Tibet Information Network

London, June 14, TIN - One of the most famous Buddhist teachers in Tibet has died at his monastery in Lhasa. Ngawang Phuntsog, a 75 year old lama known popularly as _Gen" or _Teacher" Lamrim, died at Drepung monastery at 8.35 on 28th May after a long illness.

The death has not been reported by the official media in Tibet, apparently because the lama held no official position and had always declined any honorary post offered by the authorities.

On 14th April the teacher had been flown to the western Chinese city of Chengdu for medical treatment, reportedly his first journey out of Lhasa for 50 years. The treatment was unsuccessful.

Gen Lamrim was widely regarded as one of the greatest teachers in the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism to have remained in Tibet after the flight of the Dalai Lama and other leaders in 1959. He was revered for his scholarship, his continued practice of Buddhism throughout the Cultural Revolution, his mystical abilities and his refusal to accept any political position.

He was one of the few Tibetan monks who was able to remain as a monk during the Cultural Revolution, by the end of which in 1976 only 970 monks remained in central Tibet, according to official Chinese figures - less than 1% of the 115,600 who had been there in 1959 when China began democratic reforms in Central Tibet. Until 1983 some 70 monks at Drepung monastery were married men with families, and Gen Lamrim was widely seen in contrast by both Tibetans and Chinese as a model of religious purity.

Ngawang Phuntsog was exceptional in that, unlike most high-ranking Tibetan teachers, who are recognised at birth as _tulkus" or re-incarnated lamas, his status was based on merit alone. _He was not an incarnate lama and he achieved all his learning by hard studies," said one Lhasa Tibetan today.

Ngawang Phuntsog was a Khampa or Eastern Tibetan from a family of relatively poor farmers in the Rong-yul area of Gyalthang, in the extreme south-east of traditional Tibet, near the town of Nyishar, now known as Nixi in present day Yunnan province.

After being formally ordained as a monk at the age of 10 in Gyalthang, where he studied under Zangbum Rinpoche and Kusho 'Abu, he travelled to Lhasa in about 1943 and at the age of 22 joined Drepung monastery, one of the most famous in Tibet.

He became famous for his teaching of the _graduated path" or _Lamrim" method of Gelugpa Buddhism, and was named by the people of Lhasa after the tradition he taught.

His fame amongst Tibetans, particularly in the Lhasa area, was enhanced by semi-mystical accounts of his experiences in prison in the early years of Chinese rule. At the time of the 1959 Uprising and the Dalai Lama's escape to India, Gen Lamrim was in retreat in Nyethang, 30 km south-west of Lhasa, and was unaware of these events. The teacher was advised to return to Drepung when the Chinese authorities began arresting monks from retreat hermitages as well as monasteries, and was promptly detained by the Chinese authorities.

He was held for nearly two years in an improvised prison in the Lhasa house of Taring, a former Tibetan aristocrat, where he is said to have given most of his daily food ration to his fellow prisoners. The monk acquired legendary status, even amongst communist officials, because he is said to have survived by practising the mystical technique of _di'u chu len", literally _taking sustenance by sucking pebbles". Other stories, circulating in his monastery, say that he could float at will and sometimes moved through walls to evade arrest.

He spent the Cultural Revolution working as a wool spinner for the monastery, which had been turned into an agricultural co-operative. He retained his vows and is said to have hidden many of the monastery's religious artefacts to prevent them being confiscated by the authorities. He remained throughout his adult life a vegetarian, almost unheard of amongst Tibetans.

_A Voice as Sweet as Crumpled Roses" -

Religious practice was allowed to resume widely in Tibet in 1980, and four years later Gen Lamrim was given permission to give public teachings. In the following five years he was allowed to teach one month courses each spring and autumn on the Lamrim tradition; these were attended by thousands of lay Tibetans as well as monks. In 1987, however, a new wave of dissent emerged in Tibet when a group of 21 monks from Drepung staged a pro-independence demonstration. The arrests triggered off a series of at least 160 protests throughout Tibet in the following ten years, plus some 4,000 arrests and around 100 deaths.

The 21 Drepung monks, all under 35, had been ordained by Gen Lamrim - most were named after him - and were from the most advanced class in the monastery, representing the cream of the next generation of Gelugpa Buddhist scholars.

Two hundred other Drepung monks walked out from the monastery in protest at the arrest of the 21 students, but returned at the Gen's request. _He told us that we had to stay together and to return to our studies for the benefit of the country and the religion," recalled one of the monks, now living in exile, this week. The 21 students were released in a partial amnesty after three and a half months, but most were re-arrested a year later and given sentences averaging 15 years each for forming a pro-independence group and printing press within the monastery. That year the authorities in Lhasa, then under military rule, refused to allow public teachings by Gen Lamrim.

His bi-annual teachings were allowed to resume in 1990, reportedly on the condition that the lama ask permission first and that he accept personal responsibility for any political protests that occurred during the teachings.

A few days before his spring teaching that year 37 Drepung monks, regarded by their colleagues as _the best students of the monastery", were expelled by the authorities from the monastery without any stated reason. In late May sixty monks signed petitions threatening to resign from the monastery if the expelled monks were not reinstated, but were later dissuaded from action by Gen Lamrim.

_Master Lam Rim, who is viewed as a saint and held in the highest esteem by Tibetan Buddhists, preached each day to several thousand Buddhists in the monastery's largest scripture hall," reported Xinhua of the teachings in November 1990, describing the _serene and cheerful atmosphere" in Lhasa at the time.

The public teachings in following years, which were visited by tourists on group excursions and filmed by Chinese television crews, attracted criticism from Tibetan nationalists who felt the lama was allowing the authorities to use him for propaganda purposes. _All the tourists were taken to Drepung to see the preaching, so they can say we have freedom of religion. Now Lamrim Rimpoche has become a puppet of Chinese," said one Tibetan in Lhasa in 1992. The 1995 teachings were used by officials as a device to keep Drepung monks out of Lhasa during the Dalai Lama's birthday, and the 1996 spring teachings were followed immediately by the official announcement that pictures of the Dalai Lama were to be banned from temples. But most Tibetans were happy to have the opportunity to hear Buddhist teachings.

_The moment is suddenly lyrical as Lamrim Rimpoche adjusts a pair of glasses attached to a length of grubby string around his ears, and in a voice as sweet as crumpled rose leaves imparts wisdom to his young charges," wrote a British journalist in the London-based Guardian after he saw the lama lecture in July 1995.

Gen Lamrim never accepted personal disciples or students but ordained large numbers of monks and nuns, including dozens who were later arrested. It is unclear if he was allowed or able to retrain a class of star pupils from the 400 or so monks who remained at Drepung after the 1987 and 1990 arrests and expulsions. In 1996 about 180 children under the age of 18 who had remained unofficially as child monks at Drepung were sent back to their homes as part of a monastic re-education drive, but a number of unofficial monks - possibly around 200 - were given permission to study at the monastery provided they avoided any political incidents.

Not Allowed to Be Abbot -

The 1996 re-education campaign involved a team of 180 officials and police taking up residence in the monastery for five months to carry out daily classes on political thought. At the same time the team carried out a major re-structuring of the monastery, ordering the Chinese national flag to be flown daily above the monastery and removing the monks who had been elected as its leaders. The former leaders were replaced on 11th December last year in the presence of military officials with an unelected committee reportedly led by laymen.

Gen Lamrim was not on either the elected nor the unelected committee, as the monks had been instructed by the Chinese authorities in 1987 that they were not allowed to choose him to be their abbot or to serve on the committee. The exclusion of their most distinguished teacher from the 1987 election caused significant distress and disillusion with Chinese reforms even amongst the most senior monks.

Gen Lamrim was asked by the authorities in the 1980s to accept positions in the Chinese Buddhist Association and in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a council of dignitaries which endorses official policies and which most religious leaders have to join. The lama's exceptional popularity meant he was able to refuse the requests, on the grounds that he wished to concentrate on religious pursuits.

He is known to have been an advocate of _thabs khes" or _skilful means" rather than confrontation, and was also admired for his refusal to accept political office. _There were those who were trying to protect him from being involved in politics," said one Tibetan who knew him well. _If he could keep the culture and, most importantly, the religion alive, we felt that people would never change their hearts as Tibetans," he added.

The lama sometimes intervened with the leaders of his own monastery and in February 1995 supported a group of three teachers in the monastery's primary school who had been expelled by the monastery leaders for refusing to send their pupils to perform physical labour for the monastery.

_Gen Lamrim told the leader that the pupils should not do work in the monastery because it was better for them to study," reported one source at the time, who said that the teachers were reinstated. One of the teachers, Dondrup Tsewa, later committed suicide, apparently because he had been placed under surveillance by the monastery's security unit.

The lama's reputation seems set to grow with his death. Reports amongst his devotees in Lhasa this week say that the body of the teacher stayed in a meditation posture for several days after his death, regarded as a sign of exceptional accomplishment amongst Buddhists. Some reports say that he suffered from depression in his final year, which included the five-month long residency by the political re-education team to Drepung, and describe this illness as uncharacteristic in a teacher of his stature.