Chris Michell - Dalai Lama
MEETING HIS HOLINESS THE FOURTEENTH DALAI LAMA IN THE HIMALAYA AND THOUGHTS ON THE CURRENT TIBETAN SITUATION
Chris Michell
Article first published Crete Courier, Greece, 2008
Though I had heard His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso), talk at Wembley and in the temple at McLeod, Dharamsala, India, it was through my meeting with Professor John Heath in 1997 and because of our mutual interest in the Tibetan cause, that I was most privileged to have a private audience with His Holiness in October 2001, after five months of intensive e-mail negotiations! As a professional musician and composer, I had recorded an album in 1998 called ‘Tibetan Chakra Meditations’ and wanted to give a Royalty donation to Tibetan refugees. Professor Heath, who had retired from the London Business School, was also working for the Tibetans and had travelled to Dharamsala, home of the Tibetan government-in exile before. We decided it would be good to give royalties raised from the CD to the Tibet Relief Fund. This was organised; the album still sells well and has raised many thousands of pounds for Tibetans.
John and I went up to Dharamsala in 1999, to write a report for the Tibet Society in London about a project John had previously set up with a Swiss doctor to treat Tibetan refugees, who had been tortured by the Chinese government for their religious views and who had managed to escape by walking over the Himalayan mountains. I had never visited India before and when we went overnight on the Kashmir-Jammu mail train from New Delhi, I woke up in the morning to see the paddy fields, with the beautiful women working in their shocking pink saris, gliding past. It was if we were in a movie of a most amazing and exotic land. I realised I was totally in love with India! John and I were falling in love too and we were married the following summer in Somerset, England in 2000.
Whilst in Dharamsala in 1999, I made a recording with a Tibetan monk called Bhagdro, who had been imprisoned, tortured by the Chinese and had walked over the Himalayan mountains to Dharamsala, which is where the Dalai Lama lives. Bhagdro chanted, I improvised the flute. He also talked about his experiences. I spent several months back in UK, editing and working on the recorded material, which is a vivid document of Bhagdro’s suffering and also has songs from the Nuns of Drapchi prison, who similarly, had been severely tortured by the Chinese, purely for their beliefs in Tibetan Buddhism. They had recorded their incredibly moving songs on a little tape-recorder smuggled into the prison. We called the finished album Bhagdro-’Tibetan Freedom Chants.’This CD has also been sold to raise money for Tibetan refugees.
Meanwhile, back in UK, John had decided to write a book about the relationship between Tibet and China and the historical and political background. He wanted to ask His Holiness if he would do the Foreword for his book. This was how on 10 October 2001, John and I found ourselves waiting in the ante-room of the Dalai Lama’s residence in McLeod, after going through the security checks. I was clutching a copy of my Bhagdro/Tibetan Freedom Chants CD to give to His Holiness and also my flute.
We were the last people that day to have an audience and the group of youngsters before us seemed to have exhausted the Dalai Lama somewhat. John was so keen to start asking him lots of heavy political questions about China, but I felt that he just wanted to take his shoes off and have a cup of tea! We sat right next to him, on a big sofa, whilst some of his advisors stood at the other side of the room. We also asked him to bless our marriage, but he seemed a bit off-hand when we mentioned that. Things seemed to ‘lighten-up’ a bit when I spoke up and gave him the Bhagdro CD. Dalai Lama knew Bhagdro and the advisors chuckled at the mention of his name. He was obviously a bit of a star in monk circles! I took this opportunity to take out my flute and asked His Holiness if I could play an improvised meditational piece for him. This seemed to be well-received and everyone relaxed a bit more.
Then I asked His Holiness about Reincarnation, which is the fundamental belief of Tibetan Buddhism. I showed him a photo of my beloved son Thomas Oliver, who had died in 1980 and whose death had sparked my interest in Buddhism. John brought the conversation back to politics and His Holiness very kindly agreed to do the Foreword for John’s book. The meeting ended on a jolly note and the advisors took photos of John and me being blessed by His Holiness. We walked out of the room feeling euphoric, energised and uplifted. On previous occasions, when I’d heard Dalai Lama talk, I’d been very overwhelmed and moved to tears, yet meeting him face to face had had the opposite effect and I saw that, on one level, he was also a very vulnerable human being, just like the rest of us. Interestingly enough, he was taken very ill that winter and did have medical treatment, but recovered and seems to be very robust again as he travels world-wide, meeting world leaders. He was recently awarded the Congressional Gold medal in USA, probably the highest honour America can bestow on a living person.
A few days later, we were also very honoured to have an audience with the Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th reincarnation of Tibetan Buddhism’s Kagyu sect. He sat on a high chair, at the end of a large room and we had to sit at his feet. He seemed immensely dignified, but very powerful. He blessed us and also I asked him to give blessings via a photo to my son Tristan, who was having some difficulties at the time. Strangely enough, Tristan, who is now at the end of his fourth year at Peninsula Medical School, Cornwall, is going to India in the summer to work with Tibetans in Ladakh and later at the Tibetan hospital in Dharamsala. I do feel that the Karmapa was an amazingly powerful and enlightened being and the blessing he gave Tristan was, on some esoteric level, a profound help to him! The twenty-two year old Karmapa is seen as the possible successor to the Dalai Lama and is being groomed as such. He is currently visiting America and raising his global profile.
Tibet was invaded by China in October 1950 and has been continuously occupied by the Chinese since 1951. Almost all Tibet’s monasteries were destroyed, with over a million Tibetans killed, especially monks and nuns. The Dalai Lama himself was forced to flee Tibet in 1959. He set up what is now recognised as the Tibetan government-in-exile in North India, in the foothills of the Himalaya, in the old colonial hill station called McLeod-Ganj, near Dharamsala. At that time, he had the full support of the Indian government under Nehru. Unfortunately, the current Indian government does not appear to be very supportive to the Tibetans, who still only have refugee status in India and not full citizenship.The new Indian government is busy trying to build up trade links with China in line with the booming Indian economy.
Despite the government-in exile’s numerous attempts to negotiate with the Chinese government, no progress has been made. The Dalai Lama clearly states that he would like Tibet to be an autonomous region within China, similar to how Scotland is, within the United Kingdom. He has always advocated achieving meaningful autonomy for Tibet through peaceful means and has even been awarded the Nobel Peace prize for his work. He has never supported violent action against China. However, the recent activities of a new group called Student Free Tibet have been more forceful and younger Tibetans are becoming increasingly frustrated about the repression of their lives and culture. Because of media censorship, it is difficult to have an accurate picture, but it would appear that recent peaceful protests by monks and nuns in Tibet have been brutally put down by the Chinese. We must remember that if a Tibetan in China’s Tibet is found in possession of a picture of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he/she will be arrested, tortured and imprisoned for it. FACT!
Currently, China has a hugely cruel and controlling policy in Tibet, flooding the area with Hans Chinese and placing intolerable restrictions on the poor native Tibetans, with regard to education, language, religion, culture, child-bearing and employment, for example.There are well-documented reports of Tibetan women having forced abortions and sterilisations at the hands of the Chinese authorities. This is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, of the suffering these people have under the Chinese government. Chinese propaganda does not tell the truth about what is really happening in Tibet now.
China does not listen to international human rights laws and opinions. It seems set on the genocide of Tibet. Unfortunately, because of the rapid, capitalist expansion of China’s economy, all the nations of the world seem anxious to join the Chinese “gravy-train” and do lucrative business with China. Meanwhile, China is plundering all the tremendous natural and mineral resources Tibet has to offer and no country dare come to its aid, against the Chinese juggernaut. Recent protests against the Chinese, with regard to the Bejing Olympics, have shown that there is still massive support and understanding of the Tibetan’s plight, at a grass-roots level. What will happen when the Olympics are staged this summer remains to be seen, but the Chinese have put in place enormous media control and repressive policies, to block free speech!
The Dalai Lama says, “NEVER GIVE UP!”. But is difficult to see just what can be done at this moment in time, to solve the tragic loss of a noble theocracy.
‘May all sentient beings enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness;
Be free from suffering, and the causes of suffering’
Traditional Buddhist Prayer.
TIBETAN CHAKRA MEDITATIONS
A 5% Royalty from the sale of each album goes to the Tibet Relief Fund: Registered Charity No 1061834, to support the Tibetan refugees.
Click here to view album page
TIBETAN FREEDOM CHANTS with Bhagdro
This album has been sold to raise money for Tibetans by Tibet Society and Relief Fund and Tibet Foundation
Click here to view album page
