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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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