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"TIBET   OF   OUR   MINDS:   A   JOURNEY'S   END?"
(By Aprajita Sarcar | March 27, 2008)

Vijay Crishna (Second from right), Smita Godrej, Freyen Crishna and Cyril Bieri are being welcomed at Kangra Airport by Tibetan Government-in-Exile and Friends of Tibet. (Photos: Friends of Tibet)

Dharamshala: Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR) hosted the avid trekker and businessman Vijay Crishna for his presentation on Tibet at a function jointly organised jointly by the Tibetan Government-in-Exile and Friends of Tibet.

Vijay Crishna was welcomed by Kesang Takla, Minister for International Relations of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. Crishna's presentation and views were based on his recent visits to Chinese-occupied Tibet with his family. The talk was an engaging mix of historical information, political commentary and autobiographical accounts. Vijay Crishna showcases his experience of Tibet with a political and personal touch.

Vijay Crishna runs light engineering and IT-related businesses in a separate company, Lawkim Ltd, within the Godrej Group, has practised theatre for many years and is a very keen trekker - a person of several facets who has also made several trips to Chinese-occupied Tibet exploring a fascination for the trade that sustained the entire area for centuries. In 1991 he established The Naoroji Godrej Centre for Plant Research at his factory site in Satara district to research and propagate rare and endangered species of medicinal plants endemic to the Western Ghats. 'Tibet Of Our Minds: A Journey's End?' - Vijay Crishna's audio-visual presentation based on his trips to Tibet shares his perspectives of Tibet's ancient and modern history and how these impact us today has been presented across the country.

Kesang Takla (Minister for International Relations), Prof Samdhong Rinpoche (Prime Minister of Tibetan Government-in-Exile) and Vijay Crishna.

In his inaugural address, Prof Samdhong Rinpoche, Kalon Tripa of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile stated that he was waiting for almost a year to hear Vijay Crishna's documentation. He was impressed by Crishna's writings. He stated how support groups often lose sight of the real situation inside Tibet. A neutral person, who is open-minded, does not take sides with either Tibet nor China, visits Tibet and gives a therefore unbiased account of Tibet, probably hits closest to reality. "Its important for us to know how outside people see the situation. Vijay Crishna's findings are based on ground realities."

Crishna's presentation began with Chinese Security-shot footage of the first March 10 protest in Lhasa, that later aired on BBC. He juxtaposed his descriptions and photographs of places he visited in Tibet with commentary on the current situation there from world press reports. And covered facets like potential impact of the current unrest on other minority communities like the muslim Uighurs of Xinjiang, site of China's largest petroleum reserves, and how after presenting the Dalai Lama with a Congressional Gold Medal on October 17, 2007, the US removed China removed from the list of worst Human Rights Violators on March 11th 2008, whilst simultaneously denouncing their poor record! He also briefly outlined the events during and after Britain's 1904 Younghusband Mission and how it impacted Tibet in the 20th century.

Crishna went onto to detail the Tibetan Plateau's unique location as an impactor of global climate change, being one of the recognised 12 Tipping Points that can have sudden, lasting long-term effects on world weather.And Chinese meteorologist Prof Ye Duzhen in his studies since 1950 positing how the great height of the Plateau splits the fast-flowing jetstream winds around it to go down into mainland China as the fastest jetstream in the Northern hemisphere, directly causing the Asian monsoon system as well as impacting its strength or weakness.Thus affecting India in a very critical manner. He also detailed how Tibet's 7 great Rivers of Life provide over 47% of the world's population with their water, and that their drying up both up and downriver in recent years should directly concern all countries thus affected by China's activities on the Plateau over the last 50 years (including reported dumping of nuclear waste in Lake Kokonor from the Ninth Academy, home for years to China's NorthWest Nuclear Weapons Research & Design Academy), impacting the environment in the past and going on to affect it in future also. It is thus no longer a simple political point of Tibet being China's "internal affair" - China should join with the World in addressing this common universal concern for alleviating climate change that causes temperature rises which will have devastating effects on the lakes and glaciers on the Plateau and the entire Himalayan ranges, he said.

Tibetan Buddhism has developed in a unique manner from its early shamanistic beginnings to development of the Bon religion and then later to Buddhism migrating from India onto the Plateau and both fighting Bon for long before being finally uniquely 'flavored' by it. Its very special precepts and educative practises being transmitted all over Asia, and also enabling it to live in very close concert with, and respect for, the environment of the Himalayan plateau. The Dalai Lamaship itself is a uniquely Tibetan concept in its practices. And all these are part of the unique Tibetan identity - that cannot simply be tampered with in part to 'water it down' without having severely adverse reactions. Even President Hu Jintao himself has recently written approvingly of religion, including Buddhism, as being a good way of bridging differences between China's 'haves' and 'have-nots'. The huge influx of Han Chinese being resettled onto The Plateau has also had an extremely unsettling effect on the local populace, threatening their possible livelihood and earning capability.

Vijay Crishna ended by bringing to the audience's attention two universal truths a well-known journalist had once mentioned - first, that rulers lie and, second, that the time when you are most afraid to challenge authority is the time it's most important to do so! That time had clearly arrived for Tibet.

Vijay Crishna and family with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet.