Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama concludes his escape from occupied Tibet, having crossed the border into India, and on this day in 1959, is granted political asylum.
I was rummaging through Youtube for a suitable video to mark this occasion and was a little surprised at the number of offerings hostile to the Dalai Lama. The main gripe is that Tibet under the Dalai Lamas was a theocracy, and that people suffered terribly there before the Chinese invasion. True ’nuff. That system was swept away along with pretty much anything that might be called Tibet, replaced by the Han occupation and absorption. Some would call it genocide. I do.
And having come “West,” the Dalai Lama has picked up democratic ideas and the state in exile of which he is spiritual leader, although not political leader, is a very interesting enterprise.
The Dalai Lama has not only represented his people well, he has opened the door to the Buddha way for many. My Buddhism is much more spare than his. I have little truck with tulkus. But I’ve witnessed people taking up the Buddhadharma through the Tibetan style do very well spiritually.
And the Dalai Lama has been an exemplar of a way of peace.
Sadly, apparently, his nonviolent resistance, his willingness to deal with the Chinese, would they be willing to on their side, is slowly losing acceptance from the Tibetan exile community. I fear with his death, maybe before, things are going to go bad there…
But there is a bottom line here.
The Dalai Lama deserves the adulation much more than the criticism…
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