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

Click to enlarge. (Source: http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?article=Defendant+seeks+extension+at+the+first+hearing+of+Case+No.+20&id=41495)

Click to enlarge. (Source: https://www.tibetsun.com/news/2019/06/05/penpa-tserings-case-against-cta-president-defendant-asks-more-time)

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]
Penpa Tsering Vs Lobsang Sangay Case in Tibetan Court (Breaking News)

Click to enlarge. (Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/sunday-edition/dalai-vs-sangay–case-hearing-from-june-5.html)

31 July 2018

Wherever Lobsang Sangay has turned up for public engagements, he has been greeted with protestors who are unhappy with the corruption exhibited by the Tibetan leadership.

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 Solaray Kusco

It has been a trying few months for the President of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) Sikyong Lobsang Sangay. Since he trounced political rival Penpa Tsering in the 2016 Sikyong elections, nothing has gone right for him. Post-election tensions ran high between the former candidates so to pacify him, Penpa Tsering was given the consolation post of North America’ donjo (the Dalai Lama’s representative). This position is highly coveted amongst the upper echelons of the Tibetan leadership because it comes with wealth and privilege, thanks to plentiful opportunities to meet liberal American sponsors and donors.

However, in November 2017, after Sangay’s sudden and unexplained dismissal of Penpa Tsering from the donjo post, his ratings took a real nosedive and have not recovered since. Things continued to go from bad to worse as nearly one hundred Tibetans, calling themselves the “Truth Seeking Volunteers”, have been protesting Sangay wherever in the world he has travelled to.

Most recently, they camped outside the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile for ten days (March 14^th to 24^th), protesting against Sangay while the Parliament inside debated about the Penpa Tsering issue, although they were supposed to be discussing budgetary concerns. The protestors’ demands include greater clarification regarding Penpa Tsering’s dismissal, as well as an explanation for the US$1.5mil which went missing from the Tibet Fund and appears to have been mis-accounted for at best, and embezzled at worst.

It was not until the tenth day that 14 members of parliament met with representatives of the protestors, appearing in their personal capacity to listen to the concerns of their constituents. The fact that the target of the protests, Sangay himself, refused to meet with anyone is a clear indication that he would rather attend to more financially lucrative endeavors, and he has no interest in resolving issues that actually concern those who voted him into power. Not only did Sangay snub his constituents but he added salt to the wound when he haughtily challenged them to take him to court if they were unsatisfied with the Cabinet’s decisions.

Sangay’s behavior confirms the opposition’s claims that he does not behave like a democratically-elected leader of the people, but is more akin to an arrogant, self-serving dictator who sees no need to be answerable to the electorate. Hence, due to Sangay’s ego, he is willing to waste even more Tibetan taxpayers’ money and time in fighting his own Tibetan people in court. Has he not done enough damage already with his other divisive policies like the ban on Dorje Shugden, and his refusal to given equal parliamentary representation to the Jonangpas?

One of the nine hunger strikers of the followers of the Jonang sect. They are outside the CTA’s (Tibetan Parliament) office in Dharamsala demanding for the discrimination against their sect to end. The CTA or Central Tibetan Administration are well known for their corrupt and unjust ways of handling their people. The Jonang sect was banned in Tibet by the 5th Dalai Lama for over 400 years until recently. Now they want representatives in the Tibetan Parliament which is not allowed to them. The same discrimination and much more is also targeted against Dorje Shugden followers.

Would it not just cost less for Sangay to answer his people’s questions face-to-face, or is honesty really that difficult for him? This kind of typical behavior from the Tibetan leadership shows Sangay’s lack of foresight and care for the CTA’s image as a whole. As it is, the Tibetans in exile are facing more challenges than ever before, with their main sponsor and host country India dumping them in favor of relations with China. Yet, instead of uniting the Tibetan people, Sangay chooses to divide them further by challenging his own people to sue him. Does he not think something like this will reflect badly on the Tibetans, not to mention the Dalai Lama, when everyone sees Tibetans fighting one another so publicly, forever airing their dirty laundry?

Now we see the truth about the Tibetan leadership’s undemocratic ways. Real democracy allows the people’s voices to be heard and good leadership means facing these voices and answering them. Unfortunately, the Tibetan leadership has no experience at being held accountable for anything since no one has ever dared to speak up against the injustices they commit. But that was in the past, at a time when it was unthinkable for Tibetans to protest against their leaders.

The world nowadays is a very different place and protests have become commonplace. If the once-unthinkable protests show no signs of abating, then Sangay would do well to realize it is only a matter of time before he will be forced to make good on his fighting words. There are plenty of Tibetans who are angry with him, and who possess the resources to take him up on his challenge. And let’s not forget the ever-watchful eye of the Dalai Lama, who may just step in and oust Sangay if the protests grow too large, and the protestors grow too vocal.

It is time for Sangay to step up to the plate and start making real amends or step down as leader, because his behavior is, to put it simply, bad for business. Yes, the world and the Dalai Lama are watching so Sangay, it is your move.

Tibet Sun: What if the protesters bring Lobsang Sangay to court?

Click to enlarge. (Source: https://www.tibetsun.com/opinions/2018/04/02/what-if-the-protesters-bring-lobsang-sangay-to-court)

Phayul: Protestors demand impeachment of President Sangay, MP Yarphel

Click to enlarge. (Source: http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=40270)

The Siasat Daily: Tibetans protests against government amidst strained relations with India

Click to enlarge. (Source: https://www.siasat.com/news/tibetans-protests-against-cta-president-amidst-strained-relations-india-1330963/)

There is trouble in paradise as Tibetan President Lobsang Sangay (center) is accused of sexual assault and Information Secretary Dhardon Sharling (right) abruptly resigns leaving Tibetan politics in tatters. Sharling was once considered Sangay’s “protégé” and touted as the main executor of his political agendas.

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

By: Shashi Kei

The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the 14th Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile based in Dharamsala, is falling apart. The Sikyong (President) of the CTA, Lobsang Sangay has been globetrotting under the guise of reigniting interest in the Tibetan cause which has waned considerably after commanding the world’s attention for 60 years. But instead of trying to rekindle foreign support for the CTA, Sangay should have been more concerned about the state of his own administration in Dharamsala.

The cracks that have been building up in the CTA became visible when Lobsang Sangay publicly clashed with Penpa Tsering (ex-Speaker of the CTA and also Sangay’s main rival for the 2016 Sikyong elections) after the latter raised questions about financial irregularities in North America’s Tibet House whilst under the charge of its previous administrator, Kaydor Aukatsang. As an appointee of Lobsang Sangay, it was understood that Aukatsang only took instructions from Lobsang Sangay, who appears to have circumvented proper protocols. Penpa Tsering was unceremoniously sacked on what he regarded as trumped-up charges and has since filed a suit against Lobsang Sangay for defamation in the Tibetan Supreme Justice Commission. The rivalry that has been building up between Lobsang Sangay and Penpa Tsering has now become acrimonious with a lot of bad blood continuing to accumulate.

As a firestorm continues to brew over the Sangay-Tsering estrangement, signs are that the fallout from their confrontation will be more severe than anticipated. We know this when ambitious politicians like Dhardon Sharling suddenly decamps the CTA like a rat fleeing a sinking ship. On 12th December 2018, Dhardon Sharling announced her resignation from her somewhat vaguely formulated designation of ‘Secretary equivalent’ of the CTA’s Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR). Dhardon Sharling is regarded as Lobsang Sangay’s lieutenant and her official title was literally created by Sangay to keep Sharling in his administration after she was voted out by the Tibetan parliament-in-exile as a Minister in the Cabinet for having misled the government on an age prerequisite. Dhardon Sharling cited an interest to further her studies in the US being the reason for her to suddenly relinquish her post. But the rumor is that she has been manoeuvring to escape being caught in the middle of Lobsang Sangay and Penpa Tsering’s looming showdown. It is a showdown that started with a fractious rivalry during the 2016 Sikyong elections, and has most recently escalated in Penpa Tsering filing legal suits against the Tibetan Cabinet and Lobsang Sangay.

Dhardon Sharling was voted out of the Tibetan parliament in-exile after lying about her age. It was only after the intervention of Lobsang Sangay that she was given the position of Information Secretary which Lobsang Sangay created specifically for her.

Dhardon Sharling rose out of obscurity in October 2016 as the de facto head of the DIIR. The CTA’s website states that the DIIR’s purpose is to “educate the Tibetans and international public opinion on the political, human rights and environmental conditions in Tibet”. However, it is well known that under Dhardon Sharling, the DIIR only served to carry out Lobsang Sangay’s personal agenda and propaganda campaigns.

For the most part, Dhardon Sharling’s time in the DIIR was utilized in driving the CTA’s persecution of Dorje Shugden worshippers. Dorje Shugden is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist practice observed by virtually all followers of the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism which accounts for the largest percentage of Tibetans inside China and in diaspora. While the Shugden practice is apolitical, the oath of spiritual allegiance sworn by Dorje Shugden practitioners to their lineage masters, as is common for any tantric practice, represents a hindrance to the CTA’s desire to dominate that space. So Lobsang Sangay criminalized the religion, another painful milestone in an already 20-year campaign that infringes on the basic human rights of Tibetans and Dorje Shugden adherents worldwide. It was Dhardon Sharling’s job to launch one disinformation campaign after another against Dorje Shugden Buddhists causing a complete disintegration of the Gelugpa lineage. That, in turn, fractured the Tibetan community in general, a prime factor in the disempowering of the Tibetan struggle when the Tibetan people became distracted in sectarian conflicts and lost sight of the Tibetan struggle to regain their homeland.

Lobsang Sangay (center) and Dhardon Sharling (right) launching another anti-Dorje Shugden propaganda book. The pair have concentrated their efforts on denying the Tibetan people their religious rights instead of fighting for the Tibetan cause and improving the lives of Tibetan refugees in their charge.

As for Dhardon Sharling’s real job, her brief two years in office did not yield much result with some of her programs ending in disaster, for example the ‘2018 Thank You’ campaigns which was supposed to be a series of events for the CTA to thank countries that have supported the Tibetan cause. In reality, the project was an effort by the CTA to curb fading alliances with world nations against the trajectory of China’s rise. Dhardon Sharling’s ‘Thank You India’ campaign fizzled with the Indian government instructing top officials to avoid participating in any CTA-organized functions. In the meantime, for the ‘Thank You Taiwan’ campaign, Dhardon Sharling arranged for the placement of billboards with the Dalai Lama’s image all over major cities of Taiwan, the release of books in Chinese containing the Dalai Lama’s talks and also various paraphernalia purporting to support the Tibetan struggle. A few months later, these steps resulted in a major swing against Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that had gone along with Dhardon Sharling’s campaign. In the recent local elections, the DPP suffered a crushing defeat, losing 15 out of the available 22 cities they contested for. Under Sharling, CTA events became the kiss of death.

Thank You Taiwan posters with the Dalai Lama was placed all over major cities in Taiwan. The CTA’s often fights its anti-China campaigns on foreign soil to the detriment of welfare of countries sympathetic to the CTA.

Dhardon Sharling’s ignoble legacy will be that she gained notoriety by trickery and colluding with Lobsang Sangay; that instead of using her time in office to advance the welfare of the Tibetan people, she injected enmity into Tibetan communities worldwide and denied many Tibetans their most basic freedom; that she irreparably damaged Tibetan unity; and that when the Tibetan struggle was on its knees, she abandoned the cause and fled for the United States on her Indian passport which she procured at the same time the CTA was telling common Tibetans that to do so would undermine the Tibetan struggle.

Dhardon Sharling’s resignation is not an isolated case. A few months before, Tenzin Palkyi of the Office of Tibet in Washington similarly resigned suddenly. Even before that, in 2016, seasoned CTA politician Dicki Chhoyang resigned from Sangay’s Cabinet. In a press conference, Chhoyang alluded to being gagged by Sangay from addressing matters that should be of concern to the Tibetan people. In the same year, another Tibetan official in Sangay’s Cabinet, Dongchung Ngodup joined the list of people exiting from Sangay’s administration. Even the State Oracles of Tibet in trance of the deities Pehar and Tseringma have expressed disapproval of Sangay’s administration for lacking in integrity.

Allegations of Lobsang Sangay’s sexual abuses will discredit the Tibetan cause further.

Coincidentally Dhardon Sharling’s resignation came one day after a #MeToo movement was launched against her boss Lobsang Sangay, claiming that he sexually assaulted a number of women. It began with a news article in the Tibet Star reporting that allegations of sexual assault by Lobsang Sangay can be traced back to as early as 2011 when he sexually violated a young American intern at the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT). It is alleged that Sangay has in fact sexually assaulted even more women, mainly Tibetan nationals, exploiting his position as Sikyong of the CTA. The Tibet Star is a Tibetan-focused news site operated by Mila Rangzen known to be an outspoken commentator on Tibetan issues, and who has reliable contacts within the Tibetan leadership. It remains to be seen whether the “MeToo” movement on Sangay will uncover more incidents of abuse. However, Sangay who came to power in 2011 is not without scandals and controversies of his own making. These include:

Due to Lobsang Sangay and the CTA’s ongoing glorification of self-immolation as a viable form of protest against China, Tibetan suicides continue to rise.

1. Launching a book that glorifies self-immolation in 2012 and supporting a member of his government in publishing a four-step guide for Tibetans to self-immolate effectively. That resulted in the highest number of Tibetan self-immolations that year with 86 Tibetan people burning themselves to death. Lobsang Sangay proved his preparedness to sink to barbarity in order to serve his political objective.
2. Travelling into China using an Overseas Chinese Visa, an act which raised many eyebrows. When queried, Sangay initially lied but subsequently recanted while insisting that travelling on an Overseas Chinese visa does not make one a Chinese national. In his rebuttal, the renowned Tibetan author and activist Jamyang Norbu responded, “But although the Overseas Chinese visa does not make you a citizen of the PRC (People’s Republic of China), it clearly makes you of Chinese birth or descent (or partial Chinese ancestry) living outside the PRC, and resident or citizen of another country…but to travel to China, to Beijing, on an OC visa for something as unimportant as meeting some run-of-the mill Chinese academics (not “great scholars” khelwang) clearly demonstrates that the person has no problem being regarded as Chinese.”
3. Attempting to damage Sino-Indian relations during politically uncertain times. In July 2017, when Sino-Indian relations were extremely volatile due to the Doklam conflict, Lobsang Sangay unfurled the Tibetan flag at the border of India and China. Sangay hoisted the Tibetan flag as a taunt, knowing full well that it would enrage China. Ex-Indian diplomat R.S. Kalha noted that Sangay’s act at Pangong Tso was an overtly political move that took advantage of the fact India was at its weakest point in the standoff with China. Therefore it was a calculated and self-serving move from Lobsang Sangay, designed to drive India deeper into conflict with China, thereby making the ‘Tibetan card’ ever more significant to India. Lobsang Sangay’s mistake would cost the Tibetan struggle dearly as a few months later India began to shift its stance on the Tibetan cause, deciding that in the final analysis, it is not worth a war with its mighty neighbor. The Dalai Lama’s efforts to return to China lost considerable traction due to Sangay’s frivolous provocations.
4. Undermining the Dalai Lama’s efforts to improve Sino-Tibetan relations. It has not escaped observation that Lobsang Sangay’s has been quietly undermining of the Dalai Lama’s efforts, including leaking news of Samdhong Rinpoche’s secret mission to China, made on behalf of the Dalai Lama to resurrect dialogue for the return of the Tibetan people to Tibet. It is worthwhile to note that on such a vital mission, the Dalai Lama chose to send the ex-Prime Minister of the CTA, Samdhong Rinpoche and not the current President Lobsang Sangay. And earlier this year, the Dalai Lama’s attempt to build a bridge with the Beijing authorities by recognizing the China-enthroned Panchen Lama was duly undone by Sangay. It is no secret that the relationship between Lobsang Sangay and the Dalai Lama is at its lowest since the Dalai Lama started taking active measures to regain Beijing’s trust, something the aging Dalai Lama has had to resume doing because of Sangay’s negligence of his duty as the Sikyong. It has been reported that in recent times, an ongoing war of words between Lobsang Sangay and the Dalai Lama has struck up behind closed doors.

An aging Dalai Lama who is said to be at odds with Lobsang Sangay now.

It would be difficult to find news of Lobsang Sangay initiating projects to improve the lives of the Tibetan refugees, or taking concrete steps to foster Tibetan harmony or undertaking tangible measures that could lead to the realization of the Dalai Lama’s dreams for the Tibetan people to return to their homeland. Sangay’s Presidency is characterized by his various breaches of the Tibetan democratic Constitution, his denial of the Tibetan people’s human rights to practice the religion of their choice and to exercise their freedom of opinion, his manipulation of election rules to ouster rivals, his appointment of cronies to key positions, his misuse of funds meant for the Tibetan refugees, his empty and grandiloquent speeches to foreign officials, his vicious fights with political rivals like Penpa Tsering and now, his sex scandals. The lives and future of 150,000 Tibetan refugees depend on the CTA, as does the survival of the Tibetan heritage and the continuance of the Tibetan people to regain their freedom. Lobsang Sangay was entrusted by the Tibetan people to perform an important task and by right, his time in power should have been invested to support the Dalai Lama’s initiatives and to prepare for the next phase of the Tibetan struggle, one that will take place in the absence of the Dalai Lama. But with such serious improprieties, a focus on his personal agendas and culture of deceit and dishonesty that Sangay has sowed with his internal politicking, how can the Tibetan cause ever hope to survive? Only time will tell.

Tibetan investigative journalist Mila Rangzen
launches “Me Too” campaign

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Dhardon Sharling submits resignation letter

Click to enlarge (Source: https://www.tibetsun.com/news/2018/12/12/dhardon-sharling-submits-resignation-letter)

Sikyong Lobsang Sangay launched a CTA-sponsored book that glorifies Tibetan suicide by self-immolation.

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 has been 60 years since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet to set up an exile government in Dharamsala, North India. As a third generation of Tibetan refugees drift with uncertain futures in exile, most of them today have not seen, let alone lived in, their homeland. And yet a deep ultranationalism accompanied by animosity towards China persists due to very effective indoctrination that has been championed by the Dalai Lama’s exile Tibetan leadership, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA).

Faced with a powerful nemesis and finding itself with no military or economic might, the CTA has instead co-opted two very powerful weapons in its assault against China – the Dalai Lama and the Buddhist religion. In the name of the Dalai Lama, the CTA commandeered Buddhism as a political tool and with that, created pockets of anti-China agitators in every place in the world where the Tibetan Buddhist faith is being practiced.

According to the CTA’s narrative, the proper practice of the Buddha’s teachings compels unquestioning compliance with all of the Dalai Lama’s thoughts, which by extension, translates into the CTA’s policies and its political aspirations. The Dalai Lama is presented as a Buddha and hence all Buddhist adherents owe him a duty of obedience. In doing this, the CTA places the Dalai Lama at risk of being compared to the infamous Pope Boniface VIII, the megalomaniacal pontiff who decreed that salvation was not possible unless the people subjected themselves to him completely. Similarly, one is not a proper Buddhist unless one supports the Dalai Lama ergo, the CTA. This is notwithstanding the fact that the Dalai Lama is not even the absolute spiritual head of his own lineage, the Gelug school, let alone of Buddhism overall.

The CTA has subtly encouraged Tibetan self-immolation as a means to create sympathy for its political agenda. Over 150 Tibetans have perished unnecessarily over the years. When will the CTA finally speak up strongly to discourage the Tibetans from self-harm?

Being in exile accorded the Dalai Lama more power than any of his predecessors or any other Tibetan Buddhist figure, as the world became intoxicated with the Shangrila myth. It is upon this privilege and power that the CTA draws its legitimacy. In the decades since the Dalai Lama escaped Tibet, the Tibetan leader has commanded immense vogue and created a significant global space within which the CTA has increasingly worked its mischief, often undermining the Dalai Lama’s efforts.

The Sabotage

A number of incidences bear testimony to this. For instance, in July 2017 amid a tense standoff between India and China, the President of the CTA Lobsang Sangay decided it was an opportune time to assert Tibetan independence, and to raise the Tibetan flag at Pangong Tso (Pangong Lake), which lies between India and China. Sangay’s taunt of China was all the more provocative given it was done within eyeshot of Tibet. That injudicious act infuriated China, a result at odds with India’s seeking of a peaceful solution to its border woes. To redress the injury, the Indian Foreign Secretary subsequently instructed all Indian government officials to refrain from participating in Tibetan events organized to mark the 60^th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s exile in India. In essence, the CTA significantly diminished almost 60 years of goodwill the Dalai Lama had built with the CTA’s generous host.

More recently, the Dalai Lama’s efforts to close the gap between Dharamsala and Beijing with accord on spiritual matters has been brazenly thwarted by his own Tibetan government-in-exile. In April 2018, the Dalai Lama acknowledged that the China-enthroned Panchen Lama Gyaincain Norbu is in fact the “official Panchen Lama”, a statement that effectively endorses China’s legitimacy in recognizing and enthroning high lamas. This represents a complete reversal of the Tibetan leadership’s past stance, which asserted that Gyancain Norbu is merely a political stooge and a false incarnation of the popular 10^th Panchen Lama. Given the importance of the Panchen Lama, deemed to be the highest-ranking Tibetan lama in China, the Dalai Lama’s acceptance of the Chinese Panchen Lama was clearly designed to thaw relations with Beijing and draw parties back to the negotiation table. The head of the CTA, Lobsang Sangay was with the Dalai Lama when his proclamation on Gyancain Norbu was made and so there cannot have been a miscommunication.

His Holiness the 11th Panchen Lama, Gyaincain Norbu.

Nevertheless, just two days later, the CTA saw it fit to publish on its official website an article critical of the Chinese Panchen Lama and demanded the release of their authorized Panchen Lama candidate, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima whom they claim had been kidnapped by China in 1995. To ensure that their point was not lost, another two stories were published on the CTA website in May 2018, both critical of the Chinese Panchen Lama. In essence, these stories demolished whatever foundations of friendship the Dalai Lama was constructing with Beijing.

Co-opting Buddhism

Not content with undermining the Dalai Lama’s diplomacy on the domestic front, the CTA has gone international with its attempts. In his recent speeches made during world tours, Lobsang Sangay has framed the Sino-Tibetan conflict as the struggle between Communism and Buddhism, masquerading the fact that it is more accurately a quarrel over who has dominion over the Tibetan nation – a communist regime or a feudal theocracy to whom the Tibetan people were regarded as mere chattel prior to 1959.

The CTA’s misuse of Buddhism is subtle but delivers devastating effect. An example is the Tibetan leadership’s 1996 ban on the worship of a popular Tibetan Buddhist deity, Dorje Shugden. The 2004 Human Rights Watch Report on Tibet dedicates an entire section to Dorje Shugden, articulating how the CTA’s diktat on the Shugden practice created deep divisions amongst Tibetans in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and worldwide. Banning the worship of Dorje Shugden was a calculated and deft strategy. Dorje Shugden, an ancient deity worshipped by many Tibetan Buddhist schools, was carefully chosen from amongst the thousands of deities in the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon due to the popularity of his practice.

The International Shugden Community, whose members comprise of Shugden practitioners from all over the world, have suffered discrimination

The CTA conceived the idea of Dorje Shugden being an instrument of the Chinese, constructed with the aim of destabilizing the reign of the Dalai Lama. In this way, Tibetans were pitted against one another. Dorje Shugden practitioners on the one hand were summarily painted as anti-Tibet, anti-Dalai Lama and pro-Chinese traitors while non-Dorje Shugden practitioners were pro-Tibet and pro-Dalai Lama. The result of all this was unrest within the TAR, precisely what the Chinese government fears most due to the tendency for unrest to escalate into uprisings in China’s frontier regions. It was a clever ruse on the part of the CTA, turning Tibetan Buddhists worldwide into de facto Tibet activists, intent on suppressing Dorje Shugden practitioners with the TAR and across the globe, all for the sake of the so-called ‘Tibet cause’.

A Noxious Assault on Freedom

Whilst effective, this strategy exacts a very high attrition on communities dragged into supporting the CTA’s agenda, namely discord and disharmony in erstwhile peaceful societies not involved in Sino-Tibetan aggressions. Still, it is a cost the CTA seems prepared to inflict as we see in its recent interference in Taiwanese spiritual affairs. Since 1949 Taiwan and China have had fraught relations. As tensions renewed between the two nations under Taiwan’s new President, Tsai Ing-wen, the CTA waded in to introduce further enmity and mistrust between the small island nation and the juggernaut China.

In August 2018, CTA representative Dawa Tsering proudly launched a new anti-Shugden book in Taiwan, titled “Tibetan Dharma Protectors, Deities and Demons”

In August 2018, the CTA via its agency Snowland Publications in Taiwan published Tibetan Dharma Protectors, Deities and Demons. The book was written in Chinese with a foreword by Dawa Tsering, the CTA’s representative in Taiwan. At first glance, the publication of an educational book on Tibetan Buddhism seems benign enough. However, on closer inspection, it bears all the hallmarks of good propaganda material created with one intention – to use the Dorje Shugden issue to divide the community and blame China.

With chapter titles like “How did Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen [who arose as the said divinity Dorje Shugden] become an evil spirit”; and “The Poison of Dolgyal [a derogatory name for the deity]” and “The Consequences of Propitiating Shugden” there is no doubt what the objective of the book is. Not a single page acknowledges the fact that the highest lamas of the Gelug and the Sakya, including the 14^th Dalai Lama, had worshipped the deity.

Dawa Tsering said in an interview with Radio Free Asia that Dorje Shugden “violates Buddhism” while sidestepping the fact that the very idea of a book that disparages a religion and seeks to create disharmony in a foreign state violates the simplest concept of freedom and decency. This is the CTA once again undermining the Dalai Lama’s work to portray the Tibetans as harmless and soulful citizens of a heavenly Himalayan nation.

Not only is it suspicious that an official of the supposedly democratic CTA is again conflating religion and politics, but now the CTA is stirring trouble in another country whose religious affairs are of no concern to any foreign government, let alone an exiled and stateless administration whose primary preoccupation should be the welfare of its refugee populace and the fulfilment of the Dalai Lama’s wish to return to Tibet.

Prior to the new Taiwanese publication, Lobsang Sangay had launched yet another anti-Shugden book in 2016, written with the purpose of segregating and creating further divisions within the Tibetan community.

The CTA’s latest anti-Shugden book purports to expose Taiwanese Buddhist groups that it claims have been infiltrated by the Chinese government. The basis of this allegation is purely on account of the groups’ worship of Dorje Shugden, the deity that the CTA had pre-emptively outlawed despite claiming to be a democracy. According to the book’s line of thought, the evil government of China has corrupted Buddhism in Taiwan and therefore, even if a Buddhist practitioner has no interest in Sino-Tibetan politics, he should still oppose China as a means of defending the integrity of his faith. That makes him a supporter of the Dalai Lama and CTA by default.

The CTA’s act has far-reaching consequences:

• To begin with, it trespasses on Taiwan’s spiritual affairs, rightly an internal issue that the CTA should have no say over.
• It specifically targets certain Taiwanese Buddhist groups. Thus, the CTA is implying that all good Taiwanese Buddhists should disregard Taiwan’s laws that provide for freedom of religion, and instead obey the CTA’s decrees.
• It attempts to criminalize Taiwanese citizens who choose not to abide by the CTA’s diktats regarding Dorje Shugden.
• It conflates spirituality with politics, implying that a Taiwanese citizen’s personal choice of worship is somehow a reflection of their private political beliefs.
• It brings to Taiwan the same unrest it created within the TAR and in other Tibetan Buddhist communities worldwide.
• It is an external administration passing judgement on Taiwanese citizens, thereby disregarding the sovereignty that Taiwan claims for itself and its people. How is that any different from, say, Germany passing a decree about Greek citizens? Or from China making decisions on Taiwan’s behalf, to put it into a context a Taiwanese citizen can relate to?

The CTA’s own treatment of Shugden Buddhists is nothing short of draconian. For instance, it publishes on its official website a series of notices and parliamentary resolutions that criminalizes Shugden worship and compels the Tibetan populace to apply pressure on Shugden Buddhists to give up their faith. Now the CTA wants the people of Taiwan to similarly turn on their own countrymen and splinter the Taiwanese Buddhist community. The deeply divided Tibetan community worldwide and the unrest in the TAR such as that reported by the Human Rights Watch in 2004 bear witness to the damage suffered by those who have listened to the CTA.

The official website of the Central Tibetan Administration carries material that undemocratically accuses Dorje Shugden practitioners worldwide to be “Chinese spies” and “criminals in history”. Click to enlarge.

What the CTA aims to do – constrain the people’s choice of belief while planting dissension and bringing strife upon Taiwan’s Buddhist community – contravenes the most fundamental international laws that prohibit a State from interfering with the internal affairs of another State thereby compromising its sovereignty. This is notwithstanding the fact that the CTA is not legally a State by the definition of established International Law, although it behaves and demands to be accorded the privileges and status of one. In fact, for 60 years, the CTA has acted outside the ambit of every global regulatory body and the reach of international law, a convenience they have exploited fully. Next, and given prevailing tensions between Taiwan and China, the CTA’s book that accuses Shugden Buddhists of being Chinese agents serves to induce further sentiments detrimental to the development of peaceful reunification between Taiwan and China. Stirring anti-China sentiments can only damage cross-strait ties at a time when they are already frail.

A Simple Business Decision

It may perplex some to see how a government that claims to base its policies on Buddhist values such as ahimsa (non-violence or non-injury) engage in such treachery to serve its political agenda. This is especially so when the Dalai Lama became famous off the back of touting messages of peace all over the world, even being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. But there is a simple explanation – the CTA is after all an exile government and as such, its reason for existing holds only as long as the 150,000 or so Tibetans who followed the Dalai Lama into exile continue to be refugees.

The CTA’s locus standi ends the moment the Dalai Lama’s spiritual and political plans are accomplished, symbolized by his return to China-controlled Tibet. The success of the Dalai Lama’s work comes at the demise of the CTA, which will simply have no role in the TAR. It is highly unlikely China will consider, let alone allow, for a separate administration to operate autonomously with its own set of rules, especially one that has spent six decades actively seizing every opportunity to destabilize the region.

The CTA will have to dissolve its core and supporting structures including the countless Office of Tibet premises around the world that have drawn, according to conservative estimates, an annual average of USD50 million into the CTA’s coffers for the past 60 years. This money is supposed to be applied towards improving the standard of living of the Tibetan refugees but, given the string of global propaganda campaigns that keep resentment towards China at a peak, critics cannot help but wonder if the donations and grants have been used to bankroll the CTA’s schemes instead.

Should the Dalai Lama manage to draw the Chinese government into a settlement, this gravy train would come to an abrupt halt and career politicians like Lobsang Sangay would lose all prestige accorded him. He will instead have to return to his position as an assistant lecturer, given the lack of demand in the otherwise lucrative lecture circuit for a failed President who has no achievements to call his own. Which politician-businessman would seek such an end? There are such incongruities between what the CTA portrays and its actions that lend credence to China’s labelling of the CTA as a “separatist government”. The Dalai Lama has called for a cessation of CTA hostilities towards China saying that it is foolish to regard China as the enemy and that the past is past. Clearly, the CTA disagrees. It cannot afford not to.

中国染指“凶天”渗透分化海外藏人

Source: https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/gangtai/hx1-08202018101135.html. Click to enlarge.

In 2017, approximately 100 Tibetans gathered in Dharamsala to protest against the Tibetan leadership and to call for integrity in the Tibetan leadership. Scenes like this are becoming increasingly common; even the idea that the Dalai Lama might be disturbed to hear about their protest no longer makes these frustrated Tibetans hesitate. However, because they called for greater accountability in their government, these Tibetans were denounced as traitors. But will this soon be a thing of the past? When will Tibetans brave enough to protest against the leadership no longer be harassed and called “anti-Tibetan” or “anti-Dalai Lama”?

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: Sil Klose

As His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s reputation is increasingly lying in tatters, Tibetans are growing emboldened when it comes to voicing their opinions against him.

Contextually-speaking, it is not easy for Tibetans to speak up against the Dalai Lama. Centuries of indoctrination to worship the Dalai Lama as a god-king has developed a culture of unquestioned obedience to everything he says. Backing this up is the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA; Tibetan leadership in Dharamsala) who enforce his diktats, under the guise of supporting his work but usually using his instructions as a cover to settle personal scores and vendettas, and fulfill private agendas.

So while to Westerners the Dalai Lama appears to be a smiling, giggly, charming old monk (and by nature, he truly is), Tibetans know differently. They know that the Dalai Lama should be obeyed without question, and that to displease him or to displease those who claim to represent him, can invite swift and oftentimes violent retribution in the name of “protecting the Dalai Lama”. They know that to hint, let alone speak, against the Dalai Lama’s policies can result in segregation and discrimination, as has been the experience of Dorje Shugden practitioners who have refused to abide by his ban against this centuries-old Buddhist deity.

Dorje Shugden practitioners have been kicked out of their homes and monasteries and rendered homeless, and refused service in shops, restaurants and even hospitals. The children are bullied in school, the parents are refused employment and the lamas are detained and questioned without basis, to prevent them from being able to teach. In the worst of cases, they are attacked and stabbed, or murdered whether it is by poison or being driven off the road. So to speak up against the Dalai Lama, Tibetan leadership and their policies can be fatal and the fact Tibetans are overcoming centuries of Dalai Lama-worship to join the chorus speaking up against him is a surprise indeed.

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It started with a Tibetan teenager, Tenzin Sherab, making fun of Samdhong Rinpoche, the ex-Kalon Tripa (Prime Minister) and current personal emissary of the Dalai Lama. At a public celebration in New York, the young man bravely took to the stage and mocked Samdhong Rinpoche’s manner of speaking, mimicking the inflections and cadence of his voice. The only reason he probably felt brave enough to do so is because he was in America and not India, and therefore away from the oppressive hand of the CTA.

Nevertheless, it was unprecedented that anyone might conceive of publicly mocking a monk who is the Dalai Lama’s right-hand man in this manner. Even more damning for the CTA’s reputation is that the audience laughed uproariously and gleefully circulated the video on social media. In years gone past, Samdhong Rinpoche would have been untouchable and beyond reproach; as the Kalon Tripa and the Dalai Lama’s emissary, the same courtesy extended to the Dalai Lama would have been extended to him. It now seems to be no longer the case, thanks to the CTA’s actions and how they have destroyed people’s faith in and respect for the monastic community.

The public mocking of Samdhong Rinpoche was followed by Tibetan students questioning Lobsang Sangay when he visited the Tibetan Children’s Village school in Dharamsala. The youths asked about the CTA’s role in the Dorje Shugden controversy and the “President” of the CTA reacted by showing his displeasure, his face instantly darkening and a snarl forming on his lips. Instead of answering their questions, he skirted around the subject and attempted to change topic. There are a few issues with this:

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1. Why even hold a public forum if some questions cannot be asked? And how can the CTA’s top leader, albeit a mere figurehead, be so uncouth as to refuse to answer the electorate’s questions? As future voters of the Tibetan community, the students had every right to ask their leader whatever they want. Is the CTA really a democracy when its leader tries to dictate what topics are appropriate for discussion and what are not?
2. Is this Harvard-educated lawyer so easily shaken? If the equilibrium of the CTA’s top leader can be thrown off balance due to a couple of questions from a few youths far younger than him, is he really fit to be the President of an entire diaspora of Tibetan people? Is he qualified to lead the people in the Dalai Lama’s absence?
3. True to form, the teenagers were summarily detained and questioned, and asked about their affiliations, allegiances and personal beliefs. It is worrisome that a few simple questions can result in the draconian treatment of children and it is insulting that the CTA thinks their own people are not smart enough to think and form their own opinions, but need to be fed the questions and put up to asking them.

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Unfortunately for the CTA, the difficult questions are not going away. In more recent times, members of Parliament have been questioning the accuracy of the Nechung Oracle in official parliamentary sessions which are recorded and broadcasted. It is well-known that the Dalai Lama heavily relies on the Nechung Oracle and the forthcoming proclamations during the trance. His predictions however, have been shown to be unreliable and because people cannot question the Dalai Lama without being attacked for it, they are instead choosing to question the people he relies on. The logic is as such – if you cannot question the man who is making the decisions, then question the decisions he is making and the people who are helping him to make them.

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That is to say, why does the Dalai Lama rely on Nechung if he has been proven over decades to be unreliable? Surely that is a reflection of other potentially-poor choices and decisions the Dalai Lama has made, including the ban on Dorje Shugden and his involvement in the recognition of the Karmapas. As seen in this video below, these members of Parliament (MPs) have even been trying to dissociate themselves from the Nechung Oracle, ashamed and embarrassed that a so-called democracy is relying on spirits and gods for their policy-making.

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After MP Tenpa Yarphel questioned Nechung, it opened a floodgate of uncomfortable questions to be raised in the Tibetan Parliament. This latest series of videos contains the most overt criticism of the Dalai Lama yet to be made public. Some MPs are now openly saying there is no need to listen to everything the Dalai Lama says. Others are now saying that people who question or criticize the Dalai Lama should be left alone and not be harassed for their opinions, nor labelled a “Dalai Lama hater” just because they do not share the same views as him.

This is big, big news as the people now protecting critics of the Dalai Lama are not ordinary Tibetans, but those who are supposed to be the leaders of their community. First, MP Khenpo Kada Ngedup Sonam is actively discouraging Tibetans from following the Dalai Lama’s advice on universal ethics, saying that the advice applies only to the Dalai Lama’s Western audiences. Then the MP Andruk Tseten tells the listening MPs that people who dislike the Dalai Lama, like Dorje Shugden practitioners, do not affect the Dalai Lama’s life. That in fact, it is people who claim to be devoted to the Dalai Lama but disregard his instructions who actually harm the Dalai Lama’s life. In saying this, he backtracks on what the Dalai Lama has claimed all along (that China and Dorje Shugden practitioners are anti-Dalai Lama and anti-Tibetan).

What all of this does is allow Tibetans to feel it is possible to speak up against the Dalai Lama, because now they know their words will not have an effect on his life. In the past, it was always claimed that people who criticize the Dalai Lama will harm his life; now, Andruk Tseten says that this is not the case. On the one hand, cynics might think Khenpo Kada Ngedup Sonam and Andruk Tseten are posturing, saying things that will never happen just to look democratic and open-minded to the outside world. But even if it is posturing, there is always the risk that their posturing will backfire and Tibetans will take their words as encouragement, and it will embolden them to talk.

Instead of things improving for the CTA, they are becoming decidedly worse. The Dalai Lama’s reputation in the Western world is on the decline, amongst both governments who refuse to meet with him as well as the general public, given the exposé of his refusal to act on the sexual abuse cases. When the Dalai Lama is no longer the unquestioned leader he used to be, the CTA will need all the friends they can get for on their own, the CTA has not achieved much and without the reputation of the Dalai Lama backing them, they have no standing of their own.

So rather than continuing down this path, before they reach the point of no return, it would be prudent for them to extend a hand of reconciliation and create as many alliances as possible, even with those whose friendship they have previously rejected such as Dorje Shugden practitioners. Loyalty takes a long time to build up, but is easily destroyed overnight. Case in point – 60 years of goodwill is now in danger due to the Tibetan leadership’s silence over the abuse of women. If the CTA has any hope of enjoying the fruits of loyalty in the future, they had best start protecting and forming it now before it is too late.

Members of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile
speak against the Dalai Lama

“Don’t act on everything just because Dalai Lama says so,” says Khenpo Kada Ngedup Sonam

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Khenpo Kada Ngedup Sonam, a member of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile (MP), reminds his fellow MPs that it is not necessary for them to listen to the Dalai Lama’s instructions.

He announces to all of them that whenever the Dalai Lama speaks about universal ethics, that is for his Western audience and the instructions are not for them (the Tibetans). As such, they do not need to follow it.

If people want to follow the Dalai Lama’s teachings on universal ethics, Khenpo Sonam says that it is enough for them to follow the 16 Pure Human Laws (མི་ཆོས་གཙང་མ་བཅུ་དྲུག).

Khenpo Sonam then reminds the listening MPs that the Dalai Lama recently gave the same instruction, saying that, “We Tibetans do not need to follow, I have already said that the universal ethics are not for us.”

How come Tibetans are exempt from practicing universal ethics?

Why is the Dalai Lama telling Western audiences one thing, and Tibetan audiences another?

“Leave Dalai Lama’s critics alone,”
says Tibetan MP Andruk Tseten

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Member of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, Andruk Tseten, reminds Tibetans of the importance of following the Dalai Lama’s instructions and not disappointing him.

He said that considering the Dalai Lama’s advancing age (84 years old), it will be good for him to lessen his public programs if they are not important. Andruk Tseten says that it is important to make the Dalai Lama’s body and mind be relaxed and at peace, and the way to do this is by not disappointing the Dalai Lama.

Andruk Tseten says that if people like Dorje Shugden practitioners dislike the Dalai Lama, that is due to their ignorance. And if those ignorant people choose to disregard the Dalai Lama’s instructions, it is not a big deal. Andruk Tseten says that their choice will not affect the Dalai Lama’s life and activities. That is good Andruk Tseten says that because in a democratic society, people do not have to agree with everything the leader says and this does not make them ignorant. They do not need to be penalized for thinking different from their leaders. It just shows they have their own way which might be just as good. 

But if people who call the Dalai Lama their precious lama do not follow his instructions, then it will harm his life and activities. Those people who follow the Dalai Lama, but disregard his instructions, are the ones who disappoint and harm him. They are the people who do not bring peace to the Dalai Lama.
 

All of these monks and lamas have either been accused of or admitted to sexual impropriety, or taking advantage of their positions to have inappropriate relationships with their students and women. All of these lamas have not been sanctioned by the Tibetan leadership and, in many cases, have enjoyed the continued endorsement of the Tibetan leadership in spite of the allegations. All of these lamas also do not practice Dorje Shugden and hence whatever they do is excusable, as long as they remain financially lucrative for the Tibetan leadership. (Top row L-R: Sogyal Rinpoche, Sakyong Mipham, Gangten Tulku. Bottom row L-R: Lama Norlha, Lama Choedak Rinpoche, Tenzin Dhonden)

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: Solaray Kusco

Under the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA; Tibetan leadership based in Dharamsala), one might be forgiven for assuming that tales of financial mismanagement, embezzlement, murder and sex scandals have only recently become commonplace.

That could not be further from the truth; it would be a lie to say that before 1959 and the subsequent diaspora of Tibetans around the world, such events never occurred. The truth is that Tibetan society has always been plagued by intrigue, conflict, fighting, exploitation and abuse, with the murder of Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen being just one of a myriad of examples. However, after 1959 and with Tibetan society becoming more accessible to the world, the perpetrators increasingly found themselves in communities where these abuses would not be tolerated, covered up, dismissed or justified as ‘crazy wisdom’.

The Tibetan diaspora brought its people in contact with Western nations where people are educated and where there is a growing awareness against the abuse and exploitation of women, for example the #MeToo movement. It also brought the lamas into an environment where people can easily access information to compare teachers, and judge for themselves if their methods are appropriate or not. This would not have been possible in feudalistic pre-1959 Tibet. When the abuses happened then, there was no infrastructure to spread the word as quickly, and there was a greater likelihood that disenfranchised Tibetan students would be hushed up by the all-powerful ruling lamas.

Sogyal Rinpoche was often pictured with beautiful women. In spite of decades of allegations of sexual abuse, he was able to continue unchecked because he knew he would not face any repercussions from anyone; it was the Tibetan leadership’s endorsement of him which allowed him to act with impunity. While the CTA and their supporters harass Dorje Shugden practitioners for peacefully upholding their religious freedom, they say nothing about lamas who are consistently and constantly accused of abusing their students.

Some sympathizers might attempt to excuse these lamas’ behaviors as a clash of cultures; that is, raised in the male-dominated environment of a monastery, these Tibetan lamas did not know any better and misinterpreted their Western students’ behavior as consent. But ignorantia juris non excusat or, in other words, ignorance of law excuses no one and it is not an adequate nor valid defense for the acts they have committed. Many of these lamas have already been in the West for decades, and some were educated or even born there. If none of this applies to them, then at the very least they have been surrounded by Western advisors and disciples for years. The point is that they have been exposed to Western culture for a long, long time and there is no justification for their behavior.

Therefore the following questions remain:

(1) How come the Tibetan leadership has, by and large, stayed silent?

While they are quick to condemn others who do not fall in line with their diktats, such as Dorje Shugden practitioners who refuse to abide by the ban, the Dalai Lama and the CTA are sluggish when it comes to condemning perpetrators of sexual abuse. One has to wonder why the Dalai Lama and the CTA does not when sexual abuse is universally reviled; it should not be an issue for the Dalai Lama and the CTA to condemn these behaviors. No one would fault them for doing so and in fact, they would be applauded.

The fact they are sluggish to do so suggests that either they approve of these behaviors or they are afraid to condemn the perpetrators, lest they lose their financial patronage and support. After all, many of these individuals are the heads of extremely wealthy organizations, with donors and sponsors at their beck and call.

(2) Why is the Tibetan leadership not doing their job?

Where is the condemnation of these acts from the Department of Religion, who is supposed to govern the religious activities of their lamas? If they do not speak up when disciples are being exploited and abused, when DO they speak up? What precisely is their function if not to protect the lineages from being exploited by people like this?

The Dalai Lama and the CTA receives US$17mil in annual funding from the American government, paid for by the American taxpayer. This money is supposed to go towards the operations of the Tibetan leadership but if the Department of Religion is not doing its job, then where is all of this money going to? And while the Dalai Lama and the CTA are happy to budget US$500,000 in generating online propaganda against Dorje Shugden, no such budget has been allocated to, for example, educating Tibetans on what constitutes sexual abuse and the meaning of consent. No such budget has been allocated to counseling and therapy for the victims of these teachers.

(3) Why is Hollywood staying silent?

Some of these perpetrators have chosen to settle out of court, surely an admission of guilt. After all, why pay to hush someone up if there is no evidence that can be construed, or indeed misconstrued by the justice system? Most of them have been abusing their students for decades and yet, in spite of their admissions of guilt, they continue to enjoy the endorsement of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and even Hollywood stars. These are the same Hollywood stars who speak out against abuses by those from their industry such as Harvey Weinstein, but remain silent when news about lamas exploiting young female students is exposed. In their silence, and with no similar condemnations forthcoming, these stars are saying they believe the lamas’ behavior is acceptable.

(4) How come the criticism is not equal? How come sexual abuse is OK but Dorje Shugden is not?

While supporters of the Dalai Lama will harangue him to speak up against Dorje Shugden, they do not make requests with equal fury when it comes to these despicable acts against women. Where are the online groups calling for the Dalai Lama and the CTA to enforce consequences against anyone found to be sexually abusing their students? Where are the comments about how these lamas are ‘false’ or ‘liars’ or ‘agents of Chinese harm’ because they take advantage of their disciples? The truth is that as long as you are perceived to have a close relationship with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, everything you do, no matter how vile or abusive, is excusable and the Dalai Lama, the CTA and their supporters will turn a blind eye. But if you practice Dorje Shugden, you are a justifiable and open target for vulgarities and threats.

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Under the CTA, what is good becomes bad and what is bad becomes good, as long as it is financially lucrative in their favor. It is not the truth that the CTA are interested in, but the fastest way they can make a buck and for 60 years, that has meant selling the dream of Shangri-la to Western governments and private groups who have been approaching them with open wallets.

But as more and more victims are emboldened and empowered to come forward with their stories, wallets are snapping shut as people realize that the Shangri-la they were sold was no more than a mirage. This realization has been accompanied with an evaluation of their budgets, and a demonstrable reluctance by public and private institutions to continue funding and sponsoring this kind of behavior.

The people’s patience is running out and along with it, the CTA’s time to recuperate their reputational losses. In times of crisis, only the powerful have the luxury of remaining silent, and this is a luxury that the CTA clearly no longer enjoys.

Media Coverage

The various incidents of sex abuse have caught the attention of Western media who have written extensively about it. This has been going on as far back as 1989, when a teacher associated with one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist organizations in the world was caught intentionally transmitting AIDS to his partners. Since that time, the Tibetan leadership has remained silent whenever they have been faced with a sex scandal.

Yet, when someone refuses to give up Dorje Shugden practice, the CTA will tell all and sundry about the lama’s supposed ‘crime’ of refusing to abide by the Dorje Shugden ban. Their refusal to give up the practice is framed as an anti-Dalai Lama act of disloyalty, and therefore criminal. But what actual law does practicing Dorje Shugden break that makes it a crime? And how come the CTA is so vehement about condemning Shugden practitioners, but will say nothing when people abuse women and break actual laws?

The New York Times

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/21/us/buddhists-in-us-agonize-on-aids-issue.html

The Independent

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/abuse-alleged-at-monastery-for-tibet-exiles-698788.html

The Guardian

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/oct/08/tibetan-lamas-buddhism

The Guardian

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jul/01/lama-sex-abuse-sogyal-rinpoche-buddhist

Sogyal Rinpoche

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has referred to Sogyal Rinpoche as “a good friend”.

These are perhaps the most well-known incidents of sexual abuse to hit the headlines and rock the Tibetan Buddhist community in recent times. Sogyal Rinpoche was the subject of a documentary in 2011 detailing his alleged crimes, and also the subject of a lawsuit that was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Despite all of this, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan leadership continued to associate with him and make public appearances with him, thereby endorsing his activities and behavior.

In more recent times, the exposé against Sogyal Rinpoche by his own senior students has been so thorough and public, that he was forced to resign. A few months later, he announced that he was diagnosed with cancer. He has not been seen publicly since. While his victims continue to suffer the trauma of his abuse, and while he remains in hiding, the CTA has not issued any statements against his behaviour or disassociated themselves from him. How come they are silent over these atrocities, but are so vocal against Dorje Shugden which is not illegal anywhere in the world? How come they force people to disassociate from Shugden practitioners, and enforce segregatory policies against them, but have not disassociated themselves from someone who has been accused of abusing women for decades?

Lion’s Roar

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://www.lionsroar.com/letter-to-sogyal-rinpoche-from-current-and-ex-rigpa-members-details-abuse-allegations/

The Telegraph

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/sexual-assaults-violent-rages-inside-dark-world-buddhist-teacher/

Medium (Part 1)

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://medium.com/@tahlianewland/harvey-weinstein-and-sogyal-rinpoche-a-study-of-responses-part-1-management-f7413d904c0b

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://medium.com/@tahlianewland/harvey-weinstein-sogyal-rinpoche-a-comparison-part-2-culture-1fcc5bfc7599

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

Yet another leader of another large Tibetan Buddhist organization has been forced to step down after being accused of inappropriate sexual behavior with his students. In his statement, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche took responsibility for everything, basically all but admitting to the actual acts. Still, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche has enjoyed the Dalai Lama’s and the Tibetan leadership’s endorsement for many years, again despite the fact that rumors about his impropriety have existed for years. The Tibetan leadership will endorse anything, no matter how illegal it may be, if it has the potential to be financially lucrative. But as long as someone practices Dorje Shugden, they are bad and evil, no matter how much benefit they bring to others, just because they refuse to abide by the Tibetan leadership’s ban on the practice.

Tricycle

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/sakyong-mipham-rinpoche-sexual-abuse/

Think Progress

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://thinkprogress.org/buddhist-leader-sexually-assaulted-students-report-finds-0d08e17cedd9/

Lion’s Roar

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://www.lionsroar.com/report-alleges-sexual-misconduct-by-leader-of-shambhala-community/

Tricycle

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/shambhala-leaders-resign/

The New York Times

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/nyregion/shambhala-sexual-misconduct.html

CBC.ca

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/new-allegations-surface-against-shambhala-leader-1.4743325

Tricycle

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/sakyong-mipham-rinpoche-sexual-assault/

Gangten Tulku

Hollywood actor Richard Gere with not one, but two lamas accused of sexual misconduct (Gangten Tulku and Sogyal Rinpoche).

As the head of 22 monasteries in Bhutan, Gangten Tulku is in a position of influence. He was even pictured with Hollywood actor Richard Gere, together with another sex offender, Sogyal Rinpoche. And while Gangten Tulku’s inappropriate activities are not as public as Sogyal Rinpoche’s, nevertheless within certain circles, his affairs have become very well-known. These are most notably recorded by Christine Chandler on her website extibetanbuddhist.com and in her book Enthralled: The Guru Cult of Tibetan Buddhism. Ms. Chandler is a trained social worker and psychologist, who specializes in the areas of sexual abuse and dysfunctional systems.

In an email to one of our sources, Ms. Chandler writes:

All of the residents who were Tibetan Buddhists, studied with all the lamas in Crestone. So I did about four or five 10 day retreats with Gangten. I was never close to him, but we all practiced and studied with all the Lamas there. During one of his drupdens, a really long mantra chanting experience, — he was very good at creating altered states of mind through mantra- a Bhutanese dance troupe that had been performing, was complaining about him groping the young Bhutanese women.

This information is mirrored in her book, in which she writes:

I also attended several retreats with a tulku from Bhutan, a master at creating altered states of mind through mantra chanting in his retreats. This high Bhutanese lama was the same married tulku, who was later called out by Tsultrim Allione for groping female Bhutanese dancers.

Source: Chandler, C. (2017). “Crestone, Colorado”, Chapter 22 of ‘Enthralled: The Guru Cult of Tibetan Buddhism’.

This paragraph in the book references some Bhutanese dancers being groped by a married tulku and although the married tulku’s name is not given, based on Ms. Chandler’s emailed reply, it can be safely concluded that the married tulku is Gangten Rinpoche. More importantly, this time the paragraph directly credits Lama Tsultrim Allione as the source of these claims about Gangten Rinpoche. Ms. Chandler writes that:

Allione had been raising women’s issues in the Tibetan sanghas quietly, before. But when she started complaining, openly, about a certain visiting tulku from Bhutan and his sexual gropings of young, Bhutanese women in a travelling dance group, after they came to her objecting, this Bhutanese high lama let her know that she had gone too far and she had better shape up, or be literally banished from the Tibetan Lamaist scene. She would no longer have the Tibetan lama ‘seal of approval,’ as a respected female Tibetan Buddhist teacher; helping the lamas spread Tantra in the West if she kept on complaining about their sexual abuses. This would destroy her niche in the Tibetan “Dzogchen” teacher circuit.

Source: Chandler, C. (2017). “The Dakinis and Their “Spiritualized Feminism”.”, Chapter 18 of ‘Enthralled: The Guru Cult of Tibetan Buddhism’.

Again, this references the groping of female Bhutanese dancers and again, it draws a connection to Lama Allione. Ms. Chandler says that Lama Allione was eventually browbeaten and threatened into silence. Given what we know about how the Tibetan leadership condones the abuse through their silence, and refuses to give their support to the victims, this conclusion is no surprise. It is merely another instance of power play at work, whereby the abuses surrounding Gangten Tulku are hushed up and brushed under the rug, while Lama Allione is silenced and forced to stop speaking up. An email from a close student of Lama Allione confirms this conclusion, saying:

Yes, unfortunately Gangten Tulku is one of the worst offenders. He has a history of abuse of female students, and I recently discovered that it’s a bit of an open secret that he’s also abused young monks in his monasteries. He’s been largely ousted from American dharma circles due to his impropriety, but still has a presence in Europe and Bhutan.

It would be logical that a close student of Lama Allione would be privy to the allegations about Gangten Tulku’s improper behavior, given their proximity to her. Once again, the Tibetan leadership shows that any behavior exhibited by a non-Shugden lama is acceptable, and they will not do anything to protect the victims (or even those trying to expose the abuses) as long as the lama does not practice Dorje Shugden. However, once a lama does practice Dorje Shugden, they become justified and open targets for vulgarities and abuse, simply because of their religious choices.

ExTibetanBuddhist.com

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://extibetanbuddhist.com/this-sexual-abuser-hollywood-doesnt-want-you-to-see/

ErikJampa.com

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://www.erikjampa.com/single-post/2017/11/11/Calling-Out-the-Guru-from-Afar-On-Dzongsar-Khyentses-Sex-Contract-and-Subsequent-Backlash-from-the-Buddhist-Community

Lama Norlha

Lama Norlha with the CTA-endorsed 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje

Here are even more allegations concerning yet another lama, regarding sexual impropriety and inappropriate relationships with students. Where is the Tibetan leadership’s voice in all of this? How come they are not funding and publishing statements, brochures, booklets and pamphlets that counsel and caution against this, but they will pay for videos, books, websites, etc. against Dorje Shugden?

If the CTA only speaks up against Dorje Shugden because they do not condone the practice, does it therefore mean that through their silence over these sexual allegations, the CTA condones this improper behavior?

Lion’s Roar

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://www.lionsroar.com/kagyu-thubten-choling-addresses-sangha-about-lama-norhla-rinpoches-sexual-misconduct-with-students/

Tricycle

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/kagyu-thubten-choling-monastery-working-sex-impropriety/

Lama Yeshe Nyingpo

In the comments section of this post, people are cautioned against attending this teacher’s events, saying that he has been expelled from his monastery and has been banned from teaching under the Karma Kagyu banner. How come the Tibetan leadership do not speak up against this?

Little Bangkok Sangha

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: http://www.littlebang.org/lama-yeshe-nyingpo/

Lama Choedak Rinpoche

Lama Choedak Rinpoche with the Dalai Lama

A married teacher admits to several affairs, then leaves for retreat instead of facing the consequences. A teacher is supposed to unite families, and not be the factor that breaks relationships and drives loved ones apart.

While the Tibetan leadership has no comments about the importance of remaining faithful to one’s spouse (i.e. a private choice), they have plenty to say about people who opt to retain their Dorje Shugden practice and refuse to give it up in accordance with the ban (i.e. another private choice). How come the CTA feels qualified to comment on and police one private choice, but do not apply the same level of interference when it comes to other choices which are actually harmful? The hypocrisy is staggering.

BuddhistChannel.tv

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=49,10104,0,0,1,0#.W2Zc-i2B19I

Tenzin Dhonden

Tenzin Dhonden (left) was the Dalai Lama’s personal emissary to the United States

This monk, the Dalai Lama’s former emissary to the United States, was found to be selling access to the Dalai Lama. In this way, he ended up associating the Dalai Lama with a cult organization, NXIVM. For a US$1 million “donation”, he orchestrated the Dalai Lama’s appearance at a NXIVM event, where the Dalai Lama gave a talk attended by the group’s leader Keith Raniere who has recently been arrested and indicted on several charges including sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and conspiracy to commit forced labor.

Tenzin Dhonden himself has also been accused of improper relationships and contact with women through his connection with NXIVM, although he is supposed to be a monk.

Someone who represents the Dalai Lama can sell access to His Holiness and have relations with women although he is a monk, and the Tibetan leadership will never say anything because it brings them money. But when a person protects their religious freedom and refuses to abide by the ban on Dorje Shugden, and refuses to give up the practice, the Tibetan leadership turns them into pariahs and paints them as deserving targets of violence and vulgarities.

FrankReport

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://frankreport.com/2016/02/13/should-lama-tenzin-be-defrocked-is-dalai-lama-to-blamed-for-endorsing-keith-while-tenzin-was-sleeping-with-sara-bronfman/

The Guardian

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/27/dalai-lama-tenzin-dhonden-tibet-monk-corruption-accusations

The Guardian

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/29/tenzin-dhonden-dalai-lama-corruption-celebrity-investigation

Others

There are many other allegations of improper and inappropriate sexual relationships by teachers exploiting their students. But as long as the relationship between the Tibetan leadership and the teacher is financially lucrative, the CTA will never speak up. That is not to say the CTA is incapable of speaking up.

In an example below concerning Geshe Michael Roach, the Office of the Dalai Lama wrote to him directly to speak out against his behavior and to reject a US$2000 offering. On the surface, their behavior appears to be driven by ethics but do not forget, US$2000 is pocket change compared to what they received through Tenzin Dhonden’s association with NXIVM and Keith Raniere. Being that they felt justified in refusing Michael Roach’s offering, does this mean they will now similarly reject and return the donation from Raniere’s group? Of course not.

One can only imagine that Michael Roach received this treatment from them not because the CTA wished to protect the Dalai Lama, or because they actually believe in preserving women’s rights, or because they actually disagreed with his actions but because he had outlived his utility to them. This is an easy conclusion to reach given that for all of the examples above, the CTA have not uttered a single similar word or issued a single statement in protest of or in condemnation of those acts.

The Michael Roach Files

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://michaelroachfiles.wordpress.com/2006/05/24/letters-from-the-office-of-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama/

OnFaith

Cropped for brevity. Click to enlarge and read the whole article. Source: https://www.onfaith.co/onfaith/2013/06/28/bhtuans-buddhist-monks-accused-of-sexually-molesting-boys/22207

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 October 2017 the Tibetan government-in-exile, known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), launched its latest initiative, the ‘Five Fifty Forum’ (5/50). From their headquarters in Dharamsala, North India, the CTA declared this was its strategy towards “resolving the issue of Tibet and Tibet’s political future” in five years or, in an unspoken ultimatum to Beijing, spending the next 50 years fighting what it regards as China’s occupation of Tibet.

The forum was intended as a show of stamina and resolution by the Tibetan leadership. However, whispers have abounded for some time now that things are not going well at all for the Dalai Lama’s administration. Indeed, to paraphrase a news article by Jayadeva Ranade published in the Sunday Guardian Live on 28^th July 2018, this 5/50 is nothing but a futile pantomime, an empty charade.

During the launch of 5/50, Sikyong Lobsang Sangay declared that the program aims to reinvigorate the Tibet movement for the next 50 years. But the Ranade article maps a worrying trend for the Tibet narrative, which brings into question its ability to survive with any significance even in the short term, let alone over another half a century.

The CTA’s Politics of Division

It did not escape Ranade’s notice that the feud between Penpa Tsering and Lobsang Sangay finally snapped what was an already chronically splintered community. Historically, the Tibetan people are already divided by region (Ü-Tsang, Amdo and Kham) and by religious tradition. This partitioning was a significant factor in the Tibetans losing their country to begin with. Indeed, few people are even aware that Tibet was never one united country, but rather an agglomeration of often-warring factions that in the end was carved up by a handful of aristocratic families and brutal feudal lords.

Into this volatile mix, the Tibetan leadership continually introduced highly discordant policies. Some of their attempts to dissolve all Tibetan Buddhist lineages into a single one under the Dalai Lama include:

1. The Gungthang Tsultrim murder;
2. Inducing a three-way split in the Karma Kagyu lineage over their highest spiritual leader, the Karmapa;
3. Illegally imposing the Dorje Shugden ban thereby splitting the Gelug tradition;
4. Politicizing Tibetan Buddhism, demonizing the religious rituals of those they perceive as challengers, and banning reincarnations;
5. Refusing to incorporate representatives of the Jonang tradition into the Tibetan parliament;
6. Confusing the objective of the ‘Tibetan cause’ by pitting independence (rangzen) activists against those standing for meaningful autonomy (umaylam), thereby creating a conflict which culminated in street brawls;
7. And not least, the continual infighting at the highest levels of the Tibetan leadership.

All these policies have damaged Tibetan unity tremendously and under such conditions, the Tibetan struggle has never really been a unified one.

The rivalry between Ex Speaker of Parliament Penpa Tsering and Sikyong Lobsang Sangay is expected to intensify over time.

Fending for Themselves

This jockeying for power and the Dalai Lama’s favor has dominated the minds of the Tibetan leadership. The ensuing neglect of the people’s welfare has thrust the task of preserving Tibetan Buddhism’s integrity into the hands of senior monks of individual Buddhists sects who, unable to gain an appropriate measure of support from their own leaders, have been engaging the Chinese government directly, as Ranade notes. In doing so, these monks risk being labelled traitorous Chinese sympathizers and anti-Dalai Lama operatives who allow their religion to be politicized.

Still, saving their lineage has been worth the risk. Because not only has the politicization of Tibetan Buddhism also been a policy tool of Dharamsala, but aligning oneself with Dharamsala also lacks the sorely-needed status and funding that China can provide to rebuild and protect the lineages. And while China has always been willing to separate religion from politics, it is in fact Dharamsala who has refused to give up their dangerous fusion of church and state. Thus, China today is merely engaging the Tibetan leadership in the game they set out to play, only now the CTA is losing in their own game and crying foul.

The Tibetan leadership’s inability to retain the loyalty of religious leaders in their community has extended to even the 17^th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje whom the Dalai Lama has endorsed as the official head of the Karma Kagyu tradition, the largest sub-sect of the Kagyu school. To some, Ogyen Trinley also represents a potentially suitable candidate to take over the spiritual leadership of Tibetan Buddhism outside China, in the absence of the Dalai Lama. For all intents and purposes, Ogyen Trinley had much to gain by remaining in India as part of the Tibetan establishment. Hence, his fleeing Dharamsala’s sphere of influence has not gone unnoticed.

The 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje has thus far refused to return to India, citing reasons that allude to his being controlled by Dharamsala.

Ogyen Trinley’s escape from India might appear to be the result of his reluctance to be used as a political tool in Sino-Indian engagements, but as Ranade’s article points out, it was in fact to escape being used as a pawn by the CTA to the detriment of his own lineage. Karmapa Ogyen Trinley has even expressed interest in returning to China, having fled the country in December 1999. His is a statement which echoes the sentiments of other senior monks of various Tibetan Buddhist lineages, who are reported to be building bridges with Beijing – it is better to be a Tibetan under the Chinese than the CTA.

Against the backdrop of a China whose rising might corresponds with her determination to deny the fulfilment of the so-called ‘Tibetan cause’ and her interest (even if simply strategic) in Buddhism, it is only logical for these monks to conclude that their respective traditions have no future under the stewardship of the Tibetan exile leadership. To ensure the survival of their traditions, they have to make their peace with China, something the CTA has failed to grasp and therefore has continued to vilify anyone who even dares to suggest it.

For those who rely on sense rather than sentiment, it is clear that they will need to build bridges with Beijing as a means of securing the continuation of their religious traditions. Authentic lamas and tulkus (lama incarnates) are drawn to conditions that empower them to spread the Dharma and if those conditions are manifest in China, then it is there they will go in this life and in future rebirths. And many indeed have, either moving back to China or taking rebirth there. After all, labels such as country codes and border lines are worldly constructs, and the talk of politicians is beyond the interest of true practitioners of Buddhism who seek to escape the pull of ‘samsara’ (cyclical existence), rather than trading one aspect of it for another.

Hence, collectively, these senior lamas’ actions make a strong statement about the prevailing lack of faith in the Tibetan leadership’s abilities and intentions and, whether wittingly or not, bear significant social and political consequences. Not only has the CTA failed to keep alive the hopes and confidence of the Tibetan refugees, but it also speaks of the Dalai Lama’s waning power not only on the world stage but also within his exiled community. The urgency to protect the Dharma now supersedes the Tibetan leadership’s mandate to appear loyal to the Dalai Lama and the consequence is this – because the Tibetan people identify strongly with their spiritual tradition, they tend to follow the lead of their spiritual teachers. Thus, as more of them forge relationships with China, ultimately this means accepting China. In their focus on personal agendas and neglect of the people, the Tibetan leadership have all but delivered victory to the enemy.

China’s Checkmate: The Dalai Lama’s Final Move

It should surprise no one that the Dalai Lama might be harboring similar thoughts. His government-in-exile has largely failed. China continues to grow stronger even as the Tibetan struggle, singularly embodied in the Dalai Lama’s being, weakens as his health and influence subside. It would be unrealistic for the Dalai Lama to expect that China will suddenly cave in to his administration’s demands just because he is running out of time and options. Either the Dalai Lama allows the Tibetan cause to disintegrate when he passes on or he decides to use whatever time is left to secure a future for his people. The idea of entrusting the struggle to future leaders of the Tibetans in exile, the basis of Dr Lobsang Sangay’s 5/50, may be long in form but falls sadly short in substance and realism based on the CTA’s performance thus far.

The Buddhist Academy of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) is located in Nyetang Township, Quxu County, Lhasa, TAR. As the first high-level comprehensive academy of Tibetan Buddhism, it has attracted eminent monks and students from all five sects of Tibetan Buddhism.

If the Dalai Lama cannot reacquire Tibet and continue to claim sole proprietorship over ‘Tibetan Buddhism’ then maybe he can mortgage his original schema of autonomy to secure the future of the Tibetan people, and lodge control and legitimate authority over Tibetan Buddhism with a new guardian. At the very least, China’s transnational trajectory will by default spread the sacred Buddhist practices from the Dalai Lama’s motherland and in that way, preserve the memory of the old Tibet. And the one move which will achieve both objectives and, more importantly, the only move China seems interested in, is for the Dalai Lama to return to China. This decision may explain why the personal emissary of the Dalai Lama, Professor Samdhong Rinpoche, made a secret trip to China in November 2017.

The Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet on China’s terms would put an official end to the Sino-Tibetan conflict and progressively ease tensions in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). This translates to a less turbulent life for Tibetans in TAR who live as suspects with each and every day that the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan struggle drags on. It would also fulfil what is, for millions of Tibetans, a lifelong wish to meet the Dalai Lama again. All these however are mere concessions as the clear winner is China.

The Final Analysis

The Dalai Lama’s return to China on China’s terms would mean that in the final analysis:

1. The Dalai Lama agrees Tibet has always been a region under China’s sovereignty and not an independent country;
2. It would affirm that it was rightful for Chinese troops to have marched into Tibet in 1959 to reclaim what they view as their territory; and
3. It would invalidate all criticisms of China as an oppressor that is trespassing in Tibet, thereby invalidating all work and campaigns by pro-Tibet organizations for the last 60 years.

But the biggest prize of all would be China’s formal installation as the sole authority to recognize the next and all future Dalai Lamas as well as high incarnate lamas. This itself is the key to controlling the Tibetan people as well as indirectly commanding the allegiance of countless millions of Tibetan Buddhist adherents around the world. This is a weapon that should not be discounted as China has seen how a monk with no country, no army, and no commercial and economic power has managed to sway sentiments against China, both inside and outside her own borders, for decades.

Is the Dalai Lama negotiating for his return to China via his emissary, Samdhong Rinpoche?

Jayadeva Ranade’s article does not spell it out but it seems to be a natural conclusion that the state of affairs in Dharamsala equates to a foreboding sense that the Tibetan cause is in its final stages. A writer with inside knowledge like Ranade should know that all the CTA and Dalai Lama can manage now is little more than posturing in the hope of gaining whatever concessions they can lay their hands on from China.

But all may not be lost for the Dalai Lama, for if it is to be believed that he is none other than Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of Compassion, then the biggest winner will be Buddhism itself. In the absence of a commandeering and disruptive conflict, life would swiftly normalize, allowing those who embody Tibetan religious life to ride the Asian Dragon to a new renaissance of Dharma. It may have taken the Tibetan leadership 60 years to fail or we can choose to view it from another perspective; that over 60 years, the Dalai Lama and his Buddhist government managed to incentivize a rising giant, China, to embrace Buddhism so wholeheartedly, even desperately, as to turn her into the world’s biggest addict of this opiate that Mao regarded as so toxic. However you regard it, what is certain is that the ‘Tibetan cause’ is done for.

Sunday Guardian Live: Exiled Tibetans are confused about future

Source: https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/news/exiled-tibetans-confused-future. Click to enlarge.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche with the Dalai Lama

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

Not so long ago, towards the end of 2017, one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most famous lamas, Sogyal Rinpoche, the author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and the head of the international Rigpa Buddhist organization was again accused of sexual assault and physical abuse which he allegedly inflicted on his female students. It was not altogether a shock because allegations of Sogyal Rinpoche’s sexual improprieties and abuses go as far back as 1994 when a $10 million lawsuit was filed against him by a ‘Janice Doe’. She accused Sogyal Rinpoche of sexually assaulting her as a means of purifying her “bad family karma”. Since then, the Tibetan lama has not been able to shrug off an on-going string of accusations of sexual offences and charges of misconduct but the Rigpa organization grew nevertheless, and fame and success continued to follow Sogyal Rinpoche.

In 2011, Lama Choedak Rinpoche publicly apologized for having multiple sexual relationships with his female students. Source: http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/
index.php?id=49,10104,0,0,1,0#.
WzZrA9gzYUt. Click to read the full article.

Sogyal Rinpoche’s story is not an isolated one. In 2011, Lama Choedak Rinpoche, who is the leader of the Tibetan Buddhist Society of Canberra, was forced by members of his community to make a public apology for multiple sexual relationships he had with his female students. In yet another case, The Guardian newspaper in October 2017 published an article that exposed how the Dalai Lama’s personal emissary, Lama Tenzin Dhonden extorted money in exchange for audiences with the Dalai Lama and endorsements by the Tibetan spiritual leader. Tenzin Dhonden’s transgressions went beyond financial offences and it soon became clear that he freely engaged in affairs and relationships with women, a clear violation of his monk vows.

Even before these scandals had a chance to subside, we now see reports that yet another Tibetan Buddhist lama has been accused of sexual abuse, carnal misconduct and even allusions to rape. The lama in question this time is Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, the leader of Shambhala International.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche is the latest in a string of Tibetan Buddhist lamas linked to allegations of sexual misconduct. Sakyong Mipham recently made a public apology for sexually assaulting three of his female students and engaging in coercive sexual relationships with others.

What is surprising is how you never hear the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), which claims to represent all Tibetan people in the world, publicly censure or denounce these offenders no matter how serious their crimes are. Neither does the Dalai Lama’s office, which behaves like an absolute authority on spiritual matters under the Tibetan Buddhist ambit, denounce these lamas and their actions. They never speak of how much damage has been inflicted on innocent people seeking spirituality under the Tibetan Buddhist auspice.

The CTA has a Department of Religion & Culture which, according to the CTA’s official website, claims that its function is to oversee religious and cultural affairs. The question that therefore arises is this – if the CTA is claiming ownership over Tibetan Buddhism as it is wont to do, and uses the religion to garner public support in their fight with China, how come the CTA does not do its job and take responsibility for the conduct of these lamas and Tibetan Buddhist teachers it is exporting all over the world?

For all the scandals involving Tibetan Buddhist lamas, the CTA has not said one word about any of them. Neither has it apologized for its failure to oversee the conduct of these Tibetan Buddhist representatives; pledged to reign in errant lamas, teachers and representatives; expressed any concern and offered solace to the victims of these wayward Tibetan lamas; or publicly rebuked them as enemies of the Dharma and traitors to the Tibetan people’s efforts to regain their homeland. Surely the bad conduct of these highly influential Tibetan lamas would have a tremendous negative impact on how the public perceives Tibetan Buddhism. Yet, the CTA does literally nothing to curb such offences.
 Very unfortunately for Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan people, the CTA focuses all its attention on persecuting Dorje Shugden worshippers just because it is a religious practice the Dalai Lama chose to ban for reasons neither he nor the CTA have been able to articulate logically. On the CTA’s official website, it unleashes its unabashed hatred for all Dorje Shugden practitioners in such an unrestrained way that it makes a complete joke out of its claims to be a democratic government.

• Instead of warning the public to be wary of deviant Tibetan Buddhist lamas and teachers who are known to be causing harm to their respective communities and to the reputation of Tibetan Buddhism, and who are even accused of cheating, physical abuse and rape, the CTA instills fear of Shugden practitioners in their people, labelling them destroyers of the Buddha’s teachings and traitors of the Tibetan people.

The CTA’s hit list of Dorje Shugden practitioners. Click image to enlarge.
Taken from http://tibet.net/2014/05/list-of-dolgyal-followers-who-protested-against-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama-in-us-and-europe/

• Instead of publishing a list of known sexual offenders and those teachers who are proven to have abused and taken advantage of their students, the CTA publishes a hit list of Dorje Shugden practitioners with the implied instruction that these people should be marginalized, excommunicated and even assaulted.
• Instead of creating a section on its official website to provide advice to victims of abuse and provide an avenue for complainants to voice their concerns and grievances, the CTA dedicates an entire section of its official website to pages upon pages of negative indoctrination and disinformation about Dorje Shugden aimed at demonizing Shugden Buddhists just because of their religious beliefs.
• Instead of producing literature to guide aspiring Tibetan Buddhist practitioners on how to avoid abuse by bad teachers, the CTA spends time and sponsors’ money producing books, videos and literature that blatantly distort facts and Tibet’s spiritual history just to support the CTA’s illegal religious ban.
• Instead of using its state instruments to enact and implement laws and guidelines that penalize and expel those lamas who have been proven to be guilty of crimes, breaking their monastic oaths and also the law, the CTA uses its parliament to criminalize a religious practice and endorse a witch-hunt against Shugden Buddhists.
• Instead of using religious teaching sessions or secular public forums to rebuke errant lamas like Sogyal Rinpoche, Lama Choedak, Lama Tenzin Dhonden and Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and warn people about them, the Tibetan leadership takes every opportunity to further disfigure the truth about Dorje Shugden whose practice is in fact ancient and holy.

Lama Tenzin Dhonden is pictured here at a party with a friend. He is alleged to have had sexual relations with a wealthy heiress. Tenzin Dhonden was the monk who represented the Dalai Lama in North America. No matter who you were, you had to go through him to secure the Dalai Lama’s presence for events, talks, Buddhist rites as well as personal audiences. Everyone had to go through him and he was well known for abusing his position and demanding donations for the Dalai Lama as well as for himself in order to fulfil such requests from the public. Since this picture was uncovered, Tenzin Dhonden has been in many major newspapers and claims have been published against him, his embezzlement and his womanizing. This is highly inappropriate behavior especially given that he is a monk and the Dalai Lama’s representative. These claims have since been shown to be true and the foundation that he worked for, the Dalai Lama Trust, has since fired him. However, since he is a major embarrassment to the Dalai Lama, the Dalai Lama’s office and the CTA by virtue of his proximity and association with them, no official letters or communications denouncing his behavior have been issued from any of these institutions. This shows a very clear bias that, in order to protect the Dalai Lama’s reputation, if you are his friend or if you are endorsed by him, your crimes are covered up and swept under the rug no matter how offensive or serious your crimes are. That is how the Dalai Lama’s office and the Tibetan administrative regime that he controls, operates.

To the CTA, there is nothing you cannot get away with, no matter how grotesque your crime, as long as you toe the Dalai Lama and the CTA’s line. You are perfectly fine as long as you do not oppose the Dalai Lama’s wishes and you do not have Chinese friends or a connection with China. In fact, on many occasions, the Tibetan leadership will even assist offenders by facilitating audiences and photo-taking sessions with the Dalai Lama. Such measures are often the offender’s ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card. To the Tibetan people, being seen with the Dalai Lama and having your picture taken with him is tantamount to being issued carte blanche to do as you will. We see this is true in the case of Sogyal Rinpoche and Lama Tenzin Dhonden, who were literally untouchable for the longest time by virtue of their favor with the Dalai Lama. So, instead of the Tibetan leadership being the overseer of highly influential Tibetan Buddhist figures with the capacity to inflict tremendous harm on people, it is in fact an underwriter for their misconduct.

Video: “In the Name of Enlightenment – Sex Scandal in Religion” – About Sogyal Rinpoche

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As a matter of fact, it is undeniable that the Dalai Lama has played a significant role in building up the prestige and prominence of these lamas to the point that they are almost invincible and occupy positions where they can abuse their victims without much resistance. Most newcomers to Tibetan Buddhism and even those who have practiced for a number of years have no other point of reference besides the Dalai Lama’s endorsement of a certain lama. Suffice to say, many victims of these abusive lamas submit themselves to exploitation, manipulation and assault because they trust the Dalai Lama’s sanctioning of these lamas even if they do not comprehend the mistreatment and unusual methods which are usually summarily dismissed as ‘crazy wisdom’, supposedly a characteristic of highly attained beings.

The Dalai Lama therefore becomes an advocate of these bad lamas by being friendly with them, speaking highly of them, taking pictures with them (something which in the Tibetan context is as good as a formal seal of approval), attending events organized by them and continuing to support them. The Dalai Lama’s approval of these lamas is a determining factor in their rise to prominence and yet neither the Dalai Lama nor the Tibetan leadership will accept responsibility and take remedial measures to avoid more harm being inflicted by bad lamas under the protection of the Dalai Lama.

Sogyal Rinpoche was able to get away with his misdeeds for far too long by virtue of his association with the Dalai Lama. Sogyal Rinpoche invited the Dalai Lama to his Dharma centres, cultivated a friendship with him, made generous donations, and also ensured that he took many pictures and videos together with the Dalai Lama. He knew that by doing this, he would make himself very popular, even more famous and therefore, it would be easier for him to rake in the donations. From the Dalai Lama’s side, the Dalai Lama is more than happy to attend events such as this one because he wants to show an atmosphere of non-sectarian harmony. However, this association with Sogyal Rinpoche has backfired at the end of the day as Sogyal Rinpoche is now best known for molesting, accosting, and/or raping over 60 women. So the question that begs asking is, why is the Dalai Lama, his office and the CTA regime quiet about all of this? Why are there no strong statements condemning Sogyal Rinpoche’s behavior? The CTA cannot be serious if they think the public will believe that harming over 60 human beings directly is less dangerous than praying to Dorje Shugden, a so-called evil spirit (which he is not).

A clear example can be seen in the way the Dalai Lama has supported Sogyal Rinpoche over the decades and maintained a close association with him, even as Sogyal Rinpoche sexually abused and took advantage of his students. Was the Dalai Lama unaware or was it not important to him that someone like Sogyal Rinpoche was hurting people in the name of Buddhism? The Dalai Lama is believed to be the emanation of Chenrezig, a Buddha, and is therefore supposed to be omniscient and clairvoyant. The claim that the Dalai Lama is enlightened and therefore has perfect foresight and cannot be wrong is invoked time and again when it comes to the ban on the practice of Dorje Shugden. Yet, the same clairvoyance and omnipotence seem to have gone into recess when the Dalai Lama continually validates Sogyal Rinpoche, Lama Choedak Rinpoche, Lama Tenzin Dhonden, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and probably many others who have yet to be exposed.

Clockwise from top: Lama Choedak Rinpoche, Sogyal Rinpoche and Tenzin Dhonden. It is safe to conclude that as long as you are on the Dalai Lama’s side and take pictures with him, then no matter what your crimes are, you will be forgiven and the Dalai Lama will continue to love you. But if you practice Dorje Shugden, you will be condemned and heavily segregated by the rest of the community.

Logically, if the Dalai Lama is clairvoyant, wouldn’t he have known that he was empowering lamas who would harm a lot of people and dilute the sanctity of the Buddha’s teachings? Why then did the Dalai Lama not stop them when he had the opportunity? On the other hand, if the Dalai Lama is not clairvoyant, then on what basis can he or the CTA claim that the practice of Dorje Shugden harms the Tibetan Buddhist religion? The ban on Dorje Shugden was imposed based on the belief that through the Dalai Lama’s ‘psychic ability’ he saw that the deity was in fact a demon. This inconsistency in the Dalai Lama’s supposed prophetic powers and foreknowledge is disturbing.

Letters from the Dalai Lama’s private secretary to Michael Roach. This shows you that the Dalai Lama and his administrative regime in exile are capable of writing very strong letters to admonish a “wayward” Buddhist teacher. They even make these letters accessible to the public in order to send a strong signal that these teachers should be avoided. Click on image to enlarge.

Therefore, it is safe to conclude that the Dalai Lama will not speak out against lamas whom he is on friendly terms with, even if they have committed crimes, simply because they are his friends. But if they are not his friends, the Dalai Lama does not hesitate to speak out against these individuals such as in the case of Geshe Michael Roach, the first American to receive the Geshe degree at Sera Monastery.

In 2006, the Dalai Lama’s private secretary, who takes his instructions from the Dalai Lama, wrote a letter to Michael Roach discouraging him from attending the Dalai Lama’s upcoming teachings in Dharamsala on account of his “keeping company with women” and “unconventional behavior”. This communication has since been made available to the public (click here for the PDF version). Yet, we do not see any signs of the Dalai Lama or the CTA doing the same for Sogyal Rinpoche, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche or Lama Choedak Rinpoche, even though their crimes are arguably worse than Michael Roach’s. Therefore, the question that begs asking is, if the Dalai Lama’s secretary can write to Michael Roach, why do they not write to these other teachers who are doing even more harm? Some people may argue that Michael Roach is a monk of the Gelugpa tradition and therefore is subject to stricter rules of conduct compared to monks of the Nyingma and Kagyu traditions. But that is totally besides the point. Molesting, harassing, accosting or raping women is 100% wrong regardless of whether you are a monk or not, and regardless of what Buddhist tradition you come from. This is the issue that must be addressed.

It is also lamentable that after the reprehensible misdeeds of these lamas are exposed, the Dalai Lama does not retract his approval of them and allows the continuation of an implied endorsement. In the case of Sogyal Rinpoche, it was only after significant time had passed and Sogyal Rinpoche’s scandals became uncontainable, that the Dalai Lama expressed some regret but still referred to Sogyal Rinpoche as his “very good friend”. In addition, the Dalai Lama added that the only thing to do is to expose these abusive lamas and make the misdeeds of these lamas’ wrongdoing, public. However, the Tibetan leadership does not seem to heed its own advice as neither the CTA’s website nor the Dalai Lama’s website carry any warning of these very dangerous Tibetan Buddhist figures. Surely, the loudest warning should be sounded by the very authorities who placed them in a position where they could harm and abuse so many.

The decent thing for the Tibetan leadership to do would be to accept some level of responsibility and accountability. If the Dalai Lama, as the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism, and the CTA, as the self-proclaimed government of all Tibetan people, do not accept responsibility for those they empower, then whose responsibility does it become? Instead, both the CTA’s website and the Dalai Lama’s website continue to ignore sexual and financial scandals perpetrated by the Dalai Lama’s close friends and choose instead to victimize Dorje Shugden worshippers. The lack of transparency and sheer recalcitrance of the Tibetan leadership to admit its mistakes is a sure sign that they do not hold themselves accountable to anyone, anything, any laws or even any moral standard. The Dalai Lama should speak up stronger and condemn these teachers as people who destroy Buddhism and abuse their powers. It makes Buddhism look bad if the Dalai Lama highlights these teachers, but it makes Buddhism look worse if he does not and remain silent. These type of scandals are growing and to support the Dalai Lama knowing he is not doing something tangible about this brings the prestige of the Dalai Lama down. This will not go away. The Dalai Lama’s silence will not make this go away. The very teachers he endorses are turning out to be sexual predators that bring Tibetan Buddhism a bad name and making people lose their confidence in the Dalai Lama. 

Whether it is due to its unwillingness or inability, the CTA has proven time and time again that it will not do anything to curtail abuses by Tibetan Buddhist figures. To the CTA, any crime is permissible including murder, inflicting physical harm, inciting violence and unrest, instigating suicide, financial and spiritual fraud, extortion, sexual assault and even rape, as long as you are not a Dorje Shugden practitioner. The only ‘crime’ the CTA is interested in prosecuting is the benign worship of a benevolent Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugden. That, to the CTA is an unpardonable treason no matter how devoted a Tibetan lama is to the Dharma, how well and completely he keeps his monastic vows, how much he protects the integrity of Tibetan Buddhism, how hard he works to spread the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, how well and properly he runs his Dharma centers, how firmly he adheres to his ethics, how knowledgeable and attained he is, how much he protects the Tibetan culture and tradition, or how hard he works to keep the Tibetan dream alive.

For all the Tibetan leadership’s condemnation of Dorje Shugden people, there is not even a single sexual scandal, financial scandal or any form of outage reported against a Dorje Shugden lama in the West. You would think that with all the ‘criminality’ that Shugden people are accused of, there would be quite a few exposés and investigative news reports like those which undid Lama Tenzin Dhonden and Sogyal Rinpoche. However, after over 20 years of baseless accusations, the CTA is unable to come up with anything apart from more baseless, illogical and defective accusations, a popular one being the allegation that Shugden practitioners are all undercover Chinese spies and agents.

Dorje Shugden.
Click to enlarge.

The CTA would have you believe that merely by practicing Dorje Shugden, you will go to hell. But doesn’t one go to hell for committing crimes such as rape, sexual assault and inflicting physical harm onto others? Doesn’t one go to hell for creating schism in the Sangha and by breaking sacred oaths and forcing others to commit heinous crimes such as corrupting the Dharma? Why is the CTA so vocal on the practice of Dorje Shugden even IF it was a corrupt practice (which it is not) and yet so timid and accommodating on such serious crimes and sinful infractions? Is the self-practice of the benign 400-year-old Dorje Shugden ritual more harmful than rape, murder, fraud and felonies that leave countless lives damaged? Even if practicing Dorje Shugden is wrong (which it is not), which is the more serious crime? Which is the misdeed that pushes people away from the Dharma and erodes trust in Buddhism? Ponder that question and one might then begin to understand the true character of the CTA and its real agenda.

Ultimately, given that the Dalai Lama is the supreme spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism, he should take much stronger action to deter errant Tibetan Buddhist lamas from further indulging in such abusive behavior. He should make very strong statements that lamas who have committed such crimes in the past and those who do such things in the future will immediately have their connections with him severed. That his recognition and endorsement of them will immediately be revoked. That they should immediately remove any forewords he may have written from their books. That they are forbidden to use any photos they may have taken together with him. That they may not hold official positions in the Tibetan administration. That they may not attend his teachings or be in his presence any more. This will be a good warning to the Tibetan Buddhist world that the Dalai Lama is serious about stamping out wayward behaviour amongst the Tibetan Buddhist clergy.

In fact, the Dalai Lama should really take the current situation seriously before the reputation of Tibetan Buddhism is utterly and completely ruined. Take what is happening to the Vatican as an example. They are coming under fire for case after reported case of men of the cloth molesting young children, and as a result are paying millions in compensation. If the Dalai Lama and the CTA continue to remain quiet, it is only a matter of time before they are held similarly accountable for the harmful actions of those under their domain. So, before it is too late, the Dalai Lama and his CTA had better take stronger measures so that the global public sees that something is being done about these criminals in robes, just as how Dorje Shugden practitioners are being punished for not heeding the Dalai Lama’s advice.

Buddhist leader sexually assaulted students,
report finds

Source: https://thinkprogress.org/buddhist-leader-sexually-assaulted-students-report-finds-0d08e17cedd9/. Click to enlarge.

Shambhala Head Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
Accused of Sexual Abuse in New Report

Source: https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/sakyong-mipham-rinpoche-sexual-abuse/. Click to enlarge.

Report alleges sexual misconduct by
leader of Shambhala community

Source: https://www.lionsroar.com/report-alleges-sexual-misconduct-by-leader-of-shambhala-community/. Click to enlarge.

The young 10th Zhabdrung Rinpoche

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: Solaray Kusco

High in the foothills of the Himalayas, from their base in Dharamsala, North India, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA; Tibetan leadership in exile) has spent the last 60 years in a coordinated campaign to vilify and isolate China. It is becoming increasingly clear however, that their efforts have been in vain because the world today watches China’s rapid and ongoing transformation from a provincial backwater that was easy to malign for her Communist past, into a world superpower with sophisticated politics and great economic vigor.

As part of their campaign against China, the CTA has always promoted themselves and pre-1959 Tibet as some kind of idyllic Shangri-la. Thanks to canny marketing, for decades Tibet supporters were swept away by romantic notions of a land of snows filled with grand old lamas full of wisdom, and free from the shackles of capitalism, materialism and politics. While there is some element of truth to this, and many lamas were indeed great beings, pre-1959 Tibet was in fact a generally feudalistic society with deeply entrenched ideas about rank and servitude. If you were born a serf, it was because of your karma and you were bound to serve whoever was wealthier than you until your karma was exhausted. Unlike other more meritocratic societies, there was very little opportunity for upwards social mobility.

This form of ‘governance’ has been relocated into the Tibetan diaspora, where the nobility and aristocrats of pre-1959 Tibet continue to rule life in exile, and names such as ‘Aukatsang‘ and ‘Gyari’ fill the ranks of the leadership. One person still sits at the top, dictating all decisions and policies that the government, a mouthpiece for democracy, enforces on his behalf.

The Tibetans were able to do this in pre-1959 Tibet, as well as in exile, because of the global reputation of Vajrayana Buddhism and, more importantly, that of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Few in the world have achieved the universal rank and reputation of the Dalai Lama and until recently, he has enjoyed a warm welcome all over the world. Lauded as a paragon of compassion and all-knowing wisdom, the Dalai Lama and, by default, the CTA have had near-carte blanche to do as they pleased for the last 60 years. Political rivals, for example, could be disposed of as they pleased; in pre-1959 Tibet, this might have been through the use of poison or assassins but in the exiled community, it has taken on the more elegant, though no less violent, form of labelling someone a Chinese spy to upset the Tibetan people and “sic ‘em” on one another.

One other nation close to Tibet that has benefited from similar tropes is Bhutan, another Vajrayana Buddhist nation that continues to enjoy a very positive response globally. While most aspects of Bhutan are very admirable, including their carbon-negative status as well as emphasis on happiness and peace instead of materialism, there exists a side of Bhutan that not many know about.

Going back to the beginning

Modern-day Bhutan was founded by His Holiness Zhabdrung Rinpoche Ngawang Namgyal, an attained being who unified many warring fiefdoms into one kingdom. Not only was he an astute military strategist and shrewd statesman but he was also an accomplished meditator and a patron of arts, culture and Buddhism. As the secular leader of Bhutan, he sought to create a Bhutanese cultural identity that was distinctly different from the Tibetan one. He implemented a unique judicial and legal system in the country, splitting control of Bhutan between a religious leader (Je Khenpo) and a secular one (Druk Desai). It is a system of governance that persists until today, albeit in a modified form. Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal was also militarily-minded and established many dzongs (fortress monasteries) throughout Bhutan, including the strategically-located Simtokha Dzong close to Thimphu, the capital city. This allowed him to control traffic between Paro Valley in the west and Trongsa Valley in the east.

As a religious leader, Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal was open-minded and although his personal Drukpa Kagyu practice prevailed to become the state-sponsored faith, he allowed the Nyingmapas to continue undisturbed with their worship. He even hosted Jesuits in his court, unlike Tibet, which continued to remain closed off to foreigners and visitors for many more centuries.

This 252-year-old statue of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal Rinpoche was acquired by The Asiatic Society in Kolkata in 1865. (Souce: dnaindia.com)

Due to his activities and deeds, Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal’s image can be seen painted on walls in temples and homes all over the country. It is said that every Bhutanese home in the country has a statue of this great lama who did so much to bring Bhutan together, and give them the tools to grow and prosper for many more centuries.

One might think that such an illustrious lama would come back in his next life with no impediments for the continuance of his great works. Unfortunately, Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal’s successors did not fare as well as their predecessor.

After his passing, Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal’s subsequent incarnations returned as multiple emanations. Some say that the recognition of a body, speech and mind emanation of the Zhabdrung line was an intentional move on the part of the secular Bhutanese leadership, who conspired to recognize more than one reincarnation so that power could not be consolidated into one individual. And in addition to the recognition of more than one reincarnation, Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal’s reincarnations also appear to have developed a habit of dying at a young age.

A summarized list of the demise of the Zhabdrung lineage goes as follows:

Click to enlarge

Rumors abound of the Bhutanese leadership’s role in all of these deaths; sources speak of a prophecy that foretells the demise of the Bhutanese monarchy should the Zhabdrung mind emanation ever be allowed to come of age, and gain all the resources that comes with a full and proper recognition.

This would certainly be a very good reason for the Bhutanese leaders to suppress the Zhabdrung incarnations and it appears that they have been successful with at least the body incarnation lineage which died out in the mid-18^th century. The speech and mind emanations, on the other hand, continued well into the 20^th century.

The Zhabdrung lineage in the 21^st century

The 10th Zhabdrung Rinpoche

Today, the 10^th Zhabdrung mind emanation, Zhabdrung Rinpoche Jigdrel Ngawang Namgyal (Pema Namgyal), is rumored to reside in Kalimpong, away from the potential tumultuousness of a relationship with the country his previous incarnation established. That is not to say the 10^th Zhabdrung Rinpoche has not tried to establish a relationship; the fact he attempted to do so actually led to a very eventful early life for the young reincarnation.

The 10^th Zhabdrung Rinpoche was born in 2003, two months before the 9^th Zhabdrung Rinpoche passed away. Within Vajrayana Buddhism, this is not an unusual occurrence. For example, Guru Deva Rinpoche is known to have emanated in a similar way, ejecting his consciousness into his son before he passed away.

Under the guidance and recognition of the 17^th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley, the young boy was recognized as the 10^th Zhabdrung, the declaration taking place in Bodhgaya in 2004. The boy was just one year and four months old at the time. He and his supporters were subsequently invited to Bhutan to face Bhutan’s reincarnation committee, set up by the government to validate all tulku recognitions. Tulkus who are not recognized by this body may not promote themselves as reincarnations and are subject to a variety of institutionalized consequences. Supporters of such unapproved claimants also face harsh punishments.

Thus the 10^th Zhabdrung Rinpoche travelled to Bhutan accompanied by his parents as well as the oracle who had recognized him. Upon their arrival in Thimphu, the oracle was promptly thrown in jail while the boy and his parents were held in a secret location. The 10^th Zhabdrung Rinpoche was then declared to be a fake and, instead of being released, he and his parents were put under house arrest. Their current whereabouts remain unknown; the last reports about them are in 2014, when they were said to have still been under house arrest. Nothing was published about their release, and reports about the 10^th Zhabdrung Rinpoche residing in Kalimpong remain unconfirmed.

Similarities with China

It would be remiss if we failed to see how the 10^th Zhabdrung Rinpoche Jigdrel Ngawang Namgyal’s situation closely mirrors that of China and the 11^th Panchen Lama.

A relatively benign example is the fact the 10^th Zhabdrung Rinpoche is rumored to have three emanations – a body, speech and mind incarnation. The same can be said of the 11^th Panchen Lama – there is the Dalai Lama-recognized candidate and the China-backed Panchen Lama, whom the Dalai Lama has just confirmed is the “official Panchen Lama”.

Another example of the similarities is China’s “living Buddhas” list which is a record of all state-recognized tulkus throughout China and Tibet. Those who do not make it onto the list are subjected to greater levels of scrutiny and monitoring; in Bhutan, it appears that those who fail to meet the standards of the reincarnation committee face harsher consequences than mere scrutiny and monitoring.

(Left to right) The Panchen Lama candidate chosen by the Dalai Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and the Panchen Lama candidate recognised by China, Gyaincain Norbu.

Just like China, the Bhutanese leadership claim that this committee was set up to prevent abuse of the tulku system by charlatans but lamas like the 10^th Zhabdrung Rinpoche, who is recognized by his followers but not by the committee, would argue that the committee and its lists are open to abuse, and can be employed to shut out potential political rivals or threats to the system.

Similarly, in the case of the candidates for the 11^th Panchen Lama, when the Dalai Lama’s candidate was recognized and announced, the young boy disappeared just a few days later. The Tibetan leadership claim that the child has been under house arrest for the last 22 years. In the case of Bhutan, the 10^th Zhabdrung Rinpoche was placed under house arrest upon his arrival in Bhutan from India 13 years ago, and his current whereabouts also remain unknown or otherwise unconfirmed.

And just like China, whose leadership has a reputation for making swift work of political rivals, it would appear that the Bhutanese leadership are also quick to dispatch of any potential threats to their position and power, the sudden and early demise of many Zhabdrung emanations being evidence of this. As Dr. Dhurba Rizal notes in his book The Royal Semi-Authoritarian Democracy of Bhutan, the Zhabdrung incarnations have “continued to appear and have to be dealt with poisonings, pushing off rooftops, and strangulations“, leading to subsequent incarnations taking rebirth further and further East, away from Bhutan.

Double standards from the CTA

What is intended here is not an indictment of Bhutan’s practices and policies but rather an examination of the CTA’s double standards, hypocrisy and obvious political machinations for their own benefit.

Ironically, everything that the CTA has accused China of, and could accuse Bhutan of, they are guilty of themselves. For example, China has a list of officially-recognized tulkus and Bhutan has their reincarnation committee. The Tibetan government have the exact same thing in the form of the Dalai Lama. Any reincarnations who do not meet with his approval are shunned and segregated by the community.

So while the CTA has been very vocal about China’s perceived foibles and attempts at regulating religious practices, they have on the other hand been silent on Bhutan’s actions. The CTA does not hesitate to claim that China is an authoritarian regime, yet they say nothing when witnessing similar practices in Bhutan. So why is it the CTA feels entitled to comment on one situation and not on the other? The answer lies, as always, in the CTA’s self-interests.

1. It’s harder to criticize someone with a good global reputation. Bhutan has a better standing internationally while China does not. It is easier for the CTA to vilify China when everyone already dislikes China’s Communist background. It’s much harder for the CTA to vilify Bhutan when the world lauds Bhutan for approaching globalization without losing Bhutanese culture, tradition and flair. If the CTA were to criticize Bhutan for anything, it would only make them look like petty, jealous, playground rivals and the Tibetan leadership risks a public relations backlash.
2. Relations between the Bhutanese and Tibetans are only just improving, and they have to make amends. After decades of attempts at destabilizing Bhutan, including an assassination attempt on the King in the 1970s, the CTA do not want to jeopardize their already-fragile relationship with Bhutan, who may be a potential ally in a world where the CTA are rapidly losing friends. In the Himalayan region especially, the CTA have few friendly faces to turn to – Bangladesh and Pakistan have no interest in them, Nepal has turned towards China and India is on her way to doing the same. All that remains is Bhutan, the last Vajrayana holdout that the CTA can hope for.
3. They have nothing to gain. It is not necessary for the CTA to hold Bhutan to the same standards that they attempt to impose on China because they have nothing to gain in doing so. Hence, when they criticize China for getting involved in religious matters, it is not because the CTA is trying to defend any real principle or standard, for example that an atheist government should not be involved in religion. They criticize China purely because they have something to gain from doing so – it helps the Tibetans to continue looking like victims, thus making them appear to be deserving recipients of more free financial aid.

Conclusion

The ban on Dorje Shugden had many unintended consequences, one of which was the discovery and highlighting of many controversies within Vajrayana Buddhism. Because the discrimination against Dorje Shugden was at total odds with the world’s general view of Buddhism being tolerant and compassionate, this led people to investigate what else Vajrayana Buddhists have been doing which may not fit Buddhist stereotypes.

Hence everyone was able to witness the conflict within the Karma Kagyus due to the issue of the three Karmapas, caused by the CTA. They were also treated to a display of forceful conversions of Drukpa Kagyu monasteries, which the CTA stood by silently and watched. And everyone saw how the Jonangpas were discriminated within the Tibetan Parliament by being refused equal representation.

And of course, everyone has seen the ongoing decades-long persecution of Dorje Shugden practitioners. When the CTA first banned the practice 20 years ago, one of the justifications they gave for the ban was the alleged link between Shugden practitioners and the Chinese leadership. According to the CTA, Shugden practitioners are bad, bad, bad because they are connected to the Chinese leadership who act in an authoritarian manner.

Yet, right at the CTA’s doorstep is the Bhutanese leadership acting in a similarly authoritarian manner but the CTA remains silent over this. Again, this is not an indictment of the way Bhutan chooses to operate. Every sovereign nation has a right to choose their form of governance; that is, Bhutan has a choice in how they wish to operate, and so does China.

But the fact is that every nation has events in their history that they are not proud of. For Bhutan, this may be their treatment of the incarnations of the Zhabdrung lineage. For China, it may be the way in which intellectuals were treated during the Cultural Revolution. For the US, it may be their involvement with issues like Guantanamo Bay which they have not been held accountable for, or the continued racism against African-Americans. Similarly, the 2.3 million people in the American prison system (as of 2017) would also argue that their government has acted in an authoritarian manner with regards to their incarceration.

What is clear is that the CTA’s choice of who they condemn is not based on any particular consistent principle, but on where they stand to gain the most. They do not condemn the US for their war crimes because the American government gives them US$17mil every year; they do not condemn Bhutan for their treatment of the 10^th Zhabdrung Rinpoche because Bhutan may potentially be their last ally. But they DO condemn China because pitting themselves as the David against a super-powered Goliath has been a lucrative move for the last 60 years. But with China’s ascent to political and economic supremacy, how much longer can the CTA draw from this seemingly-unending well of money before it runs dry?

Addendum

News of the 10th Zhabdrung Jigdrel Ngawang Namgyal’s unwarranted house arrest even made headlines on the Buddhist Channel website. Click on the image below to read more.

Click to enlarge. (Source: http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=40,3674,0,0,1,0#.WyK4w1Uzayp)

 
Sources:

• The Royal Semi-Authoritarian Democracy of Bhutan by Dr. Dhurba Rizal (July 2015; Lexington Books)
• http://www.bhutandnc.com/bhutantoday%20-May.htm
• http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=40,3674,0,0,1,0
• http://www.vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=2831
• http://www.ipajournal.com/2012/09/26/is-new-shabdrung-threat-to-bhutanese-royals/
• http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=42,1818,0,0,1,0#.Wt1z3dNubhM

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 April this year, there was a sudden flurry of news reports and comments made by the Tibetan leadership, of the Dalai Lama wanting to fulfil his wish to return to Tibet.

Sikyong Lobsang Sangay, the President of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA; Tibetan leadership based in Dharamsala) in particular, stunned Sino-Indian observers by voicing that the time had arrived to fulfil the Dalai Lama’s dream of returning to Tibet to reunite with Tibetans and to live in the Potala, the traditional residence of the Dalai Lamas.

Vijay Kranti, a senior journalist, Tibetologist, and Chairman of the Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies & Engagement (CHASE), has made great efforts to analyze the very important and pertinent question of “Will the Dalai Lama return to China?” His astute conclusions, published in the Tibetan Review on 16^th April 2018, have serious implications for the Tibetan diaspora and India.

WILL DALAI LAMA RETURN TO CHINA?

A question which is currently confronting most of Tibet-China watchers and Tibet supporters is, “is Dalai Lama seriously planning to visit or return to Tibet or China?” Three years ago the same question had created ripples when the idea of him visiting China’s famous holy Buddhist shrine of Wutai Shan was discussed loudly both in Beijing as well as in Dharamsala. On Sunday (1st April) again, Dr. Lobsang Sangay, the elected ‘Sikyong’ (the ‘President’ of Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala) stunned Tibet and China observers by announcing that time had arrived to fulfill Dalai Lama’s dream of returning to Tibet to ‘reunite with Tibetans’ and to live in Potala, the traditional palace residence of Dalai Lamas in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

Dr. Sangay was speaking in Dharamshala at the opening function of ‘Thank You India’, the year-long celebrations organized by CTA to commemorate the 60th year of Dalai Lama’s arrival in India and to express Tibetans’ gratitude toward the people and government of India. It was on 3rd April, 1959 when Dalai Lama, the exiled ruler and supreme Buddhist leader of Tibet, arrived in India at the end of a 17-day long daring and grueling escape on foot through snow and mountains to save himself from arrest or killing by the occupying Chinese army in Tibet.

Interestingly these celebrations had already become focus of world attention following New Delhi government’s instructions to its senior bureaucrats and leaders to keep off public events involving Dalai Lama’s personal presence. This sudden toughening of New Delhi’s stand forced the CTA to cancel the main mega event of Dalai Lama in capital’s spacious Thyagraja Stadium. But it is not first time that New Delhi rulers have taken a stand of this kind which appears to be aimed at pleasing Beijing in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to China. In October 2007 too, the erstwhile UPA government had issued an identical diktat to its senior leaders and bureaucrats when Dalai Lama was given a civic reception at New Delhi’s India Habitat Centre for being honoured by the US Parliament with America’s highest civic honour — the Congressional Gold Medal (equivalent to Bharat Ratna of India).

According to Dr. Sangay the first dream of Dalai Lama was about seeing blood which, according to Dr. Sangay, turned true when Tibetans faced widespread killings of Tibetan protesters during uprising against the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959 and also in later years. The International Commission of Jurists, an affiliate body of erstwhile UNO, claimed that Chinese army killed more than 80 thousand Tibetans to crush the uprising in 1959. As per Dharamsala claims this number of unnatural deaths of Tibetans in Chinese occupied Tibet has crossed 12 lakhs (1.2 million) over past seven decades.

The second dream refers to Dalai Lama meeting ‘people in white’ which, Sangay says, again turned out to be true when Dalai Lama fled Tibet and met Indian leaders like Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru and President Dr. Rajendra Prasad who were known for wearing dazzling white Khadi.

Comment: It was 32 years ago in Bodhgaya, India that the State Oracle of Tibet, Nechung, took trance and made a startling prediction: His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans in-exile would be back in Tibet within five years. Because of their strong belief, this prophecy was repeated over and over again by the leaders, writers and some civil servants of the Tibetan diaspora.

Because it was the State Oracle who issued the prophecy, and because it was their leaders propagating the news, Tibetans in-exile truly believed in it. However the prophecy, which foretold that they should have been back in Tibet by 1990, never came true.

Once you disagree with the Dalai Lama’s views, you will automatically be labelled as ‘anti-Dalai Lama’ and will be instantly shunned and segregated by the community.

1990 passed and the Tibetan leadership kept quiet and never gave further explanations. Meanwhile, in the hallways of monasteries, monks quietly whispered among themselves that the Tibetan leadership and Nechung are always like that, giving sweeping prophecies that never come true and keeping their people waiting, especially for the moment of their return to their hoemland.

The failure of the prophecy to manifest simply added to a multitude of factors contributing to the ongoing erosion of confidence in the Tibetan leadership and Nechung, and open declarations of a definite return to Tibet were henceforth relegated to low-key murmurs.

Therefore, the question Mr Kranti asked, “Is Dalai Lama seriously planning to visit or return to Tibet or China”, is a question which all Tibet-China watchers and Tibet supporters are currently confronted with, and is indeed a very important and pertinent question today.

EXPLOITING RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS?

Citing these two ‘dreams’ of Dalai Lama turning out to be true, Dr. Sangay enthusiastically claimed about a third dream of Dalai Lama which gives an extraordinary political dimension to this statement, especially for coming out of the mouth of the Tibetan leader whom the Dalai Lama has transferred all his political powers through a constitutional amendment. Quoting Dr. Sangay Jyoti Malhotra of the Indian Express reported, “The Dalai Lama’s third dream, Lobsang Sangay said, was of him returning to the Potala palace filled with light and ‘reunited with Tibetan people’… This third dream will also come true by karmic design. We must all make efforts for His Holiness’ dream to return to the Potala palace come true, Sangay added.”

Referring to dreams of an individual may not hold much meaning for outsider observers and analysts. But in a deeply religious society like Tibet where no rule is above the words of Dalai Lama, Dr. Lobsang Sangay’s attempt to present Dalai Lama’s return to Chinese ruled Tibet as the religious leader’s “last unfulfilled dream” and his call to Tibetan people for making this ‘dream’ of Dalai Lama a reality, deserves a closer scrutiny by the Tibetan society, supporters of the Tibetan cause and, above all, the Indian government who have stakes in future of Tibet and its relations with China. This statement becomes extremely meaningful in the light of the fact that it is first time in past six decades that a senior(most) official of Tibetan government in exile has publicly endorsed Beijing’s agenda which is seriously focused at bringing back Dalai Lama to Chinese ruled Tibet before he is dead and the search for his next (15th) reincarnation starts.

Comment: These paragraphs clearly highlight that the Tibetan leadership have failed their people in every respect. First of all, is the Tibetan leadership a real democracy or one that runs off dreams and premonitions? No other democracy in the world has leaders who talk about the dreams of their spiritual leaders. In fact, in other democracies, the leaders make a consciousb effort to distance themselves from their personal faiths in the hopes that their political decisions are seen as objective and secular. However, in the Tibetan leadership, a so-called democracy, the leader has no qualms about quoting the Dalai Lama and citing karma.

But that is not the only failure. The more significant, but slightly less obvious failure is the fact Lobsang Sangay has never previously made it clear that he endorses Beijing’s plan to bring the Dalai Lama back to Tibet. It is not farfetched to assume that the Dalai Lama has always wanted to return to Tibet by whatever means possible so what type of leader is Lobsang Sangay to not have prioritized this before? He should have made it clear a long time ago that one of the key objectives of the Tibetan leadership is to ensure that His Holiness returns to Tibet. In a deeply religious society like that of the Tibetans, no one overrules the Dalai Lama. So to have ignored this wish of His Holiness, and failed to align it with Beijing’s plans, and to have not highlighted and pursued it means that the CTA president has not been doing his job well.

Lobsang Sangay’s loud and open proclamation about the Dalai Lama’s dream may sound good but underneath it all, it is nothing more than emotional blackmail and the creation of a preemptive scapegoat. By pointing out that it is the Dalai Lama who wants to return to Tibet, any failure to make it happen will be everyone else’s fault for failing His Holiness i.e. Lobsang Sangay is blameless because he has made it clear what the Dalai Lama’s wishes are, and it is up to everyone else to make it come true.

PUSHING CHINESE AGENDA

It is noteworthy that in two major contacts between Dharamsala and Beijing, first held during late 1970s and early 1980s and second between 2002-2010 period, Tibetan side branded these meetings as ‘Tibet-China talks’ and ‘dialogue’ but Chinese side made it known public more than once that the visits of Tibetan delegations were ‘private’ in nature and the only subject of discussion was how to pave way for return of Dalai Lama to the ‘great motherland’. If followed in letter or spirit, Dr. Sangay’s plans about Dalai Lama’s return to ‘China’s Tibet’ is simple implementation of Chinese agenda which would mean a permanent closure of the dispute between Tibet and its colonial masters in Beijing.

Knowledgeable sources in MEA as well as India’s intelligence agencies who are keenly watching Dharamsala-Beijing contacts, believe that this announcement of Dr. Sangay has further strained the relations between New Delhi and Dharamshala. These relations have been already undergoing stress caused by a series of developments related to Dharamshala’s secret hobnobbing with Chinese government in recent past. A couple of years ago MEA had a serious brush with CTA, including the private office of the Dalai Lama when it was discovered that a meeting between Dalai Lama and a Chinese leader, holding rank of a minister, was secretly organized in Dharamsala without taking into confidence the MEA or security agencies that are responsible for Dalai Lama’s personal security. Similarly, recent China visit of Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, the former ‘Prime Minister’ of CTA also did not go down well with MEA.

Comment: Notwithstanding Lobsang Sangay’s ulterior motives for conveying the Dalai Lama’s dreams to his audience, one thing was made clear – a return to Tibet is at the forefront of the Dalai Lama’s mind. This conclusion is strengthened by the fact Samdhong Rinpoche took the risk of recently visiting China for talks. This was no low-level visit – Samdhong Rinpoche is the former Prime Minister of the Tibetan people, and one of the Dalai Lama’s two personal envoys and representatives.

Samdhong Rinpoche’s visit to China took place in spite of a serious brush he had with India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) a couple of years ago when it was “discovered that a meeting between the Dalai Lama and a Chinese leader, holding rank of a minister, was secretly organized in Dharamsala without taking into confidence the MEA or security agencies responsible for the Dalai Lama’s personal security”.

The fact Samdhong Rinpoche was willing to further upset India by visiting China means that the Dalai Lama is most serious about engaging with the Chinese about a return to Tibet, and he is very keen for this return to happen soon. This conclusion becomes especially believable when viewed in the context of Dr. Sangay’s stunning statement about the Dalai Lama’s dream of returning to Tibet which was issued not long after Professor Samdhong’s visit.

The Dalai Lama and his personal envoy Samdhong Rinpoche

By looking at the chain of events, the Dalai Lama is in fact accelerating his return to China, even rushing it. And when he says that enough times, either himself or through his top representatives, it is almost like he is “begging” to return.

The current situation is bleak for the Dalai Lama and therefore the Tibetan diaspora. The list of world leaders who do not want to meet His Holiness or cannot be seen doing so is growing ever longer and in fact many countries in the world from South Africa to Mongolia to Taiwan have officially barred him from visiting. At home in Dharamsala, India too has begun snubbing the Dalai Lama.

In February this year, a day before India’s new foreign secretary Mr Vijay Gokhale made his first standalone visit to Beijing, he sent a note to the India Cabinet secretary, requesting him to issue a “classified circular advisory advising all Ministries/Departments of the Government of India as well as State Governments not to accept any invitation or to participate in the events being organized by the ‘Dalai Lama set-up’ to commemorate the start of the 60 years of exile of the Dalai Lama in India.”

As a result of this, the “Thank You India” event in Delhi was cancelled under advisement from Delhi, the CTA were forced to relocate it to tiny Dharamsala where it was eventually held on a very small scale at the Dalai Lama’s temple complex, the Tsuglhagkhang. From a planned Delhi extravaganza, it was in effect downgraded to a provincial event held at the CTA’s usual venues for all of their events.

Given this backdrop, could His Holiness the Dalai Lama be manifesting desperation to return to China, to the extent of straining the relationship between Delhi and Dharamsala?

All this could be worthwhile if, as Mr Kranti says, it led to the “simple implementation of Chinese agenda which would mean a permanent closure of the dispute between Tibet and its colonial masters in Beijing.” If the dispute between the Tibetans and Beijing can see closure, then the current reset in relations between India and China will also move up more quickly as there will no longer be the question of the Dalai Lama in India to hamper Sino-Indian ties.

BOTH SIDES RESPONSIBLE

But it will be too naïve and unkind to Dharamsala if all the blame for such developments is heaped exclusively on CTA or Dalai Lama. It is no secret that over past six decades of Dalai Lama’s presence in India, the MEA has been perpetually as a loss and confused in evolving or adopting a well-defined policy on Tibet — not even about the status of Dalai Lama, his activities and the scope of cooperation between him and the Indian government.

India abstained from and refused to support the first two resolutions in 1959 and 1961 in the UNO which condemned China for serious abrogation of human rights in Tibet. Rather, India stopped the rest of world from raising the issue of Tibet in the UNO. But following India-China war of 1962 India voted in favour of the same resolution when it was pressed third time in 1965. Indian representative Rafiq Zakaria’s strong statement against Chinese conduct inside occupied Tibet came as a pleasant surprise to the anti-China lobbies across the world. In later years also there have been many occasions when New Delhi allowed, rather facilitated, Dalai Lama’s visits to Arunachal Pradesh despite strong threats and reactions from China.

Comment: India has been put in an increasingly difficult position as its hosting of Tibetans for almost 60 years has had mixed results which have changed over time.

In the beginning and right up to about a decade or more ago, India benefited both tangibly and intangibly by positioning itself as a huge democratic nation which supported democratic causes. Hosting the Dalai Lama and his people added greatly to this projection. Being the generous host of the Dalai Lama and his exiled people, India was welcomed by all Western and democratic nations in the world. They were after all on the same side.

A comic taken from the Internet that depicts the truth behind Tibetan ‘democracy’.

Indeed, after at first abstaining from and refusing to support resolutions in the United Nations which condemned China for human rights violations as Mr Kranti details above, India then began using the Tibetan issue more outwardly. It became more apparent that India were using the Dalai Lama’s presence in their country as a political card; that is, the Dalai Lama is there to remind China that India as a sovereign nation will make her own decisions and host whomever she likes, and there is nothing China can do about it.

In more recent years, the Dalai Lama has taken on more of an agent provocateur role, allowing India to use him in a more hawkish manner, for example, when they facilitated the “Dalai Lama’s visits to Arunachal Pradesh despite strong threats and reactions from China”. With the Dalai Lama willing to be party to such a hostile and antagonistic approach in Sino-Indian relations, as a result there was no chance that the Tibetan issue could have been resolved because the Dalai Lama showed his willingness to fulfil the “splittist” role that the Chinese leadership view him in.

INDIRA GANDHI’S INITIATIVE

In the aftermath of 1962 war the Indian government went to the extent of raising an exclusive ‘Special Frontier Force’ (SFF) in the Indian Army which worked directly under the Cabinet Secretariat and has been popularly known as ‘Establishment-22’. In the Bangladesh liberation war during 1970-71 period a sizeable contingent of Tibetan ‘22’ guerrilla soldiers was secretly assigned the job of liberating the Tripura-Chittagong sector. Interestingly, the field operations of this secret contingent were personally supervised by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi herself.

On the day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi took oath in Rashrapati Bhawan in the presence of all heads of state from South Asia except China, the presence of Tibetan Sikyong Dr. Sangay in the VVIP enclosure gave indication that a brand new and different Tibet policy was in the offing. But later developments, especially the latest instructions of the NDA government to ignore ‘Thank You India’ have only confused the observers, and Dalai Lama too.

This sudden announcement by Dr. Sangay calling for Dalai Lama’s return to Chinese controlled Tibet has surprised many observers and institutions who have been keenly watching the Tibet-China-India triangle over past few decades. The uncommon attention that these remarks of the Sekyong has received, has prompted some other seniors in Dharamsala to suggest that it is nothing more than an off the cuff retort to New Delhi’s latest humiliating decision. Responding to my pointed question about Dalai Lama’s personal position on this issue, two prominent Tibetans who sit on two extreme ends of the ongoing political debate among the community disagreed with Dr. Sangay’s agenda.

Comment: China has over the last two decades become an economic superpower, standing practically shoulder to shoulder with the United States in terms of material production and consumption. Its economic and bilateral relations with many countries has upped and expanded.

Mr Vijay Kranti

This has destabilized Europe and America from their axis/hegemony. A new world order has emerged where relations with China can no longer be ignored or put on the backburner by labelling the country an insignificant market. In fact, China has become THE market for any business or country serious about expansion.

Within India, as Mr Kranti astutely observes, this adjustment process is currently underway. But for the Tibetans, the most significant part of Mr Kranti’s observations is that it paints the Indian approach towards the Tibetan question as erratic and inconsistent. One moment, Indian leaders are welcoming Dr Sangay as an equal and in the next moment, he is persona non grata, discarded in favor of a bilateral relationship with China.

For the Tibetan leadership, this must surely impose a feeling of instability and unreliability. Mr Kranti’s analysis simply highlights the precariousness and lack of control over their situation and future.

FAITH IN DALAI LAMA’S WISDOM

Tenzin Tsundue (43) is the most visible and vocal signature of Tibetan ‘Rangzen’ movement, which stands for complete independence for Tibet as opposed to Dalai Lama’s ‘Middle Path’ for ‘genuine autonomy’. He says, “HH (Dalai Lama) is still the boss, not Sikyong. Lobsang Sangay’s showing the face in the media, on stage, being the head of CTA is still nominal and has little meaning. HH calls the shots.” Emphasizing his faith Dalai Lama’s wisdom he says, “please don’t underestimate HH’s political wisdom.”

Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche (81) a senior monk statesman out rightly rejected the idea of any plans to send back Dalai Lama to China or Tibet. Both of them remind that during his countless world tours the Dalai Lama has been always presenting India in a very positive light in his public speeches and one to one discussions with heads of state. Both of them regret that India could have used the international goodwill of Dalai Lama in enhancing its own interests in the world politics. The Dalai Lama has recently nominated Prof. Rinpoche and Dr. Sangay as his personal envoys to take ahead Dharamsala-Beijing ‘dialogue’.

 

DELHI OR DHARAMSALA — NEITHER CAN AFFORD IT

Whatever be the reality behind the prevailing confusion but one thing is clear. Neither Dalai Lama nor India can afford his slipping into Chinese lap at this delicate moment of Tibetan history. A dramatic decision like this will leave Dalai Lama, Tibet and Tibetan people completely at the mercy of Chinese whose previous record on their promises to Tibet is only too well known. By returning either permanently or even as a ‘pilgrim guest’ of a country (China) whose atrocities made him flee to exile, Dalai Lama will lose his legal and moral qualification as a ‘refugee’.

Comment: Herein lies one of the most significant statements in Mr Kranti’s analysis – it records a Tibetan stating very clearly that the Dalai Lama is in control, and that Lobsang Sangay is just a figurehead.

This statement is extremely significant because first of all, it is being made by a prominent activist who is known to have insider knowledge into the workings of the Tibetan leadership. It is also significant because it is being made by someone who does not have any known links to China and therefore cannot be accused of such i.e. his assessment of Lobsang Sangay’s role and the Dalai Lama’s ongoing control is unbiased and he cannot be accused of trying to undermine Lobsang Sangay to further China’s interests.

Tenzin Tsundue’s statement echoes those which have been made all along by many other parties who were more easily dismissed than Tsundue himself. That is, Lobsang Sangay is not truly in power, the Tibetan leadership have not moved on towards a democracy, and the Dalai Lama is still the one in control. In essence, Tsundue’s comment debunks everything the Dalai Lama has been promoting to his Western audiences about the Tibetan leadership and their movement towards democracy.

Tenzin Tsundue, a passionate and strong advocate of Tibetan independence (rangzen).

This means that whatever Lobsang Sangay says is controlled, approved and perhaps even dictated by the Dalai Lama. If Lobsang Sangay says the Dalai Lama had dreams, it is because the Dalai Lama told him to do so; if Lobsang Sangay says the Dalai Lama is willing to negotiate with China to return to Tibet, it is because he was told to do so. Lobsang Sangay, for all of his posturing and travels, is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the real leader in charge of the Tibetan leadership.

Therefore, where is the democracy or segregation of power if the Dalai Lama alone is still the one in power? The situation is pretty much akin to the time of the last Empress of China. It was still the Empress who ruled behind the suspended curtain, pulling the strings of the puppet on the throne.

All of this may answer why the Dalai Lama appears to be in such a hurry to return to Tibet. Clearly if Lobsang Sangay has no real power or control now, then after the Dalai Lama’s passing, Lobsang Sangay will not be capable of leading the Tibetans or of making progress in the CTA’s political goals. Having projected into the future and seen this inevitability, the Dalai Lama may now be trying to push for some kind of resolution with the Chinese because once he is no longer around, he knows Lobsang Sangay will not be able to accomplish much.

So desperate is the Dalai Lama to negotiate with the Chinese that he not only nominates personal envoys “to take ahead Dharamsala-Beijing ‘dialogue’” but the Dalai Lama is also willing to “lose his legal and moral qualification as a ‘refugee’” if he returns to China. The question is, why is the wise Dalai Lama doing so? Why not before but now?

DALAI LAMA’S LOSS

Tibetan people may be happy to see their ‘Yeshi Norbu’ (meaning Precious-Gem and a common name for Dalai Lama) with their own eyes in their current life time. But this privilege will come at the cost of losing the momentum and courage of standing up against the tyranny for their colonial masters once they see their leader patching up with China. More than 150 Tibetans have committed self immolation inside Tibet against Chinese rule in recent years. The international Tibet support movement which has taken roots across the world over past six decades will die instantly and it cannot be revived in future if China ever goes back on its promises to Dalai Lama. His visit or return will permanently seal the fate of Tibet as an integral part of China and Beijing will get the license of nominating the future Dalai Lamas too.

By segregating the political and religious titles of the institution of Dalai Lama and handing over all his political powers to the elected representatives of Tibetans, the Dalai Lama had already given an endless shelf life to the Tibetan struggle and the institution of Dalai Lama itself. Sadly, his return to China will kill this achievement in its infancy.

Comment: Mr Kranti is clear about what will happen if the Dalai Lama goes back to Tibet – it will mean the end of any campaign to gain independence or meaningful autonomy for the Tibetans, because the Dalai Lama will have given up any political capital he currently possesses. Everything the Tibetans have fought for over the “past six decades will die instantly”, with no hope of a future revival.

The fact Mr Kranti pins the Tibetan future solely on the Dalai Lama, and leaves no room for consideration regarding Lobsang Sangay’s capabilities reflects the commonly-held belief that Lobsang Sangay has not shown much political wisdom or maturity, and the Dalai Lama is still in charge. This is clearly exemplified by Lobsang Sangay’s statements about fulfilling the prophecy that His Holiness will return to Tibet. Despite his insistence that he is the leader of a democratic administration, it is clear Lobsang Sangay is not on equal standing with other democratic leaders because he talks about dreams, thereby demonstrating his failure to grow out of pre-1959 Tibet’s habit of referring to mystical prophecies. After all, what kind of politically mature leader bases their decisions on dreams?

INDIA STANDS TO LOSE

For India also, too big things are at stake to sit idle and allow the influential lobbies of Dharamsala to hand over a living Dalai Lama on a platter to China. With the return of Dalai Lama to Tibet or China all chances, whatever remote, of rehabilitating Tibet as a buffer between India and a quarrelsome China would be lost forever. But worst fall out of this Dharamsala-Beijing marriage will be the sudden transformation of the Himalayan states of India from India’s ‘first defence post’ to the Chinese front post of aggression because the local Buddhist populations have deeper religious bonds and relations with the Tibetan Buddhist system and monasteries inside Tibet than with the Indian plains.

 

INDIAN HARAKIRI?

Dr. Sangay’s statement has only further confirmed fears among many observers that an influential section among the Tibetan exile leadership is desperate about cobbling up a deal with China on whatever terms. The very first negotiation point in this deal, as already declared by Dr. Sangay, is bound to be the return of Dalai Lama. Leaving Dalai Lama to the mercy of such lobbies will be a national hara-kiri on the part of Indian government. Rather, it would be much wiser for New Delhi to become pro-active on this front. By taking reasonable interest in the Dharamsala-Beijing dialogue New Delhi will not only strengthen Dalai Lama’s hands, but it will also give India enough elbow room to ensure its own interests in any prospective deal remain safe.

For New Delhi to start with, one not-so difficult move can be to publicly acknowledge Dalai Lama’s personal and institutional contributions to the Indian cultural and philosophic though process and to bestow upon him the ‘Bharat Ratna.’ After all, if India can honour friendly foreigners like Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teressa with this Bharat-Ratna, then Dalai Lama’s name sound equally, if not more befitting. On the diplomatic front too, such a step will not only enhance the shelf life of Tibetan issue and value of Dalai Lama for India, it will be a very Gandhian and befitting response to China’s aggressive postures against India.

Comment: Mr Kranti hits the nail on the head with his final paragraphs. However, it seems foolhardy and risky to Sino-Tibetan relations to bestow upon the Dalai Lama any awards when his ongoing presence in India endangers the country’s welfare in a way that Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa never did. Unlike these great laureates and personalities who contributed to India, the CTA’s comments and actions consistently serve to antagonize China, with no concern or attention paid towards how it will affect India.

Left to right: Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa

Regardless of whatever awards India wishes to bestow upon the Dalai Lama, ultimately, India must protect her interests and wrest back control of the Tibetan administration. As guests of India, and as foreigners who refuse to become Indian citizens or integrate into Indian society after 60 years, the Tibetans and their pseudo-leader Lobsang Sangay should not be allowed to make comments which will dictate, influence or affect the course of Indian foreign policy. If Lobsang Sangay and the Dalai Lama wish to give up their influence in favor of a return to China, that is their decision but it should not come at the cost of Indian interests. India, after all, has the welfare of 1.3 billion citizens to safeguard and the activities of 100,000 Tibetans should not be allowed to adversely impact this.

Conclusion

The rise of China as a world superpower turned the tables on India as the host of Tibetans living in exile, and scuppered the Tibetans’ opportunities to continue hiding behind India as they provoked China.

While in the past, it was beneficial to criticize China regarding the Tibetan issue or to allow the Tibetan leadership in India to do so as this would be very positively received by Western nations who controlled a large amount of trade with India, this is not the case anymore.

Indeed, it has been rather hypocritical for India to side with the West with regards to the Tibetan issue, and to support the West’s opposition to China’s growth, all the while disregarding the fact it was the West who pillaged dozens of nations in the history of the world, India included.

Today, if Tibetans, after almost 60 years of living in India, do anything to jeopardize the future economic development prospects of India by continuing to antagonize the new superpower China, Indians will feel insulted because Tibetans are ungrateful for all that India has provided them. This point needs to be etched into the minds of all Tibetans because President Xi Jinping has said in no uncertain terms that no one will desecrate China again and take a single cent of Chinese money.

It is time that the CTA takes serious stock of their situation, and thoroughly explores the options still open to them. Six decades of living off India and the rest of the world have made them complacent and with China racing fast to the finish line, making friends and money along the way, pretty soon the Tibetans will just be a speck on the horizon, serving as just another inconsequential issue to be relegated to the history books.

Tibetan Review: Will Dalai Lama Return to China

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