Arjia Rinpoche is the highest ranking lama to have escaped Tibet since the Dali Lama in 1959. Rinpoche and seven monks from the Tashi Kyil Monastery in Dehra Dun, India are currently holding community events and touring the Fort Wayne area.
In 1951, China forcefully annexed Tibet and has since been trying to assert control over their Buddhist tradition.
“When I decided to escape in 1998 … I held a very high position, political and religious,” Rinpoche said. “Forty years later the situation is [very] different.”
Because of Rinpoche’s position in the Chinese government—the result of China’s efforts to manipulate and maneuver high ranking Tibetan leaders in order to gain control of the Tibetan people—he could not simply cross the Himalayas into India. He would need to make a presumably routine visit to southern China, which they of course allowed.
“So I went there and changed my clothes into a [Western] disguise and got my passport. From [there] I flew back to Beijing. From Beijing I escaped to Guatemala. Because Guatemala and China do not have foreign relations they don’t [require] visas. From Guatemala I went to US,” Rinpoche explained.
In 1958, at Kumbum monastery where 8-year-old Rinpoche was training to be a teacher and lama, Chinese Communist soldiers came, beating and arresting hundreds of monks. Afterward, Rinpoche would be committed to 16 years of hard labor and re-education.
Today, Rinpoche wears a contagious smile and relaxes on the couch at Starbucks downtown with his tea, just as naturally as the other people surrounding him.
He is the director of two Tibetan Buddhist centers—one in Bloomington, IN., and another in Mill Valley, CA.
“We live in this world that is wonderful but contaminated,” Rinpoche said, explaining what a mandala represents. “[It] is a pure land without contamination … we go there and meditate and practice and purify our minds.”
“The mandala is one of the [most] important arts in Tibetan tradition. We usually make three kinds of mandalas. One is a flat painting mandala like on paper or a wall or fabric … the second one is the sand mandala. That is for the ritual practice.”
This ritual represents the transience of life.
“[Then] for studying and analyzing and a deeper understanding we also make three-dimensional mandalas; which is like a model for somebody’s practice,” he said.
The mandala is like a palace with multiple floors, “which represent body, speech, and mind.” The mandala also has four gates: North, South, West and East. The gates represent the “four directions, the Buddhist understanding of the universe, which [is] made of four elements: earth, water, wind and fire.” And just as the Earth is comprised of these four elements, the Buddhist views the human body in the same way.
“Our body is a small universe which also has [these] qualities. Earth is our muscles and bone. Water is our blood. Wind is our breath. Fire is our temperature. Those four elements make balance so the body survives,” he said.
In 1999, Rinpoche created a 3D mandala and presented it to His Holiness the Dali Lama, which was in turn donated to the Smithsonian Institute. Today, it can be seen at the Tibet House, New York.
“When I made that one I used very special material like glass beads. I used the beads to make it very colorful and beautiful,” he said.
Oct. 14 to 18, the seven monks created a sand mandala in the main hallway of the downtown Fort Wayne library. After its destruction, Rinpoche spoke to a group about his escape from China to America.
From now until Nov. 20, Rinpoche and the monks will continue performing community events such as the ritual creation and destruction of the sand mandala. Festivities also include memoir book signings by Rinpoche himself.
