IS THIS FOR REAL? DHARAMSALA INVOKING DORJE SHUGDEN?

[Big Uncle]

Hey guys, I came across this by accident on FB and I am wondering if this is real news or April's Fool Joke came too early? What do you guys think?

Tibetans-in-exile mark New Year by offering prayers in Dharamsala
http://www.aninews.in/newsdetail2/story157657/tibetans-in-exile-mark-new-year-by-offering-prayers-in-dharamsala.html

Dharamsala, Mar 2 (ANI): Tibetans in-exile in Dharamsala celebrated 'Losar', the Tibetan New Year on Sunday, and pledged to uphold the cultural ethos and traditional values of humility, integrity and resilience.

Tibetan monks were seen playing musical instruments and praying to mark the New Year.

Press officer of Tibetan government in-exile, Tsering Wangchuk, extended best wishes to everyone on the occasion.

"Today is the first day of Tibetan New Year. As usual we invoke all the protecting deities particularly Dorje Shugden who is the official protecting deity of the Tibetan government earlier, now central Tibetan administration. So I wish everybody a happy new year," said Wangchuk.

'Losar' is marked with ancient ceremonies that represent the struggle between good and evil. The occasion is marked by chanting hymns and passing fire torches through the crowds.

A foreign tourist, Maya, offered prayers and said they were ushering in the year of wood horse.

"Today is the prayer for Losar, so it's the Tibetan New Year. They are ushering in the year of wood horse and the year of the snake has been ushered out," said Maya.

People enjoy levity provided by events such as dance of the deer and amusing battles between the King and his various ministers. (ANI)

Dharamsala, losar, Tibetan New Year, Tsering Wangchuk

[dondrup]

This is really hilarious!

Is this Tsering Wangchuk's way of ushering the Tibetan Losar 2014? Is he giving Shugdenpas a glimpse into the future of what is forthcoming? The day when the ban is finally lifted and life returned to normal is approaching soon! A good omen indeed!

[icy]

This is unbelievable and weird.   Either the press has reported mistakenly or Tsering Wangchuk does not need his job any longer in the CTA and wish to join the Shugdenpas.

[Matibhadra]

An auspicious sign auguring the triumphal entrance of the evil dalai in the garbage bin of history.

[eyesoftara]

If this is real then it is really interesting. Anyway, the Official Protector of the Tibetan government is Nechung who is unenlightened. Even if the CTA regards the Protector Dorje Shugden as an unenlightened spirit, they can still invoke Him. What's the different?  Making offerings to the Protectors on Losar is a way to bless the people for the new year.

However, I doubt the story is true.

[WisdomBeing]

I doubt the story is true too. If this momentous statement was true, i am prettttty sure we would have heard about it on this forum, which seems to be the newsroom of everything to do with Dorje Shugden! Since we have not, I think it is truly an early April Fool's joke. Perhaps it's just someone wishing to put the results on the path?

In any case, the lifting of the ban is bound to happen sooner or later. It's just up to us, how much information we can disseminate to make sure it happens sooner rather than later.

[WisdomBeing]

Just after i posted that, i found this .. on The Times of India, which is a respected newspaper! I think that someone just sent this press release in the CTA's name. Someone's ass is so gonna get fried for this! I must apologise for any implication of schadenfreude but... i can't help it.... Er.. would someone like to let the CTA know?

Tibetans-in-exile mark New Year by offering prayers in Dharamsala
BY TIMESTODAY •   MARCH 2, 2014

http://timestoday.in/tibetans-in-exile-mark-new-year-by-offering-prayers-in-dharamsala/


Dharamsala, Mar 2  Tibetans in-exile in Dharamsala celebrated ‘Losar’, the Tibetan New Year on Sunday, and pledged to uphold the cultural ethos and traditional values of humility, integrity and resilience.

Tibetan monks were seen playing musical instruments and praying to mark the New Year.

Press officer of Tibetan government in-exile, Tsering Wangchuk, extended best wishes to everyone on the occasion.

“Today is the first day of Tibetan New Year. As usual we invoke all the protecting deities particularly Dorje Shugden who is the official protecting deity of the Tibetan government earlier, now central Tibetan administration. So I wish everybody a happy new year,” said Wangchuk.

‘Losar’ is marked with ancient ceremonies that represent the struggle between good and evil. The occasion is marked by chanting hymns and passing fire torches through the crowds.

A foreign tourist, Maya, offered prayers and said they were ushering in the year of wood horse.

“Today is the prayer for Losar, so it’s the Tibetan New Year. They are ushering in the year of wood horse and the year of the snake has been ushered out,” said Maya.

People enjoy levity provided by events such as dance of the deer and amusing battles between the King and his various ministers. (ANI)

[samayakeeper]

Whether it was a slip of the tongue or a deliberate statement from Tsering Wangchuk, it is drawing a mixture of surprise, bewilderment, shock, joy, anger etc from sides of pro and anti Dorje Shugden. It is publicity good for pro Shugden followers. It gives a lot of pressure on Dalai Lama and the anti Shugden camp with this press statement from more people and government globally. I’m waiting to see what the Dalai Lama and CTA have to say about this.

[dsiluvu]

Well the Dorje Shugden admin has posted it here with all the media that got this interesting PRESS RELEASE http://www.dorjeshugden.com/all-articles/news/newspapers-say-the-ban-is-down/

I am still practising caution and am quite sceptical about it all because is it not official on the CTA website and if this were true... I am sure they would be the first to say it out loud and back to ISC! So I am maintaining caution here and not get too excited for it seems to good to be true and seems like a way to distract us from our cause and all the protest.

And if was really true... I am sure HHDL would also say it in one of His forums/talks because just outside I am sure he can see all the chants "Dalai Lama GIVE Religious Freedom". So I'm sure His Holiness would have said something to shut us up! But so far it's just coming from this one person and He is not even a "minister" in the CTA? He's just a PR person for the CTA, and like all clever PR personnels, they do things to create distractions, to fire fight, so safeguard their company's image and reputation, in this case, HHDL and the CTA cos His Holiness is travelling in the US requesting for much support yet the ISC is getting more media attention and is talking a lot about how HHDL is not really MR NICE GUY. 

Just my two cents.

[dsiluvu]

At least we know this is for sure true Dharmapala puja in the Protector chapel of Shar Gaden Monastery.



Posted by Losang Tenpa!

So if truly there is no BAN and all Tibetans are treated fairly than all this would be immediately REMOVED!!! Why do we still see such pictures?


Gelugpa monastery in Sarnarth, the place where Buddha first taught. If this sign read "Jews or anyone who are friends with a Jew are not allowed in here" people would be outraged. This is what the Dalai Lama has created.

How can this exist in a so called Buddhist community which is suppose to evoke Buddha's teachings of loving kindness?

[WisdomBeing]

This was really a spectacular Losar present. I don't know who Tsering Wangchuk really is. When I first read this article, I thought that someone was impersonating Tsering Wangchuk and sending out a press release under his name. However, after talking to a few friends, they said that apparently there is a Tsering Wangchuk with the CTA who DID send this out.. was it a mistake? I doubt that any CTA member can make such a mistake. I am sure all CTA members would know what is the Dalai Lama's stance on Dorje Shugden. So what is this about? I look forward to hearing more news!

[shugdenpromoter]

I am surprise that there is no statement from CTA to counter the following message if it was a blunder.

Well, being an optimistic person, I would like to think that the CTA has the lifting of the ban plan out. If they do, then they are very smart. They have more to lose if they do not lift the ban as the world is watching and their popularity is decreasing. Without H.H., they will not be able to sustain whatever left of their operation.

[Big Uncle]

I am surprise that there is no statement from CTA to counter the following message if it was a blunder.

Well, being an optimistic person, I would like to think that the CTA has the lifting of the ban plan out. If they do, then they are very smart. They have more to lose if they do not lift the ban as the world is watching and their popularity is decreasing. Without H.H., they will not be able to sustain whatever left of their operation.

Well, by the time CTA notices the blunder, it would have time to celebrate new year's for 2015! Haha! Sarcasm aside, CTA is very slow to react to such matters and may never react because they just dunno how to handle such a crisis. In the past, they tend to stick to the norm and followed what was set by others.

How I actually see this scenario is that the news is definitely fake and planted by someone. I think this reveals the true sentiment of the average Tibetan in which they resent the ban because it is causing so much discord within the small Tibetan community. It is because it is a spiritual matter, no lay person dare say anything especially since it originated from the Dalai Lama himself. The other thing is that this probably reveal a secret longing amongst Tibetans in general for the time before the ban when Dorje Shugden could be propitiated just like any other Dharma Protector.

[Q]

Haha, Big Uncle that's so 'rude'... but I like it.

The CTA is a major dingbat. It took the more than 48 hours to realize this news and by that time, it has circulated around the globe over a million times... and MILLIONS of people has read the news.

This may prove to be a good omen for Dorje Shugden practitioners, perhaps next year it will be for real. Looking at how the news about the protests are circulating around the globe, on top of that, this current news about Losar... I'm sure many people will start questioning about Dorje Shugden, especially the ones that just followed HHDL words blindly without checking.

I'm not even interested to recruit people into practicing DS. I'm more interested for people to educate themselves about the issue and know that DS practitioners are worshiping an Enlightened Dharma Protector, not like the false claims that the CTA has been drilling into the Tibetan's minds for the last 20 years.

[Blueupali]

The monks look happy, maybe the ban is coming down?  The Dalai Lama didn't want bad press so maybe he just said, like let them do the practice but don't make a big deal out of it?