The ongoing temporal struggle between the Dalai Lama as head of the Gelugpa sect and the Britain-based Shugden community is part of a tradition that goes back to power plays between spiritual leaders in old Tibet. This time, Western followers of various forms of Tibetan Buddhism are adding fuel to the flames.
In late spring 1996, the world-wide Tibetan community received a rude jolt when a hithertounknown London-based group called the Shugden Supporters Community (SSC) sent out press releases and staged demonstrations outside the Office of Tibet in London protesting the "religious persecution by the Dalai Lama". The ssc contended that since the Dalai Lama's injunction earlier this year against the worship of the deity known as Dorje Shugden, propitiators of that god have systematically been eased out of Tibetan government-in-exile jobs and schools and have been denied humanitarian assistance.
The SSC has gone much further than charge the Dalai Lama of "suppressing the individual nght to make religious choices". The religious as well as temporal head of the Tibetans, otherwise enjoying unquestioned popularity for his personal likeability and the Tibetan cause he represents, has been called an "oppressor" and a "ruthless dictator".
Tenzin Gyatso, which is the Dalai Lama's name, has also been condemned as having plans to return to Tibet as a Chinese puppet. The ssc press statement says that "Over the years in power he (the Dalai Lama) has manipulated the Tibetan people, using both emotional and spiritual blackmail into adopting the political and religious systems that he himself favours and abandoning those that he does not." Even the Dalai Lama's geniality was not spared. During the London demonstrations some placards read, "Your smiles charm, your actions harm".