Dalai Lama protesters: International Shugden Community / Western Shugden Society - unlocked

by Tenzin Peljor

Loud is the noise that ordinary men make. Nobody thinks himself a fool, when divisions arise in the Sangha, nor do they ever value another person higher than themselves.The Buddha, Mahavagga

Table of Contents

• Introduction: A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing
• An Academic Analysis About the Protests and the Claims on Both Sides (2018–2020)
• International Shugden Community (ISC) (2014–2016)
  • Have the Dalai Lama protesters sought dialogue?
• Update: International Shugden Buddhist Community (2017– )
• Archived: Western Shugden Society (2008–2014)
  • What has the Western Shugden Society to say about the Dalai Lama and is this based on Buddhist principles?
  • New Kadampa Tradition vs. Dalai Lama
  • What is the basis for the accusations of the Western Shugden Society?
  • Religious Extremists
  • Who is the dictator? Where are the ‘hypocrites’?
  • References

Introduction: A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing

Since 1996 there have been protests organized at public speaking venues of the Dalai Lama during his visits in ‘western countries’ (USA, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Australia etc.). The press has widely reported about these – though the articles are often very ill-informed.

During the protests from 1996–98 via Shugden Supporters Community (SSC) the protesters carried banners with slogans such as ‘Your smile charms, your actions harm’, ‘Dalai Lama, please grant us religious freedom’, ‘Dorje Shugden is a Buddha of compassion, please don’t lie’, ‘Dorje Shugden loves Nyingmapas, please don’t lie’. At that time the protests were accompanied by the repeatedly sang spiritual prayer “May everyone be happy, May everyone be free from misery, May no one be separated from happiness, May all abide in equanimity free from hate and attachment.” No drums, megaphones etc. were used.

The second wave of protests started in April 2008 via Western Shugden Society (WSS) and lasted (with a break in between) until the beginning of 2014. While during the first round the Dalai Lama was accused of lying (because he holds other views about the controversial deity Shugden than the protesters), the second wave used slogans that had as their target more explicitly the reputation of the Dalai Lama, e.g. accusing him of ‘hypocrisy’ and ‘ostracism’. Megaphones were used for the first time. Gen Kelsang Khyenrab and Gen Kelsang Dekyong (see header image) used a megaphone to proclaim a pamphlet called 21st Century Buddhist Dictator – The Dalai Lama (from the WSS booklet The Tibetan Situation Today – Surprising Hidden News) in which the Dalai Lama was called a ‘very professional liar’, the ‘saffron robed Muslim’, and which aimed to establish that the Dalai Lama’s ‘real nature is cruel and very evil’. Some drums were used and in an endless loop the slogan ‘Dalai Lama stop lying’ was chanted. Some visitors of the Dalai Lama’s teachings described it as very hard to get this slogan out of their head, even days after the event had passed.

In 2014 the third round of protests has began via International Shugden Community (ISC). The Dalai Lama is now depicted as the ‘false Dalai Lama’ and ‘The World’s Worst Dictator’. The ISC produced a new book, The False Dalai Lama, with additional allegations. Some of them “are straightforward misrepresentations” (Barnett). Foreign Policy wrote about it:

The book describes its purpose as helping people to “understand the deceptive nature” of the Dalai Lama, who stands accused of “destroying pure Buddhism in this world.” If that weren’t enough, it depicts the Tibetan spiritual leader as a “Muslim” who is firmly in the grip of a “fascination with war and Nazism.”

The public protests are accompanied by the use of stylised placards – including caricatures of the Dalai Lama, Robert Thurman, and Samdhong Rinpoche – many drums, more megaphones, different musical instruments and the protesters have started to dance. Again, rhythmic slogans like ‘False Dalai Lama, stop lying!’ are repeated in an endless loop. The police officer-in-charge in Frankfurt a.M. / Germany (April 2014) called this method “psycho terror”. This round of protests have continued also into the year 2015. The New York Times Magazine described the protesters as a “militant sectarian division …”, “The Dalai Lama is stalked wherever he goes these days by drumbeating protesters shouting, ‘‘False Dalai Lama, stop lying!”

The whole campaign is further based on the diligent spread of press packs, devotion towards getting the message through the media by contacting journalists, news outlets, sponsors of the Dalai Lama events and his contacts in advance of each of the Dalai Lama visits in the west. Numerous websites and blogs in different languages have been set up, Wikipedia articles edited, and booklets produced. The booklets are given for free and sold also on Amazon.

There is no official website of the Shugden Supporters Community (SSC), 1996–1998. The official website of the Western Shugden Society (WSS), 2008–2014, is www.westernshugdensociety.com. The International Shugden Community (ISC)’s official site is www.internationalshugdencommunity.com.

As Tsultrim Palmo & Carol McQuire have demonstrated in a brief article it can be safely stated that behind the protesters is the New Kadampa Traditon (NKT).

Without the NKT’s founder, Geshe Kelsang Gyaso’s, explicit wish and order, there would not be any of these types of protests and media savvy international campaigning. When he ordered in 1998 to stop the protests, they stopped. When he had the motivation to start them again, they started again. (Details, evidence, and inferences can be found in the rest of this article/page.)

As an insider I was very much amazed to see the tremendous lack of knowledge regarding the protests – who is behind them, the confusion about how reasonable all these accusations and claims are in reality, and what the motivations and circumstances might be that drive the protesters. To dispel this confusion and to give more details to empower others to make up their own minds, I started in 2008 to give more background knowledge about the Western Shugden Society, initially via Flickr. Responding to NKT’s pressure, Flickr suspended that account which is why I have had to find a safe place to provide the information I wanted to provide. (Flickr activated the account a while later again, but I was disillusioned by their arbitrary actions and deleted it altogether.) This is why this page came into existence – to ‘unlock’ the Western Shugden Society.

After the NKT set up their third ‘front group’, the ISC, I started to update this page. These updates are rather something like a diary of events and they list often press articles and details which I found either useful, reasonable or worth mentioning.

I was a committed member of the NKT, from 1995–2000 and I am still in contact with many people who left the NKT and share documents and information. So the content of this page – especially about the Western Shugden Society / New Kadampa Tradition – is based on insider knowledge.

If you would like an independent academic opinion on the relationship between the SSC, WSS, ISC and NKT you can contact Inform via inform@lse.ac.uk or read this summary.

March 15, 2015
last edited on Dec 27, 2015

An Academic Analysis About the Protests and the Claims on Both Sides

• Certain Beliefs and Uncertain Evidence – the Case of Shugden (2020-05-14) 
  Newcombe, Suzanne In: Francis, Matthew and Knott, Kim eds. Minority Religions and Uncertainty. Routledge-Inform Series on Minority Religions and Spiritual Movements (pp. 22-43), ISBN: 9781472484512 | Publisher: Routledge
• "Trust Me, You Can't Trust Them": Stigmatised Knowledge in Cults and Conspiracies (2018-10-02) Newcombe, Suzanne and van Eck Duymaer van Twist, Amanda In: Dyrendal, Asbjørn; Robertson, David G. and Asprem, Egil eds. Handbook of Conspiracy Theory and Contemporary Religion (pp. 152-179), ISBN: 978-90-04-38202-2 | Publisher: Brill | Published: Leiden

International Shugden Community (ISC)

The New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) / Western Shugden Society (WSS), (formerly the Shugden Supporters Community or SSC) are now organizing “impassioned protests against the Dalai Lama” under yet another new name, the International Shugden Community (ISC).

Update: International Shugden Buddhist Community

On 20 January 2017, Lucy James via pseudonym “Luna Kadampa” announced on Facebook the foundation of the International Shugden Buddhist Community. The website, www.internationalshugdenbuddhistcommunity.org (PDF), states:

The 'International Shugden Community' was temporarily dissolved to show that it was stopping the demonstrations. However, now we are renewing this non-profit organisation with a different name and a different function.

President of the International Shugden Buddhist Community (ISBC) is Brianna Groshon (Gen Kelsang Demo), resident teacher of Kadampa Meditation Center Florida. Secretary of the ISBC is Rachel Jeffrey (Kelsang Norden), resident teacher of Kadampa Meditation Center The Hamptons in Sag Harbor. ISBC’s treasurer, Lisa Klusendorf, is also treasurer of Kadampa Meditation Center New York. KMC New York’s director is Steve Cowing who is also the Secretary of the New Kadampa Tradition.

Obviously, the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) has founded a new organisation with a new name.

On Tibetan Uprising Day (10th March 2017) the New Kadampa Tradition (aka NKT, Kadampa Buddhism, Modern Buddhism, Kadampa Meditation Center) posted a new divisive letter that has the potential to create more unnecessary disunity among Tibetans. The letter proclaims the tulku of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, Trijang Choktrul Rinpoche (who is regarded by all Tibetans, including HH the Dalai Lama, as being authentic), to be the “false Trijang Tulku”.
For more see: An Open Letter from the International Shugden Buddhist Community (ISBC) / New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) and The Doggedness of Clinging to Shugden by Carol McQuire

In a document with the title “Eliminating Spiritual Confusion – The False Trijang Tulku and Gonsar the Troublemaker” (PDF), posted at the ISBC website at the end of March 2017, the NKT leadership attack via ISBC Trijang Choktrul Rinpoche and Gonsar Rinpoche. Against the facts the document claims Trijang Rinpoche was born on November 9, 1981 (though according to Trijang Choktrul Rinpoche’s own US passport and all other reliable sources he was born on November 9, 1982). The ISBC repeats the claim that Trijang Choktrul Rinpoche is the “false Trijang Tulku”, adding “Gonsar promotes this young man extensively as the real reincarnation of Trijang Rinpoche or Trijang Tulku and uses him to make money.” The document announces that “the ISBC has decided to continually organize demonstrations against Gonsar and the false Trijang Tulku until they stop humiliating Trijang Rinpoche and the International Shugden Buddhist Community.”

Archived: Western Shugden Society (WSS)

A New Religious Movement (NRM) called the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) is mainly behind the world wide media campaign against the Dalai Lama and is orchestrated under the label Western Shugden Society (WSS) although some Tibetans also support the Western Shugden Society. The founder, leader and sole authority of the New Kadampa Tradition is Geshe Kelsang Gyatso who was expelled in 1996 by 15 Abbots and Geshes from his monastic community at Sera Je in India, because the monastic community felt that Kelsang Gyatso’s “unbearable spite towards the unsurpassed omniscient 14th Dalai Lama” “will foul the Sangha community’s spiritual purity and serenity and will have a negative influence for the whole community”.

That the Western Shugden Society was probably funded by the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT), an UK charity trust, is indicated by these signs:

• Press speaker: Kelsang Pema (Helen Gradwell) – personal assistant to Geshe Kelsang Gyatso for more than 8 years
• Front man and leader in the USA: Gen-la Kelsang Khyenrab (Steve Booth) – Deputy Spiritual Director of the NKT (PDF)
• Front woman and leader in USA: Gen Kelsang Dekyong (Heather Wright) – National Spiritual Director of NKT USA (PDF)
• Front man and leader in Germany: Gen Kelsang Ananda (Markus Rehnert) – National Spiritual Director of NKT Germany (PDF)
• Leader in Australia: Gen Kelsang Rabten (Nicholas Pitts) – National Spiritual Director of NKT Australia and New Zealand (PDF)
• Geshe Kelsang Gyatso has asked all his students by email to participate in the protests. Among other things he wrote in one of his emails: “[…] To stop this evil action, as the representative of the Western Shugden Society, I personally will organise demonstrations against the Dalai Lama directly. I requested Kelsang Pema and Kelsang Thubchen to do this job for me and they have accepted. Please help Pema and Thubchen with whatever they need. With much love and prayers, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso”. (see Buddhism under assault)
• Lucy James (USA), official editor of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’s books and Resident Teacher for several NKT centers, who did not encourage her students thoroughly enough, was immediately removed by Geshe Kelsang from her position as a NKT resident teacher. So there seems to be pressure to local NKT resident teachers to convince their members to go to the protests.
• The identity of the website of the Western Shugden Society is made hidden via proxy server (Domains by Proxy), however some media data in the files refer to “Tharpa”, a NKT enterprise, which publishes only Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’s books, and to a translator of Kelsang Gyatso’s books in Spain.
• A public letter of the NKT Bodhisattva Centre indicates the WSS website as being a NKT website stating “You may be interested to visit the following websites for further information about our Centre, our tradition – the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) the WSS: Bodhisattva Buddhist Centre [..] Western Shugden Society website: www.westernshugdensociety.org [..] for information about the NKT and our side of the story!!”
• The 1996-1998 media campaign of the New Kadampa Tradition against the Dalai Lama was performed under the label Shugden Supporters Community (SSC) and NKT tried likewise to hide their identity. (see The Independent). However, Kelsang Gyatso clearly identified himself as the mastermind behind the protests when he spoke with The Daily Telegraph. (Dalai Lama Faces Revolt For Barring ‘Death Threat’ Deity, The Daily Telegraph, July 15,1996)

Although the Western Shugden Society spokesperson Kelsang Pema (Helen Gradwell) claims publicly that the WSS “has no leader nor registered office”, in reality, Kelsang Gyatso, by his own admission is the leader of the group (see email), and, when the Society was set up on 26 June 2008 as a ‘Private Limited’ by guarantee with assets, it was registered to a specific address (Studio 177 56 Tavistock Place, London, WC1H 9RG, United Kingdom – see Company entry). On 08.02.13 the Duedil entry of the Western Shugden Society listed a cash amount of 17,705 GBP and a Book Value of 25,372 GBP (see PDF).

Publicly available information lists two NKT centres as “Related Companies” to the Western Shugden Society: The New Kadampa Tradition’s Manjushri Mahayana Buddhist Centre (MMBC) and Tharpaland Kadampa Meditation Centre (TKMC). The same information makes it clear that Susan Mary Jenkins, who is currently a director of the Western Shugden Society, has also been a director of TKMC, while Helen Gradwell has been an officer and director of both ‘companies’, the WSS and MMBC (see PDF). A number of other WSS directors are also listed, all of whom coincidentally, are relatively senior NKT personnel.

Helen Gradwell also petitioned the UK Parliament. (PDF) In 2011 the Western Shugden Society wrote Open Letters to British Political Leaders, among them British Prime Minister David Cameron MP, Foreign Secretary William Hague MP, and to Home Secretary Theresa May MP. The letters are signed by “John McBretney, PhD, BSc (Hons), Retired Civil Servant Representative, Western Shugden Society”, John McBretney is the Resident Teacher of the NKT’s Heruka Centre in London.

In the image above one can see Gen-la Kelsang Khyenrab, an NKT-monk, and present successor of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, and the appointed future spiritual leader of the NKT. 

The standard letter Inform – an information network on religious movements founded by Professor Eileen Barker based at the London School of Economics – issue when contacted about the NKT states that “the NKT-IKBU stresses that it is an independent organisation with no official political position or formal association with the Western Shugden Society.” The file Inform hold on the New Kadampa Tradition lists the Western Shugden Society as an ‘associated organization’ because of the “substantial demonstrable connections between the two,” and what an Inform spokesperson described as “the visible overlap of the membership base and spokespersons of both groups.”

What has the Western Shugden Society to say about the Dalai Lama and is this based on Buddhist principles?

The heart of the WSS booklet The Tibetan Situation Today spread during the protests is an Anti-Dalai-Lama-Manifest called “21st Century Buddhist Dictator – The Dalai Lama”:

Show All

The Western Shugden Society softened this vitriolic manifest a little bit after receiving complaints by some Shugden-Lamas who feared their reputation would be destroyed irretrievably. The complete text was probably written by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. His successor, Gen-la Kelsang Khyenrab, read it aloud during the USA protests at Colgate University, NY, April 22 2008. Rao Jin’s website www.anti-CNN.com posted this Anti-Dalai-Lama-Manifest immediately after its release. The revised version of it can be read at the WSS-Website or here. In general the website of the WSS gives the impression of a hate-filled denigration campaign against the Dalai Lama.

The WSS website clearly breaks the Buddhist guidelines of Right Speech. The website and the protesters are using deliberately abusive language and they misuse the word ‘liar’. When H.H. the Dalai Lama publishes his opinion about Shugden and advises against this practice and monasteries agree with him and put restrictions on that practice, then this can be considered wrong by others but it cannot be portrayed as lying. Pointing out the dangers of the Shugden ‘cult’ (a view which is held by the majority of Tibetan Buddhists, especially among Kagyu and Nyingma practitioners) and discouraging its practice can also be considered as wrong but it cannot be portrayed as ‘hypocrisy’. The WSS approach of putting the blame onto a single person, H.H. the Dalai Lama, is violating Buddhist principles and reality. All phenomena are interconnected and arise due to many different causes and conditions; they are dependent arising. The WSS hold at least two of “The 16 Wrong Conceptions” which contradict The 16 Aspects of the Four Noble Truths. These two wrong conceptions on which the WSS base their accusations and actions are the “apprehension of sufferings as being produced by a single cause” & “apprehension of sufferings as being produced by others (such as a creator god)”. The strategy of WSS/NKT: Blame the Dalai Lama! cannot create a constructive result nor can it be seen as being realistic or based on common sense. As a result WSS/NKT will be faced with more problems in the future and the loss of trust and credibility.

Ten years ago The Independent wrote about the first media campaign of the New Kadampa Tradition (Shugden Supporters Community):

To understand the setting of the present protests it may be helpful to read the press articles about the NKT’s first media campaign (1996–1998) against the Dalai Lama in The Independent and The Guardian:

• Battle of the Buddhists by Andrew Brown (PDF) in The Independent, London, 15 July 1996
• Shadow boxing on the path to Nirvana by Madeleine Bunting in The Guardian, London, 6 July 1996 (PDF).

Also this article (Sept. 1996) by Deepak Thapa seems to be a good mirror of the actual situation:

• It’s Dalai Lama vs Shugden – Leave It to Tibetans by Deepak Thapa

BBC documentary (1998)

• An Unholy Row — British-Asian current affairs series. An interview with the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, about his decision to stop the worship of a spirit known as Dorje Shugden.

Amnesty International’s position:

• Document - China: AI’s position on alleged abuses against worshippers of Tibetan deity Dorje Shugden; AI Index: ASA 17/14/98; June 1998 (PDF)

For a detailed discussion about the Western Shugden Society see:

• Blog ‘Western Shugden Society - unlocked’ by Tenzin Peljor
  

New Kadampa Tradition vs. Dalai Lama

For NKT insiders the allegations against the Dalai Lama as being a “dictator”, “hypocrite”, “liar” etc. are seen as the reflections of the actual situation in the NKT itself. The protests came up after a number of internal scandals, regarding the former NKT successor, Gen-la Samden (Steve W.), and the resident teacher Gen Kelsang Lodro (Brighton, UK). Ordained NKT monks and nuns did have active sexual relationships with each other as well as lay members and these relationships were not disciplined within the organisation. Members report that they complained to the NKT leadership and addressed requests for help to Geshe Kelsang himself. But instead of doing something he threw the blame back and said those people reporting the events to him would destroy the pure tradition, and “harm the Buddhadharma and all sentient beings”. In this way the scandals were covered up for a very long time. When the scandals finally became public via Internet (E-Sangha) the involved persons were immediately removed from their positions and the NKT websites. The leadership tried to hide the facts by giving different misleading information, such as Gen Samden wishes to go into retreat etc. (see Dharma Sights) Open discussions were suppressed and finally Geshe Kelsang forbade his followers to engage in online forums (“meaningless activities”), ordering all NKT internet chats to close. The internal scandals were not cleared or counselled, victims received little support or help. (see New Kadampa Survivors)

Some former members of the NKT see the present campaign as a means to bring the confused members together again by the NKT leadership. They argue that the protests against the Dalai Lama distract the NKT members from their internal struggles and scandals. They refer to the fact that a similar situation, regarding sexual abuse of another successor of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Gen-la Thubten Gyatso (Neil E.), preceded the protests 1996-1998. The NKT leadership similarly covered up these abuses for a long time and when they became finally public they gave misleading information and claimed that the successor was tired and would go into retreat (see Sect disrobes British monk). From that perspective it seems that the unresolved emotions within the NKT are now projected against an outer enemy.

Although the above is a theory of some former members it is difficult to find reasons why the NKT is now engaging in these protests again. In 2002 Geshe Kelsang wrote in an Open Letter to the Washington Times: “in October 1998 we decided to completely stop being involved in this Shugden issue because we realized that in reality this is a Tibetan political problem and not the problem of Buddhism in general or the NKT.” Similar Open Letters he wrote to The Sydney Morning Herald and the Ming Pao Daily News, stating: “everyone knows the NKT and myself completely stopped being involved in this Shugden issue at all levels. I guarantee you that the NKT and myself have never performed inappropriate actions and will never do so in the future, this is our determination. We simply concentrate on the flourishing of holy Buddhadharma throughout the world - we have no other aim. I hope people gradually understand our true nature and function.”

The NKT internal rules do not allow political actions. Also the NKT was never interested or engaged in improving the situation of the Tibetan exile community or of the Tibetans in Tibet; they do not accept the Dalai Lama or the Ganden Tripa (head of the Gelugpas) or other Buddhist teachers as spiritual authorities; and nobody in NKT is in any way ‘oppressed’ by the Dalai Lama. From an outer perspective, any possible altruistic motivation is contradicted by the fact that the NKT is since its inception a very self-centred organization, more focused on its expansion than anything else, as described by Geshe Kelsang in this statement: “We simply concentrate on the flourishing of holy Buddhadharma throughout the world”. What NKT portrays as a “ban” does not effect the NKT, and according to Geshe Kelsang’s statements in these Open Letters, the NKT “is completely independent from Shugden groups in India, Nepal and other countries; [they] have absolutely no political affiliations.”

The media depicts the protesters as ‘Buddhist monks and nuns’. This is not correct. NKT monks and nuns, who were ordained by Kelsang Gyatso and bear his name Kelsang, are not ‘real’ Buddhist monks and nuns. They are neither novice Buddhist monks or nuns (Tib. Getsul / Getsulma) nor fully ordained Buddhist monks or nuns (Tib. Gelong / Gelongma). Due to this fact, they are not members of the Buddhist order of monks and nuns according to the Vinaya. The Vinaya (code of conduct for Buddhist monks and nuns) with its democratic basis and rules, established by the Buddha, is not active in the NKT. The ordination of the NKT can be seen as a kind of the so-called “Rabjung-ordination”. This kind of ordination makes the person who receives it an “intermediate ordained one”, a phrase which “refers to someone who is preparing to become a Getsul” (novice). Such a person is neither a lay person nor an ordained person. Rabjungs can wear the monastic robes but not the yellow upper robe. Because they do not belong to the Buddhist monastic order they are not allowed to attend the fortnightly Purification Ritual (Tib. Sojong) or to act as members of, or in the name of the Buddhist monastic order. In the Indian-Tibetan ordination tradition (Mulasarvastavada lineage) the Rabjung ordination is given as an intermediate ordination to someone who aspires to become a monk or nun. The purpose of this intermediate ordination is to allow the trainee to approach the lifestyle of a monk or nun before the trainee eventually becomes a novice or a fully ordained one. Usually this kind of Rabjung ordination is given to Tibetans from an early age until they reach adulthood when they are free to decide whether to follow the life of a monk. Geshe Kelsang actively discourages his followers to take the actual ordination claiming the NKT ordination is sufficient and can be understood as being in line with explanations of Geshe Potowa. The opinion of the Australian Sangha Association is “that for NKT members to represent themselves to the public as authentic Buddhist monks and nuns is wrong and misleading.”

According to David Barett NKT is “one of the newest and most controversial Buddhist movements”. INFORM, Rick Ross Institute and the Cult Information Centre London are faced with complaints about the New Kadampa Tradition. The Yahoo! Groups-Forum, The New Kadampa Survivors, had in October 2008 more than 750 members. Due to the many complaints INFORM started independent research on NKT. Whoever wishes to receive independent research information about NKT can contact INFORM, which was founded in 1988 by Professor Eileen Barker with the help of British Home Office funding and the support of the mainstream Churches. It is based at the London School of Economics.

What is the basis for the accusations of the Western Shugden Society?

The Western Shugden Society portrays their unilateral attacks and their “war of words-campaign” against the Dalai Lama as “Dalai Lama Controversy”. The accusations of the Western Shugden Society against the Dalai Lama are based on some events which occurred in India. WSS exaggerates them, puts a spin on the facts, takes them out of context and interprets certain events as systematic “religious persecution”. After checking the details with information offered by witnesses and different sources the conclusion is that the information the Western Shugden Society offers is a mix of semi-truths, untruths and some truths.

For a background on the events in India one can read this well-informed article:

• Sowing dissent and undermining the Dalai Lama by TibetInfoNet

The monk Lobsang Jangchub¹, a witness of the events in Sera monastery (India), wishes “to counter the inaccurate picture that the NKT is trying to paint of the situation” and states:

I resided at Sera for a total of about 20 months from 2003-2006. From 2004 onwards I had a basic enough understanding of Tibetan to know what was going on. My teacher was selected by HHDL to serve as Abbot and held that position for 10 years, partly because of his ability to handle the Shugden issue.

At first, the Sera administration tried a “live and let live approach”, where the Shugden monks could do prayers in Pomra khangtsen but those of us who didn’t want to participate didn’t have to. And during the kangso pujas very few monks attended unless they were financially destitute and needed the money. I would say there were only about 90-120 monks who sincerely believed in the practice, out of a khangtsen of at least 400.

Things came to a head because the Shugden supporters pushed the issue, handing out copies of the prayer to all monks during pujas and pressuring them to recite. Hanging large Shugden thangkhas in the khangtsen, and fining those Pomra monks who did not attend puja.

Because of this situation, my teacher and the administration at Sera Mey felt they had no choice but to draft the oath for monks to sign. But this was after extensive discussion with HHDL and patiently waiting to see if the Shugden people would lighten up. After they tied up a visiting Dharamsala politician to a chair, the situation was sealed. Khen Rinpochey felt Shugden had to be controlled into the monastery, for the future of the lineage.

I doubt any of the protestors have visited the monasteries of South India in the past ten years so really the information they are receiving is not first hand, but rather hearsay. It is simply an opportunity, I feel, for those who have grudges against His Holiness the Dalai Lama to try to damage his image.

Leading up the oath circulated against Shugden at Sera Mey there were also several other important developments. One was that my teacher, then abbot of Sera Mey, received threats to his personal safety when he tried to bring the situation under control by having the monks at least not try to promote Shugden openly. This is well documented and HH Dalai Lama mentioned it himself at the Kalachakra I attended in 2004 in Toronto.

The khangtsen was also being torn apart by the dispute because a new shrine hall was being built and the Shugden elements wanted a protector chapel in the back, and planned on ordering large statues. This further aggravated the situation. Once again, not from the side of the abbot and HHDL’s supporters, but from the Shugden side who kept trying to push the issue.

The harmony of such a large monastery (Jey and Mey combined form Sera, which has about 5,000 monks) is essential and the Shugden situation was becoming out of control. Not only were threats being made but there were arguments between monks and a deep feeling of disharmony.

In addition, some of those practising Shugden were even attending high tantra initiations with HHDL despite the fact that HH stated that to do so would harm the lineage, his life etc. … In short, they were taking HHDL as vajra master but deciding not to follow his direction in practice.

When I asked one monk whom I knew supported Shugden why he was attending an initiation HH was granting in India, he told me to shut up and mind my own business. I was later warned by friends to be less open about my disapproval for such matters because people had been previously physically harmed.

So, that is pretty much all the information I have to share. Of course it is my experience and the experience of my teacher. But, because I stayed at Sera for a reasonable period and speak decent colloquial Tibetan, I feel I am better qualified to inform people about what is going on rather than NKT cadres who have never set foot in India. I doubt even GKG has been there in the past decade.

Lobsang Jangchub

---

¹ This account was published in the NKS forum under refuge name of LJ as the yahoo account was created prior to JK’s ordination. This was stated publicly on a NYT thread in 2008 and elsewhere. Information regarding South India has also been received from other monastic sources, as noted in relevant articles.

Whilst the Western Shugden Society, and some Tibetan Shugden followers accuse the Dalai Lama of oppressing Shugden worshippers, putting a “ban” on the Shugden worship, making them “untouchable”, having “stolen the teachings from Trijang Rinpoche” and so forth (see www.westernshugdensociety.org), according to Kasur Tashi Wangdi, the Dalai Lama’s representative in America:

There’s no suppression! His Holiness made it very clear that according to his own observations over many years—in fact, he himself used to worship Shugden—and over many years of his own experience and observation and investigation, he found that this practice is not according to Buddhist practice. That practice is also bringing in divisions within the Buddhist traditions. The practitioners are attaching more importance than the basic Buddhist practice, and therefore he felt that it’s a practice that he would not approve of and therefore he advised people to not engage in it. But he made it very clear right from the beginning it was up to the individuals. He has a responsibility to explain the negative aspects of it and then it’s up to the individuals to decide on their own. Officially there has never been any repression or denial of rights to practitioners. But after His Holiness’ advice many monastic orders adopted rules and regulations that would not accept practitioners of Shugden worship in their monastic order. The followers have set up their own groups and they are free to function. But it’s in the right of institutions to make their own decisions.” and “There’s some misunderstanding that groups taking their own actions is the policy of the Tibetan government, but it’s not. Institutions take advice and it is within their right to say they do not want Shugden worship. But now if a group of people say they want to set up their own institution because they are different practitioners, which is within their right. (see Interview with Tashi Wangdi)

Kasur Tashi Wangdi

What the members of the NKT completely neglect is the fact that monastic communities, the monastic order, can make decisions about how they are run as it is prescribed in the Vinaya; it is their right to do that. The majority of the monks in the Gelug monasteries are against this practice, they see it as harmful, and many fear it. It is a democratic decision and according to the Vinaya if the majority, the Abbots and discipline masters ask those few doing it not to do it at their monastic places, then they have to abide by that decision. Everyone can still do it privately outside the monasteries and Shugden followers can set up their own monasteries. Everyone has this freedom & right. But when those very few monks disagree with the majority and create split and schism in the order, they can be expelled. There is nothing wrong with this as it follows Vinaya rules, which all monastics agree to when they become ordained. Moreover by forcing the Dalai Lama to reverse the decision of the monastic community is a call to him to act like a dictator, as, if he would follow the Shugden practitioners wishes, he must ignore the decision of the majority. This is neither possible from a democratic point of view nor from the point of view of the Vinaya, the monastic code of discipline. The Dalai Lama, like all other monks, also has to follow the Vinaya code.

What the expelled monks can do is to stop violating their monk’s ethic by refraining from:

1. Causing a Division within the Sangha (monastic order)
2. Siding with a schismatic (Geshe Kelsang Gyatso)
3. Causing lay people to lose faith in the Sangha
4. Not Heeding advice about one’s offences

For a monk these are grave faults. The Buddha set up those and other rules for the sake of harmony and peace in the order, and to protect lay people from losing faith in the members of the order. To ignore these rules will not bring peace and happiness. The monks and everybody else can practice Shugden at their own place, privately or they can set up an independent monastery. The NKT can help them to do that. What the Western Shugden Society did however was to try and blackmail the Dalai Lama, saying he should reverse the decision of the monastic communities in India.

The WSS stated in their Letter to Sera Lachi, Sera Jey and Sera Mey, April 9, 2008 (see The Tibetan Situation Today, p.7):

If you do not accept the first point [to reverse the expulsion of the six monks], we will immediately organise worldwide public demonstrations directly against the Dalai Lama whenever he visits any country. If you have some wisdom you should understand how important the Dalai Lama’s reputation is—this is now in your hands.

This statement reveals their deep rooted ignorance regarding Buddhism, democracy, and the Vinaya of the Buddha. Moreover, no NKT member is in any way oppressed by the Dalai Lama or any outer Buddhist authority, because NKT members accept nobody as a spiritual authority, except for their own leader Geshe Kelsang and his 22 books. There is no outer “persecution” or “subtle fear and repression”, as they claim.

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.

(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)

Tibet scholar Robert Barnett of Columbia University about the Western Shugden Society:

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.

Robert Barnett

See also:

• Tibet scholar denies making Time magazine Shugden comment by TibetanReview.net (July 23, 2008) (PDF)
• Australian Sangha Association Statement by ASA (22 July 2008)
• Provocations of the Gyalpo by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche (2005)
• A Spirit of the XVII Secolo by Raimondo Bultrini (2006)
• BBC (Nottingham), BBC Video (Nottingham) (27 May 2008)
• Spirit Worship is not Buddhist by TripleGem (12 June 08) (PDF-Copy)
• Interview with Kelsang Pema “Dalai Lama protests”, at ABC National Radio, Australia (11 June 2008)
• Dalai Lama Fans Clash With Protesters by The New York Times (17 July 2008)
• The Dalai Lama’s Buddhist Foes by The Time Magazine (18 July 2008)
• The Dalai Lama responds to Shugden Practitioners protest - Video Part I, Part II (14 July 2008)
• The Dalai Lama’s demon by France 24 (Aug 2008)
• New Kadampa Truths run by “an independent, non-sectarian group whose members have at one time or another been involved in the NKT” (2008)
• The Western Shugden Society by Jigme Duntak (2008)
• Dorjee Shugden, The Spirit and the Controversy by TGIE
  

Religious Extremists

As in any other religion, Buddhism and Buddhists are also faced with religious extremists. The UK-based research group dedicated to New Religious Movements that is partially government funded – INFORM at the LSE in London – received more enquiries about the New Kadampa Tradition than about any other group, including Scientology, from 2008–2013. Inform mentioned the NKT three times, along with Scientology and other radical groups, in its leaflet Extremism on Campus.

What could be the causes of religious extremism often found among followers of the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) or among radical Shugden practitioners?

A short analysis

The main force for religious extremism from a Buddhist point of view is grasping to an idea and holding onto it as an independent “truth”. In NKT, the main idea is the conception of “purity”. Robert Jay Lifton recognized in his research that fundamentalist groups share as a common sign a conception of “purity”. Once the conception of purity is established, based on the mind’s dualistic thinking, it follows that there must also be impurity.

You’ll find similar statements in Buddhist scriptures. The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra by Arya Maitreya states, “The Dharma is without defilement” and the Samadhiraja Sutra says, “Purity and Impurity are as well extremes.”

If a Buddhist teacher strongly emphasizes “purity,” then fear against what may be possibly “impure” is induced indirectly. If such a teacher establishes further the urgent need of “not mixing” the “pure tradition”, because such “mixing” will cause the “pure tradition” to “lose its essential purity”; then beings are bound by fear (of mixing) and clinging to the concept of “purity” increases. This clinging to purity is a consequence of attachment towards ideological ideas / concepts; it produces an aversion or a subtle hostility against everything which may be possibly “impure” and finally, it undermines compassion, placing ideology over compassion.

The problem of religious fundamentalism in such a context stems from establishing a conception of “purity” and grasping to it as truly existent or as an independent truth, i.e. it is believed that the proclaimed purity is really there, that the purity is really an essential part and characteristic in the object, independent from the mind’s designation. Believing in inherent (independent) purity and impurity, will naturally generate attachment to the pure and aversion to the impure. This mental process is totally contrary to the Buddhist path, which aims to free beings from attachment, ignorance and aversion and not to further bind beings with these “mind poisons”.

In the NKT there is a very strong emphasis on “purity” and “not mixing”. Researcher Kay observed:

In order to obtain spiritual realisations and to ensure that the pure tradition of Tsongkhapa remains in the world, NKT students are encouraged to ‘practise purely’. This means that they must not mix their spiritual practice — their study, meditation, or sadhana recitation and visualisation exercises — with worldly or political activities or with other, non-NKT spiritual teachings. The books and sadhanas prepared by Geshe Kelsang upon which all NKT practice is based, and the infrastructure of the NKT organisation itself, are considered to have placed a boundary around Tsongkhapas’s pure tradition, the survival of which depends entirely upon a widespread diligence in boundary maintenance. As part of the emphasis on pure practice, students within the NKT are discouraged from attending teachings or reading books by other Buddhist teachers and authors. (Kay 2004: pp. 93–94)

From the clinging to the purity of the New Kadampa Tradition and the teachings of Geshe Kelsang, a strong attachment to the presentation of NKT, its leader and his books arises and also a hostility towards and fear of anything which corrupts this claimed “purity”. The resultant afflictions and superimpositions are then projected onto those persons who are deemed to be “mixing” (like His Holiness the Dalai Lama) or are “keeping purity” (like Geshe Kelsang Gyatso). Through the power of these afflictions of attachment and aversion the mind loses its clarity and ability to discriminate correctly and this gives rise to the manifold projections NKT members direct now openly in public towards the Dalai Lama.

Among many Shugden followers there is not only a strong conception of purity/not mixing, but also a very literally taken emphasis on the Guru. What the Guru says, one has to do (Guru obedience). Although genuine and experienced Buddhist teachers are seen in general as authorities, they are not unfailing, that’s why the student must be aware and avoid following the faults the Guru may have or accepting faulty teachings he may have taught. The requirement for such a critical attitude is established in the Buddhist teachings by the Buddha himself and in Tsongkhapa’s teachings. It is expected for a Buddhist to be able to discriminate between wrong and correct teachings of the Dharma. However the majority of Shugden followers seem to grasp on a more literal approach: ‘You have to do what the Guru said’.

Because the Dalai Lama rejected a teaching of one of his teachers, the Dorje Shugden practice, which was taught to him by Trijang Rinpoche, he has done the most evil sin according to Shugden followers. They say the Dalai Lama has “broken with his root-Guru”, therefore he is completely wrong, he is someone who from their point of view is misleading people. Once such a view is established it works like sunglasses, one will see any action of the Dalai Lama in the mode of the colour of the glasses. So he can only be wrong, his actions can only be wrong in their view. Such sunglasses are also the basis for the accusations against the Dalai Lama by the Chinese Communist Party, Trimondis or Goldner. Hopefully in the future there is more research about these topics.

The following articles & book may be useful:

• The Predicament of Evil: The Case of Dorje Shukden by Prof. Dr. Georges Dreyfus
• The Shuk-Den Affair: Origins of a Controversy by Prof. Dr. Georges Dreyfus
• Canonicity and Divine Interference: The Tulkus and the Shugden Controversy by Prof. Dr. Michael von Brück
• Schisms, Murder, and Hungry Ghosts in Shangra-La: Internal Conflicts in Tibetan Buddhist sectby Mike Wilson
• Interview with His Holiness the Dalai Lama by Raimondo Bultrini
• Why the Dalai Lama rejects Shugden by Gareth Sparham
• The Battle of Sixth Avenue by Barbara O’Brien
• The Dorje Shugden Controversy: Destroying Tibetan Buddhism in Order to Save It? by Barbara O’Brien
• Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution by Prof. Dr. David R. Loy
• The Real Enemy is Religious Extremism – And it doesn't belong exclusively to Islam by Nayomi Munaweera

Some thoughts:

• The Dorje Shugden Controversy and Fundamentalism by Tenzin Peljor

Who is the dictator? Where are the ‘hypocrites’?

In the New Kadampa Tradition everything is based on Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’s sole authority: only his books are studied; only his followers are allowed to teach; and only his teachings, his centres and what he says matter. He installed a system where nobody is equal or higher than him and everything is dependent on him. Bunting: “The NKT is an entirely self-referential system. The total dependence on a single charismatic figure is unorthodox in Tibetan Buddhism.” The phrase “Geshe-la said” is the mantra of the NKT. Teachers from their own school, the Gelug school, Geshes, Tulkus, Rinpoches, monastics are banned from his centres. He installs & removes the NKT resident teachers as he likes to do, without relying on any democratic process or sensibility towards those followers who have built up a close connection to those NKT teachers. Former members refer to NKT mostly as a cult, and INFORM has received many complaints about the NKT.

Projection is a defense mechanism that involves taking our own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people. For example, if you have a strong dislike for someone, you might instead believe that he or she does not like you. Projection works by allowing the expression of the desire or impulse, but in a way that the ego cannot recognize, therefore reducing anxiety. – About.com

The NKT leadership works with double truths (e.g. in the public Kelsang Gyatso states one can attend teachings of other Buddhist teachers, but when close devoted followers actually do it, he threatens them, if they do, he is no longer their teacher; or if they are resident members, they are asked to quickly leave their centre) and ethical double standards (e.g. “we are pure Kadampas” but violations of the vow of celibacy is tolerated as long as the person is beneficial for the organisation, and it can be kept secretly). New recruits’ opinions are affirmed in the beginning and later they are turned into the NKT point of view (e.g. the Dalai Lama is a destroyer of the Buddhadharma, the world outside NKT is very degenerated, NKT is very pure). A former NKT manual described this process: “Be very careful not to give the impression it is a recruitment drive … to start with we need to agree with people, to show that we understand where they are at, not to resist them or argue with them. If we have a wild horse the best way to tame it is to mount it, to go with it.”

The suppression and manipulation regarding unwelcomed events and NKT’s history and identity is striking. Researcher Kay:

“Most often, what is forgotten is forgotten because it no longer fits in with the current version of events, especially one constructed by an elite group. Sometimes, indeed, unwelcome memories are systematically destroyed by leaderships.” (Coney 1997)

Leaderships exclude memories by expelling individual malcontents or by simply not referring to unwelcome historical facts until they ‘cease to be part of the group repertoire of memories’. Changing the name of the leader or group also allows memories associated with previous designations to fade whilst promoting the creation of new memories. The project of deliberately excluding histories, however, is not always completely successful because repressed memories ‘can return to haunt the margins of a discourse and continue, despite their apparent absence, to influence its structure’. Alternatively, competing versions of events may only become temporarily submerged within the dominant account and may later ‘rise again to the surface of the collective memory’.

The NKT is a religious movement in which the dynamics of history construction, as outlined by Coney, are well exemplified. Multiple ‘histories’ exist on an individual and public group level both inside and outside the movement. As the pre-history of the group is rooted in conflict and schism, the social organisation of memory and forgetfulness, especially within the group’s leadership is particularly striking. Accounts of current and former members either reinforce or contradict and compete with each other. They diverge widely over points of historical detail and often interpret the same events and processes in very different ways, reflecting a wide range of personal experience, depth of involvement, bias, opinion and loyalty. At the level of public discourse, the history and identity of the NKT has also, during the course of its development, undergone considerable realignment. Of course, such revision and reconfiguration of the past is commonplace within religious movements that are more concerned with issues of identity and ideology than with notions of historical veracity.

Kay, David 2004: 82, PDF

• The search for religious Truth by ABC National Radio, Australia
• Information about the New Kadampa Tradition by EKC - member of the New Kadampa Survivors
• Dangers in Devotion: Buddhist Cults and the Tasks of a Guru by John Crook
• Warning signs of destructive cults based on M. T. Singer’s research on cults

Tenzin Peljor
13 June 2008

last update: 20 May 2015

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Useful papers or interviews related to the protests

• Protests against the Dalai Lama over Dorje Shugden (2014) – An interview with Prof. Robert Barnett
• The Dorje Shugden Conflict (2014) – An interview with Tibetologist Thierry Dodin
• The Dalai Lama and the Shugden Cult (2014) – Prof. Jens-Uwe Hartmann
• Pluralism the Hard Way: Governance Implications of the Dorje Shugden Controversy and the Democracy- and Rights Rhetoric Pertaining to It (2009) – Klaus Löhrer
• A quick note on Dorje Shugden (rDo rje shugs ldan) (1966) – Prof. Paul Williams