Dorje Shugden

Detailed reports of discrimination from inside India and elsewhere

 

Interviews/reports

Documentary videos

Detailed chronicle 1980-2008

 

Interviews/reports

 

Two significant documentary reports that came out in September and October 2008 are:

 

France 24: The Dalai Lama's Demons

 

Al Jazeera: The Dalai Lama ~ the devil within

View the transcript of the Al Jazeera video footage.

 

Here is a sampling of discrimination and human rights abuses: 

• Dalai Lama supporters attack young monks
  
  
• Tibetan terrorists bomb Shugden practitioner's residence
  
  
• Tibet festival supports endangered tradition
  
  
• Pressure mounts on Dalai Lama to solve the problem of religious freedom
  
  
• Political ban spreads to Europe: "Swiss Resolution regarding the worship of Dholgyal"
  
  
• Discrimination policy by the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT)
  
  
• "Shugden followers are not allowed" -- segregation in the monasteries
  
  
• New Internationalist ~ Outrage as Dalai Lama denounces Dorje Shugden
  
  
• Dalai Lama destroying legacy of one of Tibet's greatest Buddhist Masters
  
  
• Wanted Posters of Tibetan Western Shugden Society supporters
  
  
• Dalai Lama's ban affects children
  
  
• Segregation wall built in Ganden Monastery
  
  
• Mob supporting the Dalai Lama clash with WSS protestors in NYC
  
  
• Oath-taking in Mundgod and at Geden Jangtse Thoesam Norling Monastery
  
  
• Tibetan government bans Dorje Shugden practice in Tashi Lhunpo Monastery
  
  
• Religious persecution by the Dalai Lama
  
  
• Dorje Shugden practitioners cannot get ordained
  
  
• May/June 2008 in brief
  
  
• The oath-taking continues in the Tibetan settlements, June 25, 2008
  
  
• Dorje Shugden practitioners barred from public temple, May 28, 2008
  
  
• Indians helping the journalists carry their luggage lose their jobs, May 28, 2008
  
  
• Journalists researching the ostracism are intimidated at Otty Tibetan market, May 22, 2008
  
  
• A report from a lay Tibetan Shugden practitioner on what is happening right now in the Tibetan community, May 8, 2008

• A report from Tamil Nadu Tibetan Market, May, 2008

• Dalai Lama's political ban of a religious practice extends to Switzerland August 2008

• An interview with Geshe Cheme Tsering, a Lharampa Geshe, Oct 22 1997. He gives an insider's perspective into the workings of the Tibetan government in exile and how the ban is destroying his spiritual life.

• An interview with an Abbot of a Gelugpa monastery, Oct 6, 1997. He explains how the ban has affected him and his fellow monks, the impossibility of escape, and how this ban is destroying the Gelugpa tradition from within.

• Biographical statement by Jamphel Yeshe, the sixty-year-old President of the Dorje Shugden Society, on the Wanted Posters and the persecution, death threats and separation suffered by him and his wife and children. 1997

• Interview with Mrs Pema, Delhi 1997, where she explains about the stone-throwing and arson attacks on her house in Clementown, with children locked inside, and why she could not initiate legal action.

For all the latest news reports and other regular updates on this breaking story, please see the official Western Shugden Society International Press page and the Western Shugden Society blog.

 

See the detailed chronicle below for reports of abuses both in the lay communities and monasteries from the 1990s to the present day.

 

Documentary videos

 

For a wide range of videos on the subject from various sources, please go to our Video page.

 

1) Al Jazeera: The Dalai Lama ~ the devil within

View the transcript of the Al Jazeera video footage.

 

2) France 24: The Dalai Lama's demons 

 

3) Swiss Documentary Part One, Part Two, Part Three: Discord in Exile. Reports from the Tibetan Exile Community in India, 1998, Swiss Public Television. View a full transcript.

 

Short extract from the transcript (watch the videos to see the whole story)

 

Commentator: Desperate because of a conflict with the Dalai Lama. They grant us entry into the temple. At the center of the conflict the protector deity Dorje Shugden. A very popular Deity who is called upon to increase the power of meditation. He is the patron deity of Tibet. He has been worshipped for centuries. Nothing would be more devastating to the monks than having to break the tradition but this is precisely what the Dalai Lama has been vehemently demanding for two years. He keeps proclaiming that worshipping Dorje Shugden harms the cause of Tibet and that it endangers his own life. Neither of these points can be comprehended by the monks, who are well-trained in logic.

 

An unusual scene, inconceivable only a few years ago. Monks demonstrate against the government of the Dalai Lama. (speaking Tibetan)

 

This man was present at the demonstration. Geshe Phuntsog Tsultrim is 64 years old and tells us that he is going through the saddest moments of his life.

 

"We had asked our teachers to initiate us into the practice of this Deity. Now we either have to act against the words of these great masters or disregard the Dalai Lama's ban. I deeply regret that I could have not died a few years ago, before this ban."

 

(Detailed footage of the whole situation is available on the videos. Please see for yourself.)

 

Unfortunately, there is plenty more of all this to come if the Dalai Lama doesn't lift the ban and stop the persecution.

 

Detailed chronicle 1980-2008