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Chinese Students of Tibetan Buddhism

A Kham Aid Foundation Report by Pamela Logan

October, 1998

Tibetan Buddhism has exerted a magnetic pull in the West, winning many adherents with its teachings of non-attachment to worldly desires. What's less known to the West is that Tibetan Buddhism exerts a similar pull on the spirits and imaginations of many Han Chinese. "My greatest desire is to promote Tibetan culture to the outside world" says 33-year old Zhang Weiming, a traba (student monk) at Dzongsar Monastery. "This culture emphasizes the soul and allows you to forget your suffering."

Dzongsar Monastery.

Zhang is a slightly built man, warm and articulate, with twinkling eyes and an overwhelming enthusiasm for the life he has adopted here at Dzongsar. "My parents were landlords, one in eastern Sichuan, the other in the north." he says. "During the Cultural Revolution they were exiled to Serdar County [a remote Tibetan region of western Sichuan] where I grew up. I studied science, Christianity, agriculture, and Buddhism. But I realized that if I really wanted to learn [Buddhism] I would have to put myself in this environment."

Zhang prepared for entry into Dzongsar by studying Tibetan language at Southwest Nationalities Institute in Chengdu. He still finds spoken Tibetan somewhat difficult, but he has no problem reading the sutras that are his daily lot as a student at Dzongsar. He explains with zeal his understanding of Buddhism: "In Christianity, God is all-powerful; Western philosophy emphasizes the external environment. In Buddhism we study the inner environment. Despite the differences between Western and Eastern philosophy, their purpose is the same: we all want to reach a higher level and recognize things we cannot see."

Zhang Weiming gives visitors a tour of Dzongsar's herbal medicine factory.

Dzongsar, located in a remote valley of southern Dege County, is a good choice for a student with unusual qualifications like Zhang, for it has a long history of progressive thinking in the Buddhist world. The monastery was founded 1200 years ago, first as a Bon monastery promulgating Tibet's traditional animist faith, later changed to the Nyingma ("old school") sect, then Kagyu. Five hundred years ago the valley was wrested from the hands of King Gesar's generals and attached to the then-ascendent Dege Kingdom. In 1959 the most important temples were destroyed during a political movement against Liu Xiaoqi, a rare instance of destruction of a Tibetan monastery prior to the Cultural Revolution.

Now the entirely rebuilt Dzongsar wears the red, gray, and white stripes of the Sakyapas, but it is not really a Sakya sect monastery. 110 years ago three scholars-- Jangyong Khyentze Wangpo, Chuchi Niba, and Kongtrul Rinpoche--came here with idea of uniting the four pre-Gelug Buddhist sects. They produced 150 volumes of writings that today form the basis for instruction at the Dzongsar College of Buddhism, which is located below the monastery and is administratively separate from it. The college is highly selective, and its students, who come from all over Tibet, study for six years after which they take stiff exams. After graduation they generally spend five more years at Dzongsar before fanning out to monasteries all over the plateau.

Before 1950 there were many Han Chinese students at Dzongsar. "Several hundred years ago there was a decision to combine Chinese and Tibetan philosophy here, but the traffic and communication problems prevented it," says Zhang. The Chinese Buddhist Association has approved a special class for Chinese-speaking students at Dzongsar, but as usual there are not enough funds to support this endeavor, and so the plan languishes.

Through his relentless and sincere efforts, Zhang is now a part of Dzongsar Gonpa, whose community he always refers to by the pronoun "we." His studies here are supported financially by his family, the manager of the monastery, and a few friends.. "The people here are very kind to me. Before I came here I had a strong desire for things I couldn't get. Now I live my life according to fate."