MYSORE: ‘‘I am confident I will again serve His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a bodyguard and take him on horseback to Tibet. I wish the lakhs of Tibetans in exile enjoy the sunrise in our motherland before I die.’’ This is the desire of Dhonden Wangchunk, the only surviving bodyguard of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama, who accompanied him to the Indian border on March 10, 1959.
Eighty-six-year-old Wangchunk, an arms master by designation in the Tibetan Army, was one of the 11 armed bodyguards who trekked hundreds of miles for a week to reach the Indian border.
Wangchunk, residing with his wife Chungla in a small house in Gula Dhala (old settlement) in Bylakuppe near Mysore, goes down memory lane, recalling the moments of his life and his spiritual leader.
‘‘I was serving as arms master at Morbulingka (Summer Palace) of his Holiness when Chinese troops began the invasion and started firing indiscriminately at our troops, advancing towards the palace.
I was asked by my group captain to immediately rush downtown and get a few horses and donkeys. At sunset, 11 armed bodyguards followed the Dalai Lama, seated on a horse and others on donkeys,’’ he recalls.
Wangchunk, seated on a yak, trekked overnight, crossing hard terrain and streams to escape the Chinese forces. They stayed in a small house of nomads who offered them tea.
‘‘It took us six days and nights to reach the Indian border, surviving on tea offered by the villagers. As we reached the borders in the dark, there were a few people to receive the Dalai Lama.’’ Wangchunk said they returned to Tibet on instructions from the Dalai Lama to fight the Chinese forces. ‘‘We could not advance as the Chinese forces overpowered us. I lost five of my colleagues in the war and left Tibet 45 days after the Dalai Lama left the country,’’ he said.
Wangchunk reached Assam, worked as labourer in hilly region and moved to Bylakuppe in 1961. Showing much courage in taking on the Chinese forces, Wangchunk has found a place among 30 other surviving Tibetan soldiers in the Dalai Lama’s first circle.
The Tibetan spiritual leader had made it a point to spare some time to interact with them and recall the Chinese aggression and has extended financial support to the heroes who served in the Tibetan Army.
Wangchunk says that like all Tibetans, they want to go back home and meet their relatives their siblings. The aged couple, who have no children, are assisted by the government in-exile and dream of rebuilding their country.