The Dalai Lama, symbol of non-violent resistance
For Tibetans, some of whom have risked their freedom in their very country, the Roof of the World, to preserve its image, it has always been the symbol of their cultural, religious and political identity. The history of the Dalaï-Lamas begins for them when a Mongolian prince become his disciple, confers the title of 1st Dalaï-Lama, "Ocean of Wisdom" to the abbot of the monastery of Drepung, on May 15, 1578. With this glorious title , some Tibetans prefer that of Yeshe Norbu, the Jewel that fulfills wishes (of Wisdom), or Kundun, the Presence, symbol of the compassion that it embodies as an emanation of Bodhisattva Chenrezi (Avalokiteshvara). "Tibetans love him because he has incarnated an infinite number of times - fourteen to date, since 1391 - to take upon himself the suffering and misery that afflicts his people and the fragile, precarious human condition and deadly,” wrote the Jesuit, Ippolito Desideri, who at the beginning of the XNUMXth century spent five years in Tibet.
The life of the 1965th Dalai Lama began in one of the most remote regions of the world, in the heart of the province of Amdo, forcibly attached to the Chinese Empire in 1935, under the name of Qinghaï. The village where he was born, Taktser, the "Roaring Tiger", is perched on a small plateau, not far from the caravan route that leads to Xining. It is made up of around thirty mud brick houses, surrounded by fields of barley and pastures with aromatic herbs. To the south, a mountain crowned with snow pierces the sky, and shelters Kyé, the protective deity of the place. Sonam Chomo and Tcheukyong Tsering, his parents, own a house, a few strips of land and a vegetable garden, where they grow potatoes, peas, tomatoes and onions. They also raise a small herd of Dzomo and sheep as well as a few horses, of which Tcheukyong is particularly proud. An eldest daughter and three sons preceded the birth of little Lhamo Teundroup, who had just been born in early July XNUMX on a cloudy day, punctuated by thunder and gusts of rain. An auspicious rainbow shines above the house. Lhamo grows up devoting great love to his mother and becomes a high-spirited kid, mischievous, stubborn and quick to get angry when he is refused something. He can't stand people or even animals fighting and then grabs a stick to help the weakest.
This quiet life ends when the 1954th Dalai Lama dies and dignitaries begin the search for his reincarnation. We know the episode of his recognition at the age of two by a team of high lamas dispatched by the regent Reting and of his transportation to Lhasa against a ransom paid to the local potentate, a Chinese Muslim, Ma Bufeng. His arrival in Potala, in Lhasa, where he becomes Tenzin Gyatso, the Ocean of Wisdom, the future religious and temporal leader of the Tibetans. His life of studies and the confrontation with the brutality of the invading Chinese army and the skills of Mao, whom he met in Beijing in XNUMX, and Xuenlai, who sought to enlist him. His departure for exile, a moonless night in March 1959. His arrival in India, the “land of the Buddha”, after having braved all the dangers. All this he tells himself in his autobiography, Freedom away.
Barely installed in Dharamsala, anxious to ensure the survival of his people, he establishes a Tibetan government in exile and devotes all his energy to the installation of tens of thousands of refugees who followed him in India. In the new “Tibetan” capital, he is recreating age-old institutions that bear witness to the richness of its civilization: a medical institute, an arts centre, bilingual schools (Tibetan-English) for children, Buddhist monasteries… Owner of historical legitimacy, since its functions have never been abolished by a legal process, it deeply reforms the Tibetan institutions to introduce a democracy which will deepen over the years, by setting up, from the 60s , gender parity in its government. He promulgates a constitution and strives to bring men and schools closer together, which have not always been able to resist the temptations of quarrel and division, and recognizes the ancient tradition of Bön, as being the fifth school of Tibetan Buddhism. . But it is certainly in his travels around the world that this nomad of peace, this precursor, this visionary, finds the dimension of his action.
The world discovers the Dalai Lama
From the fall of 1967, His Holiness made his first trips outside India. First in Japan and Thailand, Buddhist nations, then in Europe in 1973, where he met Paul VI in the Vatican, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. In 1979, he traveled to the United States for the first time.
In the 1980s, his travels became more numerous. He was involved in interreligious dialogue, met John Paul II regularly and took part in the Assisi meetings in 1988. During this period, he also made discreet contacts with politicians. In 1982, France granted him a visa for the first time; Jacques Chirac receives him as mayor of Paris. In 1986, he stayed in Dignes, the town of Alexandra David-Neel, of which he was made an honorary citizen. On May 28, he was invited to the Hôtel de Lassay by the President of the National Assembly, Jacques Chaban-Delmas, who saw in him “one of the most representative men of wisdom in the world”. Between 1987 and 1990, following the uprisings in Tibet of 1987 and 1989, which were severely repressed by China, its international influence increased. The Congress of the United States invites him, and it is before him that he will expose his Peace Plan in five points aiming in particular to make Tibet a demilitarized zone and an ecological reserve. Received then by the European Parliament in 1988, it will specify there its wish of an authentic autonomy for its country. A statement that will be heard all the more by governments as the repression of the Tian'anmen demonstrations in 1989 shocks the whole world. The same year, on April 20, he came to Paris, at the invitation of Danielle Mitterrand and the France Liberté Foundation. Several deputies, who had just set up a parliamentary group for Tibet, then made his acquaintance and Bernard Kouchner, Secretary of State for Humanitarian Action, came to visit him. This is the first time that a member of the French government has decided, on his own, to meet the Dalai Lama. This will result in a lasting friendship. Robert Badinter who participates alongside him in the television show Apostrophes will also remain very close to the Tibetan master.
The Nobel Peace Prize
The events then follow one another very quickly. Also in 1989, in Paris, he met Danielle Mitterrand, attended the presentation of the "Prix de la mémoire" at the Trocadéro in the company of the director of the Armenian museum of Yerevan and Serge Klarsfeld, and received Chinese students, members of the Federation for democracy in China. December 1989, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo and became, in the eyes of Westerners and those of many oppressed peoples on the planet, the symbol of non-violence. He sets out his political project and develops the idea of universal responsibility. Some governments agree to meet with him. Vaclav Havel, the initiator of the "Velvet Revolution" which brought Czechoslovakia out of communism, was the first Western head of state to receive it, in 1990. That same year, he was officially received by Claude Evin, then again by Bernard Kouchner and Jack Lang, all ministers in office. He visits the Quai d'Orsay and inaugurates the Study Group on the Tibetan question. In 1991, he was the guest of the Maison du Tibet which had just been created in the presence of Micheline Chaban-Delmas and Danielle Mitterrand. From that date, he then returned to France very regularly to give lessons. In September 2016, we find him as he lays a white scarf around the neck of a young minister who will soon become President of the Republic. "I saw the face of compassion today," says Emmanuel Macron.
“During my life, I have had to face enormous responsibilities and difficulties. At sixteen, the occupation of Tibet made me lose my freedom. At twenty-four, exile made me lose my country. For more than fifty years, I have lived as a refugee in a country which, for being my spiritual home, is nonetheless a foreign country. My country was partially destroyed; besides my mother and some members of my family, I lost very dear friends. But despite everything, despite the grief I feel when I think of these losses, my serenity is not fundamentally shaken and I am calm and content most of the time. I can say without hesitation that I am happy. »
Also in 1991, in the United States, George Bush received him at the White House, and the American Senate passed a resolution on “illegally occupied Tibet” thus recognizing the Dalai Lama as “authentic representative of the Tibetan people”. Very committed to the protection of nature, in 1992, he was invited to participate in Rio at the first Environmental Summit. In 1993, invited again to the White House, he met Bill Clinton and Al Gore there. In 1993, at the UN conference on human rights, he was refused access to the main building, China trying to silence him. But the NGOs protest and he gives his speech under the tent of Amnesty International.
Also in 1991, in the United States, George Bush received him at the White House, and the American Senate passed a resolution on “illegally occupied Tibet” thus recognizing the Dalai Lama as “authentic representative of the Tibetan people”. Very committed to the protection of nature, in 1992, he was invited to participate in Rio at the first Environmental Summit. In 1993, invited again to the White House, he met Bill Clinton and Al Gore there. In 1993, at the UN conference on human rights, he was refused access to the main building, China trying to silence him. But the NGOs protest and he gives his speech under the tent of Amnesty International.
Religious leader of Tibetans
Refusing any proselytism, he always advises those who listen to him to deepen above all the resources of the spiritual traditions in which they were born. "Basically," he said to those who questioned him, "the choice is vast between religions, and if the teaching of the Buddha is perfectly suited to my research in this world, there are a multitude of ways to get to the essentials. to become a good human being”. “To become a good human being,” he repeats in his unpretentious English.
It was in this spirit of conviviality that he took part, in 1996, in the meeting organized by the Benedictine Father Laurence Freeman at the University of Middlesex, in London. 350 Christians, practicing meditation, question the Dalai Lama on his reading of the gospel! A book, The Dalai Lama talks about Jesus, reports his answers. Spiritual leader of the Tibetans, it is with great emotion and tenderness that he welcomes, at the very beginning of the year 2000, the young Karmapa Orgyen Tinley Dorje who has just escaped from Tibet.
Temporal leader of Tibet
He knows that the way that he has chosen is not the fastest or the most spectacular, that it requires patience and determination, and that it imposes on those who want to follow it with him a real work on themselves so as not to let themselves invaded by anger, hatred and their consequences. In the search for dialogue with China, he always asks his Tibetan or foreign supporters to abandon all violence and invites them never to confuse the arrogance of the leaders with the position of the Chinese brothers and sisters, whose fate he knows. difficult. He is the first to rejoice in any progress of the Chinese people, for which many are grateful to him. But, for as much, it does not hide its concern to see losing what Tibet has best: its culture, its way of being, its environment and its adherence to Buddhism its prerogatives.
When on March 19, 2011, at the age of 76, he decided to retire and give up all his prerogatives as head of state in favor of an elected prime minister (Sikyong), he knew that this decision would sadden some of his compatriots, but he does so knowingly, forcing them henceforth to assume their responsibilities within the framework of a modern democracy. As for him, he can finally become again this "simple monk" that he has, in reality, never ceased to be.
How did he get through this life of trials? Let him speak: “As a Buddhist monk, I have been instructed in the practice, philosophy and principles of Buddhism. But when it comes to an education that allows me to meet the demands of the modern world, I received almost none. During my life, I had to face enormous responsibilities and difficulties. At sixteen, the occupation of Tibet made me lose my freedom. At twenty-four, exile made me lose my country. For more than fifty years, I have lived as a refugee in a country which, for being my spiritual home, is nonetheless a foreign country. During all this time, I have endeavored to serve my compatriots in exile, and as far as possible, those who remained in Tibet. My country was partially destroyed; besides my mother and some members of my family, I lost very dear friends. But despite everything, despite the grief I feel when I think of these losses, my serenity is not fundamentally shaken and I am calm and content most of the time. Even when difficulties arise, as is inevitable, I am seldom greatly affected by them. I can say without hesitation that I am happy”. Neither provocation nor paradox, because, he admits to us a little further on, this happiness is entirely based on inner peace and altruism.
The man visionary
It should not be believed, however, that this inner peace keeps him away from the questions of the modern world. Everything fascinates him: my science, in particular the study of the human brain, the origin of the world, the big bang, quantum physics, the environment... He admits his enthusiasm, in a book with a significant title, The whole universe in an atom. “In the mid-1980s, during my many trips outside India, I had already met many scientists and philosophers of science, and participated in various interviews with them, in public and in private (…) However, 1987 marked an important step in my involvement with science. That year the first Mind and Life conference was held at my residence in Dharamsala. The meeting was organized by Franco-Chilean neuroscientist Francisco Varela, who taught in Paris, and American businessman Adam Engle. For a week, they brought together a group of scientists from various disciplines to dialogue about the human mind. This benevolent confrontation of East-West knowledge on this subject was an extraordinary opportunity. This meeting and all those that followed led to laboratory work, in Europe and the United States, which gave rise to formidable discoveries, such as neuroplasticity, the role of meditation, etc.
A Committed Buddhist
Once again a simple monk at his request, the Dalai Lama nevertheless continued to commit himself to important causes. In 2019, he wrote to Greta Thunberg to support her “It is very encouraging to see how you have inspired other young people to join you in expressing themselves, he wrote to her. You wake people up to the scientific consensus and the urgency to act. »
This committed Buddhism, which manages to reconcile urgency of action and impermanence, science and metaphysics, spiritual rigor and maternal affection for all beings, who will now embody it in this world? Him ? If he accepts, according to the old Indian and Tibetan belief of rebirth, to be reborn a 15th time. But, then, who will recognize it? Certainly not the Chinese autocrats or even a small college of high lamas.
He tweaked things several times. He does not want the return of a Dalai Lama "as in the past" with his procession of rites and powers, and says he could come back as a woman, a first! Anyway and without being a diviner, we have no doubt, he will come back to help human beings go towards enlightenment. As this prayer that he recited so many times says:
“As long as space lasts
And as long as beings last
May I too remain
To relieve the sufferings of the world”
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