Schisms, murder, and hungry ghosts in Shangra-La

Cross Currents, Spring, 1999 by Mike Wilson

The Murder

The killing is said to have been ritualistic. Newsweek reported that the three members of the Dalai Lama's inner circle were stabbed fifteen to twenty times each in a bedroom just a few hundred yards from the Dalai Lama's residence. Robbery was eliminated as a motive because cash and gilded Buddhist statues had been left at the blood-splattered scene. Robert Thurman, a Buddhist scholar and author of Inner Revolution (Riverhead Books, 1998) and an old friend of the Dalai Lama's, has been quoted as saying that he believes Shugden activists are behind the murders. No one has been arrested and the suspects are believed to be in Tibet.

Shugden organizations deny any involvement; however, a report appearing in the Indian press claims that Indian police traced a call the escaped killers made to a pro-Shugden organization in New Delhi. Seven months prior to the killing, a threatening letter, the full text of which can be viewed on the official web site of the Tibetan government-in-exile, allegedly was sent under the seal of the Dorje Shugden Charitable and Religious Society to "... the morally degenerated Lobsang Gyatso, who is a disgrace to the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics....[We] came to Dharamsala three times. In which nunnery were you hiding then?... Instead of writing warped compositions, you should come down to Delhi (the locale of Shugden sect headquarters) with courage and meet us like the louse meets the thumb nails. However, if your guilty conscience does not afford you the courage to come down, give us a date and we will come to you. Make your decisions" (The Official Web Site of the Tibetan Government-in-exile: http://www.tibet.com/). Subsequent to the killing, fourteen persons in the Dalai Lama's entourage also claim to have received death threats.

The Shugden organization denies any involvement in the murders or threats. They also claim that the letter quoted above does not constitute a threat and that the phrase about lice and thumb nails is a common Tibetan idiom for determining the truth or falsity of a matter. On a pro-Shugden website it is alleged that threats have been made against Shugden activists by anti-Shugden groups. They also suggest that the murders could have been committed by people within the Dharamsala compound, alleging reports that evidence was tampered with and that a sack filled with several hundred thousand dollars in cash was "missing." The detention of various Shugden personnel for questioning and attempts to extradite the suspects through Interpol indicate that the police have focused upon Shugden activists.

Buddhist Fundamentalists?

The Shugden sect is popular with Tibetans obsessed with doctrinal purity. Robert Thurman has compared them to the Taliban, Muslim fighters in Afghanistan. The press in the West has seized upon the occult, wrathful aspect of Dorje Shugden, describing the deity as a sword-wielding god sometimes wearing necklaces of human heads. The heads are supposed, however, to be symbols of conquered vices and transgressions.