September 25

Through My Eyes

Saturday September 25

(We continue to listen to the Dalai Lama as he tells of the increasing strife near Lhasa.)

" By early summer several tens of thousands of freedom fighters had joined forces and were pressing home their raids closer and closer to Lhasa, despite being poorly supplied with small arms and ammunition. Some of what they had was captured from the Chinese, some of it had come from a raid on a Tibetan Government ammunition dump near Tashilunpo, and a small amount of it had duly materialized courtesy of the CIA, but they were still hopelessly ill equipped.

When I went into exile, I heard stories of how weapons and money were dropped into Tibet by aircraft. However, these missions caused almost more harm to the Tibetans than to the Chinese forces. Because the Americans did not want their assistance to be attributable, they took care not to supply US-manufactured equipment. Instead, they dropped only a few badly made bazookas and some ancient British rifles which had once been in general service throughout India and Pakistan and thus could not be traced to their source in the event of capture. But the mishandling they received whilst being air-dropped rendered them almost useless.

Naturally, I never saw any of the fighting but, during the 1970s, an old lama who had recently escaped from Tibet told me of how he had observed a skirmish from his hermitage cell high up in the mountains in a remote part of Amdo. A small posse of six horsemen had attacked a PLA encampment several hundred strong, just near the bend of the river. The result was chaos. The Chinese panicked and started shooting wildly in all directions, killing large numbers of their own troops. Meanwhile the horsemen, having escaped across the river, turned back and, approaching from different direction, attacked again from the flank before disappearing into the hills. I was very moved to hear of such bravery.

The inevitable crisis point was finally reached during the second half of 1958, when members of Chushi Gangdruk, the freedom-fighters' alliance, besieged a major PLA garrison at Tsethang, hardly more than two days' travel from the gates of Lhasa itself. At this point, I began to see more and more of General Tan Kuan-sen. He looked like a peasant and had yellow teeth and close-cropped hair, and he now came on an almost weekly basis, accompanied by very arrogant interpreters, to urge, cajole and abuse. Previously his visits had rarely been more than once a month. As a result, I grew to loathe my new audience-room at the Norbulingka. Its very atmosphere was tainted by our interviews and I began to dread going in there.

At first the General demanded that I mobilise the Tibetan army against the 'rebels'. It was my duty to do so, he said. He was furious when I pointed out that if I did, he could be sure that the soldiers would take it as an opportunity to go over to the side of the freedom fighters. After this he confined himself to railing against the ungratefulness of Tibetans and saying that it would all end badly for us. Finally, he identified Takster Rinpoche and Gyalo Thondup and several of my ex-officials (each of whom was out of the country) as culprits and ordered me to revoke their Tibetan citizenship. This I did, thinking that firstly they were abroad and therefore safe, and secondly that for a the time being it was better to acquiesce than provoke the Chinese into open military confrontation within Lhasa itself. I wanted to avoid this by almost any means. I felt that if the people of Lhasa became involved in the fighting, there could be no hope of restoring peace.

Meanwhile, the freedom fighters were in no mood to compromise. They even tried to secure my approval for what they were doing. Alas I could not give it, even though as a young man and a patriot I had some thought now to do so. I was still pinning hope of Nehru's impending visit, but at the last moment the Chinese authorities cancelled it. General Tan Kuan-sen announced that he could not guarantee the Indian Prime Minister's safety and the invitation would have to be withdrawn. This was a disaster, I felt.

At the end of summer 1958, I went to Drepung, followed by Sera monastery, for the initial part of my final monastic examination. This involved several days of debates with the most outstanding scholars of these two centres of learning. The first day at Drepung began with the wonderfully harmonious chanting of several thousand monks in the public assembly hall. Their praise of the Buddha, his saints and successors(many of them Indian sages and teachers), moved me to tears.

Before leaving Drepung, I went, as per tradition, to the top of the tallest mountain behind the monastery, from which it was possible to obtain a panoramic view over literally hundreds of miles. It was so high that even for Tibetans there was a danger of altitude sickness- but not too high for the beautiful birds that nested far above the plateau, nor the profusion of wild flowers known in Tibetan as upel. These spectacular plants were light blue in color, tall and thorny, and shaped like a delphinium."

(Tsethang as we know well is the birthplace of the Tibetan people! I promise to add more tomorrow...)

*( please click here to read of the day with me )

* This is from the book Freedom in Exile The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama by Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth

Dalai Lama of Tibet.

( Please see my spinning for you!)

( Tahshi Deleh gentle one! Kehrahng kusu debo yinpeh? I began the day in our studio spinning for you then worked a bit more on the weaving which is coming along quite well with us working on it two as one together. After that I worked with the grapevine bark for a bit then headed up our precious snow mountain to continue bringing tree food to our trees and native plants. Working two as one we've put out over a ton and a half which is fabulous considering that scything has to be done too! After that I rested by your Medlar tree as usual before heading to our studio to work on our a land of Tibet. Two as one we've fixed a few more mistakes on the pages as usual.I'm going to put the pages up on our infosite;I'll put this up so we can rest.

And so, as always we'll continue two as one on to tomorrow

my one gentle beautiful patient swift dream bright

long dark mane in sunlight

so for now I bid goodnight...Simjah Nahngo!)


	Through My Eyes Saturday September 25 (We continue to listen to the Dalai Lama as he tells of the increasing strife near Lhasa.) " By early summer several tens of thousands of freedom fighters had joined forces and were pressing home their raids closer and closer to Lhasa, despite being poorly supplied with small arms and ammunition. Some of what they had was captured from the Chinese, some of it had come from a raid on a Tibetan Government ammunition dump near Tashilunpo, and a small amount of it had duly materialized courtesy of the CIA, but they were still hopelessly ill equipped. When I went into exile, I heard stories of how weapons and money were dropped into Tibet by aircraft. However, these missions caused almost more harm to the Tibetans than to the Chinese forces. Because the Americans did not want their assistance to be attributable, they took care not to supply US-manufactured equipment. Instead, they dropped only a few badly made bazookas and some ancient British rifles which had once been in general service throughout India and Pakistan and thus could not be traced to their source in the event of capture. But the mishandling they received whilst being air-dropped rendered them almost useless. Naturally, I never saw any of the fighting but, during the 1970s, an old lama who had recently escaped from Tibet told me of how he had observed a skirmish from his hermitage cell high up in the mountains in a remote part of Amdo. A small posse of six horsemen had attacked a PLA encampment several hundred strong, just near the bend of the river. The result was chaos. The Chinese panicked and started shooting wildly in all directions, killing large numbers of their own troops. Meanwhile the horsemen, having escaped across the river, turned back and, approaching from different direction, attacked again from the flank before disappearing into the hills. I was very moved to hear of such bravery. The inevitable crisis point was finally reached during the second half of 1958, when members of Chushi Gangdruk, the freedom-fighters' alliance, besieged a major PLA garrison at Tsethang, hardly more than two days' travel from the gates of Lhasa itself. At this point, I began to see more and more of General Tan Kuan-sen. He looked like a peasant and had yellow teeth and close-cropped hair, and he now came on an almost weekly basis, accompanied by very arrogant interpreters, to urge, cajole and abuse. Previously his visits had rarely been more than once a month. As a result, I grew to loathe my new audience-room at the Norbulingka. Its very atmosphere was tainted by our interviews and I began to dread going in there. At first the General demanded that I mobilise the Tibetan army against the 'rebels'. It was my duty to do so, he said. He was furious when I pointed out that if I did, he could be sure that the soldiers would take it as an opportunity to go over to the side of the freedom fighters. After this he confined himself to railing against the ungratefulness of Tibetans and saying that it would all end badly for us. Finally, he identified Takster Rinpoche and Gyalo Thondup and several of my ex-officials (each of whom was out of the country) as culprits and ordered me to revoke their Tibetan citizenship. This I did, thinking that firstly they were abroad and therefore safe, and secondly that for a the time being it was better to acquiesce than provoke the Chinese into open military confrontation within Lhasa itself. I wanted to avoid this by almost any means. I felt that if the people of Lhasa became involved in the fighting, there could be no hope of restoring peace. Meanwhile, the freedom fighters were in no mood to compromise. They even tried to secure my approval for what they were doing. Alas I could not give it, even though as a young man and a patriot I had some thought now to do so. I was still pinning hope of Nehru's impending visit, but at the last moment the Chinese authorities cancelled it. General Tan Kuan-sen announced that he could not guarantee the Indian Prime Minister's safety and the invitation would have to be withdrawn. This was a disaster, I felt. At the end of summer 1958, I went to Drepung, followed by Sera monastery, for the initial part of my final monastic examination. This involved several days of debates with the most outstanding scholars of these two centres of learning. The first day at Drepung began with the wonderfully harmonious chanting of several thousand monks in the public assembly hall. Their praise of the Buddha, his saints and successors(many of them Indian sages and teachers), moved me to tears. Before leaving Drepung, I went, as per tradition, to the top of the tallest mountain behind the monastery, from which it was possible to obtain a panoramic view over literally hundreds of miles. It was so high that even for Tibetans there was a danger of altitude sickness- but not too high for the beautiful birds that nested far above the plateau, nor the profusion of wild flowers known in Tibetan as upel. These spectacular plants were light blue in color, tall and thorny, and shaped like a delphinium." (Tsethang as we know well is the birthplace of the Tibetan people! I promise to add more tomorrow...) ( please click here to read of the day with me ) This is from the book Freedom in Exile The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama by Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet. ( Please see my spinning for you!) ( Tahshi Deleh gentle one! Kehrahng kusu debo yinpeh? I began the day in our studio spinning for you then worked a bit more on the weaving which is coming along quite well with us working on it two as one together. After that I worked with the grapevine bark for a bit then headed up our precious snow mountain to continue bringing tree food to our trees and native plants. Working two as one we've put out over a ton and a half which is fabulous considering that scything has to be done too! After that I rested by your Medlar tree as usual before heading to our studio to work on our a land of Tibet. Two as one we've fixed a few more mistakes on the pages as usual.I'm going to put the pages up on our infosite;I'll put this up so we can rest. And so, as always we'll continue two as one on to tomorrow my one gentle beautiful patient swift dream bright long dark mane in sunlight so for now I bid goodnight...Simjah Nahngo!)