Western Shugden Society - Latest News

Interview: Dalai Lama’s visit is “the ideal projection”

western_shugden_society@live.com (Western Shugden Society) — 2011-08-22T12:34:58+00:00

"[Non-violence?] Not really. In the history of Buddhism there exists violence just like anywhere else. 1996/97 in Tibet there was the Dorje Shugden affair around a protection deity which is not really clarified even today. The Dalai Lama had banned the worship of this deity. Even murder was committed and no-one knows for sure who is guilty for that. At the time the Dalai Lama acted in very harsh ways against the representatives of another, more folklike denomination. Also there was a split of his tradition from other denominations."

Dr. Friedmann Eissler - Officer of Research of the Protestant Central Department for Religious Issues

Open Letter to Everyone

western_shugden_society@live.com (Western Shugden Society) — 2011-08-17T19:53:45+00:00

Open Letter to Everyone

Open Letters to British Political Leaders

western_shugden_society@live.com (Western Shugden Society) — 2011-08-17T19:11:38+00:00

Open Letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron MP

Open Letter to Foreign Secretary William Hague MP

Open Letter to Home Secretary Theresa May MP

Many a True Word Spoken in Jest

western_shugden_society@live.com (Western Shugden Society) — 2011-04-08T02:32:19+00:00

A humorous but incisive analysis of most famous Buddhist monk in the world. You can find more about Mark Giordano at his website: http://www.markgio.com/ and more about the Dalai Lama throughout the pages of this site. Enjoy.

The Dalai Lama Cables: An Instrument of US Foreign Policy

western_shugden_society@live.com (Western Shugden Society) — 2011-04-03T08:26:56+00:00

In the previous release from the Dalai Lama Cables, we revealed that the US government had considered deploying the Dalai Lama in Vietnam as a means to split the Buddhist community there and further the US anti-communist agenda. It is clear from those discussions that the US viewed the Dalai Lama as an asset, an instrument to be used to further their foreign policy objectives. Given that he had accepted CIA funding for himself (to the tune of $180,000 annually) and his activities (some years well in excess of $1 million annually), it is quite understandable that they'd want to get their money's worth.

Although the Dalai Lama didn't visit Vietnam, he did visit Thailand and Japan in 1967 - two countries supposedly directly affected by the Vietnam war according to Domino theory.

We trawled through the cables to see what information we could find on these trips.

A telegram from the US Embassy in Tokyo dated 1 April 1965 describes an early stage in the planning of the Dalai Lama's trip to Japan.

What is immediately clear from the telegram is that, behind the scenes, it is the US Secretary of State who is organising this trip.

The Ambassador in Tokyo explains that there are a number of hurdles involved:

- The 'Japanese themselves feel no particular affinity for Tibetans and Japanese Buddhists regard Tibetan Buddhists as only distantly related.'

- Although the Government of Japan will not prevent the visit they are 'unlikely to regard such trip with much enthusiasm'.

- 'It may be difficult to find significant japanese Buddhist group which would wish to involve itself sufficiently to sponsor Dalai visit.'

Essentially it seems no one in japan particularly wants the Dalai Lama to come. Even the Buddhist clergy would only be 'willing to meet with upon his request.'

However, the first and most important point of the telegram reads:

'The Dalai Lama's visit to Japan would be advantageous from our point of view in reminding Japanese of ChiCom attitudes'.

So, because the Dalai Lama's visit serves a US foreign policy interest the Ambassador thinks 'possibly we could stir up some support'.

Nonetheless, the ambassador assumes 'if visit takes place US will not be overtly involved.'

The visit did take place, the US pulled the strings to make it happen. The US used the Dalai Lama and his teachings as an instrument of US foreign policy. A pattern that appears to have been repeated again and again.

There is something overwhelming sad about the precious teachings of Lord Buddha being used as a weapon of psychological warfare, a mere tool in cold war squabbles. By mixing religion and politics, the Dalai Lama allowed this sad situation to develop. Now is the time to completely free Buddhism from political pollution.

The Dalai Lama Cables: The US wanted to deploy the Dalai Lama in Vietnam

western_shugden_society@live.com (Western Shugden Society) — 2011-03-28T07:54:04+00:00

As is well documented elsewhere on this site, the Dalai Lama was on the CIA payroll from 1959 until at least 1974. He was provided with $180,000 per year as part of the US anti-communist propaganda efforts.

What recently declassified documents now reveal is that the US wanted to deploy the Dalai Lama in Vietnam as part of their anti-communist propaganda efforts there. On three separate occasions deploying the Dalai Lama is discussed at the highest level.

On 16 December 1964, General Maxwell D. Taylor suggests steps the Government of Vietnam might take, the first of these being:

‘1. Arrange for the Dalai Lama, his brother, or other Buddhist leaders from other countries to visit Vietnam to educate Vietnamese bonzes on the perils of Communism and their civil responsibilities.’

On 8 March 1965, Henry Cabot Lodge – the Presidential Consultant on Vietnam – gives 14 recommendations regarding Vietnam to President Johnson, recommendation number 10 is:

‘The Dalai Lama should be brought to Saigon as an object lesson of the dreadful things Communism does to high ranking Buddhist clergy.’

On 4 April 1966, Jack Valenti – the President’s Special Assistant – gave the advice to President Johnson about what might be done about the desperate situation in Vietnam. Amongst his advice was to:

‘Split the Buddhist leadership:

This has possibilities. There is no durable cohesion in the Buddhist leadership. Can we pit some of the leaders against Tri Quang? Can we use the Dalai Lama and Buddhists outside Saigon, Hue and Da Nang to our advantage?’

One of the main reasons for the American involvement in Vietnam was that successive President’s subscribed to the ‘Domino Theory’ which argued that if one country fell to communist forces, then all of the surrounding countries would follow. It was, and is still, commonly hypothesized that it applied to Vietnam. Whilst still a U.S. senator, John F. Kennedy said in a speech to the American Friends of Vietnam:

'Burma, Thailand, India, Japan, the Philippines and obviously Laos and Cambodia are among those whose security would be threatened if the Red Tide of Communism overflowed into Vietnam.'

The Dalai Lama didn’t visit Vietnam, but in November 1967 he visited both Japan and Thailand, two countries affected by the ‘Domino Theory’. These were his first trips outside of India since leaving Tibet in 1959, and he didn’t make another trip outside of India until 1972.

We know little about who he met and who he spoke to, what messages he passed on and for whom. In his autobiography ‘Freedom in Exile’, he says very little about these trips but does mention that they were at the height of the Vietnam war and that on the way into Thailand he flew alongside a B-52 bomber.

Could the Dalai Lama have been doing the bidding of his US pay masters? Or at least finding a way to combine their interests and his own?

Many people wonder if the Dalai Lama’s relationship with the US is the reason why he refuses to condemn the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that many ordinary people – not considered ‘the Buddha of Compassion’- find it easy to disagree with.

The Dalai Lama Cables: A Wolf in Monk’s Robes?

western_shugden_society@live.com (Western Shugden Society) — 2011-03-23T08:30:57+00:00

The Communist Chinese regime regularly refer to the Dalai Lama as 'a wolf in monk's robes'. They claim that he is behind violent protests in Tibet, that his supposedly compassionate wish to help flood and earthquake victims in China and Tibet is just a political ploy, that his travels around the world giving teachings is part of a political strategy to attack China and that the he uses the monks and monasteries in Tibet to organise insurgency.

The Dalai Lama, himself, laughs at these claims, and the western media laugh with him. China is portrayed as almost hysterical in its demonizing of the Dalai Lama. But is there any truth to what they say?

The brutal suppression of the Tibetans who resist communist rule in Tibet is well documented, and we absolutely oppose injustice and oppression anywhere. However, the Dalai Lama is a political leader, and all political leaders must be held up to scrunity.

As Tibetologist Jens-Uwe Hartmann of the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin said:

'The glorification of the Dalai Lama in his capacity as a political leader will not help the democratisation process. A critical debate on his political statements must be possible and should not be suppressed by the argument that criticism only serves the Chinese.'

We have examined the declassified US State Department documents and we have found evidence that could support all three of the Chinese claims:

With respect to organising protests, the Dalai Lama and his representatives refer to the protests as 'spontaneous'. However, in a telegram from the New Delhi Embassy dated 30 March 1967, we can see that the Bureau of the Dalai Lama privately admit that they were involved in organising these 'spontaneous' protests.

With respect to exploiting natural disasters - such as floods and earthquakes - for political gain, a telegram from the US Embassy in Calcutta, dated 8 January 1955, describes a 'Tibetan Flood Relief Commitee' set up by the Tibetans in exile. The telegram makes it clear that the benefits of supporting the relief effort are to win a propaganda coup over the Chinese communists and to support the resistence fighters positions. Furthermore, the telegram explicitly reveals that the 'tibetan exiles conceived TFRC principally as a psychological tactic against Chinese communists.

With respect to using teaching visits as a political strategy against China, a United States Government Office Memorandum dated 21 February 1952 contains fascinating information. The context of the memo is a discussion of how best to respond to the Dalai Lama's request for US assistance against the Chinese Communists. The Dalai Lama's request was brought by his brother Taktse Rimpche. In the memo a discussion between various interested parties, including the CIA, is referenced. The CIA went on to formulate and fund a strategy of anti-communist propaganda with the Dalai Lama that included sponsoring him personally, and well as establishing Tibet Houses on his behalf in various locations and encouraging him to teach widely. In the discussion mentioned in this memo, they describe organising a teaching tour by distinguished Buddhist leaders as:

'a major step towards utilizing certain elements of the Buddhist world in one aspect of psychological warfare'.

With respect to using uses the monks and monasteries in Tibet to organise insurgency, a telegram from the US Embassy in Calcutta to the Secretary of State in Washington, dated 11 September 1952, reveals:

'Gyalo and Shakabpa with Dalai Lama's knowledge seriously considering forming secret organisation to infiltrate Tibet from India, and possibly Nepal, using Tibetan Monasteries as centers for anti-communist resistance; propaganda first, weapons later.'

We know from other documents that this plan was put into effect.

Of course these declassified documents are now revealing old facts, but also they reveal a modus operandi. In A Great Deception we traced the various events surrounding the violent uprising in Tibet before the Beijing Olympics in 2008 back to the Dalai Lama and his key respresentatives.

While the Chinese government clearly has blood on its hands, it would appear that the Dalai Lama is not so innocent after all.

The Dalai Lama Cables: Follow the Money - Addendum

western_shugden_society@live.com (Western Shugden Society) — 2011-02-27T00:25:33+00:00

In the aftermath of the Chinese invasion of Tibet, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan refugees were inundated with aid in the form of money, food, clothing, blankets, medicines, land, accommodation, livestock and so forth.

Many international charities, such as The Red Cross, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, The National Christian Council, the American Friends Service Committee, the American Emergency Committee for Tibetan Refugees and others, gave extensively.

Many national governments, such as the UK, France, Canada, New Zealand, the US and especially India gave generously to the Tibetan cause.

In the over fifty years since the Chinese invasion, the plight of the Tibetans rarely leaves media attention for long. It has become without doubt one of the most successful on-going fund-raising campaigns ever, drawing millions and millions of dollars in donations, merchandise and event-tickets each year.

Where has all the money gone? What has it been used for? When Australian journalist Michael Backman tried to discover the answer to these fundamental questions he found:

‘Details of the government-in-exile's funding today are far from clear.’

‘It is not clear how donations enter its budgeting. These are likely to run to many millions annually, but the Dalai Lama's Department of Finance provided no explicit acknowledgment of them or of their sources.’

‘Certainly, there are plenty of rumours among expatriate Tibetans of endemic corruption and misuse of monies collected in the name of the Dalai Lama.’

In part one of this series of articles we quoted from Tashi Tsering’s autobiography, before helping Gyalo Thondup transport the Dalai Lama’s treasure from Sikkim to Calcutta, whilst back in Lhasa before the Chinese invasion, he had worked in the treasury of the Tibetan government. He recounts his experiences there (p63 of the autobiography):

‘I was still disillusioned and angry about what I had seen going on in the treasury office in Lhasa. The ordinary people sent their taxes and tribute in the form of money and goods, and both monk and lay officials just took what they wanted. There were ledgers filled with accounts of tea bricks, butter, cloth, gold, and silver. I saw the records that showed that the more powerful monks, especially those from aristocratic families and the Dalai Lama's household, "borrowed" any of these things they wished and never returned them. There was no overall record, no auditing. The officials and their friends and family could come in and take anything they fancied. I saw them doing so with my own eyes.’

Tashi Tsering was offered a position in the newly formed Tibetan-Government-in-Exile, but turned it down:

‘I felt that going to work for the exiled aristocrats and monks would have meant going to work to restore the same old system.’

Could this be the answer to Michael Backman’s questions? Could this be where the money went? In his pursuit of answers, Backman, uncovered some more inconvenient truths:

‘Like many Asian politicians, the Dalai Lama has been remarkably nepotistic, appointing members of his family to many positions of prominence. In recent years, three of the six members of the Kashag, or cabinet, the highest executive branch of the Tibetan government-in-exile, have been close relatives of the Dalai Lama.’

‘An older brother served as chairman of the Kashag and as the minister of security. He also headed the CIA-backed Tibetan contra movement in the 1960s.’

‘A sister-in-law served as head of the government-in-exile's planning council and its Department of Health.’

‘A younger sister served as health and education minister and her husband served as head of the government-in-exile's Department of Information and International Relations.’

‘Their daughter was made a member of the Tibetan parliament in exile. A younger brother has served as a senior member of the private office of the Dalai Lama and his wife has served as education minister.’

‘The second wife of a brother-in-law serves as the representative of the Tibetan government-in-exile for northern Europe and head of international relations for the government-in-exile. All these positions give the Dalai Lama's family access to millions of dollars collected on behalf of the government-in-exile.’

* See Also: Part 1 | Part 2

The Dalai Lama Cables: Follow the Money - Part 2

western_shugden_society@live.com (Western Shugden Society) — 2011-02-20T07:23:05+00:00

In part one, we showed how despite having tens of millions of dollars worth of gold stored in banks in Calcutta, the Dalai Lama successfully pleaded poverty to the United States government and secured a tax-free hand out of $180,000 per annum from 1959 onwards.

By the 60s, however, some in the US administration were questioning the wisdom of these payments to the Dalai Lama, and the on-going financial support of the Tibetan refugees.

One illustration of this is the response to a letter from the Dalai Lama to the US President in late 1966, where the Dalai Lama mentions his plan to resettle with 400 Tibetans in the United States... with the apparent assumption that the US government will foot the $425,000 bill for this.

The response is straight-forward: ‘No USG funds are available’.

Subsequent cables reveal an interesting development. In 1969, the Dalai Lama’s personal representative Lodi Gyari lets the Americans know that the Dalai Lama has been negotiating with the Soviets [at that time the sworn enemy of the United States] for financial assistance.

‘Lodi concluded by stating that the Dalai Lama and he would much prefer to take American financial assistance and he hoped I would give the matter close attention, for they had to get help from somewhere.’

An exquisite hustle by anyone’s standards.

Furthermore, in his report to the State Department, the US Ambassador noted, with some alarm, how during a recent public lecture:

‘The Dalai Lama emphasized that he did not oppose communism, or for that matter any “isms” in particular. He declared that an independent Tibet could have a communist government or any other form supported by the majority of the people. What Tibetans opposed was foreign domination. In the current context, these remarks would appear to have been primarily directed towards Moscow.’

Imagine the horror back in Washington at the prospect of their trump card in the global propaganda war against communism switching sides - swapping the CIA for the KGB, and happily inviting communist rule in Tibet.

Needless to say, funding for the Dalai Lama was granted, and his CIA support renewed at the next review in 1971, and again in the following years. The US congress continues to financially support the Dalai Lama, and the CIA subsidy has been replaced by National Endowment for Democracy funding. As Professor Sautman reports:

The United States is at least the second-largest donor, after India, to the TGIE, providing $2 million in “humanitarian aid” annually and may be the largest donor.¹⁰⁹ Since 2004 it has given the exiles $4 million annually and provided $5.25 million for “Tibetan community assistance” in 2008.¹¹⁰ The U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED) supplies additional funds.¹¹¹ The group’s founding president, Allen Weinstein, has said, “A lot of what [the NED does] today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”¹¹²

Notes:

109. M. Kripalani, “World Watches India’s Response to Tibet,” Business Week (India), March 21, 2008. Most TGIE income is from Western state grants. In 2006–7, grants totaled US$17.5 million. “Rinpoche Defies China as Tibet’s Prime Minister Based in India,” Bloomberg, April 30, 2008. See also Roemer, Tibetan Government-in-Exile, 118–23, on the dependence of the TGIE and Tibetan exiles in India (three-fourths of whom do not work) on external financial support. The TGIE has said its annual budget is $700,000, leaving substantial funds for internationalization activities; Velloor, “Tibetan Exiles Keep the Fight Alive.”

110. Thomas Lam, “U.S.-Funded Assistance Programs in China,” Congressional Research Service RS22663 (January 28, 2008). An official Chinese news source has reported that the US Congress appropriated US$2.4 million for Tibetan exile organizations in 2009, up by 25 percent over 2008. Almost 89 percent of the TGIE’s 2005 revenues derived from foreign aid and it has annually spent 30–40 percent of its funds on projects related to the Tibet Question and representation abroad. Yi Duo, “Dalai Lama bianshen ‘yao qian shu’ Liancai zhi shu bei meiti baoguang (“The Dalai Lama has been changed into one ‘shaking the money tree’: techniques of accumulating wealth by unfair means exposed by media”), Huangqiu Shibao [Global Times], June 19, 2009, www.cns.hk:89/gn/news/2009/06–19/1741923.shtml.

111. “Asia Programs,” NED, www.ned.org/grants/06programs/grants-asia06.html#chinaTibet.

* See also: Follow the Money - Addendum

The Dalai Lama Cables: Follow the Money - Part 1

western_shugden_society@live.com (Western Shugden Society) — 2011-02-13T22:52:19+00:00

Recently declassified US State Department cables reveal the workings of the Dalai Lama and his inner circle.

Throughout the 1950s the Dalai Lama negotiated with the US government for military and financial assistance. In the State Department document ‘United States Policy Concerning the Legal Status of Tibet – 1942 – 1956’, a summary of the US government’s response is given:

‘The United States was prepared to provide light arms, but it was not prepared to pay the expenses of the Dalai Lama and his retinue if they sought asylum abroad, because it assumed that the Dalai Lama had enough treasure to pay his own expenses.’

When the Dalai Lama finally did flee Tibet in early 1959, he sent his brother, Gyalo Thondup, to ask for financial and military assistance. Gyalo Thondup let it be known that:

‘The Dalai Lama did not bring out any treasures from Tibet and consequently was very hard up financially’.

The declassified documents show that the Dalai Lama received a personal subsidy from the US government – a covert payment arranged by the CIA – of 180,000 US Dollars per year from 1959 through till at least 1974. To put this in a modern context 180,000 dollars in the 1950s would be worth nearly 1.5 million today, and 180,000 dollars in the seventies would be worth nearly 800,000 today. Considering the US intended not to support the Dalai Lama financially that's a pretty generous subsidy to have squeezed out of them.

An alternative version of the ‘no treasure brought from Tibet’ story can be found in The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering on pages 57 – 58:

‘In 1950, when it had seemed like a Chinese invasion was imminent, the Dalai Lama's substantial stocks of gold and silver had been transported out of the country to safety in Sikkim. During the 1950s, though the Dalai Lama himself was in Tibet, the gold and silver remained in one of the storehouses of the maharaja of Sikkim. The Chinese had asked for its return but had not made an issue of it at the time. Following the Lhasa Uprising and the flight of the Dalai Lama, they claimed that the money was not the Dalai Lama's personal fortune but belonged to the country--which they now considered to belong to them. At that point the Tibetan leaders decided it was time to secure their treasure more permanently and farther away from the border; and because of my association with Gyalola [Gyalo Thondup, the Dalai Lama’s brother], I found myself involved. It was quite an operation.’

‘The gold and silver were in the form of coins and ingots. When I became involved, the gold and silver were being hand-loaded onto trucks in Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, and driven south to Siliguri, the location of the nearest airstrip. At the airport the literally millions of dollars' worth of gold were loaded onto Dakota cargo planes and flown to Calcutta.’

‘When this precious cargo reached Calcutta, the gold was immediately put into the banks. But for a while the silver was stored in a single room on the third floor of a trusted Tibetan merchant's house. It was my responsibility to stand guard over it, and for nearly a month I stood sentinel in a silent room full of coins and odd pieces of silver.’

It is estimated that the Dalai Lama had nearly 5 tons of solid gold at his disposal in India. For a man with tens of millions of dollars in the bank to successfully plead poverty to the United States government is quite a feat.

Admittedly, the Dalai Lama had left the bulk of his fortune back in Lhasa – for example, in the west chapel of the Potala Palace there is a tomb with nearly 5 tons of solid gold encasing it, there’s no need to mention the thousands of other golden statues, tombs and works of art.

This rather clever con trick wasn’t the only time the Dalai Lama rolled the US over, as we’ll see in part 2.