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

extremely problematic social status. Did the Thirteenth Dalai Lama revenge himself for this
humiliation?
On October 30, Ci Xi and Guangxu staged a banquet in the “Hall of Shining Purple”. The Dalai Lama
was already present when the Emperor cancelled at the last minute due to illness. Three days later, on
the occasion of her 74 th birthday, the Empress Dowager requested that the ecclesiastical dignity
conduct for her the “Ceremony for the Attainment of Long Life” in the “Throne Hall of Zealous
Government”. This came to pass. The Dalai Lama offered holy water and small cakes which were
supposed to grant her wish for a long life. Afterwards tea was served and then Ci Xi distributed her
gifts. At midday she personally formulated an edict in which she expressed her thanks to the Dalai
Lama and promised to pay him an annuity of 10,000 taels. Additionally he was to be given the title of
“Sincerely Obedient, through Reincarnation More Helpful, Most Excellent through Himself Existing
Buddha of the Western Heavens”.
This gift and the bombastic title were a silk-clad provocation. With them Ci Xi did not at all want to
honor the Dalai Lama, rather, she wished in contrast to demonstrate Tibet’s dependency upon the
“Middle Kingdom”. For one thing, by being granted an income the god-king was degraded to the
status of an imperial civil servant. Further, in referring to the incarnation of Avalokiteshvara as a
“Sincerely Obedient Buddha”, she left no doubt about to whom he was in future to be obedient. Just
how important such “clichés” were for the participants is shown by the reaction of the American
envoy present, who interpreted the granting of the title as marking the end of the Dalai Lama’s
political power. The latter protested in vain against the edict and “his pride suffered terribly” (Mehra,
1976, p. 20). All of this took place in the world of political phenomena.
From a metaphysical point of view, however, as Guanyin Ci Xi wanted to make the powerful
Avalokiteshvara her servant. The actual “match of the gods” took place on the afternoon of the same
day (November 3) during a festivity to which the “Obedient Buddha” was once again invited by Her
Imperial Highness. Ci Xi, as the female “old Buddha lord” dared to appear before the incarnation of
the humiliated fire god, Avalokiteshvara (the Thirteenth Dalai Lama), in the costume of the water
goddess Guanyin, surrounded by dancing Bodhisattvas and sky walkers played by the imperial
eunuchs. There was singing, laughter, fooling around, boating, and enormous enjoyment. There had
been similar such “divine” appearances of the Empress Dowager before, but in the face of the already
politically and religiously degraded god-king from Tibet, the mocked patriarchal arch-enemy, the
triumphal procession of Guanyin became on this occasion a spectacular and provocative climax.
The Empress Dowager probably believed herself to be protected from any attacks upon her health by
the longevity ceremony which she had cajoled from the Dalai Lama the day before. In the evening,
however, she began to feel unwell, and became worse the next day. Forty-eight hours later the Dalai
Lama came to the Empress and handed her a statuette of the “Buddha of Eternal Life” (a variant of
Avalokiteshvara) with the instruction that she erect it over the graves of the emperors in China’s east.
Prince Chong, although he objected strongly because of premonition, was with harsh words entrusted
by Ci Xi to do so nonetheless. When he returned to the imperial palace on November 13, the female
“old Buddha lord” felt herself to be in a good mood and was fit again, but the Emperor (her adoptive
son) now lay dying and passed away the next day. He had been prone to illness for years, but the fact
that his death was so sudden was also found most mysterious by his personal doctors and hence they
did not exclude the possibility that he had been poisoned. [7]