Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Jan. 21: The two incumbent Gelug parliament members, Geshe Lharampa Atuk Tseten and Geshe Lharampa Gowo Lobsang Phende, offered repentance at Drepung Monastery during an official ceremony on Tuesday following directives issued by the monastery’s administrative body, Drepung Lachi, based on a pronouncement made by the state oracle of Tibet, Nechung on December 27.
As part of the monastery’s directives, the two MPs offered ceremonial scarves before His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s throne in the Drepung Assembly Hall and at the Drepung Lhamo Khang, and made pledges in the presence of a large gathering of abbots, senior lamas, and monastics.
On January 9, the administrative body of the Drepung monastery or the Lachi issued a letter, signed by 15 members of its administrative leadership, which stated that their actions were influenced by “evil spirit,” while accusing them for prioritising regional interests over the broader Tibetan cause, and defaming His Holiness the Dalai Lama, based on a pronouncement by the Nechung oracle.
Photographs and videos taken after the ceremony were widely circulated on social media, showing hundreds of monks and laypeople welcoming the two parliamentarians with ceremonial scarves. In an interview with Tibet Radio, Lobsang Gyaltsen, the former Abbot of Gomang monastery and one of the signee of the statement from the Drepung Lachi, welcomed the two for offering repentance. However, he also stated that the Drepung Lachi leadership will hold meeting and deliberate on further action, in the event of the two senior monks defaulting on their pledges.
Following the ceremony, Geshe Atuk Tseten and Geshe Gowo Lobsang Phende released a signed statement in which they acknowledged faults, expressed regret for past actions, and pledged not to engage in similar conduct in the future. However, the statement also categorically denied that either had insulted His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. The two MPs said, in part, “Up to the present time, I have not uttered a single word of insult toward the root guru, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and make a firm pledge that in the future, even if it means death, I will not utter any insults.” But it did not explicitly respond to allegations concerning their involvement in regional or factional interests.
They further stated that, in accordance with the Nechung Oracle pronouncement, they “seeing fault as fault,” confessed with regret to their past actions and vowed not to repeat such conduct.
When contacted by Phayul for comment, both Geshe Atuk Tseten and Geshe Gowo Lobsang Phende declined to respond, with Geshe Gowo Lobsang Phende stating that he had pledged not to engage with media outlets in order to avoid further confusion and discord within the community. Geshe Atuk Tsetan is a three-term MP while fellow Gelug MP Geshe Gowo Lobsang Phende is a two-term MP. The two are seeking re-election in the upcoming parliamentary elections from Gelug constituency.
Tibet was a unique Buddhist nation which had its own unique language, culture, religion and identity. The culture of Tibet is intrinsically based on the Buddha’s teachings of ahimsa (non-violence) and compassion for all beings. The compassion of Tibetan Buddhism encompasses ALL SENTIENT BEINGS not just human kind! As it were, every life, be it an insect, an elephant or a human being is respected EQUALLY! This is unique because all other religions do talk about “ mercy” but it is only for those who are human beings and non-existent for animals or only limited to few animals such as pets! THE TIBETAN FORM OF BUDDHISM EXTENDS THE COMPASSION TO ALL HUMANITY AND ALL BEINGS WITHOUT DISTINCTION ON THE BASIS OF RACE, COLOUR, CASTE, CREED, HUMAN OR NON-HUMAN!
Buddhism was brought to Tibet in the seventh century during imperial times when sixteen students were sent to India to study and Thonmi Sambhota was the brightest among all of them, who later introduced Tibetan calligraphy on the basis of Nagari and Brahmic scripts. It is said the translations from Sanskrit into Tibetan language commenced during this era and continued to flourish through out the three great Dharma Rajas- SONTSEN GAMPO, TRISONG DEUTSEN AND TRI-RALPACHEN. These three emperors of Tibet are known as ཆོས་རྒྱལ་མེས་དཔོན་རྣམ་གསུམ་ THEY ARE THE GREATEST OF ALL KINGS IN TIBETAN HISTORY. During the reign of Tri-Ralpachen, the monk community was first introduced in Tibet. The Emperor used his long hair as cushion for the monks to sit upon in order to demonstrate his respect for them! It was also a symbolic gesture for the laity to learn to respect the sangha members who are the holders of the flame of Dharma in the land of snows. Just as there were four schools of Buddhism flourished in India during the lifetime of the Buddha, there came to be four schools of Buddhism in Tibet. The division into four different schools in India was caused by the different doctrines གྲུབ་མཐའ་ of the each school but in Tibet, it was caused by the time frame of translation and also by the lineage of the teachings brought from India by different Tibetan Lamas. The Nyingma school is named after it became the oldest translation of Tantric teachings. There are two types of tantric teachings known as གསང་སྔགས་རྙིང་མ་དང་གསང་སྔགས་གསར་མ་ old and new tantric treatises. The old translation may have started during the time of Guru Padma Sambhava’s time while the new translations started during Lotsawa Rinchen Sangpo. The Kagyud lineage was brought about by Marpa the translator who brought the lineage from his Indian Guru Naropa while the Sakya lineage is traced to another Indian Guru known as Yogi Birawa.
The Geluk tradition was found by Je Tsongkhapa Lobsang Drakpa who was born in the Amdo region of Tsonkha. . While all traditions of Tibetan Buddhism had their heydays, the Geluk school enjoyed pre-eminence from the time of the fifth Dalai Lama-Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso. This is because, the powerful Mongols became patrons of the Geluk School and with the Dalai Lama as the Temporal and Spiritual leader of Tibet, it naturally enjoyed immense popularity. The great monasteries of Sera, Ganden, Drepung and Tashi Lhunpo became the new Nalanda like universities in independent Tibet. While Sera, Drepung and Ganden students studied the five great treatises of Prajaparamita (ཕར་ཕྱིན་) Madhyamika (དབུ་མ་) Abhidharma མངོན་པ་མཛོད་
Vinaya sutra དམ་ཆོས་འདུལ་བ་ and Pramana (metaphysics ཚད་མ་). Tashi Lhunpo monastery studied the pramana (ཚད་མ་) exclusively. Tashi Lhunpo was founded by the First Dalai Lama-Je Gedun Drubpa, Sera was founded by Jamchen Choeje Shakya Yeshe, Drepung by Jamyang Choeje Tashi Palden and Ganden was founded by Je Tsonkhapa Lobsang Drakpa. The study on the five treatises is an arduous job of atleast fifteen years minimum but for the dedicated scholars they spent more time to study them which takes two or even three decades! Those who are in a hurry such as Trulkus often skip few years in order to go across the country to propagate the teachings. They are therefore given special treatment to jump class like Indian schools have what is called double promotion. The great seat of Sera, Ganden and Drepung (བོད་ཀྱི་གདན་ས་ཆེན་པོ་གསུམ་) are the equivalent of OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE in the British context and HAVARD, STANFORD AND PRINCETON UNIVERSITIES IN THE AMERICAN CONTEXT! Hundreds of students from far and wide flocked to these great learning centres of Tibet and to this day, even in exile where they have been re-established, continuous to attract students from not only from the traditional countries such as Mongolia, Russia, India, Japan and China but from many other non-traditional western countries plus students from South East Asia such as Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore! These monasteries and their inhabitants are highly respected across Tibet as not only the pinnacle centres of learning but for leading a life of poverty and abstinence – འདོད་ཆུང་ (non-greedy) ཆོག་ཤེས (contended) ་ ཞི་ཞིང་དུལ་བ་ (calm and reposed) Therefore, to accuse monks from such highly esteemed monasteries of bad mouthing against the Dalai Lama is ludicrous! Both of them have received their Bhikshu (དགེ་སློང་གི་སྡོམ་པ་) from the Dalai Lama which means He is their abbot (བརྙེན་རྫོགས་མཁན་པོ) How can they even imagine to defame their own Lama when He is the very basis of their monkhood by virtue of receiving the Bhikshu vow from the Dalai Lama? It is simply unimaginable!