Political Invasion of Monasteries

       Political Invasion of Monasteries

                                                                                       Palden Namgyal Beri

Religious and Politics are totally separate from each other in terms of theories and their activities and so forth. Spirituality is for cessation of samsara and politic is for how one can rule the samsara. But, in many of histories both Tibetan and Indian, we can find that there were many of spiritualists who involved in political activities now and then. For instance, Lha Lama Jangchup Woe after the King Tharma, Choegyal Phakpa during the Sakya times and especially at the time of The 7th Dalai Lama, Monk minister system ( Kalon lama) was made and since then the system of ruling the government by lamas started. If we look back to past history, many mistakes made by those lamas were seen every now and then. We should be truly to state that those politicians did some good deeds like keeping our traditional religious and culture which we can show and help millions of people in the world now days. We are truly obliged to past generations for keeping treasure of Tibet till now and it’s their gratitude for us to crane our neck high among other people even we are under the word R (Refugee) now days.

Therefore, It’s very difficult to confirm that the system of ruling the politics by lamas is good or not. There are reasonable explanations from both sides for approval. However, even in exile, many of lamas are involved in politics and top of that there are separate two seats for the five religious sects each in Tibetan Parliament and you can find many lamas and monks in the Parliament. Like other countries, Tibetan monks and nuns can stand in political campaign and have fully right to vote for the both of religious and province MP and the prime minister too.

It’s very strange that 75% of scholars, rulers, intellectuals and social workers of Tibet is either monk or ex monk. So it is quite true of calling as “Lama Country” to Tibet by other historians. There are only more than one lake Tibetans in the exile and Many of Those are in the monasteries. So, all of the politicians hold high expectation to get more votes from the monasteries and the monasteries are called as “The Vote Bank”. During the time of vote, many political campaigns come to monasteries and beg for the votes, striking many campaign photos with the brief history all over the walls. You can see full of those photos on the walls and streets in the monasteries when the vote is near.

However, no difference of monk and non monk, all of the Tibetans in the exile had a great and high development in democracy in 2010. In other word, there had a great political invasion in all over the Tibetan settlements and monasteries too. Many Tibetans participated in 3rd Kalon Kripa and 15th MP’s vote which had just held recently. Most of monks and nuns also participated in those political votes and had a good enough knowledge of politics. By the influence of that political invasion in monks mind, many lamas happened to hold a political post more than before. According to my perspective, holding political post by monks is not good and we have to avoid such works soon. It’s very nice to learn that there were no monks standing campaign of upcoming Kalon Tripa. That was good sign of improvement in lay people and especially in young generations.

At last I just want to express that 2011 is the year for young generations and they should lead our nation ahead. It’s better for the monks not to involve in political any more except in few occasions. I will be extremely happy if I feel the freedom from the political invasion in monasteries.