Tintin in Tibet: A Friendly Evocation

When Tintin traveled to Tibet through Nepal in the comic book pages, he caught the fancy of not just the visitor but the visited.

In the shortlived freak magazine Flow, published in Kathmandu in the early seventies, the Darjeeling Nepali author Parijat wrote: "I am not among those who sell their Mongolian face to the third-class tourist's camera." In her own forceful way, writer Parijat here expressed the gist of much of the discussion in "The Shangri-La Myth" (Himal Jan/Feb 1990): To what extent do we perpetuate for tourist consumption a stereotype image of ourselves, borrowed from Western exotica seekers in the first place, and perhaps detrimental to our self-image and cultural identity. On the other hand, we do, with an equal degree of misinformation, create our own stereotypes, evident in P. Kharel's "The Dalai Lama's proposed Visit: Neither the Clime nor the Time," in The Rising Nepal, 3 Feb 1991: "It would be wrong to assume that the Dalai Lama has (a) considerable (number of) followers in Nepal. Of the various Buddhist sects in the Kingdom the Yellow Hats, represented by the Dalai Lama, constitute barely two percent."

During the recent Kalachakra initiation in Sarnath, the number of adherents that came from Nepal was significant enough for the Dalai Larna to honour them with a special address. Furthermore, though himself ordained in the Gelugpa (Yellow Hat) tradition, the Dalai Lama, in no way, "represents" that school (he is not even the Throne Holder); and as recent research has borne out, one of his lineages, received during the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama, came to him via a line of incarnation of Nyingma lamas from Helambu, closely connected with the history and successive restorations of the Baudha stupa.