The Dalai Lama's family

Free Tibet

Where has all the Money Gone?

The amount of money raised for the Tibetan causes over the last few decades – which most contributors in the West have been led to believe is for a free Tibet – probably runs into hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars. In addition, every Tibetan, whether male or female, infant, infirm or old, and whether living in the East or West, is expected to pay an ‘independence-tax’ to the Tibetan exile government.

The funds collected from the ‘independence-tax’ and all these other fund-raising activities are not used for the support or relief of the Tibetan community or for a free, independent Tibet (because the Dalai Lama stopped aiming for this as early as the 1980s). What is this money being collected for? How much money has been collected? And where is all this money being kept?

Quotes
International Press
Videos
References
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Like many Asian politicians, the Dalai Lama has been remarkably nepotistic, appointing members of his family to many positions of prominence. [...] All these positions give the Dalai Lama’s family access to millions of dollars collected on behalf of the government-in-exile.

The Age (Melbourne)
Michael Backman

One of the major sources of political power for the Dalai Lama is his ability to control relief funds, educational scholarships, and the hiring of Tibetan teachers and bureaucrats.
These powers only continue as long as there are many stateless refugees. Consequently, it is to the benefit of the leadership to keep Tibetans in children’s homes, transit camps and temporary facilities―not unlike the situation among the Palestinian refugees.

The Making of Modern Tibet
A. Tom Grunfeld

Little is known about the government-in-exile’s finances. I did contact its Department of Finance in Dharamsala with a series of questions about how it funds itself and expenditure. I was sent a series of spreadsheets in reply.

The government-in-exile claims that its total budget for 2002-03 amounted to the equivalent of US$22.028 million. The budget was spent on various programs such as health, education, religion and culture. The biggest item was for “political-related expenditure” at US$7 million. The next biggest was administration, which runs to US$4.5 million. Around US$1.8 million was allocated to running the government-in-exile’s offices of Tibet overseas.

For all that the government-in-exile claims to do, these sums appear too low. Nor is it clear how donations enter its budgeting. These are likely to run to many millions but there is no explicit acknowledgment of them or their sources.

The Asian Insider
Michael Backman

In general the corruption was so bad that the Director of Operations for the UN High Commission for Refugees noted that if all the relief supplies that were sent to India were distributed, every Tibetan should have at least one-and-one-half blankets each.

The Making of Modern Tibet
A. Tom Grunfeld

Gyalo [Thondup – the Dalai Lama’s elder brother] dominates the Dalai Lama and controls the Tibetan Government in Exile through his brother; Gyalo embezzles the Tibetan Government in Exile’s budget and invests it into his own business; Gyalo embezzles the donations intended for the Tibetan Guerrilla force; Gyalo controls the Tibetan Government in Exile by tactics involving bribery and boycott against its officials.

Lessons from Tibetans in Taiwan
Yuthok Tashi Dhundrup

Now, despite all the bad press and controversy surrounding Keith Raniere, the Dalai Lama ... has officially recognized the sponsoring organization by linking to it from his online official calendar.

Raniere recently gushed in an email that he is “thankful for the support of His Holiness” and added “details [would soon] be available.”

Maybe what matters most, per an earlier news report, is that after all the costs of the coming event are paid “anything extra the Dalai Lama can donate to the charity of his choice.”

Tickets were priced at “$52, $82 and $112″ at the Albany Times-Union Center, and with a maximum seating capacity of 17,500, that could have potentially pulled in more than a million dollars if the venue sold out....

Is money what the Dalai Lama is meditating about?

Has the Dalai Lama of Tibet sold out?
Rick Ross

Sydney Morning Herald

Cult gave Dalai Lama $2m

Shoko Asahara, the leader of the Aum Shrinrikyo doomsday cult, maintained personal and financial links with Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Asahara donated over $2 million to the Nobel prize-winner for the preservation of Tibetan Buddhism and culture in an apparent attempt to win his favour and endorsement.

According to the Japan-based representative of the Tibetan leader, Karma Gelek Yuthok, who released details of the relationship this week, Asahara began making contributions to the Dalai Lama from 1988, soon after the two met.

Asahara, 41, has repeatedly claimed the Dalai Lama gave him a divine mission to spread "real Buddhism" in Japan. He said the Tibetan leader had told him he was ideal for the mission because he had the "mind of a Buddha".

The Aum cult exploited the connection with the Dalai Lama to recruit new members and to pass itself off as a legitimate Buddhist organisation. Posters depicting Asahara and the Dalai Lama and carrying the Tibetan leader's endorsement were used extensively in cult promotions.

Dalai Lama - The Holy Family Business
1:19

Michael Backman, ‘Selling Tibet to the world’, 5 June 2008.

Michael Backman, The Asian Insider, ‘The Dalai Lama Eats Meat’, 2006, 240-1

Michael Backman, ‘Western media miss the real Tibet story’, The Age, April 9, 2008.

Michael Backman, ‘Behind the Dalai Lama’s holy cloak’,The Age (Melbourne), 23 May 2007

James Belither, ‘A Cry for Help’, The Dalai Lama: A Report on the Dalai Lama’s Abuses of Human Rights and Religious Freedoms, (Ulverston, 1997), 11.

Melvyn C. Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet Volume 1: 1913-1951 The Demise of the Lamaist State (Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: University of California, 1989).

Melvyn C. Goldstein, The Snow Lion and the Dragon – China, Tibet and the Dalai Lama (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).

Melvyn C. Goldstein, The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1997).

A. Tom Grunfeld, The Making of Modern Tibet (New York & London: M.E. Sharpe 1996), 194-6.

New York Times,‘World New Briefs: Dalai Lama Group Says it Got Money from CIA’, 2 October 1998.

Russell Skelton, Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Cult gave Dalai Lama $2m’, 26 April 1996.

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The Western Shugden Society has based its research on the works of respected and independent scholars, investigative journalists and on original source material to demonstrate its position. Some of this material is freely available on the internet. Wherever possible we have provided links to the original documents or means to access them. We invite you to investigate them for yourself.

Dalai Lama - The Holy Family Business
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