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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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