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The Fourteen Dalai Lamas: A Sacred Legacy of Incarnation OVEr the past half a century and more since Tibet shed its long-lived image of a Shangri-la, the number of studies on the land and its people—above all its Dalai Lama—have run into scores. For one, there has been an amazing interest in the land of the lama for a hark-back to the old, traditional Tibet which has virtually ceased to be. For another, there is no little curiosity about the new Tibet that Beijing now calls the Tibet Autonomous Region and works hard to project as the ancient land’s new face. In the event, the forbidden land, the land of mystery and snow of yester years is now a hallowed memory of the past yielding place to a tremendous beehive of activity that has opened up the country as a major tourist hub.
The book, a large if impressive tome by an assiduous American author, proffers the biographies of all the 14 Dalai Lamas, from the first to the incumbent 14th. Before retailing the long story, there is a fascinating introductory chapter entitled Before the first Dalai Lama, which sketches out the broad contours of Tibet’s mythical geography and the way Buddhism evolved. The Lamas for their part progress from the first, Gyalwa Gendun Drubpa (1391-1474/5) through the third Sonam Gyatso (1543-88) who was a descendant of Ghenghiz Khan to the long-lived Great Fifth (1617-82), rated the father of "modern" Tibet. He gave the country its system of government, "ganden podrang", which has remained virtually unchanged through the centuries, initiated the construction of the golden roofed Potala in Lhasa, a physical testament to his "extraordinary vision". More, the Great Fifth raised his own tutor to the high office of the Panchen Lama and installed him at Tashilhunpo, close to Shigatse. Barring the incumbent 14th Dalai Lama, the two who stand out in Tibet’s long and far from peaceful history are the Great Fifth, briefly referred to earlier, and the more recent, the Great 13th (1876-1933). The life span of the former synchronises with what the author calls the "birth" of modern Tibet; of the latter whom he hails as "monk, mystic and statesman" with the country’s contemporary importance, and relevance. Of the greatest interest in this voluminous tome is the fact that the Lamas’ biographies have been built around the primary, and traditionally Tibetan, texts; employing Western sources only when these were "direct eye-witness" accounts. The objective was to provide the reader with "a fresher look" at the Dalai Lama tradition than would have otherwise been the case. For fear the unwary reader may draw unfair conclusions, it is important to bear in mind the fact that the volume is meant for the believers and intended as "a pleasurable reading and not as an academic study" (emphasis added) of Tibet’s history. The best is to page through it—whenever the bug bites you—at a leisurely pace. While doing so, one may bear in mind the Buddha’s metaphor of four blind men touching an elephant and mistaking their subject. For the basic tenet of the Buddhist faith is that the world is strongly shaped by our own likes and dislikes, prejudices and preconceptions and that we are "generally better off avoiding judging" others. Mullin who has known and lived in Dharamsala for almost 30 long years is rated among the world’s foremost Tibetologists. He has authored almost 20 books on the country and taken a very keen interest in the works of the Dalai Lamas, pursuing his subject with "persistence" that even the Dalai Lama "admire(s)". In the process, the Tibetan ruler has confessed, he (Mullin) has "probably found out more about them (his predecessors) than even I know".
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Hundreds, if not
thousands, travel to Lhasa by air and now by a railroad that is an
engineering feat in its own right. And if one has the money and the
muscle—the journey is at once expensive, and tiring—and equipped
with the requisite health certification to withstand elevations of
9-17,000 feet above the sea level (Lhasa is a little above 11,000),
there are few hindrances. Sadly though while the lie of the land has
withstood tremendous upheavals of its masters’ new dispensation, the
people themselves have fast receded into the background. For both in
its few small towns and the large if empty countryside, the ethnic Han
or the more energetic Hui are much in evidence as intrepid traders or
entrepreneurs while the indigenous Tibetans who barely eke out an
existence have been driven to the back of beyond.