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

patriarchal traditions. Her radical nature made her into an avenging Erinnye (or an out-of-control
dakini) in a tantric “match of the gods” (as the Tantrics saw history to be). There is no doubt that highranking
Tibetan lamas interpreted the historical role of Jiang Qing thus. All three “Empresses” failed
with their politics and religious system.
Wu Zetian had to officially renounce her title as “Coming Buddha”. After her death,
Confucianism regained its power and began a countrywide persecution of the Buddhists.
Ci Xi died during the visit of her “arch-enemy” (the Thirteenth Dalai Lama). Within a
few years of her death the reign of the Manchu dynasty was over (1911).
Jiang Qing was condemned to death by her own (Communist) party as a “left
deviationist”, and then pardoned. Even before she died (in 1991), the Maoist regime of
“the Red Sun” had collapsed once and for all.
Starting once more from a tantric view of things, one can speculate as to whether all three female
historical figures (who as incarnations of Guanyin are to be assigned to the element of “water”) had to
suffer the fate of a “fire woman”, a Candali. Then in the end, like the Candali, they founder in their
own flames (political passion). All three, although staunch opponents of a purely men-oriented
Buddhism, deliberately grasped the religious images and methods of the patriarchally organized
world. Wu Zetian and Ci Xi let themselves be addressed with a male title as “old Buddha lord”; Jiang
Qing drove all feminine, erotic elements out of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and issued
the young women of the Red Guard with male uniforms. In light of the three Chinese “Empresses” the
thought occurs that an emancipatory women’s movement cannot survive when it seizes and utilizes
the androcentric power symbols and attitudes for itself. We turn to a consideration of these thoughts
in the chapter which follows.
Feminism and Tantric Buddhism
Once the majority of the high-ranking Tibetan lamas had to flee the Land of Snows from the end of
the 1950s and then began to disseminate Tantric Buddhism in the West, they were willingly or
unwillingly confronted with modern feminism. This encounter between the women’s movement of
the twentieth century and the ancient system of the androcentric monastic culture is not without a
certain delicacy. In itself, one would have to presume that here two irreconcilable enemies from way
back came together and that now “the fur would fly”. But this unique relation — as we shall soon see
— took on a much more complicated form. Yet first we introduce a courageous and self-confident
woman from Tibetan history, who formulated a clear and unmistakable rejection of Tantric Buddhism.
Tse Pongza — the challenger of Padmasambhava
Shortly after Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche), the founder of Tibetan Buddhism, entered the “Land
of Snows”, a remarkable woman became his decisive opponent. It was no lesser figure than Tse
Pongza, the principal wife of the Tibetan king, Trisong Detsen (742–803), and the mother of the heir
apparent. The ruler had brought the famous vajra master into the country from India in order to
weaken the dominant Bon religion and the nobility. With his active assistance the old priesthood (of
the Bon) were banished and the cult was suppressed by drastic measures. A proportion of the Bonpo
(the followers of Bon) succumbed to the pressure and converted, another division fled the country,
some were decapitated and their bodies thrown into the river. Yet during the whole period of
persecution Tse Pongza remained a true believer in the traditional rites and tried by all means to drive