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.

Dear readers,

Why are the Tibetan government-in-exile not ordering their people to stop the self-immolations? For everything else, the Tibetan government acts as a dictatorship and not the democracy they pretend to be, with the regime dictating to their people what they want them to do and believe.

So why do they continue to allow the tragic loss of lives and remain silent on this matter? Are they allowing their own people to self-immolate so they can pressure the international community to do something? Are they letting their own people die for their own gains?

The international community will not do anything because they would rather do business with China to better the lives of their own citizens. The international community, to put it bluntly, owes nothing to Tibet and Tibetans. Everyone’s country and the welfare of its citizens are the responsibility of their own country. Any travesties and tragedies should be blamed on the leadership of that country, in this case the Tibetan leadership. Helping the Tibetans gives them nothing and does not benefit them in any way. If Tibetans want the self-immolations to stop, then the Dalai Lama and Tibetan ‘government’ in exile will have to humble down and plead with China to come and begin negotiations again. China is Tibet’s key. By the Dalai Lama and his ‘government’ in exile always criticizing China in the Western media, it will not make China want to start talks again. Who will talk to you to better your situation if you are always berating them?

If the horrible and tragic self-immolations are to stop, then the Dalai Lama and his ‘government’ in exile must be humble and beg China to talk and negotiate. The obvious, if painful, truth is that Tibet holds no power and China holds all the power. Tibet stands to gain if the Dalai Lama and his people humble down on behalf of all the Tibetans.

Don’t let the lives of those self-immolated have no meaning.

Tsering Dondrup

Latest self-immolation death in Tibet causes concern for CTA Leadership

Source: http://tibet.net/2017/11/latest-self-immolation-death-in-tibet-causes-concern-for-cta-leadership-2/. Click to enlarge.

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.

Yet another life has been tragically lost in the name of the Tibetan cause. This latest casualty came in the wake of the Swiss government’s recent rejection of 300 Tibetan asylum seekers and dictum for them to leave the country.

In a grisly act of protest, 32-year-old Tashi Namgyal lay down on the railway track between Lucerne’s Emmenbrücke and Olten stations in the early hours of 7^th September 2017, willing himself to be fatally run over by an oncoming train. He reportedly left behind two letters, one addressed to the United Nations and the other to the Swiss government. Not only did both letters specifically carry his appeals for the plight of Tibetans in exile, but they also conveyed his overwhelming sense of helplessness, disappointment and frustration for his fellow countrymen.

The scene of Tashi Namgyal’s unfortunate suicide

Some might single out the Swiss government as the culprit, claiming that this tragedy could have been averted if they had been more compassionate and more accommodating to Tibetan asylum seekers. However, blaming the Swiss government is oversimplifying the problem and overlooking its root cause.

First of all, the Swiss government does not owe anything to the Tibetans refugees in exile. It has every right to decide whom to allow into its borders and whom to reject. It has acted within its own laws and to condemn them for rejecting Tibetan asylum seekers is to allow the real culprit, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), to yet again, cop out of its responsibilities.

In truth, this drastic form of protest is the result of the mounting frustration and desperation of Tibetans refugees caused by the broken promises of the CTA. From the ultimate promise of a return to their homeland to the interim assurances of improving the welfare of Tibetans in exile, CTA has clearly delivered none.

Negotiations with China have been at a stalemate for quite a while, with minimum traction to date. Instead of working hard to bring China back to the negotiation table, the CTA is more interested in explaining the lack of progress by conveniently blaming it all on China’s policies. This approach not only reflects the CTA’s typical irresponsible nature, but is also an insult to the people’s intelligence as there are many more avenues which the CTA can explore.

For instance, the CTA has done nothing to address China’s lack of trust in their sincerity in relations to the negotiations. This is obviously a major stumbling block, yet the CTA has illogically been making the situation worse by antagonising China, constantly painting it to the world at large as a sinister government abusing its power and using its money unscrupulously to get what it wants.

There has also been no proper post mortem to explore more effective ways to engage China nor any proper re-evaluation of the CTA’s strategy in dealing with the Chinese government. In other words, the Tibetan leadership is more preoccupied with justifying its ineffective policies and dealings with Chinese leaders rather than addressing them.

The sad truth is that, as long as there are Tibetans who keep sacrificing their lives for the Tibetan cause, the CTA will continue to have a convenient excuse to deflect attention away from their incompetence.

Another crucial factor prompting great frustration for the Tibetans in exile is their economic hardship. In this regard, saying that the CTA fail to pass muster is clearly an understatement. After all these years, not only has the Tibetan leadership failed to steer the Tibetan refugee community into self-sustainability, they have also failed to create tangible improvements in their social and economic welfare to date. Exile Tibetans living in Dharamsala are pretty much no better off now than how they were when they first fled Tibet, despite decades of generous donations and monetary aid channelled to the CTA for the Tibetan people.

Tashi Namgyal (front, center) during happier days

Thus, for many exile Tibetans, applying for asylum overseas becomes their only shot at building a better life and escaping the mire that is the Tibetan refugee community. As such, it is not difficult to see why even Tibetan youths such as the late Tashi Namgyal and the late Tenzin Choeying would feel dejected and disheartened to the point of employing extreme measures as a last resort to draw attention to the plight of Tibetans in exile.

Perhaps they were hoping to emulate the success of Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian street vendor whose self-immolation culminated in the end of dictatorship in Tunisia. Or perhaps they were trying to follow in the footsteps of Thich Quang Duc, the Vietnamese monk whose self-immolation eventually stopped the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government and toppled their rule.

Unfortunately, the harsh reality is that these self-inflicted Tibetan deaths have failed to effectuate any geopolitical changes. In fact, the ineffectiveness of the self-immolations as a means to advance the Tibetan cause is painfully obvious yet, for some reason, the CTA has elected not to condemn or speak against these sacrificial acts to prevent future incidents.

If the CTA truly cared for its people, why would they allow these rising suicides to be left unchecked? Clearly, the Tibetan leadership is in a position to curtail them, given their ability to browbeat Dorje Shugden practitioners into giving up their religious beliefs, turning those who refuse into social pariahs, turning the tables on Rangzen supporters and causing the violent ostracization of Lukar Jam. Given their influence and sway on their people, the CTA is more than able to bring an end to future suicides, if they wanted to.

Driven by an overwhelming sense of hopelessness and frustration, the late Tashi Namgyal undertook the most drastic form of individual protest to draw attention to the plight of his fellow Tibetans.

The hard truth is that the Tibetan leadership’s non-action has resulted in yet another loss of a young Tibetan life, and this time not under the so-called “oppression” of China but in the peaceful and democratic environs of Switzerland. Blame for the anguish and loss suffered by Tashi Namgyal’s family lies directly at the CTA’s doorstep.

Furthermore, the CTA’s on-going refusal to curb the rising spate of suicides in the name of the Tibetan cause will not only affect the reputation of Tibetans refugees around the world, but possibly spur even more countries to think twice before letting another Tibetan asylum seeker into their borders.

Given these circumstances, it logically goes to say that there must be truth in the allegations that the CTA actually condones these sacrifices. After all, since they are financially benefitting from increased foreign aid after every case of self-immolation, it is not a stretch to conclude that the Tibetan leaders are incentivised to remain quiet.

At the end of the day, the shock and outrage which ensues with each loss of Tibetan life conveniently allows the CTA to keep the Tibetan dream alive with very little effort on their part. From this perspective, it is no wonder that the Tibetan leadership is more interested in glorifying Tibetans who self-immolate by holding memorial services, lighting candles, calling them martyrs of the Tibetan cause and erecting statues to commemorate past self-immolations than to call for a cessation of such grisly suicides. Why? Because it would mean that they would actually have to put time and effort into doing what they were elected to do – to give the Tibetan people a better life.

The Original Article

Click to enlarge

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: Steve Lee

A comment from an ex-CTA (Central Tibetan Administration) insider on a TibetSun.com article reveals a rather insidious agenda brewing right in the heart of the Tibetan leadership. To date, the CTA has failed to make statements that discourage or denounce the growing trend of self-immolations occurring in India and Tibet, within the Tibetan community. Since the Tibetan leadership has failed to denounce the self-immolations, it is clear through their silence that they condone this practice. Hence they are allowing and encouraging Tibetans to kill themselves in the name of the Tibetan cause. They even glorify Tibetans who self-immolate by holding memorial services, lighting candles, calling them martyrs of the Tibetan cause and erecting statues to commemorate past self-immolations. And beyond this, the Tibetan leaders have even used self-immolation stories and statistics as garnishing for their fundraising campaigns in the West. There is blood smeared all over the donations that they have received into their fat pockets.

Comment left on the ‘Is Indian citizenship for Tibetans a threat to the Tibetan cause?’ article on Tibetsun.com. Click on image to read the comment.

How can the Tibetan leaders allow their own people to kill themselves for the Tibetan cause when the leaders are not doing nearly enough to make a breakthrough for the Tibetan cause? All negotiations with the Chinese have reached a stalemate and there are no fresh attempts or even a change of strategy in dealing with the Chinese. In other words, the Tibetan leadership have been ineffective with their policies and dealings with the Chinese leaders and the self-immolations, a manifestation of the people’s frustrations, are actually proof of this.

Tibetan activist Jamphel Yeshi, 27, runs through the Delhi streets on fire in protest of Chinese policies in Tibet.

At the end of the day, the Tibetan leaders could do much more to engage with the Chinese leaders. What government or leadership in the world celebrates the self-immolation of its own citizens instead of taking steps to prevent it? It is not as though the Tibetan leadership lacks the mechanisms to discourage people from self-immolations. For example, the Tibetan leaders have proven themselves to be extremely adept at browbeating and segregating Dorje Shugden practitioners into giving up the practice. The same methods could be applied in a positive manner towards families and friends of those who self-immolate because that would help to prevent other cases of self-immolation from occurring in the future.

In the case of Dorje Shugden practitioners, they are denied basic services such as medical care in Tibetan hospitals, access to shops and facilities, and they are ostracized by the general Tibetan populace. These behaviors by ordinary Tibetans are instigated and perpetrated by the CTA who repeatedly talk about the so-called harmful nature of Shugden practitioners. But while these actions obviously have a negative impact on the lives of Shugden practitioners, the CTA could also use the very same methods for more positive impact on their community.

By warning Tibetans that these restrictions will be imposed on the families of those who self-immolate, the CTA could potentially end self-immolations in their community altogether. Families and friends of those considering taking their own life would have a greater impetus to pressure them out of this deadly act, thereby saving everyone from the pain, suffering, and death caused by such an action. And the self-immolators might think twice about engaging in an act that brings difficulties and limitations on their loved ones. After all, since the CTA are already known for imposing such restrictions on their people, why not use the methods for something positive and worthwhile instead of negative? This way they would be protecting their people for once, instead of harming them.

A memorial for Thupten Ngodrup was erected by the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) on the circumambulation path around the residence of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. He was the first man in modern times who self-immolated for the Tibetan cause in 1998.

Furthermore, self-immolations in Buddhism is considered an act of killing. The act of killing is widely considered to be grave negative karma for the individual committing the act. Unless the individual has a bodhisattva motivation like that of the Buddha in a previous life who offered himself up to a hungry tigress, the act of killing has the very serious repercussion of taking rebirth in the hell realms. Now, since the Tibetan leadership consider themselves to be Buddhist (or at least led by Buddhist principles), should they not abide by this very fundamental aspect of the teachings? Why would they condone and encourage others to take their own lives? Therefore, even though they call themselves Buddhist, ultimately this is merely an attractive label used to encourage foreigners to donate to the cause. In fact, after every case of self-immolation, the CTA are said to benefit financially through donations given by foreign countries and organizations who take pity on them, as expressed in Chokyi’s comment. This is not something to be taken lightly since Chokyi claims to have worked for the CTA for over 15 years, experiencing the blatant greed of the leadership as a firsthand witness.

A list of those who have self-immolated for the Tibetan cause since 1998. The CTA could have stopped this loss of life, but instead use their deaths to line their own pockets. Click to enlarge.

At the end of the day, the Tibetan leadership should apply the necessary means to end all self-immolations and that is to make headway with their negotiations with China. So far, the Tibetan leaders have only issued statements to put down China’s actions and this has got to stop. Just like a salesperson trying to sell its products to a potential customer, a sensible salesperson would not say things to criticize or insult the customer. They would instead praise or say things to make the customer feel happy in order to make a sale. Likewise, the Tibetan leadership should stop highlighting self-immolations and instead find common ground to talk about and encourage China to reopen negotiations. After all, China’s powerful influence is growing day by day, while the effectiveness and appeal of the CTA and the Tibetan leadership is waning fast.

And so the Tibetan leadership really have to do much more and quickly before it becomes too late. When His Holiness the Dalai Lama is no longer around, the Chinese leadership at that time will no longer need or want to negotiate because they will no longer find the Tibetan leadership to be a threat. As it is, the Chinese leadership already refuse dialogue with the Tibetans despite the Dalai Lama’s international standing, so what chance will the Tibetan leadership have to reopen dialogue once they no longer have the Dalai Lama’s reputation to rely on? So rather than using self-immolation as fodder against China, if the CTA had the real motive of benefiting their people, they would actually take measures to curb self-immolations within their own community rather than using them to line their own pockets with blood-stained money. But until that day comes, on the topic of self-immolations, sadly it is not a question of if the next one will happen but when, and this constant loss of life is certainly a most tragic situation for the already-dwindling community.

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

Recalling The Tibetan Identity

One need only say “Tibet” for most people to immediately think of Buddhism. In fact, Tibetans regard themselves as practitioners of the purest Buddhadharma, since their lineages and teachings have been preserved by their geographical isolation, protected by the Himalayan ranges for centuries. Keeping the Dharma untainted is not a responsibility that the Tibetans take lightly; those who rule the country are received as divine sentinels of the purest Buddhadharma, viewed with unquestioning faith in a manner that often seems illogical to the secular, Western world.

Buddhism is an intrinsic part of Tibetan culture. In the Tibet of old, at least one son in each family would become a monk, considering it an act of honor for the family

Given this background, it is not difficult to understand why Tibetans are always deeply concerned about how Buddhist their actions are. It is also not difficult to see how this concern may historically have been manipulated. The combination of concern and unquestioning faith has allowed a secular and self-serving Tibetan polity to play on the people’s piety and implement decisions without much regard for the welfare of the Tibetan people. Without any accountability, their actions have frequently led to unpleasant consequences.

The manipulation is simple – those in power condemn something as un-Buddhist, thus provoking the ire of the Tibetan population because the act has been deemed to be an insult to the Tibetan identity. In the same way Mao would label something “bourgeois” to incite the Chinese population’s hatred against it, such condemnations from Tibetan politicians are also usually sufficient to see that act banned, whether the ban is legally or socially mandated or even ethically right.

A Justifiable Suicide

Considering their influence over the population, it beggars belief that the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has yet to condemn self-immolations as un-Buddhist, to prevent further loss of life. More surprisingly, the CTA even published on their website an article in support of self-immolations, titled “Is self-immolation anti-Buddhist?”

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Ex-Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche says “We should support all those that have sacrificed their life for the Tibetan cause”, an indirect support for the self-immolations happening in Tibet.

If we were to reword the question into something more encompassing, we could also ask,

Does taking away a life become justifiable because the motivation is to benefit others, even though there is no result?

Whilst its “Buddhist-ness” appears to be debatable, what happens during the actual self-immolation is not – self-immolations usually result in the person’s death, whether immediately or from injuries sustained. Therefore, regardless of the person’s motivation, self-immolations are essentially suicides since the act of dousing oneself with a flammable substance before setting oneself alight is not designed for survival. Therein lies the first reason why self-immolations are definitely un-Buddhist – one of the basic Mahayana vows states that we should refrain from taking any lives, including our own.

Jampa Yeshi, like so many others before him, did not survive

In his article, the author Tenzin Kun-khyab opined that self-immolations are acceptable and akin to Buddha sacrificing his life for a starving tigress. It would appear that the author considers the attainments of the self-immolators to be equal to that of Buddha when he sacrificed himself for the hungry animal. If so, on what basis does the author perceive these attainments? The English proverb “It takes one to know one” springs to mind – is the author alluding to his own similar attainments, which allows him to perceive those of the self-immolators? This willful interpretation of the scriptures is worrying, especially when its purpose is to justify the taking of a sentient being’s life and to glorify the unnecessary loss of lives as part of a political strategy which thus far has not proven to be effective. In the case of Tenzin Kun-khyab, the parable has been interpreted in direct contradiction to the original intended moral of the Buddha’s story which was about compassion and non-attachment to one’s physical form. The Buddha never intended the chronicles of his acts of compassion to become justifications and glorifications of suicides.

Tenzin Kun-khyab also likens the self-immolations to the Tibetan defense of their homeland in the 1950s, when monks renounced their vows in order to take up arms against the Chinese. One should remember that the vows were written by Shakyamuni Buddha and designed to train sentient beings towards enlightenment. In renouncing their vows, the monks effectively renounced the teachings Buddha taught for ultimate freedom from suffering, in favor of their involvement in transient geo-political issues. It is therefore worrisome that such an incident is celebrated as a good example of religious faith and significance, when it is quite the opposite.

Self-immolations As A Selfish Act

To determine the second reason why self-immolations are un-Buddhist, consider the result of the Tibetan self-immolations. Since 2009, over 140 people have self immolated and over 120 of these have died in this horrific manner and yet the Chinese government remains unmoved. The Tibetan response to this Chinese wall of silence has been illogical, to say the least – instead of selecting another more effective method, they have instead chosen to remain with the same ineffective method and increase the frequency of the self-immolations in a dramatic show of desperation.

Tibetans monks help Chinese earthquake victims. This is how the world views Tibetans: kind and compassionate towards all sentient beings. The current spate of self-immolations is completely at odds with this image

And yet, despite this increase, the Chinese government remains unresponsive and the international community has remained silent. Compare this to both Vietnam and the Middle East, when the international community acted on the loss of just one life.

It requires the barest of analyses to recognize that self-immolating to raise awareness of the Tibetan plight is an ineffective method. Given the ineffectiveness of the method, any logical individual would consider changing tactics. The Tibetans however, have chosen to remain with the same ineffective strategy. One could therefore reasonably conclude that the Tibetans have failed to adequately evaluate the situation, and what the world is really witnessing is ignorance – that is, ignorance of the situation is leading to their suicides for the greater cause, although it is an act that is both false and foolish because it bears no result at all.

From a Buddhist perspective, ignorance arises from selfishness. Since Tibetan self-immolations arise out of ignorance from lack of proper evaluation, these acts are therefore selfish and contradict the Buddhist aim of increasing one’s compassion and lessening one’s selfishness; in short, when Tibetans self-immolate, it is un-Buddhist.

Silence of the Leadership

To view self-immolations as anything but un-Buddhist would require a very biased interpretation of the scriptures. It is therefore shocking that the CTA, a historically Buddhist government, has allowed on their website an article that defends an un-Buddhist act as a Buddhist one. The CTA’s apparent support for and refusal to prohibit this senseless act shows the self-serving nature of the Tibetan leadership – they will allow their people to die if it suits their purpose.

Is the Dalai Lama’s silence intentional?

The CTA aside, the Dalai Lama’s silence on self-immolations has not gone unnoticed. There is only one logical conclusion for this silence, arrived at in reference to the ban on Dorje Shugden. When the Dalai Lama banned the practice of Dorje Shugden, the world was led to question why this monk, the face of compassion, appeared to be instigating religious discrimination. In not condemning the self-immolations, the Dalai Lama has again led the world to ask why this same monk has not spoken out against so many suicides.

Some might claim the Dalai Lama’s silence reflects his loss of control over the Tibetans. For example, in a 2013 interview, Samdhong Rinpoche stated that it is pointless to discourage self-immolations because the Tibetans are growing increasingly desperate. His belief does not appear to be a commonly held one – Tenzin Kun-khyab himself writes that “It is true that as long as His Holiness the Dalai Lama is alive, Tibetan people will never go against his teachings of non-violence.” Clearly Tenzin Kun-khyab continues to believe in the power of the Dalai Lama’s words and through the Dorje Shugden ban, we already know that Tibetans are still willing to do something illogical just because the Dalai Lama said so.

Therefore, since it is not due to a loss of control, perhaps the Dalai Lama has remained silent in a bid to prepare Tibetans for his eventual passing by lessening their reliance on him and the political elite. Just like how the Dorje Shugden ban revealed the CTA’s hypocrisy and the Tibetan population’s blind faith, perhaps the Dalai Lama is now using his silence on self-immolations to reinforce the same message – think for yourself, and learn to question and contemplate what is around you because that is the only way to guarantee a pleasant future for yourself and others, in this life and beyond.

A Return to Buddhism

All this is a very real possibility that is beyond mere speculation, given what has taken place in the last few years with His Holiness relinquishing secular power and stepping down as leader of Tibet in favor of democratic elections. After all, how can the Dalai Lama not say something – anything – as his people continue to burn to death? In not speaking out against the climbing death toll, the Dalai Lama is setting an example to his followers – he no longer comments on secular issues because Buddhist practice is more important than politics.

The sight of monks protesting would have been unthinkable just 50 years ago. Is the Dalai Lama trying a different method to get Tibetans to remember their waning Buddhist identity?

Buddhism relies on logic, understanding, contemplation and practice to bring ultimate liberation to ourselves and others. It would appear that the Dalai Lama is trying to introduce these qualities back to his people who have become so caught up in their fight for a free Tibet, they have forgotten what it really means to be Tibetan: they are peace-loving Buddhist people who act in accordance with the laws of karma. In their desperation for independence, this forgotten aspect of their culture has even led their government to attempt to peddle a clearly un-Buddhist act as a righteous one.

It is precisely this kind of thinking that renders Tibetan independence efforts fruitless because when an act begins with an un-Buddhist motivation, it will end with an un-Buddhist result. We are seeing this clearly with self-immolations – with China remaining unmoved, and the Tibetans having no result to show for their self-immolations, logic infers that the motivation of the acts need to be redefined. It is time the Tibetans take some time to reflect on their actions, and to recall what truly made them unique in this world – a spiritual people who understood the foolhardiness of fighting against karma, trying to reclaim a lost memory and homeland that today seems further away than ever.

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