(typical road for illustrative purposes only)
Geshe Yeshe Wangchuk from Sera Mey was a prominent Geshe who spread the Buddha Dharma and Dorje Shugden practice all over Tibet. He was born in 1928 and entered Sera Mey Monastery to be a monk when he was 16 years old. From humble beginnings, he became an unexcelled scholar, debater and had innumerable students across Tibet and India. He had unparalleled mastery of the Indian treatises and the Tibetan commentaries.
Geshe Yeshe Wangchuk was one of a handful of lamas who remained in Tibet after the civil unrest in 1959. He was arrested and imprisoned by the Chinese authorities and because of his highly respected status, he was assigned to hard labor designed to humiliate him. No matter how hard they tried however, they could not break his will. Upon his release, he worked hard to preserve the Buddhist literary tradition in Tibet. In 1986, Geshe Wangchuk sat for his Geshe exams and was awarded the Geshe Lharampa. He was also the first to be awarded the Geshe degree since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959. When China lifted travel restrictions on Tibetans, Geshe Wangchuk traveled all over China, India and Japan to teach. This allowed him to be the spiritual guide of many Tibetans in India including the current Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and Kyabje Zong Rinpoche. Just before he passed away, he was shortlisted to be the tutor of the current Panchen Lama, Gyancain Norbu, in China but because of his untimely demise, he was unable to fulfill that role.
In 1997, he was killed in a car accident in Kongpo which was allegedly engineered by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). On the day of the accident, Geshe Yeshe Wangchuk had to travel. Just before departing, the Geshe appeared to have a premonition. Normally, his attendants would accompany him when he traveled, but this time, he told them to stay behind and he went alone. He was the sole passenger in the car with the driver and midway through the journey, the car careened off a cliff. Just before the car hit the bottom, the driver escaped by jumping out of the car.
Geshe Yeshe Wangchuk
The Geshe was said to have come out of the wreckage and sat on the ground outside the car, where he entered clear light. Several lamas from his monastery came to the area of the accident and did pujas around him. As a sign of his high attainments, he remained in clear light meditation (Tugdam) for around eight days after the accident. Later, the Chinese police managed to track down and arrest the driver but he denied all accusations of foul play.
While it was inconclusive who actually assassinated Geshe Wangchuk, most people believed that the CTA was behind the incident. It is not surprising because all Dorje Shugden lamas suffer from constant death threats issued by supporters of the Dalai Lama because of the Dorje Shugden ban. Within the Tibetan community in India, the CTA is well known to deliberately publicize the whereabouts and identities of Dorje Shugden lamas that, implicitly encouraging assassination attempts.
In fact, a 1998 documentary on Swiss Public TV, entitled “Dalai Lama/Dorje Shugden”, reported that there was evidence of violence and even death threats towards Dorje Shugden practitioners. It also claimed that wanted posters of Dorje Shugden lamas were being posted in Dharamsala, encouraging violence towards practitioners. Recently, even H.H. Trijang Choktrul Rinpoche has to travel with bodyguards when he is in Europe!
DorjeShugden.com mourns the passing of this great Geshe and deeply regrets the terrible effects of this illogical and destructive ban on Dorje Shugden. Simultaneously, we also ask ourselves – why did people automatically ascribe the causes for Geshe Wangchuk’s death to the CTA? Despite the lack of substantial proof of the CTA’s involvement in Geshe Wangchuk’s accident, perhaps the CTA should ask themselves why so many people would even think that of them? What causes did they create to be associated with the untimely and unexplained death of such an attained being? Most of all, it is only logical to consider why there are so many unanswered questions, arising from the mysterious and unclear dealings of a supposedly democratic and just government.
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October 28, 2018
CTA is such an ugly and despicable government. I am fortunate to be born as an Indian and not Tibetan. It must be torturous to be under this kind of government who does not care about their citizens and only know how to exploit them for their own gains.
I heard a few times about CTA being an evil government that can do all kinds of things just to get what they want. An example will be the famous case of CTA tried to assassinate the crown prince of Bhutan to try to take over the country. Bhutan kindly hosted Tibetans when they flee from their country during the Chinese invasion.
However, they even tried to take over the country but plotting to assassinate the crown prince of Bhutan in an attempt to take over the country. Luckily their plot was discovered and when the arrest was made, most of them are Tibetans. This is how they repay the country who had shown them kindness before. This is how ungrateful the Tibetan government is.