By Keya Acharya
MUNDGOD, India, Jan 15 1999 (IPS)

Tibet’s distinct culture and centuries of Buddhist learning are better preserved in India than inside Tibet, the Dalai Lama, spiritual head of Tibetans worldwide, believes.

In Doeguling near Mundgod, southern India, where he inaugurated the Grand Assembly Hall of the Drepung University, the Dalai Lama said the monastic universities set up in India by Tibetan refugees were attracting students from India and abroad.

He said the Drepung University, a replica of a 500-year-old university of the same name in Lhasa which was burned down by the Chinese in 1959, is among the largest in India.

The university was set up in 1971, with an initial 200 students. Now it has 3,500 on its rolls, apart from senior monks who stay in the main monastery. There are 260 child novitiates, between 8 and 14 years who go through a general educational process with theology as a special subject.

It takes 18 years of hard work for students to complete a doctorate or ‘geshe’ as they are called in Tibetan. The study is rigorous and monastic life is spartan.

The Dalai Lama who personally monitors the final examinations at Drepung University, spent a few days conducting religious debates with the monks. The five main theological subjects taught here are Mahayan Ethics, Logic, Psychology, Madhamita and Paramita philosophy.

Large numbers of the students are Indian Buddhists from the Himalayan areas – lamas from Ladakh and Zanskar regions in northern Jammu and Kashmir state and parts of eastern India – besides students from Bhutan and Nepal, and also from the West, mainly the Nordic countries.

Kensur Tenpa Tenzin, the senior abbot at the monastery said the newly-opened Assembly Hall was built entirely by voluntary labour of monks and the Tibetan refugee community in Mundgod and elsewhere in India.

The Doeguling Tibetan settlement is spread over 3,000 acres in Karnataka state. The state government has given the community nearly 13,000 acres of land on a 99-year lease. In fact nearly half the land given to the Tibetan refugees is situated in southern India.

Tens of thousands of Tibetans have fled their country since the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959. Large numbers live in and around Dharamshala in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh where the Dalai Lama and his government-in-exile were allowed to settle by the Indian government in 1960.

Many others are in settlements across 10 Indian states. Invited by several Indian states including Karnataka, during the early 1960s, the Tibetan refugees had established over 20 settlements. The Doeguling settlement set up in 1966 is home to 12,000 Tibetans today.

There are a total of 100,000 Tibetan refugees in India. The community has also put down roots in Nepal (25,000), Bhutan (2,000), Switzerland (2,000), Canada (600) and the United States (1,500).

Ever since he left his country, the Dalai Lama has been trying to convince China to let his people return home. Teams of negotiators have flown from Dharamshala to Beijing for discussions on the future of Tibet.

The Dalai Lama has been advocating a five-point peace plan, in which he has proposed the transformation of the whole of Tibet into a zone of peace; the abandonment of China’s population transfer policy which has made the Tibetans a minority in Tibet; respect for the Tibetan people’s human rights; protection of Tibet’s natural environment; and a dialogue on the future status of Tibet.

In an interview in Doeguling, he maintained that his policy of the “middle approach” of autonomous self-rule for Tibet had not changed. “I believe this is best for us, for Tibet and the region,” he said.

He was optimistic that the international community would continue to support the Tibetan cause and said people worldwide recognised that Tibetan culture was in the best tradition of Buddhism.

The Tibetan government-in-exile has documented large-scale destruction of the environment and wildlife in Tibet, which prior to the Chinese invasion was an unspoiled, wilderness sanctuary protected by the Tibetans Buddhist faith which has a great respect for all forms of life.

Tibet’s vast plains have been used for the production of

nuclear weapons and the dumping of nuclear waste, threatening not only living generations, but future generations, the Dalai Lama has warned time and again.

But his strict adherence to a non-violent approach to peace has been challenged by Tibetan youth groups. Young Tibetan refugees protested China’s “illegal occupation” outside the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi this month.

Asked to comment, the Dalai Lama said it was “unfortunate” that Tibetan refugee youths had begun taking to strident public protests against China. He added that these were “symptoms of frustration” among Tibetans at their situation.

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