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The Dalai Lama, international pop star

By Roy Strider | Tibet Sun

Roy Strider Photographer unknown

Everything in this world is constantly changing, no doubt about that. There’s nothing strange about change in symbols and their roles over time, either. As a symbol, in less than ten years after his death, the well-known Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara turned from being a famous Marxist fighter into international Capitalist merchandise.

A legend in his lifetime, Che really began to “sell” posthumously, becoming a worldwide pop star. But the Tibetan leader His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama was already born a legend — to be precise, the mythical saga has continued long after his rebirth had been recognised and confirmed.

It’s difficult to say when exactly the transition from being a religious and political symbol to a shining pop star took place for the world’s rooftop legend. Without any special planning, His Holiness’s popularity, as well as ticket sales to his teachings in the West, have surpassed those of many famous Western pop artists for decades now.

In the US, getting tickets to the lectures of His Holiness during his visits is tricky — ticket prices hit record highs. In Switzerland, the media admits that no international pop star’s visit is surrounded by more racket and masses of people than his.

“Simple monk” rocks

Excited comments telling how His Holiness “rocked” in his teachings frequently slip into the media. Recently the Dalai Lama had to answer yellow questions about Tiger Woods’ doings. A “simple monk” according to himself, the Dalai Lama has stepped down to the lowly streets of the world from a cloud-high altar, and turned into a regular person who shares good wit and cool ambience.

Although whichever role of His Holiness as politician, God-King, monk, unwilling (documentary) film star, and the embodiment of compassion and the Tibetans’ hope could outweigh the unbearable lightness of Western pop culture, he has nolens volens become a walking icon of mass culture.

The Dalai Lama’s teachings in the West bear an increasing resemblance to the concerts of a pop star, while his movements in the East tend to be likewise progressively accompanied by the image created by the media and legend. Curiously enough, this attracts Easterners already detached from religion because of the very same Western pop culture.

Regardless of the Buddhist teachers’ warnings against mixing religions, the Buddhism has spread to the West and thrived during the last fifty years, and it travels closer and closer to Westerners with an unusual Tibetan pop star aura. In the East however, the Dalai Lama’s popularity may help counterbalance the growing influence of Western mass culture and lifestyle among young people. Indeed, it does not hurt to be popular in today’s world, because being popular means having influence.

Great, true stars, united by politics, seem to share similar views incredibly often. The Dalai Lama’s agenda fits a notion worded by John F Kennedy: “If we make peaceful revolution impossible, we make violent revolution inevitable.”

And there is nothing new about the “peaceful revolution” of the serious legends via pop culture. In 1965, the famous Playboy magazine interviewed French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, making both him and philosophy more popular at a stroke. This is what eroticism aficionados were told by the interviewee: ”... you are plunged from birth into a situation to which you are obliged to submit. You are born the son of a rich man, or an Algerian, or a doctor, or an American. Then you have a cut-and-dried future mapped out, a future made for you by others. Or take a child who was born in Algeria in 1930 or 1935. He was doomed to an explosion into death and the tortures that were his destiny … [but] you can take action against what people have made of you and transform yourself … It takes a lot to change destiny. That destiny has to be intolerable.” Sounds like the description of Tibet today, doesn’t it?

An interesting picture reveals itself, observing the Dalai Lama and the government of the People’s Republic of China opposing him, fighting in an international market for audience approval in a theoretical space.

Firstly, marketing budgets are different. His Holiness has to make do with income from donations only, and these sums bear no comparison to the budget of China. The Tibetan refugee identity card, “the green card,” obliges all card holders to donate symbolic sums as “voluntary tax” to the government in exile. Add to that fund-raising, donations from foundations, volunteer work, etc. Tibetan refugees produce mostly souvenirs, rugs and other such handicraft that make little profit. China, however, has grown into the second biggest economy after the USA — largely due to the resources of occupied Tibet.

Money cannot buy charisma

The budget of the Tibetan government-in-exile for 2010/2011 is 848 millions Indian rupees, or a little over 18 million USD, and can be compared to the state budgets of tiny islands such as Anguilla, Niue, Nauru and Tuvalu. The state budget of Bhutan, also a small country, is 350 million dollars True, the Tibetan government in exile has no country de facto, but their total budget bears no comparison to the sums spent on the public image of the Chinese government and country. Still, at least in the democratic West, the Dalai Lama is more popular than the authoritarian Reds.

What do Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao discuss on their foreign visits? Economy, budget balance, having faith in the Euro, and capitalist free market economy. A few threats are thrown towards the “dangerous separatist.” Boring! These men could not be pop stars even if they gave their speeches waving guitars, having their hair dyed green and wearing riveted leather jackets! Chinese leaders have no charisma. They are nerds.

The Tibetans have already won the image battle. When the Dalai Lama achieves immortality and the martyr’s halo of a pop icon as he leaves his terrestrial body, Beijing’s cards will be in a bigger disarray than ever. Then, His Holiness’s religious and pop-star image will become a martyr cult.

Persecuting the Tibetans can have unexpected results for China — both the Tibetan nation and their religion can become cults as well! Such cults are no more of a threat to Tibetan Buddhism or the Gelug school than the present interveners, but reactions rising from them could surprise the oppressors. The more persecution and abuse a martyr suffers, the more of a martyr they become.

Largely thanks to the terror from Beijing, the Dalai Lama is a pop star in the West today. And pop culture is as much an essential part of contemporary postmodern Western society as Bön is the foundation of ancient Tibet.

In earlier times, the influence of Buddhism on the West was nearly nonexistent due to its relative seclusion. The occupation of Tibet and protest campaigns on root level brought Buddhist philosophy closer to the Western world, but the Dalai Lama made the ideas of compassion and Buddhist thought popular in the West. China should watch out when the Dalai Lama joins the lines of other dead pop icons like Michael Jackson, Princess Diana, and John Lennon, as well as martyrs like Jesus Christ, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr and John F Kennedy.

Beijing is falsely hoping that after the present Dalai Lama disappears, his charisma, which daily influences millions of people, will too. Unfortunately, the comrades are mistaken!

The Dalai Lama is not The Beatles, gradually disappearing. As sure as the morning sun, he is reborn, and although the exact deeds of his new incarnation are impossible to foresee, his influence in the idolatrous global society of the changing world is.

“What you’re doing today or what you’re planning tomorrow is of much more importance than what you did yesterday,” another star said — Sir Edmund Hillary, the conqueror of Mount Chomolangma.

This is something to think about — can the Chinese government imagine the effect that would accompany the official rebirth of Michael Jackson or Elvis Presley … even more, that of Jesus Christ or Mahathma Gandhi? Probably not, but pop star the Dalai Lama is about to do just the trick!

Copyright © 2010 Roy Strider

Published in Tibet Sun