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The
Venerable Kushok Bakula
Amitava Dutta
Bakula Rimpoche.
The venerable Kushok
Bakula, Padma Bhushan, Polar
Star, passed away 4th November,
2003 at his residence in Saket, New Delhi after a
brief illness. He was eighty six years at the
time.
Prince, scholar, politician, teacher, and diplomat: words
fail to capture the greatness of this incredible
man. Born to a royal family of Ladakh
at Matho on 21st May 1917, Prince
Kushok displayed an eagerness for a spiritual life
at an early age.
He started his studies at various
monasteries of Ladakh, and then went on to the
great monastery of Drepung in Lhasa in 1926.
There he acquired his Geshe
Lharampa, the highest degree in the Tibetan
monastic system (equivalent of Ph.D. in Buddhist
philosophy) in 1940.
His Holiness the Thirteenth Dalai Lama
recognized him as a reincarnation of Arhat
Bakula (one of the direct disciples of the Shakyamuni
Buddha).
He was called Bakula Rimpoche (precious).
His dedication to ministering for his people led him beyond
spirituality and into the world of politics.
After independence he became a member of
the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir and
was instrumental in voicing the concern of
Ladakhis. During
Sheikh Abdullah’s negotiations with Prime
Minister Nehru on the Delhi Agreement in 1952, he
demanded federal status for Ladakh. Arguing that
the needs of Ladakh were different from that of
Kashmir, he demanded that the local legislature
should be allowed to formulate rules for the
territory; for example, Bodhi, the language of
Ladakhis be the medium for education.
Bakula Rimpoche with
Prime Minister Nehru.
In 1954 after returning from Lake Manas Sarovar and Lhasa,
he warned the Government of Jammu and Kashmir and
Government of India of plans of Chinese
aggression. Tragically such warnings apparently
were not given the attention they deserved.
After serving in the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly
from 1951 to 1957, he was member of the state
Legislative Assembly from 1957 to 1967. Bakula
Rimpoche also served as Minister for Ladakh
Affairs from 1953 to 1967 though he had little
power. He then took the cause of the Ladakhi to
New Delhi and was a member of the 4th
and 5th Lok Sabhas from 1967 to 1977.
He also served as a member of the National
Human Rights Commission. He was truly “The
Architect of Modern Ladakh”.
Arhat Bakula’s spiritual quests were unabated in the
hectic of politics. In 1959 he founded the Central
Institute of Buddhist Studies in Leh, Ladakh. He
always had an interest in Mongolia and Russia, and
in the age when Buddhist teachers were going West,
he commented that going to the West was easy. In
the decades of Stalinist totalitarian rule,
hundreds of monasteries were razed in Mongolia and
it was indeed much more difficult for a Buddhist
teacher to go there. Bakula Rimpoche was no
ordinary teacher. He started visiting Mongolia in
between his busy schedules in Ladakh and Delhi.
The people there, thirsty for a spiritual
re-awakening, took to his teachings, slowly at
first, and then with full verve after the demise
of the Stalinist regime.
In January 1980, Kushok Bakula was appointed India’s
ambassador to Mongolia and served until
February 1990. He wore the hats of diplomat and
teacher with equal aplomb and was instrumental in
deepening the cultural ties and overall relations
between the two countries. In Mongolia, he revived
old monasteries and nunneries, helped install new
ones, and hosted His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai
Lama in Ulan Bator. It was not unusual to
see mothers bringing the children to be blessed by
him. He was called “Elchin Bagsha”, the teacher ambassador.
In 1987, the President
of India conferred the
Padma Bhushan on him for his multi-faceted
services. On 26th June 2001, in an
impressive ceremony at Ulan Bator, the President
of Mongolia conferred on him The
Polar Star, the country’s third highest
state order and rarely given to a foreigner, for
“strengthening Indo-Mongolian ties and for
promoting Buddha Dharma in Mongolia”.
Interestingly, in Mongolian folktales, there was a
lore that Bakula Arhat would one day come from
India to revive Buddha Dharma.
His passing is a great loss to India and to followers of
Dharma all over the world.
Pictures courtesy Central Institute of Buddhist Studies,
Leh www.cibsladakh.com
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