Why Accepting Dorje Shugden Is Good for Tibetan Democracy
Dear friends around the world,
As some of you may already know, I am part-Mongolian and part-Tibetan. My father was Tibetan, as were my gurus, monastic and lay friends, and many people whom I regard as important. And so I identify very much with the Tibetan people and when I see them suffer, I feel it is not right for me to remain quiet.
I count myself very lucky that I have been adopted by this beautiful country of Malaysia. And because the Malaysian government is a truly democratic one, I have the freedom to practise whatever religion I choose. I see this with my own eye because the government and the people of this country embrace diversity and see it as a strength. It is this prevailing mentality has benefited everyone in the country and we have all gained from it tremendously.
As a Tibetan monk, I have also been able to freely share my culture, history and the Dharma with anyone who cares to listen. In that way, the democratic government of Malaysia has helped to keep our rich Tibetan culture and rich traditions alive.
Having experienced this benefit and at the same time seeing how much the Tibetan people have suffered segregation for so long, I feel compelled to speak in the hopes that my simple words will help heal a deep fracture that has sadly impacted all Tibetans worldwide, and in the hopes that my pleas will bring about some change in the minds of those who listen to my thoughts.
You see, we Tibetans are already a small nation of people and today we are scattered everywhere around the world. This separation has weakened us very badly and all Tibetans are affected regardless of the region we come from, our religious tradition and our political preferences. Ultimately, all these do not matter if the Tibetan identity becomes extinct completely. And so, the last thing we need is to allow another poisonous issue divide the Tibetan community even more to the point we become crippled as a body of people. By this, I mean the Dorje Shugden conflict that the Central Tibetan Administration, or the CTA (the Tibetan leadership), has allowed to persist and even promotes with its existing policies.
Diversity is very common today and we see powerful nations being built on many diverse backgrounds and yet the citizens of these nations have strong national identities and pride. Whether a nation of people live in harmony or great strife and disharmony depends very much on the government. If the government allows and protects diversity and respects differences and sees everyone as being equal as a liberal and democratic government should, then the differences do not matter. On the other hand, if the government makes big issues out of what separates the people, then there is chaos as we see in the Tibetan community.
Today, there is disharmony within the Tibetan people and they are divided. This is because Tibetan leadership allows and encourages issues that separate people, such as the Dorje Shugden issue. But now the Tibetans need to decide what is more important – for the collective nation to survive or for a small faction to win over another in unnecessary conflict at the overall cost of Tibetan unity.
For the Tibetan people to survive, the CTA must urgently start behaving like a democratic government that the Dalai Lama intends it to be, and stop its persistence in persecuting its own people because it disagrees with the people’s religious belief.
Tsem Rinpoche
Click here to view my other live streaming video “Why can’t the Dalai Lama ‘bind’ Dorje Shugden?“
VIDEO: A Solution for Tibetan Unity
TRANSCRIPT:
Hi Tashi Delek,
My name is Tsem Tulku. I am from Gaden Monastery and since 1996, there has been a ban against the protector deity of 400 years, Dorje Shugden. I have received the Dorje Shugden practice from my teacher over 30 years ago and tens of thousands of monks, nuns and lay people have also received Dorje Shugden practice from their teachers in the last 400 years. Most of us practice Dorje Shugden for spiritual purposes to remove obstacles to our practice, to remove outer obstacles to our practice so we may engage in the teachings of the Buddha, learn the teachings of the Buddha, meditate, practice and transform our minds in order to become a fully enlightened Buddha. So, there are many Dharma protectors, such as Setrap, such as Palden Lhamo, such as Mahakala, such as Kalarupa, such as Vaishravana, such as Tenma, such as Dorje Shugden, such as Kinkara. There are many, many types of Dharma protectors. What Dharma Protector we practice may come from the region we come from in Tibet, it may come from a particular monastery and our affiliation with it, it may come from the lineage of our gurus, or it may come from our sort of interest and our own sort of karmic connection to our protector. So how we are given a protector in our Tibetan tradition is, our guru may assign it to us, or we practice a particular protector because the monastery we belong to practice it, or the region we belong to practice it, or it is a tradition of our personal families. All Tibetans who are Buddhists will have a Dharma protector, and they acquired the Dharma protectors in a way that I have just described. Now what has been very confusing and has created a lot of schism in Tibetan society? There are many issues that create schism in the Tibetan society.
My father is Tibetan and my mother is Mongolian. My father is from Tibet, he is from Golok in Amdo, Tibet. My mother is from Xinjiang. So, by Tibetan and Mongolian tradition I am a Tibetan by virtue of my father, who is Tibetan. That’s their customs on both sides. Now as a Tibetan, I grew up in the United States, and I went to school there and I also learned American history and culture, the freedom of religion, the freedom of Speech and the freedom of expression. That’s all enshrined in the American constitution.
The American constitution does not envelop or does not cover the whole world but democracy has similar principles. What is enshrined in the democracy or democratic countries is the freedom of religion, the freedom of speech, equality, those are heavily enshrined. For example, in America, there may be people who don’t like certain religions, or they don’t accept or believe in certain religious paths. They may say that this religion is bad, this religious rite is not good. This religion is good, this religion is not real. They may have some kind of religious debate among the people themselves, but it is not enshrined as a law. It is not spoken about by the leaders, and it is not enforced by the law. But in Tibetan society it’s different. Over 150,000 Tibetans left Tibet in 1959 as the world knows. And I am the result of that. I am the result of my Tibetan government in Tibet losing their country. And as a result, we become refugees. We have to run all over the world and myself and many other Tibetans have lost our language, culture, and I have relatives in Tibet that I have never ever met. But that’s not my fault, that is the leadership that was not able to protect their own country. But I am not going into that.
What I want to talk about is that the current Tibetan leadership, which is kind of overseeing the 150,000 Tibetans in India and Nepal they are called the Central Tibetan Administration or in short CTA.
So, the Central Tibetan Administration, the CTA live in the Northern India in the Himachal Pradesh state, in a hill station town named Dharamshala. So, Tibetans refer to their government as Dhasa or Dharamsala, or the CTA or Peshung. They can refer to any of those words. So, the CTA and the leaders of the CTA have had it enshrined in their constitutional charter that those who practice the religion or the spiritual path of Dorje Shugden are not allowed in Tibetan schools, are not allowed to work in Tibetan government positions, are not allowed to enter Tibetan hospitals, are not allowed to enter Tibetan associations, and receive any benefits that other Tibetans have a right to. So that has been enshrined. If you go to the CTA’s charter, you can see that clearly online. That’s very clear and there is no doubt about that. On top of that the Tibetan leadership are always saying that Dorje Shugden is an evil spirit, that Dorje Shugden is a negative being, and if you practice Dorje Shugden you shorten the life of the Dalai Lama. It harms Tibet’s cause, it harms the Tibetan people, which all don’t make sense but I have addressed that in my other live streaming tape, which you can listen to. Now His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whom I respect very much and I love very much and I have a lot of respect for, I still do, has said that our Tibetan people will be democratic. So, they have a democratic system in Dharamsala supposedly, and they are supposed to elect their leaders because for the last 400 or 500 years, there is no election of leaders. The Dalai Lama is the leader, he is the king, he is the spiritual leader, he is the king of the country, he is the secular and the religious leader of Tibet, and there is no competition in any other way. So only the Dalai Lama can sit on the king’s throne or the ruler’s throne. But now the Dalai Lama has said that he is passing everything over to the Tibetans to become democratic, and that’s very kind of him. But what’s very important to remember is that although in name we are democratic, in practice we have to be democratic too. There are many unfair practices within the Tibetan society and the CTA that I know about, and my friends know about, that I have experienced and that I have seen, and other Tibetans have seen that many foreigners would not understand. But what I want to get into is the religious segregation, the religious prejudice, and the religious bias, that is enshrined in the Tibetan government.
Now the Tibetan government specifically says that if you practice Dorje Shugden, you are not allowed the privileges for the Tibetans. For example, you cannot enter the same monasteries, you cannot visit Tibetan hospitals, you cannot visit Tibetan government offices and receive the same privileges, you cannot work in the Tibetan government. All that have happened no matter how much people deny it, there’s much proof on that. Now if Tibetans are to be democratic, if the Tibetans are to go toward the democratic route, what religion a Tibetan practices should not matter. For example, in DalaiLama.com and also Tibet.net, I repeat, DalaiLama.com and Tibet.net – Tibet.net is the official website of the Tibetan Government in Exile or the CTA’s website, and DalaiLama.com is the official website of the Dalai Lama. If you look at both of those websites, they have a special section that speaks negatively about Dorje Shugden, that discourages the Dorje Shugden practice, that discourages people to practice Dorje Shugden, that basically is saying if you practice Dorje Shugden you are not good.
I am grateful for the opportunity to speak about a topic that is very close to my heart. The Dorje Shugden controversy concerns me deeply, and I sincerely believe that acceptance of his practice is one of the keys for unity in the Tibetan community.
Now that’s very strange because Japan, Germany, Italy, Brazil, America, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, Iceland, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Mongolia, Russia, etc. There is no democratic government that has a special section criticising and warning you about a specific religion. They can warn you about people who are in the name of religion doing harm to the people in government and that’s fair, but to warn people against a specific religion or a spiritual path, is completely undemocratic.
In the United States, where I am from, the constitution of the United States allows us freedom to worship and to gather to worship any religion we choose. Now 200 years ago in America, if you practised witchcraft, or you were suspected of witchcraft, or Voodoo then there would be big issues. You’d be lynched, you’d be interrogated, you’d be tortured, you’d be drowned, you’d be beaten and you’d probably be set on fire because witches were not allowed. But you see, this is not America 200 years ago. This is 2017, the United States and the democratic world. What’s happening is you can’t segregate a group of people because of their religion. You may not agree with their religion. You may not agree with the tenets of their religion, or the god that they worship. But you cannot, and you as a leader, secular or religious cannot discourage the religion of another person in today’s world because if you do that, it is political suicide. It is also undemocratic and on top of that, creates dissension and schism among the populous. Imagine if the President of the United States, whatever his personal view is, that’s his personal view. But imagine the President of the United States saying, “Anyone who practices Hinduism cannot come to my political talks, cannot come to our dinners, cannot associate with me”. Who would accept that in today’s world? Who would accept that? Imagine if a leader of a democratic country, in their official government website has something written, has comments, or advice written against a specific religion. Who in today’s world will accept that? Nobody. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, again let me reiterate, whom I respect very much has mentioned in his teaching that those who practice Dorje Shugden may not attend his talk, may not attend his secular talks, may not attend his peace talks, may not attend his religious rites and rituals. I would like to go one step further and say that even today when the Pope goes and gathers in many countries around the world, or gets together for interfaith services, or meets people of different religion, background, cultures, they never say if you are not catholic or you are not of a particular religion, you cannot join them. Even today the Popes do not segregate against other religions. So, I think a religious leader of His Holiness’ calibre should also allow all people to meet him, all people to enjoy his wisdom, all people to come and see him and to be around him. I think that’s very very important.
So, if you go to Tibet.net, if you go to DalaiLama.com, you will see things written very clearly that if you practice Dorje Shugden, they advise strongly against it. I think the Tibetan government is undemocratic, and I think the Tibetan government or the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the Tibetan leaders are wrong to place those things on their official website. Because it is dated, it is antiquated, it is very very colonial, on top of that is not democratic. If you want to be democratic, you must practice democracy all the way. You don’t cherry pick. You don’t pick what you like and what you don’t like, you don’t enshrine. If you are going to call yourself democratic, and based on you being democratic, you receive funds, aid, help, assistance from democratic countries because you enshrine democracy, then you must practice democracy all the way. How do you practice democracy when on your own websites, DalaiLama.com, Tibet.net, you have advised against one particular religion? Be it Dorje Shugden is a devil. Be it Dorje Shugden is an angel, be it Dorje Shugden is a non-existent god, just an idol, be it he is a Buddha, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter whether Dorje Shugden is a Buddha, is a devil, is a demon, is a god, is a fake, it doesn’t matter. But what matters is the people who believe in Dorje Shugden are people. The people who believe in and practice Dorje Shugden are people with flesh, and blood and feelings, and have a right to equality, and have a right to what every human being deserves on this planet. So, it doesn’t matter if these people practice Dorje Shugden, it doesn’t matter if these people practice Catholicism, if they practice Hinduism, Judaism, Voodoo, if they practice Druid, if they practice witchcraft, magic, it doesn’t matter because deep down inside, they are people. If they are people and they are under a democratic rule, they should be accorded the respect of any other human being, regardless of what religion they practice.
A democratic government should not debate whether Dorje Shugden is a god or spirit, is good or bad, it doesn’t matter because Tibetans are not in Tibet anymore and Tibetans are scattered around the world, and they will be exposed to many religions, they will be exposed to many paths. Some Tibetans have become atheists, some Tibetans have converted to other religions, some Tibetans have become Buddhists, some Tibetans are Muslims. It does not matter. Some Tibetans practice Dorje Shugden. Some Tibetans are Christians, it does not matter what they are. A Tibetan is a Tibetan, and under the Tibetan rule, under the Tibetan leaders, they should be treated equally, regardless of their religion. If you are Dorje Shugden practitioners, you should not be spat upon. If you are Dorje Shugden practitioners, you should not be segregated or have things written in your official government’s website that speaks against your religion and encourage other people to ostracise you, to segregate you, to hate you. That should not be the case.
So, imagine if the Prime Minister of Canada says, all Christians, except Catholics, can join and come to my political rallies, can come to my political talks, can come to my talks, what kind of uproar will that create in Canada, you know, around the world? If that creates an uproar in democratic Canada, why wouldn’t something like this create an uproar in so-called the democratic Tibetan society? So (if) Tibetan society is definitely democratic, then all talk against Dorje Shugden must cease immediately. All materials against Dorje Shugden on official websites should be removed immediately. All “advice” against Dorje Shugden practice should cease immediately. His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan leaders should never speak against Dorje Shugden, should never say anything against Dorje Shugden because the Dalai Lama is not only a spiritual leader, he is definitely a political leader. He is the face of Tibet. So, the face of Tibet should not be [saying], “Everyone can come to my talk, everyone is under my compassion. I love everyone except Dorje Shugden people”. That’s not right.
The Dalai Lama is a spiritual leader, he is also a secular leader. Under the Dalai Lama’s powerful, innovative, compassionate leadership, His Holiness the Dalai Lama should accept all people, all Tibetans, no matter where they come from, who they are, and what religion they practice. Does it befit a man of the Dalai Lama’s stature, does it befit the compassion of such a great monk, the Dalai Lama, to say, “Everyone may come to my teachings. Everyone is loved by me. Everyone is accepted by me EXCEPT the Dorje Shugden people”? Definitely not.
The job of a Buddhist monk is to love all beings regardless of who they are, how naughty they might be or how good they might be. The job of a democratic leader is to gather his people together and unite his people, and bring his people as one regardless of gender, age, colour, race, economic background, sexual orientation, and religion. Any democratic country will unite their people regardless of all I have just mentioned, religion, race, sexual orientation, because we are living in the age of enlightenment, we are living the age where we realise everyone is the same. What religion we practice is not the issue anymore. You cannot say that person practices Dorje Shugden therefore I don’t like them, that person practices Dorje Shugden therefore I won’t associate with them, that they deserve to be spat upon, that they cannot come for the Dalai Lama’s teachings. How come a Dorje Shugden person cannot go to the Dalai Lama’s teachings? They had been attending the Dalai Lama’s teachings up till 1996. I have attended many of the Dalai Lama’s teachings. I certainly do not intend any harm to the Dalai Lama. I certainly do not have any ill wishes for the Dalai Lama. I certainly do not have any bad thoughts about the Dalai Lama. I have attended Dalai Lama’s teachings so many times up till 1996 because what happened in 1996? Suddenly in 1996, in the CTA’s charter, in the CTA’s ruling, in the CTA’s constitution, all those who practice Dorje Shugden may not attend the Dalai Lama’s talk, may not go to Tibetan hospitals, may not work in the Tibetan government. Suddenly that ruling came. But you have to remember, before that I was practising Dorje Shugden for decades, and suddenly I am not able to. That confuses many people. Now, to make a long story short, any leader in any country should look at his or her people, and think how to unite the people, how to improve the economic situation, how to improve their social situation, how to better the lives, give more education, and give opportunities, and betterment. That’s what every single leader should do, whether they are religious or not. If a religious leader says, “Everyone can come to my teaching, everyone can come to my talk, everyone can come to my gathering except this group”, then that’s not very compassionate, nor is it democratic, it doesn’t befit a spiritual leader, it doesn’t befit a democratic leader. It doesn’t fit any leader today. I would gently and respectfully request the Tibetan leadership to remove all their information against Dorje Shugden practice, Dorje Shugden lineage, and Dorje Shugden people, on their websites Tibet.net and DalaiLama.com. I repeat, Tibet.net and DalaiLama.com. They should remove all that and they should stop segregating and creating dissension among their own people. Number one.
My team of writers work very closely with me, including helping with the preparations for the livestream. They make sure everything is perfect and I appreciate them very much.
Number two, they should say, “Whether you are a Dorje Shugden Tibetan, you are a Muslim Tibetan, you are a Bonpo Tibetan, you are a Nyingma Tibetan, Kagyu Tibetan, you are a Gelug Tibetan, you are a Sakya Tibetan, whether you are a black Tibetan, you are a white Tibetan, a girl Tibetan, a boy Tibetan, whatever Tibetan you are, you are welcome by your leader the Dalai Lama, he loves you, and you are welcome to his talks and you are welcome to get his blessings.” That’s what the Tibetan leadership should say, and I’m waiting for that. So, if the Tibetan leadership really wants to be democratic, this is how democracy is, this is how democracy operates, this is how democracy really should be. Please don’t look at me for what religion I practice, look at me because I am a human being, and I deserve respect as does everyone else. Please look at me as a Tibetan, and as a Tibetan who is proud of his ancestry. Please accept me as I am.
The Tibetan leadership has also said that Dorje Shugden people are connected to China, that they are being paid by the Chinese government to create schism within the Tibetan communities, that they are traitors to the Tibetan nation, that they are basically spies for the Chinese nation. I beg to differ. I have never received any money from the Chinese government, I have never spied for the Chinese government or any government. I have never ever done any government work for any government. On top of that, they say that Dorje Shugden people, some of them wish to harm the Dalai Lama. Well, I don’t wish to harm the Dalai Lama. I have no intention of harming the Dalai Lama because I love him. Now, my solution for all this, for this Tibetan “democratic” government, the CTA in Dharamsala is that they immediately remove all writings from Tibet.net and DalaiLama.com that refers negatively to Dorje Shugden. None of the official website as a government, or a democratic government-to-be should contain any prejudice against anyone with regards to religion, race, and background. That should be removed, if they are genuinely going to be democratic.
Number 2, they should allow all Tibetans to become employees of the Tibetan government or different sectors of Tibetan society on the basis of merit and education, and not religion. Because Tibetan Dorje Shugden practitioners cannot work for the CTA, or cannot work in Tibetan hospitals and schools if they practice Dorje Shugden, that should be removed immediately. They should be able to apply for a job and get it on the basis of merit and qualifications, not religion. On top of that, the monasteries that have been split apart, Gaden has been split apart – over 700 monks have left Gaden Monastery because of the Dorje Shugden issue, because His Holiness has asked them to leave, and it’s taped in Drepung Monastery of him saying that. All the monasteries should unite, all the monks should unite as before because we all believe in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. All segregation against Tibetan Dorje Shugden practitioners that was started by the CTA should stop, for example, an effective sweeping order should be given by the Tibetan CTA to all Tibetans that signages on restaurants, hospitals, clinics, stores, coffee shops that say, “If you practice Dorje Shugden, you are not allowed within these premises”. That should be removed. That should definitely be removed because why are you not allowing a certain service based on someone’s religion? That is not correct.
If they are worried about the Dalai Lama’s safety, that they think that some Dorje Shugden practitioners are connected to China, and they want to harm the Dalai Lama; if they are worried about that, they should be worried about all sectors of Tibetans. I am sure there are Tibetan people, there are some Tibetan people who don’t like the Dalai Lama, who want to harm him, but it shouldn’t be just confined to one group. They should allow Dorje Shugden practitioners to attend the Dalai Lama’s talk, attend the Dalai Lama’s gatherings, they should allow that because he is our leader, and we have the right to hear what he wants to say, and what he wishes to share, we have that right. We earn it by being Tibetan. We did not harm him, he is our leader. I mean since we are Tibetan and he is our leader, automatically, then please lead us. How do you lead us? By example. What’s the example? Compassion, acceptance, tolerance.
So, if they really have doubts about certain Dorje Shugden people who they think might harm the Dalai Lama, please do a security check. Check their background, check if they have any association, check with the police, check with the FBI, CIA or whoever they are connected to, check. You can check my background as much as you want, I have no criminal records, I have no records of working for any government or nothing, I am just a Buddhist monk. So, if they are worried about certain Dorje Shugden people who would harm the Dalai Lama, do a full security check, people often do that. If they check and the person comes clean, then stop accusing them of being something that they are not. So, what the Tibetan government should immediately do? The Tibetan Exiled Government, CTA, should immediately unite the people, remove any references regarding Dorje Shugden. Why? Because it makes them not democratic, and if you wish to be democratic then act as if you are democratic, be democratic, govern and rule, and take care of your people in a democratic manner, otherwise don’t tell people you are democratic, and on that basis, receive a lot of aid from the West.
Finally, Your Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, I and tens and tens of thousands of us who practice Dorje Shugden loved you prior to the ban against Dorje Shugden in 1996, and still love you now. We respect you, I respect you, I love you, and we all love you, and we care about you. We wish no harm towards your person in any way, shape or form. Since 1996, we are not allowed to attend any of your teachings, any of your gatherings, any of your secular talks – even secular talks we are not allowed, and it hurts very very much. Please allow us to meet you, please allow us to join your talks, please allow all people regardless of their religion, even if they practice Dorje Shugden to join your talks. I myself do not wish you any harm, or any negative energy or thinking towards your direction, but I am appealing to you to unite your people, unite all of us religiously, we’re all Buddhists, we’re all one. I have received many teachings from you, and I have received many teachings from my root lama. I will continue practising Dorje Shugden, Your Holiness. I will continue practising Dorje Shugden Your Holiness, not to defy you, not to go against you, not to hurt you, and not to be in conflict with you. I am practising Dorje Shugden because my root guru gave me this practice and I cannot stop this practice because I promised him to do so. Your Holiness, please understand that, please understand that there are thousands and thousands of us Tibetans who love you, who miss you, and who are practising Dorje Shugden as a commitment to our lama and not to contradict you. Please unite us, please allow us in your teachings, please allow us to meet you and pay respect to you, thank you very much.
Thank you everyone for your comments and participation. Click to enlarge.
I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to share my thoughts tonight. Click to enlarge.
Addendum
Central Tibetan Administration’s Website
Below is a screenshot of Tibet.net, which is the Tibetan leadership’s website. In it, they have a section with “information” about Dorje Shugden which is designed to promote hatred, negativity and direct vulgarities towards Shugden practitioners. What kind of democratic leadership has a section like this on their site targeting a religious group? Imagine the uproar there would be if the American or Canadian, or any other democratic government had sections like this on their site for the public!
The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) website which has a section on Dorje Shugden. What kind of democratic government has sections on their website which target a religious group? Click to enlarge.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Website
This is a screenshot of DalaiLama.com which is the official website of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. When this section exists on His Holiness’ website, it actually emboldens Tibetans to discriminate against and segregate Shugden practitioners. This section is basically the Dalai Lama’s ‘endorsement’ of such behaviour; when anti-Shugden individuals see this, they think it is okay to segregate against the practice “because the Dalai Lama said so”. I don’t think the Dalai Lama would agree with this but the webmaster and shadow writers behind his website should not put this type of anti-Dorje Shugden section which subscribes to discrimination against a group because of religion. In the 21st century, this is not fitting of a great spiritual leader like His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Do not discriminate tolerate; is the way to go.
If the Dorje Shugden ban is just advice and not a ban, then why is a section like this necessary on any website?
His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s website which has a section on Dorje Shugden. This section emboldens Tibetans to discriminate against Shugden practitioners because it is the Dalai Lama’s endorsement of such behaviour.
Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile’s Resolution Stating Government Employees Should Not Rely on Dorje Shugden
In 1996, the Tibetan leadership passed a resolution stating that all departments (and ergo their employees) should not rely on Dorje Shugden (point 8). The resolution also stated that individuals who do engage in its worship will harm the Dalai Lama’s life and the so-called Tibetan cause. That being the case, how will anyone within the Tibetan settlements and government be able to openly engage in Dorje Shugden practice after that, if their worship has been widely labelled as anti-Dalai Lama, anti-CTA and treasonous? To openly practice after that will leave them open to criticism, vulgarities, harassment and discrimination, as Dorje Shugden practitioners have been for the last 20 years. So they will be left with three options: to give up the practice (which many will not do), to practice secretly, or to give up their jobs.
A screenshot of tibet.net, showing the 1996 resolution which proclaimed that departments under the Tibetan leadership should not propitiate Dorje Shugden and that doing so will harm the Dalai Lama’s life.
Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile’s Resolution Naming Dorje Shugden Practitioners as Criminals in History
This is a screenshot of tibet.net, the Central Tibetan Administration’s official website, which shows the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile’s unanimous resolution dated 17 March 2014 naming Dorje Shugden practitioners as criminals in history (point 3, paragraph 2).
The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile passed a resolution on 17 March 2014 naming all Dorje Shugden practitioners as “criminals in history”. On what basis can the Tibetan leadership condemn all Dorje Shugden believers, including the elderly, infirm, young, and those not of Tibetan nationality, as criminals?
VIDEO: Dalai Lama bans Dorje Shugden practice
and expels monks
His Holiness the Dalai Lama was recorded in Drepung Monastery in 2008 clearly stating that those who refused to give up their Dorje Shugden practice should be expelled from the monasteries. His Holiness even said that if people found it difficult to fulfill this instruction, that they should say that the Dalai Lama told them to expel Dorje Shugden practitioners.
My question is this: if giving up Dorje Shugden practice is just advice, and it is up to us who we wish to rely on, then why are there such heavy repercussions for people who choose to keep the practice? As a result of His Holiness saying this, thousands of Shugden monks were expelled from the monasteries, and were forced to set up their own monasteries where they would be able to continue their Dorje Shugden practice.
VIDEO: Dorje Shugden practitioner rejected
from Gaden Shartse Monastery Guest House
A Dorje Shugden practitioner enquiring about room rates at the Gaden Shartse Monastery Guest House in Majnu-ka-tilla, Delhi was rejected by the hotel staff and asked to leave.
VIDEO: France 24 reports on the Dorje Shugden issue
France 24 is a reputable news network based in France, known for their objective reporting style. They covered the Dorje Shugden issue extensively, surely a reflection of the seriousness of the issue for them to devote so much airtime to it. In their video, France 24 captured on film the discrimination against a Dorje Shugden monk.
VIDEO: Al Jazeera reports on the Dorje Shugden issue
Based in the Middle East, Al Jazeera was formed in response to the heavy influence of Western culture on the media. They are known to cover controversial topics that other news agencies may be reluctant to cover, and provide hard-hitting, objective coverage of current affairs.
Evidence of the Ban
Over the years, my students have collected evidence of the ban against Dorje Shugden. Personally, I find it quite disappointing and sad that they have been able to collect so much evidence because it just goes to show how widespread and pervasive this ban has become. As you can see below, notices banning Dorje Shugden practitioners can be found just about anywhere in the Tibetan settlements. Whether a Dorje Shugden person is trying to access healthcare or enter a restaurant, or try to buy something from a shop, they are banned everywhere and refused service. How is this just ‘advice’ when the repercussions of practising Dorje Shugden are so violent inside the Tibetan communities and settlements?
For more interesting information:
- Why can’t the Dalai Lama ‘bind’ Dorje Shugden?
- Dorje Shugden People Do Not Go to the Three Lower Realms
- The Dorje Shugden category on my blog
- H.E. Tsem Rinpoche’s first live streaming!
- Manjushri Nagarakshasa comes to KFR!
- They were not wrong
- Can Tibetan Lamas Make Mistakes?
- My plea to His Holiness the Dalai Lama
- My plea to His Holiness (Tibetan) | ངའི་༧གོང་ས་མཆོག་ལ་སྙན་ཞུ་ཞུ་རྒྱུར།
- The Fourteenth Dalai Lama & Dorje Shugden | ༧གོང་ས་ཆེན་པོ་སྐུ་འཕྲེང་བཅུ་བཞི་པ་མཆོག་དང་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤུགས་ལྡན། | 十四世达赖尊者与多杰雄登
- The Fifth Dalai Lama & Dorje Shugden | ༧གོང་ས་ལྔ་པ་ཆེན་པོ་དང་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤུགས་ལྡན། | 第五世达赖尊者与多杰雄登
- Dorje Shugden: My side of the story
- 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
- The Buddhist Divide – An Unholy Campaign against Religious Freedom
- Tibetan Leadership’s New Anti-Shugden Video
- Updated: Dorje Shugden Teaching Videos
- The Dalai Lama Speaks Clearly About the Dorje Shugden Ban
- Nechung – The Retiring Devil of Tibet
Please support us so that we can continue to bring you more Dharma:
If you are in the United States, please note that your offerings and contributions are tax deductible. ~ the tsemrinpoche.com blog team
Religious Freedom is every human’s right and should be respected. We should not discriminate people base on their religion and beliefs though at times we dislike their religion. Each of us should allow to pray to what we like and believe. Even if the Dalai Lama has discouraged Dorje Shugden practice, there should not have any religious discrimination and enormous persecution against them. The practitioners should have the right without being penalized, without being discriminated, abused, attacked and so forth. Many Highly Attained Lamas have been practicing Dorje Shugden centuries ago, which included HH The Dalai Lama himself . HH Dalai Lama have recognized these reincarnated lamas himself. Politics and religion should not have mixed together which in turn causes disharmony ,misunderstanding ,discrimination, and hardship among the community. The ban has causing so much suffering among Tibetans and Dorje Shudgen practitioners for decades. In fact thousands of signs, memos and notifications have been disseminated throughout the Tibetans settlements banning Dorje Shugden practitioners. Even though there are overwhelming evidence that there is a ban on Dorje Shugden practice,yet the Tibetans leadership continue to insist that there is no ban.
The truth is the truth there is always a reason why accepting Dorje Shugden is good for Tibetan democracy. Dorje Shugden has helped many and many more people to come.
Thank you Rinpoche, for being so courageously speaking and logically for Dorje Shugden’s practitioners.
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
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
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.
The Tibetan community has suffered so much problems and difficulty due to so much mismanagement and lack of integrity by the CTA and its politicians. The Tibetans in exile might as start heading back to China, India is not a good place anymore.
At least in China there is much material growth, and development by China. Things are not looking for the Tibetans in exil those that are still in India, extinction of the Tibetan people in India is a certainty, as more and more Tibetan stay in Tibet due to better opportunities.
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 video condensed and made simple the history of the Dorje Shugden ban and the sufferings Dorje Shugden people experienced and continue to experience for 20 years. The video also laid out and reveal the truth and facts that Dorje Shugden was the Protector who advised His Holiness the Dalai Lama to flee to India and hence His Holiness’ life is saved. There is no religious freedom for the Dorje Shugden people worldwide because of the Dorje Shugden ban executed by the Central Tibetan Administration. We are, until today being discriminated and persecuted for simply practising our choice of religion and this is the truth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gis2vaURT40
Everyone has rights to practise what they like. Those who practise witchcraft has their rights to practise but they are not allowed to voice out their concerns, fearing to be treated differently just like most Dorje Shugden people.
https://video.tsemtulku.com/chat-videos/chat-1516798931.mp4
Taken away the rights to purchase items for witchcraft is the same as burning the witch for practising their religion. It is just a manifestation of different types of witch hunt and banning the sale of certain items is the same as stopping them from practising a certain ritual that is the same as taking their rights away. This scenario is the same as what Dorje Shugden people face also.
https://video.tsemtulku.com/chat-videos/chat-1516798088.mp4
This is another proof of discrimination that is similar to Dorje Shugden people. The witchcraft people do not get to purchase their religious practise items online because there is no law that protects their rights on what they can purchase and what not they cannot.
https://video.tsemtulku.com/chat-videos/chat-1516797979.mp4
In this video, a nice couple is being targeted and attacked just because they are pagan faith. They are Wiccan and the nice lady is a practising elemental witch, but they are being perceived to be bad people and hurting children, although none of that is true and they are being attacked for their faith. This is also another example of what Dorje Shugden people go through especially in Dharamsala, India because the Tibetan Leadership has put a notice on their official site stating that Shugden practitioners are bad and demon worshippers which is completely untrue. Hence, daily Shugden practitioners are being persecuted and if you are not there in Dharamsala, you get online abuse like what H.E. Tsem Rinpoche receives daily as well as myself and other Kecharians who are openly practising what our Guru gave us.
Is this kind of discrimination and violence acceptable in this day and age when there is religious freedom? Why are these people allowed to do this crime? Why is the Tibetan Leadership acting like a dictatorship and attacking others of a different faith? They do it indirectly and encourage this hatred because they do nothing, say nothing and have a page talking against Shugden on their official website. That is a clear indication there is a ban and discrimination against Shugden people.
https://video.tsemtulku.com/chat-videos/chat-1516798075.mp4
In this video is a police officer being discriminated for his Wiccan religion and he is going to sue the state because he was told it was mandatory for him to attend a Christian gathering. There is supposed to be freedom of religion, so why is it okay for a group of people to force other people to join, pray and believe their religion? And what gives them the authority to tell people what to believe or not to believe in? This is a dictatorship type of leadership, not a democratic one at all. And this is exactly the same question I would like to ask the Tibetan Leadership and those who come on our social media wall to abuse us and call us names and vulgarities because we practice Dorje Shugden. Watch what the guy says in the video.
https://video.tsemtulku.com/chat-videos/chat-1516798026.mp4
I’ve just attached a video here on a lady reading about “the Persecution of Women in Witchcraft”. It is stated that in the early 16th century there was a mass execution of witchcraft. In the year 1515 in Geneva Switzerland, they burned 500 witches at the stake.In 1526, 1000 witches in Italy were executed. In 1571 witch hunt spreads across France.In total it is estimated from 1500 – 1600, there were 50 – 80,000 suspected witches executed.
Religious persecution in any way is wrong, look at how many lives were taken because people decide to discriminate on others and persecute them just because they do not follow your belief system. This is exactly what Dorje Shugden practitioners are facing today as well when the Tibetan leadership keeps on harping and silently encouraging their people to discriminate and ostracised Shugden practitioners which we can see from all the above online abuse. Is this okay in this 21st century, is this what H.H. the Dalai Lama advocates – religious tolerance? I think not.
https://video.tsemtulku.com/chat-videos/chat-1516797992.mp4
Despite the founding fathers’ effort to give Americans religious freedom, the Wiccans and Pagans are denied their right, such as to have Chaplains to perform ceremonies, receiving books and materials and so on in prison. It is not fair and this is the kind of discrimination Dorje Shugden practitioners faces. Tibetans in exile are supposed to be ruled under democracy, but they are denied their rights of religious freedom. This is not fair.
https://video.tsemtulku.com/chat-videos/chat-1516797960.mp4
This is another example of religious discrimination. Wicca was accused to be related to Satan, which is not true. Wiccans are being rejected from being able to participate in the governmental system as they are not a member of the mainstream Judeo-Christian religion.Similarly, Dorje Shugden is accused to be a demon/ evil spirit, and that Shugden practitioners are not allowed to participate in the system – they cannot work in governmental jobs, they are denied travel documents, they are not denied medical treatment, and the members of the public are advised to not be associated with them.
https://video.tsemtulku.com/chat-videos/chat-1516797909.mp4
This video shows how Christians in Nigeria face enormous persecution, similar to what Dorje Shugden people are facing.Just like what Bishop Mike Moses said in the video, they are being persecuted “in your own country, your own community”, and that’s worse than being persecuted by others.
https://video.tsemtulku.com/chat-videos/chat-1516797726.mp4
Pagan man talks about freedom of religion choices
Religious freedom should be applicable to all including Pagan practitioners and atheists
https://video.tsemtulku.com/chat-videos/chat-1516796937.mp4
This man’s dilemma is similar to what Dorje Shugden practitioners are experiencing. Even if the Dalai Lama has discouraged Dorje Shugden practice, those who choose to retain their practice should still have the right to do so without being penalized, without being discriminated, abused, attacked and harassed day in day out. Religious Freedom is every human’s right and should be respected, when the Tibetan Leadership stay silent when Shugden practitioners are being attacked, it is clear they condone it. So how can Tibetan Leadership claim to be democratic when they are not and how can they point the finger and blame others for human rights abuse when they do so themselves with their very own people? Illogical, injustice and unacceptable in this day and age!
Oklahoma Pagan suffer Discrimination
A lady witch suffers discrimination after being found out that she is a witch.
https://video.tsemtulku.com/chat-videos/chat-1516796905.mp4
This is similar to what Dorje Shugden practitioners are experiencing in Tibetan settlements. Once they are found out that they are a Dorje Shugden practitioner, they would be a target for discrimination (e.g., denied service in the public places), some even target attacked. And if you are not in Dharamsala, you will be targeted and attacked online with vulgarities and all kinds of derogatory slurs.
Messianic Jews Persecuted
In 2005, a large number of protestors crashed the Messianic Jews Christmas eve celebration and told them to go back to Gaza.
https://video.tsemtulku.com/chat-videos/chat-1516796866.mp4
Any form of discrimination is wrong and should be discouraged and stopped. How can we discriminate people base on their religion, just because we dislike their religion? This is pure prejudice and hatred, so how can this be considered good and right for those executing such persecution? And this is exactly the same mentality the Tibetan Leadership has and encourage their people to attack Shugden practitioners. This is the kind of hatred that cause division, war, and suffering. How can one religion claim to be better than the other in the name of “God”? How can this be considered compassion?
The Tibetan Government-in-exile has a specific section that deters you from practicing your religion – Dorje Shugden – to show that there is no freedom of Religion. So we must need to get this straight! “If we practice Dorje Shugden, you will take rebirth in the three lower realm,” as the His Holiness, The Dalai lama has said. But, the evidences that Tsem Rinpoche has been showing us in this blog article, attested and indicated, that there are so many lamas and top lamas too, thousands of them, who since for the last 100 years have been practicing Dorje Shugden, (including His Holiness, The Dalai Lama himself), how come all these lamas reincarnated, where His Holiness himself and the Tibetan Government have recognized these reincarnated lamas. Since His Holiness himself approved these lamas, it does not make any sense, and most of these Dorje Shugden lamas have come back too! As so sincerely said by Rinpoche, Tibet, already a small though beautiful religious nation, has been suffering from segregation for a very longtime, with its people being scattered everywhere worldwide. The Central Tibetan Administration, by putting more salt to the wound, through the enforcement of the Ban, stop the practice of Dorje Shugden, which has further divided this small Tibetan community to a more decreasing level, almost to a point that can cripple the existence of the multitude of Tibetan people to a “zero effect”. Dorje Shugden, has been Tibet’s Dharma Protector for 400 years, relied upon and effectively prayed to by countless Tibetan practitioners and highly attained masters, including His Holiness, The Dalai Lama! All Tibetans must unite by stopping at any further discrimination of each other. All must join forces to unite into a strong single force of being loyal Tibetans for the benefit of Tibet on all rightful cause undivided. Thank you Rinpoche, for being so courageously speaking out so bravely, wisely and logically for Dorje Shugden’s practitioners! May all beings come under the undivided care, blessing, compassion and protection of Dorje Shugden in this and all lives.
When the Tibetan Government in Exile initially formulated its constitution, it was a democratic constitution, based 100 percent on democratic principles, vouch-saving the rights and freedoms of every citizen, including the right to practice the religion or to pursue the religious practice of their choice. However , in 1996, this constitution was seriously violated, when a ban was imposed on the practice of Dorje Shugden. In the last 2 decades since the ban was enforced, there has been so much suffering inflicted on those who chose to not give up their Shugden practice as it had been given to them by their root Guru. These practitioners have been segregated and discriminated and barred from schools , hospitals , shops and government jobs just because they are Shugden practitioners. Families have been divided over this issue. Friendships of years have been lost overnight. This pain and suffering was especially felt in monasteries and among monks and great masters alike.
So much suffering has resulted from the leadership’s enforcement of this ban. Is this democratic? Tibetans are not a big group of people and cannot afford to be disunited. However, as Rinpoche with sharp perception points out, the Tibetan leadership is the one to take the necessary step to see to the unity of its people, to see that all come together in harmony. The government should begin to repair the serious damage done to the very fabric of its society by the divisiveness created by the ban. Otherwise, it stands to lose everything, including its culture.
From the video, Rinpoche already explained it very details ( from A – Z ), regarding of CTA’s – the Tibetan government is undemocratic to their own Tibetan people and Dorje Shugden practitioners.
If i am not a Dorje Shugden practitioner, Rinpoche talk it’s really make sense and logic for myself. A very good point of Rinpoche mentioned about : It doesn’t matter if these people practice Dorje Shugden, it doesn’t matter if these people practice Catholicism, if they practice Hinduism, Judaism, Voodoo, if they practice Druid, if they practice witchcraft, magic, it doesn’t matter because deep down inside, they are people. If they are people and they are under a democratic rule, they should be accorded the respect of any other human being, regardless of what religion they practice.
CTA has failed their people in India and Tibet thoroughly. For over 60 years people still suffer. Not only that, CTA ban Dorje Shugden practice and created even more suffering their people. What’s the reason behind the ban? Why CTA blamed their failure to Dorje Shugden and discriminate His practitioners? Dorje Shugden is a major practice among Sakya and Gelug. Over 400 years Dorje Shugden not only worshiped by Tibetan but Chinese too. There’s no problem. But today CTA sees Dorje Shugden as an enemy?
CTA claimed Tibetan in exile as democratic country but lie. Which action showed that you are? Which government website in the world talked bad about a religion and ban their people of practicing? On top of that using it as a politic trick to play mind game with their people and get benefit from their people. This must stop. Tibetan has to wake up and stop allowing CTA to make used of you. 60 years is more than enough and you should not suffer more.
For more than 2 decades, DS practitioners are separate from its nation.
Isn’t this unfair to use religion as a tool for political.
CTA role supposed to exercise democracy in Tibet. Hence, the Tibetan should have the freedom to choose whatever spiritual practice.
CTA is a ‘democratic’ government that does not work for betterment of its people but one that wants its people to continue to suffer the effects of the 20year old Dorje Shugden ban.
CTA has gone too far and is pushing the tolerance of the Tibetan people especially the Dorje Shugden followers to the limit. Is it not enough already for the 20 years of segregation, oppression, discrimination, deprivation, disharmony, disunity, disappointment, pain, torture, fear, inconvenience, and so on?
The reasons for the ban are so illogical and without basis. It is unbelievable that in today’s modern world and time a government like CTA would enforce an unethical and unnecessary ban on its people. Furthermore a government should never mix politics with religion.
CTA has the audacity to enshrine within its constitution principles that discriminate against the Tibetan Dorje Shugden followers! CTA does not practise what is adopted in its constitution that all Tibetans shall be accorded equal human rights and freedom of religious practices.
Tibet cannot move forward because Tibetans are divided between independence and autonomy. The Dorje Shugden ban further aggravates the division.
CTA is incapable and has so many faults. After 58 years remaining as refugees, with no progess, many Tibetans in exile had already gained citizenships of their adopted countries. Tibetans who are still undecided or know what to do, must wake up to the truths and elect a new government to lead them towards happiness instead of suffering.
Thank you Rinpoche for speaking out and sharing the information with us about the importance and urgency to restore the unity, harmony and peace within Tibetan community by urging the CTA to be real democratic in their law enforcement and stop the ban of Dorje Shugden’s practice as this Dorje Shugden’s conflict has been there for more than 20 years that has brought many suffering, pain, discrimination, segregation and attacks to many Dorje Shugden’s practitioners.
Further, the CTA should respectfully follow H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama’s direction as the Dalai Lama himself has mentioned that we are allowed to practice Dorje Shugden if we want to on 19th September 2016. Please refer to the link for more information: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/current-affairs/dalai-lama-says-we-can-practise-dorje-shugden-finally.html
A democratic country leaders should win every of their citizen’s heart by uniting all of them with positive development in the aspect of living standard, education, economy, infrastructure, safety, tourism and so on. However, the CTA leaders just do the opposite by imposing the ban Dorje Shugden’s practice that creates disharmony, vulgarity, discrimination, unfair treatments and further split their own citizens for the last 20 years. Not a single normal person would like to go through so much pain and suffering as being endured by many Dorje Shugden’s practitioners.
I humbly request and pray to the Buddha of Compassion, H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama to quickly end the conflict of Dorje Shugden by initiating dialogues, meetings and discussions among all the Tibetan leaders in order to resolve this issue once and for all.
Humbly with folded hands,
kin hoe
For the past 60 years, Tibetan people had suffered much of humiliations, discriminations due to prevailing power of CTA. It’s not just in Tibet, India as well. How were there be democracy when CTA kept indulging into their own funds and ignored their people welfare.
Force people to stop practice Dorje Shugden is a very pathetic action. Religion is sensible. Religion shouldn’t involved with politics. Segregation of Dorje Shugden’s practice has caused so much pain, hurt, anger, hatred in the hearts of all Tibetans.
May there be peace for these pure soul devotees of Dorje Shugden. May their wound be healed by lifting up the ban. May every Tibetans live in free, harmony and peace. ???
The major countries of the world with a democratic government does not mix politics with religion. Both are mutually exclusive. So, for a government to practice segregation and discrimination based on religion is not democratic at all, the direct opposite of what the Dalai Lama has wished for the Tibetans. For the CTA to suppress, divide and discriminate based on religion is what they claim that China is practicing on Tibetans in Tibet. So, what is there for the rest of the world to support when they are practicing what they claim that China is doing? To be truly democratic, they should not even talk about the ban.
藏人行政中央（CTA）表里不一的行为与方式让全世界的人大跌眼镜，在这个繁华世界还存在着因为宗教信仰而被这样歧视与分割人们的基本信仰自由。，修持多杰雄登护法根本就没有错，也没有任何伤害他人的行为，修行就是一种自由。
修持多杰雄登护法的人就大逆不道吗？就是恐怖分子吗？为何不能得到相同应有的待遇到医院看病，小孩不能到学校上课，不能到商店购买日常生活商品？这个根本就是双眼看着他人受苦受难受折磨…… 这个是佛教徒因有的本质吗？是佛陀所流传下来的教诲吗？
CTA这简直就是剥夺人权，严重伤害人与人之间的关系，在搞分裂！试想今天你们的亲朋好友都遭受这样严重的影响与伤害，你们于心何忍？
你们CTA不要把达赖喇嘛做为你们的挡箭牌，做为你们滥用的宣传工具来带到自己的目的和利益。
达赖喇嘛是全世界受人敬仰的大慈大悲之佛，那里可能会被伤害呢？达赖喇嘛也不可能看着众生受苦受难或是受肉体之痛。
CTA应该要和150,000 的藏族同胞团结一致，和谐共处制造美好的未来。
Well is open eye for the people in the world understand how (democratic ) CTA is, and impriment bias religion freedom againt Dorje Shugden practice in their tibetan refugee sociaty divided tibetan separate apart from each others. This is cruel action has make tibetan refugee living at India and Nepal suffer more beside get support from the exile government. Why set such unfair law againt Dorje Shugden and some more put at official website of His Holiness Dalai Lama and Tibetan exile government website. This must be stop otherwise more tibetan refugee is suffering beside losing their own country.
With all the respect of Dalai Lama as the spiritual leader. Please be compassion with Dorje Shugden practitioner because most of them are still respect you as the spiritual leader. Don’t use the religion as the political issue to hurt others believe. This is what people outside of world seeing this situation right now. Please release this ban as soon as possible without creating more suffering for tibetan refugee. Without all tibetan in exile supporting , government in exile is no longer needed in the future.
The ban has causing so much suffering among Tibetan and Dorje Shudgen Practitioners.
Regardless whatever practises we choose from, there should not be any discrimination. Why can’t there be peace ? PEACE is what we want. FREEDOM of practise is what we want. CTA should STOP all the segregation , discrimination and confusion.
LIFT UP THE BAN!!!
PEACE, PEACE, PEACE, PEACE
The government of any country should keep in mind that they are public servants chosen by the majority to bring good to its people and nation. The governing people should not bring harm and create disharmony amongst its people because it will only result in pain and sufferings.
The ban on Dorje Shugden has been a subject that has brought split, disharmony and pain to many Tibetan families, friends and associates. There is no logical reason for the ban. This is clearly explained in many articles in this and other reliable websites.
The CTA should also stop denying that there is ban because there are sufficient evidence to this fact. The ban has not brought any progress and not benefited majority of theTibetan community. Dorje Shugden has been used as a tool to “divide and rule” Tibetan people.
Such policies to divide and rule will only benefit and make rich the few perpetrators who designed the policies.
So Tibetans, do wake up to these facts that have been shred by Rinpoche. Rinpoche has stuck his neck out to spell out the truth, to instil Wisdom to many. Read and listen with the right intention. Propagating a ban on Dorje Shugden has NOT HELPED ANYONE whether you are a Dorje Shugden practitioner or not. It has benefited no one except the few who designed this ban to split the community for their own benefit.
Its time to mend all the wounds and negative karma created. Stop being used by those with bad intentions.
The CTA too should seek deep within their conscience and STOP CREATING SUFFERINGS FOR THE TIBETAN PEOPLE !!
CHOOSE FREEDOM OF PRACTICE ! CHOOSE COMPASSION ! CHOOSE WISDOM ! CHOOSE PEACE !!
With folded hands.
Politics and religion should not mixed together which in turn causes disharmony ,misunderstanding ,discrimination, and hardship among the community. The so called ban on the Dorje Shugden practice is really unnecessary, creating so much sufferings for Tibetans in exile who practices Dorje Shugden which already been practiced (even by His Holiness Dalai Lama himself) for over 400 years. The reasoning of the ban has no logic and the argument of Dorje Shugden is an evil spirit is baseless and illogical when this sacred practice were being practiced by majority of Sanghas in the Gelugpa and also have a big influence in Sakya tradition. I hope His Holiness Dalai Lama would resolve the ban as soon as possible, as it has been going on for too long ?
Thank you very much Rinpoche and blog team for the live streaming and blog posts ? ?
There is a ban no matter how CTA denies it.!!
The Dorje Shugden people are being segregated, refrained from attending HHDL’ s talk, government does not employed Dorje Shugden people and hospital and school do not accept Shugdenpas. This policy to segregate against the Dorje Shugden people is creating many problems within the Tibetan in exile community.
This biased policy has created disunity, destroyed opportunities for Tibetans to achieve and grow because CTA focus so much on this ban, they pour in monies donated by the West to propagate hatred against Dorje Shugden people instead of taking care of the people. Dalai Lama, please lift the ban to restore unity and harmony!!
Politics and religion should have not mixed together which in turn causes disharmony ,misunderstanding ,discrimination, and hardship among the community. That’s what CTA has been causing pain and suffering, disharmony and divided the people who once were a peaceful community before the ban on Dorje Shugden. Dorje Shugden has been a Dharma Protector for 400 years, relied upon by countless attained masters, The HH Dalai Lama has once practiced DorJe Shugden .
CTA claimed to be democratic which is not true . Any democratic nation, the leaders must respect and treat all citizens equally regardless of race, beliefs and religions. A democratic leader will unite and have peaceful resolution among their community and not disunite them. With proven evidences that show that there was discrimination and segregation towards Dorje Shugden people in the Tibetan community . For decades the harm was done and hope there will no more holocaust happening again. The persecution and discrimination against Dorje Shugden practice and also the practitioners did happened. The Tibetan who practices Dorje Shugden has since suffered long enough. In fact thousands of signs, memos and notifications have been disseminated throughout the Tibetan settlements banning Dorje Shugden practitioners. Despite overwhelming evidence that there is a ban on Dorje Shugden practice, many supporters of the Tibetan leadership continue to insist that there is no ban. If there is no ban on Dorje Shugden, why do the monks need to be expelled from the monasteries???? Why are they not allowed and denied services at hospitals and staying in hotels, within the Tibetan settlements. They were barred from shops and restaurants, and not allowed to hold any position in the Tibetan civil service. Why are their children are blacklisted and bullied at school.??? Dorje Shugden practitioners continue to be abused, criticised and violently discriminated against that’s really sad about it.
Hopefully CTA could make the changes as advised by Rinpoche to unite the Tibetans for good. Well it would be wonderful to remove all their information against Dorje Shugden practice on their websites Tibet.net and DalaiLama.com. To speak the truth and only truth and not negatives information and foremost to promote unity and harmonious environment .
My plea to His Holiness the Dalai Lama please have religious freedom allow us to choose what we want to pray .
We love HH Dalai Lama and we love DORJE SHUGDEN.
Please have a dialogue and dissolve the ban on Dorje Shugden .
Please clarify the stand on Dorje Shugden for once and all to have peace and compassion .Thank you Rinpoche for such a clear explanation .
A democratic government is a ruling system that believe in freedom & equality among the people regardless of their cultural background, color, religion, race, education & so on. It is one of the widely practice system in most major nations in the world. It protects the rights of the people in which the laws & procedures apply equally to all citizens. One of the right of citizen in a democracy system is that the people has the right to have their own religious beliefs, everyone is free to choose their own religion, to worship & practice their religion as they deem fit. There is freedom to move about in the country, even in & out of the country.
Likewise, if the CTA says that they are practicing democracy in all their offices matters why is it that tibetan who practice dorje shugden are being segregated, not allow to work in any government offices & hospitals, deny of all support, benefits & social welfare from the government? Aren’t these tibetan people the same as the other tibetan citizen who supported you before the shugden ban? Under the democracy system, don’t they deserve the equal rights, respect & freedom from the same government they have trusted & respect for all these years.
In short, I plead to CTA to stop all the suffering of tibetan shugden practitioner by treating them the same as all tibetan citizens in a democratic manner & unite all tibetan people around the world with their families & friends. With unity, there will be peace & harmony within the tibetan community & this is the way that the Buddha has taught, not to hate but to be compassionate & kind to all.
仁波切开示提到，世界上大多数民主国家都给予人民宗教信仰自由的权利,包括难民。
但西藏(CTA)行政中央政府却待自己的子民連难民都不如．只因为*不听话*，只因为没有跟他们信仰一至．只因为你是 #多杰雄登 修持者。
所以凡逆我者意，一律不准上学，看病，得不到证件，更过份的是連有錢也買不到日常用品及糧食。这根本就是非常嚴重的宗教岐视与边缘化及違反人权。
真难为了当地的修持者与僧人，各分派别，使用暴力迫使对方一定要跟从CTA 的决策。
这也等於製造一个笑话给别的宗教信仰者看，原来佛教也鼓吹暴力解决问题．当然这只是表面而已，最大的问题还是源自於骯髒的政治手段。
事到如今全世界都在关注 CTA 与 达赖尊者如何收拾这殘局．
如連这小小的宗教信仰自由都不能给予，还談什么其他更大的进展。
尊敬的达赖尊者，开放禁令吧！只要您一声令下，向世界媒体公佈，西藏就进步了！
CTA should concentrate by providing equal opportunities in terms of work and welfare for the people of Tibet. Creating segregation amongst Tibetan and using Dorje Shugden as the scapegoat for CTA failure to obtain the independence for Tibet is creating a very harmful to the morale of Tibetans. Families and friends were separated due to the misunderstand disagreement which should not have happened in the first place.
As a result, Dorje Shugden followers are not allowed to patron certain restaurants, hospitals, libraries and even to the extent they are not allowed to attend a public talk by His Holiness Dalai Lama. As a democratic body, CTA should not discriminate individuals who simply wish to practice Dorje Shugden. Why is it wrong to follow instructions of their respective teachers. As a Buddhist, should we not practice Guru Devotion?
CTA should stop the discrimination
and segregation among the people of Tibetan by truly be a democratic government and move on as one unified nation in order to go further.
Religion is always being the light for people, to shine and lead us out when we’re in dakness.
Religion is always teaching people to be good and be a better person in life.
Freedom is the rights & property of all human being.
Respect each other, regardless of race, status, religion & gender is the only way to PEACE.
Thank you, Tsem Rinpoche, for your logical explanations and provided evidences regarding the BAN of Dorje Shugden practice.
60 years ago Tibetan leadership has promised their people that they will be going back to Tibet, so by right, for the past 60 years, CTA should work with all ways to their best to fulfill their promise to their citizen, but in fact, what we see is they spent tons of money and time and effort to produce materials to defame Dorje Shugden practitioners, to hire people to focus on doing social media to attack Dorje Shugden practitioners online, to publish books, videos, etc just to bring down Dorje Shugden.
Honestly speaking, when they spent so much time on attacking Dorje Shugden practitioners, how can they work their way back to Tibet? Instead of uniting their people to work together, they split their people apart, how to get back Tibet when they keep splitting their people? it doesn’t make sense at all.
CTA claim they are democratic, then they should show it by action and not just talking, they should unite their people, they should accept Dorje Shugden practitioners, they should accept everyone no matter of what is their belief, background, education, gender, age, etc etc, a government should treat their citizen equally and not discriminating them. I hope CTA realized this and stop hurting Dorje Shugden people anymore.
CTA should definitely remove all negative statements on Dorje Shugden from Tibet.net and Dalailama.com.
Not only it’s undemocratic, it’s mixing religion and politics. Mixing religion with politics means using religious faith for political aims and much known suffering throughout history was in the name of religion.
There is no difference when it comes to the Dorje Shugden issue. A diversion to CTA’s failure, and a strategy to divide and conquer, many Tibetans suffered in the hands of their government for their religious beliefs. How can CTA claim to be a democratic when all evidence points against them?
A true democracy can only thrive when people are able to express their opinions freely and debate.
Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by United Nations Article 2 & 18,
*Article 2*
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
*Article 18*
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Source: http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
From the 2 articles above, it is clearly state that every single human beings have the right to have his freedom in religion. Thus when a CTA have openly declared to ban Dorje Shugden’s practitioner from having medical treatment to barred the person to be a government representation it is a violation of International governed law. This have not talk about Buddhism, where, Buddha do not taught us to “ban” and discriminate peoples. Thus, CTA not only violet International law, they have also ruin the reputation of all Buddhist. It is a shame to put on their own website to encourage more people to discriminate and create religion apartheid. It is a shame when the CTA or the Tibetan leaders like Lobsang Sangay talks about human rights and democratic on international stage where they themselves have seriously violate the international law.
Worst! H.H Dalai Lama in many propaganda have projected to the world on the compassion images H.H have. But, in H.H own website, there are discrimination on religion. Doesn’t it sound confuse?! What is Buddhist practicing? Discrimination through religion or acceptance of all mankind despite their religion. What is the Tibetan leadership trying to project the world? CTA project to the world that H.H Dalai Lama is a highly attain reincarnate lama but in the other hand telling the world that H.H Dalai Lama could be harm by Dorje Shugden. Is CTA trying to tell to the world that Dorje Shugden is very powerful that Dorje Shugden can harm the highly attain monk, or, CTA are trying to tell the world that H.H Dalai Lama is not highly attain monk, worst; not even a monk, because, we as a buddhist know that when a person hold vinaya vows and wear monk robes, they could not be harm by spirit. So which CTA wanted to project- The vulnerable of H.H Dalai Lama or Dorje Shugden is stronger than H.H Dalai Lama?
Thank you to Rinpoche for this powerful teaching and very details explanation with evidences. ???
I am quite shock that when I first came to know for the Tibetan people who practice the Dorje Shugden are not allowed in Tibetan schools, are not allowed to work in Tibetan government positions, are not allowed to enter Tibetan hospitals, are not allowed to enter Tibetan associations, and receive any benefits that other Tibetans have a right to.
This is so unfair and ridiculous. In this new era everyone should be treated the same. CTA has shown that they are not democratic as they didn’t practice democracy all the way.
“According to political scientist Larry Diamond, democracy consists of four key elements: (a) A political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections; (b) The active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life; (c) Protection of the human rights of all citizens, and (d) A rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens.[4] ” get this from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy.
I strongly agree with the point Rinpoche said “The job of a Buddhist monk is to love all beings regardless of who they are, how naughty they might be or how good they might be. The job of a democratic leader is to gather his people together and unite his people, and bring his people as one regardless of gender, age, colour, race, economic background, sexual orientation, and religion.”
The democratic leader should think how and effectively to united the people to bring all the people together to able to get stronger, live better and harmony. CTA should protect their own people instead having the DS ban which had lead segregation of the Tibetan people and they are been suffer for so long. So sad to see this is happening. Please remove all writtings from Tibet.net and DalaiLama.com that refers negatively to Dorje Shugden and all the segregation against Tibetan Dorje Shugden practitioners should stop.
Your Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, please unite us, please allow us to meet you, please allow us to join your talks and please allow all people regardless of their religion.
Tashi Delek Rinpoche la,
In Tibetan Gelug tradition, choje gandenpai luk, we make Lamrim prayer in Lama Chöpa two week one time.
We pray:
“Even if I must remain for an ocean of eons in the fiery hells of Avici for the sake of even just one sentient being, I seek your blessings to complete the perfection of joyous effort to strive with compassion for supreme enlightenment and not be discouraged.”
We pray this so we must do. _/:\_
I was very shock when I first heard about the Tibetan leadership has mentioned in their constitution and ruling that all Dorje Shugden practitioners cannot attend HH Dalai Lama’s teaching, may not go to TIbetan Hospital, or even work in the Tibetan government. This is clearly discrimination and segregation and no democracy at all.
To me, democracy is very simple, i.e. everyone has the rights to vote and will be treated equally regardless of their races, gender or religions. All are treated equally and be accepted and respected.
Tibetan leadership has been requesting the world to support their cause and blame China. However, what they have been doing to Dorje Shugden practitioners are clearly discrimination on their own people who do not have the same religion or belief as them. CTA is asking China to be democratic while CTA is not acting democratically to their people. There is no human right and no religious freedom at all!
CTA should remove all the information against Dorje Shugden practice, lineage, people on their website and promote unity and harmony among all it’s people. That’s true democracy!
I heard it once but it struck me then as it does now – The Dorje Shugden ban really has no benefit for anyone. From the Dalai Lama himself who have to contend with loss of reputation all the way to Shugden practitioners struggling with the discrimination and segregation due to the ban. Furthermore, it is really quite easy to see that the ban is disrupting harmony within the Tibetan community.
The fact that they Tibetan leaders don’t see this or won’t see this is highly suspicious. There must be a reason for this, perhaps, it is a diversion or scapegoat to take the attention away from CTA’s more obvious failures. I am talking about why CTA has failed to secure fresh talks with China. Furthermore, more and more Tibetans are fleeing the settlements and applying in droves to emigrate the America or any other Western countries.
However, they think they can get away with talking about other issues but more and more people are attune to the truth . Eventually, more people will start to question because the job of CTA is to maintain policies that foster peace and harmony within the Tibetan community. Are they doing their job? Obviously not and that is why they will eventually have to scrap the Shugden ban.
Thank you Rinpochela for speaking out for all of us, the Dorje Shugden practitioners. My Guru gave me Dorje Shudgen practice but I am force to hide on my practice or me and my family will be harmed. I love His Holiness too. Please let us practice Dorje Shugden practice from our Guru in peace and openly.
सभी लोगों को एक ही मानवाधिकार होना चाहिए । यह उचित नहीं है कि कुछ लोगों को इस स्वतंत्रता की अनुमति है और अन्य नहीं हैं। खासकर यदि वे लोकतंत्र में रह रहे हैं । भारत सरकार को इस बारे में कुछ करना चाहिए । तिब्बतियों भारत में रहते हैं और इस तरह उनके अपने लोगों के खिलाफ कार्रवाई करने के लिए भारतीय संविधान के खिलाफ जाता है। भारतीय ऐसे धार्मिक भेदभाव को सहन नहीं करते हैं ।
“Unity makes strength”. When the people in the country unite ,the country will be stable and much more easy to grow strong. However, sad to see CTA use religion that is the issue of Dorje Shugden to create segregation, division among their own peoples, these all support by proof and one of the proof is they have their official websites to encourage their own people to do so. The world now are turning their back to CTA, this is the result of 60 years leadership, and those Tibetan in India still are refugees. What else they can do further to improve their situation right now. CTA should not involve in religious matters, lift the ban, accept different believes to show the true democracy in order to unite the peoples toward a better tomorrow and no more wasting resources and time make false statement to misleading their own peoples and public. CTA, please make a right choice, the Tibetans now are smarter.
谢谢仁波切的分享。
藏人行政中央那么多年来都说自己已经转型成为民主政府， 达赖喇嘛也已经不是政教合一的最高领袖， 已经把政治权力还政于民。 不过事实上真的是如此吗？ 藏人行政中央真的是实施民主制度吗？
仁波切在视频里有说， 世界上大多数民主的国家都给予人民宗教自由的权利。 而且不会以宗教、性别、外貌、种族来标签别人。 你想象一下， 如果基督教教宗发表对于其他宗教有歧视性的言论， 那么那位教宗还值得我们跟随吗？ 当然教宗并不会那么做。
不过， 自称为西藏流亡在外人们的政府的藏人行政中央可不是那样了。 他们严重歧视多杰雄登修持者， 多杰雄登修持者没有办法得到平常人所得到的福利。 他们不可以到藏人医院接受资料， 不可到藏人学校学习， 没有办法得到证件出国， 甚至不可以到商店购买日常用品。 这些总总荒谬的政策在世界眼中会是怎么一回事？ 一个民主的政府应该是这样的吗？ 因为他们是多杰雄登修持者而这样对待他们吗？
还有一件在视频里没有提到的就是藏人行政中央很多政策都是乃琼神谕所给的指示， 详情请看 https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/current-affairs/tibetan-mp-tenpa-yarphel-speaks-up-against-nechung.html
而这个政策也不断被别人所诟病，包括藏人行政中央里其中一位国会成员 Tenpa Yarphel 也勇于在国会发表他对这个政策的意见。 而且那么多年来乃琼神谕所给的预言都是不准确的。
简单来说， 如果藏人行政中央想要成为一个真正民主的政府， 他们就必须解除多杰雄登禁令。 停止标签修习多杰雄登的人为“间谍、叛徒‘’ 等等。
谢谢
Dear friend i started praticing dorje shugden 19 year ago.My teacher is a dorje shugden pratitioner.I like dorje shugden save my family pratice please because dont say dorje shugden spirit buddha please tibetan peple pratice derje shugden please give freedom Thank you karma??????
As a political government, the CTA shouldn’t even be involved in religion in the first place. The government should be uniting their own people, benefit their own people and be harmonious. Instead the CTA are using Dorje Shugden as one of their main priorities to segreagate, discriminate and create disharmony among the Tibetans. What is the logical reason for doing that? How can a government use religion to do that? Why get involved in religion?
Instead the CTA should be using their time wisely to help their people who are refugees in India. Why get so much donations and no improvement?
They violate the simplest basic human rights. Whatever religion their people choose, CTA have no rights to say whether it’s wrong or right. Which government in the world tell their own people such thing? Then what is religious freedom?
我一直认为西藏社会是一个奉行佛教的群体。印象中的西藏人都很淳朴、谦卑和虔诚。今天看到在西藏流亡社区竟然出现各种反多杰雄登的告示牌，多杰雄登修持者竟然被排挤到连基本福利都无法享有的地步，这实在令人感到震惊。
这样公然鼓吹歧视的做法，即便在一个普通的民主社会中都不存在，没想到竟然会出现在一个佛教社会里。我看不到慈悲，只看到政治。
撇开佛教精神不说，一个小小的流亡社群，寄居在其他国家里，该努力达致的是团结，而不是分裂。就像一对孤儿被人领养，兄弟之间肯定要彼此照顾，除了协助彼此成长，还要避免给领养家庭添麻烦，怎可能彼此伤害呢？这样做不只是不感恩收留你的家庭，反倒给他们制造问题，谁会欢迎这样的人？
在外人眼中，西藏跟佛教，达赖喇嘛跟慈悲与和平几乎是挂上等号的。这个多杰雄登禁令所引发的歧视性行为，让我完全改变了原有对西藏人和达赖喇嘛的看法。我无法想象今日西藏人如何看待这件事，眼睁睁看着自己的政府和长久以来的精神领袖鼓吹人民分裂，换成是我，必然痛心疾首。
话虽如此，即便只是一个外人，我也不想看到西藏社群走向分裂，更不希望佛教热爱和平的美誉会因此而受损。希望达赖喇嘛和西藏流亡政府能早日采取必要行动，纠正这个过失。
Tibetan government said Shugden people have their own monastery and they are free to practice Dorje Shugden. But my monastery friends was expelled from own monastery because of the Shugden ban imposed by the Tibetan government. Nowhere to go, they build a new monastery and CTA using this as a cover to show they did no wrong.
CTA is not only undemocratic, their ruling is based on lies, corruption and self-interest.
The so called ban on the Dorje Shugden practice is really unnecessary, creating so much sufferings for Tibetans in exile who practices Dorje Shugden which already been practiced (even by His Holiness Dalai Lama himself) for over 400 years. The reasoning of the ban has no logic and the argument of Dorje Shugden is an evil spirit is baseless and illogical when this sacred practice were being practiced by majority of Sanghas in the Gelugpa and also have a big influence in Sakya tradition.
And for all, CTA being the government (supposedly) should be uniting it’s people rather than creating a split. The impact of discrimination and segregation on Tibetans Dorje Shugden practitioners is severe to the extent of separating family members, students/patients no longer able to go to certain schools/hospitals because of their Dorje Shugden practice, even hotels discriminates their patrons as shown above in the youtube link.
I often think why would they want to do something to their own people where helping them with their current situation would be more sensible. Remember they were supposed to be still refugees and i am very glad that this doesn’t happen in our beautiful Malaysia. Religion should be free for anyone to accept or reject and not to be forced upon. As long as the religion is not forcing someone to kill/hurt someone and encourages kindness and compassion then i feel this is good enough.
Over the years i do notice there are resentments from Tibetans and Dorje Shugden practitioners over the banning of this unnecessary ban which is still baffling. I do hope His Holiness The Dalai Lama will come out and say something about this as i feel the Tibetan Leadership has already went overboard in “enforcing” this ban and brings split within their community. Already a “nation” in exile, then you have your own government who is supposed to take care of you trying to segregate you and discriminate you over your choice of religion passed down by your Guru. How sad is that.
The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) claim they are democratic and yet they persecute against a religion. It is absolutely wrong, illegal and inhumane. It is against their Constitution that claims to defend the people’s religious freedom! Their action is also contrary to what the Dalai Lama is advocating around the world for religious harmony, peace and loving kindness. It certainly does not make them look good at all and makes the world think it is blasphemy!
Do you also know that the CTA uses donations from many different nations to persecute Dorje Shugden practitioners? As the survival of CTA depends on handouts of many kind donors, it is clearly that their donations for the “Tibetan Cause” has been channelled to finance the persecution of Dorje Shugden practitioners and the curtailment of religious freedom is a violation of human rights.
成为一个自由民主的国家，具备的条件就是包括了言论自由，人权自由以及信仰自由。当掌权政府剥夺了一部份群体以上这一些自由，或者不公平对待或偏帮其中一些人民，这造成不和谐，社会将会分化。
多杰雄登课题，CTA不但没有服行政府团结人民的责任，扮演维护自由民主的角色，反而鼓吹对多雄登修持者，以仇恨，暴力，边缘化的方式来迫使他们放弃修持多杰雄登法门。这样的压迫性的管理方式，已经违法了自由民主的政策！
很赞同仁波切点出CTA很多不合逻辑政策，让更多人了解事情的真相。只有团结人民，藏人社会不分化，人人都能够自由的选择本身的信仰，人民无忧，国家才能强大。
谢谢仁波切
The CTA is quite a cunning and clever band of politicians, and also very polished and practiced in their craft – firstly it is the only government without a country to govern, it is a law unto itself with zero accountability to anyone least of all it own people, it collects a lot of money annually from generous patrons and sponsor without having to produce any goods or services, it doesn’t have to do anything for its own people and in fact the poorly the Tibetan people are, the more money the CTA receives.
It is not difficult for anyone to work out that disunity is bad for the country and when a government purposely creates divisions within its own community, then something is wrong somewhere. It is either a chronically inept government that has to be changed as a matter of great importance. Otherwise the partitioning of its people is a strategy to keep the populace distracted from the fact that the CTA is corrupt. As long as the people are preoccupied with inter-faction disagreements and conflicts between groups segregated by the government, they are divided and conquered. And that’s the whole point of keeping the Shugden ban and its also the reason why the CTA keeps fanning the rangzen vs umaylam confusion.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this informative video with us. I personally do not understand why there is a ban what is the motive behind it because this action is very negative it does not bring any benefits to the people in actual fact there should be any discrimination among the people who have their own right to practice whatever religion they want by segregation of this people it create a lot of disharmony and suffering to the Tibetan especially those who live in India and Nepal because their faith is very much depends on the CTA. I sincerely hope that the Dalai Lama can really see the point of being a leader is to create peace and harmony to his people please lift the ban and let everyone live harmoniously in the community .
Tibetans in exile are already facing a lot of sufferings and difficulties living in exile. They deserve a real democratic government and good leadership to lead them out of this situation. However, the Central Tibetan Admistration (CTA) even though claim themselves to be a democratic government, who receives funds and helps from western democratic countries that promotes human rights and religious freedom, are still officially encouraging segregation among their people purely base on religious belief, this is totally unacceptable.
Tibetan nowadays are much more exposed to the outside world compared to decades before. Younger generation are well-educated and have their own critical thinking. They want a better life, more opportunities and to be treated equally and that can only be achieved if they have a good leadership that really care about their welfare. Religious is not so important to them as compared to their parents’ generation. If CTA really wants to unite their people, they should stop playing religious card, they should stop segregating their people. A government that do whatever they want and disregard the global trend will only create doubts and disbelief among their people. Once Tibetans lose trust in their goverment, unity can never be achived. And since they are already in exile, going anywhere would be the same to them. If given an opportunity, they might choose to leave the Tibetan society in exile. In fact, many have already done so.
In conclusion, to respect the human rights and religious freedom among Tibetans is just the very basic assurances that the CTA should provide to their people. What CTA should focus on is to take care of the general welfare of their people but not wasting money and effort in spreading rumours about Dorje Shugden and create segregation among people. Tibetans are much smarter now. They won’t be blind followers forever.
The right to religious freedom is
“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
– The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18 –
With reference to the above, it is clear that religious freedom is our human right. This means that no individual, group or even government has the right to dictate what we can or cannot practise. For a government-in-exile to discriminate its own citizens who chose to practice Dorje Shugden is undemocratic and divisive. Such discrimination creates disunity and what CTA actually needs now is unity. As the saying goes, “United we stand, divided we fall.”
As a so called democratic government, the CTA should focus their time and energy in helping their people and not creating a rift and split among Tibetans especially using religion as a means. Why make Tibetans suffer more after all the sufferings they have gone through, losing their homes and separated from their families and relatives in Tibet. Tibetans living outside of Tibet are classified as refugees who have little rights, less freedom, less opportunities to earn honest living to fend for their families compared to other citizens of the world who are not stateless. CTA should put effort in providing for their people instead of harping on the religious issue of discriminating people who practice Dorje Shugden. CTA should not be involved in the religious matter of the people – govern your people well, provide for them, unite them, give them happiness and not create sadness, treat them equally as human beings, especially practitioners of Dorje Shugden, and not as pariahs.
All it takes is for HH The Dalai Lama to say that everyone has the right to practice whatever they want and they have the right to be admitted into any place they wish to enter legally. That would be a great show of loving compassion in action, as taught by HH.
All countries and government around the world should practice democracy, including the Tibetan leadership. They should not segregate and ostracize people due to their religion, or else how is that democracy? This is clearly a discrimination against Dorje Shugden people, why do the Tibetan leadership encourage disharmony and separation within its own society? More and more Tibetans are travelling overseas, and their future generations are all born on foreign grounds, shouldn’t this be a reminder to the CTA of their failure in running the country? After losing their country for more than six decades, no effort has been seen in putting towards the goal of getting Tibet back. They would rather spend the money somewhere else.
All the CTA can do is blame it on the Chinese for taking away their country, but who signed the agreement to give Tibet away? The Tibetan leadership signed it to save themselves and did not think about the effects it will have on hundreds of thousands of Tibetan in Tibet. So why are they blaming China? Not only them blame their failure on China, they also made Dorje Shugden a scapegoat just so that they can continue to control the Tibetans? It’s illogical. If Dorje Shugden is so evil, just bind him, subdue him, or even kill him, there are rituals to do all these. So why didn’t the CTA just do it? Then no one is stopping the Tibetan leadership in getting Tibet back? Unless Dorje Shugden is not the real reason why they lost Tibet. Tibetans must all unite, stop discriminating one another and join forces together to protect Tibet.
It’s 2017 and it is unbelievable that religious apartheid is STILL happening. What’s odd is that this is by a government-in-exile who is supposed to unite all Tibetans and work towards a common goal ie a free Tibet. While CTA claims to be democratic, the fact that they have a section solely for Dorje Shugden, painting this Dharma protector in a very negative light, is a solid proof of how (un)democratic CTA is.
How on earth can CTA regain Tibet when they do not practice what they claim to be? A democratic government that openly discriminates its own citizens, based on their religious believes. People have access to the outside world now, given how advanced the technology these days. Am sure Tibetans are able to see CTA’s true colours. If CTA truly wants to rule their homeland, the ban MUST be lifted. As long as there is still a ban, there is little hope for CTA and Tibetans to return home.
This lama makes perfect sense in what he says. His speech is very clear and is filled with sound logic. I am very happy to have stumbled onto his blog and to learn about this aspect of the Dorje Shugden ban.
The ban is imposed by the Dalai Lama and is used as a political tactic by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) that was meant to be a religious issue. From the religious point of view, it is illogical to say that Dorje Shugden is a spirit given the fact that it has been around for 400 years and is widely spread and practised by highly attained masters throughout the history. The practice would not be spread if no spiritual attainments and aids were granted from the practice in the first place.
The CTA conveniently strengthen the ban to be on the good book of the Dalai Lama in order to continue to benefit from the Dalai Lama’s fame. This is how the CTA works although on the surface, they are supposed to be democratic and independent of the Dalai Lama. Otherwise, why would murderer Penpa Tsering still allowed to be in the office if he has not been on the Dalai Lama’s good book? Penpa Tsering committed a lot of crime including human trafficking, yet he is still part of the CTA and enjoys the benefits.
The CTA is formed by a group of people who have no intentions to benefit their people. They are opportunist who ride on the Dalai Lama’s fame for their selfish gain. This is a well known fact because there is no significant results in the past 60 years – those in India remain as refugees and winter sweater sellers. They mixed religious and political issues as scapegoat hoping that people will be stupid enough to not see their real intentions.
Dorje Shugden is an enlightened being. He wouldn’t mind what the CTA did to his pure name but this doesn’t mean that the CTA can continue to do so. By imposing the ban, the CTA is trying to end the Dorje Shugden lineage and further segregate fellow Tibetans by discriminating the Dorje Shugden practitioners. Ending the lineage is a religious matter which the CTA should not be involved in, while discriminating the people is an unwise move that is against the nature of democracy.
In order for the CTA to be truly democratic, they should lift the Dorje Shugden ban and work towards actualising the middle way for the betterment of Tibetans in the whole world.
I love Dalai Lama and I love Dorje Shugden, but this seems contradicting in the eyes of Central Tibetan Administrations. However, why contradicting?
It’s very heart wrenching to see a Tibetan who can only choose either one. This is a modern world and if you are living under a democratic government, you have to right to choose who you love, either one or more.
I appreciate Tsem Tulku Rinpoche for speaking out with so much courage and logic. It must be not easy slandering by so many people but yet still standing strong for Dorje Shugden people. As a human being, we owe you a lot. May the ban on Dorje Shugden be lifted the soonest!!!
Thanks Rinpoche and the hardworking team for the live streaming video on FB and an informative post.
Yes I am fortunate to live in a country that practises real democratic. I can’t imagine the suffering of Dorje Shugden people need to go through in Tibetan living settlement, there are so much unfairness and illogic policies such as if you practice Dorje Shugden, you cannot go into certain places that provide services for public.
Personally I think these illogical statements from CTA is one of the reason that bring their “country” down, that until today, there’s not any closer to see Tibet will get their country back, which they really need to think about what’s wrong with them. Which government in this world spend efforts on segregating their people instead of uniting them?
For the sake of people’s welfare, I urge CTA to look into lifting this ban on Dorje Shugden, please.
Thank you ???
Criticizing a religion or faith definitely shouldn’t be done by a government. We Tibetans are already so divided and weak, highlighting differences among us, formatting discriminating rules only making us further divided. A government should move with the time, not stay stagnant in the times of 200 years ago, remains as a authoritarian government. In this 21 century nobody will like it, it’s not welcomed, because it’s something obsolete. This is a time of democracy. I agree we should move forward, be a more democratic country.
Tibet can be a strong country, that’s not something impossible we always believe, that’s what my grand father always tell me. He always said, to make Tibet strong, the people all must strong, the ruling body also must be strong. Our enemy obviously is own ourselves. Please do not add in another thing to divide us, instead moving forward with the same goal. The real monster is actually the differences we are making INSIDE. Get rid of it now before it’s too late. Whatever issues making us divided and destroyed either is this Dorje Shugden discrimination or another, please our Sikyong to adjust the wrong, adapt the right. This is my request to you.
Thank Your Eminence Tsem Tulku for bringing this topic into light.
No it does not befit a holy man like HH the Dalai Lama to be biased and segregate people based on religion and No it does not befit a democratic administration to implement such biased ruling.
I will not longer donate to their campaigns anymore. I appreciate you have brought these very true issues into light and with logic with supporting evidence. It helps people like me who were not aware of such hypocrisy and lies. I really thought they were doing something good, but I always wonder if the funds goes to the people and I always thought their progress is slow or not very tactful.
I must admit the media has painted a very rosy image of Tibetans in exile and His Holiness, we are kind of shield from such news, but recently due to many blunders His Holiness has made… such as sexist comments on women and certain races, it made me start to question. Also I have no clue how is the Tibetan administration using their funds, it is all very shaddy and there is no transparency. I have been thinking what they are doing is legit but I had my suspicions… now we know some of it. I am deeply disappointed and will donate and support elsewhere. Thank you Tsem Tulku ? ??
Lastly… no one should be discriminated regardless of their religion, race, gender, I am totally against this and will not support any persons or organisation who encourages this. Good day!
When words fall on deaf ears
To support Tibet cause and Tibetans, I believe we would support a government which is creating harmony and unity of the people, which make contribution to a better world. But not a government in exile which is having constitutional laws of discrimination, segregation and disunity. By supporting or silence about the latter we are no difference from supporting an unfair, hatred and cruel governing body.
Many who support Tibetan government in exile may or may not aware of the Dorje Shugden issue, or may not fully understand the issue. However with the explanation with logic and proof by H.E. Tsem Rinpoche, I think many should strongly urge Tibetan government in exile to start working towards a democratic and mature government which work on the welfare, unity and a better future of Tibetans, for the real benefits of Tibetans; instead of keep dividing Tibetans and creating sufferings to many with various issues including Dorje Shugden issue.
I would to really support a Tibet cause, Tibetans and Tibetan government in exile, is not to keep silence about the segregation and discrimination policies of Tibetan government in exile. But by urging Tibetan government in exile to move towards becoming a democratic government is not equal to harming the Tibet cause. By this way you are actually assisting and contributing in building a more beautiful, democratic and peaceful Tibet, to our existing world.
How we support a peaceful world and a better Tibet in real sense? I agree with what Rinpoche said:
1. Immediately removing all the information against Dorje Shugden practice, this will help to stop creating dissension among Tibetans.
2. Formatting policies of welcoming and loving all Tibetans, no matter what religion they are in. All must allowed to attend His Holiness Dalai Lama’s teachings or gathering. Thus lead all Tibetans by compassion, acceptance and tolerance.
Thank you.
THIS, JUST THIS, IS ENOUGH TO LIFT THE BAN.
“Whether you are a Dorje Shugden Tibetan, you are a Muslim Tibetan, you are a Bonpo Tibetan, you are a Nyingma Tibetan, Kagyu Tibetan, you are a Gelug Tibetan, you are a Sakya Tibetan, whether you are a black Tibetan, you are a white Tibetan, a girl Tibetan, a boy Tibetan, whatever Tibetan you are, you are welcome by your leader the Dalai Lama, he loves you, and you are welcome to his talks and you are welcome to get his blessings.” That’s what the Tibetan leadership should say, and I’m waiting for that. So, if the Tibetan leadership really wants to be democratic, this is how democracy is, this is how democracy operates, this is how democracy really should be.
Our Tibetan government in exile should really remove the false accusation and defamation against Dorje Shugden on the CTA website tibet.net and Dalai Lama’s website dalailama.com They are really not the right thing to do and it really bring shame to all Tibetans. How can we the Tibetans who are the followers of Buddha and supposed to practice compassion do like this? How come we are not embracing our “enemy” instead we drive them away and segregate them, some more on our spiritual leader and government’s official website? Very shameful. I believe our kind donors around the world have noticed this double-standard and I am really worried if they will continue to donate to us and fund us, really worried.
I have been following the issue of the Dorje Shugden ban and reading up as much as I can to get a well-rounded view – for, against and neutral (academic fact-based texts).
While there appears to be fair arguments from those opposing the practise, these positions are purely from historical allegories and doctrinal disputes that IMHO does not warrant the extreme response of imposing a governmental policy and ‘national’ ban which is:
(1) baseless,
(2) discriminatory,
(3) un-democratic, and
(4) divisive.
As far as I can see, Dorje Shugden practitioners:
(1) are not hostile or aggressive,
(2) do not promote violence,
(3) are not an armed group or have a military force, and
(4) are not promoting any unethical or immoral practices or lifestyles.
So really, there is NO valid reason for imposing any form of ban.
While I am not a Tibetan and do not have a say in Tibetan national affairs, this ban affects all practitioners everywhere in the world.
I love the clarity in the explanation given by His Emminence the 25th Tsem Rinpoche in this video. I hope that because of this, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration will conduct a proper inquiry and reexamine their position on Dorje Shugden practise.
Rinpoche made a very valid and strong point here… “Does it befit a man of the Dalai Lama’s stature, does it befit the compassion of such a great monk, the Dalai Lama, to say, “Everyone may come to my teachings. Everyone is loved by me. Everyone is accepted by me EXCEPT the Dorje Shugden people”? Definitely not.”
When His Holiness says this, His Holiness made himself someone biased, someone who is not truly compassionate, which indeed very very sad. It does fit His Holiness’s image and reputation for being all compassionate, and how can an emanation of the Buddha of Compassion be biased? It opens up a lot of questioning, a whole can of worms as it downgrades His Holiness and this creates doubts, mistrust and more questions. And since the CTA relies heavily on His Holiness as a spokesperson to ask for funds and donations…. for their own survival, then this is certainly going to affect them and their campaigns. As it is and as we speak, many media and journalists are already questioning.
And on the democracy aspect… well, it is obvious, CTA is not democratic. No democratic government would do something like that, to have a page and policies and encourage their people to against another group of people because of their religion. That is similar to KKK persecuting the African people in the USA. That is equal to racism. There should not be any sort of prejudice in a democratic government and any GOOD leadership would bring their people together, definitely not segregate them. That is totally wrong and unacceptable. This is a universal law and CTA should understand what is democratic because clearly they do not apply or implement it at all…
“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom
to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in
public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.”
UN General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18, 1948
The Tibetan Government In Exile, now known as “Central Tibetan Administration”(CTA) has been telling lies for 21 years! 2 decades already and they keep telling the same lies. Lies of what?
ANSWER: THERE IS NO DISCRIMINATION, NO BAN, NO SEGREGATION ON DORJE SHUGDEN PEOPLE.
How can it be no discrimination, no ban, no segregation on Dorje Shugden people when:
1. The CTA government itself on its own official website, has a section on Dorje Shugden(Dolgyal) and have tons of articles that put down a belief named “Dorje Shugden”?
2. The CTA government implements policies that restricting Dorje Shugden people to work in the government offices? And there’s no representative for Dorje Shugden people in the parliament.
3. The CTA government instructed the monasteries to expel those monks and nuns who insist to practice Dorje Shugden (thus the establishment of Shar Gaden Monastery and Serpom Monastery out of no choice and these 2 monasteries get ZERO support, resources and money and even moral support from the CTA government.)
4. The CTA government allows the Tibetan community to segregate Dorje Shugden people from entering restaurants, schools, hospitals and clinics; prohibiting Dorje Shugden people from being a part of the Tibetan community, prohibiting Dorje Shugden people from attending public events such as His Holiness Dalai Lama’s teachings?
AND THE LIST GOES ON AND ON AND ON…. these are just the tip of the iceberg.
HOW THE CTA GOVERNMENT GOING TO MAKE US BELIEVE THERE IS NO SEGREGATION, THERE IS NO BAN, NO DISCRIMINATION? AND THE CTA GOVERNMENT NEVER RESPOND TO ALL THESE QUESTIONS BUT JUST KEEP ACCUSING DORJE SHUGDEN PEOPLE FOR HARMING THE DALAI LAMA AND TIBET CAUSE. THERE IS NO DIALOGUE, JUST PURE ACCUSATION AND DORJE SHUGDEN PEOPLE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO SPEAK UP, WHEN THEY CHOOSE TO SPEAK UP, THIS IS WHAT THEY GET. TAKE A LOOK ON THIS PERFECT EXAMPLE OF HOW BAD THE DISCRIMINATION IS: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/dorje-shugden/will-the-dalai-lama-agree-with-this.html
If CTA leadership truly believe in democracy they should remove all discriminatory policies against Dorje Shugden worshippers, and discourage Tibetans from continuing victimizing these practitioners.
If CTA doesn’t change and continue with what they’re doing now it means democracy is just a front to stay in power by manipulating their Tibetans people. How? Through segregation. They have achieved segregation many years ago. Tibetans that played into CTA pawns should WAKE UP. No democratic government would ban religious belief on such ridiculous reason such as evil spirit while continue taking advice from another spirit.
I have always felt that Tibetans, especially those who had fled Tibet before and after 1959; the young, the ederly, men, women, children, monks, lay people, the landlords, the serfs, all of them; have twice suffered persecution – having to leave Tibet under duress and violence, then having to face further duress and violence in India because of the actions of the CTA in enforcing the Dorje Shugden ban.
This regrettably says a lot about the government of the Tibetans in exile – that they are not benevolent, do not believe in human rights, do not respect the elders, do not have gratititude, are not generous, are not mindful of the repercussions of their words and actions, and are not representative of the spectrum of Tibetans in India and abroad.
Instead, their words and actions, particularly with regards to the 400-year-old Tibetan Buddhism Dorje Shugden practice, which any government who believes in human rights, democracy and separation of religion and state would not touch with a ten foot pole, shows them to be against human rights and democracy instead. This irony is very clear for all to see.
It is doubly ironic that these rights and basic kindness towards human beings which the CTA is not practising, is what they ask for from China.
I would really suggest everyone to examine this picture carefully and make the necessary repairs which has been suggested by H.E. the 25th Tsem Rinpoche. It only makes sense.
Thank you Rinpoche for enlightening us on this very important matter and for continuing to fight for real freedom for the Tibetans.
Although His Holiness the Dalai Lama wanted the CTA to practise democracy, the CTA has not done so. For the last 60 years, they have continued to practise feudalism and continue to create serfs rather than giving the Tibetans good education, world view and opportunities to grow. The Tibetans under the CTA continue to be refugees while those living in Tibet are given much more opportunities to become successful. This post “Why are these Tibetans successful without the CTA?“ https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=144730 clearly illustrates this point.
The CTA has failed horribly in their governance and among them, there is no unity but fractions of people who wishes for Tibet’s independency (rangzen), Tibet Autonomy (umaylam), status quo which is the current CTA that focus in getting more donations in the name of refugee to benefit those in power.
The current CTA discourage their people to give up the refugee status because the CTA needed these refugees to ask for aid. To make sure of this, the CTA has made the process of applying an Indian passport difficult by not providing the documents Tibetans needed for the application.
As more and more Tibetans refuse to remain as refugees, as the CTA is loosing control, as the CTA has not used the monetary aid correctly, they use the Dorje Shugden ban as a political move to camouflage their lack of performance and corruptions.
No democratic government should use religion as a means to segregate their people or to stop them from attending to their leader’s, His Holiness the Dalai Lama in this case, public speeches and audiences. A leader is like a sun that shines equally onto the land. All animate beings and inanimate things should receive the sunlight equally without discrimination. There is no one democratic leaders in the world who ever made statements like that of the CTA to single out a group based on their religious choice and deny all their rights. The CTA is the only supposedly democratic governing body that does this. While this is nothing to be proud of, it is the truth that is rather ridiculous and silly.
The CTA should stop this useless political move in banning the Dorje Shugden practise and start uniting Tibetans around the world by focusing on exercising His Holiness’ wish for Tibet Autonomy. All Tibetans whether in Tibet or India should enjoy equal rights and opportunities to be successful. The CTA should stop the heavy corruption immediately and focus on benefiting their people instead of their own bank accounts. The CTA should assist His Holiness the Dalai Lama in his wish to return to Tibet and to unite all Tibetans already.
The CTA has proven their incapabilities in politic and in the governance of their people. They should learn from the successful nations in these areas and lift the Dorje Shugden ban before they fail completely.
I have heard about the ban against the Dorje Shugden practice before, and I understand that the basis of the discrimination against Shugden practitioners is totally illogical, and the ban itself has caused a lot of suffering and created division and schism among the Tibetan community.
I like what H.E. Tsem Rinpoche said in the video. No truly democratic government would discriminate their people based on their faith. How could that be that worshipping a certain deity will affect the Tibetan cause and shorten the life of the Dalai Lama? I thought the Dalai Lama is an all mighty spiritual leader to whom many people prostrate and take refuge in? I thought he is Avalokiteshvara. Why a ‘living Buddha’ so to speak can be harmed by a spirit – if Dorje Shugden is a spirit. Why with all the powerful enlightened protectors of Tibet, a spirit can harm the Tibetan cause?
There a lot of things that do not make sense about the ban and I hope this unjust discrimination against Shugden practitioners will be ended soon.
Jimmy
What was exercised and executed by the Tibetan government in exile was discrimination against basic human rights for having the freedom of practicing religious freedom. The Tibetan government in exile has abused their power and influenced their people to discriminated and up to the extend physical violence against a different religious group which is holding the Buddhist deities Dorje Shugden as their dharma protector practice. I felt that the Tibetan government has went overboard on this matter. What had happened now (Tibet lost their country, and their government is in exile ) is already bad enough. The Tibetan government has escalated this issue to a brand new LOW level by further splitting and weaken their own people. The Tibetan nations exile in India needs serious attention on their basic welfare, food, education, and more importantly safety. There were frequent cases Tibetan women in exile were sexually harassed and even rape, but these was not highlighted and were purposely brush off by the Tibetan government afraid of the locals. Funds raised by international charitable organization towards the betterment of Tibetans communities were abused, used for personal purposes, lavish holidays, and to suppressed and attacked the Dorje Shugden community, there is concrete evidence were an elaborate webpage on the Tibetan government homepage were dedicated for this purpose. The Tibetan government has been using Dorje Shugden as a scape goat for their failure in taking care the Tibetan communities and laziness in running the exile government. Attention was purposely diverted to Dorje Shugden so that their own people will not further questions and analyzed their failure. The Tibetan government is using the tactic of “God & Servant” to manipulate their nations, and in this case of course the Tibetan government is making themselves the “God”.
As a country, the government itself have to embrace democracy or in this 21st century, no one will go along with it. The reason why Tibetans don’t “retaliate” sorry for lack of a better word is because they have been kept completely isolated from other societies, cultures and backgrounds so it’s easier to control them. Tibetans who travel overseas is a different story of course.
In Tibetan society, undemocratic behaviour is a very common practice, no one says anything because they weren’t taught that it is an infringement to their basic human rights. Can you imagine if Canada have a rule stating that Buddhists cannot go to public places, they cannot dine in restaurants and they cannot go to government hospital to accept treatments? There will definitely be an uproar against the government. Well that’s exactly what’s happening to Dorje Shugden practitioners under the leadership of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). So why is it not okay for the Canadian government to discriminate their people based on their religion, and it is okay for the CTA to do so? If the CTA is really for democracy, they should stop discriminating Dorje Shugden people, because they don’t set a good image for themselves when they discriminate people based on their religion. No one in a democratic country will accept that.
We all have read history in school for sure, and to me in the history of the struggles of independence, or nationalism to free oneself from external forces, I have never seen a community so split like the Tibetans. So much disharmony, and backward politicking amongst the elite, CTA politicians even have silly arguments in parliament.
The Tibetans are split due to spiritual and even political issues, and I do blame the politicians at CTA, for not uniting Tibetans. In fact the CTA oppresses its own people, the list issues whereby the CTA dispenses oppression is too long to list down here. With such oppression and the Tibetans being in disarray and so much disharmony, I really can’t see how CTA will ever make any headway with the Chinese. The Tibetans are not pushovers they have made their mark on the world with their brand of spirituality, and some Tibetans are beginning to make their mark on the world in fashion, entertainment etc, if they could come together harmoniously how things will change for them…… dream…… hope…..
They say there is no ban and yet there are so many evidence that Dorje Shugden practitioner are ban from from anything related to CTA and the Tibetan community in both India and Nepal.
Unfortunately or rather fortunately, I myself has seen this discrimination directly. When Gaden Shartse split, I was there a year later and I saw how and the discrimination was. I was walking around Mundgod / monastery area where I saw monks who knows each other for years not being able to speak one another because one was from Shartse and another Group was from Shar Gaden. I saw older monks who has taken care of their students for years had to separate because one did not want to give up his Dorje Shugden practice. I saw my own teacher Tsem Tulku Rinpoche not being able to attend or pay his last visit to his own beloved gurus who has passed away due to this ban.
CTA should reflect at all the harm they have done just on this issues and if they believe in karma, pls lift the ban officially. Too much suffering has been done.
I truly agree with the idea democratic relate to compassion acceptance and tolerance. CTA should not only democratic by concept but by action. CTA continue to be bias, no fair dealing on social benefits towards Shugden practitioners, this can never unite the people but further create disharmony among the community.
Now is the time for CTA to think seriuosly on the issue of Shugden ban. Tibetan is a kind of community very focus on their spiritual practice. CTA openly accuse and deny Shugden practitioners general human rights will only create confusing and disharmony among the community. I can see only bring harms and no benefits to all parties. I hope CTA can realize it soonest possible. To lift the shugden ban is the best solution for current situation.
Dear Rinpoche
Thank you for speaking up and continuously building awareness on the Dorje Shugden issue. Throughout the many years I have known Rinpoche, Rinpoche has always been passionate about the Dorje Shugden cause and work tirelessly to build awareness about the issue in so many creative ways.
I agree very much with what Rinpoche said. What sort of government or administration that claim to be democratic but continue to discriminate their people based on their religion and even have a section on their website – dalailama.com and tibet.net. What is more intriguing, this situation is created by a government in exile who claim to ‘strive’ to return to Tibet and where unity is important since they have lost their country.
I hope the CTA come to their senses soon and stop discriminating their people based on their belief. When that happened, the first thing they have to do is to delete the section on Shugden on dalailama.com and tibet.net
Valentina
The Tibetan Leadership, CTA claimed themselves as democratic. Based on the democratic, CTA receive funds, aids, and helps assistance from democratic countries for the past decades. When CTA said themselves is democracy, they must practice democracy all the way. On the other hand, it is shock to see the CTA official website, Tibet.net and DalaiLama.com , written clearly that if you practice Dorje Shugden, they advise strongly against it.
Dorje Shugden practitioners are prohibited to be representative in CTA government or work for CTA government, not allow having education and access to health care needs. The CTA actually encourage segregation and discrimination among Tibetan people. This shows the Tibetan government is undemocratic at all. A democratic government does not against personal religious preferences because it is basic human rights. A democratic government is to unite people regardless of religion, skin colour or races.
H.H the Dalai Lama is both a spiritual leader and secular leader. As a Buddhist monk, H.H the Dalai Lama is compassion, acceptance and love to everyone. As a secular leader, H.H the Dalai Lama should accept all people and unite them regardless their race, age, gender, skin colour and religion. So if the Tibetan leadership are genuinely going to be democratic, all the harmful and segregating messages should be removed from their official websites. Dorje Shugden ban should be removed. Unite the people, bring in peace and harmony, this is what CTA should be doing right now. The world is watching.
In September this year, Tibetans in exile celebrate the 57th anniversary of Tibetan Democracy Day. A celebration was held in Dharamsala with the Health Minister Mr Kaul Singh Thakur of Himachal Pradesh as Chief Guest and Swedish Greens MP Mr Carl Schlyter as the guest of honour. While the Chief Guest wished His Holiness the Dalai Lama good health and long life so that he could keep spreading the message of peace all around the world, there is no real democracy in the His Holiness’ backyard. This is not a new issue, and all the pleas and requests for a dialogue to solve this issue fell on deaf ears for over 20 years.
In 1996, the then Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies (now called the ‘Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile’) passed a resolution banning the practice of Dorje Shugden. Following that, the Tibetan Department of Health issued a special notice to its staff that anyone who wishes to continue Shugden worship must submit their resignation and that “there is no other alternative for such person”. Monks in monasteries were then made to swear to stop practising and sign a declaration or face immediate expulsion from their monasteries, which for most of them, the only place they could call home since they were sent to the monasteries at a young age. Things continue to escalate that in the year 2000 when around 3,000 Tibetans descend on Dhokhang Khangtsen at Gaden Shartse Monastery, attacking the monastery and its monks with stones and bricks. It didn’t stop there.
In 2014, the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile passed a resolution that Dolgyal (Shugden) followers are henceforth recognised as CRIMINALS IN HISTORY – there is no need for proof or investigation, you are damned because you practice Shugden. The constitution of the Tibetan exile community is known as the “Charter of the Tibetans in Exile”, which the Tibetan government/ administration in exile professes to adhere to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as specified by the United Nations and to provide to all Tibetans equality before the law and enjoyment of rights and freedom without discrimination on the basis of sex, religion, race, language and social origin. among the three organs of the government: judiciary, legislature and executive. This is clearly a violation of human rights as Shugden practitioners continue to face discrimination and persecution up till now.
The CTA should immediately stop any prejudice, especially those that have legal implications for anyone with regards to religion, race, and background if they want to continue to celebrate and proclaim their democracy. They should stop protesting that Tibetans in Tibet are denied the right and face impediments in practicing their language and religious faith when in exile, the CTA made it official and legal to persecute Shugden practitioners. They should practice what they preach and stop embarrassing His Holiness the Dalai Lama who travels widely around the world to advocates dialogue, interreligious harmony, and world peace.?
It is really shocking that the Tibetan leadership has managed to get away with taking away the political rights and religious freedom of quite a number of its citizen for decades. As someone growing up in a democratic and multi-racial country, it is mind-boggling that a so-called democratic leadership can openly misuse its state instrument to discriminate and even criminalise its own citizen who do not subscribe to the same religious view as the Tibetan leadership.
It is very unlikely that the mandate given initially by its people would envisage such blatant discrimination and infringement of their rights guaranteed under their constitution. Already the Tibetans in exile are suffering from the political turmoil externally but they now have the added pain from being unfairly treated by the very government who were supposed to have their interest at heart.
All these pain and suffering is really unnecessary and if truly the interests of its people are paramount for the Tibetan leadership, then it really should do away with the unwarranted Dorje Shugden ban. Especially if the Tibetan leadership really intends to run their leadership according to Buddhist principles. This would definitely be the right time to exercise compassion for all.
Dear friends
???हाम्रो दोर्जे शुग्देन भगवान् धेरै महान् र धेरै सक्ती शालिर धेरै दयालु हुन्छ तैसैले सबैले मान्नु धेरै राम्रो हुन्छ दलाई लामाले पनि पहिले मान्नु हुन्नथ्यो दोर्जे शुग्देन पनि भगवान् हो एउटा रूप भएर मात्र अाउनु भएको हो सबैले मान्नु धेरै राम्रो हो र जसले दोर्जे शुग्देन मान्नु हुदैन भन्छ नि त्यो गलत हो धर्ममा याे राम्रो त्यो नराम्रो छैन कसैले पनि दोर्जे शुग्देन प्रती नकारात्मक साेच न राखनु होला धन्यवाद
I love you dorje shugden
Rinpoche’s teachings are always talk and concern about of others regardless their gender, age, religions and etc. A very powerful message from Rinpoche:
“Please don’t look at me for what religion I practice, look at me because I am a human being, and I deserve respect as does everyone else.”
Rinpoche has the choice to keep quiet and not putting himself together with the students at the difficult situation that he is practicing Dorje Shugden. With Rinpoche’s great compassion and understand the suffering of Dorje Shugden practitioners for the past 2 decades, Rinpoche’s efforts are never stopped but continue to think the ways to support and collect the evidence of the Shugden ban just to hope the people have freedom to practice their own belief and keep the samaya with their guru which is very important to achieve higher spiritual practice.
Thank you Rinpoche sharing these important points about Dorje Shugden. May these enlighten points reach and enable everyone to see the ultimate truth from the impact of the Shugden ban.
It is very sad that the CTA has chosen to practise segregation instead of unity, disharmony instead of harmony, discrimination instead of tolerance. Instead of serving the people, which is what a real democratic government would do, they are creating suffering, fear and chaos. To put politics above the people is inhumane and undemocratic. I urge the CTA leaders to be compassionate towards its own people, Dorje Shugden worshipers among them, and respect the religious diversity of all Tibetans. By uniting your people and giving them their rights, you will be respected and loved. This is how you will become strong, because you will have the support and respect of your people. I’m not Tibetan, but I pray for a united and strong Tibet as I have great respect for the Tibetan people and for the Dharma which has been taught me by my beloved Tibetan Guru.
“The job of a Buddhist monk is to love all beings regardless of who they are, how naughty they might be or how good they might be. The job of a democratic leader is to gather his people together and unite his people, and bring his people as one regardless of gender, age, colour, race, economic background, sexual orientation, and religion. Any democratic country will unite their people regardless of all I have just mentioned, religion, race, sexual orientation, because we are living in the age of enlightenment, we are living the age where we realise everyone is the same.”
This paragraph pretty much sums up how a spiritual leader and democratic government should behave.
It’s now year 2017 and we still need to remind leaders and countries to ban any form of discrimination. Democratic leaders and governments such as HH the Dalai Lama and CTA should not have websites condemning any form of religious practices and encourage segregation of any sort.
I don’t remember seeing or reading of any democratic countries and governments doing so. As Rinpoche pointed out, it would create an uproar if democratic countries like the USA, UK, Germany, France, Singapore, Japan etc promote any form of discrimination on their official websites. No one in any democratic communities would accept it. So why does CTA and HH the Dalai Lama feel that it’s ok to discriminate and yet proclaim themselves to be democratic?
This hypocrisy makes non-Tibetans like me lose respect and trust for HH and CTA. HH can’t be travelling around the world tirelessly promoting peace and compassion when he himself doesn’t even practice it. It’s very unfortunate and I do hope that HH the Dalai Lama will remove the ban from his website immediately so that he doesn’t continue to sound like a big hypocrite. No one will be inspired.
As for CTA, it shows how unqualified they are to manage the Tibetan refugees. Who needs an institution to make the situation worse by segregating their communities and creating more sufferings?
I do hope that more people around the world will continue to highlight this injustice so that the people will be free from 20 over years of ostracization and oppression.
By imposing policy to segregate against the Dorje Shugden people, it is creating many problems within the Tibetan in exile community. This biased policy has tainted the public perception of His Holiness and the CTA leadership. How could a Nobel Prize Laureate who promotes World Peace and Harmony of Religion allows the opposite to happen to the 150,000 people who is under his care? If His Holiness can champion for people of all faith, who are deprived of peace and harmony, why are Dorje Shugden people being denied of the same?
We love His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama. Our Guru, Tsem Rinpoche always teaches us to love and respect His Holiness. And it is out of this great respect and love; I sincerely call out to the Tibetan in exile people to stop the discrimination against Dorje Shugden people. Because this is making His Holiness looks like he is not serious about World Peace and Harmony of Religion.
We are very fortunate to live in a democratic country which applies the rights which are provided in a democratic country and gives freedom and equality to all its citizen. It obviously seems that these rights, which are a given for people in democratic countries, are not applied in Tibets administration or government, the CTA or Central Tibetan Administration, eventhough they call themselves democratic.
For people who are not familiar, the CTA is based in Dharamsala, India and the Tibetans who are in Dharamsala, India have a refugee status and live in camps which have been very kindly given to them for the duration of 99 years by the Indian government when they had to flee from Tibet in 1959. Many Tibetans still hope to go back to Tibet in China and H.H. the Dalai Lama is asking for autonomy for Tibet, which means Tibet is an autonomy under the Chinese Government, as it is today.
In my humble opinion and given the facts that Dorje Shugden is a very beneficial Buddhist Protector who has a tradition of more than 400 years within Tibetan Buddhism, it would be very beneficial to accept Dorje Shugden and he will help the Tibetan Democracy. Many high lamas such as H.H. Trijang Rinpoche rely on Dorje Shugden in this life and previous lifes. Here you can read about many more Buddhist lamas who practice Dorje Shugden: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/dorje-shugden/they-were-not-wrong.html
I really hope that Tibet and the Tibetan people can benefit from real democratic rules which will help the Tibetans who since 1959 live as refugees. They deserve finding peace and a solution as recommended by H.H. the Dalai Lama.
Thank you H. E. Tsem Rinpoche, for such a clear explanation and always having the best motivation.
It is hypocritical to see CTA, who proclaimes to be a democratic government of the people but heavy-handedly imposes discrimination and abuse against Dorje Shugden people. In the CTA official websites as well as His Holiness official websites, there is a section dedicated to inciting hatred, negativity, and insult towards a specific group of people of the society; i.e., the Dorje Shugden people. If the government and His Holiness does this, it is as good as dividing Tibetans into Dorje Shugden people and anti-Dorje Shugden people. How is this helping with unity, democracy and bringing peace and harmony to the people?
In the world today, leadership’s result is under the microscope, because facts are widely available and spread through digital media. Information available online shows the way how CTA runs the state is akin to schism, segregating people under the pretext of religion. It is very alarming as politics and religion SHOULD NOT mix. The government has no right to stop or force the people from practicing the religion of their choice. Religious Freedom and Human Rights enshrined in constitutional democratic states. Why are the people of Tibetans in exile be deprived of their basic rights?
America conducted a civil war in the 19th century to free the enslaved people and since then the American Government is the world leader to preserve and encourage democracy. Democracy is about an elected group of people chosen by the citizens to safeguard their welfare and progress in life.
It is the impression of the world, Buddhist or otherwise who believe that the Dalai Lama is the “King” of the Tibetan people and wields great power from the loyalty and reverence from both Tibetans and world audiences. The Dalai Lama often teach of compassion, love and human kindness.
Yes, the Dalai Lama has said that the governance of Dharamsala is handed over to the CTA, but some how, I cannot understand why out of sheer compassion the Dalai Lama would not stop the abuse and discrimination towards Dorje Shugden practitioners. I cannot believe nor accept that a Monk of the Dalai Lama stature is unable to understand to stop the suffering inflicted on Dorje Shugden people.
I am not a Tibetan although a Dorje Shugden devotee, I have great sympathy towards the discrimination against Dorje Shugden Tibetans. Not being a Tibetan I am unable to vote CTA members out of governance, the very least I can do is to point out what is spiritually and secularly incorrect within the norm of world religious and human rights.
If the CTA strongly believes that Shugden lamas like H E the 25th Tsem Rinpoche is a Chinese agent, why not enrol High Lamas of this calibre (and there are many) to their camp in order to deal with any negotiations with China that may be on CTA’s mind. For now the Tibetan cause is but a dead or stalemate issue as far as the Chinese is concerned.
On the other hand, CTA may yet again be misaligning the Shugden Lamas with falsity, as always.
What is stated above is one of the many reasons why accepting Dorje Shugden people is good for CTA in more aspects, the biggest of which is the democracy which CTA fails to even capture the very essence of governance for the interest of its people.
Let it be known that the number of people governed by CTA is only 150,000 Tibetans in exile and yet with all the monies donated all these years, nothing absolutely nothing is done. WHY, WHY: extremely exasperating situation.
The most famous of the world leaders today as are known to uphold democratic principles. You have figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. who spent his life campaigning for the equal rights of people of colour in the United States, Aung Sang Suu Kyi for democracy in Myanmar, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu against apartheid in South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi for the right to self-determination and women in India, and Benazir Bhutto for democracy in Pakistan, to name just a few of the most well-known examples. All of these people had one thing in common, they wanted harmony, unity and peace within their countries and amongst their people.
If the Tibetan leadership really want to be the guiding light of their people in the world and solve the injustices facing sectors of their society, then it make sense to make try their hardest to heal the divide and unify their people as one. When that happens, they ensure that the Tibetan culture survive into the future. As it stands now, within the Tibetan diaspora they are, the Tibetan are rapid disappearing into other countries around the world, and are slowly losing their culture, because they lack a strong government to a stabilising factor for their people.
For the Tibetan government to really come in line with other democratic countries and really be a shining example of what a real democracy should be like. They should remove all their policies that discriminate against a specific group of people, and encourage harmony instead. This will bode well for the Tibetan government, they would need to spend less time in keeping people divided, which could instead be used to promote the welfare of their people and ensure that the Tibetan culture survives into the future.
In the face of such overwhelming evidence, how can anyone from the Tibetan leadership legitimately say that there is no ban on Dorje Shugden? It just boggles my mind that in today’s day and age, there is still a group of people who think it is acceptable to discriminate against anyone, for any reason at all. While the rest of the world moves towards a more inclusive and enlightened way of thinking, the Tibetan leadership seems to be mired in a past of apartheid and segregation. So unless they change their thinking fast, and catch up to the rest of the 21st century, they will soon find they are left behind in every aspect, whether it is socially, politically or spiritually.
When I think back to how I used to support the Tibetan cause, it really embarrasses me that I ever lend my moral and financial support to such a regime. Okay, I was moved by how much the Tibetan people have suffered – and they have suffered and they are deserving of help – but how did I enable their leadership’s behaviour by promoting a false image of their democracy? Thank Buddha I woke up. And for that reason, I know that it’s possible when we speak up, the rose-tinted glasses will come off other people too and they will realize the true nature of this ‘leadership’. The Tibetan leadership don’t have their people’s best interests at heart and if they did, then they would start to implement the solutions that Rinpoche has detailed above in the video. So thank you Rinpoche for shining a light on this topic and for your care and concern for the welfare of the Tibetan community and indeed, for everyone else too. Let’s watch and see what the Tibetan ‘leadership’ does.
༧གོང་ས་མཆོག་ཁོང་ཆོས་སྲིད་གཉིས་ཀྱི་དབུ་ཁྲིད་ཡིན་པས། བོད་མི་མང་ཚངས་མ་ཆོས་ལུགས་དབྱེ་འབྱེད་མེད་པར་ངོས་ལེན་གནང་དགོས་རེད། ཡིན་ནའང་འདི་འདྲ་གནང་གི་མི་འདུག །དེ་ནས་བོད་གཞུང་གིས་གནས་ཆུང་འདི་ཆོས་སྐྱོང་ཡིན་ཟེར། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤུགས་ལྡན་འདི་འདོན་འདྲེ་ཟེར། དེ་ནས་ཁོ་ཚོས་དགའ་ན་ལྷ་དང་ཁོ་ཚོས་མ་དགའ་ན་འདོན་འདྲེ་ཡིན་དགོས་རེད་པས། སོ་སོའི་བསྟེན་གསོལ་འདི་རང་དབང་གི་ཐོག་ནས་བསྟེན་ཆོག་པ་ཡོད་ན་བོད་པའི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ནང་ཆིག་སྒྲིལ་ཆགས་ཐུབ་པའི་རེ་བ་ཆེན་པོ་ཡོད་ཅེས་ཞུ།
དུས་འདིར་བཙན་བྱོལ་བོད་གཞུང་གིས་དབུས་མེའི་ལམ་ཡང་ན་བོད་རང་དབང་ཆེད་དུ་རྒྱ་གཞུང་དང་གྲོགས་པོ་སྒྲིག་པར་འབད་རྩོལ་བྱེད་བཞིན་ཡོད་རེད། ཡིན་ནའང་བོད་པའི་དབུ་ཁྲིད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ནང་སོ་སོའི་མི་མང་ལ་ཆོས་དད་རང་དབང་འཛིན་གྱི་མེད་པ་དང་ཁོང་ཚོས་རང་དབང་ལ་ཐག་ཅིག་ཏུ་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་མི་བྱེད། དེ་བཞིན་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ནང་མཐུན་ལམ་དང་གཅིག་སྒྲིལ་གང་ཡངམཐོང་གིན་མིན་འདུག ། སྤྱིར་དབུ་ཁྲིས་ལས་འགན་ནི་སྤྱི་ཚཽགས་ཡར་རྒྱས་གཏོང་ཡ་དང་མཐུན་ལམ་བྱེད་དགོས་སྐོར་བསམ་བློ་གཏོང་དགོས། དོན་དངོས་ནི་སྤྱི་ཆོགས་ནང་ཆོས་དད་རང་དབང་རྩ་བ་ཉིད་ནས་མེད་པ་གསལ་པོ་རེད། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤུགས་ལྡན་བསྟེན་གསོལ་བ་རྣམས་ལ་ཤིན་ཏུ་དཀའ་ལས་འཕྲད་བཞིན་ཡོད་པ་དང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཆེན་པོ་ཡོད་པ་ཚང་མའི་མཁྱེན་གསལ་རེད། ༧གོང་ས་མཆོག་ལྷན་དུ་དབུ་ཁྲིད་རྣམས་ལ་ཞུ་རྒྱུ་ནི། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤུགས་ལྡན་བསྟེན་གསོལ་བ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་བོད་མི་སེར་རེད། ཁོང་ཚོ་ལའང་བོད་མི་གཞན་ལྟར་ཐོབ་ཐང་སྦྱིན་དགོས་པ་དང་ཁོང་ཚོ་ལའང་བོད་པའི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ནང་དགའ་བསུ་ཞུ་རོགས། ཐུགས་རྗེ་གཟིགས།། ???
I love the example that Rinpoche has given – if the President of the USA or the Prime Minister of Canada (or any other world nation for that matter) were to institute a ban on any form of religious worship, there would be instant chaos and people would be up in arms.
When it comes to the murky world of Tibetan politics, many prefer to turn a blind eye and remain blissfully ignorant of the damaging policies of the CTA, preferring instead to conjure up images of mysticism and peace that is commonly associated with Tibet today.
Yet, it is time that the world faces up to the truth of the matter, as so aptly described by Rinpoche in this short and powerful video. When we draw comparisons to other democratic nations, and replace the words “Dalai Lama” and “Shugden” with “Pope” and “Baptists” or “Obama” and “Muslims”, how do we feel?
That is precisely the damage and suffering caused by the current actions of the Tibetan leadership.
I agree that it’s time for the Tibetan Sikyong to take a step in the right direction and put a stop to the damaging propaganda he is having published on tibet.net and dalailama.com. No government in the world behaves in this manner and hence, Tibetans should stop doing so unless they wish to be reclassified as a dictatorship instead of a democratic nation of refugees trying to return to their homeland.
For decades, CTA has been blatantly ignoring or stomping past democratic principles which are not to their advantage. To name but a few obvious ones, CTA has had no qualms disregarding religious freedom by illegally implementing Dorje Shugden ban, misuse of state instruments to rig elections and even get rid of competition, abuse of power to bend the situation to CTA’s favour notably in the refusal to issue the necessary letters for Indian citizenship applications, direct and indirect suppression of freedom of speech including via violence means etc etc
All that CTA has successfully achieved “democratically” throughout these years is to deepen their pockets by commercialising the pain and suffering of Tibetans to garner more donations and also capitalising on the people’s reverence to Dalai Lama to get off scot-free.
It had never dawned on me that people in this day and age would be discriminated because of their belief. Being a Malaysian I have been exposed to a society that accepts the different beliefs within. I was quite shocked when I was first exposed to the segregation and discrimination happened within the Tibetan society. And it was all because of a 400-year practice that HH the Dalai Lama said to be affecting His Holiness’s life and harming the Tibet’s cause. I am not a Tibetan, why should I be bothered? That was what crossed my mind in the beginning. But as I moved along in my practice, I realised that the extend of the damage the ban had done. It is beyond the Tibetan society. I for one being a Malaysian is outcast by the Tibetan Buddhism society in Malaysia. And this is nothing compared to the pain the Dorje Shugden practitioners in Tibet have been suffering. The religious segregation and prejudice is very serious and damaging to not just the Tibetan but everyone that is a Dorje Shugden practitioners. Like what Rinpoche said, one is being labelled as bad when one practices Dorje Shugden. This is absurd!! The worst for those who practice is, one is not allowed the same privileges as other because of it.
I would like to make a plea to the Dalai Lama and the CTA to seriously look into the matter of removing the ban. It has made many Tibetan suffered. And being the leader of the Tibetans, their welfare must be your concern. It has to STOP!
Diversity is very common in many countries. Where in world now we can only see the same color skin or only same religious practice staying in one nation? There are many people with many differences staying together and what important is the leader of the country encourage and protect their differences to unite them to live in peace and harmony in order to create a strong nation. This is not just about single nation and all nations in this planet are respecting each other nations differences to create a world peace and for everyone that staying in this planet to live in peace.
Tibetan already segregated everywhere in world and why should the Tibetan leadership separate further their own people for their differences of their spiritual practice? What actually Tibetan leadership will gain from this discriminating Dorje Shugden practice? At one hand Tibetan leadership asking for freedom but the other hand they segregate, discriminate and taken away their own people right of choice. Isn’t this hypocrite?
The welfare of the Tibetan people in exile are not being taken care and up to now Tibetan leadership is still asking for fund but internally using them to discriminate their own people, how can that be fair to their kind sponsors?
This has to be stop and Tibetan leaders should really look into more serious matter in how to look after the Tibetan since being in exile for 60 years and unite them as one and give them peace and harmony.
The conflict arising from the ban against Dorje Shugden practice is a sad and heartbreaking one, because you see how damaging of an impact the ban has had on its people, splitting up the Tibetan people, families, monasteries and unity, when it was not necessary.
Why has the Central Tibetan Administration Tibetan persecute Dorje Shugden practitioners and made them enemies of the state? They have done nothing wrong, besides having guru devotion towards their teachers and the practices they have been given by their teachers. So actually, the Central Tibetan Administration and His Holiness is indirectly advising Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, and Tibetans, to NOT have guru devotion, which in effect totally nullifies the Tibetan Buddhist lineage, because as Ashvaghosha says in the 50 verses of Guru Devotion, all attainments rise from having guru devotion. So if the CTA does not want the Tibetan Buddhist practitioners to have guru devotion, then are they inadvertently trying to control practitioners, having them have devotion towards the CTA instead? Is that true?
Unity is a strong foundation to any leadership, let alone to a government, but yet, the Central Tibetan Administration are not doing anything to unite their people at all. They are doing everything to split their people apart by putting in place this ban – and if they continue to do that, they will continue to lose Tibetans. How are they progressive and democratic when behind the scenes, the Tibetan leadership, on its website, has a whole section that discriminates against a whole religious faction? What does that show of the minds and characters of the Tibetan Administration? At this point when it is much more important to focus on other matters, the Central Tibetan Administration spends a substantial amount of resource to discriminate ITS OWN PEOPLE! The donations they receive are for TIBETANS, not only Non Dorje Shugden practitioners, how come the funds are donated freely to them, but they use the funds to produce websites and resources to separate its own people? Who would donate to that cause?
Dorje Shugden practitioners have done no wrong, but stay loyal to practices, yet they are treated worst than those who physically harm other people. The Tibetan leadership says that they are democratic, in theory perhaps but in action, far from it, as they continue to deny its own people off religious freedom. His Holiness should step up to say something, and as a religious head, bring its people together, and give hope, love and peace to all.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion. Please have the kindness and compassion to release the Dorje Shugden ban, because we Dorje Shugden practitioners too are deserving of your compassion, kindness and respect, more so than ever.
Being a democratic country means it gives the freedom of religion to its people without condemning them. What CTA is doing here now is totally the opposite of what a democratic country should do. Having articles on their main website Tibet.com condemning Dorje Shugden practice is already a breach in religious freedom. On top of that, they forbid Dorje Shugden practitioners to receive education, healthcare and service from public sectors is a violation of human rights. How can a government forbid its own citizen to receive basic necessity such as healthcare service. It is preposterous as a responsible government always look out for their citizens needs. If a government can discriminate and segregate a group of their citizen, they are unfit to be in charge. This reminds me of the racial discrimination in the states back then where the “blacks” are being treated unfairly and inferior. This is exactly the same situation but its the religion that is being targeted and not skin color this time around.
If Tibet truly means what it says about being a democratic country. They should adopt religious freedom. They cant just claim to be a democratic country to receiving funds from democratic countries and then promotes discrimination among their own citizens. Accepting Dorje Shugden and gives Dorje Shugden practitioners the freedom to practice their own religion will be a democratic move and will make Tibet a true democractic country.
“Whether a nation of people live in harmony or great strife and disharmony depends very much on the government.”
A powerful statement, I could not have put it better. I’ve always been wondering what the deal is with this Shugden business. It’s disturbing to see maroon-robes monks and nuns chanting slogans and holding placards dissing the Dalai Lama, who is a man of peace to be respected and beloved by all.
but in the face of all this evidence, I’m truly beginning to wonder if there is any truth to these claims that the Tibetan government is milking the world with their claims of democracy. It is incredibly wrong and archaic to ban any form of religion. That’s what led to the Salem witch hunts and the Spanish Inquisition, and we all know what happened as a result of that. No educated person today would condone any of these 2 traumatic events that have gone down in human history, and likewise, no one should condone what is happening to these Shugden Buddhists. Whether it is happening on a global scale or just within their community is not the point. The very fact that it is happening at all, and that it is instigated by their own government is horrific and must be stopped. Otherwise, when America supports the Tibetan cause which is what is happening today, when President Trump is called upon to raise the issue of Tibet with China, what are we Americans really condoning??
??? सबै नेपालीले आफ्नो संस्कृति, भाषा र धर्मप्रति गर्व गर्नुपर्छ। नेपालीलाई अर्को धर्ममा
परिवर्तन गर्न आवश्यक छैन। आफ्नो धर्म संगै भगवान दोर्जे शुग्देनलाई अाफ्नो संस्कृतिमा
समावेश गरि प्रार्थना गर्न सकिन्छ। हामीले हाम्रो धर्म परिवर्तन गरेर, हाम्रो पहिचान र
संस्कृति भगवानलाई भेटि स्वरुप चढाऐमा, यसले हाम्रो इतिहास, राष्टिय एकता र हाम्रो
परिवारहरूमा अवरोध पुर्याउन सक्छ।
भगवान दोर्जे शुग्देनले सबैको भलो गर्नुहु
नेछ, सबैलाई सहयोग गर्नु हु
नेछ र सबै स्तर र
पृष्ठभुमिमा सबैलाई मद्दत गर्नु हु
नेछ। भगवान दोर्जे शुग्देन एक विशेष अवतार हु
न्जो
कलियुगको समयमा हाम्रो समस्याहरु हटाउन यस संसारमा प्रकट हु
नु भएको हो।
सबैलाई शन्ति प्राप्त होस।
I am not sure about the rules of regulations of Tibet, but I have been exposed to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that states basic rights and fundamental freedoms to all human beings, respecting human rights and ultimately bring peaceful, harmony and democratic society.
The current situation of Tibet that disallowed the people who is practicing Dorje Shugden to enter the Tibetan facilities such as hospitals, I personally would think that this is definitely bring harm to the Tibetan people’s lives and this is similar to kill the people but indirectly. In such case, the Tibetan government did not follow UDHR and most harmful was they ignored the Tibetan people’s lives.
I like this post that as Tsem Rinpoche is very brave to point out his concerns. What I understand from Tsem Rinpoche’s view is, he is really care about the people although he is not in Tibet now.
This is the 21st century, for the past centuries we have been through many human tragedies like the witch hunt, black slavery in USA, Holocaust, apartheid in South Africa, and from these tragedies, the world has more or less learned not to repeat the histories, that’s why the USA can have a black president, Germany apologized for the Nazis’ atrocities towards the Jews during WW2, South Africa’s blacks enjoy the same rights as the whites there, etc etc. But how come the Tibetan community in exiled has not learned from all these lessons? The Dalai Lama and CTA are definitely fully aware of these world events that make what is acceptable and not acceptable practice in this modern world, but they are not adopting it, and it is really beyond comprehension especially coming from people who are supposed to be Buddhists where acceptance and tolerance are the core of the teachings. Why are there discrimination and segregation towards Dorje Shugden people in all parts of the Tibetan community from the monasteries to the streets, schools, even families. This is totally unacceptable. Tsem Rinpoche’s presentation is very logical and powerful, it is impossible to refute. Tsem Rinpoche presents the truth and the truth must be listened to and change must be adopted right now by the Tibetan leadership, it makes them look very bad and out of place in this modern 21 century of digital revolution and space exploration. What the Tibetan leadership did created much disharmony and ill-feeling among the exiled Tibetans themselves. This is not good for unity, not good for progress, and definitely not good in the eyes of their western sponsors who championed democracy (that’s why they donate to the Tibetans in exile).
The democratic system allows the voice of common people to be heard. It is a fundamental right of the citizens in this era. Enacting laws to punish a group of people based on their belief under democratic system is unheard of. If this is allowed then this democratic system can be used to force anyone to give up free speech, religious freedom, whatever one may imagine. Does it still sound like democracy? I doubt so. In fact CTA actions is totally non-democractic so far I observe. It is no longer relevant to keep holding to autocratic mindset to lead the people. CTA should make the changes as advised by Rinpoche to unite the Tibetans for a better future. The Tibetans cannot forever divided over religious differences. One can lose so much before all culture, history and human values are forgotten. You lose your ‘spirit’. By then there is no future to look forward to. ?
The Dorje Shugden controversy had created a split in Buddhism especially in the Gelugpa school. It had been 20 years since the persecution and discrimination against Dorje Shugden practice and also the practitioners, which had created so many disharmony amongst the Tibetan community because CTA heavily criticized Dorje Shugden for the loss of Tibet, which the truth in fact is cause by the failure of the Tibetan administration to protect it people and country.
CTA should take responsibility for their action and blame themself for the failure to get back Tibet, and not use Dorje Shugden as the culprit for the loss of Tibet under the hand of China. In reality Dorje Shugden instead had given advice to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama the escape route during the cultural revolution.
Many countries are being blinded by the lies told by CTA for saying they are democratic government and there is no segregation and discrimination, but if you investigate deeper, you will see the truth, countless Dorje Shugden practitioner being ostracised, discriminated, and being separated from other Tibetan community because of ones practice. If they say they are democratic, why such thing happen? Why Gaden Shartse being split apart into two, one who practice DS, another not?
Before this all sangha lives peacefully and harmoniously together in Gaden Shartse, but why suddenly DS practitioner being segregated for their practice and worst beng despice upon. Where is the compasson that were being practice?
Thank you Rinpochela for voice out for we Tibet. Tibet in exile do not have many people. We need everyone to fight Tibetan cause. Why separate Dorje Shukden friends? I have many friends who do Dorje Shukden who are very poor and sure they no take money from China. They are good person. Not bad person. I hope we unite ??
Agree with you Tashi la. Tibetan should stay unite, Dorje Shugden people should be together with us but too bad, this Dorje Shugden issue is separating us. We are all Tibet people. I am really sad to see Dorje Shugden people are being bullied. I wish we unite again. I wish His Holiness Dalai Lama to accept Dorje Shugden people.
I agree with you, Tashi! Dorje Shugden people are people too, but yet we are separated from the rest of the monastic community because we practice Dorje Shugden. I wish for unity soon, as the Tibetans already lost their home, they cannot lose the love they deserve from their religious head, HH Dalai Lama, and their Tibetan Leadership too.
རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤུགས་ལྡན་ནི་བོད་མི་མང་པོའི་ལྷ་ཆོས་སྐྱོང་སྲུང་མ་ཞིག་རེད། གང་ཡིན་མིན་བཙན་བྱོལ་བོད་གཞུང་གིས་ད་ལྟ་རང་བཀག་སྡོམ་དང་ཆོས་ལུགས་དབྱེ་འབྱེད་འདི་མེད་པ་བཟོ་ནས་སོ་སོའི་ཆོས་ལུགས་གང་དུ་དད་པ་ཡོད་པ་དེ་རང་དབང་དུ་བསྟེན་ཆོག་དགོས། འདི་མིན་བཙན་བྱོལ་བོད་གཞུན་གིས་མི་སྤྱོད་ལས་འདས་པའི་ལས་འདི་འདྲ་བྱེད་ནས་ཧ་ཅང་ཐལ་ལོ།
There are good and bad people everywhere. There are good Buddhists and bad Buddhists. There are good Chinese and bad Chinese. Etc. How can anyone say that just because we practice Dorje Shugden, we are automatically bad people, and are associated with Chinese spies to destroy Tibet? How can a government generalise like that? Is that fair? Is that ethical? Is that even legal to openly discriminate a group of people just because of their belief?
The western countries criticise China for their inhumane treatment to Tibet, but why keep a quiet stance and close eyes on the ill treatment of the openly discrimination? It is even in their constitution!! Why didn’t the western countries demand Tibet to embrace diversity since the western countries had donated millions and millions of dollars to Tibet.
It is not time to stop segregation and start uniting people.
2 decades of persecution on Dorje Shugden people due to the ban have caused people severed ties with families, relatives and friends who does not share the same view. Tibetans are already a small nation and for the past 60 years they have been scattered all over and not grounded, with such policy (ds ban) from the government, it further weakened the nation, breaking the unity among the people. As such, either Rangzen or Umaylam is granted by the Chinese government, the Tibetans will not be united if CTA is still holding the governing power with their current mentality because the Dorje Shugden people will still be persecuted if the ban is not resolved.
Since the blame on Dorje Shugden for their country is not valid, why still hold on to this ban? Why not think of something else that is workable for all Tibetans to be united and make their Tibetans wishes fulfilled? CTA on one hand flying the flag of democracy when they went around countries to get donation, disseminating the propaganda of how tibetans were suppressed based on humanitarianism; on the other hand, we all know that CTA actually indirectly encouraged their own people to self-immolate so they have more “proof” to show the west.
The blaming games should stop immediately as along the process of this unfair political games, too many innocent ordinary people have suffered unnecessarily. My guru Tsem Rinpoche who is also a Tibetan, does not involve in this but yet Rinpoche has to suffer due to this Dorje Shugden ban. Please separate politics and spiritual, let us just practice our religion on our own freewill.
Any Government of a country should care of its people regardless of their age, race, gender, colour, religion and practices. Should govern the country fairly, making sure that the needs of the people are taken cared of and most of all unite the people so that the country will continue to prosper. However, this is not the case for the CTA. Even though the CTA claims to be a democracy, it does not practice it because there is a section of the citizens are being segregated and discriminated simply because the religious practice differs from the Dalai Lama. Dorje Shugden practitioners are being treated unfairly and denied the civil liberties of enrolling into schools, seeking treatment in hospitals or receiving any help from government agencies. All this because the CTA believes that the DS practitioners harms the Tibetan cause of gaining their country back from China.
It has been nearly 60 years that China invaded Tibet and the exile government was formed. The CTA has not been able to get back their county back and in 1996 enforced the DS ban so that they can continue to receive foreign aid. The CTA is probably the only country in the world who has been on refugee status for the longest time. Even though the CTA denies the segregation, there are a lot of evidence to prove that it exists, just as shown in this article above. The fact that the CTA have a section onsite to condemn Dorje Shugden, this is already an official statement from them to their people that they do mot respect religious freedom. Same goes to Dalai Lama’s website. No other country in the world does that.
Tsem Rinpoche is my guru and I am a member of Kechara. I have seen how my guru suffers simply because he is practicing Dorje Shugden because his guru gave to him. I have seen many monks suffer when I visited the monastery in India. I have seen with my own eyes those signages barring DS people from entering shops. And those of you who accuse my guru of receiving money from China, it is total baseless allegations. We at Kechara is in need of money. We still rely on the public and generous sponsors to donate to sustain our organisation. How we wish that the China government will give us money.
Hence, we plead to the Dalai Lama and the CTA to lift the Dorje Shugden ban immediately. A lot of people have suffered too much already. Make it right again so that the discrimination can end. Kindness and compassion will prevail again. May the Dalai Lama live long.
感谢仁波切的开示，
尤如尊贵的第廿五世詹杜固仁波切所说的，尊贵的第十四世达赖尊者是慈悲的观世音菩萨的化身，而且无论今天是那一个教派，小乘，大乘，金刚乘，或你我他是什么宗教，身为佛教徒的我们，都会抱着一个慈悲的心，不可以抱住有分别心的想法来选择众生中，谁该被救渡，而谁不应该被救渡的。
倘若修持多杰雄登护法就必须与本来的寺院分开，不能到医院，学校，政府机关工作等，这除了是有违背佛教教义外，还有是“不人道”吧，我们恳请尊贵的达赖尊者与西藏中央行政政府CTA,请抱持您们慈悲的心，消除这一些不公平与不人道的“禁令”。
谢谢
jerry
It is amazing how the leadership of a country (well, in this case, the Administration in Exile) encourages separation and conflict among its own people while claiming themselves a democratic leadership. Not only that, they have a dedicated section on their official websites to encourage their own people to suppress, isolate, segregate their own people with different faith! For those who think CTA has not achieved anything for the past 60 years, their ‘wonderful’ websites that encourage separation and conflicts makes them the first ever leadership (since technically they are not a country) in the world who does this! http://tibet.net/important-issues/dolgyal-shugden/ And can you see how they categorise Dorje Shugden issue? it is put under the category called “Key Issues” or “Important Issues”. It’s unbelievable how separation of people is considered as a Key Issue or Important Issue of a country! ?♀️?♂️?