Tibetans prayers flags flutter from Goa beach for Japan victims

Tibetans prayers flags flutter from Goa beach for Japan victims

Sikkim-made Tibetan lungta (wind-horse)) prayer flags, which were placed along the Vagator beach in Goa on March 10 to mark the 52 anniversary of Tibetan Uprising, will carry the message of peace and harmony to all sentient beings, including the people of Japan and the victims of the recent earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster in that country.

 

Prayers flags at Vagator beach in Goa.

For those not used to it, Tibetan sacred music can be a rather rattling experience. No gentle sounds of running water and flutes calm the mind, and no pleasant melodies by stringed instruments lull the soul.

When the robed Tibetan monks began their chants for Japan on Vagator beach on Friday, it was with an intense, low guttural growl. With little by way of musical accompaniment except cymbals and the piercing Dungchen horns, it was only the monks' formidable vocal cords that provided an aurally magical and transcendental experience for the few hundred gathered around.

In the distance, much like William Wordsworth's Daffodils, the Lungta flags were fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Illuminated by bulbs in painted black bottles at their bases, they stretched in a never-ending line, along a spiral path into the lofty hills beyond.

The six hundred vertical flags, named after a mythical Tibetan horse that carries prayers from earth to the high heavens, represent the six million people of Tibet. In the midst of the serenity, many an individual seeking solitude meditated to the flapping sound and the cool sea breeze that surrounded it.

Then, in the lit up area on green and red carpets, the monks started dancing. If the singing ones wore a bright yellow Shamu hat, the Cham dancers wore an elaborately coloured and crafted costume with a black hat. The twirling dance, somewhat reminiscent of the Sufi dervishes of the middle-east, is an annual ritual to exorcise evil, and is rarely seen outside a few, inaccessible Buddhist monasteries in the upper realms of the Himalayas.

Beyond the dances and the flags, a full-blown Tibetan cultural festival was in progress; locals as well as tourists made a beeline for the stalls selling necklaces, pendants, cuisine and the famous Tibetan singing bowls. Many of the stalls had chants playing, and interested foreigners browsed through, holding them on their palms and testing their tones.

The Tibetan vendors, known by reputation to be a largely honest bunch, resorted to no annoying sales gimmicks and peacefully demonstrated the utility of their wares to any inquisitive soul that cared to wander by.

The installation and festival were conceptualized by artist Subodh Kerkar when he visited Sikkim in 2009. "I saw the flags on the mountains, and was immediately struck by their beauty, simplicity and peaceful nature," he told TOI near the Lungtas on the beach. He then decided to install them in Goa by the sea.

"Then, last month, I met His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who blessed the project and asked me to have it on March 10, which is the 52nd anniversary of the Tibetan revolution", he adds.

Kerkar then contacted the Tibetan community in Goa and asked them to be part of the project, in what is probably the first time an effort has been made to assimilate Goa's Tibetans into the community.

A firm believer in the Tibetan cause, Kerkar got the flags shipped in from Sikkim, and dyed them at his studio at Pilerne. Up in the Himalayas, the flags symbolize the carrying of blessings to all beings; as the flags age, the Tibetans install new flags alongside the old, a metaphor of life moving on and always being replaced by the new.

Here in Goa, Kerkar says it symbolizes the ocean praying for the freedom of snow, referring to Tibet's troubled relationship with China and its freedom struggle.

"The Tibetans sell jewellery, but lack the most important jewel of all-freedom", he trails off. The Lungtas will stand on Vagator beach till March 17. (Times of India)

BJP to approach SC after Delhi High Court gives clean chit to Chamling on dual citizenship issue

PROTECT INDIA’S ONLY ‘GORKHA CM’: BIMAL GURUNG

Observer News Service

Gangtok, March 18: The State unit of the BJP has decided to take the dual citizenship  issue against Chief Minister Pawan Chamling  to the Supreme Court after  the Delhi High Court  on Tuesday rejected the petition filed against him.

The decision to approach the apex court has taken during a party meeting held in New Delhi this week, sources said.

Delhi High Court on Tuesday rejected a petition filed against Chamling questioning his Indian citizenship.

Justice S. Muralidhar said: 'This Court finds substance in the contention of Sikkim Chief Minister that the complaint, dated June 9, 2008, was made by the petitioner for gaining political mileage.'

'For a person active in politics in Sikkim, and presumably a public figure, the petitioner was expected to act responsibly in activating the legal processes. The documents forming the basis of the petitioner's complaint questioning the Indian citizenship of Chamling were inherently unreliable,' said the court verdict.

The case was filed in June 2008 by president of the Bharatiya Janata Party's Sikkim unit Padam Chettri. The BJP chief alleged that Chamling was holding citizenship of India and Nepal.

Meanwhile, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief, Bimal Gurung, who was here this week, welcomed the High Court’s verdict. He said Chamling was the only “Gorkha Chief Minister in the country” and urged all Gorkhas to protect him.

EDITORIAL

NEPALI  LEADERSHIP

Regaining Minority Confidence

Unlike before the political leadership in Sikkim dominated by the majority Nepalese as far as the need to preserve the former kingdom’s distinct identity within the Union is changing. Young and experienced Nepali leaders in the Opposition have been constantly harping on the need to preserve the ‘special status’ of the ‘Sikkimese’ who belong to the three ethnic communities (Lepchas, Bhutias and Nepalese). The recent focus on the rights and interests of the ‘Sikkim Subjects’ on subjects such as ‘pink card’, ‘residential certificate’ etc is an indication of what lies ahead for Sikkim. The support for creation of ‘Gorkhaland’ state in neighbouring Darjeeling is not just a moral support extended to the Gorkhas in North Bengal; it is also a message from the Sikkimese people that they are opposed to Sikkim-Darjeeling merger demand and determined to preserve Sikkim’s distinct identity.

In the past three and half decades the minority Buddhist Bhutia-Lepcha tribals in Sikkim have looked up to the Sikkimese Nepalese for leadership. By and large, the minority Bhutia-Lepchas, who have given all-out support to all the four Nepali chief ministers, including Pawan Kumar Chamling, ever since 1979 are disappointed and disillusioned with the way things are. They trust no one now. The majority community is split into pieces and the minorities are directionless. This is a dangerous trend in Sikkim politics where ‘one man rule’ seems to be the order of the day. Even the majority Sikkimese Nepalese are a disillusioned lot and are faced with a leadership crisis. In the light of this dilemma an indepth rethinking is the need of the hour for the Sikkimese people.