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

such as David Snellgrove for example — even talk of a “heterodox” Buddha doctrine which
penetrated the highlands via Persia and united with the local shamanist religion there. Where there is a
real difference is in the approval of animal and occasional human sacrifices in the Bon cult. But then
even this is supposed to be not entirely foreign to the tantric rites. There was thus no need for the
“Great Fifth” to fear contact with the religion of the “black hat magicians”, as the Bonpo are
sometimes called. His own system could only be strengthened through their “integration”.
Through his politics of integration the Fifth Dalai Lama demonstratively revealed that he saw himself
as the ruler of all sects and all Tibetans, and that he was not striving to achieve absolute hegemony for
the “yellow order” (the Gelugpas), but rather the unrestricted sovereignty of his own institution.
Where the “Yellow Hats” were always wanting that the other schools be reduced to second or thirdorder
powers; the Fifth Dalai Lama in contrast aspired to a situation where all schools equally bowed
down before him as the supreme tantra master. Tensions with his own order were also preordained for
another reason. Traditionally, the Gelugpas supplied the regent to the god-king who, once the “living
Buddha” (Kundun) attained his majority, had to abdicate and renounce his power.
Let us summarize once more: It was the “Great Fifth”’s political intention to establish a Buddhocratic
system in Tibet with the institution of the Dalai Lama at its helm. To achieve this he required all the
material and spiritual resources of the country. From the Gelugpas he took the discipline,
organizational talent, administrative skill, reasons of state, and learning; from the Kagyupas the
doctrine of incarnation, his incarnation god Avalokiteshvara, and his national roots; from the
Nyingmapas the ritual magic; from the Sakyapas the diplomatic skill; from the Jonangpas a wellorganized
Kalachakra system; and from the Bonpos the support of those ecclesiastical forces which
had primarily propagated the idea of the ancient, sacred kingship, an idea which was vital for the
establishment of the world throne on the Potala.
According to the laws of the micro/macrocosmic conceptual world in which the Fifth Dalai Lama
lived, he must have seen in his power politics a symbolic act which encompassed the entire cosmos:
Once he had achieved absolute control over the Land of Snows (the microcosm), then, homologously,
as Chakravartin he also had power over the whole world (the macrocosm). He ingeniously
understood how to bundle together all the spiritual energies of the country within his person and the
institution of the Dalai Lama which he occupied. He collected the most potent extracts from schools
of every orientation and mixed them together in his magic cauldron into a potion of power, the
consumption of which was supposed to grant him control over the universe.
Through his political application of the doctrine of incarnation, the fifth Kundun could with aplomb
draw upon all the important political figures of Tibetan history and employed these as marionettes in
his cosmic theaters. He made the tantric idea the driving force of his age . It was not him as a person,
but rather the gods he invoked, especially Avalokiteshvara and Kalachakra, the time god, who were
the organizing principle, the creative, the one true thing, the ADI BUDDHA.
Unification of the Tibetan Buddhist orders under the absolute reign of the Fourteenth
Dalai Lama
It is almost uncanny how exactly the Fourteenth Dalai Lama has continued and intensified the
integrative politics of his ingenious, unscrupulous, and highly revered predecessor from the 17 th
century which was aimed at strengthening his own position of power, only this time truly on a global
scale. It is primarily the Kalachakra Tantra which serves as his most effective means of bringing the