Tibetan Lamas Turn Cold Shoulder to Dalai LamaSoinam Baimo, a former slave in Zalang County in Tibet, used to beg the Dalai Lama to dispel his illnesses whenever he fell ill 50 years ago. But he stopped doing this after he recovered from a serious illness.When he had acute pneumonia one day in 1960, he turned to the Dalai Lama for help and invited some lamas to chant scriptures as usual. But there was no sign of improvement. After being injected with penicillin and taking some western medicine brought by a doctor of the Han nationality, the fever abated. "My family believed in Buddhism for generations and regarded the Dalai Lama as a savior. The incident shows it was the injection, not the Dalai Lama, that helped me when I was ill," he said. Soinam Baimo, who has a large family, became the richest person in his village. "It is no use praying to the Dalai Lama for a good life, which can only be achieved through hard labor and a good social system," he said. A recent sample survey conducted in Lhasa, the regional capital, indicates that over 90 percent of Tibetan residents think they are the biggest beneficiaries of the democratic reforms carried out in 1959. A lama at the Sera Monastery, who asked for anonymity, said, "I believe in the Dalai Lama because he is one of the leaders of Tibetan Buddhism. However, he shouldn't engage in politics in the name of religion, let alone separatism which harms the interests of Tibetan people." At present the portrait of the Dalai Lama is not enshrined in the Sera Monastery. Ngoizhub, a Tibetan who fled to India with the Dalai Lama following the foiled rebellion in 1959, returned to Tibet in 1990 after participating in activities aimed at separating Tibet from China in the years overseas. He said, "I hope the Dalai Lama would do something concrete for the Tibetan people including those who still reside in other countries. At least he shouldn't sabotage the normal lives and religious activities of the majority of the people in Tibet." Currently, people under the age of 45 constitute the mainstay of the total population in Tibet. Yexe, who graduated from Tibet University, said, "I learned a lot about the old Tibet under the rule of the Dalai Lama from my grandfather, who was a beggar at that time." "It is sheer hypocrisy that the Dalai Lama who stays away from his motherland and hometown still goes around selling his ideas in the capacity of being the spokesman of the Tibetan people. Nobody at my age relies on the blessing of the Dalai Lama any more," he said. |
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