By P Kharel
Speculation is rife in the Kathmandu grapevine that the next Dalai Lama, succeeding the current Dalai Lama the Fourteenth could very well decide to be born somewhere in Nepal. The male child could hail from a refugee family or a Nepalese family of Tibetan origin. Given the political slant the West gives to discomfort and embarrass communist China, seen by the United States as its No. 1 adversary in the making, nothing can be discounted.
The next Tibetan apostle of peace to guide and advise especially the Red Hats of the Buddhist faith but also revered by other sects like the Yellow Hats and Kagyupa. Most Buddhists in Nepal and Sikkim—now an Indian state—belong to the Red Hat group. Bhutan’s majority are Kagyupa followers. A large number of Buddhists in South East Asia belong to the Yellow Hats.
During King Birendra’s time in the 1980s, Tenzing Gyaltso, the Dalai Lama, sent a flurry of letters to be given an opportunity to visit Lumbini, the birth place of the Buddha, and also Kathmandu Valley where Swayambhunath and Boudhhanath are. Buddha Gaya, Mandi and Kushinagar being three of the four major dhams for Buddhists, the letter from Dharmashala in India’s Himachal Pradesh pleaded for a visit to Lumbini “at least on humanitarian ground” citing also his mother’s death in the 1970s.
ABORTED: In early 1991, a few months before the general elections, Interim Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai was under immense pressure from the Dalai’s foreign supporters to allow him to visit Kathmandu Valley. Bhattarai gave a tentative assurance that he would do all he could to oblige His Holiness. Getting wind of the definitive nod the Bhattarai government was about to give, this scribe wrote an opinion piece carried by The Rising Nepal, entitled “Dalai Lama’s Proposed Visit: neither The Clime Nor The Time”.
Shortly after, the visit programme got aborted because of the serious political implications such a trip could trigger, as pointed out by King Birendra to Bhattarai.
Some attribute to Kublai Khan granting of the title Dalai Lama, “Ocean of Wisdom”. A number of carpet weaving establishments in Nepal are believed to have investments from the Dharmashala, from the Dalai’s official residence. A few decades ago, the Dalai Lama figured in the list of 40 richest persons in the world, as reported in the Western press.
In order to anger Beijing, the US government in 2020 received Lobsang Sangay, who headed the Tibetan government-in-exile, in Washington. Beijing chided Washington as an attempt to distablise Tibet. Sangay became an American citizen after his second term in the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) ended in 2021. Tibetan refugee population in India is estimated at about 75,000, with the largest concentration of them perhaps in Calcutta, New Delhi and Mumbai as against some 12,000 in Nepal.
PROPAGANDA TACTICS: President of the Tibetan-government-in-exile—known as CTA, Panepa Tsering, sent a congratulatory message to Prime Minister Balendra Shah in a repeat of what he had done to interim Prime Minister just as he did to Sushila Karki in September. The idea was to provoke China in the futile hope of Nepal playing weak-kneed role. The Foreign Ministry did not bother to respond in what could have been a bonus for the sender’s propaganda purposes.
Did the same kind of greeting go to three-time Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi or his predecessors? If so, they are not reported in the state-owned “Public Service Broadcasting” outlets or the private press. Without Washington’s prompting and New Delhi’s nod, the CTA’s greetings would not have happened nor would have a publicised with such gusto.
On the eve of India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s China visit in July last year, the Chinese embassy in New Delhi’s Chanakyapuri conclave reiterated that the Dalai Lama’s succession is China’s internal affair and a hindrance to China-India relations. The trip was in connection with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Foreign Ministers’ meeting held in Tianjin. Jaishankar’s visit to the northern neighbour was the first time after the 2020 Sino-Indian border clashes at the Galwan Valley.
PLAY OF WORDS: The CTA asserts: “The Dalai Lama is a defining spiritual leader for Buddhists. The decision about his reincarnation should follow tradition and be made by him alone. No one else has the right.” China government’s spokesperson pointed out that the reincarnation issue has become “a thorn China-India relations and has become a burden for India”. Two weeks before Jaishankar flew to the Chinese city, his ministry issued a statement reminding that India “does not take any position or speak on matters concerning beliefs and practices of faith and religion”.
When the inevitable time comes for the reincarnation story to unfold, the situation is bound to attract world attention with the likely political implications closely watched. The suspense-packed question is where will the Fifteenth Dalai Lama be found: in Tibet, some other part of China, Nepal, India or even the US?
A Dalai born outside Tibet might be less preferable even to his most faithful followers. But if he were to open his eye first in Tibet, China’s adversaries would have no control. If he privileged to be born in Nepal, its political advantages for “Free Tibet” groups could find the development greatly advantageous, even if Kathmandu would have to bear the extra burden of maintaining the existing political balance between China and its opponents aiming at Tibet’s soft underbelly for 70 years. However, the Dalai born of a Tibetan mother in Nepal could be prevented from returning to Nepal if his presence proved too burdensome for Nepal.
Spread over a vast area of 2.5 million square kilometres, the sparsely populated Tibet Autonomous Region is a massive store of freshwater and natural resources. It is also the source of no less than ten large river systems that caters to, what experts say, up to 45 per cent of the world’s population in different regions of Asia, including South Asia.
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