Today, those who worship the deity Dorje Shugden and similarly, those who wish to pursue the Tibetan dream of Independence are labelled enemies of the Tibetan people and friends of the enemy-China. As a matter of fact, it is well known that anyone who is perceived to have views and opinions that are not completely aligned to those of the Tibetan leadership are thus tagged and labelled. The inference is, to be sympathetic or supportive of China is immediately taken to be anti-Tibetan and to wish the demise of the Tibetan people, culture and religion. At least, that is how the propaganda goes.

What is ironic is that in the modern history of Tibet, no one has courted or spoken more highly of the Chinese than the 14th Dalai Lama who history has shown was such a friend and admirer of Chairman Mao, the dictator who would go on in his campaign to destroy the Tibetan identity and religion.

In fact, the Dalai Lama so truly loved Mao that in 1954, he composed a glowing hymn to Mao. The Dalai Lama started the hymn by calling Chairman Mao

The great national leader… the cakravarti (a holy, powerful monarch) born out of boundless fine merits.

And then, he went on to proclaim:

O! Chairman Mao! Your brilliance and deeds are like those of Brahma and Mahasammata, creators of the world.

In the hymn, he also regarded Mao (hence China) as a liberator:

You liberated all with your brilliance.

Above from Anna Louise Strong’s “Tibetan Interviews”; 1959, New World Press, Peking. Click to enlarge.

It is interesting that, China having invaded Tibet in 1950, the Dalai Lama still regarded Mao as a liberator. And yet today, the same Dalai Lama and his government claim that Tibet was unjustly annexed instead of liberated. This switch is confusing although when we study the history of the present Tibetan leadership, sudden and drastic about turns in policies and views seem to be the norm.

Later, the Dalai Lama also wrote a poem after meeting Mao in Beijing in 1955. According to “A History of the Liberation of Tibet“, the Dalai Lama gushed,

Only limitless blessing could create such a leader like the sun radiating across the land. His writings are as precious as pearls.

And despite all the anti-Chinese rhetoric, the Dalai Lama’s view has remained. Rather recently, he said on the Andrew Marr Show on BBC,

He (Chairman Mao) appears to me as a father and he himself considered me as a son. (We had) very good relations.
[Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/mao-zedong-considered-me-as-his-son-dalai-lama/article1-878134.aspx]

The Dalai Lama and Chairman Mao in 1954

Deng Xiaoping and the Dalai Lama in 1954

And as recently as March 2014, the Dalai Lama continued to praise Mao.

Dalai Lama urges Xi to think widely, praises Mao

Phayul [Sunday, March 02, 2014 09:29]
Minneapolis, March 1: The Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama has urged the Chinese leadership to think widely while praising Mao Zedong as a great revolutionary.

“I knew Mao very well. He was a great revolutionary. He trusted me a lot. He even told me that religion is opium,” said the Tibetan leader Dalai Lama during an interactive session with a group of Chinese students at his hotel. “The Chinese revolutionary leader later got himself corrupted by his own power,” added the Tibetan leader, sending the audience into laughter.

Source: http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=34618

Therefore, we see that the Dalai Lama’s admiration for Mao and hence the China that invaded Tibet and deprived the people of their homeland remained. But why praise a China that destroyed Tibet and at the same time condemn Tibetan lamas who are friendly with a China that seeks reconciliation today?

After all the praise, Mao’s People’s Liberation Army came and destroyed everything!

Shortly after the glowing hymn, Mao remarked during a 1954 meeting with the Dalai Lama that “religion is poison”. Then,

“By 1957, Kham was in chaos. Beatings, rapes, starvation, and torture were reported. Monks and nuns were forced to have sex with each other and forcibly renounce their celibacy vows.”

At 4:00pm on March 17, 1959 – the Chinese fired two mortar shells at the Norbulinka. They landed short of the palace walls in a marsh. This event triggered the Dalai Lama to finally decide to leave his homeland.

The Norbulinka was bombarded by 800 shells on March 21, 1959. Thousands of men, women and children camped around the palace wall were slaughtered and the homes of about 300 officials within the walls destroyed. In the aftermath 200 members of the Dalai Lama’s bodyguard were disarmed and publicly machine-gunned.

Lhasa’s major monasteries, Gaden, Sera and Drepung were shelled -the latter two beyond repair – and monastic treasures and precious scriptures destroyed. Thousands of their monks were either killed on the spot, transported to the city to work as slave labor, or deported. In house-to-house searches the residents of any homes harboring arms were dragged out and shot on the spot.

Over 86,000 Tibetans in central Tibet were killed by the Chinese during this period.

Two days after the Dalai Lama escaped from Lhasa, the Communists closed down the Tibetan government, seized land and bombed Potala Palace, Sera Monastery and the medical college of Changp Ri. Chinese snipers picked off protestors, some with Molotov cocktails, in the streets. When 10,000 more protestors sought refuge in the Jokhang Temple, it too was bombed.

Some estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Tibetans were killed in three days of violence.

Source: http://www.risefromashes.org/tibet/

It is estimated that some 6,000 Buddhist monasteries were destroyed during Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” and yet Mao is admired by the Tibetan leader.

Men drag a monk through the streets of Lhasa.

Shide Monastery, one of Tibet’s most venerable Buddhist monasteries, destroyed.

The destruction and killing then escalated during the Cultural Revolution

The man the Dalai Lama had so admired and trusted would go on to order the biggest rampage and destruction of Tibet.

Over the next few years, monasteries were destroyed with dynamite and artillery, libraries were looted and rare books and paintings were burned. Buddhist scriptures were used as shoe soles or wrapping paper, monks were forced to wear blue Mao suits instead of their traditional robes. Some were put to work for 20 years on communes digging vegetables.

Tibet was particularly hard hit in the Cultural Revolution. Many temples and monasteries were destroyed often with the help of Tibetan Red Guards.

Buddha was declared a reactionary and the Dalai Lama was called a criminal. Festivals, pilgrimages and partying were banned. Some Tibetans were forced to cut their hair. Others had to learn a new “friendship language” that incorporated Chinese and Tibetan words in weird ways. By the time it was over 99 percent of Tibet’s 6,000 religious monasteries, temples and shrines were looted or totally decimated and hundreds of thousands of sacred Buddhist scriptures were destroyed.

Source: http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat6/sub32/entry-4425.html

 

The Cultural Revolution arrived in Lhasa in July 1966. Red Guards entered Jokhang Temple two months later and destroyed or desecrated everything they could.

How did the Dalai Lama make such a big mistake?

How could the Dalai Lama, who is worshipped as an emanation of the enlightened Bodhisattva Chenrezig who is supposed to have complete clairvoyance, have made such as disastrous mistake about Mao? Why didn’t he foresee what Mao and his PLA would do? In the hymn, the Dalai Lama regarded Mao (hence China) as a liberator of Tibet but Mao and the PLA came and destroyed Tibet.

Why does the Dalai Lama still maintain his admiration for Chairman Mao yet condemn China for being an aggressor and colonist? This, like many actions and decisions by the Tibetan leadership, does not make sense. However, if the Dalai Lama is capable of making such a grave mistake, couldn’t he also have been mistaken about Dorje Shugden whose practice he has banned?

Calling enlightened world protector Dorje Shugden an evil spirit, a mistake too?

For almost twenty years, the Dalai Lama together with his Central Tibetan Administration (“CTA”) has been relentless in labeling enlightened world protector Dorje Shugden as an evil spirit. The Tibetan people and Dalai Lama fans worldwide readily accepted the Dalai Lama’s proclamation of Shugden as a malicious element. This has caused immense suffering amongst Dorje Shugden practitioners.

Given the big mistake the Dalai Lama made about Chairman Mao and the PLA, could he also have made another “big mistake” once again?

For sure, the Tibetans have and are suffering from the Dalai Lama and the CTA’s actions with regards to Dorje Shugden. And no closer is the CTA in securing Tibet’s autonomy, much less independence.

So, what other serious mistakes has/will the Dalai Lama and CTA make? And for that matter, why condemn anyone for trying to bridge the divide between China and Tibet (a job the CTA is failing miserably at), when the Dalai Lama himself is still cooing admiration for Mao? Why the bias and double standards?

After all, there is a Tibetan proverb: No matter if you eat a little or a lot of garlic, the smell is just as strong.

Precious video footage of Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama’s trip to China meeting Mao