(TibetanReview.net, Mar21, 2014) – The Tibetan Parliament in Exile at Dharamsala, India, has on Mar 17 passed a resolution, condemning “a small number of ignorant” Tibetans who by continuing to propitiate the controversial spirit called Dolgyal (also called Shugden) endanger “Tibet’s spiritual and political interests and the personal security of His Holiness the Dalai Lama”.
Noting that all the Dalai Lamas since the fifth, as well as many great Tibetan Buddhist masters, had placed stringent restrictions on “the propitiation of harmful spirit of Dolgyal for Tibet’s common spiritual and political interests,” the unanimous resolution said the propitiators were being used as “political tools” by the Chinese government “through monetary and material incentive.”
The resolution accused the propitiators of instigating foreigners to carry out disinformation campaigns at every opportunity. It said, “In a recent incident in San Francisco, they employed a handful of people, who are completely ignorant about the basic principles of Buddhism, to slander His Holiness the Dalai Lama with baseless accusations.”
In order to further make the issue clear to the public, the parliament vowed to collectively disseminate copies of a resolution passed during the 2009 Conference of the Heads, Abbots, Lamas/Trulkus and Representatives of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and the Bon religion, which said: “Worshipping the worldly gods, particularly spirits for protection, contravenes the principle of following the three refuge in Buddhism. The conference unequivocally proclaims that any individuals or organisation propitiating Dolgyal, would not be affiliated to any Tibetan religious school.”
The resolution said intelligence agencies of the US and India had advised that the Dalai Lama’s personal security needed to be strengthened in view of dangers posed by a section of Dolgyal propitiators.
The resolution directed the Kashag, the cabinet of the exile Tibetan administration at Dharamsala, to carry out “a thorough investigation into real motives of the Dolgyal followers for their recent activities in San Francisco and accordingly issue firm directives to prevent future incidents.” This refers to an incident in which the Dalai Lama was shouted on his face with slanderous slogans by a western woman dressed as a Tibetan Buddhist nun professing faith in Dolgyal as he came out of a meeting.