While the Tibetan brand of Buddhism has long enjoyed a reputation as a religion of peace, harmony and tolerance, an internal conflict has been bubbling under the surface for decades, dividing Tibet’s exiled community and creating within it a somewhat less-than-tolerant environment.

At the heart of this conflict lies the tradition of devotion to the Dorje Shugden deity, a 400-year old custom that began in the 17th century and has become a major practice among many Buddhists.

Devotion to Dorje Shugden was until 1996, central to the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism, the predominant sect amongst the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism

The current (14th) Dalai Lama has travelled the globe with his message of peace and tolerance, and has appealed for non-sectarian cooperation among all branches of Tibet’s religions. But he has also made a number of declarations on Shugden devotion that Shugden practitioners claim have provoked discrimination against them and their effective marginalisation in their own communities. This despite the spiritual leader once regarding Dorje Shugden as an enlightened being and authoring one of the most popular liturgies to the deity.

The four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism share the same fundamental philosophy, their differences lying mainly in their approach to existing Buddhist scriptures, whose scholars — and interpretations — are many. Shugden critics say worship of the deity promotes divisions among these schools and creates disharmony in Buddhist communities.

Since abandoning his own Dorje Shugden devotion, the Dalai Lama has had a radical change of heart towards the deity, affirming on various occasions that it is a malign spirit and asking Shugden devotees to stay away from spiritual gatherings where he is present. They in turn claim that through such comments, Tibet’s spiritual leader has in effect blackballed their devotion, leading to ostracism — and worse — of its practitioners among the broader Tibetan Buddhist community and fomenting disunity in Tibet Autonomous Region of China and among the exiled Tibetan communities.

Shugden devotees bristle at the many contradictions in the Dalai Lama’s public discussions on the controversy. For example, in a 2013 recording, thanks the leaders in certain monasteries for expelling Shugden monks, while implying they have done so under their own authority. But a 2008 recording appears to show him encouraging such expulsions from Buddhist monasteries “without hesitation”, undermining claims he — with the support of the the Tibetan government in exile, called the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), and the leaders in these monasteries — represents tolerant and democratic leadership.[1]

Furthermore, “in expelling these monks from the monasteries, the abbots are in fact making a ruling over people who received practices from their teachers, when in fact there is no higher authority who should be allowed to interfere or interject with this personal relationship,” according to a pro-Shugden website. [2]

The CTA takes a hand

While the Dalai Lama has said his statements do not amount to a ban on Shugden devotion, the CTA has undertaken several measures that have had the effect of marginalising Shugden practitioners.

A 1996 CTA resolution included a clause saying: “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.” Other branches of the exiled government quickly fell into line. For example, shortly afterwards the CTA’s department of health issued a directive which said: “if there is anyone who worships Dorje Shugden, they should repent the past and stop worshipping. They must submit a declaration that they will not worship in the future.”

In recent times bodies claiming to act for the CTA and other supporters have paid for announcements in regional newspapers stating that Shugden worship should be opposed by all means, including violence. In many Buddhist communities, posters have been pasted on walls giving names and addresses of known Shugden devotees, with the chilling and less-than-subtly-implied threat of repercussions.[3]

Dr Lobsang Sangay (centre) the President of the Central Tibetan Administration who has labelled Shugden Buddhists enemies of Tibet, and Tenzin Dhardon Sharling (right), the head of the Dept of Information & International Relations, and Sonam Norbu Dagpo launching a CTA sponsored book that demonises the practitioners of the deity Dorje Shugden.

Proponents of religious freedom also point to a slew of CTA directives that have had the effect of limiting the rights of Shugden practitioners. They say for example that the CTA’s Department of Religion and Culture issued a directive demanding the eradication of Dorje Shugden monks in certain monasteries; a directive barring the issue of travel documents for Dorje Shugden practitioners; a resolution pertaining to the expulsion of Dorje Shugden practitioners from a monastic university; one saying Dorje Shugden practitioners were ‘criminals in history’; and many other resolutions explicitly excluding Dorje Shugden practitioners from administrative processes and cultural events.



Expulsions of and discrimination against Shugden practitioners continue to this day at a number of monasteries, as indicated by recent communications from the abbot of the Gaden Shartse monastery and the administration of the Sera Jey monastery, both in southern India[4]. Some observers say that these measures are little more than efforts to curry favour with the Dalai Lama by carrying out his known wishes, while allowing the spiritual leader to distance himself from their actions in what has become an increasingly bitter conflict.

The above communications and the previously-cited directives, resolutions and actions would appear to contravene both the Tibetan constitution that guarantees freedom of religion and Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which embodies the concept of religious freedom. It also places a large question mark against the Dalai Lama’s message of peace and the CTA’s commitment to democracy.

In recent times, Shugden’s most virulent opponents have launched a series of attacks via social media, including heavily-worded insults and threats on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, often in vicious language of a style rarely associated with Buddhism. Shugden proponents who discuss their religious practices online say they risk a co-ordinated deluge of often ad hominem attacks.



There have also been widespread reports of beatings, vandalism and death threats aimed at practitioners, many of whom say they have been forced to the margins of their own communities, or even to leave them altogether, though such reports are difficult to verify.

China in the wings?

In 2014 the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), which is chaired by the actor Richard Gere, said it had obtained a ‘directive’ from the Tibetan Communist Party in February 2014 whose title translates as, “Some opinions on dealing correctly with the ‘Gyalchen Shugden’ issue”[5].

The ICT’s evaluation of the directive accuses China of seeking to gain a political advantage from the controversy. Entitled “China’s new directive on (the) controversial Shugden spirit in Tibet in (a) further bid to discredit Dalai Lama”[6], even the title of the critique dispels any expectation of objectivity.

While the Chinese position is that the authorities are aiming to guarantee the right of all Tibetans to choose who and how they worship, the directive issued by the Tibetan Communist Party is couched in rather divisive language. It calls the Shugden controversy “an important front in our struggle with the Dalai clique” and “a deceitful ploy by the 14th Dalai’s clique to split the country…”

The problem with the ICT’s reasoning is that it was the CTA’s own edicts and pronouncements against the Shugden practice which created the discord within the Buddhist ranks in the first place. If Shugden acolytes were allowed to continue their worship practices unmolested by other factions within the Buddhist community, as they have done freely for 350 years, there would arguably be no schism to exploit.

Jamyang Norbu, a Tibetan political activist who favours the independence of the region rather than greater autonomy under the Chinese government, says that while the Dalai Lama has the theological right to shun Shugden worship, Buddhists should be free in their devotional practices.

“The trouble is that the Tibetan government has been inducted to implement the Dalai Lama’s proscription of Shugden worship,” wrote Norbu. “The Tibetan government claims it has not issued any orders or appeals to people to harass or ﬁght Shugden worshippers. Yet it has produced and distributed literature and videos demonizing Shugden worshippers.”

If it is true that China is capitalizing on the Shugden split, it seems it was only after the Dalai Lama spoke against the practice that the Chinese government made its first tentative approaches to Shugden practitioners, possibly sensing an opportunity to exploit the rift and weaken the push for Tibetan autonomy. Some observers say the split created via the Shugden conflict provided the opportunity for China to leverage on the divide. If this is such an issue of concern, why doesn’t the Dalai Lama declare an end to the rift, they ask.

The autonomy push appears to have at best modest support from within Tibet, and in November 2017 even the Dalai Lama himself admitted that “Tibetans want to stay with China”. He added that he would return to Tibet at once, if China agreed, flagging in the strongest manner yet his willingness to work towards better relations with China. If there would not be a potential schism to exploit, this could allow the community to present a united front in eventual negotiations with China concerning the return of Tibetan refugees to their country after almost 60 years of exile.

Thupten Choepel who in February this year held a press conference during which he stated his intention to self-immolate in desperate protest of the Central Tibetan Government’s “dirty politics”.

The Dorje Shugden conflict is just one instance of what an increasing number of Tibetan refugees say are abuses of power at the upper echelons of the CTA. They claim that instead of fostering unity amongst the Tibetan people, the exile government has instead injected schism into the Tibetan community to distract the people from the glaring fact that the CTA has failed in securing meaningful dialogue with China for the return of the Tibetan people to their homeland and at the same time neglected the welfare and future of the many who followed the Dalai Lama into exile. It is such negligence and abuses of power that has led disenchanted Tibetan monk Thupten Choepel to threaten to self immolate if the CTA does not clean up its act and surrender what he calls “dirty politics”. Thupten Choepel is not a lone voice. After almost six decades of false promises and political shenanigans, the Tibetan people now demand progress, not more alibis and scapegoat.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS6hq5HJNik

[2] http://www.dorjeshugden.com/all-articles/news/gaden-shartse-monasterys-new-abbot-is-not-compassionate/

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1dILwsmwCQ

[4] http://www.dorjeshugden.com/all-articles/news/gaden-shartse-monasterys-new-abbot-is-not-compassionate/

[5] http://www.savetibet.org/the-official-line-on-shugden-translation/

[6] http://www.savetibet.org/chinas-new-directive-on-controversial-shugden-spirit-in-tibet-in-bid-to-further-discredit-dalai-lama/