Kundun: The Presence of an
Absence
Huffington Post
Blog July 07, 2015
Dechen Pemba
We Tibetans have many terms of respect for His Holiness the Dalai
Lama; Yeshe Norbu, Gongsachog, Chenrezig, Gyalwa Rinpoche,
Kundun... These are the names we use when we speak amongst
ourselves and these were also the names I heard invoked many times
when travelling around Tibet on my trips there in 1994, 2004, 2007
and 2008.
Upon hearing that I was a Tibetan from inji-lungba (literally, the
land of English people), the first question would invariably be,
have you ever seen or met His Holiness? From Lithang in Kham to
Labrang in Amdo through to Lhasa in central Tibet, in all three
traditional provinces of Tibet, it was the same question over and
over.
I almost felt bad to say that I had, on several occasions. I would
never dare to answer truthfully, that I had seen him more times
than I could even count. When I was little and growing up in
Surrey, just outside of London, a Tibetan audience with His
Holiness meant a day off school and a day trip to London, it was
always exciting! In those days in the 1980s, there were barely 100
Tibetans in the whole of the UK.
Later when I became a student in Beijing in 2006, I taught English
as a volunteer to Tibetan students and had been warned not to make
the classes "political" in any way. Imagine how I broke into a
sweat when in my first ever class, a young man from Amdo decided to
use the self-introduction round as a chance to speak in English
about the situation in his home village, describing in detail how
Chinese settlers were coming in in large numbers and the lack of
religious freedom. One of my other classes was on the topic of
"holidays". When I asked the class, where they'd like to travel to
on holiday, one by one they all answered India. I should have seen
that one coming really.
The term Kundun in Tibetan literally means "presence" but the Dalai
Lama's absence from Tibet is an all too real pain that is
impossible not to feel. Or in a strange way, it could be
interpreted as an overall presence in noting the absence.
In contemporary Tibetan songs and writings, themes of
missing someone, often a
parent,
are common, as well as longing for a distant far off
place.
These poetic expressions are often ambiguous to avoid censorship
and political problems, many have been translated into English on
my website High Peaks Pure
Earth.
In 2011, prominent Tibetan writer, poet and blogger Tsering Woeser
wrote about having a Skype audience with His
Holiness
from her Beijing apartment. Her blogpost became the most read on
High Peaks Pure Earth ever and and the third most commented
upon.
Woeser movingly wrote:
"I cried and I cried. When I, as Tibetans do, prostrated three
times, silently reciting some prayers, holding a khata in my hands
and kneeling in front of the computer with tear-dimmed eyes, I saw
His Holiness reaching out both of his hands as if he was going to
take the Khata, as if he was going to give me his blessings. I am
unable to describe with words how I felt: I am really such a
fortunate person; in Tibet, many people get into trouble simply for
owning a photo of the Dalai Lama."
It seems fitting on the occasion of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's
80th birthday to honour the Tibetans who patiently wait for
him.