By IANS,
Chennai : The 73rd birthday of the 14th Dalai Lama is being marked by the University of Madras and Alliance Francaise here Sunday with a three-day festival of Tibetan culture.
The festival began with a presentation on an extraordinary French woman, who was one of the only two French explorers to be able to reach the forbidden land of Lhasa in the hundred years between 1846 and 1950.
Many foreign explorers, “missionaries, army officers, diplomats, spies” wanted to have a look at Tibet at the time, explained Claude Arpi, French journalist and historian, speaking on the life Alexandra David-Néel whose numerous writings contributed to make Tibet and Buddhism known the world over.
Between the mid-19th and the mid-20th century, there were several wars in the region. A rare 1778 French map showed the barrenness of the landscape that the Chinese, British and Russians all wanted.
“But, getting to Lhasa was not easy. Several explorers were killed in their attempts, especially in the Kham region,” Arpi pointed out, adding, it is misconception to think of Tibet and its people as traditionally non-violent.
“They were armed to the teeth and fiercely defended their land on Tibet’s borders,” which is why Tibet gained the reputation of being the forbidden land.
“Everyone knows this, that is why a rebellion in Tibet is so feared,” Arpi noted.
“It is to the 14th Dalai Lama’s great credit that he has today made Tibet a symbol of non-violence and there is so great an interest in Tibet that 40 percent books in any western bookshop is on Tibet,” the historian-author pointed out.
Born in 1868, Alexandra David-Néel was a Belgian-French woman who lived for 101 years. A confirmed travel bug, she renewed her passport even in 1968 with the desire to travel again.
In 1904, Alexandra met and married railroad engineer Philippe Néel in Tunis. “But she did not settle down”, Arpi noted, pointing out how many had tried in that century to get into Lhasa but failed. Very few really got to Lhasa, Tibet’s prime city, and this extraordinary woman was one among them.
In 1911 Alexandra travelled for the second time to India, this time to Sikkim, and was “invited to the royal monastery” where she met crown prince Sidkeon Tulku. She also met the 13th Dalai Lama, who was resident at a Kalimpong monastery, in 1912.
In the period 1914-1916 Alexandra lived in a cave in Sikkim, near the Tibetan border, with the intention of going into Tibet. In 1916, she met the Panchen Lama in Shigatse.
Alexandra then planned to enter Tibet as a pilgrim. “She completely became a Tibetan, her beliefs became Buddhist, her lifestyle was completely Tibetan and she reached Lhasa in 1924,” Arpi said.
In 1937, Alexandra again returned to Tibet and continued her studies of Tibetan sacred literature. She wrote over 30 books and her work influenced writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and philosopher Alan Watts. She died in France, in 1969.