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Dalai Lama

The Great Dalai Lama, Unchangeable, Holder of the Thunderbolt, in the line of Victory and Power. The title Dalai Lama (or more properly Ta-le Lama), being of Mongolian origin, was used mainly by Chinese and Mongols. The Tibetans know him rather as Kyam-gön Rimpo-che, 'The Precious Protector'; Gye-wa Rim-po-che, ‘The Precious Sovereign’; Buk, ' The Inmost One'; Kyam-gön Buk, ‘The Inmost Protector'; Lama Pön-po, ‘The Priest Officer'; sometimes also as “The All-Knowing Presence', and often just simply as 'The Presence', Kün-dün.

The Dalai Lamas are believed by Tibetan Buddhists to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the patron saint of Tibet. Bodhisattvas are realized beings, inspired by the wish to attain complete enlightenment, who have vowed to be reborn in the world to help all living beings.

The reincarnation of the living Buddhas initially appeared to settle the problem of the succession of leaders of Tibetan Buddhist sects. In old Tibet, which adopted a "theocratic" system, the Tibetan people who believed in Buddhism obeyed religious leaders. Due to the prominent and leading role of the influential living Buddhas, various political and religious forces in Tibetan society vied for dominant power and control over the reincarnation of the living Buddhas.

The Dalai Lama was regarded by Tibetans as a Bodhisatwa, i.e. one who has attained the right to Nirvana, but consents to be reborn for the spiritual benefit of his fellow-creatures. In almost every Asiatic country which had a spiritual ruler, the latter had been the object of veneration, but had not been allowed to exercise power and had been frequently kept more or less as a prisoner in his palace. The actual power had been wielded by a Minister, and had frequently been hereditary in the Minister's family. Even in Bhutan, a country adjoining Tibet and inhabited by men of Tibetan stock, the spiritual ruler, or Shab-tung Rim-po-ché, known to Europeans and Indians as the Dharma Raja, did not govern. The duty of government was deputed to the Desi or Deb Raja, who was also a priest, and who in latter years had himself ceased to govern. The real power has lain for at least fifty or sixty years with the Penlop (Chief) of the Tongsa district, which covered the eastern half of Bhutan. Thus in a country akin to Tibet in race, religion, and language, the actual power lay for many years not even with the second, but with the third man in the kingdom.

But Tibet had at times proved an exception to this almost universal rule. Since the time of the fifth Dalai Lama, i. e. from 1641, the Dalais, when they succeeded in attaining their majority, have at times ruled in fact as well as in name. A notable instance of this was the great fifth Dalai Lama, who himself conducted the administration for several years before placing it in the capable hands of his chief Minister, Sang-gye Gyatso. But the most striking example of all is the present God-king, who for the last twenty or thirty years, while introducing salutary reforms on the religious side, has also controlled the multifarious details of the secular government. How numerous and how varied the duties of Buddha's Vice-regent are, even I can in some measure realize after being in close contact with him for two years in India, and even more after eleven months' close personal intercourse in Lhasa.

When a Dalai Lama himself ruled — and probably when a clever Minister ruled in his name - his authority was unrivalled. Even though the Council and Parliament are united in opposition to his proposals, he can enforce them, and has not infrequently done so. Backed as he is by the veneration of a people who regard him as more than Pope, as in fact a Divinity ruling on earth, there can be no direct opposition to His Holiness's orders. In districts far from Lhasa, the natural independence—one might perhaps say the democratic tendency—of the Tibetan character asserts itself, and unpalatable orders are apt to be regarded but lightly.

In practice also the Dalai's power was limited through his being kept in ignorance of events by monasteries, officials, and others. His position precludes him from touring frequently and seeing things for himself. Governmental proposals and important events come to him from the Council, through the Lord Chamberlain or the Chief Secretary, both of whom thus exercise great influence. But the Dalai has his private and semi-private employees, who bring him news and enable him to sift, in some degree, the official sources of information.

The Buddhist Reformation, which took place about the middle of the fifteenth century, is a noteworthy counterpart of the Reformation of Luther, which began only a little later. In Tibet also the immediate cause of the movement was found in the depravity of the priesthood and the adulteration of the pure faith with popular superstitions of a Shamanistic origin, while the national questions, which played an important part in Europe, were hardly noticeable there. Tsong ko pa (Dsung khaba, 1419-1478) founded the new sect of the “Yellow Lamas," which the followers of the old sect opposed under the name of “ Red Lamas.” The yellow sect remained victorious in Tibet proper, while the red sect held its own in Ladak and elsewhere. Tsong ko pa was the real founder of the Tibetan hierarchy in the form which it has retained up to the present day. He nominated one of his pupils to be Dalai-Lama, a second to be Panchan-Lama; both would undergo a perpetual process of rebirth and hold permanently the spiritual headship. Tibet was partitioned between them, but the Dalai-Lama received the greater half, and gradually drove the Panchan-Lama into the background.

The third reincarnated Dalai-Lama, So nam, gave himself out for a "living Buddha," and as such won wide recognition. He travelled into Mongolia, where, being received with the deepest reverence, he came forward as a mediator between a Mongol prince and the Chinese. The victory then of the yellow sect was decisive in the north also; countless Mongol pilgrims went yearly to Lhasa, and Buddhist monasteries were founded in great numbers.

In 1653, the great Fifth Dalai Lama journeyed to Beijing to pay homage to Emperor Shunzhi. The Qing emperor granted him the honorific title of "the Dalai Lama, Overseer of the Buddhist Faith on Earth Under the Great Benevolent Self-subsisting Buddha of the Western Paradise." Since then, the system of conferring the reincarnation of successive Dalai Lamas by the central government has become a convention.

When the reins of power slipped from the hands of the decrepit fifth Dalai-Lama, the reigning Tipa (King) Sang Kiú saw that the moment had arrived to replace the spiritual supremacy, which might be nominally retained, by a temporal. When the Great Lama died in 1682, the Tipa concealed his death, and was then in fact lord of Tibet.

A few of the earlier Dalai Lamas were born in aristocratic families. Among these was Yön-ten Gyatso, the fourth, the son of a Mongol prince. But the Great Fifth' was apparently the son of a peasant at Chung-gye, two days' journey south-east of Lhasa. And in the later incarnations the Dalai Lama has almost invariably been chosen from a family of humble position. If he be selected from one of the leading families of the country, several of which are descended from the brothers of previous Dalai Lamas, that family is likely to become inconveniently powerful. Public appointments too are not usually given to members of his family during his lifetime. But these may hold, and usually do hold, private posts about his person, which carry great, though unacknowledged, influence.

The small feudal princes of Tibet at first still retained some power; but after repeated disturbances they were completely subordinated to the Dalai-Lama, that is to say, to the Chinese governors, in the year 1750. The internal administration of the country, with which China generally interfered very little, was now entirely organised on an ecclesiastical system, since every local governor was given a Lama as colleague, who jointly with him managed the affairs of the inhabitants.

A new Dalai-Lama was always raised to his high dignity in tender infancy and imperatively required an adviser. For all foreign affairs the Chinese regents undertook this post; for home affairs a sort of new temporal monarchy was founded, since the “ Rajah ” of Lhasa usually conducted the government until the Dalai Lama attained his majority. A strange fatality afterward willed that in the 19th Century, the Dalai-Lama hardly ever attained the required age of twenty years. The 9th through the 12th Dalai Lamas usually died aroudn that age, and then were reincarnated in a child. In this way the Chinese influence also lost ground. Tibet detached itself more and more completely on every side.

Dalai Lamas do not drink wine or spirits, but they may and do eat meat, a necessary article of diet in Tibet, where the climate is cold and fruit and vegetables are scarce, often indeed unobtainable. As, however, the taking of life, even for food, is to Buddhists a sin, a religious ceremony is performed on behalf of the animals so killed, and this is held to insure their rebirth in a higher state of existence. Thus the loss of their lives means a gain to them. Dalai Lamas do not marry, but keep altogether apart from women.

The Dalai Lama, before he "retires to the heavenly fields", will usually tell those round him where he will reincarnate. He may give particulars as to the house in which the small boy will be found, the stream, if any, near it, the shape of the mountains round it, &c., &c. His entourage are themselves afraid to ask for these particulars, when they see their divinity ill, for they fear that they may thereby make him more eager to go.

Three or four years after the Dalai Lama has 'departed', the Tashi Lama, if of age, and fifteen or twenty other great lamas, e.g. the abbots of Sera, Drepung, and Ganden - the three huge monasteries near Lhasa — the State Oracle at Lhasa, known as the Nechung, and the Oracle at Sam-ye, one of the most famous monasteries in Tibet, decide as to the tract of country in which the new Dalai Lama will be found, the year of birth of his father, his mother, and himself, the kinds of trees growing near his house, and so forth.

Inquiries in the district indicated are then set on foot, and lead usually to the tracing of three or four boys whose birth has been heralded by heavenly manifestations. For instance, a rainbow has appeared over his house from a clear sky when he was born, and his parents have had heavenly visions concerning him. Particulars of these miraculous births are laid before the Oracles and lamas referred to above, and these decide which is the new Dalai Lama. The latter, a boy of three or four, has to recognize the sacred thunderbolt, the bell and other religious implements of his predecessor—or rather, as one should say, of himself in his previous life.

The young boy will be found to carry on his person some of the marks that distinguish the incarnation of the four-handed Chenrezi from ordinary mortals. Among such signs are :

• Marks as of a tiger-skin on his legs.
• Eyes and eyebrows that curve upwards on the outside and are rather long.
• Large ears.
• Two pieces of flesh near the shoulder-blades indicating the two other hands of Chenrezi.
• An imprint like a conch-shell on one of the palms of his hands.

The names of the different candidates had, however, usually to be placed in the golden urn, presented in 1793 by the Chinese Emperor Chienlung. One was picked out with a pair of chopsticks, and opened by a Tibetan Grand Secretary. This contained the name of the new Dalai Lama. This has always hitherto been the same as the name favored by the Oracles. In the case of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thupten Gyatso, the Tibetan Government represented to the Chinese Emperor that there was no doubt about the identity of the new Dalai Lama, and therefore no need for the Amban to perform the ceremony of picking out a name. The ceremony was accordingly remitted, an event which appears also to indicate that the Chinese suzerainty was then merely nominal.

By presenting the urn and arranging for the Amban to assist at the choice of each new Dalai Lama and other high Incarnations, the Chinese Government no doubt hoped to gain some hold over the personage who influences not only Tibet but Mongolia, and was revered by many millions in Asia, and even by some in European Russia. For the Lama, owing his accession in some measure to their representative, might naturally feel bound to repay his debt by subservience to their requests.

According to Chinese accounts they had good grounds for their innovation, for at the time the choice of a high Incarnation was often made corruptly. A ruler of Ladakh had many relatives who were chosen among the highest of the Incarnations. A Tashi Lama chose a Dalai Lama from a prominent family in the Tsang province; the latter in turn made his first cousin Tashi Lama when the former Tashi Lama died. But the climax was reached when the Ne-chung Oracle of Lhasa declared that the reincarnation of the Grand Lama of Urga would be the child that the wife of the reigning prince of the Tushot Mongols was expected to bring forth. For the child was born, but proved to be a girl.

The abandonment by China of the use of the golden urn in the choice of the present Pontiff is a measure of the growing impatience felt by Tibet towards the Chinese suzerainty, and of the steady decline of the latter. This decline is further evidenced by the attainment to his majority of the 13th Dalai Lama. The four immediately preceding him all died before they could take up the reins of government. Thus for nearly a hundred years Tibet was administered by Regents. This enabled the Chinese to enjoy greater power in Tibet than would have been likely under the administration of the Dalai Lamas themselves.

China hopes to usurp the selection of the next Dalai Lama. Tibetan tradition holds that senior Buddhist monks and other respected religious leaders are reincarnated in the body of a child after they die. Beijing has sought in recent years to control the identification of other Tibetan religious leaders, and says that the selection of the next Dalai Lama — who fled into exile in India following a failed 1959 Tibetan revolt against Chinese rule — must “comply with Chinese law,” while the Dalai Lama himself says that if he returns, his successor will be born in a country outside of Chinese control.