In early June, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was wheeled into an operating room at Apollo Hospital in New Delhi. Spiritually, His Holiness is an emanation, or tulku, of the bodhisattva Chenrezig, who renounced nirvana to help mankind. But his corporeal manifestation, which just turned 91 on July 6, requires maintenance; this time, it was a left-knee replacement. While he is recovering well, that physical frailty is an alarm bell for the Tibetan diaspora. The vessel is aging, and the war for what happens the moment he leaves it has already begun.
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