The opinion piece below was sent to dorjeshugden.com for publication. We accept submissions from the public, please send in your articles to ds@dorjeshugden.com.
 

By: Shashi Kei

Vor 25 Jahren begann die religiöse Verfolgung von Dorje Shugden-Gläubigen, angeführt von der Zentralen Tibetischen Verwaltung (CTA). Die Folgen dieses religiösen Verbotes des Dalai Lamas und der CTA haben das tibetische Leben maßgeblich geprägt und das tibetisch-buddhistische Terrain im letzten Vierteljahrhundert weltweit gewaltsam verändert. Millionen von Leben wurden in Gefahr gebracht, die Heiligkeit der Linie von Lama Tsongkhapa geriet in Verwirrung und unzählige spirituelle Pfade wurden entgleist. Und das beinhaltet noch nicht die Auswirkungen, die diese Spaltung auf die kollektive tibetische Sache hatte.

Jetzt hat aber Seine Heiligkeit der 14. Dalai Lama zugegeben, dass er sich geirrt hat und er hat klar gemacht, dass diese Misshandlung von Shugden-Buddhisten aufhören soll.

Nach dem Flop, jetzt die Wende

Die religiöse Verfolgung der Shugden-Buddhisten durch den CTA begann 1996 und verschärfte sich 2008. Dorje Shugden-Praktizierende wurden als „Staatsfeinde“; „Anti-Dalai Lama“; „Anti-Dharma“; „Chinesische Spione/Sympathisanten; „Dämonenanbeter“ und andere ähnliche Beschreibungen eingestuft.

Doch die Propaganda und die Verfolgungen des CTAs konnten die Praxis von Dorje Shugden nicht vollständig ausmerzen. Es war immerhin eine angesehene Praxis, die von zentraler Bedeutung für die Gelug-Linie war. Sogar der 14. Dalai Lama hatte diese Gottheit verehrt, ebenso wie seine früheren Inkarnationen, der Große Fünfte Dalai Lama, der 11. Dalai Lama und die angesehensten Lehrer des 20. Jahrhunderts.

Es folgte eine Zeit vergleichsweiser Stille, als Shugden-Buddhisten in den Untergrund und ausserhalb der Reichweite des CTAs vertrieben wurden. Und dann machte der Dalai Lama eine Kehrtwende.

Der Dalai Lama sprach in seiner Live-Unterweisung Zehntausende Menschen an und kündigte an, dass die Misshandlungen von Shugden-Buddhisten beendet werden sollen.

Während der Saka Dawa-Lehre des Dalai Lamas am 26. Mai dieses Jahres machte er unerwartet auf das Thema Dorje Shugden aufmerksam, ein hochsensibles Thema, das ein wichtiges Zerwürfnis für gewaltsame Konflikte darstellt. Aber dieses Mal war die Botschaft des Dalai Lamas ein Widerspruch zu einer Haltung, die er und die CTA vorgeschrieben hatten.

Der Dalai Lama zitierte Passagen aus dem Bodhisattvacharyavatara (Die Lebensweise eines Bodhisattvas) und sagte, dass jede Feindseligkeit gegenüber der Gottheit offenkundig falsch sei, egal wie jemand über Dorje Shugden und seine Praxis denkt. Der tibetische Gottkönig folgerte, dass es gegen den Kodex eines Bodhisattva verstoße, Ärger gegenüber dem Beschützer zu empfinden. Außerdem sagte er, es seien unsere eigene Wut und unsere geistigen Verunreinigungen, die wir untersuchen sollten, anstatt unseren Ärger auf andere zu richten.

VIDEO:Dalai Lama sagt, Dorje Shugden ist ein Gegenstand des Mitgefühls (26. Mai 2021)

Doch das war noch nicht alles.

Eine Woche später, am 2. Juni 2021, gab der Dalai Lama während einer weiteren Belehrung über Je Tsongkhapas Erfülltes Schicksal (Tog jö dün leg ma) zum ersten Mal seit er ein Verbot der Praxis von Dorje Shugden verhängt hatte, zu, dass es ein Fehler war, Dorje Shugden diskriminiert zu haben.

Dies ist eine ganz andere Sprache und Tonlage als die der tibetische Führung, die vorsätzlich Hass gegen Dorje Shugden und Anhänger seiner Praxis schürten. Infolgedessen wurde es als „untibetisch“ und „unbuddhistisch“ angesehen, wenn Sie Shugden-Buddhisten nicht feindselig gegenüberstanden. Daher legten Regierungsbeamte und ehrgeizige Mönche Wert darauf, ihre Verachtung für diese heilige Praxis zum Ausdruck zu bringen, da der Hass auf Dorje Shugden zu einem schnellen Aufstieg in den tibetischen politischen sowie klösterlichen Vierteln verhalf.

VIDEO: Dalai Lama sagt, es ist falsch, Dorje Shugden abzulehnen (2. Juni 2021)

Fehler geschickt rückgängig machen

Das Wandel in der Haltung des Dalai Lama gegenüber Dorje Shugden ist nicht ganz neu. Im Januar 2020, nachdem er Dorje Shugden fast 24 Jahre lang als Feind des tibetischen Volkes bezeichnet hatte, deutete der Dalai Lama eine Umstimmung des Herzens gegenüber dem Beschützer an. Während der Dalai Lama in der Vergangenheit die Praxis von Dorje Shugden unter allen Umständen kategorisch verboten hatte, befürwortete er bei dieser Gelegenheit tatsächlich die Verehrung von Dorje Shugden, aber nur als Geburtsgottheit oder Landgottheit.

Es war ein Fachausdruck, aber in Wirklichkeit zerstörte das, was der Dalai Lama sagte, die Rechtfertigung des CTAs, Shugden-Buddhisten ihr verfassungsmäßiges Recht auf Religionsfreiheit zu verweigern. Die alte Rechtfertigung war, dass die Praxis von Dorje Shugden [in jeglicher Form] das Leben des Dalai Lamas bedroht sowie das Scheitern der tibetischen Bemühungen, ihr Land zurückzugewinnen, verursacht habe.

Dorje Shugden Lamas und Mönche wurden wie Kriminelle behandelt, wurden gejagt und tyrannisiert.

Dennoch dauerte das Verbot der Praxis von Dorje Shugden auf seinem sehr gefährlichen und schädlichen Verlauf weiter an.

Schädlich, weil sie die tibetische Verfassung untergrub, die unter anderem Religionsfreiheit garantierte. Schädlich, weil es die Heiligkeit des tibetischen Buddhismus untergräbt, indem es vier Jahrhunderte von alten Meistern und Weisen verspottet, die die Dorje Shugden-Praxis aufrechterhalten haben, darunter S. H. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo und S. H. Trijang Dorje Chang. Schädlich, weil es eine ohnehin kleine und schwache Gemeinschaft von Menschen zu einer Zeit zersplitterte, in der sie in Eintracht mit gezielten Bemühungen um die Wiedererlangung ihres Landes zusammenarbeiten sollten. Schädlich, weil es eine irreparable Spaltung innerhalb der tibetischen Klostergemeinschaft geschaffen hat, eine Spaltung, die sich weltweit überall dort auswirkte, wo es Anhänger des tibetischen Buddhismus gab. Schädlich, weil es gegen die grundlegendsten buddhistischen Prinzipien verstößt.

Buddha oder Dämon?

In den letzten 25 Jahren tobten Debatten zwischen Shugden-Buddhisten, die Dorje Shugden als eine Emanation des Weisheits-Buddhas Manjushri betrachten, und denen, die sich dieser Praxis widersetzen. Kritiker argumentierten, dass die Gottheit ein Dämon war, der aus dem Tod eines Mönchs mit gebrochenen Gelübden entstand.

Viele waren gefangen in einem erstaunlichen Netz von Argumenten, die willkürlich von Pseudo-Intellektuellen, selbsternannten Experten des tibetischen Buddhismus und Schmeichlern gesponnen wurden, die das wirkliche oder vollständige Bild nicht sehen konnten.

Tatsächlich ist es ein einfaches Thema.

Aus der Perspektive einer konstitutionellen Demokratie, die der CTA vorgibt zu sein, ist die Verfolgung der Shugden-Buddhisten rechtswidrig und eine Verletzung der Menschenrechte. Einfach ausgedrückt ist es nicht die Aufgabe einer demokratischen Regierung zu entscheiden, welche Religion legitim ist und welche nicht. Es ist die Aufgabe der Regierung, die Religionsfreiheit zu garantieren, was der CTA unterlassen hat.

Allen Shugden-Anbetern wurde der Lebensunterhalt verweigert. Sogar die Mönche wurden nicht verschont. Hier wird der berüchtigte Vorfall mit dem „gelben Stock“ gezeigt, bei dem Mönche gezwungen wurden, ihre Praxis von Dorje Shugden aufzugeben oder aus dem Kloster ausgewiesen zu werden.

Und nun hat der Dalai Lama aus der Perspektive der buddhistischen Religion klargestellt, dass wer auch immer Dorje Shugden ist, nicht von Belang sein sollte, wenn Sie ein wahrer Praktizierender des Buddhadharma sind. Tatsächlich betonte der Dalai Lama dass es in der Bodhicitta-Praxis sogar die Verpflichtung gibt, alle Wesen als “wichtige Gäste” zu betrachten.

Das Argument ist noch einfacher, wenn man es aus der Perspektive des gesunden Menschenverstandes betrachtet. Wenn man nicht an die Heiligkeit von Dorje Shugden glaubt, kann man sich einfach dafür entscheiden, nicht zu dieser Gottheit zu beten. Mit dieser einfachen Logik ist die Welt mit ihren unzähligen Religionen und Glaubensrichtungen in einem relativ friedlichen Zustand geblieben.

Es gab nie eine angemessene Rechtfertigung Shugden-Buddhisten überhaupt zu verfolgen. Diejenigen, die auf der Grundlage von „weil der Dalai Lama es gesagt hat“ gegen Dorje Shugden zu den Waffen gegriffen haben, sollten jetzt damit aufhören, Shugden-Buddhisten zu tyrannisieren, weil der Dalai Lama dies tatsächlich gesagt hat.

Ist das das Ende des Shugden-Verbots?

Leider ist es unwahrscheinlich, dass dies der Fall ist.

Selbst heute, nachdem der Dalai Lama ganz klar gesagt hat, dass es falsch ist, Dorje Shugden zu diskriminieren, gibt es auf der offiziellen Webseite des CTAs immer noch einen Bereich, der Hass gegen die Dorje Shugden Menschen schürt. Klicken um zu vergrößern.

Die absurde Argumentation und das Verhalten des CTAs zur Unterstützung eines rechtswidrigen religiösen Verbots haben den CTA unter gebildeten Tibetern und globalen politischen Beobachtern zum Gespött gemacht. Sie sehen, dass sich hinter der demokratischen und progressiven Fassade des CTAs eine veraltete Verwaltung verbirgt, die immer noch auf Fabeln und Aberglauben zurückgreift, anstatt bei der Regierungsführung gesunden Menschenverstand anzuwenden.

Während es der Dalai Lama war, der das Verbot der Praxis von Dorje Shugden initiierte, dienten die Unruhen den CTA-Beamten gut. Es war viel einfacher, weiterhin Hass gegen Dorje Shugden zu schüren, als sich um dringende Angelegenheiten zu kümmern, wie etwa die adäquate Versorgung einer schwindenden tibetischen Exilbevölkerung oder den Versuch, China in einen sinnvollen Dialog zu verwickeln. Das wäre eine klügere Strategie gewesen, als sich die CTA als Schachfiguren zu missbrauchen, um Chinas Aufstieg einzudämmen. Leider waren es Lobsang Sangays vorherrschende Aufgaben während seiner Amtszeit als Präsident der CTA, Anti-Shugden-Stimmung zu provozieren, China zu verärgern und sich mit Penpa Tsering an politischer Hinterlist zu beteiligen.

Die CTA machte es zu einer Strategie, Feindseligkeit gegenüber Dorje Shugden zu fördern, und ihr wurde das gleiche, wenn nicht sogar mehr Gewicht beigemessen als der tibetischen Sache. Als jedoch der Dalai Lama die Praxis von Dorje Shugden als Geburts-Gottheit oder Land-Gottheit befürwortete, fühlte sich die CTA unter Druck gesetzt, diesen bedeutenden Zusammenhang zu entfernen. Klicken um zu vergrößern.

Als jedoch der Dalai Lama die Praxis von Dorje Shugden als eine Geburts-Gottheit oder Land-Gottheit befürwortete, geriet die CTA unter Druck ein prominentes Banner von ihrer offiziellen Webseite zu entfernen. Dieses Banner führte zu einer Seite, die das tibetische Volk, Regierungsbüros, lokale Unternehmen und Unterstützer der tibetischen Sache ermutigen sollte, die Hexenjagd gegen Shugden-Buddhisten fortzusetzen. Diese Seite ist heute noch vorhanden, wenn auch nicht mehr so auffällig. Und das Mobbing von Shugden-Buddhisten hält weltweit an, wobei die Unterstützer denken, dass ein solches Verhalten vom Dalai Lama sanktioniert wird.

Ob die CTA diese giftige Anti-Shugden-Seite insgesamt entfernt, ist jetzt ein wichtiges Barometer dafür, wie sehr sie den Dalai Lama wirklich verehren. Es wäre ein Widerspruch für den Dalai Lama, Mitgefühl für die Dorje Shugden Anhänger zu empfehlen, während die CTA heimlich weiterhin die anhaltende Verfolgung fördert.

Wie gut werden die CTA und das tibetische Volk diese neue Richtlinie des Dalai Lamas zu Dorje Shugden aufnehmen? Es ist schwer zu sagen. Ein besorgniserregender Hinweis liegt in der Art und Weise, wie der tibetische Übersetzer den Teil der Lehre des Dalai Lama komplett weggelassen hat, als er sagte:

„Ich habe ein Shugden-Verbot durchgesetzt. Aber wenn ich jetzt über [Shantidevas erste Strophe] nachdenke, ist er einfach jemand, den wir lieben müssen, jemand, mit dem wir bedingungslos liebevolle Güte und Mitgefühl praktizieren sollten. Wenn ich mich von ihm distanziere und einige winzige Gründe anführe wie „er ist jemand, der die Lehren verletzt“; dies ist höchstwahrscheinlich ein Fehler.

Es ist ein schwerwiegendes Versäumnis, weil nicht-tibetisch sprechende Personen haben den Teil übersehen, in dem der Dalai Lama klar anspielte, dass das Verbot von Dorje Shugden ein Fehler war. Die Frage ist, war es eine bewusste Unterlassung?

VIDEO: Der englische Übersetzer hat den Rat des Dalai Lamas zu Dorje Shugden ausgelassen (2. Juni 2021)

Mit der tibetischen Führung und ihrer Clique ist alles möglich und wir haben immer wieder gesehen, wie geschickt und manipulativ sie sein können. Ein treffendes Beispiel dafür findet gerade statt.

Während der Dalai Lama Mitgefühl für alle fühlenden Wesen, einschließlich der Dorje Shugden-Anhänger, predigt, hat die CTA den Shugden-Klöstern die Unterstützung bei der Beschaffung dringend benötigter COVID-Impfstoffe für die Mönche verweigert. Hinter all der Mitgefühlsrhetorik hat sich also nicht viel geändert. Die CTA ist in ihrer Verfolgung derer, die sie als Feinde bezeichnen, nur noch besser und subtiler geworden. Und dies geschieht zu einer Zeit, in der die Regierungen der Welt die Notwendigkeit erkannt haben, alle Differenzen beiseite zu legen, um eine Pandemie zu bekämpfen, die die gesamte Menschheit bedroht. Aber nicht die CTA.

Und was nun?

Die Absicht des Dalai Lamas, den Shugden-Konflikt zu beenden, ist deutlich. Er wählte Saka Dawa aus, um seine neue Haltung zum Thema Shugden zu erörtern. Es war eine Gelegenheit, bei der der Dalai Lama wusste, dass er zu genau den Leuten sprechen würde, die diesem vergifteten Kapitel der modernen tibetisch-buddhistischen Geschichte ein Ende setzen könnten – dem Gaden Tripa, dem Sharpa Choje und anderen hochrangigen Mönchen und Regierungsbeamten. Und um sicherzugehen, dass seine Botschaft eindeutig ankam, wiederholte der Dalai Lama in seinen Lehren vom 2. Juni 2021 seine Absicht, die Shugden-Verfolgung zu beenden, und er räumte diesmal ein, dass es falsch war, Dorje Shugden diskriminiert zu haben.

Während der Belehrungen wandte sich der Dalai Lama an bedeutende Meister, darunter (von links oben im Uhrzeigersinn): Seine Heiligkeit Gaden Tri Rinpoche Lobsang Tenzin, S.E. Sharpa Choje Rinpoche Lobsang Dorje, S.E. Gyuto Khenpo Gangkar Rinpoche und S.E. Jampa Choje Gosog Rinpoche Ngawang Sungrab Gelek.

Verständlicherweise ist es für die tibetische Führung schwierig, ein religiöses Verbot, das sie nicht offen anerkennen können, abrupt aufzuheben. Und es würde einige Zeit dauern, um eine über ein Viertel-Jahrhundert kultivierte kollektive Psyche zu ändern. Aber der Rat des Dalai Lamas lautet eindeutig, genau das zu tun. Und alle Tibeter, Shugden- und Nicht-Shugden-Leute, haben den Dalai Lama immer in ihrem Herzen getragen.

Daher ist es vielleicht für jedermann das klügste, unabhängig davon, auf welcher Seite der jetzt nicht mehr existierenden Kluft sie stehen, vorwärts zu gehen. Diejenigen, die Opfer dieser dunklen Zeit in der tibetischen Exilgeschichte wurden, müssen die Vergangenheit nicht noch einmal durchleben, und diejenigen, die sich aus „winzigen Gründen“ (wie der Dalai Lama es ausdrückte) gezwungen sahen, die schwere Last zu tragen andere tibetische Buddhisten zu hassen, können diese bedrückende Last endlich fallen lassen.

Der neue CTA-Präsident Penpa Tsering hat nun die einmalige Gelegenheit, einen hässlichen Fehler formell auszulöschen und die Menschen wieder zusammenzubringen. Es wäre ein schwerer Fehltritt für Penpa Tsering, dem fatalen Vermächtnis seines Vorgängers von Menschenrechtsverletzungen zu folgen. Schließlich ist die dunkle Phase der CTA-Politik, in der das politische Überleben es erforderte, in der Shugden-Frage zu spuren, jetzt vorbei.

Wir hoffen im Interesse aller Tibeter und aller tibetischen Buddhisten, dass die Worte des Dalai Lamas beachtet werden. In Erinnerung an die jüngsten Lehren des Dalai Lamas, mögen alle Wesen als kostbare Gäste zur Sugataschaft eingeladen werden und mögen wir für das Glück aller Lebewesen handeln.

Videos in Chinesischer Sprache [中文视频]

达赖喇嘛《三主要道》的开示

达赖喇嘛《证道歌》的开示

Video mit Mongolischen Untertiteln

The ageing 14th Dalai Lama’s popularity is waning, internationally and within his own community.

The opinion piece below was sent to dorjeshugden.com for publication. We accept submissions from the public, please send in your articles to ds@dorjeshugden.com.
 

By: Shashi Kei

In Tibetan folklore, Chenrezig the Buddha of Compassion (Skt.: Avalokiteshvara), is regarded as the main progenitor of the Tibetan people. Naturally, that places the deity, Chenrezig, in a very special position in the Tibetan psyche. And so, when the Dalai Lamas were presented to the Tibetan people to be earthly manifestations of Chenrezig, they instantly commanded unparalleled reverence. It was considered ungodly and a serious spiritual violation not to live in complete worship of the Dalai Lama. It was also treasonous not to comply fully with his proclamations, official or unofficial, which were taken to be the highest laws governing the lives of the Tibetan people.

Of all the Dalai Lamas, the 14^th is considered to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest. Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso (which means ‘Holy Lord, Gentle Glory, Supreme Compassion, Defender of the Faith, Ocean of Wisdom’) assumed complete control over the Tibetan nation in November 1950. For the last 60 years the 14^th Dalai Lama has been the singular embodiment of the Tibetan people’s presence in the world. He is a living representation of the Tibetan people’s culture, language, customs, and religion. In exile, the Dalai Lama has been the most significant emblem of the people’s hope for freedom and indeed the very pulse and breath of all things Tibetan.


Reverence for the Dalai Lama was not an exclusively Tibetan affair. The Dalai Lama commanded the world stage after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, becoming the global symbol for peace and love. That fame and rising popularity meant that the Tibetan leader also became useful to Western nations, in their efforts to curb China’s rise to power.

Sadly there are clear signs that the preeminence of the 14^th Dalai Lama has outlived its day.

China’s importance to global trade and individual economies of nations mean that ultimately, the world’s governments are better off fostering good relations with China. After all as William Clay, an American politician observed, in politics there are no permanent enemies and no permanent friends, only permanent interests. As China’s economic rise commanded interest, it is not surprising that the Dalai Lama’s position on the world stage has diminished. In recent years meeting with the Dalai Lama has become the kiss of death insofar as maintaining good relations with China is concerned.



But it is the Dalai Lama’s declining esteem amongst his own people, the Tibetans, that is most indicative of his waning appeal. On the face of it, the Tibetan people’s adoration of the Dalai Lama has not lost any of its shine. However, a recent incident tells a different story.

Fake statement purportedly issued by the Dalai Lama’s Office. Click to enlarge.

This incident refers to a September 22, 2020 statement, purportedly made by the Dalai Lama on his letterhead and bearing his official seal. In brief it directed the Tibetan people to support a Sikyong candidate in the upcoming Central Tibetan Administration’s (CTA) elections, who is aligned with the agenda of the current President (Sikyong), Lobsang Sangay.

The Office of the Dalai Lama promptly declared the statement to be fake. Interestingly, this is not the first time the Office of the Dalai Lama has had to dispel fake statements supposedly made by the Dalai Lama. Earlier in March 2020, the Dalai Lama’s Office dismissed a social media post allegedly made by the spiritual leader, claiming to have an effective treatment for COVID-19. The ‘treatment’ being to recite a certain mantra and drinking black tea. It is mockery of the Dalai Lama, of course.

The September fake statement which went viral on social media had a clear objective — to use the Dalai Lama as leverage for certain parties to gain an upper hand in Tibetan politics. What is surprising is the brazenness with which the Dalai Lama’s name was used, which signals that the institution of the Dalai Lama is no longer held sacred as before. Instead, it has become fair game to be deployed as a tool in statecraft and political machinations.

This situation would have been unheard of in the recent past. By spiritual tradition, the Tibetans believe the mere utterance of a high lama’s name to be an act of deification. It would have been unacceptable to even consider using Chenrezig’s emanation in this mundane manner.

As unfortunate as the situation may seem, the Tibetan leadership, and in fact, the Dalai Lama himself, have played significant contributory roles in the disintegration of his stature.

Shanty towns in India that the Tibetans call home. There has been negligible meaningful support given by the CTA to the Tibetans in exile to build a proper future.

To begin with, the architect(s) of the fake letter worked on the presumption that such a ploy might actually work, that the Tibetan people might actually believe that the Dalai Lama would instruct them to forego their democratic right to choose a candidate they trust in, and instead do as they are told.

There is in fact, basis for such presumption because the Dalai Lama has habitually involved himself in both domestic and worldly political affairs, despite declaring that he had relinquished all secular powers and ‘retired’ from politics in 2011. History has recorded occasions when the Dalai Lama overtly flouted the Tibetan Constitution which he himself promulgated, when it suited his agenda. In addition, at various points throughout the Tibetan people’s 60 years in exile, the Dalai Lama who belongs to the Gelug school, has not been shy to exert himself on the spiritual affairs of the other Tibetan Buddhist schools where he has no authority, apart from being the most famous Tibetan monk. The Dalai Lama has also been known to have bullied (even to the extent of imprisoning) religious leaders of other Tibetan schools only to release them after they have bowed to his will. He has even gone on record to instruct the Tibetan people to regard followers of a certain religion to be enemies of the state.

In other words, it would not be out of character for the Dalai Lama to seek to influence the outcome of a supposedly democratic election. It has become common knowledge that behind the media-savvy appearance of “a simple Buddhist monk” the 14^th Dalai Lama is interventionist by character, highly divisive and extremely political.

However, being political does not on its own necessarily diminish one’s status in the eyes of the people. Both Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were impassioned political agitators. Both had their fair share of critics and even enemies. Yet, both were able to command overwhelming devotion and the respect of their respective communities and the world populace.

The difference between Gandhi, Mandela and the Dalai Lama is that Gandhi and Mandela delivered on their promises to the people whereas the Dalai Lama failed. Gandhi and Mandela were able to demonstrate their care and devotion for the people who formed their power bases. And again, this is where the Dalai Lama and his government failed. This failure can in large part be attributed to the Tibetan government-in-exile’s ineptitude and self-serving culture.

Generations of Tibetans have aged and passed on while waiting for the Dalai Lama’s government to deliver on their countless promises.

From its formation, the Tibetan government-in-exile enjoyed global moral and political support. Untold millions of financial aid poured in as the world rallied to its cause. This went on for decades but the Dalai Lama’s government squandered it all away. It wasted countless opportunities to engage China in meaningful dialogue and watched as a weak China pulled herself out of a disastrous post-Mao era to become an economic juggernaut. It is also unknown where all the money that poured in under various vague auspices of ‘Tibetan aid’ actually ended up.

The Tibetan leadership’s lackadaisical attitude towards the Tibetan people can be seen in the way they have casually reneged on their many promises to return them to the homeland. It is a given that the CTA is up against a very powerful nemesis. But the unkindest blow to the Tibetan people was not inflicted by their common enemy but by their own government. And that blow was to neglect to provide for those who followed their beloved god-king into exile, despite having received hundreds of millions of dollars over the decades.

From 1959 up until 2008, waves of Tibetans made their way out of the Tibetan plateau to be with the Dalai Lama. These Tibetans lived predominantly in squalid settlement camps believing that the Dalai Lama would soon return them as rightful citizens of Tibet. At its peak, it is estimated that up to 128,000 Tibetans readily gave up their homes in Tibet choosing instead to be near the Dalai Lama. However, it soon became obvious that not only was the Tibetan Cause a pipe dream but the Tibetan leadership had not even planned adequately to provide for those who had followed the Dalai Lama into statelessness.

Dhardhon Sharling, the ex-Head of the CTA’s Department of Information and International Relations, who abandoned the Tibetan Cause, choosing instead to move to the United States to start a new life.

Today, while the CTA claims that over 150,000 Tibetans remain with the Dalai Lama in exile, the reality is, only an estimate of 85,000 still live in various Tibetan settlements in India. Most remain there because they are trapped in a state of flux, neither equipped by the Tibetan leadership to build a proper future in exile, nor able to secure the necessary papers to travel abroad to greener pastures.

The successful Tibetans in the diaspora are those from the aristocratic stock who were somehow able to move their wealth out of Tibet. Otherwise they are the Tibetans who were wise enough to realize that they could not depend on their government, and left the settlements to seek citizenship and a new life in other parts of the world. A number have even opted to return to the Tibet Autonomous Region under China’s governance.

Simply put, the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile failed its people miserably. As a result, loyalty to the Tibetan Cause is no longer deemed by the Tibetan people to be acceptable currency to get by with. Nor are the CTA’s ongoing promises acceptable as collateral. And as we have seen, neither is adoration of the Dalai Lama suitable prize for the Tibetan people to stake their livelihood and future against.

The Tibetan leaders assumed that centuries of serfdom would have imbued the Tibetan psyche sufficiently to enable them to command endless servitude. It did for a long time until the Tibetan people saw and experienced for themselves what it meant to live as free people. They realized very quickly once they were exposed to the world, that they could sooner achieve this freedom without the traditional shackles and without having to subject themselves to the archaic ways of the Tibetan leadership.

The Tibetan people pay lip service to the struggle for freedom but most have abandoned the cause in reality, relegating the sentiment to an annual show of patriotism, whilst moving on with their new lives overseas.

For all intents and purposes, the Tibetan cause is past its ‘use by’ date. Today, which Tibetan in his or her right mind would give up a free, stable, prosperous and self-sufficient life in Canada, or Australia, or Switzerland or France, or the United States to return to Tibet with the Dalai Lama, assuming the Tibetan leadership somehow regains the country? Which Tibetan parent would yank their third-generation-in-exile children from good education and a promising future and repatriate them to what is essentially a foreign country in the Himalayan plateau? Which parent would deny their children freedom under real democratic governments, choosing instead to subject them to life under an ageing theocrat, supported by a corrupt and inept ‘government’ that has proven incapable of providing for 68,000 people?

Today as the world grapples with the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, and refugee crises triggered by conflicts in Syria, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Somalia dominate headlines, and nations of the world enter a period of great uncertainty, the Tibetan Cause has become irrelevant. Similarly the Dalai Lama is fast losing relevance even to the Tibetan people.

What dominates the Tibetan-in-exile landscape today is internal politics and bickering, corruption and scandals. No official of the CTA seems to sincerely believe in the possibility of regaining the country. And hence there have been no concerted efforts to re-engage China in dialogue. China’s reluctance to come to the table has provided a convenient alibi for the Tibetan politicians to do absolutely nothing.

But the business of running a government-in-exile is still a lucrative one. It is the only ‘government’ in the world that enjoys a constant stream of income from donations, grants and subsidies from the West, without having to produce anything apart from rhetoric and being a thorn in China’s side. It is a ‘government’ that is not required to establish a vibrant economy, provide public service, build infrastructure, protect its borders, maintain law and order, or administer a platform for its people to thrive on. It is the only ‘government’ that has zero accountability to its people, and the only ‘government’ that has willingly commodified its god-king, the Dalai Lama. Nothing spells the commodification of the Dalai Lama more than the fake statement. And so, the Tibetan leadership is ultimately their own worst enemy.

The opinion piece below was sent to dorjeshugden.com for publication. We accept submissions from the public, please send in your articles to ds@dorjeshugden.com.
 

By: Shashi Kei

During a teaching in January this year, the Dalai Lama very casually overturned the ban on the practice of Dorje Shugden which he had instigated over twenty-three years ago. It was easy to miss the significance of what he said because of the incidental manner in which the Dalai Lama addressed the subject. However, to those attuned to the subtleties of the Dalai Lama’s manner of speaking, it was clear that the campaign which the Tibetan leadership had unleashed against Shugden Buddhists was at an end.

When the Dalai Lama decided to smother the practice of the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden, he was well aware of the power of his words over the Tibetan people. They regard him as a Buddha and every word he utters, even mere suggestions, are taken as decrees. And so, in 1996 when the Dalai Lama gave what he termed an ‘advice’ against the practice of the Dharmapala Dorje Shugden, the Tibetan exile government known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) immediately took aggressive measures that culminated in laws condemning the religious practice as a “crime against humanity”.

Dorje Shugden on Tibet.net: The Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies’ Resolutions (June 1996). Click to enlarge.

A prominent section of the CTA’s official website was dedicated to condemning Shugden Buddhists, indicating that it was official policy to oppose the belief. Within that section, the CTA posted anti-Dorje Shugden Parliamentary Resolutions, government notices and a slew of articles that demonized the deity. Even the failure of the Tibetan people to regain their homeland was attributed to the practice of Dorje Shugden. To further spur the Tibetan people to turn against the ancient practice, the Dalai Lama claimed that worshipping Dorje Shugden would shorten his life. Ironically, the same website boasted of the CTA’s democratic values and its guarantee of religious freedom for all Tibetan people.

The Dalai Lama’s global influence meant that the campaign against Shugden believers extended well beyond the Tibetan exile community in India. Non-Tibetan Dalai Lama supporters joined in the anti-Shugden sentiment in the mistaken belief that the Dalai Lama was the most competent Buddhist monk in the world and, therefore, uniquely qualified to endorse or discredit the validity of any Buddhist practice. Others fell for the CTA’s ruse that framed the Shugden practice as a political ploy of the Chinese government aimed at undermining the Dalai Lama. It was a sly but extremely effective scheme.

In short, the Dalai Lama and the CTA painted the Dorje Shugden practice as categorically evil and to be avoided at all costs. There was no misunderstanding about this – the Dalai Lama repeatedly reminded the Tibetan people of how the practice would harm him and ruin their chances of regaining their country. Scores of sycophantic pro-Dalai Lama writers and monks ranted about how evil Dorje Shugden was. Some, like the FPMT’s Dagri Rinpoche (who has been arrested by Indian police and is now under investigation for decades of sexual harassment against nuns and female practitioners), made a grandstanding show of support for the Dalai Lama by leading powerful rituals to supposedly kill this ‘demon’. Under the directive of the Dalai Lama, Shugden-worshipping monks were expelled from their monasteries. This sentiment dominated the Tibetan socio-political landscape from the mid-1990s when the Dalai Lama’s campaign against Dorje Shugden started.

So, it came as a complete surprise when the Dalai Lama casually remarked in his January 2020 teaching that it was fine to worship Dorje Shugden as a birth deity (kye lha) or a land god (yul lha). Although the Dalai Lama persisted in questioning the historic status of Dorje Shugden as the Protector of Lama Tsongkapa’s lineage, his consent for the worship of the deity was a drastic reversal of official Tibetan policy that had stood for over two decades. The Dalai Lama had just ended a ban on the practice of Dorje Shugden that the Tibetan leadership had pursued aggressively since 1996.

Some have suggested that the Dalai Lama made an error and did not, in fact, intend to lift the prohibition on Dorje Shugden. However, there were three other hints to indicate that the Tibetan leader’s attitude towards Dorje Shugden has actually changed:

1. The Dalai Lama raised the subject on his own. There were no new developments on the Dorje Shugden front that made it necessary for him to address this very sensitive issue. Nor was his mention of Dorje Shugden in response to questions about the subject. So, it is clear that the Dalai Lama intended to convey a point specifically with regard to the Shugden issue.
2. The Dalai Lama referred to the deity by the proper name, ‘Dorje Shugden’, which means ‘the adamantine force that protects the Gelug’. For over twenty-three years, the Dalai Lama had called the deity by the derogatory name ‘Dolgyal’, which translates to ‘angry spirit of the river Dol’. By addressing the deity respectfully on this occasion, the Dalai Lama signaled that it is time to stop disparaging Dorje Shugden.
3. The Dalai Lama’s tone was amiable and gentle when he spoke about Dorje Shugden. This, too, was a departure from the scathing, derisive manner which the Dalai Lama had previously employed to refer to ‘Dolgyal’ whenever he wanted to perpetuate public animosity against Dorje Shugden.

The prominent ‘Dolgyal’ banner on the Tibetan government’s official website has been removed since the Dalai Lama announced that it is acceptable for Dorje Shugden to be worshiped. Whilst the section that condemns Dorje Shugden still exists, it has been discreetly moved to an inconspicuous section. Click to enlarge.

We must remember that the Dalai Lama is a master politician and an eloquent orator. He is deliberate in his actions and extremely masterful in his ability to move an audience with mere words. Without any military or economic might to speak of, the Dalai Lama has been able to keep world leaders and citizens focused on the Tibetan issue for over sixty years and tip the balance against China, an extremely powerful rising force. A grandmaster such as the Dalai Lama would not carelessly and accidentally revoke a ban on a supposedly evil activity that harms the Tibetan cause, puts his own life at peril and jeopardizes the sanctity of the Buddhist religion.

Perhaps the best evidence that the Dalai Lama intended to end the persecution of Shugden believers is the sudden disappearance of the prominent ‘Dolgyal’ banner on the CTA’s website. That banner served as an ongoing official warning for Tibetans to not practice Dorje Shugden and to not associate with Shugden Buddhists. The simultaneous disappearance of the banner indicates that the Dalai Lama’s words were no mistake.

Given the seriousness of the Dorje Shugden ban, the large number of lives it affected, and the seismic consequences it had on the Tibetan Buddhist community worldwide, one would have expected the Tibetan leadership to make a very public announcement about this drastic change of stance on such an important issue. However, this is not the Tibetan way, especially when it comes to the 14^th Dalai Lama.

It is not in the 14^th Dalai Lama’s nature to admit that he has made a mistake. There have been many instances that attest to this. One clear case was the Dalai Lama’s overreach of his authority to endorse Ogyen Trinley Dorje as the 17^th Karmapa, overriding the protocol of the Karma Kagyu sect. It was not the Dalai Lama’s right to interfere in the spiritual affairs of the Karma Kagyu, whose tradition precedes the Dalai Lama line.

His Holiness the 14^th Shamarpa who pointed out the Dalai Lama’s error in meddling with the recognition of the 17^th Karmapa. Click to enlarge.

The 14^th Shamarpa Mipham Chokyi Lodro, the second-highest ranking lama of the Karma Kagyu sect pointed out the Dalai Lama’s error, which had turned the Karma Kagyu on its head. The Dalai Lama should have acted immediately to correct his mistake after the Shamarpa pointed it out. It would have saved the Karma Kagyu from the carnage that it suffered for twenty-seven years as the result of the Dalai Lama’s unwarranted meddling. But the Dalai Lama did not. Instead, the Dalai Lama reportedly replied that he had already made the decision and could not withdraw his endorsement.

This episode indicates that it would be completely out of character for the Dalai Lama to publicly announce that he made a mistake with regards to Dorje Shugden. So, instead of officially overturning the Tibetan leadership’s ruling on the Shugden practice, the Dalai Lama suggested an exception to the ban on the worship of Dorje Shugden that renders the prohibition against the practice practically meaningless.

The classification of Dorje Shugden as kye lha or yul lha is a relatively insignificant detail. The list of gods and Buddhas in the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon is inexhaustible and covers lhas or gods who are often accepted as emanations of enlightened beings. The Great 5^th Dalai Lama wrote rituals popularizing the inclusion of worldly gods, including yul lhas in formal prayers. Lamas of all Tibetan Buddhist sects over the centuries did the same. So, to regard Dorje Shugden as a kye lha or yul lha is to restore the practice as an acceptable part of mainstream Tibetan Buddhism.

What could have led to this sudden, albeit rather coy, reversal? No one can say for sure. To do so would require insight into why the Dalai Lama implemented the ban to begin with. This is problematic because the Tibetan leadership has never actually presented any real evidence or sound reasons to justify its infringement on the religious freedom of Shugden Buddhists.

Over the decades, a number of postulations have emerged. The Dorje Shugden conflict has been said to be:

• A scheme of the Dalai Lama’s clique to consolidate power by forcing all the different Tibetan Buddhist schools to merge into a single one under the Dalai Lama, achieved by weakening opponents to the design;
• A strategy to distract the restless Tibetan refugee populace from focusing on the Tibetan leadership’s failure to deliver on decades of promises;
• A ploy to create chaos within the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) to gain bargaining power with the Chinese government;
• The machinations of rival sects jealous of Gelug supremacy and who had the ear of the Dalai Lama.

Click to enlarge

Whatever the Dalai Lama’s reasons were to suppress the Dorje Shugden practice, it appeared on the surface to be a success when it was actually a complete disaster. Outwardly, some Tibetans obeyed the Dalai Lama’s persecution of Shugden Buddhists because they believed in the absurd accusations. Most did so to avoid being accused of going against the Dalai Lama, which is typically hazardous. Then, there were those who seized the opportunity to curry favor with the Dalai Lama establishment by supporting the Shugden oppression. But behind closed doors, many Tibetans and confused supporters of the Tibetan cause were beginning to lose faith in him.

Gyalchen Dorje Shugden was, after all, a four-hundred-year-old practice advocated by the greatest luminaries and pandits of the Gelug and Sakya schools, including the Dalai Lama’s tutors. Also, regardless of how the Dalai Lama personally felt about the practice, isn’t the Tibetan leadership a democracy that upholds the basic principles of human rights, including the right to worship? If so, then the oppression of Shugden Buddhists’ rights go against the very essence of freedom and democracy.

Time became the most proficient interlocutor for the case against the Tibetan leadership’s campaign to eliminate the Dorje Shugden practice. The unpopular religious ban was tolerated because it was believed that doing away with Dorje Shugden would strengthen the Tibetan people’s efforts to regain their country. Instead, the Tibetan cause deteriorated even further as the Tibetan leadership became embroiled in a series of internal rivalries, corruption charges and sex scandals.

The Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje (left) whom the Tibetan leadership did not endorse and the Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje (right) who is the Dalai Lama’s choice of Karmapa, in a show of unity, a subtle but firm message to the Tibetan government.

In the meantime, the Tibetan exile populace languished. Dwindling numbers in the refugee settlements indicate that most no longer believe in the Tibetan leadership’s ability to adequately provide for them, let alone take on the powerful Chinese government.

The Dalai Lama’s subtle reversal of the ban on the practice of Dorje Shugden may well be a silent acknowledgment that he made a mistake. Or, it could be the Dalai Lama’s attempt to curb the speed with which his power is diminishing. Besides countless failed promises to return the Tibetan people to their homeland and failure to provide the necessary economic infrastructure for exiled Tibetans to sustain meaningful livelihoods, the Dalai Lama also miscalculated the strength of his dominance, not only over his own Gelug sect but also over the other Tibetan Buddhist schools.

The 17^th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who was endorsed by the Dalai Lama, absconded and closed ranks with the rival Karmapa, Trinley Thaye Dorje, who was never acknowledged by the Dalai Lama and CTA. The coming together of the two Karma Kagyu leaders delivered a very firm message to Dharamsala – that the Karma Kagyu no longer accepts the Dalai Lama’s self-proclaimed authority over them. This is confirmed by their snub of the Dalai Lama in subsequent major religious ceremonies such as the recognition of Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje’s newborn son as the reincarnation of Shamarpa Mipham Chokyi Lodro, who had passed into clear light not long after his confrontation with the Dalai Lama. In the past sixty years, such an important event would only be regarded as having legitimacy if it carried the Dalai Lama’s seal of approval. This time, the Dalai Lama was not consulted and, in fact, not even invited to attend the ceremony.

Going against Nyingma tradition, Dudjom Rinpoche was appointed as the supreme head of the Nyingma sect. He was previously imprisoned by the Tibetan government for not toeing the Tibetan Government’s line.

Other Tibetan Buddhist schools appear to have also taken drastic steps to insulate themselves from any machinations of the Tibetan leadership. The Sakya sect made changes to its succession system. The Nyingmas announced that they would do away with the selection and appointment of a single spiritual leader to preside over the Nyingma sect. That, too, was a subtle but clear rejection of the Dalai Lama’s interference in Nyingma affairs. It was never a Nyingma tradition to have a single spiritual leader until the Dalai Lama appointed one during the period of exile.

The Dalai Lama’s new proclamation on the worship of Dorje Shugden may be lamentably late. Still, it is a welcome step and one that is necessary to heal the deep fracture that has afflicted the holy lineage of Je Tsongkapa. Today, the Gelug sect is still divided into two groups – one that embraces the worship of Dorje Shugden, and another group that condemns the deity as an anti-dharma entity. This division has severely damaged the credibility of the Gelug and confused countless spiritual seekers. Perhaps, it is now time for the Gelug to reconcile.

Although the Tibetan President Lobsang Sangay proclaims democracy, in reality his actions are very much the contrary, as he upholds segregation and discrimination against a segment of the Tibetan populace based purely on their religious faith.

The opinion piece below was sent to dorjeshugden.com for publication. We accept submissions from the public, please send in your articles to ds@dorjeshugden.com.

By: Shashi Kei

How can you tell if a government is a good one?

Common sense would say that a good government carefully deliberates on issues that affect the people it represents and behaves responsibly to safeguard their rights and interests. It obeys its own laws and works to ensure that the state apparatus is free of prejudice and discrimination. A good government acts morally and is prepared to be held accountable for its actions and decisions.

Perhaps most importantly, the fruits of its actions are positive and beneficial. By the same logic, a government that does the opposite and brings harm to the community is not a good government.

The Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) based in Dharamsala, claims to be a good government that is guided by Buddhist principles. It insists that it is a far better alternative for the people of Tibet (today called the Tibet Autonomous Region or TAR) than the Chinese Communist Party and has asked the world to support its struggle for independence.

For decades, publicity campaigns commissioned by CTA-related organisations like the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and Tibet House, which has branches around the world, have extolled the virtues of the CTA. And yet, evidence points strongly to the contrary.

In 1996, the CTA’s Department of Health issued this chilling memo to all doctors and staff associated with them. The memo states that all Dorje Shugden practitioners should immediately resign from their positions. Click to enlarge

One chilling example is a 1996 memorandum issued by the CTA’s Department of Health (their equivalent of a Ministry) to all doctors and staff of organizations associated with them. In a few short passages, the memo manages to reveal the CTA’s true colors and expose how far removed the Tibetan government-in-exile actually is from even the most basic principles of democracy.

The document was, in fact, a ministerial order to discriminate against a segment of the Tibetan community purely because of their religious beliefs. Since 1996, Tibetan Buddhists who worship the ancient Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden have had to bear the brunt of the CTA’s persecution and this memo, calling for the resignation of all Dorje Shugden practitioners, was no different.

In truth, Shugden Buddhists have not been the only victims of the authoritarian Tibetan leadership. While it is unheard of in progressive societies, especially those that claim to be liberal and democratic, the alienation, subjugation and destruction of segments of the population were common in old feudal Tibet.

Gaden Phodrang, the political base of the Dalai Lamas, frequently used religious pretexts to excommunicate those they perceived as threats or political rivals. For example, the spiritual lifelines of Tibetan Buddhist luminaries would be unilaterally banished, effectively extinguishing their existence and, hence, the supposed threat to the Dalai Lamas. Such was the case with the 10^th Shamarpa, one of the highest incarnations in the Karma Kagyu lineage. Similarly, in the 17^th Century, the 5^th Dalai Lama’s response to a territorial dispute with the Jonang lineage was to ban the Jonangpa’s religious tradition and force its practitioners to embrace the Gelug school of Buddhism.

Jonang monks protesting in front of the Tibetan Parliament (Dharamsala) on 15th September 2015 for their right to parliamentary representation. In the end, the Jonangpas were forced to go on a hunger strike. Click here to find out more.

Most people are unaware of this dark history and fewer still know that the culture of oppression and bullying continues today in exile. The same ruling class that has bullied and discriminated against so-called ‘threats’ to the historical Dalai Lamas, today dominates the present Dalai Lama’s exile government; the CTA’s 1996 ban on Dorje Shugden worship is simply a modern manifestation of the Tibetan leadership’s old feudalistic ways.

The only difference is that this oppression is now practiced under the cloak of democracy. According to the Dalai Lama and the heads of the Tibetan government-in-exile, the CTA is a democratic government with a Charter that guarantees religious freedom. However, the memo from the CTA Department of Health proves that this is not the case.

Who Is Calling the Shots?

The very first line of the memo itself reveals that the CTA is neither a progressive nor a responsible government. Its entire premise is a decision given by State Oracles who are unseen, unelected and unaccountable individuals that reveal information under possession by spirits.

The simple fact is that the CTA’s elected representatives do not actually want to take responsibility for their decisions. By consulting Oracles, if things go awry, it is easier for the CTA to direct their people’s ire towards unseen spirits who cannot be held accountable.

Why else would the CTA take its cues from oracles? Why would it not instead carefully deliberate the pros and cons of key government decisions that impact lives, livelihoods and social harmony?

Nechung oracle in trance

It is well known in Tibetan circles that the Dalai Lama and the CTA habitually consult oracles for answers. The Dalai Lama even regards the State Oracle that takes trance of a fierce spirit, Nechung (also known as Pehar or Dorje Drakden) as his closest and most trusted adviser.

In his memoirs, the Dalai Lama wrote,

“I seek his (Nechung’s) opinion in the same way as I seek the opinion of my Cabinet.”

In fact, the Nechung Oracle is given the standing of a deputy Cabinet Minister although, as we can see, his sway over Tibetan affairs is far more potent. This would explain why CTA officials tend to take the Oracle’s proclamations as equivalent to, if not higher than, Acts of Parliament.

It is alarming that an elected government would take instructions from a spirit. This is especially so when the instructions are not only brazenly unlawful but also excessively punitive to a large segment of the Tibetan populace, serving to undermine the unity and fellowship of an already disenfranchised community.

To put the Department of Health’s directive into perspective, Dorje Shugden Buddhists were denied employment and livelihood not because they were unqualified or incompetent, nor for breaking any laws or breaching conditions of their employment. It was solely because the CTA’s Oracles said so.

A certificate that CTA requires attendees to sign, to the effect that the holder does not share anything with Shugden devotees. Those who do not have this certificate are denied participation in important religious events central to the Tibetan community.

This raises many questions. Who really controls the Tibetan government? Can Tibetans trust a government that is steered by invisible forces with an unknown agenda?

For certain, the CTA is the only ‘democratic’ government today that carries out the instructions of a supernatural entity. If there was ever any doubt that this is a recipe for disaster, then the invasion of Tibet, the plight of Tibetan refugees that is now in its 60^th year, and the many false and unfulfilled promises made by the CTA should provide the answer.

An alternative explanation is that the CTA is a counterfeit democracy that uses superstition to bypass its own laws when this suits its purpose. If so, then there is merit to allegations that the CTA is neither an authentic democratic government nor a genuine keeper of the Buddhist faith.

Instead, both religion and politics are merely tools the Tibetan leadership employs interchangeably and inseparably to accomplish its objectives, unlike any other government or spiritual body in the world. The Dalai Lama’s CTA does not operate as a democracy should, and certainly not as the democracy the Dalai Lama appears to have attempted to set up in the 1960s.

The Democracy Charade

In 1963, the Dalai Lama pushed for a draft democratic Constitution to provide governing principles for his people. On its official website, the CTA declares that the Tibetan Parliament adopted the Tibetan Charter (democratic Constitution) in 1991 and that it is “the supreme law governing the functions of the CTA”.

However, it appears that this outward embrace of libertarian principles is merely a charade to persuade the global community to support the Tibetan leadership’s political ambitions. In reality, the Dalai Lama continues to wield unfettered power.

During a religious event in 1996, the Dalai Lama expressed how he “personally feels strongly about how negative this (Dorje Shugden) practice is”. The Dalai Lama went on to strongly discourage Tibetan Buddhists from propitiating ‘Dolgyal’ (a derogatory term that disparages Dorje Shugden).

The ban has even come to the extent of expelling monks who practice Dorje Shugden. Click here to watch the video.

Not only was it improper for the head of a democratic government to attack a religious practice, but it was also disingenuous for him to have done so after proclaiming to uphold religious freedom.

The CTA took the statements of the Dalai Lama, who is regarded as both a god and a king, and turned them into an absolute law with no room for negotiation. The Tibetan Parliament, an institution whose role it is to uphold democratic principles, passed official resolutions which effectively turned Shugden Buddhists into outcasts and outlaws.

Similarly, the Tibetan Cabinet-in-exile issued official statements declaring that:

…rejecting Dolgyal has become a matter of the highest importance to the cause of Tibet… It is the duty of the Tibetan Government-in-exile to encourage compliance with any advice given out of concern for the cause of Tibet, the security of its head of state and the honor of all Tibetan Buddhist traditions including the Geluk tradition. Consequently, it has initiated a programme to be prevailing upon those still following Dolgyal to make a break with it.

In effect, the Tibetan Parliament and Cabinet made it a crime to worship Dorje Shugden and sanctioned what has become a witch-hunt. The Department of Health memo was simply one of many expressions of this religious persecution. Similar directives were issued by all CTA Departments, monasteries under the Dalai Lama’s control and community bodies eager not to be seen to be disagreeing with the Dalai Lama for fear of being accused of colluding with the enemy.

After all, if a segment of society can be summarily branded as traitors and criminals purely on the basis of their religious faith, what safeguards are there to prevent the CTA from falsely accusing other groups as being enemies of the state?

These actions are reminiscent of a feudal theocracy, not a democracy.

The great Democracy Charade. The CTA celebrates ‘Democracy Day’ annually and at the same time behaves more like a totalitarian state.

In a barefaced attempt to escape any kind of backlash or financial repercussion, the CTA has made many attempts to explain away this abuse of power and unabashed breach of the human rights of Dorje Shugden Buddhists.

For example, it has claimed that there is no ban on the Dorje Shugden practice itself and that the Dalai Lama was merely giving advice. However, the CTA has thus far failed to explain why there was a need for the Tibetan Parliament and Cabinet to pass laws against the practice of Dorje Shugden on the back of the Dalai Lama’s “advice”. It has also failed to explain why they had to “initiate a programme” (as per their statement) against the practice, if the Dalai Lama was only giving advice.

Neither has the CTA explained why its elected representatives breached its own Charter on the orders of an unelected spirit in trance. If it is so easy to breach the Charter, it is questionable how dedicated the CTA really is to the principles of democracy. Where the American government and people, for example, holds their Constitution sacrosanct, the same cannot be said of the CTA’s attitude towards their own Charter.

At the time of this writing, the CTA’s official website still proclaims the Tibetan Charter as the supreme law. And yet the same official website carries material that encourages the persecution of Dorje Shugden practitioners.

This should serve as a constant reminder of the CTA’s faux democracy. It is a testimony to how closely the CTA resembles the Chinese regime it accuses of breaching human rights.

There is no other democracy in the world where worshipping the right god is a condition for keeping one’s job and where one is required to denounce one’s faith to remain in the community. Nowhere else is it a “stringent responsibility” for government staff to “urge relatives” to abandon their religion.

23 years after it implemented this disastrous campaign that has wreaked havoc on Tibetan unity and undermined the Tibetan Cause, the CTA still refuses to desist. Perhaps it is a means of distraction from the CTA’s failures.

The CTA argues that the Chinese Government is oppressive and unfair. They point to the Chinese government making it an offence for anyone in the TAR to be in possession of the Dalai Lama’s picture. But the Chinese have never claimed to be democratic. It is the CTA which is the pretender as it makes it a crime to merely exercise one’s basic human rights because the Dalai Lama said so.

The opinion piece below was sent to dorjeshugden.com for publication. We accept submissions from the public, please send in your articles to ds@dorjeshugden.com.

By: Shashi Kei

Declassified US Dept Cables showing that the Dalai Lama was ready to embrace Communism had the US failed to meet his conditions for financial aid. Click to enlarge.

There are clear signs that world leaders are losing interest in the Tibetan struggle. For over half a century, it captured the world’s imagination and presented itself as an opportunity for the global community to make a stand for what is right and noble. In any public dialogue, both the Dalai Lama and the Sikyong (President) of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA, based in Dharamsala, India) refer to themselves as guardians of the Buddha’s teachings and portray the Chinese Government as a force that seeks to destroy the Buddhadharma. When asked how the Tibetan leadership intends to deal with China’s rising power, the CTA Sikyong Lobsang Sangay likes to say that Communism is only 100 years old whereas Buddhism is 2500 years old. The inference is clear: the Tibetan leadership has claimed to be synonymic with the religion of Buddhism. And yet, recently declassified US State Department documents reveal that the Dalai Lama is not beholden to any particular ideology apart from what serves him personally, and will lean towards any system or power base that could help him regain his fiefdom.

The Dalai Lama it seems was just as open to his government becoming a part of the Communist bloc had the Americans not agreed to his demands for funding. This came through clearly in a 1969 US Department of State communiqué, which reported a discussion between a US official and Lodi Gyari, who represented the Dalai Lama. The Tibetans were negotiating with the US for financial assistance but at the same time, they were entertaining overtures made by the Soviet Union.

The communiqué read:

“It will be recalled that during a public lecture at the Indian School of International Studies given in October, the Dalai Lama emphasized that he did not oppose communism, or for that matter ‘isms’ in particular. He [Lodi Gyari on behalf of the Dalai Lama] declared that an independent Tibet could have a communist government or any other form supported by the majority of the people”.

In short, the Dalai Lama was making it clear that if the US did not acquiesce to the Tibetan leadership’s demands, he would not hesitate to turn to Moscow for help and willingly embrace Communist principles.

Indeed, the Dalai Lama has never denied his admiration for Marxist and Communist thoughts and codes of governance. On a number of occasions, he has openly criticized Capitalism, which lies at the heart of democratic systems.

In a 2009 interview, the Dalai Lama was quoted as saying, “Communists care most about equality and the rights of the destitute” ⁱ.

At a lecture in Kolkata entitled ‘A Human Approach to World Peace’, the Dalai Lama clearly stated his preference for Marxist theories, claiming that Capitalism creates socio-economic inequality. He said, “As far as socioeconomic theory, I am Marxist”. The Tibetan spiritual leader partly blamed Capitalism for inequality and said he regarded Marxism as the answer: “In capitalist countries, there is an increasing gap between the rich and the poor. In Marxism, there is emphasis on equal distribution.” ⁱⁱ

Ironically, one of the crudest displays of social and economic inequality was the feudal system that characterized the reign of the Tibetan spiritual monarchs before Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1959, forcing the 14^th Dalai Lama to flee. It is suspicious that the Tibetan leaders only began to display concern for the emancipation of subjugated groups after the ruling class lost its feudalistic control over the people and had to turn to Western liberal nations for support. Their embrace of liberal and democratic values might perhaps be merely a means to an end.

The Tibetan leaders’ campaign would not have gotten far had the Sino-Tibetan conflict been framed correctly as a tussle between a feudal theocracy and a Communist regime over who has authority to oppress the Tibetan people. Sikyong Lobsang Sangay was right about one thing – if Communism is a repressive system, then its draconian laws have been felt for only 100 years. The tyranny of the Tibetan ruling elite that the Dalai Lama belongs to on the other hand has trodden on the Tibetan people for centuries.

However, it was not only Communist and Marxist principles to which the Dalai Lama was drawn. The Tibetan leader also personally admired Mao Zedong. In 1954, the Dalai Lama authored a poem to the Communist leader referring to him as a “cakravarti (universal monarch) born out of boundless fine merits” ⁱⁱⁱ. In essence, the Dalai Lama regarded Mao as the secular counterpart of a Buddha, which is extremely high praise indeed.

The Dalai Lama’s poem to Mao Zedong praising him for ‘liberating’ Tibet.
Click to enlarge.

In sharp contrast, Western nations on which the Dalai Lama has depended for the survival of the Tibetan cause for the past 60 years and whom the Dalai Lama today refers to as friends and allies, were adjudged in the same poem as, “Our foe, the blood-thirsty imperialists, are poisonous snakes, and messengers of the devil furtively crawling”. Some observers may insist that the Dalai Lama was under duress when he wrote the poem praising Mao. However, this places the Dalai Lama at risk of being accused of having no particular loyalties, and as someone that would bend whichever way suits his purpose.

While there is no question that Buddhism has been an inextricable part of Tibetan culture, it is also indisputable that religion has been leveraged for centuries as a tool to keep the ruling elite in power. Before the 1959 Chinese invasion of Tibet that led to the Dalai Lama’s escape to India, Tibet was a feudal theocracy where the majority of its people languished in serfdom and slavery. The tool of that oppression was none other than Buddhism or, more accurately, Buddhism as wielded by the Tibetan ruling class, at the top of which was the Dalai Lama himself. The political author Michael Parenti wrote in his 2003 essay “Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth” that:

“The theocracy’s religious teachings buttressed its class order. The poor and afflicted were taught that they had brought their troubles upon themselves because of their wicked ways in previous lives. Hence they had to accept the misery of their present existence as a karmic atonement and in anticipation that their lot would improve in their next lifetime. The rich and powerful treated their good fortune as a reward for, and tangible evidence of, virtue in past and present lives.

The Tibetan serfs were something more than superstitious victims, blind to their own oppression. As we have seen, some ran away; others openly resisted, sometimes suffering dire consequences. In feudal Tibet, torture and mutilation — including eye gouging, the pulling out of tongues, hamstringing, and amputation — were favored punishments inflicted upon thieves, and runaway or resistant serfs.”

The Dalai Lama admired Mao Zedong and regarded the architect of the disastrous Cultural Revolution, as a father.

The Dalai Lama’s Tibet was surely not the Shangrila that the West has fantasized.

Convincing the world that the Sino-Tibetan conflict is a battle between Buddhism represented by the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people, and Communism, as represented by the Chinese government, has been a supremely deft maneuver by the Tibetan leadership. It glosses over the Tibetan people’s brutally forced servitude under the country’s leadership; it sidesteps the fact that there is not a single true liberal element in the CTA’s governance behind its façade of democracy (the CTA remains a single-party government that does not tolerate opposition and the Dalai Lama’s word is still arbitrary law that overrides even the Tibetan Constitution); and it ignores the fact that the Tibetan leadership uses Buddhism as a weapon much the same way that medieval Popes wielded Christianity to enforce the supremacy of spiritual authority over temporal power and even the law. The religious apartheid that the Dalai Lama and CTA imposed on Dorje Shugden Buddhists is one apt example.

In truth, the Dalai Lama and his government are neither duty nor honor-bound to Buddhism, neither to Capitalism nor indeed to Democracy, Marxism and Socialism. Neither are they loyal to the principles of Communism or any other “ism”. The only thing that steers the Tibetan leadership is whatever opportunity they can muster to keep mesmerizing the world populace and keep the Dalai Lama and Lobsang Sangay in power. And herein lies the paradox and one of the biggest miscalculations by the people of the Western liberal world. In their zest to oppose Communism, they have provided all the necessary means and justifications for the latest ruler from a line of theocrats to remain in power.

In fact, in the modern-day scenario, there is little significant difference between a Marxist-Communist regime and a Capitalist-Democratic government that justifies the condemnation of China. The Communist government is shaped by Party ideology while the interests of big corporates steer policies of the so-called Democratic government. In both cases, it is not the interests of the people that are served primarily.

Nevertheless, both Communism and Democracy have certain built-in checks and balances. The Communist leader is accountable to his Party. The head of the Democratic nation has to be watchful of Opposition parties who act as watchdogs making sure that the government does not stray too much out of line.

The Dalai Lama, on the other hand, has no such encumbrances. No other leader of State today comes close to wielding the same amount of whimsical power over his people as the Dalai Lama does. Yet the lord of what was a very brutal regime has somehow bewitched the world into regarding him as the personification of peace and morality. Since 1959 when the Dalai Lama burst into the world scene, there have been 12 different US Presidents, 5 changes of guard in the now-defunct Soviet Union followed by 2 different Russian Presidents, 15 Indian Prime Ministers and even China has seen 6 changes to its ‘absolute leadership’ in that period. And all that time, the Dalai Lama has remained in power unelected, unchallenged and unaccountable. Having successfully sold the world the idea that he is the merely a “simple Buddhist monk” who is the supreme sentinel of Shangrila, he continues to rule with an iron fist of an autocrat. Publicly, this immense and hard power is cloaked by the soft image of Buddhism. The reality is somewhat different.

Tibetan Buddhism lies severely fractured today courtesy of a series of conflicts instigated by the Dalai Lama to keep the Tibetan people divided and throw their attention away from the failure of his governance. The Two Karmapa Controversy and the Dorje Shugden Conflict are two that continue to ravage the fabric of Tibetan Buddhist communities worldwide. The Dalai Lama likes to quote the Buddha’s teachings that state among other things that nothing is permanent. This sadly is true, especially of his allegiance and steadfastness to any political ideology, system, philosophy and movement apart from his own.

• i. https://journeyonline.com.au/queensland-synod-news/dalai-lama-praises-aspects-of-communism-and-marxism
• ii. https://www.newsweek.com/i-am-marxist-says-dalai-lama-299598
• iii. https://www.dorjeshugden.com/all-articles/the-controversy/my-friend-mao/

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in 2009

The opinion piece below was sent to dorjeshugden.com for publication. We accept submissions from the public, please send in your articles to ds@dorjeshugden.com.

By: Shashi Kei

On June 3, 2019, the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA; based in Dharamsala, India), the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile, published an article about the International Religious Freedom Forum held in Taiwan from May 30 to June 1, 2019. The article claimed, “His Holiness was invited to speak at the Religious Forum which was presided by President of Taiwan Dr Tsai Ing-wen and attended by over 187 participants from 10 countries including Representatives of Office of Tibet in Washington DC and Taiwan”.

That statement is not true.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen

The President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen reportedly promised to invite the Dalai Lama to the event but had thought better of it and the Forum went ahead without the Dalai Lama. This was confirmed by a number of religious groups although the Taiwanese government via its Mainland Affairs Council claimed that it did not receive a visa application from the Dalai Lama. To confuse the matter further, an official of Tsai’s government speaking on condition of anonymity claimed that Taiwan never had any real intention of inviting the Dalai Lama.

Taiwan’s about-turn on its relationship with the Dalai Lama may appear sudden, but it is not entirely unexpected. Taiwan is not the first ally of the CTA that is now keeping the Dalai Lama and the thorny Tibet issue at arm’s length. However, Taiwan’s avoidance of the Dalai Lama does perhaps signal how complete the isolation of the Dalai Lama and his government is today, in significant contrast to the global attention that the Tibetan spiritual leader commanded for over half a century.

Unfortunately, decades of global governmental and public support for the Tibetan cause have not amounted to much beyond general condemnations of China’s human rights record. That and a series of highly publicized fundraising campaigns for Tibetan refugees have dominated the Dalai Lama and CTA’s initiatives over the past 60 years. The funding initiatives have proven to be breeding grounds for corruption and it is debatable whether the campaigns actually benefited the Tibetan people in exile at all.

From the peak of its popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, the Tibetan cause began to gradually lose its lustre. With the hegemonic rise of China, friendship with the Tibetan leadership became an inconvenience.

H.H. Dalai Lama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989

By 2014, it was clear that having a close association with the Dalai Lama and the CTA was a liability. The Pope decided not to meet the Dalai Lama when the spiritual leader, who received the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, was in Rome for a gathering of Nobel Laureates. The gathering itself took place in Rome because the government of South Africa, the original venue, indicated that it was unwilling to issue an entry visa to the Tibetan leader.

One after another, nations of the world have fallen silent on the Tibet issue. They have signalled their affirmation of the One China Policy which effectively denies the legitimacy of the CTA.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump, who became the 45^th US President in 2017 has yet to meet with the Dalai Lama and is the first US President not to have done so since George H.W. Bush. This signals a shift against the Dalai Lama in US policy on the Tibet issue.

When Narendra Modi was first elected Indian Prime Minister in 2014, CTA President Lobsang Sangay was a guest of honor at the swearing-in ceremony. Not a single Tibetan leader was invited when Modi was sworn in for a second term in May 2019, an indication of how much standing the Tibetan leadership has lost. India’s snub of the Dalai Lama and the CTA began the year before when Indian officials and leaders were instructed to avoid the CTA’s ‘Thank You India’ events.

While it is widely accepted that there are no permanent allies or enemies in politics, one would have thought that the bond between Beijing’s two main opponents, Taiwan and the Dalai Lama, would be much stronger.

Thank You Taiwan Billboards hosted by the International Association of Tibetan Buddhist Dharma, Taiwan, in collaboration with the Office of Tibet.

Only a year ago, the Dalai Lama’s face graced billboards along major Taiwanese streets with the messages ‘Thank you to the Taiwanese government and people for your concern and support for Tibetan freedom’, ‘Thank you to Taiwanese followers of Tibetan Buddhism for your contribution to promotion of Tibetan religion and culture’ and ‘Thank you to Taiwanese democracy’. They were a part of the CTA’s 2018 ‘Thank You’ initiatives designed to shore up support for the CTA and the Tibetan struggle. Unlike India, Tsai Ing-wen’s government embraced the CTA’s programme to its detriment; her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was soundly trounced in the mayoral elections later that year.

The Tibetan cause as embodied by the Dalai Lama and represented by the CTA has become a jinx, due in part to China’s rise and in part to revelations of gross misconduct and corruption amongst high-ranking Tibetan politicians and spiritual leaders.

Taiwan’s rejection of the Dalai Lama’s participation in the Forum is, in a way, poetic justice. The event is, after all, focused on religious freedom, an international human right which unbeknownst to many, the Dalai Lama and the CTA have worked to suppress.

Dharma protector Dorje Shugden (left) and H.H. Dalai Lama (right)

Since 1996, the Dalai Lama has banned the worship of an ancient dharma Protector known as Gyalchen Dorje Shugden. He initially claimed that the practice offends deities in the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon and even shortens his own life. Then, the Dalai Lama insisted that worship of this deity had stricken the Tibetan struggle with bad luck. This was offered to the people as explanation for the failure of the Tibetan leadership to return them to their homeland despite numerous promises and prophetic proclamations over the years.

The Dalai Lama later changed his justification for imposing this religious ban. It was no longer bad luck to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan struggle for the Tibetan people to worship this deity. Instead, the Dalai Lama argued that all Dorje Shugden worshipers are paid agents of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC), a claim neither the Dalai Lama or CTA have been able to validate. The fact that previous Dalai Lamas and the bulk of the Gelug spiritual elite since the 17^th century have worshiped this very deity did not deter him from accusing all Dorje Shugden believers to be traitors of the Tibetan people.

A witch hunt reminiscent of Torquemada’s inquisition was sanctioned by the Dalai Lama’s office and Dorje Shugden worshipers were declared by the CTA’s supposedly democratic parliament to be “criminals in history”. Even today, those who refuse to relinquish their faith in Dorje Shugden and abandon their spiritual teachers and friends who are believers of the deity are expelled from the Tibetan community.

H.H. the Dalai Lama’s two tutors, H.H. Ling Rinpoche and H.H. Trijang Rinpoche both practiced Dorje Shugden during their lifetime.

These individuals are marginalized and denied even the most basic services promised by the CTA to all its citizens-in-exile, even employment. Tibetan Dorje Shugden practitioners and anyone associated with them are barred from participating in any gathering where the Dalai Lama would be present. They are not permitted to join community events that would have strengthened Tibetan unity, nor are they allowed to have any say in matters relating to the Tibetan cause.

This banishment is what the Dalai Lama is facing today.

This religious persecution is now in its twenty-third year and has inflicted untold damage on what was an already fragile Tibetan community in exile. But the Dalai Lama was not satisfied with merely imposing this religious prohibition on the Tibetan exile community alone; his diktat was carried into the Tibetan Autonomous Region, China (TAR), dividing the people in a manner no Chinese plot could. Similarly, the Dalai Lama’s anti-Shugden campaign found footing in Taiwan, where the CTA sponsored agitations against Taiwanese Shugden Buddhists. Books were published by CTA-owned Snowland Publications to this end.

In effect, the Dalai Lama’s assault on Dorje Shugden was a cunning strategy to intimidate Tibetan Buddhist adherents worldwide into becoming supporters of the Tibetan leadership’s politics. Refusal to support any CTA scheme is portrayed as opposition to the Dalai Lama, which then infers that one is an enemy of Buddhism. In their fervor not to be seen as being anti-dharma, many Tibetan Buddhists backed the unlawful religious ban, forgetting that the freedom to practice any religion without fear of retribution is an inalienable right in any true democracy. In supporting the Dalai Lama’s anti-Shugden campaigns, they interfere with the religious freedom of Dorje Shugden Buddhists.

Under such circumstances, it would be an absolute mockery for the force behind the brutal oppression of Dorje Shugden practitioners to attend Taiwan’s International Religious Freedom Forum as a VIP. The Dalai Lama’s attendance at the Forum would have robbed it of its authenticity. Tsai Ing-wen’s critics have accused her of caving into Beijing’s demands but that appears not to be the case – on June 4, the thirtieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square incident, Tsai criticized China fiercely showing no signs of fearing Beijing. The Taiwanese President remains opposed to China’s reign but after all this time, many have learned that there is no upside to carrying the Tibetan baggage. With Taiwan shrugging off the Dalai Lama, the final instruction to all players in the Tibetan saga appears to be exeunt omnes.

[Taiwan News] Exclusive: Source says
Taiwanese President Tsai revoked Dalai Lama’s
invitation to Taiwan

Source: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3717574. Click to enlarge.

护持大乘法脉联合会（FPMT）的创办人耶喜喇嘛（左）和梭巴喇嘛（右）。两位大师都是多杰雄登修持的虔诚追随者，但在耶喜喇嘛圆寂而梭巴喇嘛接管FPMT后，多杰雄登修持就突然被禁止。这种歧视明显体现在FPMT的活动登记表上。FPMT转而反对多杰雄登，已经违背了其极度慈悲的创始人一生忠诚修持多杰雄登的做法。这两位FPMT创始人的传承上师们也都是多杰雄登修持者。由此可见，FPMT成员们不仅违背了他们的创始人耶喜喇嘛，也连带否决了他们那些一辈子都修持多杰雄登的传承上师们。

以下评论为投稿稿件，供dorjeshugden.com刊登。我们接受投稿。请将您的作品电邮至ds@dorjeshugden.com。

Heinrich Hauff著

登记表是某个人有意参加某项活动、组织、就业或计划时所填写的书面记录。它收集数据，并提供相关人员的信息和背景。由于表格十分普遍，人们常视它为标准程序，往往不经思索就填写和提交。然而，当落在错误的人手中时，表格就成了强有力去控制他人的操纵手段。

FPMT的险恶议程体现在他们的登记表上。 点击放大。

 
善慧称佛法中心（Losang Dragpa Center）的登记表就是一个完美例子。卫塞节活动理应让人忆念佛陀教诲的价值，但这却是人们获准出席帕立仁波切于卫塞节给予的《上师荟供释义》开示前，所必须填写的表格。马来西亚的善慧称佛法中心是护持大乘法脉联合会（FPMT）全球众多分支中的其中一个附属中心。FPMT在1975年由耶喜喇嘛和梭巴喇嘛共同创办，它是其中一个较大的佛教组织。在耶喜喇嘛的时代，该中心具有相当大的影响力，但由于卷入许多政治决定，目前该中心的影响力已大不如前。

FPMT和其属下的所有佛法中心都谴责多杰雄登修持，尽管他们的创始人耶喜喇嘛一直到1984年圆寂为止都是多杰雄登的虔诚修持者。事实上，达赖喇嘛曾说过，修持多杰雄登者将堕入下三道。所以，达赖喇嘛本身去寻找、认证和为耶喜喇嘛现任转世安排坐床礼这件事就显得格外具有讽刺意味。达赖喇嘛该做的事，其实是宣布耶喜喇嘛没有转世，因为他修持多杰雄登。耶喜喇嘛的现任转世名奥瑟喇嘛，目前已经还俗，居住在西班牙。FPMT在本身的猎巫行动中，认证了一个修持多杰雄登，却没堕入三恶趣的上师，这简直是太奇怪也太虚伪了。

此外，FPMT还在他们全球各地的佛法中心的佛坛上供奉了他们制造的耶喜喇嘛的不同大小塑像，这理应是错的。既然耶喜喇嘛修持多杰雄登，他应被视为是邪魔，并投生在三恶趣。这是他们本身错误百出的逻辑，但即便是他们自己也都无法跟从自己的逻辑。既然FPMT不允许多杰雄登修持者到他们的佛法中心接受加持，那么把耶喜喇嘛的塑像安奉在他们的佛法中心内不一样是不符合逻辑吗？更何况还要去供奉他？为什么要去供奉一个多杰雄登修持者的塑像，即便他是他们的创始人？

事实上，如果你真要全然符合你所谓的“信仰正确”，FPMT应该将他们佛法中心内所有的耶喜喇嘛像，包括图像，也都一拼去除。直到1996 年达赖喇嘛颁布禁令前为止，继承上师事业的梭巴喇嘛本身也是虔诚的多杰雄登修持者。既然梭巴仁波切那么多年来修持多杰雄登，却全然不知多杰雄登是邪灵，那就表示梭巴喇嘛并不具有神通。另一方面，梭巴喇嘛的通灵梦是十分著名的，他每个星期也用骰子进行上百次的占卜，怎么可能说在长达几十年的时间里，他那著名的占卜骰子竟没告诉他多杰雄登是个邪灵？

由此可见，梭巴喇嘛也会犯错？而他在如同护法修持这般神圣事情上的决定也是不可靠的？所以我们是否要相信，梭巴喇嘛几十年来做了那么多禅修，却一直向（以多杰雄登形式出现的）邪灵祈祷，直到被达赖喇嘛“警告”为止？这种情况下，梭巴喇嘛会是一个我们可以咨询意见，或请求占卜的人吗？既然梭巴喇嘛支持达赖喇嘛对多杰雄登的不合理禁令，FPMT自然就站在反多杰雄登运动的前线，也成了猎捕多杰雄登修持者的领袖。此举很显然是为了讨好西藏领导，因为它一举贬低了他们的创始人耶喜喇嘛及传承上师们、所有修持多杰雄登的人，以及那些很诡异地不投生三恶趣却反而转世回来的人。

这是在其中一个FPMT中心内的耶喜喇嘛像。别忘记他一辈子都是多杰雄登修持者，所以根据藏人领导的逻辑，耶喜喇嘛立刻就不具备作为佛法老师的资格。然而，他们不仅不丢弃他的塑像，还把他变成一个拥有明妃的金刚萨埵。所以现在这里有一个多杰雄登修持者，他的塑像原本应该被抛得远远的，然而，情况不但不是这样，他反而还被当成神，放在佛坛上让人膜拜。也许他们该让耶喜喇嘛也填写一份FPMT-LDC登记表。我肯定金刚萨埵或耶喜喇嘛将不被允许进入！这不是一个无聊兼充满挖苦意味的讽刺，而是直接而深入地洞悉FPMT的虚伪。所以，他们有什么权力批评其他多杰雄登修持者并审问潜在的参与者？

FPMT喜欢宣传他们的创始人耶喜喇嘛，在他们的书籍和网站上，FPMT总是直接和间接地叙述耶喜喇嘛的神通和奇迹故事。作为修行成就如此高的禅修大师，耶喜喇嘛从禅修证神通，他可能一辈子都看不出多杰雄登是邪恶的吗？这就是我们应该相信的吗？这是否意味着多杰雄登欺骗了耶喜喇嘛？这意味着耶喜喇嘛可以被欺骗且不可靠，而且如果多杰雄登确实欺骗了耶喜喇嘛，为什么我们还要接受耶喜喇嘛的教诲、阅读他的书籍并相信他在FPMT留传下来的修持？

如果目前的FPMT像一棵树的叶子、树枝和树干，耶喜喇嘛和传承上师们就是树根。既然耶喜喇嘛和传承上师们修持多杰雄登，而根据FPMT的说法多杰雄登是邪恶的，这是否意味着这些树根已经腐烂了？那么这棵树怎么可能继续生长并提供一棵树所该提供的？

这份让有兴趣参加马来西亚FPMT今年卫塞节活动的人士填写的登记表，为他们的具有伤害性议程提供了线索。

这场2019年5月22日到26日举行，为期五天的教学计划，原本应由帕立仁波切负责。但作者在撰写此文的时候，帕立仁波切已被揭发为连环性侵罪犯。作为FPMT的巡回弘法上师，帕立仁波切全年的行程都十分紧凑，他到处为全球FPMT佛教中心的大型聚会给予开示、授戒和灌顶。在他作为性侵罪犯的身份曝光之后，他所给予的教诲和灌顶的神圣可靠性已经收到质疑。帕立仁波切最近因在从德里前往加戈的印度航班上性侵一名妇女，而被印度警方逮捕，随后保释在外。加戈机场是最靠近达赖喇嘛府邸兼藏人行政中央所在地达兰萨拉的机场。

帕立仁波切的做法直接违背了佛教僧侣的基本戒律，在这种情况下，他理应自动丧失作为僧人和教师的资格。既然如此，他所提供的所有教学和修持都将是无效的。当我们调查帕立仁波切事件时，我们看到他目前的教学时间表已被安排在远东和马来西亚。我们看了一下他们的网站并下载了其活动的表格，发现了这项虚伪。在他们的登记表格中，他们胆敢向有意在他们的中心参加由一位性侵罪犯主持的系列教学的人士审问他们的个人修持。而他们的中心内则供奉了多杰雄登修持者耶喜喇嘛的塑像。这一切让你想到了什么？

让我们总结一下——我不曾拜访过马来西亚，但FPMT马来西亚分会的登记表格却盘问你是否修持多杰雄登，以让他们审核你是否具备资格在他们神圣的大殿，在修持多杰雄登的耶喜喇嘛塑像前，参加由性侵女性者（帕立仁波切）给予的教学。这一切听起来尽管十分诡异，但那却是真实发生的情况。

这是耶喜喇嘛的另一尊塑像，梭巴喇嘛正在面前供奉他。为什么梭巴喇嘛和FPMT禁止多杰雄登修持者前去他们的中心，但他们却将修持多杰雄登的耶喜喇嘛供奉在他们的中心内让人们供佛祈愿的地方？这就好像说，银行盗窃者都不允许进入我的房子，但我却要将邦妮和克莱德*的塑像摆在我的佛坛上供养（*美国史上最著名盗窃银行的雌雄大盗）

这份FPMT的登记表就是他们虚伪的例子。FPMT的领导和成员都采取了“我比你神圣”的态度，压迫多杰雄登修持者，以便跟达赖喇嘛建立亲近的关系，这反过来为他们的佛法中心注入了善款和赞助。他们站在道德高地及扮演信仰警察的做法，清楚显现在他们的这种诸如出席帕立仁波切开示共庆卫塞的活动登记表格上。虽然他们说他们的所为都是为了众生的福利，但他们的登记表上却清楚显示他们相反的做法。

帕立仁波切其实是个连环性侵犯

或在YouTube上观赏：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T05xLBZ_1WU

 
FPMT登记表的分析：

1. 先决条件：参与者不得是雄登/朵杰修持者

这是什么先决条件？谁赋予FPMT审判和歧视雄登修持者的权利？这显示了FPMT的极端偏见，而这种态度违背了佛教的爱和接受所有众生并将其视为母亲的原则。他们的宽容、接纳和慈悲去了哪里？一切众生不都应该得到爱、慈悲和教诲吗？

我的宗教信仰是什么或不是什么，都是个人的事情，而且去相信我想要的东西并选择我想要祈愿的对象也是我的特权。宗教是非常个人的事情，没有人有权质疑任何人或根据他们的宗教来加以判断。我的信仰只适合我。这是个人的，它在我心中。FPMT绝对没有权利提出这类问题。我应该被允许参加他们的开示并获得加持，就像任何其他宗教的任何修持者都被允许的一样。

2. 强制性个人资料

在他们的表格上，FPMT要求参与者列出他们的手机号码。FPMT为何要询问人们的手机号码？这应该是可选项，因为一个人的电话号码、地址甚至电子邮件都是私人信息。提供这些细节，却不知道它们将被如何利用，让参与者面对被骚扰的可能性，就像之前发生在年轻富有吸引力的男士和女士列出个人资料后的案例一样。

如果已证实FPMT没有准备好去照顾自己的学生们的福利，并防止他们成为性犯罪教师（帕立仁波切）的牺牲品，FPMT能如何保证自己不会为了其他原因而滥用这些十分私密和机密的细节？我们怎么知道他们的委员会成员和志愿者都拥有良好的声誉？我填写这份登记表，只是为了得到加持，而不是为了申请一张信用卡；要得到一份加持真的需要面对那么多审问吗？“众神”自何时起变得那么偏执？人们该如何相信FPMT能确保这些资料不落入错误的人手中，让性掠夺者能更直接地获取潜在猎物的资料？与此同时，我们生活在一个身份盗窃十分猖獗的世界，FPMT如何保证他们不会出售人们的数码身份和资料？无论如何，它确实表明FPMT有兴趣建立一个数据库，好让他们可以去挖掘善款和获取其他好处。

为何FPMT强制要求人们提供这些细节？单凭他们是一个佛法组织，并不意味着他们都是百分之百的好人，且不会滥用组织所持有的信息。多数时候，人们实际上并不想透露他们的个人联系方式，因为他们不希望受到被逼向组织捐款的骚扰。人们多次抱怨FPMT不断打电话和骚扰人们要求捐款，或要人参与他们的活动。我们已经通过Skype与前FPMT和前LDC委员会成员进行了交谈，他们亦提到我们刚提起的，关于组织以拖网方式寻求捐款的事情。有时候富有的人会面对更多骚扰，因为他们的联系方式已被不道德的人滥用了。

FPMT的创始人——耶喜喇嘛和梭巴喇嘛正参加仪式。在背景中，你可以看到多杰雄登唐卡（西藏绘画）。这两位喇嘛都积极修持多杰雄登，直到禁令开始，而现在FPMT更是歧视全球各地的多杰雄登修持者。耶喜喇嘛终生修持多杰雄登，根据FPMT的看法，他应早已投生三恶趣。然而，怎么可能说FPMT的创始人去了三恶趣，但他们却继续使用他的教诲和著作呢？

3. 你是雄登/朵杰修持者？ 是/否

世界上有许多宗教，如耆那教、犹太教、印度教、神道教、佛教、伊斯兰教、白巫毒、基督教、黑巫毒、巫术、威卡、撒旦、阿米什、摩门教、苯教、科学教、萨满教、道教、锡克教、通灵术、巴哈教、天理教、新异教主义等等。在这一系列宗教中，有些人会说他们的才是真实的，他们是唯一真正的道路。有些人实际上崇拜“黑暗实体”，正如其他人所声称的那样，这些宗教的信徒将相互辩论哪一条道路才是真的，并且甚至会说其他宗教都是假的，且会引导你下地狱。

那为什么FPMT不询问这些修持者的背景呢？最后的分析结果是，没有人有权说哪个宗教将把你引向天堂或地狱。我们最好能实践宽容和接受，并停止审判。无论你的宗教背景是什么，礼拜或祈愿的场所都应向所有人开放，因为这会使其成为一个神圣的地方; 一个神圣地点将不会有加持力，如果他们要面对审问。

如果FPMT真的担心其成员的安全，他们为何不在表格上询问参与者是否有过犯罪记录？ 他们目前是否正涉及刑事案或曾被监禁？为何不问人们是否接触过传染病，或心理健康状况有问题呢？问题是，为什么这些考量不出现在FPMT的表格上？毕竟，作为一个罪犯远比单纯修持你和平的宗教来得糟许多。

如果FPMT没有询问其他诸如上面所列出的宗教，为什么FPMT唯独挑出，并仅针对多杰雄登修持者？谁给了他们权利和权力来判断和歧视他人？谁任命他们为佛法’警察’？ 他们如何有资格这样做？无论在道德、实践和灵修上，这都是不对的。这是错误和没有必要的。

很多时候，我们看到如达赖喇嘛和班禅喇嘛等高僧们向东、西方国家成千上万人提供诸如大型的时轮金刚灌顶，这群人中有许多都来自不同的信仰和教派，有些甚至是无神论者。 他们都来参加开示和灌顶，没有面对任何麻烦和问题。为什么他们就被允许参加达赖喇嘛的开示并获得加持，而无需宣誓他们将对任何人效忠，或宣誓他们将不会修持某个特定的神灵？为什么这些人可以参加，而雄登修持者却不能？

事实上，FPMT的修持基础和传承均来自400多年来修持和推广多杰雄登的大师们。FPMT本身的创始人耶喜喇嘛本身就是多杰雄登修持者。FPMT的整个组织最初都是由协助耶喜喇嘛和梭巴喇嘛的多杰雄登所建设和加持的。这一切都是众所周知且记录在案的事实，虽然FPMT喜欢将之一笔抹杀。

鉴于目前帕立仁波切计划前往马来西亚中心（LDC）进行教学，因此他们有了这种登记表格，或许是时候应该改变计划，因为他被揭发几十年来都在性侵妇女。FPMT / LDC不应该如此傲慢，质疑人们是否修持多杰雄登。相反地，他们应自我反省为什么帕立仁波切能够侥幸长时间逃脱并伤害这么多人。当然，FPMT宣传这样一个声名狼藉的教师，其罪名远比向多杰雄登祈愿来得大许多。因此，FPMT应该谦虚，且应停止表现得高高在上，因为他们事实上一直任由帕立仁波切自由面对那些毫无戒心、追求信仰且无辜的女性。 FPMT欠许多人一个道歉，而他们必须对此表现真诚。他们也还欠一个道歉，针对他们的歧视态度。任何持菩萨戒的人都不应该放弃娑婆世界的任何一名众生，否则将无证悟可言。点击图片放大。

4. 问你从谁那里接受皈依戒和教诲

FPMT甚至想知道关于一个人信仰生活的细节。为什么FPMT需要知道你从谁那里受皈依戒？这实际上跟他们没关系。一个人与上师之间的精神联系是十分个人与神圣的，FPMT无权过问一个人的上师是谁。此外，他们还问你是否接受某些教诲，而又是从谁身上取得教诲。他们是为了要知道你是否具备参加某些教诲的先决知识？或他们只是想确保你不曾从他们所不认同的上师那里接受教诲？根据他们所提出的一系列不恰当的问题看来，答案极有可能是后者。所以，他们再度扮演警察角色。

当你在接受佛教的皈依时，由什么人进行形式上的仪式又有什么关系呢？重点在于你实际上已经皈依，而你的皈依是发自内心的，而不是那个你向他寻求皈依的人。事实上，许多佛教文献中都明确指出，如果内心没有皈依，外在的皈依是没有用的。那么为什么FPMT如此热切地想知道你向谁寻求皈依？

5. 列出你的金刚上师的名字

在接受无上瑜伽密续灌顶时，传授你灌顶的上师就是你的金刚上师。要求某人列出他们的无上瑜伽续灌顶及相关的金刚上师，是有违密续中要求行者对自己的修持保持秘而不宣之规定的。当一个人参与密续本尊修持时，他不允许向任何人透露其本尊的身份和修持。据说，对自己的密续修持秘而不宣，才能确保得到加持和取得修行成就。一个人不会到处填表格，向你认识或不认识的人透露你的密续本尊是谁。

赞助这些计划的FPMT和LDC对此是更为清楚的，这不禁让你相信他们其实有另一些隐藏的议程。更重要的是，多杰雄登修持者肯定不想去FPMT接受教诲和灌顶。多杰雄登修持者有本身的上师和寺院。那么为什么LDC竟如此傲慢地认为多杰雄登修持者想潜入他们的中心接受教诲？多杰雄登修持者有许多他们可以寻求教诲的上师，所以FPMT无需偏执地表现到仿佛他们是唯一销售钻石的人，而实际上多杰雄登修持者可以在别处得到更大更好的钻石。

人们不得透露他们接受了什么灌顶，以确保灌顶拥有完整的加持，继而才能取得成就。 FPMT询问这些问题，就是违背了密续的规定。那为什么FPMT还在他们的表格上提出这个问题？这难道不是另一个审问申请者并企图知道他们是否是多杰雄登修持者的方式吗？这么做有助于使他们看起来神圣、善良、顺从西藏领导层，反过来，这有助他们更容易透过攀附达赖喇嘛这个名人而从中取得回报。

FPMT怎能如此大胆地质问人们他们的上师是谁，还问他们曾接受过什么灌顶？事实上，他们应感到荣幸，有人拥有能进入他们的中心祈祷，捐款，当志工，付出时间和提供专业知识，并为自己的成长做出贡献的佛法印记。他们应该感到荣幸的是，在完成所有的营销工作之后，有人可以成为他们的潜在成员并实践佛法。当他们鼓励另一众生倾听佛法时，他们应该得到满足，因为这是他们为自己累积功德的其中一种方法。

他们应该把潜在的学生视为尊贵的客人，而不是将他们视为罪犯。越多众生聆听佛法，他们就越能够累积功德，并实现设立佛法中心的目的。因此，他们应该用充满爱的眼睛，慈悲的感受来看待一切众生，并珍惜回向给那些前来他们中心的人。毕竟，他们帮助的每个人都朝证悟踏进了一步。对于一个修持佛法，尤其是一个接受了菩萨戒的人来说，你不能放弃任何一个众生，无论原因是什么，因为菩萨戒中清楚说道，即便只是放弃一个众生，行者也无法证得圆满证悟。这个佛法原则涵盖了一切众生，包括多杰雄登修持者在内。 因此，这是唤醒FPMT的一个很好的建议。

所有以上这些要点都使得他们的登记表具有歧视性。许多其他的佛教中心和组织并没有这种具有歧视性的表格，有些甚至根本没有表格。他们从不向任何人提出这么多敏感和个人问题，因为他们知道那与他们无关。很显然，许多其他中心在登记表格上并没有这样的规则，但FPMT却是有的。为什么会这样？因为FPMT总是希望自己看起来很神圣、美好且地位高于其他佛教中心。他们这样做，希望能更靠近达赖喇嘛，与他勾肩搭背，并张扬他们与他的亲密关系。他们参加他的开示，并在互联网上刊登他们与达赖喇嘛的合照。为什么这样呢？那事为了确保和证实他们的佛法中心所做的是正确的，而且透过这种做法，他们相信这赋予了他们欺负其他佛法中心和佛教徒的权利。这不外乎是一种“信仰种族主义”。

梭巴喇嘛和其他27名在各FPMT中心担任驻寺教师的格西们，总是与达赖喇嘛合照，以使自己合法化。这不仅仅是一张漂亮的照片，它还显示了他们求取名望、权力和金钱的险恶动机。

这里真正的问题不在于任何人的信仰修持。真正的问题在于FPMT需要生存，并负担全球数百个中心的管理费用。因此，他们需要不断地讨好达赖喇嘛，因为跟达赖喇嘛一起，意味着他们是善良、高人一等，并比其他人都“更好”的。让我们面对现实——事实上，FPMT将信仰视为一种企业，因为他们与其他中心竞争，以获取赞助商并为自己获得捐款。 FPMT需要更多的会员，这意味着有更多人为自己背书，好让他可以实现他们的最终目标：获得更多的金钱和权力。因此，与达赖喇嘛“亲近”让他们从中取得好处，因为他是一个大名人。而跟他保持亲密的方法就是在登记表上显示他们是多么服从达赖喇嘛，所以禁止多杰雄登修持者进入他们的中心。FPMT真正该做的是放弃政治，并欢迎一切众生成为佛陀的信徒。无论你是圣人还是罪人，无论你是克里希纳、佛陀、巫术、伏都教或无神论的修持者，你都是一个人，应该享有平等的尊重；你也应该获准进入佛陀之家，也就是佛法中心。无需歧视。给和平一个机会。

也许FPMT应该考虑这一点——关闭一些中心，以减少获得金钱和名望的压力，因此他们可以不带有歧视性，企图看来跟达赖喇嘛关系良好，并可以重新修持真正的佛法。

当我们找到问题的症结时，娑婆世界还会有什么？为什么他们会如此令人恶心地武断和富有偏见？为什么因为信仰而歧视他人？这本身就违背了佛陀慈悲对待众生的教诲。那么他们的慈悲心去了哪里？什么样的佛法组织才会因他人的信仰而放弃他们，并禁止他们接受佛陀的加持？佛陀会避开多杰雄登修持者吗？他会歧视他人吗？那么FPMT从哪里学习到他们本身的佛教形式？佛陀对央掘魔罗有很大的慈悲，教导他佛法，协助他忏悔，重新塑造他的道路，并把他带到阿罗汉果位。尽管央掘魔罗遇见佛陀之前杀死了999人，但佛陀仍然以大爱看着他。暂且娱乐FPMT一下，让我们假设FPMT是佛陀，而多杰雄登修持者是央掘魔罗。您认FPMT佛应该怎么做？用爱和宽容拥抱央掘魔罗或者让他填写一份登记表，发现他是一名罪犯并将他踢出去？

FPMT在表现政治正确的代价是，他们变得在灵修上显得傲慢，认为自己有权审判、欺负和审问他人，并向他们提问十分私密的问题。当他们这样做时，他们听起来就像苏联的克格勃（KGB）或东德的斯塔西。他们为什么要收集并保存所有这些信息？FPMT失去了作为佛教徒的目标，即对所有众生慈悲、宽容和慈爱。相反地，他们用傲慢、偏见、不宽容、嫉妒、贪婪、不平等和自以为，一切与佛教相反的品质作为取代……这在他们的登记表中已清楚地反映出来！没有人有权审问、裁断和改变他人的信仰！

根据达赖喇嘛的说法，应透过媒体将那些涉及性侵行为者的样貌公诸于世。即便他们对佛陀的教法置之不理，但群众的压力还是会阻止他们继续进行有害行为。

我们强烈鼓励FPMT改变他们的登记表格，并停止对其他人的宗教带有歧视性。我们下载了这份登记表，因为目前围绕帕立仁波切的性侵问题非常令人担忧。 事实上，在写这篇文章的时候，已经有第二位女士发布了一个视频，声称她10年前还是一名僧尼时，曾经是帕立仁波切性侵案的受害者。FPMT和审问她的身穿藏红袍的男人叫她保持沉默。尽管如此，FPMT还是让帕立仁波切在他们全球各地的中心提供教学。

公众需要被告知这位性侵犯者。FPMT认为他们有权审问前往他们中心的人，但事实上，他们中心内作为性侵罪犯的教师，才是应该接受审问的对象。他们是破戒之人，甚至不具备道德或业力上的教学资格。 最悲哀的部分是，据透露，梭巴喇嘛明知帕立仁波切对女性的性侵行为，却还叫告知他的人保持沉默。

从它的外观来看，FPMT正在做的只是将其组织企业化，而不是像个灵修组织般来运行。 他们所关心的只是吸引更多的企业和个人加入他们的教诲，因为他们是所谓为达赖喇嘛工作的高僧。

我拟定了自己的登记表，这是一份以慈悲心为根据的表格，它应该作为佛法中心登记表的一个范例。 见下文：

这就是FPMT的登记表该有的样子，减去帕立仁波切。“某某”是指真正具格的上师。 这是一种更富有慈悲心，更实在和更佛教的表格。 点击放大。

 
总而言之，这并不是针对耶喜喇嘛、梭巴喇嘛、FPMT或他们的一些忠诚弟子的攻击。 在1996年多杰雄登禁令之前，所有格鲁传承上下都非常团结。所有格鲁人都在一起分享教义，为了修持而去找对方的老师，并且气氛完全和谐。多杰雄登禁令让格鲁世界产生分裂，让家庭、寺院和三昧耶弟子被逼分开。现在是FPMT等组织伸出援手，填补分裂，拥抱多杰雄登修持者和非修持者和一切众生的时候了。不要制造歧视和偏见。让我们回到和谐，慈悲和宽容的时代，因为这是我们的世尊和佛陀的教义。 FPMT现在就可以通过修改他们的登记表来作为开始。

点击放大

The opinion piece below was sent to dorjeshugden.com for publication. We accept submissions from the public, please send in your articles to ds@dorjeshugden.com.

By: Shashi Kei

When the ‘Five and Fifty’ (Five-Fifty) vision was launched in October 2017, it was hailed as the ‘flagship policy’ of Lobsang Sangay, the Sikyong or ‘President’ of the Tibetan government-in-exile known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). The ‘Five-Fifty’ was Sangay’s blueprint to resolve the Tibetan issue within 5 years from 2017. It aims to regain control of what is today the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) from the Chinese government in that time. Should that not happen, it signals the Tibetan leadership’s readiness to continue to oppose China for another 50 years. The ‘Five-Fifty’ is Sangay’s attempt to keep the mood of the Tibetan struggle buoyant. Although lofty in its persuasion, there are indications to strongly suggest that this may be more Sangay’s showmanship than a realistic pursuit. For Sangay’s ‘Five-Fifty’ to succeed, there has to be a Tibetan populace forming a collective with both the willingness and the capability to drive it. But this is precisely where the plan unravels.

Tibetans, Merely Pawns on a Chessboard

From the very start, the Tibetan struggle has been fought largely at the expense of ordinary Tibetan refugees. It is they who have had to bear the harshest conditions in exile. While the spotlight has been on the Dalai Lama and his ruling officials, their glorified status has sheltered them from the most bitter conditions in exile – estrangement from family and spiritual ties, dejection, sickness, abject poverty, and being stuck without the ability to move too far beyond refugee settlements. So, when the Tibetan leadership trumpeted that the “Tibetans are the most successful refugee community“, many fans of the Dalai Lama and supporters of the Tibetan cause cheered but the Tibetan people themselves knew better.

Seasonal sweater selling is the mainstay of the Tibetan exile economy. The CTA has not managed to develop a proper industry even though it has recognised that the sweater selling cannot sustain the people. In 2018 the CTA website reported “Though the new year has set in, the Tibetan sweater sellers in Parel, Mumbai doesn’t see signs of good times ahead. The month, which usually registers sales of Rs 3,000 per day, is currently witnessing pitiable sales of
Rs 800 to Rs 2,000 per day”.

Over the past 60 years, three generations of Tibetans have endured this ordeal by holding faith in the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan leadership. By the sentiments voiced by ordinary Tibetans and the actions may have taken in recent years, it would appear that their patience is exhausted and that they have lost trust in their own government.

In a recent Tibet Sun article by journalist and writer, Lobsang Wangyal (“CTA’s Education Department gets maximum budget of 559 million rupees”) the Secretary of the CTA’s Department of Education was quoted as saying that the CTA was going to close some schools due to a drastic drop in the number of students. The Secretary, Karma Singey, attributed this to a lower birth rate, the emigration of Tibetans to the West and lower numbers of new arrivals from Tibet. Contrary to the Tibetan leadership’s claim, these factors are not symptomatic of a successful community but the opposite.

A Complete Loss of Confidence

A lower birth rate reflects Tibetan exile families’ concern over the lack of economic prospects and poor living standards. Clearly, this concern is pervasive and has deterred more Tibetans in the TAR from crossing the border into India. The Times of India (TOI) and other news media reported in 2017 that the number of Tibetans arriving from the TAR into India had dropped by as much as 97%, with the decline beginning around 2008. Some have blamed tighter border security for this decline but, in truth, China has relaxed its grip on the Tibetans in the TAR over the decades. In any case, blaming China cannot explain why Tibetans living in the Indian settlements are even deciding to return to the TAR. The population of Tibetans living in the Indian settlements is reported to have dropped sharply from an estimated 150,000 to a mere 85,000 over the last few years. This represents a decrease of almost 45%, indicative of a serious and endemic problem within the exile community. The Tibetan Review has reported that the drop is, in fact, as high as 75%.

Frustration is setting in as Tibetans who in the past had been weary of speaking against the government are now becoming more vocal. The general trend is to leave the settlements and become independent of the CTA. Click to enlarge.

What would make a Tibetan choose to move away and become even more detached from their already small and disenfranchised community? What would make them decide to stay away from their beloved god-king, the Dalai Lama whom they had willingly followed into exile and into an uncertain future? For that matter, what would persuade a Tibetan to remain in what is reportedly oppressive conditions in the TAR instead of seeking a better deal in India? The TOI news report said that until recently, Tibetans from the TAR had crossed into India seeking “better education, jobs and to join monasteries”. That stopped and we instead hear in a separate interview with the Indian government’s advisor on Tibet Affairs, Amitabh Mathur, that a large number of Tibetans had, in fact, returned to Tibet, choosing to live under the governance of China instead of their own government-in-exile.

All this evidence points to a major loss of confidence in the Tibetan leadership. It is important to note that this trust deficit did not happen overnight. Until 2008, Tibetans from the China-controlled TAR were still looking for means to go to India and join the Dalai Lama’s exile community. So what changed? Clearly, it is a build-up of factors that finally reached a tipping point. We see the clues in a number of studies and surveys conducted by scholars and academics who have examined the situation.

Proof of The CTA’s Failure

An academic paper was undertaken under the auspices of Emory University, referenced Tibetan reporter and social reformer, Tenzin Tephun Shashtri, who observed that there has been a stagnation of human resources and a lack of any large scale economic progress since the start of [the Tibetan] exile. Interestingly, Shashtri noted that “since the Tibetan leaders did not address economic progress at the start of exile, the problem has expanded”. [Unemployment in the Tibetan Community in Exile, Rebecca Arnold, Emory University]

Immediately, we see that the Tibetan leadership failed from the very start to put in place the necessary infrastructure to ensure the survival of the Tibetan nation-in-exile. This would have guaranteed the continuance of the Tibetan struggle and provided the people with the means to preserve their culture. In the earlier years in exile, the Dalai Lama and CTA relied on a number of Nechung’s (the State Oracle) prophesies that the Tibetan people would soon regain their homeland. Based on these, the Dalai Lama made numerous pronouncements to the same effect. Trusting the Dalai Lama to be correct, the Tibetan people did not even establish proper homes in exile until much later when it became clear that they could not continue to subsist that way. In short, apart from waiting for a miracle, hoping for foreign military intervention and relying on foreign aid, the Tibetan leadership did not bother to establish a proper plan.

The CTA under Lobsang Sangay has persisted in advocating divisive and harmful policies. Much more attention have been placed on propagating the harmful Dorje Shugden religious conflict and instigating self-immolations than taking actions to reduce the sufferings of the Tibetan people.

A grave mistake the Tibetan leadership made was failing to anticipate the possibility that the 150,000 Tibetans who had followed the Dalai Lama into exile might be in limbo for more than 60 years. Even after it became clear that the Tibetan leadership was in for a long and protracted struggle, the CTA refused to address the problem and instead took only superficial measures. The University of Rochester in New York conducted a study and found that 46% of the Tibetan exile population is engaged in traditional farming or herding and 49% in seasonal sweater selling. There is no proper framework for industries to be established and most businesses are small-scale operations and disorganized. (Tibetan Innovation Challenge, Univ. of Rochester) Basically, the CTA’s negligence and refusal to acknowledge facts created stagnation in the lives of the Tibetan people and hindered them from taking steps to improve their standard of living.

In his paper on the state of Tibetan refugees, Tsering Paljor, a Tibetan academic, cited the Tibetan Demographic Survey (TDS) performed in 2009 (the TDS is performed every 10 years and the next survey will be in 2019). It found that “…the unemployment rate among the Tibetan youth is as high as seventy-five percent. On that, the number of school and college graduates is increasing every year, about 1,250 students passing out every year from the schools and colleges in India. The chances of these youth getting employment in our community are very low as total absorption capacity is just five per cent. The major factor is the lack of employment opportunities in the settlements and the shift in the economic structure of refugees in exile”. [Current Situation of Tibetan Refugees in Exile, Tsering Paljor, Mussoorie, India]

Seasonal sweater selling is the mainstay of the Tibetan exile economy. The CTA has not managed to develop a proper industry even though it has recognised that the sweater selling cannot sustain the people. Instead, the CTA use the donation they receive to produce books and documentary to demonize another religion which in this case is the practice of Dorje Shugden.

Tibetan Struggle for Sale

The Tibetan leadership cannot deny that it was aware of the problem. Some have argued that the Tibetan leadership has been restricted in what it could have done due to a shortage of resources. But the facts point to the contrary. There is ample evidence that the Tibetan leadership had access to more than adequate resources provided by the global community and channelled through a number of Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). A Modern Diplomacy article lists some of these:

• INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR TIBET based in Washington, US is endowed with a USD 4 million annual budget and purports to support the works of the 14^th Dalai Lama and the CTA.
• TIBET HOUSE (known also as Tibet House US Cultural Center of H.H. the Dalai Lama) which was founded in 1987 by Columbia University professor Robert Thurman, actor Richard Gere and composer Philip Glass has an annual revenue of USD 2.5 million and accumulated assets of USD 6.5 million. Today, the organisation operates in New York, India, Mexico, Germany, Spain, the UK and Russia.
• FREE TIBET is yet another organisation that raises funds for the Tibetans. It is based in London, UK and has an annual budget of USD 500,000.
• STUDENTS FOR A FREE TIBET is an NGO based in New York, US that has a declared annual budget of USD 700,000. This NGO claims to have a network of 35,000 students working toward the Dalai Lama’s and CTA’s goals.
• TIBET FUND is based in New York, the U.S. and has an annual budget of about USD 6 million and cumulative assets of USD 8 million. This is the principal fundraising organisation working in partnership with the Tibetan leadership via its Office of Tibet branches in 13 countries. It has a presence in New Delhi, Kathmandu, Geneva, New York, Tokyo, London, Paris, Moscow, Brussels, Canberra, Pretoria, Taipei and Budapest.
• THE DALAI LAMA TRUST is the foundation of the 14^th Dalai Lama. It is based in New York and India and administers the royalties and revenues from the Dalai Lama’s intellectual properties and public events. In the year 2009 alone, when the Trust was set up, it reported having received USD 2.2 million in donations. Every year since then, the Trust has received well in excess of USD 1 million in donations annually. It is estimated that the Trust has accumulated assets of over USD 8.6 million. In addition, The Dalai Lama Trust controls several organisations whose revenue and assets are unknown.

The Dalai Lama Trust claims that its objective is for the welfare of the Tibetan people. But it is doubtful how much actually reaches the needy Tibetan people. Click to enlarge

US Tax filing showing the Dalai Lama Trust having accumulated assets in excess of USD 8 million. Click to enlarge

• TIBETAN CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY is an NGO based in Dharamsala, India. Its budget is unknown.

This list does not include special grants from governments such as the USD 17 million that the Trump Administration allocated towards the Tibet issue and for the welfare of the Tibetan communities in exile for the year 2019 alone. The year before, the US government provided over USD 20 million in aid to the Tibetan people, including USD 2.5 million for humanitarian assistance for Tibetan refugees; a sum not less than USD 6 million for economic development in Tibetan exile communities; and a sum not less than USD 3 million to strengthen governance and the capacity of Tibetan institutions.

US aid to the Dalai Lama and the CTA began in the 1960s and the CTA has been the beneficiary of generous donors for 60 years. Sadly, the sad state of affairs the Tibetan community-in-exile is in does not reflect this fact.

The Dalai Lama’s foundation (Trust) professes that its mission is “For activities of individuals and institutions belonging to, associated with and working for the welfare of the Tibetan community and other needy persons around the world…”. The other Funds mentioned above and more not listed herein proclaim similar noble objectives but it is doubtful how much the Tibetan people actually benefit from these donations as there is no transparency in the financial accounting. But surely there is more than enough money to put a dent in Tibetan poverty which if anything is getting worse even as the donations keep rolling in.

An investigative piece by Indy Hack and Frank Parlato published in a US weekly exposed that the Dalai Lama’s trip to Lithuania and Latvia in 2018 alone ran clocked up about USD 1million with the “simple Buddhist monk” staying in the Presidential Suite costing USD 1087 per night. The article documented how the Dalai Lama’s event can command ticket sales of USD 186,000 per day.

And yet at the same time, the Tibetan people live on the poverty line and in abject hopelessness.

Where Did The Money Go?

All in all, the CTA receives an annual sum estimated at no less than USD 50 million per annum in foreign aid and has received countless millions in donations for decades. The full extent of how much the CTA has been receiving from governments, NGOs, corporations and private individuals is unknown because the CTA is not required to disclose such information. As it turns out, this has left plenty of room for questionable dealings.

It is certain that there has been more than enough money for CTA officials and their cronies to bicker over. Corruption is rife and as common as financial irregularities.

• Examiners of the accounts of the Tibet Fund, set up supposedly to procure funds to improve the lives of Tibetan refugees, have reportedly refused to attest to the proper financial management of the fund.
• In 2017, Sikyong Lobsang Sangay was accused of having illicitly directed USD 1.5 million meant for the Tibetan people towards the purchase of real estate in the US instead.
• A long-time supporter of the Tibetan cause blew the whistle on the dealings of the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), claiming that large sums of money are siphoned off by cronies of CTA officials under the guise of ‘management fees’
• In fact, profiteering and shady dealings by the Tibetan leadership and their associates are well known. In 2012, US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher even warned Sikyong Lobsang Sangay in an official letter that it had come to his attention that US funding meant for the Tibetan people had been misspent.
• Corruption is rampant among the Dalai Lama’s representatives, who regularly sell audiences with the Dalai Lama and solicit payments for the Dalai Lama to make appearances at events.

In the meantime, more Tibetans-in-exile living in Indian settlements fall below the poverty line. The CTA even leverages a voluntary tax on the Tibetan people in the name of patriotism. Therefore, to say that the CTA has not had the resources to help the Tibetan people stave off poverty and escape chronic unemployment and hopelessness is simply untrue.

Official letter from US Congressman to Lobsang Sangay warning him about the misuse of US aid intended for the Tibetan people. Click to enlarge.

The Big Sacrifice

In the March 2019 edition of the Tibetan Review, Asst. Professor Tashi Phuntsok of the Department of Economics, Calcutta University questioned the lack of attention on the punishing rate of unemployment. He also asked which issues have dominated the CTA’s attention when such serious problems are resulting in a decay of the Tibetan exile population and also the people’s ability to sustain the Tibetan cause.

The answers are simple and logical enough but they may be unpalatable for the Tibetan people.

Self-interest of the leadership

Lobsang Sangay’s personal feud with Penpa Tsering has dominated the attention of the CTA instead of policies to alleviate Tibetan poverty and unemployment.

Put simply, being in exile became a lucrative business for those in power because they do not share the same fate as ordinary Tibetans in exile. Sikyong Lobsang Sangay has no personal stake in the success of the Tibetan cause. As long as there is a struggle against China, Sangay has a job. But his Presidency becomes defunct the moment the Tibetan people find reconciliation with China. The same applies to the CTA Cabinet which comprises Sangay’s appointees. In a proper democracy, parliamentarians exist to represent and serve the people. But the Tibetan parliament’s role is merely to rubber-stamp decisions made by an unelected few so as to give the impression that the CTA is a democracy. As such, it is unheard of for Tibetan parliamentarians to speak against wrongful CTA policies and fight for the welfare of the people they are supposed to represent. To do so may be political suicide because it exposes the inadequacies of the leadership. No one dares to address the real problem because the source of the Tibetan people’s plight today is intrinsic in the mindset of the few who wield power.

CTA’s political ambition

The CTA claims that its struggle is for the good of the Tibetan people. However, the Tibetan leadership’s choices over the years reflect its own self-interest and prioritization of its political ambitions over the welfare of the Tibetan people.

One clear example is seen in the way the CTA has ignored the rampant unemployment that is driving the Tibetan people away from the settlements. An immediate solution would have been for the CTA to assist educated Tibetan youth to seek Indian citizenship, which they are legally entitled to. This would give them a fighting chance of becoming gainfully employed by Indian businesses and corporations. But the CTA discourages this, fearing that it would dilute the people’s zest for the ‘Tibetan struggle’. So the CTA made the suggestion taboo and tantamount to disloyalty to the Tibetan cause and the Dalai Lama.

 It is clear that due to poor planning, there is now a mismatch between the political objectives of the Tibetan leadership and the wellbeing of the Tibetan people. The situation has left the Tibetan people with no choice but to strike out on their own and become independent. In the Tibet Sun article quoted above, the CTA’s Education Secretary acknowledged that the number of Tibetan children is on the increase in the US, Canada, Australia and European countries. This implies confidence, the opposite to the low birth rates of Tibetans in exile, and is itself proof that the Tibetan people who stopped relying on the CTA have fared better than those who continue to.

 One is left to speculate if this is due to the CTA’s sheer ineptitude or whether it was policy to sacrifice the wellbeing of the people to achieve the political ambitions of a few.

While researching her book, academic Dr Stephanie Roemer spoke to a number of Tibetans and found that there is “considerable frustration and helplessness about CTA politics and the failed results in the Tibetan freedom struggle until the present day” (Tibetan Government-in-Exile: Politics at large, Routledge). However, there is a prevalent fear amongst Tibetan exiles that stops them from voicing their complaints openly. Doing so risks raising the ire of the leadership and being labelled unpatriotic, disloyal and ‘anti-Dalai Lama’.

Nowhere to Go But Down

In conclusion, and to answer Asst. Professor Tashi Phuntsok’s question about the issues that have dominated the CTA’s attention, one would only need to scour the Tibetan news. It is nigh impossible to find reports of any significant affirmative measures that the CTA has undertaken to curb the punitive rate of unemployment, poverty and the sense of hopelessness amongst the people it is supposed to care for. Instead, the CTA’s website focuses on anti-China rhetoric, propaganda that boasts of CTA’s ‘successes’ and matters that perpetuate the CTA’s politics of divide such as its religious ban on the practice of Dorje Shugden. By imposing a religious ban on the practice of the very popular Tibetan Buddhist deity, Dorje Shugden, the CTA has managed to divert the Tibetan people’s attention away from the CTA’s mismanagement and blame the occult for the Tibetan people’s misery.

Lobsang Sangay launched a book on self immolation

On the CTA’s website, pages are assigned to criticising China, demonising Dorje Shugden, and broadcasting news that extols the virtues of the present leadership. None of these can help the Tibetan people escape the clutches of destitution and unemployment. Over the past two decades, the CTA has invested untold amounts of money into printing books, pamphlets and videos aimed at segregating the people via the Dorje Shugden conflict and also materials that glorify Tibetan self-immolation. In 2012, after Lobsang Sangay launched a book that martyred Tibetans who have burnt themselves alive, the number of Tibetan self-immolations spiked. The gruesome spectacle of a Tibetan person in flames lends weight to the CTA’s political goals and its anti-China rhetoric. Unfortunately, it is at the expense of Tibetan lives. Again, we see clearly the Tibetan leadership’s attitude that it regards Tibetan lives as dispensable. The time, money and effort the CTA put into segregating the Tibetan people should have gone instead into solving the problems of the Tibetans in exile, not add to their woes. But the CTA persists in this policy of segregation even as the number of Tibetans in exile continue to fall.

Still, the rhetoric continues. In a recent post on the CTA website (“It is high time we unite and become self-sufficient: CTA President to the Tibetans in Kamrao Tibetan Settlement”), Sangay proclaimed that “it’s high time that we unite and become self-sufficient”. In addition, the CTA leader urged the Tibetans to “avoid indulgence in unnecessary internal bickering which only creates communal disharmony and divisions”. If indeed that was said with any sincerity at all, Sangay would instantly cease in his politics of division. But by now, the Tibetan people have learned to tell the difference between promotional buzzwords and a genuine commitment to do something good for the people. And so, Tibetan people in exile will continue to abandon the settlements and with that, the hope of ever seeing their homeland again. Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. Seeing how the Tibetan leaders have failed 150,000 Tibetans even after 60 years of global support, it is chilling to imagine how much more damage they would inflict on the 6 million Tibetans in the TAR.

Many Tibetans followed the Dalai Lama out of Tibet to live in India. So many Tibetans are 2nd and 3rd generations, born in India. They are more Indian than Tibetan. All of these Tibetans claim to be loyal and to love the Dalai Lama so much. If that is the case, why are thousands of Tibetans emigrating to the West and or returning back to Tibet? Why are they leaving the Dalai Lama behind in India? Tired of waiting for a future with no end under an ineffectual administration, the rapidly emptying schools are the surest sign that Tibetans have definitely lost hope in the Dalai Lama and his regime headquartered in Dharamsala. Surely the Tibetans still love the Dalai Lama as he tried his best, but it does mean they have lost hope in his abilities to rescue them out of poverty and getting their country back.

[Tibet Sun] CTA’s Education Department gets maximum budget of 559 million rupees

Source: https://www.tibetsun.com/news/2019/03/31/ctas-education-department-gets-maximum-budget-of-559-million-rupees. Click to enlarge.

Member of Tibetan Parliament, Tenpa Yarphel (right).

The opinion piece below was sent to dorjeshugden.com for publication. We accept submissions from the public, please send in your articles to ds@dorjeshugden.com.

By: Shashi Kei

The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), previously known as the Tibetan government-in-exile, held its 7^th session from 19 to 29 March 2019. A statement made there by Tenpa Yarphel, one of the more progressive and outspoken Members of the Tibetan Parliament (MP) was particularly noteworthy.

This brave MP, who is the Parliamentary representative for the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, used the few minutes allocated to him in Parliament to voice his opinion that the CTA’s ongoing campaign to demean a specific Tibetan Buddhist practice and alienate its practitioners has damaged Tibetan unity. He was, of course, referring to the Dalai Lama’s ban on the practice of the Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugden.

Tenpa Yarphel also pointed out that the Tibetan leadership’s persecution of Shugden Buddhists has not escaped world attention. Today, the CTA’s every move is scrutinized because the world has become aware of their suppression of human rights. The credibility of the Dalai Lama and that of the Tibetan leadership have suffered.

This does not only impact negatively on the Tibetan struggle but also endangers the survival of the Tibetan identity, which is already at a perilous juncture today.

Tenpa Yarphel’s statement

Two parts of Tenpa Yarphel’s parliamentary statement are especially significant. They reveal incontrovertible facts about the Tibetan leadership and the circumstances surrounding the Dorje Shugden conflict:

“It’s my feeling that in our society, we should not discriminate, especially against those practicing our religion. Discrimination harms us more than it benefits us. “

- Tenpa Yarphel

While the MP was careful to not spell it out, the insinuation was clear from his use of the word “we”. He regards the source of hostilities against Dorje Shugden believers which have damaged Tibetan communities worldwide to be none other than the CTA.

“It is better not to talk about this issue [Dorje Shugden] anymore.”

- Tenpa Yarphel

Here, Tenpa Yarphel was alluding to numerous directives by the Dalai Lama and the CTA over the years that suggested that oppressing Dorje Shugden Buddhists was the key to Tibetans regaining their country.

That a government would attribute its failures to mythos is telling of its character but, being a superstitious people, many Tibetans were misled into enforcing the CTA’s persecution.

The Dorje Shugden ban is today in its 23^rd year. Enough time has passed for Tibetans to see for themselves that far from bestowing any benefits, this unfortunate decision has caused tremendous damage.

By addressing the Tibetan parliament this way, Tenpa Yarphel was appealing to the CTA to stop inciting malice towards Shugden Buddhists and to start taking responsibility for its own actions.

Why now?

That it took 23 years for an honest politician to speak out against this religious persecution speaks volumes about the culture fostered by the Tibetan leadership.

In a true democracy, the mere suggestion of segregating anyone based on their beliefs, skin color or gender would be vehemently and soundly opposed. In the CTA, it has thrived for over two decades and continues in earnest.

How could this have happened if the Dalai Lama’s government was a genuine democracy?

It is also useful to understand why this Tibetan MP decided to make a stand. Tenpa Yarphel’s courage may have been roused by a collective sense of despair in the Tibetan people that seems to have finally overcome their fear of the Tibetan government.

The slave mentality

The CTA has never practiced democratic principles. Before 1959, over 80% of the Tibetan population were serfs or slaves and had no human rights to speak of. This convention of absolute servitude continued in exile because those who make up the Tibetan government-in-exile are members of the old Tibetan ruling class.

It would be foolish to think that a self-designation as the “democratic CTA” would suddenly change their attitudes towards the Tibetan populace. The declaration of a democratic government was simply a ploy to win the hearts of Western liberals and enroll them in the fight against China.

The Dalai Lama and the CTA benefited tremendously from geopolitical tensions between China and the United States and its allies. Over the decades, Washington has painted China as an aggressive power with expansionist ambitions that threaten the safety of its neighbours. They portray Tibetans as innocent victims of an oppressive communist China.

So much attention has been focused on China that the world is blind to the Tibetan government’s abuses of power, gross breaches of human rights and general ineptitude.

In exile, just like it was in feudal Tibet, it is deemed sacrilegious – and, therefore, dangerous – for anyone to consider a political, social or spiritual stance that is not completely complementary of the Dalai Lama’s.

Behind closed doors, the Dalai Lama and members of his inner circle decide what the Tibetan people can and cannot do and how they should think. The job of the CTA is to rubber-stamp the decisions of this unelected elite. Very rarely does anyone dare to publically and officially voice a dissenting opinion; for Tenpa Yarphel himself, this is only the second time he has questioned the Tibetan leadership’s decisions.

In a previous Parliamentary session, Tenpa Yarphel questioned the Tibetan leadership’s reliance on the Nechung Oracle for matters of the state. He was not questioning the spiritual validity of Nechung as a deity or practice. On the contrary, Tenpa Yarphel was questioning the validity of relying on oracular pronouncements for political decision-making, especially when those pronouncements have a proven track record of being outrageously inaccurate.

How would Americans, who come from all backgrounds, religions and cultures, feel if their democratically-elected President began making state decisions based on his own personal faith, without any regard for the diverse communities in the nation? The fact is, truly democratic states rely on logic, information and analysis – not faith and superstition – to decide on state matters.

As logical as his speech about Nechung may have been, Tenpa Yarphel’s comments earned him calls for his impeachment. His remarks were taken as indirect criticism of the Dalai Lama because in reality, it is the Dalai Lama who determines whether the CTA continues relying on Nechung. Never mind that in the contemporary political arena, it would be ludicrous for the CTA to continue governing their people through oracles if they ever realized any of their political goals on any level. If the CTA transcended their fear of being labelled ‘anti-Dalai Lama’, they would realize that if they ever gained some kind of political autonomy in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), it would be wholly incongruous with Beijing’s political approach for them to continue using a deity to decide upon matters of the state.

And so like his previous statement indirectly criticized the Dalai Lama, Tenpa Yarphel’s latest statement against the segregation of Dorje Shugden Buddhists indirectly states that it was wrong for the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan leaders such as the previous Kalon Tripa (Prime Minister, Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche) and present Sikyong (President of the CTA, Lobsang Sangay) to have actively encouraged the persecution and criminalization of Dorje Shugden worship. Their actions and those of their acolytes have splintered the world Tibetan community and brought the Tibetan struggle to its knees.

Against this backdrop and the prevailing culture of fear, Tenpa Yarphel’s statement is nothing short of an act of heroism borne out of sheer necessity.

Above the rules

Today, despite 60 years of global support and untold millions in annual aid by generous state and private donors, the Tibetan exile population languishes in hopelessness. While a rising China gains world standing and acceptance, support for the Tibetan struggle is being pushed to the wayside.

Travel papers issued by the CTA are no longer deemed valid. Exiled Tibetans are trapped within Indian settlements, living life in limbo from one generation to the next. The only people who have gained from the decades of foreign aid are the Tibetan leaders whose lives and standards of living bear little resemblance to that of ordinary Tibetan refugees.

Some time ago, the CTA asserted that it was anti-Tibetan and unpatriotic for exiles to obtain Indian citizenship (to which they are legally entitled). However, most CTA leaders hold foreign passports. Sikyong (President) Lobsang Sangay himself has an American passport and maintains a house in leafy Massachusetts.

Sangay’s ex-protégé, Dhardon Sharling, the former head of the CTA’s Department of Information and International Relations, applied for and received her Indian passport. She has since abandoned the Tibetan struggle and moved to the United States, citing a need to further her education to “help the Tibetan people”.

A fractured community

Tenpa Yarphel’s address was a cry for the Tibetan parliament to take stock of the tragedy of Tibetans in exile. Tibetan leaders from the Dalai Lama to Lobsang Sangay to aspiring politicians have called for Tibetan unity as a necessary condition for freedom from China. However, no campaign against an external oppressor can succeed if the people are concurrently fighting internal oppression that sets Tibetans upon Tibetans.

This is the hit-list which the Tibetan leadership published on their official website to include the names, faces and personal details of Tibetan Dorje Shugden practitioners who protested in Europe for their religious freedoms. To read more about the hit-list, click here.

The Dorje Shugden ban and other similar destructive campaigns by the CTA resemble Mao Zedong’s campaign to destroy the ‘Four Olds’ and cultivate the ‘Four News’, a movement that destroyed the Chinese social structure.

60 years of exile and false promises have not brought the Tibetan people any closer to their homeland. On the contrary, China recently signalled that it has closed the door to further dialogue with the Tibetan leadership.

The future for Tibetans in exile looks bleak. Tibetans lack a secure environment conducive to viable livelihoods. They do not even have the means to preserve their culture and traditions.

To even bring up unity and its importance at this late stage is ridiculous. For a supposed refugee community, unity should be a foregone conclusion, not something that urgently needs to be introduced into their exiled community. Why should unity be discussed 60 years into exile unless they, as irresponsible leaders, are the cause of disunity and are having to quickly remedy the situation?

Did the Tibetan leadership fail to recognise the seriousness of their people’s predicament? Did they willfully prolong it to play to the sympathies of Western democracies? It is of little value to speculate.

What is clear is the CTA’s policy of divide and rule. By creating internal divisions with policies such as the Dorje Shugden ban, they distract the people from the CTA’s own failures.

In the final analysis, what does it matter what religion a person practices? To ban someone, solely on the basis of their religion, from events and discussions that concern their country is brutally segregational and a violation of their rights to be engaged in processes that affect their future and personal wellbeing. Why does the CTA allow a cross-section of Tibetans to be banned from interacting with the Dalai Lama on a secular basis, simply on the basis of their religion? To be truly democratic, what a Tibetan believes, or indeed does not believe, should be irrelevant.

As long as they are Tibetan, it is their right to interact with their leaders and to participate in the formation, preservation and promotion of their people, race, culture and country. This should hold true regardless of their religion, socio-economic background, political ideology and education. Thus Tenpa Yarphel is a hero because he has the courage to question the continued segregation of Tibetans on the basis of their religion, in this case specifically referring to 23-year-old Dorje Shugden ban.

Standing up to the CTA

While Tenpa Yarphel’s courage is praiseworthy, it is unlikely to yield any positive results. He has run afoul of the Tibetan establishment in the past and been accused of being “anti-Dalai Lama”. His crime was, as previously outlined, questioning the Tibetan government’s dependency on Nechung, the Dalai Lama’s oracle. Unlike other democratic governments, the CTA frequently turns to Nechung to determine important official policy, bypassing the process of law.

In Tibetan culture, to be labelled ‘anti-Dalai Lama’ is equivalent to being regarded as a traitor. Those who stood in the way of the Tibetan leadership have suffered serious consequences. There are a number of examples:

The murder of Gungtang Tsultrim

Gungtang Tsultrim was the leader of The Thirteen Settlements, an organization that opposed the Dalai Lama’s ambition to usurp leadership of all Tibetan Buddhist schools. His assailant confessed that he had been hired by the Tibetan government.

Attacks on Lukar Jam Atsok

Lukar Jam Atsok was a popular candidate for the 2016 Sikyong (President of the CTA) but opposed the CTA leadership’s views. The CTA leadership under Lobsang Sangay then conspired to change the electoral rules to disqualify Lukar Jam’s campaign for Sikyong. After the election, he was subjected to threats of violence and as a warning, his property was vandalized. He has since moved to Australia. This is the ‘democratic’ CTA that well-meaning people have supported for six decades.

Attacks on Tibetan government ministers

Various Tibetan government ministers who have disagreed with the Tibetan leadership have consequently found themselves in harm’s way. One had his house padlocked from the outside and firebombed. Another, Mr Kundeling, was stabbed for voicing concerns about the Dorje Shugden ban.

In this toxic culture, unabashed oppression is not the exception but the rule. Presumably, the powers that be will look upon Tenpa Yarphel’s words as treachery and dissidence. They should instead see it as an urgent wake-up call for the Tibetan leadership to correct its course so Tibetan culture, language and religion have a chance to survive.

If indeed the Tibetan people are true seekers of freedom and liberty, they must quickly realize that power rests with the people and not an oppressive elite. They must collectively determine a path for the future by electing an accountable government.

But, as the brave Tenpa Yarphel has said, Tibetans need to be united first… and that is precisely what the Tibetan leadership does not wish.

Or watch on server | download video (right click & save file)

Summarized translation:

Dear Speaker (of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile),

I would like to share my personal opinions on the Dorje Shugden issue which has been raised.

Wherever His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave teachings, for four years, Dolgyalpa¹ protestors would always appear and protest against His Holiness. They protested even if His Holiness didn’t talk about Dolgyal in the teachings.

It’s my feeling that in our society, we should not discriminate, especially against those practicing our religion. Discrimination harms us more than it benefits us. When we talked about the Dolgyal issue, it caused so much harm in our society. When we talked about the Dolgyal issue, the Dolgyalpas protested against His Holiness wherever he went². So it is really better not to talk about these issues anymore.

Actually, I have no connection with the Dolgyalpas, whether it is on a personal or public level. When I talk about Dolgyal, I have no connection with them [the Dolgyalpas].³

Instead of pushing each other away, we should become united. Have we experienced harm or benefit in relations to the Dolgyal issue?⁴ It is better not to talk about this issue anymore.

 

¹ – The CTA uses the derogatory term ‘Dolgyal’ to refer to Dorje Shugden. It means ‘King of Dol’ because the CTA falsely accuses Dorje Shugden of being a spirit, and not an enlightened protector. Hence, someone who relies on Dorje Shugden is called a ‘Dolgyalpa’ by the CTA.

² – Tenpa Yarphel implies that the protests damaged His Holiness’ reputation. Therefore stopping the protests, by not talking about Dorje Shugden anymore, would stop further damage to His Holiness’ reputation and this would be beneficial to the Tibetan leadership.

³ – Tenpa Yarphel has to emphasize he has no connection with Dorje Shugden practitioners lest criticism of him spirals out of control, and he is further accused of being anti-Dalai Lama or branded as pro-Chinese.

⁴ – Tenpa Yarphel is asking the MPs to consider whether there has been a net benefit or loss in talking about Dorje Shugden. He implies that it is a loss and therefore they would be better off not talking about Dorje Shugden any more. Tibetans should have unity just because they are Tibetans. Segregation of Tibetans based on their religion, weakens unity. So Dorje Shugden people should not be segregated anymore but join the Tibetan mainstream. 

After 60 years of abject failure, many Tibetan refugees like Kunsang, 33 have given up hope in the CTA. In the past few years, the number of Tibetan refugees living in the Indian settlements have dropped very sharply.

The opinion piece below was sent to dorjeshugden.com for publication. We accept submissions from the public, please send in your articles to ds@dorjeshugden.com.

By: Shashi Kei

In March 2019, the Tibetan government-in-exile, commonly known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), celebrated the 60^th anniversary of its uprising against China’s occupation of Tibet. These annual celebrations are part of the CTA’s efforts to keep the Tibetan struggle alive in the minds of people around the world. However, this year’s affair showed just how much ground the Tibetan cause has lost in recent times. Neither India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi nor any of his senior cabinet were present. The only foreign dignitary of any import was a former President of a small African nation. The CTA made every effort to keep itself and its cause relevant but this year’s celebrations confirm that the Tibetan Cause commands but a shadow of its former importance and attention.

Perhaps the most obvious sign of this decline is that the CTA’s biggest supporter and ally, India has officially stopped acknowledging the Dalai Lama. This is a massive blow. The Dalai Lama has single-handedly represented the Tibetan struggle since its inception. His presence and, often, even the mere mention of his name has kept the world aware of the Tibetan struggle.

The Dalai Lama’s well-practised charisma has for decades successfully evoked strong pro-Tibetan sentiments. That he was able to keep the world enamoured all this time has been due in large part to India. The host country of the CTA created the necessary space for the Tibetan cause to bear on the world’s conscience.

India even took the unprecedented step of allowing the Dalai Lama to form and operate an exile government on its soil. Its chief objective here was to disrupt and oppose Chinese rule of Tibet, even though India has always acknowledged China’s sovereignty over the region, a contradiction that did not escape China’s attention.

Without India, it would have been difficult for the Dalai Lama and, hence, the Tibetan cause to be as pronounced as it has been. But now, the Indian media is reporting that there has been an “invisibilisation of the Dalai Lama” and that it will soon render the Tibetan people’s dream of regaining their homeland inconsequential in the global scheme of things.

Prime Minister Modi’s silence over the Tibetan issue and the Dalai Lama is undoubtedly due to pressure from China. This, in turn, is China’s response to the Tibetan leadership’s long term campaign to demonise the Asian juggernaut because it regards the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist.

History will record that one of the CTA’s biggest failures was to not recognise that its old approach to China which was to attack and defame the rising Dragon, and to provoke anti-Chinese sentiments at every opportunity possible, stopped yielding results some time ago.

The main thrust of the CTA’s formula was to harness the West’s distrust of Communism against China in the forlorn hope that someone would go to war on their behalf and free Tibet. India did go to war with China in 1962 and was soundly defeated.

Night scene of the newly built Chama Square in Chamdo City of southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). China seems to have closed to door to any dialogue with the Dalai Lama and have instead focussed heavily on developing the economy of the TAR and improve the Tibetan people’s livelihood.

In the meantime, whatever secret plans the United States had of snatching the Tibetan plateau out of China’s clutches ended with the 1972 visit of President Richard Nixon to China. That diplomatic overture sought to normalise relations between the two superpowers and ended the Tibetan leadership’s hopes that their homeland would be regained by a US-sponsored military coup.

China has grown by leaps and bounds over the last 60 years. It has transformed itself from an impoverished country that could hardly feed its citizens into a global superpower. On the other hand, the Tibetan leadership remained as they had been before 1959 – obstinate, retrogressive and medieval in its mindset and this played out in the way it disregarded its own people. Its persistence in an ineffectual campaign to antagonise China only strengthened China’s resolve.

China today is able to dictate terms and has made rejection of the CTA’s cause a condition for strategic alliances and lucrative partnerships with countries across the globe. In effect, it gives nations a choice: economic progress or support for a feudal theocrat seeking to regain his fiefdom. Due to China’s rise and its significance to the world economy, even the United States, the European Union and India have come to see the wisdom of maintaining friendly ties with her.

Still, the old Tibetan habit of refusing to acknowledge reality persists. It was due to the same short-sightedness of its leaders that Tibet was lost in the first place. The feudal lords had thought little of the world beyond the Himalayan plateau and had refused to participate in the United Nations. So, when Mao’s troops marched into Lhasa, no one came to help.

The same obstinacy and rigidity persist in the Tibetan leaders of today. This goes a long way towards explaining why the Tibetan cause has regressed over the years when other similar struggles for independence have succeeded, even without the financial and moral support Tibetans have received.

To his credit, the Dalai Lama did come to the conclusion last year that it was “stupid” to confront China as an enemy. That was a reversal of the stance he has maintained for almost six decades, criticising China with condemnations deftly infused into his spiritual talks and teachings.

The CTA Sikyong (President) has openly opposed the Dalai Lama’s instructions not to regard China as an enemy.

However, in what is a classic example of Tibetan infighting, the President of the CTA, Sikyong Lobsang Sangay continues to refer to China as the enemy. To emphasise his view that the Dalai Lama was wrong, Sangay stated recently that, “…China as enemy occupied our country, as enemy killed Tibetans, and as enemy destroyed monasteries…”

Sangay’s stance will not help to build a bridge between Tibetans and the Chinese government. This brand of hostility is counterproductive but it does benefit Sangay personally.

Firstly, such provocations feed the collective Tibetan resentment towards China, reinforcing the image of China as a brutal aggressor and the CTA as its innocent victim. It does ensure that funds from the various international ‘Tibetan Aid’ campaigns continue to flow. It does make Sangay appear as a heroic David to China’s Goliath which is what Sangay needs to stay elected since there is no other accomplishments to speak of.

The very existence of the CTA is brazen opposition to China’s rule of Tibet. If there is a reconciliation between China and the Dalai Lama, the CTA would lose its only justification to exist and Sangay would be out of a job and he knows that.

Sangay’s agitations and sabre rattling come at a very high cost, the penalties of which are borne by the host nations that provide the space for such attacks to take place. This is why leaders of erstwhile friendly nations like India’s Modi have stopped speaking about the Dalai Lama.

The burden is also ultimately borne by the Tibetan people in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), who face stringent regulation by a Chinese government wary of the Tibetan leadership’s motives to use the populace in TAR to stir dissension. The price of provocations by politicians like Sangay is also exacted on the Tibetan refugees who followed the Dalai Lama into exile three generations ago, believing he would deliver them home by some divine and supernatural feat.

Increasingly CTA-issued travel papers are being rejected as valid official document in what is an erosion of the CTA’s legitimacy.

As long as their leaders fail to build a bridge to Beijing, Tibetan refugees will continue to live life in limbo. Their identity is being eroded away as they are neither able to return to their own country nor carve a new life in another one. In recent years, countries like Sweden, Switzerland and Italy have stopped acknowledging Tibetans-in-exile in their country as Tibetan refugees and instead refer to them as ‘Chinese nationals’.

The narrative of the CTA and its President that the Tibetan cause is still receiving firm global support flies in the face of reality. Seeing how the Prime Minister of the CTA’s host nation instructed his officials to avoid the CTA’s ‘Thank You India’ celebrations; how the President of the US has bucked convention and so far refused to meet with the Dalai Lama; and how the CTA only managed to attract a former President of a small African nation as the VVIP of an important event to commemorate the Tibetan people’s 60th anniversary of struggle, it is clear something has gone awry for the CTA.

Sangay continues to travel the world to peddle the relevance of the Tibetan issue as a humanitarian, moral, environmental and spiritual struggle. What Sangay has not been able to address is how helping his administration benefits his audience. His speeches and messages rarely differ in delivery and intention and they continue to widen the gulf between China and the CTA, in opposition to the Dalai Lama’s advice.

However, observers have noted that Sangay’s audiences consist mainly of opposition leaders using the Tibetan issue as a platform to criticise sitting governments on their supposed lack of attention to global humanitarian issues. The same politicians quickly switch to a pro-China stance when they assume office.

It is the simple economics of befriending the world’s largest consumer market and a global superpower. China is the new America – a world where opportunities abound; national progress is found in strategic partnerships with China, not in going against her. No country would have opposed the United States at its peak. It was simply not logical. Similarly, it is illogical to oppose China today and everyone except the Tibetan leadership has acknowledged that.

As India continues to provide asylum to the Dalai Lama, the Modi administration has made it clear that India’s relationship with China is far more important. India is not alone on this as the Tibetan leadership’s agitations continue to push allies and friends towards China.

Their refusal to be pragmatic and their continued condemnation of China will see to the complete destruction of the Tibetan people’s dreams. In China’s most recent white paper outlining its plans to develop Tibet, Beijing seems to have closed the door to any dialogue with the Dalai Lama. This, in effect, ends all hopes of the Tibetan returning home. It is the bitter fruit of the Tibetan leadership’s agitations and wrong approach towards China.

In the final analysis, it would seem that the Tibetan leadership itself lost the Tibetan cause. This acknowledgement does not deny the grievances that Tibetans have suffered. The simple reality is that virtually all the hegemonies of the world have conquered and taken over smaller and weaker nations, forcibly annexed lands which belonged to natives and flown their flags over what was once sacred ground. They have toppled governments and supplanted authorities when it was deemed necessary for ‘state security’.

That the CTA has refused to see this fact reflects the immaturity and unpreparedness of its leaders. Some, like Sangay, may argue that it is the moral duty of the Tibetan people and the nations of the world to oppose China’s violent invasion and occupation of Tibet. But the same Sangay has been silent on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. Instead, he praised Israel’s defence of its promised land.

How can the Tibetan leader explain the difference between his endorsement of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and his condemnation of China’s occupation of Tibet? Such double standards do not bode well for the CTA.

Whether the Tibetan leadership can change its approach to China is speculation. It may perhaps already be too late in the game for this to have any significant impact. The Tibetan leadership should, however, take steps to preserve Tibetan culture and do what is necessary so that the Tibetan diaspora live harmoniously. If they cannot regain their homeland, the Tibetan people must at least be allowed to retain their culture and religious traditions. But herein lies the Tibetan leadership’s biggest failure – even something as vital as unity has been torn asunder through a series of ‘divide and rule’ policies. This includes the campaign to split the Karma Kagyu and the unconstitutional religious ban on the popular ancient practice of Dorje Shugden prevalent amongst the Gelug and Sakya schools. These schemes as well as the confusion between rangzen and umaylam were all spawned by the CTA and allowed to fester to keep the Tibetan people distracted from the CTA’s failures. As a recent news report published in The Print noted, the invisibilization of the Dalai Lama is almost complete and when that happens the most famous group of refugees in the world will become forgotten.

[The Print] Why Modi doesn’t mention the Dalai Lama anymore, while he rages against
‘enemy Pakistan’

Source: https://theprint.in/opinion/modi-monitor/why-modi-doesnt-mention-the-dalai-lama-anymore-while-he-rages-against-enemy-pakistan/215845/. Click to enlarge.