How the Oracle wishes the Dalai Lama a happy birthday

Within an hour at the start of the long life prayer ceremonies being held in honour of Tibetan Buddhism’s most important leader - the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzing Gyatso, in his home-in-exile in McLeodganj on June 21 - the Nechung Oracle of Tibet was preparing to work himself up into a spontaneous trance in the room next door to the main temple, surrounded by the most important Buddhist monks from all the four sects of Tibetan Buddhism.

Around 5,000 Tibetans - both lay and monk - from all over the world, as well as those from the various Tibetan communities in India, were in attendance, alongside a smattering of Indians and people from other nationalities. According to the Buddhist calendar, the Dalai Lama is now 80 years old – his birthday according to the English calendar will fall on July 6, when he will be in the US to celebrate with the powerful chapter in that country. Ever since the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, this tiny hill town in Himachal Pradesh hadn’t seen so many people in one place at the same time.

The Dalai Lama is the “Living God” to the Tibetan community, both inside and outside Tibet. Of his 80 years on earth, he has lived 56 years in India, in exile, ever since he fled his beloved Tibet for India in 1959, after the Chinese Communist Party took over.

The story of how he transformed a bedraggled community that had lost everything, beginning with the territory that is synonymous with nationhood, is the story of how an ageing monk has managed to keep Tibet in the headlines these last many decades. Despite the fact that China is well on its way to becoming the most powerful country in the world, and any mention of the Dalai Lama is like showing a red rag to a bull, the Tibetan leader is not only a revered Buddhist spiritual leader worldwide but is also one of its powerful and popular people. With 11.3 million Twitter followers, he is well up on the charts (Narendra Modi has 13.1 million, Bill Gates has 22.9 million, Barack Obama has 60.7 million).

The Nechung Oracle of Tibet is one of the many institutions that used to exist back home in Tibet – some still do – which have been exactly replicated in this tiny hillside. The arts and crafts, and dance and music of Tibet are alive and well. Back home in Lhasa, the Potala and the Jokhang temples are tightly controlled in terms of what and who Tibetans can pray to – the Buddha is okay, but the Dalai Lama remains persona non grata.

And so the Venerable Thupten Ngodrup – who entered his first spontaneous trance on March 31, 1987, upon which he engaged in special meditations and rituals to “ripen and stabilise his abilities” upon advice from the Dalai Lama and has since September, 1987 become a figure of great responsibility in the Tibetan government in exile – is today the State Oracle of Tibet, albeit in McLeodganj, India.

As the long life ceremonies in honour of the Dalai Lama proceeded in the room next door, the Nechung Oracle prepared to get into his trance. According to some Buddhist scholars in Dharamshala, the Oracle’s speech is incomprehensible to ordinary Tibetans; it is said his speech predates the Tibetan language and only a couple of people even understand what he says.

The Oracle’s feet were firmly planted on an imitation tiger skin rug. On his very elaborate headdress that was tightly tied down under his chin were a batch of peacock feathers. The Oracle seemed like he was sitting down, but then I saw that a man was crouching on the ground, beneath his Kathakali-like skirt, supporting his back.

The Oracle’s eyes were shut. His whole body was so relaxed that it didn’t seem he was capable of holding up his own head, leave alone his headdress. A couple of monks seemed to be holding on to him. To the clanging of cymbals and the sonorous sound of chanting, the Oracle began to straighten his head. Now it seemed as if the string that was tied beneath his chin was too tight for him – he flailed his head from side to side, it was quickly loosened.

The Oracle opened his eyes, and in a flash, he had sprung up from the ground. Now he was running out of the room and turning left, making for the room next door in which His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, sat on his throne, wearing his distinctive yellow hat of the Gelugpa sect. Presumably, the Oracle was going straight to him to wish him a long and healthy life, not only for himself and for the entire Tibetan community inside and outside Tibet, but for the sake of all the world.

An ancient ceremony of the Tibetan Buddhism school relating to the venerated Dalai Lama had just been replayed in a small hillside town in the Dhauladhar range of the Indian Himalayas. The ancient connections between Delhi and Lhasa, via McLeodganj, had just been reinvented.