The small town of Gyantse in southern Tibet is home to about eight thousand people. Most of them are ethnic Tibetan, and they live in the old part of town. The Chinese, mostly newcomers, live in the new part. For some Tibetans, the harsh reality of living cheek by jowl with the Chinese is a daily experience.
Others cling to their traditional way of life in a rapidly changing world. Since 1951, Tibet has been part of the People’s Republic of China. The Tibetans claim they were overrun by a vastly superior Chinese army. The Chinese maintain they were only legitimizing their rightful claim over the region.
What is not in dispute is that the lives of ordinary Tibetan people have changed dramatically and permanently during more than fifty years of Chinese Communist rule. Gyantse is home to the Pelkor Monastery, which dates back to the fifteenth century. It is the monasteries in Tibet that represent the biggest political challenge to the Chinese government. The deputy head lama here is Tsultrim.
He is in charge of disciplining the monks and managing the finances of the monastery. Now his boss, head lama Shuffel, has asked Tsultrim to organize the most important event in Gyantse for a generation. Tsultrim has to prepare for the imminent arrival of the Panchen Lama. It is effectively a state visit by the most senior Buddhist living in China today.
But the security surrounding the visit is so tight that the authorities will not even tell the monks which day he is coming. The 11th Panchen Lama was only six when the Chinese declared that he was Tibet’s new spiritual leader, and his position has been controversial ever since. The inevitable tensions surrounding his visit are going to make Tsultrim’s job even more difficult over the next few weeks. Tsultrim has asked Zifun, the youngest monk in the monastery, to help.
Zifun is fifteen years old and has been a novice since he was twelve. Zifun will remember the next few weeks for the rest of his life. Over the years, Gyantse has become a popular tourist destination for both Westerners and Chinese. Jinzang is Tibetan, and he owns one of the better budget hotels in town.
He has forty rooms, but most of them are empty. It is a risky business running a small hotel. Jinzang could go from profit to loss literally overnight, and he is worried about the competition in town. With no money and no guests, Jinzang has every right to be concerned.
At last, Jinzang gets some visitors. A Dutch couple is checking in, but they think their Chinese driver has overcharged them, and they have asked Jinzang to help. Like all educated Tibetans, Jinzang is fluent in Chinese. But even though they might speak the same language, Tibetans do not consider themselves to be Chinese, and there is often tension between the two.
The relationship between Tibetans and Chinese is never easy. Jinzang always prefers foreign tourists. Jangmai is a typical Tibetan village, just half an hour’s drive from Gyantse. Ninety percent of all Tibetans live in the countryside, and life here has changed little for generations.
Seden is a shaman and a Buddhist. He claims to have extraordinary powers as a spiritual healer. His knowledge has passed down to him from his father and for generations before that. This morning, Seden has several sick villagers waiting for his attention.
His first patient is a woman with toothache. Shamanism was practiced in Tibet long before Buddhism arrived from India over a thousand years ago. The shaman is part spiritual healer and part earthly advisor, and Seden lives two quite separate lives, one in the spiritual world and the other in the material world. Seden believes that illness comes from evil spirits inhabiting the body, and by spitting on the woman, he can drive the spirits away.
The woman leaves, apparently cured of her toothache. There are a couple of weeks to go before the Panchen Lama’s visit, and Tsultrim is off to find some priceless cushions for his throne. Nobody has been into the storeroom for years, and they have no idea where to look, or even what they might find. Tsultrim has to get the throne ready for the new Panchen Lama, but it is the wrong size.
Jangmai has its own Western style hospital. A young woman has just been admitted. She is heavily pregnant and has been in a lot of pain, and the doctor is worried. Alcohol abuse is a big problem in Tibet, and the doctor suspects that this could be behind Dekyi’s complications.
Back in Dekyi’s house in the village, her family are worried. They do not want to put all their faith in Western medicine. This is a job for Tsering, the shaman. Tsering’s first job is to make Lou, which are offerings to the evil spirits.
These are traditional figurines made from butter and barley flour. They are all part of an elaborate ritual to placate the spirits and persuade them to leave the house. If the offerings do placate the evil spirits, they will hopefully leave Dekyi alone. This ritual to drive out the evil spirits will take Tsering the whole day.
Back in Gyantse, Jinzang is trying to find ways to improve his business. He has recently been awarded two stars for his hotel. But he is worried the rating might make people think his hotel is too expensive. So he has taken matters into his own hands.
But it is not quite that simple. Jinzang has to get official permission to remove his star rating. He calls the regional tourist bureau, and they have sent a delegation over to check him out. The officials are Tibetan, but like most people in positions of authority in China, they can make his life very difficult.
Things have not got off to a good start. Worried that the inspectors will insist that he keeps his two-star rating, Jinzang hopes that a bit of generous hospitality will help make them change their mind. In the end, they reach a typical Chinese compromise, so that nobody loses face. Back in the hospital, Dekyi has taken a big decision despite her serious condition.
Back in Dekyi’s home, Tsering is coming to the climax of his elaborate ritual. It now remains to be seen whether it is the doctors or the shaman who helped Dekyi most. The Panchen Lama’s visit is getting close, and Tsultrim is behind with the decorations. His tailors have been working overtime, and still they are not finished.
At last, the parasol is finished, but Tsultrim still has to give it his final approval. Dekyi is home from hospital, and her reliance on both modern medicine and the shaman seems to have worked. Tsultrim is making good progress, but he has one more problem. The monastery is home to about fifty stray dogs.
The monks are quite happy to have them around, but not for the Panchen Lama’s visit. But as always, Tsultrim has a plan. Tsultrim gets to put his plan into action. Zifun gets to feed the dogs with the drugged food.
But the drugs are not working, and the dogs have every reason to be nervous. So that is only forty-five to go. Tsultrim’s plan has not worked, and he needs help. It is not very subtle.
It is three in the morning. Dekyi has suddenly gone into labor, and she has been rushed to her local village clinic. In Tibet, one in ten children die before their first birthday, three times the Chinese average. The baby is four weeks premature, and Dekyi is still not well.
Like most Tibetans, Dekyi’s family is superstitious. They are worried that filming the birth will bring them bad luck. It has taken a while, but at last Tsultrim has got his monks together to start cleaning the monastery. It has not been properly cleaned since the previous Panchen Lama’s visit nearly twenty years ago, and nobody really knows where to start.
With the Panchen Lama’s visit now only a few days away, the hotels in town are beginning to fill up. Jinzang has had a bit of luck. His plan seems to be working. He has got rid of his two-star rating, his hotel is getting busy, and there is a restaurant full of hungry hikers.
Although China has had a single-child policy since the 1970s, the law has never been applied to ethnic Tibetans. And this is now Dekyi’s fifth child. Back in Gyantse, the tailors have finished, the dogs have been rounded up, and the monastery has been cleaned. But Tsultrim still has a million things to do, and he has not yet learned the art of delegating.
The Panchen Lama’s visit is really good news for Jinzang. His hotel might be full, but he has now got a new problem. He needs a plumber, and quickly. At the monastery, the final security plans are falling into place.
The atmosphere in town is tense. The relationship between the monasteries and the government has always been strained. The authorities are worried that somebody might sabotage the visit, so they are taking no chances. The security chief is making sure that his plans are in place.
At the hotel, Jinzang’s builder has come to check out the problem. It is not good news. At the monastery, Tsering has been asked to be the lead flower bearer in the procession. It is the most important thing he has ever been asked to do.
But things are not going quite so well for Tsultrim. He is meant to be organizing the visit, but Shuffel, the head lama, has his own ideas about what should happen. The deputy Communist Party chief in Gyantse wants things done his way as well. The problem they have is that the Chinese government restricts the number of monks in every monastery.
Tsultrim now does not have enough monks to fulfill the correct protocol for the Panchen Lama’s visit. So he has to make the procession look as if there are more monks than there really are. It has turned out to be Jinzang’s lucky day. His hotel is full, the pipes are unblocked, and the plumbers are a bargain.
At last, it is the big day, and everything is ready. Well, almost. The final job is to decorate the entrance to the temple. It is almost twenty years since the previous Panchen Lama made a visit to Gyantse.
Today is a rare public appearance of the new Panchen Lama. Gyantse has never seen security at this level before. It is all because of the controversy which surrounds the choice of the new Panchen Lama. Gyaltsen Norbu is the 11th Panchen Lama, and he is now seventeen years old.
In the past, the new Panchen Lama was selected from a list of several candidates by the Dalai Lama. But the Chinese government rejected the Dalai Lama’s choice and appointed one of the other candidates. This is what the controversy is all about. Gyaltsen Norbu also happens to be the son of two Tibetan Communist Party members.
He has been living in Beijing ever since he was chosen to be the new Panchen Lama at the age of six, all part of his education to become Tibet’s new spiritual leader. His first event of the day is to bless the monks. Outside, the good citizens of Gyantse patiently wait their turn. Despite heavy censorship in the country, ordinary Tibetans know all about the controversy surrounding the choice of their young leader.
But, as good Buddhists, they accept the situation and show appropriate respect, even to a Panchen Lama of doubtful origins. Today, the monks are giving away pictures of the Panchen Lama. However, any images of the Dalai Lama are strictly banned in Tibet, and even having one in your possession could put you in prison. The Dalai Lama has not lived in Tibet since 1959, when he escaped after the Tibetan uprising.
He has lived in exile ever since, a constant thorn in the side of the Chinese authorities. But whatever the controversy surrounding the young Panchen Lama, the devotion of ordinary Tibetan people is clear to see. There is little doubt that today is a very special one for the people of Gyantse. It is traditional that monks make a wish after being blessed by the Panchen Lama, and they do.
The day unfolds in a blur of saffron robes, prayers, and the murmur of a crowd that has waited years for this moment. For the monks, for Jinzang, for Dekyi and her newborn child, and for the whole of Gyantse, the visit passes without incident. The young Panchen Lama blesses the monks, the people bow their heads, and the town exhales. The security is everywhere, but so is the devotion.
The controversy may never fade, but on this day, the people of Gyantse hold on to what they have always held on to—their faith, their traditions, and their quiet resilience in a world that keeps changing around them. When the day is over, Tsultrim can finally rest. The job is done. The monastery is clean, the dogs are gone, the parasol is in place, and the visit has gone smoothly.
Zifun will remember this for the rest of his life, just as Tsultrim predicted. And in the village, Dekyi holds her fifth child, grateful for the doctors who saved her and the shaman who kept the evil spirits at bay. Jinzang counts his earnings from a full hotel and a restaurant of hungry hikers. The pipes are fixed, the stars are gone, and business is good.
For now, at least, the small town of Gyantse has found a moment of peace, suspended between the old ways and the new, between faith and politics, between what is remembered and what is yet to come. The monks return to their prayers, the dogs wander back to the monastery gates, and the people of Gyantse go on living, as they always have, in the shadow of a history that is not theirs to control.
