As Dalai Lama looks for practical solution over 'Free Tibet', Tibetans bet on 'karmic design'

For decades, Tibetans living in exile across the globe fought what they thought was a “freedom struggle”. Sixty years down the line, it is a “karmic design” which they seem to be banking upon to get back to their homeland.

With China asserting itself like never before, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama talking about Tibetans “not seeking separation” from China but only “certain rights” to enable Tibetans preserve their culture, language and rich Buddhist tradition, Tibetans who have grown-up on the idea of a Free Tibet now find themselves in a quandary.

The Tibetans' belief that since two of the three dreams dreamt by His Holiness the Dalai Lama came true the third one will come true too, is what appears to be lending more hope to the exiled community than the idea of a “freedom struggle”.

In the first dream, the Dalai Lama saw bloodshed. The Tibetans believe that this dream became a reality after 81,000 Tibetans were killed between March and September 1959 and a million Tibetans died during the Chinese invasion and occupation.

In the second dream, His Holiness saw that he was meeting with people wearing white clothing. After arriving in India, the Dalai Lama met with the likes of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and first President Rajendra Prasad—both used to wear white kurtas. So the Tibetans believe that the second dream came true as well.

But it is the third dream which gives Tibetans maximum hope. In that, the Dalai Lama dreamt of himself being in a room “filled with light” in the Potala Palace in Lhasa where he is getting reunited with Tibetans inside Tibet.

“Because the first two dreams came true, by karmic design, the third dream will also come true,” Dr Lobsang Sangay, President of the Central Tibetan Administration, told a massive gathering of Tibetans in the picturesque hill township of McLeodganj last week.

“Let us reunite Dalai Lama with Tibetans inside Tibet,” Dr Lobsang Sangay, Dalai Lama's political successor, said asking the Tibetans to re-dedicate themselves and strengthen their efforts to make the dream and Dalai Lama's return to Potala Palace a reality.

The fact that the Tibetan cause has got watered down from a freedom struggle to autonomy over the years is something that has not gone unnoticed.

Tibetans living in exile across the globe are observing the year 2018 as “Thank You India” year. This, they say, is an expression of their gratitude towards a country which not only gave them shelter but also helped keep their “freedom struggle” and “movement” alive for six decades.

McLeodganj—the seat of the Tibetan Government-In-Exile--in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh is not called “Little Lhasa” for nothing. This place has not been just a home away from home for the exiled Tibetans. It has also been a launchpad sheltering a struggle which hopes to return the exiled Tibetans to their homeland some day.

So when the 14th Dalai Lama says that at a “practical level”, the Tibetans are “not seeking separation” from China and that their “elected political leadership” is committed to this stance, don't the Tibetans have reason to feel let down? Even if they do, the Tibetans do well to hide it. Given the stature His Holiness enjoys, it is difficult to find a Tibetan voice dissenting with the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama says that while remaining within the People's Republic of China, Tibetans should have certain rights enshrined in the Chinese Constitution so that Tibetans can preserve their culture, language and rich Buddhist tradition. It's anybody's guess how generations of Tibetans who were brought up on dreams of a Free Tibet would feel about this.

In “practical” terms, the spiritual leader probably realises that this is the best bargain he could secure from the increasingly assertive Chinese.

But the tone and tenor adopted by the political leadership of the Tibetan movement however would still make one believe that the idea of complete freedom has not been given up completely. Not yet.

At the main event to commence the year-long “Thank You India” celebrations, Dr Lobsang Sangay minced no words in detailing “60 years of China's illegal invasion and occupation of Tibet”, “60 years of destruction of Tibetan civilization, culture and identity”, “60 years of killing, arbitrary arrests and tortures”, “60 years of China's mass exploitation of our precious natural resources...our forests, our water and our glaciers”, and “60 years of tragedy, 60 years of suffering, 60 years of sadness and 60 years of pain”.

Sangay also lent a completely new dimension to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's “Make In India” programme by saying that the “original Make In India is the Tibetan movement”.

“Tibetans were born and brought up in India. They were educated in India. Our democracy replicates Indian democracy. Our philosophy of ahimsa comes from Indian philosophy. And the Tibetan cause is being rebuilt in India for the last 60 years,” Sangay said. “The original Made in India will also succeed. Your success will be our success, our success will be your success,” the Tibetan leader said addressing India's Culture Minister Mahesh Sharrma and senior BJP leader Ram Madhav.

No separation from China?  And Dalai Lama's return to Potala Palace even as it continues to be under Chinese occupation? Will the 1.28 lakh Tibetans-in-exile ever amenably settle for that is the question that needs immediate answering.