SURVIVAL AGAINST ALL ODDS - I

We are at present almost at the end of  three weeks of mourning in which the Jewish people recall the many tragedies they suffered - culminating in the loss of the first and second Temples, and exile.

The Temple was  the focus of national identity and the unifying  spiritual centre of the ancient Jewish nation.  It was the repository of the Holy Scriptures and other national literature and the meeting place of the Sanhedrin, the highest court of Jewish law during Roman times. When it was destroyed - and the people who were not killed were exiled and dispersed - what could possibly  sustain them as a Jewish nation? Altogether the Jews were exiled from their land for almost 2,000 years.

Especially in this period of mourning, the parallels to another exiled people were brought to my mind.

The Chinese have a lot to answer for. I am not talking about the coronavirus, but of the great national tragedy which befell Tibet. It began with the occupation of the Chinese Army in 1950, overturning centuries of mutual non-belligerence. Since then, the Tibetans have lost their land, their temples, their leading religious teachers. Now they risk losing their identity as a people. By encouraging a massive influx into Tibet of Han Chinese settlers, a slow-motion genocide was being perpetrated.

The Dalai Lama, was born in 1935 in Taktser, China, northeast of Tibet, to a peasant family. At the age of two, the child was recognized as the reincarnation of the previous 13th Dalai Lama. He was renamed and proclaimed the 14th Dalai Lama, in 1959.

The Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the patron saint of Tibet. They are beings inspired by a wish to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of humanity. The Dalai Lama is the head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharamshala, India.

The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 in order to avert bloodshed when a dramatic uprising against Chinese rule broke out. In the same month Chinese soldiers killed 87,000 Tibetans. Since then they have continued a systematic effort to destroy Tibetan resistance. All told, an estimated 1.2 million Tibetans have died as a result of the occupation. 115,000 refugees have joined the Dalai Lama in exile.

Faced with the destruction of his people and their tradition of Buddhism, the Dalai Lama has been tireless in his efforts to bring freedom to Tibet. Through personal appearances, and dialogue especially with political leaders, he has gained increasing notice and respect for his cause.

In 1989, the same year he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent efforts, the Dalai Lama turned, for the first time, to the Jewish people for help. He needed to know the secret of Jewish spiritual survival in exile.