Lobsang Wangyal
McLEOD GANJ, India, 3 December 2019
The words unity, responsibility, dedication are mantras recited by those holding high positions, irrespective of whether they practice these values themselves in Tibetan society. Then there are others, who don’t say these words, but by their own initiative try to do whatever they can for society. One way they do for society is with all kinds of events — social, religious, environmental, commercial — which are produced throughout the year in McLeod Ganj, the heart of the exile Tibetan movement.
Perhaps due to the pleasant autumn weather, October is a particularly busy month, to the point that events even overlap. (It seems that event organisers don’t always check to see if other events have already announced their timing.)
When trying to organise events, reality hits: Useless rules, arbitrary decisions, discrimination, and misuse of power. Dealing with these injustices, one feels like our oppressor is not somewhere else but is among ourselves. It feels like: Forget China, first we need to sort ourselves out. The purpose of this piece is to tell you about an example of this.
Various events are planned by organisations as well as individuals, but venues are not easy to find in McLeod Ganj. For people to be able to easily attend, many of these events need to be held right in McLeod Ganj, rather than in the outskirts such as at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts.
One venue that is centrally located, and of appropriate size for many of the events, is the TCV Day School in the middle of McLeod Ganj. It has a hall as well as a courtyard. The hall has a stage with enough room for the size of events that most NGOs or individuals organise. It doesn’t have sound, lighting, or screening facilities though. The courtyard is similarly good for many events. This hall was built by the Tibetan Parents Association of McLeod Ganj, with the majority of the funds contributed by the Dalai Lama’s office. Most events are put on there after school hours, or on holidays, thereby not disturbing children’s education at all.
However, the authorities at the head office of all TCV schools near McLeod Ganj decided a few years ago not to let the Day School facilities out for public use, causing a major problem for all the NGOs and individuals.
It is said that Lukar Jam, in a speech at the Day School venue while campaigning for the post of Sikyong in 2016, made a passing remark on the Dalai Lama’s softening approach towards China, and since then the school authorities stopped letting the school be used for public events. Soon afterwards, Lukar Jam was denied permission to use the TCV college hostel in Bangalore.
Whatever Lukar Jam says will be his responsibility. Nobody criticised TCV for letting the space to him. Even if somebody criticises anyone within the premises of a TCV school, it will be that person’s responsibility. TCV doesn’t have to take the responsibility for that person’s views. Why would TCV try to stop anybody from speaking their mind anyway?
I have also used the TCV Day School for some of my own productions over the years. I have organised the Free Spirit Film Festival and Sing for Tibet at this venue, with all the dues cleared on time. But for the last few years, I have not been allowed to hold any event there. Ditto for the NGOs.
I have been hoping the situation will change, and kept going yearly to the TCV head office to request the venue for the film festival. I also requested the venue for the Miss Himalaya Pageant, a social, cultural, and educational event for the empowerment of young women from the Himalayan region. I had been particularly hopeful because the biggest film festival in the area had been organised at the main TCV School for three consecutive years, all the while we (NGOs and individuals) were being denied permission to use the TCV Day School in McLeod Ganj.
The big film festival organisers had everything at their disposal, using the TCV main hall as well as the grounds, even during school hours, and students were called to watch films.
I never brought up this problem with the school authorities because I am neither jealous nor do I feel any sense of competition with them. If theirs is going on well, so be it. I like that.
Last year, another film festival was given the Day School venue, but I was still refused. I didn’t complain because, again, if that festival is successful, I am happy.
This year, when I requested the Day School venue for my events, the President of TCV School refused as before, saying that it’s a “school environment,” and that the Board of Directors of the school had decided not to let the venue for public use.
Really?
Now answer this: What happened to that decision when others were allowed to use those venues?
These venues are not private property, that they can decide who could use them or not according to their whims and fancies. Its only because I am a commoner that they can discriminate like that. I don’t see any other reason. If we are to accept such injustice and discrimination, why not just accept that of the Chinese government as well? Why waste time and energy organising anti-China protests?
The purpose of this piece is not to make an issue about those who got the venue, but rather to say that the decision to not allow use of the Day School venue is not sensible at all. Such a decision seems to be nothing but a reflection of their incompetence and irresponsibility. What else is there to justify these illogical decisions on use of the venue? None of the events come in the way of children’s education, or anything like that.
An explanation is looked forward to, as to why the decision to not let the TCV Day School venue is good, or, what necessitated the authorities to make such a decision.
Its time for better sense to prevail, for the authorities to be competent, responsible, and practice all those flowery words — unity, responsibility, dedication for a better Tibetan society. Strive to make real those words emblazoned in bold at the main TCV School “Come to Learn, Go to Serve”.
About the author
Lobsang Wangyal lives in McLeod Ganj, India, and edits the Tibet Sun website.
With much respect and reverence to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, I hate to say this but the fact is that the Dalai Lama family tree’s influence is palpable. Filmmakers like Tenzing Sonam are sure to have easy access to such a venue, where for others, it is not that easy.
And being an ex-TCV student, what I am today is all because of this institute, but because of actions of a few staff members in power at the school, it is making me hate this very institute that made me what I am today.
Thanks Wangyal la for sharing your hard experiences and pointing out the useless rules TCV officials have made. If you look closer at TCV school, it’s crumbling down. There’s not much hope with the current administration.
I am aware of the hardships faced by people in McLeod Ganj to organize events. TCV Day School is a good venue — it’s central and easy go to. The officials need to change such useless rules, and let people use the venue as long as it’s not disturbing the education of the students.
It is not a good argument to say why not go to CTA and ask their new hall. First it’s way out that nobody will go there, and second, TCV Day School is not comparable to CTA.
Never give up. Keep the faith and change will come!
Bod Gyalo
This is really injustice. TCV is for all Tibetans.
You are true! There are some fraud who run to Chinese embassy in the morning raising slogans demanding values like freedom, justices and democracy from China, and in the evening comes back home and oppresses the same freedom and justice that the fellow countrymen are enjoying in host democratic countries!
With full appreciation of various initiatives taken by Lobsang Wangyal la, I don’t agree with the title of the article he has written here. Just because he or other NGOs weren’t allowed to use the premise of TCV Day school for different fund raising events doesn’t merit comparison to the inhuman treatment of Tibetans in Tibet. TCV Day School is not a public property and it is their prerogative whether they wish to allow the use of their premise or not. They don’t have to justify why NGO A is allowed while NGO B is denied the permission to use their premise. TCV has done enormous service to the cause of the Tibetans in exile and to compare this single act of theirs with communist Chinese is highly condemnable. CTA has built a massive hall in Gangchen Kyishong. Try asking them to allow you to use the hall because that is more of a public property than TCV Day School.
Judging from far away and for a long time, Lobsang Wangyal’s ventures have been some what controversial, but by and large he did all those for the benefit of the Tibetan community. Since he is doing all his programs for the betterment of Tibetan community, I don’t see any reason not to rent him common community halls unless it disrupts school activities.
By watching him publish some negative comments on himself in this site, I see him as a fair and honest minded person.
By and large he is an asset to our Tibetan community and would not do any harm to it. Hope Tibetans would support his activities, and particularly Tibetan residents in Dharamshala.
Maybe it is time to start a ‘Lobsang Wangyal Appreciation Society’.
One may not agree with the nature of all of his projects and ventures, but the balance is definitely positive. He does a lot of work for the Tibetan cause all of which is very labour-intensive.
There are easier ways to make money. Why should he not pay himself a salary? He needs food and a roof over his head and he has bills to pay just like everybody else.
The author is a well-known promoter of events within the Tibetan community. Whether he does those for the community or for his personal gains is nobody’s business. A couple of years back he clearly said he made enough money and was willing to pass on his event Miss Tibet to any taker. Organizing such events is a personal choice. There’s no point in blaming him or organizers of such events.
If there’s any truth in LW’s alleged accusation of TCV favouring others, then that’s a valid argument of discrimination. An explanation from TCV would be important to his charges as the matter is now public.
I have seen the NGOs in McLeod Ganj run from pillar to post to find a venue to organize their events after TCV stopped letting them use the Day School. I am for change in the stand by TCV to let people use the space in the interest of the community as long as the usage doesn’t disrupt children’s education.
In July while I was in Dharamshala meeting people I hadn’t seen in 40 years, one ex-official tried to build himself up and put down others by saying:
“There were some funds missing in our office’s budget; I consulted the Gangchen Kyishong lady oracle and also consulted HH the Dalai Lama; after checking the books the funds had not been lost but moved to the Tibetan Library.”
He was very proud of his accomplishment and boasted to Tenpa La.
I thought: instead of blaming low-level employees why not say: the buck stops here.
Why not institute best practices and mission statements so that we do not have to resort to mumbo jumbo?
But knowing how high Tibetan officials — with notable exceptions like the Tethongs and Tenpa La — are better at saying NO than empowering people, I held my peace.
Ordinary people with ordinary things that make life bearable and meaningful — too many people are wedded to the old philosophy of defaulting to “NO’.
When Tibet was independent, it was suggested to Tibetan government officials that they write to National Geographic Magazine saying Tibet is independent.
Tibetan government official response: No! we do not have to state the obvious!
Respect for ordinary people’s simple pursuits that make life bearable: HH the Dalai Lama understands human frailties and joys but not our institutions stuck in red tape and power play.
TCV should treat everyone equally. They should shed their biases for social good. In any case these schools will soon be shut because of the drastic fall in numbers of our brethren coming out of Tibet.
What’s the harm in letting out this hall? All major schools in Delhi and Dehradun let their premises be used for all kinds of events, if they don’t disturb the school’s schedules.
TCV is also like a fiefdom of a few.
I think Tibetans in many ways are narrow-minded even after 60 long years of living in open democratic countries. Bad habits die hard indeed. When someone is innovative and uses their talent in bringing about change and diversify the community and its outlook according to the changing times, there is always resistance.
What happened to Tibet was, it never changed according to the outside world and ossified itself when predators like communist China invaded and took over. In exile, the mentality hasn’t changed much. Whether it’s Buddhist monks visiting the West with their monk dances, or Buddhist teachers bringing the Dharma to the West, or ordinary Tibetans collecting donations to help Tibetans in India/Nepal/Bhutan, they are often blamed as being for ones personal gain.
I am not surprised the author is blamed for the same. It seems to be a Tibetan trademark to have this kind of mentality. The fact is everybody is entitled to do what they can, and if it can benefit oneself and others along the way, why should this be a problem? Who in this world, including nations, doesn’t work for their own self-interest? India’s generous attitude to Tibetans in India and the US government giving money for Tibetan refugees are not charities. There is politics behind it where self-interest is involved.
All human actions ARE DRIVEN BY SELF INTEREST! Buddhists call it རང་གཅེས་འཛིན་ If we were Bodhisattvas བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ we would not be roaming around in samsara འཁོར་བ་
The respected people in Dharamshala should consider to have a wider vision of fellow Tibetans and help each other rather than pull each other down. If your attitude is རང་རྒྱལ་གཞན་ཕམ་ you have wasted all your effort of listening to HH’s teaching of སྡུག་བསྔལ་མ་ལུས་བདག་བདེ་འདོད་ལས་བྱུང་། རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་གཞན་ཕན་སེམས་ལས་འཁྲུངས།
The reason for your denial is simple that you and your shows or events are not worth because you are using Tibetan cause for your personal gain.
So don’t blame specially institutions, alright?
They have rules and regulations that they follow.