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

A spiritual rivalry between the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and Mao Zedong?
The hidden religious basis of the Chinese Cultural Revolution prevents us from describing the
comprehensive opposition between Mao Zedong and the Dalai Lama as an antinomy between
materialism and spirituality — an interpretation which the Tibetan lamas, the Chinese Communists,
and the West have all given it, albeit all with differing evaluations. Rather, both systems (the Chinese
and the Tibetan) stood — as the ruler of the Potala and the regent of the Forbidden City had for
centuries — in mythic contest for the control of the world, both reached for the symbol of the “great
eastern sun”. Mao too had attempted to impose his political ideology upon the whole of humanity. He
applied the “theory of the taking of cities via the land” and via the farmers which he wrote and put
into practice in the “Long March” as a revolutionary concept for the entire planet, in that he declared
the non-industrialized countries of Asia, Africa, and South America to be “villages” that would revolt
against the rich industrial nations as the “cities”.
But there can only be one world ruler! In 1976, the year in which the “red pontiff” (Mao Zedong)
died, according to the writings of the Tibetans in exile things threatened to take a turn for the worse
for the Tibetans. The state oracle had pronounced the gloomiest predictions. Thereupon His Holiness
the Fourteenth Dalai Lama withdrew into retreat, the longest that he had ever made in India: “An
extremely strict practice”, he later commented personally, “which requires complete seclusion over
several weeks, linked to a very special teaching of the Fifth Dalai Lama” (Levenson, 1992, p. 242).
The result of this “practice” was, as Claude B. Levenson reports, the following: firstly there was “a
major earthquake in China with thousands of victims. Then Mao made his final bow upon the mortal
stage. This prompted an Indian who was close to the Tibetans to state, 'That’s enough, stop your
praying, otherwise the sky will fall on the heads of the Chinese'" (Levenson, 1992, p. 242). In fact,
shortly before his death the “Great Chairman” was directly affected by this earthquake. As his
personal physician (who was present) reports, the bed shook, the house swayed, and a nearby tin roof
rattled fearsomely.
Whether or not this was a coincidence, if a secret ritual of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama was conducted
to “liberate” Mao Zedong, it can only have been a matter of the voodoo-like killing practices from the
Golden Manuscript of the “Great Fifth”. Further, it is clear from the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s
autobiography that on the day of Mao’s death he was busy with the Time Tantra. At that time [1976],
the Kundun says. „I was in Ladakh, part of the remote Indian province of Jammu and Kashmir, where
I was conducting a Kalachakra initiation. On the second the ceremony’s three days, Mao died. And
the third day, it rained all morning. But, in the afternoon, there appeared one of the most beautiful
rainbows I have ever seen. I was certain that it must be a good omen” (Dalai Lama XIV, 1990, 222)
The post-Maoist era in Tibet
The Chinese of the Deng era recognized the error of their politics during the Cultural Revolution and
publicly criticized themselves because of events in Tibet. An attempt was made to correct the
mistakes and various former restrictions were relaxed step by step. As early as 1977 the Kundun was
offered the chance to return to Tibet. This was no subterfuge but rather an earnest attempt to appease.
One could talk about everything, Deng Xiaoping said, with the exception of total independence for
Tibet.
Thus, over the course of years, with occasional interruptions, informal contacts sprang up between the
representatives of the Tibetans in exile and the Chinese Party cadres. But no agreement was reached.