Dalai Lama draws thousands to Cornell
Tibetan leader urges crowd to seek peace within
By Krisy Gashler
Journal Staff

ITHACA — From the home of Cornell University's ROTC program, His Holiness the Dalai Lama spoke Tuesday afternoon about peace.

Five thousand people filled Barton Hall to capacity for the first of three public events in the Dalai Lama's third visit to Ithaca.

“Genuine peace comes through inner peace,” he said. “Internally, (if you're) full of hatred, full of suspicion, full of fear, then through that way, (it is) impossible to achieve genuine peace.”

The Dalai Lama blessed the Namgyal Monastery Wednesday morning, an event closed to the press, and spoke to an audience of around 5,000 people at Cornell Wednesday afternoon.

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The Dalai Lama greets Surinder Sidhu, left, of Ithaca and Avery Solomon at midday Tuesday outside the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art on his way in to bless the mandalas inside and have lunch with Cornell University officials. The Dalai Lama is in Ithaca for three public appearances and to bless the Namgyal Monastery's new facility called D? Khor Choe Ling, or The Land of Kalachakra Study and Practice, in the Town of Ithaca. Solomon, who does research and teaching at Wisdom's Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies in Hector, has worked with the monks of the Namgyal Monastery teaching math and science in India.

He has two more public events today: “Prayers for World Peace” at 10 a.m. at the State Theatre and “Eight Verses on Training the Mind” at 2 p.m. at Ithaca College. Both events are sold out.

The Cornell event began with half an hour of chanting by the Namgyal Monastery monks, then short remarks by Cornell President David Skorton.

Skorton said the Dalai Lama has “bridged the gap between religion and science” and “emphasizes the traits that unite us rather than those that divide us.”

The Dalai Lama began his speech by insisting on informality, saying that rather than refer to his audience as students, professors or university presidents, he preferred to call everyone “brothers and sisters.”

The Dalai Lama spoke as much as possible in English, but occasionally looked to his translator, Thubten Jinpa, for help thinking of a word or clarifying a point.

“As Buddhist, my concern is promote religious harmony,” he said. “Sometimes religious faith is source of human problems. That's really unfortunate.”

He said that the fundamental basis of all religions is the same: to promote peace and happiness.

“Everybody really loves peace because everything, including these flowers I think should have some kind of right to survive, grow, blossom,” he said, pointing to the red and yellow mums surrounding the stage.

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While the contrast was unspoken, posters in Barton Hall advertising the Dalai Lama's “Bridging Worlds” events shared walls with those of all four branches of the military service — Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines.

The Dalai Lama said the physical form of human beings lends itself to gentleness and compassion. Unlike other meat-eating animals, such as tigers or eagles, human bodies are not equipped with claws or fangs to help them kill their prey.

“I think our human body, in spite of aggressive mind, our human body is gentle,” he said.

He also explained the Buddhist belief about “secular ethics”

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“Some of my friends believe ethics must be based on religious faith,” he said. “There must be moral ethics without religious belief.”

He said that as he uses the term, ‘secularism' does not mean rejection of religion, it means acceptance of all religious beliefs, including atheism.

“Respect all religions, no preference, equal to all religions, including non-believers,” he said.

He also emphasized the importance of affection, especially a mother's affection, in developing human compassion. He particularly praised his own mother's gentleness and affection while he was a child, and said it helped him to develop compassion as an adult.

“Constant news come from Tibet, and not happy ones, always sad,” he said. “During this difficult period I think compassion, which I learn from my mother, immense source of inner peace.”

He said that anger makes people irrational, and convinces them that their opponents are “very bad.”

“Ninety percent of that negativeness is mental projection,” he said. “Peace, like violence, is ultimately linked to our emotions.”

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In spite of horrible circumstances, the Dalai Lama said it is possible to achieve internal peace by working to solve problems that can be fixed, accepting and letting go of problems that cannot be fixed, and always remaining peaceful and compassionate toward self and others.

After roughly an hour of speaking, the Dalai Lama entertained questions. Skorton read from questions submitted by attendees when they bought tickets.

One question asked about Buddhist belief on the interplay between science and religion.

The Dalai Lama said Buddhists are charged to “respect scientific findings.”

If scientific discovery contradicts a scriptural teaching, the Dalai Lama said, “here you have to give greater credibility to the result of your investigation, rather than the scripture.”

This response prompted some scattered applause from the audience, which seemed to surprise the Dalai Lama. Through his translator, he explained further that Buddhists believe in three levels of reality.

The first level is things which are “obvious” and have no need to reason.

The second level comprises knowledge, which “through investigation, through reason, (one) can discover.”

The third level is knowledge which can not be personally confirmed, but relies on the testimony of others.

“In some cases we have to rely on Buddha's own word,” he said. “There are sort of rules of faith, but these rules must combine with reasoning.”

When asked how young people can maintain hope in a world full of problems, the Dalai Lama responded that people should look holistically at problems, viewing them from multiple angles rather than focusing on just their own narrow perspective.

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He also said that reliance on drugs or alcohol to avoid or mask problems is “short-sighted” and “foolish.”

The Dalai Lama told his university audience that they could help alleviate inequality and suffering in developing countries by educating students from these countries.

“Bring or welcome more students from these poorer countries,” he said. “Give them vision, give them self-confidence, give them skill.”

He ended his speech by praising America's Peace Corps, instituted under President John F. Kennedy.

“Instead of sending soldiers, send more students,” he said. “America part of humanity, Africa, same human family. Brothers, sisters who have prosperity, go these areas and bring more prosperity.”

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http://unrepentant.blogspot.com/2005/01/jfk.html

If the Kennedy White House was about managing image, perhaps nothing
succeeded on their own terms better than the Peace Corps. Embodying the

President's rhetoric about "Ask not what your country can do for you,
but what you can do for your country," this nominally volunteer program

would benefit the world's poor without asking for anything in return.

Beneath the rhetoric, the Peace Corps was a variation on a very old
theme, namely the tendency for colonial powers to use civil
administration as a means to co-opt hostile populations. Great Britain
had perfected these techniques in India. Marshall Windmiller, a
professor at San Francisco State who had participated in Peace Corps
training programs in the early 1960s, spells out his disillusionment in

"The Peace Corps and Pax Americana." Referring to Thomas Babington
Macaulay (1800-1859), he characterizes the Peace Corps as an exercise
in
"Macaulayism." As a functionary in India, Macaulay argued that "To
trade
with civilized men is infinitely more profitable than to govern
savages."

Of course, key to bringing civilization to the savages was a properly
functioning civil service and an educational system that could
inculcate
the values of the colonizers. Seen in this light, the Peace Corps's
main
function, according to Windmiller, is "to develop pro-American,
English-speaking elites, and to make America's role in world affairs,
whatever it may be, more palatable."

Windmiller focuses on the example of Rhoda and Earl Brooks, a
husband-and-wife team who served in Ecuador from 1962 to 1964. They did

the usual things that Peace Corps volunteers did, from teaching English

to clearing streets of garbage.

When the USA intruded into Ecuadorian fishing waters during their
sting,
Communists organized protests against the "pirates." Naturally, the
Brooks felt compelled to present the American case. In their English
conversation classes and at their homes, they tried to convince the
Ecuadorian youth of the benefits of "democratic capitalism," for whom
many the word "capitalist" was synonymous for murderer. Because the
Brooks were seen as modest and idealistic, their ideas were more easily

accepted than if they came straight from the American consulate. That,
of course, was the whole idea.

Kennedy himself occasionally spoke more candidly about the goal of
initiatives like the Peace Corps. In National Security Action
Memorandum
No.132 directed to the Agency for International Development, that was
cc'd to the Peace Corps director as well as the CIA, the President
declares his intentions:

"As you know, I desire the appropriate agencies of this Government to
give utmost attention and emphasis to programs designed to counter
Communist indirect aggression, which I regard as a grave threat during
the 1960s. I have already written the Secretary of Defense 'to move to
a
new level of increased activity across the board" in the
counter-insurgency field.

"Police assistance programs, including those under the aegis of your
agency, are also a crucial element in our response to this challenge. I

understand that there has been some tendency toward de-emphasizing them

under the new aid criteria developed by your agency. I recognize that
such programs may seem marginal in terms of focusing our energies on
those key sectors which will contribute most to sustained economic
growth. But I regard them as justified on a different though related
basis, i.e., that of contributing to internal security and resisting
Communist-supported insurgency."

Eventually, some returned Peace Corps volunteers saw through the
imperialist aims of their higher-ups and joined the Vietnam antiwar
movement. Indeed, their number and the numbers of civil rights
activists
disgusted and radicalized by White House inaction probably numbered in
the tens of thousands at the peak. One might conclude by saying that
the
main benefit of the Kennedy White House is that it spurred idealistic
young people to transcend the limitations of an administration that was

guided more by image than by substance.

Dalai Lama stresses basic religious beliefs at State Theatre
By Tim Ashmore
tashmore@ithacajournal.com
Journal Staff

ITHACA — Inside the State Theatre leaders of six religions took the stage today sharing a message of acceptance, love and peace in a service filled with music, prayer and warmth.

Roughly 1,600 people filled the State Theatre to listen to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s thoughts on religious and traditional commonalities and how religion can be used to point humanity in a better direction. Combining a sincere message with humor, the Dalai Lama spoke about initiating peace and seeing religions for what they are, rather than the “mischievous” people in religions.

The Dalai Lama pointed out that there are mischievous people all religions, including Buddhism, but that people should not characterize religions by the mischievous people in those faiths.
Using Sept. 11, 2001 as a prime example as how religion can be used by people who, in fact, are not religious at all, the theme the Dalai Lama promoted was cohesion in religions — the fact that love, compassion and forgiveness are common among religions with different names and different philosophies.

“Sometimes, unfortunately, religion becomes some kind of obstacle,” he said before emphasizing how much there is in common in all religions, and that all religions can point out value in humanity.

Speakers before the Dalai Lama stressed peace above all else. Audrey Shenandoah, clan mother and elder of the Onondaga Nation, reminded the crowd that every day, every person has the responsibility and ability to inspire peace.

Dorothy Cotton, former Southern Christian Leadership Conference education director, talked about her work with Martin Luther King Jr., and how peace functioned not only as their means for change, but also as their end.

Omer Bajwa, Cornell University’s Muslim chaplain, said “the role of religion is to remind humanity of moral and ethical standards.”

The Rev. Daniel McMullin, Catholic chaplain at Cornell University, read from Psalms, and Rabbi Edward Rosenthal, Jewish chaplain, read from Isaiah.

Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson read a proclamation naming the week of Oct. 8 “Bridging Worlds week” in Ithaca, where practicing kindness and passing that kindness on should be the focus.

The feeling coming out of the auditorium was reaffirmation for some attendees. Joel and Susan Shabishinsky of Ithaca said they think the message for people in Ithaca is to enjoy a renewed sense of commitment and compassion that can be passed outward to others.

Joyce Smith-Moore of Moravia and Dorothy Lonsky of Genoa said the service re-enforced their attitudes on justice and the value of humor in life.

“It was about justice, tolerance and (the) awareness that we’re all a big family,” Smith-Moore said.

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Colorado has one of the highest concentrations of Tibetans in North America, focused on Boulder, Colorado Springs, Douglas County and Crestone. The state sports a Buddhist university, the Naropa Institute, a Buddhist commune west of Castle Rock, and several cities have Tibetan outreach organizations. Colorado Springs alone has three Tibetan stores and a restaurant.

Much of the reason behind this rather peculiar demographic is that Tibetan guerillas were secretly trained by the CIA at Camp Hale outside of Leadville. Camp Hale was used as a training camp for expatriate Tibetans to be inserted to foment uprising in the mountain kingdom after its invasion by the Chinese People's Liberation Army, between 1959 and 1965.

From 1958 to 1960, Anthony Poshepny trained various special missions teams, including Tibetan Khambas and Hui Muslims, for operations in China against the Communist government. Poshepny sometimes claimed that he personally escorted the 14th Dalai Lama out of Tibet, but sources in the Tibetan exile deny this.

The site was chosen because of the similarities of the Rocky Mountains in the area with the Himalayan Plateau. This was a contemporary plan of the CIA to the one that trained dissident Cubans in what later became the Bay of Pigs incident. After that failed foray, the Tibetan plan in Colorado's mountains was abandoned, but the Tibetans, having no free homeland to return to, opted to stay in the friendly environment and homelike terrain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_American

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First day line, security smooth
By Tim Ashmore
Journal Staff

ITHACA — For some ticket holders, it nearly took longer to find the end of the line for the Dalai Lama's speech in Barton Hall at Cornell than it did to get through it.

The line of 5,000 people snaked around the building, nearly circling the field house, but it took only about 30 minutes for some to get through when doors opened.

Quilter's Corner
Police and volunteers kept people on sidewalks and monitored closed streets and parking areas. When the line was gone, some ticket-less members of the public stood outside waiting for a glimpse of the Dalai Lama.
Before the Dalai Lama's motorcade rolled down Garden Avenue, men in dark suits grouped around a side entrance speaking into their sleeves, coordinating the Dalai Lama's arrival.

“I haven't seen this much security since Shimon Peres,” Cornell spokesman Joe Schwartz said, referring to the November 2006 visit of the former Israeli prime minister.

Led by the Cornell Police Department and New York State Police, the Dalai Lama exited a black, unmarked Chrysler sedan — different from the black stretch Cadillac he used earlier in the day in his visit to the Johnson Art Museum for lunch with a number of monks from the Namgyal Monastery, Cornell President David Skorton and former Cornell President Frank Rhodes.

When His Holiness exited the vehicle, federal security agents swarmed around. Before the Dalai Lama was greeted by Rhodes, he turned to the public, which had been moved across the street by law enforcement, smiled and waved. Rhodes bowed and presented the Dalai Lama with a ceremonial white scarf, which represents good luck, prosperity and success, said Palden Oshoe, a Namgyal teacher and translator.

At the Johnson Art Museum, the Dalai Lama bowed to the public before greeting Skorton. He spent some time shaking hands with people in the crowd.

Rhodes, who welcomed the Dalai Lama as president of Cornell in 1991, said he's “really a fine person.”

He added that he thinks the Dalai Lama has a positive influence on world events.

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From 1959 to 1964, Tibetan guerrillas were secretly trained at Camp Hale by the CIA. The site was chosen because of the similarities of the Rocky Mountains with the Himalayan Plateau. The Tibetans loved the surroundings so much that they nicknamed the camp, "Dhumra", the Garden. The CIA circulated a story in the local press that Camp Hale was to be the site of atomic tests and would be a high security zone. Until its closure in 1964, the entire area was cordoned off and its perimeter patrolled by military police. In the nearby mining town of Leadville, where instructors from Camp Hale occasionally went for rest and recreation, numerous rumors spread about the camp but no one guessed its real function.

The Tibetan project was codenamed ST Circus, and it was similar to the CIA operation that trained dissident Cubans in what later became the Bay of Pigs Invasion. In all, around 259 Tibetans were trained at Camp Hale. Some were parachuted back into Tibet to link up with local resistance groups (most perished); others were sent overland into Tibet on intelligence gathering missions; and yet others were instrumental in setting up the CIA-funded Tibetan resistance force that operated out of Mustang, in northern Nepal (1959-1974). After Camp Hale was dismantled in 1964, no Tibetans remained in Colorado.

From 1958 to 1960 Anthony Poshepny trained various special missions teams, including Tibetan Khambas and Hui Muslims, for operations in China against the Communist government. Poshepny sometimes claimed that he personally escorted the 14th Dalai Lama out of Tibet, but this has been denied, both by former CIA officers involved in the Tibet operation, and by the Tibetan Government-in-exile (Central Tibetan Administration).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Hale

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The Dalai Lama, Slick Denials and the CIA
by Loren Coleman

from Popular Alienation: A Steamshovel Press Reader



While a great deal of information has surfaced over the years about the Central Intelligence Agency's worldwide covert operations activities, little is known about how deeply the CIA was involved in Tibet in the 1950s and 1960s. "It is impossible at this writing," John Prados noted in his 1986 book, Presidents' Secret Wars, "to give a detailed analysis of the Washington decision making for Tibet. The appropriate records remain security classified. If not for the courts, in fact, the entire discussion of Tibet in the Marchetti and Marks book, The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, would have been deleted by Agency censors."

We are forced to read accounts of the conflict in Tibet closely to get some insights into how involved some of the yeti searchers may have been. Let's start with one critical incident, the escape of the Dalai Lama from Tibet. There are denials, for example, of the rumors circulating that Tom Slick and Peter Byrne were responsible, in some fashion, for the safe passage of the Dalai Lama from Lhasa. Since the time of Tom Slick's first official yeti reconnaissance of eastern Nepal in 1957, in which he was actually a member of the trek, the rumors of his expeditions' involvement in spying have been rampant. The New York Times even saw fit to publish an article reporting on the Russians' promotion of this story in an item entitled: "Soviet Sees Espionage in U. S. Snowman Hunt." The April 27,1957 piece claimed Slick was behind an effort to subvert the Chinese, and free Tibet.

What can we find in the record about the Dalai Lama's rescue? Who was behind the exit or with the Dalai Lama? Fletcher Prouty, an Air Force colonel who supervised secret air missions for the Office of Special Operations, has written: "This fantastic escape and its major significance have been buried in the lore of the CIA as one of those successes that are not talked about. The Dalai Lama would have never been saved without the CIA" (Prouty, 1973). On March 17, 1959, all three groups, the Dalai Lama, his immediate family and senior advisors escaped from Lhasa. Tenzin Gyatso the Dalai Lama] was disguised as a common soldier of the guard.... The best information [about the fleeing Dalai Lama] came from the CIA.... The CIA was so well informed because it had furnished an American radio operator, who traveled with the Dalai Lama's party...There may have been other CIA agents with the party as well" (Prados, 1986). Who were these individuals?

George Patterson might know. Remember, he is the guy who had the mysterious meeting with an American tourist" during 1955 in which parts of the CIA's war in Tibet were mapped out. Patterson, who used the cover of being a missionary (but drank, smoked and chased women with the best of the guys) was part of a unique foray into Tibet in 1964. Setting out secretly with Adrian Cowell, a British filmmaker, Patterson took off from Nepal to coordinate and film an attack on a Chinese convoy by Tibetan Khamba commandos. Patterson and Cowell were successful, but upon their return they were briefly jailed in India, and their film was suppressed and not shown for two years.

Now here's the interesting part: Who helped them get into Tibet? None other than Peter Byrne, Tom Slick's man in Nepal.

And who has written the most concerning the Patterson incident without saying too much in depth about it? None other than Michel Peissel. In his book, The Secret War in Tibet (1973), Peissel mysteriously kept his references to the CIA to only four small mentions in this 258-page book. Peissel discussed a good deal about the secret war in Tibet but strangely never mentioned some amazing points now well-known (due to recent CIA limited releases of information), such as the fact that the small kingdom of Mustang was the CIA-run base of Tibetan guerrilla operations. Peissel revealed that he first went to the area in the spring of 1959 with aa letter of recommendation from Thubtan Norbu, the brother of the Dalai Lama, to the Prime Minister of Bhutan.... I was off to meet Jigme Dorji, the Prime Minister of Bhutan, in the small border town of Kalimpong" (Peissel, 1966). We, of course, understand a little bit more about the importance of Kalimpong in the espionage game, as was mentioned above.

Also, we now have some facts about Thubtan Norbu. The eldest brother of the Dalai Lama was connected to the "American Society for a Free Asia," a CIA-funded organization that sponsored a series of visits to and lectures in the United States by Norbu, beginning in 1956 (Prados, 1986). Secretly, the Dalai Lama's family was very involved with the CIA in fighting the Chinese. Gyalo Thondup, the Dalai Lama's second-eldest brother, based in Darjeeling, established an intelligence gathering operation with the CIA in 1951. Six years later, he upgraded it to an advanced CIA-trained guerrilla unit whose members were introduced to commando techniques on Guam for example, and then parachuted back into Tibet (Avedon 1984). What was Peissel's connection to the CIA? It's difficult to say.

Peissel was apparently able to obtain much "Tibet file" (as he called it) information from American and British intelligence contacts. He even reveals names that sound familiar- such as "Nyma Tsering," said to be one of the most trusted officers among the Tibetan guerrillas. Tibetan names in English are merely rough transliterations, often in different spellings. So we are not surprised to find the Sherpa "Nima Tenzing" on Slick's 1957 and 1958 expeditions, and the same individual "Nima Tshering" on Hillary's 1960 expedition. Was this person also the aforementioned "Nyma Tsering?" Were Peissel's connections woven into the espionage network?

This is the same Michel Peissel who wrote a yeti-debunking article for Argosy magazine in 1960 entitled "The Abominable Snow Job." Peissel mentioned that the subject of his 1966 book, Boris Lissanevitch, had been given a tranquilizer gun by the Tom Slick expedition. Peissel half-jokingly wrote that the "Indians thought Boris a Russian agent, the Russians thought him an American agent, and the Americans, a Russian agent" (Peissel, 1966). It is interesting that Peissel would show up in the Tibetan area to investigate the abominable snowman, during the critical time of the Dalai Lama's escape. Slowly, over the years, he revealed his deeper covert operations links.

Adrian Cowell, for his part, turned up in Burma in the mid-1960s filming guerrilla opium armies (McCoy, 1972) and recently has been involved in Brazilian projects. But Cowell's official biography in Contemporary Authors neglected to mention his Tibetan adventures with Patterson.

Something strange is going on here.

http://www.umsl.edu/~thomaskp/dalai.htm

The Dalai Lama's hidden past

25 September 1996

Comment by Norm Dixon

Most solidarity and environmental groups supporting the Tibetan people's cause have not questioned the Dalai Lama's role in Tibetan history or addressed what it would mean for the Tibetan people if the Dalai Lama and his coterie returned to power.

A 1995 document distributed by the Dalai Lama's Office of Tibet aggressively states that ``China tries to justify its occupation and repressive rule of Tibet by pretending that it `liberated' Tibetan society from `medieval feudal serfdom' and `slavery'. Beijing trots out this myth to counter every international pressure to review its repressive policies in Tibet.'' It then coyly concedes: ``Traditional Tibetan society was by no means perfect ... However, it was not as bad as China would have us believe.''

Was this a myth? Tibet's Buddhist monastic nobility controlled all land on behalf of the ``gods''. They monopolised the country's wealth by exacting tribute and labour services from peasants and herders. This system was similar to how the medieval Catholic Church exploited peasants in feudal Europe.

Tibetan peasants and herders had little personal freedom. Without the permission of the priests, or lamas, they could not do anything. They were considered appendages to the monastery. The peasantry lived in dire poverty while enormous wealth accumulated in the monasteries and in the Dalai Lama's palace in Lhasa.

In 1956 the Dalai Lama, fearing that the Chinese government would soon move on Lhasa, issued an appeal for gold and jewels to construct another throne for himself. This, he argued, would help rid Tibet of ``bad omens''. One hundred and twenty tons were collected. When the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959, he was preceded by more than 60 tons of treasure.

Romantic notions about the ``peaceful'' and ``harmonious'' nature of Tibetan Buddhist monastic life should be tested against reality. The Lithang Monastery in eastern Tibet was where a major rebellion against Chinese rule erupted in 1956. Beijing tried to levy taxes on its trade and wealth. The monastery housed 5000 monks and operated 113 ``satellite'' monasteries, all supported by the labour of the peasants.

Chris Mullin, writing in the Far Eastern Economic Review in 1975, described Lithang's monks as ``not monks in the Western sense ... many were involved in private trade; some carried guns and spent much of their time violently feuding with rival monasteries. One former citizen describes Lithang as `like the Wild West'.''

The Tibetan ``government'' in Lhasa was composed of lamas selected for their religious piety. At the head of this theocracy was the Dalai Lama. The concepts democracy, human rights or universal education were unknown.

The Dalai Lama and the majority of the elite agreed to give away Tibet's de facto independence in 1950 once they were assured by Beijing their exploitative system would be maintained. Nine years later, only when they felt their privileges were threatened, did they revolt. Suddenly the words ``democracy'' and ``human rights'' entered the vocabulary of the government-in-exile, operating out of Dharamsala in India ever since.

Dharamsala and the Dalai Lama's commitment to democracy seems weak. An Office of Tibet document claims ``soon after His Holiness the Dalai Lama's arrival in India, he re-established the Tibetan Government in exile, based on modern democratic principles''. Yet it took more than 30 years for an Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies to be directly elected from among the 130,000 exiles. Of 46 assembly members, only 30 are elected. The other 16 are appointed by religious authorities or directly by the Dalai Lama.

All assembly decisions must be approved by the Dalai Lama, whose sole claim to the status of head of state is that he has been selected by the gods. The separation of church and state is yet to be recognised by the Dalai Lama as a ``modern democratic principle''.

The right-wing nature of the Dalai Lama and the government-in-exile was further exposed by its relationship with the US CIA. The Dalai Lama concealed the CIA's role in the 1959 uprising until 1975.

Between 1956 and 1972 the CIA armed and trained Tibetan guerillas. The Dalai Lama's brothers acted as intermediaries. Before the 1959 uprising, the CIA parachuted arms and trained guerillas into eastern Tibet. The Dalai Lama maintained radio contact with the CIA during his 1959 escape to India.

Even the Dalai Lama's commitment to allowing the Tibetan people a genuine act of self-determination is debatable. Without consultation with the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama openly abandoned his movement's demand for independence in 1987. This shift was first communicated to Beijing secretly in 1984. The Dalai Lama's proposals now amount to calling for negotiations with Beijing to allow him and his exiled government to resume administrative power in an ``autonomous'', albeit larger, Tibet. The Dalai Lama's call for international pressure on Beijing seeks only to achieve this.

There are indications that a younger generation of exiled Tibetans is now questioning the traditional leadership. In Dharamsala, the New Internationalist reported recently, young Tibetans have criticised the abandonment of the demand for independence and the Dalai Lama's rejection of armed struggle. They openly question the influence of religion, saying it holds back the struggle. Some have received death threats for challenging the old guard. Several recently-arrived refugees were elected to the Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies.

The Tibetan people deserve the right to national self-determination. However, supporting their struggle should not mean that we uncritically support the self-proclaimed leadership of the Dalai Lama and his compromised ``government-in-exile''. Their commitment to human rights, democracy and support for genuine self-determination can only be judged from their actions and their willingness to tell the truth.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/1996/248/13397

There is a lot going on below the "placid" exterior and the claim of including everybody (even "atheists")...


Dorje Shugden is a deity of Tibetan Buddhism whose precise nature — enlightened tutelary deity (Yidam) or bound protector (Dharmapala) or an evil and malevolent force (Rakshasa) — is disputed among adherents of Tibetan Buddhism...


Since the 19th century he is primarily associated with two influential lamas: Pabongka Rinpoche and Trijang Rinpoche of the Gelug (also Geluk) school of Tibet. His origins can be traced back to the Sakya school, where he was regarded as a local worldy (unenlightened) spirit. In the Gelug school he was first mentioned and disputed at the time of the 5th Dalai Lama. Whilst Shugden has never been an official practice of the Gelug institution, or any other school of Tibetan Buddhism, many Gelug monks and teachers picked up the practice after Pabongkha Rinpoche started to disseminate it. Although he was criticised by the 13th Dalai Lama, and undertook to stop teaching the practice, after the death of the 13th Dalai Lama he started to teach it again, and in the end the 14th Dalai Lama received the practice from one of his tutors, Trijang Rinpoche, though he later distanced himself from it.

Today's controversy surrounding the deity refers to a particular brand of Gelugpa exclusivism that emerged in Central and Eastern Tibet during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where the deity was considered to demarcate the boundaries of Gelugpa religious practice, especially in opposition to growing influence of Ri-me thinkers. Many Gelugpas, as well as many Kagyupas, Sakyapas and Nyingmapas, began to follow the ideas of the Ri-me movement, but conservative Gelugpas, especially Pabongkha Rinpoche, became concerned over the "purity" of the Gelug school and opposed the ideas of Ri-me. They established instead a special Gelug exclusivism. Many sources state that disciples of Pabongkha Rinpoche destroyed Nyingma monasteries or converted them to Gelug monasteries and destroyed statues of Padmasambhava.

This on-going tension has reached new heights in the Tibetan exile context, where the Fourteenth Dalai Lama started first to distance himself from Shugden and later used his position as the political and religious head of Tibet to stop the growing influence of the worship of Shugden.

Whereas Shugden's followers are convinced he is a Buddha and cannot be harmful in any way, opponents of Shugden call attention to his sectarian and demonical character. The latter view is shared by Gelug lamas as well, but mainly by many high lamas from other Tibetan schools, like Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, and Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche who said, "most of the Nyingmas, Kagyus and Sakyas believe that Shugden is a demon. People who practice Shugden will get many money, many disciples and then many problems."[3]

The dispute developed international dimensions in the 1990s, when the Dalai Lama's statements against the practice of Shugden challenged the British-based New Kadampa Tradition to oppose him. Geshe Kelsang said that Tibetan practitioners of Dorje Shugden asked him to help them. As a result, Geshe Kelsang sent a public letter to the Dalai Lama, to which he did not receive any response, and subsequently created the Shugden Supporter Community (SSC), which organised protests and a huge media campaign during the Dalai Lama's teaching tour of Europe and America, accusing him of religious persecution and opposing the human rights to freedom of religious practice and of spreading untruths...


Wilson argues[21] that the TGIE is a Theocracy which he identifies by the following features, "religious freedom is restricted because state power is marshaled in favour of a particular set of religious beliefs (and, by extension, against others), the intention being to eradicate alternative beliefs and pursue national homogeneity of belief.".[21]

According to Wilson the pursuit of religious homogeneity have been illustrated during "The last thirty years" which have "witnessed the growing ascendancy, both in exile and within Tibet, of the Dalai Lama as either the direct root–guru of all those firmly interested in Tibetan independence (often through the numerous mass Kalachakra empowerments he has given since 1959) or, more commonly, the indirect apex of an increasingly unified pyramid of lamaic (guru-disciple) relationships, many of which transcend the sectarian divides which became entrenched within Tibetan Buddhism during the centuries following the 5th Dalai Lama’s establishment of centralized Gelugkpa rule in Central Tibet." In this context, by criticising the practice of Shugden, the TGIE is asserting "the functional role of religion within the constitution for a sacral political life centered on the Dalai Lama and held together primarily by acts of ritualized loyalty."[21] or as Helmut Gassner (Swiss), a former interpreter of the Dalai Lama and a Shugden follower, argues "...for most Tibetans nothing is more important than the Dalai Lama's life; so if one is labelled an enemy of the Dalai Lama, one is branded as a traitor and therewith 'free-for-all' or an outlaw."[22]

Wilson argues that "the Dalai Lama’s request that Shugden worshippers not receive the tantric initiations — the foundation of the ‘root-guru’ relationship — from him, effectively placed them outside the fold of the exiled Tibetan polity."[21] He establishes this view by arguing that the Tibetan Government in Exile (TGIE) is a theocracy and that the Dalai Lama's statements in Spring 1996 "during a Buddhist tantric initiation that Shugden was an “evil spirit” whose actions were detrimental to the “cause of Tibet”" reflect the Dalai Lama's decision to "move more forcefully" in response "to growing pressure – particularly from the Nyingmapa, who threatened withdrawal of their support in the Exiled Government project".[23]

Jane Ardley writes,[24] concerning the political dimension of the Shugden controversy. "…the Dalai Lama, as a political leader of the Tibetans, was at fault in forbidding his officials from partaking in a particular religious practice, however undesirable. However, given the two concepts (religious and political) remain interwoven in the present Tibetan perception, an issue of religious controversy was seen as threat to political unity. The Dalai Lama used his political authority to deal with what was and should have remained a purely religious issue. A secular Tibetan state would have guarded against this."[24]

Ardley references the following directive published by the Tibetan Government in Exile to illustrate the "interwoven" nature of the politics and religion:

"In sum, the departments, their branches and subsidiaries, monasteries and their branches that are functioning under the administrative control of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile should be strictly instructed, in accordance with the rules and regulations, not to indulge in the propitiation of Shugden. We would like to clarify that if individual citizens propitiate Shugden, it will harm the common interest of Tibet, the life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and strengthen the spirits that are against the religion."'[25]
In his concluding remarks, Wilson observes that "…the debate surrounding Shugden was primarily one of differing understandings of the constitution of religious rights as an element of state life, particularly in the context of theocratic rule. As an international dispute, moreover, it crossed the increasingly debated line between theocratic Tibetan and liberal Western interpretations of the political reality of religion as category." In particular he sees the main failing of the Shugden Supporters Campaign as arising from their erroneous assertion of "the separation of religion and state as the basis for the understanding of religious freedom and denied any legitimate functioning role to Buddhism within the constitution of that state."[21]

Whereas Kay states "The Dalai Lama opposes the Yellow Book and Dorje Shugden propitiation because they defy his attempts to restore the ritual foundations of the Tibetan state and because they disrupt the basis of his leadership, designating him as an “enemy of Buddhism” and potential target of the deities retribution."


The Dalai Lama has said that:

(1) Shugden is a worldly spirit.
(2) Shugden practice has the potential to promote sectarianism.
(3) Shugden practice harms the health of the Dalai Lama and is contrary to the interests of Tibet and the Tibetan people.
(4) The Nechung State Oracle (bound by Padmasambhava) stated that it is harmful.
(5) Tibetan people using divination have received bad omens to the effect that Shugden is harming them.
(6) The Fifth Dalai Lama said: He will talk over and over again and not stop to say: Shugden is a negative force. And the Fourteenth Dalai Lama said that he sees himself in the footsteps of the Thirteenth and Fifth Dalai Lamas.[61]

Shugden supporters responded point-by-point as follows:

(1) The statement that Dorje Shugden is a worldly spirit is unsubstantiated and contradicts the view of many spiritual masters of the Gelug tradition who hold him to be a manifestation of the Wisdom Buddha.
(2) Furthermore, the essential Mahayana Buddhist doctrine of the emptiness of persons requires that one should not attribute inherently existent qualities to any being. Thus, Shugden like any other being has the qualities that one's own mind sees in him.
(3) Prior to instigating this ban, there was no history of disharmony between practitioners of Dorje Shugden and other traditions – it is the ban itself that is a manifestation of sectarianism.
(4) There is no evidence to support the claims that the Dalai Lama's health and the interests of the Tibetan people have been affected.
(5) Divination is not a reliable means of deciding such issues. Furthermore, evidence from oracles is not admissible either.
(6) The Dalai Lama might claim that his teachers agreed to him stopping the practice, but in reality they had no choice but to accept, as to go against the Dalai Lama results in grave consequences. It is said that Trijang Rinpoche in particular was 'very disappointed' that the Dalai Lama abandoned his practice of Dorje Shugden.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorje_Shugden

Normally, I wouldn't think a 15th century feudal theocracy was really appropriate in the modern world... but... no divination or oracles? Now I'm not so sure.

BTW, the "seat" of the main Shugden guy (Trijang Rinpoche) is in Northfield, Vt.

Figures, don't it?

At stake in the dispute are not spiritual matters or fine doctrinal points but an earthly lust for power and considerable sums of money. While most of the 130,000 Tibetans in India, Nepal and Bhutan eke out a precarious existence on small plots of land or in handicraft production and small businesses, the religious hierarchy has been able to amass significant fortunes through business investments and donations, particularly by exploiting interest in the West in Tibetan Buddhism.

The Karma Kagyu sect, headed by the Karmapa Lama, has a lavish monastery in Rumtek in Sikkim in northern India, which houses the symbol of his leadership—a black crown said to have been woven from the hair of 100,000 dakinis, or fairies, and to possess miraculous properties. The sect also has a centre in the United States, where the 16th Karmapa Lama chose to spend much of his time, and a large business empire. Estimates of the worth of the Karmapa Charitable Trust start at around $US1 billion and escalate from there.

<snip>

The Dalai Lama and the CIA

Little more has been written on the political machinations behind the boy's flight as both India and China have sought to downplay the issue. India is allowing Trinley Dorje to remain as a refugee but has refused to grant him the status of political asylum. Beijing has indicated that it is satisfied with New Delhi's response. But all of this underlines the basic fact that Tibetan factional politics has always been bound up with regional politics and the geo-political interests of the major powers. The question of Tibet is connected to the longstanding border dispute between India and China, the bitter conflict between Pakistan and India particularly over Kashmir, and wider strategic issues connected to the scramble for oil and minerals in Central Asia.

For centuries the high Tibetan plateau has constituted a key strategic position within the region—long under Chinese patronage, and then after the Chinese revolution of 1911, used by the British in India as a buffer against China and Russia. Soon after Mao's peasant armies took power in Beijing in 1949, the Chinese army seized Tibet and in 1951 it was formally incorporated into China.

But the Chinese Stalinists were unable to create a stable social base for their rule. Beijing invariably approached religious and cultural questions in Tibet with the heavy hand of the state bureaucrat imbued with Chinese chauvinism. Incapable of eliminating social inequality, poverty and cultural backwardness, Chinese policy has in varying degrees combined brutal repression with pandering to Tibetan Buddhism in an effort to create its own officially sanctioned hierarchy of lamas through which to manipulate local politics.

China's brutish behaviour in Tibet created oppositional tendencies. Throughout the Cold War, the US was able to exploit as a means of putting pressure on Beijing. While not diplomatically recognising the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile, US administrations have in the past provided diplomatic, financial and even military assistance to the Tibetan priesthood. After China's takeover of Tibet in 1950, the CIA financed and trained Tibetans to engage in espionage and guerrilla activities against the Chinese authorities.

Details of the CIA's operations in Tibet have recently begun to leak out as former operatives have began to publicly reminisce about their Cold War exploits. An article in the US-based Newsweek magazine last August pointed out that the CIA's activities began as far back as 1956. While the Dalai Lama, keen to preserve his image as a man of peace, claims not to have been directly involved, his elder brother Gyalo Thondup was at the centre of the operations. According to the magazine's report: “Gyalo Thondup now says he didn't inform his exalted sibling about all of his intelligence connections at the time: ‘This was a very dirty business'.”

The Newsweek article explained: “Beginning in 1958, American operatives trained about 300 Tibetans at Camp Hale in Colorado. The trainees were schooled in spy photography and sabotage, Morse Code and minelaying. Between 1957 and 1960, the CIA dropped more than 400 tonnes of cargo to the resistance. Yet nine out 10 guerrillas who fought in Tibet were killed by the Chinese or committed suicide to evade capture, according to an article by aerospace historian William Leary in the Smithsonian's Air & Space Magazine.”

These activities culminated in an abortive uprising in Tibet in 1959, which was ruthlessly suppressed by Chinese security forces. The Dalai Lama, his close associates and thousands of other Tibetans fled to Nepal and India and established a government-in-exile, which received US and CIA support throughout the 1960s. “By the mid-60s,” Newsweek explained, “the Tibet operation was costing Washington $1.7 million a year, according to intelligence documents. That included $500,000 subsidy to support 2,100 guerrillas based in Nepal and $180,000 worth of ‘subsidy to the Dalai Lama'.”

<snip>

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/mar2000/tib-m22.shtml

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_q ... _n15993946 (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20060108/ai_n15993946)

Heinrich Harrer, Dalai Lama tutor, mountaineer, dies: Brad Pitt
Chicago Sun-Times, Jan 8, 2006 by William J. Kole

VIENNA, Austria -- Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountaineer and former Nazi who became a friend and tutor of the young Dalai Lama, died Saturday. He was 93.

Mr. Harrer's family said in a statement that "in great peace, he carried out his final expedition" when he died in a hospital. His family, which did not specify a cause of death, said Mr. Harrer would be buried Jan. 14.

Actor Brad Pitt played Mr. Harrer in the film "Seven Years in Tibet," which was based on Mr. Harrer's 1953 memoir of his time in the Himalayan nation.

Born July 6, 1912, the son of a postal worker in the Carinthian village of Knappenberg, Mr. Harrer first made headlines in 1938 with the first ascent of Switzerland's dreaded Eiger North Face.
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At least nine mountaineers had died trying to scale the sheer wall, long considered Europe's greatest mountaineering challenge. Dozens have perished in subsequent attempts.

"We were never afraid. We never had any idea of returning or giving up," Mr. Harrer told reporters on the 50th anniversary of the feat.

His ascent earned him fame and a handshake from Adolf Hitler: Mr. Harrer had joined the Nazi Party when Germany took control of Austria in 1938. He also joined the SS, the party's police wing associated with atrocities in World War II.

Welcomed by Tibet's elite

Mr. Harrer later said he joined the SS and Nazi Party to enter a teachers' organization. The membership let him join a government- financed Himalayan expedition, his life's dream.
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Mr. Harrer and a colleague were arrested by British troops in India at the end of that expedition as war broke out in September 1939.

The two escaped an internment camp in 1944 and trekked through Tibet to Lhasa, where few Westerners had been allowed to enter. They soon endeared themselves to the country's secular elite and to the religious head, the young Dalai Lama.

Mr. Harrer taught the Dalai Lama mathematics, English and sports, and became his adviser and friend. Mr. Harrer's subsequent book about the experience, Seven Years in Tibet, was translated into 48 languages.

Film was revised

He later explored other remote areas of the globe, wrote about a dozen books and made about 40 documentary films.

His adventures became known to millions worldwide in the 1997 film starring Pitt. It was only a few months before the movie's release that his Nazi past caught up with him.

Documents cited by the German magazine Stern in an expose just before the release showed that Mr. Harrer joined Hitler's underground storm troops in Austria in 1933, when he was 21 and Nazi organizations still were banned in Austria.

Although he had said he joined the Nazi Party to further his teaching and mountaineering careers, Mr. Harrer did not explain why he joined the SS when Nazis still were persecuted in Austria.

The revelations prompted some minor changes to the film to depict Mr. Harrer with Nazi officials and the Nazi flag, "Seven Years" director Jean-Jacques Annaud said in 1997.

'An ideological error'

Mr. Harrer was interned at the start of the war and never linked to any Nazi atrocities.

"This is a man who . . . feels a tremendous shame," Annaud said at the time. "I respect him as a man who has remorse."

Simon Wiesenthal, the famed Nazi hunter who died last year, said Mr. Harrer was not involved in politics and was innocent of wrongdoing.

A publicity-shy man who divided his time between Austria and Liechtenstein, Mr. Harrer told the Austria Press Agency in June 1997 that he had a "clear conscience."

He said, however, that "from today's view, the former party and SS membership is an extremely unpleasant thing."

He also repudiated his Nazi membership as a "stupid mistake" and an "ideological error."

Mr. Harrer was decorated with many high awards and honors, including Austria's Golden Humboldt medal and the "Light of Truth" award bestowed by Tibet's government-in-exile in India.

More links:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/mar2000/tib-m22.shtml

http://www.greenleft.org.au/1996/248/13397

http://www.umsl.edu/~thomaskp/dalai.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_American

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Hale

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/200 ... democracy/ (http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/democratic-imperialism-tibet-china-the-national-endowment-for-democracy/)

http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html

http://zonaeuropa.com/20041209_1.htm

http://www.timbomb.net/buddha/archive/msg00087.html

http://mysticbourgeoisie.blogspot.com/2 ... orite.html (http://mysticbourgeoisie.blogspot.com/2008/03/umas-dad-and-americas-favorite.html)

Dalai Lama delves more deeply into Buddhist philosophy at Ithaca College
By Tim Ashmore
Journal Staff

ITHACA — Of the messages the Dalai Lama provided at each of his three public appearances over two days in Ithaca, his speech to about 2,000 people Wednesday afternoon in the Ben Light Auditorium at Ithaca College may have been the most philosophically complex.

The lecture on Eight Verses on Training the Mind featured insights into basic Buddhist principles and how they can lead a soul to better understanding and control over its own mind and emotions.

Ithaca College President Peggy Williams introduced the Dalai Lama by echoing his own words: that he considers himself a simple monk.
The Dalai Lama's lecture concluded with the insistence that every person think of themselves below others in a humble way.

“I see myself as inferior to all,” he said.

Samuel Henschen, a senior philosophy and religious studies major at Ithaca College said the event exceeded his expectations.

“I felt like it was a very down-to-earth experience,” he said. “I originally went there just to be in his presence, but I definitely took a lot more away from this talk than I thought I would.”

Henschen said his previous exposure to Buddhism was helpful at the talk.

“I definitely see how it could have been over some peoples' heads,” he said.

Henschen, who missed out on the initial sale of tickets, was able to go with a friend who had an extra seat. He said he appreciated the translator's role in helping to explain some of the Dalai Lama's thoughts.

“Getting to hear the Dalai Lama speak in Tibetan was a cool part,” he said.

On her way out of the talk, Margaret Meyers said she left the speech feeling like she has some personal work to do to train her mind to be kinder and gentler.

The Dalai Lama began his speech on the coattails of his Wednesday morning presentation at the State Theatre, where he discussed the importance of knowing and understanding other faiths as a way of promoting harmony and gaining a deeper respect for others.

The idea of knowing other religions transformed into moderately dense philosophical discourse that examined the true existence of self and the answer to the question “Who am I?”

One of the aspects of Buddhism the Dalai Lama touched on was the freedom within the religion to critically analyze the writings of the Buddha. The Dalai Lama said the Buddha never expected to be followed blindly but rather invited analysis that could reject his word. That practice leads to personal understanding.

The audience watched and listened intensely, many leaning forward with interest, others listening with eyes closed. During long, more complex readings, much of the audience awaited the Dalai Lama's long-time translator, Thupten Jinpa, to translate the passages.

For those familiar with Buddhism such as Astrid Jirka, the lecture may have been easier to digest than for novices. When asked what she would take away from the speech, she said, “I am really grateful that he's come to speak to us.”

http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pb ... hTav+H0%3D (http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071011/NEWS01/710110350/1002&GID=6FWmpwjzcWcZ1rgsCb7A9zrtkIMeAF/CB8rXhTav+H0%3D)