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

the fantasy and the often picturesque wildness of the other orders. The Gelugpas have not produced a
single original work, but saw their mission rather as solely to study the already codified Buddhist
texts, to prepare commentaries on these, and, in most cases, to learn them by heart. Even the sixteen
volumes of Tsongkhapa’s writings are commentaries upon the canonized literature found in the
Kanjur ("translations of the word” of Buddha) and the Tanjur ("translation of the textbooks”). The
strength of the Gelugpas thus lay not in their creativity, but rather in their superior political and
organizational talents which they combined with the teachings of the tantras in an extremely effective
manner. Despite his “puritanical” politics which earned him the title of the Tibetan Luther,
Tsongkhapa was an outstanding expert in and commentator upon the tantric secret writings, especially
the Kalachakra teachings. His pupils continued this tradition with extensive works of their own. This
made the Gelugpa order a stronghold of the Time Tantra.
Tsongkhapa was “puritanical” only in the sense that he demanded absolute discipline and iron-clad
rules in the performance of the sexual magic rites and in determining that they could only be
conducted by celibate monks. Although he became an object of emotional reverence after his death,
because of their precision and systematicity his commentaries upon the sacred love techniques seem
especially cold and calculating. They are probably only the product of his imagination, then he
himself is supposed to have never practiced with a real karma mudra (wisdom consort) — yet he
wrote extensively about this. He saw in the tantric exercises an extremely dangerous but also highly
effective practice which ought only be conducted by a tiny clerical elite after traversing a lengthy and
laborious graduated path. The broad mass of the monks thus fell further and further behind in the
course of the academic and subsequent tantric training, eventually forming the extensive and humble
“lower ranks”.
It lay — and still lies — in the logic of the Gelugpa system to produce a small minority of intensively
schooled scholars and an even smaller number of tantric adepts, whose energies are in the end
gathered together in a single individual. The entire monastic “factory” is thus, in the final instance,
geared to the production of a single omnipotent Buddhist deity in human form. In accordance with the
metapolitical intentions of the Kalachakra teachings which, being its highest tantra, form the main
pillar of the Gelugpa order, it must be the time god himself who rules the world as a patriarchal
Chakravartin in the figure of the Dalai Lama. In the final instance, he is the ADI BUDDHA.
Although the institution of the Dalai Lama did not yet exist when the Gelugpa order was founded, its
essence was already in place. Hence the “virtuous” built the “Asian Rome” (Lhasa) step by step, with
the “yellow pontiff” (the Kundun) at its head. Thanks to their organizational talents they soon
controlled the majority of central Asia. From the banks of the Volga and the Amur, from the broad
steppes of inner Asia to the Siberian tundra, from the oases of the Tarim Basin, from the imperial city
of Beijing, from the far Indian river valleys came streams of pilgrims, envoys, and tributary gifts to
the god-king in Lhasa. Even his opponents recognized him as a spiritual force towering over all.
The Kagyupa order
Whilst the Gelugpas began cooperating with the Mongolians very early on and regarded these as their
protective power, we can more or less call the Kagyupas, with the Karmapa at their head, the national
Tibetan forces (at least up until the 17 th century). The first Dalai Lama was already caught up in
military skirmishes with the “Red Hats” (Kagyupa). 150 years later and with the support of Prince
Tsangpa, they had extended their power so far that the Gelugpas had good reason to fear for their
lives and possessions. In the 1730s Tsangpa seized Lhasa and handed the holy temple, the Jokhang,