ByKalsang Dakpa: Tibet “land of great mountains” great lakes, rivers and various other natural resources lived in solitude for centuries, hidden by mountains that seem almost insurmountable. Tibetans lived a very simple life without much material development yet they seemed to be the happiest people on earth, wearing very dirty (chuwa), made of animal skin, living without a bath for years and with no trace of any sort of formal education seems to have made very little difference for them to exist harmoniously for centuries, they lived a modest life without much expectations, their strong faith in religion has always overpowered their greed in acquiring more.
Despite the lack of material abundances they cherished every moment of life to its full potential singing folk songs in typical Tibetan baritones on almost every occasion, they lived in close proximity with nature respecting its unconditional mother like care, and all the natural things are considered as sacred, conducting various rituals according to it. They spent their life circumbullating, prostrating and offering praying and things to their belief, accumulating the positive karma, and purifying all the previously accumulated negative karma. Although most Tibetans don’t know the details about their religion but their unwavering faith in religion is what makes them so stable mentally even during the critical circumstances, Tibetan live the religion till dusk to dawn, all their actions are orientated in and around their religious belief.
potMost inportantly the Tibetan people are blessed with the religion that was founded by lord Buddha for more than 2500 years ago but Buddhism flourished in Tibet during the reign of great king sontsengampo at around 7th century and from there on it became a integral part of Tibetans life, at times great Indian masters were invited to Tibet to teach Buddhism and Tibet also produced great masters of its own. There were more than 6500 monasteries in Tibet accommodating 150,000 monks and nuns where they engage in intense studies and invest all their efforts in purifying their negative states of mind, meditation, introspection and cognitive reasoning became their tools.
While Tibetans were preoccupied in meditation and introspection, behind the mountain our very good neighbor China is on the move to occupy Tibet, China entered Tibet in 1950 to free Tibetans from the rule of feudal king, which is what they have always said. But slowly they begin to acknowledge the great wealth and natural resources of Tibet, which they thought could be use in developing their country’s economic, thus gradually they started dismantling monasteries, exporting valuable items like gold, silver, copper, back to their country, they did everything that one could imagined to wipe out the name of Tibet from the worlds history but fortunately some Tibetans managed to escaped along with their spiritual leader at the right time, otherwise the world would not know much about Tibet and its great religion.
More than 56,000 Tibetan people followed the Dalai Lama into the exile and lived as a refugee for almost fifty years now, they survived the tantalizing time with very little food and medical facilities, trauma of loosing families, home and land seems to have left very little emotional scars, knowing that Dalai Lama is there to protect them. Their indomitable devotion in Dalai Lama is what makes their journey through such situation much easier. They faced great many ordeals and endeavor many hardships but were manage to survive simply because of their humbleness and deeply rooted religious belief. The condition in which they survived was pretty harsh, it was the trying times for the Tibetans and there were only a grim of hope of reviving their culture and tradition. These were some of the toughest times that Tibetans have ever faced and the intensity of that emotional trauma is too high to bear and at times that brought tears in the eyes of a person who is believed by many Tibetans as the god king of Tibet (Dalai Lama). Yet despite all the turmoil, Tibetans not only survived that ordeal but they were able to recover from that emotional encounter and began to learn to live in a new home and in a relatively new environment.
H.H the Dalai Lama has been the moral and ethical teacher for the Tibetans for centuries, and it is because of his persistent efforts that Tibetans were able to enjoy the maximum freedom even as a refugee as compared to other refugees all over the world. Earlier in Tibet Tibetans would walk for more than a month just to have a glimpse of this great monk, who according to them is the reincarnation of Bodhisattva and the embodiment of wisdom. To the Tibetan he is the ultimate problem solver; Tibetans would go to him with all sorts of problems and the Dalai Lama would always relieve them from their sufferings with his wise words and uncanny affections. Though he says that he doesn’t have any miracle power but when you ask the people who strongly believes in him, they would tell you the amazing energy of love, compassion and warmness in him. He has been the ambassador of peace and compassion in this world and people would get attracted to him in the most spiritual way that one could think of. Unarguably he is the most powerful magnet alive, thus at one gathering in Canada Desmond tutu said’ that there are very few people in this world who can filled the central park of New York city with thousands and thousands of young devotees.
He is a genuine superstar with the red robe and the people of all ages love him, his famous topic is (love and compassion) and he is a manifestation of that. He lives by his words spending more than three hours meditating, most probably on the way how to resolve the sufferings in this world. He continuously travels all around the world with his message of love and compassion, and to him there is no difference in perception between friends and enemies, he is a monk without any preference and prejudice. He sees every one as same and as a single humanity wanting to be happy.
His vast knowledge and the practice of Buddhism is what made him who he is today, he was born in 1935 and at such a young age of two he was recognized as the reincarnation of 13 Dalai Lama. After the enthronement ceremony he was now not an ordinary child or monk, his shoulders were buried under the huge responsibility of becoming the next spiritual king of Tibet, he was then introduced into intense studies of Buddhist philosophy, although at times like any other child he would feel it as a burden. But with the mental state that of a pure one, he was unlike other child, he could learn most Buddhist verse very fast and he was extremely intelligent. At the age of 16 he formally became the king of Tibet, and his first formal assignment was to handle Chinese intervention in Tibet, he was young by then inexperience and out of sort on some occasion and in the coming months it was harder for him and his people to live side by side with their counterpart. Every day there was some news of injustice done on Tibetans by Chinese, on his part he did everything that he could to put up a peaceful solution to coexist together, but when Mao told him “religion is poison” he senses the destructive intention of people liberation army.
Unwillingly he and his entourage with more than 56,000 Tibetans escaped Tibet in the year 1959, since then he has been head of Tibetan people handling all the challenges put up by the new world. Yet without any complaint he carried all his responsibilities being a spear head of both spiritual and political issue. He is by far the most famous and the precious Dalai Lama of all. He is now 73 years old and he still works with the same passion and intensity, despite the busy schedule he still manages to meet poor and old people, he is extremely interested in science, especially in quantum physics, neurology and cosmology. In Tibet his famous time pass was repairing old watches and machines, every year he conducts a scientific gathering in Dharamsala where he discuss with the world famous scientist about the latest discoveries, he takes it very personal and very seriously. Paul Ekman the author of human expression and many scientists regards him as the happiest man alive with the expression that is similar to a child.
As a Tibetan I have always felt proud to be born as his follower, he is my undisputed hero and he will remain my inspiration, but at times I feel that we are so selfish because we always seek his help and lean on his shoulder, if suppose he was not a Dalai lama that we know then I am sure that he would be able to concentrate much of his time solely on intense studies and meditation. Personally like any other sentient beings he would have his own expectation and desire, which I think is being crushed by the sheer burden of being a H. H the Dalai Lama, he is truly amazing to have lived up to the expectation of what was needed from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
Therefore I think it is our time to take some of his responsibility and prove ourselves as a genuine Tibetan, vast majority of Tibetan still lives in annihilation and we must do something for them. We can’t always expect H. H. the Dalai Lama to do things for us all the time, make education your biggest tool to over come the challenge that we are facing, get into collage, become world renowned scientist, philosopher, author, novelist and doctors. We need experts in these fields to stand head to head with great peoples learn about the world and get involve in it. Let the world know about Tibetans through knowledge and education.
