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The Battle of Sixth Avenue

Fri, 2008-07-18 17:02 — Robyn

Friday July 18, 2008
By Barbara O'Brien

I can't tell you how much I don't want to get mixed up in the Dalai Lama-Shugden controversy. Unfortunately, hundreds of Dalai Lama supporters and Shugden devotees clashed in the streets of Manhattan yesterday afternoon and had to be separated by police. I can't very well ignore that. So here goes.

According to the New York Times, about 200 members of the Western Shugden Society were protesting outside Radio City Music Hall, where His Holiness the Dalai Lama was speaking. As the audience, mostly of Tibetan and Nepalese ancestry, left Radio City, they confronted the protesters. Soon, the Times says, "The crowd began to swell, and eventually thousands were shouting 'Long Live Dalai Lama' and waving dollar bills at the protesters, asserting that they had been paid by the Chinese government."

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Comments

Sat, 2008-07-19 07:17 — Lineageholder

Another view

Barbara's account of this is quite biased. For example, she seems to imply some connection between the Western Shugden Society (which she incorrectly identifies with the New Kadampa Tradition) and the Chinese government. Also she quotes from a one sided article by George Dreyfus. This article gives a version of Shugden history that the Tibetan Government in Exile wants to be publicised. Please read this for another view of this controversy:

http://www.wisdombuddhadorjeshugden.org

Sat, 2008-07-19 07:23 — Lineageholder

to further make the point

To further make the point about Barbara's bias, this is what she wrote recently on her own blog

http://www.mahablog.com/2008/07/18/interesting-times-2/

If you’ve seen the Shugden groupies — they go around protesting His Holiness the Dalai Lama everywhere he speaks — you may have wondered what their issues are. I just wrote a long backgrounder on the other blog. Essentially, the Shugdenistas are a fundamentalist cult, and what’s going on is a power struggle within Tibetan Buddhism.

The leaders of the Shugden sect recruit lots of soft-headed westerners, feed them highly revisionist versions of Tibetan history and Buddhism, and get them all worked up into believing His Holiness is an enemy of religious freedom. But the protesters really are just pawns in a bigger game. And you can bet China is involved. This is all explained on the other blog.

So if you see the Shugden culties in the future, just ignore them. And pity them, if you like.

Notice to Shugden culties: If you want to argue with me, go to the Buddhism forums. Any nonsense you leave here will be deleted.

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Hardly balanced, huh? :-)