Tibetan PM stresses on individual effort to preserve culture
By Tenzin Pema and Rinzin Gyatso
Phayul August 30, 2010
Bangalore, Aug. 29 — Professor Samdhong Rinpoche, the Prime Minister of the Tibetan government in exile, on Sunday said Tibetans should strive to preserve their culture — not through protest marches, or via museums, or through organizing of cultural performance programs — but through the daily practice of a positive attitude, a trait deep rooted in Tibetan culture.
The Tibetan Prime Minister or Kalon Tripa, was addressing a gathering of around 300 Tibetans residing in the city. Rinpoche delivered a talk on the “Preservation of Tibetan culture and Responsibility of Tibetans in exile,” during a program organized by The Tibetan Rights and Freedom Restoration Committee in collaboration with ‘Talk Tibet’ — a group made up of college students in the city who regularly hold such activities for the Tibetan public.
The core principle of Tibetan culture or lejang is the practice of “Others before self,” Rinpoche said, adding that this was the sole reason why a scholar once remarked that “the world cannot afford to let the Tibetan culture disappear.” In his nearly three-hour long session with the Tibetans in the city, Rinpoche also defined the ways in which one can identify and classify the cultures of the west, from those of the east, including those of India, Tibet and China.
The concern to preserve Tibetan culture became a phenomenon only after 1959, and since then, there has been the occurrence of cultural genocide within Tibet, both intentionally and unintentionally, Rinpoche said, quoting the Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
While the threat to the Tibetan culture, or lejang, is now prominent both in exile and in Tibet, the former through freedom and the latter through force, the preservation of one’s culture should be an individual effort, through constant self introspection of one’s attitudes and actions, he said.
He acknowledged the lack of political and cultural knowledge within the Tibetan community today, especially among the youth, while identifying that the Tibetan exile’s responsibility is two-fold — one that of preserving one’s culture, and the second, that of working for the Tibetan issue.
Rinpoche was in the south Indian state of Karnataka for the First Tibetan National General Body Meeting that is currently underway at the biggest Tibetan settlement in India, Bylakuppe. Rinpoche is also due to attend the ceremony that will mark the 50th founding anniversary of Tibetan democracy in Bylakuppe on September 2, during which the Tibetan parliament-in-exile on behalf of the Tibetan people is set to honour His Holiness the Dalai Lama with a “Golden Seal” for his years-long selfless service to the Tibetan people.