Western Shugden Society

Western Shugden Society

Abbreviation	WSS
Formation	2008
Type	community or confederation
Purpose	Freedom of religion
Website	www.westernshugdensociety.org

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

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."

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.

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.”

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".

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.”

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.

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." This was reported in the New Internationalist as a ban. 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", as did a Tibetan Youth Congress resolution in 1997.

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."

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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."

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:

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. 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. In 1996 there had been other groups associated with the NKT such as the Shugden Supporters Community and the Freedom Foundation.

See also

• Dorje Shugden controversy
• Cult