Advisory talks at the National Conference on Text Editing and Cataloguing Knowledge (Traditional and Modern)
His Eminence Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche graced, as the Chief Guest, the inaugural session of the five-day (1 – 5 November, 2017) National Conference on Text Editing and Cataloguing Knowledge (Traditional and Modern), at Gyuto Library, organised by Gyuto Monastery, Dharamshala. His Eminence Rinpoche gave advisory talks for two sessions.
The inaugural session began at 8 am, on November 1, 2017, in the hall of the secondary school of Gyuto Monastery. In attendance were over a hundred persons, ordained and lay, comprising of the panel of experts, guests, conference participants, observers, and media personnel. The session commenced with His Eminence Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche lighting the ceremonial lamp before the enlightened presences at the altar, and formally launching the publication of the Great Commentarial Text on Guhyasamāja Tantra, A Treasury of the Two Stages, and its Commentary, written by Gyuto founder Gyudchen Dorjechang Kunga Dhondup. Thereafter His Eminence Rinpoche awarded a felicitation thangka-painting to Geshe Monlam, of Monlam Communications Research.
After extending warm greetings to all, His Eminence Rinpoche then gave an advisory talk. His Eminence Rinpoche began by remarking that the five-day National Conference on Text Editing and Cataloguing Knowledge (Traditional and Modern), organised by Gyuto Monastery, was timely to the needs of the society, and is to be rejoiced upon and admired.
His Eminence Rinpoche continued: If we are to retrospect at the freedoms of the Tibetan race during these past some sixty years there have been a variety of situations, those to feel joyful of, to be anxious of, to be crying, and so forth. From one point of view, we have lost our nation, our country, became parted into exile; even the compatriots who have been living in homeland did not have a single freedom, and had to live experiencing immeasurable sufferings. In summary, the situation is such that, not only the Tibetan spirituality and culture, even the Tibetan populace as a race has become marginalised to be on the verge of extinction. In particular, if we look at the decade between 1959 – 1969, under the tyrannies of the so-called ‘cultural revolution’ and so forth, out of the population of mere 6 million, over a 1200, 000 Tibetans lost their lives, many thousands of monasteries were destroyed, texts—sources of knowledge and culture—and artefacts were destroyed. Such and many tragic things occurred, on the negative side.
If looked at positive side, for many thousand years we Tibetans lived quietly and isolated within a fence of snowy mountains, with no interest in what was going on outside; those on the outside too did not take interest in what was inside, their view of Tibetans was that they are an aboriginal race, something of wonder, not knowing these people are endowed with a great treasury of spirituality and knowledge/culture. Then, we were plunged into a situation of having to show our face to the world. At the same time due to sublime works of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and because of the splendour of Tibetan spirituality (Tibetan Buddhism) and culture, now it has become clearly recognised throughout the world that “Tibet” is a repository of culture that cannot be obliterated.
In Tibet, during these past several decades of foreign occupation, the brave Tibetans there have put immense efforts towards preservation of our language and culture, far more than those of us who live in free world.
As such, during these past 60 years there occurred many new things, both positive and negative, that had not been so during the previous over 2000 years. At the present, if we count from 1959, for both inside and outside Tibet, the third generation of Tibetans are growing up; during these phases we have become awakened from our ignorance as regards many things. Upon this awakening there is the fact that there are still over 2000 years (four sets of ‘five hundred’) for the teachings of the Buddha prevailing. Following the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama we Tibetans need to be clear in our universal responsibility towards the wider world, and think well how we should be carrying out this universal responsibility for the coming two, three thousand years.
During the present time of the third generation there are still those Tibetans of the generation who had lived in free Tibet of pre-1959; they have not completely finished, but that generation is near to extinction. It goes without saying that the time has arrived at a major point of generational change. During this major point of generational change we should plan out well to be able to link a continuity between the traditional and modern, that the two do not become conflicting, rather complementing, to connect one after the other. By not planning well thus, if we blunder during this time, there is the danger of a gravely big blunder. We need to spot in the present situation the blunders occurred 60 years ago. Unlike in the past, we now know the world at large; the time of staying in isolation had finished. At this point in time we need to think on and make proper plans for accomplishing our responsible duties towards the wider world, not just for future of Tibetans as a race.
His Eminence Rinpoche thus advised in length as regards our responsibilities and other related issues. Subsequent to the inaugural session, His Eminence Rinpoche took two sessions, and explained the need and importance of a standard/qualified editing of texts; the theory of cataloguing system, its importance, and so forth. His Eminence Rinpoche also answered questions from the participants.
In the morning of 5 November 2017, at the concluding session of the conference His Eminence Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche gave further advisory talk, and conferred Participation Certificates to the participants.
The same morning the conference concluded Gyuto Monastery offered His Eminence Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche a formal gratitude in the form of Delighting Teacher Rites of Multitude Reverence Offerings (Lama Choepa Tsog), on the occasion of His Eminence Rinpoche’s 78th Birthday, on the day; the Honourable Abbot of Gyuto Monastery made a formal request, by offering the Three Represents, to His Eminence Rinpoche to kindly continue to live long.