Tibet is, of course, a trump card in the hands of whoever controls it, or controls the image of it the outside world receives. Nonetheless, the spectacle of the planet's largest Marxist power endorsing a selection process which, even in their version if it, is still of medieval obscurity and ridiculousness, would be farcical if its repercussions were not so tragic. That the rational, liberal and democratic West is in its turn obliged to champion an even more complex and superstitious mechanism is scarcely less bizarre. Even so, there can be very few objective observers whose sympathies are not with the traditional camp in their unenviable situation.
This book, combining history with personal accounts, provides an accessible and trustworthy guide to the entire grotesque, complex, tragi-comic saga. Considerable effort has been put into it. Hilton, flying back and forth from London, has discussed the whole affair with the Dalai Lama on several occasions, and one of the book's great virtues is that in it he appears as a very human figure, not immune to hesitation and even, on occasion, self-doubt.
She also interviewed Li Jie, the Chinese widow of the tenth Panchen Lama, in Beijing. This was a marriage that had shocked traditional Tibetans, but when Li opens a package and displays her husband's thin and worn prison clothes, and the accompanying monk falls to his knees in veneration of them as sacred relics, the scene is extraordinary indeed.
The British, incidentally, don't emerge from Hilton's account with much credit. After invading Tibet in 1904, resulting in the deaths of almost 3,000 Tibetans, in 1914 they -- disastrously, as it now turns out -- nominated China as the "suzerain" (partially responsible) power in the area.
Meanwhile, interest in Tibetan Buddhism is growing worldwide. Out of some eight million Taiwanese Buddhists, for instance, some 500,000 are apparently following the Tibetan way. As for Tibetans themselves, there are thought to be over 1,000 living in Taiwan, 400 of them monks. Many are without official papers and work semi-legally in the clothing and other manufacturing industries, mostly in the Taipei area.
The dispute over the Panchen Lama bodes ill for any selection of a successor to the present Dalai Lama. Few Tibetans would accept a figure identified by a puppet of Beijing's, yet it seems unlikely that the traditionally verified Panchen Lama will be in any position to make an identification himself. So, as the world follows with bated breath even the minutest news item on the health of the present incumbent, the stage is set for the playing out of the next, and far more momentous, scene in this fateful Himalayan drama.
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