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| accessdate = 2008-09-06 |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20080430154804/http://www.tibet.com/dholgyal/CTA-book/chapter-5-5.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archivedate = 2008-04-30}}</ref>
| accessdate = 2008-09-06 |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20080430154804/http://www.tibet.com/dholgyal/CTA-book/chapter-5-5.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archivedate = 2008-04-30}}</ref>

==Aims ==
According to its website the WSS is an [[ad hoc]] coalition of Dorje Shugden practitioners from many different countries. Its aims are fourfold:<ref name="WSS-dl-letter">
{{cite web
| title = Letter to the Dalai Lama of Tibet
| publisher = Western Shugden Society
| date = 2008-04-12
| url = http://www.westernshugdensociety.org/en/reports/letter-to-the-dalai-lama-of-tibet
| accessdate = 2008-09-06}}</ref>

#To give freedom to practice Dorje Shugden to whoever wishes to rely upon this Deity.
#To stop completely the discrimination between Shugden people and non-Shugden practitioners.
#To allow all Shugden monks and nuns who have been expelled from their monasteries and nunneries to return to their monasteries and nunneries where they should receive the same material and spiritual rights as the non-Shugden practitioners.
#That the Dalai Lama tell in writing to the [[Tibetan people|Tibetan]] community throughout the world that they should practically apply the above three points.

The WSS states four reasons for protesting, using four slogans:<ref name="WSS-why">
{{cite web
| title = Why we're protesting
| publisher = Western Shugden Society
| url = http://www.westernshugdensociety.org/en/protesting/
| accessdate = 2008-09-15}}</ref>
#"Dalai Lama, Give Religious Freedom" - The WSS claim the ban interefers with religious freedom.
#"Dalai Lama, Stop Lying" - The WSS accuse the Dalai Lama of lying for a number of reasons.
#"Hypocrisy" - The WSS claim that the Dalai Lama is a hypocrite, inflicting human rights abuses while lecturing on human rights and religious freedom.
#"Ostracism" - The WSS claim that the ban is creating untouchables within the Tibetan community.

The WSS website<ref name="WSShome">
{{cite web
| title = Home page
| publisher = Western Shugden Society
| url = http://www.westernshugdensociety.org/
| accessdate = 2008-09-06}}</ref> offers little information about the structure or size of the group. All group membership entails is to be sympathetic to the aims of the WSS.

The WSS states that it is independent of any other groups.<ref name="WSShome"/> Protesters representing the WSS at demonstrations in 2008 were principally Western Buddhists and Tibetans living in the West, affiliated with various groups who practice Dorje Shugden including the [[NKT]] and others such as students from Dagom Tensung Ling and Gaden Samdrupling, Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries in the United States.<ref name="citybeat146102">
{{cite news
| first = Gregory
| last = Flannery
| title = News: Freedom Celebration Tibet Fest supports endangered tradition
| url = http://citybeat.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:146102
| publisher = Citybeat
| date = 2008-09-18
| accessdate = 2008-09-25}}</ref> Some of the people who took part in these demonstrations were ordained monks and nuns, both Western and Tibetan.




Revision as of 09:57, 18 May 2014

Western Shugden Society
AbbreviationWSS
Formation2008
Typecommunity or confederation
PurposeFreedom of religion
Websitewww.westernshugdensociety.org

The Western Shugden Society (or WSS) is a campaigning group established in 2008 to protest against the 14th Dalai Lama's ban[1][2][3][4] of the practice of Dorje Shugden within the Tibetan exile community.[5]

According to Tibetologist Thierry Dodin, "The demonstrators are almost exclusively western monks and nuns, ordained in the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) according to the group’s own ritual." and "The NKT can be described typologically as a cult on the basis of its organisational form, its excessive group pressure and blind obedience to its founder. The organisation’s extreme fanaticism and aggressive missionary drive are typical cult features too." Dodin states that it is the New Kadampa Tradition "that since the 1990’s has held spectacular demonstrations whenever the Dalai Lama went to the West."[6]

Regarding NKT/WSS claims that there is prohibition of Shugden, and therefore a repression of religious freedom, Thierry Dodin states:

No, such a prohibition does not exist. Religious freedom is not at issue here. No one, and most definitely not the Dalai Lama, is repressing religious freedom.[7]

Nathan W. Hill, Lecturer in Tibetan and Linguistics at London University SOAS’ (School of Oriental and African Studies), states that the Dalai Lama does not control the Indian government, or any other government:

This accusation makes no sense … the Dalai Lama is not head of any state; he has no military or police at his command; he has no political jurisdiction over which he can exercise suppression. Some members of the Gelug sect left the authority of the Dalai Lama in order to follow what they see as a purer form of religion. These people may not be very popular in other parts of the Gelug sect, but their human rights have not been violated nor their freedoms suppressed; even if some people did want to suppress or silence the pro-Shugen side, they simply have no means of doing so.”[8]

Similarly, Tibet scholar Robert Barnett of Columbia University states that "ID cards are not given out by the Tibetan government in exile, but by the Indian authorities".[9]

Barnett says the WSS is "severely lacking in credibility":

I also made it clear that the Western Shugden group's allegations are problematic: they are akin to attacking the Pope because some lay Catholics somewhere abuse non-believers or heretics. The Western Shugden Group is severely lacking in credibility, since its form of spirit-worship is heterodox, provocative and highly sectarian in Buddhist terms and so more than likely to be banned from mainstream monasteries – while its claimed concerns about cases of discrimination in India should be addressed by working within the Tibetan community instead of opportunistically attacking the Dalai Lama in order to provoke misinformed publicity for their sect.”[9]

John Makransky about the cross-cultural confusion in the Dorje Shugden issue:

A stunning recent example of this: some Tibetan monks who now introduce Westerners to practices centred on a native Tibetan deity, without informing them that one of its primary functions has been to assert hegemony over rival sects! The current Dalai Lama, seeking to combat the ancient, virulent sectarianisms operative in such quarters, has strongly discouraged the worship of the “protector” deity known as Dorje Shugden, because one of its functions has been to force conformity to the dGe lugs pa sect (with which the Dalai Lama himself is most closely associated) and to assert power over competing sects. Western followers of a few dGe lugs pa monks who worship that deity, lacking any critical awareness of its sectarian functions in Tibet, have recently followed the Dalai Lama to his speaking engagements to protest his strong stance (for non-sectarianism) in the name of their “religious freedom” to promulgate, now in the West, an embodiment of Tibetan sectarianism. If it were not so harmful to persons and traditions, this would surely be one of the funniest examples of the cross-cultural confusion that lack of critical reflection continues to create.[10]

Background

Main article: Dorje Shugden controversy
WSS demonstrators in Old Market Square, Nottingham, England.

In 1996 the Dalai Lama openly advised against the propitiation of Dorje Shugden "in the interest of Buddhism and the Tibetan national cause."[11] This was reported in the New Internationalist as a ban.[12] A statement in September 1996 from, Ven. Lobsang Nyima Rinpoche, the Head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism referred to it as a "ban",[13] as did a Tibetan Youth Congress resolution in 1997.[14]

In a speech made at a Tibetan University in Southern India January 2008, the Dalai Lama said:

Recently monasteries have fearlessly expelled Shugden monks where needed. I fully support their actions. I praise them. If monasteries find taking action hard, tell them the Dalai Lama is responsible for this."[15]

The Tibetan Government in Exile is enforcing this ban in national institutions:

In sum, the departments, their branches and subsidiaries, monasteries and their branches that are functioning under the administrative control of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile should be strictly instructed, in accordance with the rules and regulations, not to indulge in the propitiation of Shugden.[16]

However, in May 2008, the Office of Tibet in London claimed that, rather than banning the prayer, the Dalai Lama is advising against it, adding that those who choose to ignore his advice cannot expect to attend his teachings. They also state that he considers Dorje Shugden a fierce spirit who can be used to curse others. Devotion to this spirit is seen by the Dalai Lama as encouraging sectarianism, harming the prospects for Tibetan autonomy and, indeed, the Dalai Lama’s own longevity.[17][18]

The WSS claim that the Dalai Lama and the TGIE have not responded to any of their attempts to dialogue on the subject and supporters say that the TGIE have simply discredited the opposition.[19] Tsultrim Tenzin, MP in the Tibetan Government in Exile, when asked if the Tibetan Parliament debated the Dorje Shugden issue replied:

There was no argument. If there was some opposition, then there will be some argument, but there is no opposition. We do not have any doubt about the Dalai Lama's decisions. We do not think he is a human being. He is a supreme human being, and he is god, he is Avalokiteshvara, he has no interest [in] himself, he always thinks of others. Everybody is happy. Our system is everybody is happy. There is democracy, full democracy. Everyone can experience whatever he likes.[20]

Identity card for those who have taken an oath not to associate with Shugden practitioners

The WSS also claims that about one third of the Tibetan population, including hundreds of previous Tibetan Buddhist teachers, used to rely on Dorje Shugden. They state that the Dalai Lama abandoned the practice of Dorje Shugden in the 1970s and that in 1996 he and the Tibetan Government in Exile imposed social obstacles on those not willing to follow his lead, resulting in access to various jobs, positions, schools, and monasteries in the Tibetan community in exile becoming impossible without publicly renouncing Dorje Shugden, while those who showed support for him were rewarded with key positions and visits by the Dalai Lama.[citation needed]

The WSS further states that on 9 January 2008 the Dalai Lama instigated public swearings in monastic universities in South India, and now throughout the world. They claim that this is aimed at making social life impossible for anyone not renouncing Dorje Shugden and that it has created social segregation with those who refuse to renounce Shugden being publicly denounced as "unclean", "traitors to the Tibetan cause" and enemies of the Dalai Lama. They state that without the new yellow identity card which has been introduced, it is not possible "to attend common Prayer Halls, to buy goods in shops, to obtain visa’s for travelling and families are being torn apart." The WSS maintain that this is ostracising Shugden practitioners and religious apartheid, while the Dalai Lama teaches in the West about religious freedom and tolerance.[21]

Application for an identity card - Gaden Jangtse monastery.

Shugden practitioners have also been subjected to violence. Most recently, Radio Free Asia reported on October 2, 2008 that Tibetan monks been "handed jail terms ranging from four to nine years in connection with several explosions in Markham county, Chamdo, during Tibetan protests earlier this year", including "one at the residence of a Tibetan who worships Shugden, a controversial deity espoused by Beijing but regarded with suspicion by those loyal to the Dalai Lama."[22]

As a result of this situation, some Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, such as Dagom Tensung Ling and Gaden Samdrupling, Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries in the United States set up by Kyabje Dagom Rinpoche, have separated from the Dalai Lama. According to Geshe Kuten Lama, a teacher at Gaden Samdrupling:[23]

There was one primary reason why we established our monastery: to preserve our lineage. The hardship is because the Dalai Lama took our religious freedom, our human rights. But it is very hard for us ordinary persons to explain to the world because he is so powerful and famous and our words are not too important.

The first protests by Dorje Shugden practitioners in the West were organised by the Dorje Shugden Coalition (DSC). For instance, in May 1998, 130 DSC protestors demonstrated as the Dalai Lama visited Manhattan in the United States. The DSC said they would continue to follow the Dalai Lama on his tour of the United States until he gave them the religious freedom they said they were being denied.[24] The DSC campaign lasted for two years from 1996 until October 1998. At that time, the main sponsoring organization, the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) and its leader Geshe Kelsang Gyatso confirmed that they had stopped all involvement in the campaigning.[25] In 1996 there had been other groups associated with the NKT such as the Shugden Supporters Community and the Freedom Foundation.[26]

Aims

According to its website the WSS is an ad hoc coalition of Dorje Shugden practitioners from many different countries. Its aims are fourfold:[27]

  1. To give freedom to practice Dorje Shugden to whoever wishes to rely upon this Deity.
  2. To stop completely the discrimination between Shugden people and non-Shugden practitioners.
  3. To allow all Shugden monks and nuns who have been expelled from their monasteries and nunneries to return to their monasteries and nunneries where they should receive the same material and spiritual rights as the non-Shugden practitioners.
  4. That the Dalai Lama tell in writing to the Tibetan community throughout the world that they should practically apply the above three points.

The WSS states four reasons for protesting, using four slogans:[28]

  1. "Dalai Lama, Give Religious Freedom" - The WSS claim the ban interefers with religious freedom.
  2. "Dalai Lama, Stop Lying" - The WSS accuse the Dalai Lama of lying for a number of reasons.
  3. "Hypocrisy" - The WSS claim that the Dalai Lama is a hypocrite, inflicting human rights abuses while lecturing on human rights and religious freedom.
  4. "Ostracism" - The WSS claim that the ban is creating untouchables within the Tibetan community.

The WSS website[29] offers little information about the structure or size of the group. All group membership entails is to be sympathetic to the aims of the WSS.

The WSS states that it is independent of any other groups.[29] Protesters representing the WSS at demonstrations in 2008 were principally Western Buddhists and Tibetans living in the West, affiliated with various groups who practice Dorje Shugden including the NKT and others such as students from Dagom Tensung Ling and Gaden Samdrupling, Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries in the United States.[23] Some of the people who took part in these demonstrations were ordained monks and nuns, both Western and Tibetan.


See also

References

  1. ^ Dalai Lama, direct quote in Chhaya, Mayank (2007). Dalai Lama: Man, Monk, Mystic. New York: Doubleday. p. 189.
  2. ^ Waterhouse, Helen (2001). Representing western Buddhism: a United Kingdom focus. quoted in Beckerlegge, G. (2001). From sacred text to internet. Religion today, v. 1. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate. p. 137.
  3. ^ Partridge, C. H. (2004). New religions: A guide : New Religious Movements, Sects, and Alternative spiritualities. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 206.
  4. ^ Curren, Erik D. 2006. Buddha's Not Smiling: Uncovering Corruption at the Heart of Tibetan Buddhism Today. Staunton, VA: Alaya Press. p. 17
  5. ^ Wilson, Richard, & Mitchell, Jon (2003). Human Rights in Global Perspective: Anthropological Studies of Rights, Claims and Entitlements. London: Routledge. p. 10.
  6. ^ The Dorje Shugden Conflict: An Interview with Tibetologist Thierry Dodin, May 8, 2014, retrieved May 12, 2014
  7. ^ The Dorje Shugden Conflict: An Interview with Tibetologist Thierry Dodin, May 8, 2014, retrieved May 12, 2014
  8. ^ Distance from Dalai Lama protests among differing opinions, May 8th, 2014, http://theforeigner.no/pages/news/distance-from-dalai-lama-protests-among-differing-opinions/
  9. ^ a b Tibet scholar denies making Time magazine Shugden comment, 2008-07-23, retrieved 2009-10-31.
  10. ^ Makransky, John (2000). Buddhist Theology: Critical Reflections by Contemporary Buddhist Scholars, John J. Makransky, Roger Reid Jackson, p. 20, in Introduction to Contemporary Academic Buddhist Theology; Its emergence and rationale)
  11. ^ "The Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies (Parliament in Exile) Resolutions Passed unanimously in June 1996". The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Retrieved 2009-09-08. [dead link‍]
  12. ^ Chamberlain, Sara; Higuchi, Niro; Schimel, Joshua P. (August 1998). "Deity banned - Outrage as Dalai Lama denounces Dorje Shugden". New Internationalist. 391 (304). Oxford, England: New Internationalist Publications: 135. doi:10.1038/34325. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
  13. ^ "Statement of His Eminence The 100th Ganden Tri Rinpoche (Head Of the Gelugpa Sect) regarding the worship of gods and protectors". The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. 1996-09-20. Archived from the original on 2008-06-05. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
  14. ^ "Resolution passed by the Tibetan Youth Congress (1997)". The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Archived from the original on 2008-08-04. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
  15. ^ The Dalai Lama: The Devil Within (3:33-3:49), Al Jazeera's People & Power, 2008-09-30, retrieved 2008-12-04
  16. ^ Resolutions Passed unanimously in June 1996 The Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies, Parliament in Exile, retrieved 2009-10-31.
  17. ^ Baird, Vanessa (May 2008). "Buddhists at loggerheads". New Internationalist. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
  18. ^ "His Holiness the Dalai Lama's response to media a question on Shugden at the press conference in Indianapolis on August 16, 1999". The Government of Tibet in Exile. 1999-08-16. Archived from the original on 2008-04-29. Retrieved 2008-09-25.
  19. ^ http://dorjeshugdenblog.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/reasoning-from-madness-the-dalai-lamas-campaign-against-human-rights/
  20. ^ The Dalai Lama: The Devil Within (5:20-5:47), Al Jazeera's People & Power, retrieved 2008-12-04
  21. ^ "Forced signature and ID card campaign- Outcast Society Emerging". Western Shugden Society. Retrieved 2008-09-15.
  22. ^ "Tibetans Jailed For Blasts". Radio Free Asia. 2008-10-02. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
  23. ^ a b Flannery, Gregory (2008-09-18). "News: Freedom Celebration Tibet Fest supports endangered tradition". Citybeat. Retrieved 2008-09-25.
  24. ^ Tornquist, Cynthia (1998-05-03). "Dalai Lama greeted by protesters in Manhattan". CNN. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference prnetwire021125 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ Brown, Andrew (1996-07-15). "Battle of the Buddhists". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2008-04-30. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
  27. ^ "Letter to the Dalai Lama of Tibet". Western Shugden Society. 2008-04-12. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
  28. ^ "Why we're protesting". Western Shugden Society. Retrieved 2008-09-15.
  29. ^ a b "Home page". Western Shugden Society. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
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