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

We find a further pinnacle of Thurman’s historical falsification in the portrait of the greatest Lamaist
potentate, the Fifth Dalai Lama. Of all people, this “Priest-King” attuned to the accumulation of
external power and pomp is built up by the author in to a hero of the “inner revolution”. He paints the
picture of a prudent and farsighted fathers of his country (“a gentle genius, scholar, and reincarnate
saint” — Thurman 1998, p. 248), who is compelled — against his will and his fundamentally
Buddhist attitude — to conduct a n horrific “civil war” (in which he lets great numbers of monks from
other orders be massacred by the Mongol warriors summoned to the country). Thurman presents the
conflict as a quarrel between various warlords in which the “peaceful” monks become embroiled.
Here again, the opposite was the case: the two chief Tibetan Buddhist orders of the time (Gelugpa and
Kagyupa) were pulling the strings, even if they let worldly armies battle for them. Thurman
misrepresents this monastic war as a battle between cliques of nobles and ultimately “the final
showdown in Tibet between militarism and monasticism” (Thurman 1998, p. 249), whereby the latter
as the party of peace is victorious thanks to the genius of the Fifth Dalai Lama and goes on to all but
establish a “Buddha paradise” on earth.
All this is a pious/impudent invention of the American Tibetologist. The merciless warrior mentality
of the Fifth Dalai Lama spread fear and alarm among his foes. His dark occult side, his fascination for
the sexual magic of the Nyingmapa (which he himself practiced), his unrestrained rewriting of history
and much more; these are all highly unpleasant facts, which are deliberately concealed by Thurman,
since an historically accurate portrait of the “Great Fifth” could have embarrassing consequences, as
the Fourteenth Dalai Lama constantly refers to this predecessor of his and has announced him to be
his greatest example.
It would be wrong to deny the Fifth Dalai Lama any political or administrative skill; he was, just like
his contemporary, Louis the Fourteenth, to whom he is often compared, an “ingenious” statesman.
But this made him no prince of peace. His goal consisted of resolutely placing the fate of the country
in the hands of the clergy with himself as the undisputed spiritual and secular leader. To this end (like
the Fourteenth Dalai Lama today) he played the various orders off against one another. The Fifth
Dalai Lama formulated the political foundations of a “Buddhocracy” which Robert Thurman would
be glad to see as the model for a future worlds community, and which we wish to examine more
closely in the next section.
A worldwide Buddhocracy
At the conference on Tibet in Bonn mentioned above (“Mythos Tibet”, 1996) Robert Thurman with
stirring pathos prophesied the “fall of the West” and left no doubt that the future of our planet lies in a
worldwide, as he stressed literally, “Buddhocracy”. Europe has renounced its sacred past, demystified
its natural environment, established a secular realm, and closed off access to the sacred “represented
by monasticism and its organized striving for perfection”. Materialism, industrialization and
militarization have taken the place of the sacred (Thurman 1998, p. 246).
At the same time a reverse process has taken place in Tibet. Society has become increasingly
sacralized and devoted itself to the creation of a “buddhaverse”. (In the wake of the Tibetologists’
criticisms in Bonn, Thurman appears to have opted for his own neologism “buddhaverse” in place of
the somewhat offensive “Buddhocracy”; the meaning intended remains the same.) A re-enchantment
of reality has taken place in Tibet, and the system is dedicated to the perfection of the individual. The
warrior spirit has been dismantled. All these claims are untrue, and can be disproved by countless