Of exile and enlightenment

Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, celebrates his 90th birthday this weekend.

- CHINTAN GIRISH MODI

This is a moment to rejoice in India's history of solidarity with the Tibetan people, and the fact that the Dalai Lama chose India to be his home when he fled Tibet in 1959.

Reducing the event to a matter of political expediency alone keeps us from appreciating the cultural links, meanings, and symbolism at play.

In his autobiography, Freedom in Exile (1990), the Dalai Lama shares that the decision to leave Tibet was made at the insistence of Nechung, the state oracle. He realised that his life was in danger, and that he would be able to serve his people better in exile.

Tibetans see him as an emanation of Chenrezig, a Bodhisattva who takes rebirth to benefit sentient beings.

"For centuries, the Dalai Lamas have conferred with the Nechung Oracle—human mediums who become periodically possessed by Pehar (a protector deity) and his emanations—over matters of governance," writes Christopher Bell, associate professor of religious studies at Stetson University in Florida, in his book The Dalai Lama and the Nechung Oracle (2021).