Question asked by Harold Musetescu
There is a book titled "Oracles and Demons of Tibet" (1956) written by Rene De Nebesky-Wojkowitz.
He has done a full chapter on Dorje Shugden and on page 134 he states that the Gelugpa Tulkus that he contacted told he that Drakpa Gyelsen committed SUICIDE by stuffing a scarve down his throat. He killed himself as a result of his disgust of what was happening to him (murder attempts).
He told his students that he was going to kill himself and for them not to interfere.
It seem odd that there are two different stories about the death of Drakpa Gyelsen. One story is that he was MURDERED and one that he committed SUICIDE. This book was published in 1956 therefore the actual research was done in the early 1951's. There was no ban in those days and no hatred towards Dorje Shugden. This information came to him from 2 Gelugpa Tulkus.
Also this book was quoted by H.E. Tsem Rinpoche in his article abourt Namkar Barzin.
Pastor could you clear up this matter for me.
Dear Harold Musetescu,
There are different stories relating to the death of Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen. We follow the particular lineage as taught to us, as with any practice within Buddhism. The particular lineage stating that Tulku Drakpa Gyalsten was murdered by being strangled by a khata stems from His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche, who received the practice from His Holiness Pabongkha Rinpoche. Trijang Rinpoche composed a very large text detailing Dorje Shugden’s history, function, enlightened nature and a whole host of prayers and rituals to preserve the practice, entitled Music Delighting the Ocean of Protectors. Within our lineage of practice, this text is the definitive source of information regarding Dorje Shugden.
Different origin stories are not uncommon, but the end result is the same. Take the Buddha Tara for example. There are two origin stories regarding Tara. The first states she was a Bodhisattva who vowed to attain enlightenment in the form of a woman, after the comment was made that she should pray to become a man in her next lifetime to facilitate her enlightenment. Taking the vow, and practicing over many lifetimes she gained enlightenment while in a woman’s body. The second story states that Chenresig, full of enlightened compassion, saw the plight of sentient beings suffering in cyclic existence and began to cry. The tears formed a great lake, from which sprang the Buddha Tara who told Chenresig not to worry as she would help him alleviate the suffering of sentient beings.