The Dalai Lama

by Alexander Norman

  an unambiguous link: See a useful article by Kalachakra scholar Alexander Berzin at https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/history-culture/shambhala/the-nazi-connection-with-shambhala-and-tibet.

  “seemed less like”: Heinrich Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet (London: R. Hart-Davis, 1953), p. 248. The book was a huge best-seller when first published and has been continuously in print ever since. Harrer was modest and generous enough to point out that it was vastly more successful in English than in any other of the more than fifty languages into which it was translated, a success he attributed to his translator, Richard Graves—brother of the poet Robert Graves. It is certainly true that Return to Tibet, the book he published three decades later, reads as if written by somebody else entirely, and with greatly inferior literary talent.

  “He seemed to me”: Harrer, Seven Years, p. 249. Harrer was of humble background. Although he was university educated himself, his father had been a postal worker. I met Harrer on a number of occasions. Though well into his eighties by then, he was still full of life and interested in all matters Tibetan and struck me as down-to-earth and affable, just as the Dalai Lama describes him.

  “the utmost trouble”: Harrer, Seven Years, p. 249.

  “he came running”: Harrer, Seven Years, p. 257.

  caused him to change his mind: This is the opinion expressed by Messner, the great Italian mountaineer, who knew Harrer. In an interview with Die Welt, he speaks of how Harrer’s conduct after the war was quite different from his conduct before the war. See https://www.welt.de/print-welt/article189698/Einer-der-Zaehesten-seiner-Generation.html.

  the romantic strain in fascist ideology: See Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity (New York: NYU Press, 2001), p. 4.

  “elegant Tibetan characters”: Harrer, Seven Years, pp. 253, 258.

  mechanical devices: Harrer, Seven Years. p. 249.

  “did not know”: Harrer, Seven Years, pp. 253, 258.

  “convinced that by virtue”: Harrer, Seven Years, p. 255.

  10. “Shit on their picnic!”

  “double-edged steel”: The Magical Play of Illusion: The Autobiography ofTrijang Rinpoche, trans. Sharpa Tulku Tenzin Trinley (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018), pp. 187–88. A highly placed source assures me that these “support substances” would have been actual rather than merely symbolic.

  “the honourable”: India Office Records quoted in 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. 624.

  “in order that”: There are various translations. The earliest known is into Russian, dating from 1827; the earliest in English dates from 1880 (that of S. W. Bushell in The Early History of Tibet from Chinese Sources).

  “approached the microphone reverently”: Robert Ford, Captured in Tibet (London: G. Harrap and Co., 1957), p. 64.

  “thirty or forty” dull explosions: See Heinrich Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet (London: R. Hart-Davis, 1953), p. 259; Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990), p. 55.

  “blazing summer weather”: Harrer, Seven Years, p. 260.

  “Give the Dalai Lama”: Harrer, Seven Years, p. 263.

  “Right now”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 1:692.

  “people . . . running”: Ford, Captured, p. 127.

  charged with being a British spy: All quotations are drawn from his obituary in the Daily Telegraph, October 6, 2016; but see also his memoir Captured in Tibet (London: G. Harrap and Co., 1957).

  “If you don’t make good offerings”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 1:705.

  For as long: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 314.

  a famous oracle: The story of how the oracle was (quite recently) identified is instructive. The phenomenon of people—not just monks—falling into a trance during religious ceremonies is common, but not all of them communicate intelligibly. I recall hearing someone do so during a dawn ceremony on the roof of the Tsuglhakang in Dharamsala. It sounded like the hoarse barking of a fox. Nor is it the case that when they do communicate intelligibly they are channeling anyone important. It could be just a ghost impersonating one of the protector deities. In the case of the Dungkhar oracle, it is said that a pilgrim who had traveled all the way from Mongolia asked for admittance at the monastery but was refused. Not only was he thrown out by one monk, but also he was abused and beaten by four others from whom he implored help. At this he left, uttering a curse that the five monks who had ill-treated him would all be dead within a year. Sure enough this came to pass, but not before another monk had fallen into a trance and begun “to jump about, beating his breast and making weird noises through clenched teeth.” It was not until the five were dead that the deity could be understood. It turned out to be the spirit of the Mongolian pilgrim, through which no fewer than six different deities subsequently manifested. See Tsewang Y. Pemba, Young Days in Tibet (London: Jonathan Cape, 1957), p. 40.

  the end of their natural life: The Second Dalai Lama’s mother, Ma Cig Kinga, a famous renunciate, is an example. He kept her skull for use as a ritual chalice. See Alexander Norman, Secret Lives of the Dalai Lama (New York: Random House, 2008), p. 173.

  “followed its normal course”: Harrer, Seven Years, p. 275.

  “You are not allowed”: Adapted from Melvyn C. Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet, vol. 2, The Calm Before the Storm, 1951–1955 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), p. 182.

  “ever filled a man’s belly”: Thubten Jigme Norbu, Tibet Is My Country (London: Rupert Hart Davis, 1960), p. 211.

  bandits: Almost every European traveler mentions these, but so too does Dr. Pemba; see Young Days in Tibet, p. 51.

  “petty injustices”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 64.

  “It was heartbreaking”: Trijang, Magical Play, p. 181.

  Dungkar Monastery: When Archie Jack visited the monastery en route to Gyantse and then Lhasa just over a decade earlier, it had left a poor impression: “The monks were suspicious, filthy dirty (many of the young boys covered in large running sores). No photographs could be taken and altogether one had a very unpleasant, unclean, nauseating feeling on emerging from the place.” Archibald Jack, unpublished Tibet journal, Royal Geographical Society, London. Against this, traveling the same route, Robert Byron, his near contemporary, wrote in his First Russia, Then Tibet (London: Macmillan, 1933), p. 206, that “from the monks we received nothing but hospitality and smiles,” although it is clear that Byron did not actually visit Dungkar Monastery itself.

  horribly disfigured: Pemba, Young Days in Tibet, p. 58.

  “usual routine”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 65.

  tantras are considered: The tantras are also associated with a system of sexual practices, their centrality to the tradition attested in the frequent depictions of the protectors united in sexual congress with a consort. Unsurprisingly, these practices are the source of much misunderstanding, but it is important to acknowledge that the Dalai Lama asserts their validity, going so far as to say that undertaking them physically during at least one lifetime is necessary for Enlightenment. Within the Gelug tradition generally, however, the practices are confined to the mental, not the physical plane.

  The theory behind the sexual practices owes much to how the human being is conceived in relation to the cosmos. The tantras envisage a correspondence between the two such that the mind-body composite is in fact a microcosm of the universe itself. And just as the sun and the moon, the planets and the stars are held aloft by cosmic winds, so too the mind is held to be sustained by infinitesimally subtle internal winds that pass along the body’s “wind channels.” These winds are held to carry “drops” or seeds of potential, which, correctly utilized, enable the practitioner to have direct experience of non-duality. This in itself is an essential preparation for the ultimate attainment of full Enlightenment. />
  In mundane terms, what is required for the sexual practices actually to contribute toward the individual’s spiritual progress is that one be able to engage in the most advanced meditative techniques. Without such ability, it will not be possible to exercise the necessary control over the body. It is not enough for the male merely to be able to prevent the release of seminal fluid, nor for the female to be able to control her climax. To obtain the highest spiritual insights, the practitioner must be in full control of the subtlest energies that are activated during sexual congress. Of the males, it is said that the most accomplished are able actually to reverse the flow of semen from the tip of the sex organ and withdraw it back down the shaft.

  For an account by June Campbell of her experiences as a consort, see Traveller in Space: Gender, Identity and Tibetan Buddhism (London: Athlone, 1996). From Campbell’s perspective, her relationship with Kalu Rinpoché, the Kagyu master, was ultimately exploitative. It is remarkable to learn that Kalu Rinpiche’s reincarnation reports that he himself was sexually abused when a minor.

  the kiss of a beautiful woman: John Crook and James Low, The Yogins of Ladakh: A Pilgrimage Among the Hermits of the Buddhist Himalayas (1997; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2012), p. 279.

  “that if they were so arrogant”: Rinchen Sadutshang, A Life Unforeseen: A Memoir of Service to Tibet (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2016), p. 144.

  in radio contact: Sadutshang, A Life Unforeseen, p. 145.

  “so great and powerful”: Gyalo Thondup with Anne F. Thurston, The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong: The Untold Story of My Struggle for Tibet (London: Rider, 2015), p. 146.

  “three men”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 72.

  11. Into the Dragon’s Lair

  “many present”: Dalai Lama, The Life of My Teacher: A Biography of Kyabje Ling Rinpoché (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2017), p. 163.

  human flesh eaters: Melvyn C. Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet, vol. 2, The Calm Before the Storm, 1951–1955 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), p. 206.

  “in a short time”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 2:206.

  “willing to help”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 2:149.

  “challenged and confronted”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 2:188 (quoting Lhalu), 181.

  “grand salvation”: 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. 684.

  unwilling to allow: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990), p. 84.

  “the Dalai Lama belongs”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 2:442.

  “if you take away the pastures”: Jianglin Li, Tibet in Agony: Lhasa, 1959 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2016), p. 73.

  hold off: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 2:370.

  “an ocean fraught”: Dalai Lama, Kalachakra Tantra: Rite of Initiation, trans., ed., and with an introduction by Geoffrey Hopkins, enlarged ed. (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 1999), p. 178.

  “lotus”: Dalai Lama, Kalachakra Tantra, p. 95.

  “When we passed fourteen”: Mary Craig, Kundun: A Biography of the Family of the Dalai Lama (London: HarperCollins, 1997), pp. 184–85.

  social convention: Jamyang Choegyal Kasho, In the Service of the 13th and 14th Dalai Lamas (Frankfurt am Main, Tibethaus Deutschland, 2015), p. 193.

  “The aeroplane”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 2:482.

  “shabby tents”: Trijang, Magical Play, p. 204.

  spittle-smeared: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 93.

  “Brahmins, outcasts and pigs”: Trijang, Magical Play, p. 318.

  “The craft”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, p. 94.

  taken to a house: Diki Tsering, The Dalai Lama, My Son: A Mother’s Story (London: Virgin, 2000), p. 140.

  “required to attend”: Diki Tsering, The Dalai Lama, My Son, p. 140.

  the hypocrisy he witnessed: Melvyn C. Goldstein, Dawei Sherap, and William R. Siebenschuh, A Tibetan Revolutionary: The Political Life and Times of Bapa Phüntso Wangye (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), pp. 53, 90.

  “elegantly dressed”: Goldstein, Sherap, and Siebenschuh, A Tibetan Revolutionary, p. 72.

  “anyone who couldn’t pay”: Goldstein, Sherap, and Siebenschuh, A Tibetan Revolutionary, pp. 72, 55.

  “act like the great leader”: Goldstein, Sherap, and Siebenschuh, A Tibetan Revolutionary, p. 191.

  “one of the main fabrications”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 2:494–95.

  “when dealing with”: https://www.dalailama.com/messages/dolgyal-shugden/speeches-by-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama/dharamsala-teaching (accessed March 21, 2019).

  “not to let the lamas dance”: Goldstein, Sherap, and Siebenschuh, ATibetan Revolutionary, p. 191.

  “extremely alert”: Goldstein, Sherap, and Siebenschuh, ATibetan Revolutionary, p. 191.

  “Meeting often”: Goldstein, Sherap, and Siebenschuh, ATibetan Revolutionary, pp. 191, 193.

  “silly. Wasteful”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 2:504.

  “extremely interested”: Goldstein, Sherap, and Siebenschuh, ATibetan Revolutionary, p. 192.

  film footage: It is easily found on YouTube; see www.youtube.com.

  “eager to learn”: Goldstein, Sherap, and Siebenschuh, ATibetan Revolutionary, p. 192.

  “From morning till evening”: Diki Tsering, The Dalai Lama, My Son, p. 140.

  “I could plainly read”: Rinchen Sadutshang, A Life Unforeseen: A Memoir of Service to Tibet (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2016), p. 180.

  bag of tsampa: Sadutshang, A Life Unforeseen, p. 182.

  “with a mischievous expression”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, pp. 107, 108.

  12. The Land of the Gods

  “had become wretched”: Diki Tsering, The Dalai Lama, My Son: A Mother’s Story (London: Virgin, 2000), p. 145.

  June 30, 1955: Several different dates have been proposed for the Dalai Lama’s homecoming. I use the one he himself gives in The Life of My Teacher: A Biography of Kyabje Ling Rinpoché (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2017), p. 191.

  “miraculous iron pills”: The Magical Play of Illusion:The Autobiography ofTrijang Rinpoche, trans. Sharpa Tulku Tenzin Trinley (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018), pp. 336, 343.

  “lord”: Melvyn C. Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet, vol. 3, The Storm Clouds Descend, 1955–1957 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), p. 31.

  news started: Rinchen Sadutshang, A Life Unforeseen: A Memoir of Service to Tibet (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2016), p. 189.

  “liberation, Tibet could see”: Alan Winnington, Tibet: Record of a Journey (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1957), p. 132.

  “harboured a low opinion”: Trijang, Magical Play, p. 340.

  “even the insects”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 3:71–72.

  the all-powerful British: While there was undoubtedly much to draw inspiration from, remarkably, the British population of India, including wives, children, and traders, along with government and military personnel, was only around 150,000 at the end of the nineteenth century, while the general population approached 300 million. The British population may have increased somewhat during the early twentieth century, but it seems never to have risen above 250,000. See, e.g., https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/15298/how-many-britons-lived-in-india-during-the-british-raj-1858-1947. The skill of the British had been to flatter the Indian princes and play the different states off against one another with minimal effort on their part. The other crucial ingredient for Mahatma Gandhi’s success was, arguably, the conquerors’ residual allegiance to the teachings of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, which the Mahatma had made central to his political philosophy.

  “On this matter”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 3:95.

  the nomad chieftain: The chieftain’s na
me was Yoenrupoen. See Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 3:133ff.

  “If someone supported the CCP”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 3:139.

  “stabbed to death”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 3:230.

  correct motivation: There are other supports for compassionately motivated violence; see, for example, Jacob Dalton, Taming the Demons (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011).

  “where the motive is good”: Roger Hicks and Chogyam Ngakpa, Great Ocean, an Authorised Biography: The Dalai Lama (Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element Books, 1984), p. 162.

  “the Tibetans were going out”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 3:234.

  the damage: Incorrectly, it was inferred that this had been inflicted by the bombers, mentioned in the article accompanying the photograph. This was further conflated with rumors (which turned out to be true) that Batang Monastery had also been bombed. Melvyn C. Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet, vol. 2, The Calm Before the Storm, 1951–1955 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), p. 238.

  “I cried”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990), p. 121.

  “How are Tibetans”: Dalai Lama, Freedom in Exile, pp. 121–22.

  “filled with awe”: Sadutshang, A Life Unforeseen, p. 159.

  “anxious to leave”: John Kenneth Knaus, Orphansof the Cold War:America and the Tibetan Struggle for Survival (New York: PublicAffairs, 1999), p. 131.

  no attempt had been made: See the description in Trijang, Magical Play, p. 351.

  “It must be anticipated”: Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 3:338–39.