By Tony Nauroth
Religion News Service
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Those looking for enlightenment on Saturday (July 12) from the Dalai Lama at Lehigh University first had to maneuver past 400 monks and nuns protesting a 40-year-old arcane decree by the Tibetan-leader-in-exile that they said violates their religious freedom.
The monks and nuns of the Western Shugden Society weren’t hard to miss. Dressed in gold and maroon robes and most of them with shaved heads, the protesters held up signs and chanted–in Tibetan–”Dalai Lama! Give religious freedom.” And “Dalai Lama! Stop lying.”
The beef between the society and the Buddhist leader centers on the worship of the deity Dorje Shugden, and specifically a prayer of peace and love Buddhists have used for 400 years.
Kelsang Pema, a society spokeswoman whose given name in her native England is Helen Gladwell, said the Dalai Lama “outlawed the prayer back in the 1970s because he claimed the thousands of Shugden followers saying the prayer did physical and spiritual harm to him.”
Pema suggested that non-Shugden devotees persecute those who practice Shugden to the point of throwing all Shugden monks and nuns out of their monasteries and nunneries, denying Shugden followers jobs, getting their children expelled from schools–even burning their homes and denying them medical care.
“The Dalai Lama does not speak out against such actions,” she said.
No one in the Dalai Lama’s entourage could be reached for comment.
Many people leaving the Dalai Lama’s talk said they actually thought the protest was to get the Chinese out of Tibet and reinstate the Dalai Lama as the true leader of that Himalayan country.
The Western Shugden Society delivered a letter to the Dalai Lama asking him to give them freedom to practice Dorje Shugden; to stop discrimination against Shugden people and to allow the Shugden monks and nuns to return to their monasteries and nunneries.
“We haven’t heard from him,” Pema said. “Honestly, we don’t understand why he’s doing this. It’s so bamboozling.”
Copyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
posted July 14, 2008 at 10:27 pm
There’s a Wikipedia article on Dorje Shugden which I freely admit I don’t understand, including a section toward the end on Controversy which I also don’t understand. Fwiw.
posted July 15, 2008 at 7:55 am
Basically, there are 4 schools with Tibetan Buddhism. While the schools share the common tenets of Buddhism, they each have their own teachings and practices. Each has a senior Lama over their school. The Dalai Lama is an ecumenical head of all Tibet Buddhist Schools. . Until the Mongol invasion of Tibet, each school was independent, with their own leader. The Mongols created the office of the Dalai Lama as a way of governing the Tibetan people.
So, now the Dalai Lama is trying to create one school of Tibetan Buddhism with himself as the head Lama. He is deciding which practices support his endeavor which does not. Dorje Shugden is a practice he decided does not support his goal.
By the way, the oppression is true I have talked to Tibetans that have experienced the violence done in the Dalai Lama’s name. Religious persecution is happening right now. While the Dalai Lama is traveling the world teaching on religious tolerance, he has decided to turn his back on his own people that do not believe as he does while his own government is refusing medical treatment, educational opportunities, and is causing families to shun their children because of a religious practice he view as wrong. A Swiss TV company has documented brutality of the Tibetan Government in Exile on Youtube.
posted July 15, 2008 at 8:25 am
Thank you Torin. That was very instructive.
posted July 15, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Yes, Torin, thank you for the explanation of the situation. I too was totally confused.