unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/17/89)
Kalacakra in India Postponed
A spokesman for the Dalai Lama has announced the Kalacakra teachings
and initiation to have been held in India in January 1990 will be
postponed. The teachings were to be given in Sarnath, near Varanasi in
the state of Uttar Pradesh.Sarnath was the site of the Buddha's first
enlightened teaching,"the turning of the wheel", in which the Four Noble
Truths and the Eightfold Path were expounded.
The postponement is in response to a request from the government of
Uttar Pradesh. The Kalacakra was to occur near the time of state
elections prompting officials to ask that the Tibetans delay their
event for at least two months. The Dalai Lama chose to postpone for one
year.
A similar gathering in 1985 in Bodh Gaya attracted at least 200,000
Tibetans. Thousands came from throughout Tibet, nearly all making the
trek without permission from the Chinese. The clandestine journey
through remote Himalayan passes was long and fraught with hardship and
peril. Chinese border guards made no intensive effort to halt them. The
multitudes returning to Tibet after the initiation did so feeling
thoroughly enlivened,despite having to retrace their gruelling
unauthorized journey. The event is now legendary amongst Tibetans.
Circumstances are far worse than they were four years ago. For six
months Tibet has been tightly shackled by martial law.Relief is not in
sight. Chinese troops guarding the border have dramatically increased
their vigilance. Tibetans trying to cross the frontier, including
children, have been shot to death. Late last year Nepal compounded the
lethal miseries of Tibetans. Reversing policy in order to comply with
Chinese wishes, efficient Nepalese border patrols began intercepting and
arresting Tibetans who had succeeded at crossing the frontier without
correct documentation. They are promptly returned to Chinese troops,
with whom their prospects are grim.
It is certain that an event of the magnitude of a Kalacakra initiation
given by the Dalai Lama at a premier site of pilgrimage would be
irresistible to legions of Tibetans within Tibet. Such an unspeakable
tragedy it would have been for masses of them to have bravely,and
desperately,sought religious instruction only to end as corpses, shot
down in barren frontier passes.
* Origin: TibetNet BBS (1:107/535)
Email: ...!rutgers!rubbs!107!535!Indira.Singh
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