The First Tibetans

The First Tibetans is the name of the first Chapter in the book by Thomas Laird who is interviewing the Dalai Lama in a book he wrote called "The Story of Tibet". The following is from page 10 of the first Chapter called "The First Tibetans".

"Buddhists, like Christians, Hindus, and Muslims, cherish ancient religious myths, which explain human origins for the faithful. Jews, Christians, and Muslims share a myth in which God blows spirit into clay to create Adam. In one of several Hindu creation myths, the primeval creature Purusha was dismembered and people emerged from its parts.  A Chinese myth tells of warring mythical emperors who hammer a primeval creature with bolts of lightning. Tibetans learn about a monkey who mated with a rock-dwelling demoness." end quote.

Next quote same page 11.

The Great Fifth Dalai Lama summarized Tibet's creation myth when he wrote his history of the nation in 1643.

'It is said that the flesh eating red-faced race of Tibetans were the descendants of a union between a monkey and a rock-dwelling demoness. Through the compassion of the Holy One, who had changed his form to that of a monkey, who united with a rock dwelling demoness---six children came into being. Growing from these in course of time, Tibet became a kingdom of human beings.'

The Holy One mentioned here is the Bodhisattva Chenrizi. Tibetans believe that the Great Fifth Dalai Lama was a manifestation of Chenrizi, just as they believe that the Fourteenth Dalai Lama is. After helping the Tibetan people evolve from animal life, Chenrizi has manifested himself in a human form repeatedly to guide them. Tibetans do not believe that the Dalai Lama is the fourteenth incarnation of the human being who was the First Dalai Lama: rather, he is considered to be the Fourteenth manifestation of Chenrizi, or the Holy One." end quote.

So, for those of us here in the west who are Christian or secular Christian, the Dalai Lama to the Tibetans would be like the 14th incarnation of Jesus Christ would be to us.

Begin quote on page 14 midway down the page.

The (present) Dalai Lama does not concur with every belief held by the most traditional and devout Tibetan Buddhists. For example, he accepts Darwin's theory about the origin of species through natural selection as the most logical explanation regarding the origins of humanity.

"When science clearly contradicts Buddhist beliefs, and it is proven, then we must reject the earlier beliefs,' the Dalai Lama said. "We will accept the evidence of science not early beliefs. The Buddha himself made it clear that the final decision for every person must come through investigation and experiment, not by relying solely on religious texts. The Buddha gave us each that freedom. I am following this line." end quote page 14.


Here, for me is the most wonderful thing about the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism. Being a thinking logical person because Buddha himself believed in this, we can see Tibetan Buddhism through  this  Dalai Lama and the next merging compassion and truth as found through philosophic inquiry and scientific research and moving towards something even more wonderful than it presently is as both a philosophy and a religion and thereby helping all mankind in the process to live better lives whether any of them have a religion or not. So, I see Tibetan Buddhism as an incredible civilizing and helpful force on the planet moving civilization forward to a better place along with all the other compassionate philosophies and religions on the planet.