“Look, Dalai Lama says no one can be free until everyone’s free,” Professor Thurman repeated. Meaning, China’s not free until Tibet is. Meaning, of course, civic and religious freedom; China can only be as democratic as Tibet is allowed to be. But meaning at a more profound yet even more practical matter that so long as Chinese soldiers are filled with fear so are Tibetan civilians. So long as Tibetan kids on their way to school and mothers on their way home from market are angry, so too will Chinese occupiers.
And herein lies the Dalai Lama’s revolutionary theory and His Holiness’ ethical directive. Why the Dalai Lama Matters furthers that message, setting out a plan that obviously resonated with Northwest Tibetans, like an old relative returning from far away. Professor Thurman was taken in as family. Easy to love.
“Most important for us,” said Tsering Choephel, president of the Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association, “was for our younger generation seeing and hearing a believer and friend of His Holiness; a gray-hair Westerner who wrote so many books and knows so much about Tibet history and culture.”
Watch the lively conversation between Robert Thurman and Mike Schneider on “Night Talk”, broadcast on Bloomberg TV June 19, 2008, available here in 3 parts.
At a time when the world has been particularly focused on Tibet since the territory erupted in mass protests this spring, Thurman has come out with a new book, “Why the Dalai Lama Matters,” to present his view on how the conflict can be resolved. In the book, he argues that establishing Tibetan cultural and religious autonomy — while keeping Tibet as a part of China — is a benefit to Tibet, China and the world at large. I caught up with Thurman last week while he was visiting the Bay Area on a book tour. Read the full interview with Robert Thurman by David Ian Miller at SFGate.com, originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Monday June 16, 2008.
At Sunday’s baccalaureate service, Tenzin Robert A.F. Thurman, the man whom The New York Times hailed as the “leading American expert on Tibetan Buddhism,” told Lehigh University’s Class of 2008 that learning is a life-long process.
“You are graduating tomorrow, but do not think that you are getting away from education,” said Thurman, the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University. “For the Buddhist, education is the purpose of life. [Read more]
"No one has worked harder to bring Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism and the special power of the Dalai Lama to American audiences than Robert Thurman. Long may he write and, as in this latest work, bring learning and spirit, great vigor and close knowledge, together." — Pico Iyer
Tenzin Robert A.F. Thurman delivers the 2008 baccalaureate address at Lehigh University
