There is a long dispute among the Tibetans in exile in India concerning the devotees to another religious figure called Dorje Shugden. These people chose to workship Dorje Shugen for some reason while the Dalai Lama ordered religious persecution against them and used various means in his power to cleanse their worshipers from his group of followers including the use of secret police and assassination. The Dalai Lama and his group in India has a unofficial status of regional government where they control the education, monasteries, policing, even employment.
The Nobel prize winner Dalai Lama ordered persecution of the worshipers of Dorje Shugden even when he is in exile. Imagine what he would do if he had control over the entire Tibetan Autonomous Region.
Need proof? Here is an appeal letter written by the followers of Dorje Shugden to the then prime minister of India. It is a scanned image with certified stamps so you know that no one had fabricated it. I don’t even know this matter existed until it surfaced recently again. In fact, the followers of Dorje Shugden will stage a protest against Dalai Lama when the Olympic torch passes India. How ironic! 
The New Voice 
Great find!
I really don’t think such evidence is necessary to prove Dalai is a dictator. He IS by the nature of theocracy. Being both the spiritual and political leader of his self-claimed exile government, he practices no democracy.
Now he is no longer political leader, so what is your answer now?
He brought all the Tibetan together, he made Tibetan school to preserve Tibetan language as they can’t preserve in china as they are not giving full right and support, he did best he could for Tibet and as Tibetan I am very gateful, you people don’t have to judge him, as, me and all the Tibetan are so happy got what he did and very thankful for him working 24 hours till he turn 80 to serve us,,, please don’t judge people if you have no idea of what he did and what he did not, he won noble peace price, and that says a lot,
Nobel peace prize is a joke. Obama has it too but he is a war criminal.
Dalai is a CIA funded stooge, a traitor, and to say that he brought all Tibetan together is just laughable. Of the few Tibetan traitors followed him to India, how many still preserves Tibetan culture?
Anyone like this?
–Being both the spiritual and political leader of his self-claimed exile government, he practices no democracy.
Here is the definition of Dictator from Merriam-Webster:
1 a: a person granted absolute emergency power; especially : one appointed by the senate of ancient Rome b: one holding complete autocratic control c: one ruling absolutely and often oppressively
2: one that dictates
It appears to me Dalai Lama is qualified for at least one of the above definitions.
Sure and you must the the self claimed expertise in case of politics and history, he won noble price and lots of followers, that clearly shows he is not the type of person you should take easy as dictator. Any how what is your education level?
he claim he has a democratic government. and the brain damaged people in his government even propagad they are Democratic Theocracy. I just pass out after seeing this on their website.
I am Tibetan and I have no issue regarding he not giving democracy and he being dectator, whithought you knowing the full story behind it’s very sad that even humble old man devoted to make all the life better and all you are doing is arrogant attute toward him, if you don’t know a person and if you are filled with ignorance, I actually pitted you,,,,
Dalai Lama:Destruction of your neighbor or enemy is destruction of
yourself.”
The Dalia lama has been sued by Excommunicated monks for Violating their
Religious Freedom and vilifying their Religious lineage in the High
Courts Of New Delhi.
Dalia lama has more in common with the Taliban than our Democratic
Principles.
His intolerance toward any others having beliefs differing from his own
finds a kindred spirit with George Bush.
Because he also sees himself as “Decider.
He decided to throw out 14,000 of his own monks onto the street last month,
right before he incited the rioting in Tibet.
Slavery and indentured servitude for 90% of Tibetans were common in 1950
Tibet. What American politicians find in common with a Potentate which
wears both mantles of religion and politics is beyond my comprehension
as a citizen of a Free Democracy that cherishes the Principles of Our
Founding Fathers wrote as our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
The Principle of Equality is as foreign to him as a glass of ICE is to
the Sahara Desert.
The Chinese liberated an impoverished society from a self serving
medieval potentate that endorsed slavery, indentured servitude, selling
young girls into a life of misery and mutilations of those who broke laws.
He is more akin to the image of the Christian’s idea of the anti Christ
than a Buddha.
It’s the history,
I’m glad to see a westerner who speaks sense about the Chinese liberation of Tibet.
HH Dalai Lama has renounced his role as temporal leader over 5 years ago. Tibetans held a worldwide election last spring and those who practice Dorje Shugden were allowed to vote like any other Tibetan citizen in exile.
Chinese propaganda is truly believed by the ignorant.
HH Dalai Lama has renounced his role as temporal leader over 5 years ago. Tibetans held a worldwide election last spring and those who practice Dorje Shugden were allowed to vote like any other Tibetan citizen in exile
This is not surprising at all. One cannot expect any democracy in a theocratic government.
A SUMMARY
OF THE POLITICAL MOTIVATIONS DISCERNIBLE
BEHIND THE DORJE SHUGDEN ISSUE CREATED BY THE DALAI LAMA
1- First period of exile -The Dalai Lama seeks to establish his rule over all Tibetans in exile. To obtain this, he tries to mix the teachings and practices of the four main lineages of Tibetan Buddhism in order to be not only the political leader but also the sole religious authority over all Tibetans –which he had never been before.
2- The Gelugpa Lamas oppose this political project for religious reasons.
3- Mid seventies -The Dalai Lama chooses to prevail over the Gelugpa Lamas by destroying the reputation of Dorje Shugden, the special Protector of their lineage. He tries without much success to discourage his worshipping among the Gelugpas.
4- Eighties -The Dalai Lama becomes famous in Western countries. He talks about compassion and non-violence. The world perceives him as the Pope of Buddhism. He starts the campaign FREE TIBET and becomes the champion of Tibetan independence.
5- Overlapping the FREE TIBET campaign he maintains talks with China, and in 1988 for the first time he tells the Chinese that Tibet does not need to be independent, autonomy should be enough. This is not consulted with Tibetans nor publicized among them.
6- 1989 -The Dalai Lama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Tibetans hopes for independence grow exponentially.
7- Mid nineties. The seeds of an opposition against the the Dalai Lama’s choice of autonomy against independence had been sterilized by his renewed popularity due to the Nobel award.
When hopes for Tibet vanish with the passing years, the opposition to autonomy takes shape. In 1995 the Dalai Lama’s brother starts his Independence Walks and co-founds the Tibet Independence Movement, an open defiance to the Dalai Lama’s decision about autonomy.
8- The Dalai Lama objectively needs to distract Tibetans, very emotional about their Motherland, from his unilateral decision to abandon independence.
March 1996 His government proclaims a BAN on the worshipping of Dorje Shugden. This old domestic matter with the Gelugpa Lamas is brought to the general Tibetan community more than 20 years later.
Tibetans are made to believe that Dorje Shugden harms the cause of Tibet and the health of the Dalai Lama. They forget about independence or autonomy and impose themselves the ban, even with violence, through segregation and rejection of practitioners of Dorje Shugden.
9- 2008- Year of the Olympic Games in China.
The Dalai Lama chooses a special date –February 2008, barely one month before the Tibetan riots– to implement the final blow against the practice of Dorje Shugden and its practitioners, first in the great monasteries, later in the whole of the Tibetan community. All Tibetans have to take an oath that they are not worshipping Dorje Shugden and that they are not having any religious nor social contact whatsoever with practitioners. The taking of the oath is exported abroad.
When a letter campaign to defend the practitioners from segregation is taking shape the March 2008 riots in Tibet make any complaint against the Dalai Lama sound ridicule or offensive.
Many think that the Dalai Lama inspired the riots in Tibet.
After the riots the Dalai Lama proclaims several times that Tibet needs only autonomy, not independence from China. He does not fear opposition to this fait acompli.
The Tibetans do not react any more to the loss of their country’s hope for independence, they are busy implementing the segregation of the Dorje Shugden practitioners. Practicioners are treated as pariahs.
Journalists ignore the violations of the human rights of Dorje Shugden practitioners and the extermination of the Gelugpa lineage. They are busy proclaiming that the Dalai Lama is the only hope for Tibetans.
The Dalai Lama smiles and talks of religious tolerance in the world stage.
THE POLITICAL MOTIVATIONS DISCERNIBLE BEHIND THE PERSECUTION OF A RELIGIOUS MINORITY BY THE DALAI LAMA.
THE DORJE SHUGDEN ISSUE
PART ONE
THE PRESENT EVENTS
In this year 2008, the Dalai Lama forced Buddhist monasteries and Tibetan communities in India to “vote” to eradicate a three centuries old religious practice –the veneration of the Buddha Protector Dorje Shugden. Those brave enough to refuse to participate in this “referendum” against their religious faith are today being segregated as unclean, denied all religious and human contact.
The voting is followed by an oath, swearing that one is not doing this religious practice and that one is not having contact of any sort, either religious or social, not even for the simplest matters of life like talking, walking close to or eating together with any individual that follows that religious belief.
Started in the monasteries, this oath is being demanded also from every person in Tibetan society. It is being brough now even to Western countries.
This policy of the Dalai Lama is producing a kind of civil death for the Tibetans that defend their religious faith. Children are being expelled from schools, monks are denied the access to monasteries’ kitchens, nuns and monks are being expelled from their nunneries and monasteries, people are being denied to buy food in their villages, businesses belonging to the faithful are being ruined and threats appear against them overnight, in posts glued in the streets pointing to those individuals that follow their religion as criminals deserving persecution.
The Dalai Lama’s intention, as announced by him through the years and repeated during 2007, is to entirely “clean” all Buddhist communities from individuals practicing this unique religious belief, in monasteries, in the lay communities of India, Nepal and other Himalayan areas, in Tibet itself and then in Europe, the United States and the rest of the world. He declared that he wants to wipe out this religious practice from the world before the end of his own life.
Behind these news there is a history of religious discrimination organized by a political leader that promotes himself also as a religious world leader. If ever the dangers of the mixing of Church and State have become actual it’s now, in the person of the Tibetan Dalai Lama. And because of the nature of the leader –a mixture of King and Priest in exile– his repressive political actions have become invisible to public scrutiny. Because he was an exile he has been perceived as victim for many years. Now nobody wants to believe that the victim is victimizing others.
WHO IS DORJE SHUGDEN
Mahayana Buddhism considers that the Buddha nature manifests in multiple ways: as the historical Buddha born 2500 years ago, as emanations that come to our world as Lamas who teach us the Dharma and also as Protectors of the Dharma. These Buddha-Protectors are surrounded by hosts of mundane ones belonging to non-human realms of existence. They are very numerous. Every sect or school of Mahayana Buddhism, every monastery big or small, has not one but several protectors. Some are general protectors, some are particularly devoted to a monastery, a lineage, or a special religious practice.
Dorje Shugden is one among hundreds of protectors. For more than three centuries he has been venerated in the Tibetan Pantheon. Most of the great Lamas of the lineage of Je Tsongkapa (to which the Dalai Lama originally belonged), including his own tutor and root Guru Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, worshipped Dorje Shugden as the emanation of the Buddha of Wisdom, Mañjushri and considered him the special Protector of the teachings of their religious lineage, the Ganden or Gelugpa lineage. One characteristic of Dorje Shugden is that he never belonged to the host of protectors of the Dalai Lama’s government.
THE POLITICAL DEMOTION OF A DEITY
I- THE ORIGINAL POLITICAL BACKGROUND
Dorje Shugden, alone among hundreds of Deities, was singled out by the Dalai Lama to be forbidden to the Tibetans. Why? Several researchers have focused on esoteric events that took place centuries ago. The Tibetans themselves focus their attention on the dealings of oracles surrounding the present Dalai Lama. Here we will present the political background of a religious persecution set up by a political leader. The truth of the matter might be better understood in the context of the political history of the Tibetans.
In the years following his escape to India, the Dalai Lama decided to unify Tibetans under both his religious and political leadership. This statement might seem tautologic because today the world perceives the Dalai Lama precisely as the supreme religious and political leader of the Tibetans. But this is a recent projected mediatic image, not the historical truth.
The power of the Dalai Lamas in old Tibet was mostly political and as such, changed with the fortune of times. Mainly its full strength was apparent in Lhasa and its surrounding area, becoming increasingly theoretical according to distance. The supreme religious authority was the Panchen Lama, not the Dalai Lama –see the accounts of the British political officer Sir Charles Bell and famous travelers like Sven Anders Hedin or the painter philantropist Nikolas Roerich. But even the religious authority of the Panchen Lamas was far from what we conceive as a fixed, absolute authority similar to the Pope’s.
Monasteries and estates belonging to higher Lamas enjoyed an almost complete autonomy and the three other schools of Tibetan Buddhism that were not Gelugpas were independent from the Dalai Lamas –although, it has to be said, they suffered abuse from the Dalai Lama’s governments through the centuries.
The exile from the Land of Snows made the Tibetans regroup in a way they had never known before. This natural reaction and many other circumstances of the life in exile gave the XIV Dalai Lama an opportunity that none of this predecessors ever had: an almost universal power over the entire Tibetan community that went into exile with him. For instance, most of the relief help was funneled to the Dalai Lama and his government in exile, who subsequently distributed it to the Tibetan people. Even today, practically everything in the lives of the Tibetans goes de facto through their hands. The Dalai Lama and his government and the social organizations under his rule decide if a person is to be accepted in a monastery or not, if an individual can hold a bureaucratic job or not, if the Tibetans arriving in India are going to be issued documents or not, if Tibetans residing in India are going to be issued documents to travel abroad or not –all according to the Dalai Lama’s criteria.
This new all-encompassing power was given to the Dalai Lama by the most difficult early circumstances of exile and by the fact that the main benefactor of the Tibetans, the Indian government, had naturally to deal only with one leader. In the same way, the idea of having all Tibetan religious groups united under some type of administrative and even diplomatic rule of the Dalai Lama, in order to appear strong and united to the external world, was something that seemed natural at some point but soon was tempered by the resurgence of old problems that had only temporarily been left aside.
After an early, collective frustrated attempt at unifying all sects under the Gelugpas, the Dalai Lama conceived the idea that all four Tibetan religious sects had to disappear and give birth to one single school of Tibetan Buddhism under his command. This idea he tried to implement in a practical way by first prompting and then pushing the practitioners of the four different schools to mix and share their beliefs and rituals, in order to create, de facto, one single brand of Tibetan Buddhism with a single Hierarch. He actively pursued this scenario, concentrating in himself the transmissions from different schools and imparting them to practitioners of any school, criscrossing sect boundaries, trying thus to become the spiritual Master of all Tibetans, at the beginning, and subsequently of Mongolians, Himalayan and Western Buddhists.
The mixing of all lineages of teachings into one might sound ecumenically grand to some Western ears, but not so to the great sages of the Gelugpas. They have always had great respect for all schools of Buddhism, they have been personal friends with their practitioners and shared with them even family ties, but they do not mix the teachings and ritual practices of their own lineage with those of other lineages. They have powerful religious, philosophical reasons for this, too long and involved to explain here. But there is no need to understand their reasons, what is important is to know that due to their religious belief they do not mix their own practice with the practice of others.
The desire of the Gelugpa Masters to maintain their teachings intact did not match the politico-religious plan of the Dalai Lama. Because these Gelugpa Lamas were so important in Tibetan society –as the most learned scholars, the most influencial religious teachers– he had to find a way to end their opposition. The Dalai Lama chose to exterminate the practice of the special Protector of the Gelugpa lineage, the Deity Dorje Shugden.
This is the crux of the famous Shugden controversy, a case of persecution of a religious group for political reasons.
The Dalai Lama started preaching against the Protector Dorje Shugden among the Gelugpas in the mid-seventies. For years he tried to force them to abandon the Protector’s practice and to receive the transmissions of other lineages, but since his injonctions contradicted their most precious beliefs, he was unable to convince neither his own Guru, the revered highest Lama of that time, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, nor most of the Rinpoches, Geshes and monks of the Ganden tradition. Those were very difficult years for the Gelugpas, but they went on silently bearing the Dalai Lama’s scoldings, while faithfully helping him with hard work to establish and sustain the Tibetan community in exile.
Nevertheless, a number of monks from the various Tibetan schools either approved of his idea or saw some political advantage to applaud it. Some of his Western followers publicized the Dalai Lama’s mixing of lineages as a Buddhist “ecumenism”. He became increasingly popular in Western countries. His teachings about Compassion and non-violence, his charming manners, his aura of exiled from the mythical Shangrila phantasized by Westerners, the hard work of the Lamas that had prepared his way, many factors contributed to the arising of his extraordinary reputation. He acquired millions of admirers that weren’t necessarily Buddhists among people well established in high places: politicians, scientists, academics, rock and Hollywood stars. In the end he became himself an international celebrity, and the magnitude of his fame induced the idea that he was the religious leader of all Buddhists and, of course, of all Tibetan Buddhists. Like an Oriental Pope.
He had in a way attained his goal, at least in the eyes of the world.
II- THE CLOSER POLITICAL BACKGROUND
So the Dalai Lama had not convinced the Gelugpa’s great Masters to adopt his politico-religious idea but in the minds of peoples from all countries he had become the undisputed leader of all Tibetans both religiously and politically.
Because of this, although he never abandoned his dislike for the Protector Dorje Shugden, he didn’t have an urgency to impose his prohibition.
The idea of forbidding his practice might’ve been forgotten altogether, but some political events helped precipitate his decision to take this domestic problem of the Gelugpas to the general Tibetan public instead, creating, thus, the most serious fracture ever seen in the Tibetan community.
The Dalai Lama had convinced his fellow Tibetans that he would recover for them the independence of their country, and had lead the famous “Free Tibet” campaign during the eighties, earning for that the Nobel Peace Price in 1989.
Overlapping these events, in the context of his contacts with China, for reasons of his own he abandoned the idea of independence for Tibet, and on his own accord, without the slightest level of democratic consultation with his fellow Tibetans, in 1988 he decided to give up Tibet’s independence and satisfy himself with autonomy alone.
This was dealt with if not in secrecy, at least without any public campaign. Until today many Tibetans still don’t have it clear that the Dalai Lama himself accepted the Chinese rule over Tibet years ago.
Following the enthousiastic hopes prompted by the Nobel award in 1989 came years of frustration where the Tibetan cause didn’t progress in any way, and at that moment, those who understood that independence had been abandoned started to stir public opposition to the leader’s decision. Pro-independence voices started to be heard clearly in 1995.(1)
It seems that it’s then and there that it became clear to the Dalai Lama that he could with one stroke end both the opposition to his original politico-religious plan and the opposition to his handing of Tibet to China. What was needed was to distract the attention of his people from the lost independence of Tibet and steer it to another matter. A scapegoat was then publicly created: the Deity Dorje Shugden. In March 1996 a ban was decreed against the Protector. A new mission was handed to the Tibetans: to erradicate the religious practice of Dorje Shugden from Tibetan communities.
In fact most of the giant scholar-saints of Tibet that had helped the Dalai Lama and the exiled community in every manner during the terribly difficult first years of exile –those Lamas and monks that held in utmost reverence the Protector Dorje Shugden had died. Their sacred authority figures were not there any more to contain the Dalai Lama in his actions. He was thus free to use his government in exile and the Tibetan community to perpetrate his unprecedent actions.
The Deity, an emanated Buddha, was declared to be a lower spirit, a type of demon.
According to accounts by members of the Dalai Lama’s entourage(2) and the Kampa guerrillas that were his shield during his perilous journey in 1959, Dorje Shugden had been the Protector who helped the Tibetan leader escape his country and successfully establish his people in India.
And all of a sudden, in 1996, this beneficial helper, Dorje Shugden, was declared by the Dalai Lama guilty of two things: 1-harming the cause of Tibet and 2-endangering the health and life of the Dalai Lama. Tibetans were struck with disbelief, disorientation, fear.
The ban resulted in a resounding political victory for the Dalai Lama. Terribly distressed by the perspective of loosing their leader, most Tibetans ended up not grasping that the Dalai Lama had accepted China’s rule over their homeland without their consent.
The loss of Tibet and whatever perceived failures and faults of the Dalai Lama were forgotten. Another culprit was discovered and served to them: Dorje Shugden, a divine being declared to be a demon guilty of all Tibetan problems. No valid reason was advanced, but the minds of many Tibetans found it easier to accept this scapegoat rather than having to blame the loss of their country’s independence on their beloved Dalai Lama.
THE PERSECUTION
A wave of persecution started then, flaring in events that fleetingly reached public knowledge. Since then, the Dalai Lama has been using his political and religious power, his mediatic image, his influence as world leader, the renown of his Nobel Peace Prize to make the worshipping of the Protector Dorje Shugden disappear. Nowadays, beyond his ever present political motivations, this rejection seems to have become a personal obsession.
He was rather successful in this endeavor among most of the lay Tibetans and among his adoring Western followers.
It’s true that Tibetans in exile perceive the Dalai Lama as a living symbol of their land, so they love him and mainly follow blindly whatever he says. But this doesn’t explain everything. Another element –fear– had entered their lives: several violent events against Dorje Shugden followers, the social segregation imposed to them by the Tibetan Associations, the ferocious slandering of the practitioners –falsely accused to the Indian authorities of the most heinous crimes– convinced many of them to either abandon the practice of Dorje Shugden or to go into a second exile in Western countries or to just revert to silence about their religious practice.
Practitioners that held public functions were fired from their jobs. Some saw their houses stoned and even arsoned. The friendship with practitioners of the Protector became a dangerous thing. To be a relative of a practitioner became a dangerous thing… All of this happened in the first wave of the persecution. With very few exceptions (see the videos produced by Swiss television in 1998, in the first page of Dorjeshugden.com) the victims have been ignored by the Press and seem now forgotten by the few who knew about them.
The Dalai Lama was not entirely successful, though, in ending the practice of Dorje Shugden among the learned scholars and monks of the great universities located in Southern India, the monasteries of Sera, Drepung and Ganden, repositories of the Gelugpa wisdom. True, the authorities of these big institutions payed lip service to the Dalai Lama in the course of the years through signatures, declarations and decrees against the Deity. But they didn’t implement them.
Every year the Dalai Lama would go visit the Southern India monasteries and every year he would speak against the Protector Dorje Shugden, trying to divide the religious community. Despite some serious incidents here and there, life in the monasteries mostly went on as usual, with Dorje Shugden practitioners living together with non practitioners, as it had been for centuries, with their daily gatherings for common prayers, rituals and main of all, the cherished practice of Logic Debate.
So for 12 years since the ban, the Dalai Lama had not been able to eradicate the practice in the monasteries. This alone should be proof enough that most of the Geshes, monks and sages of the Gelugpas never truly accepted his initiative, proof enough that the “cleansing” of the monasteries from Dorje Shugden practitioners only was going to be possible through the use of still more dictatorial means.
2008 is the year when the Dalai Lama decided that enough was enough. During 2007 he had announced everywhere –including Spain, Germany and other Western countries– that now he wanted to complete his work, he wanted to exterminate the worshipping of Dorje Shugden once and for all everywhere.
Now, for this to happen the practitioners had to be –like the Jews and so many other scapegoats in history– declared enemies of the Nation.
The calomnies had been piling up through the years, but now, not only the Dorje Shugden practitioners were accused of endangering the life of the Dalai Lama and harming the cause of Tibet, not only were they described as members of an obscure, fundamentalist, demonic cult opposed to all other schools; they were also accused to be a tool of the Chinese government against the Tibetan government, and thus they were declared unclean, so nobody in the future could have any relationship of any kind with them.
THE POLITICAL MOTIVATIONS DISCERNIBLE BEHIND THE PERSECUTION OF A RELIGIOUS MINORITY BY THE DALAI LAMA.
THE DORJE SHUGDEN ISSUE
PART TWO
“VOTING” TO EXTIRPATE A RELIGIOUS BELIEF
The Indian government had with much discretion been warning the Dalai Lama not to abuse the hospitality that has been extended to him. The Ministry of External Affairs issued an acknowledgment to the Dorje Shugden Society –that had filed a number of appeals for protection.
Instead of relenting, encouraged by the Medal of the Congress of the United States, the Dalai Lama decided to respond by forcing a “referendum” against Dorje Shugden practitioners in the monasteries, externally proclaiming adherence to democracy, internally perpetuating the fear, proferring threats that weigh in Tibetan ears much more than any Westerner can fathom:
“So take this voting on majority choice. No one will be put under any pressure; I am not putting any pressure. If ‘yes’ sayers have 60 or 70 majority, then from that day onwards I will not speak even one word on Dholgyal (a demeaning nickname for the Deity Dorje Shugden). And you will be responsible for whatever the consequence.” (The Dalai Lama, speaking to the abbots of Southern India)
Aware that the concern in Western countries about his actions might threaten his image and purposes, the Dalai Lama resorted to a varnish, a caricature of democracy to obtain his ends. Using the advantage of his own personal weight as a national icon, of the fear that Tibetans have to become outcasts in their own closed society, he decided that the monks of Southern India and the whole of the Tibetan community should vote on his desires, on his now personal obsession against a Deity.
During the last Winter Retreat, when all three great monasteries meet in one place for a month of intense study of Logic, some of the Dalai Lama’s followers ruined the traditional event by refusing to engage in debate with Dorje Shugden practitioners. Abbots and disciplinarians tried to preserve the neutrality of the debate field. When the Dalai Lama, soon after, arrived in Southern India, he congratulated the troublemakers and scolded the abbots and disciplinarians. Then he gave the abbots the abovementioned orders, of organizing a “vote”.
Thus, in January-February 2008 a referendum against Dorje Shugden and his practitioners was urgently implemented in the monasteries. No public debate was held, not one word of explanation was allowed to “the other party”, silenced in advance.
The “referendum” didn’t have the slightest of the many guarantees that any democratic process demands. After so many years of demonizing campaign, after using his own presence to pressure the Southern India monks, no doubt the voting against Dorje Shugden was a 100% in favor of the Dalai Lama’s desires. No dissenting voices. Only several hundred monks from Sera Mey Pomra House and from Ganden Shartse Dokhang House refused to even vote.
This misuse of democratic tools has been ignored by the Press. When journalists were alerted, their answer was just utter disbelief: “What? The Dalai Lama, that incredibly compassionate being, doing what? It cannot be true.” So he was able once again to misuse his power against a religious group withouth the world realizing or acknowledging it.
SEGREGATION(3)
If the Dalai Lama and his followers have still not been able to throw the dissenting monks out of the monasteries altogether, it’s because a letter campaign alerted the local Indian authorities, and because the land over which the monasteries are built belongs to India. They are, instead, being segregated in a way that no decent human being would approve.
They are not allowed to eat with others, not allowed to set foot in their main temple, not allowed to attend the debates that are a central part of their daily studies, they are cut from all the usual gatherings for prayers and rituals that they had previously attended on a daily basis.
They are deprived of food. They are not allowed in any of the monastery’s kitchens. Even if they receive some external help for their survival, they cannot buy food from the monastery’s shop, they are forbidden to buy food in shops of the nearby Tibetan settlements.
They had to be protected by Indian police in order to attend from afar the prayers of the sacred yearly Monlam Chenmo Festival, created by their religious founder Je Tsongkapa and were denied the traditional tea and bread offered to the monks on that occasion.
It is forbidden to talk to them.
It is forbidden to walk close to them. If you see one of the monks practitioners of Dorje Shugden you have to deviate your stepts in order not to cross him in the path.
Now they fear that as soon as the Indian authorities neglect the subject –which would only be the natural course of things– they are going to receive more attacks in order to force them out of their own homes.
The campaign was brought to the neighboring Tibetan settlements, and from there, the monks receive threats, cowardly posted during the night, and they fear any moment to be mobbed.
Also the lay Tibetans were made to take the double oath of not worshipping the Protector Dorje Shugden and forsaking all contact with the practitioners.
As if the campaign of calumnies against the practitioners had not been enough, now the lay Tibetans became officially justified in their hateful actions because they are following the religious oath demanded by the Dalai Lama.
The discrimination against the practitioners and their utter segregation are now generalized in the whole of the Tibetan community.
The segregation is done by means of a yellow card. With some curious reversal of symbols, the Tibetan leaders distribute yellow cards to those monks or lay people that have taken the oath of not worshipping Dorje Shugden and the vow of shunning the practitioners, in other words, to the followers of the Dalai Lama. If you don’t have a yellow card then all your rights are denied.
If you don’t show a yellow card you are not allowed to travel in the same taxicab or rickshaw with other Tibetans.
If you don’t show a yellow card you cannot buy anything anywhere, not even the most essencial groceries. The monks have to travel to the Indian markets because the shops of the Tibetan settlements refuse to sell them goods.
If you don’t show a yellow card you cannot stop in a restaurant to have some food.
If you don’t show a yellow card your children cannot attend school. If they were going to school they are expelled.
If you don’t show a yellow card you cannot be a schoolteacher. If you were one, you are expelled.
Even if you are a child –if you don’t have a yellow card you cannot go to a shop and try to buy a piece of candy.
A PERFECT TIMING
It’s very interesting the timing chosen by the Dalai Lama. He gave orders to implement the false referendum against the monks practitioners of Dorje Shugden in January 2008, and he instructed that it had to be completed around mid-February. There were attempts to alert public opinion about this campaign of discrimination, but a few days later all of this was going to be drowned by the events in Tibet.
Now it’s easy to understand why the Dalai Lama chose 2008 as the year to terminate for ever the practice of Dorje Shugden. 2008 was going to be the year of the Olympic Games in China, and he, more than anybody else, knew what was being prepared in Tibet and the rest of the world. A perfect timing for the perpetration of a schism “from above” in the religious community of the monks, a perfect moment for the civil segregation to go unnoticed. For, who would then pay attention to accusations against the champion of the Tibetan nation?
His perfect timing is serving also another purpose. Contrary to the past, where his declarations about the future of Tibet were relatively sparse, since March he has repeated many times that he desired autonomy for his country, not independence. He is thus finally getting away with his unilateral decision, and transforming it in a “fait acompli”. The Tibetans around the world are too absorbed this very moment in “oaths” against the Protector to be distracted with matters about their own Motherland.
So once again Dorje Shugden is the scapegoat that allows the Dalai Lama to further establish his solitary decision of giving up Tibetan independence, while the riots in Tibet gave him the golden opportunity to culminate the extermination of the practice of a Divine Being that he hates, without anybody noticing the civic destruction of the practitioners.
Tibetans are too distracted to pay attention. Journalists are too distracted to pay attention. Besides, the Dalai Lama rides the wave of public respect that he obtained with wonderful words about compassion –taught to him by the Lamas whose lineage he is trying to exterminate. The Dalai Lama seems invincible. The press in the world seems blind.
Even though it’s important to understand that the Dalai Lama is acting as a political leader to promote this religious segregation, it has to be clear also that he lacks any religious authority whatsoever to do what he is doing. The world has been served an image of the Dalai Lama as the religious leader –a Pope of sorts– of all Buddhists. He is not.
People need to know that the Dalai Lama does not have the slightest religious authority to do what he is doing. In a general way because Buddhism accepts all internal religious beliefs and doesn’t harbor the notion of persecuting heresy, and in particular because there is no level of authority in the Buddhist religion to order or implement a religious persecution.
EXPORTING DISCRIMINATION(4)
TO WESTERN COUNTRIES
Not only in India is the Dalai Lama enacting this religious discrimination, he is exporting it abroad. The voting and oath against the religious practice of Dorje Shugden and against the practitioners has already started in the West. Prominent executors of the Dalai Lama’s desires are the numerous FPMT centers belonging to Lama Zopa, that quickly jumped to the occasion to please the Tibetan leader.
Western practitioners were already following the Dalai Lama in his unholy crusade, and because it came from him they are now approving this idea of discriminating against others because of their beliefs … even in the United States, a country whose first European fathers came to its shores in search of protection against religious persecution!
The Dalai Lama is sowing the seeds of unimaginable futures with this new policy of inviting people to take oaths, swearing that they are going to discriminate against others based on their religious faith. It’s not difficult to imagine the bad habits that this is going to create in the numerous European and American Dharma centers. But it’s impossible to calculate the dammage that this is going to inflict to the painfully acquired sense of human rights that our Western culture has tried to develop since the Age of Enlightenment.
The few websites where practitioners of Dorje Shugden express themselves show something that is not uncommon in the web: that most of the members hide their names. But it has to be known that in their daily lives many practitioners have to hide their beliefs.
Many of the Dorje Shugden practitioners in the West, both Westerners and Tibetans, are forced to remain anonymous because the Dalai Lama constantly preaches against them. They can loose their jobs. They cannot both teach Dharma and let others know about their faith in the Protector without being abused or humiliated by the followers of the Dalai Lama, through organized rumors and letter campaings.
Their anonimity is at the same time the result and the symptom of religious segregation. Dorje Shugden practitioners fear the Dalai Lama’s followers, both in Asia and the rest of the world, with good reasons. Because who would accept as an employee, as a co-worker, as a teacher, the worshipper of an evil spirit? This is the type of slander that Dorje Shugden practitioners are constantly submitted to, because of the actions of the Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
The Tibetan communities in the West have already implemented some type of segregation, even before the taking of the oath. People who have or had in the past ties to Lamas of the lineage have to hide their relationship. They do it for themselves but most of all for their children, lest they be shunned by their fellow Tibetans. Some Tibetans act in this way in order to follow the desires of their beloved Dalai Lama. Others act in this way out of fear of his wrath, enacted by the Tibetan Associations.
Just some days ago there was a demonstration against the Dalai Lama’s actions at Colgate University. One of the monks who attended was recognized by members of the American Tibetan community as the brother of a restaurant’s owner. The segregation that pleases the Dalai Lama was swiftly applied and people stopped attending that restaurant. This business is going to close soon.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
3 -Segregation -1. enforced separation of groups: the practice of keeping ethnic, racial, religious, or gender groups separate, especially by enforcing the use of separate schools, transportation, housing, and other facilities, and usually discriminating against a minority group.
4 -A civil right is an enforceable right or privilege, which if interfered with by another gives rise to an action for injury. Examples of civil rights are freedom of speech, press, and assembly […] and the right to equality in public places.
Discrimination occurs when the civil rights of an individual are denied or interfered with because of their membership in a particular group or class. (Cornell University Law School).
The Times of India – Reader’s –
Date: Wed, 30 April 2008 11:22:28
The Times of India – Reader’s
Indiatimes_ TOI
Readers Opinions
Tibetans should engage in dialogue with China: UN chief
Thomas Canada, USA, says:
“Dalia lama is no friend”
“Destruction of your neighbor or enemy is destruction of yourself.”
” The Dalia lama has been sued by Excommunicated monks for Violating their Religious Freedom and vilifying their Religious lineage in the High Courts Of New Delhi.
Dalia lama has more in common with the Taliban, than our Democratic Principles.
His intolerance toward any others having beliefs differing from his own.
Finds a kindred spirit with George Bush.
Because he also sees himself as “Decider.
He decided to throw out 14,000 of his own monks onto the street last month.
Right before he incited the rioting in Tibet.
Slavery and indentured servitude for 90% of Tibetans were common in 1950 Tibet.
What American politicians find in common with a Potentate.
Who wears both mantles of religion and politics, is beyond my comprehension.
As a citizen of a Free Democracy, I cherish the Principles of Our Founding Fathers.
As written in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
The Principle of Equality is as foreign to him, as is a glass of ice is to the Sahara Desert.
The Chinese liberated an impoverished society from a self serving medieval potentate .
That endorsed slavery, indentured servitude, selling young girls into a life of misery.
For those who broke laws, mutilation was common justice for the peasants.
He is more akin to the image of the Christian’s idea of the anti Christ.
Than that of a Buddha.
It’s all in the history.
“Shambala Confederation of Shugden Warriors”
Protected by the US Constitution and The Bill Of Rights
The Buddha Dharma Will Flourish
with
Brave Citizens Protecting Our Honor
with
Wisdom Protect the Dharma & Our Rights to Freedoms.
“Now I am free to practice openly”
Council Of Vajra Elders
Stop religious persecution
Every day, thousands and thousands of people around the world quietly practice the prayer of Dorje Shugden.
This centuries-old practice involves making requests to the Wisdom Deity Dorje Shugden to support our spiritual development – helping us to develop pure inner qualities such as love, compassion, equanimity, wisdom, and patience.
Our goal in making these prayers is to ask for the best conditions to follow the Buddhist path to full enlightenment, so that we can help all living beings find lasting inner peace and happiness.
Abandoned by the Dalai Lama
For reasons that have their roots in the arcane world of Tibetan politics, some years ago the Dalai Lama of Tibet chose to abandon the practice and outlaw it among the Tibetan community, claiming that this Deity was ‘evil’ and that engaging in the practice caused harm to his own lifespan and to Tibetan independence.
On the orders of the Dalai Lama, the ban was and continues to be enforced by the Tibetan Government in Exile and all other Tibetan Exile associations such as the Tibetan Youth Congress and the Tibetan Women’s Association:
* Monks and nuns are forbidden to do the practice and are unconstitutionally expelled from their monasteries and nunneries if they do not comply
* Thousands of Shugden practitioners among the Tibetan lay people are being forced to abandon the practice or lose the support of their government and face orchestrated public humiliation and intimidation
* People who refuse to renounce the practice are losing their jobs, their children are being expelled from schools, and their travel papers, which require prior authorization from the Tibetan Government in Exile, are not being endorsed
* Statues have been smashed, temples destroyed, books burned, practitioner’s houses attacked, and even death threats issued in an orgy of persecution that resembles a medieval witch hunt
Persecution intensifies
This persecution has become progressively more virulent, and in January 2008, the Dalai Lama issued a new proclamation requiring all Tibetans to sign a declaration forsaking the practice forever and promising not to associate in any way – spiritually, financially, socially or materially – with anyone who does not sign.
Despite the atmosphere of fear and intimidation and the threat to their own safety and that of their families, thousands of monks and nuns decided that enough was enough and refused to sign.
They were summarily expelled from their monasteries and nunneries, forbidden to associate with other Tibetans, even to eat with or shop from them, and left to fend for themselves without any support.
Untouchables
Although the Tibetans are mere guests in India, the Dalai Lama is repaying the kindness of the Indian people by violating their constitution in creating a new group of untouchables. And these from among his own people!
Having deprived Tibetans in exile of the right to become Indian citizens and insisted that they all remain subject to his dictatorial rule, he has effectively condemned those who refuse to compromise the integrity of their spiritual practice to a double refugee status.
They are refugees from Tibet – stateless in India – and now they are refugees from their own communities – ostracized and humiliated on the fringes of Tibetan society.
Inexpressible pain and suffering
And why? Simply because they refuse to abandon a pure and harmless spiritual practice they have received from their Spiritual Guides.
This tradition goes back centuries. Many of the great Masters of Tibetan Buddhism received this practice from their Spiritual Guide and passed it onto their own students – right down to the great Lama, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, who passed it to his disciple, the Dalai Lama!
In abandoning the practice, the Dalai Lama has broken a commitment to his Spiritual Guide – almost unthinkable in Buddhism among ordinary practitioners, never mind from a spiritual leader!
It is almost impossible to explain the inner pain and suffering a Buddhist would experience if they were forced to abandon a heart practice given to them by their Spiritual Guide. And yet thousands and thousands of Tibetans have been forced to do just this by the Dalai Lama!
Stolen teachings
The Dalai Lama has even gone on record as saying his own Spiritual Guide and his predecessors through the centuries were wrong!
What a preposterous claim!
Is this the example we are being asked to follow?
In a stunning and flagrant act of almost unbelievable hypocrisy, on the one hand he condemns his own Spiritual Guides and works to destroy the very heart of the pure tradition they have preserved through the centuries, while on the other he struts the world’s stage giving teachings from that very tradition!
Because the pure Dharma he received from his Teacher Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche is so powerful, everyone who hears those teachings naturally admires the sentiments they express.
But do they know that he has stolen those teachings? Do they question whether these noble sentiments are actually present in the mind of the speaker?
Duplicity
But the hypocrisy and duplicity do not stop there.
Aware of the international public horror at the recent atrocities, which clearly stem from the single handed actions of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Prime Minister and other Officials of the Tibetan Government in Exile have started a campaign to distance the Dalai Lama from these actions and their resulting inhumane victimization of a section of the Tibetan community.
Threat to religious freedom worldwide
Like a virulent cancer, this discrimination has spread from the Tibetan community to the world at large.
Because the Dalai Lama generally enjoys uncritical celebrity status in almost every country, people simply accept what he says without question
As a result, various western Buddhist centres with a connection to the Dalai Lama are now signing declarations promising not to engage in the Shugden practice or to allow into their centre anyone who does. They are also insulting those practitioners and centres in the west who do engage in this practice.
Such is the spell cast by the Dalai Lama that these people have suspended their critical faculties to embrace what is nothing more than a piece of medieval superstition.
Incredibly, Shugden practitioners in the West are now wrongly being condemned as non-Buddhists!
Why We Are Protesting
Over the years Shugden practitioners in both the East and the West have sent many letters and petitions to the Dalai Lama requesting him to completely stop these actions of discrimination, but, giving invalid reasons, he has refused to accept our requests.
We are left with no option but to protest publicly in the hope of drawing the world’s attention to this intolerable situation.
In doing so we hope that some people at least will see the hypocrisy in the Dalai Lama parading as a champion of religious freedom while conducting religious persecution of his own, and join with us in demanding that this iniquitous discrimination that is causing so much pain and suffering stop immediately.
All we ask is to be able to say our prayers and follow the advice of our Spiritual Guides without fear of persecution, ostracism, and abuse.
Why is it so hard for a Buddhist leader to agree to this?
The Battle Goes On & On & On
Defend the
Dharmapala’s Monastery
Dagom Geden
Tensung Ling
Excerpts Herald Telephone Interviews/ Thubten Norbu / Tibetan Mongolian Cultural Center
I’m not seeking independence,” he said. “I’m fighting for genuine autonomy” for Tibet.
That position is cause for good-natured disagreement with his older brother, retired IU professor Thubten Norbu, who was seated next to him at the news conference. Norbu is an outspoken supporter of Tibetan independence from China.
“It is big disagreement,” the Dalai Lama said. “But fortunately that disagreement no cause for fighting. I respect my elder brother, and he loves me. As elder brother and younger brother, we are very close.”
“The Dalai Lama has actually repudiated his own spiritual guide, which is, again, very un-Buddhist. The Dalai Lama himself offered prayers to Dorje Shugden for 20 years.
Yet now he repudiates him. And he won’t say why.”This is a worldly deity”.
The Dalai Lama’s elder brother, retired Indiana University professor Thubten J. Norbu, talked about the controversy at his home outside Bloomington last week. And his mind is clear about the Shugden dispute.
“This is a free country. If these people want to worship a ghost, they can worship a ghost.
But I believe this is a worldly deity and this is not Buddhism, you know”.
Norbu said he did not know why his brother, the Dalai Lama, turned against Shugden.
“It’s a very bizarre tragedy that (Thubten Norbu) would escape from Tibet and try to organize a movement and, in the very last minutes of his life, what he’s done to promote his culture and promote his country will be destroyed in the U.S.”.
“He must have his reasons.
My brother is one to thoroughly study everything. He knows what he is doing.”
Thom Canada, who donated the 100-acre site south of town that includes the cultural center and Norbu home, is now a supporter of the Shugden sect, or at least its practitioners. He has donated land next to Cascades Park for a monastery accommodating Shugden worshippers and sees himself as a “rescue” resource for persecuted Shugden followers.
“I’ve gotten a death threat myself,” Canada said last week. “So when they say there is no persecution going on, don’t believe it. There are vigilantes out there who at least believe they are doing the Dalai Lama’s will. They told me ‘We’re going to kill you and we’re going to kill all the other lamas, one by one.'”
Bruce E. Wilson, who leads a small, third congregation of Tibetan Buddhism followers in Bloomington, says, “There is a Tibetan proverb that says you can’t have politics without religion and religion without politics. I think in the U.S. our great strength is the separation of church and state, and it’s not hard to see why.”
If there is one thing all factions agree on regarding the Shugden controversy it is the quintessentially Buddhist notion that each individual must seek his or her own answers and that no one should accept any one point of view simply because someone else does.
“Buddha said, ‘Monks, just as skilled persons, accept gold after testing it, by heating, cutting and rubbing it. Likewise, you should accept my words after examining them. Do not do so out of respect (for me),” Wilson recited.
Mike Leonard/ leonard@heraldt.com via e-mail. / Herald Telephone News
Bloomington, Indiana USA
The Western Shugden Society (WSS) are made up almost entirely of members of the NKT – a Western Buddhist organisation who, in there own words, are do not represent Tibet or Tibetan Buddhism and are free to practice the worship of Shugden. Most of those protesting have flown in from the UK and other European NKT centres.
The problem with the picture portrayed by the NKT is that it doesn’t take into account the fact that the overwhelming majority of monks of Sera and Ganden do not want to share their monasteries with people that worship this spirit. The recent conflict began when monks refused to debate with dogyal worshippers during the annual winter debate. One monk who was present at the debates explains what happened,
“I was fortunate to attend His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teachings in Drepung this January. During the month before, the monks from the three great monasteries assembled at Drepung for the annual winter debate. When it came to Sera Je to debate against Sera Me, the Je monks refused to put any questions to the few Me monks who still practice DS, thereby leaving them sitting in silence, in front of the entire assembly of monks from the three great monasteries! Really this is a very huge and brave thing to do. Picture a short row of seated Sera Me monks with a small cluster of Sera Je monks standing before them asking questions and surrounding them are hundreds and hundreds of monks from Ganden, Drepung and Sera, as well as their abbots. And remember these aren’t just thousands of monks, but this is the sangha community! The Sera Je monks questioned the Me monks one by one, and when it came to the two monks who practice DS, they were ignored and as everyone knows who practices DS, the reason was clear. And remember that this was acted out before, and witnessed, by the sangha community! So a very powerful statement was made that these two monks were not being accepted as part of the sangha community by other members of the community.”
When such a thing happens, the Sangha community have to address it. The way this is done is set out in the vinaya. Monks have to decide which side they are on and publicly declare that before their peers, just as the Buddha set out. In this way, divisions in the Sangha are resolved.
The number of monks that have been expelled is open to question, but thousands seems an exaggeration. The monk that I quoted above puts the number at about three hundred.
The right of monastery authorities to decide a code of conduct for those that reside in their institutions is obvious, surely. It is also perfectly acceptible for these monks to set up their own institutions, as has already happened in some cases.
Please read the following article on the ‘referendum’ and the Vinaya:
Thanks.
Amnesty International (AI) has received and studied a large amount of material alleging human rights abuses against worshippers of the Tibetan Buddhist deity Dorje Shugden. These alleged abuses are reported to have happened largely in Tibetan settlements in India.
None of the material AI has received contains evidence of abuses which fall within Al’s mandate for action — such as grave violations of fundamental human rights including torture, the death penalty, extra-judicial executions, arbitrary detention or imprisonment, or unfair trials.
While recognizing that spiritual debate can be contentious, Amnesty International cannot become involved in debate on spiritual issues.
AI campaigns on the grave violations of human rights in Tibet, as well as the rest of the People’s Republic of China. In 1997 a widespread crackdown on Tibetan nationalists and religious groups continued. At least 96 Tibetans, most of them Buddhist monks and nuns, were reported to have been detained during the year for peacefully exercising fundamental freedoms. A continuing “patriotic reeducation campaign” in monasteries and nunneries has led to expulsions and arrests. Prison conditions remain harsh in Tibet and prisoners are often ill-treated for minor infringements of prison regulations.
The Dolgyal Research Committee
Measures Taken by Various Learned Non-sectarian Scholars and Great Practitioners Against the Practice and Propitiation of Dolgyal or Shugden
Edited and Compiled by The Dolgyal Research Committee
PREFACE
This leaflet, dealing with the measures taken by various learned scholars and great practitioners against the practice and propitiation of Dolgyal or Shugden, has been extracted from the book: Research on the Evolution of Shugden Entitled: Clouds of Offering Pleasing the Impartial for direct and easy reference.
Dolgyal Research Committee C/O Department of Religion and Culture Central Tibetan Administration Dharamsala 22 October 1998
Although some general accounts and stories about gods and spirits may be related to (somebody’s) pure vision, most of them arise because of the variety of human perception and imagination, thus, they are obscure phenomena. If we regard everything as pure vision and disregard day to day, ordinary, worldly human experiences, we will have no way to explain these things. Moreover, (the worship of Dolgyal) is a crucial issue that we cannot just sit back and ignore, without investigating whether such practice has harmed or helped our society.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has stated in one of his talks on the process of practice and propitiation of dharma protectors, “If it is said that there are uncommon and inconceivable secret events, let us first develop a refined consciousness capable of experiencing such mystical things. If we had such a consciousness we could then make use of them, but we simply have to go by popular conventions. If the person is at an ordinary level, but the object of experience is something of inconceivable secrecy, then he cannot experience it.”(1) As His Holiness the Dalai Lama points out, even though people who recognise Gyalchen Shugden as reliable, and particularly those who say that Shugden is the protector of Gelugpas, assert that this is a profoundly secret issue, it has created and is creating many problems on an ordinary human level. Therefore, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has farsightedly given advice and guidance regarding the practice and propitiation of dharma protectors. The validity of this advice is proved and supported by actual historical events.
The second volume of the Heavely Garment (Dukulai Gosang) describes how the Great Fifth Dalai Lama performed peaceful and wrathful activities in 1674, the wood-tiger year:
“The Gyalpo of Dol Chumig Karmo has intensified its harmful activities and also many deceptive activities of this evil and hostile spirit are being observed. In Namgyal Monastery, following the specifically targeted ritual, a ritual fire offering was lead by the Vajra Acharya Dra-na Cho-je (Brag-sNa-Chos-rJe)(2).”
Also in 1675, the wood-rabbit year:
“Because of strong indications of disturbances from disembodied beings, recitation of 10,000,000 wrathful mantras targeting evil forces in general and particularly the interfering spirit of Chumig Karmo have been recited, followed by the performance of a ritual fire offering according to the practice of Rigzin Dorje Drag-po-tsal by Namgyal Monastery at which Gelong Lodro Gyalwa acted as Vajra Acharya. Thus, means ensuring the welfare of the citizens of Tibet have been accomplished.”(3)
Again in 1675, the wood-rabbit year: “It is well known that at Dol Chumig Karmo a very powerful perfidious interfering spirit (dam sri), born due to distorted prayers, has been harming the teaching of the Buddha and sentient beings in general and in particular. The harmful activity has intensified since the fire-bird (year) [1636] and (the spirit) has been successful in many of his missions. But hardly anyone has taken any action, as if this did not concern them. So, at the end of the earth-bird (year) [1648] a new shrine was constructed at Dol Chumig Karmo and articles were placed there in the hope that it would become a place for the Gyalpo to settle. However, his harmful activities only intensified and recently many lay and ordained people have been afflicted with diseases and a few monks have died. Therefore, all the monks unanimously decided that a fire ritual should be performed.
Consequently, two groups of practitioners were organised. One was led by Nagrampa Dhondup Gyatsho, who acted as the Vajra Acharya of (a performance of) the Dorje Drolo ritual and the other was led by Nangjung Ngagchang Losang Khyentse, who acted as the Vajra Acharya of (a performance of the) Yangsang Karma Dragpo ritual. Likewise Rigzin Pema Thinley of Dorje Drag, Dharma King Terdag Lingpa, Vugja Lungpa, Drigung Tulku Rinpoche, Katshal Zurpa Ngari Konchok Lhundup and Palri Tulku performed the Wrathful Lama, Yamaraja, Phurba, Loktri practice for seven days, at the conclusion of which a fire-ritual was performed during which the ‘perfidious interfering spirit’ and his entourage were burnt. Everybody was convinced (of its success because of) the appearance of wonderful signs and the smell of burning flesh that everybody witnessed. Thus, many sentient beings were explicitly granted the gift of fearlessness because their lives were saved. And indirectly these creatures (byung po) were delivered to the peaceful state of being released from having to experience the intolerable suffering of bad states of rebirth due to their increasing negative actions.
At that time a testimony was written to indicate that these creatures or evil spirits were without protection and refuge and (consequently) Namgyal Monastery, Dorje Drak Monastery, Dardhingpa Monastery recited mantras to negate the evil forces.”(4)
As mentioned above, this testimony is found in the volume Da of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Collected Works under the title Compendium Of Offerings, Fulfillment, Confessions And Eulogies etc. to the Unobstructed Wrathful and Powerful Committed Ocean of Dharma Protectors Entitled “Spontaneous Fulfillment of The Four Sublime Activities”.
“Because of the meddling of Lag Agyal of Gekhasa (his mother), the false reincarnation of Tulku Sonam Geleg Palzang (Tulku Dakpa Gyaltsen) got his way and because of distorted prayers he became a perfidious interfering spirit (dam sri) and brought serious harm to sentient beings. Therefore, a total of seven groups of practitioners led by Dorje Drag Tulku Rinpoche ( the fourth rDo-Drag-Rig-‘Zin Pema Thrinley), Choegyal Terdag Lingpa, Choeje Vugja Lungpa, Ngari Ngagchang Konchok Lhundup, Palri Tulku and two groups of practitioners of Phende Legshe Ling (Namgyal Dratsang) performed a ritual fire offering and burnt the interfering spirit. This is the testimony I have written at that time:
To the deities, Six Armed Mahakala, Karmaraja and Magzor, To the oathbound protectors The Four Faced Mahakala, Chamdral Begtse, etc. Who have been propitiated and whose practice (has been done) I offer this sublime libation. The so-called Drakpa Gyaltsen pretends to be a sublime being, even though he is not, And since this interfering spirit and creature of distorted prayers Is harming everything – both the dharma and sentient beings – Do not support, protect or give him shelter, but grind him to dust.
To the female protectors like Nodjin Yangghaza, etc. and Gyalpo Ku-nga, Khyabjug, Dorje Leg and particularly Nechung and his entourage I offer this sublime libation. The so-called Drakpa Gyaltsen pretends to be a sublime being, even though he is not, And since this interfering spirit and creature of distorted prayers Is harming everything – both the dharma and sentient beings – Do not support, protect or give him shelter, but grind him to dust.
To Tse-mar etc. and the seven Barwa brothers And likewise Setrab of Sangphu etc.- the wrathful gods and spirits among whom this negative spirit seeks support – I offer this sublime libation. The so-called Drakpa Gyaltsen pretends to be a sublime being, even though he is not, And since this interfering spirit and creature of wrong prayers Is harming everything – both the dharma and sentient beings – Do not support, protect or give him shelter, but grind him to dust.
Having agreed before the root and lineage lama Vajra Dharas To increase what is good and beneficial to sentient beings and the dharma, If you protect this perfidious interfering spirit, Will you not cause your own past pledges to degenerate?
There are groups of evil spirits who display various unsuitable miracles In the form of human and, cattle disease, hailstorms, famine, and drought. May their power and ability Their body, speech and mind be smashed into tiny particles.(5)
As is evident here, from 1657 the fire-bird year, a perfidious interfering spirit at Dol brought harm to the teaching and the sentient beings in general and in particular. In 1669, the earth-bird year, activities to pacify the spirit were performed with the construction of a new house and the placing of (relevant) articles, but to no avail. In the beginning of 1674, the wood-tiger year, and 1675, the wood-rabbit year, two specifically targeted rituals were performed and finally, at the end of 1675, the wood-rabbit year, seven groups of practitioners performed fire rituals and destroyed it forever.
Subsequently, many indisputably learned scholars and great practitioners who purely practised and maintained the philosophical views and tenets of the Gelugpa also continued to act against it. For example, in the biography of Trichen Ngawang Chokden(6) composed by Changkya Rolpai Dorje(7) entitled The Melodious Speech of Realised Sky Farers called The Great Drum of the Celestial Beings he states:
“Earlier, a very vicious and evil spirit ( here it doesn’t mention that this spirit is Dolgyal, but that it is Dolgyal who is referred to is clear from the biography of Changkya. Also, the time refers to the period when Trichen Ngawang Chokden was the Ganden throne-holder) possessed a man from Draksep (a place very near to Ganden) and some unstable former-abbots, and monastic hostels also worshipped it by simply invoking and propitiating it. On the top of the Jangtse mountain a cairn for invoking spirits was also built. Seeing these as extremely inappropriate he issued an edict to the assembly of monks that from the time of Je Tsongkhapa there had been no tradition of propitiating worldly spirits and protectors within the premises of this seat of learning and so, henceforth, nobody would be allowed to engage in such deeds. The cairn was also destroyed (this is very clearly mentioned in the biography of Changkya) and the stones and earth of which it was made were taken back to the places from where they had been taken. The medium was invoked to come into trance and was then ordered not to come into trance henceforth. Dolgyal too said, ‘If this is Tri Rinpoche’s order, I have no choice but to accept.” This evil spirit then fled to sTag-rTse-Zhol. (Tri Rinpoche) himself then went into retreat for some time and subsequently established the practice of Dharma Raja’s ritual cake offering composed by the Omniscient Gendun Gyatso (the second Dalai Lama) as a regular religious practice of monastic assembly. As a result of having transgressed Dharma Raja’s words, a former-abbot who had propitiated this evil spirit immediately expired. The monastic hostels also experienced many misfortunes and this led to the end of such practice and became a contributory factor in the purification of the monastery and the place.”(8)
As is evident in the above statements Trichen Ngawang Chogden placed restrictions (on the practice of Dolgyal) and asked monks not to practice or propitiate such evil spirits within the Ganden complex. It was in 1740, the iron-monkey year and the second year of his incumbency as the Ganden Throne Holder that he dismantled the cairn of the spirit situated on the peak of the Jangtse mountain.
What is the source to prove that this evil and harmful spirit whose practice was restricted in Ganden was none other than Dolgyal? In the biography of Changkya Rolpai Dorje composed by Thukan Choekyi Nyima (1737-1802)(9) entitled Beautifying Ornament of Ganden we read:
Reaching the site of the cairn to Machen, he explained in detail to Thukan Lobsang Choekyi Nyima as follows:
“Je Lama (Tsongkhapa) and his students do not propitiate worldly gods and protectors and hence even the cairn of Machen, the deity of his birthplace, is not included within the limits of the circumambulatory (path at Ganden). (However,) in the past some Ganden Throne Holders propitiated Dolgyal (Shugden) and experienced misfortunes, consequently Tri Chen Dorje Chang dismantled Dolgyal’s image and shrine and banished it from the monastery.”(10)
As mentioned here, when Changkya Rolpai Dorje went on a pilgrimage to Ganden Monastery he clearly mentioned the name of Dolgyal to Thukan Choekyi Nyima. This clearly proves the point.
Again in the Toe-‘Bril by the late Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche we find: “In the central part of Tibet shortly after the passing away of Phurchog Je Ngawang Jhampa, Yongzin Yeshe Gyaltsen, and Longdol Lama Rinpoche, the survival of the tradition of listening and instruction on the stages of path to enlightenment was in a critical condition. It was at that time that Nyungne Lama Yeshe Wangpo intentionally appeared to uphold and disseminate this teaching. This sublime being received ordination from Yongzin Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen and thus received the name Yeshe Wangpo.”
As the text clearly shows, the three lamas mentioned above were at that time the principal practitioners and teachers of the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment and also the ones who sustained the practice of the pure Gelug tradition. Thus, they enhanced the Yellow Hat teaching and their being universally worthy of respect and veneration is undisputed. Let us analyse these three eminent lamas’ views of Dolgyal.
In Phurchog Ngawang Jhampa’s(11) (1682-1762) work The Catalogue of the Establishment of the Four Monastic Seats and the Lower and the Upper Tantric College entitled “White Lotus Rosary” we find at the end of the account of the history of the Ganden Monastery:
“Thus, at the time when Je (Tsongkhapa) himself was alive, apart from those dharma protectors who are bound by oath and are mentioned in the tantras themselves, no objects for propitiating or seeking the help of harmful negative worldly spirits, who would express their wrath on even very minor matters, were ever installed within the premises of this monastic seat. As a result, all the members of the community, both Lamas and disciples lived in harmony and the tradition of study and practice flourished. Even (the cairn) to the spirit of Tsongkhapa’s birthplace was placed outside the monastery. However, nowadays, many people who consider themselves to be followers of Tsongkhapa, and who adopt the three robes of a fully ordained Buddhist monk, go for refuge in ghostly spirits. They will have to face the consequence of meeting with great misfortune. Therefore, if we, the ordained sangha, properly guard our precepts and vows, the guardians who are bound by oath and who have earlier seen the Buddha will help and support us without hesitation.”(12)
Phurchok Ngawang Jampa’s statement, “nowadays, many people who consider themselves to be followers of Tsongkhapa, and who adopt the three robes of a fully ordained Buddhist monk, go for refuge in ghostly spirits. They will have to face the consequences of meeting with great misfortune” clearly indicates that they will encounter misfortunes and thus he strongly criticised this practice. That this ghostly spirit referred to by Phurchog Jampa is none other than Dolgyal is clearly indicated by the two accounts of Changkya and Thukan.
The biography of Yongzin Yeshe Gyaltsen(13) entitled The Day Light Opening the Lotus of the Buddha’s Teaching composed by the Eighth Dalai Lama, Jhampel Gyatsho, also says:
“With regard to Dharma protectors too, it is not enough to have the name of a dharma protector. The three, Mahakala, Dharmaraja and Vaishravana, who were exclusively appointed by Je Tsongkhapa, are sufficient. This is because the lineages of all the Buddhas can be summarized into three lineages: Tathagata, Vajra and Lotus. The wrathful manifestation of these three are: Dharmaraja, Vaishravana and Mahakala. This is so because Dharmaraja (Damchan Choegyal) is the one who distinguishes between wholesome and unwholesome deeds, therefore he is the dharma protector of the path of the individual of initial mental scope, in which the main teaching concerns the law of cause and effect , what is to be adopted and what is to be discarded. Vaishravana is the dharma protector of the path of the individual of middling mental scope in which the principal teaching concerns the three higher trainings. And Six Armed Mahakala (Yeshekyi Gonpo Chagdruk) is the dharma protector of the path of the individual of great mental scope, in which the primary teaching is the instruction on meditation on the awakening mind or bodhichitta. We need no other dharma protector than these three.”
Again, in the above biography, after giving instructions to Panchen Rinpoche’s attendants about how Panchen Rinpoche should study and practise, we find: “Especially those from Tashi Lhunpo are being misled by this new dharma protector. Therefore, the dharma protectors which were practised and propitiated by Panchen Losang Choegyen should be enough. On the other hand, if you newly propitiate an evil ghost, it will become a great source of trouble, therefore you should all pay special attention to this.”(14)
Thus, he gave clear guidance based on his innermost feelings. The statement, “if you newly propitiate an evil ghost, it will become a great source of trouble,” refers only to Dolgyal for there is no other spirit to which it could refer.
In the various records of the teachings that he had received and in the Lists of Ocean of Dharma Protectors found in the Collected Works of Long Dol Lama Rinpoche we do not find even a hint about Dolgyal. From this it can be safely concluded that he did not practise or propitiate Dolgyal.
Thus, among those who practised the pure Gelug teaching Phurchog Ngawang Jampa and Yongzin Yeshe Gyaltsen had actually raised objections to the practice of Dolgyal and Long Dol Lama Rinpoche never practised or propitiated it. When we reflect carefully on how those who maintained Gelugpa thought and practice purely have clearly pointed out the mistakes of going for refuge to wrathful worldly spirits (and protectors) other than Mahakala, Dharmaraja and Vaishravana, who were appointed by Je Tsongkhapa himself, it is clear that there is not an element of truth in contemporary statements that it is improper for a Gelugpa not to propitiate Dolgyal, or the claim that those who do not propitiate Dolgyal are either not Gelugpas or that the Gelugpas will not be able to manage their own affairs.
Likewise, many great and non-sectarian lamas from the different schools of Tibetan Buddhism have advised against this practice. Here are a few examples. We have recounted earlier that during the time of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama (1617-1682) many great lamas and practitioners performed ritual fire offerings and eliminated Dolgyal forever. Particularly in the work of Min-ling Lochen Dharma-Shri (1654-1717) the Biography of Terdag Lingpa Gyurme Dorjee entitled: Chariot of Faith we find:
“From the 10th of the sixth month he accomplished the retreat and mantra recitation of Phurba and the perfidious evil spirit known by the name Dolgyal was destroyed so completely by means of a fire ritual, that only the name remained. At that time, on the occasion of summoning and entrance the lamentation of a dying person (could be heard), and on the occasion of the offering through the overpowering recitation of Ho, there was a clear indication when everyone became aware of the smell of a burning corpse.”(15)
It is also clearly mentioned in the related documents that Do Drak Rigzin Pema Thrinley (1640-1718), a contemporary of Terdag Lingpa Gyurme Dorje, performed a wrathful ritual fire offering, so we did not repeat it here.
Because some followers of Sakya Morchen Kunga Lhundrup propitiated Gyalchen Shugden, gradually some Gelugpa lamas also began to propitiate it. When various calamities and disturbances arose because of the propitiation of Shugden, Derge Zongsar Khyentse Jamyang Choekyi Lodro, alias Pema Yeshe Dorje, who was a non-sectarian practitioner who mainly practiced the Sakya tradition, wrote in his composition: Inducement Dedicated to the Perfidious Evil Spirit and Kordag(16):
“Kye(17)! I offer this ransoming ritual cake of spine joints In lieu of flesh, blood, body and life To all existent and visible evil spirits, To Gyalpo Shugden, the Kordag, To Dawa Senge Zang, the annihilator To the Gyaldre and the nine hosts of Bagu and his retinues, To Tegyal, Lakyab and Dragdre, To the Gyalgong, Evil Spirit and the perfidious ones and To the male and female ghosts of the dead and the living.(18)
If we examine these verses then it becomes very clear that what is known among many learned lamas and practitioners as Gyalchen Shugden is categorised here as Kordag, Gyalgong, Byungpo, Perfidious Spirit, Ghost of the Dead and is treated as someone who has to be bribed and paid off. Moreover, the Khangsar Khenpo, Ngawang Yonten Gyatsho, the sixty-sixth throne holder of Ngor Aewam Choedan, who was the student of Aewam Khangsar Khenchen Ngawang Lodro Shenphen Nyingpo (1876-1952) and Ngor Klu Ding Khenpo, Jamyang Thubten Lungtok Gyaltsen, and many renowned and learned Sakya Lamas have even performed wrathful practices to destroy the shrines of Shugden and have banished him.
Also, the biography of the fifth Panchen Lama, Panchen Tenpai Wangchuk (1855-82) states:
Also, in the code of rules of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery composed by Panchen Tenpai Wangchuk in the 15th Rabjung of the fire-rat year (1876) we find the following statement:
“Recently, it seems some cases of invoking ghosts (through mediums) within the compound of the monastery have taken place. In future, except for special dharma protectors like the Lamo Choekyong,(or Lamo Tsangpa, a special protector of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery) summoning different kinds of spirits to enter into mediums will be prohibited. Dharma protectors should be Vajra protectors possessing transcendental wisdom. Propitiating and taking refuge in evil spirits and ghosts like Dolgyal, that are wandering hungry spirits, contradicts the fundamental precepts of taking refuge in the Three Jewels, which is what distinguishes a Buddhist. Therefore, such practices should be given up. I have also observed that while passing through certain precipitous paths, which are the abodes of harmful hungry ghosts, ordinary lay people dismount from their horses, make prostrations and pay homage. In this connection, those of us who are followers of the Buddha should abandon such practices and instead generate virtuous thoughts like kindness, peace and benevolence when we reach such places and should give teachings reflecting on all conditioned phenomena being like the light of a star, a haze, a lamp etc. Then offer incense smoke as a way of making a gift. Apart from that, it is absolutely improper to act like an ordinary worldly person by making prostrations, dismounting from your horse, removing your hat and praying for short term and long term happiness. The inappropriateness of such actions is mentioned in many authentic treatises. So without undertaking these practices you should sustain your practice until it is accomplished.”(20)
Biography of Jigme Dhamchoe Gyatsho by the Dhomey scholar Tsetan Zhabdrung(21)(1910-1985)
“Some followers of Ven. Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo Rinpoche engaged in heated argument on the philosophical tenets of the new and the ancient. They engaged in many wrong activities like destroying images of Padmasambhava and those of other peaceful and wrathful deities, saying that reciting the mantra of the Vajra Guru is of no value and fed the Padma Kathang to fire and water. Likewise, they stated that turning Mani prayer wheels, observing weekly prayers for the deceased etc. are of no purpose and thus placed many on the path of wrong view. They held Gyalpo Shugden as the supreme refuge and the embodiment of all the Three Jewels. Many monks from small monasteries in the Southern area claimed to be possessed by Shugden and ran amok in all directions destroying the three reliquaries (images of the Buddha, scriptures and stupas) etc. displaying many faults and greatly harming the teaching of Je Tsongkhapa, the second Conqueror. Therefore, if you could compose an instructive epistle benefitting all and could publish it and distribute it throughout the three (provinces) U, Tsang and Kham it would greatly contribute to counteracting the disturbance to the teaching.”(22)
This letter of request is a letter sent by Jamgon Choekyi Lodro, the reincarnation of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, a great scholar of the recent past from the Kham area, to Jigme Damchoe Gyatsho of Dhomey (1898-1947). We can clearly see in this letter that by propagating inappropriate behaviour, some followers of Kyabje Phabong Khapa Dechen Nyingpo greatly harmed Je Tsongkhapa’s teaching, therefore a request was made that an instructive epistle should be composed, carved on a wooden block and distributed to the three (provinces) U, Tsang and Kham.
Then there is also a letter of complaint that Kyabje Phabong Kha received entitled “The Logic of Diamond Slivers” whose author is unknown. We have not seen the contents of that letter in detail, but Kyabje Phabong Kha received another letter of complaint from one by the name Choeze Thubten Losang of Domey entitled “The Chariot Pulling the Three Modes of Reasoning: An Appeal made to Kyabje Phabong Kha when he was staying at Chabdo” Later, Denma Losang Dorjee wrote a rejoinder entitled “Drum Stick Invoking the Sound of the Consequence of the Great Drum Bringing a Smile to the face of the Intelligent”: An annotated description of the result of analysis of the false letter titled An Appeal Made to Kyabje Phabong Kha when he was staying in Chabdo” In that rejoinder the contents of the letter sent to Kyabje Phabong Kha are cited without missing, adding or repeating the meaning of a single word. When we reflect on the meaning of that letter it seems very probable that Jigme Dhamcho Gyatsho wrote it under a pseudonym for special reasons at the request of Jamgon Chokyi Lodro, the reincarnation of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. Whatever the case may be, that rejoinder is found in the volume Na, Lhasa block print, an appendix of Kyabje Phabong Khapa’s collected works where you can read it in detail. Anyway, there must have been some purpose and reason for these indisputable and non-sectarian scholars to place restrictions (on this practice).
Some people have tried to prove that the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatsho (1876-1933), did not place any restrictions on Dolgyal. In support of their assertion they cite “The Biography of Gyalwa Thubten Gyatsho entitled The Amazing Precious Garland” composed by his tutor Phurchog Tulku Jhampa Tenzin wherein it is stated:
“In the Water Dog year (1922) before the lama in charge of Dungkar Gon, the spiritual teacher Ngawang Kelsang, who abides in the natural discipline of an accomplished one, and who is respected as a lama by all sentient beings in outer Tibet, the melodious bell of whose fame resounds from place to place, Gyalchen Dorje Shugden, who is extremely strict in his commitment and pledge to guard the teaching of Jamgon (Tsongkhapa) entered the body of a human being and said, “Now is the time when the Med-hor(23) are rising and if you wish to stop them it is important immediately to restore the stupas to the east and west of the central land of Tibet. This clear vajra prophecy is being brought to the notice of His Highness (Gongsa Chenpo) by the Geshe, through Governor of Dromo.”(24)
On the basis of this statement it is said that the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, far from placing restrictions on the practice of Dolgyal, in fact propitiated it. This makes it very clear that these people have failed to understand the import of the account, because the biography of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama was written by his tutor Phurchog Tulku Jhampa Tenzin. He has simply recorded how at that time the Dromo Geshe passed this information through the Governor of Dromo. He did not write that the Thirteenth Dalai Lama practised Dolgyal. This is nothing more than a prophecy of Shugden being brought to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama=s notice through the Governor of Dromo.
As an example of how the Thirteenth Dalai Lama placed strong restrictions on the practice and propitiation of new gods and protectors and particularly on Dolgyal because of its being very controversial in the past, Denma Losang Dorje in his composition, “The biography of Phabong Khapa Dechen Nyingpo entitled “The Meaningful and Melodious Song of Brahma” records:
“(Here is) an appeal from me, Phabong Khapa, holding the name of an incarnate, in accordance with an instruction that I have received from you through Tse Khendron Chenmo. (I am glad that) you have received my application of 22nd of the 12th month last year, and I am grateful that you have kindly clarified each and every point therein. It was entirely my mistake and I have absolutely nothing to say (to defend it). It will be my endeavour in the future to take the meaning of your instructions earnestly to heart and I ask your forgiveness for whatever mistakes I have made in my appeal.”
Phabong Khapa quotes the Dalai Lama’s letter: “With regard to the three points mentioned here, there is still much ground for debate, both in logical and scriptural terms, but this is enough for the time being. With regard to your reference to making endeavour in the practice of taking refuge, first of all you are propitiating Shugden as a protector. Since they received Lamrim teaching from you at the Drepung Monastic Religious Centre last year and so made a connection with you, propitiation of Shugden among students there has greatly increased. The Great Nechung Choegyal who from the very beginning was commanded and entrusted to protect and guard this monastery, expressed his displeasure to the Drepung Lachi several times, saying that (due to propitiating Shugden) the degeneration of the Buddha dharma had been speeded up. This is the source of his displeasure. I feel that your seeking the support of a wrathful worldly spirit (to secure benefits in) this life specifically contradicts the precepts of taking refuge. Therefore, your statement, ‘I want to say from the depths of my heart that it is only due to my being confused by ignorance and not that I have knowingly entered an unwholesome path and led others onto the same path.’ is contradictory.”
Phabong Khapa answers: “You have therefore instructed me to give you an answer. I have propitiated Shugden until now because my old mother told me that Shugden is the deity of my maternal lineage. I wish to inform you that henceforth, with intense regret (for what is past) and (with the intention of) restraining my faults (in the future), I will never again propitiate (Shugden) or make daily offerings and supporting prayers and that I will wholeheartedly keep this commitment in the core of my heart. Whatever mistakes I have committed until now, such as having become a cause for the mental displeasure of the Great Nechung Choegyal, contradicting the precepts of taking refuge and so forth, I request you, the supreme protector, who is especially compassionate to the lowly, to regard me with love and great compassion and patiently to forgive me. With great respect I here offer one silk scarf as a medium of request and five silver coins (to contribute to the) mandala offering.”(25)
The contents of this appeal constitute an apology from Phabong Khapa Dechen Nyingpo to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama.
Since the practice of Shugden prevailed among the followers of Phabong Khapa Dechen Nyingpo (1878-1941), the Thirteenth Dalai Lama had issued a proclamation about the inappropriateness of such a practice. In response Phabong Khapa Dechen Nyingpo accepted his mistakes and sent an informal appeal to His Holiness making a confession, expressing his remorse and asking for his forgiveness while promising not to propitiate the spirit or do the practice in the future. The reason that restrictions were placed on the practice is that to do it contradicts the precepts of Taking Refuge and the Great Dharmaraja Nechung had expressed an antipathy towards it. This is very clear from this appeal.
Now let us examine Dolgyal’s attitude towards the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. The biography of Je Phabong Khapa composed by Denma Losang Dorje states: “In the seventh month of Hor before the Zhide Tazur(26) I heard someone, who seemed to be a monk in trance, (possessed by) Shugden, say twice in high triumphal tones: “It is (to be) on the Namgang (30th) after completion of the 9th” I asked Je Lama (Phabong Khapa) about this in detail and later, on the 30th of tenth month of Hor the Thirteenth Dalai Lama passed away. Therefore, (Phabong Khapa) said that this earlier pronouncement seemed to state that His Holiness would pass away on 30th of the 10th month after the completion of the 9th month.”(27)
If we analyse this, of the two possible subjects, oneself and others, the verb ‘is (to be)’ refers to one’s own action. In terms of meaning it indicates one’s mentally deciding and making a commitment to do something. So here too, if he were not setting the time, he should have said: “It will be on 30th after the completion of the 9th” and not ‘It is (to be)’. This usage is quite clear to anyone who is familiar with the Tibetan language. Moreover, he said it twice, very distinctly, in a triumphal raised voice. This indicates his confidence in announcing that he is going to accomplish an important task on the 30th .
It is only fear of the Tibetan Government that prevents the author from relating this story explicitly, but what it seeks to imply is that His Holiness the Thirteenth Dalai Lama was also destroyed by Shugden. Therefore, it is very clear that this spirit is harmful in thought and deed and is bent on harming and hindering those great spiritual teachers who have realised the non-contradictory nature of all the teachings. Subsequently, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama has spoken about the fact that propitiation of Dolgyal conflicts with Nechung, and that such practices contradicts the precepts of Taking Refuge. The truth of this is implicitly confirmed by events since the time of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama.
Let us discuss the assertion found in the Toe-‘Bril: “When it was not caught during the fire ritual, the Great Fifth Dalai Lama in a wrathful aspect asked Setrab to announce the order in the protector chapel of Sangphu. It is said that while reading the document containing the order, even the dharma protector’s headgear shook with fear,” and, “the display of miraculous power increased even after the fire ritual (had been performed), therefore, the Great Fifth composed a short prayer of propitiation, “Hum! Unwavering from the sphere of spontaneous eternity…”.
In the earth-bird year (1669), the Fifth Dalai Lama constructed a new shrine at Dol and tried to reform the spirit through peaceful means. Since those actions did not produce a positive result, he subsequently performed several specifically targeted practices and finally a ritual fire ceremony was conducted by seven groups of practitioners. Through such deeds many living beings were provided with the gift of life and such hungry ghosts were indirectly liberated to the state of peace, free from the severe sufferings of the unfortunate realms.
The preface to (the great Fifth Dalai Lama’s Testimonial Statement) also states: “this testimonial account was written at the time when the evil spirit was destroyed during a fire ritual”. Thus, when it is stated so clearly in the Heavenly Garment (Dukulai Gosang) that the spirit was destroyed, it is unacceptable that due to Setrab’s manipulation the spirit could not be burnt, that Setrab was asked to read the order and that a prayer “Unwavering from the sphere of spontaneous eternity….”. was composed. If the Dalai Lama possessed such power that Setrab, to whom the wrathful spirit turned for help, was so completely petrified that even his headgear shook with fear when he received the document containing the order, it is illogical to say that the Dalai Lama made a confession and composed a prayer to propitiate the spirit. The Sangwa Gyachen (the Collection of Extensive Secrets) of the Fifth Dalai Lama comprising four inner volumes and 21 outer or later volumes does not mention anything about a document containing an order to Setrab and the composition of the prayer “Unwavering from spontaneous eternity….”
A list of some of the prominent non-sectarian scholars who have placed restrictions on Dolgyal’s practice.
1. 3 His Holiness the Fifth Dalai Lama
2. 3 Choegyal Terdag Lingpa
3. 3 Do Drag Rigzin Pema Thrinley
4. 3 Gadong Ngagrampa Dhondup Gyatsho
5. 3 Nangjung Ngagchang Losang Khyentse
6. 3 Choeje Vugja Lungpa
7. 3 Palri Tulku
8. 3 Drigung Tulku
9. 3 Katsak Zurpa Ngari Ngagchang Konchok Lhundup
10. 3 The 54th Gaden Throne Holder Thrichen Ngawang Chogden
11. 3 Volkha Jedrung Losang Thrinley
12. 3 Phurchog Ngawang Jhampa
13. 3 The Fifth Panchen, Panchen Tenpai Wangchuk
14. 3 Aewam Khangsar Khenchen Ngawang Lodro Zhenphen Nyingpo
15. 3 The Fourteenth Karmapa
16. 3 Ngor Khangsar Khenpo Ngawang Yonten Gyatsho
17. 3 Ngor Luding Khenpo Jamyang Thubten Lungtok Gyaltsen
18. 3 Zongsar Jamyang Khyentse Choekyi Lodro
19. 3 Panchen Yongzin Kachen Ang Nyima
20. 3 The Sixteenth Karmapa
21. 3 The Fourteenth Dalai Lama
Thus, many well-known great and learned lamas, who are unbiased in their religious outlook and the systems of philosophical tenets they propound have placed direct restrictions on this Dolgyal. Therefore, it is not just important, but imperative that those who want to review the history of Dolgyal should break out of the confinement of their one sided version to develop and promote a more complete picture.
Footnotes
i. An excerpt from a talk given by His Holiness 18th July 1980 at Sera Monastery to a selected group containing abbots, ex-abbots and senior monks of Sera Jey and Sera Mey and the members of the standing committee of the Tibet Youth Congress, Bylakuppe. See page 99 of the book Collection of All the Talks by His Holiness on the Propitiation and Practice of Dharma Protectors
ii. Dukulai Gosang, Volume Kha, Tibetan Publication, Folio 157 back, line 5
iii. Dukulai Gosang, Volume Kha, Tibetan Publication, Folio 239 front, Line 1
iv.. Dukulai Gosang, Volume Kha, Tibetan Publication, Folio 257 front, line 1
5. The original Tibetan can be found on page 148 front and back (English pages 423 and 424) of the volume Da of his Collected Works published in Gangtok, Sikkim
6. Thrichen Ngawang Chogden also known as Chentsha Ngawang Chogden (1677-1751) entered Sera Samlo Monastery when he was 15. He became the disciplinarian of the Gyume Tantric College when he was 29 and became the abbot of Tholing Monastery in Ngari. He then restored thousands of stupas which are constructed during Lochen Rinchen Zangpo. At 43 he became the abbot of Gyumed Tantric College. At 52 he became the tutor of His Holiness Gyalwa Kelsang Gyatsho, the Seventh Dalai Lama. He gave all his profound teachings to Changkya Rolpai Dorjee. In 1739 when he was 63 he became the 54th Ganden Throne Holder.
7. Changkya Rolpai Dorjee (1717-1786) was a scholar of great reputation and was recognised as the reincarnation of Changkya Losang Choedan by Konchog Jigme Wangpo. He wrote more than 189 major and minor works. He had many eminent students like Thukan Losang Chokyi Nyima.
8.The biography of Ganden Throne Holder Achi Thu Nomenhan, whose actual name is Trichen Ngawang Chokden, composed by Changkya Rolpai Dorje entitled the Melodious Speech of Realised Sky farers called The Great Drum of the Celestial Being, Chinese Publication, Folio 66 back last line.
9. Thukan Losang Chokyi Nyima (1737-1802) was recognised as the reincarnation of Thukan Ngawang Choekyi Gyatsho by Konchog Jigme Wangpo. He received novice monk ordination from Changkya Rolpai Dorjee when he was 13 and entered Drepung Gomang Monastery when he was 19. He studied with more than 30 eminent scholars like Panchen Palden Yeshe, Kunchen Jigme Wangpo, Phurchog Jhampa Rinpoche, Changkya Rolpai Dorjee, Sakya Dagchen Kunga Lodro etc. He was appointed as the abbot of Zhalu Monastery by the Tibetan Government and also became the 34th abbot of Gonlung Monastery. When he was 53 he became the throne holder of the Kumbum Monastery. He wrote more than 500 treatises, which are preserved in 15 wood block printed volumes.
10. In the biography of Changkya Rolpai Dorjee found in the Collected Works of the great Gelugpa scholar, Thukan Chokyi Nyima, Lhasa Publication, Folio 121 to 122.
11. Phurchog Ngawang Jhampa was born in 1682 in Chabdo and passed away in the year 1762 at the age of 81. He received his Bhikshu ordination from Panchen Losang Yeshe at Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. He was the 53rd lama of the lamrim lineage and was author of 52 published works.
12. In the Catalogue of the Establishment of the Four Monastic Seats and the Upper and Lower Tantric College composed by Phurchog Ngawang Jhampa entitled White Lotus Garland, Wood Block Print Folio 13 back line 1.
13. Yongzin Yeshe Gyaltsen was born in 1713 and passed away in 1793. He received his novice monk ordination from Panchen Losang Yeshe at the age of seven and received Bhikshu ordination from the accomplished master Losang Namgyal. At the age of 21 he visited central Tibet and received teachings from Phurchok Jhampa Rinpoche. At the age of 62 he became the tutor to the eighth Dalai Lama, Gyalwa Jhampal Gyatsho. When he was 77 he established the Dip Tsechok Ling Monastery. He passed away at the ripe age of 81. His published works consist of 19 volumes containing compositions on 159 sections.
14. The biography of Yongzin Yeshe Gyaltsen entitled The Day Light Opening the Lotus of the Buddha’s Teaching composed by the Eighth Dalai Lama, Jhampal Gyatsho Folio 187.
15. The biography of Terdag Lingpa Gyurme Dorjee entitled: Chariot of Faith composed by Minling Lochen Dharma Shri, Page 77.
16. One who enjoys offerings of others, while leading a morally corrupted life.
17. An emphatic way of summoning or calling someone.
18. Derge Zongsar Khyentse Jamyang Choekyi Lodro’s composition: Inducement Dedicated to the Perfidious Evil Spirit and Kordag, volume III, English page no. 359.
19. Biography of the Fifth Panchen Lama, Panchen Tenpai Wangchuk Page 223 back.
20. In the 11th volume of the series of the Key Opening the Door to One Hundred Lores of Land of Snow under the title Collection of Code of Rules, page 125.
21 Tsetan Zhabdrung was born in 1910 in Dhomey in Zunha district near Machu river and passed away in 1985 at Tashi Khyil Monastery. He studied with many eminent lamas, including primarily Jigme Dhamcho Gyatsho, and his learning and scholarship was renowned throughout the three provinces of Dhoto, U-tsang and Kham. He also served as Professor at the Universities of Nationalities at Tso-ngon and also at West North Nationalities University. He spent his whole life educating and encouraging his people and he published more than fifty works dealing with biography, history, religion, astrology, poetry, grammar etc.
22. First volume of the Collected works of Tsetan Zhabdrung, Tso-Ngon Publications page 394 to 395.
23. Mongolians from the lower region like Tso-ngonpo / Kokonor are called Med-hor and those from the upper areas like Sichuan are called Tod-hor.
24. The Birth Story of Arya Avalokiteshvara entitled Annals of the Garland of Gems. Volume V, page 620.
25. Account found on pages 471-2 front and back of the Tibetan text of the biography of Phabong Khapa Dechen Nyingpo entitled The Meaningful and Melodious Song of Brahma composed by his student, Denma Losang Dorje and published by the Nyimo Publisher Palden, Lhasa in a woodblock print. In the biography of Phabong Khapa Dechen Nyingpo published in India the above appeal is not found.
26 Zhide refers to Reting Monastery and Tazur refers to the retired Ta Lama of that monastery. .
27. On page 72 back, line 1 of the appendix/supplement to the biography of Phabong Khapa Dechen Nyingpo composed by Denma Losang Dorje.
This recent letter makes it quite clear that we are dealing with the equivalent of the Nazi Youth and Maidens Corps of a Dictatorial Theocratic Potentate.
I see nothing to indicate even the slightest hint of an original thought or even a glimmer of an idea.
I saw more clarity of mind and originality in Franco’s Spain, than is exhibited by these half-wits of the Tibetan Youth Congress.
Anyone can easily quote from the original source of their Troop Leaders in Dharamsala. It reaks of backwardness and certain primitiveness that belies the lack of any substanial education these youths have received from the beneficent Dalia lama’ education program. Hillbilly 101!
Why do they protest and use derogatory language to describe a part of their history and religion?
Why do they protest the legal proceedings unveiling in New Delhi’s High Court.
The Court thought is relevant to hear this historic writ against Tenzin Gyatso Norbu and his side kick, Samdung. Why do they think the courts waste their time hearing bogus cases. I do not think so.
Once again, all I hear from this body is the dribble 0f a 2nd or 3rd generation desecendants of slaves and serfs. Unable to reach beyond over 400 years of being subjugated to a malefic force of darkness and authoritarianism of the Dalia Lama lineage.
Maybe they broke some eggs on rocks to divine the circumstances.
It is so sad to see this regimentation of a once proud serf_slave class defend those who enslaved them and their countrymen for so long.
The statement of the brave Tibetans dying in Tibet belies the undercurrent terrorist organization that Taliaban Bob and Tenzin Gyatso Norbu secretly support and fund. Even more wasted lives going down the drain for a false prophet and a liar to his people. He already sold you out and you do not even seem to understand the precarious position you retain on the edge of a mountain inside a country that you neither belong, nor that will allow you to stay much longer after your Dictator passes from this world. Go Home and work the issues from within Tibet for the changes you want. Why do you cowardly retain a colonial status inside of India. Leave the West alone. Your money is runnning out and we will no longer tolerate your idiotic obeyance of Dalia or Taliaban Bob.
Bob, if this is the best you can do? Why not hang it up now before you’ve completely destroyed the Tibetans way. Taliaban Bob is the coward here. He couldn’t defend his own daughter in court unless he was lying.
Get a grip and think for yourselves
Be free and go home and leave us alone.
Be sure to take your trash with you!
To the executive members of Dorje Shugden Society of Delhi,
Recently, the 39 general meeting of the governing body of Tibetan Youth Congress was held in Kulu Manali, Himachal Pradesh, from July 1 to 5 of 2008. The meeting was taken part by 92 members from 45 local enclaves of India, Nepal, Bhutan, Taiwan and so on. We have thoroughly discussed on the principally related political agendas.
In the 2 resolution of the agenda no 5, the governing body has resolved to send a letter to the effect that Tibetan Youth Congress reject and single pointedly protest Dholgyal followers so called Dorje Shugden Devotees Charitable and Religious Society, for taking His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Kalon Tripa Samdhong Rinpoche to the court on the baseless allegations.
During the time our brothers in Tibet, sacrificing ones life, engage in tremendous campaign of saving Tibet and protest against China, to our sadness, you have reversed the black and white, and accomplished the necessities of the Chinese government by protesting and criticizing when the Dalai Lama travels to the foreign country. Not only that, we, the head and locals of Tibetan Youth Congress, do not accept that you have sued them with the baseless allegations, regardless of the kindness of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kalon Tripa and Himachal government. Furthermore, this governing body will show the clear expression of our single-pointed protest.
In future we will remind you not to mistaken friend and enemy, and to know the manner of maintaining buddhadharma and living beings, as well as to know the purpose and benefit of the instructions given to the Tibetan public by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
39 general meeting of the governing body of Tibetan Youth Congress
July 5, 2008
Tserwang Rizin, the Chairman
Seal and Signature
CC: Indian Government, Himachal Government, Private Office of the Dalai Lama, Department of Security of Tibetan government in exile.
September 18, 2008 is the date of sending the letter
Read:
http://www.tibet.com/dholgyal/shugden-history.html
Thom: Surely there is something in your wife’s medicine cabinet to make you calm down and stop raving.
i think its funny how that “authentic letter” is written in plain english….. considering in india ALL official documents must be written in the countries own official language. How do i know this? well perhaps because i have been to india myself many times and met with many important people and learned about the indian government myself!
Fools for believing such lies. The Dalai lama Does not believe in war, violence or persecution! He cannot control what a few individuals do. This is a poor attempt to demonize someone who is a true buddha of compassion!.
@garyspedding:
“The Dalai lama Does not believe in war, violence or persecution!” I find this argument funny. Are you Da-Lie Lama himself? If not, how can you be so sure about what he believes? How do you know when he talks about peace, he isn’t doing the opposite? As I always said, I judge a person based on his actions, not his words.
“He cannot control what a few individuals do.” True. But he can influence people, especially when many are obsessed by him, regard him as the god in their world.
In India, English is the official language or than Hindi. I never even went to India and even I know that.