Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Jan. 12: In a unprecedented pronouncement, one of the foremost Gelug monastic authority, the Drepung Lachi or the administrative body of Drepung Monastery on Friday summoned two Gelug parliamentary representatives—Geshe Lharampa Atuk Tseten of Drepung Gomang monastery and and Geshe Lharampa Gowo Lobsang Phende of Drepung Loseling monastery—to present themselves at the monastery by January 19, following a pronouncement made by the Nechung Oracle, widely respected as the state oracle of Tibet.
The directive comes days after the Nechung Oracle’s statement on December 27, which censured the two Gelug representatives for slandering His Holiness the Dalai Lama and engaging in sectarian religious activities.
An official statement signed by 15 members of the Drepung administrative leadership, including the abbot of Drepung Gomang, Geshe Jigmey Gyatso, and the abbot of Drepung Loseling, Geshe Yeshi Lhundrup, further instructed the two representatives to offer ceremonial scarves before His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s throne in the Drepung assembly hall and at the Drepung Lhamo Khang. They are also required to formally confess their alleged wrongdoings and make a sincere commitment and pledge not to engage in such actions in the future.
The notice warned that failure to comply with these directives would result in the Drepung Monastery no longer recognizing them as representatives of the Gelug tradition.
Following the Nechung Oracle’s pronouncement and the subsequent decision by the Drepung leadership, the issue has triggered widespread public discourse within the Tibetan community. Discussions have unfolded across social media platforms and public forums, reflecting the sensitivity and gravity of the allegations.
However, at the center of the debate is whether oracle consultations should continue to play a role in the political decision-making process. In Tibetan tradition, oracles have long been consulted on matters of national importance, including governance, security, and political affairs. The supporters of this practice argue that oracle consultations are an integral part of Tibet’s cultural and spiritual heritage and believe they can still offer guidance in political decision-making, particularly during moments of uncertainty.
Critics, however, argue that modern democratic systems should be founded on rational deliberation, transparency, and a clear separation between religion and politics. Some have questioned the reliance on formless deities, arguing that placing faith in unseen powers that are believed to carry out protective or guiding roles is difficult to reconcile with democratic accountability. Others counter that such reliance becomes meaningful precisely at moments when human reasoning and capacity fall short, viewing faith in a formless power as a source of moral guidance and reassurance.
The controversy has also drawn criticism toward the interpretation of prophetic statements from the Oracle. Some have argued that the translation of the statements often appear to go beyond explicit pronouncements, creating the impression that interpreters claims insight into the deity’s intentions.
Additionally, observers within the community have warned that involving deities and Dharma protectors in democratic processes can be seen as a significant weakness within the democratic system of the Tibetan exile community.
The Tibetan freedom movement has been infected by a pro-China virus which was spread by successive Tibetan leaders. Our freedom fighters laid down their lives to defend our country from foreign occupation. Every Tibetan who crossed the high Himalayas to come into exile had nothing but hatred against the Chinese communist enemy who took our country by force and exiled the Dalai Lama the legitimate ruler and sovereign of Independent Tibet. Yet,after seven odd decades in exile, all the hatred against the Chinese communist enemy is forgotten and with it the unity of the exile Tibetan community. If we retained our goal of independence as the Dalai Lama stated in Tezpur on the Indo-Tibet border whereby he stated, he will not be satisfied except pre-1959 status of Tibet, our unity would be intact and the Tibet issue would still be relevant as the universal right of all people to self-determination. By discarding independence and adopting another approach to suck up to the Chinese communists, we have become apologists of the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Instead of the Tibetans gaining anything in terms of being free to travel to occupied Tibet, meeting of families that have been long separated, freedom of religion and protection of Tibetan language and culture, nothing has changed for the better! Tibetan leaders who envisaged the U-May Lam claimed that, if we don’t insist on independence, the Chinese will not be threatened and thus, Tibetans will not be persecuted, religion, language and culture will not be destroyed! However, nothing of the sort happened. If anything, it has only worsened for the last decade and half under Chinese dictator Xi Jinping. Within the Tibetan community, there is polarisation on the lines of Rangzen and U-ma. Many people are made to believe that U-MayLam was going to solve all the problems of the Tibetan people in one stroke! Most Tibetans don’t take education seriously and therefore, there are very few people who can be regarded as educated! Most of them may be able read and write but they have never learnt to think for themselves. They are like the prayer flags, which turns according to where the wind blows! As our leaders, speak with vigour and heightened elucidation of their U-May Lam, the public is mesmerised! They believe that with this ideology, everything will be alright for Tibet and Tibetans! What they are not told is that U-May Lam entails living under the Chinese communist regime who has all levers of power to do whatever they like! The Tibetans are not the masters but only a slave who is a hostage under the regime. Verbal promises or even written promises mean nothing under the CCP regime. We have seen that with the so called “17 Point Treaty” signed between communist China and the Tibetan Kashag Government! The PRC reneged no sooner it was signed under duress which let to the flight of the Dalai Lama from Tibet! It’s not only us but it happened to the people of Hong Kong. They were promised greater autonomy under the “one country-two systems” formula but the PRC reneged and Hong Kong is a police state today! Three hundred thousand Hong Kongers have fled the territory as a result of the CCP’s repression since 2019! Instead of seeing these dangers lurking under the U-May Lam proposal, the Tibetans leaders still seem to be blinded by their own propaganda and instead of acknowledging the inherent dangers, they persist in it and seek to malign and demonise Tibetan independence advocates! The present Nechung prophesy (གནས་ཆུང་ལུང་བསྟན་) fiasco is in fact an attempt to discredit and demonise uncompromising Tibetan Independence advocate Geshe Gowo Phende and smother the Tibetan independence voice in parliament! They purposely weaponised Nechung to achieve their goal! While there are few such independence advocates, he has been the only one who openly defied the U-May Lam espoused by successive Tibetan leaders since 2010 in parliament! The Dalai Lama’s version is the one mentioned in the Strasbourg declaration of a democratic, unified Tibet of all three provinces. Since, 2010, the elected leaders were more interested in courting communist China for talks than any conditions for talks. It seemed they were not concerned about democracy and the rule of law and an independent judiciary. This is the difference between what the Dalai Lama envisaged and Geshe Gowo Phende was amenable to while rejecting the one which was silent on democracy, rule of law and an independent judiciary.
Democracy in this context means that Tibetan people have the right to choose their own leader and not imposed upon them by the Chinese communist party. This assures the freedom for the Tibetan people!
Well, Election times in India bring using of EC (via SIR) and ED (via raids) by ruling party to dislodge opponents.
And now, certain group of Tibetan parliamentarians have surpassed their guru; Indian ruling party MPs. They have hijacked the Institution of Holy Nechung Chemo ! It is highly shameful and worst – desecration of such historical and holy body to dislodge political opponents.
Remember the temple comedy scene in film Sholay(check Youtube); when Dharmendra hid behind the Shiva idol and impersonating divine voice, orders pious Hema Malini to marry Veeru. Similarly, summons are issued to the 2 monks MP in ‘Sholay’ style, I feel.
It is very impertinent and shameful that our own people are pulling the strings from behind and making a puppetry of our holy institution. This is exactly what CCP is doing to our Lamas in Tibet to gain political control over Tibet.
The world of ལྷ་ཆོས་སྐྱོང་སྲུང་མ་ (protector deities) is not something the uninitiated should thrust themselves. There are two types of such ཆོས་སྐྱོང་སྲུང་མ་ The ones who are beyond samsara འཇིག་རྟེན་ལས་འདས་པ་ and those who are yet to cross the threshold of samsara འཇིག་རྟེན་ལས་མ་འདས་པ་ Among the two who are gone beyond samsara and those who haven’t, there are two types- དྲེག་པ་ wrathful and ཞི་བ་ benign. The ones who are called ཆོས་སྐྱོང་སྲུང་མ་are the wrathful ones. They exude fear in the hearts of the enemies of the Dharma and that’s why they are in the wrathful form of having fearful facial features with gawking eyes, clenched teeth and wide gaping mouths! Every monastery and college (ཁང་ཚན་) have their own specific “protector deities”! Nechung is one of the protector deities of the Dalai Lama’s along with Palden Lhamo. Both of them are in the form of wrathful deities. When they are in the form of wrathful deities, they are not regarded as belonging to the category of those who have gone beyond samsara.
Therefore, their actions are said to be much like human beings as opposed to those who are free from the mundane nature of holding grudge or being vengeful towards those who are hostile to them. These are Tibetan Buddhist beliefs held for centuries. Whether they really protect those who are supposed to be protected is in the realm of conjecture because there is nothing to prove they do scientifically. The Dalai Lama himself mentions that before the Chinese invasion of Tibet, the Tibetan Government offered lot of puja to the ལྷ་ཆོས་སྐྱོང་སྲུང་མ་ as was suggested to ward off the invasion, but it did not help one bit, he says! However, owing to deep held faith, people attribute their escape from difficult situations such as fleeing the Chinese communists across the Himalayas or not caught at the customs for bringing a stash of cash as the work of ལྷ་ཆོས་སྐྱོང་སྲུང་མ་. The present controversy rose owing to the interpretation a Nechung monk gave as being the words of Nechung after it was in a trance! Many people believe what the Nechung spokesperson said to be the words of Nechung while many don’t believe it’s Nechung’s words but a concocted version that suits the political stand point of the spokesperson himself. It is due to this anomaly, there is heated debate among the two groups of believers and is equally divided on the legitimacy of the Drepung Lachi’s issuance of a letter for the two Geluk Representatives to apologise for their alleged offence. There is no evidence to suggest the two Geluk representatives have blasphemed the person of Dalai Lama. Like it has happened to other prominent politicians in exile, those who are against the two Geluk chitues such as the Nechung spokesperson, have doctored a statement by Geshe Gowo Phende, where he once said in the parliament: “རྒྱལ་བ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་གསུང་པའི་དབུ་མའི་ལམ་དེ་ཁས་ལེན་གྱི་ཡིན་ དེ་མིན་པའི་དབུ་མའི་ལམ་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་ཀྱང་མེད་ལ་ རེ་བ་ཡང་མེད་” (I accept the Dalai Lama’s advocated U-Mey Lam but not any other U-Mey Lam advocated by others. I have neither the faith nor the hope for such U-Mey Lam”). Those who are against Gowo Phende have deliberately cannibalised the first line and stitched it with the second version of not accepting U-Lam advocated by others to make it look like he is rejecting U-Mey Lam lock stock and barrel and oppose the Dalai Lama!!! This is obviously a malicious attempt to slander and malign the person of Geshe Gowo Phende. There is no evidence to prove any of the accusations hurled at them including sectarianism. Therefore, the letter from Drepung Lachi is nothing more than jumping to conclusions without proper investigation. This came about because Drepung holds Nechung as one of their “protector deities” and so they blindly believed the words spoken by the Nechung spokesperson to be the words of Nechung! Many skeptics are not buying the words of the Nechung spokesperson at its face value and feel that he has over-reached his interpretation that bore the hallmark of his own ideological stand rather than that of Nechung itself! It is doubtful if Drepung Lachi has any right to castigate elected leaders of the Tibetan people. It is the domain of the legislative body to decide and no one else.
What you had done if you don’t trust middle way….if you don’t trust the way His Holiness showed us….then you bring and do it….then I will see how much can you make changes….