Dalai drama - Bristol Buddhists clash over issue of Tibetan leader

[DharmaSpace]

There are few people you would less expect to get into a war of words than two of Bristol's Buddhist communities. But tensions are surprisingly high between two differing traditions of Buddhism within the city.

This weekend the growing resentment will become visible, as one group take to the streets to protest against the other.

Anyone walking along Gloucester Road on Sunday afternoon might be surprised to see the demonstration – especially when they notice it is taking place outside the Amitabha Kadampa Buddhist Centre, with its prominent "Peace Cafe".

The uncharacteristic disquiet within the community surrounds the politically-charged issue of China's occupation of Tibet, and the alleged mistreatment of the Dalai Lama by some devotees whose sympathies lay – according to the protesters – with the Chinese authorities rather than the exiled spiritual ruler.

RELATED CONTENT
Former police superintendent is praised by Dalai Lama
How will we travel around Bristol in the future?
Archaeologists uncover surprising secret in Bristol Cathedral’s first dig for more than 150 years
Living rough - the rise of the 'working homeless'
Police appeal for man who went missing from Bristol hospital
Hair raising: Bristol barber attempts to set world record for the highest hair cut
Autistic Yate beauty queen set to take on international pageant
Detectives investigating fraud allegation after Bristol will firm took £6,000 from elderly couple
Think twice before going to A&E as Bristol hospitals lower alert status
A spokesman from the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT), based in a former vicarage in Gloucester Road, refutes the claims made against the organisation – including the suggestion they are "brainwashing" members against the Dalai Lama.

So what is all the fuss about?

I join Sherab Gyaltsen and Tashi Dhondup at Tashi's Southmead home to try to understand why such peaceable people are getting so hot under the collar.

Sherab, 36, who leads the "Bristol 4 Tibet" group, and his friend Tashi, 39, are both part of the small Tibetan community in Bristol – which comprises of just a few families, around 20 people in total.

Sherab's passion for Tibet is clear, though he has never set foot in the homeland his parents fled in 1959 during the political unrest that saw China annexe the country.

He was raised among the exiled Tibetan community across the Indian border at Dharamsala, and moved to Bristol a decade ago in order to raise his family in a place where the majority were sympathetic for his lost nation's plight.

"The Government here may seem to take the side of the Chinese superpower, with its economic influence, but all the British people I meet here have nothing but sympathy for our plight," explains Sherab, who works as a pharmacy technician at Southmead Hospital.

The friends' devotion to their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, pictured below, is also clear – His Holiness smiles down from an enormous poster that dominates Tashi's lounge.

"For us, His Holiness is like a living god," Sherab explains. "He is our father, our teacher, our spiritual guide, and we trust him to do the right thing for the Tibetan people. It makes us extremely sad to see the Dalai Lama being mistreated."

Sherab claims members of the NKT teach their devotees that the Dalai Lama threatens their freedom of religion, and says that members of the NKT joined a demonstration against the Dalai Lama when he visited London just over a year ago.



"The top people at the organisation that runs the Gloucester Road centre produce and circulate some really quite unpleasant propaganda against the Dalai Lama," Sherab alleges. "We're talking about pictures of His Holiness with a pig's nose added on to his face, and others comparing the Dalai Lama to Hitler.

"NKT members pursue the Dalai Lama all over the world harassing him and his followers with extremely loud and intrusive demonstrations outside venues where he teaches, sometimes to the point where attendees cannot even hear the Dalai Lama speak."

At face value, the disagreement relates to an esoteric element of Buddhist doctrine – the Shugden – but the Tibetans claim this is a "front" used to discredit the Dalai Lama; and that the strings are being pulled at a political level in China.

Shugden is a "protector spirit" which some devotees choose to worship as part of their religion. In 1975 the Dalai Lama advised Tibetan Buddhists to reject the worship of this individual "spirit", fearing that Buddhism – historically a religion that does not adhere to the worship of individual gods – could "degenerate into a form of spirit worship".

"The Dalai Lama was clear that whether a person continued to worship in this way must be their choice," Sherab says. "But his opponents claimed he was attempting to dictate how Buddhists should practice, and have been protesting against him on this issue ever since.

"With our protest on Sunday we are not going to disrupt any devotees, but we want to raise awareness of this issue. I think Westerners go along to the centre because they assume it is a good place to learn more about meditation and Buddhism, but I believe they should be aware of the vilification of the Dalai Lama.

"I believe once you become a member of the group, the teachers can be very persuasive and can convince people to join demonstrations against the Dalai Lama. Once you're part of this kind of organisation it is very difficult to get out of it – these are very charismatic teachers."



Linda Ciardiello, who will also be joining the Gloucester Road protest on Sunday afternoon, is a former NKT member who left the organisation after being concerned over its devotees' "unquestioning" willingness to attend demonstrations against the Dalai Lama.

"It horrified me they put their own attachment to the worship of some obscure deity above humanity, above the cause of a peaceful and united Tibet, above the cause of the freedom of Tibet," she said. "They are prepared to put all that aside and parrot the same anti-Tibetan propaganda that Beijing spouts."

"While demonstrating for their supposed right to 'religious freedom', they are impinging on everyone else's right of religious freedom not to agree with them."

In a statement, Gen Kelsang Chonden, pictured above, resident teacher at the Amitabha centre was keen to distance the organisation from the criticism – pointing out that the anti-Dalai Lama demonstrations in London were not actually organised by the NKT, but by an American organisation called the International Shugden Community.

"The accusation that the NKT is humiliating the Dalai Lama has no sense," he said.

Leader in Exile

The Dalai Lama is a monk of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, founded by Je Tsongkhapa. The 14th and current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso.

The Dalai Lama is considered to be the successor in a line of tulkus who are believed to be incarnations of Avalokitevara, a version of the Buddha – known as the Bodhisattva of Compassion; called Chenrezig in Tibetan.

From 1642 until the 1950s, the Dalai Lamas or their regents headed the Tibetan government or Ganden Phodrang which governed most of the Tibetan plateau.

The 14th Dalai Lama was formally enthroned on November 17, 1950, during the Battle of Chamdo with the People's Republic of China.

In 1951, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government were forced to accept the "Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet" by which it became formally incorporated into the People's Republic of China.

Fearing for his life in the wake of a revolt in Tibet in 1959, he fled to India, from where he has since led a government in exile.

Read more: http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Dalai-drama-Bristol-Buddhists-clash-issue-Tibetan/story-28630274-detail/story.html#ixzz3ypsy7Ex9
Follow us: @BristolPost on Twitter | bristolpost on Facebook

The Dorje Shudgen discrimination issue can bring impacts to faraway places like Bristol too. Some of these deluded  anti Dorje Shudgen people will demonstrate outside of Amithabha Center,NKT in Bristol.

Linda Ciardiello will also protest in this deluded action. 

I have said it so many times, this Dorje Shugden ban and discrimination brings nothing to the table for anyone or any party, just time wasted. If the Tibetans and CTA still want this to go on, well good luck to them, Tibet will remain out of reach for most of them. If they want to focus on more important issues please ask the Dalai Lama to tell all Tibetans, Tibetans do not need to treat Dorje Shudgen people in any 'special' manner.

[Shugden Library]

There's no big deal, Global Tibetan Volunteers aka Central Tibetan Administration and a few "NKT Survivors" aka Linda and her friends.
Odd they are suggesting that anyone who does not follow the Dalai Lama's brand of "Buddhism" nor agrees with his ban on Shugden Buddhism is not a Buddhist.  I would suggest that they have no concept of what a Buddhist actually is!

[DharmaSpace]

Yes their demonstration was probably half-cocked and with little turn out.

It is nothing like those organized by ISC. 

Also they have no clear idea about Dorje Shugden people, not all of them are coming from NKT *sigh*.

[Matibhadra]

Meanwhile the evil dalie has such a bad reputation, specially after supporting negotiations with Islamic State terrorists, and China has such a good reputation as a peaceful and prosperous country, that most people will sympathize with NKT ? even if NKT has nothing to do either with China or with protests denouncing the evil dalie. A true shoot in the foot by disgruntled, desperate dalaites.

[Matibhadra]

Meanwhile the evil dalie has such a bad reputation, specially after supporting negotiations with Islamic State terrorists, and China has such a good reputation as a peaceful and prosperous country, that most people will sympathize with NKT -- even if NKT has nothing to do either with China or with protests denouncing the evil dalie. A true shoot in the foot by disgruntled, desperate dalaites.