Kritik am Buch „The Shadow Of The Dalai Lama ... - Neues von Shi De

the patriarchal clergy. An interpretation of this process according to the criteria of the gaia thesis
often discussed in recent years would certainly be most revealing. (We return to this point in our
analysis of the ecological program of the Tibetans in exile.) According to this thesis, the mistreated
“Mother Earth” (Gaia is the popular name for the Greek earth mother) has been exploited by
humanity (and the gods?) for millennia and is bleeding to death. But Srinmo is not just a reservoir of
inexhaustible energy. She is also the absolute Other, the foreign, and the great danger which threatens
the Buddhocratic state. Srinmo is — as we still have to prove — the mythic “inner enemy” of Tibetan
Lamaism, while the external mythic enemy is likewise represented by a woman, the Chinese goddess
Guanyin.
Srinmo survived — even if it was under the most horrible circumstances, yet the Tibetans also have a
myth of dismemberment which repeats the Babylonian tragedy of Tiamat. Like many peoples they
worship the tortoise as a symbol of Mother Earth. A Tibetan myth tells of how in the mists of time the
Bodhisattva Manjushri sacrificed such a creature “for the benefit of all beings”. In order to form a
solid foundation for the world he fired an arrow off at the tortoise which struck it in the right-hand
side. The wounded animal spat fire, its blood poured out, and it passed excrement. It thus multiplied
the elements of the new world. Albert Grünwedel presents this myth as evidence for the “tantric
female sacrifice” in the Kalachakra ritual: “The tortoise which Manjushri shot through with a long
arrow ... [is] just another form of the world woman whose inner organs are depicted by the dasakaro
vasi figure [the Power of Ten]" (Grünwedel, 1924, vol. II, p. 92).
The relation of Tibetan Buddhism to the goddess of the earth or of the country (Tibet) is also one of
brutal subjugation, an imprisonment, an enslavement, a murder or a dismemberment. Euphemistically,
and in ignorance of the tantric scheme of things it could also be interpreted as a civilizing of the
wilderness through culture. Yet however the relation is perceived — no meeting, no exchange, no
mutual recognition of the two forces takes place. In the depths of Tibet’s history — as we shall show
— a brutal battle of the sexes is played out.
Why women can’t climb the pure crystal mountain
Even the landscape is sexualized in Tibetan folk beliefs (this too squares with the ideas of Tantrism).
In mountain lakes, the water of which has taken on a red color (probably because of mercury), the
lamas see the menstrual blood of the goddess Vajravarahi. In rivers, lakes, and springs dwell the Lu,
who resemble our nixies. They are hostile towards we humans, yet they were nonetheless preferred as
spouses by the kings of the highlands in ancient times and brought their magic abilities with them in
the marriage. We learn from the Fifth Dalai Lama that they leave no corpse behind when they die.
The myths have also divided the massive snow capped peaks along sexual lines. It was hence not
uncommon for particular mountains to marry and the descendants of such alliances are supposed to
have grounded powerful royal houses. One of the mountain goddesses is world famous, because it
rises above the other peaks of the planet as the highest mountain of all. We know her under the name
of Mount Everest, the Himalayan peoples, however, pray to her as the “Mother of the Earth”, the
“White Heavens Goddess”, the “White Glacier Lady”, the “Goddess of the Winds”, the “Lady of
Long Life”, the “Elephant Goddess”.
In his study with the descriptive title of Why can’t women climb pure crystal mountain?, the Tibet
researcher Toni Huber describes an interesting mythic case where a mountain goddess was deprived
of her power by a tantric Siddha and since then the location of her former rule may no longer be