6^th July is the official birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama referred to as Kundun, by Tibetans. The Mega celebration of the 80th birthday already begun and continues right across the continents in different forms including offering long life prayers ‘Tenshug’ both by Tibetans and non Tibetans.  The Himalayan Buddhist Culture Association, representing people from different Himalayan regions will offer Tenshug on 20^th July in Dharamsla. This year, during one of the Tenshug ceremony in Dharamsala, Kundun again re-confirmed that he will live another 20 plus years, which is great news for his followers.

On March 16th, 2011, Dharamsala, after his morning sermon to Buddhists from Thailand, China, South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma, Kundun granted an hour long interview to Suthichai Yoon and said  “Forty years ago there, I was predicted to live to 113. One Tibetan writing dating back 100 years describes a person in today’s world who will live through 113 years. That person is thought to be me because I share his qualities. In my dreams, I am 113 years old. I’m quite sure of my age. You can extend your life. I’ll live long enough to see a free Tibet in my lifetime. If I’m still alive then, I’ll choose the next Dalai Lama on my own.”

Can Communist party of China survive another 30-35 years to continue to stop Kundun from visiting China and Tibet?  This is a real challenge to the Communist leadership. China today is considered a middle-income country, and its rapid growth over the decades has pulled hundreds of millions of its citizens out of poverty which also means from Communism to their traditional root, Buddhism.  These days already 80% to 90% of Chinese identify with Buddhism as one of the several faith traditions they observe. Some recent studies indicate that as much as 98% of Chinese consider themselves as Buddhists, but indicate that they also subscribe to several other Chinese spiritual traditions.

Irrespective of whether China wants or not, Kundun will reincarnate and China has to wait. It will be too naive to think that Chinese Communist autocracy will survive the winds of democracy that long.   Nowhere in the world Leninist had party retained its power after the economy ceased to be state-directed. One of the greatest spectacles that the world will witness, sooner or later,  be when Kundun actually sets foot on the Chinese soil and meets one billion( 1,70,893,447) Buddhists in China including 6 million Tibetans. This then will be the real greatest show on earth, the “Brilliant Civilization” and “Glorious Era” a slogan, used during the 2008 Beijing Olympic celebration. Buddhist philosophy of impermanence is an eternal truth and cannot be wished away however powerful one may be. Who would have thought, 30 years ago, that we’d only be talking about five states that have any official adherence to communism? Who would have thought, 30 years ago, that China will take trade and commerce to the world outside and not Marxism? — it’s all happened so very, very quickly.

The visit to Kumbhmela by Kundun in 2001  in a way was the beginning of coming together of the India’s two great indigenous spiritual traditions so that both Buddhism and Hinduism can flourish side by side in the land of its birth. In fact during the Kumbhmela, according to sources, for the first time in the history of Hinduism three Shankracharyas met physically for they all came to see Kundun. Following that visit there are regular interactions in private and publicly sharing the platform with many respected Hindu spiritual leaders such as Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji , Swami Prakasananda of Sree Narayan Dharma Sanghom trust, Dada J.P,Vaswani and paying respect to 105 year old Swami Shivakumara ji and many other spiritual masters. Never before, in the history of Buddhism such gatherings happened.

Bringing out Nalanda tradition of Buddhism from the cocoons of the four walls of the Tibetan monasteries and initiating a dialogue with cognitive scientists of the west in 1987, was a major challenge especially when religion itself then was branded by some westerner as unscientific and by communists as poison.  While both the wisdom of Buddha and science aspire to understand the true reality of nature, the former believes in training of mind and the later believes in providing mankind with material comfort. After 28 years of constant engagement and discussions with physicists, psychologists, brain scientists and clinicians, and philosophers, today Buddhism is getting accepted, the world over, as the way of life of intelligent people in the third millennium. Today both Buddhist and scientist believe that their knowledge is necessary for the wellbeing of human being.  Kundun brought them together.

As a political leader of Tibetan people, when Kundun came to exile, one of the first things he did was to unite the people three regions of Tibet. The inconvenient truth is that prior to the occupation of Tibet by China in 1949, Tibet was not a united country. Some writers make a difference between the political Tibet ( today’s so called TAR) being the area under administration of the Gaden Phodrang  and ethnographic Tibet consisting of the areas of frontier  between China and Tibet , the east side of Drichu river, dominated by chieftains and warlords, sometimes in a zone of conflicting interests.

On 3rd February 1960, high ranking personnel and spiritual masters from across the Tibetan areas, civil servants of the Tibetan government and leaders of Chushi Gangdruk who had fled into exile assembled at Bodh Gaya, India and took the Oath of Allegiance called “Na-gan Thuwoche” affirming the unity of all the Tibetans under the leadership of Kundun. This was historic moment and today’s spirit of Middle way approach policy of the exile administration is a reflection of that affirmation and the pragmatic policy. The Middle way approach towards dealing with Tibet’s issue has brought the Chinese and the Tibetan people closer and put the CPC rulers on the defensive side.

Another inconvenient truth, prior to the occupation of Tibet by China, was the factionalism between different schools of Buddhism. Kundun’s singular effort to bring all the schools of Buddhism together including pre Buddhist tradition of Bonpo is a historic achievement.  The 12^th Conference of all the heads of Tibetan Buddhism including Bonpo, held in Dharamsala, this year, with great success is a living testimony of this century. The unanimous condemnation of the Dogyal worship, often seen leading anti Dalai Lama protests in the west, as a main cause of disunity amongst the Tibetan Buddhism, by all the heads of the Tibetan Buddhism, during the 12^th Conference is a historic step.  

Sidhartha Gautama Buddha, in his lifetime extended his influence within the four kingdoms of  Kapilavastu, Magadha, Vesali and Kosala and Guru Padmasambhava, the second Buddha, as is generally known in Tibetan Buddhism, extended his influence within borders of northern India, then kingdoms of Sikkim, Nepal and Tibet and today’s kingdom of Bhutan. There are number of holy site historically connected with Guru Rinpoche throughout the Himalayan region including several here in Sikkim.  Occupation of Tibet by China has created Kundun a global leader with influences in 65 countries and awarded with honorary doctorate from almost all the major universities, citizenship and peace awards totaling to about 153 numbers from the first ‘Doctor of letter ‘by the Banaras Hindu University in 1957 to ‘Doctor Honoris Causa Mongolian Academy of Science in March 25, 2015 and the traditions of honoring Kundun has not stopped. Kundun will soon set a new world record in the Guinness world book for highest number of awards/honors received by an individual in his life time, if he has not already set so. His influence transcends all geographical borders and is today the true messenger of Buddha, a living Buddha, a ‘Yug Purush’ of this millennium.