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

secular and decadent, as the decision of a deity.
An important instrument of Tibetan power politics was the political intrigue. This is admittedly a
universal phenomenon, but in Tibet it developed such a high status because the worldly resources
available to the lamas were barely adequate to the task of controlling central Asia. Above all there
was only a rudimentary army. Hence, time and again it was necessary to seek armed allies, or to play
armed opponents off against one another. The great abbots, regents and Dalai Lamas have made
extensive use of these strategies over the course of history. They were masters of the game of political
intrigue and were for this reason as much feared by the Chinese emperors as the Mongolian Khans.
Poison and assassinations dominated even the internal Lamaist scene. Not all “living Buddhas”
reached the age at which they could govern. As we have already described above, the four divine
children (the Ninth to Twelfth Dalai Lamas) fell victim to powerful cliques within the clerical
establishment. The great abbots were especially feared because of their magical abilities which they
employed against their enemies. Alongside the authority of state, magic was the other significant
control mechanism of which constant use was made. It played a more important role at an elevated
political level than the bureaucratic administration and international diplomacy.
More recent developments in the historical image
The marked differences of opinion in the assessment of the Land of Snows and its culture are not just
a product of the western imagination, but must likewise be explained in terms of a gaping disparity
between Lamaism’s own ideal-typical claims and an “underdeveloped” social reality. A devout
Tibetan Buddhist tends to have his eyes fixed upon the ideals of his doctrine (Dharma) and to be blind
to the social realities of his country. This is almost always true when the Tibet of old is concerned. As
Tantric, the “law of inversion” also grants him the possibility of seeing all that is bad and imperfect in
his surroundings as the formative material for the work of spiritual transformation, then according to
logic of inversion Vajrayana makes the base social reality into an element of the becoming whole,
into the prima materia of the tantric experiment.
It goes without saying that the lamas thankfully adopted the western ideal-world vision of a peaceful
and spiritual Tibet. They combined this with images of paradise from their own, Buddhist mythology
and added historical events from the times of the Tibetan kings to the mix. The result was the picture
of a society in which all people had lived happily since time immemorial, with a smile on their face
night and day. All the needs of a meaningful human existence could be filled in the Tibet of old;
nothing was lacking. Everyone respected all others. Humans, animals, and nature lived together
peacefully with respect. The ecological balance was assured. The Tibetan kings ruled like goodly
fathers and the ecclesiastical princes followed in their stead. Then came the Chinese military with
guns and artillery, enslaved the people, tortured the priests, destroyed the culture and planned to
totally exterminate the Tibetan race.
With such or similar images, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama has up until most recently largely succeeded
in implanting the image of a pure, noble, humane, ecological, spiritually highly developed Tibet, this
stronghold against materialism and inhumanity, in the awareness of the world’s public. Even the
German news magazine, Der Spiegel, normally extremely critical of such matters, becomes rapturous:
“Tibet as a symbol of the good, as the last stronghold of spirituality, where wisdom and harmony are
preserved, while the world lies in darkness and chaos: Has the 'Roof of the World' become a
projection of all our longings? What is the secret behind the western fascination with this distant land,