The Battle of Sixth Avenue
I can't tell you how much I don't want to get mixed up in the Dalai Lama-Shugden controversy. Unfortunately, hundreds of Dalai Lama supporters and Shugden devotees clashed in the streets of Manhattan yesterday afternoon and had to be separated by police. I can't very well ignore that. So here goes.
According to the New York Times, about 200 members of the Western Shugden Society were protesting outside Radio City Music Hall, where His Holiness the Dalai Lama was speaking. As the audience, mostly of Tibetan and Nepalese ancestry, left Radio City, they confronted the protesters. Soon, the Times says,
The crowd began to swell, and eventually thousands were shouting “Long Live Dalai Lama” and waving dollar bills at the protesters, asserting that they had been paid by the Chinese government.
Sixth Avenue around 50th Street was closed for about 20 minutes while officers of the NYPD, on foot and on horseback, scrambled to set up barriers and separate the two groups. Eventually the confrontation broke up without arrest or injury.
For the record, the Dalai Lama's teachings at Radio City Music Hall were part of a fundraiser for New York's Himalayan community. I understand the money raised will be used to build cultural centers and a language school, among other projects. Please note that His Holiness took no money for the teachings.
As I said above, I really don't want to get in the middle of the Shugden-Dalai Lama controversy, because it's very complicated and messy and involves people who are True Believers who very likely will troll this blog mercilessly for what I'm about to write. They've already become a nuisance in the forums, although so far I haven't banned anyone. So far.
The Shugden story is bloated with political intrigue and murder going back more than three centuries. Making a horrifically long story as brief as I can -- the Shugden sect emerged during the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617 – 1682). The Great Fifth was the first Dalai Lama to become spiritual and temporal head of all Tibetan Buddhism, by means of a shrewd alliance with a Mongol warlord. The Dalai Lamas already were heads of the Gelugpa school, one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
The Great Fifth's Mongol warlord friend, Gushri Khan, had defeated the King of Tsang, a member of the Nyingmapa order. [Correction: King of Tsang was Karma Kagyu.] Instead of crushing Nyingmapa, the Great Fifth incorporated Nyingmapa teachings and practices into his ecclesiastical court. Gelugpa purists objected. One of these, Drakpa Gyaltsen, was found murdered with a ceremonial scarf stuffed down his throat. After this, Gyaltsen was believed to have become a wrathful spirit that no amount of exorcism could discourage.
By some means I can't even imagine, the wrathful spirit was asked to become a dharma protector, or dharmapala, and it "agreed." The anti-Nyingmapa purists recognized the new dharmapala as a reincarnation of Gyaltsen and called him Dorje Shugden.
The current crop of Shugden followers claim that Shugden is an emanation of Manjushri Bodhisattva, and either downplay or deny Shugden's origins and connections to the murdered Drakpa Gyaltsen, but the historical record is pretty clear on this point.
So that's what all the bleeping fuss is about? You ask. Believe me, it gets better.
The Shugden sect continued, waxing and waning and generally being doctrinal fundamentalists determined to keep Gelugpa practices free of the "pollution" of Nyingmapa. Shugden devotion became a focal point for all manner of power struggles within Gelugpa and also between Gelugpa and other schools. Shugden followers also established a record of undermining the authority of any Dalai Lama who was politically effective.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, an ecumenical movement became popular among the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Naturally, the fundamentalist Shugdenistas objected. Disciples of a powerful pro-Shugden lama named Pabongka Rinpoche allegedly destroyed some Nyingma monasteries and statues of the founder of Nyingma, Padmasambhava (a.k.a. Guru Rinpoche). In response, the 13th Dalai Lama forbade invocation of Shugden, saying that such invocation was destroying Buddhism. Pabongka and his disciples continued the practice surreptitiously, however.
Let's fast-forward to the 1940s and the education of the young 14th Dalai Lama. One of the young tulku's tutors, Trijang Rinpoche, was a a former disciple of Pabongka and a Shugden devotee who introduced Shugden practices to His Holiness. What with everything else going on -- like World War II -- the Shugden issue seemed like small potatoes, and there was little objection.
Then, of course, in the 1950s China invaded Tibet, and in 1959 His Holiness fled Tibet into exile (see Kundun).
In either 1973 or 1975 -- my sources conflict -- a book by a prominent pro-Shugden lama was published that described all the terrible things -- like nasty and painful deaths -- Shugden would inflict on any Gelugpas who practiced Nyingma teachings. His Holiness, dedicated to cultivating harmony among the four schools of Buddhism, was horrified.
According to scholar Georges Dreyfus,
He [His Holiness] felt personally betrayed by Dze-may, a lama for whom he had great hopes and to whom he had shown particular solicitude. More importantly, he felt that the Yellow Book was an attack on his role as Dalai Lama, a rejection of his religious leadership by the Ge-luk establishment, and a betrayal of his efforts in the struggle for Tibetan freedom.
There's a great deal going on here that requires detailed knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism to understand. Dreyfus's history is a good source, in spite of being a nearly impenetrable read. (For a more readable, if less detailed, account, try "Schisms, murder, and hungry ghosts in Shangra-La.") I'm not going into all the details now. They give me a headache, and for the most part are issues of interest only to Tibetan Buddhists. Let's just slog on ...
The Dalai Lama's break with Shugden devotion caused a rift in the Tibetan diaspora. Lots of turmoil, etc. In the 1990s a Gelugpa monk named Geshe Kelsang Gyatso founded the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT), headquartered in London. NKT began recruiting westerners, preferably ones who didn't know Buddhism from grapefruit, and organizing protests against His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The Western Shugden Society, which has been involved in recent protests, is an affiliate of NKT. In essence, Kelsang is using his recruits to challenge the Dalai Lama's authority to make doctrinal or religious decisions about Tibetan Buddhism.
Is this just about Shugden worship? We might want to step back and look at the bigger political issue.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has declared he does not want Tibet to return to the theocracy it was before the Chinese invasion, even if it were freed from China, which isn't likely anytime soon. Some argue that the real aim of the Shugden sect is eventually to return Tibet to theocracy, with the hard-core purists in charge.
Given the history of the Shugden sect, this is a compelling argument. If true, it would make Shugden's western followers, who believe they are engaged in a holy crusade on behalf of religious freedom, dupes. To say the least.
Meanwhile, China is watching the Shugden controversy with keen interest. It isn't hard to find pro-Shugden sentiments in the official state Chinese press. And, frankly the official Chinese version of many current events and the NKT-Western Shugden version do sound awfully alike. I'm not aware of proof that China is sending money to fund the Shugden protests, but it's hard to believe China hasn't at least thought about it.
At a time when the majority of monks from Lhasa's three largest monasteries are in prison or detention camps, and possibly being tortured, it shouldn't be hard to understand why some Tibetan Buddhists might be infuriated by the Shugden protesters, as His Holiness's Radio City audience was. The Shugden cult is undermining the fragile coherence of the Tibetan diaspora and the future of Tibetan Buddhism itself. And for what?
If you ask the Shugden culties, as I keep doing, why they don't just break with institutional Tibetan Buddhism and go their own way, you get no answer. Truly, if the point were worship of Shugden, there is absolutely nothing stopping NKT and the rest from setting up a new sect and doing whatever they like. Then they can worship Mickey Mouse phones for all I care.
The fact that an institutional break is not an acceptable, or even considered, option, suggests the real issue isn't Shugden. The real issue is a power struggle within Tibetan Buddhism, and NKT's earnest recruits are just pawns in that struggle.
Comments
Thank you for this highly informative article. I had no idea the Shugdenists were actually members of the New Kadampa Tradition. I have heard of NKT, however, through reading elsewhere that they are a cult of sorts.
That said, I am glad for your article to clarify matters.
For those unfamiliar with the Buddhist tenets and Tibetan politics, this whole controversy can seem to be inpenatrably complex. A very simplified version can be understood through an analogy. In Judaism, Christ is considered to be just another prophet, but by nature a worldly being. In Christianity, Christ is considered to be the Son of God, by nature a transcendental, or divine being. Virtually all of the historical disputes between Christians and Jews, especially in the early days of Christianity, revolve around this one central question. In a very similar way, many Tibetan Buddhists who follow the Dalai Lama consider Dorje Shugden to be by nature a worldly being. Others consider Dorje Shugden to be by nature an enlightened being. Just as early Christians were declared heretics and accused of worshipping false gods, so too Dorje Shugden practitioners are being accused of similar things. Both sides have their authoritative lamas (spiritual teachers) supporting their positions, with historical evidence and logic to support their claims.
So who is right? People often think one side must be right and the other wrong. But the short answer is both are right and both are wrong. What Dorje Shugden practitioners say (that Dorje Shugden is a wisdom Buddha) is right for them and wrong for practitioners who follow the Dalai Lama. What followers of the Dalai Lama say (that Dorje Shugden is a worldly spirit) is right for them and wrong for Dorje Shugden practitioners. So in the end, who is right? The answer is it actually doesn’t matter.
The final resolution of this crisis is simple: religious freedom. We have our spiritual bread, you have yours, so let’s all respect one another’s choices. If everyone did that, then we could all co-exist peacefully, in harmony, and we could all be focused on what matters: becoming better people
This article is even acknowledged by the author of it to be one-sided and biased. This is in violation of About.com’s Ethics policy.
For more information on the perspective of Dorje Shugden practitioners on this dispute, please visit:
www.westernshugdensociety.org
www.wisdombuddhadorjeshugden.org
You ask the question why not break off and form our own group. Here is my answer:
1. Why should we have to? Isn’t the whole idea of religious freedom that we each respect one another. It is the Dalai Lama who is going around declaring that we are a bunch of spirit worshippers (and therefore not Buddhists). If he would just respect our right to practice without declaring us spirit worshippers, do you think we would be bothering with any of this?
2. We in effect already have separated. But instead of just respecting that we are different, the Dalai Lama is having everyone in the Tibetan community to publicly declare a ‘double-oath’ that they will (1) forever renounce the practice of Dorje Shugden, and (2) they will withhold providing any material or social support for anybody still practicing Dorje Shugden. The end result is if people continue with their practice, then they lose their jobs, they are denied medical care and the right to buy food, they are declared national traitors, their businesses are boycotted, etc. What is happening is in effect spiritual apartheid.
If all of this were not happening, we would not be acting.
dspak08: Your analogy is interesting, but unfortunately has nothing to do with Buddhism. I realize Tibetan has somewhat different understandings of shunyata, madhyamika and yogacara than does Zen, but not *that* different. Ultimately, whether Shugden is “worldly” or “transcendent” is irrelevent. In shunyata, he cannot “be” anything. He has no intrinsic existence.
dspak08 (second comment): Yes, this post is one-sided. It’s one-sided in favor of the truth.
“…there is absolutely nothing stopping NKT and the rest from starting up a new sect and doing whatever they like,” except that by doing what they’re doing they gain notoriety which in turn attracts followers which in turn increases their power.
Very sad, particularly because it’s so very human.
I think the governments in the Western world should seriously watch the devlopment of shugden worship. Their aggressive recruitment tactics, alleged psychological manipulation and cultish trait and sectarianism, has strong implications for the psychological wellbeing of ordinary citizens, who simply seek some spiritual awakening! Yes, give them the benefit of doubt. But as one author says above, the full motive and implication of this shudgen movement has to be brought out in the open and discussed.
99% of Tibetans who practiced shugden have followed Dalai Lama’s advice, not at once, but gradually through a process of dailogue and debate, in a form of a doctrinal debate.
Then why, the Westen shuden society, headed by kelsang gyatso who run the NKT, claim to advocate for a large number of tibetans?
Surely, if the point is practice, western practiners can it. but if the point is to help revive this sectarian spirit worship within the Tibetan society, all I ask is give us a break!
Join human society or an aninal rights group. That might get you better purpose and publicithy then denouncing one man who so works tirelessly for religous harmony both within the tibetan buddhist traditions as well as among different religous traditions
When Geshe Lobsang Gyatso , who was close to the Dalai lama and supported his discouraging of the practice, was ritually murdered by a group of shugden worshippers in India, the Indian intelligence drew connections betweeen them and the Chinese government who seek to disrupt the Tibetan community and the destroy dignity of the Dalai lama. Please note I said “chinese government” not Chinese people for whom I have lot of respect. since then it is well lknown that the Chinese government has openly declared their intention to recurit any elements, including the shugden thing, in propaganda war against the Dalai Lama. There is no hard evidence to prove that such is the case with the Western shugden worshippers. But the slogans they use to denounce the dalai Lama are exactly the same. May be thats why we see less chinese protesters these days. May be because The worshippers of this angry spirit are doing a better job at that!
I believe we are trying to make up our own minds. . .
Dear Barbara, thank you very much for your article and that you felt the need to write something about it. I was involved without the wish to be ever faced with such an issue. I would prefer to never have met it. However it happened. I tried to make the best out of it. To offer information in the most possible neutral way and to remind the teachings of the Buddha is maybe all what can be done by Buddhists. Thank you for your efforts! TP
PS: For the sake of balance (WSS members have linked already three of their anonymous websites in the comments), here my background article on the WSS and additional information on the setting and history:
http://info-buddhism.com/Western_Shugden_Society_unlocked.html
Investigative Journalist’s Raimondo Bultrini’s article:
http://info-buddhism.com/Spirit_of_the_XVII_century_by_Raimondo_Bultrini.html
There is also another reearch by religious scientist Prof. Dr. Michael von Brück:
http://info-buddhism.com/dorje_shugden_controversy_von_Brueck.html
Sight factual correction.
The King of Tsang (Tsang Desi) was not a member of the Nyingmapa order but a patron of the Karma Kagyu (Karmapa) school.
Subsequently the Great Fifth (or his Mongol friends) suppressed the Karma Kagyu and Jonangpa schools. The Great Fifth was interested in the Nyingma tradition and had
close connections with the Nyingma Mindroling monastery.
The myths used to legitimize the position of Dalai Lama are closley modeled on the legends of the Early Tibetan kings and the
cult of Avalokiteshvara found in the Man Kabum - a Nyingma text.
r2d2, I’m not sure if it’s true to say that “the Indian authorities, after exhaustive invesigations found not one shred of evidence that Shugden worshippers had anything to do with Lobsang Gyatso’s murder.”
Interpol has actually issued wanted or ‘red notices’ for two Shugden worshippers at the request of the Indian Authorities in connection with these murders. They claim to have evidence including the testimony of the driver that took the suspects to Dharamsala, and phone records showing calls made to the Shugden Society in Delhi.
Chris, I was just about to point out that the King of Tsang was a Karma Kagyupa. I think the subsequent suppression was more political than doctrinal though. The same can’t be said for the Jonangpas.
The last question raised in this article seems a bit curious. “why they don’t just break with institutional Tibetan Buddhism and go their own way”?
That’s exactly what the NKT have done, isn’t it? They claim not to be Gelugpa, not even to be ‘Tibetan Buddhist’, whatever that means. They are a western or international organisation with their own hierarchy and following. Whatever the Dalai Lama says has no effect on them at all. I’m nore wondering why they chose to get involved in someone else’s dispute at all.
After their last round of protests, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso said, “in October 1998 we decided to completely stop being involved in this Shugden issue because we realized that in reality this is a Tibetan political problem and not the problem of Buddhism in general or the NKT.”
The King of Tsang (Tsang Desi) was not a member of the Nyingmapa order but a patron of the Karma Kagyu (Karmapa) school.
Subsequently the Great Fifth (or his Mongol friends) suppressed the Karma Kagyu and Jonangpa schools.
Can you provide a link to an authoritative source to verify this? The history sources I consulted don’t say this, but I’m willing to look at other sources.
That’s exactly what the NKT have done, isn’t it?
Not if they continue to organize protests against the Dalai Lama, it isn’t what they’ve done at all.
They claim not to be Gelugpa, not even to be ‘Tibetan Buddhist’, whatever that means. They are a western or international organisation with their own hierarchy and following. Whatever the Dalai Lama says has no effect on them at all.
That’s exactly right, and I had a couple of friends at the Radio City talk who said that HHDL said essentially the same thing. The Shugden people are free to do whatever they want; they just can’t do it within the Gelugpa school.
I’m nore wondering why they chose to get involved in someone else’s dispute at all.
They ARE the dispute. If they were to just go their own way, there would be no dispute.
I’ve read persuasive arguments that this is really a power struggle for control of Tibetan Buddhism. Step one is to de-legitimize the authority of the Dalai Lama. Really, that’s the only logical explanation for what they are doing.
>>”Can you provide a link to an authoritative source to verify this? The history sources I consulted don’t say this, but I’m willing to look at other sources.”
I’m afraid I don’t have any books with me that explicitly state this. It is common knowledge though. I just did a quick google search and found these links:
First, Stephen Batchelor mentions it in an article on this protector subject here:
http://www.stephenbatchelor.org/daylight.html
Donald Lopez mentions it on page 9 of ‘Prisoners of Shangri La’ that can be viewed here:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-i7PQ3n63LAC&printsec=frontcover#PPA9,M1
Keith Dowman mentions it in his description of the sacred site of Tolung Tsurpu near the bottom of the page here:
http://www.keithdowman.net/books/ppct.htm#TOLUNG
Ram Rahul discusses the Tsang regime on page 47 here:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tI77bC989PoC&printsec=frontcover#PPA47,M1
I personally think that all this talk of the Fifth Dalai Lama and Drakpa Gyaltsen is a smoke screen. This protector issue really began last century with Phabongkhapa. He appropriated this protector to further his conservative Gelugpa political agenda. In drawing parallels between himself and Drakpa Gyaltsen and the 13th and 5th Dalai Lamas he was able to appeal to the conservative inclinations of the Gelugpa clergy. But his concerns were a totally modern reaction to the growing non-sectarian movement and the threat this represented to the Gelug hegemony. We see the same anti-Rime stance today with the NKT.
However, the biggest smoke screen is the NKT leadership’s use of this Tibetan political issue to distract its members from looking at the rotten state of affairs in their own ‘tradition’. After two ordained ‘deputy spiritual directors’ disrobed because of sexual impropriety, and a number of other senior NKT teachers leaving for the same reason, Geshe Kelsang needs to redirect his followers attention to the big threat, the big Mara in the form of the Dalai Lama.
The NKT don’t care about the plight of Tibetans. They have never uttered one word to speak out against Chinese Government oppression in Tibet, but they can use this issue to say that ‘their’ lineage is under threat from the evil Dalai Lama. The plan is to unify the tradition so that they can rewrite its past again and become ‘clean’ before Kelsang retires next year.
Dear dspak08, where do you take your information from when referring on the “persecution of the Dalai Lama”? Please be honest. Is this information from NKT/WSS websites or where you in India and observed it for yourself? Did you investigate both sides? How can you be so sure that the interpretation of the claims you listed are correct? How can you be sure that the claim of ‘political reasons’ is not in itself politics? The politic is: accuse the Dalai Lama of being a ‘mere politician’ instead of a spiritual master who knows his subject he is talking about? (In NKT this term ‘politician’ is used to put down a persons as selfish, worldly, having ‘impure motivation’ or not being a spiritual practitioner.)
Have you ever heard that all the masters of Nyingma and Kagyuepa school and most of the Gelug masters see Shugden practice as spiritual harmful? Is it the Dalai Lama who creates suffering for Shugden followers? Is he the sole cause of what they portray as their suffering? What is about the Four Noble Truths? Do NKT members suffer on a persecution by HHDL as they claimed?
What do you know about Tibetan society? Did you live among Tibetans? Have you experience of their community life, their culture, thoughts, way of think? Did you ever hear about that Tibetans said: Leave that issue to Tibetans? How can you be so sure that your interpretation is a correct one?
The claim of ‘Unity of Absolute Conformity’ is completely non-sense as it is the most of what you say. Such talking is like a frog who lives in a well and never saw the ocean, and when he hears about the ocean he can not believe that the ocean is far more big than his small well and starts to argue against the facts, because it is beyond his imagination. The world outside of NKT is like the ocean, NKT like the well. NKT/WSS interpret the world from their well’s perspective without ever having seen the ocean.
In fact NKT is ‘Unity of Absolute Conformity’ and this you’ll find in neutral academic research (see Kay). As far as I can see NKT is projecting all their inner group problems and structural problems, including dishonesty, power abuse, autocrat authority, hypocrisy on the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan society. They project this because they know it from within and think it must be the same outside of NKT…
I suggest to you be open to pick up information also from the side which NKT doesn’t present. Here a small idea about this from the monk Khedrub:
I “gave a first hand account of what went down at the Sera Monastery inn India. You can find that account, in italics, about halfway down this webpage:
http://info-buddhism.com/Western_Shugden_Society_unlock ed.html
When I first arrived at Sera, I spoke with several Shugden practitioners, and though I didn’t feel their practice was correct from Buddhist perspective, they managed to convince me that they were being mistreated.
However, as my Tibetan improved (I am Canadian), I began to speak to more people and get the real story. I also witnessed in my own Khangtsen (house), prayers of Dorje Shugden being aggressively handed out, and new statues of Shugden being commissioned against the will of the majority of my housemates. The Shugden monks even tied up a representative of the Dharamsala Tibetan Exile government to a chair! I heard this story from both sides.
The abbot wanted to leave the Shugden monks alone, but due to their repeated agitation and insistence on recitation of the prayer (if we didn’t attend these sessions the House prayer leader, a Shugden supporter, would fine us 50 rupees, a hefty sum for poor refugeee monks), the abbot instituted the oath as the only way to return peace to the monastery.
Since Sera, Drepung and Ganden all decided to follow the Dalai Lama as their spiritual leader, they should follow his advice about what practices to abandon. The Shugden monks at first were free to practice in their own shrine rooms, but kept pushing the issue aggressively. It is due to their own agitation that disturbed the harmony of the monastery that this all took place.
I left Sera in 2003 and studied in Thailand and Canada due to Indian visa problems. I plan on returning to India this November and will visit Sera and ask more questions.
This is a Westerners perspective. The other side has only hearsay and the words of Kelsang Pema, who has spoken to only those who agree with her opinions.
Because of speaking Tibetan and living at Sera for two years, I think my observations at least deserve a hearing. If people feel that I can make my email public without being the target of endless NKT harassment emails saying the same thing over and over, I would be happy to provide it here.
As for the NKT, before I met my Lama I attended the centre for 6 months back in the early 90s. The experience was not positive, as I felt I was forced to agree with their opinion at every turn. Even though 6 months compared to my 14 years of other Buddhist practice isn’t much, it is enough to allow me to say the connection between the WSS and NKT is undeniable, and the protests have the flavour and appearance of a well-run (I must concede) NKT effort.
Don’t be fooled, and look behind the images to the very real Tibetan situation (where China has been cracking down and using Shugden as a tool), and the historical events behind the rise of Shugden worship.
In dharma, Khedrup”
Maybe it is really a fruitless and hopeless case to discuss this issue. However maybe someone else has benefit from this comment. TP
Thank you Barbara, for your effort to provide such informative article to us, true enough, as some one pointed out, it is one-sided, an one-sided article which is stand the TRUE.
Personally i has follow all these issue and controversial, and HHDL has not once but many many time stated that the NKT are free to practice what they want.
In the other hand, this NKT is a very controversial Buddhist organisation, but instead of looking with themselves, they has allegally attack their former members by setting out a ‘NKT true’ web site.
Thought they claimed that the protest have nothing to do with NKT, that was merely organized by WSS, but those of us who know the true fact know that WSS is under NKT, and their so called ‘enlightened being’ ever publicly seek help from their students to assist the spokewomen-Pema, in these series of protest.
They often claimed that HHDL is a hypocrisy, and HHDL is a mond in robe who born in a ‘muslim family’, in the other hand, NKT is a Buddhist organization which spread the true tsokhapa lineage of dharma teaching, and NKT never interest in political invovlment, so now look, their so called ‘one-sided true’, who is the one who are hypocrite.
The Fifth Dalai Lama was against sectarian exclusivity. The Sixth was murdered by Gelug fundamentalists. The Thirteenth was opposed and his death was celebrated by Shugdenists, who oppose social progress and put guru worship above improving human rights. Cultural note: The garlic and silver bullet of Tibetan culture is clapping, spitting and flapping/banging to ward off evil.