In a previous article on the Human Gnome, I pointed out that I was an expert on the Latent Hopes of Tibetan Monks. Well, somebody has to be the expert on this important subject and it may as well be me. However, there is room for more of you who would like to be expert in something. Reading this article will get you on your way. I knew that if I put the title of this article into the search box at Google.com that nothing would come up except perhaps a monk or two. Well, I put the title in the search box and up came 894 articles! Well, that will not deter me from me telling you what you dont want to know. Extracting from each of the 894 articles (COME BACK! I was just kidding!) we read at http://www.tibetanyouthcongress.org/publication/culture%20part4.html: Most tragically, during the earlier period of the occupation an estimated 6000 monasteries and monastic cities throughout Tibet were plundered and dynamited into rubble, depriving Tibetans of their most valued cultural and spiritual heritage. Although, limited reconstruction of these monasteries has begun, but most of them are financed by local Tibetans through donations and volunteer labour and monasteries, requiring Chinese permission. The Chinese illegal invasion and subsequent colonization of Tibet begin in 1949-50. That is why we had His Holiness the Dali Lama up in Sun Valley in September. (Sept. 11, 2005). He said that he loved us but he did not reveal all the pent up latent hopes of Tibetan monks. He did say, "Remember to dress warm!" Anyway, he might have said that. He spoke for a long time. I didnt get up to Sun Valley (which is pretty close to my home town) because as soon as they announced he was coming, they said that there were no more tickets available. Darn! Anyway, back to the 894 articles. I quote from: http://www.tibet.net/tibbul/0005/commentary.html. Speaking is Lodo Gyari: My own understanding of China is based on the experience of occupation and the tremendous suffering my people have undergone. And no one feels that suffering or the burden of Tibet's freedom struggle more deeply than His Holiness, who also meets with every new arrival from Tibet, roughly 3,000 each year. Their individual and personal tragedies are difficult for anyone to hear; the ugly accounts of Chinese brutality are difficult to comprehend or to forgive. Compiled together, in the many thousands, they weigh heavily on the heart. The Chinese have not been nice in Tibet, but neither have the Tibetans been nice to Tibetan nuns. Read this heartbreaking piece from: http://www.gadenrelief.org/chu-celibacy.html For Buddhist nuns, domestication has been achieved at the expense of liberation. In the Tibetan Buddhist regions of the Northwest Indian Himalaya, the narrow path to female celibacy is strewn with obstacles through which only the hardiest souls may persevere. At every step, nuns are engaged in everyday forms of resistance as they attempt to evade the demands and desires made by their families, acquaintances, and monastic brethren for assistance or succor. Even as their shorn heads and sexless maroon robes signal a lofty intent to renounce the worldly life, nuns remain tied to sex and gender roles in ways that monks are not. Nuns are expected to toil selflessly in the gardens, fields, and kitchens of both village and monastery, while forgoing their own meditations. Their roles as dutiful daughters constrains their efforts at becoming sacrosanct celibates, while ensuring the agrarian prosperity essential to both household and monastic economies. (My grammar checker says there is bad grammar in the above paragraph. Tough! A quote is a quote.) With that, we must change the title of this article to Latent Hopes of Tibetan Monks and Nuns. Well, so much for online research. We must get to the meat of this article. We need to learn more about the latent hopes of Tibetan monks and nuns, dont we? Knowing that about 3000 Tibetans come in to the country every year to join the three zillion Mexican immigrants, I decided to interview a few Tibetans. I found the first one tending sheep at 8000 feet (2461.5383 meters) near Stanley Idaho. I yelled, Hey there, Tibetan refugee! He sat on a rock with his head between his knees. An old army blanket covered his body. I said as I walked up to him, Oh, Im very sorry. I see that you are in meditation. He pulled the blanket down around his neck and said, Whos in meditation: I admired his black curly hair. He was probably not a monk, but I pursued boldly. I though you were. He pulled the blanket tighter around his neck. Im freezing my butt off up here! Im not given to meditation. What do you think I am, a Buddhist monk? I knew somewhat how he felt. My father spent a winter with his father on a homestead claim on Ten Mile Pass near Soda Springs, Idaho. Grandpa told me that Dad said, Im freezing my butt off up here!" That was during the war. WW I, that is. I said to the Tibetan, It can get cold at these elevations up here in Idaho. He said, I guess you are an old Idaho hand. He pulled the blanket back over his head. I couldnt get another word out of him. Well, I can see that to reveal the latent hopes of Tibetan monks and nuns is going to take one heck of a lot more leg work. CopyrightJohn T. Jones, Ph.D. 2005 |
