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

Dalai Lama by Per K. Sorensen. The author claims that the poetry of the god-king used the erotic
images as allegories: the “tiger girl” conquered in a poem by the sixth Kundun is supposed to
symbolize the clan chief of the Mongols (Sorensen, 1990, p. 226). The “sweet apple” or respectively
the “virgin” for whom he reaches out are regarded as the “fruits of power” (Sorensen, 1990, p. 279).
Sorensen reinterprets the “love for a woman” as the “love of power” when he writes: “We shall
tentatively attempt to read the constant allusion to the girl and the beloved as yet a hidden reference to
the appropriation of real power, a right of which he [the Sixth Dalai Lama] was unjustly divested by a
despotic and complacent Regent, who in actual fact demonstrated a conspicuous lack of interest in
sharing any part of the power with the young ruler” (Sorensen, 1990, p. 48).
But this is a matter of much more than allegories. A proper understanding of the tantras instantly
makes the situation clear: the Sixth Dalai Lama was constantly conducting tantric rituals with his girls
in order to attain real power in the state. In his mind, his karma mudras represented various energies
which he wanted to acquire via his sexual magic practices so as to gain the power to govern which
was being withheld from him. If he composed the lines
As long as the pale moon
Dwells over the East Mountain,
I draw strength and bliss
From the girl’s body
(Koch, 1960, p. 172)
- then this was with power-political intentions. Yet some of his lines are of such a deep melancholy
that he probably was not able to always keep up his tantric control techniques and had actually fallen
deeply in love. The following poem may indicate this:
I went to the wise jewel, the lama,
And asked him to lead my spirit.
Often I sat at his feet,
But my thoughts crowded around
The image of the girl.
The appearance of the god
I could not conjure up.
Your beauty alone stood before my eyes,
And I wanted to catch the most holy teaching.
It slipped through my hands, I count the hours
Until we embrace again.
(Koch, 1960, p. 173)
A tantric history of Tibet
The following, Seventh Dalai Lama (1708-1757) was the complete opposite of his predecessor. Until
now no comparisons between the two have been made. Yet this would be worthwhile, then whilst the
one represented wildness, excess, fantasy, and poetry, his successor relied upon strict observance,
bureaucracy, modesty, and learning. The tantric scheme of anarchy and order, which the “Great Fifth”
ingeniously combined within his person, fell apart again with both of his immediate successors.
Nothing interested the Seventh Dalai Lama more than the state bureaucratic consolidation of the
Kalachakra Tantra. He commissioned the Namgyal Institute, which still today looks after this task,