Discovery, Recognition and Enthronement of the 14th Dalai Lama, compiled by Khemey Sonam Wangdu, Sir Basil J. Gould and Hugh E. Richardson. Published by Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala, India and distributed by Paljor Publications, New Delhi, India. The book can also be purchased by visiting www.tibetgift.com
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From the time the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten
Gyatso ascended the throne, he contributed a great deal in promoting Buddhism,
strengthening the political arena, improving the life of his people,
maintaining the status of Tibet as an independent nation and so forth. Although
this account cannot include them all, I would like to relate a few incidents
when he clearly predicted certain events which were to come true in the future.
In 1920, when repair work was underway in the
eastern wing of the Potala, the Dalai Lama very carefully instructed the
artists to paint a blue bird on the wall of the stairs to the north of the West
Chamber and a white dragon on the wall to the east. All the knowledgeable
people gathered there, including the mural master, were somewhat perplexed by
the instruction, which made no sense to them either historically or
scripturally. The symbolism became clear in later years; the blue bird
indicated that he would pass away in the Water Bird Year, while the white
dragon to the east pointed to the year of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s
enthronement in the Iron Dragon Year. Then, in the Water Monkey Year, in response
to a long life puja offered by the
monks of the three principal monasteries and the monk and lay government
officials, he addressed them as follows:
I was first recognized and enthroned as the Supreme Liberator of the World in accordance with clear prophecies and portents, making it unnecessary to follow the practice of the golden urn ceremony. Then, according to tradition, I studied under holy tutors, notably Regent Ta-tsag Hotoktu and Khenchen Yongzin Phurchog Rinpoche. I memorized daily the religious texts, including the liturgical chants. I received the primary and secondary monastic ordinations and practiced the debate on the Five Major Treatises of Buddhism. Besides, I received empowerments and instructions in the profound Sutra. Working hard daily, without interruption, in accordance with my intellectual capacity, I presume to have achieved a considerable level of scholarship.
However, when I reached the age of 18, the
political responsibility of Tibet fell on me. Although I lacked spiritual and
political experience, I took the responsibility at the unanimous request of the
clerics and laity of Tibet and upon the counsel of the Heaven mandated Emperor.
Since then, I have had no freedom for personal leisure. With my mind weighed
down day and night under the heavy responsibility for our religious and
political wellbeing, I have been striving hard, honestly and to the best of my
ability to advance the cause of Buddhism, to strengthen our political system,
and to promote the welfare and happiness of my subjects.
When the British army attacked Tibet in the Wood
Dragon Year, I thought that it would be an act of undoing past deeds if I
appeased them for my personal wellbeing and thus undermined our ultimate
political interests. Knowing that it had been worthwhile to come to the help of
each other (Tibet and the Manchus) ever since the priest-patron relationship
was established between the Fifth Dalai Lama and the Manchu Emperor, I braved
the hardships of travelling over the northern plains of Tibet and through
Mongolian and Chinese towns to go to the Golden Chinese Capital of Peking and
to talk about our immediate and long
term problems. The Emperor and the Dowager
Empress received me with great respect and honor. Before long, the Emperor and
the Dowager Empress passed away one after the other. Huan Tung was installed as
the new Emperor. Having related the conditions of Tibet in detail to him and
his father, I returned home with the interest of Tibet in my heart.
On my return, I discovered that the Amban had
poisoned the Emperor’s ears, as a result of which the Chinese army, led by
General Chao Erfang, reached Tibet with an intent to seize political power. I,
the sovereign, and my ministers, who held the political power, made for the
Arya Land of India. Enduring all the hardships of the journey, we reached there
safely and protested persistently to the Chinese government through the British
government. We also performed intermittent ritual prayers for our religious and
political causes. Thus, due to the unfailing power of the profound truth of
karmic law, the civil war in China altered the situation and its forces and
commanders, having become like a reservoir cut off from its source, were thrown
out. And, I returned to Tibet, the land of my rule.
From the Water Ox to the Water Monkey Year, a new
era of glorious and complete happiness prevailed in Tibet. People, high and
low, enjoyed happiness in peace. Since this is well documented and well known
to all the clerics and laity, it would only lead to verbal excess to relate
this in detail. Thus, I mention this only briefly. You all must feel grateful
and contented. It is possible that my act of shouldering the political
responsibility has brought benefit. If this has happened, it is my aim and I am
contented. I will neither boast about it, nor do I expect recognition even the
size of a sesame seed.
Considering my advanced age now, I feel a strong
inclination to abdicate spiritual and political power in order to dedicate the
last phase of my life completely to spiritual practice so that I will have a
virtuous support in my long journey through future lives. But, I don’t have the
heart to ignore the genuine trust placed in me by the protector deities, who
have associated themselves with me as a shadow does a body, by my refuge lamas,
and by my subjects, high and low, who have had spiritual and mundane
relationships with me. I, therefore, continue to make the most of my knowledge
and ability to shoulder the responsibility. However, I am now nearing
fifty-eight and everyone must know that I will not be around for long to
shoulder the spiritual and political responsibilities.
Therefore, you must foster a harmonious
relationship with the militarily
powerful neighboring countries of India and
China. Efficient and well
armed troops must be deployed on contentious,
minor borders. These troops must be well trained to repel invasions from other
sides. Furthermore, the five degenerations are spreading these days. More
particularly, the communist system is spreading widely. The recognition of
Jetsun Dampa is banned. The monastic properties are confiscated and monks are
inducted into the army. Buddhism is being wiped out. We continue to hear such
stories from Da-khurel (Ulan Bator).
It is certain that Tibet, a land which combines
spiritual and secular values, will face a similar problem from both within and
outside. If we are unable to defend our land under such a circumstance, then
all the realized holders of the dharma, including the Victorious Father and son
(the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama), will be eliminated without a vestige and
the properties and traditions of the reincarnate lamas and monasteries will be
lost. Moreover, our political system, as founded by the Three Dharma Kings,
will be relegated to an empty name. The government officials of Tibet will .be
deprived of their inheritance and properties, and enslaved by the enemy. ‘the
people of Tibet will be subjected to so much suffering that they will not be
able to endure the day and night. Such a time will certainly come.
Therefore, it is necessary to work unerringly for
the common cause of Tibet’s spiritual and political systems. Presently, we are
enjoying happiness, which is the envy of others. It is up to the monk and lay
officials to use this opportunity to work unremittingly to strengthen our
political system so that we have no regrets later and remain prepared to face
the challenges of the future both diplomatically and militarily. It is the duty
of high and low clerics and laity and all the subjects of Tibet to exercise
consideration and work “ unerringly in unity, for our common cause. To do so
without deviation is in accord with the prediction of the chief Guardian Deity,
who said, “There will be no cause for anxiety and fear as long as all the
people fulfil their duties according to the wishes of the
Spiritual Master Meaningful to Behold (the Dalai
Lama).” This is true.
I, on my part, will offer protection and help to
all those who work with dedication and honesty for the common spiritual and
political cause of Tibet. They will be blessed with success in their endeavors
while the unscrupulous ones will meet with failure and punitive consequences.
It is evident that the blessing of long term success does not come to those who
indulge in selfish, partisan and sycophantic acts for short term goals and
ignore the collective spiritual and political well being. And, it is pointless
to regret it later. I can see that Tibet’s present well being will endure as
long as I am alive. But ultimately, as I stated earlier, you will suffer the
consequences of your individual actions. This is the clearest guidance I can
give you from my experience and reasoning. I cannot give more comprehensive
advice to anyone else. You perform many external prayer rituals for my long
life. The most important thing is the inner ritual prayer, which is to keep my
words in your hearts and devote yourself to the common cause of Tibet with
repentance for past mistakes. If you do this, I will also do my utmost to
further the cause of our religious and secular polity for as long as I live.
Similarly, I shall help the officials as per their positions and performance
while making efforts to secure happiness for my subjects for a hundred years.
There is no greater ritual prayer than this.
This is all I have to say in response to your
united request for advice. Day and night, in the course of your four
activities, you must think seriously on this advice and act accordingly without
deviating from this. This is important.
In this address, the Dalai Lama clearly predicted
the future of Tibet. Then on the thirtieth day of the tenth month of the Water
Bird Year (1933), he passed away at the age of fifty-eight in order to
demonstrate the truth of impermanence, leaving the entire nation in deep grief.
The National Assembly then convened in the
presence of the prime minister and his cabinet, to discuss matters related to
the administration of national affairs. After several rounds of discussion it
was decided to select three high ranking lamas, Gaden Tripa Mi-nyag Ami, Reting
Rinpoche and Phurchog Rinpoche, as candidates to be regent. This was to be
decided by means of conducting zantag-lot
in front of the Avalokiteshvara statue in the Potala palace. The divination
selected Reting Hotoktu, but the then prime minister, Langdun Gung Kunga
Wangchug continued in office to assist the regent.
Various signs were witnessed that clearly
indicated the reincarnation would be born in north-eastern Tibet. For instance,
the Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s body which was placed facing south, spontaneously
turned its face towards the east more than once; the state oracles Nechung
Chogyal Chenmo, Gadong Neysrung Chenmo, Samye Nojin Chenpo and others turned
twice towards the east while in trance and paid homage by offering scarves;
clouds formed into various auspicious shapes on the north
east horizon; snapdragons bloomed underneath the stairs in the east of
the discourse arena; and fungi shaped like stars and antlers grew from
underneath the stone plinth of the wooden column in the northeast of the shrine
where the memorial stupa of the late Thirteenth Dalai Lama was under
construction.
Among his many responsibilities, Regent Reting treated the search for the
next incarnation as the most urgent. He went to Lake Lhamo Latso in Chokhor-gyal
in 1935 (the Wood Pig Year) to perform an intensive sadhana with his party for several days. This lake is located ten
days journey south-east of Lhasa and is very popular among the devotees of the
goddess, as one’s future can be seen in the lake’s surface. The Second Dalai
Lama consecrated the lake following his pure vision and declared that it
embodied the life force of the Goddess Rimati. When the search for the
Thirteenth Dalai Lama was underway, detailed information about him appeared in
this lake: the house in which he was born and so forth. Indeed a lake of great
blessing.
At the conclusion of his sadhana, the regent saw in the lake three groups of dbu can letters, “A”, “KA” and “MA”. He also saw a three-storied
monastery, with its second floor in a turquoise color and the rooftop adorned
with rgya phib in golden color; and a
threadlike path leading towards the east from the monastery reaching up to the
foot of a hill where there was a one storied house with a blue roof. The regent
noted down all these visions in writing, keeping the information confidential.
All these indications led to the decision to form
search teams to journey to various regions in eastern Tibet. As a result, high
ranking lamas and trulkus from Sera,
Gaden and Drepung consulted the state oracle Nechung for instructions and three
search teams, each consisting of four members, were formed.
The regions of the south-east and Dagpo were
assigned to Phurchog Jamgon Rinpoche who was accompanied by Tsedrung Thubten
Jangchub, Changkhyim Thubten Tsephel and Shodrung Phunrabpa. Serje Hardong
Khangser Rinpoche drew Chamdo and the Dokham area with Tsedon Tenpa Jungney,
Tsedrung Laytsen Tsultrim Chophel and Shodrung Laytsen Driyulpa in attendance.
Serje Hardong Kewtsang Rinpoche led the party of which I was a member; with
Nagchu Khenpo Tsedrung Khenrab Tenzin and Tsedrung Lobsang’I’sewang. We were
sent to A-rig and other regions of Amdo in the north-east.
The Samye protector deity, while in a trance,
gave the cabinet ministers a ritual mirror to be used for testing the
candidates. However, the deity, as was often the case, gave no clear indication
which team should be given the mirror. So, the regent instructed the Samye
based Zasag Gyaltsen Phuntsog and Teji Shenkhawa to call on the deity for
clarification. The deity told them to send the mirror with the team led by
Kewtsang Rinpoche- the team to which I belonged. The other objects for testing
the candidates included: His Holiness the Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s yellow and
black rosary, his small ivory damaru
which had been used to call his attendants, and his walking stick made from
cane. Also included was a copy of the confidential account of the Regent’s lake
vision and his introductory letters to the then Panchen Lama, Governor Ma, the
head lama of Kumbum, and monastery administrators and civil officials in those
regions.
Our journey in search of the new reincarnation
was to begin on the fifth day of the ninth month of Fire Rat Year (1936). The
night before we left there was an unreasonably heavy snowfall and next morning
when I went to seek blessings at the Jokhang, I noticed knee deep snows on the
road. At about nine in the morning all the team members gathered at Kewtsang
Rinpoche’s residence, Daring House, and we began our journey from there. It was
a fine, sunny day with clear skies and the previous day’s snow had already
melted, making the road clear and easy to travel on. In fact it was the most
wonderful day we had ever experienced. Our journey took us through Dromtod,
Chakri Tramo and other regions, reaching Nagchu, where we stayed for ten days
to arrange provisions and organize pack animals. From Nagchu we traveled via
Sog-tsandan monastery, Malazhi and Khyungpo Tengchen to reach Riwoche. Except
for a few barren mountainous areas, the landscape we passed through was mostly
lush green, with beautiful meadows and passes. A high pass ahead to cross the
next day would almost certainly herald a heavy snowfall to welcome us
throughout the night and continuing until we reached our next stopover. However
nothing happened to threaten our lives, although I suffered from frostbite in
my leg, a condition which still affects me to this day in cold weather. To
encounter snow is a good omen and these heavy snowfalls on our way were seen as
an indication that our team would succeed in discovering the reincarnation and
be able to escort him to his palace in Lhasa, the Potala Palace.
We were a little hesitant to travel beyond
Riwoche, as a short time ago there had been encounters between Tibetans and the
Upper Zilings on the Tibetan Chinese border at Keygudo. To clarify the
situation, we sent a letter to the Panchen Rinpoche, who was then staying at
Keygudo. While Kewtsang Rinpoche arid my other team members were at Riwoche, I
went to Chamdo to seek advice from the two governors there, one of them being
my brother Surkhang Surpa Wangchen Tseten.
After a month’s stay at Riwoche, we continued our
journey, following Panchen Rinpoche’s advice. We traveled via Chaksamkha, Shoda
and Nangchen reaching Keygudo on the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth month. On
the second day of the new year (Fire Ox), we called on Panchen Rinpoche at his
chamber and presented him the regent’s introductory letter and new year gifts.
During our meeting, he said, “It is the most urgent matter to discover His
Holiness’ reincarnation. While in Kumbum I have examined several children and
found three possible candidates, who possess all the good characteristics.” He
then gave Kewtsang Rinpoche a list of the three candidates. Later on we met
Panchen’s chief attendant at his residence, where he conveyed to us the Panchen
Rinpoche’s advice concerning the fact that we were the responsible persons
specially delegated for that mission and that we should not just rely on the
list he had given to us, but should make a thorough search in the regions both
far and near. He deputed Tsechogling Trulku and Ngulchu Trulku to help us in
our work and Tedhing Las-tsenpa to guide us on our journey. He also promised us
a supply of additional pack animals saying, “Soon there will be caravans
arriving here and you can join them on their way back to Ziling.”
The arrival of the caravans was considerably
delayed due to heavy snowfalls but immediately they arrived, we sent a group of
servants ahead as the advance party and in the third month we left Keygudo,
travelling via Ra-nyag monastery, Lab monastery and the adjacent regions of
Tongkhor. Most of this region is barren desert with no inhabitants so we had to
pitch our tents at every stopover. In this way we traveled for the next twenty
days, eventually reaching Tongkhor-khar, where Chieftain Tseling Dechang of
Ziling and several other Tibetan businessmen, in all fifteen horsemen, came to
receive us. We spent the night there. On the lush green plains of Chunag, the
monastic authorities of Kumbum received us in a big tent and offered us tea,
rice and white scarves. There were representatives from eight monasteries and
eighty estates, and over 60 horsemen were present to receive us. Amidst this
grand mounted procession, we proceeded to Kumbum Jampaling monastery arriving
on tenth day of the fourth month of Fire Ox Year. As soon as we arrived, the
white clouds in the sky formed various auspicious shapes and sent down light
showers a fortunate sign. When I saw the monastery and its architecture, an
unusual feeling of joy and hope thrilled through me. I said to myself, “Most
probably this is the monastery our regent saw reflected in Lake Lhamo Latso.
Maybe we will have the good fortune of discovering the reincarnation.” At
Kumbum, all the team members stayed separately at different estates: Kewtsang
Rinpoche in Chesho estate, myself at Aja-si, Tsechogling Trulku at Serti, and
Ngulchu Trulku at Mi-nyag estate.
Kumbum, in its remote past, was a land of nomads
and it was in one of those nomad families that Lord Tsongkhapa took birth.
Kumbum monastery is known for its sandalwood tree, which is said to have grown
out of the blood spilled and absorbed into the soil at the time of Tsongkhapa’s
birth, and for the stupa of one hundred thousand Manjushri images. A new
sandalwood tree had branched off from the main tree in front of the stupa, its
leaves and branches imprinted with the seed syllables and images of Lord
Tsongkhapa. With its unique image of the protector deity Chogyal, known as
gsung byon ma, meaning the image that speaks, and the four corners of the
monastery naturally resembling the “Four places of power”, this monastic
complex is no less blessed than the Lumbini garden, Buddha Shakyamuni’s
birthplace. The Third Dalai Lama blessed and named the monastery Kumbum
Jampaling. In addition, a line of Dalai Lamas, such as the Great Fifth, Seventh
and the Thirteenth Dalai Lama have visited and blessed this monastery. The
monastery housed about 3, 500 monks, studying scriptures and practicing
meditation in the four departments specializing in dialectics, tantra,
Kalacakra and medicine. The monks were also proficient in religious ceremonies
and tantric rituals, as they generally conduct such rituals either in the common
assembly hall or in their respective departments on all the important religious
days.
The offerings of about twenty different butter
sculptures exhibited in the forecourt of the monastery, during the Monlam
festival, spoke of the monks’ skill and talent in religious arts and sculpture.
Two of the sculptures, which depicted the life of Buddha according to the Avadanashataka, were of special
attraction- i.e. the ones created by the monks from first grade prajnaparamita
classes of Gomang and Sera Jetsun commentary.
With the help of Panchen Lama’s representative in
Ziling, Amdo Aku Tsondu, who was a very knowledgeable man, we applied for an
appointment with the Governor Ma. I do not remember the exact date, but I think
it was in the fifth month that we went to Ziling, staying at Amdo Aku Tsondu’
residence. There was no reply from the governor for the next three days. On the
fourth day, an official came with a reply, which said that our appointment had
been scheduled for two days time. Pretending as if he was giving us his
personal advice, the officer said that we should bring along whatever gifts we
had for the governor.
Our gifts included a great variety of items, such
as brocades, woolen goods, incense, antlers, musk, and leather. We gathered the
Tibetan business people based at Ziling and with each one holding a different
gift, we moved in a procession passing through the street and finally reaching
the Yamon, the governor’s secretariat. While we were in his waiting room, an
alarm bell suddenly rang and all the Chinese present, in and outside the
waiting room, left one after the other, leaving us alone. The alarm had in fact
been to warn the people that a Japanese aircraft was soaring overhead, as those
were the days when there was a clash between China and Japan. In reality no
such aircraft came that day. After a while, all the Chinese came back to their
respective places. Then came our turn to see the Governor. We presented him the
regent’s introductory letter and the gifts, explaining to him in detail the purpose
of our coming to Ziling. He greeted us with tea, fruits and several other
tidbits and expressed his felicitations on our safe arrival, before commenting
that all communication with him should be done through his officer Hru-zhang.
The next day, we met Hru-zhang and four other officers of Ting-zhang rank and
presented them our gifts.
Back at Kumbum, we met the monastic authorities
and other high ranking lamas and reincarnated lamas and presented them the
regent’s introductory letters along with our offerings.
Then the real search began. Each member was to go
to different regions and make their search. Kewtsang Rinpoche carried out his
search in the area including Ja-khyung, Ra-khog and Kumbum with its six
sub-regions; I made my search in Ziling, Khyamru and Kangtsa, and Venerable
Khenrab Tenzin and Lobsang Tsewang were assigned to the Par) Choten, Than-gon,
Shaman Taklung, and Rabgyal. We continued our search in our respective regions
for a period of about two and a half months. Throughout my search I found only
a few boys, who according to their parents, were born with various auspicious
dreams and signs, such as a rainbow over their respective dwelling places. In
fact none of these boys proved very convincing. It was same with the other team
members. In their searches they had come across twelve boys who could be taken
into consideration. Those in Panchen Rinpoche’s list were: the boy born in
Chija Taktser (the present Dalai Lama), the nephew of Lonpa Loyer (he was said
to have reached for the Panchen Lama’s rosary and pulled it hard during the
Kalacakra initiation), the third candidate was the son of Drotsa Nangso (also
known as Di-tsa Nangso), but he had died by the time we reached Ziling. To
examine the remaining two candidates, Kewtsang Rinpoche and his entourage set
out for Taktser that winter in disguise and without telling anybody. Kewtsang
Rinpoche traveled under the guise of a servant, with a rosary of the late Dalai
Lama around his neck, while Venerable Lobsang Tsewang dressed more splendidly
and pretended to be the master. Setronpa Kalsang, the interpreter, and Kewtsang
Gelong Tsultrim Gyaltsen dressed as wanderers and pretended to be pilgrims on
their way to hermitages in Tsongkha. On arrival at Taktser, they asked for accommodation
at Chija Taktser House. They received a warn welcome and a special inner room
was assigned to the Venerable Lobsang Tsewang and a mote ordinary room to
Kewtsang Rinpoche and his two colleagues. At that time, the young boy, who was
going to be the future Dalai Lama, walked up to Kewtsang Rinpoche with an
expression of joy on his face. He pulled the rosary Kewtsang Rinpoche wore
around his neck and said, “give me this!”
“Tell me
who I am and then I will give this to you,” replied Kewtsang Rinpoche.
“You are an Aka
from Sera. Mani, Mani” the boy replied, spontaneously.
“Who is the man in the inner room?” asked
Kewtsang Rinpoche and the boy replied, “Tsedrung Lobsang!”
Then he pointed his finger to the interpreter and
said, “Kalsang!” and then to Kewtsang Gelong Tsulgyan, saying “The Aka from Sera” He gave all this
information spontaneously, without any hesitation or doubt. The team members
stayed there overnight and closely examined the boy’s behavior. During most of
that time he stayed with Kewtsang Rinpoche maintaining the expression of great
joy on his face, gazing at and holding the rosary over and over again. So
confident was his behavior and speech that the team members were simply amazed.
The next morning, when they were about to leave, he cried out from his bed and
begged to accompany them, making the parting emotionally unbearable.
The day Kewtsang Rinpoche and his entourage left
for Taktser, the Venerable Khenrab Tenzin and I went to the house of Lonpa
Loyer’s nephew, carrying a rosary of the late Dalai Lama. It was morning when
we arrived and his family agreed to accommodate us in the way we requested.
After we had made some tea and rested for a while, we asked the family if they
had a boy with certain auspicious signs. “Yes, we have a child daring enough
even to touch the Panchen Lama’s rosary” said his mother. Then they brought the
boy to us, clad in a set of new clothes but he was too shy even to come near
us. Thinking that the rosary might attract his attention a bit, the Venerable
Khenrab Tenzin took out the rosary, put it around his own head and called the
boy, saying “Come here.” There was no sign of the boy taking a fancy to it and
he remained just as shy as before. Nothing came out of this test.
By telegram, we submitted to our government a
confidential report of the names and the family backgrounds of the two
candidates nominated by the Panchen Lama and the twelve discovered by us during
our search. We asked our government whether or not we should carry on with our
tests and show the objects from the late Dalai s belongings. The reply came
after three days. It suggested that government was very hopeful of the boy at
Chija Taktser and that we should closely examine him by showing him the
objects.
Soon after that, all the team members set out for
Taktser without ig anybody. On our way, we encountered several auspicious
signs, s people carrying barrels filled with curd, milk and water. As soon we
arrived there, the sounds of a conch shell calling the monks to assembly blared
from atop the Kumbum monastery- a very auspicious coincidence! Another
favorable incident was our meeting with a young se man on a low-lying pass
close to the boy’s house. It was the point where the road forked into two- one
road leading up the pass and her one down. That Chinese man was travelling with
his three donkeys all loaded with firewood. He suggested that we take the road
g down the pass. We followed his suggestion, and to our surprise we soon in
lush green fields next to the front door of the boy’s house. It is said that
the late Thirteenth Dalai Lama on his way to visit Tsongkha-tage stopped here
for a short while and that on seeing Chija Taktser he said “a nice house!” just
as we entered the boy’s house, we heard a cuckoo singing, which was the first
cuckoo we were hearing that spring. Perhaps the Chinese man whom we met on the
way was a manifestation protector deity appeared in that form to guide us. The
other path was in fact a short cut to the house, but led to its back door.
We arrived as the evening tea was served. The
house was located middle of a lush green plain and had a lofty prayer banner in
the le of its courtyard. It was a single story flat with a slab roof and in a
turquoise color. Nearby the house were fields bright with shoots; there were
hills to its right and forests to the left. The n of the house reminded me of
the regent’s lake vision, described one-page lake vision account. “This is it”,
I said to myself. The father had gone to the water mill, but his mother
received us and is tea and cookies. The boy was then two years old. He appeared
wearing a jump-suit and had an expression of joy on his face. His mannerisms
suggested a personality, which was extraordinarily profound for his age.
After tea we asked permission to begin our test. We spread all the from
the late Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s belongings (each with a similar article beside
it) on a long table on the middle of a raised platform in his bedroom. The
raised platform somewhat resembled a throne, but it was a common device in that
region to keep the room warm by lighting a fire under it. Kewtsang Rinpoche
with the Venerable Khenrab Tenzin next to him sat to the right of the table,
while the Venerable Lobsang Tsewang and I were to the left. Then, Kewtsang
Rinpoche picked up the authentic black rosary along with the copy in his hands
and asked the boy, “Which one do you want?” He grabbed at the real one and
placed it around his neck. In the same way he chose the correct one when we
presented him with both the yellow rosaries. Then we offered him the two
walking sticks and after pausing for a while and looking carefully at both the
canes he picked up the wrong one. I was a little worried on seeing this and
thought “There he was mistaken, although he was successful in the first two
rounds of the test.” Again he looked closely at both walking sticks examining
the handle and the tip of each with concentration. Then he put the wrong one
back to the table and picked up the Dalai Lama’s, holding it straight with its
tip to the floor. Both these sticks were of the same design, except that one
had a bronze tip and the other a plain iron. In actual fact, the one which was
then considered the wrong choice had belonged to the late Thirteenth Dalai
Lama, who had later presented it to the previous Drubkhang and the latter gave
it to Kewtsang Rinpoche. That explained why the child picked it up at the
beginning of his test. He also correctly identified three quilts. I watched
with increasing rapture at the result of each test. Still there was one more
test to undergo. At this stage, he had to identify the ivory-made hand drum,
which the late Dalai Lama had used as an instrument to call his attendants.
Kewtsang Rinpoche displayed in front of him the drum and a beautiful ivory-made
damaru adorned with a golden belt and
brocade handle. I was a little worried, thinking that he might go for the damaru, which was far more attractive
than the drum. Without any hesitation, he picked up the drum. Holding it in his
right hand, he played it with a big smile on his face; moving around so that
his eyes could look at each of us from close up. Thus, the boy demonstrated his
occult powers, which were capable of revealing the most secret phenomena. We
were so moved to see him performing such a miracle that it left us spellbound.
Then he gave us back the objects as we requested.
After a while his father returned from the water mill and we spent the night
there. During our conversation with his parents, we asked them questions such
as: had there been any auspicious signs before or after his birth? The reply
was always “No, nothing of that kind.” However, the local people had a great
many things to tell us. According to them, they had suffered tremendous natural
calamities whenever it was time for a great lama to take birth in their locality.
They told us of quite a few misfortunes that had befallen them, including crop
failures for the past four years; a series of deaths among the most valuable
livestock of his family; and his father suffering a serious, prolonged
sickness, which nearly took his life. However, according to them, his father
had a miraculous recovery as soon as the boy was born. Also, they had witnessed
many auspicious signs, such as a rainbow over the house and so forth.
That night none of us were able to sleep, even
for a moment, as we turned over the miraculous performance of the boy in our
minds.
When we were about to leave for Kumbum the next
morning, the boy jumped out of bed and firmly insisted that he was going to
accompany us. He was so adamant that his parents had to trick him to hold him
back. Indeed, it would have been our pleasure to take him along, but that was
impossible then. We had no choice but to part from him with heavy hearts,
fondly looking back at him over our shoulders.
Two or three days later, the nephew of Lonpa
Loyer (one of the Panchen Lama’s nominees) came to Loyer House in Kumbum
monastery. With permission from his uncle, we went there to conduct the tests,
but the child was too shy to touch any of the objects we displayed on a long
table on the verandah. In fact, he was later recognized as the reincarnation of
Trichen Kekya Trulku of Kumbum monastery and fell into Chinese Communist hands
when the monastery was invaded.
Then, we sent our government a detailed report of
the tests we had conducted on the two candidates and their results plus our
plans to test the remaining candidates discovered during our search in areas
around Ziling. We submitted this report in a coded telegram as well as by
messenger on horseback. There was no reply for several months and just as we
were planning to conduct further tests the reply came, both by coded telegram
and a messenger on horseback. The reply read: “Based on the evidence, such as
his miraculous performances in all the tests, the striking similarity between
the architecture and location of his house and that in the regent’s lake
vision, reinforced by the prophecies of lamas and deities, the government
hereby declares Lhamo Dondub, born at early sunrise on the sixth day of gya
month of the Wood Hog Year in the family of Chokyong Tsering and his wife Sonam
Tsomo, to be the true reincarnation of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. Therefore,
every attempt should be made to escort him to the capital as soon as possible.”
However, this declaration had to be kept secret
from the public, fearing that Governor Ma might manipulate the situation to
establish his rule in Tibet, or else he might use it as an opportunity to
extort excessive bribes to satisfy his greed. All the team members assembled in
front of the thang ka of Goddess Palden
Lhamo, brought by Kewtsang Rinpoche from the late Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s room
in Norbulingka, and performed her invocation ritual. Then we jointly took an
oath declaring every one of us would remain ever faithful to the commitment of
keeping the government’s declaration strictly confidential, promising never to
reveal a word of it. Also, we sent the government a coded message in which we
had listed the following points:
·
that we had decided
under oath not to make public even a word from the recent telegram which
proclaimed the boy from Chija Taktser to be the real reincarnation, as we could
foresee that if Governor Ma knew the content of the proclamation he would not
allow the young Dalai Lama to accompany us.
·
that the government
too should consider it crucial to keep its proclamation strictly confidential.
·
that tests of the
remaining candidates would be conducted in order to prevent the local
authorities from knowing the truth.
·
and that we were
going to seek help from Governor Ma to invite all the remaining candidates to
Kumbum monastery for the test, as that would save us the time taken to travel
to each candidate’s region; it would also prevent people coming to know the
details of the test procedure and the objects utilized.
Apart from those considerations, we advised our
government: “As soon as we finish with our so called tests of the remaining
candidates, the government will contact Governor Ma by telegram and persuade
him to allow all the candidates, including the young Dalai Lama, to travel to
Lhasa for further tests!”
All the team members called on Governor Main
Ziling. During our meeting we told him that we had already tested two
candidates from nearby locales who displayed promising signs. And we requested
him to invite all the remaining candidates, whose tests were still to be
carried out, to Kumbum monastery, explaining that going to their respective
regions to conduct the tests would not only be a time-consuming process, but
could also run the risk of the tests becoming public knowledge. He responded
that he had no objection to inviting them to Ziling, but not to Kumbum
monastery, which he thought was an inappropriate place for the tests to be
conducted. He assured us that he and his people would not interfere in our procedures
and would leave the tests entirely in our hands. In fact, it did not make much
difference to us, because we knew that the whole process we were discussing
with him was a subterfuge since our government had already proclaimed the true
reincarnation. We readily agreed to his suggestion and set the date for our
next meeting at Ziling.
On the appointed date, we went to the commissioner and asked if all the
candidates had arrived and had the place where the tests were to be conducted
been decided upon? He replied in the affirmative. “As for the test centre” he
continued, “it is to be the Regional Government Headquarters, because there are
so many candidates.” He then reassured us, repeating somewhat what the governor
had said to us previously. “Since it is a purely religious matter, we have no
intention of interfering in your test procedures. We will leave it entirely up
to you to carry them out.” Accordingly, we went to the Government Headquarters
the day after the next day carrying with us all the objects, both authentic and
similar. Before we could begin our tests, the governor demanded that we show
him the objects we would be using, as lie perhaps thought they might be
extraordinarily amazing to look at. As we were aware that he was a wicked man
who wielded much power, trying to raise objections would be to no advantage.
Before we showed hum the objects, we did tell him that we had strict orders
from our government not to display them unless all the team members were
present. While reassuring us once again of the fact that he would not be
interfering in our test procedures, he demanded, “You will allow me and some of
my officers to watch the procedure, as this is something we have never seen
before”. Actually, those four officials who accompanied him during the test
were his blood relatives.
The time had arrived to begin our tests. We
displayed all the objects on a long table in the middle of the room. Then we
called the boys one after the other accompanied by one of their parents or
relatives, depending on whoever was present, and showed them the objects. At
the same, time, to dupe the governor and his retinue, Kewtsang Rinpoche
examined their ears and tongues, as if he was reading the lines on them.
Meanwhile Venerable Khenrab Tenzin and I acted as if we were noting down the
results of his examinations. As soon as the test was over, we presented each of
the parents with a roll of superfine woolen cloth and suggested they return
home: In their tests, some children were wrong in half of their choices, while others
were right in one and wrong in three. Yet a few others were wrong in all their
choices or were too shy to make any decision. In fact, none of them proved
worthy of any positive comment.
The governor asked afterwards if we had found any
candidate convincing enough and what was the result of our tests. We told him:
“We cannot say anything decisive at this stage. We will send a detailed report
to our government by telegram, describing all that we have witnessed. It is in
the hands of our government to make the final decision. However, before any
final decision is reached, a long procedure has to be followed, such as
collecting reports from the other regions, consulting the lamas and deities for
their divinations and predictions and so forth. As soon as this procedure is
over, the government will issue a bulletin, which will throw light on the
questions, such as whether any candidate from this region has proved promising
in his test. If the answer is yes, then the candidate should be called for
further tests here, or should be escorted to Lhasa. We will call on you then
and inform you of all the details.”
Back at Kumbum, we sent a detailed report by
telegram to our government. Meanwhile, the governor twice invited some of the
candidates such as the one from Taktser (i.e. the young Dalai Lama), Loyer and
others, to his office. During these meetings, he gave them fruits and sweets
and interviewed them. It is said that he advised that the boy from Taktser
should be escorted to Kumbum monastery and kept there, as he found his behavior
the most impressive of all.
The government’s reply to our report came both by
telegram and by messenger on horseback. In its reply the government greatly
appreciated what we had done to keep the government’s proclamation of the boy
from Chija Taktser as the real incarnation confidential: “It has been a
laudable deed that you have taken an oath not to make public the government’s
proclamation. The government too, treats this as a confidential matter. The
most urgent matter that lies ahead is to escort the young Dalai Lama to Lhasa
at the earliest possible opportunity and every effort should be made to
accomplish this.” Also it said that for the sake of the young Dalai Lama’s
security we might announce that our government has short-listed the boy form
Taktser and two from Lhasa for further tests in Lhasa.
Meanwhile, we arranged for an informal meeting
with the head of the Taktser community, the Taktser Loyer, who was the paternal
uncle of the young Dalai Lama. In fact, two reincarnations of the Taktser
lineage had been born in the Chija Taktser house, the most recent being the
young Dalai Lama’s eldest brother, Taktser Rinpoche. During this meeting, we
told him that the government had short
listed the boy from Taktser as one of the candidates to be escorted to
the capital for further tests and that we were soon going to meet the governor
and arrange for his nephew’s journey to Lhasa. Also, we requested him to escort
the boy to Kumbum monastery and take care of him, especially his cleanliness.
Then, we went to Ziling to meet the governor and ask permission for the
boy and his parents to travel to Lhasa, telling him that our government had
short-listed the boy for further tests there. There was no direct access to
Governor Ma, we had to communicate through his commissioner. And there was no
immediate reply. It came a few days later, but it posed a lot of questions
demanding our answers such as “Why is it that the government has short-listed
Lhamo Dondub only and not the others?” and so on. We answered all his questions
very cautiously, according to the prevailing situation. We said, “Because Lhamo
Dondub’s case proves somewhat in agreement with what was in the one-page
description of the regent’s lake vision, but there are two similar candidates from
Lhasa too.” We had to pursue the commissioner for several days for his response
and finally he said, “His immediate travel to Lhasa will be possible only if
you pay an amount of Dayang 100 000
in the name of the Provincial Government, the Provincial Bureau of Military
Affairs, and the Central Monastic Administration of Kumbum.” We assured him
that we would relay his decision to our government by telegram and left Ziling
for Kumbum. From there, we sent an urgent telegram to our government, informing
them of the governor’s decision. We requested our government to arrange for the
money demanded by the governor and further money for our own subsistence.
Because of the governor’s decision, we thought we
would be able to escort the young Dalai Lama to Lhasa that winter, so we
informed Taktser Loyer. At the same time, Kewtsang Rinpoche secretly offered
the young Dalai Lama the “life protection thread” made while he performed a
long life puja. With the help of the
Tibetans as well as the Mongols based in Ziling (who in fact were the
monastery’s source of revenue), we secretly arranged for the required number of
camels and the palanquin for his journey.
At that time, all men in Ziling under a certain age had received a
military conscription notice from the Chinese authorities. The young Dalai
Lama’s father also fell within this age limit and had been repeatedly called
up. In order to get him exempted, we called on the governor and the
commissioner with a variety of gifts, such as brocades, bolts of woolen cloth and
so forth, and requested them to excuse him from having to join the army and cut
his hair short. They eventually reluctantly agreed.
Soon after that we received the money from our
government, and so we immediately went to Ziling and met the governor. It was
hard to trust him, as he was a cunning man who could easily renege on what he
had promised. It was perhaps because of him that the commissioner also appeared
somewhat of a similar nature- unable to hold to his promises. In the hope of
finding someone who could act as an intermediary between us and the governor,
we went to his uncle, Zi-gyanma. It was he who had captured Gyurme Tseren, the
chief of the Khadang Drashi Gyajong Regiment II, and LobsangYontan, the chief
of the Cha dang zimpa Artillery Regiment,at Dan-khog during the Sino-Tibetan
war in Water Monkey Year (1932). To our disappointment, he was away from home
leading a regiment from Ziling in the then Sino
Japanese war. But we met his Tibetan wife, a daughter of the Mesh6d
family, based at Keygudo, and found her to be very loyal to Tibet and fully
devoted to the Buddha dharma. In addition she was an influential person in the
Ziling area due to her husband’s position. She agreed to accompany us to the
commissioner’s office as both interpreter and intermediary. So, we went to the
commissioner to hand over the money we had then received from our government
and to request him to help us, so that we could escort the boy to Lhasa that
winter. The commissioner did not take the money, saying that we should hand it
over to an official named Ma-daldal. Concerning the boy’s journey, he said,
“The matter has to be put forward for the governor’s consideration and the
money has to be distributed among the related departments. Then only can I give
you a precise answer.”
Several days passed without any reply from him,
despite our repeated reminders to both the commissioner and Ma-daldal. Then,
one day, the commissioner came with the governor’s message and said that the
governor was willing to allow the boy to travel to Tibet without any objection,
but that the authorities of Kumbum monastery were not prepared to compromise.
They demanded, “If he is the reincarnation of the late Thirteenth Dalai Lama,
then this news should be made known to all the big and small monasteries and
the lay devotees of Tibetan and Mongol origins in the region, allowing them an
opportunity to have his audience.” “Therefore,” concluded the commissioner,
“the governor wants you to go back to Kumbum and discuss this matter with the
people there.”
Following the governor’s advice we returned to
Kumbum and called the people there for a meeting. In the meeting, the
participants repeated what the governor had told us through his commissioner.
They persistently demanded, “If he is the reincarnation of the late Thirteenth
Dalai Lama, then the general public should be informed of this news, allowing
them an opportunity to have his audience. If he is not, then why should he be
escorted to Lhasa? It is illogical.” In sheer rage, some young participants
almost reached the point of striking us. Seeing this, we tried our level best
to pacify them by explaining the situation at length: “This is a matter related
to the reincarnation of the late Thirteenth Dalai Lama a matter of the
spiritual and temporal leader of future Tibet. Such an important matter cannot
be decided upon outside Lhasa. All the short-listed candidates have to appear
in Lhasa to undergo further tests and other procedures, such as consulting
lamas and oracles for divinations and zan
brtag etc. The one upon whom the final selection falls will be proclaimed
the incarnation and will be invited to dwell either in the potala or the
Norbulingka palace. As far as the remaining candidates are concerned, they will
not be set aside. The government will recognize them as reincarnated holy
beings and provide them and their family members with suitable positions and
estates. Those devotees who are still eager to seek his audience may do so, as
whether he is ceremonially proclaimed to be the reincarnation or not does not
really lead you all to any serious contradiction.” In this way, we tried our
level best to explain to them, in a very polite and respectful manner, hoping
that they might understand the situation we were in. But it was all in vain;
they were adamant in their demands.
Some of our acquaintances at Kumbum suggested
that we should instead contact the governor himself, as the meetings we had
attended were planned strictly under the governor’s supervision and nothing
could come out of them except what the governor decreed. Following their
suggestion we left for Ziling, informing the Kumbum that we were going to
discuss the matter directly with the governor and that we were looking forward
to their cooperation in our mission.
At Ziling, we called on the commissioner, the
official Ma-daldal and other high-ranking officials, offering them gifts in
cash and kind, hoping for their cooperation. Meanwhile, through the Bureau of
Tibetan Affairs, our government also had requested the Chinese government for
its cooperation in our mission. All in vain. There was no positive reply for a
long time.
Meanwhile, quite a number of local people,
including several influential officials whom we knew, came to see us under
guise of wanting to give us their personal advice. They urged us to make public
the fact that the boy from Taktser was the true incarnation and further
suggested that such a proclamation would not only strengthen Tibeto-Ziling
relations, but also would earn all the team members great appreciation from
both the Tibetan and Ziling governments and from the general public. They also
claimed that by declaring this, it would pave the way for more cordial
relations between the two countries in future. In this way, many people came to
coerce us into revealing our secret, but we were careful not to leak even a
word which could harm our real mission.
After repeatedly reminding and pursuing the
governor, he finally said “Taking him to Tibet without being proclaimed to be
the true reincarnation is against the wishes of the authorities of Kumbum and
other major and minor monasteries, as well, as the Tibetan Buddhist devotees
and the Mongol Buddhists in the region. Doing so could prove a source of great
disappointment for all of them and could create the spread of undesirable rumors.”
He demanded an additional payment of Dayang
300 000 to pacify them all and to give us a way out. He also demanded a set of
robes and throne decorations used by the late Thirteenth Dalai Lama and a set
of Kagyur and Tengyur inscribed in gold. All these were to be preserved in
Kumbum monastery. These outrageous demands of the governor came as a great
shock to all of us. It went beyond the limit of what is understood as moral and
karmic law. However, this was a matter of our future spiritual and temporal
ruler, who was going to be the “life force” of both the doctrine and the people
of Tibet. We summoned up our courage and decided to “fight fire with fire”. In
fact, that was the only option left open to us. We once again went to the
governor and explained that we had already paid him a huge amount of money,
which should be enough once and for all. As for his demand of a set of Kagyur
and Tengyur and the Dalai Lama’s robes and throne ornaments, we told him that
we would send them to Kumbum monastery as soon as we reach Lhasa. In this way,
we tried to negotiate with him as best as we could, but to no avail. He was
adamant that his shameless demands must be met, all the time repeating, “Unless
you give the money, you cannot escort him to Tibet.” Understanding his venal
and obdurate nature, we returned to Kumbum, saying that we would call on at him
after we had consulted our government and received a reply.
Back in Kumbum, we sent a telegram to our
government, outlining in detail the changes that the governor had made in his
demands. The reply was received two or three weeks later. Our government
assured us in the reply that foreign exchange to meet the required sum would
soon be arranged for us.
However, the governor was known to be so devious
and scandalous in his behavior that it was beyond description. According to
local people he and his son were responsible for the assassination of Hotoktu,
the throne-holder of Kumbum monastery, as he suspected that the latter’s
presence in Ziling could threaten his power. Hotoktu was shot dead at Tin ka’u,
on the border of Alak-sha and Khor-thusu, by a gang of over one hundred people
dressed as local Muslims; they broke into his lodgings on the pretext of
robbery, but left without stealing anything. Hotoktu was on his way back to
Kumbum, after a stay in China during the Iron Sheep Year and had established a
close relationship with China’s ruler, Chang Kai Shek, from whom he had
received an official seal of authority in religious affairs. When the
assassinated lama’s body arrived at Ziling, Governor Ma had made a great show
of Chinese traditional mourning and had arranged for a grand procession of his
military to accompany the body to Kumbum monastery, feigning great respect for
the deceased. The Assassins were Ma’s soldiers in disguise.
While we were in Kumbum another despicable
episode unfolded. The people told us one day that the Chinese government had
removed Governor Ma from his position, appointing him commander-chief of the
Ziling army, and that the new governor already in charge was one of his
paternal uncles. On hearing this, we went to Ziling with an array of gifts
including antlers, musk, length of wool and a selection of superfine brocades.
We met with the commissioner, as was customary and applied for an appointment
with the new governor which was readily accepted. He was a very pleasant old
man who assured us of his full support in further improving Tibeto-Ziling
relations.
But before long we began to hear news of
robberies and bloodshed that sent waves of fear through the entire region under
the new governor’s jurisdiction; the attacks included the monasteries and
hermitages. According to the local people, this treachery was engineered by Ma
Bu-fang to discredit the new governor’s image and prove him an inefficient administrator.
All the criminals were said to have been his soldiers whom he had sent out
disguised as robbers. Also, it is said that he bribed the Kuomintang military
commander, Marshal Pai Chung-hsi, by giving him three tins of “Elephant Brand
Kashmiri Saffron” filled with gold to reinstate him as governor. We saw the
airplane that carried Marshal Pal to Ziling, but knew nothing more than that.
But three months later, Ma was certainly reinstated as governor, and his old
paternal uncle had to leave Ziling badly disappointed. That was Governor Ma for
you; champion of diabolical schemes.
“Beware of him! He will be outrageously cruel if
he comes to know about the truth behind this vitally important matter of the
reincarnation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama”, was the repeated warning all the
lamas, monks and people loyal to the Tibetan government in Kumbum gave us. What
worried us most was not what he might do to us, but what he might do to
discover our secret. Therefore, we hid our original files in the ceiling and
drafted false ones to keep in our file boxes. Also, we sent a telegram to our
government stating, “‘A wolf who is accustomed to eating horses can never be
satisfied by eating sheep’. We cannot be sure that he will not change his mind
again. Therefore, sending the foreign exchange may be delayed for the time
being.”
The fear that we might fall prey to yet another
trick of the governor haunted us throughout the days that followed. We could
neither sleep nor savor our food properly, but thanks to the Three Jewels, no
serious obstacles befell us. The next thing that concerned us was how to
deliver the foreign exchange to the governor. While we were trying to devise
the best way to do it, we discovered that a group of rich Muslims, under the
leadership of one called Khangpu Tontang, was leaving on pilgrimage to Mecca
via India that year. This was a happy coincidence. Samdup from Amdo Ja-khyung
(the then head of the Reting estate in Ziling) and I, went to meet Khangpu
Tontang in Ziling, carrying a selection of woolen cloth as gifts. During our
discussion with him, we asked if his Pilgrim Association had [a sum of] money
[amounting to Dayang 300 000] to
exchange. To this he replied, “It is a huge sum. It would play havoc [with your
plan] if the governor did not abide by his promise again. I will have to
consult my fellow pilgrims, as I cannot take the risk alone.” I also had to
consult Kewtsang Rinpoche and my team of colleagues. However, we tentatively
agreed as follows:
Once the money is paid through this exchange
arrangement, the Pilgrim Association will be fully responsible for persuading
the governor not to create any further trouble. As a token of this, the
Association will receive an equal sum in British Indian currency against the
Chinese Dayang it has paid to the
Ziling governor [on behalf of the Tibetan Government], disregarding the fact
that the value of the British Indian currency is higher than that of the
Chinese Dayang.
With this, we arranged the date for our next
meeting and took leave to return to Kumbum.
It was then that the Panchen Lama, Lobsang
Thubten Chokyi Nyima Gelek Pal-sangpo (seventh in the lineage from Panchen
Wensapa) passed away at Keygudo at the age of fifty-five. This happened while
the Tibetan Government was giving serious thought to the question of whether
the Chinese military escort accompanying him should be given permission to
enter Tibet or not. Tsechogling Trulku and Ngulchu Trulku sent a telegram from
the head office of the Panchen estate requesting puja-offerings to be made to
commemorate his death, these we were able to carry out at Kumbum and other
monasteries.
Then, on the arranged date, our party members
went to Ziling to meet with Tontan. After several rounds of discussion we
mutually agreed to the following points:
·
that Tontan and the
Pilgrim Committee would deal with the governor cautiously and firmly so that he
would keep to his promise and would not interrupt their journey by playing
tricks of any kind, like dispatching his soldiers disguised as highway robbers
and so forth.
·
that the full
payment of cash in Dayang would be
handed over to the governor by a person representing the Pilgrim Association.
·
that this amount would be repaid by an equal
sum in British Indian currency on our arrival at Lhasa, provided that the journey
was concluded without any intervention, directly or indirectly, by Governor Ma.
·
and that the set of
Kagyur and Tengyur and the set of His Holiness the late Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s
robes and throne trappings demanded by the governor for Kumbum monastery, would
be sent to the monastery only after our arrival at Lhasa and the governor must
agree to this.
Following this, we informed the governor through
the commissioner of the contents of our agreement. Then we drafted it in four
copies, both in Chinese and Tibetan, duly signed by the governor, the
authorities of Kumbum monastery, Khangpu Tontang, and all the members of our
team. Each parry involved retained a copy, which described the young Dalai Lama
as a “possible candidate to be His Holiness the late Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s
reincarnation”. And so this agreement safely paved our way to escort the young
Dalai Lama to Tibet.
Thanks to the blessings of the young Dalai Lama,
the Protector Deity Nechung and Goddess Palden Lhamo, we were able to connect
with persons such as Khangpu Tontang, who incidentally was a blood relative of
Governor Ma, and other wealthy Muslim pilgrims capable of loaning the huge sum
of money we required. Of course, our government did agree to send us the money,
but we had been enduring such a hazardous situation that we were reminded of
the ancient proverb, “one who had fallen prey to a snake’s bite in the past,
would blench at the sight of a length of black rope with white stripes”. It
remained uncertain what kind of plot the governor might come up with, and
considering all aspects of the matter it was impossible to undertake the young
Dalai Lama’s journey to Lhasa immediately.
Then at Kumbum we met the monastic authorities,
the head of the Taktser estate, and the young Dalai Lama’s parents and it was
agreed that we would set out in the Tibetan year 2066 (1939), and join up with
groups of summer travelers. When the governor was informed, he demanded a
further sum of Dayangs 5000 for
Chinese security guards to escort and protect the young Dalai Lama. And in
addition he decreed that one of the original four-member search party would
have to remain in Ziling until the rest of the party (including the young Dalai
Lama) reached Lhasa.
We immediately sent a telegram to our government
informing them of the new situation. They replied saying, “It has been laudable
that you have so carefully arranged within a short span of time the money that
is to be given to the Governor, securing full assurance that he will not change
his mind again. The money for the payment of security guards should also be
arranged the way you did before. If it is absolutely necessary for one of you
to remain behind, then that should be Lobsang Tsewang.” Through the
commissioner we informed the governor of these details and told him that since
we would be accompanied by summer travelers there would be no need for a large
force of security guards. In any case, any guards escorting us would be sent
back as soon as we crossed the border into Tibet.
With everything finally settled, all of us, the
team members together with the young Dalai Lama, his parents, his uncle Taktser
Rinpoche and the heads of Kumbum estates, went to Ziling for a final meeting
with the governor. Although later he hosted a lunch parry in our honor, he did
not join us, sending in his stead the commissioner and a few other officials to
entertain us. It is unclear whether he knew that Tibetans would be offended,
but some of the ceramic cups and plates had broken rims, fixed with lead. Then
for the young Dalai Lama’s journey to Tibet, they gave us one palanquin and two
male mules along with saddles, as well as one horse each for all the team
members.
Back at Kumbum, the Venerable Khenrab Tenzin and
I went to the head of Taktser estate and requested him to make the necessary
arrangements for the young Dalai Lama and his parents’ journey. We gave him a
selection of woolen cloth and advance money to meet the expenditure.
Then, on an astrologically chosen day, we invited
the young Dalai Lama for a ceremony at Chesho estate, where Kewtsang Rinpoche
was staying, since there was a throne of the late Dalai Lama there. We sat him
on the throne in his new robes and began the ceremony, which consisted of
offerings of tea and rice and then a mandala offering by Kewtsang Rinpoche. At
the end, all of us present received his blessings. In this way we were able to
accomplish that ceremony without any hindrance and were able to open an
auspicious chapter in the history of Tibet.
On that day we arranged for an offering of one
hundred butter lamps in front of Kumbum’s Golden Stupa, and a puja in the monastery, offering each
monk a Dayang. Then we took the young
Dalai Lama around to see the sacred shrines and afterwards he sat on a
magnificent seat prepared for him at the entrance to the monastery’s hall,
where the abbot offered him tea, rice and fruits. In this way the day ended
auspiciously; everything had gone in our favor, even the weather.
Regarding the date of our departure, we had
already finalized it with the head of Reting estate in Ziling and a group of
summer travelers including the estate man, Samdup from Amdo Ja-khyung. As for
Tsechogling Trulku and Ngulchu Trulku, whom the late Panchen Lama had
previously deputed to assist us, the former had been invited by Hotoktu on an
invitation, and the latter decided to go to Keygudo after spending time at
Kumbum, Keygudo being the place where most of the Panchen Lama’s attendants had
been staying. So this was how things were concluded in Ziling.
Our
journey to Lhasa began from Kumbum monastery on the first day of the sixth
month of the Earth Hare Year (1939). It was a fine sunny day with white clouds
dotting the sky and forming into various auspicious shapes, occasionally
punctuated by light showers. Our way of travelling was that the young Dalai
Lama along with his elder brother Lobsang Samten rode in the palanquin
supported by mules; his mother also traveled in a mule-carried palanquin which
had been presented by his uncle; those who rode on horseback included his father,
his elder brother Gyalo Dondub, the senior and junior heads of Kumbum estate,
and Kewtsang Rinpoche and the other party members.
Our first stopover was at Tsechuka in Drekhog
Shalkar valley. The young Dalai Lama’s eldest sister Tsering Dolma and her
husband, who had come to see us off, turned back from there. When we left
Kumbum there was no formal procession of monks to see us off, most probably
because we resisted their demands to proclaim the boy to be the true
incarnation. Before we set out from Tsechuka, a group of horsemen came all the
way from Tongkhor Thubten Shedrupling monastery to receive us. At Sholungdo,
there was another group of horsemen from the same monastery waiting to receive
us. Yet another group at Tashi Thang received us with tea and rice. Then, at
the monastery, the head lama and the monastic authorities followed by a
procession of monks received the young Dalai Lama with the traditional incense
welcome and led him to the Lama’s residence where they had arranged a grand
meal. After the meal, the young Dalai Lama gave blessings to everyone present
there including lamas, monks and lay people from three neighboring regions.
Although the administrators asked us to stay on for another day, Tontan and
some of his fellow Muslim pilgrims, who had arrived soon after we did, insisted
on continuing the journey the next morning, for they had already sent their
horse caravan on ahead. The next morning the monks came out in procession, just
as they had done the day before, and led the Dalai Lama to their monastery’s
main temple and the protector deity temple for him to bless them. Many people
saw that the flowers and grains thrown in the air during blessing ceremonies by
the Dalai Lama formed into clusters on the temple floor resembling the shape of
a jewel called Coils of Joy. An auspicious sign!
It was from there that the Venerable Lobsang
Tsewang turned back to Kumbum, since he was pledged to stay there as the
governor demanded. It was a sad moment for all of us to part from him, but
there was no choice. We bade him a warm farewell with our prayers to see him
again as soon as possible and continued on our journey. Travel began every day
at early dawn and continued up until the next stopover, usually a distance that
could be covered by midday or a little after. The sites for stopovers are
usually chosen for their good grazing land with plenty of drinking water and
enough flat ground for the tents to be pitched.
After we crossed the Donyida pass Tontan, along
with his fellow pilgrims and the group of Tibetan merchants, joined us in our
daily stopovers. Also with us was one of Tontan’s fellow Muslim pilgrims named
Mayon, whom the governor had nominated as the young Dalai Lama’s bodyguard. In
fact, the governor had not sent along any security guards, although we had paid
for them.
At every stopover, big crowds of Tibetan and
Mongolian nomads from all around thronged our site to receive the young Dalai
Lama’s hand touch blessing. To save him from the tiring task of having to
stretch his little hands onto everybody’s head, we made a dar lcang to bless the people while he was seated.
While at Tsadam we set our horses and mules free
to graze in the nearby pastures, as our next stopover was to be in the land
called No Grass No Water. Well equipped, and with sufficient drinking water, we
proceeded. By the time we reached the next stopover it was almost dusk. That
night our horses and mules received only a small quantity of beans as fodder,
which was tantamount to leaving them with an empty stomach. Whenever they heard
any of us passing by, they filled the entire valley with their clamorous
neighing and stamping, begging for more fodder. The next day, starting out at
dawn we continued our journey further to Dranag, a place slightly better than
No Grass No Water. At least it had sparse grazing lands and drinking water. We
arrived at about midday and spent the rest of the day there.
In this way we had been travelling hard for many
days in the upper part of the northern deserts, which really was too much for
the young Dalai Lama to endure at that age. There had been a few occasions when
he cried and frowned at his brother Lobsang Samten in the palanquin. Otherwise,
he was always healthy and there was no problem of any kind. His father, a kind
man who was fond of horses and mules, used to join us at every stopover and
spent a good deal of time in our company. This made us very uneasy, as we had
to treat him just like one of us, although he actually was the father of His
Holiness the Dalai Lama. But in view of the vow to keep matters secret we had
no choice. As for his mother, we seldom saw her coming out of her tent or
palanquin as she was always busy embroidering clothes.
When we arrived at Little Happy Valley and saw
the Tibetan border guards approaching us on horseback, we were overjoyed,
saying to ourselves, “We are now in our homeland”. Amidst clouds of incense
smoke, the security guards received us with scarves. They then demonstrated
their skills at horsemanship, athletics, speed in mounting and dismounting and
similar talents, yodelling at the top of their voices “Ki hi hi!” It was all great fun for the young Dalai Lama to watch
them.
Then, at A-tshar-shugu, as the leader of the parry of summer travelers had requested, we arranged an audience with the young Dalai Lama for all the summer travelers accompanying us. For this we prepared a throne by cutting squares of turf from the meadow and piling them up. When he had settled on his “throne”, the leader made the mandala offerings, and then the travelers were received in audience.
On our journey beyond there, one of the male
mules carrying the young Dalai Lama’s palanquin grew weak. In order to replace
it, we trained a big mule belonging to the Kumbum estate whenever we stopped
earlier than usual for the night. On one such stopover, Tontan’s groom came
with the news that there was a big group of horsemen gathered on the other side
of the pass. We immediately had a meeting and decided that each group would
send its strongest and best-equipped horsemen to guard the camp at night. For
the next five or six days we divided our parry, one half travelling first, the
other half coming on later. Fortunately we encountered no robbers or thieves.
After three months of travel we arrived at the
bank of the Thutob river (also known as Reting Waterway), where we were met by
the manager of the Potala Treasury, Thubten Thardo, and the manager of the
Monlam Festival Fund, Sarjung-sey, whom the government had deputed to receive
us with further provisions such as Tsampa,
wheat flour, fodder plus four hide coracles for crossing the river. We used one
of the coracles to ferry the young Dalai Lama to the other side, which
gave him much amusement. That evening, both the managers and their attendants
had an audience and received his blessings.
Whenever our route passed through swamps or
across uneven grassy tracks or rocky gorges, where travelling in the palanquin
on mule-back was unsafe, the Venerable Khenrab Tenzin and myself took turns to
carry the young Dalai Lama on our backs. It was quite a hard job for both of
us, as neither of us were strongly-built, nor had we any experience in carrying
things on our backs. Often our co
travelers had to support us by holding our hands. It was, however, our
fortune to have such an auspicious opportunity- a source of the greatest merit
we could accumulate.
The route we passed through was the standard
route for all the summer travelers. From Tongkhor monastery to Nagchu we
encountered no permanent habitations, just a few sparsely
located nomad tents. Apart from some dense forests around Shugpa
lungpa in the region of lake Kokonor, all we came across in those areas
were smaller lakes, lush green pastoral plains dotted by small mounds, and a
rich variety of animals, such as wild yak, wild asses, various species of deer,
wild goats and so forth. Generally travelers encounter some difficulties while
passing through the regions around Tsadam, such as attacks by poisonous bees or
being bogged down in swamps, when pack animals often become stuck and perish.
There were also said to be problems reassembling pack animals which are sent
out to graze and then go missing with wild animals of their type. Strangely
enough, we did not encounter much swampy land, nor many mosquitoes. Seeing that
our journey was going much more smoothly than was usually the case, some
veteran Ziling travelers in our parry said, “It was never so easy to pass
through these regions as this occasion. We did hear that it was the same when
His Holiness the late Thirteenth Dalai Lama and his entourage returned from
China through Mongolia. There is no doubt that this is due to the blessings of
the young Dalai Lama.” We encountered nothing specially remarkable along the
way, except for pebbles in a place called Doragsha, located near an area called
Happy Little Valley. It was interesting that most of those pebbles were full of
grooves and bumps and so resembled the rudraksha
seeds we use for rosaries.
At the time when we were crossing the Tibetan
border, after having passed the Chinese frontier guards, our government was
holding a special meeting in Lhasa on an auspicious day and proclaimed the
young Dalai Lama to be the true incarnation of late Dalai Lama. The government
then immediately dispatched Monlam Festival Fund Manager Lachag Neushar Thubten
Tharpa, Fourth Grade Civil Service Officer Rin-gang and others to receive the
young Dalai Lama, bringing with them his moderate size yellow tent to mark the
honor he deserved. We had erected their reception camp at Bumchen with His
Holiness’ yellow tent resembling a mound of marigolds standing out in the
landscape. Then, when we had passed over the Tongkhor Pass and reached there,
they invited the young Dalai Lama to seat himself inside the tent on a throne
richly decorated with the finest brocades. There followed a mandala offering
ceremony by Monlam Festival Fund Manager Neushar and hand touch blessings to
all who had journeyed to receive him. From then on we used the yellow tent
wherever we stopped over for the night. Now his parents came to know that their
son was the true candidate, and his father, who was really a frank man, asked
right away, “Why did you keep this matter a secret from me?” We explained to
him that we did not want to make this matter public, as we could not trust the
governor, suspecting that he might use this as an opportunity to interfere in
Tibet’s internal matters, and also, that we were oath-bound not to reveal this
secret. Convinced by this, he said, “Good! It was good that you kept this
matter secret.” In the following days, each time we reached a vantage point
from where we could catch sight of our next stopover, the yellow tent would
already be in place, set up by the advance party. At that moment a light and
pleasant shower or a little hail would fall. This phenomenon continued up until
we reached Nagchu.
At this stage in our journey, a special messenger
from our government arrived with a memorandum, which declared, “The current
year’s ninth month is an inauspicious one. Considering this, the most fitting
date for His Holiness to enter Lhasa would be at the beginning of the tenth
month. Accordingly, it is suggested that you delay or slow down your travel, so
that His Holiness arrives in Lhasa as scheduled above.” After discussing this
matter amongst ourselves, our leader, Kewtsang Rinpoche
wrote a reply saying: “Delaying our travel could mean a great risk for
us, especially, when the route has to pass through several isolated places,
where the security of His Holiness’ life could well be threatened. We could
rather speed up our travel and reach Lhasa in the eighth month than delay it
until the tenth month. If the government still insists that we delay our
journey, then that should be at Nagchu. Until we reach Nagchu, we will continue
our journey at the same speed as we have been travelling. Furthermore, we
request that a lama or an official who could take full responsibility for His
Holiness’ security may be sent to Nagchu. It would be only upon his arrival
that we could halt our journey as the schedule has suggested.” Immediately they
received our reply the government dispatched Lay Minister Bonsho and others
with such haste that they had to leave Lhasa while their colleagues were
enjoying the annual ministers’ picnic. They also departed without being able to
wait for their new official travel costumes, which they had ordered for this
purpose. They told the story of leaving Lhasa in such haste, then travelling
day and night without any stopover, that they discovered some of their baggage
had dropped from the backs of their pack animals while travelling at night or
crossing rivers.
In spite of this they had put up their reception
camp at Gashi Nagmoche, a location about ten days’ journey from Lhasa. It was
strongly built by a team of government officials, including top ranking ones
such as Lay Minister Bonsho, Monk-Secretary Telingpa Khenrab Wangchug, Senior
Chef Lobsang Jinpa, representatives from the three principal monasteries, a
group of monk and lay civil service officers, and the caretakers of His
Holiness’ bed, kitchen, tents and carpets etc.
Shortly before the break of dawn, Lay Minister
Bonsho, Monk-Secretary Khenrab Wangchug, Senior Chef Lobsang Jinpa and a few
other high-ranking officials came forward to receive us with flashlights in
their hands. When they approached the young Dalai Lama’s palanquin to receive
his blessing, we were worried, thinking that he might easily get irritated by
being woken up in the middle of his sleep, as he was then too young to know
what was going on. Tentatively, Kewtsang Rinpoche drew back the palanquin curtains,
where, to our relief, we found him not at all upset, but smiling and peering at
those sent to receive him very attentively. With the help of Kewtsang Rinpoche,
he received their scarves and returned them with his blessings. Just as he
blessed them by placing his graceful little hands on their heads, the dawn
broke and, then, as he reached the reception camp and entered the tent, the
sun’s first rays illuminated the scene. These were the auspicious and
spontaneous occurrences.
Then, we dressed him in the new robes sent from
Lhasa and set him on the throne in the tent for the ceremony, beginning with
offerings of tea and rice. Then came the mandala offerings by Minister Bonsho,
followed by offerings of gifts and letters sent by the Regent, the National
Assembly and the Cabinet of Ministers.
As soon as the ceremony came to its end, we
continued our journey escorted by a grand procession of horsemen with the young
Dalai Lama carried in a yellow palanquin. En route, there were monks from
nearby locales lined up on either side of the road, playing religious music
with woodwind, percussion and so forth; also, a huge number of nomads and
peasants joined the line in their best costumes, performing various regional
songs and dances, while clouds of fragrant incense smoke ascended from the
roadside.
In the eighth month of the Earth Hare Year we reached Nagchu, where the
authorities, lamas, monks and the general public received us at Shabten
monastery. There they gave His Holiness a grand welcoming ceremony during which
they offered him the “white delicacies” and other gifts. Since the crowd
seeking an audience at Nagchu was rather big, we suggested they gather in the
monastery’s forecourt to have a glimpse of him from the top floor. The young
Dalai Lama blessed them from there by scattering blessed barley grains on them,
while Kewtsang Rinpoche held him on his lap. Thrilled with joy they were
shouting to each other, “A happy sun now shines on Tibet”.
It was from then on that the Senior Chef, Lobsang
Jinpa, began to cook for His Holiness. His first day at work went as if it was
his daily routine and he was not at all nervous. Indeed, he was the senior chef
at the kitchen of His Holiness the late Thirteenth Dalai Lama.
After a two days stopover at Nagchu, a warm and ceremonious farewell by
the monks of various monastic communities and a send-off with songs and dances
by the local peasantry and nomads sent us onward on our journey. The next
reception camp awaiting us was at Dam Uma-thang, where Regent Reting Rinpoche accompanied
by his subordinates, Chief Personal Attendant Venerable Ngawang Tenzin and
various other officials, had come to receive us. We spent the night there,
during which the Regent, while officiating at the ceremony to mark his meeting
with the young Dalai Lama, offered him the mandala symbolizing the Buddha’s
body, mind and speech, followed by the welcome offerings including, “white
delicacies”. The next morning we continued our journey further to Reting
Gephelling monastery- the foremost seat of the Kadampa school, whose location,
according to the Kadam Legbam, was
known to have been one of the power places mentioned in the vajra songs of
Oddiyana Dakini which she sang to Dharma King Khonchogbang.
On our arrival there we were received by a grand
procession, which included the monks from the monastery, nuns from the
neighboring nunnery, Samtenling, the general public and groups of dancers,
musicians and opera performers. They escorted the young Dalai Lama into the Sun
Rays Chamber on the top floor of Reting Residence, and then a performance of
songs, dances and excerpts from operas was staged.
The next day, a grand welcoming ceremony took
place in the monastery’s main assembly hall. The regent, followed by a
procession of monks and officials, led the young Dalai Lama into the hall and
sat him on His Holiness the late Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s throne. There followed
offerings including the “white delicacies” arranged by Reting estate and the
offering of mandala by Regent Reting Rinpoche himself. Then came the Treasurer
of the Panchen estate accompanied by his retinue bringing with them offerings
of various types. In addition, the monastic authorities of Gephelling monastery
and all the monks were received in audience and given his hand-touch blessing.
As soon as the ceremony came to a close, the
regent led the young Dalai Lama around the monastery complex and showed him its
most sacred possessions, including Atisa’s silver memorial statue of Manjushri
and Dromtonpa’s Prajnaparamita of 8000
verses. After he had made offerings to all those sacred objects, the Dalai
Lama emerged on the monastery’s top floor and greeted the large crowd of
townspeople and neighboring nomads with a broad smile, blessing them with
consecrated barley grains.
Then, one day, the regent invited the young Dalai
Lama, along with a small group from his entourage, to a picnic on the riverbank
below the monastery where a picnic spot with beautiful pavilions was located.
He also allowed us members of the search team a private audience with him at his
residence. In all we spent three days’ at Reting monastery during which the
Reting estate offered us splendid service and hospitality.
The government had sent us sets of official
costumes for His Holiness’ parents and relatives. His father and his brothers
each accepted a set of plain brocade phyu
pa and colorful upper garments whereas his mother preferred to remain in
her regional costume rather than replacing it with gowns the government had
sent for her. This turned out to be fortunate for the people, as she was
distinctive and could not be mistaken for the wives of high-ranking officials.
The day we left Reting, the monks came out in
procession in the monastery’s forecourt and gave us an affectionate send off.
The monastery authorities, including the high-ranking lamas and other
officials, accompanied us up until we reached Phodrangthang, where they
exchanged farewell scarves with the young Dalai Lama. Prom there we continued
our journey, crossing the Chag Pass and passing through the scenic land of Phenpo
with overnight stopovers at the foot of Jerig Taktse Fort (the fort of Desi
Tagtsewa) and other suitable camping sites.
At Dromtod another reception camp of eminent
officials was awaiting us. This group included the lay minister, Nangjungba,
Zasag ‘Tsarongpa, Teji Shenkhawa, the late Thirteenth Dalai Larva’s academic
assistant, Takdra Rinpoche, his ritual assistant, Khenpo Jampa Legtsog, plus
other secretary-level civil service officers from the Tse and Sho academies.
On our arrival they each paid their respects to
the young Dalai Lama and received his blessings. When Khenpo Jampa Legtsog, the
former ritual assistant, approached to be blessed the young Dalai Lama’s
attention became transfixed by a thang ka-container,
which he had slung across his back. This carried the speaking thang ka of
Goddess Palden Lhamo from the late Dalai Lama’s apartments, a painting that all
the Dalai Lamas in the past had revered as particularly holy. Before the Khenpo
could tell the young Dalai Lama what the thang
ka was, he opened the box, took it out and unscrolled it, and then he gazed
at it with great delight on his face, as if he was seeing something very dear
to him after a long separation. At that time, an elderly monk from Gaden
Jangtse monastery called Gowo Jangchub, who had served as a bodyguard for the
late Thirteenth Dalai Lama for a long period of time, was so moved on seeing
this that he began to cry. Holding my hands, he thanked me and the members of
our search team, saying, “I shall pray for your long and healthy lives. Now
that I have seen the young Dalai Lama, I can die with no regret”.
The old monk had recently almost died of a
serious illness, during which he had said, “I just cannot breathe my last
unless and until I see the young Dalai Lama.” He was so overjoyed when he first
saw the young Dalai Lama, that he almost leapt up and down like a child. It was
such an emotional sight, watching a broad shouldered old man, still strongly
built and with a gruff voice, shedding tears, that I could not hold back my own
tears. Everyone around me was spellbound, tears falling from their eyes and
faces expressing a mixture of joy and anguish. Many monks and lay people
present approached us to offer thanks from the depth of their hearts, saying
“You are the ones who have brought happiness and prosperity to Tibet.”
The state-level reception camp that the
government prepared was at the plain of Doguthang, but most of the monks, as
well as the lay officials, had come to receive us at Saintenling hermitage and
offered us a midday meal. After this point in our journey the young Dalai
Lama’s mother rode on horseback, instead of in a palanquin.
The tents at Doguthang were arranged in three
rings (an inner, middle and outer circle), and the sight was magnificent,
resembling rings of heavenly bodies twinkling in a starry night. At the very
centre was the Dalai Lama’s own marquee made of superfine yellow brocade and
called the “Great Peacock”. Surrounding it were tents for his bed, prayers,
dining and so forth
all furbished in the fashion of typical Mongol tents, using tiger and
leopard skins and the best quality yellow brocade. The next two rings consisted
of the tents of the regent, the prime-minister, the young Dalai Lama’s family,
the lay ministers, secretary-level civil service officials from grades one to
three, and officials from the Potala and Downtown Treasury.
On our arrival, we were met by a grand procession
of government dignitaries, civil and defense officers, lamas, reincarnates and
foreign representatives all led by troops of various regiments, which escorted
the young Dalai Lama into the Great Peacock tent at the center of the inner
ring of the reception camp and placed him on the throne. After offerings of
“white delicacies”, etc., mandala offerings were performed by the regent and
the prime-minister, and then the young Dalai Lama received all those present
and gave them his hand-touch blessing. This included the ministers, Gungs, Dza zags, Dar bans, Ta lamas, Dargans, Thai jis, the
secretary level civil service officers, the officers of account departments,
military chiefs, the officers of Potala and Downtown Treasury, the officers of
Lhasa and Shol Municipal Committee and the officers of Tibetan Police Force,
the monk and lay officers of both civil and defence service, the then throne
holder of Gaden, Chos rjes of Gaden
Shartse and Jangtse, the lamas and reincarnates of the monasteries such as
Gaden, Sera, Drepung, Gyuto, Gyumey, Namgyal, Nechung, Kundeling, Tsemonling,
Meru, Samtenling, Chakpori and the monasteries in the distant regions. Also
included were the people from Sakya, Tashi Lhunpo, the leaders of Lhasa-based
Mongols, the representatives from India, China, Kashmir, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan
and others.
After having camped there for two days, we set
out for the great city of Lhasa on the twenty-fifth day of the eighth month of
the year 206& (1939) which astrologers chose as the most auspicious day for
the young Dalai Lama’s arrival to the capital. We marched in the most
magnificent procession, which otherwise only takes place during what is called
“The Great Travel”, that is when the Dalai Lama makes a journey. Led by the
music of dho dar players, the
procession gradually moved ahead; there were various banner
holders on horseback, followed by the extra saddled horses, bearers of
the young Dalai Lama’s personal belongings; monks from Namgyal monastery, the
senior grades of civil service officials, the lord chamberlain, bodyguards, the
caretakers of the kitchen, bedroom and prayer room, lay-ministers, the regent,
the prime minister, and senior representatives of Gaden, Sera and Drepung
monastic universities.
Following Kewtsang Rinpoche’s suggestion, the
members of the search team changed into “travel dress”, except for the
Venerable Khenrab Tenzin, who preferred to remain in his monk robes as he had
by then been promoted to take charge of His Holiness’ bedroom. As the
procession set out, Kewtsang Rinpoche took his place to the right of the Dalai
Lama’s palanquin. I followed immediately after the palanquin, travelling alongside
his family, and we were followed by the lamas and reincarnates from Gaden, Sera
and Drepung. In this fashion the procession moved with measured dignity, the
young Dalai Lama, the lord of the three realms, the reincarnation of the
omniscient one, sitting in his yellow palanquin, as glorious as Lord Indra in
his Paradise “Beautiful To Look At”, surrounded by his attendants- or as
pacifying as the full moon surrounded by millions of minor heavenly bodies,
whose mere appearance is inspiring enough to heal the wounded hearts of all
living beings.
To celebrate the young Dalai Lama’s arrival and
to welcome him, people from hermitages, villages, towns, monasteries and forts
had put up prayer flags and various types of banners on their top-floor and
burned incense and juniper leaves, so clouds of fragrant smoke ascended into
the air which was reverberating with the music of woodwind, percussion and
other instruments. There were thousands of monks lining both sides of the road,
holding offerings of the seven precious jewels, and beside them monk dancers
masked as tigers, lions, garudas, dragons and deer. There were lay dancers of
the dro and shon traditions. Contingents from various regiments came out on
parade, saluting the young Dalai Lama, while Tibetans of all ages and social
status, from both near and far-flung regions, thronged the roadside clad in
their best costumes, and singing, dancing, jumping and often bursting into
choruses of “Chod! A happy sun is now
shining over Tibet!” Watching the procession in utter amazement, some murmured
with their eyes filled with tears of ecstasy, “Is this a dream or is it really,
really happening?” Every face expressed awe and devotion.
The attire of the young Dalai Lama’s parents and
other family members, all mounted on horseback, really impressed the crowds,
and we could hear people saying, “Look at those costumes! They look so graceful
in them.” My presence there among the Dalai Lama’s family seemed to create some
confusion among the crowd, as I was clad in an official “travel costume”. “Look
at that man! Is he a Tibetan?” I could hear them speculating. But there were
others who could recognize me, and I overheard them saying, “It seems that he
had to work hard during this trip. His health has deteriorated tremendously.
Hasn’t he been noble to endure so much hardship. He is kind!” I suppose I was
infused with a sense of pride when I overheard them saying this, although I am
not the one who should be credited. Whatever achievements we had been able to
accomplish were all due to the power of the young Dalai Lama’s compassion and
the faith of the people in him.
As we drew closer to the great city of Lhasa, a
crowd of oracles already in trance approached to receive the Dalai Lama’s
blessings. They were accompanied by dancers masked as the four auspicious
animals (the tiger, lion, garuda, dragon) and as wild yak. On reaching the
Lhasa debate courtyard the state oracle Nechung, deep in trance, approached the
Dalai Lama’s palanquin. Dressed in his ornate costume, pendants attached to his
heavy headgear quivering, he bowed low at the palanquin door. Then the oracle
jumped into it so effortlessly that the flags on his headgear did not even
touch the palanquin door frame. We were anxious in case Nechung frightened the
child. But to our surprise, the small Dalai Lama received Nechung’s greeting
scarf with a big smile and then he placed it back around the oracle’s neck.
This encounter with Nechung was as if they were two old friends meeting again
and it greatly impressed the people who witnessed it, making them feel
absolutely confident that he was the true incarnation.
On reaching the Jokhang, the young Dalai Lama
entered the temple and then toured it blessing all the holy objects preserved
there. Then, assisted by Namgyal monastery monks, he performed the consecration
ritual in front of the famous Jowo statue. His family meanwhile stopped at the
Maitreya Temple, where the government had arranged light refreshments.
The procession then moved ahead to the summer
palace, Norbulingka, which stood amidst a wonderful rich environment of
orchards and beautiful flower gardens. Like a majestic snow mountain shining
forth in the early morning sun’s rays, His Holiness entered the Nyiwo Hall in
the palace and ascended to the throne supported by snow lions. A line of
government dignitaries and others received his blessings, including regent
Reting, Prime Minister Yabshi Langdiin Gung Kunga Wangchug, ministers, monk and
lay civil service officials of the senior grades, current and ex-Gaden throne
holders, Chos rjes of Gaden Shartse
and Jangtse, lamas and administrators of the three principal monasteries,
reincarnated lamas of various ranks, citizens of Sakya and Tashi Lhunpo, and
delegations from India, China, Kashmir, Nepal and Sikkim. The welcome ceremony
in his honor ended with offerings and a variety of song, dance and
performances. Then his family took leave and went to their temporary
accommodation which the government had arranged for them in the nearby staff
quarters complex, under the supervision of Ta-lama Rong-namse Thubten Norsang,
a secretary level monk official, and Driyulpa, a secretary-level accounts
official, whom the government had appointed to oversee the welfare of the Dalai
Lama’s family.
And so our mission came to a successful climax,
with the credit definitely belonging to His Holiness himself, as it was by the
power of his love for the Tibetan people and his blessings that we had been
immensely successful in the beginning, in the middle and at the end of this
mission, without encountering any kind of undesirable events. It was great good
fortune on my part that I had the opportunity to contribute to this mission,
which has really made my life meaningful. The more I think about it, the more I
find myself rejoicing.
The formal ceremony making the Dalai Lama’s
accession to the throne took place in the Potala palace, amidst various
auspicious signs. There His Holiness ascended the majestic snow lion throne,
the throne in whose honor all the gods and human beings had bowed down more
than once, and at this moment he took upon his shoulders the responsibility for
both the religious and political affairs of the country and rescued it from the
critical situation it was in at that time.
For two thousand miles, from Kashmir to Burma,
the effective main axis of the Himalayas forms the frontier of India, Nepal and
Bhutan. Beyond this frontier lies Tibet, the highest country in the world. The
scanty population of this vast isolated area has in the course of tithe
developed distinctive culture, language, art, religion, and system of
government, out of elements some of which were indigenous and some came from
neighboring countries. Of these the most significant were the Buddhist
influences which from the fifth century onwards flowed in from China, Eastern
India, Nepal, and Kashmir. Lhasa, which is the natural capital of the country,
became the focus both of government and of religion. There is perhaps no other
country in the world where the influence of one city is so predominant. Gradually
there was evolved a definite system of Lamaistic Buddhism and of divine Priest
Kings, whose seat of authority is the Potala at Lhasa. The area over which the
Dalai Lamas have exercised authority, and their political relations with China,
have varied from time to time.
At a conference held in Simla in 1913 and 1914
between representatives of His Majesty’s Government, China and Tibet, attempt
was made to define the political relationship between Tibet and China, Tibet
being prepared to accept the shadow of Chinese suzerainty in return for a
guarantee of practical autonomy and an agreed Eastern frontier. But no final
decision was reached owing to failure to obtain agreement on the question of
frontier. While therefore there is a definite area within which Tibetan culture
and religious ideas are predominant, this m area does not necessarily coincide
with the effective limits of Chinese and Tibetan administrative control at any
particular time. To the North
East of the Dichu (Yangtse) river, in the vicinity of Lake Kokonor, there
is a large area, Tibetan in its affinities, which Western scholars are inclined
to regard as the cradle of the Tibetan race. In a part of this region, which
the Tibetans call Amdo, and to the South-East of lake Kokonor, is situated Kumbum,
celebrated in Tibetan history as the place where in 1358 the great reformer of
Tibetan Buddhism, Tsongkhapa, was born. He founded the famous monasteries of
Sera and Ganden near Lhasa and his successor founded Tashi Lhunpo monastery
near Shigatse. It is at Kumbum that the present Dalai Lama was born.
Along the two thousand miles of its Southern and
Western frontiers Tibet is connected with India and Nepal by many high passes.
The most convenient route to Lhasa is by train from Calcutta to Siliguri, which
is at the fringe of the Himalayan foot hills, not far from Darjeeling. Thence
the traveler can go by motor 70 miles to Gangtok, the capital of the Buddhist
State of Sikkim, and on, over high Himalayan passes and across the Tsangpo
river, to Lhasa. The journey of some twenty-two stages, is usually done on
horseback.
Distinctive features of Tibet are a dry cold
sunny climate, high winds, mountains, and great plains with an average floor
level of some 14,000 feet; and monasteries and nunneries, to which each family
normally, sends at least one child. Its chief products are wool (much of which
is exported to the United
States), meat, milk, cheese, barley, peas, salt and soda, which, with a
particular form of `brick’ tea imported from China overland and via India,
build and keep warm some of the most robust bodies in Asia. Marked
characteristics of Tibetans are the absence of self consciousness, perfect
manners, reverence, tolerance both in religious and in social matters, and
freedom from cliches and cant; a natural tendency to think straight and to tell
the truth; an intuitive habit of thought; and, in politics, an inclination to
think in general terms, rather than in terms of the particular issue. The
influence of an aristocratic and feudal society is affected by the facts that
the Dalai Lama is usually the son of poor or middle-class parents, that any
monk may rise to the top in Church or State, and that nobody knows what he was
in his last life or what he may be in his next life. The trials of astern and a
wild country are relieved by many holidays, a great sense of fun and humor, a
habit of laughing out loud, and a good deal in the way of barley-beer and song-
especially song in which Tibetan laborers indulge whenever they work. There is
very little in the way of secular education, much superstition and a stoic
outlook on life. All classes share the same pleasures. Small pox, goiter and
the diseases which lower the birth-rate are common, but there is little
tuberculosis and no malaria or enteric. The people have appalling ideas of how
to feed small children but the survivors are sturdy and bright. Tibetans have a
marvelous feeling for color and for gaiety of dress and ornament, and a great
sense of ceremonial. Women do not rank above men socially but they are not
secluded. Once upon a time the Tibetans were a great warriors, but now the main
influence in the daily life of the people is religion, and, even in matters of
foreign policy, the most powerful estate in the realm is the Church.
The Government of Tibet has as its pivot the Kashag or Cabinet. This
ordinarily consists of four members, of whom the senior is always a monk and
holds the title of Kalon Lama. The members of the Cabinet are called Shappes.
The Shappes work only as a Cabinet, no member with the exception of the present
Kalon Lama who is also Commander chief being in charge of any particular
department of State. The present lay members are Bhondong Shappe, a man with a
long Secretariat experience, of whom more will be heard later; Shappe Phunkang
Kung, who derives his title of Kung, or Duke, from his relationship to the
eleventh Dalai Lama; and Nang (or Lang) Chung Nga Shappe, who has of late been
absent from Lhasa as Commissioner in Eastern Tibet. While, as in other countries,
the strength of various links in the chain of authority varies from time to
time, normal procedure is that the Kashag submits its recommendations to the
Prime Minister (who is not in Cabinet). The Prime Minister makes further
reference to the Dalai Lama or regent, who in matters of importance, and
especially in any matter of major foreign policy or affecting the interests of
the monasteries, consults the National Assembly, in which the monasteries are
strongly represented. The regent may further consult the leading monasteries
and Oracles. A great deal of political influence is exercised also by the
Trungyik Chempos, or Monk Chief Secretaries, who control the affairs of the
monasteries, which account for half of the population in and near Lhasa and probably
one-third of the male population throughout Central Tibet. The Trungyik Chempos
work under the general control of the Dalai Lama whose Chief Staff Officer, the
Chikyab Khenpo, or Lord Chamberlain, holds Cabinet rank.
Under the Cabinet work the Secretaries of the
various departments, and on the executive side, the District Magistrates or the
Jongpens (of whom two, usually one monk and one lay, are normally appointed to
each district), and such special officers as the Tibetan Trade Agents at
Gyangtse and Yatung, the Garpons or Commissioners of Western Tibet, the City
Magistrate of Lhasa, and Collectors of taxes on grain, wool, salt, and so
forth. In Eastern Tibet the chief authority is the Commissioner in Kham.
There are official representatives in Lhasa of
India, China, Nepal and Bhutan.
According to the Buddhist religion, in the animal
kingdom death is constantly followed by rebirth-dog or fish being born as man,
woman, bird, snake, or any other animal, and man perhaps as worm or flea, a
good life meriting rebirth on a higher plane, until at last by goodness man may
attain to Nirvana.
The Dalai Lama, High-Priest and King of Tibet, is
regarded by Tibetans as a Bodhisatwa- one who, having attained the right to
Nirvana, consents to be reborn for the benefit of his fellow creatures. Various
Gods, or the aspects of the Godhead, and remarkable personalities of former
time, are held to be present in the world in human form. The persons in whom
they are incarnate are called Yangsi-“reborn”-
or Trulku- “change bodies”. Ordinarily when such persons have been
discovered they are initiated into the Tibetan Church and are crown in English
as Incarnation Lamas, or, less accurately, as Living Buddhas. (Only monks of
very high degree are properly called Lama, the real meaning of the word Lama
being one to whom unlimited gratitude is due, and, by inference, a teacher of
religion. Dalai is a Mongolian word meaning ocean). But in Tibetan Buddhism
there are no absolute rules and it is believed in Tibet that Queen Victoria was
the Yangsi of the goddess Palden Lhamo, whose image is in the Great Temple at
Lhasa. The Dalai Lamas are incarnations of Chenrezi, the God of Mercy, and are
also reincarnations of their predecessors. When L Dalai Lama dies, the primary
task which confronts Church and State in Tibet is not elect or create a
successor to the late Dalai Lama but to discover the boy in whom Chenrezi has
already become reincarnate.
The thirteenth Dalai Lama had been born in the
year 1876, had held the reins of government since 1893, and in 1933, full of
wisdom and still full of energy, had “retired to the heavenly fields for the
benefit of other living creatures”. On his premature and unexpected death there
followed a period of confusion and intrigue. There were differences of opinion
as to what powers should be exercised by the Cabinet and what by a Regent, and
difficulties developed in regard to the appointment of a Regent. Normally the
appointment would have fallen to the Great Incarnation Lama of one of four
particular monasteries in Lliasa; but of these one had recently died, two were
too young, and the previous Incarnation of the fourth had been accused of
having attempted, when Regent, to bring about the death to the thirteenth Dalai
lama by magic. A strong man was needed. It was to be expected that the Chinese
Government would utilize the opportunity afforded by the death of the late
Dalai Lama to bring pressure on Tibet in various forms, and there were
complications in regard to the Tashi Lama. In the end, the National Assembly
nominated three candidates. After decision by the drawing of lots the young
Incarnation Lama of the Reting monastery was appointed, and the discovery of
the fourteenth. Dalai Lama became the main preoccupation of Church and State,
headed by the Regent. It was not known how much time, by human computation,
would pass before the spirit, which must have left the human form of the late
Dalai Lama, would choose and enter its new human abode. It was not therefore a
case of considering which of many children born at or about a certain
time would be likely to make a suitable successor but of search-as if it
were for a hidden treasure-for a child, exact age unknown, whose whereabouts
would be indicated by divination and by signs and whose identity would be
revealed by the possession of certain bodily characteristics and of marvelous
mental and spiritual powers. In the case of most of the Dalai Lamas such
indications had not in themselves been so clear as to be conclusive, and in
order to attain to certainty it had been necessary to draw lots, after prayers
and ceremonies, from a golden urn. In regard to this drawing of lots in the
case not only of the Dalai Lama but of other great incarnation Lamas also the
Chinese Amban (Governor) in Lhasa had from time to time claimed a special
authority. (Since 1912 there has been no Amban in Lhasa). But in the cases of
the ninth and thirteenth Dalai Lamas the indication had been so clear that
there had been no occasion to resort to the drawing of lots.
Soon after the death of the thirteenth Dalai Lama
the Tibetan Government instructed all local authorities in Tibet to be on the
alert for information in regard to the birth of any remarkable boy, and the
occurrence of any marvelous signs in connection with his birth.
The year 1934 and part of 1935 passed without any
clear indication, and there were signs of despondency in Lhasa and throughout
Tibet.
Apprehensions were increased by various
difficulties which attended negotiations for the return to Tibet of the Tashi
Lama. This Incarnation Lama, of the Tashi Lhunpo monastery near Shigatse, is
generally held to be the spiritual equal, and by some to be the spiritual
superior, of the Dalai Lama, and he and his predecessors had also acquired
considerable temporal power in the Tsang. (Shigatse) Province of Tibet. In
1923, fearing the centralizing tendencies of the government of the thirteenth
Dalai Lama, the Tashi Lama had fled via Mongolia to China. His presence in
Tibet was needed in connection with the search for a new Dalai Lama and for his
subsequent recognition and education. On the other hand, it was feared that,
while in his absence the unity of Tibet, both religiously and politically,
might be impaired, his return, on such terms as he and his entourage were
prepared to accept, and the Chinese Government to permit, might be disruptive
of Tibetan unity. Well wishers both of the Tashi Lama and of the Tibetan
Government made great efforts to effect a reconciliation; but on 30th November
1937 the Tashi Lama died at Jeykundo, on the China-Tibet border, at the age of
about 55.
In the summer of 1935 the Regent visited the holy
lake of Chho Khor Gye- ten days’ journey South by East from Lhasa in which some
sixty years before the home of the thirteenth
Dalai Lama had been revealed. In its still waters the Regent observed the
reflection of the letters Ah, Kah, Mah; of a three-storied monastery with a
gilded roof and turquoise tiles; of a twisting road which led East of the
monastery to a bare hillock, of earth shaped like a Pagoda; and, opposite the
hillock, of asmall house with eaves of an unfamiliar type. The exact meaning of
the vision was obscure but it was thought probable that Ah indicated that the
new Dalai Lama had been born somewhere in the Chinese frontier district of
Amdo, South-East of Lake Kokonor. Further indications that the child should be
sought somewhere to the East of Lhasa were afforded by the State Oracle and the
Oracles of certain monasteries each of whom, when in a state of trance, had
faced towards the East and had thrown a white silk scarf in that direction, and
by two portents. It is the custom in Tibet, in the case of the Dalai Lamas and
of some others who have lived lives of eminent saintliness, not to dispose of
the body after death in one of the ways which are normal in Tibet, but to
embalm it, in what primitive fashion. Pending the completion of a fitting
shrine the body of the thirteenth Dalai Lama, so embalmed, swathed in muslins,
and the face covered by a lifelike had been placed on the throne of the lesser
audience hall looks South over the main courtyard of the Potala. Thousands came
to see the dead body, touch the throne, and it a scarf. All night the hall
would be securely locked. Twice it was found in the morning that the body,
which the previous day had been facing South, had turned its head to the East.
And to the East of the new shrine, on a pillar of well-seasoned wood set in a
great block of stone, and on the East of the pillar, there appeared a giant
fungus. Many other signs also indicated that the new Dalai Lama should be sough
in the East.
Accordingly, no positive reports having been received from any authority in Tibet, it was decided that parties should be out Eastwards to make search. The Abbots of the Drepung, and Ganden monasteries prepared lists of Incarnation s who might be sent; the State Oracle announced that the number of separate parties to be sent should be three; and, the Regent having performed divination by means of his beads, it was decided that the Trulku (Incarnation) of the Phu-Chho territory should proceed towards Takpo and the South-East; and the Trulku of Kyitsang monastery towards Amdo in the
East; and the Trulku of Kangse monastery East towards Kham and Chamdo.
Another sign occurred when the Oracle of in a trance, gave his breastplate to
Kyitsang Trulku in party were included the monk District Magistrate of
Nagchuka, a civil official named Kheme-Se, a monk official named Tsetrang
Lobsang, and some fifty servants.
From time to time during the next two and a half
years reports became current in Lhasa that three, or five, or more boys who
might be regarded as likely candidates had been discovered in various places.
But the Regent and the Tibetan Government were silent.
Early in the Autumn of 1939 it became generally
known in Lhasa that a young boy, in regard to whom there could be no possible
doubt, had been found near Kumbum, and was expected to reach Nagchuka, ten
days’ march North-East of Lhasa, about the 20th September. On the 13th
September, Shappe (Cabinet Minister) Bhondong with a party of Tibetan
officials, which had been assembled secretly and in haste, left Lhasa for
Nagchuka by forced marches, with the gilded sedan chair of the Dalai Lamas. It
was important that the Dalai Lama should enter Lhasa before the end of the
eighth month of the Tibetan year, the ninth month being the black month of the
current Earth Hare year. The occurrence of black months is determined by
divination and astrology. Sometimes a whole year is found to be black.
Fast as Bliondong Shappe traveled, two officers,
Kusho Ringang and Lachak LiuShar, had pushed on a few marches ahead of him with
a mule-litter in which, long before dawn on the morning of the 20th September,
a sleeping child, accompanied by his family, Kyitsang Trulku and his
associates, and a party of armed Chinese Mahomedan traders on their way to
Mecca, was being hurried along towards Nagchuka by the light of lanterns.
Bhondong Shappe also had been travelling through the night. A perfect day had
just begun to dawn and signs of great good omen were lighting up the sky when
the two parties met at Lung
Kyipup, “The Happy Nook”. In token of reverence and homage Bhondong
Shappe placed a white silk scarf in the hands of Kyitsang Trulku for not even a
Cabinet Minister may present a scarf direct to the Dalai Lama and received one
in exchange. It had been thought that the child might still be asleep but, unprompted,
he put out his hands between the curtains of the litter and laid them on
Bhondong Shappe’s head.
The sun was rising when three miles nearer Nagchuka at Ga-shi-na-mo-che,
“The Pasture of the Four Joys” (where thirty years before the thirteenth Dalai
lama had been met on his return from China), the parents of the new Dalai Lama,
who hitherto had been unaware that their son was anything more than one of
several candidates, saw a crowd of standard bearers and officials, and an
elaborate camp laid out in the form of a circle with hollow center. The Dalai
Lama was taken to a throne which had been hurriedly constructed of dry clods of
earth. Bhondong Shappe prostrated himself thrice, handed to the child a letter
from the Regent acknowledging him as Dalai Lama, and in Tibet significant deeds
are usually preferred to any pronouncement in words offered gifts which, while
they can be presented to other Trulkus besides the Dalai Lama, can only be
presented to the highest Trulku present. These were the Offering to All the
Gods, in the form of a buttercake with a number of turrets, which is called
Mende; an image of Tse-me, the god of endless life; a model of a Chorten; and a
miniature holy book. He also made offerings of gold, silver, ceremonial
garments, and rolls of silk and other materials. To the parents and other
relations he presented dresses and jewellry. The child was then placed in the
golden palanquin of the Dalai Lamas and the party set out to cover the
remaining ten miles to Nagchuka, where the child, placed on the throne of the
Dalai Lamas in the monastery which is called “The Palace of True Peace”, held
his first official reception. After a day’s halt the journey was continued
towards Lhasa. On the 6th October the young Dalai Lama reached Rigya, two miles
East of Lhasa, where he was received with divine honors by the Regent and all
important lay and ecclesiastical officials, and was met by the representatives
of the British mission and of the Chinese, the Nepalese, and the Ladhaki
Mahomedans resident in Lhasa. Two days later he entered Lhasa, where he was
universally acclaimed as Dalai Lama, and visited the Great Temple. In the
streets of Lhasa he was greeted by the two Principal Oracles. Those who have
seen a Tibetan Oracle in a trance will understand why people marveled not at
the fact that horses took fright but at the sight of a child who was entirely
undisturbed. The Dalai Lama then proceeded to the private residence of the
Dalai Lamas in the Norbhu Lingka, or Jewel Garden, which is on the outskirts of
Lhasa.
The need for secrecy being past the actual facts
of the discovery of the Dalai Lama and of subsequent events gradually became
known. It is not necessary to pursue the fortunes of the search parties which
proceeded towards Takpo and towards Kham. At Jeykundo the party under Kyitsang
Trulku had come in touch with the late Tashi Lama who told them that he had
heard of three remarkable boys. Proceeding thence to Amdo they were advised by
the local Chinese Governor that there were, in different places, twelve other
boys whose claims deserved investigation. The Tibetan Government had provided
Kyitsang Trulku with a number of articles which had belonged to the thirteenth
Dalai Lama and with exact copies. It was anticipated that, as had happened at
the discovery of former Dalai Lamas, the genuine reincarnation would pick out
the thins which had belonged to his predecessor and would show other signs of
super-human intelligence, and that the other children would fail in these tests.
And so it proved. Of the nominees of the Tashi Lama one was found to have died
and the second, whom the Tashi Lama had been inclined particularly to favor,
failed to display any interest in the things which had belonged to the late
Dalai Lama, and ran away crying. But Kyitsang Trulku on approaching the home of
the third of the Tashi Lama’s nominees felt a great uplifting of heart. He
found himself in surroundings already familiar from the description which the
Regent had given of his vision in the lake; the three storied monastery with
the golden roof and the turquoise tiles was found to be called after the saint
Ka-pa whose tomb was opposite the monastery (Ka-pa might account for the second
and third letters Ah Kah Mah); and from the monastery a twisting road led on
East to a house such as the Regent had described.
In order to put the child to the test Kyitsang
Trulku directed Tsetrang Lobsang to wear his ordinary dress, to pose as the
head of the party, and to pretend that he had with him two servants, one being
his ordinary monk attendant and the other Kyitsang Trulku, disguised as a
servant. As interpreter the party had with them a young monk of the Kumbum
monastery named Kesang who had recently learnt Tibetan when he stayed at the
Sera monastery near Lhasa. The child of course knew no Tibetan. It had been
arranged that the Tsetrang should go into the main room of the house, and that
the Kyitsang Trulku and the servant should wait in the anteroom which was used
as a Kitchen. But it so happened that the child was playing in the Kitchen.
When Kyitsang Trulku entered the child at once went up to him and said, “Lama,
Lama”, and, seizing a necklace (it had belonged to the thirteenth Dalai Lama)
which Kyitsang was wearing round his neck and under his right arm, said “Mane,
Mane”. The interpreter monk then, pointing to Tsetrang, said “Who is this?” and
the child replied “Tsetrang”. Being shown a hand asked what it was he said
“Lakpa” (which in Tibetan means “hand”), and being asked who the monk servant
was he said “Sere Agha”, which is stated to be the word used in Amdo for an
ordinary monk.
Convinced in his own mind that he had found the
genuine child, Kyitsang Trulku kept his counsel. He summoned the other
principal members of his party (the District Magistrate of Nagchukha and Kheme
Se) who had been making inquiries in another direction and, a few days later,
having told them nothing, he took them to the house, with various possessions
of the late Dalai Lama and exact copies. Out of four necklaces the child took
the two which had belonged to the late Dalai Lama and placed them round his own
neck, and similarly out of two small drums he chose the right one, which he
began to play. In the imitations he took no interest. There remained the choice
between two walking sticks. The child first took the wrong one, examined it,
and shook his head, and dropped it. He then took the right one, and would not
let it go. It was also found that the child, in common with his predecessor,
possessed three of the physical signs which distinguish the incarnations of
Chenrezi. When Kyitsang Trulku prepared to leave, the child took him by the
hand and wanted to go with him, and wept at being left behind. It was related
also that at the time of the birth of the child there had been a rainbow over
the house.
These matters were reported to the Tibetan
Government by Kyitsang Trulku, who stated that he was fully convinced that he
had found the true Dalai Lama, and inquired whether there was any need to
proceed to test the nominees of the Amban. The Tibetan Government replied about
mid
summer 1938 by wireless instructing Kyitsang Trulku to bring the child to
Lhasa for further test, and adding that he need not test any more children.
More than that he would not say.
Kyitsang Trulku tried to comply with this order,
but he found that he was faced with serious difficulties. First the local
Chinese Governor said that, unless he was assured that the boy was actually to
be Dalai Lama, he could not let him go to Lhasa; but in time the matter was
adjusted by a payment of 100,000 Chinese dollars (roughly equivalent to 7,000
to 8,000 Pounds), out of which 30,000 were earmarked for the Kasrhag, or
Cabinet, of the local government of Silting; 30,000 for the local
commander-chief; 30,000 for the Amban “for equipment for the war against
Japan”; and 10,000 for the Kumbum monastery. This payment however merely served
to sharpen appetites. On the arrival of the party at Kumbum monastery the
monks, looking to the future reputation and profit of the monastery, insisted
that the child must then and there be declared Dalai Lama; otherwise they could
not let him go. The Chinese Governor also regretted that he had made a serious
lapse in failing to bring to the notice of the Trulku that, the country being
disturbed, an escort would be indispensable, and that an escort could not be
produced except on the payment of expenses which at a minimum would amount to
100,000 dollars for the local commander-chief, 100,000 for the officials of the
Silting Government, and 20,000 for the troops who would actually provide the
escort; to which must be added 10,000 for the Amban himself, and a further sum
of 100,000 for the Kumbum monastery.
The upshot was that after negotiations which
occupied a whole year, during which the party remained at Kumbum monastery,
Kyitsang Trulku arranged to pay a further sum of 300,000 dollars through a
party of rich Chinese Mahomedan traders who were about to proceed via Lhasa and
India to Mecca, and for trade in India. In return for repayment at an advantageous
rate in Lhasa or India the traders undertook to
escort Kyitsang Trulku and the Child to Nagchuka, and to accompany them
on to Lhasa.
It is believed on the other hand that the Chinese
Government, through the Bureau of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs, twice made a
contribution, once of 5,000 dollars and once of 50,000 dollars, towards the
expense of the search and of the journey towards Tibet.
Cautious as the Tibetan Government had been up to
this stage, it soon became apparent that their insistence on the child being
brought to Lhasa merely as a candidate had been a matter of bluff. Actually the
Regent, the Cabinet, the Committee of the National Assembly, and the
representatives of the most important monasteries, had decided on the report of
Kyitsang Trulku that the genuine Dalai Lama had been found, but in order that
the Chinese Government might not force Chinese troops on Tibet, under the
excuse of providing an escort for the child, and in order that the Church and
State in Tibet, and no external authority, might determine the genuineness and
recognition of the Dalai Lama, all had been sworn to secrecy. And the secret
had been well kept.
The Dalai Lama was born on the 6th June 1935
(judged by physical. and mental development he might well be at least a year
older), his original name being Phamo Dhondup, son of Chog Chu Tsering and of
Sonamtso, both of whom are aged about 40. The names of the parents are
typically Tibetan and they are of Tibetan race. Their language does not appear
to be either Chinese or Tibetan. The eldest brother of the Dalai Lama is Taktse
Trulku, whose accession as Incarnation Lama of the Kumbum monastery was
determined by the thirteenth Dalai Lama. His other brothers, aged about 12 and
8, are named Gyalo Dhondup and Lobsang Samten. He has also a sister who is
married in Amdo.
On the 23rd November the Dalai Lama proceeded in
state from the Norbhu Lingka to the Great Temple where on the next day he and
his elder brother were initiated as monks and the Dalai Lama was renamed Jetsun
Jampel Gnawang Lobsang Yishey Tenzin Gyatso- “The Holy One, The Tender Glory,
Mighty in Speech, of Excellent Intellect, of Absolute Wisdom, Holding the
Doctrine, The Ocean-wide”. On that day the Dalai Lama received the minor seal
of the Dalai Lamas which is named the Gya-tam.
The Dalai Lama returned from the Temple to the
Norbhu Lingka, where, in his capacity as Dalai Lama, he frequently granted
audience and conferred blessing. All were struck by the fixity of his gaze, his
personality, and the extraordinary attention arid deftness with which he
performed his priestly duties of attending to ceremonial, granting blessings,
and knotting scarves to be conferred on those deemed worthy of this special
honor. All who saw him were convinced that he was the one and only true
fourteenth Dalai Lama. Those in close attendance on him noted his preference
for associates of the late Dalai Lama, his special kindness to the late Dalai
Lama’s servants, and his love of music and of flowers.
In Tibetan religious and political theory, the
individuals who are the human embodiments of the Dalai-hood die, but the
Dalai-hood persists. The emergence of a Dalai Lama is therefore in essence the
return of one, who has been temporarily absent, to resume an authority, and
functions, which are already his own. The culminating event in the assumption,
or resumption, of authority by a Dalai Lama (subject to the continuance of the
Regency during minority) is the occupation by him of the Golden Throne of the
Dalai Lamas in the Potala. This ceremony the Tibetans call the Ser-Sol. The
meaning of these four syllables, in inverse order, is prayer or request;
possession or occupation; throne; gold. Nga-sol is a word in everyday use in
Lhasa in the sense of a visit of congratulation to a person whose appointment
to an office by the Tibetan Government has already been announced. Nga-tak
means one, such as a high Lama, who, possessing the Buddhist religion, is able
to give it out to others. The conventional English rendering of
Ser-Thri-Nga-Sol, Installation, is thus not a close equivalent, and it tends
both to suggest irrelevant western parallels and also to indicate too active an
interference by man in a ceremony which in its essence is the celebration of a
return not from the dead, but of one who cannot die. Perhaps “The Return to the
Throne” is as close an approximation to the meaning of the Tibetan word as can
be found.
In fixing
dates for this ceremony, which would last several days, the Tibetan Government
had to take two main considerations into account. Divination and astrology had
indicated suitable occasions in the first, third, and fifth months of the New
Year, which was due to begin on the 9th February 1940. And it would be the
desire of as many Tibetans as possible from all parts of the country to be
present. The New Year, with the annual celebrations of the driving out of the
evil influences of the Old Year, the bringing in of the New Year, and the
twenty-one days of the Great Prayer, a period of frequent and magnificent
religious observances intermixed with traditional pageantry, always attracts to
Lhasa tens of thousands of monks, pilgrims, and villagers, so that the normal
population of the city is trebled or quadrupled. Cold as the month of February
is in Tibet, it is reckoned that by the end of January the period of the
coldest snaps-of which according to Tibetan tradition there are normally three-
is past, and it is the season at which, the harvest and the threshing finished,
the land not yet ready for the plough, and flocks of sheep needing little
attention, Tibetans are best able to make holiday. It is also the time at which
the thirteenth Dalai Lama used normally to leave the Norbhu Lingka to take up
his residence at the Potala for some weeks. And it is a time when all Tibetans,
wherever they may be observing the New Year, direct their thoughts towards the
Golden Throne. It was thus for many good reasons, and with consideration for
the happiness of all in Tibet, that the Tibetan Government fixed the first
month, and the dates in the first month which had been declared to be most
auspicious, for the entry of the Dalai Lama into the Potala and for the
occupation by the Dalai Lama of the throne of his predecessors.
Early in December 1939 there arrived in India His
Excellency Mr. Wu Chung Hsin, Chairman of the Bureau of Mongolian and Tibetan
Affairs, accompanied by Mr. Hsi Luen and a large party. After a short stay in
Calcutta and at Darjeeling and Kalimpong, and at Gangtok the capital of Sikkim,
they proceeded with a train of sedan chairs,
ponies, mules, and gifts, to the Indian border at the Nathu La pass and thence
via Yatung, Phari, the’rang La pass, Gyantse, and the Karo La and Nyaptso La
passes, and across the Tsacigpo river, to Lhasa, where they arrived on the 15th
January. Particularly for men, some of them well past their youth and all
unaccustomed to height, a midwinter journey of 22 stages over four basses
ranging from 14,000 to nearly 17,000 feet indicated courage; but they had the
good fortune which they deserved and actually until about the time of the
Tibetan New Year conditions for travelling, although cold, proved to be
exceptionally favorable, with a large proportion of sunny days, no snow, and
comparatively little wind. Even so it was good news when Mr. Wu Chung-Hsin
reported that he and his party had arrived at Lhasa safeand sound.
The duty of conveying the felicitations of His
Majesty’s Government and of His Excellency the Viceroy to the Dalai Lama and to
the Government and people of Tibet was entrusted to Mr. B.J. Gould, the
Political Officer in Sikkim. He had been in charge of the British Mission
which, by invitation of the Tibetan Government, visited Lhasa in the summer of
1936, a distinguished member of the Mission on that occasion being Brigadier
Philip Neame, V IC. Since Mr. Gould’s departure from Lhasa shortly after the
Tibetan New Year in 1937 the Mission had been continued on a reduced scale in
charge alternately of Mr. H. E. Richardson and of Rai Bahadur Norbhu Dhondup,
who has to tax his memory and his mathematics to reckon how many times he has
visited Lhasa. The party was therefore not large, Mr. Gould being accompanied
by Captain Staunton of the Indian Medical Service and Rai Sahib Sonam Tobden,
and being joined later for a short period by Major Keys and Captain Thornburgh
from Gyantse. Rai Bahadur Norbhu holds by courtesy the Tibetan title of Dzasa,
which places him next below Cabinet rank, and Rai Sahib Sonam that of Depon, or
Colonel.
The weather which had smiled on Mr. Wu Chung Hsin
was favorable also to the British travellers. At Yatung an old and great friend
was met in the person of Tsarong Dzasa, who had been obliged to undertake the
journey to India on account of the health of his wife, whose hospitality to
members of the British Mission had never failed. Thirty years before, as a
young man, he had justified his position as Favourite of the thirteenth Dalai
Lama by a display of marked bravery in covering the flight of his master, from
the Chinese in Lhasa, to India.
On the way occasion was taken to renew old
associations by visiting, on the lower slopes of Mount Chumolhari near Phari, a
monastery at which the late Dalai Lama had been met on his return from India to
Lhasa in 1912. The consideration of the Tibetan Government was shown by the
appointment as “Official Guide” from Gyantse to Lhasa of Kusho Dingja, who as
Dzongpen of Shigatse holds the most important District charge under the control
of the Central Government; by the excellence of the arrangements made for the
journey; and by the provision on arrival of a large guard of honour drawn from
the Trapchi Regiment. A further gracious act was the appointment, as Official
Guides for the period to be spent at Lhasa, of Kusho Kheme-se, who had been
chief assistant to Kyitsang Trulku in his successful search for the Dalai Lama,
and of Tsendron Gyantsen Choda, an experienced monk official.
The Tibetans are amongst the most natural people
in the world. It is the same with their dress, ceremonies, and buildings. While
there is a prescribed apparel for each rank and for many different occasions,
there is usually no exact pattern or design which must be followed: ceremonies
progress with the same naturalness and ease as the flow of a stream; the Potala
is entirely intimate with its surroundings and purpose.
Sometimes one may aim at preserving this Tibetan
naturalness by a choice of words. Thus “The Return to the Throne” has been
preferred to “The Installation”. In the same way “The Great Temple” or “The
Temple” is perhaps a better rendering than “The Cathedral” for what the
Tibetans call “The House of the Great Altar” or “The House of God”, which,
older than the Potala, continues to be the center of much of the religious and
political life of Tibet. What counts for most in the ceremonies which take
place at Lhasa is the atmosphere of awe, joy, reverence, love, exaltation, and
not seldom of fun, which surrounds them.
On the 7th February a great crowd of the
inhabitants of Lhasa and of visitors from all parts of Tibet, together with
many of the British, Chinese, Nepalese, and other foreigners in Lhasa, crowded
the roofs and galleries which surround the main court of the Potala to witness
the annual ceremony of the driving out of the evil influences of the Old Year.
In turn a hundred monks with gleaming censers, cymbals, and golden drums,
Hashang the genial God of good luck with his troupe of minute attendants in
masks, black hat dancers, and the many other participants in the day long
ceremony, entered the courtyard, down the steep steps which lead from the inner
recesses of the Potala. It is only the Dalai Lama and Hashang who may use the
central flight of steps. Above, set in the hundred-foot face of the main
building, were embrasures and balconies, in three perpendicular rows and four
tiers, gay with silk fringes floating in the breeze and with dresses of every
colour. In the centre of the highest tier, outside the smaller assembly hall
where the embalmed body of the late Dalai Lama had lain pending the completion
of its golden shrine, was the still empty balcony of the Dalai Lama. 1o its
right was the Regent, invisible most of the time behind thin gold curtains.
Elsewhere, according to their rank, were seated the Cabinet, and monk and lay
officials of different grades. Many turned their eyes to the place where, next
to the Cabinet, the family of the Dalai Lama were to be seen, keenly interested
in their first experience of Tibetan pageantry on a great scale.
On the 9th February the members of the British
Mission, alone of foreigners, were privileged to witness the religious
celebration of the New Year in the main hall of the Potala. They presented silk
scarves at the vacant throne of the Dalai Lama and to the Regent and the Prime
Minister, and shared in the ceremonial tea and food which are then served.
Other foreigners attended the less religious ceremony of the next day. And
thus, for several days, the observances of the New Year pursued their customary
course.
A few days after his arrival Mr. Wu Chung Hsin
had been received by the Dalai Lama at the Norbhu Lingka. The 13th February was
fixed for the reception of the British Mission. It was a calm and brilliant
morning. A powdering of fresh snow had fallen on the hills round Lhasa but a
foretaste of spring was in the air. Bar-headed geese, mallard, teal, goosander,
and Brahmini duck, aware of the security of the Lhasa valley, were making much
of the opportunities afforded by the melting of the ice on the side-streams of
the Kyichu. To members of the British party the Norbhu Lingka was already
familiar and well-loved ground owing to the kindness of the Regent who had
allowed them free and frequent access to every part of the Jewel Garden when,
three years before, it had been unoccupied.
The hall in which the Dalai Lama grants audiences
at the Norbhu Lingka is a simple room of moderate size, lighted from a central
square well supported on painted pillars. The walls, dim behind the pillars,
are covered with frescoes in oil paint. In the interval between the death of
the thirteenth Dalai Lama and the arrival of the fourteenth the throne had been
vacant, but always the room had been kept as in the time of the thirteenth,
with fresh food ready by the throne, .fresh holy water in brass bowls, and pots
of such flowers as were in season. The courtyard outside was thronged with
monks on duty and other monks who had come to receive a blessing, and beyond
the courtyard there had gathered a small crowd of men, women and children,
villagers from near Lhasa, and shepherds wearing a single garment of sheepskin
with the wool inside, their homes indicated by feature and dialect and by the
different styles in which the women plait their hair and by the variety of
their ornaments.
On entering the audience room it was seen that
the Dalai Lama, a solid solemn but very wide awake boy, red-cheeked and closely
shorn, wrapped warm in the maroon red robes of a monk and in outer coverings,
was seated high on his simple throne, cross-legged in the attitude of Buddha.
Below and round him on the graded steps of the throne, looking like giants in
comparison with the child, were five abbots the Chikyab Khenpo, who is the head
of the Ecclesiastical Department in Tibet and ranks as a Cabinet Minister; the
Dronyer Chempo, who deals with all applications for audience with the
Fourteenth Dalai Lama; Kyitsang Trulku, who discovered the Dalai Lama the
Zimpon Khenpo, Lord of the Bedchamber, who when he was District Magistrate of
Nagchuka had assisted Kyitsang Trulku in the search; and the Sopon Khenpo, who
is responsible for the Dalai Lama’s food.
On the steps below the throne, to right and left,
were pots of sprouting barley and of the pink primula-malacoides-which seems
always to be ready to find a new home. First, and then again, and so long as
the Dalai Lama was in the room, those who had known the thirteenth Dalai Lama
realized the truth of the report that the new Dalai Lama seems to recognize the
associates of his predecessor. All observed the extraordinary steadiness of his
gaze, and his absorption in the task which he has in hand. The next thing
noticed was the devotion and love, almost passing the love of women, of the
Abbots who attend him. Next, perhaps, the beauty of his hands. And meanwhile
all had become aware that they were in the presence of a Presence.
First came some of those few who might expect the
two-handed blessing; then monks, who, down to the most junior, are entitled to
the blessing by one hand; and then the laity, villagers, and shepherds; each
with his small offering of at least a shred of white scarf and a few coins,
some to receive the blessing by two hands or by one but most to have their
foreheads touched by one of the Abbots in attendance with a tassel of bright
silk ribbons which had been blessed by the Dalai Lama.
After a time the column of those seeking a
blessing was held back and the members and staff and servants of the British
Mission, not all of them Buddhists, approached the throne in turn, the ladies
headed by Mrs. Norbhu. The leader of the party presented a scarf, a scarf which
had been blessed was placed round his neck, and two small cool firm hands were
laid steadily on his head. The other members of the party followed in turn.
Twice tea, and once rice, were served, as a form
of mutual hospitality which was also a sacrament. At the first serving of tea
the Sopon Khenpo, Abbot of the kitchen, advanced, produced his box-wood
tea-bowl from the folds of his dress, and tasted the tea to make sure that it
was not poisoned. Then the Dalai Lama was served, and then all present. On the
second occasion Rai Bahadur Norbhu- on behalf of the British Mission who were
permitted to provide the second tea and the food of the day- advanced and
performed the same duty. Meanwhile the British Mission had produced some few
gifts- a gold clock with a nightingale that pops out and sings, a pedal motor
car, and a tricycle. These things certainly did divert the attention of the
Dalai Lama even from those who had been known to his former incarnation.
And so the audience ended. The Dalai Lama was
lifted down from his throne by the Chikyab Khenpo and left the hall of
audience, holding the hands of two Abbots who towered on either side of him,
but looking back at the things which had gripped his attention. Within a minute
his eight year old brother was on the spot to find out how everything worked,
and additionally keen and anxious because, as he said, if he did not at once
find out all about everything his four year old brother would certainly beat
him. It appears that the Dalai Lama has a strong will and is already learning
to exercise the r privileges of his position. The little monk was soon going
round the smooth floor of the audience chamber in the pedal car. An outstanding
virtue of Tibetans is that they hold that a place which is sacred may also be a
place for fun. The visit ended with congratulations to Kyitsang Trulku on his
great discovery.
On other days visits were paid to the Regent
(whose official title changes, once a Dalai Lama has been found, from Gye-tsap,
or Vice-roy, to Si-Kyung or Governor); to the Prime Minister; and to the Kashag
(Cabinet), which derives its name from the “order room” at the Great Temple in
which it meets.
Then to the Norbhu Lingka again, to return the
calls of the Chikyab Khenpo and the Dronyer Chempo, and to meet the parents of
the Dalai Lama. Modestly housed, the Chikyab Khenpo seems to subordinate all
other cares of Church and State to what is now his one main purpose in life to
serve his young master and to help him to grow up in the way in which, as the
earthly habitation of Chenrezi and the Lord and High Priest of Tibet, he should
go. With the Chikyab Khenpo, as at the reception a few days before, one felt
the atmosphere, and almost the music, of “Unto us a son is born…and the
Government shall be upon his shoulders”. His face lights up as he talks
of the love of the thirteenth Dalai Lama for birds, beasts and flowers, of his
kindness to those who served him, and of how these gifts appear to have been
inherited by the present Dalai Lama. The Dronyer Chempo is equally at one with
the task to which it has pleased Providence to call him. He has wide experience
and was a member of the staff of Lonchen Shatra at the time of the Simla
negotiations in 1914.
In Amdo those who can afford it marry young and,
in addition to the parents and the two brothers of the Dalai Lama, aged 12 and
8, there was the elder brother’s little wife, a most attractive girl of about
the same age as her husband. The eight year old brother, who became a monk on
the same day as the Dalai Lama, seemed fully to realize that, having met
members of the Mission before, it fell to him to break the ice, and he was soon
busy playing `Is Mr. Fox at home? ‘The mother is identifiable in Lhasa as the
one lady who dresses in the Amdo style and wears her hair in three plaits. The
father is a man of quiet and gentle poise, with a serious face on which smiles
go `out and in’. The mother is surely one in a million, the worthy mother of a
Dalai Lama. The children are sturdy and intelligent and, as might be expected,
have easily out distanced their parents in learning Tibetan. No family could
appear to be more closely knit. The happiness in their faces must stand for
real happiness in their lives and for those with whom they come in contact.
While almost each day of the New Year had its
particular religious or secular observance, thousands of men, women, and
children, some with pet sheep and some with dogs, and most of them turning
prayer-wheels in their hands, were daily performing the five mile circuit of
the holy walk round the Potala some walking, some, in coarse leather gauntlets
and aprons and with patches of mud or dust on forehead nose and chin, by
prostration, and some by prostration sideways. When a rest is needed, or it is
time to break off for the day, a stone is set to mark the forward limit of the
last prostration. A sacred rock, painted with many hundred figures of Lord
Buddha and other devices, overlooks a turning point in the holy walk and the
garden of the Dekyi Lingka, or Strand of Peace, where, by kindness of the
Tibetan Government and of the Abbot of the Kundeling Monastery, the British
Mission is housed.
Along the road from the Norbhu Lingka to the
Potala, which passes the Dekyi Lingka on another side, there were signs of
increasing activity from day to day. Ponies, mules, and the carriers of the
Dalai Lama’s golden palanquin, were being practiced for the state entry into
the Potala.
The Dalai Lama has enjoyed kingly good fortune in
regard to weather. In Tibet this is not a simple matter, a fresh fall of snow,
which is auspicious for an occasion of state, being considered inauspicious for
a wedding or on New Year’s Day. It was just such another morning as that of the
thirteenth February when, eight days later, a mile-long riot of color assembled
to escort the Dalai Lama from the Norbhu Lingka for his official entry into the
Potala. At dawn almost every person in Lhasa who would not be on duty in the
procession or at the Potala had set out to take up a position on the route.
This leads from the main gate of the Norbhu Lingka along an avenue of poplar
trees, across the Holy Walk, and on, past the Kundeling monastery and the bare
hill on which the College of Lamaistic Medicine stands, to near the city gate
with its strings of tinkling bells. Here were assembled many ladies of the
chief families in Lhasa, gay in headdresses set with seed pearls coral and
turquoise, over which were looped the black coils of their long hair- inch ear
ornaments of turquoise cut flat and set in gold gemset charm boxes- silk robes
of every color, with silk shirt sleeves of some contrasting color turned back
over the wrist, a cascade of pearls and gems over the right shoulder- and, in
the case of married women or grown up girls, an apron in rainbow stripes of
green, red, purple, green, gold, green, purple, or whatever succession of
bright colours the individual weaver had chosen. Nor in Tibet is it the rich
only whose women on a day of festival are gay, and in Tibet all spectacles are
free to all.
Leaving the city gate to the right, the route
sweeps right-handed round the base of the Potala, past the high wall and blue
lake of the Snake Temple, on past the Northern face of the Potala, and up the
broad ascent, alternate steps and stone-paved slopes, which forms the Southern
approach. Along the route were men and women tending incense crocks, set on
walls or carried on arm or shoulder, fed with artemisia and other fragrant
herbs; troupes of strolling dancers, some in headdresses like Red Indians, some
in masks; mummers; bands and drummers; clean featured shepherds dressed in
sheepskin, their broad-browed and plump wives wearing their hair in a hundred
closely plaited ringlets; monks of every age from four years upwards in maroon
robes, often tattered; beggars; farmers; thousands turning prayer-wheels of
every device and size.
First came servants, on ponies and on foot, dressed in green tunics, blue
breeches and broad red tasseled hats, carrying the Dalai Lama’s food, kitchen
ware, garments, and bed clothes; grooms, to be ready for their masters at the
Potala; attendants carrying tall banners to ward off evil spirits; some members
of the Chinese delegation; high Lamas followed by the State Oracle and the
Chief Secretaries; the led ponies of the Dalai Lama in gorgeous silk trappings;
the head monks of the Potala monastery in claret robes fringed with gold and
silver embroidery; junior lay officials in their long ‘geluche’ mantles of many
colours, black skirts, and white boat-shaped hats set sideways on the head and
tied down under the ears; lay officers in ascending order of rank, Teijis,
Dzasas, Shappes, all stiff in heavy brocade. And then, through the clouds of
incense which were drifting across the route, and between lines of standards
bearers, came two long double lines of men in loose green uniforms and red hats
with white plumes, holding draw-ropes- which would be needed for the climb up
the Potala- ,and men in red with yellow hats, bearing, as they moved with short
shuffling steps, the yokes which supported the poles of the Dalai Lama’s great
golden palanquin. The child was invisible behind gold curtains and bright
bunches of paper flowers. To his right rear was carried the tall peacock
umbrella which is the privilege of the Dalai Lamas. Next came the Regent, under
a gold umbrella, dressed in robes of golden silk and a yellow conical hat
trimmed with black fox-skin, his horse weighed down with trappings and led by
two grooms: then the Dalai Lama’s father, mother and brothers: then Abbots and
Trulkus from monasteries throughout Tibet, in peaked hats and wrapped in coats
of gold brocade worn over maroon robes. It was seen that some Incarnate Lamas,
boys as young as the Dalai Lama himself, were firmly tied to their saddles.
Towards the end of the procession came more civil officials; seniors leading,
in the traditional geuche travelling dress; more monk officials; and finally a
giant monk door-keeper of the Potala monastery who with stentorian voice kept
back the dense crowds of monks, citizens, and villagers, who, after the manner
of spectators everywhere, were closing in from the sides of the route to
accompany the Dalai Lama on his progress.
On arrival at the Potala the Dalai Lama proceeded
to his private apartments, to rest before the ceremonies of the following days.
For several days in succession, and again, after an interval, for several more
days, he would occupy the golden throne of the Dalai Lamas, confer blessings,
and receive gifts. The first day, the 22nd February, was the occasion on which
the Tibetan Government, both Church and State, would dominate the proceedings
in its official capacity and as a whole. Other days, when also all principal
officials of Church and State would be present, were allotted for special
participation, and presentation of gifts, by the Regent, the Chinese
delegation, and others.
The Tibetan Government proposed that the British
Mission should attend with their gifts on the second day and enquired whether
they would desire to be present on the first day also. They were careful to
point out that there was no question of the British Mission not being welcome
on the first day. The question for consideration was whether a more personal
appearance on the first day, when there would be no occasion for the
presentation of gifts, would tend to detract from the effect of a more
official, and also more intimate, appearance on the second day, when there
would be opportunity for the presentation with due ceremony of the gifts which
were to be offered in token of the felicitations and good-will of His Majesty’s
Government and of the Viceroy of India. In matters of ceremony it is usually
safe to be guided by the implied wishes of the Tibetan Government, who are past
masters in all that falls within the sphere of courtesy and consideration. It
was therefore decided that the British Mission should attend on the second day
only, in company with their good friends the representatives of Tashi Lhunpo,
and there has been no reason to regret the decision. The record of the events
of the first day is however based not on personal knowledge but on the evidence
of many who were present.
The Potala is the ancient and definite seat of
authority in Tibet, and it is not until he has entered the Potala that the
Dalai Lama receives the Great Seal.
The essence of the Ser-Thri-Nga-Sol is the public and definitive acknowledgement of his people by the Dalai Lama, and of the Dalai Lama by his people. Probably there is no ceremony in the Western world which is at all nearly equivalent, but there are affinities to many ceremonies which we know. There are elements of the assertion by all of their duty towards their God-King and of the God-King’s duty towards his people; of a long drawn out “God Save The King. Long Live The King”; of mystical union and of mutual society help and comfort; and most certainly of communion and of joy and thanksgiving. The scene carried one back also to the great Durbar at Delhi, when King George and Queen Mary sat to receive the homage of those who were already their loyal subjects and to uplift them by their presence. But it was inevitable that thought should travel also to another Child, already God Incarnate when, lying in a manger, He was offered gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh, or when He first visited the’remple which was already His.
By three o’clock on the morning of the
twenty-second of February all Lhasa was awake and under a misty moon almost at
the full hundreds of officials of Church and State were setting out, with
attendants carrying lanterns, to ascend the steep slope of the Potala which
loomed in its glory above the city. As some newspapers, which must presumably
have relied on imaginative advance ‘copy’ , have published accounts of events
which did not occur, the scene may be described in some detail.
The main audience hall of the Potalain which the
Anglo-Tibetan Treaty of 1904 was signed is a great square room, wholly
enclosed, lighted from a central well supported on great painted wooden pillars
round which, in frequent repetition, are hung the eight lucky signs. What
appears to be the North wall, but is really a screen, advanced several feet
from the actual wall, is covered with hangings of silk applique-work which
depict various religious scenes. Against it is set the seven-foot high throne,
or rather seat, of the Dalai Lamas. The other three walls, which are set back
much farther behind the pillars of the central well than the North screen, are
covered with oil paintings, barely visible even by day.
Long before the Dalai Lama was due to arrive, the
dimly lighted room began to fill. To the right of the throne, against the North
wall, seated on low cushions, were the principal monk Secretaries of the
Tibetan Government, and the State Oracle. To their right front, near the top of
the West side of the square, was placed the moderately raised throne of the
Regent, and more to the right, the seat of the Prime Minister. Half right from
the throne, across the space by which the Dalai Lama was to enter, sat the
Abbots of Monasteries, wrapped in mantles of brocade over their maroon robes, several
Incarnation Lamas, and other monks. On the South side of the open central
square were the raised cushions on which would sit, in order of seniority from
right to left as they faced the throne, the Cabinet Ministers, and other civil
Officials. To the left of the throne, with their backs to the North wall, sat
the father, monk brother, mother, elder brother, and brother’s wife, of the
Dalai Lama. On the remaining, East, side of the square, at right angles to the
family of the Dalai Lama, and with the throne of the Dalai Lama to the right
front, and facing the seats of the Regent, Prime Minister, and Abbots on the
other side of the square, are the places usually reserved for those who are to
be granted special audience. In these places, on cushions, were seated members
of the Chinese delegation, the Nepalese representative and his staff, the
Bhutanese representative, and the chief of the Mahomedan Ladakhi traders whose
original home is in Kashmir. Mr. Wu Chung Hsin, the Chairman of the Chinese
Bureau of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs, was provided with a raised seat
slightly in advance of the places occupied by the other members of the Chinese
delegation, his back to the throne and to the family of the Dalai Lama.
An hour and a half before dawn the members of the
Cabinet and other high officials had assembled for a first ceremonious drinking
of tea in a small hall outside the private apartment of the Dalai Lama. It was
still an hour before dawn when in the main hall a giant lictor, with a voice
like the roar of a bull, and swaying a golden incense censer, ordered silence.
All stood, while attendants entered the hall bearing warm wrappings which they
arranged reverently on the throne. Other attendants then entered and laid a
white carpet bearing the eight lucky signs from the main entrance to the foot
of the throne. After a pause there was a blare of trumpets. The door was opened
and there entered at a brisk pace a small figure, in golden robes and pointed
yellow hat with long flaps over the ears, his hands held by the Chikyab Khenpo
and the Kalon Lama. With their help he quickly climbed the lower steps in front
of the throne, and he was then lifted by the Chikyab Khenpo to the top of the
throne, and made warm and comfortable in his wrappings. After the Dalai Lama
there had come the Regent dressed in yellow silk, the Prime Minister and the
Trulku of the Takta monastery who with the Regent is responsible for the
education of the Dalai Lama, and next the members of the Cabinet, dressed in
heavy gold brocade and fur hats, and other Civil Officials according to rank.
On entering all prostrated themselves before the Dalai Lama. The same five high
ecclesiastics who had been in attendance at the reception at the Norbhu Lingka
stationed themselves on the steps of the throne, the Regent proceeded to his
own throne, and all present took their seats.
Monks of the Potala Monastery advanced and in low
tones, little more than a mumble, offered prayer for the long life and
prosperity of the Dalai Lama. At intervals in the prayer civil officers dressed
as monks maintaining a right established in the days of the Kings of Tibet but
yielding to the religious character of the occasion in the matter of dress
presented to the Dalai Lama the eight Lucky signs. Then the Regent uttered
words in praise of the Dalai Lama, and wishing him a prosperous reign. He
prostrated himself three times before the throne, advanced slowly up the steps
of the throne, and offered a white silk scarf which was received on behalf of
the Dalai Lama by the Chikyab Khenpo. The Regent and the Dalai Lama then
saluted one another by touching forehead to forehead, and the Regent, having
received a silk scarf from the Chikyab Khenpo, withdrew to his throne.
After the Regent came the Prime Minister and
members of the Cabinet, the family of the Dalai Lama-his mother and little
sister-in-law being the only women present in the great assembly- Abbots of
monasteries, Incarnation Lamas, a troupe of dancing boys who were to take part
in the ceremony, and officials of Church and State. On some the Dalai Lama
conferred blessing with both hands, other officials and all monks received the
blessing with one hand, and the more lowly received the blessing by tassel,
held by the Chikyab Khenpo. Each after passing the throne proceeded to offer a
scarf to the Regent and to receive his blessing, and presented a scarf to the
Prime Minister. For junior officials and the public the tradtional method of
approach to the throne is in a close packed swaying line, single file, knees bent,
body touching body. The ceremony was essentially similar to that of New Year’s
Day, except that now the throne of the Dalai Lama was no longer empty, and the
numbers seeking blessing were so great that the ceremony lasted five hours.
After the Incarnation Lamas had received
blessing, the line of those approaching the throne was interrupted to make a
place for Mr. Wu Chung Hsin and members of the Chinese delegation.
Meanwhile at intervals two Abbots engaged in
shrill debate, each point as it was made being emphasized by crashing the right
hand down into or across the left, by the hitching of cloak on shoulder, or by
a shrill scream. From time to time tea was served, first to the Dalai Lama from
a golden urn with dragon spout after being first tasted ceremonially as a
precaution against poison and afterwards to all present, each person producing
a wooden bowl from the folds of his dress. Rice also was handed round, and
barley porridge, and finally large portions of seethed meat. Three times the
ceremony of blessing was suspended to make way for the troupe of twelve dancing
boys, gaily dressed and armed with jade battle-axes, who postured in stiff
attitudes, made sudden leaps, and finally shuffled out backwards. Towards the
end, great piles of sweetmeats, and of pastry bread molded into fantastic
forms, and entire dried carcases of yaks, bulls, and sheep, often complete with
horns and tails, and of glistening pigs from which the bristles had been
singed, were set out on some fifty low tables in the middle of the hall. There
was a wild rush of servants of the Potala and other poor to seize what is
deemed to be food from the Dalai Lama’s own table, and each secured what he
could, in spite of a great show of violence on the part of tall attendants
armed with whips. There was another dance and another debate, the Dalai Lama
sent silk scarves to the principal persons present, and the white carpet with
the lucky signs, which had been rolled up after his entry, was unrolled between
the throne and the doorway. The Dalai Lama was lifted down from his throne, and
withdrew as he had come, holding the hands of the Kalon Lama and the Chikyab
Khenpo. All then dispersed, the high officials for another ceremonial drinking
of tea, and others to their homes.
(It is to be noted that, the ceremony being
essentially religious, the usual practice has been that, when the Dalai Lama
desires that special consideration should be shown to an individual, such as a
Cabinet Minister on his appointment, or to the representative of a foreign country,
such person or representative should approach the throne at a late stage in the
proceedings. It is understood that on the evening of the 21st February the
Chinese delegation expressed a desire to be present on the 22nd, and that they
insisted on approaching the throne at an earlier stage. The Nepalese and the
Bhutanese representa
tives, who were aware of the proper procedure, awaited the correct
moment, and the Ladakhi Mahomedans who were also present did likewise. It is
believed that in the result Mr. Wu Chung Hsin was dissatisfied with his part in
the proceedings, and with his seat. He did not himself attend when the gifts of
the Chinese Government were presented a few days later. There was no occasion
for a second attendance by the representative of Nepal because the Nepalese
gifts had not arrived.)
The Tibetan Government had been happy in their
suggestion that the presentation by the British Mission of felicitations and
gifts on behalf of His Majesty’s Government and His Excellency the Viceroy
should take place on the following day, the 23rd February-the first of the days
available for participation in the Ser-Thri-Nga-Sol by particular interests,
and a day of general rejoicing, being the fifteenth of the Tibetan first month,
and full moon. It was also a happy thought, fraught it may be hoped with good
augury for the future, that the representatives both of Tashi Lhunpo and of His
Highness the Maharaja of Sikkim, the only Buddhist State in India, should be
associated with the British Mission in offerings to the new occupant of the
Golden Throne. Snow had fallen during the night and the hills which surround
the Lhasa valley were silver-bright when at eight o’clock in the morning the
British Mission, some fifty persons in all, set out, in uniforms of many kinds,
to ride on stocky Tibetan ponies, shaggy in their winter coats, along the road
which leads from the Norbhu Lingka past the Kundeling Monastery and the main
city gate to the Potala. In front rode the two official guides, one in the
voluminous maroon robes and gold-tipped conical hat of a monk official, the
other in scarlet cloak turned back with sky-blue, and yellow sponge bag hat.
Particularly for the latter, Kheme-Se, who had taken part in the discovery of
the Dalai lama, it was a great day. Then came orderlies in scarlet, some with
broad hats fringed with tassels of red silk and some in the conical cane work
hats with peacock feathers, and the homemade kilts, which are the national
dress of the Lepchas of Sikkim. Rai Bahadur Norbhu was resplendent in the stiff
brocade suitable to his rank as Dzasa, and Rai Sahib Sonam in the golden robes
of a Depon. A crowd of pilgrims acquiring merit by performing the five-mile
circuit of the Holy Walk made way for the procession to pass, and later from
the heights of the Potala, it was seen that many thousands were engaged in the
same pious task.
In the interval before the ceremony was due to
begin there was time to greet Tibetan friends as they arrived and to take in
afresh the rich detail of the assembly hall. To the right of the Dalai lamas
seven-foot throne stood his golden table, inset with great rubies and hundreds
of turquoises and pearls. In a long anteroom were being set out the gifts which
were to be offered that day. Those from His Majesty’s Government and Viceroy
included a brick of gold, fresh from the Calcutta Mint. Other gifts were such
as, in the light of experience, were likely to be appreciated- ten bags of
silver, three rifles, six rolls of broad cloth of different colors, a gold
watch and chain, field glasses, an English Saddle, a picnic case, three stoves,
a musical box, and a garden hammock. The formal list which had to be handed in
included also two pairs of budgerigars of which more later. The Maharaja of
Sikkim’s list included two horses and a number of woven and other products of
the Sikkim State. But for picturesqueness and romance pride of place must be
given to the traditional gifts of Tashi Lhunpo. Each in the reverent care of a
separate monk, there were figures of Lord Buddha and of Chenrezi and of other
deities, warmly wrapped in colored silks; holy books; sets of golden silk
clothes for the Dalai Lama; sets of the eight lucky signs in gold and in
silver; a six-foot elephant tusk; a rhinoceros horn set in silver; bags of gold
dust; silver ingots of the shape, and perhaps the size, of Cinderella’s
slippers; many rolls of silk and of cloth; and provisions of every kind.
Meanwhile the assembly hall had filled and on
reentering it was felt that, solemn and magnificent as the ceremonial might be,
the atmosphere was intimate. Seated on the raised cushions to the left front of
the throne, the British Mission had as its near neighbors, a few feet to the
right, the family of the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama entered at a quick pace, holding
the hands of the Kalon Lama and the Chikyab Khenpo. He seemed not to be at all
tired by the long ceremony of the day before. Prayer was offered in low tones
by the Regent and by the Chief Abbot of Tashi Lhunpo, who is the present head of
the Tashi Lhunpo administration. The Regent then prostrated himself, saluted
the Dalai Lama by touching brow to brow, and returned to his seat. The Chief
Abbot of Tashi Lhunpo again offered prayer, prostrated, advanced to the throne,
presented to the Dalai Lama through the Chikyab Khenpo the same ceremonial
gifts- Mende,image of Tsemape, holy book, and chorten- which had been offered
by Bhondong Shappe near Nagchuka, and re
ceived blessing. The other representatives of Tashi Lhunpo followed, and
meanwhile hundreds of servants of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery shuffled past the
throne, bearing the gifts which had been seen earlier in the morning. Tea was
served, after tasting by an official of the Tashi Lhunpo monastery, which was
responsible for the day’s food, first to the Dalai Lama and then to all
present.
Then came the turn of the British Mission. Mr.
Gould advanced to the center of the space before the throne, saluted the Dalai
Lama, and presented a silk scarf, and symbolic gifts identical with those which
had been presented by the Chief Abbot of Tashi Lhunpo. At the same time the
gifts from the British Government and Viceroy were brought forward. The Chikyab
Khenpo placed round Mr. Gould’s neck a long silk scarf which had been blessed
by the Dalai Lama, and the Dalai Lama conferred a more personal blessing by the
laying on of both hands. Mr. Gould then retired down the steps of the throne,
moved across to the lower throne of the Regent to whom he presented a scarf,
and bowed to the Prime Minister. The other members and personnel of the Mission
followed.
The members of the Sikkim delegation took their
turn.
As on the previous day, and on the first day of
the New Year, the proceedings were suspended from time to time for loud
religious argument between two Doctors of Divinity, and for the troupe of
dancing boys. It was noticed that at such less solemn moments the young monk
brother of the Dalai Lama would, from his position near the side of steps of
the throne, quietly steal up to be near the Dalai Lama and keep him company.
Such times also gave opportunity for the exchange of friendly glances with the
parents and children, and with friends seated round the hall. But Tibetan
dignitaries are also critical, and it was learnt afterwards from several
sources that Cabinet Ministers and Abbots had noted the exact way in which
individual visitors had advanced to the throne, received blessing, or dealt
with the tea, rice, seethed meat, and other refreshments offered them; but most
of all how they had looked at the Dalai Lama and what note the Dalai Lama had
taken of them. Finally tables loaded with sweetmeats, bread, and the carcasses
of various animals, were laid out, there was the usual wild rush and belaboring
with whips, and the floor was thrice swept so that no precious fragment should
be lost. Again tea was served, long white scarves which the Dalai Lama had
blessed, and colored csilk wisps of silk which he had knotted, were distributed
to some of those present, the carpet bearing the lucky signs was unrolled, and
the Dalai lama was lifted down from the throne and withdrew, holding the hands
of the two chief officers in attendance. Again a main impression produced was
the extraordinary interest of the child in the proceedings, his presence, and
his infallible skill in doing the right thing to the right person and at the
right time. He was perhaps the only person amongst many hundreds who never
fidgeted and whose attention never wavered. It was very evident that the
Ser-Thri-Nga-Sol was indeed the return, in response to prayer, of the Dalai
Lama to a throne which by inherent authority was already his.
The same ceremony was performed eight times in
all, the only important variation from day to day being in the matter of those
whose special opportunity it was to take a main part in the offering of gifts
and to provide the ceremonial food. On one day it was the Regent, on others the
Chinese delegation, the Cabinet, the National Assembly, lay and monk officials,
and representatives of the great monasteries of all parts of Tibet.
Meanwhile the normal observances of the New Year had been in progress. On the first three days of the New Year, besides the more religious celebration of the New Year at the Potala on the first day, the more secular celebration on the second day, and a State visit to the Oracle of Nechung on the third day, the New Year is observed privately in every home in Lhasa in a manner and in a spirit which recall our Christmas. On other days old customs are kept up in the form of a race of riderless horses, a championship of arms, a parade of feudal cavalry, and arrow shooting, and there are many religious or semi
religious observances. Of these the most striking occur on the fifteenth
and on about the twenty
fifth of the first Tibetan month. On the fifteenth day there is a respite
from the rigorous observance of the days of the Great Prayer, and the city is
given over to unrestrained rejoicing. Round the half mile circuit of the Great
Temple enormous pyramidical structures bearing effigies worked in butter of
many colors are set up and, as the full moon rises, dense crowds surge round
the holy building. An hour after sunset the Regent was to be seen, accompanied
by the parents and family of the Dalai Lama, preceded and followed by military bands,
making a careful tour of inspection of the effigies. Lictors forced away
through the masses which thronged the troop-lined streets, lit by flaming
cressets borne by servants on long poles. It was thought that the prize for the
most popular decoration must be awarded to one, in the center of which was a
sort of mechanical Punch and Judy show which represented the State Oracle in a
trance. In spite of the efforts of the lictors the Regent’s progress occupied
an hour and half. And so home, with memories of the joy and boisterous fun of
the Mafeking night of many years ago, on ponies which had had more than enough
of the cold and of bands, past the great mass of the Potala, floodlit by the
full moon, and set against an incredibly blue night sky studded with flaming
stars.
On the twenty-fifth of the first month the scene
was the outer court of the Great Temple; the occasion, the aversion of the any
evil influences or intentions which might be directed the against Tibet, and
the resumption of control of the city by the civil power which had, during the
twenty days of the Great
few Prayer, yielded authority to monk officials of the Drepung-ner
monastery. In this, the Iron Dragon, year, two of the civil officers most
importantly concerned in ceremonial arrangements happened to be the old
Rugbeians, Kusho Changopa, known at Rugby as Ringang, and Kusho Kyipup. The
former, as Yaso, was, with his colleague the son of Phunkang Shappe, and
discharging the honorable and costly duty, which comes only the once in a lifetime,
of organizing and commanding some six hundred feudal cavalry. He also manages
the Lhasa Hydro-Electric installation, and is the English translator to the
Cabinet. The latter is one of the two City Magistrates of Lhasa.
The
principal spectators were the Regent, the Cabinet, and the family of the Dalai
Lama, seated in balconies overlooking the main gate of the Great Temple. After
a parade and mock battle on the part of the feudal infantry the feudal cavalry,
headed by the Yasos, rode past. The whips of authority were thrown down on the
ground by the monks who had been exercising temporary control of the city, and
were taken up by the servants of the City Magistrates. Monks with trumpets
cymbals and drums filed out of the Temple and took up position round the outer
court. Celebrants carrying censers butterlamps and jars of holy water occupied
the center and engaged in prayer. Tall banners were set up in the street, and
effigies of the evil spirits which were to be expelled from the city were
brought out. Finally the Nechung Oracle rushed forth. He danced, staggering and
swaying, brandishing a dagger in either hand, and suddenly collapsed. With the
help of attendants he rose and made another tottering dash forward. As he came
near it could be seen that he was really possessed; his face deathly pale and
set in the vacancy of a trance. He collapsed again and again leapt up for
another blind tottering rush. The crowd surged round him, and he disappeared in
the wake of a procession of figures in skull masks, black-hat dancers, and men
carrying banners. At the city gate the effigies of evil spirits were set alight
to the accompaniment of volleys of shots, and the Oracle, exhausted and
unconscious, was carried back to the Temple.
The Tibetan Government have wisely decided that opportunity of private approach to the Dalai Lama should not ordinarily be granted. Such direct or indirect information as is available in regard to him is therefore valuable. It has been mentioned that the Dalai Lama is fond of birds, and that the list of gifts to be presented by the British Mission included two pairs of budgerigars. It has also been suggested that the Dalai Lama has a strong will. It was thought that the budgerigars, having survived the winter journey from India, deserved rest and warmth, and it was hoped that, if they remained for a time in the careful charge of Mr. Fox, the Mission Wireless Operator (well-known to wireless amateurs in almost every country as AC4YN), who is an expert in budgerigars, they would breed. They were not therefore produced for actual presentation on the morning of February 23rd. Two days later there came a messenger from the Potala to request immediate delivery of the birds; then two more messengers, more senior than the last; and then two more. It was soon clear that, if there were to be a battle of wills, the Dalai Lama would prove that his will was the stronger; so it was decided that compliance was the only possible course, and Pemba Tsering, Rai Bahadur Norbhu’s Head Clerk, was despatched to the Potala with the birds. It was well that he was sent, for other messengers also were on the way, and on arrival at the Potala a high dignitary of the Church was in readiness. Pemba, considerably overcome, handed over the birds, and tried to make himself scarce, but he was sent for by the Dalai Lama who, talking Tibetan clearly and easily, discussed the birds’ food and how to keep them safe. Pemba then noticed that the watch, nightingale clock, and musical box, which had been presented at the Norbhu Lingka and at the Potala, were all on the Dalai Lama’s table, and he was told that the Dalai Lama, when off duty, would hardly let them out of his sight. And there was evidence of the Dalai Lama’s real kindness to animals when a few days later, being persuaded that they might be better off for the time being in Mr. Fox’s kindly care, he sent the budgerigars back to Dekyi Lingka, where they became great favorites with visitors.
Not long afterwards, grown-ups still being busy
with ceremonies, the opportunity seemed favorable for a children’s party or
rather two, because accommodation was limited, and there were well over a
hundred children to be invited. The great stand-bys on such occasions are Mrs.
Norbhu and Mrs. Changopa, wife of the old Rugbeian Yaso, and “Mary” Tering but
on the first party day Mary was busy housewarming her new house. Amongst the
first to arrive was the family of the Dalai Lama. Kanwal Krishna had recently
finished a half-length portrait of the Dalai Lama in oils, done mostly from
memory. The eight year old monk brother noticed it immediately he entered the
upstairs room in which visitors are received, ran along the cushioned seat
which occupies one side of the room, and, if he is always as openly
affectionate to the Dalai Lama as he was to the picture, he must be very fond
of him indeed. There was nothing wanting in the spirit in which the parents and
the three children entered into the fun of the party. At lunch, served on low
tables in front of broad flat cushions, called bodens, all present tackled
strange English foods with strange implements and good appetites and without
hesitation. Then downstairs for a cinema Show, at which The King and Queen’s
tour in Canada and the United States, and some shots of Balmoral Castle and the
Gardens; were favorites, followed, in close competition, by Charlie Chaplin,
Mickey Mouse, Do you like Monkeys?, and Kodachrome scenes of Sikkim, Tibet and
Bhutan. Then tea with more strange foods faithfully dealt with, crackers, and
balloons- and finally a Christmas tree, presided over by two Father Christmases
whose native language proved to be Tibetan, and who knew all the children. But
all the time the Dalai Lama’s brothers and sister-in-law, and especially the
monk brother, were wanting to save up crackers and balloons and toys for the
Dalai Lama, and they went off happy with a parcel of things in the uses of
which they soon instructed him when they had returned to the Potala.
There is no doubt that the Dalai Lama has savior
faire. His knack of doing the right thing at the right time has been noted. A
week after full moon there was a parade at the Potala of Collectors of Revenue
(ranged in order according to the proportions of their realizations and the
smallness of their outstandings during the previous year), and of those who had
been responsible for the effigies of butter in the Cathedral square, ranged in
six classes according to the merit of their exhibits as judged, by the Regent.
It is satisfactory to report that, next after the exhibit of the Tibetan
Government who are frequent winners, the chief prize had been awarded to the
Punch and Judy exhibit of the Gya-me Monastery- a sort of All Souls’ where five
hundred prize students from the Sera, Drepung and Gaden monasteries receive
post-graduate education. The Collectors of Revenue were received by the Dalai
Lama with due solemnity, and those who had provided fun with slaps on the back
which delighted them greatly.
It was anticipated that the child might soon weary of the confined space and restrictions of the Potala and wish to return to the Norbhu Lingka. Such a wish might well have been encouraged by his mother who, while resolute and successful in her endeavor to keep in touch with the Dalai Lama, cannot be permitted to sleep in the Potala and occupies a building outside the Northern gate. And there were those who feared for the health and happiness of a young boy in the dark and cold monastic halls of the Potala, and for his safety on its precipitous heights. But the Dalai Lama appears to love the Potala and especially what is generally considered to be an undesirable room, facing North, dark and cold the favorite place of meditation of the “Great Fifth” Dalai Lama.
The quiet competence with which many Tibetan
exiles from their own land have found success in a new life in India, Europe
and America is a fine example of their national resilience and initiative
allied to a natural friendly charm and good manners.
That is no surprise to those who knew them in
Tibet and I remember when Dr. David Snellgrove and I went in 1960 to discuss
the future of the Tibetan refugees with the U.N. High Commission and were faced
by a generally gloomy view that they would find it very difficult to adapt
themselves to strange conditions, we vigorously maintained that, given a
helping start, the Tibetans would rapidly do very well in their new
surroundings.
Now among the many successful and popular figures
in a variety of activities, there are many learned Lamas. Some have established
teaching and meditation centers where they inspire their disciples by their
dedicated sincerity and conviction. The most notable of the Lamas is, of
course, the Dalai Lama.
On 17th March after two shells from Chinese
batteries had fallen in the grounds of his summer palace when the hope of
finding a peaceful outcome for the growing tension and hostility between
Tibetans and Chinese had broken in violence, His Holiness left his capital
secretly at night to seek refuge in India. A month later, after a journey full of
danger and hardship, he arrived Tezpur in Assam. Instead of the careworn exile
some may have expected, the assembled pressmen saw a serene figure of great
dignity and presence. He might have been a ruler secure in his throne paying a
ceremonial visit; but behind the ease of manner and unfeigned friendliness many
could perceive the spiritual depth which without affectation set the Dalai Lama
apart from familiarity and made him effortlessly master of his surroundings.
There is beyond doubt something about a high lama
that is outside the ordinary experience of our Western civilization. Even among
the lesser lamas, of whom there were many, I found as well as calmness,
benevolence, dignity and humor, the unfeigned certainty so much part of the man
that it would never occur to him to analyze or explain it that he was not only
the person we see but the same who had lived in the bodies of many
predecessors. He is as sure of that as that he is himself. I shall not
speculate how that comes about but now H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama has become an
international figure, the friend of religious and political leaders all over
the world but also accessible with direct simplicity to many thousands of
ordinary people whom he influences by his teaching of peace, mutual understanding
and goodwill. I am not going to attempt the impossible task of explaining him;
charisma is not something to be put into words, only to be experienced in
personal contact. What I set out to do is to recall how some earlier lamas, who
were never seen outside Asia, appeared to the eyes of the rare western visitors
who chanced to see them in the seven centuries or so preceding this.
The first foreigners to meet Tibetans were
Franciscan friars in the 13th century, braving the arduous journey to the court
of the Mongol Khans who took pleasure in assembling round them representatives
of every available religion whose blessings they accepted, indeed demanded
indiscriminately. They also enjoyed hearing debates between champions of the
different faiths. In 1254 William of Rubruck met at the court a red-robed
Tibetan priest with whom he had a long conversation in what language it is not
specified and from whom he acquired some ill-digested information. He also saw
a ten-year old child-monk said to be a reincarnation of two predecessors. He
took part in a debate with the Buddhists in which he claims to have triumphed.
If the Tibetans were his opponents they probably enjoyed debating then as much
as they do today and, in the end, it was they who won the Khan’s favour. William
brought to the west the first version of the six-letter prayer which he
represents as Om Mani Baccam. About half a century later another Franciscan,
John of Montecorvino, was at the Mongol capital in Peking where he met a
red-hatted “Tibetan” pope- the Grand Trutius, (perhaps the Tisri who was at
that time Sa-skya Lama Ye-shes Rin-chen) but he.has nothing significant to say
about him.
Then and for many years to come, foreigners who
came in touch with Tibetans were mainly missionaries and so, professional
critics and rivals of Buddhism. Further, lack of a common language stood in the
way of mutual understanding. An exception, at least to the extent that he was a
layman, was Marco Polo who was in China and Mongolia some years before
Montecorvino. It is not clear whether he actually spoke to a Tibetan but he has
a good deal to say about the priesthood whom he describes in general as
“idolaters” and “Baksi”. He never uses the word lama but mentions some
idolaters as leading an ascetic life in great monasteries where the monks were
of a superior kind. Marco’s chief interest was in the more spectacular
activities of the Bakshis who were able to control the weather and to perform
miracles such as raising the Khan’s drinking cup from one place to appear on the
table in front of him. These persons whom he describes as generally dirty and
unkempt, resembling perhaps some types of modern ngags-pa, were also credited
with good deeds such as persuading the Khan to make charitable donations to the
poor.
After the fourteenth century there was a long
interval before a further meeting between foreign missionaries and Tibetans;
and the scene moved from the east to the western spheres of Tibetan influence
when the Jesuit Antonio d’Andrade paid a short visit in 1624 to the kingdom of
Tsaparang. His mission load been sparked off by a report from a Portuguese
merchant Diogo d’Almeida who claimed to have lived two years in Tibet, perhaps
Ladakh, and affirmed that there were traces of Christian practices in that
country, among them a bishop called Lama. That appears to be the first mention
of the word in the western vocabulary. Andrade won favor with the lay ruler of
Tsaparang who pressed him to return, describing him in a letter as his Lama.
Andrade did go back the following year and met many lamas with whom he could
communicate after a fashion through one of them who spoke Hindi. But close
relations or any real study of Tibetan religion were not possible because his
patron, the king, was on very bad terms with his priesthood who before long
brought about his fall; and with it the Christian mission too came to an end.
A nearly simultaneous Jesuit mission reached
central Tibet byway of Bhutan under fathers Cacella and Cabral. In Bhutan they
saw the great reverence in which the Dharma Raja- the Zhabs-drung Rin-po-che-
was held and the great state in which he lived but they were still seeking for
traces of Christian practice and did not get the least idea of Tibetan
religious beliefs. When they went on to Shigatse they became, like the Jesuits
in Tsaparang, involved in rivalry between their protector the lay king and the
lamas of differing sects, and learnt little more about Lamas and their ways
except that they gradually perceived that they were not relics of past
Christianity. Moreover they did not display the bigotry of another pair of
Jesuits, Grueber and D’Orville, travelling from China to India who were the
first foreigners to see Lhasa. They declined to seek a meeting with the Dalai
Lama, describing him as “that devilish god the father who puts to death those
who refuse to adore him”. Doubtless he kept that ungracious thought to himself
at that time for he admits that they were treated with great kindness by the
Dalai Lama’s own brother.
At last, in the early years of the 18th century
there came to Lhasa the first foreigner to acquire a sound knowledge of Tibetan
and an insight into Tibetan thought and learning. It is difficult to exaggerate
the greatness of Ippolito Desideri and impossible in a few words to summarize
his achievement. On his arrival at Lhasa in 1716 he was graciously received by
the actual ruler, Latzang Khan. Within nine months he had learned enough
Tibetan to write, in traditional verse form, an exposition of Christian
doctrine which he presented to the King and which created a great stir of
interest. The King arranged for him to continue his studies first in Ramoche
and later in Sera where he was allowed to celebrate mass for himself. His
command of Tibetan led to many discussions with learned lamas and he was engaged
on composing a refutation of Buddhism when his studies were interrupted by the
Dzungar invasion. The work, sadly now lost, was completed just before he had to
leave Tibet in 1721. Later he wrote a careful account of Tibet, its people,
customs, administration and, of course, its religion. In general he shows a
respect for the institutions and conduct of the lamas and monks; and he found,
as has been agreed many times since, that there is much in common in the moral
principles and aims of both faiths; but his Christian beliefs made him denounce
some aspects of Tibetan Buddhism as idolatrous and abominable. The sticking
points then as later were Tibetan denial of a God and their doctrine of
transmigration. Although he knew many lamas and had one special favorite who
taught him Tibetan, he paints no picture of the character and personality of
any of them; it is only of his patron Latzang Khan, to whom he was much
indebted and whom he obviously liked, that he gives any personal description.
He records the amazing veneration accorded to the
Dalai Lama and to other lamas too: “would to God”, he says “that Christian
Catholics showed one-hundredth part of such sentiments to... Religious of our
Holy Church”. And having seen the devotion of the common people to “Urgyen”
which made them ready to sacrifice everything they had rather than give up
their faith in him Desideri comments “I confess I blamed myself and was ashamed
to have a heart so hard that I did not honor, love and serve Jesus, sole
Master, sole and true Redeemer, as this people did a traitor and deceiver”.
Desideri’s view of reincarnating lamas carries
Christian logic to a conclusion which modern readers may find an excess of
dogma. He was impressed by the recognition of past possessions and associates
and by the claims by newly discovered lamas to remember past existences and he
rejects the idea that this is simply due to deceit and collusion; so, since it
cannot be the work of God, it must be that of the Devil. But his careful
examination of other Tibetan religious doctrines is generally impartial and
acute.
The Capuchin missionaries who briefly preceded
Desideri and continued after his departure until 1745, like him, enjoyed the
protection and friendship especially of the lay chief administrator, Pholha Miwang,
and also of the Dalai Lama and other monks. But they had no one of the caliper
of Desideri among them and although several of them must have acquired the
rudiments of Tibetan, only one, the gentle, devout, Orazio Della Penna is said
to have been fully proficient in the language. They had many close
acquaintances among the lamas with whom they held lengthy discussions; and they
met the V1Ith Dalai Lama on several occasions. They seem to have been more
concerned with preaching their own beliefs than with attempting to understand
those of the Tibetans and some of their letters show an amusing naivete. They
claim to have proved in argument with learned lamas that the Buddha was neither
a deity nor a saint, that it was no sin to kill animals, and that the lamas
with whom they were debating could not possibly be reincarnations. The lamas
listened attentively. Orazio himself presented the Dalai Lama with a copy of
his work refuting Buddhism. The Lama accepted it with interest and politely
advised Orazio not to condemn the religion of other people. Nevertheless, one
of the Capuchins reported that the Dalai Lama was teetering on the verge of
conversion. All such optimism came to an abrupt end when a handful of lowly
Tibetans whom they had converted were persuaded to disown their loyalty to the
Dalai Lama. After being given every opportunity to recant, they received a
comparatively mild flogging of twenty strokes and the fathers who tried to
intercede were told by their patron Pholha Miwang that they should not interfere
with the faith of other people, adding “we do not do so”. After a short time
when Pho Lha and the Dalai Lama declined to receive them, they were once more
granted audience and were treated with the customary kindness but it was made
clear that their actions were, in Tibetan eyes, an unworthy and discourteous
return for years of tolerant hospitality. That was in effect the end for the
Capuchin fathers and for a permanent Christian mission in Central Tibet.
Dispirited and out of funds, the good Orazio Della Penna, who had been for
twenty two years in Tibet, left Lhasa in April 1745 only to die of weariness
and sorrow at the age of sixty five soon after his arrival in Nepal.
Nearly thirty years later there was a mission of
quite a different sort when Warren Hastings dispatched George Bogle as his
envoy to Tashilhunpo with the aim of encouraging friendship and commerce
between India and Tibet. Bogle, an intelligent, observant and cheerfully
sociable Scot, was singularly fortunate to meet in the person of the Third
Panchen Lama the most powerful and popular figure in Tibet at the time and he
has left the first lively description of a great Lama as a warm human
personality as well as a charismatic leader.
On his first receptions at Tashirabgye Bogle was
charmed by the engaging manner of the Lama and thereafter for the best part of
five months was frequently in his company and in that of his hospitable,
light-hearted family. The Lama clearly enjoyed Bogle’s presence and treated him
with the greatest consideration, sending dress and food to make his stay more
comfortable. Bogle attended the Lama on his journey to Tashilhunpo, at formal
reception and at religious ceremonies; and, more important, he had about thirty
private meetings when the Lama who had a fair knowledge of Hindi, received him
with friendly informality, spoke freely about all aspects of the political
situation and approved of Bogle’s hopes of closer relations between India and
Tibet. Bogle was regularly invited to religious services and, from courtesy and
in the interest of occupying his time, he always attended. He has described
well enough what he saw of temples, services and so on but shows no real
interest in the meaning of it all and on the one occasion when the Panchen
initiated a conversation about religion Bogle seems to have absorbed little of
his explanation of Buddhist doctrines and, on his part, made it clear that he
was no missionary with an evangelistic-axe to grind, and was politely vague and
non-committal in his interpretation of Christian tenets. They came to the usual
agreement that the moral aims of their faiths were similar.
His close acquaintance with his host moved Bogle
to admiration, respect and affection. He wrote:
His disposition is open, candid, and generous. He
is extremely merry and entertaining in conversation and tells a pleasant story
with a great deal of humor and action. I endeavored to find out, in his
character, those defects which are inseparable from humanity, but he is so
universally beloved that I had no success and not a man if could find in his
heart to speak ill of him.
He has much more to say about his gentleness, his
preference for conciliation, his diplomatic sagacity, and of the profound
veneration and devotion in which he was held; and, in general he says “I never
knew a man for whom on so short acquaintance I had half the heart’s liking”.
No foreigner has lived on terms of closer
confidence and intimacy with a Great Lama; and Bogle parted from the Panchen,
his family, Tibet and its people, with genuine sadness. Later, writing to his
sister, he regrets the absence of his friend the “Teshu Lama” for whom I have a
hearty liking and could be happy again to have his fat hand on my head”.
Bogle may not have achieved any great practical
success but he had paved the way for future friendly relations and Hastings
determined to follow this up by another mission. Sadly the Panchen and Bogle
were not to meet again; the former died in China in 1780 and Bogle a year later
in Calcutta.
So, the next envoy to Tashilhunpo, in 1783, was
Captain Samuel Turner, an English officer in the East India Company’s army.
Hastings was good at choosing men and Turner like Bogle was able, observant and
intelligent, also he was patient and able to get on well with Tibetans but from
the rather formal language of his account he seems to have lacked Bogle’s warm
spontaneity and sense of fun, and he did not have Bogle’s advantage in meeting
any figure comparable to the Third Panchen Lama for at his visit the new
reincarnation was only eighteen months old; but he has left, in the rather
staid language of the eighteenth century, an enchanting account of his
reception by the child:
The lama’s eyes were scarcely ever turned from us
and when our cups of tea were empty he appeared uneasy, throwing back his head
and contracting the skin of his brow, and continued to make a noise, for he
could not speak, until they were filled again. He took some sugar out of a
golden cup... and stretching out his arm made a motion to his attendants to
give it to me”. Turner then addressed the child briefly for “it was hinted that
not-with-standing he is unable to reply, it is not to be inferred that he
cannot understand”. DuringTurner’s speech “The little,creature turned, looking
steadfastly towards me, with the appearance of much attention while 1 spoke,
and nodded with repeated but slow movements of his head, as though he
understood and appreciated every word but could not utter a reply. His parents
who stood by all the time eyed their son with a look of affection and a smile
expressive of heartfelt joy at the propriety of the young Lamas conduct. His
whole attention was directed toward us; he was silent and sedate, never once
looking towards his parents, as if under their influence at any time; and with
whatsoever pains, his manners may have been so correctly formed, I must own
that his behavior, on this occasion, appeared perfectly natural and
spontaneous, and not directed by any external action, or sign of authority.
The child, Bstan-pa’i Nyi-ma, grew up to be a personage
of almost equal importance to his predecessor, Bogle’s friend, and lived to the
age of seventy three
The promising start to relations between India
and Tibet was stultified by the closing of the country after the Gorkha
invasion in 1792, and it was left to Thomas Manning, a sensitive, intellectual,
English eccentric to find his own way to Lhasa in 1811, apparently without
serious obstruction. Manning was a friend of Charles Lamb who was fascinated by
his “incomparable genius, congenial nature, sparkling eccentricity and
addiction to occasional levity”; he was also a considerable linguist who became
specially attracted to China and having mastered the language and manners,
wanted to travel in remote parts. He arrived at Calcutta in Chinese dress which
did little to disguise his nationality, and with a Chinese servant and the help
of Chinese living in Tibet, he found his way through Bhutan to Lhasa. His
fragmentary diary, though containing several significant observations, is
largely given up to the discomforts of the journey. At
Lhasa he paid his respects to the Chinese Amban and seems to have
received official hospitality from the Tibetans, apparently in his role as a
foreign physician. He had no difficulty in securing audience of the
Ninth Dalai Lama, Lung-rtogs-rgya-mtsho. At his reception Manning
prostrated himself three times and offered a scarf and presents. His account is
another classic: “The Lama’s beautiful and interesting face engrossed almost
all my attention. He was at the time about seven years old (actually, he was
just six); had the simple, unaffected manners of a well-educated princely
child. His face was, I thought, poetically and affectingly beautiful. He was of
a gay and cheerful disposition; his beautiful mouth perpetually unbending into
a graceful smile, which illuminated his whole countenance. Sometimes,
particularly when he had looked at me, his smile almost approached to a gentle
laugh. No doubt my grim beard and spectacles somewhat excited his risibility”.
There was an exchange of formal questions and compliments before Manning
withdrew. He says: “I was extremely affected by this interview with the Lama. I
could have wept through strangeness of sensation. I was absorbed in reflections
when I got home”. He paid five more visits to the Lama but has left no detailed
comment on those occasions.
In 1845/46 missionaries appeared once more at Lhasa. The Lazarist fathers, Evariste Huc and Joseph Gabet had set out in 1844 from the borders of China, north of Peking, on instructions from the Pope to survey the mission field in Mongolia. A long journey brought them at the end of 1845, by way of Nagchukha to Lhasa where they were received kindly by the Tibetans but with suspicious hostility by the Chinese Amban who evicted them after about three months and compelled them to return eastwards through Tibet instead ofproceeding by the short journey to India. During their stay, like all missionaries before them, they received the patronage of the lay authority, in this case the senior minister, Shatra, whom they wrongly describe as the Regent. They were allowed to make a chapel and preach their faith and they had the usual anodyne discussions about religion with Shatra and a few monks. Owing to a smallpox scare they were unable to meet the Dalai Lama, Mkha’s-grub-rgya-mtsho, who was then about eight years old, and have little to say about him as a person. But they were much impressed by what they heard of the Panchen Lama, the same whom Turner had met in 1784, now sixty-five years old, a figure of majestic presence with a great reputation for sanctity and learning. He had also acted as Regent for eight months from September 1844 to May 1845. Petech appears to state that he remained at Lhasa until about September 1846 but this seems improbable for the missionaries evidently did not meet him but were advised to go to Tashilhunpo to do so, which they were unable to do.
After the Lazarists the age of explorers and
adventurers in the competition to be first into Lhasa, set in. The arrogant
bullying and not infrequent deceit by some of these travelers did nothing to
enhance the reputation of foreigners in Tibetan eyes. They met few Tibetans of
any standing, had no common language and were generally more interested in the
topography than the people.
It was not until the mould of exclusion was
broken by the rough wooing of the Younghusband expedition that a Great Lama was
seen again by foreigners. The Thirteenth Dalai Lama after his enforced flight
to China was met by the American diplomat W.W. Rockhill who spent a week with
him at Wu-tai shan. He comments on the Lama’s undoubted intelligence and
ability, great natural dignity, quick temper but kindly cheerfulness; his
thoughtfulness and courtesy as a host. He also describes his personal
appearance in considerable detail. The Vicomte D’Ollonne also met the Dalai
Lama at Wu-tai span for a short rather formal visit from which he got an
impression of the Lama as a statesman and man of action. Later, the friend of
longest standing and closest intimacy was Sir Charles Bell who looked after the
Dalai Lama when he took refuge in India in 1910 and was in constant contact
with him when he was invited to Lhasa in 1921. Bell has written about the Dalai
Lama with deep affection and respect in `Portrait of the Dalai Lama’, which I cannot
attempt to summarize: enough to quote him that the Dalai Lama and he were “men
of like minds”. From Bell’s account the powerful personality of the Lama
emerges clearly but it is as a strong-minded man of action and administrative
ability and political interests rather than of deep spirituality and that is
the impression conveyed not only by Rockhill and D’Ollonne but also by the
Japanese Kawaguchi and by Political Officers who visited Lhasa after Bell until
the death of the Dalai Lama in 1933. He was nevertheless profoundly learned in
Buddhist doctrine but apparently in an intellectual way and he was eager in his
position as head of the church to see that the standard of teaching and
achievement in religious studies was improved.
By contrast, his contemporary the Sixth Panchen
Lama impressed all who met him by his gentleness and spirituality. Sir Frederic
O’Connor, who was fluent in Tibetan, enjoyed a warm friendship with him
beginning with visits to Tashilhunpo in 1904 and 1905; he later accompanied the
Lama on his visit to India. O’Connor tells a pleasant story that on their first
meeting, the Panchen Lama, referring, without the need of explanation, to the
visits of Bogle and Turner to two of his predecessors, expressed his pleasure
at meeting British officers “again” and recalling the happy relations he had
had with them. He also showed O’Connor a number of presents- watches, china,
silver and so on- received on those early occasions. O’Connor writes with
affection of the gentle and saintly character of the Lama and the love and
reverence of his people towards him. Unfortunately he was drawn innocently into
a short-lived plan in which O’ Connor, perhaps carried away by his admiration
for the Lama, sought to set him up as a substitute for the absent Dalai Lama.
This had tragic consequences for the Panchen Lama who was to end his life in
exile, and for the peace of Tibet. Sir Charles Bell wrote of him: “Truly the
Tashi Lama has a wonderful personality. Somewhat short in stature, with a fair
and healthy complexion, the smile with which he regards you is touched with the
quiet saintliness of one who prays and works for all mankind, but it is at the
same time the smile of a friend who takes a personal and sympathetic interest
in your own concerns. It is not surprising that he should be loved by his
people. It is good that there is such a man in Tibet; it is good that there are
such men in the world”. The great explorer Sven Hedin described him in even
more enthusiastic terms: “Wonderful, never to be forgotten, incomparable Tashi
Lama”, and related the deep impression made by his calm, dignity and courtesy
and his wide humanity: “Extraordinary, unique, incomparable!”
The participation of the Panchen Lama, whether
willingly or not, in political matters beginning with the plans of Frederic
O’Connor and continuing through his enmeshment in Chinese designs on Tibet
since his flight from Tibet in 1926 until his death in 1937 are a sadly
uncharacteristic story. And the involvement of the two Great Lamas in international
politics to some extent robbed them of their remote mystery but, although there
remained an aura of spirituality it made them more credible human beings.
Today the balance has changed. The present Panchen Lama is something of
an enigma. In the early days of the Tibetan tragedy he appeared as the
political creature and puppet of the Chinese; and contentious and offensive
words were put into his mouth. But people who have met him lately emphasize
that when he is able to speak for himself he is a true Tibetan and Buddhist.
The Dalai Lama- Cho-srid-gnyis-ldan, Master of
Religion and State- is inevitably and deeply concerned with the politics of his
country and when he speaks of them, which he does mainly on special occasions
and when he is specifically asked about them, he makes his views and` meaning
clear but in balanced and temperate language. In his daily life and in his
public utterances politics are subordinated to his deep, innate feeling for
religion, and the good of all beings. His radiant, generous spirituality in all
he says has restored the mystique of the incarnate Lama underlying his warm
humanity and approachability.
As I have said charisma is not to be described. I make no further attempt
to do so and will only add my twentieth century workaday account of a child
Lama to the incomparable descriptions by Turner and Manning.
On 6th October 1939 the whole population of
Lhasa, so it seemed, had congregated in bright cool autumn weather on the plain
below Rikya monastery some two miles from Lhasa, where a great camp had been
ornamented with auspicious designs in blue, sheltered the tent proper, the roof
of which was even more splendidly decorated with religious symbols in gold, red
and blue and with golden peacock figures perched on the roof pole. The front
was open showing the inner walls lined with splendid gold, red and blue brocade
hangings and with bright banners hanging from the supporting poles. In the
center stood the tall throne of the Dalai Lama, covered in patterned gold and
red brocade. There was a lower throne at one side for the Regent. The crowd
waited in tense excitement which was heightened when the band of the Dalai
Lama’s bodyguard, which had gone out to meet him, was heard in the distance;
and soon in a cloud of dust and of incense smoke from burners all along the
route, the first banners of the procession came in sight. Long trumpets sounded
from the monastery above and the crowd pressed forward eagerly. A small troop
of Chinese soldiers in dusty quilted clothes came first at a quick pace and
then a long line of mounted men, carriers of banners and symbols, and then the
whole body of Tibetan officials in ascending importance in magnificent brocades
and white or crimson topped hats. At last in the center of the cavalcade we saw
a small carrying chair draped in yellow silk, and through the glass window the
face of the little Dalai Lama could be seen looking calmly but curiously at the
mass of people prostrating themselves by the roadside, many weeping with joy.
The procession moved at a rapid pace up the hill to the monastery where the
child was to have a short rest and change his clothes. Soon he was carried down
the winding path in the large gilded state palanquin with eight bearers in
yellow silk and red tasseled hats. The whole official body accompanied him into
the camp to the Peacock Tent where he was lifted on to the throne by his Lord
Chamberlain. Everyone then took their proper places in the enclosure and we
members of the British Mission and those of the Nepalese and Chinese, were led
to our seats. Ours were just in front of the Dalai Lama’s father, mother and
family. The Regent opened proceedings by prostrating three times before the
Dalai Lama and then offering him a scarf after which the officials began to
file past to offer white scarves and receive the blessing: The child, wearing
yellow brocade and a yellow, peaked hat with a fur brim sat quietly and with
great dignity, completely at ease in these strange surroundings, giving the
proper blessing to each person, with both hands or one, or with a tassel on the
end of a rod, according to their rank. He looked often in our direction, partly
because we were so near to his parents but also it seemed, fascinated by our
unfamiliar appearance; and when our turn came to offer our scarves he was
smiling broadly and as I bent down for his blessing he took a pull at my hair.
But a greater center of amusement and interest were the rosy face and fair hair
of Reginald Fox, the Mission Radio Officer; the Dalai Lama felt his hair for
quite a long time. After us the stream of worshippers continued to flow for
over an hour until at last tea in a golden tea-pot studded with turquoise was
brought in; the tea was first tasted formally by a high official then poured
into a jade cup and offered to the Dalai Lama. He was then lifted down and
carried back in state up to the monastery.
Although not surprisingly he seemed a little
tired at the end of the long day his behavior through the whole ceremony was
movingly impressive. He maintained a calm and interested appearance and a look
of happy benevolence. The rapt devotion of the Tibetan crowd could almost be
felt and all of us like Manning experienced “the strangeness of sensation”.
Later, Sir Basil Gould came to Lhasa for the
installation ceremony. By then I had left Lhasa but Gould has left a very full
account of the story of the discovery and recognition of the child as well as
of the enthronement. He tells of his receptions by the Dalai Lama; describing
his steady gaze and absorption in what was going on, and using the language of
Isaiah “Unto us a child is born”.
When I returned to Lhasa in 1944 and on many
later occasions, I was formally received by the Dalai Lama and never failed to
be impressed, as he grew up, by his composure, his self-possession and his look
of kindly interest. As he was a minor all my time in Tibet and state affairs
were conducted by the Regent, I never had an opportunity to meet and talk to
him privately. During much of that time my friend Heinrich Harter was
frequently in contact with the Dalai Lama whose curiosity about the outside
world and things mechanical he was able to satisfy in many ways. Harter has
told his remarkable story in `Seven Years in Tibet’. I was fortunate in being
able to exchange, through him, messages with the Dalai Lama to whom I used to
send cinema films, illustrated magazines and books, and flowers from our
garden. But it was only after he had reached safety in India that l was able to
meet him personally on several occasions, first at Mussoorie in 1960 and then
at Dharamsala in 1961 when I was privileged to enjoy his hospitality at
delightfully informal family lunch and dinner parties. At those meetings I
could feel the immediate impact of his personality. Behind the simple often
humorous friendliness of manner shone a transparent goodness, an inner peace
devoid of hatred and a wide compassion not only for the pressing needs of his
own people but for the wider troubles and cares of all humanity. That feeling
perhaps developed even great intensity in the travels he was later to undertake
all over the world and in his meetings with leading religious and political
figures in many countries
For me, my experience in those meetings in India
showed that `His Holiness’ was not merely a title but a reality.