Dalai Lama’s Secretary Pulled His Video out of Shame

The inevitable change in the Tibetan political scene has pushed the Dalai Lama’s secretary Lobsang Jinpa to remove his video that advocates hatred towards Dorje Shugden people. This shows the Tibetan leadership knows it is wrong to segregate its own people based on religion.

The opinion piece below was sent to dorjeshugden.com for publication. We accept submissions from the public, please send in your articles to [email protected].

By: Cyrilo Silva

To many, especially people in the West, Tibet is a land of mystery – a peaceful, happy land of snow-capped mountains with Buddhist monasteries scattered across its vast landscape, the sound of holy prayers and mantras pervading all directions, full of people living in simplicity and contentment. However, this land that was isolated for centuries also has a dark side that has been kept away from the world, or rather people choose to only believe what is portrayed to them through the media – the non-existent utopian Shangri-la that Tibet has been painted to be.

As Tibet’s so-called God-King, no one is allowed to have an opinion that differs from the Dalai Lama who is viewed and deified by the Tibetans as an emanation of Chenrezig. The penalties for disagreeing with the Dalai Lama are swift and violent.

Leading this community is His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama who is not only the religious leader of Tibetans around the world, but also their temporal leader. The Dalai Lamas have been the supreme rulers of Tibet for centuries and although the 14th Dalai Lama today claims he has retired from the political scene, it is fairly impossible because the Tibetans see him as a God, more specifically Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the patron saint of Tibet. Hence even today within the exiled Tibetan community in India, the 14th Dalai Lama’s word is the law and no one is allowed to challenge or question him.

Many problems have arisen from this theocratic ruling system, which the younger generation of Tibetans are beginning to wake up to. They can see that this method of ruling has eroded both religion and politics in their community, bringing about more destruction than benefits. People like Mr. Lukar Jam Atsok and Member of the Tibetan Parliament Tenpa Yarphel have openly voiced their disagreement with the policies of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), who are the Tibetan leadership based in Dharamsala. They have questioned many of the government’s policies, including their undemocratic reliance on the Nechung Oracle to make state decisions as well as the unjust ban on the protector deity Dorje Shugden which was implemented by the Tibetan leadership in 1996 and has divided and created conflicts within the community.

Is Spring Coming to Tibetans in India?

It seems like the Tibetan exiled community in recent years is moving towards democratization and a new “Tibetan Spring” is on the horizon, where the younger generation stands up to the old feudal guard whose authoritarian rule has only segregated and created inequality among their people.

The younger generation of Tibetans appear to strongly believe in real democratic practice, for example that everyone is deserving of religious freedom to practice whatever they want, or that all state affairs should be decided by elected members of parliament, not deities and gods. This is unsurprising given they were raised in exile and exposed to other ways of leadership and governance. This younger generation want democracy, freedom, unity and equality.

In stark contrast is the older generation, who have prospered by dividing, conquering and exploiting their own community. The older generation are therefore being forced to adapt to a modern way of thinking and give up their authoritarian rule. The ‘Tibetan Spring’ is pushing them to change because they realize Tibetans are tired with their lack of political progress, the poor governance of their people in exile, as well as the plethora of conflicts caused by their leadership all in the name of religion.

For instance, Arjia Rinpoche, a close confidante to the Dalai Lama who in the past strongly spoke against Dorje Shugden practice, has recently made a statement urging people to stop the segregation and hatred against Dorje Shugden practitioners because it destroys Tibetan unity. Another example is Lobsang Jinpa, one of the Dalai Lama’s right-hand men who is now attempting to retract a video of himself speaking against other people’s religious beliefs at a press conference in June 2014.

Or watch on server | download video (right click & save file)

Lobsang Jinpa served as the Dalai Lama’s secretary for 12 years, between 1993 and 2005. As the Dalai Lama’s secretary, his words carry the weight of the Dalai Lama’s influence so it looks bad for him and by default, the Dalai Lama as it implies that the Dalai Lama encourages sectarianism. This short clip above shows Lobsang Jinpa speaking against the Dorje Shugden practice at a press conference.

Given the current political climate calling for acceptance of everyone regardless of their differences, and for the unity of all Tibetan people, it is therefore no surprise that Lobsang Jinpa is attempting to remove all traces of the video from the Internet.

Click to read the image in full (Source: http://www.dalailamaprotesters.info/?p=1370)

Click to read the image in full (Source: https://www.facebook.com/office.of.tibet/posts/the-secretary-of-the-gaden-phodranghis-holiness-the-dalailama-lobsang-jinpa-gave/653358334748212/)

Above are screenshots of two pro-Dalai Lama platforms online. The missing video on both websites shows clearly that on platforms he has control of, Lobsang Jinpa is removing old videos of himself speaking against Dorje Shugden. However, the same video is still available on the TibetTV YouTube channel, which is the CTA’s WebTV station that Lobsang Jinpa has no control over.

Advocate of Sectarianism

As someone who “has a thorough understanding of the approach of H.H. the Dalai Lama” (Source: Tibetan Who’s Who) and has represented the Dalai Lama in the past, Lobsang Jinpa must feel totally embarrassed for his past actions of discriminating, condemning, and persecuting Dorje Shugden practitioners, abusing his power as the Dalai Lama’s secretary.

After all, he was not the secretary of someone ordinary, but of someone who won the Nobel Peace Prize for advocating compassion, love and acceptance. Yet Lobsang Jinpa’s speech and actions were the exact opposite of what the Dalai Lama preaches. Besides speaking against Dorje Shugden as shown in the video above, Lobsang Jinpa was also actively involved in anti-Shugden movements and witch-hunting Dorje Shugden practitioners. His involvement is briefly summarized below:

1. He has previously bribed people to speak against Dorje Shugden. On 25th June 1997, Lobsang Jinpa wrote to monk Jampa Wangyal: “…on this visit (to Tibet), do your best to advise your acquaintances on the issue of Protector worship (here refers to the protector Dorje Shugden). A sum of Rupees 300,000 (US $ 7142.85) is being provided for construction of the new monastery (Saluga, India).” The message is clear – the Tibetan government will give you money and financially support your projects if you do their bidding to talk against Dorje Shugden.
2. He has prevented monks from receiving their Geshe degrees. On 30th – 31st December 1997, a year after the unjust ban was implemented, Lobsang Jinpa sent a message to the abbot of Sera Mey Monastery, instructing that students who have successfully attained their Geshe degree but who engage in the worship of Dorje Shugden will not receive any certificates for their examination.
3. He was directly involved in prolonging the suffering of Tibetans who refused to give up their practice of Dorje Shugden, and who were persecuted as a result. On 19th – 21st November 1996, a delegation from the Dorje Shugden Society in New Delhi requested an audience with the Dalai Lama in the hopes of reconciliation. Lobsang Jinpa however, rejected them and said there was no point if they did not want to give up their practice of Dorje Shugden.

Especially in the late 1990s, when the ban had just been implemented, witch-hunting and persecuting Dorje Shugden practitioners was politically correct and people were applauded and praised for doing so. But things are changing now.

The younger generation of Tibetans and Tibetan political leaders have witnessed how undemocratic the ban is and how it destroys much-needed unity among the Tibetan diaspora. In this day and age, it has become politically incorrect to discriminate against anyone based on their religious choices. Young Tibetans want real progress, real democracy and real freedom, and most importantly unity because it is essential to successfully managing Tibetans living in various countries all around the world within diverse cultures.

Hence in the Tibetan government in exile today, anyone who discriminates against a person based on any mundane factors will no longer be seen as a hero because any action that brings disunity and conflict is simply wrong. As a result, Lobsang Jinpa has no choice but to pull his anti-Shugden video to try and save his face and stay relevant.

Why Remove the Video Now?

Unfortunately, Lobsang Jinpa’s reasons are more than likely to be prosaic than spiritual:

1. He finally realizes he has no basis to attack Dorje Shugden. Lobsang Jinpa is not from a monastic background so he has no basis to show he understands Dorje Shugden’s practice and lineage, that he can even say that Dorje Shugden is bad and evil.

Dorje Shugden is a protector deity with 400 years of history and he is practiced across the various sects of Tibetan Buddhism, for example the Sakya and Drukpa Kagyu. Moreover, both the Dalai Lama’s root gurus – Kyabje Ling Rinpoche and Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche – from whom the Dalai Lama’s pure lineage and knowledge come from, were both Dorje Shugden practitioners. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche especially, was not only a staunch practitioner of Dorje Shugden but also the one who promoted the practice far and wide and wrote the seminal work on the deity, Music Delighting the Ocean of Protectors.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama (centre) with his two tutors, His Holiness Kyabje Ling Rinpoche (left) and His Holiness Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche (right). Both of them practiced Dorje Shugden, and it is from both of them whom the Dalai Lama’s pure lineage and knowledge come from.

Compare that to someone like Lobsang Jinpa who is not a monk and has no background in rigorous religious studies. It is obvious he is not a credible person to discuss at length anything about the Dorje Shugden practice as he knows nothing about the importance of a Guru-disciple relationship and the passing down of a lineage.

Therefore, his speech against Dorje Shugden had no scriptural basis and was based on nothing more than hearsay. Lobsang Jinpa basically parroted what people have said, with no knowledge of Dorje Shugden practice and the history of the lineage. Many Tibetans, even those who support the Dalai Lama have criticized and made fun of him because his anti-Shugden comments made it clear he was just repeating what he heard, without researching and examining the issue further. To make the matter worse, since he is the private secretary to the Dalai Lama, he is expected to be knowledgeable in Buddhism, but his speech showed the opposite. Realizing this, Lobsang Jinpa had no choice but to pull the video to avoid further disgrace.

2. Next to more moderate, tolerant attitudes, Lobsang Jinpa looks archaic, intolerant and discriminatory and it embarrasses him and those he represents (i.e. the Dalai Lama). In recent months, we have heard from Arjia Rinpoche as well as Tenpa Yarphel, a member of the Tibetan parliament, who verbalised the opinions of the Tibetan people – the Dorje Shugden ban creates disunity and Tibetans should stop segregating the practitioners because it separates the people, and creates doubts and conflicts. Although they do not personally practice Dorje Shugden, Arjia Rinpoche and Tenpa Yarphel spoke out because they have seen how the ban destroys Tibet’s religion and culture. Their speeches were extremely well-received amongst the Tibetans, especially the younger generation.

Compare them to Lobsang Jinpa, whose video was used by the CTA to create further divide. In the current climate, it is no longer acceptable for someone like Lobsang Jinpa to create disunity using religion and as support for the Dalai Lama and Tibetan cause continues to wane day by day, anything that might jeopardize His Holiness’s popularity is dangerous. So Lobsang Jinpa quickly and quietly pulled his video to avoid adding salt to the wound, since his speech will have been seen as representing the Dalai Lama’s stance and whatever he does or says, will be seen as being endorsed or allowed by the Dalai Lama.

3. The ‘Tibetan Spring’ is happening and Lobsang Jinpa does not want to be caught on the wrong end of the stick. Signs of the Tibetan Spring began with popular Tibetan politician Lukar Jam Atsok, when he openly disagreed with the Dalai Lama’s Middle Way and said that the leadership should not segregate Dorje Shugden people because it creates disunity. Like Arjia Rinpoche and Tenpa Yarphel, he was speaking for a generation who are fed up with the old feudal and undemocratic way. In this old feudal society, everyone must follow the Dalai Lama and questioning him is not tolerated. No one is allowed to have a different view or stance and those who suggest anything different will be punished and attacked.

Lukar Jam Atsok (left) and Tenpa Yarphel (right) are the modern, rising political stars within the Tibetan community who are really working towards Tibetan unity and are fighting for real democracy so that all Tibetans will be treated equally, regardless of their background, class, economic status or religion.

As more of the younger generation are speaking up against the ways of the older generation, Lobsang Jinpa does not want to be associated with the old guard who uphold this feudalistic way of governing. Maintaining popularity with the masses is important for those who want to continue reaping the financial benefits of staying in power.

Lobsang Jinpa has woken up to a truth that few other Tibetan leaders seem willing to recognize and that is, political change within the Tibetan community is inevitable. The older generation of leaders encourage separation to “divide and rule“, and to control and manipulate their people, but the younger generation who have been exposed to democracies around the world want to rebuild themselves regardless of regional or spiritual differences, and this is how it should be.

It is obvious that the older generation of leaders paid more attention to taking care of their own welfare and to dominate the people while the younger generation of leaders like Tenpa Yarphel and Lukar Jam Atsok wish to focus on the preservation of the culture and religion of Tibet. They believe that no one should be singled out and all Tibetans are welcome to make their community strong again. Which camp will Lobsang Jinpa join? By removing his video, it tells you Lobsang Jinpa wants to stay relevant and stay in power and to do that, he has no choice but to follow the new direction set by the younger leaders.

It is never easy to make a change but if there’s a will, there’s a way. Let us hope more and more older generation leaders will follow the example set by the Dalai Lama’s private secretary, Lobsang Jinpa and retract their harmful words against Dorje Shugden practitioners that violates religious freedom and human rights, for the sake of unity to ultimately benefit the their own people. Let us pray that the old feudal way of thinking and ruling Tibet will come to an end, just like how winter ends. Only then will Tibet once again blossom like flowers blooming in spring.