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Dalai Lama sued for repressing religious freedom
CIV - While the Dalai Lama is yelling at China accusing it forrepressing religious freedom in Tibet, he himself is being sued inIndia for heavy-handedly persecuting followers of a deity of TibetanBuddhism deemed by the Dalai Lama as "non-spiritual" allegedly out ofpolitical necessity. As such, the Dalai Lama is accused of being morelike a "totalitarian dictator", rather than a reincarnation of theBuddha of Compassion that he proclaims himself as.
The lawsuit was initiated by the 13th Kundeling Rimpoche in the high court of Delhi. According to the
petition,the Kundeling Rimpoche is a reincarnate Lama believes in "the freedomof worship as guaranteed by the Indian Constitution, and is opposed tothe ban on the worship of Dorje Shugden, as being illegal andunconsitutional."
The worship of Dorje Shugden has beencontroversial in Tibetan Buddhism since the Fifth Dalai Lama, who triedto repress his competitor, who worshipped Dorje Shugden, to claim thetitle of the de facto ruler of the Tibetan government by painting DorjeShugden as an evil deity.
In the present petition, Dorje Shugdenis said to have been for centuries worshipped as a protector ofreligion in the Gelugpa tradition, one of the four schools of TibetanBuddhism. Legend has it that the Dorje Shugden, a human being who livedin the 17th century, was the strongest contender for selection as theFifth Dalai Lama, but was foully murdered. His spirit then emerged andtook on the role of a Dharmapala, who vowed to protect the Gelugpatraditions.
The deity of Dorje Shugden is worshipped in theIndian Buddhist tradition prevalent in Himachal Pradesh, Laddakh,Uttaranchal, West Bengal and Sikkim. Dorje Shugden is also worshippedin all areas of the world where the Gelugpa tradition is followed, suchas Bhutan, Nepal, Mongolia, parts of China, parts of the former USSR,various countries in Europe, U.K. and U.S.A.
According to theKundeling Rimpoche, the Dalai Lama realized in the mid-1970s that hehad to reconsider his options after the thawing of Sino-US relationsand thus a withdrawal of the funding of the Free Tibet movement by theCentral Intelligence Agency of the USA.
"Therefore, in view ofthe sudden paucity of funds, a stratagem was devised whereby the callfor a Free Tibet was to be slowly given up, and in order to divert theopinion of the public (especially Tibetans) from this, a controversywas created regarding the worship of Dorje Shugden," court documentssay.
Against such a background, the Dalai Lama was accused tohave used his dual role as the temporal head of the Tibetans in exileand as a spiritual guide. He issued numerous statements to the effectthat the continuance of the worship of Dorje Shugden would be directlyharmful to his health.
In a full-strength propaganda against the worship of Dorje Shugden, the Dalai Lama allegedly adopted a logic that read:
- The Dalai Lama embodies Tibet.
- People who dare criticize the Dalai Lama must be Chinese agents
- The Dalai Lama does not approve of worship of Dorje Shugden
- Therefore Dorje Shugden worshippers must be Chinese agents
TheKundeling Rimpoche quotes a study saying that while acknowledging thatthe worship of Dorje Shugden in Tibet goes back to over threecenturies, the Dalai Lama has now been making statements against theworshippers of Dorje Shugden. He states that the worship of DorjeShugden is harmful for the cause of Tibetan unity and is harmful to hisown personal self.
"The website of the Respondent No. 4 [theDalai Lama],
www.dalailama.com, from which these Annexures have beendownloaded, reveals that the Dorje Shugden issue takes up more webspacethan any other issue," the petition filed in court says.
It isargued that the Dalai Lama, through his right-hand man who is aminister of the Tibetan government in exile, refuses to issue variousdocuments, such as identity cards, to the Tibetan refugee communityunless the applicants sign a form declaring renunciation of worship ofDorje
Shugden. These forms are not handed out, but are required to be signed there and then.
TheDalai Lama is accused of blackmailing Dorje Shugden worshippers intogiving up their religious beliefs. At the same time, Indian citizenswho worship Dorje Shugden are reviled and condemned as non-Buddhistsand Chinese agents.
Dorje Shugden worshippers are branded ascriminals and offenders by the Dalai Lama and his government. This hasresulted in a situation where the District Administration is not evenprepared to consider any complaints made by the worshippers of DorjeShugden in respect of the violence committed against them by thesupporters of the Dalai Lama. By 1996, Dorje Shugden worship waseffectively outlawed.
The sworn affidavit says that DorjeShugden worshippers have made numerous attempts since 1996 to bringabout a rapprochement, but every time they have been spurned by theDalai Lama, who amazingly still proclaims himself to be a reincarnationof Avalokiteshwara, i.e., the Buddha of Compassion. The acts of theDalai Lama in this regard are more like that of a totalitarian dictatorand not that of a Buddha of Compassion.
Many monks who believedin that practice went and settled in Mundgod in Karnataka, with theexpress intention of carrying out their religious practices withoutinterference from the Dalai Lama. However, in January, 2008 the DalaiLama visited the Mundgod area and gave speeches against the worship ofthe Dorje Shugden. This eventually led to an attack by the followers ofthe Dalai Lama upon the worshippers of the Dorje Shugden.
