Nirvana for the People

Gaya,three hours from Patna,is known best for its bald hills,tilkut ladoos and choking gallis. But Bodh Gaya,20 km south,where the Buddha gained Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree,is one of the four main holy sites for Buddhist pilgrims. The glorious Mahabodhi temple,built in the 6th century,atop an original temple built by Emperor Ashok,anchors the city. An event like the Kalachakra transfuses the sleepy Bihar town,with an invasion of stalls selling everything from pain cures in plastic pouches,to birds in cages and the Dalai Lama in frames. Sanjay,a roofer from Darwin,volunteered at a friends chai shop this season. Born in Gaya,brought up in Dharamsala and now working in Australia,he spoke perfect Bhojpuri,Hindi,English and Tibetan a skill that transformed the casual chai drinker at his stall into a loyal client.

Dozens of locals lined up with wads of 10-rupee notes and pouches of coins. You gave them Rs 100,and they returned Rs 80 to you in denominations of 10,to give to beggars who had stumps for fingers,joints for limbs and sockets for eyes. The money exchangers made a neat profit,and you accrued merit for helping the crippled.

With religious discourses running from 6 am to 3 pm,entertainment descended on the venue in the evenings. A group performed song-and-dance routines,crooning to songs from Om Shanti Om and traditional Tibetan songs. The young emcee gasped OMG and clapped violently,urging the sneaker-clad monks and heel-wearing ladies to applaud and dance. Man in the mirror and Buddhist chants blared from the speaker alternately,and,at times,even simultaneously.

Various groups attached their causes to the religious bandwagon. Go Vegan: where compassion meets action stickers embossed rickshaws and water fountains. In the midst of hippie conversations on awakenings,vibrations and veganism,a yellow signboard We are on the ground where Buddha walked. Say with pride,I am Bihari,raised its head.

Steve Galler,a gold-digger from Alice Springs,Australia,who admitted he made enough money to work one month and travel the world for four,attended the 1985 Kalachakra held at Bodh Gaya. Believing in the impermanence of the material world,Galler lives a simple life,choosing to sleep at railway platforms,travel second class and drink free water. While many foreigners book the 150-a-night hotel rooms for three weeks,he picked a villagers kachcha house for Rs 250 a night,located a walk across fallow fields. I have a mosquito net,so I am fine, he said. Looking around at the swell of humanity and shops,he said,Nothing is recognisable here,except for the temple and the Dalai Lama.

But hidden in the jamboree were individual stories of religious faith and political awakening. While the last Kalachakra was held in July 2011 in Washington DC,the attendees surged at this one due to popular conjecture that this might be his Holiness the fourteenth Dalai Lamas last. Rigga Dorjee,a retired senior official of the Tibet government in exile,attended the Washington DC event held at a large stadium. While he felt that there were too many people in Bodh Gaya,he believed the Kalachakra is an important show of strength. To follow the Dalai Lama is to follow Tibet, he said. Sitting by his side,his nephew Tenzin Gethoklsang,originally from Dharamsala,and now based in Toronto,whose father was the Dalai Lamas bodyguard for three decades,said,With the illegal occupation,this is more than just a religious event. Kalachakra helps us preserve our culture. It is important for our identity.

Adjacent to the Kalachakra maidan,a tent housed a Tibet museum and the Tibet Youth Congress. Faces of monks who immolated themselves over the year stared out from above the panel. For Ngawang Choephel,a former political prisoner and director of Tibet in Song,a movie about the change in Tibetan music,post the Chinese occupation,the faces told the true story. Look at the immolations that have happened. What has anyone done about it?

For young leaders like Tenzin Norsang,joint secretary of the central executive committee for Tibetan Youth Congress,Kalachakra provides a crucial link between the Tibetans within Tibet,and Tibetans outside the country who live in relative freedom. The name Tibet is political. We put up pictures of those who self-immolated to spread awareness. We want to connect the Tibet movement inside with Tibet outside, he said. To fortify that link,the youth congress helps reunite families. We have an information centre,where we make announcements. A mother and two children had been separated for 15 years. The mother was in Tibet,the children in India. We made an announcement with their names,their original village etc…and they met here, he said. Tenzin Gethoklsang met a classmate after 28 years and a cousin after 20 years.

At a makeshift display organised by a community of ex-political prisoners of the Tibetan freedom movement,Wangmo name changed forced her 11 and 13-year-old sons to study the naked photographs of torture victims. Pointing to a mans brutalised body,with holes of singed flesh,she told her son,See,they burned him with hot iron rods. The boys winced. They dont want to see it. I say,you must see it, she said. A teacher based in Dharamsala,Wangmo escaped to India with the help of agents in the late 80s,and has seen her parents,who live in Tibet,once since. Phone calls are infrequent,and often occur only once in six months. She sends her letters to a friend in Nepal,who then posts them to Tibet. For those like Wangmo,Kalachakra was both deeply political and personal. If it taught her sons about struggles won,lost and those which prevail,the Dalai Lamas teachings moored her in the religious. It is an awakening, she said,We learn through it that even if we are born as an insect in our next birth,we can be happy.

Thousands of monks and lay people undertook hazardous journeys from Tibet and China to attend Kalachakra. They came without proper documentation,often by road and via Nepal. They remained in closely-guarded groups,shunning the media,cameras and outsiders.

But as Galler explained,Kalachakra,essentially creates a sanga. It nourishes a sense of community,for those exiled,those fighting,those looking for peace and those at peace.