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How a layman sees the Dalai Lama
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-13 19:30

Myths have fueled the mysticism and celebrity of the Dalai Lama. One myth is that Lhamo Thondup was the only candidate for the incarnation -- the rationale of which was he inerrably identified belongings of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. Though with such gifted endowments, a handful of candidates should have been selected, in line with the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, for the final pick, or even after a ritual of casting lots from the Gold Bottle in the fiercest contesting cases.    

After his delegation signed with the central government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) the 17-Point Agreement on a peaceful settlement of Tibet in May 1951, the Dalai Lama telegraphed Chairman Mao Zedong to actively support the peace agreement in October, almost one year after he was enthroned. He now says the rapprochement was reached "under duress."

In September 1954, the Dalai Lama, together with another Tibetan Buddhist leader Panchen Lama, went to Beijing for voting China's top legislature and was himself elected a vice speaker. He now asserts that this was a "visit (to) China for peace talks."

What the Dalai Lama did in "China" was documented much more than he now officially acknowledges as "meeting with Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders." He in fact wrote a poem likening the paramount Chinese communist leader as "the Brahma," the Hindu god of creation, and "the all-mighty sun," wishing Mao "a life to eternity."    

On the most intractable controversy on his falling out with the PRC central government, the Dalai Lama said, one day after the Lhasa riot on March 10, 1959, and a later publicized hand-written letter, "Reactionary, evil elements are carrying out activities endangering me on the pretext of ensuring my safety. I am taking steps to calm things down." In his official Web site, however, he  states that "Tibetan People's Uprising begins in Lhasa."    

The crisis led to his fleeing from Norbulingka Palace in Lhasa on March 17, 1959.    

THE TALE OF A VILLAGE    

As the religious leader, the Dalai Lama spent only one third of his life in the motherland and four years in the remote  mud-and-stone village, formerly known as Taktser, on the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.    

Hongaizi Village, symbolic of the rough and sterile landscape of the plateau, shows little traces of the Shangri-La that filtered into Western minds since James Hilton created the surreal image of such a holy land.    

A total of 256 villagers are now living in the same place that the highest Tibetan spiritual leader was born. More than 70 percent of the 54 families own televisions and 61 percent have telephone landlines. The village also sees 10 cell phones, 16 motorbikes, one car but not a single Internet-linked computer. Gonpo purchased the village's only private car, an economical 2003 Daihatsu Charde.    

Tsering Kyi, mother of a nine-year-old school girl whose family is living 150 meters from the Dalai Lama's old house, displays a picture of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama in her spacious living room.    

She said, "It's not unusual that we're living here and our family's fortune largely bets on what jobs that my husband is able to find out of the village."    

Unlike Tsering, many villagers believe the surrounding red  hills crouch themselves like a giant lion, one of the auspicious tokens in Ping'an, an overwhelmingly farming county which saw in  2007 gross domestic product per capita at $1,500 against the country's average of $2,600.    

Gonpo's income comes from the public office he has served since 1998 and donations from the Dalai Lama followers. Gonpo spent at least 500,000 yuan ($73,200) in house maintenance in recent years.