Taiwan’s Rejection of the Dalai Lama is Poetic Justice

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in 2009

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: Shashi Kei

On June 3, 2019, the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA; based in Dharamsala, India), the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile, published an article about the International Religious Freedom Forum held in Taiwan from May 30 to June 1, 2019. The article claimed, “His Holiness was invited to speak at the Religious Forum which was presided by President of Taiwan Dr Tsai Ing-wen and attended by over 187 participants from 10 countries including Representatives of Office of Tibet in Washington DC and Taiwan”.

That statement is not true.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen

The President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen reportedly promised to invite the Dalai Lama to the event but had thought better of it and the Forum went ahead without the Dalai Lama. This was confirmed by a number of religious groups although the Taiwanese government via its Mainland Affairs Council claimed that it did not receive a visa application from the Dalai Lama. To confuse the matter further, an official of Tsai’s government speaking on condition of anonymity claimed that Taiwan never had any real intention of inviting the Dalai Lama.

Taiwan’s about-turn on its relationship with the Dalai Lama may appear sudden, but it is not entirely unexpected. Taiwan is not the first ally of the CTA that is now keeping the Dalai Lama and the thorny Tibet issue at arm’s length. However, Taiwan’s avoidance of the Dalai Lama does perhaps signal how complete the isolation of the Dalai Lama and his government is today, in significant contrast to the global attention that the Tibetan spiritual leader commanded for over half a century.

Unfortunately, decades of global governmental and public support for the Tibetan cause have not amounted to much beyond general condemnations of China’s human rights record. That and a series of highly publicized fundraising campaigns for Tibetan refugees have dominated the Dalai Lama and CTA’s initiatives over the past 60 years. The funding initiatives have proven to be breeding grounds for corruption and it is debatable whether the campaigns actually benefited the Tibetan people in exile at all.

From the peak of its popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, the Tibetan cause began to gradually lose its lustre. With the hegemonic rise of China, friendship with the Tibetan leadership became an inconvenience.

H.H. Dalai Lama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989

By 2014, it was clear that having a close association with the Dalai Lama and the CTA was a liability. The Pope decided not to meet the Dalai Lama when the spiritual leader, who received the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, was in Rome for a gathering of Nobel Laureates. The gathering itself took place in Rome because the government of South Africa, the original venue, indicated that it was unwilling to issue an entry visa to the Tibetan leader.

One after another, nations of the world have fallen silent on the Tibet issue. They have signalled their affirmation of the One China Policy which effectively denies the legitimacy of the CTA.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump, who became the 45^th US President in 2017 has yet to meet with the Dalai Lama and is the first US President not to have done so since George H.W. Bush. This signals a shift against the Dalai Lama in US policy on the Tibet issue.

When Narendra Modi was first elected Indian Prime Minister in 2014, CTA President Lobsang Sangay was a guest of honor at the swearing-in ceremony. Not a single Tibetan leader was invited when Modi was sworn in for a second term in May 2019, an indication of how much standing the Tibetan leadership has lost. India’s snub of the Dalai Lama and the CTA began the year before when Indian officials and leaders were instructed to avoid the CTA’s ‘Thank You India’ events.

While it is widely accepted that there are no permanent allies or enemies in politics, one would have thought that the bond between Beijing’s two main opponents, Taiwan and the Dalai Lama, would be much stronger.

Thank You Taiwan Billboards hosted by the International Association of Tibetan Buddhist Dharma, Taiwan, in collaboration with the Office of Tibet.

Only a year ago, the Dalai Lama’s face graced billboards along major Taiwanese streets with the messages ‘Thank you to the Taiwanese government and people for your concern and support for Tibetan freedom’, ‘Thank you to Taiwanese followers of Tibetan Buddhism for your contribution to promotion of Tibetan religion and culture’ and ‘Thank you to Taiwanese democracy’. They were a part of the CTA’s 2018 ‘Thank You’ initiatives designed to shore up support for the CTA and the Tibetan struggle. Unlike India, Tsai Ing-wen’s government embraced the CTA’s programme to its detriment; her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was soundly trounced in the mayoral elections later that year.

The Tibetan cause as embodied by the Dalai Lama and represented by the CTA has become a jinx, due in part to China’s rise and in part to revelations of gross misconduct and corruption amongst high-ranking Tibetan politicians and spiritual leaders.

Taiwan’s rejection of the Dalai Lama’s participation in the Forum is, in a way, poetic justice. The event is, after all, focused on religious freedom, an international human right which unbeknownst to many, the Dalai Lama and the CTA have worked to suppress.

Dharma protector Dorje Shugden (left) and H.H. Dalai Lama (right)

Since 1996, the Dalai Lama has banned the worship of an ancient dharma Protector known as Gyalchen Dorje Shugden. He initially claimed that the practice offends deities in the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon and even shortens his own life. Then, the Dalai Lama insisted that worship of this deity had stricken the Tibetan struggle with bad luck. This was offered to the people as explanation for the failure of the Tibetan leadership to return them to their homeland despite numerous promises and prophetic proclamations over the years.

The Dalai Lama later changed his justification for imposing this religious ban. It was no longer bad luck to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan struggle for the Tibetan people to worship this deity. Instead, the Dalai Lama argued that all Dorje Shugden worshipers are paid agents of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC), a claim neither the Dalai Lama or CTA have been able to validate. The fact that previous Dalai Lamas and the bulk of the Gelug spiritual elite since the 17^th century have worshiped this very deity did not deter him from accusing all Dorje Shugden believers to be traitors of the Tibetan people.

A witch hunt reminiscent of Torquemada’s inquisition was sanctioned by the Dalai Lama’s office and Dorje Shugden worshipers were declared by the CTA’s supposedly democratic parliament to be “criminals in history”. Even today, those who refuse to relinquish their faith in Dorje Shugden and abandon their spiritual teachers and friends who are believers of the deity are expelled from the Tibetan community.

H.H. the Dalai Lama’s two tutors, H.H. Ling Rinpoche and H.H. Trijang Rinpoche both practiced Dorje Shugden during their lifetime.

These individuals are marginalized and denied even the most basic services promised by the CTA to all its citizens-in-exile, even employment. Tibetan Dorje Shugden practitioners and anyone associated with them are barred from participating in any gathering where the Dalai Lama would be present. They are not permitted to join community events that would have strengthened Tibetan unity, nor are they allowed to have any say in matters relating to the Tibetan cause.

This banishment is what the Dalai Lama is facing today.

This religious persecution is now in its twenty-third year and has inflicted untold damage on what was an already fragile Tibetan community in exile. But the Dalai Lama was not satisfied with merely imposing this religious prohibition on the Tibetan exile community alone; his diktat was carried into the Tibetan Autonomous Region, China (TAR), dividing the people in a manner no Chinese plot could. Similarly, the Dalai Lama’s anti-Shugden campaign found footing in Taiwan, where the CTA sponsored agitations against Taiwanese Shugden Buddhists. Books were published by CTA-owned Snowland Publications to this end.

In effect, the Dalai Lama’s assault on Dorje Shugden was a cunning strategy to intimidate Tibetan Buddhist adherents worldwide into becoming supporters of the Tibetan leadership’s politics. Refusal to support any CTA scheme is portrayed as opposition to the Dalai Lama, which then infers that one is an enemy of Buddhism. In their fervor not to be seen as being anti-dharma, many Tibetan Buddhists backed the unlawful religious ban, forgetting that the freedom to practice any religion without fear of retribution is an inalienable right in any true democracy. In supporting the Dalai Lama’s anti-Shugden campaigns, they interfere with the religious freedom of Dorje Shugden Buddhists.

Under such circumstances, it would be an absolute mockery for the force behind the brutal oppression of Dorje Shugden practitioners to attend Taiwan’s International Religious Freedom Forum as a VIP. The Dalai Lama’s attendance at the Forum would have robbed it of its authenticity. Tsai Ing-wen’s critics have accused her of caving into Beijing’s demands but that appears not to be the case – on June 4, the thirtieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square incident, Tsai criticized China fiercely showing no signs of fearing Beijing. The Taiwanese President remains opposed to China’s reign but after all this time, many have learned that there is no upside to carrying the Tibetan baggage. With Taiwan shrugging off the Dalai Lama, the final instruction to all players in the Tibetan saga appears to be exeunt omnes.

[Taiwan News] Exclusive: Source says
Taiwanese President Tsai revoked Dalai Lama’s
invitation to Taiwan

Source: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3717574. Click to enlarge.