An Appeal Against Violence

by Steve Lee

I recently came across an inflammatory letter purportedly from Tashi Peljor, Jangchup Choden, Tenzin Wangyal and Tenzing Wangchuk, addressed to all Tibetans in general. The letterhead indicated that the letter originated from an entity known as the United Front of the Tibetan People.

Having done some preliminary searching, there appears to be no information available on the Internet regarding this obscure United Front of the Tibetan People. Therefore, I deduce that this is must be an independent group of militant supporters of the Dalai Lama, who are unafraid to use violence in order to spread terror. One of the key phrases that stood out in the letter is:

I think we need to take action against the 34 Tibetans and teach them a lesson.

The 34 Tibetans mentioned here are those named in the hit list of Tibetan Shugden protestors published on the Central Tibetan Administration’s (CTA) website recently. Clearly, the letter is in alignment with the real intent of the CTA in publishing the aforementioned hitlist, which is to provoke a response from those loyal to the Dalai Lama against the Tibetans who are brave enough to make a stand agains the Dalai Lama’s ban on Dorje Shugden.

To make matters worse, I have yet to see any response from the CTA against the letter, which essentially encourages a mass perpetration of violence against Tibetan Shugden protestors. No democratic government in the world today would get away with such blatant provocation nor such total ignorance of potential harm against a section of their own citizenry.

It seems that the United Front of the Tibetan People has answered the CTA’s clarion call to “take action and very strong action against all Dolgyal monasteries, monks, teachers, geshes, lamas, supporters.” I cannot stress enough the danger that these Tibetan protestors are in and the only reason they are on this list is because they were involved in a few peaceful protests to request the Dalai Lama and CTA to stop the Dorje Shugden ban.

Like what happened to Chonzey in Trijang Labrang, Shar Gaden Monastery. We must teach lesson again. CTA and Tibetan loyal beat Chonzey is teach lesson. Need.

The above, quoted from the letter, refers to a recent violent attack on an old monk, Gen Chonzey in Shar Gaden monastery and calls for more such attacks. Thus, it is an admission that the supporters of the Dalai Lama and CTA masterminded the attack.

Gen Chonzey was a recent victim of violence. According to the letter, it was perpetrated by supporters of the Dalai Lama and CTA

Furthermore, the letter also mentioned:

…take action in we take over Dromo Geshe monastery called Gaden Choling in Phedong, West Bengal, India. This is very good work. We coordinate for this to happen and we will do more.

This refers to the recent hostile takeover of Gaden Choling that practices Dorje Shugden, by monks of Tharpa Choling (supporters of the Dalai Lama). This is further confirmation of the violence perpetrated against and experienced by Dorje Shugden practitioners.

The letter lauds the recent takeover of Gaden Choling by Tharpa Choling, followers of the Dalai Lama

Worryingly, the letter contains yet another threat of future violence:

We must take the strong action against Shar Gaden Monastery and Serpom Monastery in South India to stop them from their activity against Dalai Lama.

This is shocking and requires the attention of the police, especially in India, to safeguard these monasteries who do no harm to anybody. I strongly appeal to the law enforcement units of India, Nepal, America and other countries where these Tibetan protestors reside to carry out a full investigation into this matter. As mentioned in a previous article published on dorjeshugden.com, most Shugden practitioners, especially monks from Shar Gaden monastery, did not find the contents of the letter surprising. In fact, they said that they had received many such letters in the past.

I also appeal to people to come forward if you have received this letter, and to make a police report in your local community. The public must be informed of the real threats that our fellow Tibetan Shugden practitioners are facing. Although, we may be able to mitigate such threats of violence, the real threat is not the violence itself but the source of the violence, which is the ban on Shugden practice.

Lastly, I appeal to compassionate Buddhist scholars and celebrities in the West like Richard Gere, Robert Thurman, Glenn Mullin, Stephen Batchelor, Alexander Berzin and many others to take a stand against such violent threats and issue a statement against it. It doesn’t matter if you are for the ban or not. As a Buddhist, our religion should be one of kindness and non-violent ways of living, therefore we must take a stand against such violent threats.

Letter from the United Front of the Tibetan People

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