Tibetans Rejected Twice
Dear friends around the world,
Rejection is something most of us have experienced from time to time. I guess my life is a bit different because from the moment of my birth, I have been rejected by everyone who is supposed to love me. It started with my birth mother who gave me up to a foster family, and they basically neglected me while I lived with them. This was until I was adopted to the United States when I was seven years old.
Later on, I was in contact with my birth mother although at the time, I didn’t know that’s who she was. In any case, it didn’t last very long because after I found my birth father and started communicating with him, my mother cut me off and told me to stop contacting her. For some time, especially after I discovered the real nature of her relationship with me, I was very hurt by her actions because this was the second time she had rejected me. But I guess the memory of the hurt and shame my birth father caused her was too much for her to bear, and I was a reminder of this hurt.
In this life, I’ve had three mothers. One is my birth mother whom I had a relationship with for a few years. The other two mothers were step-mothers as I got adopted here and there. All in all, at one time or another, I was told they were my mothers. Although I had three mothers, none of them ever said I love you to me even once that I can remember throughout my life.
~Tsem Rinpoche
It wasn’t until my early 20s that I found a place I thought would be my home for the rest of my life, which is Gaden Shartse Monastery. When I arrived there, it felt like I had finally come home to a place where I truly belonged. Even though the living conditions were quite harsh, especially since I had just come from America, I was so happy just being there with my gurus and having the freedom to study under and serve these great masters.
Those days, there was no Dorje Shugden ban, no controversy, no splitting of the monasteries, no discrimination. It was a time when many great masters were still alive to turn the wheel of Dharma, like His Holiness Kyabje Lati Rinpoche and His Eminence Kensur Jampa Yeshe Rinpoche. But after a few years at the monastery, my gurus requested me to go abroad to teach and raise funds for the monks, so I had to go. And apart from a few trips back, I have lived outside the monastery ever since.
So when I read this article, it really struck a chord with me because I can totally relate to not really feeling like I ‘belong’ to any place. I can identify with Tibetans living in foreign lands, trying to hold on to their roots and trying to find a community they can connect with. This is typical with people of a diaspora because you want to be a part of the culture and society that hosts you, but at the same time you will never be totally accepted. Nor do you feel totally that you belong. We straddle this strange no man’s land of wanting to be accepted, but not wanting to lose our culture, and at the same time not really identifying with the culture we come from because we didn’t grow up in it. In my case, I’m neither totally Mongolian (Kalmyk) nor totally Tibetan, nor am I the culture of my host country. Over the years, I’ve forgotten how to speak Mongolian, nor do I speak perfect Tibetan, but I also don’t totally identify with the culture of the country I grew up in (America).
I saw the same phenomena with many of the Kalmyk (Mongolian) kids I grew up with and it’s the same for the younger Tibetan generation today, which is what this article talks about. Our traditions and language have been lost and they will continue to become more and more diluted as the generations go on. Over time, new Tibetan arrivals to America will lose their sense of Tibetan-ness as they assimilate into their host culture. The article also makes reference to Tibetan kids who regard weekend Tibetan and cultural classes as a chore. I can definitely identify with this because I had to take Kalmyk language and dance classes when I was growing up!
On top of all that, children of a diaspora like myself have to contend with many challenges, even emotional guilt-trips about how we do not represent our culture well. For example, I heard recently that second generation Tibetans in America are looked down upon by their Tibetan counterparts in India and even in Tibet, because they don’t speak perfect Tibetan. I have definitely heard these types of remarks before, and Shenpenn Khymsar also talked about this — that people make derogatory remarks about how Tibetan he really is because he doesn’t speak the language perfectly.
A home is a place where you feel safe, where you really belong, the people want you there, you want to be there, they will stand by you no matter what happens, you are loved, the love is timeless and genuine and perhaps you always feel a sense of care. You can care back and it is deeply accepted and appreciated. You have their support and you give support. You are loved even if you are not the same DNA as them. A place with love. I’ve never had that in this life. I’ve never had a home.
~Tsem Rinpoche
But you know, like many Tibetans in exile who were born and raised outside Tibet, I would like to say that it’s not my fault I have a Tibetan father and I don’t speak Tibetan. It’s not my fault that I have not returned to my country. It’s not my fault that I was born as a refugee outside my homeland. It’s not my fault that my parents didn’t stay together and I was adopted. It’s not my fault that I can’t go back to the monastery now due to the Dorje Shugden discrimination carried out by Tibetan leadership. And with the deepest respect, it’s not my fault that I received Dorje Shugden’s practice from His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche and it’s definitely not my fault that I cannot give up Dorje Shugden’s practice because of my tantric commitments. I made a promise to Zong Rinpoche at his advice to practice Shugden and I must keep my promise at all costs.
His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche
I cannot change the experiences of my childhood, and I cannot change the fact I am not Tibetan enough for some people. This is the result of decisions my parents made when I was a child and had no control over my life. Similarly, I also cannot change the tantric commitments that I received 30 years ago. My guru has entered clear light and I cannot seek his permission to give up Dorje Shugden’s practice, even if I wanted to (which I do not). So it is illogical and unfair to hold it against me, and discriminate against me for it, as in the case of the Dorje Shugden practice.
Personally speaking, for most of my life, I have been alone and without a permanent place to call home. I have not had much opportunity to connect fully with every community I have come across, until a few years ago when Dorje Shugden advised me to make Malaysia my home. And now that I am older, I can say that I have grown more used to the rejection. After all, I have experienced rejection from every community I am somehow connected with, most recently as a Dorje Shugden practitioner.
With the Dorje Shugden issue, I have actually experienced exile twice-over — first, as a Tibetan who is unable to return to Tibet, and then as a Dorje Shugden practitioner who is unable to return to the monasteries and Tibetan settlements without some harm befalling me. My inability to return to my monastery, or to re-connect with my friends and teachers from the settlements is because of the Tibetan leadership’s edict that Dorje Shugden practitioners are evil and should be rejected.
So, not only do I (and others like me) have to contend with being part of a refugee people who have lost their homeland, but I also have to deal with the fact that my choice of religion is frowned upon by my own leaders-in-exile. Thus in essence, Tibetan Dorje Shugden believers are Tibetans twice rejected.
If you read this excellent article by Tsering Shakya, you’ll get a better perspective of the challenges being faced by the Tibetan community in exile and their struggle to preserve their identity, culture and religion. Given these challenges, one would think that the Tibetan leadership would be doing everything that they can to improve the economic and socio-political situation of their people, strengthen their appreciation for Tibet’s legacy, and unite Tibetans across the diaspora despite the geographical distance. However, the harsh reality is that the opposite is happening and instead of bringing their people together, the Tibetan leadership are driving further wedges into the already-fragmented refugee community. This is to say that those who do not follow the Tibetan leadership’s policies to a tee — such as those who believe in Dorje Shugden and those who subscribe to Tibetan independence instead of autonomy — are singled out, segregated and made to suffer.
It’s sad because we Tibetans are at the mercy of our leadership. It’s not our fault that Tibetans have to go abroad to look for work, or to send their kids abroad to get a good education. We don’t have the facilities to preserve our language and culture nor do we have the economic opportunities to entice our people to stay in the settlements so they don’t have to migrate. We don’t have a leadership who will stop insulting the Chinese government so that negotiations will open up, and we can return to Tibet. What we do have is a leadership that finds every reason to divide our Tibetan community on many issues, and it is sad because we are already so spread out all over the world. We should be finding reasons to unite. As a result of 60 years of divisive politics, unfortunately the community is now totally at the mercy of our leadership and 100% reliant on the goodwill of others, and whether they will cheat or exploit us is up to them.
So I wanted to share this interesting article with you about the story of a diaspora mentality, and how it affects generations of Tibetans who have migrated abroad, and also how it affects me personally. It sums up the experience of Tibetans in exile and I found that many of the points resonated with me. The article talks about rejection, about the pros and cons of assimilating into our host country’s society, about the loss of our Tibetan identity, and about feeling a sense of not belonging to where we live.
The saddest part is, it seems like our situation will not change any time soon because the Central Tibetan Administration (or CTA which is based in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh) does very little to remedy this. In fact, they have never shown they are interested in improving the lot of Tibetans in exile. But still, I hope one day the CTA will do something because as more and more time passes, our chances of preserving our rich culture and precious religion is fading quickly. You can’t fault Tibetans for wanting to look for better opportunities elsewhere but we can hold our leadership responsible for not keeping all of us together.
If the CTA want Tibetans to be strong, united and to stand the best chance of protecting our Tibetan heritage and culture, we need to stick together and stop finding reasons to split us apart. To this end, the discrimination against Dorje Shugden practitioners must end now.
Tsem Rinpoche
Throughout my life, I knew I needed love. I looked for it. Family love. But I never felt I deserved it. I never believed anyone can love me and love me all the way. So far I have been right. I have not met anyone that has loved me and it’s lasted a lifetime that I am aware of. I have given love to many and generously, but how much I am loved in return is not fathomable. I don’t continue to look for love as I know it will not happen in this life. But it would be nice to know how genuine love does feel. Unfailing love.
~Tsem Rinpoche
Twice Removed: Tibetans in North America
BY TSERING SHAKYA | 27 OCTOBER 2017
For Tibetans in North America, maintaining links to the homeland presents unique challenges.
Jackson Heights, an area within the borough of Queens in New York, has become a hub for Tibetans in the US. Photo: Flickr / Aleksandr Zykov
For many years now, I have regularly received calls from the immigration offices of various countries asking me to verify if an asylum applicant is Tibetan or not. This requires me to speak with the person on the phone and then inform the immigration officials whether the applicant seems to be ‘genuine’. Recently, I was asked to interview a young man who was caught trying to enter the US at the US-Mexico border. After being detained by border authorities, the man informed them that he was a Tibetan escaping Chinese persecution and wanted to seek asylum in the US. The immigration officials needed to know if the person was legitimately Tibetan. On the phone, the claimant repeated a story I’ve heard many times – that he or she had been helped by a good Samaritan whose name and whereabouts were unknown, or that the family sold a priceless gem to pay human-traffickers to enable him or her to flee to safety.
Over the past two decades, Tibetans have been experiencing large-scale international migration for the first time. Although Tibetans have always engaged in migration of sorts, in the past their ambit of movement had been limited to South Asia. Even during the initial flow of refugees across the Himalaya in 1959 there was very little urge to migrate beyond India and Nepal. Like most refugees, the loss of the homeland was seen as temporary, and a return was believed to be a matter of time. But the situation has changed after six decades of statelessness in the Subcontinent: Tibetans are moving and North America has become the desired and coveted destination. They have joined a ‘global flow’ of people making the journey to new destinations through both legal and irregular means. The rush to migrate began in the year 1990, when the US Congress approved the resettlement of 1000 Tibetans, who then applied to bring family members to the country. Almost overnight, the size of the Tibetan population in the US swelled from a few hundred to several thousand.
There are no reliable statistics on the number of Tibetans living in the US and Canada, but my impression is that it is now well over 20,000. Because of the high visibility of Tibetans in the Western media, it is often assumed there are many more Tibetans in North America than the actual number. Even those who have sought asylum are hard to count: because Tibet is not recognised as a country, the Tibetan claimants are classed as having Chinese nationality, meaning that the data is buried.
Homelands
Almost all of the Tibetans in North America have come from Nepal or India over the past two decades. They arrive as single men or women, and, once established and their status legalised, they bring their families to join them. Today, in places like Toronto and New York, we find small enclaves with concentrated Tibetan communities. In Jackson Heights, an area within the borough of Queens in New York, or in the Parkdale neighborhood of Toronto in Canada, it is not uncommon to see groups of Tibetans gathering in cafes and eateries. In these areas, Tibetan restaurants are common and Tibetan voices can be heard on the streets and on public transport.
Until recently, Tibetan communities in Nepal and India have lived in generally stable refugee settlements, giving them a strong sense of homogeneity and community, catered for and tended by the quasi-state structure of the Central Tibetan Administration based in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh. The refugee settlements and the education infrastructure arranged by the Administration enabled Tibetans to create and foster a strong and politicised collective identity.
The move to the West has created new opportunities and challenges for Tibetans. They have become part of a global diaspora and elements within the wider transnational neoliberal economy, where migration provides a source of cheap labour for developed economies. The term ‘diaspora’ is now generally differentiated from ‘exile’ or ‘migration’: rather than movement between two particular points on the globe, it implies dispersal, being scattered across multiple places. Today, we find the Tibetan population distributed across the world, with the desired destination being North America or Europe. Tibetan migrants are no different from other migrants seeking economic opportunities and a better life.
In the West, without the institutional framework that created the sense and experience of ‘Tibetanness’ in India and Nepal, the community must craft its own solutions to express and nurture what it means to be Tibetan. A perceptive young Tibetan in India posed an interesting question on her Facebook page: “How is [it] that I see so many Tibetans celebrating Halloween in the US and not a single one celebrating Dussehra, a common Hindu festival, or any other? The Tibetans living in India for so many decades, and so familiar with Indian culture, fail to embrace Indian celebrations, whilst actively participating in American popular culture?” The question raises much deeper issues regarding the construction of identity and values and the ways we link to different cultural norms, including the expectations of host countries and their willingness to accommodate diasporic cultures. In North America, the success of an immigrant community is judged by its readiness to assimilate, while in India there is considerably less demand or expectation for assimilation.
These questions also centre on community and institutional practices. For Tibetans in India, the expression of Tibetan identity is fostered in formal schooling and cocooned within refugee settlements. In North America no such collective opportunity exists, and these tasks are mostly left to individual families. Already, Tibetan families are voicing anxieties about the loss of Tibetan awareness among their children and their diminishing sense of ‘Tibetanness’. The primary pressures facing the children come from the need to learn the language and values of their new host culture and their wish to fit in with their peer group. The first generation of migrants will retain a strong link to their former home either in India or Tibet, and at present, the consciousness of the homeland is kept alive and fostered in every conceivable way – the Tibetan communities throughout North America celebrate the Dalai Lama’s birthday, commemorate the 10 March Uprising and celebrate Tibetan New Year. Ceremonies like these have become an important form of a collective expression of ethnicity and culture. But as time passes such links will inevitably weaken.
The key commemorative rituals bring Tibetans together in remembering their homeland. Although most of the present generation has no direct experience of Tibet, they inherit memories and narratives of an oppressed history. A young Tibetan student from Canada recently wrote an article for her university newspaper about Canada’s Remembrance Day, which marks those who died to defend Canada and its allies. For the student, Remembrance Day raised questions of identity and loyalty. She noted that, while her friends were posting photos of their grandparents or of past generations who had a direct connection with Canadian history, she had no direct or indirect link to this past. So, like many diaspora communities, she viewed her new host country as a gift of refuge and safety:
My mom and dad came here as refugees with very little and have grown so much because of the opportunities provided to them here in Canada. The freedom that they did not find in Tibet but have found here is all thanks to those countless faces and those souls who I will never meet but who I remember and appreciate this year on Nov. 11.
The double story here of the wounded homeland and the safety-endowing new land provides an important symbolic structure for the Tibetan diaspora. Scholars have made a distinction between diaspora communities formed from existing nation states and those who previously were stateless. These differences lead to contrasting ways of reshaping identity. Stateless diaspora communities like those of the Kurds and Palestinians hold diverse forms of citizenship and live in different spaces, and they conceptualise belonging through rituals, commemorations and shared narratives of their homeland. The Tibetans, also stateless and lacking nationhood, similarly seek to recreate a nation in the mind, and the memory of the homeland therefore becomes essential for fostering a Tibetan sense of collective identity. This is what is conveyed when you see such questions posed on social media as, “Our brothers are dying in [the] homeland, what are you doing?” The sense that the diaspora has a moral responsibility to engage in the salvation of the homeland becomes an imperative, even though Tibetans from India and Nepal now migrating to the West had already been displaced and may never have set foot in Tibet. For those coming from India, ‘home’ means both Tibet and India: India is the immediate experiential homeland and Tibet is the mythic one.
The idea of the homeland for the Tibetan diaspora, then, is a shifting one in which a nostalgic longing for the place of origin alternates between the mythic land of Tibet and its material embodiment in Nepal or India. For most Tibetans in North America, their remittances are sent to India or Nepal, not Tibet, and their family links are stronger with Delhi or Kathmandu, than Lhasa. Their taste and fashions are tied to those dominant south of the Himalaya whether through subscriptions to cable-television channels showing Bollywood movies or shopping in Indian supermarkets. Their news and information about Tibet is mediated through India and Nepal, and politics for them means the politics of the Tibetan diaspora in South Asia.
Hybrid Lives
Diasporic identity is often described as ‘long-distance nationalism’. Often it takes the form of establishing channels for articulating the community’s politics. In the US, Tibetans gather in Washington DC to lobby their congressmen or senators; they are there as ‘Tibetan Americans’. The Tibetan community in Toronto was at the forefront of the campaign to force the Toronto School Board to terminate ties with Confucius Institutes sponsored by the Beijing government. But in Nepal or India it is more or less unthinkable for Tibetans to engage in local politics, and lobbying there is left to established bodies. For example, many Indian colleges and universities where Tibetan students study host Confucius Institutes, but Tibetan students often remain silent. This is not because of Tibetans’ disinterest, but because host countries vary in their receptiveness to diasporic activism. Tibetans in North America can easily adopt a hybrid identity as ‘Canadian Tibetan’ or ‘Tibetan American’, but calling oneself ‘Indian Tibetan’ or ‘Nepali Tibetan’ would bring censure and ridicule from both the Tibetan and host community. Adopting citizenship in India is often regarded as a rebuff to one’s patriotic duty, but taking on the citizenship of a Western country is now regarded as a mark of status. The premium placed on Western hybrid identity and citizenship is in part pragmatic, but it is also the display of a new status that has been acquired: those who made it to the West are often viewed as the fortunate ones who have escaped the hardship of refugee life in South Asia.
The mass migration out of India and Nepal is also transforming the life of Tibetans in the Subcontinent. A study being carried out by Namgyal Choedup from Washington University in St Louis has found that in one Tibetan settlement in South India, 41.8 percent of households are receiving remittances. Those who have relatives abroad experience a transformation of their economic status in India and Nepal in terms of better housing conditions and their ability to purchase consumer goods. As in many developing countries, going abroad to a richer country is viewed as a means of economic advancement both for oneself and for one’s family. In addition, the new generation growing up in India is better educated than earlier ones and finds itself unable or unwilling to work the way the first generation did, either in agriculture or selling woolens in urban areas.
The visible economic change fostered by migration has in turn created a fever among the Tibetans remaining in South Asia to seek a new life in North America. This is more than individual sentiment, as resettlement in the West is now seen by the Tibetan refugee establishment in Dharamsala as a viable alternative to resettlement in South Asia. In 2007, the Dalai Lama approached Canadian authorities and (successfully) requested the country resettle 1000 Tibetans from Arunachal Pradesh, where Tibetan refugees were most disadvantaged due to isolation and a lack of economic opportunities. In such cases, the long-term objective is not to support the home community through remittances, as with many Indian migrants, but to establish a path for future migration by relatives and friends. Sponsoring one’s relatives or friends becomes a mark of prestige: the person who has managed to bring all his or her relatives is seen as capable and resourceful. ‘Pulling’ one’s relatives and friends to North America is spoken of among Tibetans as an explicit goal and moral obligation.
In the long run, as with other diaspora communities, Tibetans will be caught between the lure of economic betterment and the need to maintain their cultural identity. The lack of institutional frameworks for perpetuating and transmitting cultural identity creates tension between the desire of the parents’ generation, which seeks to transmit their norms and values through, for example, language and dance classes, and the expectations of host country institutions, which tend to devalue the diasporic heritage and perceive it as culturally incongruous. Children regard weekend language schools and cultural activities as an extra burden and the Tibetan community in North America is not large enough to create an ethnic ghetto, where a new, organic sense of ethnicity and cultural identity could emerge. Tibetans may initially take advantage of their networks of relatives and friends to congregate in urban areas where there are sizeable Tibetan populations, but once securely settled, those who can move to the suburbs for better educational opportunities for their children. This leads to a weakening of community ties.
Although most Tibetans now find themselves in jobs with low socioeconomic status and live in relatively less affluent neighbourhoods, like most immigrants they aspire for upward mobility, and life in North America does provide possibilities of social and economic emancipation. Many families see ownership of a car and new consumer goods as a demonstration of their success. ‘We could have never afforded to buy a car in India’ is a remark I often hear from Tibetans settled in North America. This coexists with a tension between newly found economic independence and concern about the perceived loss of a moral community. The elders often speak of a lack of respect from the younger generation and the menfolk speak of the moral ‘looseness’ of ‘their’ women. The perceived moral decline is a conservative reaction towards the growing independence and social freedom that women enjoy in the West. For many Tibetan women in the diaspora, life in North America is often experienced as a liberation from the strictures of conservative norms and values. If we examine their achievements in terms of both jobs and educational success, Tibetan women fare much better in the West than in the Subcontinent.
In my own visits to different North American universities, I have found a greater number of Tibetan women engaged in higher studies than men, and it is no coincidence that the two Tibetan winners of Rhodes scholarships are both women. Similarly, Tibetan women are the leaders of the most imaginative of the Tibetan community groups – Machik and Students for Free Tibet. In contrast, for many men it is hard to adjust to a new life in which they may have to take up manual labour and cope with a loss of status. As a result, some return to India and wrap themselves in the mantle of patriotism as staff in the Tibetan administrative system, while the wives work in the West and provide economic security.
Despite the migrant families’ desire to maintain their Tibetan cultural values and identity, they face major obstacles. It is almost impossible to survive unless both parents work long hours to earn their living, meaning children are often left unsupervised, thereby leading to a loss of parental control and influence. Many try to resolve this problem by sending the children back to India or by bringing grandparents to take care of them. But then the cultural gap between grandparent and child emerges. Life in North America brings new values and norms, requiring Tibetans for the first time to address such issues as personal independence, sexual orientation and gender equality. A huge gulf appears in the experience of politics and social life between the home generation and the new diaspora.
Consolidating Favour
In the past, migration was seen as a final break with one’s homeland, and acculturation and assimilation marked a total loss of links with the past. However, global transformations in communications and the development of social media mean that remittances do not only flow in the form of money. Now ideas and norms, too, are remitted to the homeland through visits and via the circulation of images and sounds within the virtual community. The music created in the West becomes an instant hit in Tibetan communities in Nepal and India, and the affluent life displayed on Facebook serves as an enticement to others to migrate and seek a new life in the West.
The formation of the Tibetan diaspora community in North America is relatively recent; the community is still consolidating itself. For Tibetans, migration hasn’t yet become a corrosive agent that dilutes their sense of cultural and ethnic identity. Both roots and routes form an important narrative for fostering Tibetan identity in North America. However, the way Tibetans perceive themselves is shifting. It is useful to consider the shift through Stuart Hall’s conception of the distinction between a sociological subject (whose identity is shaped by ‘significant others’) and a postmodern subject (whose identity is in permanent flux). As noted earlier, in India the Tibetan subject is fashioned through formal schools and refugee settlements, but in North America there is no coherent structure for representing the self within a singular, unified identity. Hence, multiplicity and hybridisation are possible and easy. We now see people describing themselves as an American or Canadian Tibetan, and in the near future a person may describe himself or herself as ethnically Tibetan but culturally American.
Some Tibetan migrants have achieved social and economic success, while others are marginalised and find themselves trapped within the life and limits of a migrant community. We can see the tensions produced by such disparities in the way failure and dishonour are handled by the community. In 2013, four young Tibetan men were arrested for credit card fraud in Toronto and one Tibetan youth was murdered by another. These events, although widely covered in the Canadian media, were almost totally absent from Tibetan websites and news portals. Even sharing the news on social media was frowned upon – it was seen as embarrassing the community. We can see from this that Tibetans think of the move to North America as being about more than economics. It is perceived as part of a self-essentialised image of Tibetans as peaceful Buddhists, and the strong need to ‘perform’ this image becomes an essential aspect of being a Tibetan in North America. In this vision, the wish to make it possible for new migrants to follow in their footsteps to the West is combined with securing support for the political struggle for the original homeland. Thus for the new Tibetans in the West, despite the multiple sources of obstacle and pressure that they face, fostering a positive image for their community becomes an overall priority.
~ Tsering Shakya is the author of The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 and currently teaches at the Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia.
~ This article was first published in December 2014.
Source: http://himalmag.com/twice-removed-tibetans-in-north-america/
About the Author
Tsering Wangdu Shakya (born 1959) is a historian and scholar on Tibetan literature and modern Tibet and its relationship with China. He is currently Canadian Research Chair in Religion and Contemporary Society in Asia at the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia where he teaches in the Master of Arts Asia Pacific Policy Studies (MAAPPS) program, and also works for Radio Free Asia.
Shakya was born in Lhasa, Tibet in 1959, the youngest child in his family. His father, headmaster of a small Tibetan school, died when he was little. His family was divided after the Cultural Revolution erupted in 1966. A brother and a sister were staunch leftists, but another brother was imprisoned for opposing the revolution. In 1967, his mother left Tibet for Nepal with Shakya and another daughter. They settled in northern India, where Shakya attended a Tibetan school in Mussoorie.
Original Article
Click on image to read the original article.
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- Mr. Shenpenn Khymsar speaks with so much wisdom
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- My plea to His Holiness the Dalai Lama
- Lama Jampa Ngodup Wangchuk Rinpoche on Guru Devotion | 向巴恩珠上师（旺秋喇嘛）讲解依师法 | བླ་མ་བྱམས་པ་དངོས་གྲུབ་དབང་ཕྱུག་རིན་བོ་ཆེ་ནས་བཤེས་གཉེན་བསྟེན་ཚུལ་གྱི་སྐོར།
- Bishop John Spong on Religion and God – Very interesting!
- Should there be a separate autonomous Dorje Shugden state? Part 1
- Should there be a separate autonomous Dorje Shugden state? Part 2
- To Sum It Up
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- Great Masters Speak about Tsem Rinpoche
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Reading this article written by Tsering Shakya, again as it tells us more and understand better of the situation suffered by Tibetan people. Due to the Dorje Shugden controversy many Tibetans suffered . Many of them migrated to other countries to the west for better opportunities. Tibetan culture and identity is inseparably linked to Tibetan Buddhism. Somehow once in a foreign land they tend to lose their traditions and cultures slowly over times. Living in foreign land , it difficult to maintain their true identity. For them Tibetans maintaining links to the homeland presents a very unique challenges tasks. If only the Tibetan leadership more opened, forgo the past and accepts as what HH Dalai Lama said that Dorje Shugden is no evil and do no harm. Tibetan Buddhist could continue practicing the Dorje Shugden’s practice. Tibetan should stand united to protect the Tibetan heritage and culture instead discrimination against Dorje Shugden practitioners so much so had divided the Tibetans. Many of them left and migrated else where to look for better livelihood.
Tsem Rinpoche had gone through a rough time , rejected twice from the moment of birth from Taiwan to US and travelling to India where Rinpoche found a place called home then. Later to Malaysia as advice by his Guru.
To this end, the discrimination against Dorje Shugden practitioners must end for the sake of the all Tibetans living in India and Nepal .
A very good article by Tsering Shakya, more people should read it to understand better.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing
Mantras are sacred verbalized words that invoke the protection and blessings of the deity to whom the mantra is ascribed. Mantras are also the manifestations of Buddhas in the form of ‘sounds’, hence the various mantras of Dorje Shugden contain the essence of the Protector.
Dorje Shugden’s main mantra 多杰雄登主要咒语
OM BENZA WIKI BITANA SOHA
Dorje Shugden’s mantra for peace 平和咒语
For gaining attainments through the energy of Peaceful Shugden, peace of environment and mind, harmony in one’s abode and dwelling area, and calming of disasters
OM BENZA WIKI BITANA SHANTI SIDDHI HUNG
Dorje Shugden’s mantra for health 福寿安康咒语
For long life, increasing life, healing of disease and protection from diseases
OM BENZA WIKI BITANA AYU SIDDHI HUNG
Dorje Shugden’s mantra for increase 增长咒语
For gaining great merits and increase of all necessary needs, both material and spiritual
OM BENZA WIKI BITANA PUNYE SIDDHI HUNG
Dorje Shugden’s mantra for control 控制咒语
Of worldly deities, negative people and nagas and for influencing friends towards the positive
OM BENZA WIKI BITANA WASHAM KURU HO
Dorje Shugden’s mantra to grant protection 庇护咒语
Visualize that you are in the Protector’s mandala, fully protected from outside interferences. Recite when in danger or for dangerous situations, for protection while travelling or when residing in dangerous/hostile places
OM BENZA WIKI BITANA RAKYA RAKYA HUNG
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videouploads/comment-1544345059.mp4
Dear friends,
Tibet has produced many powerful meditations, rituals and guidelines to help us gain spiritual protection, gain wisdom and higher states of consciousness. In general Tibet has produced many powerful methods for the growth of our spiritual evolution. Dorje Shugden is an angel, a saint, a powerful spiritual protector-warrior who originated 350 years ago when a highly awakened Tibetan Lama fulfilled his vows to become a special being to grant protection, wisdom, material needs, safety when travelling (normal and astral travel) and spiritual awakening. Both the Great 5th Dalai Lama and the current His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama composed short yet effective prayers to invoke upon the power and blessings of this special saint and protector. One can recite either one of the prayers that you feel suits you, anytime or even daily. When you feel a special need for help, you can recite either prayer anytime. When you are feeling down, afraid or just need a blessing, you can recite them. After reciting either invocation, it is good to chant the mantra of Dorje Shugden: Om Benza Wiki Bitana Soha.
You do not have to be a Buddhist or practitioner of any religion to invoke upon the blessings and protection of this special enlightened and awakened angel Dorje Shugden. He helps all without discrimination or bias as he is filled with compassion and love. Divinity has no boundaries, they help all who call upon them.
Enclosed are the prayers in English, Chinese and Tibetan.
May you be safe, protected and blessed.
Tsem Rinpoche
More on the Great 5th Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden – https://bit.ly/2w7KHv6
More on H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden – https://bit.ly/2QdaL4n
Chapel (Trode Khangsar) built by the Great 5th Dalai Lama dedicated to Dorje Shugden in Lhasa – https://bit.ly/2zBTd8M
—
亲爱的朋友们，
西藏产生了许多有助于我们得到精神庇佑、取得智慧和更高层次之觉悟的强大禅修法、仪式和教诲。总括来说，西藏产生了许多有助于我们在修行上取得提升的强有力方法。多杰雄登是一个天使，一位圣人和一名护法战士。他的崛起始于350年前，当一位高度觉悟的西藏高僧履行本身的承诺，化身为特别的护法，赐予我们守护、智慧、物质需要、出入平安（平日外游和神游时）和灵修上的觉醒。任何人都可以随时随地在任何时候念诵适合自己的祈愿文。当你需要特别的帮助时，你可以随时念诵任何一篇祈愿文。当你感到沮丧、恐惧或仅是需要加持时，你也可以持诵这些祈愿文。在念诵任何祈请文后，你应该接着念诵多杰雄登的心咒：嗡 班杂 维格 毗札那 娑哈 Om Benza Wiki Bitana Soha。
要祈请多杰雄登这位特殊、觉悟和觉醒的天使赐予加持和庇佑，你无需是佛教徒或任何宗教的修行者。他总是没有分别或偏见，充满慈悲和慈爱地帮助一切众生。神圣是没有界限的，圣者会帮助有求于他的任何人。
以下附上英文、中文和藏文的祈愿文。
愿你平安，常受庇护和加持。
尊贵的詹杜固仁波切
更多关于第五世达赖尊者和多杰雄登护法的内容 — https://bit.ly/2zsC3tG
更多关于第十四世达赖尊者和多杰雄登护法的内容 — https://bit.ly/2r4aaDN
第五世达赖尊者为多杰雄登护法在拉萨建造的护法殿（布旦康萨）— https://bit.ly/2zBTd8M
Divination (‘mo’) Text by Dorje Shugden
This is an important divination (‘mo’) text composed by Dorje Shugden himself. Dorje Shugden took trance of the Choyang Dulzin oracle lama, the senior oracle of Gaden Shartse Monastery, and instantly on the spot composed this text within two hours.
The divination text contains information on how to use dice to do divination for the future and is known to be highly accurate. When practitioners use this text, they will be in direct contact with Dorje Shugden to get answers to questions about the future. It is for those who have good samaya with Dorje Shugden and are free of the eight worldly dharmas to be of benefit to others in divining the future.
Tsem Rinpoche
DS-MO-choyang.pdf
Great article by Tsering Shakya a published scholar on both historic and contemporary Tibet. Its true that the Tibetan community in exile has achieved nothing in nearly 30 years. The CTA which is based in Dharamsala does very little and have not show any interest in improving the situation except more on their own agenda. The Tibetan community in exile have flourished in most Western countries. All due the unethical ban against Dorje Shugden ,many have migrated to different countries for greener pastures. Living in a different new environment they are trying hard to maintain their cultural identity and religion. If the CTA are not doing anything to maintain the cultural identity , unite , improve the living hood , and so forth somehow sooner or later they are in the destruction of their own culture. As a result of 60 years of estranging politics, many had suffered enough and should end for the sake of their own people. I could understand the sufferings of those rejected and feeling frustrated. May the ban against Dorje Shugden practitioners end soon so that there will be unity and harmony.
(Its our cultures, tradition and language are the foundations upon which we build our identity.),,,quoted
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
Be blessed with these rare videos featuring explanation and advice about Dorje Shugden practice by His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche in his own voice. The teaching was requested by Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen, one of the earliest masters who taught Tibetan Buddhism in the West.
Video 1: H.H. Kyabje Zong Rinpoche Explains Dorje Shugden Initiation and Benefits (With English Subtitles)
Kyabje Zong Rinpoche was an erudite scholar, ritual master and practitioner of the highest degree from Tibet. At the request of Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen, one of the pioneers who taught Tibetan Buddhism in America, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche gives clear explanation and advice about the life-entrustment initiation of Dorje Shugden and how to go about the practice and get the maximum benefits in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzFMvlxAqtc&feature=youtu.be
Video 2: H.H. Kyabje Zong Rinpoche speaks on the History and Lineage of Dorje Shugden (With English Subtitles)
In this video, an erudite scholar, ritual master and practitioner of the highest degree from Tibet, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche talks about the incarnation lineage of Dorje Shugden and how the practice arose, with examples of Dorje Shugden’s previous lives that reveal his powerful spiritual attainments and contributions. This very rare teaching was given at the request of Kyabje Zong Rinpoche’s student, Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen, one of the pioneers who taught Buddhism in the West to many disciples since the 1970s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIzKSJgK618&feature=youtu.be
For more information: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/great-lamas-masters/kyabje-zong-rinpoches-advice-on-dorje-shugdens-practice.html
For the first time available, Dorje Shugden and his entourage of 32 asssistants of his mandala.
Dorje Shugden is a powerful protector deity who is also an emanation of Manjushri, a wisdom bestowing Buddha. Therefore, he has great ability to help us to progress further on the spiritual path. He does this by helping us to overcome obstacles and problems for the modern individual.
Due to his enlightened nature, Dorje Shugden is able to manifest 32 deities and within the same abode resides Setrap and Kache Marpo:-
1. 5 Dorje Shugden families or emanations. They consists of the following:-
– Dulzin Dorje Shugden, which performs activities to eliminate inner and outer obstacles.
– Shize, which performs activities to pacify all illnesses and disease.
– Gyenze, which performs activities to increase all desirable material and spiritual wealth.
– Wangze, which performs activities to control difficult people and circumstances.
– Trakze, which performs activities to wrathfully eliminate all insurmountable obstacles and life-threatening situations.
2. 9 Mothers. They represent protection of the five senses and developing control of the four elements. These are all attributes that signify their ability to assist tantric practitioners with their higher meditations.
3. 8 Guiding Monks. They represent the Eight Great Bodhisattvas (Avalokitesvara, Manjushri, Vajrapani, Samantabhadra, Maitreya, Kshitigarbha, Akashagarbha, Sarva-nivarana-viskambini) and they bring about the growth of the Dharma, through the Sangha, Dharma practitioners and Dharma establishments.
4. 10 Youthful & Wrathful Attendants. They represent the ten wrathful attendants to avert inner and outer obstacles. They are beings who are from Mongolia, China, Kashmir, India, Bengali, etc.
5. Setrap. He is a senior Dharma Protector from India and an emanation of Amitabha Buddha. He had enthroned Dorje Shugden as an authentic Dharma Protector. Therefore, he also resides within the same mandala of Dorje Shugden.
6. Kache Marpo. He is not an emanation of Dorje Shugden but he is still an enlightened Dharma Protector in his own right. He was originally known as Tsiu Marpo of Samye Monastery. However, he has placed himself under the service of Dorje Shugden as his chief minister, performing many activities in order to protect and benefit practitioners. Therefore, he stands guard at the main entrance of Dorje Shugden’s mandala. He often takes trance of qualified mediums to speak.
7. Namkar Barzin. He is the reincarnation of an old Mongolian monk and when he passed away in Phari area of Tibet, his spirit was placed as a powerful assistant of Dorje Shugden. He guards and protects buildings and great institutions especially those that benefit others. He rides on a mythical Gyaling animal that resembles a goat but with scales.
These sacred images are available on *Vajrasecrets. They are made of high quality alloy and are one of a kind. They are based on the lineage of His Holiness Panchen Rinpoche’s monastery, Tashilhunpo in Shigatse, Tibet. In fact, the iconography of these statues are based on detailed photographs taken by H. E. Tsem Rinpoche during a trip to Tashilhunpo’s protector chapel. These are based exactly as the 10th Panchen Lama’s personal collection.
Dorje Shugden mandala: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=131570
Dorje Shugden’s benefit and practice: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=62422
Dorje Shugden’s origins: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=106424
Dorje Shugden chapel in His Holiness Panchen Rinpoche’s Tashilhunpo Monastery in Tibet: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=68698
*Stand not included
His Holiness the 10th Panchen Lama
Tibetans commonly refer to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and His Holiness 10th Panchen Lama as the “sun and moon” of Tibetan Buddhism. They are the center of Tibetan Buddhist civilization, which draws to its sphere of influence millions of non-Tibetan practitioners. The Panchen Lama’s incarnation line began with the 16th abbot of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, Lobsang Chokyi Gyeltsen (1570 – 1662). He was bestowed the title of Panchen Lama by His Holiness the 5th Dalai Lama after being declared as an emanation of Amitabha.
After being given the title, his three previous incarnations were posthumously also bestowed the title, making Lobsang Chokyi Gyeltsen the 4th Panchen Lama. He became a teacher to many Tibetans, Bhutanese and Mongolian religious figures, including His Holiness the 4th and 5th Dalai Lamas, and the 1st Jetsun Dampa of Mongolia. A prolific author, Chokyi Gyeltsen is credited with over a hundred compositions, including a number of commentaries and ritual texts that remain central in the Gelukpa tradition today. Along with his role as a teacher of the Dharma, the Panchen Lamas are usually responsible for the recognition of the rebirths of the Dalai Lamas, and vice versa.
The 10th Panchen Lama, Lobsang Trinley Lhundrub Chokyi Gyeltsen (19 February 1938 – 28 January 1989) continued both the spiritual and political roles of his predecessors. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, his contemporary, was even heard to say and echo the Panchen Lama’s own words that the Dalai Lama would safeguard Tibet from the outside while the Panchen Lama would safeguard Tibet from the inside, as he never left Tibet after the political troubles of 1959. He was truly loved by the Tibetans, all the way until his passing. When he taught, thousands of people would attend, not only from his own Gelug lineage, but masters and practitioners from all traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.
At his sprawling monastery of Tashi Lhunpo, he has a special chapel specifically dedicated to Dorje Shugden, where prayers and rituals are performed on a daily basis. In his great omniscience the Panchen Lama held Dorje Shugden as the principal Dharma protector of the monastery. He also personally propitiated Dorje Shugden among other Dharma protectors, and even wrote extensive prayers and rituals to Dorje Shugden. These rituals and prayers are contained within his ‘sung bum’ or collected works, which are provided here. As such a great lama, with an erudite and clear understanding of the Buddhist scriptures, a teacher to millions in both Tibet and China, from an established incarnation line and an emanation of the Buddha Amitabha, he could not be mistaken about his practice of Dorje Shugden.
His Holiness 10th Panchen Lama is known for his composition of commentaries and practice texts that are still in use by contemporary Buddhist practitioners both in Tibet and across the world. One of these is a powerful ritual composition propitiating the compassionate Dorje Shugden.
Upon the request by Acharya Lobsang Jangchub to compose a shorter version of the prayer (sadhana) for the exhortation of activities of Dorje Shugden, Panchen Lama immediately composed an abbreviate form of Dorje Shugden’s Kangsol. This text is entitled “Manjunatha’s (Tsongkapa) Lineage protector Dorje Shugden and five forms wrathful propitiations and confessional prayers and fulfilment of activities rites” or “Melodious sound of Accomplishment of the Four Activities” for short. Once the prayers were completed, he had signs and strong feelings that Dorje Shugden has been working hard to protect the Buddhadharma in general and the lineage of Lama Tsongkhapa specifically.
Mirroring the abilities of one of his earlier incarnations, Khedrub Je, a disciple of Lama Tsongkhapa and master of both sutra and tantra, the Panchen Lama used his compositional skill and poetic prowess to create a masterful sadhana. Worthy of note is a praise in which the first letter of each verse is a Tibetan vowel. Such compositions are rarely seen, and have historically only been used when propitiating senior Dharma protectors such as Palden Lhamo and Kalarupa.
The Panchen Lama also stated that while composing the Dorje Shugden sadhana (prayers) he was filled with a sense of happiness and bliss. He ends the composition with not only his official title but his ordination name, Tenzin Trinley Jigme Choje Wangchuk, endorsing the validity of his work. He composed the sadhana in his own Tashi Lhunpo monastery while in the Hall of Clear Light and Bliss.
See the Panchen Lama’s writings and download: https://bit.ly/2KIfeXb
This elderly & innocent monk in India was brutally attacked, find out why. Shocking – https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=163953
“If the Dalai Lama, if His Holiness the Dalai Lama can be harmed by Dorje Shugden, then we might as well not practice Buddhism anymore. If His Holiness the Dalai Lama can have his life shortened by a so-called evil spirit, any evil spirit, then can he be Avalokiteshvara? So on one hand you say, we say, I say, everybody says, he is Avalokiteshvara; on the other hand you’re saying that he can be harmed by an evil spirit… Which one is it? Can he be harmed by an evil spirit or is he Avalokiteshvara? Do you think Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri, Vajrapani, Tara all take refuge in something else to protect themselves from Dorje Shugden? How illogical is that? How illogical of people to say His Holiness the Dalai Lama can be harmed by an evil spirit, any evil spirit or “Dorje Shugden” evil spirit. How is that possible?” – Tsem Tulku Rinpoche
Photo: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, young Tsem Tulku Rinpoche and Tsem Tulku Rinpoche’s tutor Kensur Rinpoche Jampa Yeshe
DON’T MISS THIS! FANTASTIC NEW GREAT STUFF! High quality videos redressing the misinformation about Dorje Shugden practice and people and the current sad Tibetan situation and why they are losing ground in the world. Powerful and truthful – CLEAR VIDEOS – https://bit.ly/2LJbo35
Sakya tradition’s thangka of Dorje Shugden sitting on a throne within his palace with his four emanations and high Sakya Lamas nearby. Tsem Rinpoche
Amazing post!!!!!
Dear friends, For months we have been working on this BEAUTIFUL and meaningful mural in Kathmandu, Nepal. Please click here to enjoy the many stunning pictures of this mural: https://bit.ly/2LgOj8J
Tsem Rinpoche
Antique Pelden Lhamo thangka with sacred Dorje Shugden at the bottom right. Can see Tsongkapa and Guru Rinpoche on the top also. Beautiful and holy.
Will the CTA (Tibetan govt in exile) and their supporters in East and West say voodoo is evil and cannot be practiced too? Will they advise against Voodoo and say its a demon’s practice and people who practice are bad too? Truth be told, no one has the right to say anything about anyone’s religion. Listen to what this man says in the short snagged clip because he speaks well and with the truth.
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videouploads/comment-1519934791.mp4
Watch the rest of the video on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0_syJQBteA
Isn’t this just lovely?! Look at these cute Tibetan kids singing praises to Dorje Shugden during Losar celebration in Tibet! Great blessings to all – Click to watch! ???
https://video.tsemtulku.com/chat-videos/chat-1519938132.mp4
This excerpt of the Swiss Television documentary presented in 1988 is a painful reminder of the hypocrisy and the sad reality of the oppression, discrimination, and ostracisation of Dorje Shugden practitioners. For 20 years, Dorje Shugden practitioners have endured this and no one supported their fight as the Tibetan leadership in exile continues to undermine their effort by denying the existence of this ban, and silencing their voice by peer pressure, flooding the media and fooling the general public with accusations that Shugden practitioners are political tools supported by the Chinese government to create discord within the Tibetan community. Please listen to their plea and please share this video far and wide to end this injustice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gis2vaURT40
I think, Tibetans in exile should think hard about who they should be grateful to. For me the tibetans should have gratefullness towards the Indian people who gave them refuge, and a place to stage their further migration to other countries.
After following Rinpoche’s blog and sharing, I can relate with the feeling of rejection and how Tibetans are totally at the mercy of their leadership, especially Dorje Shugden practitioners who are being rejected out of their homeland and from the diaspora community. It is for these reasons that Dorje Shugden practitioners are voicing out, not to be a rebel but to let Tibetan leaders know that exploiting and rejecting the people based on their faith is not right. I hope CTA and Dharamsala will value the welfare of all the people and stop the discrimination, by foremost, punishing the people who caused trouble i.e. who rejected service to Dorje Shugden practitioners or who hurl insults or attack Dorje Shugden lamas. This shows the sincerity and seriousness of the leadership in wanting to unite the people and want to bring peace and harmony to everyone.
Thank you Rinpoche for showing us the persistence and consistency in pursuing the Dharma beginning from the very young age although Rinpoche has gone through many difficulties especially when being rejected by Rinpoche’s biological mother and bringing us the Dharma compassionately in a country (Malaysia) which is foreign to Rinpoche, all the way from Gaden Shartse Monastery. From what I learnt from seniors, Rinpoche has also gone through many difficulties when teaching and spreading the Dharma in our country during early those days because of the difference in our culture and probably most of us are lacking of the knowledge and understanding about Buddhism. Yet, Rinpoche has not given up on us and continue on to teach, guide and spread the Dharma until today for the benefits of many sentient beings.
Upon reading the article written by Tsering Shakya, it is sad to learn that the Tibetans who have migrated to other countries (except India and Nepal) in the West are slowly losing their own Tibetan traditions and cultures while starting to embrace the respective local celebration such as Halloween Day in the US. Instead of remembering and following Tibetan history and traditions, the 2nd generation of Tibetans who were born in the West are picking up and blending themselves into the respective culture, history and traditions so that they can communicate and become closer to the local community in the Western countries. This is a huge setback of maintaining and sustaining the Tibetan traditions and cultures for those Tibetans who are currently staying in other foreign countries. Tibetans who are staying and living in the Western countries have more visions and desire to succeed in worldly achievement rather than excelling and focusing more in spiritual practice of their own Tibetan Buddhism.
I personally hope that the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) could do more in uniting all Tibetans and bring back all Tibetan back to their home land so that the traditions and cultures of Tibet will not continue to be lose out or slowly disappear on earth. May CTA and His Holiness the Dalai Lama lift the ban of Dorje Shugden in order to unite all Tibetans under one big family as well as restore peace and harmony within the Tibetan community.
Humbly with folded hands,
kin hoe