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The Shadow of the Dalai Lama –
Part II – 7. The war of the oracle gods and the Shugden
affair
© Victor &
Victoria Trimondi
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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