Home > News Archive > Dalai Lama turns 74

Dalai Lama turns 74

By Lobsang Wangyal | Tibet Sun

The Dalai Lama on the first day of Losar, the Tibetan New Year of 2136, in Bylakuppe Tibetan settlement in South India, 25 February 2009. The Dalai Lama, who turns 74 on 6 July 2009, will celebrate his birthday with the former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam and Chief Ministers of all Himalayan States in Delhi.File photo/Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal/India

The Dalai Lama will celebrate his 74th birthday in Delhi on Monday with former President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Chief Ministers of all Himalayan States of India.

The states are Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Several spiritual and religious leaders of the Himalayan region will also join the function.

The event, a tribute of gratitude to the Dalai Lama for being instrumental in benefiting and enriching the people of the Himalayan region, is organised by the Himalayan Buddhist Cultural Association in collaboration with the All Buddhist Organisation of Himalayan Region.

In Dharamshala, the Dalai Lama’s exile home, the Tibetan government-in-exile will organise an official celebration function. Six Australian federal parliamentarians, who are on a six-day tour visiting the Dalai Lama, will be the chief guests.

The local Tibetans and Indians will present cultural dance and music. His last year birthday remained subdued due to unrest in Tibet.

The Dalai Lama fled to India after a failed uprising against the Chinese rule in 1959, nine years after China occupied Tibet.

He has since established the Tibetan government-in-exile, rallying for a “meaningful autonomy.” But China has rejected his overtures, and eights rounds of talks between his envoys and the Chinese government that started in 2002 ended without any breakthrough in November 2008.

The Dalai Lama has said that Tibet has been given a death sentence by the Chinese Government. In his annual Tibetan uprising day speech in March he said China’s rule has turned Tibet in to “hell on earth.”

Due China’s unwillingness to further the process of dialogue to resolve the Tibetan issue, the Dalai Lama said his trust in the Chinese government is getting thinner and thinner, but said he is still confident in the Chinese people.

It is widely believed that China is waiting for the Dalai Lama to pass away, as China thinks that with the passing away of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan issue will also die down. However, even Chinese scholars and activists believe that China’s wait and watch policy will cost China heavily as the Dalai Lama is the key rather than a problem to resolve the Tibetan issue.

China went one step further by meddling in the succession issue of the Dalai Lama, as he ages. They announced that without the approval of the Chinese government Tibetan lamas cannot reincarnate, a practice that has existed in Tibet for centuries without Chinese influence.

This makes it clear that there will be two 15th Dalai Lamas — a Tibetan and a Chinese version — although the Chinese appointed one will not have popular mandate, like in the case of Panchen Lama.

The Dalai Lama in the recent past has made it clear that his reincarnation will be born in a free world, who will carry forward the unfinished task left behind by him.

Although Tibetans believe that there will be a leadership vacuum until the next Dalai Lama attains maturity, but they have set up a system to elect regents who will lead them in the interim.

The Dalai Lama was born in Takser, a small village in north-eastern Amdo province, in 1935. He was accorded the power to rule Tibet when he was 15. In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for a Free Tibet. He has met many world political and religious leaders and pursues a hectic travel schedule.

Published in Tibet Sun