100,000 silver dollars: Melvyn C. Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet: 1913–1951, vol. 1, The Demise of the Lamaist State (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), p. 321.
via India: See Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 1:323. This fact shows that, while Amdo itself was outside Lhasa’s control, the Chinese government could not dictate terms to the Tibetans with respect to central Tibet.
“began to look”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 14.
“a strikingly pretty girl”: Heinrich Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet (London: R. Hart-Davis, 1953), p. 205.
“We spent a great deal”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 15.
“the vast herds”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 15.
“thousands of”: Thondup, Noodle Maker, p. 33.
“the officials, secretaries and monks”: Thondup, Noodle Maker, p. 35.
“as it might be poisoned”: Diki Tsering, The Dalai Lama, My Son: A Mother’s Story (London: Virgin, 2000), p. 93.
“the stars of heaven”: Michael Aris, Hidden Treasures and Secret Lives: A Study of Pemalingpa (1450–1521) and the Sixth Dalai Lama (1683–1706) (London: Kegan Paul International, 1989), p. 149.
these outer manifestations: One of the best single collections of photographs of premodern Tibet can be seen at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. This is viewable in its entirety online at http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/tibet_project_summary.html.
“with big bulging eyes”: Thomas Laird, The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama (London: Atlantic, 2006), pp. 269–70.
6. Homecoming
“a town full of animation”: Alexandra David-Néel, My Journey to Lhasa (Harmondsworth: Allen Lane, Penguin Books, 1940), p. 273.
“metropolis of filth”: Ekai Kawaguchi, Three Years in Tibet (London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1909), p. 407. Though he was a devout pilgrim, the city evidently disgusted Kawaguchi. He spoke of “the filth, the stench, the utter abomination of the streets.”
“squatting or lying”: William Stanley Morgan, Amchi Sahib: A British Doctor in Tibet, 1936–37 (Charlestown, MA: Acme Bookbinding, 2007), p. 73. Dr. Morgan was attached to the 1936–37 British mission to Lhasa under Sir Basil Gould. His lively memoir is notable for its description of the syphilis clinic he ran. Monks from the local monasteries made up a large percentage of his patients. On venereal disease among Tibetans, see also Harrer, Seven Years, p. 176.
“They were at once”: Frederick Spencer Chapman, Lhasa: The Holy City (London: Chatto & Windus, 1938), p. 148.
“The ordinary residents”: Tsewang Y. Pemba, Young Days in Tibet (London: Jonathan Cape, 1957), p. 76.
stumps “immersed”: Pemba, Young Days in Tibet, p. 86.
“an Amazon with breasts”: Pemba, Young Days in Tibet, p. 109.
settled population: Estimates vary, but most agree that the population was around ten thousand. W. S. Morgan puts it at a mere eight thousand (Amchi Sahib, p. 86).
Within a few hours’ walk: Remarkably enough, a common way of measuring both time and distance was to give the number of cups of tea that could be drunk over the course of a given interval. Tibetans at this time drank spectacular quantities. Charles Bell reports that many people he knew would consume “sixty or seventy cups daily,” though the Great Thirteenth limited himself to “about forty cups, of ordinary tea cup size, each day.” Charles Bell, Portrait of the Dalai Lama (London: Collins, 1946), p. 303.
“from sunrise to sunset”: David-Néel, My Journey to Lhasa, p. 273.
“a herd of tame musk deer”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990), p. 38.
until that moment: Thomas Laird, The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama (London: Atlantic, 2006), p. 271.
habitual opium smokers: See Henrich Harrer’s foreword in Dorje Yudon Yuthok, House of the Turquoise Roof (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1990), p. 12.
take the measure: Sir Basil Gould, in Jewel in the Lotus: Recollections of an Indian Political (London: Chatto & Windus, 1957), p. 220, described him as “a man of quiet and gentle poise.” Hugh Richardson once described him to me as “a dreadful old horse coper.”
warmly affectionate: Describing her to me, Tenzin Geyche Tethong, scion of an old and senior aristocratic family, asserted that the gyalyum chenmo was “really something . . . quite a remarkable person.” Similarly, Gould described her as “surely one in a million, the worthy mother of a Dalai Lama” (Jewel in the Lotus, p. 220). Heinrich Harrer also has many good things to say of her.
“One saw many of these people”: Pemba, Young Days in Tibet, p. 84.
marched with a peculiar gait: Pemba, Young Days in Tibet, p. 98.
“really let themselves go”: Pemba, Young Days in Tibet, p. 115.
“one of the best moments”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 45. The Casting-Out (smon lam gdor rgyag) was celebrated on February 7 in 1940, the year in question. For a full description, see Hugh Richardson, Ceremonies of the Lhasa Year (London: Serindia Publications, 1993).
Consisting of “wooden frames”: Pemba, Young Days in Tibet, p. 114.
“The sight of all those people”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 48.
“This tended to result”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 49. See also Alexandra David-Néel’s account in My Journey to Lhasa, chap. 8. She adds that most of the spectators were drunk by this time.
A “solid, solemn”: Gould, Jewel in the Lotus, p. 218.
He was more eager: Gould, Jewel in the Lotus, p. 231.
“The contrasts and rhythms”: Knud Larsen and Amund Sinding-Larsen, The Lhasa Atlas: Traditional Tibetan Architecture and Townscape (London: Serindia, 2001), p. 104.
around 1.3 million square feet: Gyurme Dorje, Tibet Handbook, 4th ed. (Bath: Footprint, 2008), p. 97.
200,000 pearls: Dorje, Tibet Handbook, p. 102. I wonder who counted them.
“devotion and love”: Khemey Sonam Wangdu, Basil J. Gould, and Hugh E. Richardson, Discovery, Recognition and Enthronement of the 14th Dalai Lama: A Collection of Accounts (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2000), p. 79.
“ancient and decrepit”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 22.
ran with urine: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 23.
millions of mantras: When, for example, the Great Fifth Dalai Lama fell ill in 1681, the monks of Doenye Ling Monastery recited the mig tse ma no fewer than 21,750,000 times. This was followed by a complete recitation of the 108 volumes of the kangyur a total of 108 times by thousands of novice monks throughout the country, recitation of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines three times, the bhadracari 199,500 times, the namasangiti 59,300 times, the Sadhana of the Goddess of the White Umbrella 105,500 times, the Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom 149,300 times, the Hymn to Tara 1,043,600 times, and the Life Dharani 9,533,000 times. See Sans-rgyas rgya-mtsho: Life of the Fifth Dalai Lama, trans. Ahmed Zahiruddin (New Delhi: Academy of Indian Culture, 1999). According to Georges Dreyfus, the monasteries are indeed “first and foremost ritual communities.” Georges B. J. Dreyfus, The Sound of Two Hands Clapping: The Education of a Tibetan Buddhist Monk (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), p. 44.
“lazy, stupid”: Pemba, Young Days in Tibet, p. 80.
dob dob: The best descriptions of dob dob culture are to be found in Tashi Khedrup, Adventures of a Tibetan Fighting Monk, ed. Hugh Richardson (Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2003). See also Melvyn C. Goldstein, “A Study of the Ldab Ldob,” Central Asiatic Journal 9, no. 2 (1964): pp. 123–41; and Kawaguchi, Three Years in Tibet, esp. the chapter titled “Warrior Priests of Sera.” According to Kawaguchi, “the beauty of young boys was a frequent cause” of fighting, “and the theft of a boy [would] often lead to a duel” (p. 292). Kawaguchi, himself an ordained bhikku, speaks of “nights . . . abused as occasions for indulging in fearful malpractices. They [the dob dob] really seem to be the descendants of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah mentioned in the bible” (
p. 470).
tough looking: Pemba, Young Days in Tibet, pp. 80–81. According to Dreyfus, dob dob are forbidden in the monasteries in exile (Two Hands Clapping, p. 345, n. 25).
7. Boyhood
“death held no fears”: Tsewang Y. Pemba, Young Days in Tibet (London: Jonathan Cape, 1957), pp. 112, 113.
a “raised seat”: The account of Ling Rinpoché is drawn from Dalai Lama, The Life of My Teacher: A Biography of Kyabje Ling Rinpoché (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2017), pp. 147–48, 371, 129, 101, 120.
A relatively recent: I do not remember who told me this story, but I have no difficulty believing it. Georges B. J. Dreyfus, The Sound of Two Hands Clapping: The Education of a Tibetan Buddhist Monk (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), provides the best account of the life and culture of a modern Tibetan monastery.
From your place: Free translation by the author, with acknowledgments to Dr. T. J. Langri.
the hand of a high lama: Melvyn C. Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet: 1913–1951, vol. 1, The Demise of the Lamaist State (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), p. 465. The Dalai Lama is himself an accomplished marksman. In days gone by, he would use an air rifle to scare any cats he caught stalking birds.
After eating: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 1:344.
these rumors: See Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, vol. 1, chap. 9. Further details are supplied in Jamyang Choegyal Kasho, In the Service of the 13th and 14th Dalai Lamas (Frankfurt am Main, Tibethaus Deutschland, 2015), chap. 10.
homosexual relationships: When one is considering the issue of homosexuality within the monasteries, it is important to be clear that traditional Tibetan culture does not recognize homosexuality either as an identity or as a category of human nature. It is only homosexual acts that are acknowledged. Similarly, so far as the vinaya, or code of conduct for monastics, is concerned, only those acts involving penetration are actually considered an infraction of the root vow of chastity. Non-penetrative acts are considered lesser infractions and were generally overlooked. It was by no means unusual for older monks to take younger monks as sexual consorts. But while this was generally consensual it need not imply that the passive partner regarded the activity as anything more than a duty. The authoritative account is in Melvyn C. Goldstein, The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering (London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 28–29. See also Heinrich Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet (London: R. Hart-Davis, 1953), p. 194; and Tashi Khedrup, Adventures of a Tibetan Fighting Monk, ed. Hugh Richardson (Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2003), p. 50.
“the orphan’s box”: Kasho, In the Service, p. 118.
“a very gentle man”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990), p. 19.
dictatorial: See, for example, Thomas Laird, The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama (London: Atlantic, 2006), p. 277. Archibald Steele, In the Kingdom of the Dalai Lama (Sedona, AZ: In Print Publishing, 1993), p. 60, describes him as “a paragon of conservatism.”
“perverted intentions”: The Magical Play of Illusion:The Autobiography ofTrijang Rinpoche, trans. Sharpa Tulku Tenzin Trinley (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018), pp. 100, 114, 91.
“His Holiness seemed”: Trijang, The Magical Play of Illusion, p. 148.
introduced the sport: Basil Gould, Jewel in the Lotus: Recollections of an Indian Political (London: Chatto & Windus, 1957), p. 207.
Thomas Manning: For his remarkable story, see my Secret Lives of the Dalai Lama (New York: Random House, 2008), pp. 318–21.
“immediately impressed”: Ilia Tolstoy, “Across Tibet from India to China,” National Geographic 90, no. 2 (1946): 169–222.
“such a happy time”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 51.
publicly censured: The edict was seen and included in translation by the British mission in its weekly dispatch to India. Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 1:373.
“They came to treat me”: Gyalo Thondup with Anne F. Thurston, The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong: The Untold Story of My Struggle for Tibet (London: Rider, 2015), p. 73. Madam Chiang seems to have been genuinely solicitous of Gyalo Thondup. It was apparently she who, following the death of the yabshi kung, arranged for a private aircraft to fly the brothers’ grandmother and sister to India. See Diki Tsering, The Dalai Lama, My Son: A Mother’s Story (London: Virgin, 2000), p. 127.
8. Trouble in Shangri-La
“When he left”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990), p. 21.
“They were full of fun”: Thomas Laird, The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama (London: Atlantic, 2006), pp. 277, 274.
Arko Lhamo: Laird, The Story of Tibet, p. 278.
“laughed uncontrollably”: The Magical Play of Illusion:The Autobiography ofTrijang Rinpoche, trans. Sharpa Tulku Tenzin Trinley (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018), p. 163.
gave him a warm welcome: Melvyn C. Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet: 1913–1951, vol. 1, The Demise of the Lamaist State (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), pp. 441–42. The abbot eventually returned to Tibet as a collaborator of the Communists.
he would support them: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 1:466.
“misinforming” her son: Diki Tsering, The Dalai Lama, My Son: A Mother’s Story (London: Virgin, 2000), p. 120.
whether or notthe accusation: Jamyang Norbu, for one, disputes it. See his “Shadow Tibet” blog post for June 29, 2016, “Untangling a Mess of Petrified Noodles,” jamyangnorbu.com.
incontrovertible evidence: See the section of a speech where the Dalai Lama mentions Reting Rinpoché at https://www.dalailama.com/messages/dolgyal-shugden/speeches-by-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama/dharamsala-teaching. I discussed the Reting episode at length with H. E. Richardson, British political officer for Tibet at the time, at his home in St. Andrews, Scotland. He admitted that he had absolutely no inkling of what was going on in government circles before the affair erupted.
a horse called Yudrug: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 1:486.
he hesitated: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 1:488.
“At last”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 33.
alert tothe danger: Laird, The Story of Tibet, p. 185.
“like the call”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 1:499.
Around thirty: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 1:505. With respect to the government’s losses, I include the sixteen soldiers subsequently killed at Reting. See also the account in Jamyang Choegyal Kasho, In the Service of the 13th and 14th Dalai Lamas (Frankfurt am Main: Tibethaus Deutschland, 2015), chap. 10.
no room to maneuver: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 1:505. See also Laird, The Story of Tibet, p. 287.
“my position was hopeless”: Laird, The Story of Tibet, p. 287.
“The officials started bullying him”: Laird, The Story of Tibet, p. 279.
his first attempt at driving: The story is charmingly told by the Dalai Lama in Freedom in Exile, pp. 42–43.
9. The Perfection of Wisdom
“did his best”: Dalai Lama, The Life of My Teacher: A Biography of Kyabje Ling Rinpoché (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2017), p. 153. I think it fair to assume that in likening himself to a boat cut adrift, the Dalai Lama has in mind the perils of a Himalayan torrent.
“smiled when asked”: Lowell Thomas, Out of This World (London: Macdonald and Co., 1951), p. 155.
a Catholic missionary: This was Father Maurice Tournay, a Swiss priest later declared Blessed by Pope John Paul II for having died “in odium fidei”—at the hand of one motivated by hatred of the faith. His story is told in Robert Loup, Martyr in Tibet (Philadelphia: D. McKay and Co., 1956). The actual date of his martyrdom was August 11, 1949.
a link between the Nazis: An entertaining account may be found in Mark Hale, Himmler’s Crusade: The True Story of the Nazis’ 1938 Expedition into Ti
bet (London: Bantam Books, 2003).
Schaefer and his men: One of these was Bruno Beger, convicted in 1974 of having helped select a group of Jews whose skulls were to form the basis of a collection designed to show the subhuman characteristics of their possessors. An anthropologist by training, Beger was sentenced to a mere three years in prison, which in fact he never served. He subsequently became a regular, if embarrassing, attendee at Tibet-related events in Germany and abroad. I met him at a luncheon given by the Dalai Lama at London’s five-star Grosvenor House Hotel in 1992. Although this was before the age of Wikipedia, it is nonetheless somewhat surprising that Beger should have been invited. I remember being told that he had been a Nazi, but presumably the details of his service were unknown to the organizers of the event, which was designed to bring together all those surviving Europeans who had visited Tibet prior to 1949. In retrospect, Beger struck me in conversation as both shamefaced about his past and unrepentant. Subsequent research shows him to have been a deeply unpleasant character; see Heather Pringle’s excellent and disturbing book The Master Plan: Himmler’s Scholars and the Holocaust (London: Fourth Estate, 2006), pp. 260–62. Also present at the luncheon was Archie Jack, who as a young man had been a competitor at Hitler’s Olympics and subsequently visited Lhasa. It was Jack who was responsible for setting free the flock of doves that the Führer was to have released at the opening ceremony. Furiously anti-Nazi, he told me later that at dinner with Tsarong Shapé, the Great Thirteenth’s favorite, they had discussed the possibility of assassinating Hitler. Tsarong told him that if he could procure a lock of the German leader’s hair, the matter could easily be arranged by monks adept at black magic.
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