Originally published in Reportage Online June 19, 2015.
The Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political leader of Tibet, is much beloved around the world by Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. But not everyone feels the same way.
Members of the International Shugden Buddhist Community have been protesting outside of events attended by the Dalai Lama.
Spokesperson Nicholas Pitts says the Dalai Lama is prompting religious discrimination against the Shugden community in Tibet.
“The Dalai Lama has created an atmosphere of religious hatred within his own community,” Mr Pitts says, “and it’s all because of the whole set of slanders and horrible things that the Dalai Lama has said about the Shugden people and their faith.”
Members of the Shugden Community differ from the mainstream Tibetan Buddhists in that they worship a deity known as Dorje Shugden. This deity supposedly punishes people who attempt to practice certain other types of ‘impure’ Buddhism.
Because of this, the Dalai Lama has discouraged Shugden Buddhism, saying that it threatens the peaceful coexistence of the other forms of Tibetan Buddhism. At a 2008 conference, the Dalai Lama said “restricting a form of practice that restricts others’ religious freedom is actually a protection of religious freedom. So in other words, negation of a negation is an affirmation.”
But Mr Pitts says that such comments have caused the Tibetan people to discriminate against the Shugden community. “It’s manifested in signs in shops, restaurants, even medical clinics saying that Shugden Buddhists will not be served in those facilities,” he says.
Mr Pitts says “Journalists never try to get him to answer difficult questions. He’s been the political leader to the Tibetan people for decades and he needs to be held to account in the same way any other political leader would.
“We’re not going to argue that the things he says aren’t beautiful. But anyone can talk about love, compassion and happiness. Certainly in the case of the Shugden Buddhists, he has created vastly more suffering than happiness.”
However, Professor John Powers, an expert in Asian studies at the Australian National University, says that the Dalai Lama’s comments do not amount to religious discrimination. “When you hear these people protesting, one of the common claims is that the Dalai Lama is stifling their religious freedom. But he has no power to do this. He doesn’t have an army or a police force. So what he does is he says he is opposed to Shugden practice. He also says at the beginnings of his talks ‘if you’re a Shugden supporter I would ask you to leave because your practice is inimical to me. So by practising this practice you are opposed to me, so you shouldn’t be at my teaching’.”
Some academics and supporters of the Dalai Lama claim the Shugden community is funded by the Chinese Government in order to create infighting within Tibet and to discredit the Dalai Lama.
While Professor Powers believe much of what is said is “probably propaganda,” he says there is an element of truth to it.
“The element of truth is that the Chinese government is actively supporting Shugden worship in Tibet. I visited Shugden monasteries when I was in Tibet a couple of years ago and they are obviously very well-funded.
“The other thing is the Chinese Government is putting up Shugden statues in other monasteries and forcing them to keep them. So it is very clear that the Chinese Government is propping up the Shugden sect in Tibet. The Dalai Lama is opposed to Shugden, and any enemy of the Dalai Lama is a friend of the Chinese Government.”
In response to the repeated claims of suppression of religious freedom, the United Nations investigated these claims and issued a statement saying that they found no evidence of any religious persecution.