-Caveat Lector-
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Hilary A.
Thomas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
>His Holiness the Dalai Lama's March 10th 1999 Statement
The Human Rights campaign of the Dalai Lama has not changed much
since the CIA devised it for him in the 1960's. Unfortunately he seems
to be a spent political force and the people with power know it. The
Tibetan Diaspora is fragmented and dispirited under his leadership.
Despite the large amount of money raised in the West for native
Tibetans, little seems to be being done by HHDL for them.
For another view of what is happening in Tibet and the Exiled
community read the following:-
Dark side of the Dalai Lama
By Iain S Bruce
Scotsman Newspaper 10th March 1999
Is Tibet's spiritual leader fooling the West?
To much of the Western world he is the very embodiment of kindness
and peace, a gentle robed figure of great wisdom and limitless virtue.
Feted by politicians, pop stars and Hollywood stars, the seemingly
undisputed spiritual and political leader of the movement to free Tibet
has always seemed like a pretty safe bet in a diplomatic arena
populated by rogues and charlatans.
The cracks in the Dalai Lama's impeccable image however, are beginning
to show and accusations are being levelled with increasing frequency
which link the 1989 Nobel laureate to religious repression despotism and
murder.
"The Dalai Lama has two faces. In the West he enthusiastically creates
an atmosphere of liberalism and open dialogue; in the East he treats
people as a monarch does his subjects," says Lama Kundeling, the abbot
of the Atisha monastery in Bangalore and respected member of the
exiled Tibetan community. "There is no freedom for us - he has total
monopoly over all spiritual and secular matters and spreads confusion
and distress among the Tibetan people."
China invaded Tibet in 1951 and declared the region a semi-autonomous
state of the People Republic, with the 15-year-old Dalai Lama at its
head. In reality the set-up existed to rubber stamp Beijing's
commands.
Forty years ago today, responding to rumours that the Chinese were
about to kidnap the Dalai Lama, 300,000 Tibetans formed a human
barrier around his palace and clashed with the Chinese army. As
Chinese heavy artlllery moved into range, the Dalai Lama escaped on
foot to India, and began orchestrating a global, campaign to gain his
country's indepen-dence, though he modified this demand to self-
government in 1988. The Chinese subsequently pursued a regime of
brutal oppression; while native Tibetans patiently wait for their leader
to return and free them.
Some 120,000 Tibetans fled to form exile communities across the
globe, mostly in In-dia, where Dharamsala - site of the Lama's
government in exile - is situated. The region has, since become the
focal point of a modern pilgrimage undertaken by Westerners seduced
by the image of a harmonious, contented society united under a 'single
benign leader. Actors such as Richard Gere, Tim Rob-bins and Susan
Sarandon have paid their devotions, while directors Oliver Stone and
Martin Scorsese made idolatry movies and bands such as Kula Shaker,
the Beastie Boys and Radiohead queued to appear in concerts raising
funds for a free Tibet
If these freedom-loving hipsters who wear their causes like a fashion
accessory had heard some of the whispers escaping the heavenly state
as it approaches its 40th anniversary, however, they might already
have considered moving on to next year's fad.
After the Dalai Lama issued a 1996 ban on the Worship of Dorje
Shugden, a protector deity with many devotees among Buddhism's
Gelugpa sect, Lama Kundeling's home in the Tibetan settlement of
Mancoate, south-ern India, was attacked by masked monks who broke
all the windows.
The abbot attracted such at-tention by becoming the first Tibetan
monk to arrange a for-mal protest against the Dalai Lama. In April
1996, he sought permission for a protest march involving Tibetan
Buddhists, local Hindus and Catholics. He received visits from the local
women's organisation, youth groups and the Dalai Lama's niece trying to
dissuade him before a crowd of 75 Tibetans finally gathered at his
house and handed him a letter stating that he should refrain from
criticising the Dalai Lama. If not, it promised, he would "face dire
consequences". He fled to Bangalore after an arrest warrant was issued,
and alleges that since then, posters have been displayed in his
former monastery declaring that if he returns he will be killed.
Others are keen to debunk the Dalai Lama's pacifist image. Austrian
Buddhist monk Helmut Gassner, who served as the Dalai Lama's
interpreter for 17 years, claims he has evidence of threats against the
life of rival lamas, torture, mutilation and murder. PK Dey, a human
rights lawyer in Delhi, also claims to have over 300 sworn affidavits of
abuse while Dr Ursula Bernis, an American academic who lived among
the Tibetan population in India to research her book, Exiled From Exile,
reports witnessing widescale intimidation and violence.
Although the Dalai Lama has repeatedly asserted his com-mitment to
democracy, of the Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies' 46 assembly
mem-bers, only 30 are elected, the rest are appointed by the Lama,
and his family frequently enjoy high positions. The official re-sponse to
such criticisms of the Lama is that they are simply not true, that the
Lama is indeed a man of universal tolerance.
Lama Kundeling, however, argues that it is ignorance and myth that has
kept the image untarnished. The real tragedy of Tibet, he believes, is
that it is caught between a rock and a hard place. On one hand the
brutally oppressive Chinese regime, on the other an ancient tradition
of feudal and spiritual dominance that brooks no questioning, no
opposition. "That is the terrible irony. For all his squabbling, it is the
or-dinary people who suffer. In Tibet itself they still believe that he is
a superman who will one day free them, while in India he sits and does
nothing real to help. What is to become of them, the poor and the
ignorant?"
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