POLITICS

The Dalai Lama, as a king-in-exile is also making himself quite at home in political circles. Senator Patrick Moynihan's daughter, Maura has consistently fought for the Tibetan refugee program. A racey article on Katmandu's ex-patriot community including Maura and her friend Dr. Ian Baker the tantric Buddhist and explorer for National Geographic was recently highlighted in the "The Last Tango in Kathmandu" (March 2000 Men's Journal). How many times have you seen the same clip of vice-president Gore at the Buddhist temple related to his campaign finance problems on the evening news? It's here and its pervasive.

Who is the ruler of Tibet? He is known by his followers as "Great Precious Conqueror" or "His Holiness." The term Dalai Lama is the Mongolian term meaning "ocean of wisdom" and is used outside of Tibet. Many may know that he was the "God-King" of Tibet which was an independent country before his exile in 1959. After his escape over 1.5 million Tibetans were killed and 7,500 monasteries were destroyed by the Chinese Communists. He now lives in Dharamsala, India where his government in exile and thousands of refugees have resettled. Over 100,000 Tibetans have resettled around the globe in countries e.g., India, Nepal, Switzerland, Canada, United States (16 resettlement sites), New Zealand, etc.

The evidence that the Dalai Lama's life is surrounded with much dangerous controversy within his own camp is noticeable as he has now been assigned an escort from the US Diplomatic Secret Service. Recent threats on his life by Tibetan fundamentalists following the ritualistic assassination of three of his close confidants in Dharamsala ("Murder in a Monastery" -Newsweek, May 5, 1997) have led to an increasingly curious press. Two former German followers of the Dalai Lama, Herbert and Mariana Roettgen who previously published his writings and promoted him in inter-religious dialogue warned Otto Schily of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Germany and others that, 'instead of being the true champion for religious tolerance and co-existence, the Dalai Lama is the leader of a religious system that aims at conquering the world' (The Shadow of the Dalai Lama their latest book is published under the pseudonyms Victor and Victoria Trimondi).

Do we know why the Dalai Lama is in America? Two weeks before we arrived in Washington, D.C. he had already met with Ted Kennedy and Jesse Helms in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Room after the signing of the "Hate Crimes Bill." What goes on behind these closed doors? It is complex and warrants more than a casual glance in light of the tenuous nature of US-China Relations. America's relationship with the Dalai Lama extends back to the fifties when the C.I.A. secretly trained over 300 Tibetan Guerrilla fighters under the auspices of President's Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson in the winter camp in our Colorado Rockies. Their purpose? To assist the Dalai Lama in his escape from Chinese occupied Tibet and also to serve U.S. purposes "as a challenge to China" during the cold war. However, "now that we are courting China," journalist Knaus explains that "The Tibetans became the worthy, but hapless orphans of the cold war. As a Tibetan adage says: When men become desperate, they consult the gods. And when the gods become desperate, they tell lies" (NY Times July 18, 1999- "Mission Impossible: An Account of the C.I.A.'s Secret Operations in Tibet" by Jonathan Mirsky).

It is a curious phenomena in light of our upcoming Presidential elections, when religion is gaining so much currency in the campaign. You may of missed the cartoon in Newsweek by Mike Peters during the visit of Jiang from China which was protested nationally by pockets of Tibetan Buddhist demonstrators. The cartoon shows Jiang pointing at a Buddhist demonstrator holding a sign which reads, "Save Tibet." Jiang says to Clinton, "Can't you do something about these Buddhist demonstrators?" Clinton replies in a whisper, "That's the vice-president." It seems the media will not let Gore live down his "fundraising" trip to Hsi Lai Buddhist temple. Even the local talk show hosts during the Democratic National Convention asked if the vice-president needed any appointments with the local Buddhist monks. Some observers are even asking if there is any truth to the rumor that one of his former staff uttered, "That Gore is a 'crypto(secret)-Buddhist'"?

On the West Coast this summer we met with members from several different denominations and missions who participated in seminars, prayer, and outreach at a variety of locations. In July we led a team to Washington, D.C. who trained and participated with a number of other believers from the East coast to prayerfully address activities at the Smithsonian's Tibetan Folklife Festival.

Southern California's summer schedule was in full bloom with Tibetan Buddhist events which kept the LA Times Teresa Watanabe very busy. While the Tibetan Buddhist World is only the tip of the iceberg and represents only 14 million of the world's 654 million Buddhist followers, it is by far the most visible and vocal. The Free Tibet Movement's "Two marches, One Destination" this summer started out from San Francisco on April 25 and visited numerous campuses and cities along the old California Mission Trail (see photo above). Friends of Tibet began their march from San Diego to the south on June 1 and converged with the northern march on Santa Monica's famous Promenade on June 20. For four days their procession moved across Los Angeles to the Federal Building near UCLA, to the Grauman's Chinese in Hollywood, towards their final demonstration at the Chinese Consulate on Saturday, June 24.

Some of the young Tibetan radicals were disheartened that the Dalai Lama has "sold out" on the cause of a Free and independent Tibet and has settled for mere autonomy. Others were frankly in favor of Most Favored Nation Status for China. It was a mixed crowd with strong opinions on both sides of awarding China Most Favored Nation trading status and a rendezvous point for the Tibetan refugee community of southern California. A Tibetan Nun who had been imprisoned by the Chinese in Tibet and had participated in the march all the way from San Francisco expressed the Tibetan's heart for freedom. Subsequently, American, Taiwanese, and Tibetan freedom fighters gave impassioned speeches while the crowd, held posters and banners protesting human rights violations in Tibet.

Tom Hayden, a Congressman and radical from the sixties was wearing his Buddhist bracelet and ended his talk with a slightly sardonic smile encouraging others, "See you at the Democratic National Convention" (which occurred in August in L.A.). You had to be around in the sixties to get that one! Are we feeling old yet?

The Dalai Lama's speaking engagements attracted far bigger crowds ranging from 5,000 predominantly Vietnamese refugees at Long Beach's Terrace Theater to a keynote seminar at California State University Fullerton on "How to best educate the many ethnically diverse children in America's school systems." I wonder if he mentioned all the innovative educational help and health care that the Christian community provided at that time and to this day to the refugee community? He also gave a repeat performance of his address last October at the City of Pasadena's Distinguished speaker's series on his book Ethics for the New Millennium to 10,000 at the L.A. Sports Arena near USC. The one addition is that he "urged local unity against China" and in fact kicked off a new alliance between Southland Tibetans and Taiwanese" (L.A. Times June 26, 200 Metro section).

Another event in Universal City with the "well heeled Taiwanese-American community" raised an additional $350,000 for the Tibetan refugee community. He also conducted a five day empowerment ceremony at the Sports Arena and sandwiched in a blessing of a permanent three dimensional Mandala at Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park attended by Richard Gere and Sharon Stone. And this was just on the West Coast. (A mandala is a physical representation of the cosmological scheme of the Buddhist universe and home to deities invited in to inhabit it. This is a permanent structure while sand mandala's are temporary).