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Dorje Shugden Ban
The Segregation Wall at Ganden Monastery
The new wall at Ganden monastery in Southern India was built in March of this year. It has no gate, no entryway along its entire length. It is designed only to separate, to divide monk from monk; it even blocks access to the old road. It stands 9 feet tall and is made of concrete bricks. Visually, it is attractive in the same architectural style as the monastery, however, it’s appearance is deceptive and hides a sinister purpose. Each brick is an eerie symbol of inhumanity and hatred, instilled on the basis of religious belief by one person’s lies. The wall lies on the brown dusty earth—the very earth on which we all stand equal as human beings, each with the basic right to hold the faith of our choosing. It rises, row by row, into our common sky—the vast common canopy into which all can gaze, uplifting the mind beyond the mundane to the infinite and even the holy.
At first the wall was planned to be just 5 feet tall like all the other walls on the property. But many monks complained. They argued that the Shugden practitioners (those who had the audacity not to succumb to the fierce pressure of the Dalai Lama’s politically motivated regime to abandon their faith in their age-old and time-proven prayer of protection) could still be seen from the windows of the higher floors of adjacent buildings. They should not be able to be seen—any of them. No-one wanted even the wind of Dorje Shugden practitioners to blow around them. So higher the wall became—reaching nine feet—an edifice to religious apartheid. An ugly reminder to those who needed to be reminded each day that their Buddhist faith in Dorje Shugden is inferior, that they themselves are inferior and must expect to be treated as such. Each day they know they are separate, ostracized and objects of the animosity of others who were not long ago their family and friends. Each day, in the seething heat, Shugden practitioners have to walk the new twenty minute journey around the wall to the segregated prayer halls, internally working hard against the strong intention to demean and humiliate them, and wishing them to abandon their devotion to their lineage and their Gurus.
A Geshe who has lived at the monastery for many years, wanted me to know about this wall. He carefully explained its meaning, with a tone of seriousness and sadness. I, like any decent-minded person, felt a sick feeling inside—as when hearing of any inhumane treatment of man to man. Although appalled, it simply confirmed my understanding of the growing and relentless religious discrimination against sincere Shugden Buddhists.
How did this wall originate? Who would think it appropriate and even necessary in this age of rights and freedoms to build it? Who would encourage and praise this symbol of sectarianism within the Tibetan community, destroying unity and harmony, and creating a new enemy perhaps even more loathed, due to proximity, than the Chinese—the Shugdens? None other than the Dalai Lama himself. The same man who draws hundreds of thousands of well-meaning Westerners to his practiced speeches using Buddha’s wise and beautiful words to seduce them. They would be appalled that this so-called “Prince of Peace” would engage in such cruel and deliberate discrimination. The ocean of educated public filling the halls and stadiums would be reduced to a trickle. Hence this regime of intolerance against Dorje Shugden practitioners has been kept hidden for twenty years—like a dirty secret, from good-minded and thinking people. But the winds of truth are blowing, as more and more Tibetans find the courage in their hearts, risking the well-being of themselves and their families and speaking out against their hypocritical leader. Believing that through their sacrifice, their truths will be heard and their religious freedom restored.
The wall at Ganden monastery is just one physical example amongst innumerable recent examples that show a frightening and unacceptable poisoned mind of religious intolerance against Shugden practitioners that arise daily for Shugden people both within the Tibetan community and now worldwide. As recently as last week, signs were posted in Tibetan communities in Mundgod, India by Save Tibet Group— “We appeal you to cut any ties of buying and selling foods in restaurants and shops with whoever has connection to this Dorje Shugden organization.” The aversion and hostility continues.
The Dalai Lama himself is enforcing the systematic persecution and humiliation of Dorje Shugden followers, and encouraging others to see them as the sole object of blame, as scapegoats, for all difficulties within Tibetan society. His government officials, and sycophantic Geshes hungry for his favor, or more often those leaders fearful of arousing his disapproval and reprisal, implement his cleansing policy with ruthless energy. The Dalai Lama must be obeyed. There is no freedom of speech and no freedom of press within the Tibetan community.
I have been told that in the East many acknowledge and see that there is something wrong with the Dalai Lama and his activities. While in the West, he is revered and awarded endlessly. He is showing two faces.
At the Harvard Divinity School, the Dalai Lama said once, that it was time for all of us to give up thinking our beliefs are superior to those of others. He said recently (in the Economist) ‘Freedom, fairness, openness and equality …are among the highest human values, a measure to which all nations should be held to account.’
Yet amongst the Tibetans he says: ‘There will be no change in my stand. I will never revoke the ban. You are right. It will be like the Cultural Revolution. If those who do not accept the ban do not listen to my words, the situation will grow worse for them. You sit and watch. It will grow only worse for them.’ Dalai Lama (July 13, 1999), to monks in India who questioned the ban. And ‘The Dorje Shugden society plays games with me wherever I go…..they think I will back off. That I will never do. If not in this life, a successor will be appointed to sustain this ban’. Dalai Lama, Drepung Monastery (January 14th 1999).
His intimidation and humiliation tactics have proved effective. Since the beginning of his cleansing campaign, Shugden practitioners, once the majority of the Tibetan population of 6 million have now been reduced to just hundreds of thousands. He has stated he will not stop with the Tibetan community but continue his work of stopping Dorje Shugden prayers throughout the world. This work he has already begun – in Nepal, Bhutan, and now Western countries including the US.
How on earth can the Dalai Lama continue to be viewed as a ‘holy man’ on a plateau above and beyond public and media scrutiny, when there is so much evidence that his actions are to the contrary. He is systematically and deliberately, without compassion, destroying the spiritual lives of millions of Buddhists. By sharing blatant facts and truths, listening to testimonies, and bearing witness on behalf of all Shugden practitioners around the world, the entirely mythical pure character of the Dalai Lama, and the frightening power of popularity built upon this fabricated reputation, must soon inevitably come toppling down. And with it, the grotesque wall at Ganden monastery.
—- A concerned WSS Supporter