Dalai Lama - an impish monk

The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhists arrives for a tour of Australia and New Zealand in June. He is described by the tour organisers as “one of the world’s most recognised and revered people” and he is expected to draw big crowds.

My visits to Tibetan refugee camps in Nepal and Darjeeling, in India, not to mention a Srinagar antique shop that sold worry beads they claimed were carved from lama’s bones, encouraged enough curiosity about Tibetan Buddhism and its leader to request an interview when the Dalai Lama was previously on tour. As in the case of other world peripatetic religious leaders, it all begged the question how much was holiness and how much was man?

The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhists, is a Nobel Prize winner for his work for peace and the environment. He has followed the well-publicised global speaking path of two previous peripatetic priests, Roman Catholic Pope John Paul II and born-again Baptist evangelist Billy Graham. In time all three made their way to Australia, which, however you look at the map, is at the bottom of the world.

Of the three, Billy Graham, however, does not seem to have ever rejoiced in the title “His Holiness”.

When Lhamo Dhondrub was chosen as a two-year-old as the next Dalai Lama, he was renamed Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso: which means Holy Lord, Gentle Glory, Compassionate, Defender of the Faith and Ocean of Wisdom. It was a lot to live up to.

A god-king and once head of the Tibetan government in Lhasa, he fled to India in 1959 after Tibet was invaded by mainland China. Tibet is bordered by Nepal and Bhutan as well as India and China.

His official biography refers to him as “His Holiness” as both the head of state and the spiritual leader of Tibet. He describes himself as “a simple Buddhist monk”. Tall and voluminous in mostly dark maroon monk robes, he is disarming and instantly impish in reply to questions. It is hard to pin down an amiable man wobbling with boyish laughter. For all that, he is obviously a knowing man.

Born into a farming family in north-eastern Tibet, he was identified as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, after searchers undertook arduous journeys on behalf of the Tibetan regent, and taken from his family to be educated in a monastery. Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of bodhisattvas, described as enlightened beings that postpone their own nirvana to take rebirth to serve humanity.

After the onset of the Chinese invasion, Tenzin Gyatso escaped to India at 24 where he and his followers settled in Dharamsala, northern India. Eighty thousand Tibetan refugees eventually joined him in exile. Of those who stayed, one sixth of Tibet's population died as a result of the Chinese invasion; thousands died during the Chinese Cultural revolution; more died later during Tibetan protests.

The Dalai Lama appealed to the United Nations to help Tibet. The UN General Assembly called on China on three occasions to respect the human rights of Tibetans. More recently he has sought greater autonomy within China rather than independence.

In the meantime exiled Tibetans in India have elected a reformed democratic parliament, based on Buddhist principles, with “The Charter of Tibetans in Exile” described as enshrining freedom of speech, belief, assembly and movement. It reflects a major shift in attitude from the feudal Tibet he was brought up in when Tibetans numbered 700,000 serfs in a population of 1.25 million.

The first Dalai Lama to visit the West, he has since travelled to more than 62 countries spanning six continents and met presidents, prime ministers and crowned rulers of major nations, as well as heads of different religions and noted scientists. He has written more than 70 books; his message, nor surprisingly, is Tibet, the principles of Tibetan Buddhism, and world environmental problems.

At the time of our interview he was especially concerned about society’s overemphasis on material things and the real danger of people losing real human values, “so the human being becomes part of a machine. A very sad thing”, he shook his head. People could be poor but as long as they had a spirit of warm-heartedness they could be happy.

“If you lose warm-heartedness and kindness, despite the materialism (you may enjoy) you will not have a happy life. If you have compassion, thought or love, then you will not only get more happiness and mental peace, your friends and neighbours will be happier. In this way you affect the whole community or society.

“I tell people (of the) realisation of the oneness of all mankind. Humans are basically the same.” Different politics, races, systems, faiths and so on, were only secondary things. They were all meant to serve human benefit.

“Communism, Buddhism, capitalism, any ideology - what is the real purpose? The answer is the benefit of humanity.

“If you sacrifice human dignity in order to achieve an ideology or faith, that is wrong,” he said.

“People get the impression that love, compassion and kindness is religious. This is not a religious matter - it is a matter of humanity, whether you believe it or not.”

He thought Tibetan Buddhism might not be suitable for the West.

“We rely on the teaching, not on the person. Teaching must rely on the meaning, not on the word. In meaning we have to rely on the deeper meaning, not the superficial.” A person’s teaching was good when it was useful and relevant to daily life and if a religion created mental peace, it helped people face their problems.

His biographical notes encourage diversity, “I always believe that it is much better to have a variety of religions, a variety of philosophies, rather than one single religion or philosophy. This is necessary because of the different mental dispositions of each human being. Each religion has certain unique ideas or techniques, and learning about them can only enrich one's own faith.”

A man of soft words but sharp intelligence, he has survived the distance from being an unknown god-king of a remote country, escape as a spiritual leader of a mediaeval feudal system, a refugee in a foreign land - to become one of the world’s most noted voices. That has called for a high degree of awareness, acumen and subtlety.

Early in 2006 it was hinted that he might soon be allowed to visit his homeland if he made it clear he had abandoned the idea of independence for Tibet. It seems Beijing might welcome talks to avoid a power vacuum - when the Dalai Lama dies - that could provoke action by violent young separatists. However, talks over four years have not been successful.

Champa Phuntsok, the chairman of the Chinese-controlled Tibetan government, was sceptical. He claimed that although the Dalai Lama said he wanted to retire to his homeland and would not seek a political or religious position, he was, in fact, still bent on achieving independence for Tibet.

“So far we only have seen changes in the tactics of the Dalai Lama; only seen his goals to achieve independence in disguise,” Phuntsok accused. (The Times, UK, July 2006).

That apart, it is extraordinary that the peasant farmer’s son, born Lhamo Dhondrub, in the small and poor village of Taktser in north-eastern Tibet, should have grown to be so at one with the world; so able to catch the ear of world leaders. Nor were Pope Paul John II’s beginnings all that spectacular. Evangelist Billy Graham was a country boy.

But what of the Dalai Lama personally?

He replied Tibetan Buddhists had known tragedy but generally they were a happy people. “That is very useful,” he said. His own responsibilities were heavy and although he was sometimes sad, “I’m a happy man,” he said.

Again the huge, amiable man shook with boyish laughter.