I CLOSE-UP

Dalai Lama

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prevailed in Tibet, emphasized attaining
enlightenment for the sake of liberating all
beings from sorrow.
The present Dalai Lama was born in
1935. Two years before his birth, when the
13th Dalai Lama had died, a quest had
immediately ensued for what the Tibetans
assumed would be his reincarnation some-
where within their country. In 1937; omens
and intuitions led a search party of monks
to the eastern part of Tibet, where they
came across two-and-a-half year-old Lhamo
Dhondrub.
According to John Avedon's book, In
Exile from the Land of Snows, the boy
knew the name of each monk in the search
party and acted as if he had known them
in the past. The monks gave the boy
several tests to determine whether he was
the reborn Dalai Lama. Among these was
the presentation of two identical black
rosaries, one of which had been the de-
ceased Dalai Lama's.
The boy chose the correct one, as he did
when presented with two identical yellow
rosaries. He was also shown two small
ivory hand drums. One, frayed and dis-
colored, the Dalai Lama had used in
religious devotions. The other was
decorated with a bright floral brocade. The
boy took the old drum and, twisting it
back and forth in his right hand, beat it
in the manner of a Buddhist ritual.
The boy was also given a physical exami-
nation, according to Avedon's book, to
determine whether he had physical marks
that distinguished him as a Dalai Lama.
Among these were large ears, streaks like
those of a tiger skin on the legs, and a print
resembling a conch shell on the palm of one
hand.
After passing these tests, too, Lhamo
Dhondrub was taken to the Potala, the
traditional Dalai Lama's monastery in
Lhasa, the main city of Tibet. In his
predecessor's private quarters, he pointed,
according to Avedon, to a small box and
declared, "My teeth are in there." The case
was opened, and aides found the old ruler's
dentures.
In seven weeks, the boy's head was
shaved according to custom, he was given
his novice vows and renamed Holy Lord,
Gentle Glory, Eloquent, Compassionate,
Learned Defender of the Faith.
For the next 10 years, he studied inten-
sively. In 1950, shortly after the Chinese
invaded Tibet, he was hastily granted full
political powers at the age of 15. As a
teenager, he vainly negotiated in Beijing
for Tibet's autonomy with Mao Tsetung
and Chou Enlai.
After fleeing to India, the Dalai Lama
heard reports of Chinese massacres of his
people and desecrations against religious
institutions. In 1959 and 1960, the Inter-
national Commission of Jurists confirmed
that entire villages had been obliterated,
their residents crucified, dismembered,
beheaded, or burned alive; children were

28

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1989

forced to shoot their parents; nuns were
raped or forced to havesexual relations
with monks, who were also shipped to
labor camps. In time, the Chinese either
destroyed many monasteries or used
them for such non-religious purposes
as granaries.
Since the occupation, international
sources have confirmed that 1.2 million of
Tibet's 6 million people have perished; only
17 of the country's original 6,524 monas-
teries survive; and many thousands of
religious manuscripts and ceremonial arti-
facts have been destroyed. One hundred
and forty thousand Tibetan exiles now live
in 54 refugee settlements in central Asia.
In a speech last year to the European
Parliament, the Dalai Lama,proposed a
compromise for ending China's 29-year-old
occupation of Tibet: Tibet would be an
autonomous Chinese territory and its
foreign affairs would be controlled by
Beijing.
When announcing last week_ that the
Dalai Lama had received the 1989 Nobel
Prize, the Nobel Committee cited the
Tibetan for "consistently" shunning
violence in his quest to liberate his nation
from China. The Dalai Lama, said the com-
mittee, has "advocated peaceful solutions
based upon tolerance and mutual respect
in order to preserve the historical and
cultural heritage of his people . . . [He] has
developed his philosophy of peace from a
great reverence for all things living and
upon the concept of universal responsi-
bility embracing all mankind, as well as
nature."
Jews' general ignorance of the genocide

in Tibet "appalled" Rabbi Kushner, one of
the participants at the recent meeting in
New Jersey.
"The Jewish people," said Kushner, "who
have made such a crusade of saying 'Where
were you when we were slaughtered?' paid
no attention when there was wholesale
slaughter [in Tibet] under our noses."
Rabbi Irving Greenberg (to Dalai Lama):
"You just learned one of the secrets
of Jewish survival. We disagree with each
other all the time."
Rabbi Laurence Kushner: "N4 we don't."
— Banter at 9/25 dialogue.

hen calling for a formal
Tibetan-Jewish encoun-
ter, the Dalai Lama was
intrigued by several pos-
sible parallels between
Judaism and Tibetan
Buddhism. Among these were a belief in
the sacredness and interdependence of all
life; the devotion to scholarship in
monasteries and yeshivas, and religious
sensibility and practice as a centerpiece in
daily life.
But the Tibetan's chief motivation was
to acquire some understanding of Jews'
survival during their centuries in exile
from their homeland. Tibetan refugees, he
hoped, might learn from Jewish institu-
tions and traditions in the Diaspora. 'Nice,
in fact, during the dialogue in New Jersey,
the Tibetan asked, "What is your secret?"
One of the "secrets," Blu Greenberg told
the Dalai Lama, lies in the Jewish home
and family's emergence over the centuries

The Next Step

he meeting three weeks ago
between the Dalai Lama and
Jewish scholars was a
prelude to a more ambitious
conference slated for mid-
1990 in Dharamsala, India.
Among those slated to meet then with
the Dalai Lama for five days are Nobel
laureate Elie Wiesel, author Cynthia
Ozick, and the renowned Talmudic
scholar Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.
One of two organizers of that meeting,
as well as the recent initial Tibetan-
Jewish contact in western New Jersey,
was San Franciscan Marc Lieberman.
While "honoring and sustaining my
Jewish identity," said Lieberman, he is
also "inspired" by his experience of Bud-
dhist meditation and practice. Lieber-
man celebrates the Jewish holiday cycle,
observes Friday evenings as Shabbat,

and sends his 10-year-old son, Michael,
to Hebrew school.
"We make a special effort to perpetu-
ate my Jewish traditions and identity,"
said Lieberman, 40. "The fundamental
task in Buddhist practice is accepting
everything as it is, and only from that
place of acceptance can there be an
acknowledgment of who one is."
lb Lieberman, an associate professor
of opthalmology at Pacific-Presbyterian
Medical Center in San Francisco, there
is "a lot of common resonance" between
Buddhism and Judaism, including a
"premium on scholarship and a love of
wit."
Lieberman and another Jew, Michael
Sautman, also of San Francisco, are cur-
rently trying to raise funds for next
year's Tibetan-Jewish conference in
India. ❑ — A.J.M.

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