Vignettes of the World
I am saving this entry to the last because this boy truly, truly moved me. This young ten-year-old worked at his family’s Uighur restaurant. On one of our last days in Lhasa, a group of us went to this restaurant for dinner. When we sat …
Have you ever had the experience that, on the nth day of your trip, you have lost track of time? That was Tibet to me. It is an environment that constantly entices you away from the established routines and thoughts that structure your life in …
Unlike Lhasa, Namtso is forever frozen in time. If there is one piece of advice I have for travelers going to Tibet, it is that they must bring some warm clothing with them, at least a sturdy, layered windbreaker and a scarf. It was frigid …
No one has ever seen the dead body of a vulture. The sky burial might be one of the most fascinating and unique aspects of Tibetan culture. When I talk about the sky burial with people outside of Tibet, they often tell me, “that is …
The trip to Shigatse was the highlight of this trip, if not the highlight of my life. Shigatse’s status in Tibet is next to Lhasa. Our experience in Shigatse was second to none though, because we saw him.
The Panchen Lama!
What I thought to be an ordinary tour of the monastery, turned out to be an unplanned pilgrimage.
The Tashi Lhunpo Monastery is the palace for the Panchen Lama, the second spiritual leader of Tibet.
The Dalai’s are the political leaders of Tibet, number one in line. The Panchen’s are the scholars of Tibetan Buddhism. They belong to the “yellow” branch of the religion and are number two in line. The Dalai’s and the Panchen’s often learn from each other and support the administration of the Tibetan institutions (political and religious) together. Now that the 14th Dalai is in exile, the Panchen is in effect the leader of Tibet.
There is an established way to choose the Dalai’s and the Panchen’s. In my last entry I rambled on about “being the chosen one” and questioned such practice, but the Dalai’s and the Panchen’s are recognized by series of tests and questioning of very young children that wouldn’t have known the identities of the testers, who are the living lamas and leaders in Tibet. Furthermore, the search of the reincarnation begins with a vision at the holy lakes in Tibet, a practice since time immemorial. Either way, once recognized, both the Dalai and the Panchen have to go through high levels of education, the best that Tibet offers, and they have an education system equivalent to that of the PhD’s in the west.
Panchen, meaning “the great scholar.”
The current Panchen Lama, the 11th reincarnation, is in fact not a choosing by the Tibetan people. The Chinese government chose him, and the “real” one turned a political prisoner as soon as the Chinese government intervened. According to the Wikipedia, the whereabouts of the previously chosen 11th Panchen is still unknown today. He has not been seen since 1990, at the time he was only about 2 years old.
Despite the politics of all this, it was settled that Qoigyijabu (his Buddhist name in Tibetan) would be chosen, by the drawing of a golden urn. It was the Tenth Panchen Lama’s wish that his reincarnation be recognized by a drawing with a golden urn. Qoigyijabu was enthroned in 1995 at the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery.
We finished with the tour of the monastery within an hour and a half. As we enjoyed walking around the palace, we saw architecture and burial altars that were noticeably different from the ones in Potala. We also noticed that there were some activities by the monks on that day. I did not pay much attention, although there was a whole group of them rushing to one place or other bustling around. I heard from one of the young monks that the Panchen Lama would be making his third round of the Palace that day. The Panchen Lama is receiving a Chinese education at the Yonghe Palace in Beijing and he was back in Tibet for a ritual, to walk around his palace three times. We met him at his last round.
The tour guide told us it was impossible to see the Panchen Lama, “it is a rumor, he has already made his last round.” As we started back to our bus, we heard a commotion, “he’s coming, he’s coming!” We rushed back up the hill to see his Holiness.
I cannot quite describe that moment of a rushed intense feeling, of excitement, of curiosity, of intrigue. He came with two lamas on his sides encircling his arms. People started bowing, and I was speechless but to wow wow wow wow all the way until he was to disappear completely from my view. I might have jumped up and down trying to get that last view of him, walking so gracefully and confidently, the Leader of Tibet. A beautiful youth trapped in a complicated web of theocracy, religion and politics at home plus that which within the long arm of Beijing.
I was disappointed that I only got a view of him, and that no pictures were allowed. We finally started back to our bus, but when we reached the ground, we heard another commotion, “he’s down here now!”
Soon enough a crowd gathered, all kneeled down in a queue to receive his blessing. One by one people bowed in respect, wishing for his holy touch. Exhibiting a characteristic composure, he granted each of their wishes, touching their heads gently. The faithful people there, most of them of Han descent, receiving his holiness. It was a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with the living Buddha.
I wanted to be blessed by his holiness too, but I know my father on earth and my father in heaven would not be pleased. I stood as a Christian and watched.
He has blessed the crowd soon. When he was leaving, I seized the opportunity and yelled, “zai jian” (goodbye). He has already passed me but he noticed me. He gestured a goodbye at me with his right hand down on his waist, still walking so gracefully. The lama next to him turned around and smiled at me. My heart warmed.
To end, let me quote the Wikipedia’s entry on the Panchen Lama,
As of 2006, according to the Associated Press, Qoigyijabu “is believed to live in Beijing amid intense secrecy and is almost never seen in public.” See the current Wikipedia entry on the Panchen Lama here.
We visited the Potala Palace on our first full day in Lhasa. In the morning we went there to see the building from ground up. We were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves walking amongst an avid morning worship by the Tibetan people. They walked the …
When we arrived at Lhasa, we were told not to shower or exercise on our first day. We did both, as who could pass up the first chance of showering after two days without it on the train? The walk up four floors to our …
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway was newly opened when my friends and I decided to visit Tibet. We joined a tour so that we could be arriving in Tibet on the train. The ride was nice as the train was new and equipped with individual oxygen supply.
Once the train started moving, the group calmed down a bit and we settled down in our compartment. Sharing our compartment was a man from Sichuan, middle-aged, kind and attentive. The compartment hosted six beds and there were only five people, so we had some wiggle room. Throughout the ride we strike up small talks with the Sichuan man but he spoke the Sichuan dialect. Although it’s closer to Mandarin than is Cantonese, we still couldn’t understand most of what he was trying to tell us. We figured that he was going to visit his family in Lhasa. He had a home in Lhasa because both his wife and daughter were there. His daughter would be going to college soon, and she was to attend the Tibet University.
Train rides can be lots of fun if you meet the right people. There was this group of bureaucrats in the compartment next to ours. We could tell from their conversations that they were highly educated. There was this one man who, having learned that I studied law, talked to me about all kinds of legal problems in China. I was more than happy to share my thoughts with him, and realized that I have really learned something from my Beijing days. I was glad that he confirmed some of the things I talked about in the paper that I was publishing then.
We spent the day playing cards, the other three girls read a lot, and I knitted two yarn’s worth of a throw. Nighttime soon came and we were getting a bit nervous, because we would be getting to high altitude the next day.
We woke up from comfortable sleep to find ourselves already on a high plateau. Somebody in the group invented this delicacy of a peanut butter spread on Chinese spring onion pancakes, and it served us well as breakfast. I was curious whether the oxygen supply worked, so I broke open the tube to inhale oxygen. I figured that some air came out of that vent and I didn’t die so it must have been real.
We saw amazing scenery on the way. With the exception of an ocean, we saw every natural scenery on earth, from mountains to grasslands, from lakeshore to snowy hilltops, from streams to rivers, from sunrise to sunset. In my stretch of imagination I seem to see workers building this railroad one plank by another, conquering a nature so severe that only the most staunch and persistent can survive. We saw a tent or two occasionally, smoke coming out indicating human activity. There were herds of sheep grazing for grass so green and water so clear. There were Tibetan cows (yaks), scattered in a large group, looking up to the train as if to say hello to us like the Tibetan people did. We would be closer to Tibet as each second raced by.
Tibet, the destination. Mysterious, holy, irresistible.
Another day came and gone, and soon enough we arrived in Lhasa.
