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

independent form and then hit back at her hated “projection father” as an enemy. Such radical
“emancipations” of Tibetan protective deities are not at all rare and the collected histories of Tibet are
full of reports, where submissive servants of the lamas free themselves and attempt to revolt against
their lords. Right now, the Tibetan exile community is being deeply shaken by such a rebellious
protective spirit by the name of Dorje Shugden, who has at any rate managed to disfigure the until
now completely pure image of the Kundun in the West with some most persistent stains. We shall
return to report on this often. From Shugden circles also comes the suspicion that Palden Lhamo has
failed completely as the spiritual protector of Tibet, Lhasa, and the Dalai Lama, and has delivered the
country into the hands of the Chinese occupiers. Whatever opinion one may have of such
speculations, the extreme aggression of the demoness and the practical political facts do not exclude
such a view of the matter.
In the life story of Palden Lhamo her relationship to her son is particularly cruel and numinous. Why
a woman who is revered as the supreme protective spirit of Tibet and the Dalai Lama must be the
slaughterer of her own child, may seem monstrous even to one who has become accustomed to the
atrocities of the tantras. If we interpret the case psychologically we must ask ourselves the following
questions: As a mother, is Palden Lhamo not driven by constant horror? Is her bottomless hate not the
expression of her abominable deed? Must she not in her heart be the arch-enemy of Buddhism, the
cause of her infanticide?
Is this repellant cult even more murderous than it already appears? Is the goddess perhaps offered
sacrifices which simultaneously appease and captivate her? Since the demoness had to slaughter the
utmost which a mother can give, namely her child, for Tibetan Buddhism, the sacrifice which is to fill
her with satisfaction must also be the highest which Lamaism has to offer.
In fact, the early deaths of the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Dalai Lama give rise to the
question of whether a deliberately initiated sacrificial offering to Palden Lhamo could be involved
here? All four god-kings died at an age before they were able to take over the business of government.
In each case, the regents who were exercising real power until the new Dalai Lamas came of age were
suspected with good reason of being the murderer. In the Tibet of old poisonings were a regular
occurrence. There is even said to have been a morbid belief that whoever poisoned a highly respected
man would obtain all the happiness and privileges of his victim.
These are the historical facts. But there is a mysterious event to be found in the brief biographies of
the four unhappy “god-kings” which could lend their fate a deeper, symbolic meaning. We mean the
visit to a temple about a hundred miles southeast of Lhasa which was dedicated to one of the
emanations of Palden Lhamo. We must imagine such shrines (gokhangs), dedicated to the wrathful
deities, to be a real cabinet of horrors. Stuffed full of real and magic weapons, padded out by all
manner of dried human body parts, they aroused absolute repugnance among visitors from the West.
In order to test the psychological hardiness of the young Kunduns, at least once in their lives the
children were locked in the morbid temple mentioned and probably exposed to the most terrible
performances of the goddess. “Young as they were, they had insufficient knowledge to persuade her
to turn away the wrath, which came so easily to her, and, accordingly, they died soon after the
meeting”, Charles Bell wrote of this cruel rite of initiation (Bell, 1994, p. 159). Whatever may have
taken place within this gokhang, the children emerged from this hell completely disturbed and were
all four close to madness.