By Agus Morales
11 March 2019
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Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th° Dalai Lama del Tibet. He is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. in the photo, at the Cultural Center
Tibetan-Mongol in Bloomington, Indiana.
BARCELONA — six decades ago, a Chinese dance company changed the history of Tibet forever.
Mao Zedong's Government invited Tenzin Gyatso, which at that time had 23 years, to a traditional dance piece that was to be celebrated on 10 March 1959 at the Chinese Army barracks in Lhasa.
Tibet had already been under Chinese control for eight years: during those years, Tenzin Gyatso —This is the name of the 14th Dalai Lama, the current— had attempted to negotiate the autonomy of the region with Mao, but the path of dialogue was not working.
Word spread in Lhasa that this apparently innocent work was a trap by China to kidnap the Tibetan spiritual leader.. Thousands of people gathered at the doors of the Dalai Lama's summer palace, the Norbulingka, to prevent it from leaving and protect it. After a week of riots, Tenzin Gyatso took off his monk's robes, He put on a black coat and shouldered a rifle.. Once camouflaged, as he relates in his memoirs, He left the palace escorted by two soldiers and managed to go unnoticed among the crowd..
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The Dalai Lama in Milan, last october (Photo: © Matteo Biatta/Sintesi/Alamy Stock Photo)
He went into exile in India.
sixty years later, the Dalai Lama is a pop icon, Spiritual guide for Buddhists and non-Buddhists, visible head of the favorite religion of many who say they are not religious. He is one of the few people —even if it is due to political paradoxes— capable of putting a furious anti-communist in agreement with a nostalgic hippie. He is one of the few historical figures who transformed the 20th century who is still alive., especially after the deaths of Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro.
"The Dalai Lama is one of the few people capable of bringing a furious anti-communist to an agreement with a nostalgic hippie."
During the last years, The Nobel Peace Prize winner has received criticism for his supposed lukewarmness in the face of the massacre of the Rohingya minority at the hands of the Burmese Army, dominated by Buddhists. The Dalai Lama sent a letter to the de facto leader of Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, to ask him to intercede, and said: "Buda habría ayudado a esos pobres musulmanes".
(The strange conviction, very widespread in the West, that Buddhism instills in souls an unbreakable pacifism is not only denied by Burma, but also Sri Lanka, whose Army ended by force in 2009 with the Tamil guerrillas in a bloody final offensive that was rudely ignored around the globe).
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The Dalai Lama at the opening of the exhibition “The Life of Buddha”” last year in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
(Photo: Robin Utrecht/Sipa USA)
The Dalai Lama's archenemy has always obviously been China, which has prohibited the visit of foreigners to Tibet on the occasion of the anniversary of 10 March. The Dalai Lama has long shown himself willing to negotiate with China an autonomy that would not imply the full independence of Tibet., But Beijing knows that it has the upper hand and has no reason to give in even one bit.. On the contrary: know that, although later there will be another Dalai Lama, When Tenzin Gyatso passes away, the Tibetan cause will receive a serious blow.
"Para los tibetanos en el Tíbet, han sido sesenta años de resistencia pacífica y sufrimiento bajo el régimen chino", Sonam Dagpo says in an email interview, Secretary of International Relations of the Tibetan authorities in exile. "Para los que están en el exilio, han sido sesenta años de lucha política para recuperar la libertad".
There is nothing to suggest that things are going to move. Dagpo admite que "muchos Gobiernos caen presa de las presiones económicas y políticas chinas", in reference to the diplomatic vacuum that the Dalai Lama and those in general who ask for greater autonomy or independence for Tibet often suffer..
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The Dalai Lama at Namgyal Monastery in India
About six million people live in Tibet. There are some 150.000 Tibetans in exile, among them 100.000 in India. Many were not born in Tibet and are second or third generation, like the Palestinians who were born in Syria and never saw the land of their ancestors. The new generations will have to decide the future of the cause.
One of the most illustrious refugees in the world will celebrate his birthday in July 84 years and faces the last stretch of his life focused on the symbolic sphere and something further away from the madding crowd..
"Su Santidad devolvió sus responsabilidades políticas en 2011. But he is the symbol of religion, la cultura y la identidad tibetanas", Dagpo says., which thus refers to the moment when the Dalai Lama formally relinquished power in the Tibetan government in exile, whose headquarters are located in McLeod Ganj, in the foothills of the Himalayas.
"The current situation (of exile) can last throughout our lives, but it can't last forever"
On my last visit to McLeod Ganj, in 2016, I had the feeling that the Tibetan exile was more aware than ever that the political situation was not going to change. was preparing, resignedly, for a long-term pulse. The Dalai Lama already said it in his memoirs: "La situación actual puede alargarse durante toda nuestra vida, pero no puede durar para siempre".
With China stronger than ever and the Free Tibet slogan a victim of historical wear and tear and perhaps buried in the mud of nostalgia, diplomatic efforts continue, but almost all the effort is put into reinforcing cultural and religious identity, which is expected to transcend the political level. and that happens, inevitably, by the figure of the Dalai Lama, no matter how much he has distanced himself from politics.
In the bare lobby of the first floor of the parliament of the Tibetan authorities in Indian exile, and McLeod Ganj, there was a photo gallery of the successive parliaments: the first, of 1960, with only 12 deputies; latest, con 45. Next door was the room that houses the legislative chamber.. The room, minimalist and white, It was presided over by a tall throne, el que pertenece a "Su Santidad", who rarely goes to the camera. Behind the throne hung a portrait of the Dalai Lama; on the sides, there was a photograph of the Norbulingka —the palace from which he fled— surrounded by snowy mountains, and a giant map of Tibet.
In that building I spoke with Acharya Yeshi Phuntsok, vice president of parliament. I asked him if the Tibetan cause was losing strength.
"Incluso en un siglo como el XX, technology and development, of a lot of competition and conflict, we have managed to fight and keep the Tibetan movement alive. I think we are very brave. Everyone is after money, muscle and military power, like china, pero nosotros hablamos de la no violencia", told me.
I thought about rephrasing the question and asked him if he was hoping, some day, to return to Tibet.
"Comparado con un siglo o con la vida de una persona, there are many years in exile. But for a movement or a cause, no son nada".
Copyright: 2019 New York Times News Service
