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By Tamding Bhutia, Tibet (now U.S.A.,)
Tibet, the country of my birth, has a long history of being a theocratic* Buddhist state that closed its doors to the outside world. But the invasion by the Chinese in 1950 has changed our country forever. My parents had to flee; they were both from ruling families. I was just a baby when our family began the long trek to India. It took them three years to reach safety.
When my mother reached India, she realized she was in a foreign country. She saw a European-looking woman walking along the road. She immediately thought of the Swedish missionaries she knew in Tibet as a child. Albert and Anna came as missionaries to Tibet in the 1920s. They came to live in the main city in the area where my family lived. In fact, my grandfather gave them permission to stay, not because he wanted to be a Christian, but he strongly admired the couple. They looked totally foreign, yet spoke his language fluently. He was really taken up with their language skills and their strength of character. Grandfather said, “You can do what you want, go preach, but don't preach to me.” However, he allowed my mother to go to the missionary home whenever she wanted.
When my mother saw the woman on the road in India, she stopped to ask if she knew Albert and Anna. The woman, missionary Hester, put them in touch with the Swedish couple.
When war broke out, Albert and Anna had left Tibet and gone back to their homeland to take up their normal lives. (Albert was a fisherman.) But in 1958 their church requested they go to India as soon as possible because Tibetan refugees were coming into India. Albert and Anna arrived in Kalimpong, India one day before my family got there.
My parents were glad to meet the missionaries again, and for nearly two years went for counseling and attended their Bible classes. My mother made up her mind that she wanted to become a Christian. But my father, who came from a ruling family, was already a learned monk. Father had studied Buddhism extensively, so he didn't want to become a Christian. My mother said, “Then you will have to break up the family. I will go my way and become a Christian.”
“Give me some time,” Father replied. He began to read the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. At first he didn't see much difference between Christ and Buddha. As he read he would say, “Christ is a good man. He is a great man. What He teaches is good. But my Buddha is also good.” But he continued reading and when he came to the end of the book where Christ was crucified, he said, “Oh, my Buddha died, too.” He read on. The resurrection of Christ changed my fathers mind. He suddenly said, “Here is a man who dies young, is killed abruptly, but He is alive now. My Buddha lived to be 81 years of age, died a normal death and is dead. So who should I believe in, the one who is dead or the one who is alive?” So he made his decision to follow Christ, too.
My decision for the Lord came a year later when I was six years old. My father was in prison at the time, accused of a robbery he did not commit. Mother had the faith that God would expose the person who did the robbery, and my father would be freed. Mother would take me and we would walk the hillside until we were tired and come home to sleep.
One such day Mother had already gone to sleep. I had the habit of looking out the window and counting stars before I went to sleep. In Kalimpong in the Himalayan Mountains, the stars are very bright and seem very close. I saw one star that caught my attention. As I kept looking at it, the star kept coming closer and closer and shining brighter. As it came close I could see that it wasn't a star, but a person.
The whole hillside was as bright as day. I could easily see people walking on the road below in the middle of the night. (Our town did not have electricity, so we had no lights.) I looked up, and I saw this person coming down into my window. The moment he came to the window I got scared and woke my mother. She started feeling for the matches. I told her she didn't need matches because the room was bright. But she couldn't see the light. She was still fumbling for the matches. I put the matches in her hand and she lit the lamp and said, “What happened?”
I said, “There is a person in the room. Look, He is right there.” My mother went to that spot and the figure moved to another place. This happened several times. Mother could see nothing, so she finally got a little mad at me and told me to go to sleep. She covered my head with a blanket and lay down beside me. When I thought my mother was asleep, I pulled the cover off my face and opened my eyes. I looked up at the ceiling and the room was still bright. I looked down at the foot of my bed. There stood the most beautiful-looking person. I wasn't scared anymore. I slowly pushed myself up and sat on the bed and I asked Him in my Tibetan language, “Who are you? Why did you come this way? Why did you scare me?”
He smiled and said, “Tamding, I knew you before you were born. I am the One who brought you safely out of your country. I am the One who brought you into the safety of this country. My name is Jesus.” Then He spoke with me and answered a lot of my questions and told me a lot of things for about 15 or 20 minutes.
Finally, He looked at me and said, “Look at my left hand.” He lifted it high, and there in His left hand appeared a huge book. He said, “This is the Book of Life. I have already inscribed your name into the Book of Life. Look at my right hand.” I looked at His right hand. In His right hand appeared a flaming sword. He said, “This is the same sword that drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden.” He continued, “If you leave me and forsake me, this sword will cut your name from the Book of Life.” He said, “But I love you; that is why I came personally to tell you who I am. Now look at me, I am going to leave. The way I came is the way I am going back. But remember one thing, you will come close to death in life and you will not die. Whatever happens to you, don't worry, I am there to look after you. I will surely look after you. And I will be with you until it is time for you to come Home.” Then He came closer and said, “Come here, I want to bless you.” He put His heavy hand on my head and said, “I bless you” three times. “Now look I am going.” He floated over my bed and back to the window. He looked down at me and said, “I am leaving, but I am with you.” As he went off into the sky, and floated higher and went further, the brightness receded. It became dark and I went to sleep.
When I woke up the next morning, I thought it was a dream. My mother did not wake me up that morning. She had gone to the market, bought a cup of milk and then sweetened it for me. She was waiting for me to wake up. Before I could say, “Mommy, I saw a nice dream,”she put me on her lap, made me drink the milk and asked, “Who were you talking to last night?”
She repeated everything that I said, but she had not heard what He said. It was not meant for her; it was meant for me. God had work for me to do for Him, so He was making sure that I did not go off track. Now I have no choice but to follow Christ, because I know if I leave Him, He will take my name out of the Book of the Living. I was a prince in Tibet, but now I am not only a prince but also the heir of the most Almighty. That is what He promises me. And that is why I am a Christian.
Through the years I have seen God's continued blessings upon me and my family. We were never rich, but we were happy. My parents were able to make a living in India and send me to school. Finally, they were able to send me to a missionary school where I grew in my faith in Christ. However, when I finished my schooling I was unable to attend college because of lack of finances. My father said he would never sell alcohol, which is the quickest way to get rich. He stayed true to what he believed.
Since I finished my schooling, I've worked as a freelance evangelist. I have traveled throughout the whole of Nepal preaching, as well as Calcutta city and my own hometown of Kalimpong. I believe we should be spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ to bring people into a relationship with Him. I have also worked as a commercial artist and a travel agent. In 1984 I married a Tibetan young lady who was also living in India. She had not asked me any questions about religion before we married, but after our marriage she realized that I was a Christian. She was a Buddhist so she wanted to leave, and her parents wanted to take her away. But she found nothing wrong in our lives, so she stayed. Six years later, my wife became a Christian. The Lord has blessed our marriage with four children, three sons and a daughter.
When riots broke out in Kalimpong in 1986, my wife and I moved down to Delhi where I started my own travel agency. Our business ran well for the next 10 years. It gave me opportunity to work more as an evangelist, and enabled me to help local people financially.
In 1991 God miraculously gave my wife and me a 10-year tourist visa to visit the U.S.A. But we didn't know where to go, and we didn't have the extra money for tickets. One day an American man walked into my office, took out an envelope, put it on the table and said, “I want to give this money to you so you and your wife can visit the U.S.A.”
I said, “I can't pay you back. I don't want it.” He replied, “Did I ask you to pay it back? He did not give us his name and and would not give his address. He said, “ I don't want to know . My job is to give you this money and I am gone.” So my wife and give you this money and I am gone.” So my wife and I decided to fly to New York.
After three months we went back to India, worked hard and then in 1996 I felt the Lord call me to go to Seattle, U.S.A. Someone again walked into my office and brought me a guidebook of the cities of Seattle and Portland. I asked the Lord why He sent the book. He said, “Because you need to go there.” I visited Seattle and felt assured that we were to settle there.
Back in India, we sold or gave things away and, as a family, headed for Seattle where we now live. God has continued to bless us in our new country. Our three older children are grown and all follow the Lord. The youngest, who is seven, was born in America. I work for a ministry as an environmental services supervisor; my wife is a caregiver to seniors. We attend church as a family.
Today I teach relationship in which I believe strongly. I believe I am God's son; I have a Father in heaven who is above all. Because I am His son I should have a deeper relationship with Him. God does not want religion, He wants relationship. God gave us freedom to be His children. We have the freedom to be as a child, yet we must also know our responsibility. I have the right to the Heavenly throne, but I also have responsibilities as a child of God. It is our responsibility to follow Him and obey His Word.
*Under a theocracy—a government by priests claiming to rule with divine authority.
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