Te Deum
To the best of my knowledge, the Dalai Lama has never attended public function celebrating his birthday, at lest not in Dharamsala where, naturally, the main celebration takes place every year on 6th July. In fact, I am told he has expressly forbidden any official festivities to mark the day. So the celebrations are supposed to be unofficial, that is to say, they are not organized by the ‘government’ but by various non-governmental bodies such as the local chapter of Tibetan Youth Congress. The government officials, including members of the Cabinet, attend these functions, but as ‘guests’ invited by whoever is organizing the whole thing. The ordinary people of Dharamsala also, of course, turn up, carrying huge amounts of food and drinks, for this is an excellent excuse for them to avoid work and enjoy a day-long picnic.
And that is the right spirit in which the day should be celebrated, not only by the masses but also by the government officials. What the unofficial part of the function try to do instead is turn it into a dreary political event, full of long speeches, often read out in elevated language and hence barely comprehensible to the likes of you and I. As on many previous occasions, I sat there at first trying, and then merely pretending, to feel gratitude for those profound words of wisdom; and it struck me as odd that our leaders should think it necessary that Tibetans—and Tibetans of Dharamsala at that!—be reminded year after year who the Dalai Lama is, when he was born and what he has done so far. I mean, for goodness’ sake, aren’t the people there because they already know all these things? I noticed that after a while quite a lot of the people had ceased paying attention to these, no doubt, laboriously worked out speeches. Some of the bolder members of the crowd around me were cracking jokes to go with the occasional phrases and sentences caught. Once in a while, shockingly, I even discovered myself contributing bits of inanity, which, the general mood being what it was, successfully passed for humour.
So, it appears that however hard the officials may try to spoil the day for the people, the latter are determined to have their own way. After twenty-old years of experience, isn’t it about time the bureaucrats conceded defeat and left the job of celebrating such a joyous occasion to those who are so much better at it?
To the best of my knowledge, the Dalai Lama has never attended public function celebrating his birthday, at lest not in Dharamsala where, naturally, the main celebration takes place every year on 6th July. In fact, I am told he has expressly forbidden any official festivities to mark the day. So the celebrations are supposed to be unofficial, that is to say, they are not organized by the ‘government’ but by various non-governmental bodies such as the local chapter of Tibetan Youth Congress. The government officials, including members of the Cabinet, attend these functions, but as ‘guests’ invited by whoever is organizing the whole thing. The ordinary people of Dharamsala also, of course, turn up, carrying huge amounts of food and drinks, for this is an excellent excuse for them to avoid work and enjoy a day-long picnic.
And that is the right spirit in which the day should be celebrated, not only by the masses but also by the government officials. What the unofficial part of the function try to do instead is turn it into a dreary political event, full of long speeches, often read out in elevated language and hence barely comprehensible to the likes of you and I. As on many previous occasions, I sat there at first trying, and then merely pretending, to feel gratitude for those profound words of wisdom; and it struck me as odd that our leaders should think it necessary that Tibetans—and Tibetans of Dharamsala at that!—be reminded year after year who the Dalai Lama is, when he was born and what he has done so far. I mean, for goodness’ sake, aren’t the people there because they already know all these things? I noticed that after a while quite a lot of the people had ceased paying attention to these, no doubt, laboriously worked out speeches. Some of the bolder members of the crowd around me were cracking jokes to go with the occasional phrases and sentences caught. Once in a while, shockingly, I even discovered myself contributing bits of inanity, which, the general mood being what it was, successfully passed for humour.
So, it appears that however hard the officials may try to spoil the day for the people, the latter are determined to have their own way. After twenty-old years of experience, isn’t it about time the bureaucrats conceded defeat and left the job of celebrating such a joyous occasion to those who are so much better at it?
posted by editorla at
9:08 PM
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