Photos: Sethu Das (in blue shirt), founder of the Friends of Tibet Foundation shows the Zenith Radio to the Dalai Lama; the Potala Palace in Lhasa. Photo by Jaqueline Meier of Switzerland; A father, mother and 12-year-old son who had arrived at the Tibetan Refugee Reception Centre in Kathmandu, Nepal, after trekking over the Himalayas. Photo by Angel Lopez Soto from Spain; a thangka painting
The Friends of Tibet Foundation has set up a museum and a library about Tibet. Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and human rights activist inaugurated it on October 22
(Published in The Federal)
By Shevlin Sebastian
It is a cloudy Sunday afternoon. Panorama Nagar in Kochi is deserted. There are bungalows lining the road. Most houses have grassy lawns, gardens with roses, sunflowers, and marigolds, apart from mango and coconut trees. Silence abounds. Only the chirp of sparrows can be heard. Everybody is taking their afternoon siesta. In front of one bungalow, set at quite some distance from the road, white, red, blue, green and orange flags are fluttering on a wire.
This is the first hint that there is something different about the bungalow.
And, indeed, it is different. The bungalow houses a museum which is dedicated to showcasing the life and times of the people of Tibet.
According to their history, the Chinese invaded and captured Tibet in 1950. Thousands of Tibetans died. Many fled, trekking over their Himalayas, and took refuge in India. In 1959, the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama sought political asylum in India. It was granted to him. He fled from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and trekked over the Himalayan mountain passes and reached Mussoorie. According to government data, there are 85,000 Tibetans living in India today.
Inside the museum, one of the first things that catches the eye is Zenith Royal 1000-1 Wavemagnet Transistor Radio. The current Dalai Lama used it when he lived in the Potala Palace in Lhasa. He took it with him when he came to India and established a government-in-exile in Mussoorie, in the state of Uttarakhand in northern India. In 1960, it was shifted to Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh.
“The Zenith Corporation made it for the exclusive use of the Dalai Lama,” said Sethu Das, the founder of the Friends of Tibet Foundation. “It was one of the most powerful radios built at that time.”
Sethu pulled out its very long antenna. “This was how the Dalai Lama kept in touch with all the happenings in the world,” he said.
On November 25, 2012, the Dalai Lama visited Kochi.
Sethu said, “Your Holiness, do you remember this radio?”
The Dalai Lama shook his head.
Sethu said, “This is your radio.”
The Dalai Lama laughed heartily, as he hadn’t expected to see the radio in Kochi. The Dalai Lama’s sister, Jetsun Pema, had gifted it to the Friends of Tibet several years ago.
On October 22, Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and a noted human rights activist, inaugurated the museum.
When Tushar saw the radio, he said, “I feel nostalgic when I see the Dalai Lama’s radio. It reminds me of the clandestine radio broadcasts by the courageous Congress worker Usha Mehta in Mumbai 75 years ago."
Usha had set up the Secret Congress Radio, an underground radio station. She broadcasted the communications of the leaders, many of whom were in prison. It functioned for eight months during the Quit India Movement of 1942.
“Today, the Tibetan movement symbolises the battle of right against might,” said Tushar. “The world must sympathise with the Tibetan people. We Indians must make the battle to regain the homeland of Tibet for the Tibetans our own. We must help to achieve this dream during the lifetime of His Holiness The Dalai Lama. I affirm my solidarity with the people.”
At the museum, next to the radio, in a framed photo, are images of Tibetan currency. You can see paper notes like 25 and 100 Sang notes. They were in circulation till 1959.
There is a long-distance shot, by Jaqueline Meier of Switzerland, of the magnificent Potala Palace. It is located high up on the Red Hill. In the massive courtyard in front, there is a group of Chinese police officers standing around. This is a stark reminder of the invasion. Thousands of Tibetans died at the hands of the Chinese troops.
One of India’s greatest spiritual teachers, Osho, said, in a speech at Pune, in 1988, “Tibet has fallen into darkness. Its monasteries have been closed. The Chinese have forced its seekers of truth to work in labour camps. Nowhere in the world has there been such a concentrated effort to discover man’s inner being. But the communist regime has destroyed everything that the people had built in the past two thousand years.”
In another image, taken by Angel Lopez Soto from Spain, a father, mother and 12-year-old son had arrived at the Tibetan Refugee Reception Centre in Kathmandu, Nepal, after trekking over the Himalayas.
They are sitting on a bench and having soup, their eyes cast downwards towards the bowls. They looked weather-bitten and hungry. The father has placed his foot in a basin of warm water.
“He may have suffered from frostbite,” said Sethu. “This is a scene from the 1960s.” A young woman, in a white top and floor-length skirt, stood on one side and watched them with a solicitous look on her face.
On another wall hangs a thangka. It is a Tibetan Buddhist painting which is painted on cloth. It depicts Lord Buddha, who is sitting crossed-legged inside a lotus. “They make the paints from natural plants,” said musician Nirmal Anthony, a member of the Friends of Tibet. “The lotus is a flower that grows in the mud but is untouched by it. Buddha’s message is: ‘You should live in the world but remain unaffected by its vicissitudes.’ The thousand-petalled lotus symbolises the enlightened state of human consciousness.”
There is also a photo, taken by Mumbai-based photographer Suresh Natarajan, of a smiling Dalai Lama, sitting on an armchair in his office in Dharamshala. The Dalai Lama radiates positive energy because of his twinkling eyes. He looked to be in his fifties. A copy of the American magazine, Newsweek, is lying on a low table in front of him. Today, the Dalai Lama is 88 years old.
Other photos show the vistas of the Tibetan landscape with its blue skies and high mountain ranges.
Some items have been placed on a table. These include the first Tibetan passport used by the Finance Secretary Tsepong Wangchuk Dedhen Shakabpa; the 1934 September edition of the National Geographic magazine carrying the image of the Tibetan National Flag in the ‘National Flags of the World’; Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao’s ‘Little Red Book’, and a uniform worn by the Chinese soldiers during the invasion of Tibet.
A visitor’s view
Sudheer Nath is a Delhi-based journalist cum cartoonist. Once or twice a month, he comes to Kerala to visit his family. He dropped in to view the museum.
“If you visit the museum without knowing the history of Tibet, you will not get an idea of the pain and despair behind the photos,” he said. “It will be ordinary photos for those who are ignorant. But for me, it was a deeply moving experience.”
Sudheer has been a keen follower of the Tibetan issue for 25 years and has attended many functions of the Friends of Tibet. He has visited the Tibetan refugee colony called Majnu Ka Tila near Kashmere Gate in Delhi. “I am a supporter of Tibetan independence,” he said.
There is also a library which houses hundreds of books about Tibet. You can see ‘A Journey in Ladakh: Encounters with Buddhism’, by spiritual teacher Andrew Harvey; ‘Tibet: Reports from Exile’ by Tibetan author Thupten Samphel, and ‘The Definitive Account of the Dalai Lama and Tibet’, written by American journalist John F Avedon. There is a book by the Dalai Lama, called ‘Awakening the mind: Lightening the heart.’
Attracted to Tibet
Sethu was working as a graphic designer with the ‘Economic Times’ newspaper in Mumbai. During a vacation, he landed in Dharamshala with a photographer friend. That was when he encountered Tibetan monks with their distinctive maroon cloaks. He got curious and did interviews to know more about them.
When some of them refused to speak, he realised later the Chinese had cut off their tongues. He felt an ache in his heart. “I discovered my life’s work and passion in Dharamshala,” he said. Soon, he gave up his job. Thereafter, he set up the Friends of Tibet at Mumbai in 1999. This was followed, in the same year, by the setting up of the Friends of Tibet Foundation in his hometown of Kochi.
The Foundation works to safeguard and advance Tibetan heritage, including their healing traditions.
“We are conducting research on the unique heritage, legacy and history of Tibet,” said Sethu. The Foundation works with scholars, scientists, health experts, and sociologists to publish research papers.
During the Kochi International Art Biennale, in December, 2022, the Foundation set up ‘Shadow Circus: A Personal Archive of Tibetan Resistance (1957-74)’. Activist film-makers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam curated it.
Karma Yeshi is a former finance minister of the Tibetan Government in Exile. He said that the Friends of Tibet are doing wonderful work, mainly in South India and Mumbai. ‘They have made the people aware of the sufferings of the Tibetan people,” he said. “All this has happened because of the immense dedication and sincerity of Sethu and his team, Suku, his brother, and their father CJ Yesudasan (1938-2021), one of Kerala's well-known cartoonists. Because of them, many other people have joined the group. All of them are so sincere.”
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Tibetan Medical Camp
Next to the museum is a doctor’s chamber. Dr. Dorjee Rapten Neshar conducts a three-day medical camp once every two months.
“Sowa Rigpa, or the Science of Healing, is one of the world’s oldest known medical traditions dating back to the 4th Century AD,” said Dr. Neshar. “The Indian healing system of Ayurveda has influenced Tibetan medicine. We use pulse and urinalysis. Our medicines are composed of herbs and minerals. We have physical therapies like acupuncture.”
Around 100 patients come to seek treatment.
One of them is Sreelal. He is an artist and teaches art at the Emmanuel College at Vazhichal, 43 kms from the capital of Thiruvananthapuram. On the evening of February 4, 2022, after returning from college, he complained of a headache to his wife, Chitra. So, he lay down on the bed. Suddenly, there were tremors on his face and blood shot out from his mouth. Chitra took him to the hospital. The hospital could not diagnose whether it was a stroke or a fit.
“Since it was during Covid, the doctor put him on a ventilator,” said Chitra, who works in a government office. After 15 days, the doctor took him off the ventilator and Sreelal became normal after a month.
“Through the next year, now and then he would have fits,” said Chitra. ‘Sreelal began slurring on some words. The hospital kept increasing the dosage. Sreelal became bedridden and slept a lot. He became absent-minded.”
Mathew, a friend, suggested that they consult Dr. Neshar.
“We were hesitant to bring him,” said Chitra. “I had not heard of Tibetan medicine earlier.”
But on July 5, this year, Chitra brought Sreelal to the medical camp in Kochi. When Dr Nasher inspected Sreelal, he was shocked at the high dosage of medicine that he had been taking. He reduced the dose and also provided Tibetan medicines. The tablets have to be grounded and immersed in warm water. Sreelal took the liquid three times a day.
Within days, there was a marked improvement. Sreelal is also doing physiotherapy. He can walk now. “He is eating with his left hand, even though he is right-handed,” said Chitra. “I don’t know what it is, but Tibetan medicine is amazing. I am sure Sreelal will make a complete recovery.”
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