At the request of Gelong Lobsang Thardoe from Nepal, and many other Lamas and monks within the lineage from around the world, the abbot emeritus of Shar Gaden, Kyabje Kensur Rinpoche Lobsang Phende has compassionately accepted the request to confer the initiation and commentary of Chakrasamvara (Tib: Heruka) in the tradition of Ghantapa (Tib: Drilbupa), consists of both a five-deity practice and a body-mandala practice, to an assembly of Lamas and monks from India and Nepal primarily, starting on April 21st 2023, which falls on the first day of the third month of the Tibetan calendar.

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Kyabje Kensur Rinpoche Lobsang Phende received the powerful practice of Chakrasamvara from the junior tutor of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang decades ago, and Kensur Rinpoche has been keeping his commitments, vows and practice pure since then. In Kensur Rinpoche’s own words, he said:

“I am very honoured and happy to pass down the precious lineage to the younger generation. There is no other greater merit (that could be accumulated) than passing down the unbroken and pure lineage.”

Kensur Labrang is hereby announcing this wonderful event for many to rejoice, and at the same time opening up the opportunity for devotees from around the world to make offerings to the initiation and teaching which will last for months. Your monetary offering will go to the ceremony and teaching itself, and to the food and tea for the assembly of Lamas and monks who are going to participate in the initiation and the teaching. It is extremely meritorious to make this offering because by doing so, you are indirectly preserving the lineage by supporting the event and these Lamas and monks who are going to receive the practice, for they are the people who are going to keep the lineage alive by practicing it and passing it down to future generations.

For more information or to make an offering, please contact Kensur Labrang’s assistant Gen Tserab-la by:

• Whatsapp: +91 7676512849
• Email: tserab04@gmail.com

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Back when the Dorje Shugden ban was first enforced in 1996, few thought that they would live to see the day when the ban was lifted. There have however, been many signs in recent years that the ban may soon be coming to an end.

These began as far back as 2016, when His Holiness the Dalai Lama said Dorje Shugden does no harm. It has continued into 2020, with His Holiness saying that it would be permissible to rely on Dorje Shugden as a land deity. As recently as June 2021, His Holiness has said that he was wrong to have banned Dorje Shugden.

For those familiar with the ban, the shift in His Holiness’s stance is undeniably clear.

In the early years of the ban, the persecution of Dorje Shugden practitioners was horrific. Families were split, marriages were broken up, children were bullied in school, people were denied medical treatment and monks were expelled from monasteries, but to name a few examples of discrimination against Shugden worshippers.

And in those early days of the ban, as the persecution of Shugden practitioners began to pick up steam, a few brave people grouped to form the first resistance against the ban. They called themselves the Dorjee Shugden Devotees’ Charitable and Religious Society, otherwise known as the Delhi Society.

Not only did the Delhi Society preserve important works and rituals on Dorje Shugden, but they also launched legal appeals against the ban, and worked hard to raise awareness of its illegality. In doing so, they risked their safety, their personal opportunities and their own welfare to protect the lineage. Their courageous actions proved to people that it was possible to resist and stand up against the public relations behemoth that is the Tibetan leadership, because there is strength and power in standing up for the truth.

And the truth is that Dorje Shugden is an enlightened being, that everyone deserves religious freedom and no one should be persecuted on the basis of their faith.

The 25^th anniversary of the Delhi Society

2021 marks the 25^th anniversary of the Delhi Society. In light of this, various pujas have been advised by the highest lamas of our tradition to celebrate this auspicious occasion, and to dedicate the vast amount of merits that have been accumulated over the years in the struggle to speak up for the truth.

His Holiness the 101^st Gaden Tripa Jetsun Lungrik Namgyal Rinpoche, His Holiness Kyabje Pabongka Chocktrul Rinpoche and His Holiness Kyabje Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche have each recommended pujas to be done. The four main aims of these pujas are:

1. To dedicate everyone’s efforts in bringing our lineage this far, where a light can finally be seen at the end of a 25-year struggle
2. To generate and dedicate merits towards the swift return of the lamas and practitioners who we have lost in recent years
3. To dedicate merits towards the long lives of our lamas who remain with us, and to create the causes for their works to grow
4. To generate and dedicate merits for all practitioners’ wishes to be fulfilled, for their obstacles to be pacified, and for them to find happiness

Pujas from H.H. the 101^st Gaden Tripa

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• To follow the advice of H.H. Kyabje Pabongka Chocktrul Rinpoche and H.H. Kyabje Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche
• To carry out a Great Prayer Festival (Monlam Chenmo) for a minimum of one day, in the tradition established by the great master Je Tsongkapa

Pujas from H.H. Kyabje Pabongka Chocktrul Rinpoche

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• Sixteen Arhats puja, 1,000 times
• Reciting the Manjushri-nama-samgiti, 10,000 times
• Reciting the sungbum (collected works) of Je Tsongkhapa and his two spiritual sons
• Guru Puja with 1,000 Ganachakra Tsog offerings
• General Dharmapala Puja
• Dharmapala Dorje Shugden puja with 1,000 Ganachakra Tsog offerings
• Smoke offerings
• Hang prayer flags, as many as possible

Pujas from H.H. Kyabje Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche

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• Reciting the sungbum (collected works) of Je Tsongkhapa and his two spiritual sons
• Reciting the 8000-verse Prajnaparamita Sutra, 20 times
• Reciting the Suvarnaprabhasottama Sutra
• Peaceful fire puja of Solitary Hero Yamantaka, 10 times
• Sixteen Arhats puja
• Guru Puja with Ganachakra Tsog offerings
• Gyabshi ritual
• Dharmapala Dorje Shugden puja

Grand Prayer Festival on International Dorje Shugden Day

This grand prayer festival will begin on August 24, 2021 which is the International Dorje Shugden Day that is celebrated annually all over the world. It is expected that it will take a few days for the pujas to be completed, and they will be conducted by our precious sangha who have dedicated their lives to upholding the Dorje Shugden lineage, in spite of the obstacles they have been met with.

These important rituals will be held at major Dorje Shugden monasteries around the world, including:

• Shar Gaden Monastery (India)
• Serpom Monastery (India)
• Phelgyeling Monastery (Nepal)
• Segyu Monastery (Nepal)
• Samten Choeling Monastery (India)
• Kundeling Monastery (India)

Over 40 Dorje Shugden organisations around the world have come together in service of the lineage to contribute towards the fulfilment of our high lamas’ instructions. This means that no matter where you are in the world, you can still contribute and take part in this momentous celebration.

It has been a quarter of a century since the Dorje Shugden ban was first enforced, marking the start of two decades of suffering for Shugden worshippers everywhere. It has been 25 years of fighting, hoping, praying and begging for things to change. Now, as the tide seems to turn, it is finally time for us to rejoice and celebrate.

Official Announcement

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Official Announcements in Other Languages

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Advice from Lineage Lamas

བོད་ཡིག (Tibetan)

中文 (Chinese)

монгол хэл (Mongolian)

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 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

It is now 25 years since religious persecution of Dorje Shugden believers began, spearheaded by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). The fallout of the Dalai Lama and CTA’s religious ban significantly shaped Tibetan lives and forcibly altered the Tibetan Buddhist terrain globally over the last quarter of a century. Millions of lives were placed in jeopardy, the sanctity of Lama Tsongkhapa’s lineage was hurled into confusion and countless spiritual paths were derailed. And that is not counting the impact this rift has made on the collective Tibetan cause.

But now His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama has admitted that he was wrong and made it clear that this mistreatment of Shugden Buddhists is to stop.

After the flop, now the flip

The CTA’s religious persecution of Shugden Buddhists started in 1996 and intensified in 2008. Dorje Shugden practitioners were classified as “enemies of the State”; “anti-Dalai Lama”; “anti-Dharma”; “Chinese spies/sympathizers; “demon worshippers” and other similar characterizations.

Yet, the CTA’s propaganda and persecutions failed to completely root out the practice of Dorje Shugden. It was after all, a well-regarded practice, central to the Gelug lineage. Even the 14^th Dalai Lama had revered this deity, as did his past incarnations, the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, the 11^th Dalai Lama and the most respected teachers of the 20^th century.

A period of relative quiet followed as Shugden Buddhists were driven underground and out of the CTA’s reach. And then the Dalai Lama did a turnaround.

The Dalai Lama addressed tens of thousands in his live teaching, during which he announced that mistreatment of Shugden Buddhists is to stop.

During the Dalai Lama’s Saka Dawa teaching on May 26 this year, he unexpectedly drew attention to the Dorje Shugden issue, a highly sensitive subject that has been a major fault line for violent conflicts. But this time, the Dalai Lama’s message was a contradiction of a stance that he and the CTA had mandated.

Quoting passages from the Bodhisattvacharyavatara (The Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) the Dalai Lama said that regardless of how anyone felt about Dorje Shugden and his practice, any animosity towards the deity was patently wrong. The Tibetan god-king inferred that it is against the code of a Bodhisattva to feel any anger towards the Protector. And in addition, he said it is our own anger and mental defilements that we should examine instead of directing our resentment towards others.

VIDEO: Dalai Lama says Dorje Shugden is an object of compassion (May 26, 2021)

But that wasn’t all.

One week later on June 2, 2021, during another teaching on Je Tsongkhapa’s Destiny Fulfilled (Tog jö dün leg ma), the Dalai Lama, for the first time since he imposed a ban on the practice of Dorje Shugden, admitted that it was a mistake to have discriminated against Dorje Shugden.

This is a very different language and tone to that which the Tibetan leadership employed when they wilfully acted to incite hatred against Dorje Shugden and adherents of his practice. As a result, it was regarded as ‘un-Tibetan’ and ‘un-Buddhist’ if you were not hostile to Shugden Buddhists. So government officials and ambitious monks made it a point to grandstand their contempt of this sacred practice as hating Dorje Shugden became a rapid career path in Tibetan political and monastic quarters.

VIDEO: Dalai Lama says its wrong to reject Dorje Shugden (June 2, 2021)

Skilfully undoing a mistake

The Dalai Lama’s reversal of attitude towards Dorje Shugden is not entirely new. In January 2020, after almost 24 years of labelling Dorje Shugden as an enemy of the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama signalled a softening of heart towards the Protector. While in the past the Dalai Lama had categorically forbidden the practice of Dorje Shugden under any circumstances, on that occasion, he actually endorsed the worship of Dorje Shugden but only as a birth deity or a land deity.

It was terminology but in effect, what the Dalai Lama said destroyed the CTA’s justification for denying Shugden Buddhists their constitutional right to freedom of religion. The old justification was that the practice of Dorje Shugden [in any form] threatened the Dalai Lama’s life and caused the failure of Tibetan efforts to regain their country.

Dorje Shugden lamas and monks were treated as criminals to be hunted down and harassed.

Still, the ban on Dorje Shugden practice persisted on its very dangerous and damaging course.

Damaging because it undermined the Tibetan Constitution that guaranteed, amongst other things, religious freedom. Damaging because it undermined the sanctity of Tibetan Buddhism by making a mockery of four centuries of old masters and sages who had upheld the Dorje Shugden practice, including H.H. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo and H.H. Trijang Dorje Chang. Damaging because it splintered an already small and weak community of people at a time when they should be harmonized in focused efforts to regain their country. Damaging because it created an irreparable schism within the Tibetan monastic community, a split which played out globally wherever there were Tibetan Buddhist adherents. Damaging because it went against the most basic Buddhist principles.

Buddha or demon?

For the last 25 years, debates raged between Shugden Buddhists who regard Dorje Shugden as an emanation of the Wisdom Buddha Manjushri and those who oppose the practice. Detractors argued that the deity was a demon who arose from the death of a monk with broken vows.

Many were caught up in an intriguing web of arguments haphazardly weaved by pseudo-intellectuals, self-proclaimed Tibetan Buddhist experts and sycophants failing to see a real or complete picture.

In fact, it is simple enough a subject.

From the perspective of a constitutional democracy which the CTA claims to be, its persecution of Shugden Buddhists is unlawful and a breach of human rights. Simply put, it is not the business of a democratic government to decide which religion is legitimate and which is not. It is the business of the government to guarantee the freedom of religion which the CTA failed to do.

All Shugden worshippers were denied livelihood. Even the monks were not spared. Pictured here is the infamous ‘yellow stick’ incident where monks were forced to break with their practice of Dorje Shugden or be expelled.

And now, from the perspective of the Buddhist religion, the Dalai Lama has made it clear that whoever Dorje Shugden is, should not be of concern if you are a true practitioner of the Buddhadharma. In fact as the Dalai Lama pointed out, in the practice of Bodhicitta, there is even an obligation to regard all beings as ‘important guests’.

The argument is even simpler when approached from the perspective of common sense. If one does not believe in the sacredness of Dorje Shugden, then one can simply choose not to pray to the deity. It is this simple logic that has kept the world with its myriad religions and beliefs in a relatively peaceful state.

There has never been any proper justification to persecute Shugden Buddhists at all. So, those who took up arms against Dorje Shugden on the basis of ‘because the Dalai Lama said so’, should now stop their bullying of Shugden Buddhists, because the Dalai Lama has indeed said so.

Is this the end of the Shugden ban?

Sadly, it is unlikely to be the case.

Even today after the Dalai Lama has clearly said that it is wrong to discriminate against Dorje Shugden, the CTA’s official website still carries a section dedicated to stoking hatred against Dorje Shugden people. Click to enlarge.

The CTA’s absurd reasoning and conduct in support of an unlawful religious ban has made it a laughing stock amongst educated Tibetans and global political observers. They see that behind the CTA’s democratic and progressive facade is an out-of-date administration that still resorts to fables and superstitions instead of applying common sense when it comes to governance.

While it was the Dalai Lama who initiated the ban on the Dorje Shugden practice, the unrest served the CTA officials well. It has been far easier to keep fanning hatred against Dorje Shugden than to attend to urgent business such as providing adequately for a depleting Tibetan exile population or seeking to engage China in meaningful dialogue. That would have been a wiser strategy than for the CTA to avail themselves as pawns in attempts to curb China’s rise. Unfortunately, provoking anti-Shugden sentiment, antagonizing China and engaging in political skulduggery with Penpa Tsering were Lobsang Sangay’s predominant duties during his tenure as President of the CTA.

The CTA made it a policy to promote animosity towards Dorje Shugden and it was given equal if not more weight than the Tibetan Cause. However, when the Dalai Lama endorsed the practice of Dorje Shugden as a birth deity or land deity, the CTA felt pressured to remove this prominent link. Click to enlarge.

However, when the Dalai Lama endorsed the practice of Dorje Shugden as a birth deity or land deity, the CTA came under pressure to remove a prominent banner on their official website. That banner led to a page dedicated to encouraging the Tibetan people, government offices, local businesses and supporters of the Tibetan cause to keep up the witch hunt against Shugden Buddhists. That page is still present today although not as conspicuous now. And bullying of Shugden Buddhists continues to persist globally with supporters thinking that such behavior is sanctioned by the Dalai Lama.

Whether the CTA removes that toxic anti-Shugden page altogether is now an important barometer of how much they truly revere the Dalai Lama. It would be a contradiction for the Dalai Lama to counsel compassion towards Dorje Shugden followers while the CTA surreptitiously continues to encourage ongoing persecution.

How well will the CTA and the Tibetan people take to this new directive on Dorje Shugden by the Dalai Lama? It’s difficult to tell. A worrying hint is in the way the Tibetan translator completely omitted the part of the Dalai Lama’s teaching when he said:

I have enforced a ban concerning Shugden. But when I reflect on [Shantideva's first verse] now, he is simply someone to be loved, someone with whom we should unconditionally practice loving kindness and compassion. If I distance myself from him giving some tiny reasons like “he is someone who harms the teachings”; most likely this is a mistake.

It is a serious omission because non-Tibetan speakers would have missed the part where the Dalai Lama clearly alluded that the ban on Dorje Shugden was a mistake. 
The question is, was it a wilful omission?



VIDEO: The English translator omitted the Dalai Lama’s advice on Dorje Shugden (June 2, 2021)

With the Tibetan leadership and their coterie, anything is possible and we have seen time and time again how crafty and manipulative they can be. One apt example of this is taking place right now.

Even as the Dalai Lama preaches compassion for all sentient beings including Dorje Shugden followers, the CTA has refused assistance to Shugden monasteries to procure badly-needed COVID vaccines for the monks. So, behind all the compassion rhetoric, nothing much has changed at all. The CTA just got better and more subtle in their persecution of those they label to be enemies. And this is happening at a time when world governments have seen the necessity to put all differences aside to tackle a pandemic that threatens all humanity. But not the CTA.

So what now?

The Dalai Lama’s intention to end the Shugden conflict is clear. He chose Saka Dawa to state his new stance on the Shugden issue. It was an occasion where the Dalai Lama knew he would be speaking to the very people who could put into effect an end to this poisoned chapter of modern Tibetan Buddhist history — the Gaden Tripa, the Sharpa Choje and other senior monks and government officials. And to be sure his message was clearly received, the Dalai Lama repeated his intention to end Shugden persecutions in his June 2, 2021 teachings, this time acknowledging that it was wrong to have discriminated against Dorje Shugden.

During the teachings, the Dalai Lama addressed eminent masters including (from top left, clockwise): His Holiness Gaden Tri Rinpoche Lobsang Tenzin, H.E. Sharpa Choje Rinpoche Lobsang Dorje, H.E. Gyuto Khenpo Gangkar Rinpoche and H.E. Jampa Choje Gosog Rinpoche Ngawang Sungrab Gelek

Understandably it is difficult for the Tibetan leadership to abruptly reverse a religious ban that they cannot afford to openly acknowledge. And it would require some time to turn a collective psyche that has been cultivated over a quarter of a century. But clearly the Dalai Lama’s advice is exactly to do just that. And all Tibetans, Shugden and non-Shugden people alike, have always held the Dalai Lama close to their hearts.

So perhaps the wisest thing for everyone to do, regardless of which side of the now-defunct divide they stand on, is to move forward. Those who have been victims of this dark period in Tibetan exile history need not keep reliving the past, and those who have felt obliged to carry the heavy burden of hating fellow Tibetan Buddhists because of “tiny reasons” (as the Dalai Lama put it) can finally drop this taxing load.

The new CTA President Penpa Tsering now has a golden opportunity to formally wipe out an ugly mistake and bring the people together again. It would be a serious misstep for Penpa Tsering to follow his predecessor’s fatal legacy of human rights breaches. After all, the dark period of CTA politics when one’s political survival necessitated toeing the line on the Shugden issue is now over.

We hope, for the sake of all Tibetan people and all Tibetan Buddhists, that the Dalai Lama’s words are heeded. In remembering the Dalai Lama’s recent teachings, may all beings be invited as precious guests to Sugatahood and may we act to ensure temporal happiness for all sentient beings.

Videos in Chinese [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 with Mongolian subtitle

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 Dorje Shugden conflict remains one of the most polarizing issues in Tibetan Buddhism today. The Tibetan leadership has claimed that Shugden practice is an instrument of the Communist government of China, that the Dorje Shugden lineage is devoid of spiritual legitimacy, and indeed nothing more than the work of extreme and exclusivist quarters within the Gelugpa sect.

Throughout the world, Tibetan Buddhist communities have been coerced to pick a side in the Shugden divide. But a fair and educated choice is rarely possible. To disagree with the 14^th Dalai Lama is to be regarded instantly as being anti-Dalai Lama, anti-Buddhism, anti-democracy and therefore pro-Communist China.

As has become standard operating procedure, the Tibetan leadership relies on Dalai Lama sycophants who operate within targeted Buddhist communities to push the Central Tibetan Administration’s (CTA) political agenda. These agendas are often disguised as examination of certain Buddhist beliefs and doctrines.

Within Mongolian communities today, there is again renewed agitations to support the Dalai Lama’s narrative on the Shugden issue. This time, the provocations come from a Mongolian man by the name of Tsend-Ayush Batmunkh who runs a Facebook account under the nickname ‘Hunnu Mongol’. There is in fact nothing fresh in Hunnu Mongol’s charges against Dorje Shugden except to regurgitate the Tibetan leadership’s vitriol, aimed at dislodging the people from their faith in Dorje Shugden, and incite hatred against Shugden followers and China.

The Hunnu Mongol Facebook account is run by a Mongolian man named Tsend-Ayush Batmunkh. Click to enlarge

For the Mongolian people, the stakes are high. To begin with, it is vital for the Mongolian nation to maintain good relations with a powerful China. The last time Mongolia fell into Dharamsala’s trap, it took some repairing to normalize ties with a powerful ally. But looking beyond political common sense, the Mongolian people also have established historic ties with the lineage of Dorje Shugden that if ruptured, would undermine Mongolia’s Buddhist heritage.

Simply put, Hunnu Mongol wants the Mongolian people to believe that there is no legitimacy to the Dorje Shugden lineage. In this, Hunnu Mongol is being mischievous because Mongolian archives brim with evidence of the close relationship between the Dorje Shugden lineage, the spread of Buddhism in Mongolia and the social development of the people.

One doesn’t have to be a Buddhist scholar to recognize this close relationship.

Letter from the International Tibetan Shugden Community (English)

The incendiary antics of Hunnu Mongol has caught the attention of Shugden Buddhists who continue to suffer this CTA-sponsored religious persecution. The irony is that the Tibetan exile government that claims to be fighting for democracy should be stifling religious freedom. Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge

Letter from the International Tibetan Shugden Community (Mongolian)

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

The Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa Khutuktus

The Jetsun Dhampa Khutuktus are the highest and most esteemed lamas in Mongolia. They are regarded as Bogd Gegeen or supreme spiritual authorities. There is no question of the Jetsun Dhampas’ enlightened nature which is no less than that of the Dalai Lamas.

The first Jetsun Dhampa Khutuktu, Zanabazar who was the spiritual mentor of Emperor Kangxi, a reincarnation of Tulku Dragpa Gyaltsen, based on an old prophesy by Panchen Lobsang Chokyi Gyaltsen.

1. The 1^st Jetsun Dhampa, Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar, was recognized as the reincarnation of the great Jonang Jetsun Taranatha. Zanabazar advanced Gelug Buddhism within Mongolia for over 60 years and was well known to have sought close ties with the Qing Emperor Kangxi. So close was the relationship between the first Jetsun Dhampa with Emperor Kangxi that when he heard of the passing of Kangxi, he immediately travelled to Beijing to conduct the customary Buddhist rites for the great emperor.
    
   According to an old prophecy by Panchen Lobsang Chokyi Gyaltsen, Emperor Kangxi was the reincarnation of Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen who arose as Dorje Shugden. This record is contained in the works of the Mongolian scholar, the most esteemed master, Lobsang Tamdin who gained the reputation of being extremely fastidious in tracing transmissions of Buddhist lineages in order to validate their authenticity.
    
   It was with Kangxi’s support that the first Jetsun Dhampa brought an end to vicious fighting between Dzungar-Qirat Mongols and Khalkha Mongols. The tension between the Dzungar-Qirat and the Khalkha Mongols started because the Qirat warlord Galdan Khan was offended that Zanabazar’s throne was placed at the same height as the throne of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s representative during a religious ceremony. (Mongolia and the Mongols, A M Pozdneev, 1971)
Even then, there were already attempts to reduce Mongolian spiritual authority and render it lesser than that of the Dalai Lamas.
2. The 4^th Jetsun Dhampa Luvsantüvdenvanchug’s era coincided with the spread of Dorje Shugden practice amongst Mongolian Gelugpas. He was recorded as being the first Mongolian to compose propitiation texts to Dorje Shugden. These include a torma offering prayer which supplicates the Dharma Protector to assist in the spread of the Dharma.
   

   OM! Magnificent Buddha of Shambhala,
   Ruler of the three worlds with a brilliant red face,
   Protectors of the most scholarly beings of Loseling,
   Including Dorje Shugden, please come here!

   I offer to you pleasing samaya substances which create harmony,
   Huge palaces, red tormas and white tormas,
   A mountain of flesh and an ocean-wide pile of bones
   And all the objects of desires.


   As you pleasingly and happily partake in these offerings,
   May it cause the increase of study, listening, contemplation and all virtues of theory and practice.
   I request you: Please increase conducive conditions and remove hostile circumstances,
   Guide us as we walk this path of wisdom and compassion.
   Please grant auspiciousness for all Sangha who uphold the three trainings!

   The 4^th Jetsun Dhampa was also a great master of the Kalachakra Tantra and it was he who first alluded to Shambhala being an abode of Dorje Shugden. Shambhala of course is central to the Kalachakra Tantra. It would be absurd to suggest that the Chakravartins or Enlightened Kings of Shambhala would share their abode with a minor demon. And yet that would be the only conclusion to arrive at if one were to believe the accounts served by anti-Dorje Shugden agitators such as Hunnu Mongol.

   Like the 1^st Jetsun Dhampa Zanabazar, the 4^th Jetsun Dhampa’s holy body was enshrined in an important Mongolian monastery, Amarbayasgalant, after his parinirvana. It is not surprising given Dorje Shugden’s historic stature that this deity is also one of the Dharma Protectors of this important Mongolian monastery.

3. The relationship between the Jetsun Dhampa Khutuktus and Dorje Shugden continued with the 8th Jetsun Dhampa Agvaanluvsanchoyjindanzanvaanchigbalsambuu. He would frequently consult the State Oracle, Choijin Lama Luvsankhaidav, who was also his brother. For divine proclamations and guidance, Choijin Lama would take trance of either Nechung, Tsiu Marpo or Dorje Shugden. This itself is evidence that Dorje Shugden was worshipped and well trusted by Mongolian Buddhist authorities. Furthermore, the 9^th Jetsun Dhampa Jambalnamdolchoyjijantsan was a devout student of H.H the 10^th Panchen Lama, H.H. Trijang Dorje Chang and H.H. Ling Dorje Chang, all of whom were the greatest masters of their time who worshipped Dorje Shugden.

Amarbayasgalant, one of Mongolia’s most important temples. Dorje Shugden is the main Dharma Protectors of this temple together with Setew, and Lkham.

Zaya Pandita

Zaya (Jaya) Pandita, who is without question a foundation of Mongolian Buddhism. Zaya Pandita saw the importance of preserving the legacy of his teacher, Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen and his arisal as Dorje Shugden.

It is through the eyes of the renowned Mongolian scholar Zaya Pandita Luvsanprinlei that we see how the Mongolian people historically regarded Dorje Shugden before Dharamsala poisoned the well. Zaya Pandita was a descendant of the great Genghis Khan and commanded a well-respected position amongst Mongolians.

A contemporary of the 1^st Jetsun Dhampa Khutuktu, Zaya Pandita was a disciple of the most prominent Tibetan Buddhist lamas of the time — the 4^th Panchen lama, the 5^th Dalai Lama and Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen. This accorded Zaya Pandita with first-hand opportunity to personally witness the events surrounding the murder of Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen and the fierce efforts to strike his name from the annals of Tibetan Buddhist history.

Zaya Pandita recognized the great importance of preserving the life story and spiritual heritage of Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen whom he regarded to be the holiest of beings. And towards that end, he composed Clear Mirror: A Records of Teachings Received (thob yig gsal ba’i me long).

Zaya Pandita’s writings are key to a recent dissertation by Dr Matthew W. King, Associate Professor of Transnational Buddhism and Chair of Asian Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, UCal. In his paper, Binding Buddhas and Demons to Text: The Mongol Invention of the Dorjé Shukden and Trülku Drakpa Gyeltsen Literary Corpus (1913 – 1919), Dr. King concludes that Mongolian spiritual history does not in fact support anti-Dorje Shugden narratives.

Excerpt from the paper “Binding Buddhas and Demons to Text: The Mongol Invention of the Dorjé Shukden and Trülku Drakpa Gyeltsen Literary Corpus (1913 – 1919)” by Dr Matthew W. King, Associate Professor of Transnational Buddhism and Chair of Asian Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, UCal. Click to enlarge or click here to download the complete PDF.

On the contrary, the Dorje Shugden practice was thriving in Mongolia about a hundred years before H.H. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo was accused of roguishly sparking the propagation of the Shugden practice, which Dharamsala today views to be fundamentalist and violent.

Dr. King observed that Dorje Shugden was regarded as:
…the wellspring of abundances of [Mongolian] scholastic and political life.

And in addition, that Shugden was:
…very much included within [the] ranks of enlightened beings who helped fashion the Qing-Geluk world.

Other Great Mongolian Masters

Besides Zaya Pandita, the same paper by Dr King evinces historic Mongolian worship of Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen as an enlightened monk and later in his form as the Protector Dorje Shugden. This worship was not of a casual kind by ordinary Mongolian Buddhists but by the spiritual heavyweights of the time.

Dr King cites the great Mongolian mahasiddha Zava Lam Damdin, who compiled Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen’s collected works and assembled the Dorje Shugden be-bum. Zava Lam Damdin was a master of such high caliber that he had very close ties with the 13^th Dalai Lama, and his writings including the Ninj Chimbiin Dodv and Khorchoenjun are regarded by the 14^th Dalai Lama to be important reference texts.

Zava Lam Damdin, a Mongolian Mahasiddha whose birthday is celebrated annually as an Mongolian Buddhist event, and was a key proponent of the Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen and Dorje Shugden lineage.

In the Collected Writings of Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen, Discovered in the Innermost Recesses of Dzaya Pandita’s Library and Newly Complied Under the Title Flower Earrings, Zava Lam Damdin composed a praise to Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen beseeching him to act on behalf of the Buddha’s teachings and sentient beings in his current form as Dorje Shugden.

Zava Lam Damdin was not alone in his zest to preserve Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen’s legacy.

Another Lama, Darva Pandita Agwangchoijurdondubbalsang facilitated Zava Lam Damdin’s Dorje Shugden related works by financing it, urged on by Zava Lam Damdin’s lama, Minjüürdorj.

In the meantime, Zava Lam Damdin sought transmission of Dorje Shugden rituals from Nyongne Tulku as a Khalkha narrative of Dorje Shugden as an enlightened being evolved beyond Tibetan control.

Dharamsala has claimed that the Dorje Shugden practice is the invention of an extreme and fanatical faction of the Gelug lineage. However, based on historical facts, it is clear that if there had been any invention, then that invention lies with the Tibetan leadership who has usurped a holy and legitimate Mongolian practice and turned it into an ideological weapon to serve a political objective.

Will Mongolians deny their own spiritual heritage?

While incitements such as that by Hunnu Mongol are based on absurdities, they nevertheless have the potential to undermine the foundations of Mongolian Buddhism. To believe Hunnu Mongol, the Mongolian people would essentially have to disown their own rich history.

1. The Mongolian people would have to denounce both the great saint Sakya Pandita and their own Godan Khan. Mongolian texts speak of how Godan Khan invited the founder of the Sakya lineage, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo to spread the Dharma in Mongolia but he was unable to fulfil that request.
    
   It was Sachen’s nephew, Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen who agreed to journey to Mongolia. There, he created the first Mongolian alphabet which allowed many precious Buddhist texts to be translated into Mongolian and paved the way for Buddhism to spread in the Mongolian steppes.
    
   Sakya Pandita was of course one of the past incarnations of the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden.
2. The Mongolian people would have to denounce Panchen Sonam Drakpa, another past incarnation of Dorje Shugden. It was the great Panchen Sonam Drakpa who recognized the first Mongolian, the great grandson of Altan Khan, to be the rightful 4^th Dalai Lama. That, without doubt bestowed tremendous prestige upon the institution of Mongolian Buddhism.
3. The Mongolian people would have to denounce the Jetsun Dhampa Khutuktu line of incarnations because the first, fourth and eighth Jetsun Dhampas were so closely connected with Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen’s lineage.
4. The Mongolian people would have to wipe out the legacy of Zaya Pandita, an undoubted fountainhead of Mongolian Buddhist scholasticism. It was Zaya Pandita after all who kept Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen’s legacy from disappearing from the face of the earth.
5. The Mongolian people would have to turn their backs on the Zava Lam Damdin line, both the past incarnation and the present Zava Damdin Rinpoche who are pillars of Mongolian Buddhism in the past and today.

Sogphu Rinpoche who is also known as Guru Deva Rinpoche, was vital in the reconstruction of the institution Tibetan Buddhism in India and Mongolia. He was a devout practitioner of Dorje Shugden.

6. The Mongolian people would have to deny Lama Lobsang Tamdin’s great works and his tremendous contribution to Mongolian Buddhism. Lobsang Tamdin authored key texts for the propitiation of Dorje Shugden and perpetuated the belief that Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen’s line of incarnations are emanations of Manjushri.
7. Lastly, the Mongolian people would have to turn their backs on Guru Deva Rinpoche, also known as Sogpu Rinpoche. Sogpu Rinpoche was recognized as an incarnation of one of the 84 Mahasiddhas and was extremely significant in the rebuilding of the Dalai Lama’s palace in India, the reconstruction of the three great Gelugpa monasteries of Ganden, Sera and Drepung in India, and also the restoration of temples and monk quarters in Mongolia after Buddhism was revived in the early 1990s.

All these great saints, enlightened beings and living pillars of Buddhism are precisely what the Mongolian people will need to rely on as they rebuild their nation and place it on strong grounds. And yet these pillars are precisely what Hunnu Mongol is indirectly asking the people to disown. Hunnu Mongol has very little at stake. He lives in Chicago, a very safe distance from the hostilities and tensions he is inciting. Therefore the Mongolian people owe it to themselves and to future generations to look beyond rhetoric and propaganda, and see the truth with clear eyes.

Since Lobsang Sangay is retiring, there will be a new Sikyong election in 2021, and one of the candidates is Kaydor Aukatsang. Kaydor Aukatsang is the former Dalai Lama’s representative to North America. It is exactly under his tenure that US$1.5 million disappeared from the Tibet Fund, allegedly used to purchase an unnecessary building. As the candidate backed by Lobsang Sangay, Kaydor Aukatsang stands a higher chance to be elected as the next Sikyong of CTA, and with his already tainted record in the office, the future of the exiled Tibetans is destined to spiral downwards with acceleration.

Kaydor Aukatsang, the former Dalai Lama’s representative to North America. Under his tenure, US$1.5mil disappeared from the Tibet Fund, allegedly used to purchase an unnecessary building.

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.

 Tibetans are protesting their own exile government regime again!

By: Solaray Kusco

Tibetans are once again protesting against their corrupt government. The target of the current protests is Kaydor Aukatsang, the Dalai Lama’s former representative of North America. It was during Mr Aukatsang’s tenure that US$1.5mil was siphoned from the Tibet Fund in 2015.

The money was allegedly used to purchase a building that was deemed unnecessary by some longstanding and prominent supporters of the Tibetan cause. The transfer was also done in a manner that raised a lot of suspicions – from the Tibet Funds accounts, it was recorded as a “loans receivable” but it was never recorded in the accounts of the Tibetan Community Development Fund, who was supposed to have received the funds.

Later, Lobsang Sangay tried to doctor the accounts to change this amount’s status as a loan (which would need to be repaid) into a gift, going against proper accounting practices. This transaction and the attempted changes were uncovered by Aukatsang’s successor, Penpa Tsering, who was summarily dismissed from his post as a result of going public with this information.

Knowing that Aukatsang has been in cahoots with Lobsang Sangay all of this time to swindle US$1.5mil from the Tibetan people has led to a huge amount of anger towards the leadership. Wherever they have gone, they have been dogged by protests from people who were formerly in support of them.

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So while it can be disheartening for some to know that Tibetans protest over US$1.5mil, a comparatively paltry sum when other countries are dealing with amounts of much more, for others it is an encouraging sign to see a sustained campaign of speaking up against their own leadership. In the years gone past, it would have been unthinkable for any Tibetan to protest against the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), who are the Tibetan exiled leadership based in Dharamsala, North India. The CTA have always been known to be heavily suppressive of freedom of speech, and mete out harsh repercussions for those who dare raise issues against them. Now, it goes without saying that the anger of the people is not going away. It seems the Tibetans have been pushed too far, and are sick and tired of being lied to, used and tricked by their leadership; of being kept in an undignified, submissive refugee position to be exploited for contributions from unsuspecting donors; of being forced to exist on grants and donations given out of pity.

The sooner the Tibetan leadership recognizes that they may have gone too far with their people, the sooner they will be able to make amends for the latest mess they have created. As yet, the CTA has shown no interest in this, preferring instead to think of their people as gullible and so blindly devoted to His Holiness the Dalai Lama that they are unable to think for themselves. When you look at any videos of how Tibetan officials speak to their people, the arrogance is palpable.

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The entire debacle that has been created over the dismissal of just one government official also reflects poorly on the overall management and operations of the CTA. If they cannot handle something this small without it turning into a fiasco, how will they ever be able to manage anything higher? Meanwhile, the Chinese leadership deal with trillions in trade, keep the peace amongst hundreds of ethnic groups, and send their representatives around the world to present the new and modern face of China.

It has always been said that the CTA’s greatest foible is the fact it is staffed by self-serving individuals but perhaps it is time to consider an alternative scenario – the Tibetan leadership are staffed by people who are just plain incapable. From Losar (Tibetan New Year) gaffes, to making fun of the most powerful leader on earth and thereafter alienating him, perhaps this is not self-gain that we are witnessing but plain incapability to lead their people, or to do anything without turning it into a badly-handled, international embarrassment.

So the protests are an encouraging sign that the Tibetan community are finally waking up to the reality of their existence under an authoritarian regime. This is is a reality that Dorje Shugden practitioners have known only too well; 20 years ago, when an illegal ban was imposed on their practice in 1996, Shugden practitioners have since that time suffered from the CTA’s diktats and violent discrimination against them. But only time will tell if the leadership themselves also wake up to their own reality – that a dictatorship under which only they prospered is long gone – before it is too late.

Images of Tibetans Protesting
Against Their Leadership

Press Release from the protesting groups, detailing their position and specific grievances. Click to enlarge.

Press Release from the protesting groups, detailing their position and specific grievances. Click to enlarge.

Press Release from the protesting groups, detailing their position and specific grievances. Click to enlarge.

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

Earlier this year in September, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) celebrated its “60th anniversary of the birth of Tibetan democracy”. As expected, the Sikyong Lobsang Sangay delivered his typically high-sounding speech claiming, amongst other things, that the task is upon the shoulders of all Tibetans to “further strengthen our robust democracy”. Lobsang Sangay went on to say that “citizens are at the heart of democracy”.

Sangay claimed that every action of the Chinese government “mocks the values and principles of democracy”. This is a well-worn script that has drawn considerable support for the Tibetan cause and deflected attention to China’s perceived wrongs. 
But how has the CTA itself fared in terms of respecting democratic values and upholding the rights of its people?

When we scratch even lightly beneath the CTA’s veneer, we find disappointingly that even after 60 years of a so-called democratic governance, the Tibetan people under the CTA are still denied the most basic of freedoms; that is, the freedom of opinion and the freedom of speech.

The Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal controversy is the most recent exhibition of a bogus Tibetan democracy. Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal is a Tibetan lama of the Sakya tradition who has contributed significantly to the preservation of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. He has also served as a member of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile twice between 1994 and 2006.

In May this year, Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal voiced his disagreement and concerns over the Dalai Lama’s decision to give online religious empowerments and tantric teachings. It is worth noting that Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal was not alone on this matter. The CTA’s Religion and Culture Minister, Yuthok Karma Gelek, also issued a statement affirming that empowerments cannot be conferred online.

It is well established within the Tibetan Buddhist system that religious empowerments should only take place within a spiritually intimate environment, when the teacher and the students are physically present before each other and only after a master has assessed the recipient to be qualified.

Therefore, Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal’s opinion was not contrary to Tibetan Buddhist customs that have been upheld for centuries. The Dalai Lama himself has previously confirmed this view to be correct, for example, in this 1993 recording.

[VIDEO] The Dalai Lama proves
Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal is right

Or to watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HroK14K1Q4E

Factually, Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal was correct and constitutionally, as a ‘citizen’ of the democratic Tibetan nation, he was also well within his rights to voice an opinion. This is provided for by Article 12 of the Tibetan Charter, the same constitutional document which is promulgated by the Tibetan leadership as the prime factor that sets the ‘democratic’ CTA apart from the communist regime of China.

However, as we have seen time and again, Tibetan democracy falls apart when tested. And today as it has been since feudal Tibet, it is not the Constitution that governs the people but the diktat of one person, the Dalai Lama. Whatever the Dalai Lama decides becomes law and it becomes a crime to disagree with the Dalai Lama.

Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal had but voiced his opinion over a spiritual matter, which happened to be correct. He had not broken any laws nor had he incited any unrest against the Tibetan government. Neither had he acted against the Tibetan people’s interest in any way. His only ‘crime’ was to disagree with the Dalai Lama about online empowerments.

In response to this, instead of being a responsible leadership which would aim to quell the people’s fury, the Tibetan Kashag (Cabinet) under Lobsang Sangay instead moved to fan the flames of public anger against their colleague. The Kashag issued a public statement condemning Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal, and pronounced his statements to be “derogatory” and “immensely regrettable…and wrong”. In issuing such a statement, the Kashag unleashed a torrent of ill-will against Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal and incited a chorus of vitriolic, violent condemnations of Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal by various Tibetan groups and associations. Tibetans around the world went into a frenzy, enraged that someone had dared to differ in opinion with the Dalai Lama. On various social media platforms, countless death threats and fatwas were issued against Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal.

Yuthok Karma Gelek, the CTA’s Religion and Culture Minister, also faced considerable hostility for his attempts to diffuse the situation.

Yuthok Karma Gelek, the CTA’s Religion and Culture Minister, also faced considerable hostility. The Minister had attempted to diffuse the dispute by explaining that Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal was merely being outspoken and that his statement was without any ill-intent. Clearly, it is also a serious violation to be sympathetic towards someone who disagrees with the Dalai Lama.

A few days later, in the face of such attacks, Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal issued an apology to the Dalai Lama. In his statement, Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal revealed that he received “scoldings” for his opinion, and was made to promise to never again criticize online teachings and empowerments.

In other words, Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal was bullied into submission. So whilst Lobsang Sangay spoke about a “robust democracy”, how can there be a democracy, let alone a robust one, if no Tibetan is allowed to have any views other than that which the Tibetan leadership permits? And how can true Tibetan democracy be established if the CTA treats its own Constitution as nothing more than a bait to dupe the global community into supporting its political agenda?

The Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal controversy exposes a number of facts about the Tibetan leadership:

1. ‘Tibetan democracy’ is a complete swindle. Real democracies aspire to empower the voices of its people, not seek to muzzle them with intimidation and incitement of hatred against anyone who dares to have a different opinion to the governing elite. And yet, this is precisely how the Tibetan leadership has been operating.
2. The rule of law remains whatever the Dalai Lama decides, or whatever the CTA decides in the name of the Dalai Lama. It becomes a crime to disagree with the Tibetan establishment. And while there are no laws that the Tibetan leadership can invoke to punish a man for having dissenting opinions, the same Tibetan leadership has long mastered the art of whipping the Tibetan populace into becoming a lynch mob and unleashing them against those the leadership declare to be enemies of the people. It is a tactic the Tibetan leadership has used successfully especially in exile, especially against the practice of the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden. So, while there is no doubt that China has politicized religion, in essence, there is no difference between a communist regime using religion as a tool and a feudal theocracy doing the same. In both cases, the Tibetan people and the Buddhist religion become victims.
3. The Dalai Lama can do as he pleases including overriding centuries-old traditions. As seen in the 1993 video footage above, the Dalai Lama says that empowerments are only for those qualified, and that there has to be a period of time when the teacher assesses if the recipient of the empowerment is suitable. And yet, the Dalai Lama can casually dismiss such important and sacred religious principles. It is clear that there are no safeguards to protect against the spontaneous and unilateral disruption of long-standing traditions that have preserved Tibetan Buddhism over time. We see this habit in the way the Dalai Lama became involved with the recognition and enthronement of the 17th Karmapa, the head of the Karma Kagyu lineage, and in the way the Dalai Lama unilaterally declared the practice of Dorje Shugden to be illegal. In both cases, the Dalai Lama’s actions ruptured the Tibetan community both in exile and in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and till this day, the Tibetan nation of people remains divided.

The sad reality is that the Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal controversy is not unique. It is merely the most recent witness to the Tibetan leadership’s intolerance of anything that does not toe its line. While Lobsang Sangay globe-trots giving eloquent speeches about how the Tibetan people are fighting for freedom, it is the Tibetan leadership that is suppressing freedom. The Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal incident also reveals how fragmented the Tibetan nation is, and how easily and quickly the Tibetan people turn on each other. This too is the work of the CTA that has cultivated a culture of division and suspicion amongst its own people. As long as this culture persists, the Tibetan cause will continue to slip into oblivion, and with it, the purity of Tibetan Buddhism.

[TIBET SUN] Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal criticises
Dalai Lama for online teachings

Click to enlarge (Source: https://www.tibetsun.com/news/2020/05/28/tulku-orgyen-topgyal-criticises-dalai-lama-for-online-teachings)

[TIBET SUN] Tulku Orgyen Tobgyal apologises to
Dalai Lama for criticising online teachings

Click to enlarge (Source: https://www.tibetsun.com/news/2020/05/31/tulku-orgyen-tobgyal-apologises-to-dalai-lama-for-criticising-online-teachings)

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.

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.

Hate Crimes

When we consider how the earth’s resources are dwindling quickly, how wars have plagued mankind for centuries, how incurable diseases have become more virulent and how melting Arctic ice threatens to destroy vast habitable lands, we may begin to understand that there is more that binds human beings together than separates them. Humankind is fragile and increasingly so in such a dangerous climate, and there is now a desperate need for the people of the world to come together and try to turn things around. However, before we can even hope to fix the problems looming before us, there is one thing we must get command of – our mentality.

Everything we do is determined by our minds and thoughts, and therefore what shapes our thinking is something we must all watch, to ensure that it is the kind of thinking that leads to solving problems not creating new ones. There has never been a more important time in history to foster thoughts that promote solidarity and peace and the creation of an environment where reasoning, logic and rationality pervades. And the bedrock for this culture of reasoning and logic leading to peaceful coexistence, is ‘tolerance’.

Unfortunately, as progressive nations of the world gather to take steps that foster peaceful, inclusive societies, there are those who have chosen instead to cultivate extremism. One example of this is how the Russian people seem to have become more intolerant towards gays and lesbians. A recent news piece published by an online site for the LBGTI community reported that nearly half of Russians polled said that the Russian authorities should take steps to ‘exterminate the phenomenon’ of gay people in the community, meaning to say that the Russian authorities should persecute people with ‘untraditional’ sexual orientations. The same news report revealed that the percentage of people who did not care about other people’s sexual orientation has dropped from 10 years ago; and at the same time there is an increase in the percentage of those who regard members of the LBGTI community dangerous and should be isolated and dealt with.

An anti-gay activist disrupts a gay event in St. Petersburg

Corresponding to this report, there has been an increase in incidences of gay people being assaulted, beaten and even murdered at record rates. If anyone wonders how this ill-will towards the gay community has come about, the answer is very simple – it is state-sponsored. In 2013, Russian lawmakers proposed an anti-gay law that essentially strips same-sex couples of their parental rights in conjunction with a myriad of other draconian laws that essentially rob a gay person of his legal rights.

This is essentially a reversal of the decriminalization of homosexual relationships in 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Union, which saw Russia taking small but assured steps towards liberalization. That is, until the openly homophobic Vladimir Putin assumed the Russian presidency in 2000. It is no coincidence that in the 15 years that Putin has been in power, negative sentiments and hate-crimes against the LBGTI community have risen. Clearly a government does effectively shape the mentality of the community and can effectively influence it towards a culture of tolerance or intolerance.

But Putin is not the only perpetrator of hate crimes against people based on their sexual orientation, race, color, nationality or religion. We see the same vicious intolerance being practiced, ironically, by the government of a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, the 14th Dalai Lama.

In 1996, for reasons that have never been adequately explained, the Dalai Lama all but outlawed the practice of Dorje Shugden, a Tibetan Buddhist deity held sacred by the majority of the Yellow Hat sect, the Gelugpas, to which the Dalai Lama is also an adherent. Following the Dalai Lama’s pronouncement, monks and laypeople who had kept up the monastic and familial tradition of propitiating Dorje Shugden for over three centuries, were forced to make the unenviable choice of either denouncing the deity as a demon or face expulsion from the monasteries and ostracization from the community. Neither was a palatable choice. To denounce a deity and abandon the practice bestowed onto the practitioner by his spiritual teacher is to commit karmic suicide. Neither can they as refugees live away from the settlements allocated them.

Soon after the Dalai Lama’s diktat, his ‘government’ the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) declared a jihad against Shugden Buddhists, stating amongst other things:

“…that the departments, their branches and subsidiaries, monasteries and their branches that are functioning under the administrative control of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile should be strictly instructed, in accordance with the rules and regulations, not to indulge in the propitiation of Shugden. We would like to clarify that if individual citizens propitiate Shugden, it will harm the common interest of Tibet, the life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and strengthen the spirits that are against the religion.”

At the same time, the Cabinet of the CTA declared,

“…The inclination of this spirit is to harm, rather than benefit, the cause of Tibet. However, some people have continued to propitiate Dolgyal [derogatory name given to Dorje Shugden, meaning spirit], either because they failed to appreciate the threat it poses to the Tibetan cause or because they have decided to disregard it. There are yet others who not only propitiate Dolgyal themselves, but also actively encouraged others to follow suit. This has impaired the sacred relationship between the people of Tibet and their protector-deities. Today, this is one of the greatest dangers to the cause of Tibet and the life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama…”

In essence, the CTA had declared practitioners of a benign and compassionate deity to be enemies of the Tibetan people wishing their beloved Dalai Lama an early death. Both Putin and the Dalai Lama have clearly imposed their personal prejudices onto the people and forced their compliance. The difference is, the Dalai Lama’s CTA, as a beneficiary of asylum, is not regarded as a proper government and therefore does not possess the legal and administrative tools that it can bend to serve its will. The CTA does not have law enforcement forces nor penal facilities that it could use against Shugden worshipers. And so, it leveraged instead on the unquestioned authority of the Dalai Lama as the Tibetan people’s God-King to turn the people against the population of Shugden Buddhists that it had declared to be the enemy.

While Vladimir Putin persecutes Russians based on their sexual orientation, the 14th Dalai Lama attacks Shugden Buddhists for their beliefs

This strategy proved more effective than Putin’s in a few ways:

• First, it turned the populace of the Tibetan settlements into mobs that are free to do as they wish without having to remain within the confines of legality.
• Second, the CTA, by not having and therefore not using state-owned facilities to violently punish its victims, found itself outside the ambit of Amnesty International and other international human rights bodies who, by their governing charter, could only act on governments and regimes.

Hence, eventually when the Shugden community organized itself and filed a complaint to Amnesty International, AI responded by stating that whilst it had received large amounts of complaints, it could not act as the material it received did not “fall within AI’s mandate for action — such as grave violations of fundamental human rights including torture, the death penalty, extra-judicial executions, arbitrary detention or imprisonment, or unfair trials”. Clearly, for AI to intervene, state vehicles and systems need to have been involved but in the case of Shugden practitioners, the violence and persecutions took place in the streets and in homes, inflicted by Tibetans against their own, spurred on by their government. However, there is no question that it is the Dalai Lama’s war executed by his government declared on a segment of the Tibetan people because he dislikes of their choice of deity.

The sufferings of these victims cannot be underestimated as vigilante groups formed to conduct door-to-door searches for Shugden practitioners, smashing statues of the deity as they found them and punishing his worshippers. During the early days of the ban, a Tibetan parliamentarian who questioned the credibility of the reasons given for the ban was stabbed outside his home. Homes belonging to worshippers of this deity were padlocked from the outside, stoned and then set on fire. An octogenarian monk who served in the household of a prominent Dorje Shugden lama was attacked.

More recently, it was reported that a Tibetan man was attacked just for wearing a pendant with the image of Dorje Shugden. Private businesses denied service to those suspected to be Shugden worshippers and government hospitals forbade Shugden practitioners from entering to receive medical treatment. The CTA casually amended its constitution to block the appointment of Shugden practitioners into governmental positions. Anyone with Shugden practitioners in the family would similarly be denied employment in anything the CTA controlled.

This 84 year old monk was attacked for being a Dorje Shugden practitioner. These hate crimes follow the anti-Shugden sentiments promoted by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA)

Just as Putin’s government likened homosexuality to alcoholism and drug addiction, CTA officials compared being a Shugden worshipper to disease.

When privately owned restaurants and stores carry signs that say the Dholgyal worshippers are not welcome, then that is the freedom of the owners. That is their Fundamental Human Rights. […] Let alone that, in the hospitals, people infected with contagious diseases are quarantined and not allowed to meet with other people.- Samdhong Rinpoche, former Prime Minister of the Central Tibetan Administration, 26 July 2014, India.

Soon, it was a crime even to have Shugden practitioners as friends. Later on, fearing that anti-Shugden hatred might lose traction, especially after the Dalai Lama was seen to be celebrating one birthday after another despite the “Dalai Lama-killing-Shugden-practice” prevailing, the CTA changed tack and claimed that Shugden practitioners were in fact paid ‘agents’ of the enemy Chinese government. That riled the Tibetan people even more and enrolled all those who had sympathized with the Tibetan people’s loss into anti-Shugden campaigns. How exactly a religious practice that preceded the Sino-Tibetan conflict by some three centuries can be equated to political activism has never been explained.

There are many similarities between Putin’s scorn of homosexuals and the Dalai Lama’s despise of Dorje Shugden practitioners. However, in many ways, the Dalai Lama’s campaign is far more sinister. Whilst it cannot be said that Putin introduced hatred against gay people into the Russian people’s minds, it CAN be said that the CTA planted the seeds of malignance towards Dorje Shugden worshippers in the minds of the Tibetan people, when there was none to begin with. This is, after all, a religion that had been practiced peacefully for 360 years without incident until the Dalai Lama decided that Dorje Shugden was a viable target for persecution. And worst of all, whilst it is clear that there are willful acts of violence and discrimination against worshippers of this deity, the language of the CTA’s official resolutions justify such criminality as acts of loyalty in defense of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan cause.

Both the Dalai Lama and CTA attempt to deny that Dorje Shugden practitioners are being systemically persecuted. Although the CTA has acknowledged that Shugden people are being harassed and discriminated against, the CTA contends that these are acts of individuals and not the policy of the government. If this is true, then it is surprising that the Dalai Lama, who has cultivated an image of peace and tolerance and has travelled the world advocating dialogue and acceptance of different religions, has not once spoken against the abuse and aggression directed at Shugden practitioners as a result of his government’s proclamations. On the contrary, he was heard congratulating monasteries that had wrongfully expelled monks simply because they were practitioners of the deity.

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Neither has the CTA intervened to mollify anti-Dorje Shugden sentiments. Instead they remain the only government in the world that has purposefully allocated space on their official website to publish anti-Dorje Shugden propaganda material.

There is yet another aspect to the Shugden persecutions. The Dalai Lama represents a valuable asset to both India and Western nations who are eager to curb the rising influence of China as a world economic power. So, whilst global human rights groups have voiced their concerns over the plight of the gay population in Russia, those who could have intervened to alleviate the suffering of Tibetan Shugden people have stayed mum over the tragedy. As the old adage goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The interests of these nations in such a high-stakes geopolitical play demands their complicity, and the misery of Dorje Shugden practitioners is dismissed as acceptable attrition. So it looks like we have to wait a while yet before we can (to paraphrase Martin Luther King) judge a person not by the color of his skin, or his race, nationality, sexual orientation or religion, but by the content of his character.

Meanwhile we continue to live in a world suffocated with farcicality, prejudice, bias, distortions, lies, deceptions, manipulations, short-sightedness, close-mindedness, righteousness and superficiality. So, what is it like to be a gay person living in Russia? Well, just like a Shugden Buddhist living under the Dalai Lama, it means to be silent, to be afraid, and to not expect the same rights that world wars have been fought to protect.

Disclaimer: This article was submitted by a third party author and does not necessarily reflect the official opinion of DorjeShugden.com. We accept submissions from the public, please send in your articles to ds@dorjeshugden.com.