"There will be no change in my stand. I will never revoke the ban. You are right. It will be like the Cultural Revolution. If those who do not accept the ban do not listen to my words, the situation will grow worse for them. You sit and watch. It will grow only worse for them."
-The Dalai Lama to monks in India who questioned the ban
We may ask, "Why is this religious suppression is taking place?"
It is admittedly hard even for Tibetan Buddhists suffering under this ban to understand the arcane political or religious reasons the Dalai Lama is giving, let alone for Westerners new to the subject to fathom it!
It may be easier to understand that the Dalai Lama must be frustrated after so many years in exile and how little progress he has made in winning even autonomy for Tibet, let alone the independence that so many Tibetans still want. If anything, it seems that Tibet is further away than ever before from its goals. It is perhaps understandable that he therefore wishes to lead or unite all Tibetans in exile; but the world has moved on since he first fled into exile. We would like him to just consider that persecuting his own people as a scapegoat -- causing them incredible sadness, fear and loneliness -- is not going to win the old Tibet back, nor help the unity of the Tibetan people either now or in the future.
Dorje Shugden practitioners are feeling immense sorrow at this time. They have hurt no one. They have done nothing wrong. They are not interested in politics. They are peaceful Buddhist practitioners, lay and ordained, dedicated to helping all living beings find a deep inner peace and happiness. Many have hoped and prayed for years (since the Dalai Lama started speaking out in the 1970s and then issued the ban in the 1990s) that this nightmarish problem of being rejected by their own Dalai Lama will go away, that it is just a bad dream; but it has only worsened such that they now feel obliged to seek help from others, to ask the world to listen.
They have no wish to harm the Dalai Lama at all. All they want is the freedom to continue practicing the compassion, love and wisdom of the Buddhist tradition of Je Tsongkhapa and to rely upon Dorje Shugden as the Wisdom Buddha Protector of that tradition. They want to do this while remaining regular and even valued members of their society, without segregation or persecution.
These thousands of abbots, monks, nuns, lamas, and lay families are just as dedicated to a peaceful and successful future for Tibet as any of their fellow Tibetans. There would be no reason for them to say they were being denied their human rights if it were not happening.
This conflict might at first glance seem like an arcane religious problem but in reality it is a human rights' issue and a case of religious persecution based on a political decision. So far no one has been burnt at stake, but many have been threatened with murder, physically attacked, forced to leave their communities, schools, homes or workplaces, refused entry into shops to buy food, refused identity cards (and the ability to travel freely etc), and so on.
There is no record anywhere of any of them retaliating. They are dedicated to non-violence in the tradition of their teachers. Some are demonstrating in the manner of Martin Luther King to stand up for their rights and freedom and some are trying to instigate court proceedings. They are on the defensive, not the offensive.
