Theos-Talk Archives (June 2005 Message tt00140)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Konstantin Zaitzev" 
<kay_ziatz@y...> wrote:
> >>> In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Vladimir wrote:
> 
> AAB probably never met Laden La (or Lha as he 
> sometimes spelled), yet she mentiones him in her Autobiography as a 
> person distinctly different from her "Tibetan", whoever he was.

Apparently, it's not all that simple. Maybe AAB never met Laden Lha, 
but he knew her very well as she herself stated. Here is another 
narration of AAB about the same event as you quoted from her 
Autobiography.

------------------------------------------
AAB: I was dealing with the question of the Tibetan with one of the 
School members, HC, who helped us start the Arcane School in 1923. He 
used to come into the office at 8 in the morning and leave at 8 at 
night and do everything. Then he trained a man to take his place and 
said he was going to Tibet to find the Masters. I said to him, you 
don't need to go to Shigatse to find the Masters; you can find them 
here in New York if you tune in on their life. He made three trips to 
India and to within 45 miles of Tibet. During that time he got to 
know a famous Tibetan, Gen. Laden Lha, who was head of the Secret 
Police in the Himalayas. One day Gen. Laden Lha said to him, "I know 
Mrs. Bailey very well." Mr. C. said, "Where have you seen her?" and 
Gen. Laden Lha said, "I very frequently meet her when I meditate." I 
was in the radius of his vibratory sphere of influence, but he was 
not in mine. The last time but one that C. was in India, he was up 
near Tibet, and one day he heard a commotion outside. Coming down the 
road was a lama on a donkey accompanied by four other lamas and 
servants. One of the servants said, "This is Lama ____ from the ____ 
Lamasery, and the Lama said, "How is Mrs. Bailey?" and asked all 
kinds of questions. He handed C. a package of incense for me, then he 
gave C. his blessing and went away. C. told Laden Lha, who said he 
had been hoaxed, that that Lama never came down. When C. came back to 
England and described the Lama, it was the Tibetan, but I did not 
tell him, because the Tibetan was not within his sphere of influence. 
He was standing face to face with the Tibetan and talked to him and 
didn't know whom he was talking to. Later Gen. Laden Lha admitted 
that the Lama had come down to talk to him. 

You can never tell a person a thing like that until there is the 
knowledge within the person's own self. [For another account of this 
event, see Alice Bailey's Unfinished Autobiography, pp.165-166.] 
------------------------------------------
Quoted from "April 9, 1943. Friday Evening Address by Alice A. 
Bailey. With questions and discussion with advanced students"
http://www.esotericstudies.net/talks/April%209,%201943.htm


And here are some collateral texts mentioning Laden La.


------------------------------------------
I have previously argued that the extreme manifestation 
ofthe "Forward" policy in the post- Younghusband era occurred in 1923-
24, when British efforts to maintain their controlling influence over 
Tibet resulted in the Sikkim Political Officer, Major F.M. Bailey, 
attempting to promote a coup d'etat in Lhasa with the aim of removing 
the Dalai Lama from secular (although not religious) power and 
replacing him with the formidable figure of Tsarong Shape.(3)

In making that argument I Concluded that Bailey's agent in Lhasa was 
S. W. Laden La, one ofthe two intermediaries upon whom lay enormous 
responsibility for communicating between the British and Tibetan 
elites during much of the period from 1905 to the early 1930s. Laden 
La, a Buddhist of Sikkimese origin, was, by the 1920s, a senior 
police officer in Darjeeling, and was used by the British Political 
Officers in Sikkim on a number of missions to the Tibetan leadership.

Nicholas Rhodes, known for his studies of Asian numismatics, and his 
wife Dekyi, a granddaughter of Laden La, have strongly objected to my 
conclusion that Laden La was involved in this alleged coup, and their 
response forms the next article here. The Rhodes argue that the 
allegations of Laden La's involvement originated with Lungshar, a 
Tibetan official who rose to prominence under the 13th Dalai Lama as 
a supporter of the anti-modernism faction within Tibet's ruling 
elites and they argue that these were repeated by others as a 
consequence of Himalayan family rivalries.

While regretting that the Darjeeling family of Laden La proved 
unavailable during my research there, I must emphasise that my 
contention has been that the then Major F.M. Bailey planned and 
promoted the affair under consideration and thatif I am correct--
Laden La was only following Bailey's orders, as would have been his 
duty. It may well be that ultimately Bailey's plans failed because of 
Buddhist loyalties to the Dalai Lama by the main players. Certainly 
the documentary evidence in the Rhodes possession (to which they have 
kindly given me access) appears to confirm that Laden La did 
genuinely suffer a nervous breakdown after these events, contrary to 
my previous contention. That lie was re-employed by the British after 
that can only confirm his high standing in the upper echelons of the 
imperial government.
------------------------------------------
The Tibet Journal
Winter 2003 Vol. XXVIII no. 4
Tibet and the British Raj
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-
studies/Tibet/Tserials/TibetJour/2003wintertjp.html


------------------------------------------
Demands for autonomy or, at least, some form of local self-
government, gradually grew in Darjeeling. In 1907, on behalf of the 
hill people of the district of Darjeeling a memorandum was presented 
to the British government demanding a separate administrative unit 
for the district. It was a rather inchoate demand without the meaning 
and the content of the `separate administrative unit' clearly 
delineated. It is, however, significant that the separate identity of 
the `hill people' was sought to be asserted through a form of self-
governance. The fact that the district, as a non-regulation district, 
did enjoy a separate status was quite forgotten. It is possible to 
see the memorandum as an expression of some unformatted aspirations 
of the `hill people', but that such a separate identity was 
constructed and asserted is significant for this study.

A more formulated demand came in 1917 when a deputation of the 
representatives of the hill people led by S.W.Laden La and Kharga 
bahadur Chhettri waited on Mr. Montagu, the Secretary of State and 
Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy. In the meeting they demanded a 
separate and independent administrative unit comprising Darjeeling 
and the Dooars portion of the Jalpaiguri district. There was even a 
suggestion of creating a North eastern Frontier Province including 
Assam Dooars and hill territories to the east of Bhutan.

The move for the presentation of the memorandum was made by the 
Hillmen's Assocation (founded in 1917). It is interesting to note 
that the Kalimpong Samiti, the Gorkhas under Bhimlal Dewan and the 
People's Association, Darjeeling opposed the exclusion of Darjeeling 
from Bengal. They also expressed the view that the continuation of 
the scheduled district status would result in perpetual backwardness 
of the district. Among the supporters of this view were Dr. Parasmani 
Pradhan and Dal Bahadur Giri.

In 1929 the Hillmen's Association submitted a memorandum to the Simon 
Commission demanding; a) Darjeeling be taken out of the list 
of `backward districts', b) at least three seats in the provincial 
and central legislatures be reserved for the hillmen of Darjeeling. 
The Hillmen's Association seemed to have been swaying between two 
ideas: to remain in Bengal with special safeguards or to leave 
Bengal. In 1934 the Hillmen's Association again submitted a 
memorandum to Sir Samuel Hoare, the Secretary of State and Sir John 
Anderson, the Governor of Bengal demanding both reforms and special 
safeguards. Later in 1935 the Hillmen's Association, under the 
signature of its president Laden La, submitted another memorandum to 
the Secretary of State demanding the total exclusion of the district 
from Bengal and its conversion into a separate administrative unit, 
of the type of Coorg. These demands were not conceded and Darjeeling 
continued to enjoy a special status within the province of Bengal. 
In 1942, in a memorandum to Lord Pethick-Lawrence, the Secretary of 
State, the Hillmen's Association demanded Darjeeling's separation 
from Bengal and its constitution as a separate administrative unit 
under the governor-general with a Chief Commissioner at its head.
------------------------------------------
Autonomy for Darjeeling: History and Practice
Author: Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty
http://www.mcrg.ac.in/csd3.htm


BTW, I've just stumbled upon a page cleansing Alice Bailey from 
theosophical accusations while mixing her teachings with Agni Yoga 
from the Roerichs. There we see, among other stuff, plenty of 
quotations from people on this forum: 
http://www.esotericastrologer.org/EA%20Essays/AABHPBHR4.htm