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

which would be combined with an effective system of appointments. He knows that an overly liberal
expansion or even a democratization of the idea of incarnation would completely undermine its
exclusivity. Appointments and initiations by a guru are thus basically more important to him, but he
would never want to give up the system as such, which exercises so a bewitching hold over the
western imagination.
His answer to the question of whether he himself will reincarnate as Dalai Lama once more has for
years been the same statement: “Should the Tibetan people still want a Dalai Lama after my death
then a new Dalai Lama will also come. I shall at any rate not attempt to influence this decision in any
manner. If my people should in the next years decide to make an end to old traditions, then one must
accept that” (Playboy, German edition, March 1998, p. 44).
We must leave it to the judgment of our readers how seriously they take such a “democratic” solution
to the question of tradition by the Tibetan Buddhocrats. That the gods bow to the will of the people is
completely new, at least in the history of Tibet. But at any rate we shall not have to do without the
“precious presence” (Tibetan: Kundun) of His Holiness in our next incarnations, even if he no longer
appears in the form of a Dalai Lama. At the end of his interview with Playboy which we have already
quoted from on a number of occasions, he gives his readers the following parting thought: “For as
long as the cosmos exists, and as long as there are living creatures, I will be present here so as to drive
out the suffering of the world” (Playboy, German edition, March 1998, p. 44).
The various orders of Tibetan Buddhism
Three of the four main schools which determined the religious life of Tibet were all formed in the
period from the 11 th to the 14th century: The Sakyapa, the Kagyupa and the Gelugpa. The Nyingmapa
in contrast has been in existence since the start of the ninth century. All four “sects” are still today the
most important pillars of tantric culture. It was the ingenious work of the “Great Fifth” to like an
alchemist distill the spiritual and political essence out of all the traditional orders and to impressively
assimilate these into his institution as “Dalai Lama” — a power-political act, which is currently being
repeated by his incarnation, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.
The Gelugpa order
The “Great Fifth” came from the Gelugpa order. Of all the Tibetan schools the so-called “Yellow
Hats” were the most tightly organized. Their founder, the outstanding scholar Tsongkhapa (1357–
1419), had begun with a moral campaign against the decline of the teaching and the dissolution in the
monasteries. He forbade the consumption of intoxicating liquors, demanded the strict observance of
celibacy, insisted upon a rigorous work discipline, improved the dress code and reformed the daily
liturgy. Towards the end of his life he succeeded in arresting the general decadence in the various
schools through the establishment of a new order. In keeping with his program, this was called
Gelugpa, that is, “Followers of the path of virtue”. Although there were precursors, in the final
instance Tibetan Buddhism has the “virtuous” to thank for its Buddhocratic/clerical structure. The
three “most scholarly” monasteries of the highlands belong to the “yellow church”: Ganden, Drepung,
and Sera. These “three jewels” of the spirit accommodated thousands of monks over centuries and
were considered the most powerful religious and political institutions in the country alongside the
Potala, the residence of the Dalai Lama, and Tashi Lhunpo, the seat of the Panchen Lama.
Like no other school, the “Yellow Hats” can be talked about as being scholastic. They possessed the
best libraries, the best educational system, the most stringent training program. What they lacked was