CALLED FROM OBSCURITY: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A TRUE SON OF TIBET GERGAN DORJE THARCHIN

Description

Tharchin Babu-la was a man of many [commendable] qualities and in his long life was an inspiration and example to many other Tibetans. My predecessor, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, counted him as a friend and it was my privilege to regard him in the same way too. I met Tharchin Babu-la a few times. What I admired in him was his independence of mind and his quiet integrity. Here was a man who had decided that, even though most of the people around him were Buddhist, the Christian faith was best for him. As a result he put a great deal of effort into revising the Tibetan edition of the Bible. Another of Tharchin Babu-la's qualities that I greatly appreciated was his unshakable loyalty to Tibet and the Tibetan people. He was farsighted enough to understand right from the beginning the tragedy that was befalling Tibet and launched his own fierce campaign to protect our freedom through the pages of [his] Tibet Mirror newspaper. I take encouragement too from his later philosophical view that nothing lasts forever, no tyranny is eternal and eventually Chinese rule in Tibet will come to an end. After 1959 and the establishment of the Tibetan community in exile, Tharchin Babu-la became something of a model and inspiration to a new generation of Tibetans who wished to reconcile aspects of the modern world with a Tibetan outlook, particularly in the realm of secular literature. [The Babu] made an important contribution to Tibetan affairs and in his long life observed most of the significant events of the twentieth century in our part of the world.... I welcome the publication of this exhaustive account of his life and achievements, which no doubt will enthrall readers eager to know more about Tibet.