During his visit to Germany this week the Dalai Lama will again be celebrated as a savior. The leadership of Tibet is recognized as a symbol of tolerance. However, critical voices from the community Tibetans in exile in India require unnecessarily religious freedom and democracy.
Arriva always preceded by a large column of cars, as a chairman of the state. Bodyguards around him, film stars and bosses of companies are benevolently from wings, governors are rushing to meet me in greeting. This week in Frankfurt will probably be like last year at Nuremberg. The Dalai Lama then greeted the audience with his sweet, childish gesture. However, during his speech at the town hall present were shocked, speechless, as reported in the local newspaper the next day.
Trying to cajole the public, the Dalai Lama said that in fact already as a child she had seen pictures very attractive, "very attractive" Nuremberg, "with figures and their weapons," with "Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring."
Some of the listeners were "embarrassed", others "for a while bewildered." Nuremberg Mayor Ulrich Maly speaks of a "moment of terror," then the guest of honor would be able to leave the mess with the statement that a child would have been impossible for him to provide for the Nazi catastrophe. If the Pope had left to go to such demonstrations of sympathy in the city congress of the Nazi party and the racial laws, the screams would be racing for the whole Republic. Instead, such statements are forgiven at the helm of Tibetan Buddhists, although he, His Holiness would have some reason for a critical comparison with the Nazi past. He who carries the title "Ocean of Wisdom", has always been the most affectionate relationship with his teacher of long ago, the famous climber and writer ("Seven Years in Tibet") Heinrich Harrer, a convinced Nazi, and long tried to hide her being Commander Major team of SS. The court then Tibetan cultivated close relations with the Nazi regime. Shipments of SS in Lhasa were greeted with full honors. His Holiness has not so far clearly distanced himself from those infamous relations. And this is not the only dark chapter of its history of success. The Dalai Lama
prefer to leave aside any doubt, smiling. Nearly everywhere has a reverence even by gods. In the West looks like a supericona of modernity, in the Himalayas but governs like a medieval lord. A gentle feel-good, which can reveal surprising traits intolerant, even dictatorial. The sad fate of his people, the oppression of Beijing, the expulsion from Tibet distract attention from domestic problems to the regime of the Dalai Lama. Here we
fills the stage like a pop star. At Nuremberg, the people listened attentively to 7000, in Hamburg two years ago were 30 000, in Frankfurt it is expected these days to the Commerzbank Arena 40 000. Often fans book tickets priced between 10 and 230 € already more than a year earlier.
In combination with its mega public appearances has been developed over the years a supermarket spirit like no other. Amazon are listing 728 books and 908 in German and in English on the Dalai Lama, 13200 videos on Youtube are, nearly eight million hits on Google. The son of a Tibetan farmer is the most popular of all the winners of the Nobel prize for peace is still living.
Belonging to all religions and even atheists go on pilgrimage to the One - Man - Show. "We looked straight eyes "screamed a young iperfelice Mönchengladbach after the meeting and promised to quit smoking immediately. "Can you make me feel good," said a listener in Boston and summed up the enthusiasm for the Dalai Lama: "It is his aura, the simplicity."
Right there where the spirit of the Enlightenment has its roots, namely in Europe and the United States, the Saviour gives life to new Buddhist strongholds of his religion. Even in the generation of '68, whose attitude was always very critical, is consent. The Stern celebrated in 1971 as the "holy mountain", Der Spiegel spoke excited two years before as "God can touch."
The chairman of the board of the Springer media group (eg editorial group of the tabloid "Bild" and the conservative newspaper "Die Welt", ndt) Mathias Döpfner, the former porn queen Dolly Buster, the soccer star Mehmet Scholl, former Economics Minister Otto Graf Lambdsdorff, the inventor of the Love Parade Dr. Motte - German endless celebrity worship Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama.
Why this endless enthusiasm? Because Christianity has lost credit in the West and believers and created a void, which is developed Buddhism as a sort of religious well-being (Wellness - Religion in German). Why the peaceful quiet that embodies the Dalai Lama simply has a beneficial effect in the uphill battle of competition, as its positivity seems to radiate away all fear and crisis in the West as a prolific romance of Tibet, a transfiguration of the kingdom of snow on the roof of the world in which the most remote corner in 1935 was born Tenzin Gyatso in a shelter with a gutter of juniper wood. The expert of Asia
Orville Schell, director of the Center for Sino-Americans in New York, has explained in countless works as it has developed the myth of Tibet from its centuries of isolation, as a knowledge that is deficient leaves flowers patterns. It all started in 1933 with James Hilton's novel "Lost Horizon", which appeared originally in German under the title "Irgendwo in Tibet" ("Somewhere in Tibet"), which takes place in the paradise of sun Shangri - La, where nobody has to work and they all live in eternal peace. The dream factory of Hollywood has drawn freely, creating a symbiosis between Tibet and pop culture and the film "Kundun" has erected a monument to Tenzin Gyatso. "Since Tibet is still so inaccessible" - Schell notes - "it exists in the representation Western more like a dream as reality, a land on which we project all our longings ("Sehnsucht" in the text) postmodern. "
"I am for you, whatever you want me to be," says the Dalai Lama. And so the star of mountaineering Reinhold Messner sees him as a fighter for the protection of the environment. At the Oscar-winning director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's face like that of happiness the central content of his religion. " Actress Uma Thurman is hoping in the absolution for his films full of blood and violence, "Kill Bill": "The Dalai Lama would laugh out loud," if she saw him. And the Dalai Lama is the game, regardless, remains "open" to all the interpretations, to indifference.
for presidents and heads of government is the ideal means of communication, at his side even George W. Bush Sarkozy appears peaceful ol'iperattivo mild. And the boring President of Hesse Roland Koch seems as if he had a bit too 'd'Esprit. At the conservatives and right-wing political game of mutual exploitation works particularly well. The Dalai Lama was closely linked with the far-right Austrian politician Jörg Haider, who repeatedly visited in Carinthia.
The guide of the Tibetans has already 74 years, but is not on tour break to the West for a relatively short time. In June 1979 the Dalai Lama held in Mont Pelerin, high above Lake Geneva, for the first time in Europe a public lecture before a large audience. "The interest in the Dalai Lama was then rather low, there was never once needed police protection," says one of the organizers of the time, who now lives in Switzerland.
Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama has become popular in the world, but no more in all the monasteries of Tibetan Buddhists. "In our community there was more than ten years ago a break," says a fellow traveler of the past. At first glance it was a patron saint that the brotherhood could no longer worship, in the heart of religious dispute but there was a battle for power that until now has been fought to the sound of intrigue, slander, intimidation. For fear of repression of the confidant of the Dalai Lama once asked to remain anonymous.
the "Letter of Tibetans in Switzerland" enjoin all the Tibetans of the federal government that have eighteen years to cease with immediate effect, the veneration of the patron saint of Tibetan Dorje Shugden and sign a list of eight points. "Those few Tibetans who criticize it publicly, so unfounded and excessively His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we are recognized as collaborators of the regime Chinese ".
This strategy - who is not with me is against me, or is even with my archenemies - the tone and drive do not fit with a much milder way of presenting the Dalai Lama shows in the West. His court in Dharamsala is structured as in the old feudal Tibet, dominated by oracles and ritual with Western tolerance and transparency have little in common. The sudden ban pronounced by the Dalai Lama in 1996 of the Shugden cult of the patron saint, revered by the seventeenth century - one of hundreds of saints in the Buddhist canon - he dropped many Tibetans believe in a state of insecurity. For them, this prohibition is incomprehensible. For those who look from outside is difficult to understand the ruthlessness with which the ban is imposed. Before the announcement worshiped Shugden about a third of the 130,000 Tibetans in exile, now in India to publicly declare that worship only a few thousand. About how to adhere to that prohibition 5000000 Tibetans in China there are no independent sources.
The Beat Regli journalist in 1998 on Swiss television showed for the first time the shocking images of the smoldering conflict in the Tibetan community in exile in India. Monks of old age, which in tears rimpiagevano was not already dead before the notice of the cult of Shudgen. A desperate family who had been burned down the house. Identity cards, which are unpopular were stigmatized. And Dalai Lama defended his call for excommunication without compromise. "Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, repeated the Dalai Lama, with a cold and harsh, and no one in the West thought him capable, he, always smiling winner of the Nobel prize for peace. In Dharmsala
clash that continues today. The monks who oppose the orders of the Dalai Lama denounced massive discrimination. Relatives and friends are coming under pressure. The shops hanging signs at the door "No admittance" to the Shugden believers. In the past
Shartse Gaden monastery in the town of Mundgod in South India celebrating the inauguration of a new prayer hall. "She should be a big party," a Monaco, but then this has now afraid to say his name. Even the Dalai Lama had come with him and many of the highest authorities. However in the speeches and speeches was treated just the old theme of confrontation about Dorje Shudgen. Then the monks would have been told to sign a statement about not becoming more involved in future worship of Shugden. The conflict has gone on so that the direction of the convent shortly after he had to let it build a wall as tall as a man across the courtyard of the monastery. The dissent takes
religious workers in the meantime the civil justice. At the request of the "Community Dorje Shugden, the highest court in New Delhi should clarify whether the "religious discrimination" of the followers of Shugden is compatible with the Indian law. A decision is expected by the end of the year.
The Dalai Lama said the worship of Shugden would be detrimental to his life and "the affairs of Tibet." Not given any further explanation. Opponents assume that the saint is taken away because it would compete with the state oracle of the Dalai Lama, Shugden is in fact requested the saint as an oracle.
The Tibetan government in exile denies any wrongdoing. "There is only a handful of these men (the followers of Shugden, ndt) and they are totally the pay of the People's Republic of China. These are the only ones who still speak of this issue, "says Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of the government in exile. Being in the pay of the Chinese, this is the worst accusation that can be done to Tibet.
The capital of Tibetan refugees is located in McLeod Ganj, a place just outside the capital district Dharamsala, twelve hours by bus north of New Delhi. In 1960 the Dalai Lama moved here with dozens of his closest collaborators, the residence time of the commanders of the British garrison. Thousands of followers have followed him. Meanwhile, many Indians of the region called the place "Little Lhasa". McLeod Ganj is a very small, only two busy one-way streets that wind toward the mountain.
About 600,000 tourists come here every year spiritual rebirth. The cafes and bars are blowing in the valley loud music. Banquet souvenir items with their kitsch - religious line the streets, the shop offers a "trend of the monks." The young Tibetans wear jeans and t-shirts, tourists from the West dress like the actors in a biblical film. Little Lhasa became the Ballermann (the fashion district of Palma de Majorca, very popular with German tourists, ndt) for those looking for meaning in life.
The small government district is a bit 'out of hand, at the foot of the mountain, its tiny ministries, parliament and a library in a tower block shaped like a box with two floors. The Dalai Lama often stresses that the Tibetans in exile in India have set up a democratic system. There 's a parliament with a number of MPs from 43 to 46. The sessions are recorded on DVD and sent to all the settlements of refugees from Tibet. In theory, the parliament could take decisions against the Dalai Lama. "This however has not ever happened," 'said Penpa Tsering, President of the Parliament. "Everyone has a great faith in His Holiness. He sees the Tibetan issue from many perspectives, and receives a lot of information is very, very logical. "
For a long time family members have occupied seats of His Holiness important, since 2001 the prime minister is elected directly by the people. The election of 2006 this was confirmed in office with over 90% of the vote. The political structure in Little Lhasa is especially prepared in order to uphold the decisions of the Dalai Lama and cement his power. The parties have no role. The constitution of the Tibetans in exile does not provide a separation between church and state, although it is acknowledged with eloquent words in the "ideals of democracy."
In 1990 he appeared for the first time the Tibetan independent newspaper "Mang-Tso" (Democracy) - and quickly became the most important means communication from the refugee community in Little Lhasa. "We were writing about electoral fraud, corruption and all that is in any other country," said Jamyang Norbu, editor in chief at the time. "Mang-Tso" was uncomfortable. The editorial was not to be intimidated even when several editors received death threats, while young newsboys of the newspaper were threatened on the street. In 1996, however, the situation worsened after a service in respect of the Aum sect, which had committed the attacks in the Tokyo subway in 1995 with poison gas attacks, which killed around 12 people and hundreds were injured. With the terrorist leader of the sect, Shoko Asahara, the Dalai Lama had met several times. Even weeks after the gas attacks, the Dalai Lama called the guru of the sect murderess a friend, although not quite perfect ", only after the Dalai Lama has distanced himself from the sect Aum. Because of this article "the religious authorities have promptly put pressure on the newspaper," as he wrote then, the organization "Reporters without borders". "Mang-Tso" had to close, was the end of "Democracy".
Critics and public debates are not welcome in Little Lhasa. The Dalai Lama prefers to seek advice from the gods and demons. The Oracle official State of His Holiness called Thupten Ngodup, born 1958, who lives in the monastery of Nechung, just behind the Parliament Building, once ran down the stairs.
For centuries, the Dalai Lama leaves advise this oracle about all the important political and religious decisions. After the death of his predecessor in 1987, Thupten Ngodup was invested with the role of visionary officer of the Dalai Lama. Rumor has it that he has identified for the first time his prowess in several dreams and visions. As a further indication of his psychic ability is worth losing even his often bloody nose. If the Dalai Lama a question, Thupten Ngodup wears his heavy ceremonial robe of 40 kg Incense is turned on, the aides make a huge crown on the head. Then the oracle dance to the music of cymbals and horns until they fall into a trance and starts to mutter phrases that are understandable only to trained ears. The Dalai Lama believes the prophecies. Has indeed had to say in a retrospective finding that "the oracle has always been right."
Democracy is far from it. However, the criticism of the style of government of the Dalai Lama is rarely found resonance. This is in fact to be inhibited by solidarity with an oppressed people who has the superpower of China as an enemy. Expelled from his land to the patriarch Tibetan watch as there are committed terrible injustices being canceled and the ancient culture.
The communist leadership in Beijing means in its campaign of persecution, the Dalai Lama as a "wolf dressed as Monaco" as a "devil with the face of a man and the heart of a beast." At the same time the Chinese security forces crushed every liberal movement on the Tibetan plateau. No wonder, therefore, most of the Western parteggino for the weaker party. However
Tibet - far more than the representation that it has in the West - has never been a paradise. When in 1950 it penetrated the Chinese troops, Tibet was in deep Middle Ages. Monks and nobles they shared the power and most of the men lived as slaves, serfs or debt bondage. A brutal system protected the religious police beatings and whippings. Many monasteries had its own jail cell. Even the friend of the Dalai Lama, Heinrich Harrer (the aforementioned commander SS major, ndt) was often shocked: "The power of the monks in Tibet is quite unique and leaves only comparable with an iron dictatorship. Suspicious, they monitor any influence from outside that could endanger their power. They are wise enough not to believe in themselves first to the unboundedness of their forces, but they are ready to punish anyone external doubt in this respect. " Harrer tells of a man who had stolen a golden lamp in a temple. He was cut his hand publicly. Then "his mutilated body was sewn into the wet skin of a yak. When the skin was dry, was thrown into the deep ravine. "
The Chinese cheered after joining the march as liberators of the Tibetan people, destroyed monasteries and setting up a new apparatus of oppression, now a Communist. Beijing's propaganda has often stressed that the Dalai Lama, in contrast to its slogan peaceful, supported the armed opposition in his country, even with the help of "foreign imperialists". And to tell the truth, both older brothers of the Dalai Lama had established contacts with U.S. intelligence. In the years following the CIA trained at Camp Hale in the Rocky Mountains, about 300 Tibetans in guerrilla warfare. In a full moon night in October 1957, launched on Tibet by a black B17 without indication of the first fighters chosen Tibetan nationality. In case of arrest by the Chinese every fighter was carrying a phial of cyanide.
agents protected the Tibetan Dalai Lama during his escape to India, via telegraph to Morse were in contact with the CIA. Following the Americans financed the construction of an army of rebels in the Nepalese kingdom of Mustang. Only when in the early 70's trade with China intensified, the program was discontinued.
Many supporters of the Dalai Lama who see Buddhism more as an esoteric cult as a religion are amazed when they hear about the collaboration of their idol with the American intelligence services, or if they find out that the spread of Buddhism in Asia was held so much bloody as that of Islam in Arabia or the Christian cross. Continuously taking place even in individual monasteries in Tibet brutal conflicts. Buddhism is not necessarily more tolerant of other religions. In an interview with Playboy, the Dalai Lama called homosexual practices as "conduct abuse "and similarly his teachings defined as" the oral sex or anal sex with their wife or partner. " On the advice of his American publishers have been removed in the same tone passages from his book "Ethics for the New Millennium."
The Dalai Lama is a man of harmony, he wants to be able to please everyone. However, in the future will have to deal with conflicts. After all the criticism is also growing in the community in exile. "His Holiness as he lives in a bubble, without contact with the outside world," says the activist years Lhasang Tsering, who now runs a bookstore in Little Lhasa. "Politics and religion should be finally divided."
It also requires that Jamyang Norbu. "The Dalai Lama is not a bad man," says Time managing editor of a newspaper "Mang-Tso", "but begins to be an obstacle to our development." He added: "We have no democracy at all. Much is even worse today than in 1959. In the past there were three centers of political power: the Dalai Lama, monasteries and nobles. "Today we have only the Dalai Lama as a single person of power."
Tilman Müller and Janis Vougioukas on "Stern".
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