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

persecuted the Bon followers for centuries. In answer to a question about his attitude to Tibetan
Buddhism he replied, “Seen historically, a merciless war has in fact long been conducted between us
two. … Between the 7th and the 20th century a good four fifths of Tibet was Buddhist. Sometimes
this also meant violence: hence, in the 18th century, with the help of the Chinese, the Gelugpa carried
out mass conversions in the border regions of Tibet which had long been inhabited by the
Bon” (quoted by Eersel and Grosrey, 1998, p. 141). Still today, the Bonpos are disadvantaged in
many ways: “You should be aware, for instance, that non-Buddhist children do not see a penny of the
money donated by international aid organizations for Tibetan children!” Nyima Rinpoche protested
(quoted by Eersel and Grosrey, 1998, p. 132).
But the Kundun knows how to deal with such matters. The next day he lets the Bon critic sit beside
him, and declares the Bonpos to be “Tibet’s fifth school”. In his pride, Nyima Rinpoche forgot about
any criticism or the history of the repression of his religion. The Dalai Lama takes the African voodoo
representative, Daagpo Hounon Houna, in his arms and has a photo taken. The two book authors
comment that, “Back home in Africa this picture will certainly receive great symbolic status” (Eersel
and Grosley, 1998, p. 132). Then the Kundun says some moving words about “Mother Earth” he has
learned from the New Age milieu and which as such do not exist in the Tibetan tradition: “These days
we have too little contact to Mother Earth and in this we forget that we ourselves are a part of nature.
We are cildren of nature, Mother Earth, and this planet is our only home” (quoted by Eersel and
Grosrey, 1998, p. 180). Let us recall that before the start of every Kalachakra ritual the earth spirits
are nailed down with a ritual dagger. The Dalai Lama goes on to preach about the variety of races and
the equality of the religions of the world. And he has already won the hearts of all. It is naturally his
congress, he is the axis around which the “circle of elders” revolves.
Roughly in the middle of the book we suddenly learn that the delegates were invited in his name and
that “without the support and the exceptional aura of His Holiness” nothing would have been possible
(Eersel and Grosrey, 1998, p. 253). Even the high priest from Benin, who smuggled the remains of an
animal sacrifice into the ritual temple that was, however, discovered and removed, accepts the Tibetan
hierarch as the central figure of the meeting, saying “I therefore greet His Holiness the Dalai Lama
around whom we have gathered here” (Eersel and Grosrey, 1998, p. 199). One of the organizers(Jean-
Claude Carrière) sums things up: “That was actually the motor of this meeting. Here for the first time
peoples, some of whom have almost vanished from the face of the earth, were asked to speak (and
act) and they have recognized the likewise degraded, disowned, and exiled Dalai Lama as one of their
own. It is barely imaginable how important it was for them to be able to bow before him and present
him with a gift” (Eersel and Grosrey, 1998, p. 254). Tibetan Buddhism is becoming a catch-all for all
religions: “If the meeting of the United Traditions took place in a Buddhist monastery, it is surely
because the spirit of the Way of Buddha, as embodied by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, encourages
such meetings. His presence alongside the elders and the role of unifier which was accorded him on
the Day of the United Traditions, is in the same category as the suggestions that he made in front of
the assembled Christians in 1994 …” (Eersel and Grosrey, 1998, p. 406). Thus Lamaism plays the
tune to which those attending dance: “A more astonishing vision, in which we here, borne along by
the songs and drums of the Tibetans, begin to ‘rotate’ along with the Asian shamans, African high
priests, American and Australian men and women of knowledge” (Eersel and Grosrey, 1998, p. 176).
This meeting made two things apparent: firstly, that the traditions of the native peoples are
fundamentally uninterested in a process of criticism or self-criticism, and secondly, that here too the
Dalai Lama assumes spiritual leadership as a “king shaman”. A line from the joint closing prayer