Gill Farrer-Halls, Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 1998, 160pp.
book review by Rene Wadlow

Eric Hoffer, who spent his working life as a longshoreman in the California ports during the 1940-1950s when labor conflicts were at their worst, has written “ Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul. Where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.”

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama who was trained from a young age for spiritual leadership also places his central emphasis on compassion.

“The one who is compassionate, loving, patient, tolerant, forgiving to some extent recognizes the potential impact of their actions on others and orders conduct accordingly. Thus spiritual practice involves acting out of concern for others’ well-being. It also entails transforming ourselves so that we become more readily disposed to do so…Our practice should be such that the disturbing emotions —hostility, attachment, and ignorance — are eliminated. To counteract ignorance and self-centered thoughts, one needs to generate loving-kindness, compassion, altruism and the wisdom of understanding emptiness.”

Gill Farrer-Halls has written a lively introduction to the current life of the Dalai Lama — a title given to the political/spiritual leader of Tibet by the Mongolians in the 16th century, meaning ‘Ocean of Wisdom’. Although Tenzin Gyatso is said to be the 14th in the line, the first two were named to honor them, although already dead by the Third, Sonam Gyatso (1543-1588) who was really the first. However, in Tibetan culture, there is a strong emphasis on ‘lineage’, one honors one’s teachers and the particular spiritual traditions to which they belong.

As Farrer-Halls points out “The Dalai Lamas are also considered to be manifestations of Chenrezig, the Buddha of compassion, and therefore to embody in human form the spiritual ideal of compassion.” This is what has led journalists to refer to the Dalai Lama as a “god-king” — when, in fact, there is no god in Buddhism, and Tibet had a long line of kings but the Dalai Lamas were never kings. Farrer-Halls goes on to explain:

“The succession of Dalai Lamas is continued through reincarnations, as is the succession of other highly realized teachers called tulkus. When the Dalai Lama dies, his followers (in fact, a small number of specially-chosen monks) look for omens and consult oracles for clues as to where to look for the child who will become the next Dalai Lama. This system has the drawback of needing a regent to fill in while the child grows up. The rule of the regents has proved disastrous for most of the Dalai Lamas — many of whom never survived to take power themselves — except the 5th, the 13th and the current 14th Dalai Lama”

The system of regency was particularly unfortunate for the 14th Dalai Lama. His regent, a highly intelligent aristocrat Reting, was politically aware and was watching closely what was going on in China during the Communist/Nationalist Civil War and the struggle against the Japanese during World War II.  He would have been a useful advisor when the Chinese took control of Tibet in 1950. However Reting had a mistress with whom he lived openly, though as a monk he was supposed to be celibate. As the time for the Dalai Lama to assume office — with a lot of rituals and prayers, Reting Rinpoche felt that his ‘impure’ state would lessen the power of the rituals he was to carry out. (Rinpoche is a title meaning the ‘precious one’, not a name. Thus, one sees relatively many lamas called Rinpoche by their followers). Thus he resigned and a weak regent, but who had no mistress, took Reting’s place and proved to be politically useless. The followers of Reting tried to bring him back to power in a sort of ‘coup d’état’ but it failed, leaving the Dalai Lama with no politically astute advisor when he had to start dealing with the politically experienced Mao and Zhou Enlai.

Although some Tibetans in exile consider the book too negative or too ‘pro-Chinese’, I think the best history of the last years of independent Tibet is Melvyn Goldstein A History of Modern Tibet 1913-1951(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989, 898pp.).

There is always a problem of celibacy in religious orders as we have seen in the Roman Catholic Church. In Tibet, the problem was made worse by the high percentage of men going into the monastic orders. While some, minority schools, allowed monks to marry, most did not. As monasteries were the ‘universities’ of the country, places of learning, of religion, of healing etc, it meant the educated had no families, and the uneducated had children. Traditional Tibetan society was stagnant but was not the ‘feudal’ –slave-holding society that Chinese propaganda has tried to paint. Tibet had largely closed in on itself, fearful of the early 1900s ‘Great Game’ when Chinese, Russian and English from India tried to gain influence.

Traditional Tibet ended in 1950 when Chinese Communist troops moved in and imposed brutal changes. There were nine years of ‘co-existence’ during which the Dalai Lama lived in Tibet and China and was given symbolic but empty positions in the central Chinese Parliament along with the Panchen Lama, the other high religious/political figure of Tibet. By 1959, the political situation was going from bad to worse. There was talk of a Tibetan uprising along with fears that the Dalai Lama would be arrested. Thus, as the 13th had done before him, Tenzing Gyatso escaped into exile in India, where he has lived ever since.

Farrer-Halls does a good job of describing the Dalai Lama’s life in exile. He had a first task of looking after the welfare of the Tibetans who left with him or who followed quickly once word got out that he had left. Among those who left were learned lamas for whom monastic settings had to be recreated. There were also ordinary Tibetans who needed to be given work to make a living, establish families and educate their children. India was generous in its aid but did not want too many Tibetans living on the Indian/Tibetan frontier lest China use this as a pretext for aggression — there being a permanent dispute of common frontiers between India and China. Thus Tibetans were given land in southern India — hot and flat, as far away from a Tibetan environment as one can imagine. The Dalai Lama and his close monastic following, however, were settled in McLeod Ganj — a hill station above the plains city of Daramsala that had been used by British civil servants in the summer during the colonial period. There were large colonial-style hotels and cottages. There is even a touching, now empty English church and graveyard that I visited when I was there working with the Tibetan leadership on human rights and UN issues.

A good number of Indians, mostly Hindus, became interested in the religious views of the Dalai Lama, and he was increasingly invited to give talks and present rituals in India. His reputation as a high spiritual teacher spread at the same time that there started to be in the 1970s more and more inter-faith conferences. Ironically, as the Tibetan schools of Buddhism have few followers in comparison with other Buddhist traditions, the Dalai Lama became the best-known Buddhist religious figure. For most people, he is the only Buddhist teacher they have heard of.

His impact has grown with the award of the Nobel Prize for peace in 1989, and now during a good part of the year, he gives talks and teachings in different parts of the world. His emphasis on compassion and the relation between inner and outer peace are welcomed by a large number of people who are largely unaware of the complicated nature of the different schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Farrer-Halls does a good job of trying to present the different schools of Tibetan Buddhism drawing upon the writings of Stephen Batchelor who is a good English presenter of Buddhist thought.

A constant preoccupation of the Dalai Lama is the situation in Tibet. There has always been a small flow of Tibetans leaving Tibet, often through Nepal. They provide information on daily life, and there are more sophisticated ways of gathering information including from a growing number of tourists. One of the brothers of the Dalai Lama has always been in contact with Chinese officials. More recently there have been meetings between two key envoys and their small staff with Chinese authorities both in China and Switzerland. The Dalai Lama has repeatedly called for meaningful autonomy. Part of Tibet, including its capital Llasa is called administratively “the Tibetan Autonomous Region”, but there is little real autonomy for the Tibetans. A large number of Chinese have gone to work in Tibet, drawn by higher salaries or the tourist industry. It is estimated that only half of the population of Tibet are ethnic Tibetans.

Gill Farrer-Halls has chosen impressive photos, most in color, to illustrate her book and has chosen useful quotations. It is a book that will be welcomed both by those who want an introduction to Tibetan Buddhism but also by those who are more knowledgeable.