EDITORIAL

The Tibetan Mother Teresa

Dec-Jan 2008 Issue, Editorial
There is a saintly woman toiling for the sick and poor away from the world of limelight, glamour, charity and chatters people in our age craved so hungrily. When I reached her simple patient ward early in the morning, windows were already lit with light and a faint shadow of a figure moving behind the curtains. Instantly, an image of Florence Nightingale tending the wounded French soldiers came to my mind. I begin to realize why Tsering Dolkar, a woman from a humble Tibetan family is known as the Tibetan Mother Teresa.

There was no time for formal reception when she came out from her patient ward, she smiles and informed me that she was going to receive a patient at PGI Hospital. She took me through dark alleyways and hired a rickshaw puller to take us to the hospital. In minutes time I realized that my day’s rendezvous with the Tibetan Mother Teresa was already underway.

To write about a saintly woman is an enormously humbling experience. She turned out to be a short, soft spoken and so down to earth person. She move in and out from one clinic to another, meeting doctors, fixing appointments, dealing with patients and keep track of each patient. It is her day’s work. It is incredibly difficult to believe how such a simple built woman stand up for a dozen of patients with the severe cases of cancers, chronic illness and complex medical ailments.

Behind the façade of her saintly presence and all pervasive humanism there is an unceremonious truth about our Tibetan society and its dark side where a lone woman social worker battles day and night for patients with serious medical conditions with little fund and support from the society.

She hardly occupies a place and recognition in our society, there is no charity pouring in, no beeline of public figures standing by her and encouraging her to go on with the noble mission. While so called the professed representatives of the common people in electoral democracy rushes to important religious and social ceremonies taking place in Tibetan settlements in droves to build up their vote bank and shore supports. Yet this saint could not attract a single public figure. How painful is the irony?
There is a glow of an aura and love that manifests from her presence. The way she addresses her patients and establishes the bond, it is akin to an affection communicated from a mother to her beloved children. When she enters a ward, she lights the room and there was visible cheerfulness, hope and joy in the eyes of the patients.

There have been memoirs and biographies written by aristocratic women claiming themselves the ‘Daughter of Tibet’. Although largely a historical accidents, they had no visible contribution to Tibetan society except their births. In this sense, the life and mission of the Tibetan Mother Teresa is a legacy born to a humble Tibetan family destined to serve Tibet’s other unfortunate sons and daughters. She is truly the truest Daughter of Tibet who chose to live with poor, weak and the sick. His Holiness the Dalai Lama once described her service as the ‘deeds of the true Bodhisattva’. I hope her work will continue and inspire many souls.

I take this moment to inform all of our readers that Tibetoday is going to be a quarterly Magazine from this year onwards due to unavoidable and compelling circumstances. For this incredible first year of our appearance, we were very our own funded. We had no major external funding to support us, although we ran from pillar to post but ended in vain. It was a combined good-Samaritan from our team members who worked without a penny reward and for which we managed to have a fruitful debutant year of good journalism grounded in social issues and causes. However, I would like to assure all of our readers that the uncompromising spirit of our journalism will continue with quarterly publications. I wish all of you a happy reading and a prosperous year ahead.

Chukora Tsering Agloe
The Editor
editor@tibetoday.com