Buddha’s Not Smiling

Below are some excerpts of a review of the book Buddha’s Not Smiling: Uncovering Corruption at the Heart of Tibetan Buddhism Today, by Erik D. Curren. The review was written by Lama Karma Wangchuk.

History belies the Shangri-La image of Tibetan lamas and their followers living together in mutual tolerance and non-violent goodwill. Indeed, the situation was quite different. Old Tibet was much more like Europe during the religious wars of the Counter-reformation than a neighborhood in Berkeley, California where synagogue, mosque, church and dharma center make cozy neighbors….For hundreds of years in Tibet, lay followers of each religious school clashed with each other for control of the government of central Tibet or rule over provincial areas. Lamas had to defend their monasteries and landholdings from supporters of the other schools as well as from the central government …

One of this book’s most valuable achievements is to show, for perhaps the first time in English, how the complex sectarian conflicts of Old Tibet followed the lamas when they fled into exile in 1959. At first, faced with the Chinese invasion in the fifties and early sixties, Tibetans experienced a period of unity and the Karmapa and Dalai Lama enjoyed a close friendship. But in exile, things changed. “Hundreds of years of habit would not die so easily,” Curren writes, “and after a few months in India, competition between the administrations of the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa resurfaced. The Dalai Lama and his ministers had just lost their country. In exile, they wanted to create a unified Tibetan community. To achieve this new unity, exile leaders in their new headquarters in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala began making plans to extend their control over the five religious schools of Tibet .”

Curren’s account of the United Party initiative will be shocking to many readers. The United Party was a plan run by the Dalai Lama’s brother Gyalo Thondup to unite all Tibetans, regardless of their region or religious affiliation, into a coherent group able to stand together against the Chinese. The most controversial part of the plan was a scheme to combine the four Buddhist schools and the Bon religion—governed separately for more than five hundred years back in Tibet —under a single administration led by the Dalai Lama. “When word of the United Party’s religious reform got out in 1964, the exiled government was unprepared for the angry opposition that leaders of the religious schools expressed. To them, this unification plan appeared as a thinly disguised scheme for the exile government to confiscate the monasteries that dozens of lamas had begun to re-establish in exile with funds they had raised themselves.”

The sixteenth Karmapa led the opposition to the United Party, serving as spiritual advisor to a group of refugees from thirteen resettlement camps in India and one in Nepal—the “Fourteen Settlements” group—thus earning the enmity of the Dalai Lama’s ministers in Dharamsala. Under the Karmapa’s leadership, the opposition group succeeded in stopping the religious consolidation plan, and in the mid-seventies, the United Party closed up shop. But apparently ministers in Dharamsala were looking to avenge their political defeat. In 1977, an assassin claiming to be working for the Tibetan exile administration shot and killed the political head of the Fourteen Settlements, Gungthang Tsultrim. As Curren writes, “When apprehended in Kathmandu, the murderer, Amdo Rekhang Tenzin, told the Royal Nepalese Police that the Tibetan exile government had paid him three hundred thousand rupees (about thirty-five thousand dollars) to assassinate Gungthang. Even more shocking, the hit man claimed that Dharamsala offered him a larger bounty to kill the sixteenth Karmapa.”

The Assassination of Gungthang Tsultrim

Below are two paragraphs of an article on the Karmapa controversy website that have been published in the book A Great Deception – The Ruling Lama’s Policies in the section entitled The Assassination of Gungthang Tsultrim.

‘In 1964, the government-in-exile of the Dalai Lama wanted to introduce social, economic and religious reforms to the recently evicted Tibetans. Gyalo Thondrub, the Dalai Lama’s audacious brother, decided that the best answer to Mao’s invasion and destruction of their country was to adapt Tibet and Tibetan policy in exile to the new Communist realities. He boldly proposed to abolish the old Buddhist schools, to do away with the rich, religious show, and thus bring the high lamas to the ground. “No more thrones, rituals, or gold brocades,” he was rumoured to have uttered. The spiritual hierarchies of the Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and the corollary sub-orders fell victim to slander and reproach. His words struck fear into the lamas’ hearts. As more details of the elaborate plan began to emerge, it became clear that a coup against three of the schools was being hatched. The new religious body that would replace the traditional lineages was to be controlled by the Gelugpa hierarchy. The worried lamas rushed to Karmapa for help.’

‘When in 1976, Gungthang Tsultrim, the political head of the alliance, was murdered and the assassin confessed to operate on orders from the Tibetan cabinet. Hired for the job, he was paid rupees three hundred thousand by the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala. The Tibetan government-in-exile had also offered him more money for eliminating the 16th Karmapa, he confessed.’

The Karmapa Controversy

The above video clip includes interviews with Trinley Thaye Dorje and Shamar Rinpoche about the recognition of the 17th Karmapa. Below is another excerpt from the new book A Great Deception – The Ruling Lama’s Policies.

After the Sixteenth Karmapa passed away, the Dalai Lama took the unprecedented step of using his own power to force the selection of the Karmapa’s reincarnation. This was entirely unwarranted because historically the selection has always been an intenal matter solely under the jurisdiction of the Kagyu spiritual tradition itself. There were two candidates: one born in Chinese-occupied Tibet, the candidate officially recognized by the Chinese authorities; and the other born in India and recognized by the great Kagyu spiritual master Shamar Rinpoche. Shamar Rinpoche’s lineage has been closely connected with the Karmapa lineage since the 13th century, and he has been considered second only to the Karmapa himself within the Kagyu tradition. The Dalai Lama sided with the Chinese and ‘officially’ recognized their candidate, a decision that caused chaos within the Kagyu tradition, producing a deep schism between those who follow the Dalai Lama and those who follow Shamar Rinpoche. This schism has divided this spiritual tradition against itself, and at times has led to violence.

This is just one paragraph from the section entitled The Karmapa Affair in A Great Deception.

The Dalai Lama and the CIA

This clip shows the details of the state department documents highlighted in the new book A Great Deception – The Ruling Lama’s Policies by the Western Shugden Society.

Here is a sample of the section entitled The Dalai Lama’s Involvement with the CIA and the Tibetan Guerillas:

In 1974, the Dalai Lama claimed: ‘The accusation of CIA aid has no truth behind it.’ But gradually as more and more US State Department documents have been declassified he has been forced to admit the truth.

In 1999, discussing the early CIA operations involving his people, he said: ‘They gave the impression that once I arrived in India, great support would come from the United States.’ The CIA provided $1.7 million dollars annually to train and support guerrillas, including setting up training camps in the US (Camp Hale, Colorado) and elsewhere, flying the guerrillas there and parachutting them back into Tibet, and providing weapons, equipment and intelligence. The Dalai Lama himself received $180,000 annually to maintain himself in India, a grant for which he did not have to account.

In the above video clip the Dalai Lama says ‘Violence and telling lies these I believe basically against human nature.’

The Dalai Lama inspecting troops at Chakrata. He authorized the Tibetan units of the Indian Special Frontier Force to fight the war in East Pakistan in 1971.

Stop the lama love-in

Below is a quote from a new article called Stop the lama love-in – He’s adorable, yes, but just what is the Dalai Lama accomplishing?

… public perception of the Dalai Lama needs to change. As it stands, when people turn their attention to him, they do so in the spirit of answering John Lennon’s call to “turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream.” The outcome of this lazy attitude is to reinforce the Dalai Lama’s leadership and his counterproductive efforts to free his people. The basic problem was summed up by the Dalai Lama himself when he stated, “I find no contradiction at all between politics and religion.” So long as the Dalai Lama is regarded as a figure of both spiritual and political liberation, his efforts to make the first goal happen will ensure the second never does.

Here’s a comment from someone named David about the article:

I think the major reasons Dalai Lama hasn’t got what he wanted are:

1. Dalai Lama used to be a slave-master/owner. He doesn’t have any moral authority in ordinary Tibetans left behind in China when he exiled. His followers went into exile with him are all prior nobles and slave-masters, together with some slaves they owned to serve them in India.
2. Dalai Lama fought for CIA and caused a lot of ‘trouble’ to the Tibet during the 60s and 70s. He is no ‘peace-lover’ by heart. He is forced to give up after US and China re-established diplomatic relationship.
3. China has done a lot of constructive work in Tibet in the past 30 years. Dalai Lama did nothing. Not many Tibetans in Tibet wants him back.
4. Nelson Mandela and Gandhi were with their people on the ground, suffering for their people. Where is Dalai Lama? He is living a luxury life wearing Cuchi Brand Italy Leather Shoes.

These are some of the fundamental reasons why Dalai Lama and his supporters are not going anywhere.

Shar Gaden Monastery Opening Video

This is a new video about the Shar Gaden Monastery Opening Ceremony.

Acting with impunity: the Dalai Lama

Dean MacKinnon-Thomson (a politics student at Stirling university in Scotland) posted a small piece about the Dalai Lama’s hypocricy on his blog New Right this morning. The post is titled Acting with impunity: the Dalai Lama.

Below is the section that relates to Shugden practitioners.

Political hypocrisy and impunity

This deeply symbolic and important border town however saw the Dalai Lama engage in his usual round of confrontational politics over Chinese influence in Tibet.

He spoke of Tibetan right of autonomy within China, he also spoke of the fundamental rights of Tibetans to command their own fate free from violence or cohersion. And normally I would agree with any leader who spoke such words. But not the Dalai Lama. The hypocracy in his saying such things grates with my sense of fair play and justice.

Someone should stop treating this man [for that is all he is] with such impunity, and challenge him. When he speaks of Tibetan human rights, why on earth does no one challenge him over his cultural and physical suppression of the followers of Dorje Shugden? Why when he speaks out against Chinese state sanctioned murder and torture does the BBC and the world press not demand to know why the Dalai Lama has never condemned the actions of those acting in his name who have murdered in the hundreds Dorje Shugden believers?

The longer we treat this Dalai Lama with such impunity over his own actions the worse the human plight of the human beings at the centre of his cultural war within Tibetan Buddhism shall become.

As much as I find myself disliking Chinese actions in Tibet, it must surely be preferable to a Tibet run by this Dalai Lama.

For those of you who do not know about the secret history of the Dalai Lamas wars against his own followers, please watch this documentary on the Dorje Shugden issue.

Why did the Dalai Lama Win the Nobel Peace Prize?

Tibetan Resistance fighters pose with weapons following CIA arms drop.

This is a sample of the new book A Great Deception – The Ruling Lama’s Policies by the Western Shugden Society.

In December 1989 the Fourteenth Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Having been awarded to terrorists and war makers before, the Nobel Peace Prize is no stranger to controversy – even Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin are among previous nominees for the prize! In his presentation speech to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Egil Aarvik said:

‘This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded … first and foremost for his consistent resistance to the use of violence in his people’s struggle to regain their liberty. …

This is by no means the first community of exiles in the world, but it is assuredly the first and only one that has not set up any militant liberation movement.’

Was he unaware that the Dalai Lama had spoken since 1961 of the Tibetan guerrillas that were waging war on the People’s Liberation Army? Had he not read any of the accounts of the Tibetan guerilla war that were in wide circulation, such as Jamyang Norbu’s Warriors of Tibet – a book commissioned by the Tibetan government in exile itself?

Given that Tibetan ‘non-violence’ is merely a facade, why was the Dalai Lama awarded the prize? Tom Grunfeld says:

‘Everything having to do with Tibet is subject to mythologizing. That the Dalai Lama was awared the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on behalf of Tibetan independence is one of these myths.’

According to the New York Times, the prize was awarded to the Dalai Lama ‘largely because of the brutal suppression of the democracy movement in China and the international outrage that followed.’ A source close to the Norwegian Nobel Committee revealed:

‘the choice of the Dalai Lama, was an attempt both to influence events in China and to recognize the efforts of student leaders of the [Chinese] democracy movement, which was crushed by Chinese troops in June.’

In addition to criticizing the Chinese by implication, awarding the prize to the Dalai Lama was an explicit attempt by the committee to atone for what is widely considered to be its greatest embarrassment: failing to award Mahatma Gandhi the Nobel Peace Prize, despite his having been nominated five times! As Egil Aarvik said in the presentation speech:

‘The Dalai Lama likes to consider himself one of Gandhi’s successors. People have occasionally wondered why Gandhi himself was never awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the present Nobel Committee can with impunity share this surprise, while regarding this year’s award of the prize as in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi.’

The Nobel Peace Prize is considered by some to be the easiest Nobel Prize to win because no actual achievement needs to be demonstrated. What the Dalai Lama has clearly achieved, though, is to deceive the world utterly as to his real nature and intentions. By awarding him the Peace Prize the Nobel Committee has helped him to continue to dupe the world.

The Tibetan Government in Exile

The above video clip helps to illustrate this point made in the new book A Great Deception by the Western Shugden Society.

The Tibetan government is the Dalai Lama, and the Dalai Lama is the Tibetan government. Behind the trappings of government with its illusion of democracy, the Dalai Lama’s position, with its central tenet, ‘L’etat, c’est moi’ (‘I am the State’), extends its domain of authority over all aspects of policy and decision-making. There is no decision of government that is not the Dalai Lama’s decision.

Shar Gaden Monastery – The Grand Opening Ceremony

As many of you are aware, over 500 monks were forced to leave their beloved home Gaden Shartse Monastery in South India. The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile forced all the monasteries to take an oath to abandon all practices of Dorje Shugden. If they refused, they were forced to leave the monastery for good. So these 500 monks decided to remain true to their spiritual convictions and left Gaden Shartse Monastery in Mundgod, India.

Nearby, they re-established Shar Gaden Monastery as a place to have freedom of worship. Help, support, donations and care has been pouring in from all parts of the world. They now have a grand prayer hall, monk quarters, pujas, active Geshe Study program. Many monks from other Monasteries who refuse to abandon Dorje Shugden have also joined Shar Gaden Monastery. Shar Gaden has been working very hard in preparing huge statues for their prayer hall, cleaning, painting, extending buildings, etc. This video gives us an opportunity to rejoice that these Shugden practitioner can now practice their religion freely in their own monastery.