Dorje Shugden controversy

The Dorje Shugden controversy is a controversy over Dorje Shugden, also known as Dolgyal, whom some consider to be one of several protectors of the Gelug school, the newest of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism to which the Dalai Lamas belong. Dorje Shugden has become the symbolic center-point of a conflict over the "purity" of the Gelugpa school and the inclusion of non-Gelugpa teachings, especially Nyingma teachings.

In the 1930s Pabongkha, who favoured an "exclusive" stance, started to promote Shugden as a major protector of the Gelug school, who harms any Gelupga practitioner who blends his practice with non-Gelugpa practices.

The conflict reappeared with the publication of the Yellow Book in 1976, containing stories about wrathful acts of Dorje Shugden against Gelugpas who also practiced Nyingma teachings. In response, the 14th Dalai Lama, a Gelugpa himself and advocate of an "inclusive" approach to the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, started to speak out against the practice of Dorje Shugden in 1978.

The controversy has attracted attention in the west following demonstrations by Dorje Shugden practitioners, especially Kelsang Gyatso's British based New Kadampa Tradition which broke away from the Gelugpa school in 1991. Other factions supporting Dorje Shugden are Serpom Monastic University and Shar Ganden monastery, which both separated from the Gelugpa mainstream in 2008.

History

Pre-1930s

Dorje Shugden, also known as Dolgyal, was a "gyalpo" "angry and vengeful spirit" of South Tibet, which was adopted in the 17th century as a "minor protector" of the Gelug school. In the 17th century the 5th Dalai Lama united Tibet politically. He favored the Gelugpa School, to which he belonged, and gave most offices and areas of responsibility to representatives of this school.

Conflict arose, centering on the question whether the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism are equal, or whether the Gelugpa School is to be favoured. Some institutions and state rituals were entrusted to other schools, which alarmed powerful members of the Gelugpa School. The conflict led to the suicide or murder of one of the rivals of the 5th Dalai Lama, namely Drakpa Gyaltsen. His spirit was believed to have returned, bringing calamities upon Tibet. When exorcism failed, the spirit was asked by Gelugpa leaders to become a protector. Opponents of the 5th Dalai Lama recognized the spirit as reincarnation of Gyaltsen and Dorje Shugden. A faction was formed, which professed Dorje Shugden as a protector deity for the purity of the Gelugpa school, although there were also objections against this role and status.

1930s-1940s Pabongkha

Promotion of Dorje Shugden

In the 1930s, Pa-bong-ka started to promote Dorje Shugden. According to Kay, Pabongka fashioned Shugden as a violent protector of the Gelug school, who is employed against other traditions, transforming Dorje Shugden's "marginal practice into a central element of the Ge-luk tradition," thus "replacing the traditional supra-mundane protectors of the Ge-luk tradition", namely Pehar, Nechung, Palden Lhamo, Mahakala, Vaisravana and Kalarupa, who was appointed by Tsongkhapa.

According to Dreyfus,

Shuk-den was nothing but a minor Ge-luk protector before the 1930s when Pa-bong-ka started to promote him aggressively as the main Ge-luk protector.

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Dreyfus also notes,

[T]he propitiation of Shukden as a Geluk protector is not an ancestral tradition, but a relatively recent invention of tradition associated with the revival movement within the Geluk spearheaded by Pabongkha.

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This change is reflected in artwork, since there is "lack of Dorje Shugden art in the Gelug school prior to the end of the 19th century."

Persecution of the Rimé movement

Dorje Shugden was a key tool in Phabongkha's persecution of the flourishing Rimé movement, an ecumenical movement which compiled together the teachings of the Sakya, Kagyu and Nyingma, in response to the dominance of the Gelugpa school. Non-Gelug, and especially Nyingma, monasteries were forced to convert to the Gelug position.

Phabongkha feared a decline of Gelugpa monasteries, and induced a revival movement, which promoted the Gelugpa as the only pure tradition. He regarded the practice of non-Gelugpa teachings by Gelugpa monks as a threat to the Gepugpa-tradition, and opposed the influence of the other schools, especially the Nyingma. He coupled Dorje Shugden to Gelug exclusivism, using it against other traditions, and against Gelugpa's with eclectic tendencies. The main function of the deity was presented as "the protection of the Ge-luk tradition through violent means, even including the killing of its enemies."

Response by the 13th Dalai Lama

The abbot of Drepung monastery and the 13th Dalai Lama were opposed to Phabongka's propititation of Shugden. Restrictions on the practice of Shugden were implemented by the 13th Dalai Lama. Pabongka apologized and promised not to practice Shuk-den any more.

1970s

Publication of the Yellow Book

In 1975 The Yellow Book, also known as The Oral Transmission of the Intelligent Father, was published, enumerates a series of stories that Zimey Rinpoche had heard informally from Trijang Rinpoche about ‘the many Ge-luk lamas whose lives are supposed to have been shortened by Shuk-den’s displeasure at their practicing Nying-ma teachings’. The text asserts the pre-eminence of the Gelug school which is symbolised and safeguarded by Dorje Shugden, and presents a stern warning to those within the Gelug whose eclectic tendencies would compromise its purity. This publication provoked angry reactions from members of nonGelug traditions, setting in motion a bitter literary exchange that drew on ‘all aspects of sectarian rivalry’.

Response by the 14th Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama publicly rejected The Yellow Book which could only damage the common cause of the Tibetan people because of its sectarian divisiveness. In a series of talks, he sought to undermine the status elevation of Dorje Shugden by reaffirming the centrality of the traditional supramundane protectors of the Gelug tradition. He also vehemently rejected Dorje Shugden’s associated sectarianism, emphasising that all the Tibetan traditions are ‘equally profound dharmas’ and defending the ‘unbiased and eclectic’ approach to Buddhist practice as exemplified by the Second, Third and Fifth Dalai Lamas.

Scholar Donald Lopez explains that “The Dalai Lama’s renunciation of Shugden in 1976 caused great discord within the Geluk community, where devotion to the deity remained strong among the Geluk hierarchy and among large factions of the refugee lay community; spirited defenses of his worship were written and published. Some went so far as to claim that the Dalai Lama was not the true Dalai Lama, that the search party had selected the wrong child forty years before”

According to Georges Dreyfus, the sectarian elements of the Yellow Book were not unusual and do not "justify or explain the Dalai Lama's strong reaction." Instead, he traces back the conflict more on the exclusive/inclusive approach and maintain that to understand the Dalai Lama's point of view one has to consider the complex ritual basis for the institution of the Dalai Lamas, which was developed by the Great Fifth and rests upon "an eclectic religious basis in which elements associated with the Nyingma tradition combine with an overall Gelug orientation." This involves the promotion and practices of the Nyingma school.

Kay reminds us that

[W]hen traditions come into conflict, religious and philosophical differences are often markers of disputes that are primarily economic, material and political in nature.

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1990s

Initiations by the 14th Dalai Lama

With the urging of the other schools who have long been opposed to Shugden, and his senior Gelug tutor who always doubted the practice, the 14th Dalai Lama asked the increasing number of western Shugden practitioners who were newly being proselytized primarily in Britain to refrain from attending his teachings.

New Kadampa Tradition

The New Kadampa Tradition, founded by Kelsang Gyatso in 1991, has continued the worship of Dorje Shugden. Kelsang Gyatso regards his school to be the true continuation of the "pure" teachings of Je Tsongkhapa, rejecting the "inclusivism" of the Dalai Lama. Thurman notes that members of the New Kadampa Tradition, responded by trying

...to force their supposed mentor to adopt their perspective that the demonic spirit is an enlightened being, almost more important than the Buddha himself, and perhaps also rejoin their worship of it, or at least give them all his initiatory teachings in spite of their defiance of his best advice.

Martin Mills states that recent disputes over Shugden are focused on the claims of the British-based New Kadampa Tradition, which broke away from the Gelug school.

recent dispute within the Gelukpa Order over the status of the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden have focused on claims by a breakaway order of the Gelukpa, the British-based New Kadampa Tradition, that Shugden is of Buddha status (most Gelukpa commentators place him as a worldy deity)

DSRCS and SSC/WSS

In India, some protests and opposition were organised by the Dorje Shugden Religious and Charitable Society (DSRCS) with the support of the Shugden Supporters Community (SSC), now called Western Shugden Society.

In, 1996 the SSC attempted to obtain a statement from Amnesty International (AI) that the TGIE (specifically the 14th Dalai Lama) had violated human rights. However, the AI replied that the SSC's allegations were as yet unsubstantiated. Two years later, the AI stated in an official press release that complaints by Shugden practitioners fell outside its purview of "grave violations of fundamental human rights" (such as torture, the death penalty, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detention or imprisonment, or unfair trials), adding that "while recognizing that a spiritual debate can be contentious, [we] cannot become involved in debate on spiritual issues." In itself, the nuanced statement neither asserted nor denied the validity of the claims made against the TGIE, just that they were not actionable according to AI's mandate.

The DSRCS and Kundeling Lama filed a petition against the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) and the Dalai Lama, accusing them of harassment and maltreatment. On 5 April 2010, Justice S. Muralidhar dismissed the petition, stating that allegations of violence and harassment were "vague averments" and that there as an "absence of any specific instances of any such attacks."

Murder of Lobsang Gyatso and two students

On February 4, 1997, the principal of the Buddhist School of Dialectics, Geshe Lobsang Gyatso was murdered in Dharmasala, along with two of his students. The murders were linked to the Dorje Shugden faction. Kay notes "The subsequent investigation by the Indian police linked the murders to the Dorje Shugden faction of the exiled Tibetan community."

In a small 1978 pamphlet Lobsang Gyatso alluded to a "knotless heretic teacher," which people took as referring to Trijang Rinpoche and his advocacy of Shugden. According to Lobsang Gyatso's biographer, Gareth Sparham, many Geshes and Lamas were outraged about his criticism:

How could a nobody like Lobsang Gyatso, who was neither from an aristocratic family nor the head of a Tibetan region, indeed not even a full graduate of a religious university, dare to criticize in print an important establishment figure? Georges Dreyfus at the time remarked that in pre-1959 Gen-la would have been killed outright for his temerity. Many in the Tibetan community ostracized Gen-la, even though the Dalai Lama had already by that time begun speaking publicly against the Shugden cult. Even the Dalai Lama appeared to distance himself from Gen-la. "He is headstrong and his lack of sensitivity is making trouble," seemed to be his attitude towards Gen-la at the time.

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Georges Dreyfus added that

Despite being hurt by the polemical attack, Tri-jang Rin-po-che made it clear that violence was out of the question. Gradually, tempers cooled down and the incident was forgotten—or so it seemed.

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In June 2007, the Times stated that Interpol had issued a Red notice to China for extraditing two of the alleged killers, Lobsang Chodak and Tenzin Chozin. Robert Thurman adds that the alleged killers had their origin within China as well. The Seattle Times reported that:

The two men suspected of stabbing their victims are believed to have fled India. Five others, all linked to the Dorje Shugden Society in New Delhi, were questioned for months about a possible conspiracy. No one has been charged.

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Geshe Kelsang Gyatso denied the involvement of any of his followers in the murder, and condemned the killings.

2000s-present

Attempted murder

Trijang Chogtrul Rinpoche revealed an attempt to frame the Central Tibetan Administration with murder:

In my own labrang, I have recently witnessed a kind of factionalism, and I have discovered that one person in particular was planning an evil conspiracy. This plan was to murder my assistant, Tharchin, and to implicate His Holiness’s government-in-exile with this odious crime [...] If he had succeeded in his plan, it would have been a cause of great trouble for the labrang, as well as a cause of disgrace to the Tibetan government and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

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Trijang Chogtrul Rinpoche declaration disturbed the image of a peaceful community, and the polemics against the Dalai Lama diminshed for a long while.|

Schism within the Gelug school

The Gelugpa school has three great monasteries, namely Sera Monastery, Ganden Monastery and Drepung Monastery. In 2008 the Dorje Shugden controversy lead to a formal break within the Gelug school. Pomra Khangtsen, one of the sixteen sections of Sera monastery, legally separated itself in India in 2008 from the rest of Sera, continuing as Serpom Monastic University, at Bylakuppe. Also in 2008, a section of Ganden Shartse at Mundgod similarly separated itself from Ganden monastery, and is now known as Shar Ganden monastery.

In these institutions the monks continue to worship Dorje Shugden as well as follow the traditional curriculum and other religious practices of the former institutions. A few smaller Gelug monasteries have affiliated themselves with these two monasteries rather than with the mainstream Gelug school. The present abbot of Serpom is Yongyal Rinpoche and acting abbot Geshe Jampa Khetsun. The present abbot of is Shar Ganden is Geshe Lobsang Jinpa.

Ongoing protests

Hundreds of western Shugden practitioners have staged numerous demonstrations against the Dalai Lama, most recently in 2014 in San Francisco, Berkeley, Washington DC, Oslo, Rotterdam and Frankfurt. In response, the "Central Tibetan Administration" published two lists of participants of the protests.

Views

Views of opponents of Dorje Shugden practice

Ling Rinpoche

Ling Rinpoche, who was the Ganden Tripa and senior Gelug tutor to the 14th Dalai Lama, was opposed to Shugden as he hailed from Drepung monastery.

Views of the 14th Dalai Lama

The 14th Dalai Lama himself said in 2008, that he never used the word "ban", and

...restricting a form of practice that restricts others’ religious freedom is actually a protection of religious freedom. So in other words, negation of a negation is an affirmation."

Several reasons for the 14th Dalai Lama's stance have been given. According to John Makransky,

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.

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According to Kapstein, the 14th Dalai Lama is

...focused upon the role of Shugden as a militantly sectarian protector of the Gelukpa order, and the harm that has been done to Tibetan sectarian relations by the cult's more vociferous proponents.

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According to Dreyfus, the 14th Dalai Lama stance stems from his favoring the traditional Gelugpa traditions and protectors rather than Shugden:

[I]n this dispute the Dalai Lama’s position does not stem from his Buddhist modernism and from a desire to develop a modern nationalism, but from his commitment to another protector, Nechung, who is said to resent Shukden [...] his opposition to Shukden is motivated by his return to a more traditional stance in which this deity is seen as incompatible with the vision of the tradition (the "clan") represented by the Fifth Dalai Lama.

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Views of Shugden practitioners

Kelsang Gyatso

In an interview with scholar Donald Lopez, in regards to the controversy, Geshe Kelsang explains

We believe that Dorje Shugden is a buddha who is also a dharmapala. Problems have arisen because of someone’s view. So although we say the “Dorje Shugden problem” in reality this is a human problem, not a Dorje Shugden problem. This is not a fault of Buddha-dharma, not a fault of Tibetan Buddhism, or even a fault of Tibetan people in general. This is a particular person’s wrong view. He can keep this view, of course, but forcing other people to follow this is not right. For this reason, nowadays we [Tibetan Buddhists] are showing many problems to the world. We are ashamed and sorry that this causes the reputation of Buddhists in general to be damaged. It is not a general Buddhist problem, but a specific problem within Tibetan Buddhism.

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According to Kelsang Gyatso,

Dorje Shugden always helps, guides, and protects pure and faithful practitioners by granting blessings, increasing their wisdom, fulfilling their wishes, and bestowing success on all their virtuous activities. Dorje Shugden does not help only Gelugpas; because he is a Buddha he helps all living beings, including non-Buddhists.

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According to David Kay Kelsang Gyatso departs from Phabongkha and Trijang Rinpoche by stating that Dorje Shugden's appearance is enlightened, rather than worldly. According to Kay,

Geshe Kelsang takes the elevation of Dorje Shugden’s ontological status another step further, emphasising that the deity is enlightened in both essence and appearance.

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He quotes Kelsang Gyatso on Dorje Shugden's appearance:

Some people believe that Dorje Shugdan is an emanation of Manjushri who shows the aspect of a worldly being, but this is incorrect. Even Dorje Shugdan’s form reveals the complete stages of the path of Sutra and Tantra, and such qualities are not possessed by the forms of worldly beings.

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According to Kay, Kelsang Gyatso downplays the oracle of Shugden, since it conflicts with his notion of Shugden being a Buddha:

the oracle may have been marginalised by Geshe Kelsang because his presence raised a doctrinal ambiguity for the NKT. According to traditional Tibetan teachings, none of the high-ranking supramundane protective deities ‘would condescend to interfere with more or less mundane affairs by speaking through the mouth of a medium’. The notion of oracular divination may thus have been problematised for Geshe Kelsang in light of his portrayal of Dorje Shugden as a fully enlightened being.

Third-party views

Dorje Shugden Practitioners

According to Dreyfus,

The irony is that Shuk-den is presented by his followers as the protector of the Ge-luk (dge lugs) school, of which the Dalai Lama is the (de facto) leader.

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According to John Makransky:

[S]ome 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! [...] 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.

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New Kadampa Tradition / Western Shugden Society claims

Scholar Jane Ardley explains the development of the claims of the WSS:

Worship of this figure is especially popular in eastern Tibet, and the present Dalai Lama prayed to Dorje Shugden for many years. However in 1976 the Dalai Lama announced he was advising against the practice because it was promoting sectarianism, which could potentially damage the Tibetan independence movement. Twenty years later, in 1996, the Dalai Lama went further and announced that members of both government departments and monasteries under the control of the Tibetan exile administration were forbidden from worshipping the spirit because the ‘practice fosters religious intolerance and leads to the degeneration of Buddhism into a cult of spirit worship’. This led to a massive outcry from Shugden supporters, particularly in Britain. The Dalai Lama was accused of religious intolerance and provided an opportunity that was not missed by Bejing, who used the dispute as a further reason to denounce the Dalai Lama.

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George Chryssides also explains the basis for the accusations by the WSS:

Affairs came to a head in March 1996, when the Dalai Lama formally pronounced his opposition to Dorje Shugden, saying ‘It has become fairly clear that Dolgyal (i.e. Shugden) is a spirit of the dark forces. The Tibetan government in exile is said to have conducted house searches, demanding that people sign a declaration stating that they have abandoned Dorje Shugden practice

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Chryssides goes on to explain the claims specifically:

“The dispute between Kelsang Gyatso and the Dalai Lama admits of no obvious resolution. The Dalai Lama stands accused of restricting the religious freedom of followers of Tibetan Buddhism, and of causing widespread suffering to Shugden supporters, who are not denied access to their protector deity, but who are the victims of persecution, unable to get jobs that relate to the Tibetan government-in-exile (for example, in schools), and are denied humanitarian assistance.

— 

Some scholars reject the claims of the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) and the Western Shugden Society (WSS). Robert Thurman for example states "The cult and agency attack campaign is futile since its main claims are so easy to refute."

Some scholars reject NKT/WSS claims that the 14th Dalai Lama has suppressed religious freedom, indicating that the situation is actually the opposite. Thurman says:

They then went on the attack, claiming they had been "banned" and "excommunicated," etc., when in fact the Dalai Lama was exercising his religious freedom by not accepting students who reject his advice, and actually go so far as to condemn him!

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Thurman explains that members want:

to force their supposed mentor to adopt their perspective that the demonic spirit is an enlightened being, almost more important than the Buddha himself, and perhaps also rejoin their worship of it, or at least give them all his initiatory teachings in spite of their defiance of his best advice.

— 

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.”

New Kadampa Tradition Protesters

Tibetologist Thierry 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.

According to Dodin,

The demonstrators are almost exclusively western monks and nuns, ordained in the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) according to the group’s own ritual.

Dodin also states that

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.

Chinese government involvement

According to Robert Thurman, Shugden activities are financed by the United Front Work Department of the government of China as part of its strategy against the Dalai Lama. While he states this in regards to activity within China, he also clarifies there is "no documentary proof of a direct link" between the protest groups and the Communist United Front.

Raimondo Bultrini documents the Chinese coordination of Shugden activity in the book The Dalai Lama and the King Demon.

Within Chinese controlled territory, the Chinese government demands monks to worship Shugden, in conjunction with forcing them to denounce the Dalai Lama and fly the Chinese national flag.

According to Ben Hillman,

According to one senior lama from Sichuan, the Chinese government naturally allies itself with the Shugden supporters, not just to undermine the Dalai Lama, but because most Shugden worshippers come from Eastern Tibet, from areas that were only ever loosely under Lhasa’s jurisdiction and are today integrated into the Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan. Monks who had traveled across these areas note that the central government has allocated a disproportionate amount of funds since 1996 to pro-Shugden monasteries to assist them with construction and renovations. Evidence of local government favoritism toward the pro-Shugden faction began to emerge at S Monastery in 2003 when monks applied for permission to undertake studies in India. Despite equal numbers of applications from all khangtsens, of the 12 monks who were issued travel documents, only one was from an anti-Shugden khangtsen. Similarly, in 2004, one of the monastery’s smallest and (previously) poorest khangtsens began to build an elaborate new prayer room and residence for its handful of members. Financial support had been obtained from Beijing through a network of pro-Shugden lamas with access to officials at the highest level.

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According to the Tibetologist Thierry Dodin, "China had encouraged division among the Tibetans by promoting followers of the Dorje Shugden sect to key positions of authority.

He also provides a couple of examples of China's role in Shugden activity:

For instance, the construction of Shugden temples and monasteries is being subsidised by the State. We also know that most of the teachers surrounding the young man who in 1995 was designated as the Panchen Lama by the Chinese leadership, against the will of the Dalai Lama, belong to the Shugden group. I think these examples clearly demonstrate the role China is playing in this conflict.

— 

Also the Central Tibetan Administration in India has stated that "In order to undermine the peace and harmony within the Tibetan people, China provides political and financial support to Shugden worshippers in Tibet, India and Nepal in particular, and in general, across the globe." And, in an on-line article published by the Times of India, a source in the Religion and Culture Department of the Tibetan Government in exile is quoted as saying that Dorje Shugden followers "have their people in all Tibetan settlements. We are worried about their sources of funding. It might be China or some other anti-Tibetan elements."

In December 2012, Lama Jampa Ngodrup, a promoter of the practice of Dorje Shugden, apparently became "the first Tibetan lama to be appointed by the Chinese Government to travel on an official trip abroad to give Dharma teachings."

See also

• Cult
• Sect
• sectarianism
• Feud
• Religious segregation
• Sectarian violence

Sources

Printed sources

• Ardley, Jane (2002), The Tibetan Independence Movement: Political, Religious and Gandhian Perspectives, London: RoutledgeCurzon
• Bultrini, Raimondo (2013). The Dalai Lama and the King Demon: Tracking a Triple Murder Mystery Through the Mists of Time. New York: Tibet House / Hay House Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-9670115-23. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dalai Lama (1997), Concerning Dolgyal with Reference to the Views of Past Masters and other Related Matters, retrieved 2013-12-31
• Dreyfus, Georges (1998). "The Shugden Affair: Origins of a Controversy". Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. 21 (2 (1998)). IABS: 227–270. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dreyfus, Georges B. J. (2003), The Sound of Two Hands Clapping: The Education of a Tibetan Buddhist Monk, University of California Press
• Dreyfus, Georges (2005). "Are We Prisoners of Shangrila?". Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, no. 1 (October 2005), THL #T1218: p. 6–10. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Gyatso (2002), Heart Jewel, Motilal Banarsidass
• Hillman, Ben (1998). "Monastic Politics and the Local State in China: Authority and Autonomy in an Ethnically Tibetan Prefecture". The China Journal (54 (July, 2005)). The University of Chicago Press: 29–51. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kapstein, Matthew (1989), "The purificatory gem and its cleansing: a late Tibetan polemical discussion of apocryphal texts", History of Religions: An International Journal for Comparative Historical Studies 28: 217–244
• Kapstein, Matthew (2000), The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism, Oxford{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Kay, David N. (October 1997). The New Kadampa Tradition and the Continuity of Tibetan Buddhism in Transition. Routledge Curzon. pp. 277–293. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kay, David N. (2004). Tibetan and Zen Buddhism in Britain: Transplantation, development and adaptation. London: Routledge Curzon. pp. 44–52. ISBN 0-415-29765-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lopez, Donald (1998). Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press. pp. 188–196. ISBN 978-0-226-49310-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lopez, Donald (1998b), "An Interview With Geshe Kelsang Gyatso", Tricycle Magzine
• Makransky, John (2000), Introduction to Contemporary Academic Buddhist Theology; Its emergence and rationale. In: John J. Makransky, Roger Reid Jackson, "Buddhist Theology: Critical Reflections by Contemporary Buddhist Scholars", Routledge
• Mills, Martin A. (2003), This turbulent priest: contesting religious rights and the state in the Tibetan Shugden controversy. In: Human Rights in Global Perspective, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-30410-5
• Mills, Martin A. (2003b), Identity, Ritual and State in Tibetan Buddhism, Routledge, ISBN 0-7007-1470-7
• Mills, Martin A. (2009), Charting the Shugden Interdiction in the Western Himalaya. in Bray, J. & R. Filibeck (eds. 2009) Mountains, Monasteries and Mosques: Recent Research on Ladakh and the Western Himalaya., eds. Rome: Fabrizio Serra Editore, pp. 251–270, ISBN 8862271883{{citation}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
• Nebesky-Wojkowitz, René de (1956). Oracles and demons of Tibet: the cult and iconography of the Tibetan protective deities. The Hague: Mouton. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Schaik, Sam van (2011), Tibet: A History, Yale University Press
• Smith, Warren W. (2010), Tibet's Last Stand?: The Tibetan Uprising of 2008 and China's Response, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc
• Sparham, Gareth (1998), Memoirs of a Tibetan Lama, Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications
• Thurman, Robert (2013a), "The Dalai Lama And The Cult Of Dolgyal", http://www.huffingtonpost.com Huffington Post, retrieved 28 April 2014 {{citation}}: External link in |website= (help)
• Thurman, Robert (2013b), Foreword. In: Bultrini (2013), "The Dalai Lama and the King Demon: Tracking a Triple Murder Mystery Through the Mists of Time", New York: Tibet House / Hay House Incorporated, ISBN 978-0-9670115-23
• von Brück, Michael (2001), Canonicity and Divine Interference: The Tulkus and the Shugden-Controversy. In: Dalmia, Malinar and Christof (eds.), "Charisma and Canon: the formation of religious identity in South Asia, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195654536
• Watt, Jeff (2013), "Himalayan Buddhist Art 101: Controversial Art, Part 1 - Dorje Shugden", Tricycle, The Tricycle Foundation, retrieved 27 April 2014 {{citation}}: External link in |website= (help)
• Wilson, Mike (1999), "Schisms, murder, and hungry ghosts in Shangra-La. (internal conflicts in Tibetan Buddhist sect)", Cross , Vol.49 No.1, Spring 1999
• Wilson, Richard (2003), Human Rights in Global Perspective: Anthropological Studies of Rights, Claims and Entitlements, Routeledge, ISBN 0-415-30410-5

External links

Academic

• Academic Research regarding Shugden Controversy & New Kadampa Tradition
• Williams, Paul (1996). "A quick note on Dorje Shugden (rDo rje shugs ldan)". The Middle Way, Vol. 71, no.2. Retrieved 2013-12-20.

History

• Dodin, Thierry (8 May 2014). "The Dorje Shugden Conflict". Michael Jaeckel. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
• Gardner, Alexander (4 June 2013). "Treasury of Lives: Dorje Shugden". The Tricycle Foundation. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
• Georges Dreyfus, The Shugden Affair: Origins of a Controversy (Part I)
• Georges Dreyfus, The Shugden Affair: Origins of a Controversy (Part II)

Pro Dalai Lama

• Official Web TV Station of the Central Tibetan Administration - includes BBC documentary "An Unholy Row" and Second Shugden Documentary filmed by Swiss TV in 1998
• Collection of Advice Regarding Shugden by the FPMT
• The Central Tibetan Administration on "Dolgyal (Shugden)"
• Tibetan Buddhism in the West - Dorje Shugden

Pro-Shugden

• Website of the New Kadampa Tradition
• Donald Lopez, An Interview With Geshe Kelsang Gyatso , Tricycle magazine