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

abbots, which have been tolerated in the country as refugee settlements since the sixties, are accused
by the Bhutanese of nothing less serious than the politically motivated murder of the Prime Minister,
Jigme Dorji, (in 1964) and a long-planned revolt in order to seize control of the country.
In this, the “Yellow Hats” are supposed to have attempted to liquidate the Bhutanese heir to the
throne. Alongside one of the king’s mistresses who was under the influence of the Gelugpas, the Dalai
Lama’s brother, Gyalo Thondrup, is also supposed to be involved in this assassination attempt,
discovered before it could be carried through. In the light of such accusations it is immediately
apparent why the Bhutanese have backed Shamar Rinpoche’s decision in the dispute about the new
Karmapa, and reject Ugyen Trinley, the candidate of Situ Rinpoche ratified by Dharamsala, as a
marionette of the Dalai Lama.
Footnotes:
[1] We are obviously dealing with a Buddhaization of a Vedic myth of origin here, according to which the
universe arose from the self-dismemberment of the first human, Prajapati.
[2] The philosophers and theologists of the European Middle Ages developed a “two body theory” of sacred
kingship. The scholars drew a distinction between the mortal and mundane body of a king and an eternal royal
meta-body. This was fundamentally independent of its human appearance. After the death of the body which
had served as his residence he withdrew from this so as to then be reincarnated in the succesor of the old king.
This model corresponds broadly with the Tibetan Buddhist doctrine of incarnation.
[3] The mchod-yon relation to China is also interpreted as the relation pertaining between the sun and the moon
by the Lamaist side. Hence we can read in a text from the 17th century that the potentates from Beijing and
Lhasa stood opposed to one another as sun and moon, where the Dalai Lama occupied the throne of the sun
(Klieger,1991, p. 45). As the moon the feminine and thus subordinate role is assigned to the Emperor in this
classification.
[4] In the Tibetan Review, the public relations advertisement for the West, even the shallow dualism „Tibet —
good and China — bad” is seen as a problem in one article: „Tibet is the embodiment of the powers of the holy;
China is the embodiment of the powers of the demonic; Tibetans are superhuman, Chinese are subhuman. In this
Orientalist logic of oppositions, China must be debased in order for Tibet to be exalted; in order for there to be a
spiritual and enlightened Orient, there must be a demonic and despotic Orient „ (Tibetan Review, May 1994, p.
18).
[5] Following the Dalai Lama the second highest authority in the Gelugpa sect.
[6] Sera is the monastery to which the regent belonged.
[7] As we have already mentioned, such “treasures” (terma) are understood to be secret doctrines hidden by
dakinis or the “founder of the religion”, Padmasambhava. Many years later they are discovered by chosen
individuals and then put into practice.
[8] Tangible material interests also play their role in the “Karmapa affair”. The assets of the Rumtek monastery,
the main western monastery of the Karmapa, are being claimed by Dharamsala (i.e., by the Kundun) because it
is an object of contention between Situ and Shamar Rinpoche who both lay claim to the monastery for their
respective candidates.
Next Chapter:
4. SOCIAL REALITY IN ANCIENT TIBET
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