Welcoming His Holiness the Dalai Lama
by emily yuAn exploration of the Berkeley student body’s reception and knowledge of the Dalai Lama
When Cal students turn up in the thousands to camp and wait outside the Zellerbach ticket office for hours, you better believe this wait is for something bigger than a venue for a rock star or the return of a Jedi. This happened on March 11th , when students lined up in anticipation of obtaining tickets to see his Holiness the Dalai Lama give a lecture entitled “Peace through Compassion” at the Greek Theatre. The lecture took place on Saturday, April 25th.
When you hear the name Dalai Lama, what first comes to mind? Mystical figure? An ethnic and spiritual commodification? Wait, isn’t he …Gandhi? These perceptions came up in casual conversations with other Berkeley students who shared what people they knew thought of the Dalai Lama. The different identities associated with him struck me as pretty provocative. They ran the gamut of personally charged opinions to misguided ignorance This range piqued my interest in how other Berkeley students perceive the Tibetan leader and why they found it worth waiting hours in line to see him.
To get a sense of who the Dalai Lama is to Berkeley students, I interviewed eight fellow Cal students to see what they knew about him. Did their motivation to see him have to do with his fame or their knowledge of him? And why does it even matter?
The first hurdle: who is the Dalai Lama? Thankfully, no one ventured to say that the Dalai Lama is Gandhi, reincarnated or not. The Dalai Lama is a political and Buddhist spiritual leader of Tibet, well-known for his reputation and leadership. Everyone I interviewed was at least able to answer some variation of his religious and political role. They correctly associated his world-renowned title with his role as a human rights and peace advocate as well as a Tibetan spiritual leader.
A few peers already had knowledge about the Dalai Lama or did more research on him after getting the ticket. One student had a collection of the Dalai Lama’s books in his house, and another had read the Dalai Lama’s book The Art of Happiness. Two of them knew that the Dalai Lama had received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to seek peaceful solutions for the liberation of Tibet from China.
However, when it came to more extensive knowledge about the Dalai Lama, the majority of interviewed peers were honest about their lack of information. Aziza Abduragimova admitted, “I was not at all well-informed prior to getting the ticket, nor am I well-informed now.” Some had read an article or did some basic research on the Dalai Lama, but few could articulate aspects of the Dalai Lama (like his position, teachings, or work) beyond his identity. However, most did little follow-up research on the Dalai Lama after the hype of getting the ticket, citing schoolwork and the lack of time as reasons for this. In response to her own and the general student body’s uninformed state, Phia Xiong observed, “People are politically open-minded but don’t know much about the Dalai Lama.”
After a failed uprising against the Chinese in 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet and has spent the following decades in exile, working with international institutions like the United Nations to hold China accountable for their violation of human rights. The Dalai Lama has also been an ardent speaker and activist for world peace and harmony, traveling across the world to share Buddhist philosophy and partake in interfaith dialogue. He has been denounced by the Chinese government for advocating Tibetan independence; he has claimed that he supports more political autonomy in Tibet. In December 2008, the Dalai Lama announced his semi-retirement, passing on the leadership of the country to an elected parliament in-exile.
Though the students I interviewed were relatively uninformed about what the Dalai Lama has done and achieved, they had a general sense of his spiritual leadership, as well as a less pervasive impression of his impact as a political and peace activist. They also shared a sense of urgency and awe in anticipation of his visit.
On why it was worth standing in line so long for the tickets, Eugene Wang commented, “He says he may not reincarnate anymore. Even if he did reincarnate, it would take another 20 or so years before the next Dalai Lama gained full political and religious power, and another 20 more years for him to become influential – I’ll be 60 by then.” With the Dalai Lama nearing the age of seventy-four and the possibility that he is the last Dalai Lama, this once in a lifetime opportunity really becomes more valuable.
The Dalai Lama has managed to avoid stigmas associated with religious people and thereby attract a very diverse audience worldwide. His experience and reputation has made him a revered and highly respected figure, to the extent that what he has to say is valued by all kinds of people in different ways. As someone curious and not as familiar with the Dalai Lama, Jasmine Hui said, “I want to hear what he has to say…[and] how that relates to us.” Phuntsok Tseten, who follows the Dalai Lama’s teachings more closely, said, “I want to learn how I can be more compassionate to others.”
In a way, you can say that the Dalai Lama’s fame supersedes the knowledge of what he has done. At the same time, the magnitude of the things he has accomplished is exactly what makes up his fame and is consequently why people, even without knowing the specifics of what he has accomplished, want to listen to him. As Atit Shah noted, “He’s a world-renowned figure coming to Berkeley. He’s done so much in the world…You want to be able to say that you saw the Dalai Lama.”
But do we rest here? Do we just sit, watch, and listen to the Dalai Lama, reveling in his fame but never fully realizing what the Tibetan leader has dedicated his life to and why? Or is there something more at stake here that calls for us to be more actively aware global citizens? On the one hand, “[The Dalai Lama] fell under the bigger umbrella of ‘neat, uniquely U.C. Berkeley things to do,’ ” as noted by Natalie Tsang. In other words, he was another cool, famous person to see and hear. But we also have to ask ourselves: what do we take away from an event like this? Is it just for bragging rights?
The Dalai Lama brings with him almost fifty years of experience traveling the world and raising global awareness about peace, human rights, and religious harmony. He assumed full spiritual and temporal powers of Tibet at the age of sixteen, and in the five decades after his exile, used his Tibetan Buddhist philosophy to advocate peaceful solutions for humanitarian crises. His motivation for doing this isn’t just an idealistic projection into the future; much of it is grounded in the history of his country’s political situation. After the 1911 Revolution in China, Tibet declared independence, but in 1949, Communist China invaded Tibet, and forced the signing of the “Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet” which allowed Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. Since then, the Human Rights Watch has reported alleged human rights violations of Tibetans under Chinese rule.
In response to why he wanted to see the Dalai Lama, George Chin remarked, “You see Stephen Hawking to hear about space, so similarly you want to hear the Dalai Lama talk about peace.” But it’s more than just listening to what the Dalai Lama has to say about peace. It’s also about understanding peace in context, the peaceful resistance the Dalai Lama encouraged Tibetans to exercise in the protests last year, and the peaceful resolution that he seeks between China and Tibet. The issue of repression and human rights violation in Tibet continues to be an issue today. The goal of his peace talks is to end this.
That’s what we need to understand. So many Berkeley students turned up to listen to the Dalai Lama with open minds. This willingness to listen also allows for an opportunity to learn about something outside the Berkeley bubble. There’s substance to the Dalai Lama’s fame. We need to educate ourselves about the lack of political freedom and human rights that Tibetans face because this is the basis for what the Dalai Lama has dedicated his entire life to. If we respond to fame like that, we should definitely respond too by educating ourselves. And this calls for an active engagement with what he has so graciously shared with us at the Greek Theatre.
That means asking ourselves why the Dalai Lama gives a speech on peace through compassion. If we can answer that, it’s a start. If we can explain it to someone less informed, that’s another step forward. And if we can explain why it matters to us as global citizens, even better. Because, in the end, that’s a Berkeley thing to do. Politically open-minded we are, uninformed we can be, but in the end, apathetic and ignorant aren’t what being a Berkeley student is about.