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© Victor
& Victoria Trimondi
The
Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Part II – 7. The war of the oracle gods and the Shugden affair
7. THE WAR OF THE ORACLE GODS AND
THE SHUGDEN AFFAIR
The Tibetans can be described without exaggeration
as being “addicted to oracles”. The most varied methods of augury and
clairvoyance have been an everyday presence in the Land of Snows since time
immemorial. The following types of oracle, all of which are still employed
(among the Tibetans in exile as well), are described on an Internet site: doughball divination, dice divination, divination on a
rosary, bootstrap divination, the interpretation of “incidental” signs,
clairvoyant dreams, examining flames, observing a butter lamp, mirror
divination, shoulder-blade divination, and hearing divination (HPI 10).
When the “Great Fifth” seized worldly power in Tibet in the 17th
century, he founded the institution of a state oracle so as to be able to
obtain divinatory advice about the business of government. This is a matter
of a human medium who serves as the mouthpiece of a particular deity. Still
today, this form of “supernatural” consultation forms an important division
within the Tibetan government in exile. The opinions of oracles are
obtained for all important political events, often by the Fourteenth Dalai
Lama in person. He is — in the accusations of his opponents — all but
obsessed by divinations; it is primarily the prophecies of the state oracle
which are mentioned. But before we examine this accusation, we should take
a closer look at the history and character of this “state oracle”.
The Tibetan state oracle
In the Tibet of old, the state oracle (or rather
its human medium) lived, as one of the highest ranking lamas in the Nechung residence. “It” had at its command a
considerable “court” and celebrated its liturgies in a temple of its own.
The predominant color of the interior temple was black. On the walls of the
gloomy shrine hung mysterious weapons, from which great magical effects
were supposed to emanate. In the corners lurked stuffed birds, tigers, and
leopards. Pictures of terror gods looked back at the visitor, who suddenly
stood in front of a mask of dried leather feared across the whole country.
Among the chief iconographic motifs of the temple was the depiction of
human ribcages.
At the beginning of an oracle session, the Nechung Lama is sent into a trance via all manner of
ritual song and incense. After a while eyes close, his facial muscles begin
to twitch, his brow becomes dark red and glistens with sweat. The prophet
god then visibly enters him, then during his trance the medium develops —
and this is confirmed by photographs and western eyewitness reports —
almost superhuman powers. He can bend iron swords and, although he carries
a metal crown weighing over 80 pounds (!) on his head, perform a wild
dance. Incomprehensible sounds come from his foaming lips. This is supposed
to be a sacred language. Only once it has been deciphered by the priests
can the content of the oracle message be recognized.
The deity conjured up by the Nechung
Lama is called Pehar
or Pedkar.
However often only his adjutant is invoked, Dorje Drakden by name. This is because a
direct appearance by Pehar
can be so violent that it threatens the life of his medium (the Nechung Lama). Pehar has under his command a group of five wrathful
gods, who together are called the “protective wheel”. It seems sensible to
make a few thoughts about this prophesying god, who has for centuries
exercised such a decisive influence upon Tibetan politics and still
continues to do so.
In iconographic representations, Pehar has
three faces of different colors. He wears a bamboo hat which is crowned
with a vajra
upon his head. In his hands he holds a bow and arrow, a sword, a cleaver,
and a club. His mount is a snow lion.
Pehar’s
original home lay in
the north of Tibet, there where in the conception
of the old Tibetans (in the Gesar epic)
the “devil’s country” was to be found. In earlier times he reigned as war
god of the Hor Mongols. According to the sagas,
this wild tribe was counted among the bitterest opponents of the
pre-Buddhist Tibetans and their national hero, Gesar of Ling.
Old documents from Tunhuang
describe the Hor as “flesh-eating red demons”
(Stein, 1993, p. 36). Their martial king had laid waste to the Land of
Snows and stolen its queen, the wife of Gesar of Ling. After terrible battles the Tibetan national hero
defeated the rapacious Hors, to whom we are indebted for the word horde, and won their commitment and that
of their chief god, Pehar, with an eternal oath of loyalty.
Over the centuries the term Hor was then used to refer to various Mongolian tribes,
including those of Genghis Khan. Hence, Pehar (the principal oracle
god of the Dalai Lama) was originally a bitter arch-enemy of the Tibetans.
Where Gesar had rendered the Mongol god harmless, it was the Maha Siddha Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche)
who brought Buddhism to Tibet who first succeeded in actually putting Pehar to
work. The saga tells how Guru Rinpoche pressed a vajra upon
the barbaric god’s head and thus magically mastered him. After this act, Pehar was
able to be incorporated into the Buddhist pantheon as a servant. For seven
hundred years his chief residence was the founding monastery Samye, by the construction of which he had to assist as
a “forced laborer”. About 900 years later the “Great Fifth” transported him
(i.e., his symbol) to Nechung in the vicinity of
the Drepung monastery and advanced the former war
god of the Hor to state oracle. Since, after his
“Buddhization”, he did not want to be reminded of
his former defeat (by the national hero, Gesar), not a single verse
from the Gesar epic was allowed to be cited in the
Drepung monastery or at any other location where
he had stayed.
The question soon arises as to why of all gods Pehar,
the former ferocious and cruel opponent of the Land of Snows, was given the
delicate office of being a supernatural governmental advisor to the Tibetan
“god-king”. Surely this would have sooner been the entitlement of a
Bodhisattva like Avalokiteshvara
or a national hero like Gesar of Ling.
With this question too, the key is to be sought in
the “political theology” of the “Great Fifth”. We may recall that both the
conferring of the title of Dalai Lama
and the establishment of the hierarch’s secular power were the actions of
the Mongolians and not of the Tibetan people. In contrast, as we have
reported, in the 17th century the national forces of the country were
actually gathered under the kings of Tsang and around the throne of the Karmapa (the leader of the “red” Kagyupa
sect). Thus, it does not take much fantasy to be able to sketch out why Pehar was
chosen as the advisor of the “yellow” Buddhist state (then represented by
the Fifth Dalai Lama). It was expected of the former Mongolian god and
opponent of Tibet that he tame the recalcitrant Tibetans (who supported the
Karmapa). In this his interests were in complete
accord with those of the “god-king”. Additionally, the “Great Fifth”
himself was a descendant of an aristocratic family which traced its lineage
back to the Hor Mongols. Pehar, the later state
oracle, is thus a foreign deity imposed upon the Tibetan people.
It is true that the oracle god has sworn an oath
of loyalty, but it is — in the lamas’ opinion — by no means ruled out that
he may one day break this and unleash his full vengeance upon the Tibetans
who defeated him in times gone by. He has in his own words explained to Padmasambhava what will then happen. He will destroy
the houses and the fields. The children of the Land of Snows will have to
endure famine and will be driven insane. The fruit of the
and will be destroyed by hail and swarms of insects. The strong will
be carried off and only the weak shall survive. Wars shall devastate the
roof of the world. Pehar
himself will interrupt the meditations of the lamas, rob their spells of
their magic power, and force them to commit suicide. Brothers will rape
their sisters. He will make the wisdom consorts (the mudras) of the tantra masters bad and heretical, yes, transform them
into enemies of the teaching who emigrate to the
lands of the unbelievers. But first he shall copulate with them. “I,” Pehar
proclaims, “the lord of the temples, the stupas
and scriptures, I shall possess the fair bodies of all virgins” (Sierksma, 1966, p. 165).
In the sphere of practical politics the
recommendations of the Mongolian martial god have also not always been
advantageous for the Tibetans. For example, he gave the Thirteenth Dalai
Lama the catastrophic advice that he should attack the British army under
Colonel Younghusband which led to a massacre of
the Tibetan soldiers.
Current politics and the
oracle system
One would think that the Tibetans in exile would
these days have distanced themselves from such a warlike deity as Pehar, who
constantly threatens them with bloody acts of revenge, especially after
their experiences at the hands of the Chinese occupying forces. One would
further assume that, given the Kundun’s strident professions of democracy, the oracle system as such would be
in decline or have even been abandoned. But the opposite is the case: in Dharamsala the divinatory arts, astrology, the
interpretation of dreams, and even the drawing of lots still have a most
decisive (!) influence upon the politics of the Tibetans in exile. Every
(!) politically significant step is first taken once the mediums,
soothsayers, and court astrologers have been consulted,
every important state-political activity requires the invocation of the
wrathful Mongolian god, Pehar. This
tendency has increased in recent years. Today there are said to be three
further mediums (who represent different deities) whose services are made
use of. Among these is a young and attractive girl from an eastern province
of Tibet. Some members of the community of Tibetans in exile are therefore
of the opinion that the various oracles misuse His Holiness the Fourteenth
Dalai Lama for their own ends and force their will upon him.
Now, how does the “god-king” see this through his
own eyes? “Even some Tibetans,” we learn from the Kundun, “mostly those who
consider themselves 'progressive', have misgivings
about my continued use of this ancient method of intelligence gathering.
But I do so for the simple reason that as I look back over the many
occasions when I have asked questions of the oracle, on each one of them
time has proved that his answer was correct” (Dalai Lama XIV, 1993 I, p.
312). “I not only believe in spirits, but in various kinds of spirits!”, His Holiness further admits, “... To this category
belongs the state oracle Nechung (Pehar). We
consider these spirits reliable, then they have a long history without any
controversy in over 1000 years” (Tagesanzeiger (Switzerland),
March 23, 1998). Pehar
determined the point in time in which the Dalai Lama had to flee Tibet and
with the statement “that the shine of the 'wish-fulfilling jewel' [one of
the Dalai Lama’s names] will light up in the West” predicted the spread of
Buddhism in Europe and North America. (Dalai Lama XIV, 1993a, p. 154).
Even the aggression of his oracle god is not
denied by the Kundun:
“ His [task], in his capacity as protector and
defender, is wrathful. [!] However, although our functions are similar, my
relationship with Nechung is that of commander to
lieutenant: I never bow down to him. It is for Nechung
to bow to the Dalai Lama” (Dalai Lama XIV, 1993 I, p. 312). This statement
confirms once again that from a tantric viewpoint, the politics of the
Tibetans in exile is not conducted by people, but by gods. As Avalokiteshvara
and the Kalachakra
deity, the Dalai Lama commands the Mongolian god, Pehar,
to make predictions about the future. [1] The Kundun’s comment in this quotation that his functions and the
“functions” of Pehar
are “similar” is ambiguous. Does he want to allude to his own “wrathful
aspect” here? On September 4, 1987 a new Nechung
medium was enthroned in Dharamsala, since the old
one had died three years before. His official confirmation was attained
following a demonstrative trance session at which the Kundun, cabinet members of
the Tibetan government in exile and the parliamentary chairman were
present. About two months later another séance was held before the Council
of Ministers and a number of high lamas. This illustrious assembly of the
highest ranking representatives of the Tibetan people shows how the
political prophecies and instructions of the god Pehar are taken seriously not
just by the Dalai Lama but also by the “people’s representatives” of the
Tibetans in exile. Thus, in political decisions neither reason nor the
majority of votes, nor even public opinion have
the last word, but rather the Mongolian oracle god.
Dorje Shugden—a threat to the Fourteenth
Dalai Lama’s life?
Since 1996 at the latest, Pehar and his Nechung medium have met with
embittered competition from among the Tibetan’s own ranks. This is a matter
of the tutelary and divinatory deity, Dorje Shugden. In pictures, Dorje Shugden
is depicted riding grim-faced through a lake of boiling blood upon a snow
lion. It is primarily conservative circles among the Gelugpas
(the “Yellow Hats”) who have grouped around this figure. They demand the
exclusive supremacy of the yellow sect (the Gelugpas) over the other
Buddhist schools.
This traditional political position of the Shugden
worshippers is not acceptable to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (although he
himself is a member of the yellow sect) because he is working towards an
integration of all Tibet’s religious orientations, including the Bonpos. With the same resolve as the “Great Fifth” he
sees a one-off chance to multiply the power of his own institution in a
collective movement involving all schools. It is therefore not surprising
that even the early history of Dorje Shugden features an irreconcilable confrontation
between the protective god and the Fifth Dalai Lama, which appears to be
repeating itself today.
What took place on that occasion, and what has
been the history of the recalcitrant Shugden? The “pan-Buddhist”
program of the “Great Fifth”, but especially his occult tendency towards
the Nyingmapa sect, led the abbot of the powerful
Drepung (Yellow Hat) monastery, Drakpa Gyaltsen, to organize
a rebellion against the ruler in the Potala. The
conspiracy was discovered and was not carried out.
The two oracle gods at daggers drawn: Shugden [l] and Nechung [r]
Most probably at the command of the in such
matters unscrupulous god-king, the rebel was murdered first. Whilst the corpse
was being burned on a pyre, a threatening cloud which resembled a huge
black hand, the hand of the avenger, was formed by the ascending smoke.
After his death the murdered lama, Drakpa Gyaltsen, transformed into a martial spirit and took on
the fearsome name of Dorje Shugden,
which means the “Bellower of the Thunderbolt”. He continued to pursue his
political goals from the beyond.
Shortly after his death — the legend reports — all
manner of unhappy incidents befell the country. Towns and villages were
afflicted with sicknesses. The Tibetan government constantly made wrong decisions, even the Fifth Dalai Lama was not spared.
Every time he wanted to have a meal in the middle of the day, his victim (Dorje Shugden)
manifested himself as an invisible evil force, up-ended the dinner tables
and damaged the “ His Holiness’s possessions”. [2] Ultimately it proved
possible to subdue the vengeful spirit through all manner of rituals, but
he did not therefore remain inactive.
With the assistance of a human medium, through
whom he still today communicates with his priests, the abbot who had
transformed into a protective god organized (from the beyond, so to speak)
a oppositional grouping within the Yellow Hat (Gelugpa)
order, who wanted (and still want) to enforce the absolute supremacy of
their order by magical and practical political means. For example, at the
beginning of the 20th century the invocation of Shugden by the powerful
Yellow Hat lama, Pabongka Rinpoche,
was used to suppress the Nyingmapas and Kagyupas in eastern Tibet. An outright ritual war was
fought out: “... whenever this [Shugden] ritual was practiced in the Gelugpa
monasteries, the surrounding monasteries of the other schools [performed]
certain practices so as to check the negative forces again” (Kagyü Life 21-1996, p. 34).
Nonetheless the “reactionary” Shugden movement constantly
gained in popularity, especially among members of the Tibetan nobility too.
Later, this “sub-sect” of the Yellow Hats came to understand itself as a
secret nest of resistance against the Chinese occupation force, since the
traditional protectors of Tibet (Palden Lhamo or Pehar, for
example) had allegedly betrayed and left the country. One of the chief
representatives of the secret conservative alliance (Trijang
Rinpoche) was a teacher of the Fourteenth Dalai
Lama, who himself initiated his divine pupil into the Shugden cult.
The reverence for Shugden is likewise high
among the Tibetans in exile, and is well distributed worldwide (everywhere
where Gelugpas are to be found). A fifth, in some
other versions even two-thirds, of the yellow sect are said to pray to the
reactionary dharmapala
(tutelary spirit). But in the meantime the movement has also spread among
Westerners. These are primarily from the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT), an
English-based grouping around the lama Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. The
declaration of exclusion from his former monastery says of the latter that,
“this demon with broken commitments, Kelsang Gyatso, burns with the flame of unbearable spite toward
the unsurpassed omniscient XIV Dalai Lama, the only staff of life of
religious people in Tibet, whose activities and kindness equal the sky”
(Lopez, 1998, p. 195). His supporters provide online information about
their conflict with Dharamsala under the name of
the Shugden Supporters Community (SSC).
The Kundun
and Shugden
It is true that in the year 1976 the Fourteenth
Dalai Lama had already declared that he did not wish for his person to
associated in any way with Dorje Shugden, especially because the worship of this
“reactionary” spirit had come into conflict with three other dharmapalas
(tutelary gods) which he revered highly, the oracle god Pehar, the terrible Palden Lhamo,
and the protective god Dharmaraja. Rumors report of a dream of the Kundun in
which Shugden
and Pehar
had fought with one another. On a number of occasions Pehar prophesied via the Nechung Lama that Shugden was attempting to
undermine the sovereignty of the Kundun and thus deliver Tibet into the hands of the
Chinese. The Mongolian god received unexpected support in his accusations
through a young attractive female medium by name of Tsering
Chenma, who, during the preparations for a Kalachakra initiation (!) in Lahaul Spiti announced that
30 members of the Dorje Shugden
Society would attack the Dalai Lama in the course of the initiation.
Thereupon the Kundun’s
security staff searched all present for weapons. Nothing was found and not
a single representative of the Shugden society was in attendance (Burns, Newsgroup 1).
Yet another, female (!) oracle was questioned
about the Shugden affair. During the session and
in the presence of the Dalai Lama, the woman is supposed to have fallen
upon a monk and whilst she tore at his clothes and shook his head cried
out: “This Lama is bad, he is following Dorje Shugden, take him out, take him out” (Burns, Newsgroup 9).
The majority of the Tibetans in exile were
naturally not informed about such incidents, which were more or less played
out behind closed doors, and were thus most surprised at the sharpness and
lack of compromise with which the Kundun repeated his criticisms of the Shugden
movement in 1996.
On March 21, during the initiation into a
particular tantra (Hayagriva) he turned to those
present with the following words: “I have recently said several prayers for
the well-being of our nation and religion. It has become fairly clear that Dolgyal
[another name for Shugden]
is a spirit of the dark forces. ... If any of you intend to continue to
invoke Dolgyal
[Shugden],
it would be better for you to stay away from this authorization, to stand
up and leave this place. It is unfitting if you continue to sit here. It
will be of no use to you. It will in contrast have the effect of shortening
the life of the Gyalwa Rinpoche
[of the Dalai Lama, that is, his own life]. Which is not
good. If there are, however, some among you who want that Gyalwa Rinpoche [he himself]
should soon die, then just stay” (Kagyü Life 21-1996,
p. 35).
At another location the Kundun announced his fear
that Shugden
was seeking to spoil all his pleasure in life via psychic terror: “You
should not think that dangers for my life come only from someone armed with
a knife, a gun or a bomb. Such an event is extremely unlikely. But dangers
to my life may arise if my advice is constantly spurned, causing me to feel
discouraged and to see no further purpose in life” (Kashag,
HPI 11).
Such statements by His Holiness may imply that the
Dalai Lama (and behind him the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara) is very
fearful of this vengeful spirit, which induced the Indian Associated Press to make the mocking
comment that, “a 350-year old ghost is haunting the Dalai Lama” (Associated
Press, August 21, 1997, 2:54 a.m.). At any rate,,
the god-king’s security service which protects his residence in Dharamsala in the meantime consists of 100 police
officers.
The following statement by the Kundun has been leaked from a
secret meeting of influential exiled Tibetan politicians and high lamas
which the Dalai Lama called to discuss the Shugden case in Caux (Switzerland): “Everyone who is affiliated with
the Tibetan Society of Ganden Phodrang
government (Tibetan Government) should relinquish ties with Dhogyal (Shugden). This is
necessary since it poses danger to the religious and temporal situation in
Tibet. As for foreigners, it makes no difference to us if they walk with
their feet up and their head down. We have taught Dharma to them, not they
to us. ... We should do it [carry out this ban] in such a way to ensure
that in future generations not even the name of Dholgyal
[Shugden]
is remembered” (Burns, Newsgroup 1).
Numerous Tibetans who had in the past been
initiated into the Shugden
cult by the personal teacher of the Kundun, Trijang Rinpoche, and believed that through this they enjoyed
His Holiness’s favor, saw themselves all at once
betrayed after the ban and felt deeply disappointed. For the sophisticated
Dalai Lama, however, the sectarian position of the “yellow fundamentalists”
and “sectarians” was no longer bearable and quite obviously a significant
obstacle on his mission to compel all sects to accept his absolute control
and thus limit the supremacy of the Gelugpas.
“This Shugden
spirit”, the Kundun
has said, “has for over 360 years created tensions between the Gelug tradition and the other schools. ... Some may
[because of the ban] have lost trust in me. But at the same time numerous
followers of the Kagyupa or Nyingma
schools have recognized that the Dalai Lama is pursuing a truly
non-sectarian course. I believe this Shugden worship has been like
an agonizing boil for 360 years. Now like a modern surgeon I have
undertaken a small operation” (Tagesanzeiger (Switzerland), March 23, 1998).
He then also branded the Shugden cult as “idolatry”
and as a “relapse into shamanism” (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 1997, No. 158, p. 10). On March 30, 1996
the ban on the worship of Shugden was pronounced
by governmental decree. The “mouthpiece” of the Kundun in the USA, Robert
Thurman, emotionally denounced the “sectarians” and publicly disparaged
them as the “Taliban of Buddhism”.
In the meantime the accusations coming out of Dharamsala against the Shugden worshippers fill many
pages: they were cooperating with the Chinese and received funding from
Beijing; they were fouling their own nest; they were playing “Russian
roulette”, because they dragged the whole exile Tibetan case (and thereby
themselves) into the depths. They were trying to kill the Kundun.
The accusations made by
the Shugden worshippers
On the other hand, the Shugden followers, whose leader
has meanwhile been officially declared to be an “enemy of the people”,
speak of a true witch hunt directed against them which has already been in
progress for a number of months. They accuse the Dalai Lama of a flagrant
breach of human rights and the right to freedom of religion and do not shy
from drawing comparisons with the Chinese occupation force and the Catholic
Inquisition. Houses belonging to the sect are said to have been illegally
searched by followers of the Kundun, masked bands of thugs to have attacked
defenseless Shugden
believers, images of and altars to the protective god to have been
deliberately burned and thrown into rivers. Lists of the names of Dorje Shugden
practitioners ("enemies of the people”) are said to have been drawn up
and pictures of them and their children to have been hung out in public
buildings so as to defame them. It is said that followers of the protective
deity have been completely refused entry to the offices of the government
in exile and that the children of their families no longer have access to
the official schools. Following a resolution of the so-called Tibetan Cholsum
Convention (held between August 27 and 31, 1998) Shugden
followers were unable to travel internationally or draw pensions, state
child assistance, or social security payments. In it, Tibetans are
forbidden to read the writings of the cult and they were called upon to
burn them.
A militant underground organization with the name
of the “secret society for the destruction of internal and external enemies
of Tibet” threatened to murder two young lineage holders, the lamas Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche (13-years-old) [3] and Song Rinpoche (11-years-old), who (under the influence of
their teacher) performed rites in honor of Dorje Shugden: “… we will destroy your
life and your activities” (Swiss Television, SF1, January 6, 1998). In a
document from this group tabled by Shugden
followers, it says: “Anyone who goes against the policy of the government
must be singled out one-pointedly, opposed and given the death penalty. ...
As for the reincarnations of Trijang and Song Rinpoche, if they do not stop practicing Dhogyal [Shugden] and contradict with the word of H.HH. the Dalai Lama, not only will we not be able to respect
them, but their life and their activities will suffer destruction. This is
our first warning” (Burns, Newsgroup 1). Whilst a Western
television crew were filming, a Tibetan monk who cooperated with the
reporters received a death threat: “... in seven days you will be dead!”
(Swiss Television, SF1, January 6, 1998).
In addition Dharamsala
has exerted vehement psychological pressure on Buddhist centers in the West
and forbidden them from performing Shugden rituals. In a word — the worshippers of the protective god
had become the “Jews of Buddhism” (Newsweek,
April 28, 1997, p. 26).
In London, where the sect has around 3000 members,
there were protest demonstrations at which pictures of the Kundun were
held high with the slogan, “Your
Smiles Charm, Your Actions Harm”. He was referred to here as a “merciless
dictator, who oppresses his people more than the Chinese do” (Kagyü Life 21, 1996, p. 34).
However, in an official communiqué from May 14,
1996, the government in exile denied all accusations. In contrast — they
announced that death threats had been sent from Shugden to the offices of His
Holiness and the Tibetan Women's
Association. “If there comes division among
prominent persons in the Yellow Hat Sect, there will be bloodshed in the
monasteries and settlements across India”, one of the threatening letters
is said to have stated (Newsweek,
April 28, 1997, p. 26; retranslation). Both sides clearly fear that their
lives are threatened by the other side.
All these mutual fears, accusations, and slander
in the battle between the two oracle gods reached their climax in the
ritual murder of the lama Lobsang Gyatso on February 4, 1997 which we have described
above. Lobsang Gyatso
was considered a special friend of the Dalai Lama and a pronounced opponent
of the Shugden
sect. A few days after the murder a press release from the government in
exile coursed around the world in which Dorje Shugden followers were said to
certainly be responsible for the murder. There was talk of confessions and
arrests. This opinion remains current among a broad public to this day.
As evidence, among other things a letter to the
murder victim (Lobsang Gyatso)
was cited in which (it was said) the secretary of the Dorje Shugden Society had threatened the
abbot with murder. Tashi Wangdu,
a minister of the Tibetan government in exile, held this document, written
in Tibetan, in his hand and showed it again on January 25, 1998 in Swiss
Television (on the “Sternstunde”[Star Hour]
program). However, this turned out to be a deliberate and very blatant
attempt to mislead, then the Tibetan document,
which was later translated, does not contain a single word of a murder
threat. Rather, it contains a polite invitation to Lobsang
Gyatso to discuss “theological” questions with
the Dorje Shugden
Society in Delhi (Gassner, 1999).
But this document was enough to arrest all known
followers of the protective god (Shugden) in Delhi and illegally imprison them. However,
they denied participating in the crime in any form whatsoever. [4] Indeed,
despite interrogations lasting weeks by the Indian criminal police, nothing
has been proven. The evidence is so meager that it is most likely that the
crime was committed by another party. The matter was also seen so by a
court in Dharamsala, which negated any connection
between the Dorje Shugden
Society and the murders of February 4.
For this reason, there are claims from the Shugden
followers that the Dalai Lama’s circle tried to pin the blame on them in
order to muzzle and marginalize them. In light of the power-political
ambitions and relative strength of the sect — it is said to have over
20,000 active members in India alone — this version also makes sense. Some
western worshippers of the protective god even go so far as to claim that a
higher order from the Kundun lay behind the deed. Until the murderers are
convicted, a good criminologist must keep his or her eye on all of these
possibilities.
Reactions of the Tibetan
parliament
Within the Tibetan parliament in exile, the
incidents have led to great nervousness and high tension. A resolution was
passed demanding that “in essence
government departments, organizations, associations, monasteries and their
branches under the direction of the exile Tibetan government should abide
by the ban against worship of Dhogyal” (Burns,
Newsgroup 1).
In the further reactions of the people’s
representatives one can read just how risky the whole matter is seen to be.
Hence, during the parliamentary session of September 20, 1997 one of the
members established that “an unprecedented amount of literature is being
published everywhere that criticizes the Dalai Lama and belittles the
Tibetan Exile Government” (Burns, Newsgroup 1). This is “extremely
dangerous” and in the principal monasteries there was open talk of a
schism. During the parliamentary session the government was strongly
criticized for not having done anything to treat the Shugden affair as a internal Tibetan matter, but rather to have told the
whole world about it, thus bringing it to the attention of an international
public. We have to conclude from the committed discussions of the
parliamentary members that the power and potential influence of the Shugden
followers are actually more significant than one would have thought from
the previous official statements out of Dharamsala.
On the third day of the session the situation in
parliament had reached such a dead end that there seemed to be nothing more
to say. What do the representatives of Tibetans in exile do in such a
situation? — They consult the state oracle! It is not the members of
parliament as the representatives of the people’s will but rather the
oracle god Pehar
who decides which course the government is to steer in the controversy
surrounding the recalcitrant Dorje Shugden. The grotesqueness of the situation can
hardly be topped, since Pehar and Shugden — as we learn from the writings of both parties
— are the most bitter of enemies. How, then, is the Mongolian god (Pehar)
supposed to provide an objective judgment about his arch-enemy (Shugden)?
Indeed, it was Pehar,
who in 1996 prophesied for the Dalai Lama that his life and hence the fate
of Tibet wee endangered by the Shugden cult. In contrast , the
Shugden
oracle announced that the Kundun has been falsely advised by Pehar for years. Hence what
the state oracle consulted by parliament would say was clear in advance.
The advice was to combat the Shugden followers with uncompromising keenness.
This interesting case is thus a matter of a war
between two oracle gods who seek control over the politics of Tibet. No
other example since the flight of the Dalai Lama (in 1959) has so clearly
revealed to the public that “gods” are at work behind the Tibetan state,
the realpolitik
of the Kundun, and the power groupings of the
society of Tibetans in exile. One may well be completely skeptical about
such entities, but one cannot avoid acknowledging that the ruling elite and
the subjects of the Lamaist state are guided by
just such an ancient world view. How these occult struggles are to be
reconciled with the untiringly repeated professions of belief in democracy
is difficult to comprehend from a western-oriented way of thinking.
Dharamsala is completely aware that
antidemocratic methods must arouse disquiet in the West. For example, in
contrast to before, since the mid-eighties reports about the pronouncements
of oracles no longer play a large role in the Tibetan Review (the exile Tibetans’ most important
foreign-language organ of the press). Only since the “Shugden affair” (1996) has the excessive use of oracle mediums in the
politics of the Tibetans in exile been rediscovered and become known
worldwide. In monastic circles it is openly joked that the Kundun
employs more oracles than ministers. “Favorites and sorcerers manipulate
the sovereign”, it says in a Spanish magazine, with “demons and deities
fighting to control people's minds ...” (Más Allá de la Ciencia,
No. 103, 1997).
Nevertheless, the Kundun
has succeeded amazingly well in marginalizing the Shugden cult internationally
and branding it as medieval superstition. For example, the German news
magazine, Der
Spiegel, which normally takes an
extremely critical stance towards religious matters, was prepared to
blindly take up the official version of the Shugden story from Dharamsala: the Shugden followers, Der Spiegel reported, were responsible for two (!) murders and
their flight could be traced to China and the Chinese secret service (Spiegel, 16/1998, p. 119). Nearly
all western media stereotypically repeat that the ritual murderers came
from the ranks of the protective god (for example, Time Magazine Asia, September 28, 1998).
One of the arguments of the Shugden followers in this
“battle of the gods” is the claim that the Dalai Lama is engaged in selling
his own country to the Chinese. He (they argue) is not acting in the interests
of his people at all, since in his Strasbourg Declaration he renounced the
national sovereignty of Tibet as his goal.
It is not possible for us to form a final judgment
about such a charge; however, what we can in any case assume is the fact
that the Mongolian war god Pehar (the Nechung oracle) can
have no interest in the (well-being of the)Tibetans
and their nation, against whom he in former times grimly struggled as a Hor Mongol and who then enslaved him. Of course, the
national interests of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama could also collide with his
worldwide ambitions concerning the spread of Tantric Buddhism. We shall
return to this topic in our article on his politics towards China.
If — as the tantric belief maintains- deities are
pulling the strings behind the scenes of “human” politics, then a direct
consequence of this is that magic
(as an invocatory art of gaining influence over gods and demons) must be
counted among the “political” activities par excellence. Magic as statecraft is therefore a Tibetan
specialty. Let us take a closer look at this “portfolio”.
[4] Up until now (February 1998)
the police claim to have identified two of the six murderers. These have
slipped over the border into Nepal, however.
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