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

countries, above all the Tibet Information Network (TIN) in London, supply the press with material
about the serious shortcomings in the Land of Snows, life in the community of Tibetan exiles, and the
activities of the god-king. There is successful cooperation with Chinese dissidents. Reports from
Beijing, which admittedly can only be treated with great caution but nonetheless include much
important information, are uniformly dismissed by Dharamsala as communist propaganda. This onesidedness
in the assessment of Tibetan affairs has in the meantime also been adopted by the western
press corps.
For example, when at the invitation of the Chinese the German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, visited
Lhasa as the first western head of government and afterwards announced that the situation in the Tibet
capital was by no means so criminal as it was portrayed to be by the Dalai Lama’s office, he was
lambasted in the media, who declared that he was prepared to sell his morals for financial
considerations. But when he was there, the former American President Jimmy Carter, renowned for
his great commitment to human rights, also gained the same impression (Grunfeld, 1996, p. 232).
The issue of Tibet has become an important means of anchoring Tantric Buddhism in the West. As a
political issue it appears in the West to be completely divorced from any religious
instrumentalization. The Kundun appears in public as a campaigner for peace, a democrat, a humanist,
as an advocate of the oppressed. This skillfully adapted western/ethical “mixture” gains him
unrestricted access to the highest levels of government. Although some politicians may see a
confirmation of their ideals in the (ostensible) behavior of the Dalai Lama, fundamentally it is
probably power-political motives which determine Western policy on Asia. The West’s relationship
with China is namely extremely ambivalent. On the one hand there is a hope for good economic and
political ties to the prospering country with its unbounded markets, on the other a deep-seated fear of
a future Chinese superpower. The political situation in Tibet and the circumstances of the Tibetans in
exile afford sufficient grounds to be employed as an argument against a potential Chinese imperialism.
The “Greens”
In Germany the issue of Tibet was first taken up by green politicians, primarily by the parliamentary
representatives Petra Kelly and Gert Bastian. Their pro-Tibetan intervention is still marked by a
continuing success. “Major entertainers and environmentalists”, wrote the Spiegel magazine, “have
found a common denominator in their commitment to the kingdom on the roof of the world.
Hollywood meets Robin Hood — Tibet’s Buddhism is the common denominator” (Spiegel, 16/1998,
p. 109). Petra Kelly’s selfless engagement was later interpreted as a form of “engaged Buddhism”
whose principle concerns were said to include the defense of human rights, ecological responsibility,
and sexual equality. [1] The Kundun cleverly co-opted all these western demands and suddenly (at the
end of the eighties) appeared on the political stage as a spearhead of the global ecological movement.
„Green politics” and environmental issues have in the meantime attained a central place within the
political propaganda of the Tibetans in exile. There are hundreds of conferences such as the one
introduced by His Holiness in 1993 under the title of „Ecological responsibility: A dialog with
Buddhism”. The Kundun is a member of the ecologically oriented Goal Forum of Spiritual and
Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival. In 1992 he visited the Greenpeace flagship, the Rainbow
Warrior. And at the „global forum” in Rio de Janeiro the Dalai Lama had far-reaching things to say
about the earth’s problems: „This blue planet of ours is a delightful habitat. Its life is our life; its
future our future. Indeed, the earth acts like a mother to all. Like children, we are dependent on
them. ... Our Mother Earth is teaching us a lesson in universal responsibility”, the god-king