Darkness and Light: Two Narratives of Political Struggle

This paper compares the Thirteenth Dalai Lama's last testament (1932) with the British novel Darkness and the Light (1942) in order to help better appreciate the content, context, and significance of both narratives. Their proximity in time, their shared political concerns, and their shared aspiration to imagine utopian societies beyond present political degradation make them compelling conversation partners.

In 1942 British science fiction author Olaf Stapledon published his novel, Darkness and the Light, in which he had the audacity to speculate that civilization would be saved from destruction not through the efforts of Europe and America, but through a spiritual and political revolution begun by Tibetans and taken up by revolutionaries throughout the world. Darkness and the Light begins with an omniscient observer who is able to travel in time while observing the rise and fall of civilizations, as well as possible alternate timelines along which the course of world history may wind. Two political pathways to world unification dominate the observer's story. On the path of darkness, Russia and China contend for global control, ending in a despotic system of totalitarianism with a communist veneer. On the path of light Tibet, struggling to define itself as it defends against the aggressions of its two more powerful neighbors, forges a new system of spiritually infused form of socialism that sweeps the world due to its twin defense of local autonomy and global harmony. The observer acts as a witness to both, and the novel constitutes the observer's cautionary tale from the future for people making decisions in the present: "I saw the Tibetans create, seemingly from the very jaws of destruction, a community such as man had never before achieved. And this community, I saw so fortified the forces of light in the rival empires that the war developed into a revolutionary war which spread over the whole planet, and did not end until the will for the light had gained victory everywhere" (Darkness and the Light, 1974 ed., 12)

Just four years later in 1946 Thirteenth Dalai Lama's well-known "last testament" was published in English. This brief public statement was, by all accounts, originally delivered in 1932 at Reting Monastery, a year before his death. The Dalai Lama narrates his efforts toward securing a sovereign and enlightened Tibetan nation. In a few pages, he sketches a remarkably stark portrayal of Eurasian politics, all the while praising the distinctive values of Buddhist-inflected governance as well as his own efforts to enhance Tibetan civilization amidst pan-Asian conflict and the looming forces of China and and Russia. The "testament", or "political testament" or "warning" as it came to be known in later years, has gone on to have a long life among Tibetan readers. It was, according to Sir Charles Bell, published twice shortly after the Dalai Lama's death as a woodblock print in both Lhasa and Tashilhunpo (Portrait of a Dalai Lama: 426), and it was published in Kalimpong in 1955 along with an early writing by H. H. The Fourteenth Dalai Lama. It has gone on to serve as a milestone in Tibetan writing about communist rule in Inner Asia, and has been characterized as a "prophecy" by some later readers and writers. In Bell's account, the Dalai Lama's narrative was influenced by conversations between the Dalai Lama and Bell himself. 

Bound within a common epoch, these two narrative works from Tibet and England, respectively, are remarkably similar in their concern to imagine a positive political future for both Tibet and the world, despite their radically distinct origins, intents, and forms. Both are the result of globe-spanning conversations, both in person and in print, occurring in the mid-twentieth century. They also vividly depict the value of Tibetan voices, both real and imagined, for multiple readerships in a period of world war as they grappled with human suffering and flourishing. 

Sources

The Dalai Lama's narrative was published at least twice in woodblock print format: Dalai Lama 13 Thub bstan rgya mtsho (1876-1933),  "Chus spre/ gnas chung chos rgyal chen po'i bka' lung dgongs don bod ljongs ser skya spyi yis spyi zhus zhabs brtan bsgru bya'i zhu lan sbrag ma don snying tshil rul gso ba'i sman mchog sgrib med gcer mthong lha yi bdud rtsi gsar pa." In Lugs gnyis kyi blang dor bslab bya'i rtsa tshig gi rim pa phyogs bkod lha'i rnga dbyangs. In Gsung 'bum. The Collected Works of Dalai Lama XIII (New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1981-1982. 7 Volumes): Vol. 4, fols. 34a.3-36b.6. The work was also published as a separate woodblock print in nine folios; this appears to be one of the editions referred to by Bell (Portrait of a Dalai Lama: 426).

Olaf Stapledon's book was first published in 1942: Darkness and the Light (London: Methuen, 1942). Numerous editions have followed, and it is now considered an important work of mid-century British speculative fiction.