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

Wojkowitz, 1955, p.260). This induces the death of the person. [2]
The same ritual text includes a recipe for the inducement of madness: “draw a white magic circle on
the summit of a mountain and place the figure of the victim in it which you have to prepare from the
deadly leaves of a poisonous tree. Then write the name and lineage of the victims on this figure with
white sandalwood resin. Hold it in the smoke from burnt human fat. Whilst you recite the appropriate
spell, take a demon dagger made of bone in your right hand and touch the head of the figure with it.
Finally, leave it behind in a place where mamo demonesses are in the habit of
congregating” (Nebesky-Wojkowitz, 1955, p. 261).
Such “voodoo practices” were no rare and unhealthy products of the Nyingmapa sect or the despised
pre-Buddhist Bonpos. Under the Fifth Dalai Lama they became part of the elevated politics of state.
The “Great Fifth” had a terrible “recipe book” (the Golden Manuscript) recorded on black thangkas
which was exclusively concerned with magical techniques for destroying an enemy. In it there a
number of variations upon the so-called gan tad ritual are also described: a man or a woman depicting
the victim are drawn in the center of a circle. They are shackled with heavy chains around their hands
and feet. Around the figures the tantra master has written harmful sayings like the following. “the life
be cut, the heart be cut, the body be cut, the power be cut, the descent be cut” (Nebesky-Wojkowitz,
1993, p. 483). The latter means that the victim’s relatives should also be destroyed. Now the
menstrual blood of a prostitute must be dripped onto the spells, the drawings are given hair and nails.
According to some texts a little dirt scraped from a shoe, or some plaster from the victim’s house are
sufficient. Then the ritual master folds the paper up in a piece of cloth. The whole thing is stuffed into
a yak’s horn with further horrible ingredients which we would rather not have to list. Gloves have to
be worn when conducting the ritual, since the substances can have most harmful effects upon the
magician if he comes into contact with them. In a cemetery he entreats an army of demons to descend
upon the horn and impregnate it with their destructive energy. Then it is buried on the land of the
enemy, who dies soon afterwards.
The “Great Fifth” is supposed to have performed a “voodoo” ritual for the defeat of the Kagyupa and
the Tsang clan in the Ganden monastery temple. He regarded them, “whose spirit has been clouded by
Mara and their devotion to the Karmapa”, as enemies of the faith (Ahmad, 1970, p. 103). In the ritual,
a likeness of the Prince of Tsang in the form of a torma (dough cake) was employed. Incorporated
into the dough figure were the blood of a boy fallen in the battles, human flesh, beer, poison, and so
on. 200 years later, when the Tibetans went to war with the Nepalese, the lamas had a substitute made
of the commander of the Nepalese army and conducted a destructive ritual with this. The commander
died soon after and the enemy army’s plans for invasion had to be abandoned (Nebesky-Wojkowitz,
1993, p. 495).
Among other things, Tibetan magic is premised upon the existence of a force or energy possessed by
every living creature and which is known as la. However, this life energy does not need to be stored
within a person, it can be found completely outside of them, in a lake, a mountain, a tree, or an animal
for instance. A person can also possess several las. If one of his energy centers is attacked or
destroyed he is able to regenerate himself out of the others. Among aristocrats and high lamas we may
find the la in “royal” animals like the snow lion, bears, tigers, or elephants. For the “middle class” of
society we have animals like the ox, horse, yak, sheep, or mule, and for the lower classes the rat, dog,
and scorpion. The la can also keep alive a family, a tribe, or a whole people. For example, Lake
Yamdrok is said to contain the life energy of the Tibetan nation and there is a saying that the whole