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

allowed herself to be worshipped.
Among the sacred buildings erected at her command was to be found what was referred to as a time
tower (tiantang). According to Antonino Forte, the first ever mechanical clock was assembled there.
The discovery of a “time machine” (the clock) is certainly one of the greatest cultural achievements in
the history of humankind. Nevertheless we today see such an event only from its technical and
quantitative side. But for people with an ancient world view this “mechanical” clock was of far
greater significance. With its construction and erection a claim was made to the symbolic and real
control over time as such. Hence, following the assembly of the tiantang (time tower), Wu Zetian
allowed herself to be worshipped as the living time goddess.
Alongside the “time tower” she built a huge metal pillar (the so-called “heavenly axis”). This was
supposed to depict Mount Meru, the center of the Buddhist universe. Just as the tiantang symbolized
control over time, the metallic “heavenly axis” announced the Empress’s control of space.
Correspondingly her palace was also considered to be the microcosmic likeness of the entire universe.
She declared her capital, Liaoyang, to be not just the metropolis of China, but also the domicile of the
gods. Space and Time were thus, at least according to doctrine, firmly in Wu Zetian’s hands.
It will already have occurred to the reader that the religious/political visions of Wu Zetian correspond
to the spirit of the Kalachakra Tantra in so many aspects that one could think it might have been a
direct influence. However, this ruler lived three hundred years before the historical publication date of
the Time Tantra. Nevertheless, the influence of Vajrayana (which has in fact been found in the fourth
century in India) cannot be ruled out. Hua-yen Buddhism, from the ideas of which the Empress
derived her philosophy of state, is also regarded as “proto-tantric” by experts: “Thus the Chou-Wu
theocracy [of the Empress]) is the form of state in China which comes closest to a tantric theocracy or
Buddhocracy: the whole world is considered as the body of a Buddha, and the Empress who rules
over this sacramentalized political community is considered to be the highest of all Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas” (Brück and Lai, 1997, p. 630). [6]
Although no historical conection between the Kalachakra Tantra and the “proto-tantric” world view
of Wu Zetian can be proved, striking parallels in the history of ideas and symbols exist. For example,
alongside the claim to the “world throne” as Chakravartin, the implied control over time and space,
we find a further parallel in Wu Zetian’s grab for the two heavenly orbs (the sun and moon) which is
characteristic of the Time Tantra. She let a special Chinese character be created as her own name
which was called “sun and moon rising up out of the emptiness” (Franke, 1961, p. 415).
But the final intentions of the two systems are not compatible. The Empress Wu Zetian is hardly
likely to have striven towards the Buddhocracy of an androcentric Lamaism. In contrast, it is probable
that gynocentric forces were hidden behind her Buddhist mask. For example, she officially granted
her female (!) forebears bombastic titles and epithets of “Mother Earth” (Franke, 1961, p. 415). In the
patriarchal culture of China this feminist act of state was perceived as a monstrous blasphemy. Hence,
with reference to this naming, we may read in a contemporary historical critique that, “such a
confusion of terms as that of Wu had not been experienced since records began” (Franke,1961, p.
415).
The unrestrained ruler usurped for herself all the posts of the masculine monastic religion. In her
hunger for power she even denied her femininity and let herself be addressed as “old Buddha lord” —