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

consider the question of whether the current Dalai Lama or one of his future incarnations can with an
appeal to the Shambhala myth set himself up as the head of a Central Asian major-power block with
China as the leading nation. The other question we want to consider is this — could the Chinese
themselves use the ideology of the Kalachakra Tantra to pursue an imperialist policy in the future?
The Kalachakra Tantra and the Shambhala myth had and still have a quite exceptional popularity in
Central Asia. There, they hardly fulfill a need for world peace, but rather –especially in Mongolia –act
as a symbol for dreams of becoming a major power. Thus the Shambhala prophecy undoubtedly
possesses the explosive force to power an aggressive Asia’s imperialist ideology. This idea is
widespread among the Kalmyks, the various Mongolian tribes, the Bhutanese, the Sikkimese, and the
Ladhakis.
Even the Japanese made use of the Shambhala myth in the forties in order to establish a foothold in
Mongolia. The power-hungry fascist elite of the island were generous in creating political-religious
combinations. They had known how to fuse Buddhism and Shintoism together into an imposing
imperialist ideology in their own country. Why should this not also happen with Lamaism? Hence
Japanese agents strove to create contacts with the lamas of Central Asia and Tibet (Kimura, 1990).
They even funded a search party for the incarnation of the Ninth Jebtsundampa Khutuktu, the “yellow
pontiff of the Mongolians”, and sent it to Lhasa for this purpose (Tibetan Review, February 1991, p.
19). There were already close contacts to Japan under the Thirteenth Dalai Lama; he was advised in
military questions, for example, was a Japanese by the name of Yasujiro Yajima (Tibetan Review,
June 1982, pp. 8f.).
In line with the worldwide renaissance in all religions and their fundamentalist strains it can therefore
not be excluded that Lamaism also regain a foothold in China and that after a return of the Dalai
Lama the Kalachakra ideology become widespread there. It would then — as Edwin Bernbaum
opines — just be seeds that had been sown before which would sprout. „Through the Mongolians, the
Manchus, and the influence of the Panchen Lamas, the Kalachakra Tantra even had an impact on
China: A major landmark of Peking, the Pai t’a, a white Tibetan-style stupa on a hill overlooking the
Forbidden City, bears the emblem of the Kalachakra Teaching, The Ten of Power. Great Kalachakra
Initiations were also given in Peking.” (Bernbaum, 1980, p. 286, f. 7) These were conducted in the
thirties by the Panchen Lama.
Taiwan: A springboard for Tibetan Buddhism and the Fourteenth Dalai Lama?
Yet as a decisive indicator of the potential “conquest” of China by Tibetan Buddhism, its explosive
spread in Taiwan must be mentioned. Tibetan lamas first began to missionize the island in 1949. But
their work was soon extinguished and could only be resumed in 1980. From this point in time on,
however, the tantric doctrine has enjoyed a triumphal progress. The Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa)
estimates the number of the Kundun’s followers in Taiwan to be between 200 and 300 thousand and
increasing, whilst the Tibetan Review of May 1997 even reports a figure of half a million. Over a
hundred Tibetan Buddhist shrines have been built. Every month around 100 Lamaist monks from all
countries visit Taiwan “to raise money for Tibetan temples around the world” there (Tibetan Review,
May 1995, p. 11).
Increasingly, high lamas are also reincarnating themselves in Taiwanese, i.e., Chinese, families. To
date, four of these have been “discovered” — an adult and three children — in the years 1987, 1990,
1991, and 1995. Lama Lobsang Jungney told a reporter that “Reincarnation can happen wherever