Tibetans Tire of Peaceful ‘Middle Way’

As Tibetans gather today in this remote Himalayan town to mark 40 years in exile, their quest to end the Chinese occupation of their homeland seems bleaker than at any point in recent years.

The Tibetan exile community, long regarded as one of the most cohesive forces in world politics, is beginning to crack under the pressure of a growing body of mostly young Tibetans who advocate confrontation with China. A religious schism is also dividing the 100,000-strong exile community and exposing it to exploitation by the Chinese.

The Dalai Lama, recognized around the world for his leadership of the Tibetan cause, appears increasingly unable to assure Tibetan exiles that his famed “middle way” approach of compromising with Chinese leaders will end the occupation of Tibet during his lifetime. A growing number of Tibetans are convinced that the Chinese strategy is to wait for the Dalai Lama to die--and take the dream of Tibetan freedom with him to his grave. A mysterious plot recently alleged by Indian police suggests that the Chinese may even have stepped up activities to thwart the Dalai Lama.

The rifts in the movement, combined with the Dalai Lama’s advancing age, are forcing many Tibetans to confront a future without his holiness--and the prospect that a Tibet freed from Chinese domination is a fading dream.

“Our greatest fear is what will happen to the Tibetan people if his holiness is not here,” said Sonam Dargyay, a reporter for the Voice of Tibet, which broadcasts news from India into Tibet. “If he dies, the movement may die too.”

The Dalai Lama and thousands of his compatriots fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising in March of that year against Chinese occupation.

In a recent interview, the Dalai Lama acknowledged the disappointment of many Tibetans but said dissent is normal in a democratic movement. He reiterated his belief that the surest course for Tibetans is one of patience and compromise, that confrontation would lead to disaster.

“There is growing frustration, but I have confidence that Tibetans will not resort to violence,” the Dalai Lama said. “If that happens, many of our genuine supporters--and much of what we have worked for--will disappear.”

The Dalai Lama, chosen as the reincarnated Tibetan god-king at the age of 2, still appears to command the loyalty and veneration of a vast majority of Tibetans. At age 63, he appears in good health and shrugs off the question of his own passing--which would put the exile movement in the hands of another child.

“After I die--this not my responsibility,” he said with a smile. “Let someone else worry about it.”

At the heart of the schism within the world over which the Dalai Lama presides is the growing number of young Tibetans advocating a more confrontational approach toward the Chinese. Led by a group called the Tibetan Youth Congress, they are pushing the Dalai Lama’s strategy of nonviolence to its edge.

The 15,000-member group has formally rejected the Dalai Lama’s goal of securing an autonomous Tibetan state within China and called for an independent Tibetan nation. The group has also refused to rule out the use of violence to achieve its ends. The new approach marks a shift in the Tibetan community, which has long regarded the leadership of the Dalai Lama as divine and beyond question.

“How long can we go on like this?” Tseten Norbu, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, asked recently. “If something doesn’t happen very soon, then the duty of Tibetans will be to fight for their country.”

Hunger Strikes and Self-Immolation

The biggest break with the Dalai Lama’s policy of peaceful resistance came last year, when a group of Tibetans went on hunger strikes in New Delhi and captured worldwide attention. The hunger strikes, which the Dalai Lama opposed as a form of violence, ended when Thupten Ngodup doused himself with kerosene and burned himself to death. The rest of the hunger strikers were carted off by the police after 49 days.

In January, about 60 young Tibetans rushed the gates of the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi and burned a Chinese flag--prompting a diplomatic protest in Beijing. Their leaders say they are planning more such actions and are quietly planning to resume the hunger strikes.

The young Tibetans say they have been forced into their more aggressive approach by the failure of the Dalai Lama’s nonviolent strategy. Many say they were especially embittered by recent talks between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese, which collapsed amid acrimony in December.

“Everyone I know supports using violence against the Chinese,” said Dawa Tsering, 27, who lives here in Dharamsala. “It’s just a matter of somebody taking the first step.”

‘An Exile Among Exiles’

Meanwhile, as the Tibetan leadership is struggling to maintain political unity, a religious dispute has driven a wedge through the exile community. The controversy involves the worship of Dorje Shugden, one of hundreds of Tibetan Buddhism’s “protector deities”--so called for their reputed ability to shield and assist their followers. According to myth, Dorje Shugden is the spirit of a powerful lama who died mysteriously in his Tibetan palace in 1655. His spirit is a wrathful, snarling deity with three eyes, often depicted riding a lion and clutching a human heart.

For decades, the Dalai Lama included Shugden in his daily prayers. But after consulting his personal oracle, a spiritual medium named Nechung, the Dalai Lama told Tibetans in 1978 that worshiping Shugden was dividing Tibetans and harming their spiritual health. Since then, the exile government has ostracized Shugden devotees from the mainstream of Tibetan society and accused them of taking aid from the Chinese government.

“My friends have broken relations with me,” said Thumey Yeshi, a restaurant owner who worships at a Shugden temple on the banks of the Yamuna River in New Delhi. “I feel as if I am an exile among exiles.”

Shugden’s followers, who together make up as many as a fifth of Tibetan Buddhists, have staged protests against the Dalai Lama in New York, London and New Delhi. Some accuse him of presiding over a “religious dictatorship.” Shugden’s worshipers include the New Kadampa Tradition, one of the fastest growing branches of Buddhism in the West.

China’s leaders are making the most of the Shugden split. As the Chinese government destroys mainstream Buddhist temples, it is reportedly rebuilding Shugden monasteries in Tibet.

In February 1997, Lobsang Gyatso, a noted Buddhist scholar who had backed the Dalai Lama’s position on Shugden, was stabbed to death along with two of his students in Dharamsala. Phone records showed that one of the chief suspects, a Tibetan monk, had been in telephone contact with a Shugden temple in New Delhi. Tibetan security officials say three of the suspects have fled to China, where they are being given refuge by the government.

“These people are being exploited by the Chinese,” said Tashi Namgyal, security chief for the Tibetan exile government.

Many Tibetans here believe that the Chinese strategy is not only to wait for the Dalai Lama to die but to try to influence the selection of his presumed reincarnation. A bitter dispute erupted in 1995 when the Tibetans selected a successor to the Panchen Lama--the second-ranking lama in the Tibetan hierarchy--and the Chinese chose their own.

Yet recent events may suggest a more aggressive Chinese strategy. In September, police in Dharamsala arrested two men who allegedly were working for the Chinese army in a plot against the Dalai Lama.

Indian Police Find Sketches of Temple

The scheme allegedly unfolded last summer, when a Tibetan named Chomphel entered Dharamsala claiming to have crossed the Himalayas from Tibet. Police picked him up when he was spotted loitering around an Indian military base. Under questioning, Chomphel told the Indian police that he was working for the Chinese army and had been sent to diagram the Dalai Lama’s temple and residence. He said another team would be arriving from China later in the year for another operation. He said he didn’t know the details.

Indian police found sketches of the Dalai Lama’s temple in Chomphel’s possession. Chomphel even told police that he had shaved his head before arriving in Dharamsala to enable his then-unknown accomplice to identify him.

“We do not know exactly what he had in mind, but he was definitely here to collect information on the Dalai Lama,” Police Supt. K. C. Satyal said.

Officials at the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi denied involvement.

For his part, the Dalai Lama says he is not too concerned about the Chinese interfering with his succession.

“If I die, and the Tibetan people want another Dalai Lama, that person will appear in the refugee community, outside of Tibet,” he said. “The Chinese will probably try to appoint their own, but the Tibetan people will never accept that.”