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The two Faces
of the Dalai Lama
An
Icon of Light with a Shady Side
by Tilman Müller and Janis Vougioukas
English
Translation of a German article in Stern Magazine published in 2009
When visiting Germany this week, the Dalai
Lama will again be lauded as a messiah. The head of Tibetans is regarded as
a symbol of tolerance. But critics in his exile community fail in demanding
religious freedom and democracy.
He always comes in a large convoy like a
president, bodyguards surrounding him, movie stars and managers forming honour guards. Politicians in charge hurry to welcome
him. The scene may be the same this week in Frankfurt [Germany], just as it
was in Nuremberg last year. The Dalai Lama greeted the crowds with his
lovely child-like waving of hands. But his speech in the town hall made
people halt their breath, as reported by a local newspaper next day.
He catered the elect audience saying he saw Nuremberg already on
photographs when he was still a child: “very attractive with generals
and weapons“and
with “Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering“.
Some of the auditors seemed to be
“embarrassed”, some were “alienated for a second;” Nuremberg’s chief mayor
Ulrich Maly calls it a “moment of shock“. The
special guests tried to get himself afterwards out
of the affair by stating that as a child he wasn’t able to foresee the Nazi
catastrophe.
.
If the Pope had given himself room for such
statements in the city of the Reichsparteitage
[NSDAP party summits] and the race laws, there would have been a loud
outcry in the republic [of Germany]. But the head of Tibetan Buddhists is
willingly excused for such words although His Holiness has enough reason to
critically think about Nazi history. He who bears the title of the “Ocean
of Wisdom” always had a very close relationship to his teacher Heinrich Harrer, a famous alpinist and author (“Seven years in
Tibet”). Harrer had been a snappy Nazi who for a
long time tried to hide the fact that he used to hold the rank of SS-Oberscharführer [Senior Squad Leader of the Schutz-Staffel (SS) or Protective Echelon of Adolf
Hitler]. The Tibetan court used to have close ties with the NS-regime.
SS-expeditions were welcomed to Lhasa with
full mark of respect. Until today, His Holiness never distanced himself
from these inglorious relationships. But this is not the only dark chapter
in his story of success.
The Dalai Lama smiles away all doubts. Almost everywhere he receives the
same god-like veneration. In the West he appears as the super idol of the
new age but in the Himalayans he governs like a medieval potentate. A
gentle do-gooder who can show a surprisingly intolerant yes dictator-like
behavior. His people’s sad fate, suppressed by Beijing and expulsed, hides
the inner problems of the Dalai Lama-regime.
.
Here [in Germany] people attracted by him fill stadiums like coming to see
a pop star. In Nuremberg 7,000 people listened to him, in Hamburg two years
ago 30.000 and Frankfurt Commerzbank-Arena
expects 40.000 visitors these days. The tickets range from € 10 to € 230
and usually are booked one year in advance. In conjunction with his huge
events, there came up a unique spiritual supermarket. 728 German and 908
English books from and about the Dalai Lama are listed with amazon, 13,200 videos at youtube,
almost 8 million entries in google.
The son of Tibetan peasants is the most popular of all living noble
laureates.
Members of all religions and also atheists
come like pilgrims to his one-man-shows. “We had direct eye-contact”, a
young woman in the German city of Moenchengladbach
shouted out over-happily and immediately promised to stop smoking
henceforth. “He makes me feel good”, a woman in Boston says in excitement and
puts it into a nutshell, “it’s his aura, this simpleness”.
Just in Europe and the US, the birthplaces of the Age of Enlightenment,
this Buddhist messiah formed new strongholds of his religion and he also
finds favour with the usually critical-thinking generation
of 68 [the left wing student protest movement in Europe] In 1971, Stern
Magazine [The magazine where this article was published] celebrated him as
the “saint on the mountain”, Spiegel Magazine romanticised
him to be a “god to touch” two years ago.
The head of the powerful German publishing
house Springer, Mathias Döpfner, ex-porn queen
Dolly Buster, German football star Mehmet Scholl,
former economy minister Otto Graf Lambsdorff, and
the inventor of the famous Love Parade Dr. Motte
venerate Tenzin Gyatso,
the 14th Dalai Lama.
Where does that huge excitement come from? Christianity is loosing prestige and believers. That left a vacuum
giving Buddhism a space to develop in the west as some kind of
wellness-religion. And the peaceful calmness of the Dalai Lama makes you
feel comfortable in the rough daily rat-race. His positive charisma seems
to ban all fear of crisis. On top of this, there arose a Tibet romanticism
in the West transfiguring the snow land on
the roof of the world where the Dalai Lama had been born in 1935 in a hut
with juniper rain-pipes.
The Asia expert Orville Schell, president of the New York Center of
Sino-American Relations, explained the development of the Tibet-Myth from
its remote position for centuries in innumerable works. The lack of
knowledge gave birth to fantasies. It all started back in 1933 with James
Hilton’s novel “Lost Horizon”, first published in German titled “Irgendwo in Tibet – Somewhere in Tibet”. The action was
set in the sunshine paradise Shangri-La where no one had to work and
everyone is living in eternal peace. The dream factory of Hollywood later
on could use all these fantasies, creating a symbiosis of Tibet and pop
culture, and created a monument for Tenzin Gyatso with the movie “Kundun”.
“Because Tibet has always been so inaccessible, it existed in western
imagination rather as a dream than as reality. It was supposed to be a
country we could project our post-modern longings to”, Schell says.
“I am for you whatever you want me to be for you”, the Dalai Lama says and
in that way, alpinist Reinhold Messner regards
him as “a fighter for environment protection”. German movie director and
Oscar prize winner Florian Henckel
von Donnermarck appreciates that “he makes
happiness one of his religion’s core principals.” Actress Uma Thurman expects absolution for making the
bloodthirsty violent movie “Kill Bill”: “The Dalai Lama would die laughing”
if watching the movie. And the Dalai Lama takes part in that game, he is
open to all directions at one’s will.
He is a perfect tool for presidents and heads of government as even George
W. Bush looks peaceful when being with him. The hyper active Nicolas Sarkozy looks gentle, and boring Roland Koch [prime
minister of the German state of Hessen] at least seems to have some esprit.
Especially with conservative and right-wing politicians this game of mutual
instrumentalisation works especially well. The
Dalai Lama had strong sympathy for the Austrian right-wing Jörg Haider and visited him
several times in his Austrian state of Kaernten.
Although the head of Tibetans is already
74, he is touring the West so intensively only for a relatively short time
now. In June 1979, he visited Mont Pèlerin at
Lake Geneva giving his first public teaching to a greater audience in the
west. “There was not much interest regarding the Dalai Lama and we couldn’t
even get police protection for him,” one of the then organizers, today
living in Switzerland, tells us.
In the meanwhile, the Dalai Lama became popular to the world but isn’t it
anymore to all the monasteries. “There had been a break in our community
about ten years ago,” a former companion says. In the first line it was
about a protective saint the brotherhood is not allowed to worship anymore.
But basically this religious quarrel is a struggle for power with
intrigues, slandering, and intimidation continued until today. Out of fear
of repression the confidant of the Dalai Lama asks to stay anonymous. The
“Tibetan Community of Switzerland”, an organisation
strongly devoted to the Dalai Lama called on all Tibetans in Switzerland
having passed their 18th birthday to “immediately” stop the worship of the
Tibetan protective deity Dorje Shugden and to sign an 8-point-agreement: “Those few
Tibetans publicly and for no reason criticising
the Dalai Lama are regarded to be Chinese collaborators by us.”
This strategy of “either being with me or against me” and the rigid tone
absolutely don’t fit to the gentle manner in which the “Übervater”
[super-father] is usually presenting himself to the West. His royal court
in Dharamsala still follows the feudalist
structure of the old Tibet and is ruled by oracles and rituals that do not
have much in common with western tolerance and transparency. The Dalai
Lama’s sudden prohibition of the protective deity Shugden
who had been worshipped since the 17th century and is one out of hundreds
of saints in the Tibetan Buddhist canon in 1996 deeply alienated many
religious Tibetans. For them it is incomprehensible and outsiders hardly
can grasp how rigorous it is enforced. About one third of the 130,000 exile
Tibetans are supposed to have worshipped Shugden
before the ban. Today there are only a few thousand to openly show their
connection to the cult. There are no independent estimations regarding the
5 million Tibetans inside China.
The journalist Beat Regli in 1998 for the first
time showed emotional pictures of that imminent conflict in the Indian
exile communities in Swiss television [Schweizer Fernsehen, SF – Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden]. Highly
aged monks regretted crying that they didn’t already die before the
prohibition of Shugden. A desperate family whose
house had been set alight is presented as well as wanted posters denouncing
Shugden followers and a Dalai Lama
uncompromisingly defending his ban. “Wrong, wrong” he sounds off in a cold
and sharp way nobody in the west has ever expected from the ever smiling
noble laureate.
In Dharamsala this quarrel is continuing to the
present day. Monks not following the Dalai Lama’s order report
of massive discrimination. Relatives and friends are put under
pressure and vendors put posters on their shop’s doors saying “No Entrance”
for Shugden-believers.
In southern Indian city of Mundgod, Ganden Shartse monastery last
year celebrated the inauguration of a new prayer hall. “It was supposed to
become a great feast” one monk present at the time remembers. He is afraid
to say his name. The Dalai Lama himself came and with him a number of other
high ranking dignitaries. But almost everything talked about in the
speeches and lectures was the old controversial topic of Dorje Shugden. Shortly
afterwards the monks are said to have been told to sign a declaration stating
they were no longer praticing Shugden.
The monastery’s administration even erected a man-high wall through the
monastic yard.
In the meanwhile the dispute was handed over to the court. Dorje Shugden Society filed a
complaint at New Delhi’s High Court in order to check whether this
“religious discrimination” is acceptable under Indian law. A decision is
expected for the end of this year. Dalai Lama says Shugden
worship is harmful to his life and to the “cause of Tibet” with no further
statements available. His opposition suspects that Shugden,
who is also exhorted as an oracle, was prohibited for being a concurrence
to the Dalai Lama’s state oracle.
The Tibetan Governement-in Exile (TGE)
nevertheless rejects all accusations. “There are only very few of those
people left and they are completely financed by PRC. They are the only ones
still talking about this topic,” TGE’s prime minister Samdhong
Rinpoche says. Being paid by the Chinese is the
worst accusation for any Tibetan.
The Tibetan refugee’s capital is situated in the small town of Mc Leod Ganj, next to the
district capital Dharamsala and twelve hours by
bus from New Delhi. The Dalai Lama and members of his closest staff moved
into the former residence of the British administration in 1960 with
thousands of devotees following him. Among many Indians of that
region, Mc Leod Ganj is
known as “Little Lhasa”. It is a tiny place with two dusty one way roads
winding up the mountain.
About 600,000 enlightenment-tourists come
here every year. Loud music flows from cafés and bars into the valley and
little stands with religious kitsch stand side by side along the roads, one
of them even offering “monk’s fashion”. Young Tibetans here wear Jeans and
T-Shirts whereas the western tourists usually dress like actors in biblical
movies. Little Lhasa has become the “Ballermann”
[an area with lots of clubs, bars, and discotheques in Palma de Mallorca
famous among German tourists to the Spanish island] for spiritual seekers.
The small government district is a short
way down the hill with tiny ministries, a parliament, and a library. The
Dalai Lama again and again underlines that Tibetans in exile have built up
a democratic system. There is a parliament with 43 to 46 seats. All sessions
are recorded on DVD and then sent into the refugee settlements. On a
theoretical basis the parliament may decide against the Dalai Lama. “But
this never happened,” says the parliament’s president Penpa
Tsering. “Everyone has great confidence into His
Holiness. He sees the Tibetan question from many different angles, receives lots of information and is very, very
logical.”
For a long time, His Holiness’ family
members held high positions. Since 2001 the prime minister is elected
directly. In 2006’s elections, he received more than 90% of the votes and
thus was confirmed in office. The main goal of Little Lhasa’s political
structure is to confirm the Dalai Lama’s decisions and to solidify his
power. Parties are absolutely irrelevant and the separation of state and
church is not mentioned in the exile Tibetan Charta although it avows
itself to the “ideals of democracy” in nice sounding words.
In 1990, the independent Tibetan newspaper
“mang-tso” (democracy) was published for the
first time and quickly became the most important piece of media for Little
Lhasa’s refugee community. “We wrote on election fraud, corruption, and
everything else existent in every other country as well,” says Jamyang Norbu, then
editor-in-chief. “Mang-tso” was uncomfortable and
its editors didn’t allow themselves to be intimidated when some of them
received death threats and the paper boys were threatened in the streets.
In 1996, the situation got even worse, shortly after the newspaper
published an article on the Aum sect which was
responsible for poisonous gas attacks on Tokyo’s metro in 1995 killing 12
and leaving hundreds injured. The terrorist sect’s leader, Shoko Asahara on several occasions met the Dalai Lama. Even
weeks after the first assault, Dalai Lama called him a “friend, yet not a
perfect one.” Only later he went on distance to the sect. “Reporters
Without Boarders” then said that due to that article “the religious
authorities immediately put ‘mang-tso’ under
pressure.” It had to close down; that was the end of “democracy”.
Criticism or public debates are not
welcomed in Little Lhasa. Dalai Lama prefers to ask gods and demons for
advice. His Holiness’ official state oracle is called Thubten
Ngodup, born in 1958. He is living in Nechung monastery right behind the parliament.
For centuries now, the Dalai Lamas seek
oracle advice in all important religious and political decisions. After his
predecessor had died, Thubten Ngodup
became the Dalai Lama’s official fortune-teller in 1987. It is said that he
became aware his qualification in various dreams and visions for the first
time. Another hint for his supernatural skills was his oftentimes bleeding
nose.
Whenever the Dalai Lama has a question, Thubten Nodup would put on
his 40-kg ritual garment. Incense would be burnt and his assistants would
put a huge crown on his head. Then the oracle would start dancing to the
music of horns and cymbals until he would enter a trance murmuring words
only well-trained ears can understand. Dalai Lama strongly believes in his
predictions. Looking back he found out that “the oracle was always right,”
he once said.
This is not what democracy looks like and yet there is not much criticism
regarding his way of governing for reasons of solidarity with a suppressed
people facing the super power China. Drawn out of his country, the Tibetan
head has to see the cruel injustice happening there and the old culture
slowly being destroyed.
The communist leaders in Beijing try to defame the Dalai Lama by calling
him “wolf in monk’s robes” or “devil with a human face and a beast’s
heart”. At the same time, Chinese security forces suppress even the
slightest move towards freedom on the Tibetan plateau. So one doesn’t have
to wonder for most Westeners stepping on the side
of the weak.
But Tibet never was the paradise it is in
western imagination. When the Chinese marched into it in 1950, it was stuck
up in the medieval era with monks and aristocrats sharing the power. Most
people were slaves, serfs, or under debt bondage. The system was protected
by a brutal religious police with whips and bars and many monasteries had
their own prisons. Even the Dalai Lama’s friend Heinrich Harrer was shocked: “The monks’ rule in Tibet is unique
and may only be compared to a strong dictatorship. They are suspicious of
any influence from the outside that may endanger their power. They are
intelligent enough not to believe in their unlimited power but they will
immediately punish anyone who dares to doubt it.” Harrer
reports of a man who stole a golden butter lamp from a temple. At first his
hand were publicly amputated and then “his mutilated body was sewn into a
wet yak skin. They let it dry and then threw it down a ravine.”
After the occupation, the Chinese presented themselves as the Tibetan
people’s liberators and destroyed the monasteries. And they built up a new
system of suppression. They oftentimes point out that despite of his peace
messages the Dalai Lama supports the armed resistance in his homeland,
himself being supported by “foreign imperialists”. In deed the Dalai Lama’s
two elder brothers built up connections with the US intelligence agency.
During several years, CIA trained about 300 Tibetans in guerrilla war
techniques at Camp Hale in the Rocky Mountains. In a full moon night in
October 1957, the first Tibetan elite soldiers jumped out of a B-17 without
nationality marking over Tibet. For the case of being caught by the
Chinese, each of them carried a small container of cyanite.
These Tibetan agents also protected the
Dalai Lama’s flight to India permanently being in contact with the CIA via
Morse messaging. Later on, the US financed the formation of a
Tibetan rebel army in the Nepalese kingdom of Mustang. The programs
were stopped when the US intensified their trading with China in the early
1970s.
Regarding Buddhism rather as an esoteric cult than as a religion, many of
the Dalai Lama’s followers are astonished when hearing of their idol
working hand in hand with the US intelligence agencies. Or when they hear
that Buddhism spread in Asia as with much bloodshed as Islam did in
Arabia or as the Christian crusades. Again and again Tibetan monasteries
had brutal fights against each other. Buddhism is not necessarily more
tolerant than other religions. In an interview with “Playboy” magazine,
Dalai Lama called homosexual practices “misconduct”. The teachings also
condemn “having oral or anal sex with your wife or another female partner”.
Similar passages had been deleted from his “Ethics for a New Millennium” on
his publisher’s advice.
Dalai Lama is in favour of harmony. But he will
have to face the confrontation as there is growing criticism in his own
exile community. “His Holiness is living in a bubble without contact to the
outside world,” says Lhasang Tsering,
a long term activist. He is now running a bookstore in Little Lhasa.
“Religion and politics should finally be separated.”
This is also what Jamyang Norbu
is stipulating. “Dalai Lama is not a bad person”, says “mang-tso’s”
former editor-in-chief. “But he begins to be a hindrance to our development.
We don’t have democracy. Many things today are even worse than in 1959.
Then we had three political powers: Dalai Lama, the monasteries, and the
nobility.” Today the only leading figure left is the Dalai Lama.
© STERN
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