CIV - While the Dalai Lama is yelling at China accusing it for
repressing religious freedom in Tibet, he himself is being sued in
India for heavy-handedly persecuting followers of a deity of Tibetan
Buddhism deemed by the Dalai Lama as "non-spiritual" allegedly out of
political necessity. As such, the Dalai Lama is accused of being more
like a "totalitarian dictator", rather than a reincarnation of the
Buddha of Compassion that he proclaims himself as.
The lawsuit was initiated by the 13th Kundeling Rimpoche in the high
court of Delhi. According to the petition, the Kundeling Rimpoche is a
reincarnate Lama believes in "the freedom of wor****p as guaranteed by
the Indian Constitution, and is opposed to the ban on the wor****p of
Dorje Shugden, as being illegal and unconsitutional."
The wor****p of Dorje Shugden has been controversial in Tibetan
Buddhism since the Fifth Dalai Lama, who tried to repress his
competitor, who wor****pped Dorje Shugden, to claim the title of the de
facto ruler of the Tibetan government by painting Dorje Shugden as an
evil deity.
In the present petition, Dorje Shugden is said to have been for
centuries wor****pped as a protector of religion in the Gelugpa
tradition, one of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Legend has it
that the Dorje Shugden, a human being who lived in the 17th century,
was the strongest contender for selection as the Fifth Dalai Lama, but
was foully murdered. His spirit then emerged and took on the role of a
Dharmapala, who vowed to protect the Gelugpa traditions.
The deity of Dorje Shugden is wor****pped in the Indian Buddhist
tradition prevalent in Himachal Pradesh, Laddakh, Uttaranchal, West
Bengal and Sikkim. Dorje Shugden is also wor****pped in all areas of
the world where the Gelugpa tradition is followed, such as Bhutan,
Nepal, Mongolia, parts of China, parts of the former USSR, various
countries in Europe, U.K. and U.S.A.
According to the Kundeling Rimpoche, the Dalai Lama realized in the
mid-1970s that he had to reconsider his options after the thawing of
Sino-US relations and thus a withdrawal of the funding of the Free
Tibet movement by the Central Intelligence Agency of the USA.
"Therefore, in view of the sudden paucity of funds, a stratagem was
devised whereby the call for a Free Tibet was to be slowly given up,
and in order to divert the opinion of the public (especially Tibetans)
from this, a controversy was created regarding the wor****p of Dorje
Shugden," court do***ents say.
Against such a background, the Dalai Lama was accused to have used his
dual role as the tem****al head of the Tibetans in exile and as a
spiritual guide. He issued numerous statements to the effect that the
continuance of the wor****p of Dorje Shugden would be directly harmful
to his health.
In a full-strength propaganda against the wor****p of Dorje Shugden,
the Dalai Lama allegedly adopted a logic that read:
The Dalai Lama embodies Tibet.
People who dare criticize the Dalai Lama must be Chinese agents
The Dalai Lama does not approve of wor****p of Dorje Shugden
Therefore Dorje Shugden wor****ppers must be Chinese agents
The Kundeling Rimpoche quotes a study saying that while acknowledging
that the wor****p of Dorje Shugden in Tibet goes back to over three
centuries, the Dalai Lama has now been making statements against the
wor****ppers of Dorje Shugden. He states that the wor****p of Dorje
Shugden is harmful for the cause of Tibetan unity and is harmful to
his own personal self.
"The website of the Respondent No. 4 [the Dalai Lama], www.dalailama.com,
from which these Annexures have been downloaded, reveals that the
Dorje Shugden issue takes up more webspace than any other issue," the
petition filed in court says.
It is argued that the Dalai Lama, through his right-hand man who is a
minister of the Tibetan government in exile, refuses to issue various
do***ents, such as identity cards, to the Tibetan refugee community
unless the applicants sign a form declaring renunciation of wor****p of
Dorje
Shugden. These forms are not handed out, but are required to be signed
there and then.
The Dalai Lama is accused of blackmailing Dorje Shugden wor****ppers
into giving up their religious beliefs. At the same time, Indian
citizens who wor****p Dorje Shugden are reviled and condemned as non-
Buddhists and Chinese agents.
Dorje Shugden wor****ppers are branded as criminals and offenders by
the Dalai Lama and his government. This has resulted in a situation
where the District Administration is not even prepared to consider any
complaints made by the wor****ppers of Dorje Shugden in respect of the
violence committed against them by the sup****ters of the Dalai Lama.
By 1996, Dorje Shugden wor****p was effectively outlawed.
The sworn affidavit says that Dorje Shugden wor****ppers have made
numerous attempts since 1996 to bring about a rapprochement, but every
time they have been spurned by the Dalai Lama, who amazingly still
proclaims himself to be a reincarnation of Avalokiteshwara, i.e., the
Buddha of Compassion. The acts of the Dalai Lama in this regard are
more like that of a totalitarian dictator and not that of a Buddha of
Compassion.
Many monks who believed in that practice went and settled in Mundgod
in Karnataka, with the express intention of carrying out their
religious practices without interference from the Dalai Lama. However,
in January, 2008 the Dalai Lama visited the Mundgod area and gave
speeches against the wor****p of the Dorje Shugden. This eventually led
to an attack by the followers of the Dalai Lama upon the wor****ppers
of the Dorje Shugden.
|
