‘I Hope Dalai Lama Can Return Home Someday’: Actor Tenzin Dalha

Video Editor: Vivek Gupta

Actor Tenzin Dalha of ‘Axone’ and ‘Guilty’ fame is a second generation Indo-Tibetan.

On His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s birthday, this is his heartfelt wish for him. His words echo the feeling of perhaps every young Indo-Tibetan who has grown up in exile hearing stories of a place that was once their home.

“Each one of us wants to climb the ladder of success. And we crave for power and then we hunger for more power. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Have you ever heard of a leader of a nation who wilfully stepped down from his position of authority suspending all his political powers ? A monk leader from Tibet, ended five-centuries-old institution of centralised authority, opening the leadership for elections through participatory democracy.”

Tenzin Dalha, Actor

“It could be that this humane approach to life brought him in conflict with Chairman Mao’s Great Leap Forward. When Mr Mao spoke of ‘Dialectic Materialism’, the monk spoke of ‘Dialectic Idealism’. When Emperor Mao advocated ethnic cleansing, the monk prescribed cleansing of one’s mind, speech or body. The battle or the war was never the monk’s to win. It would have been no less than a fairy tale where a monk who chose not to inflict harm even upon a tiny insect, defeated an army of millions of soldiers with machine guns and bombs. It’s been 61 years since the monk left his home and found refuge in India.”

Tenzin Dalha, Actor

On 30 March 1959, the monk crossed the border into India and was granted political asylum.

“And now the whole world recognises him as ‘His Holiness The Dalai Lama’, who sought a simple solution for world peace by waging a war on one’s own negative emotions through compassion & kindness. I personally would want a fairy tale ending with His Holiness being able to return to his home. But truth is stranger than fiction, so here are we on his Holiness’ 85th Birthday, who has made the entire world his home and us citizens of human race. I would like to quote His Holiness here: ‘The world does not belong to leaders, the world belongs to all humanity.’” 

Tenzin Dalha, Actor