Undefeated in Death: Tenzin Delek
Rinpoche
Huffington Post July 30, 2015
01:15 Tenzin
Dorjee
Few people have done
more for Tibet than Tenzin Delek Rinpoche. Born in Lithang, an
eastern Tibetan region famous for its fine horses and fearless
warriors, Tenzin Delek started off as an unknown lama of humble
origins. But through extensive social and humanitarian work, he
established scores of clinics, schools and orphanages. He built
nunneries to educate women, and nursing homes for the elderly. He
settled long-simmering disputes between families. Criminals who
couldn't be tamed by multiple stints in prison were miraculously
subdued and reformed by Rinpoche.
His profound impact on the community didn't stop there. He fought
against China's rampant deforestation in Tibet, and the alarming
rate of desertification. He battled mining companies - and
sometimes succeeded in keeping them out of the region. This angered
local Chinese officials, who were often in collusion with the
extractive industries.
Predictably, the authorities tried to arrest him in 1997 by
connecting him to pro-independence leaflets. Rinpoche fled to the
mountains. The local communities, staging risky protests, persuaded
the authorities to leave Rinpoche alone. When he returned to the
village in 1998, thousands of villagers gave him a hero's
welcome.
However, he was now a marked man. In 2002, Chinese authorities
arrested him and sentenced him to death for the false charge of
"bombing." Rinpoche was put to a sham trial whose foregone
conclusion was to lock him up. Following a sustained global
campaign to save his life, his sentence was commuted to life
imprisonment.
As a result of harsh prison conditions, Rinpoche's health quickly
deteriorated - for Tibetan political prisoners, torture and
beatings are routine and well documented. Despite repeated appeals
by his family and public expressions of concern from world leaders,
China denied him medical care.
Though we knew Rinpoche was ill, his death shocked us all the same.
But what China did afterward took their cruelty to yet another
level.
For Tibetan Buddhists, if there is one thing more important than
life, it is the moment immediately following one's death, when the
Tibetan Book of the Dead is read out loud to guide the dead
person's soul toward spiritual liberation. In this period, one's
consciousness passes through what Buddhists call the "clear light
moment," an opportunity to propel one's consciousness into higher
rebirth, even enlightenment.
Rinpoche was denied this
opportunity, as his body lay in a high-security prison for days.
Even as thousands of Tibetans demanded the return of his body to
give him the traditional Buddhist final rites, a right provided by
the Chinese constitution, the prison authorities illegally withheld
his body. In an unforgivable act of insult against a whole nation
and religion, the prison guards secretly cremated Rinpoche's body.
Last week, when his relatives were carrying Rinpoche's ashes to his
hometown, Chinese police stopped them and forcibly seized the
ashes. They then effectively abducted Rinpoche's sister Dolkar
Lhamo and her daughter, both of whom are still missing.
In
life, they robbed him of his freedom. In death, they robbed him of
his liberation. But there was one thing they could never take away
from Rinpoche: his dignity. He died undefeated.
Thanks to this brand
of Tibetan dignity - and a stubborn hope against all odds - even
after sixty years of colonial occupation, Tibet remains
unconquered. Tibetans continue to see the exile government in
Dharamsala, not Beijing, as their true representative. Since
2009, roughly 150
Tibetans have self-immolated to protest Chinese rule.
Rinpoche's death, tragic as it was, will initiate yet another
generation of Tibetans into the freedom struggle. Instead of merely
praising Tibetan pacifism, world leaders must turn up the heat on
China. Using economic leverage, political pressure, and social
activism, the world must support the Tibetan people's nonviolent
struggle to end Chinese rule and establish a free and democratic
Tibet.
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