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A Glimpse of Tibet’s Buddhist Culture
by Geshe L. Sopa
Tibet has never been a highly developed country in the sense of technological developments. Before 1959 (the year of the Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet), the civilizations and modern developments of the outside world were rarely an interest to the people of Tibet who were deeply absorbed in their own unique civilization and Buddhist culture. The roots of Mahayana Buddhism were established in Tibet in the 7th century, and by the 11th century a unique and highly developed culture of Tibetan Buddhism had evolved.Particularly during the 10th and 11th centuries, great Indian and Tibetan scholars traveled back and forth across the border to the thriving monastic universities in India, resulting in a wealth of Tibetan translations of the Buddha’s teachings of both sutra and tantra and all three Buddhist vehicles: Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana (tantric). The famous Indian scholar, Dipamkara Srijana, also known as Atisha, composed a text entitled The Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment. This three-page text became the prototype for the genre of teaching and literature on the Graduated Stages of the path to Enlightenment which has a lasting impact on the whole of Tibetan Buddhism and continues today to be taught frequently by H.H. the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist teachers. The number of ordained monks and nuns increased, temples and monastic universities were constructed, and the various Buddhist arts began to take root. Also during this period emerged the four distinct schools of Tibetan Buddhism which we see today, namely: Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Geluk. Each of these schools teaches the Bodhisattva path to enlightenment known as the Mahayana vehicle, a meditational path also incorporating Hinayana philosophical viewpoints and meditational techniques, in addition to both the systems of sutra and tantra. By the 11th century, Buddhism had permeated all aspects of Tibetan culture and civilization.
Whether educated or not, almost all Tibetans had faith in the three jewels of refuge: the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and believed in the basic Buddhist principles of karma, the law of cause and effect, and rebirth. The simple lifestyle in Tibet reflected their devotion to the spiritual rather than material and reflected their aspiration to develop the Buddhist principles of wisdom, compassion, and loving kindness.
Although Tibet was significantly behind in modern developments, the country’s Buddhist culture was flourishing. The vast country comprised of dry desert plains, lush valleys, and high mountain peaks was filled with monasteries and nunneries—the seat of the Buddhist culture—along with smaller temples, retreat centers, and religious monuments dotting the landscape.
The huge monastic universities provided the formal study of Buddhist philosophy emphasizing philosophical debates as a means to sharpen one’s understanding and remove wrong views. Upon completion of their course of study, spanning approximately twenty years, some of the monks would sit for a final debate to receive a geshe degree, which is similar to a Ph.D. in western academia.
In the central region of Tibet, outside of the capital city, Lhasa, were three great monastic universities: Drepung populated with 7700 monks, Sera with 5500, and Ganden with 3300 monks. Today these monasteries only partially exist, and communist policies prevent more than roughly 250 monks from residing there. Their course of study is also severely limited. To the west of Lhasa in the town of Shigaste, Tashilunpo1 monastery traditionally housed 3800 monks. Two famous monasteries in far eastern Tibet bordering China, Labrang Tashikyil and Kumbum also trained thousands of monks. Before the Chinese invasion there were numerous highly qualified teachers (lamas), other great practitioners, yogis in meditational retreats, and many dedicated disciples.
People even came to the great monasteries to study from as far away as Mongolia and Russia, later returning to their homelands and establishing Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and centers. During the 13th century, just shortly after the reign of Ghengis Khan and when the Sakya school was thriving, Buddhism was established in Mongolia. Later in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Geluk school was also firmly established in Mongolia, with the Dalai Lama’s fourth reincarnation born there. By the time of the thirteenth Dalai Lama and the famous Mongolian lama, Kalka Jestun Dampa, Mongolia’s central monastery grew to be even larger than Tibet’s largest.
Tibet’s political system was also heavily influenced by its Buddhist culture, with the Dalai Lama serving as both the country’s spiritual and temporal leader. In 1959, as a young child, the present fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso was forced to flee his homeland in order to spare his life and the life of Tibet’s unique Buddhist culture. The Tibetan Government in Exile was re-established in northern India and continues under his direction alongside the re-established monasteries, nunneries, medical school, library, Institute of Performing Arts, etc. With the hopes of preserving their tradition, most of the scholars and high lamas of the main monasteries followed H.H. the Dalai Lama into exile, joined by their students and other young monks.
With the Chinese invasion and the flight of the Dalai Lama into exile Buddhism in Tibet began to decline. In addition to the destruction of over 6000 monasteries and numerous holy relics, the minds of the youth have been tarnished and Buddhism displaced by communist ideals. For the ancient Buddhist culture and the Tibetan people inside Tibet, the present situation remains terribly oppressive. However, some fortunate results have ensued.
Most of the large monastic universities and the principal cultural institutions and some smaller monasteries have been re-established in India and Nepal; and due to a keen interest in Tibetan Buddhist culture, many teachers have been invited to establish centers for the study and practice of Buddhism in numerous western countries as well as Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and more. Rather than being confined within Tibet’s high mountain border, Tibetan Buddhism has found its way to the larger world, the ancient philosophy and spiritual tradition of Tibetan Buddhism making great contributions to what is lacking in the modern material world.
People often wonder, "what is this Tibetan Buddhism so widely taught in the west by H.H. the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan lamas?" At the heart of all Buddhist teachings are the means for purifying negative mental states and for developing positive states of mind which lead to the final goal of one’s own everlasting freedom from cyclic existence (the final goal of the Hinayana vehicle), or which lead to the state of complete enlightenment through the altruistic mind striving to lead all sentient beings to the enlightened state (the goal of the Mahayana vehicle).
The term Mahayana literally means great vehicle, great in regard to the scope of the desired goal, wishing to liberate not only oneself from cyclic existence but taking full responsibility for the welfare of all sentient beings, to free them from suffering. All the Buddha’s teachings—Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana, thus both the teachings of sutra and tantra—are included within the stages of the path to enlightenment, in Tibetan called Lam Rim (Lam meaning path, and Rim meaning stages).
There is not a single teaching of the Buddha which is not included within this systemized path leading to enlightenment. The Graduated Path teachings are arranged according to the three types of spiritual beings: those of lesser motivation, medium, and great motivation, and similarly, to the various levels of meditational practices and types of obstacles to be removed. There are numerous Buddhist teachings and practices for overcoming delusions and developing wisdom, just as there are thousands of medical treatments for various diseases. The Buddha’s teachings were arranged in this practical manner of the Graduated Path for the spiritual practitioner to understand how to best apply the various teachings. Like a road map shows all the roads needed to be taken to reach one’s final destination, so the lam rim teachings of Tibetan Buddhism are the guide for removing one’s afflictive emotions and attaining perfect wisdom.
The Lam Rim practices can be subsumed into the three principle stages of the path: renunciation, Bodhicitta, and wisdom. In brief, for a practitioner of the lesser scope, renunciation implies turning away from the causes of rebirth in the three lower realms and striving for a higher rebirth within cyclic existence. The spiritual being of the medium scope renounces all of cyclic existence and desires his or her own liberation; while the practitioner of the great scope also desiring liberation from cyclic existence, strives to liberate all sentient beings by taking full responsibility for their welfare. A practitioner of the great scope directs all the energy of body, speech, and mind toward developing universal love, compassion, and the mind of Bodhicitta (the wish to attain enlightenment as soon as possible in order to benefit all beings).
To reach the state of enlightenment one must remove the root of all afflictive emotions and subtle obstacles of knowledge and ignorance. This is an ignorance of the true nature of persons and phenomena. The egotistic view incorrectly perceives oneself as independent and inherently existent, while phenomena are perceived to exist in the manner in which they appear, truly or inherently existent. When removing a poisonous tree one has to remove the tree completely by its roots, since cutting off the branches will only temporarily help to protect one from its poison. Likewise the only means to permanently remove the root of all delusions, ignorance, is through the wisdom of realizing the true nature of self and phenomena, the selflessness of persons and of phenomena.
Renunciation conjoined with wisdom leads to the final Hinayana goal of individual emancipation. In addition to renunciation, the methods of universal love, compassion, and Bodhicitta conjoined with wisdom result in the highest Mahayana goal. The Mahayana goal is the attainment of complete enlightenment for oneself in order to lead all other sentient beings to the enlightened state. Tantric practice, combined with the three principles of path (renunciation, Bodhicitta, and wisdom) also lead one to the Mahayana goal of enlightenment. Yet, Tantra is differentiated from the Mahayana Sutra practice by way of being a significantly more powerful and faster method.
Although only merely introduced here, it is these teachings that have defined the unique Buddhist culture of Tibet for centuries. With techniques for subduing the mind and developing wisdom and compassion, coupled by the example of the H.H. the Dalai Lama, his message of non-violence and loving kindness, the ancient Tibetan Buddhist culture makes its indelible contribution to the modern world.
1. Tashilunpo is the seat of the Panchen Lama, a high Buddhist teacher second to the Dalai Lama, whose present reincarnation is claimed by Amnesty International to be the youngest political prisoner in the world. In the hands of the communist Chinese regime, his whereabouts in China remains unknown.