The Survivor: Test of Faith – The Dalai Lama

Charlie Campbell/ Dharamsala, India

Time Magazine

March 18, 2019

pg. 31-37

Peyton Jackson

Mr. O’ Grady

Contemporary World Issues

April 5, 2019
 Testing Faith between the Dalai Lama and Buddhism

It must be hard to leader one’s region and carry the weight of hostility from other external

factors. The Dalai Lama has to deal with this hostility from the rest of China while he still

continues to lead his own region, Tibet. It is interesting to know the values the Dalai Lama

possesses like how everyone “emotionally, mentally, [and] physically- are the same.” The Dalai

Lama’s job is to renounce Nirvana, in other words to reincarnate one’s soul or a state of heaven

and bliss. I think it is hard especially for one man to be in charge of that matter and uphold his

reputation. Hearing the perspective of the Dalai Lama even from Nancy Pelosi who says he is “a

messenger of hope for millions of people around the world” shows how significant his role is not

only in Tibet, but in all other parts of the world.

In order to make room for Buddhism Chinese political leaders exiled Dalai Lama. This

rejection shows the CCP’s corrupt way of manipulating China. Furthermore, China is working

on separating themselves from Tibet completely through succession, and “Sinicizing” Buddhism.

It’s crazy to think that they are going to try to complete this conversion within the next five years

and using millions of dollars to rebrand the faith of an ancient religion China has maintained.

Beijing themselves spent three billion dollars trying to modernize Nepalese, the birth place of

Lord Buddha. The fact that they are using their money to create Nepalese into a “luxury

pilgrimage site” and boasting of public sites shows how far they were willing to go to replace the

Dalai Lama. With all this change, the Beijing sees the Dalai Lama as threating and dangerous,

but in fact he is not. Although the CCP continues to belittle the Dalai Lama’s reputation, he

continues to advocate what he believes which is creating “a greater autonomy and religious and

cultural freedom for his people”. His consistency with staying positive and strong shows his

personality as a leader and role model for the people around the world.
 I found it crazy that the next Dalai Lama was possibly found he is only the age of two

years old. This two year old boy, Lhamo Thondup, will be the 14th incarnation of the Dalai

Lama, and I’m impressed that the toddlers was able to recognize the objects that belong to the

13th Dalai Lama. It is insane to realize that out of the many toddler he was the one who was

chosen. They could have chosen someone else, but the Tibetan monks follow oracles and

prophecies which led them to this toddler. Getting to learn about the Dalai Lama’s childhood

really struck me. He rarely saw his friends and family and his instructor had a whip which he

called “holy pain!” I felt bad for him as child because he was lonely, but his fascination with

science and technology I think still allowed him to explore outside the boundaries of just training

for spiritual matters.

The U.S’s relations with the Dalai Lama surprised me the most because everyone single

president has met with the Dalai Lama except for Donald Trump. I think it is insightful to see

how the Dalai Lama views America. He says that with America’s diverse land and free world

they should be leading and taking the global issues, such as Global Warming, more seriously. He

later states that America values a “materialistic life” cause jealously, stress and anxiety. I

understand what the Dalai Lama is saying, but I feel that his single minded opinions about the

U.S. do not fully validate his morals. America is not the only country who can help, everyone

has to help out with global issues, and the issues are literally “global” as in the whole world. The

Dalai Lama also cherishes the problem of people thinking too narrow minded, but his views on

only the U.S. seem to be single minded. However his idea of strengthening our self-control is

something we should value more even as children. This idea I do believe could create more

“inner peace.”