(TibetanReview.net, Jan11’26) – The Lachi of the Drepung monastic university has on Jan 9 called on the two monks representing the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism in the Tibetan Parliament in Exile (TPiE) to express heartfelt remorse for their alleged past faulty utterances and avow scrupulous avoidance of such misconduct in future. The Lachi is the governing body of the monastic university and is made up of current and former abbots, chief chant leaders, and the top officials of its two colleges.
The two TPiE deputies, Geshes Atrug Tseten and Gowo Phende, both belonging to Drepung Monastery, have been urged to report to the seat monastery by the 19th of this month and make ceremonial atonements on the auspicious following day’s morning. They have been asked to offer a ceremonial scarf each to the throne of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and in compliance with the recent pronouncement of Tibet’s principal state oracle Nechung, express remorse for their past mistakes on the basis of seeing the errors of their past conducts as errors, and avow not to repeat them in future.
The event is to take place in the monastery’s grand assembly hall on the auspicious day of propitiating the Nechung Choegyal Chenpo.
Earlier, on Dec 24, the monastery held a ceremony to enthrone His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the Je Jamyang Choeje Tashi Paldenpa Chenpo Golden Throne-Holder.
The requests, made in a letter sent to the two TPiE members, have made it clear that should they fail to comply, it would not be possible for them to be recognised as representatives of the Gelug school any longer. This, as one sees it, would effectively make them ineligible to be TPiE deputies by claiming to represent this school. Both already appear as “candidates” in the upcoming Tibetan elections, for which preliminary votings will take place on Feb 1.
There are no official lists of candidates for the preliminary poll, which is, in fact, held to work out the lists of candidates for the final poll. Those desiring to stand for the elections, if they don’t make it after the preliminary poll results, could stand as volunteer candidates for the final poll for the Sikyong and TPiE elections.
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Earlier. On the 27th of December, during the presence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the monastery invoked Tibet’s principal state oracle Nechung to seek its divine guidance, if there be any.
And in its pronouncements, the state oracle of Tibet, speaking through his possessed medium, said, among other things, that its exalted teacher (referring to the Dalai Lama), “seeing whom brings merits”, was being insulted by the two Gelug-representative claimants by their ghostly-driven, indiscriminate oath-violating vocal conducts, abandoning the general interest of the Sowland to engage in sectarian and provincial bickerings that is evident to everyone.
“This has brought the situation to a moment where the Sangha community itself is faced with the risk of being defamed. It would therefore be good if those in positions of responsibility take charge and bring such development to an end.”
Following it, the The Drepung Lachi held a meeting to discuss the pronouncements of Nechung and arrived at the above decision.
The letter is signed by the 15 top leaders and officials of the Drepung Lachi Monastic Centre for Advanced Learning.