance of Foreign Power

News reports indicate that Tibetans are resisting ban on displaying the Dalai Lama’s image. Tibetans are displaying Dalai Lama’s image giving expression to Tibet’s resistance of military occupation by Red China.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA
Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment

UCANEWS.COM

Tibetans resist ban on displaying Dalai Lama’s image

China attempts to control image as spiritual leader enters his twilight

In this photo taken on Dec. 9, a group of Tibetans spin a prayer wheel under a portrait of the Dalai Lama at Kirti Monastery in Aba, a Tibetan area of China’s Sichuan province. A ban on displaying the spiritual leader’s image has been met with resistance in the autonomous region. (Photo by AFP/Benjamin Haas)

ucanews.com reporter, Beijing.

February 24, 2016

Police and the Bureau for Religious Affairs issued a notice across the Tibetan county of Drango in January making a rare admission.

About 40 percent of the shops in this mountainous area of 50,000 people in western Sichuan province were selling pictures of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. These were ordered removed by Feb. 2.
Announcing the campaign was to eliminate “pornography and illegal publications” ahead of the Chinese New Year, the nationalist Global Times said hanging the Dalai Lama’s image “was the same as displaying Saddam Hussein’s image would be for Americans.”
Ordinary Tibetans have fought cyclical campaigns banning the Dalai Lama’s image for decades since he went into exile in 1959. As his reincarnation moves ever closer — a source of dispute between the Dalai Lama and Beijing — propaganda and control of his image has only intensified.
In open defiance of the recent ban, thousands of Tibetan Buddhists held a prayer ceremony in Drango to pray for the spiritual leader’s health while he was being treated in Minnesota on Jan. 25. A video circulated online showed people standing and kneeling, hands pressed together, in front of a giant image of the Dalai Lama in this remote corner of Sichuan province.
“While this doesn’t breach the letter of the ban — which applied to the sale of his image — it clearly breaches the spirit, which local residents will have known,” said Alistair Currie, campaigns manager of the London-based Free Tibet.
Later, police arrested two high-ranking monks from Chongri Monastery in Drango for organizing the event. Barely a month goes by without someone being arrested in the administrative region of Tibet and surrounding Tibetan areas in the neighboring western provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu.
In December, a video showed a young man walking through the streets of Ngaba county carrying a portrait of the Tibetan spiritual leader and its former flag. He was later arrested, reported Free Tibet.
A month earlier, two monks were reportedly sentenced to four and three-and-a-half years in prison for separate, similar protests displaying the Dalai Lama’s image while calling for a free Tibet.
A symbol of Tibetan aspirations for more autonomy than Beijing is willing to allow, the Dalai Lama’s image has taken on political as well as spiritual meanings. And signs are that Chinese security forces plan to expunge the Tibetan spiritual leader’s image from every corner of the Tibetan plateau, part of the end game to crush resistance as he moves toward the twilight of his life. Beijing clearly hopes that if it can seize control of the Dalai Lama’s image, it may eventually win hearts and minds — at least after Tibet’s spiritual leader dies.
In June last year, China announced it had finished installing televisions in every one of Tibet’s nearly 1,800 Buddhist monasteries, a policy that took three-and-a-half years to implement. Many monks were required to ship television sets on horseback across high Himalayan passes.
Far from providing Tibetan monks with entertainment, the move was designed to prevent televisions from displaying images of the Dalai Lama inside monasteries.
“By listening to the radio and watching television, monks and nuns have a more intuitive understanding of the party and country’s policies, laws and regulations, ethnic policies and religious policies,” reported the state-run Tibet Daily.
During the same period, authorities posted notices in monasteries warning of fines of 5,000 yuan (US$800) to those that did not get rid of old satellite television systems. Many were able to pick up Tibetan news from exiled broadcasters based outside of China including Radio Free Asia — funded by the U.S. government — which began its first satellite bulletin during the Tibetan New Year last February.
“The Chinese government is trying really hard to try to stop Tibetans from getting any information from outside,” Tsering Tsomo, director of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy based in Dharamsala, India, told ucanews.com during the campaign last year.
Instead of displaying images of the Dalai Lama, Buddhist monasteries have recently been ordered to display images of Communist Party leaders and Chinese flags instead.
Earlier this month, 70-year-old monk Trigyal died in detention after being accused of throwing Chinese flags into a river instead of installing them on a monastery in Driru County. He served two years of a 13-year prison sentence.
“Making the Tibetan people choose between the Dalai Lama and the Communist Party when there is space and opportunity to coexist only leads to deepening the wound in the hearts of the Tibetan people,” said Bhuchung Tsering, vice president of the International Campaign for Tibet based in Washington D.C. “China does not care about the Tibetan way of life.”
On occasions authorities have proven unusually tolerant of the Dalai Lama’s image, however. In mid-2013, international media and campaign groups started reporting that authorities had started to allow veneration of the Dalai Lama in monasteries including in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, for the first time in 17 years — a move denied by authorities in Beijing.
Then in July last year, his image was “generally well tolerated” as Tibetan’s marked the spiritual leader’s 80th birthday, Currie said.
With so little information coming out of Tibet and a lack of transparency from authorities, it remains difficult to know why enforcement of a ban on the Tibetan spiritual leader’s image has been so erratic, he added.
“Trying to prevent celebrations would simply cause more trouble for local authorities that it was worth,” said Currie.
It’s a point that highlights the extent to which Beijing has tried to calibrate a policy that tries to diminish the influence of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader without inciting ordinary people into cyclical rioting that has been a feature of 70 years of rule by the Chinese Communist Party.
This policy has been a total failure, said Golog Jigme, an exiled Tibetan monk who managed a long and arduous escape to India in May 2014. In mid-February, he appeared in Berlin and met with members of Germany’s parliament to warn of “appalling Chinese policies in Tibet.”
The reason he decided to flee — thereby creating yet another propaganda disaster for Beijing — was straightforward: Chinese military raided his monastery in Qinghai province, smashing and burning images of the Dalai Lama, he said.
“After each and every experience of these crackdowns there will be even bigger pictures of the Dalai Lama, even better frames and more beautiful portraits that we will hang on our walls,” he added. “Because this really strengthens our determination to show that, actually, we are not afraid.”

Related Reports

Religious rights in China deteriorate further in 2015 Tibetan leader criticizes China’s ‘Living Buddha’ list Beijing’s plans for Tibetan Buddhism condemned

News reports indicate that Tibetans are resisting ban on displaying the Dalai Lama’s image. Tibetans are displaying Dalai Lama’s image giving expression to Tibet’s resistance of military occupation by Red China.

Whole Future – The Future of Tibet Hangs in the Balance

The Future of Tibet Hangs in the Balance

**TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET. THE GREAT TIBET PROBLEM WILL EXIST UNTIL BALANCE OF POWER IS RESTORED IN OCCUPIED TIBET.**

Trouble in Tibet as Future of Tibet Hangs in the Balance. Tibetans enjoyed natural sense of Independence for several centuries which includes extended periods of foreign conquests by Mongol China and Manchu China. As Dalai Lama admits the need for ‘Skepticism’, Tibetans have become highly skeptical as Future of Tibet got intertwined with the vexing problem of Red China’s oppressive regime. I predict the sudden, catastrophic downfall of the mighty Chinese Empire any time before or after the Dalai Lama.

Whole Future – The Future of Tibet hangs in the balance. **I predict the sudden, catastrophic downfall of the mighty Chinese Empire any time before or after the Dalai Lama.**

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA
Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment

WWW.SLTRIB.COM
JUN 24, 2016

More from the Dalai Lama on the afterlife, science, China and Tibet’s future

Peggy Fletcher Stack
First Published Jun 22 2016 09:51AM • Last Updated Jun 22 2016 12:14 pm

THE FUTURE OF RED CHINA WITHOUT DALAI LAMA. I PREDICT SUDDEN CATASTROPHIC DOWNFALL OF THE EVIL RED EMPIRE AFTER DALAI LAMA WITH OR WITHOUT HIS REINCARNATION.

(The Dalai Lama waves goodbye to the crowd after speaking at the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. (Chris Detrick/The Salt Lake Tribune) via AP)

The Dalai Lama captivated thousands of Utahns this week with his speech Tuesday at the Huntsman Center, emphasizing the power of individuals in bringing about change and pointing out that actions, more than prayer, can lead to global peace.

But the Tibetan Buddhist leader touched on many more topics — from the afterlife to Chinese relations and the value of science — during a question-and-answer session. Here are some of his responses:

• What does he say about the afterlife to a man whose father committed suicide?

“That is sufficient reason to feel sad, but then think that sadness will not bring your father back,” he said. “Now you should work hard and make an effort to fulfill your late father’s wish, and somehow he will know of your condition.”

• What happens after death?

That, he said, is “a more complicated question.” In some Indian traditions, including Hinduism and Buddhism, there is no central authority as creator, “just self-creation,” he said. “Actions bring positive or negative results or karma. … Basically the life continues, no beginning or end until people reach nirvana,” akin to enlightenment, and escape from the cycle.

• What is the most effective approach to climate change?

“I don’t know,” he said. “Ask some specialist.”

• What role does scientific education play in universal responsibility?

“I especially like scientific research that involves the brain,” he said. ” … Such research is now showing interest in the nature of compassion — love — based on the oneness of the individual … and how anger and fear destroy the mind and the physical health.”

The Dalai Lama said he has had many discussions with scientists who are “neutral and unbiased — so that’s a true scientist — that mental attitude is very necessary to further research or knowledge. … There is no progress without investigation. Your mind must be open. It is also necessary to have skepticism. That brings questions and questions bring an effort to find any answer. … If you are contented, if you feel ‘I know everything,’ then no further progress.” ” … I am nearly 81, but I consider myself still a student,” said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

• Will he ever return to Tibet?

Nine years after the Chinese took over Tibet in 1950, the Dalai Lama fled to India with a small party of his associates. He has lived in exile for more than five decades, he said Tuesday, and most of the people with his group are either dead or too old to travel. “I don’t know if they will see Tibet or not,” he said, “but most of us feel that one day will come when we meet back home.”

China, of course, sees Tibet as part of its sovereign territory and has opposed any move toward independence, which the Dalai Lama also has given up. But the Tibetan leader hopes China will allow the Tibetans to continue their traditions and culture. “I feel for their own [Chinese] future and for society,” he said, “if they don’t change.”

Younger Chinese who travel, study, tour or do business outside the country are more open, he said. “If you have an opportunity to meet them, tell them the reality.” He was, he said, “optimistic.”

Peggy Fletcher Stack

THE FUTURE OF RED CHINA’S EXPANSIONISM – BEIJING DOOMED.

Whole Reincarnation – The Dalai Lama Life Cycle

The Dalai Lama Life Cycle – The Cyclical Flow of Times

The photo images that capture the physical appearance of the 14th Dalai Lama may relate to just one stage of the Dalai Lama Life Cycle. As per Tibetan faith and belief, the 14th Dalai Lama is the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama Life Cycle started in 1391 centuries before their individual lifespans.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment

Frame by frame: Photographer Raghu Rai’s book on the 14th Dalai Lama is personal, deep and immersive

Clipped from: https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/opinion/sunday-read/frame-by-frame-photographer-raghu-rais-book-on-the-14th-dalai-lama-is-personal-deep-and-immersive/articleshow/66492014.cms

Dalai Lama

By Priyadarshini Nandy

Raghu Rai’s book captures the many shades of the Tibetan spiritual leader

Raghu Rai’s latest book – A God in Exile: The Fourteenth Dalai Lama – focuses entirely on the Dalai Lama in his various moods and moments – be it when he’s interacting with his followers or simply unwinding. The series of black and white photographs are in no particular order, but it gives readers a glimpse into the life of the spiritual leader that Rai has witnessed over three decades. “He has an aura about him, one that can probably be felt for kilometers around him. He can see through you. We are truly lucky to have him in our lives. To me, he is a rare individual,” Rai adds.

But the two weren’t always so familiar. Before meeting the Dalai Lama in 1975, Rai’s knowledge of the man was pretty much limited to a book. “I had read My Land, My People (the Dalai Lama’s autobiography). It’s one of the most understated books I’d read in a while. Powerful, and moving – it sort of makes you feel responsible towards the people of Tibet. I knew that he was their spiritual leader, someone who brings out the Buddha in you… and that was pretty much it,” Rai says.

All that was going to change, when Rai was sent to Ladakh by The Statesman, to cover a three-day teaching session by the Dalai Lama. Little did Rai know back then that his relationship with the Dalai Lama was going to deepen over the years, and turn into a long-lasting friendship.

He (the Dalai Lama) has an aura about him, one that can probably be felt for kilometers around him. He can see through you. We are truly lucky to have him in our lives

Raghu Rai

“After ’75, I met him next only a decade later. I have been wanting to do a book on the Tibetans in exile, and I followed him to Bodh Gaya. But when I reached, I was informed that he was busy with a personal ritual and no one was allowed to disturb him. But I am adamant. I told them I knew him, and I simply must see him. After great difficulty, I was shown to his tent but was told not to enter. I had to insert my camera lens through a gap in the tent to take his photograph. But he spotted me and recognized me. He asked me to come in, and I was allowed to take his photos.

I was there for about four-five days and given complete access,” Rai adds.

Being blessed at Judah Hymn Synagogue, wearing a yarmulke

The end result was Tibet in Exile (1990), with text by Jane Perkins (who’s also written for the current book) – a brilliant visual record of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans who live in exile.

Over time, Rai kept going back to Dharamsala to meet the Dalai Lama.

“I did assignments for various magazines, and every time I went there, I would tell him it was really important. It was gracious of him to give me complete access, and he would even introduce me as his friend.” Sharing an old story, Rai says that during one of his shoots at Dharamsala, His Holiness came out from one his prayers, and gave him an off-white stone just before Rai was leaving. “I took it and put it into my camera bag. Many years later, my health worsened. I would feel uneasy and breathless; tired during assignments. What I did then was, taken that stone out and saw there was a small hole in it. I strung a thread to it and began to wear it around my neck. And I went back to work. In the year 2000, Nita (Rai’s wife) decided enough was enough and took me to a doctor. I was told that my heart had 90 per cent blockages, and anything could happen at any moment. I would like to believe that the stone is what protected me. I had an open-heart surgery later and my wife and I decided to go to Dharamsala to thank the Dalai Lama. But when I did thank him and told him how his stone had saved my life he laughed and said, “I don’t think I can do these things”. However, he pulled me into a prolonged embrace before we left, and I felt a kind of energy that I had never felt before. I think he just heals you by instinct. He can feel and smell what’s going on in your life.”

His Holiness’s morning occupation is often rereading Tibetan scriptures

Rai has many such stories to share – about the small jokes the Dalai Lama would crack ever so often; how he would sit in meditation for hours when no one could move him; the way he would interact with the people who had come to take his blessing – and these stories have made their way to this black and white photobook. “I have seen the spiritual connection he has with things. I have seen his compassion. And I have seen his humorous side. Once, I went to photograph him when he was sitting with a group of southeast Asian monks. It was a serious moment. And yet, in the middle of that, he spotted me and asked me why was I wearing a cap. He then asked me to come up to him and tugged at my cap and said “I want to see how much hair you have left”, and began to laugh. And with him, so did everyone. He’s like that – childlike and innocent,” Rai adds.

Interestingly, A God in Exile was not something Rai had planned. “I had seen a book on him by the Swiss photographer Manuel Bauer, and I was jealous. The photographs in the book were amazing. I honestly felt as if someone had stolen my sweetheart from me.

Raghu Rai

So I told myself that even I would do a book, and mine would be better. So in 2016, I decided to put my collection of photographs of the Dalai Lama together. I think I can say that my book is now the best one,” Rai says with a laughter.

– Photographs From A God in Exile: The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, by Raghu Rai. Published by Roli Books

**The Dalai Lama Life Cycle. The Cyclical Flow of Times. The Great 5th Dalai Lama.**

Whole Awareness – The Future of Tibet without the Dalai Lama

Tibet Awareness – The Legacy of Dalai Lama

**NO REINCARNATION OF DALAI LAMA WITHOUT FREEDOM IN OCCUPIED TIBET.**

I am not surprised to note about a historical change introduced by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. He has given up his political power and has decided to guide future of Tibet as a spiritual leader. Such separation of powers is needed in view of Red China’s military occupation of Tibet. There will be no reincarnation of Dalai Lama without Freedom in Occupied Tibet. His legacy is of far more greater importance to Red China. But, for Dalai Lama there is no one who can save Red China. Beijing is Doomed. No other nation on Earth can come to rescue of Red China as she marches ahead to meet her downfall.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment

Dalai Lama: China more concerned about future Dalai Lamas than I am

By Mick Krever, CNN

Updated 8:05 AM ET, Wed October 7, 2015

Dalai Lama: Future Dalai Lamas concern China

London (CNN) The Chinese government cares more about the institution of the Dalai Lama than the man who carries that name, the 14th Dalai Lama told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

“I have no concern,” he told Amanpour in London, adding that it is “possible” he would be the last Dalai Lama.

sot amanpour dalai lama china future_00004219 — **Dalai Lama: China more concerned about future Dalai Lamas than I am**

The Chinese government still considers him a political leader, the Dalai Lama said, as the previous men carrying that title were for centuries. But since 2011, he told Amanpour, he is only a spiritual leader. “I totally retired from political responsibility — not only myself retired, but also (a) four-century-old tradition.”

Buddhism in Tibet far precedes the Dalai Lama, and “in the future, Tibetan Buddhism will carry (on) without the Dalai Lama.”
Decades ago, he told Amanpour, “I publicly, formally, officially — I announced the very institution of the Dalai Lama should continue or not — (it is) up to Tibetan people.”

Amanpour spoke with the Dalai Lama shortly before he was hospitalized and forced to cancel several appearances in the United States. Now back in India, he has assured his followers he is in “excellent condition.”

The Chinese government is continually at odds with the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists. Chinese officials label him an “anti-China splittist,” alleging that he wants Tibet — now a region of China — to become an independent country.

“We are not seeking independence. Historically, we are (an) independent country. That’s what all historians know — except for the Chinese official historian; they do not accept that.”
Labeling him a “splittist,” the Dalai Lama said, fits with China’s “hardliner policy.”
“Past is past. We are looking (to the) future.”

Tibet, he said, is “materially backward,” and benefits from being part of China.
“It’s in our own interest, for further material development — provided we have our own language, very rich spirituality.”

Asked if he had a message for Chinese President Xi Jinping, who at the time was on the eve of a state visit to Washington, the Dalai Lama at first demurred.
With a laugh, he told Amanpour he’d have to think about it.

“I may say to him, Xi Jinping, leader of most populated nation, should think more realistically.”

“I want to say (to him), last year, he publicly mentioned in Paris as well as New Delhi, (that) Buddhism is a very important part of Chinese culture. He mentioned that. So I also say — I may sort of say some nice word about his — that comment.”

Nowhere else, the Dalai Lama said, is the “pure authentic” tradition of the religion kept so intact as in Tibet.

“No other Buddhist countries. So in China, preservation of Tibetan Buddhist tradition and Buddhist culture is (of) immense benefit to millions of those Chinese Buddhists.”
In one of those Buddhist countries, Myanmar, the often peaceful image of practitioners has been tarred in recent years with the persecution of — and often outright violence against — Muslim minorities, the Rohingya.

Whenever a Buddhist feels “uncomfortable” with a Muslim, or person of any other religion, the Dalai Lama said, he or she should think of “Buddha’s face.”
“If Buddha (were) there — certainly protect, or help to these victims. There’s no question. So as a follower of Buddha, you should follow Buddha sincerely. So national interest is secondary.”

“Consider as a human brothers, sisters. No matter what is his religious faith.”
“To some people, Muslim, Islam, (is) more effective. So let them follow that. We must accept that.”