Translator Ven. Helmut Gassner on Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden

Jul 22, 2019 | Views: 25,457
Helmut Gassner, also known as Venerable Gelong Jampa Lungtog is a senior Buddhist monk from Austria. Throughout his lifetime, he has translated for many high lamas, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and is a strong advocate for the practice of Dorje Shugden.

Helmut Gassner, also known as Venerable Gelong Jampa Lungtog is a senior Buddhist monk from Austria. Throughout his lifetime, he has translated for many high lamas, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and is a strong advocate for the practice of Dorje Shugden.

Helmut Gassner (also known as Venerable Gelong Jampa Lungtog) was born in the city of Bregenz, Austria, in 1954. Being inquisitive in nature, he grew up to graduate as an electrical engineer in 1976 from the prestigious Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, otherwise known as ETH Zürich, in Switzerland. He said he chose to do this because he wanted to know how radios worked!

Helmut Gassner, is a man who believed in scientific reason compared to religion, but eventually became interested in Buddhism after meeting Venerable Geshe Rabten Rinpoche. In an interview he explained,

“Religion always appeared as something that had many pressured thoughts that you had to belief but you were not allowed to analyse. Science appeared as a field where you were requested to analyse and you don’t have to believe, but it didn’t bring all the answers…

During my studies in Zurich, I had a friend who knew of Geshe Rabten Rinpoche and she told me this is the only Tibetan master that is capable of teaching Westerners the meaning of Buddha’s words so that even we can understand it. Of course, I wanted to meet him and then we listened to his teachings. I was very surprised to hear explanations on a field that we usually consider religion with the request to analyse. With the request not to believe. So this suited me perfectly!”

Venerable Geshe Rabten Rinpoche who was sent to Switzerland by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to preserve and spread the Dharma there

Venerable Geshe Rabten Rinpoche who was sent to Switzerland by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to preserve and spread the Dharma there

As a result of this encounter with the great Tibetan Buddhist master who impressed him greatly, in 1977, Helmut Gassner began his studies of the Tibetan language, Buddhist philosophy, debate and meditation at Rikon Monastery, in Switzerland. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama had sent Geshe Rabten Rinpoche to Switzerland, in order to teach the Dharma to Tibetan refugees who had settled in the country and Westerners who were interested in Buddhism.

Soon after, in 1978, he was given the opportunity to accompany Geshe Rabten Rinpoche to the United States, where he had the great merits to meet yet another acclaimed master, the indomitable Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, who bestowed upon him the Dorje Shugden Sogtae, or life-entrustment empowerment.

It was during the empowerment ceremonies that Geshe Rabten Rinpoche gave him some words of advice, saying:

This manifestation of the Buddha has no equal. If you are determined to tame your mind, then he will even give you his heart in order to help you.

Eventually, one thing led to another, and being one of only a handful of Westerners who were studying Tibetan Buddhism with Geshe Rabten (one of the most senior lamas at that time) and able to speak English, he ended up interpreting for many important lamas. Amongst them, he translated for His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama between 1979 and 1995.

As if by some divine plan, Helmut Gassner’s role as the Dalai Lama’s interpreter ended just a year before the Dalai Lama’s ban on the practice of Dorje Shugden in 1996. After having interpreted for the Dalai Lama during a series of events organised by the University for Peace in Berlin, they said goodbye to each other at the airport, where the Dalai Lama told him, “I never worry when you are there as my interpreter.” That was the last time Helmut Gassner interpreted for the Dalai Lama.

Helmut Gassner (right) with the Dalai Lama (left)

Helmut Gassner (right) with the Dalai Lama (left)

The events, accusations, arguments, statements, discrimination and fights that occurred following the Dalai Lama’s move to ban the practice of Dorje Shugden and label it as something negative, irked Helmut Gassner to say the very least. Because he knows for a fact that the practice of Dorje Shugden is an integral part of the Gaden Tradition. In relations to the tradition, he is noted as having said, in a matter of fact manner:

“In his lifetime there was hardly a significant figure of the Gaden tradition who had not been Pabongka Rinpoche’s disciple. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche was the one capable of receiving and passing on the entirety of the Oral Gaden Tradition once again. The Dorje Shugden practice is an integral part of that tradition.”

Having been in the close company of many of the leading lamas of that period, including the Dalai Lama, Helmut Gassner has an appreciative and deep understanding of Dorje Shugden. He has even received many first-hand accounts of how Dorje Shugden has been invaluable to the Dalai Lama in particular, and Tibet in general. This includes the fact that Dorje Shugden has given much advice and on many occasions to the Tibetan nation and its leadership.

In response to the lies, and the illogical, incredulous and divisive attacks on Dorje Shugden, a manifestation of the Buddha of Wisdom Manjushri, who was at the centre of Dharma Protector practice for many practitioners and high lamas for a long period of time, he responded brilliantly in the form of speech he gave in 1999 at the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation in Hamburg, Germany. This speech is included in its entirety below. It is in the spirit of truth that learned people Helmut Gassner spoke up about the truth regarding Dorje Shugden. It is wonderful he spoke up about this as he had first hand knowledge and experience and was not afraid of speaking up. Much thanks and appreciation is extended to Ven. Helmut Gassner for speaking up and his words are recorded and shared here. Helmut Gassner’s devotion to his teacher, the dharma and the truth compelled him to speak up and his words are timeless and powerful. It has been a somewhat lonely journey to speak up for Dorje Shugden and his practitioners all these years and be severely condemned for it. Not many dare speak up and practice in secret. Hence Ven. Helmut Gassner’s explanations help in our works to preserve the practice of this special protector Dorje Shugden. It is a necessary read hence published here. I am grateful for his explanations.

It will astound you to realise just how bad politics in general and Tibetan politics in particular, can get. In the speech reproduced below, Helmut recalls, testifies and debates on many points and ‘facts’ that he knew were simply false and baseless. It is an interesting and thought-provoking read. Do take a read below and learn more about the matter, or click here to read the pdf.

I pray Venerable Helmut Gassner will live a very long life, continue to enjoy the spiritual peace and solitude of Rabten Choeling Buddhist Centre in Switzerland and be blessed by his root teacher Most Venerable Geshe Rabten Rinpoche.

Sincerely, Tsem Rinpoche

 

Dalai Lama & Dorje Shugden

Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation
Hamburg, on March 26th 1999
Dipl.Ing. Helmut Gassner

 

Helmut Gassner

Helmut Gassner

How a runaway Austrian gets to meet the Dalai Lama is a story most of us probably know from the wonderful account of “Seven Years in Tibet“. But how a run-of-the-mill Austrian like myself got to meet the Dalai Lama is no doubt a tale of considerable less fascination. While I was studying electrical engineering at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, I was introduced to a lady who had known Tibetan Lamas in India in the 1960’s. She spoke of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Zopa Rinpoche time and again as well as of their teacher, Venerable Geshe Rabten, who was able to explain Buddhism with unequalled clarity and forcefulness and who really understood Westerners and their ideas.

After Geshe Rabten escaped from Tibet, the Dalai Lama chose him and Lati Rinpoche from among a select group of candidates to become one of his advisers on philosophical issues. Upon the Dalai Lama’s express wish, Geshe came to Switzerland as Abbot of Rikon Monastery, near Winterthur. After I graduated from the Institute of Technology, I moved to Rikon to learn Tibetan and to study Buddhist philosophy, debate and meditation under Geshe’s guidance. In 1978, Geshe Rabten was invited by a group of Geshe Zopa, a Tibetan who teaches at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and to my great joy, I was allowed to accompany Geshe. At that conference there was another most impressive Lama from India, Zong Rinpoche, also giving teachings and initiations. It was from him I received, together with two other people, Dorje Shugden empowerment. I had never heard of Dorje Shugden before, even though I was studying Buddhism intensively and making good progress with my Tibetan. After the empowerment, Geshe gave us some words of advice. He said, “This manifestation of the Buddha has no equal. If you are determined to tame your mind, then he will even give you his heart in order to help you.”

Geshe extended an invitation to His Holiness the Dalai Lama to come to Switzerland in the summer of 1979 to give teachings at his center in Mt. Pèlerin overlooking lake Geneva. We students helped prepare this event which about one thousand people attended. These were the first public teachings His Holiness gave to a large audience in the West.

It was also the first time that I was asked to be a relay interpreter from English to German for His Holiness. Scared by the importance of the task, I remembered Geshe’s words after the empowerment in the U.S. and the lines of praise among the prayers to Dorje Shugden, “by merely remembering you, all outer and inner obstacles are cleared…… I offer praise to you, guardian of the Buddha Dharma.” Receiving all the help I had wished for, I managed to convey the Dalai Lama’s impressive address without too many distortions. In 1980, Lama Yeshe, a well known disciple of Geshe Rabten’s extended further invitations to His Holiness, which caused to make the Dalai Lama more widely known in the West. In 1981, His Holiness was invited to Hamburg by Geshe Thubten Ngawang, also one of Geshe Rabten’s disciples. It was the first time I interpreted directly from Tibetan into German.

During those years I frequently accompanied Geshe on his trips and had the opportunity to meet many important personages, among them Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, the Junior Tutor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Trijang Rinpoche was in many ways one of the most important figures of his time. In the fifties he was the power behind His Holiness, a pillar of strength in the difficult and troubled times for the Tibetan people. This fact was well known to the Communist Chinese and so Trijang Lobsang Yeshe became their main enemy. It was also Trijang Rinpoche who taught His Holiness the Dalai Lama the concepts of Buddhism as well as the understanding of politics and mastering social skills. I also had the opportunity to meet Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, His Holiness’ Senior Tutor, and served as his driver. These two Tutors of His Holiness were direct disciples of the great Pabongka Dechen Nyingbo. It is said that when Pabongka Rinpoche gave Dharma discourses many in the audience gained profound insights into the failings of our worldly concerns to develop the lasting determination to exchange the constant quest for honor, praise, well-being and gain with sincere aspiration, kindness and concern for others. This unusual ability to teach is not an integral part of Tibetan culture. It is rather at the heart of the living transmission of the teachings of the historical Buddha from one great master to the next. It is, first and foremost, an oral transmission: the master teaches his gifted disciple continuously until the transmitted knowledge becomes the student’s second nature.

This is the significance of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism. When we speak of Sakya, Gelug, Kagyu, Nyingma, we refer to four different lines of this kind of transmission of the Buddha Dharma. Such a school is considered “alive” when the knowledge is vast and there still exist masters who have fully realized such knowledge and are able to transmit it faultlessly, based on their own experience.

The great master Pabongka was in the first half of the twentieth century the pivotal or key lineage holder of the Oral Geden Tradition. Many other teachers before him mastered certain aspects of the tradition’s teachings, but it was Pabongka Rinpoche’s particular merit to locate and find all these partial transmissions, to learn and realize them, and bring them together once again to pass them on through a single person. In his lifetime there was hardly a significant figure of the Geden tradition who had not been Pabongka Rinpoche’s disciple. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche was the one capable of receiving and passing on the entirety of the Oral Geden Tradition once again. The Dorje Shugden practice is an integral part of that tradition.

HelmutGassner-1

Another, particularly impressive figure of old Tibet was the Dalai Lama’s Chamberlain, Kungo Phala, whom you may vividly remember seeing in the movie Kundun. He was a guest in my home in Feldkirch on several occasions. It was he who in 1959 organized His Holiness’ escape from the Norbulingka summer palace. He sometimes spoke to me about it, perhaps because he was pleased with the progress I was making in my Tibetan language studies. The preparations for the escape were made in absolute secrecy and strictly followed instructions received from Dorje Shugden. I asked him what thoughts were on his mind when he had to make his way through the crowds surrounding the Norbulingka with the Dalai Lama, disguised as a servant, just behind him. He said that everything happened exactly as the Dorje Shugden oracle from Panglung Monastery had predicted. (Panglung Rinpoche now lives in Munich.) In particularly dangerous situations, he felt he was moving within a protected space, his feet seemingly not even touching the ground. I later heard many more accounts about the escape from other people who were personally involved in it, like Trijang Rinpoche’s attendants and monks of Pomra Khamtsen of Sera Mey Monastery, who had been chosen as the Dalai Lama’s personal bodyguards.

Today, in the Dalai Lama’s biography we read that Nechung, the State Oracle while in trance traced the entire escape route from the gates of the Norbulingka to the final destination in India. I heard from those who actually organized the flight that, at the time, the State Oracle’s predictions were treated with greatest caution. The Nechung Oracle has a large entourage of monks and so it was feared that the oracle’s predictions might reach Chinese ears. The only predictions that were repeatedly mentioned were the State Oracle’s calls for “The Lord of the Land of Snow to stay in the land.” Among the officials who helped in the planning of the escape were some who wanted to bring only His Holiness to safety, leaving his family behind. It was thanks to the Chamberlain Phala’s decisive intervention that the Dalai Lama’s entire family made it into exile.

In 1983 His Holiness accepted yet another invitation from Geshe Rabten Rinpoche, this time to come to Feldkirch in Austria. His Holiness and his entourage stayed for three days in my parents’ former summer residence and gave a profoundly moving presentation in the city’s town hall. This time, the audience easily exceeded a thousand people.

The Austrian authorities had provided the Dalai Lama with a police escort that accompanied him during the duration of his stay. But once he crossed the border into Switzerland, the escort disappeared to the visible annoyance of His Holiness’ entourage. He himself seemed delighted with his newly gained freedom of movement. Since I was driving his car, he asked me if I knew of any near-by inn. So I took the entire group to a café on the shores of Lake Constance where the Dalai Lama rested happily for one hour without further protocol and for once, without it all having been planned in advance.

In 1985, His Holiness gave the Kalachakra initiation in Rikon and I was asked to be his driver and interpreter. In 1986, His Holiness participated in a seminar on time and space held in Garmisch. It was here that the first private conversations with Professor Weizsäcker, the brother of Germany’s President at that time, took place which, as a technician, I found particularly exciting to interpret. A trip to Vienna followed, only that this time the visit nearly did not take place. The Chamber of Industry had extended an invitation but His Holiness’ representatives in Europe apparently considered it to be unimportant. Although it was pointed out to them several times that this was a weighty organization with close links to the government, the Office of Tibet remained hesitant. They were finally convinced when a determined lady from Munich traveled to Dharamsala, obtained an audience with the Dalai Lama and told him that his people were deceiving him. Finally, the visit took place and became a great success: receptions by Austrian President Kirchschläger and future Foreign Minister Mock, a talk at the Forum Schwarzenberg in the presence of Vienna’s high society and with the attendance of future President Waldheim and last, but not least, a broadcast of the entire talk by Austria’s Broadcasting Corporation that same evening. This occasion gave His Holiness the visibility and exposure that Tibetans always wished he had and which was so difficult for them to arrange.

In 1988, His Holiness addressed the Swiss parliament in Bern and gave several talks in Geneva. Once more, I was his designated driver and interpreter. While in Geneva, His Holiness stayed at the same hotel where Empress Sissi of Autria stayed at the time. Drivers had been assigned cheaper lodgings and sine I was listed as a driver, no reservation had been made for me at His Holiness’ hotel. But a personal interpreter was expected to be available at any time and so I took a room there at my own expense. The Dalai Lama’s Private Secretary became visibly angry when he found out about it. Obviously, a personal initiative of this kind, even one I had payed for myself, was not welcome.

During the presentations for His Holiness’ next visit the following spring (1989) it became even more evident that someone was profoundly annoyed with me. The organizers of the visit had requested me repeatedly to interpret for them, not so the Office of Tibet. The official request from His Holiness’ representative came only a few days before the beginning of the tour. I felt insecure and feared a reprimand of some sort. But His Holiness was cordial and during our last private audience at the end of the trip he embraced me for a long while, something he had never done before. Only later did I learn that on certain occasions, His Holiness had treated many Tibetan masters and monks as well as Westerners with similar special expressions of affection. It is easy to become deeply moved and emotional and at that moment willing to do anything for the Dalai Lama. In situations such as these, many promised the Dalai Lama to turn away from Dorje Shugden, a promise they often deeply regretted later on. In view of this incident, whenever I was asked in subsequent years to interpret for His Holiness, I tried to keep my distance. As the end of a tour approached and the program showed that my services were not longer needed, I would quietly slip away so as not to be present for a closing audience with His Holiness.

In previous years I had occasionally heard something about the Dalai Lama’s strange statements concerning Dorje Shugden, but they remained inexplicable to me and so I brushed them aside as false rumors. And I had good reasons to do so. Dorje Shugden had advised the Thirteenth Dalai lama to renovate the eastern and western stupas. Following this advice, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama undertook major renovations of the Potala and the stupa of the great master Je Tsong Khapa at Ganden Monastery, as is mentioned in Purchog Jampa Rinpoche’s biography of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. During his first escape from Lhasa in 1950/51, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, while in Yadrung (Tromo) received valuable advice from Dorje Shugden and was moved to write some beautiful praises to him. His Holiness was staying at Dungkar Monastery of the famous master Tomo Geshe Rinpoche who lives mostly in the U.S.A. today. This master’s former incarnation was described by Lama Govinda in his book The Way of the White Clouds. Tomo Geshe Rinpoche is also one of the most prominent masters among those who revere Dorje Shugden. In 1957, Dorje Shugden recommended that the Tibetan guerrilla establish a military base to the south of Lhasa. By 1959, it turned out to be the only route that had not fallen to the Chinese. The Dalai Lama fled along this route. The Dalai Lama’s presence in the free world today bears testimony to the success of this enterprise.

Geshe Rabten Rinpoche is the one person to whom I owe everything meaningful in my life. On many occasions I was witness to the high esteem His Holiness had for this master. During a meeting at Frankfurt airport in 1984, His Holiness told a representative of the Indian Embassy referring to Geshe Rabten, “an excellent master, an excellent teacher, indeed.” The members of Geshe’s Dharma centers actively supported the goals of the exile government, not only by extending invitations to His Holiness but also by participating for many long days in political demonstrations in front of the Chinese headquarters in Geneva and Bern.

On “Ecumenical Day” (Kirchentag) in 1993 in Germany, His Holiness addressed an audience of close to ten thousand people. Shortly before the ceremony started, he called me to go over some of his talking-points with me. One of the subjects was north-south politics, the wealth of the countries of the north, the exploitation of the countries of the south. In earlier times, His Holiness used to draw exclusively on Buddhist material for his presentations; I was comfortable interpreting him and his listeners were always deeply impressed. When he began making statements on international politics, interpreting often became a stressful “high alert” situation in which I would frantically search for non-controversial expressions. So on that occasion I was not too happy about the north-south subject and in the hope that His holiness might consider dropping it, I countered that many of the countries in the south were by nature considerably wealthier in raw materials, multiple crops, and with a milder climate it was easier to survive without excessive work. In the north, the climate was harsh and one had to work in order to survive. The north-south issue was not even mentioned during the main event, but it did come up later in a smaller parallel meeting and, to my utter disbelief, in a version clearly influenced by the terms of my own counter-argument. Since then, I never again expressed my opinion in His Holiness’ presence.

In 1995 I interpreted for His holiness during a series of events organized by the University for Peace in Berlin. When we said good-bye at the airport, he told me, “I never worry when you are there as my interpreter.” That was unusual. It was the last time I interpreted for him.

In the fall of that same year Kungo Palden, Trijang Rinpoche’s life-long attendant and personal assistant passed away. Both His Holiness’ Tutors had passed away already in the eighties, and so had Zong Rinpoche, Geshe Rabten, and the Chamberlain Phala. Trijang Rinpoche’s attendant was the last of the great personalities of that era of Tibetan history and probably also the last one who might have been able to stop the events that were to follow.

In spring of 1996, new stories reached us from India: during the teachings on the occasion of the Tibetan new year, His Holiness apparently had expressed himself in the strongest terms against the veneration of Dorje Shugden. The official translation by the Office of Tibet read, “The worship of Dolgyal does great harm to the cause of Tibet and endangers the life of the Dalai Lama.” Anyone familiar with the Tibetan way of thinking understands this to be a call to mobilize different groups of the population against each other because for most Tibetans nothing is more important than the Dalai Lama’s life; so if one is labeled an enemy of the Dalai Lama, one is branded as a traitor and therewith “free-for-all” or an outlaw. To a common Tibetan, the words “the worship of Dolgyal…” etc., mean, in simple terms, “Dorje Shugden is an evil spirit who wants to do the Dalai Lama in and whose fault it is that Tibet is not yet free.”

Dolgyal means “King of Döl” and is a common name for Dorje Shugden. Döl is a region in Tibet closely intertwined with the origins of Dorje Shugden. Since all other names, like Dorje Shugden, which means “the one with indestructible power” or Gyalchen, i.e. “great king,” point to a very high status, it was easy to conclude that the use of the name “Dolgyal” was intended to coin a new insult. And that is what happened.

That someone of His Holiness’ stature with his background in Buddhist philosophy could have expressed thoughts such as these was so unimaginable to me that for the longest time I refused to believe the stories we heard from India. I was convinced that some cunning politicians in the exile government had finally gone crazy. But no one had gone crazy, quite the contrary. It became clear that the move had been prepared over decades with very specific appointments to monastic and government positions and chronologically carefully orchestrated to coincide with the passing away of all the great figures capable of opposing this move.

In the months that followed, the parliament-in-exile held heated debates on legislative reforms that would marginalize and exclude the new enemies. Signature campaigns were launched to try and force each and every individual to publicly declare whether it was for or against the Dalai Lama. Whoever refused to sign was identified as a traitor. Many described their conflict of conscience in this situation as similar to having to choose between mother and father, because they did not want to give up neither the Dalai Lama nor Dorje Shugden.

Whoever sill dared to raise his voice and counter the government-in-exile’s justifications with historical facts, was chased by mobs from his house and home as happened, for example, with the family of the teacher Thubten.

The vehemence of the language chosen and the harshness of the methods used leads one to conclude that with this Blitz-attack the government-in-exile intended to eliminate its target group from the visible surface of society. It did not expect that many of the persons affected would prove so loyal to their teachers and probably underestimated the willingness of many to stand by the religious convictions of their fore-fathers to the point of enduring complete social ostracism. Thus the controversy became increasingly public and needed to be further justified. That, however, proved to be awkward. The first contradictions arise already with regard to the most fundamental principles of Buddhism according to which all suffering is understood to be the exclusive result of one’s own actions. Unless one creates negative causes, one does not experience suffering. In this controversy, however, an “evil spirit” gets blamed for the tragedy of Tibet as indicated by the words, “the worship of Dolgyal harms the cause of Tibet.”

Furthermore, there are several hundred protector deities quite similar to Dorje Shugden. Thus in the great monastic universities, for example, each college has, for historical reasons, its own protector deity and Dorje Shugden is only one among many. Also, the images of these deities look often so much alike that not even the Dalai Lama can tell them apart at first glance. In an embarrassing incident at Sera Mey Monastery, His Holiness got quiet angry at the sight of an image of the protector Thaog, whom he erroneously mistook for Dorje Shugden.

The statement “the worship of Dolgyal endangers the life of the Dalai Lama,” may well be the most incendiary means to get common Tibetans going, but in the West it is a poor reason to justify the exile government’s questionable conduct. Consequently, that reason has hardly advanced in the West; here His Holiness insisted instead, “Buddhism is degenerating into spirit worship.” Yet the number of oracles and their invocation has increased considerably in Dharamsala (under the auspices of the Tibetan exile government) these past years. A new temple was built for Nechung, the State Oracle, and His Holiness himself composed new prayers to this protective deity. The Dalai Lama’s personal monastery Namgyal spends most its time performing the rituals of numerous other deities of this kind. Only one protector deity has an entire monastery dedicated to it: Nechung, not Dorje Shugden.

Actually, it is not unusual for great masters to have divergent opinions of guardian deities. Thus, early masters like Changchub Ö, Gö Lotsawa, and Sakya Pandita considered that certain deities, revered in the Nyingma tradition, were not authentic. Even the Kalachakra tantra was not accepted by certain Sakya masters. During his tenure as disciplinarian of the Lower Tantric College, Trichen Ngawang Chogden, one of the most famous eighteenth century Gelug Lamas, banned the protectress Palden Lhamo totally from that monastery after an incident in which monks of the monastery capsized in a ship. Palden Lhamo is one of the most important protectors of all Dalai Lamas and by extension of the Tibetan government, but to this day no prayers to this protector are recited in the Lower Tantric College. Since 1996 His Holiness has cited the names of Trichen Ngawang Chogden and Changya Rölpa’i Dorje as having proscribed Dorje Shugden. He cites a passage in Changya’s biography composed by the master Thuken wherein Trichen Ngawang Chogden supposedly had an image of Dorje Shugden removed from Ganden Monastery. On closer scrutiny, however, it appears that in Changya’s original rendering of the story about Trichen Ngawang Chogden, to which Thuken refers, Dorje Shugden is not at all mentioned, while reference is made to a local spirit instead. Citing this supposed episode of removing a Dorje Shugden image is meant to justify his defamation, but the episode with Palden Lhamo does not even raise the slightest doubt about that deity. Thus, yes, there are historical precedents of protective deities having occasionally been banned from a particular monastery, but what is unusual in this debate over Dorje Shugden is that the personal opinion of just one master should become official state policy, thus splitting an entire society in times of greatest hardship.

When offering justifications for the controversy, His Holiness likes to appear as non-sectarian and a unifier of traditions. In making references to Guru Padmasambhava and the Nyingma tradition he discusses the Dorje Shugden side as the sectarian one. Dorje Shugden is originally a deity of the Sakya tradition. There is a belief that no ordinary being ever appears as throne holder of this tradition but rather that all Sakya Dagchens (Lords) are emanations of the eighty great Siddhas and the sixteen Arhats. The one before the last Sakya throne holder, Dragshül Trinley Rinchen, was the most prominent Sakya master of this century. He called his father a manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of compassion, because before his father was born, his grandfather had received signs that Dorje Shugden himself would come as his son. The master proves the connection between Dorje Shugden and Avalokiteshvara by citing from the Nyingma tantra Rinchen Na-Dün, rnying.rgud rin.chen sna.bdun, “Dolgyal, Dolgyal he who is thus called is by nature undeceiving, because he is the Great Compassionate One himself.”

The defamation of Dorje Shugden constitutes a grave offense to the Sakya tradition and surely the Dalai Lama is aware of it. Thus he mentioned to some people that in his dreams the four-faced deity Mahakala appears annoyed at the restrictions against Dorje Shugden. Four-faced Mahakala is one of the most important guardian deities of the Sakya tradition. But the government-in-exile can exert effective influence neither on the Sakya nor on the Kagyu or Nyingma traditions. Also remarkable is the fact that the government-in-exile directs its attacks exclusively against the Dorje Shugden worship in the Gelug tradition. This allows one to conclude that what is at stake here for the driving forces is not the deity but ultimately the destruction of something else.

The debate went on longer than initially anticipated. The people of the Tibetan regions of Chatreng and surrounding areas remained loyal to Trijang Rinpoche and Dorje Shugden and the affected regional divisions in the great monasteries (kham.tsen) refused to stray from their tradition. When together they founded the Dorje Shugden Society in Delhi, many in the Tibetan exile community, who a few months earlier unconditionally would have done anything for the Dalai Lama, now started having second thoughts. Both sides of this newly drawn battle line tried to convince the press that they were right. But the field was far from level: the government-in-exile had been well organized for many years and could underpin its statements with the Dalai Lama’s singular fame and the general sympathy for Tibet. The other side had little more than a few monks, inexperienced in dealing with the press, trying to argue for religious freedom.

In the fight to obtain the favors of the press, the government-in-exile aimed at portraying a “Dorje-Shugden-sect”, although the Tibetan language does not even have a word with which to clearly translate the word “sect.” In the past I have often been upset with the distorted accounts of Tibetan history I saw in Chinese propaganda material. But the arbitrary way in which the Tibetan side in this controversy handled history was such that one must assume they believe we westerns are all fools. Is Namgyal Monastery a Nechung sect because they worship the protector Nechung? Is Ganden Shartse Monastery a Setrab sect because they worship the deity Setrab? Is Ganden Jangtse Monastery a Palden Lhamo sect because they worship Palden Lhamo? Hardly. By the same token, there is no Dorje Shugden sect. When furthermore some imaginative historians try to attribute to such a sect socio-political intentions, we can safely relegate it to the domain of fiction but certainly not to that of historical facts. There has been a focus on Pabongka Rinpoche as the most important figure in connection with Dorje Shugden during the Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s time. It is historically proven that he was offered the regency and it is historically proven that he rejected it firmly.

When during an anti-Dorje Shugden information meeting in Switzerland the Dalai Lama’s Private Secretary sketched the picture of three hundred years of trouble with these Dorje Shugden people, someone asked him to mention some of the incidents that had occurred during this time. He was unable to come up with even one. If these Dorje Shugden people really had made so much trouble for three hundred years, then our friend Michael v. Brück, (a participant in the conference presenting the other side) must have sensed at least some of it during his meeting with Düldzin Kuten, the central figure in the Dorje Shugden issue in Ganden Monastery. Instead, we read a heartfelt description which closes with the following words,

“…the great protector deities manifest thousandfold, simultaneously and everywhere in order to be of help to all living beings. They also may appear in other countries and to other people in guises different than in Tibet, yet they are all rooted in the one immeasurable ground of the mind, truly a universe full of grace.”

About a year after the conflict broke out the newly constituted opposition had organized and began consolidating itself. This was contrary to everything the government-in-exile had expected. Then, in the spring of 1997 a horrifying triple murder in Dharamsala put a different spin on the controversy. The Director of the Dialectics School in Dharamsala and his two young translators were gruesomely murdered just a few days before the Tibetan new year. Apparently the three of them had been alone in their room only about 15 minutes and they were found stabbed without anyone hearing screams or seeing killers. The Director of the Dialectics School was well known for his slanderous writings in which he would drag through the mud anything that veered even slightly from the course established by the government-in-exile: famous masters, the big monastic universities and even the Tibetan guerilla were his targets. In one of his last articles he wrote, “…these people will not cease to criticize the Dalai Lama until blood flows from their bodies….”

Given the character of the assassination and the humiliations the Tibetan guerilla movement had been subjected to in earlier years, one could have assumed that the search for the murderer would eventually also lead to them. But that obviously did not occur; already the next day, Dharamsala’s local newspaper claimed that the murderer would certainly be found among the Dorje Shugden Society in Delhi. Aside from who committed the murders, this gruesome act was exploited to the hilt by the government-in-exile with only one aim in mind: Resorting to all possible means they tried to incriminate the Dorje Shugden Society in Delhi in order to put its leading monks behind Indian bars. For the benefit of the press, the image of a Dorje Shugden sect with bloodthirsty, cultish, terrorist and fundamentalist attributes was successfully established linking it effectively with the traditionally depicted wrathful appearance of the deity while cleverly neglecting to mention that many wrathful Buddhist deities are represented in considerably more terrifying ways.

For his part, Robert Thurman thought it appropriate to portray for Newsweek magazine a murderous Dorje Shugden cult describing it as “the Taliban of Buddhism.” Yet Robert Thurman, presumably before he begot Uma, had been one of the first Western monks with Buddhist vows and had tried twice to obtain Dorje Shugden initiation from revered masters well before the controversy began. Both masters, however, had refused on grounds of his fickle character. Thurman should know quite well what Dorje Shugden actually is about.

On a Swiss TV program discussing the subject of the murders I than had the opportunity to admire my old friend, the government-in-exile minister Tashi Wangdu, exhibiting evidence in front of the camera. According to the commentator it was a death threat sent by Dorje Shugden followers to the murder victim. I could not resist stopping the video to copy the Tibetan text and translate it. It contained no death threat at all, simply an impertinent letter containing a challenge to debate the issue so as to settle the difference.

By now I was convinced that something foul was going on. Otherwise, why would Tashi Wangdu go to such lengths as to show a fake death threat on TV? I wanted to find out whether in Tibet’s political history there had been other instances of similar behavior. I did not have to look very far to realize that this was a way customarily used in old Tibet to neutralize an opponent. In the recent past in exile alone, one can find several incidents in which people accused of criticizing the Dalai Lama had to leave India after being socially ostracized or nearly beaten to death by a mob. There are parallels in old Tibet.

After the Thirteenth Dalai Lama passed away, Lungshar tried to establish a constitutional monarchy in Tibet. He was charged with involvement in a Bolshevist conspiracy and to be executed while his sons were to have their hands cut off. Pabongka Rinpoche interceded and then he was pardoned. Nonetheless, some time later, Lungshar’s eyes were gouged out. Demo Rinpoche, the regent during the days of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s youth and his friend Nyagtul, a Nyingma master, were accused of resorting to black magic against the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. Demo Rinpoche died in a prison cell so small, one could not lie down in it. Nyagtul had the skin torn from his chest, the chest ripped open while still alive, and tied to a post on the circular path for circumambulating Lhasa, he was left there exposed to people’s mockery and to die a slow excruciating death. Close to the end, Nyagtul is said to have uttered, “This government has killed me although I am free from guilt. I shall take my revenge on it, just wait and see!” Thus arose the belief that occasionally, during the invocations of the State Oracle, Nygtul’s spirit enters the oracle’s body instead of the deity Nechung to give the government disastrous advice. The story is still very much alive today. There are important people nowadays among Tibetans who associate the State Oracle’s repeated fateful pronouncements also at the origin of the Dorje Shugden defamation with Nyagtul’s tragic assassination.

In spite of it all, I still have difficulties believing the events of these past three years. How such things can happen in connection with such an outstanding figure as the Dalai Lama remains a mystery. But then, one does not want to leave it at that. A closer look at His Holiness’ lifestyle might provide some answers.

His Holiness never travels alone and never incognito. Wherever he goes, someone will have been there before him to prepare his arrival. For almost all of his information he depends on the press and those who surround him. The international press seldom reports on events concerning the Tibetan exile community and the Tibetan exile community has no free press of its own. Their publications take their cue from the official positions or opinions of the government-in-exile. The Dalai Lama can only draw on information provided by his immediate entourage or outside visitors to get a sense of what is going on among his people. Now, someone who succeeds in controlling the Dalai Lama’s entourage will also control the Dalai Lama in more far-reaching ways. During the years I interpreted for His Holiness, I was time and again surprised to see how the strong personalities in his entourage became fewer with each passing year and were replaced by less impressive characters. It also is common knowledge that members of the Dalai Lama’s family have great influence on the composition of his entourage.

After the controversy erupted in the spring of 1996 as a result of His Holiness’ statements, the representatives of the people of Chatreng sent him petitions on two separate occasions. When these remained unanswered and the abbots of the main monasteries became concerned with the turn of recent events they requested an audience. When in the Dalai Lama’s ante-room they were asked what they intended to submit. When they presented their petitions, they were told not to show the letters to His Holiness. The Dorje Shugden Society in Delhi was formed after similar petitions remained without response.

Considering who would benefit most from this unfortunate controversy, the obvious answer is Communist China. It would be difficult to see how they could have influenced events so close to the Dalai Lama were it not for the suspicion of possibly working through fake oracles. As a matter of fact, there are in Dharamsala two new oracles who recently arrived from Tibet whose background could give rise to such thoughts. However, closer at hand, the traditional Tibetan State Oracle has been consumed by jealousy against Dorje Shugden for generations. It would have been the State Oracle’s duty to offer the Dalai Lama help during the critical events of 1959. According to all trustworthy eye-witnesses I know and consulted, the State Oracle did not provide any help on that occasion. After the Dalai Lama and his retinue had fled, the State Oracle only found out the following day that he had been left behind. His own escape was later organized by monks from Drepung Monastery. Once in exile, his role lost prominence until the early 1970’s, when that oracle started to quietly persuade the Dalai Lama that he should take his distance from Dorje Shugden. In other words, the origin of Dorje Shugden’s current level of defamation is not the Dalai Lama’s own idea but rather the State Oracle’s, who in his prophesies over the following twenty-five years made Dorje Shugden responsible for all the tragedies that befell Tibet and the Tibetans.

Another crucial question to ask is what is directly attacked and destroyed by this conflict. In Buddhism, a living transmission depends on the existence of great masters able to pass on this knowledge on the basis of their own experience. Like highway bridges, the masters Pabongka and Trijang Rinpoches carried these experiences of the Gelug tradition from the past into the present in perfected form. Next to these two large bridges are only some narrow hanging bridges which pass on aspects or parts of this experience to this day. Dorje Shugden was the protector of these two great masters who also composed significant meditations on Dorje Shugden just as the masters Trichen Tenpa Rabgye, Tagri Gyatso Thaye, Serkong Dorje Chang, Dagpo Kelsang Khedrup and many others had done before them. Were we to accept that Dorje Shugden is not an authentic deity but a Chinese ghost, as we keep hearing from the State Oracle, then a Buddhist practitioner must conclude that none of the masters of this transmission lineage is authentic. All these great bridges thanks to which the meditations of the Gelug tradition were passed on to this day would thereby be destroyed. All that remained would be the academic studies in the monastic universities and many of the important transmissions for the actual practice would be lost. The Gelug tradition would be gutted.

In whose interest would it be to weaken the Gelug tradition? Here too, there are old rivalries and also people known to have such ambitions in close proximity to the Dalai Lama. If we add to all of this the Dalai Lama’s open and unsuspecting nature, it is easy to see how His Holiness constitutes a unique instrument for some individuals to realize their cheap, personal goals at the expense of an entire society.

These thoughts may have provided answers to only some of the questions. I do hope that your own analyses will shed more light on this whole affair. It is after all your reporting which keeps a Western democracy on track and I think you can render the same service to the Tibetan people.

When you meet His Holiness, let him know that we do not wish for a controversial politician man from Asia, but that we love the wise monk from the Himalayas who so effectively inspires his people to uphold the exemplary attitude for which Tibetans are so much cherished the world over. And try to assess how much he knows about controversial publications concerning Tibet. That will allow you to determine how reliably his assistants actually inform him.

It is my sincere hope that Tibetans will soon be free and able to live in harmony in their own land and continue to be our cherished friends.

Helmut Gassner
March 1999

 

An Open Letter to Mr. Kelsang Gyaltsen
Secretary of H.H. Dalai Lama

Dear Kelsang Gyaltsen,

Please excuse me for writing this open letter. In your recent written response to the president of the Rabten Choeling association you mentioned my name in connection with “various TV and Radio programmes and press conference in Germany, Switzerland, United States and Austria which were designed to discredit His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Government-in-exile, to disrupt the Tibetan community and to undermine the Tibetan cause. There is no denying of this fact,” and that there are people, who strongly believe that I am “one of the driving forces behind these programmes”.

Dear Kelsang, you have not forgotten that on many gracious visits of His Holiness to Germany, Austria and Switzerland we have worked together as friends? Have you forgotten that since 1979 I have made every effort to put His Holiness’ message on universal responsibility and harmony into befitting German words, deeply wishing for the audience to feel the same love and unity that always grasped my heart when hearing these words of H.H. Dalai Lama?

Do you really think that I could make any effort to discredit His Holiness the Dalai Lama or to disrupt the Tibetan community, after I have devoted my complete heritage and income to sustain Buddhist studies and practice in India and Europe? In all the years we worked together, you could have noticed that my thoughts and efforts always remained the same from year to year, and I can assure you, my gratitude to the Tibetan people and its great Buddhist masters has only increased during the past twenty years.

Through several of my friends I got to understand that you may consider myself as the very driving force behind the Swiss TV’s report on the Dorje Shugden issue. If you really think so, then you have never had any direct and open conversation with Mr. Regli, the author of this report. As you certainly remember, I have repeatedly translated spoken Tibetan for the Swiss TV during the past twenty years. Besides other engagements for H.H. Dalai Lama, I translated for a chronicle about Ven. Trijang Choktrul Rinpoche in 1996. This chronicle was done by Mr. Regli, who is one of the most experienced journalists of DRS and has a very good knowledge of the various inclinations as well as political habits of Asian people. During the work for the chronicle he seemed impressed by the young Trijang Rinpoche and also mentioned his esteem for H.H. Dalai Lama.

In April 1997, a Newsweek article on the dreadful murder of Ven. Lobsang Gyatso brought the Dorje Shugden issue to an international public. In the months to follow I repeatedly received calls from journalists, who knew me as ‘interpreter of H.H. Dalai Lama’, requesting my opinion. What could I answer? After His Holiness’ statements of 1996, where he declared Dorje Shugden to be a danger to his life and the cause of Tibet, my friends, teachers, and masters, who had all supported His Holiness with all their effort throughout their life, were now badly splitting into two heavily opposing groups. It seemed that the kind words of His Holiness were now replaced by words of segregation. I did not believe it, refused to watch any recordings and was convinced that some mischief in the exile government, unknown to myself, was at the root. I was sure that words I saw in various reports as ‘statements of His Holiness’ could not be His statements. As perplexed as I was myself there was little I could do to bring clarity to the perplexed questions of journalists.

In June 1997, the Indian press reported on the fate of Mr. Thubten’s family, who was chased out of their house and village after Mr. Thubten had made public statements on events of recent Tibetan history, which were seen as a contradiction to statements of the Tibetan exile government. These reports in the Indian press aroused Mr. Regli’s interest. He pursued investigations for several months and travelled to India in November to get on-site information.

After his return he requested me to verify the translations of the interviews, which amounted to some 16 hours of prime video material. Some of the statements by Dorje Shugden adherents were saddening, but the appearance and the statements of His Holiness were just devastating for myself. “Fanatic…., fundamentalist…., this is very clear” (was not shown on TV) are now the words of His Holiness for those who venerate Dorje Shugden, which includes his own tutor, the philosophical assistants he chose himself, the chamberlain who arranged his save escape from Tibet, many of the Khampa guerillas who gave their life for him to escape, many monasteries and whole regions of his own people, who have always been faithful to him.

Mr. Regli had left Switzerland full of esteem for His Holiness, hoping to meet the famous person full of radiance and kindness, but what he met was an irritable Dalai Lama, who insistently negates pinpointing questions of the journalist. With the impression of likeness to other strong men of Asia, Mr. Regli searched the recent Tibetan history under the rule of the Dalai Lamas and regents. When he asked me to review one of the reports in order to verify the correctness of the translations, I saw pictures of a prisoner punished by having his eyes destroyed. This was so saddening for me that I asked him to remove them. As he had good reason to include the sequence, he refused. My insistence led to a bad dispute with Mr. Regli, which finally caused him to revise his report, but solely due to his reconciling character, not due to any valid arguments from my side.

The historical event behind the disputed pictures was the mutilation of Lungshar, an influential Tibetan aristocrat close to the 13th Dalai Lama. The Tibetan Minister Trimön sought capital punishment for Lungshar and punishment of his sons by chopping off their hands. The effective intervention of Pabongka Rinpoche prevented these punishments from being executed. Trimön nevertheless succeeded in having Lungshar’s eyes destroyed. Officially, Lungshar was charged for creating a communist party in Tibet, while other transmissions of the events say that he was making efforts to establish a constitutional monarchy in Tibet, a form of democratic rule he apparently got to appreciate during his stay in Great Britain.

If there is any truth in the various reports on the exile government’s handling of the Dorje Shugden issue, then the ruling style of today’s Tibetan government still has not overcome all facets of Lungshar’s time. Dear Kelsang, did you ever verify the historical accuracy of your government’s statements? Did you ever talk to living witnesses of recent Tibetan history? You grew up in the vicinity of the great Chamberlain Phala, the key organizer of His Holiness’ historical escape from Tibet, but did you ever speak to him? May I guess that you didn’t, because you were just about making effort to gain more fluency in the Tibetan language and to move from a Swiss banking career to Tibetan exile politics when Mr. Phala passed away. At that time I already had translated for His Holiness during several years and frequently met Mr. Phala, who was kind enough to honor my interest in Tibetan history with many amazing details of the escape. What am I to think, when today’s official version from Dharamsala is quite different from the account of many witnesses I have met? When asked by journalists, do you expect me to ignore my first hand sources and blindly follow the statements of your government?

In your letter you mention that “it is totally baseless and malicious to assert that ‘the most precious life of Kyabje Trijang Chogtrul Rinpoche was in great peril.'”

Do you really think that the letter shown on Swiss TV is a fake? In fact, the threat-letter shown is the very copy received by Zong Labrang by mail and the relevant lines translate into: “Anyone who goes against the policy of the government must be singled out one-pointedly, opposed and given the death penalty….. As for the reincarnations of Trijang and Zong Rinpoche, if they do not stop practicing Dholgyal and continue to contradict with the word of H.H. the Dalai Lama, ….. their life and activities will suffer destruction. This is our primary warning.”

Twelve monks of Ganden Jangtse, who participated in a demon-stration of several hundred monks of Ganden Shartse requesting religious freedom were expelled from their monastery. I have met several of these monks: Young boys, who left Chatring in Tibet, overcame the many obstacles to reach India and to enter the great monasteries, fully decided to study the Buddha’s teachings and to tame their minds. Now ousted and displaced, one of the boys was constantly worrying that his weak-hearted mother in Tibet might get to know his predicament and die of sorrow. When I asked why they didn’t join one of the other great monasteries, they replied that many people would get pressured and suffer if they joined another monastic university and it became known. Dear Kelsang, who on earth could possibly pressure any monastic university to such an extent, except the outer, inner, and secret setups of the exile government?

I am quite aware that some of my questions may not comply with your government’s ideas. I am also aware of the fate of Tsultrim from Clementown, Alo Chodzä, Guru Deva Rinpoche, Dawa Norbu, Jamyang Norbu, Mr. Thubten and many others, who publicly showed thoughts not in line with the exile government and got chased, beaten, stabbed, and even killed. I never had any hopes for personal gain when translating for His Holiness, and my only hope with these lines is that the Tibetan people may find the happiness they seek. But this will not be achieved by blindly following a leader, even if he is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding persons of our time.

When His Holiness was giving precious religious advice to subdue self-cherishing and intolerance, did your government ever make efforts to ensure that every Tibetan will comply with these great words of the Dalai Lama? Were there ever signature campaigns for Tibetans to confirm their abandonment of egoism? Were there ever any houses searched to make sure no stubborn egoists are left? Why is your government so active this time, trying to ensure that everyone will follow the semblant meaning of his statements?

Authorities who divide their people, are seeking to dominate them. Authorities who seek to serve their people, will make effort to unite them in harmony.

But anyway, if it is the case, as it seems, that you have the truth, the power and the fame all on your side, then why do you even consider to mention the name of a person as insignificant as myself?

9.19.1998
Helmut Gassner

 

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6 Responses to Translator Ven. Helmut Gassner on Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden

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  1. Samfoonheei on Jan 19, 2020 at 9:13 pm

    Helmut Gassner, known as Venerable Gelong Jampa Lungtog is a senior Buddhist monk from Austria. He was an electrical engineer before, and became interested in Buddhism after meeting Venerable Geshe Rabten Rinpoche. Throughout his lifetime, he has translated for many high lamas, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and is a strong advocate for the practice of Dorje Shugden. Helmut Gassner were annoyed and upset by the ban of Dorje Shugden by Dalai Lama ,as he knew that the practice of Dorje Shugden is an integral part of the Gaden Tradition. He bravely spoke about it in his speech at the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation in Germany. Its wonderful of him to tell the truth with his experience and knowledge. May more people dare to speck up about the truth.
    Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
    .

  2. Bradley Kassian on Sep 1, 2019 at 9:12 pm

    The Ven. Helmut Gassner a longtime western Buddhist monk, scholar, practitioner, was an interpreter for H.H. Dalai Lama at one time. His address too the DS issue is one of the longtime pieces of material to debunk the false allegations against the deity and practitioners alike. He was straightforward, spoke the truth, highly analytical about the whole topic. With all the false allegations and fabrications against DS practitioners out there, this is a breath of fresh air to read.

  3. Lester on Aug 27, 2019 at 1:11 pm

    This is a balanced review from an analytical and faithful western monk. What baffles me is why would HHDL, an emanation of Lord Avalokitesvara, would want people to break samaya, commit schism (the worst of the five heinous sins) by persuading them to give up DS (see “His Holiness had treated many Tibetan masters and monks as well as Westerners with similar special expressions of affection. It is easy to become deeply moved and emotional and at that moment willing to do anything for the Dalai Lama. In situations such as these, many promised the Dalai Lama to turn away from Dorje Shugden, a promise they often deeply regretted later on.”)? What is actually happening?

  4. Tsa Tsa Ong on Aug 15, 2019 at 1:44 pm

    Helmut Gassner is a long-term Western Buddhist monk, scholars and practitioner, and he was the interpreter for the Dalai Lama for 17 years. He is one of only two ordained Western Geshes at that time. He is fortunate to have meet Venerable Geshe Rabten Rinpoche that changed his life, and encounter,many great important Lamas among them were Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, Kyabje Ling Rinpoche and so forth. Having been in the close company of many of the leading lamas of that period, including the Dalai Lama, Helmut Gassner has an appreciative and deep understanding of Dorje Shugden. He has even received many first-hand accounts of how Dorje Shugden has been invaluable to the Dalai Lama in particular, and Tibet in general.
    This includes the fact that Dorje Shugden has given much advice and on many occasions to the Tibetan nation and its leadership. In response to the lies, and the illogical, incredulous and divisive attacks on Dorje Shugden, a manifestation of the Buddha of Wisdom Manjushri, who was at the centre of Dharma Protector practice for many practitioners and high lamas for a long period of time, he responded brilliantly in the form of speech he gave in 1999 at the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation in Hamburg, Germany. This speech is included in its entirety below. It is in the spirit of truth that learned people Helmut Gassner spoke up about the truth regarding Dorje Shugden. It is wonderful he spoke up about this as he had first hand knowledge and experience and was not afraid of speaking up. Thank you Rinpoche and blog team for this interesting write up ?????

  5. Martin Chow on Jul 25, 2019 at 2:28 am

    The Ven. Helmut Gassner’s address to the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation and the transcript of his speech is one of the most vital pieces of material to debunk false allegations against Dorje Shugden. Until today, I have not seen any concrete objections by anyone, to what Helmut Gasssner wrote.

    And there are a number of reasons for this.

    To begin with, anyone who has personally met Helmut Gassner will find him to be highly intelligent, observant and analytical, level headed and not prone to overstatements, direct in his speech but well-tempered as one might find in a learned monk with a cultivated mind, and forthright. And it is assured that what he says is the truth and no one dares to challenge that.

    In addition, those in the Dalai Lama’s inner circles know well that His Holiness liked and trusted Helmut Gassner. Helmut Gassner was close to His Holiness and spoke out of first hand accounts. Hence it is difficult to challenge him because Helmut Gassner could well retort with even more factual details. In short, Helmut Gassner is extremely credible.

    The content of Helmut Gassner’s speech and his Open Letter illustrate how charges against Dorje Shugden practitioners have been fabricated to incriminate and undermine certain segments who were close to His Holiness, out of jealousy. That segment just happened to be Dorje Shugden lamas, and not being able to target the lamas directly they manufactured lies about Dorje Shugden instead. There are strong hints of political intrigue and malicious plots which historically is proven to be common in the courts of the Dalai Lamas. We see plausible reasons for the Dorje Shugden ban from Helmut Gassner’s explanations and for sure, they stand up much better to logic than the justifications of the Central Tibetan Administration, in breaching their own Constitution.

  6. Samfoonheei on Jul 24, 2019 at 5:38 pm

    Helmut Gassner is a long-term Western Buddhist monk, scholars and practitioner, and he was the interpreter for the Dalai Lama for 17 years. He is one of only two ordained Western Geshes at that time. He is fortunate to have meet Venerable Geshe Rabten Rinpoche that changed his life , and encounter ,many great important Lamas among them were Kyabje Zong Rinpoche ,Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, Kyabje Ling Rinpoche and so forth. Since then he was an interpreter for many important lamas in a series of events. He knew of the all affairs of how HH Dalai Lama escape and leading to the ban of Dorje Shugden’s practice. He is one courage man who has been following the event, accusations, arguments, statements, discrimination , well enough about , Nechung, Dorje Shugden, the oracles and the Tibetan Leardership.
    Wow …..in one of his speech , he spoke up brilliantly about the truth regarding Dorje Shugden. The truth is the truth. Interesting read . Its was his guru devotion , the dharma and the truth engrossed him to speck up intensively dramatic reasonable facts about the ban. For generations the traditional Tibetan Leadership oracle has been consumed by jealousy against Dorje Shugden.
    Thank you Rinpoche for this interesting sharing which is unkown to many. Reading this will have a better understanding .
    “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”…quoted

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KECHARA FOREST RETREAT PROGRESS UPDATES

Here is the latest news and pictorial updates, as it happens, of our upcoming forest retreat project.

The Kechara Forest Retreat is a unique holistic retreat centre focused on the total wellness of body, mind and spirit. This is a place where families and individuals will find peace, nourishment and inspiration in a natural forest environment. At Kechara Forest Retreat, we are committed to give back to society through instilling the next generation with universal positive values such as kindness and compassion.

For more information, please read here (english), here (chinese), or the official site: retreat.kechara.com.

Noticeboard

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  • Samfoonheei
    Friday, Mar 15. 2024 07:31 PM
    Venerable Ajahn Chah was a Thai Buddhist teacher of the Buddhadhamma and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition. Well respected and loved as a man of great wisdom, he was also instrumental in establishing Theravada Buddhism in the West. Interesting life story, how he chose to leave the settled monastic life and became a wandering ascetic. Walking across Thailand, lived in forests, caves and cremation grounds while learning from the meditation monks of the Forest of various monasteries. He wandered through the countryside in quest of quiet and secluded places for developing meditation. He even lived in tiger and cobra infested jungles, using reflections on death to penetrate to the true meaning of life. After years of wandering, Venerable Ajahn Chah established a monastery where he taught simple, practice-based form of meditation, and attracted a numerous of students including western foreigners. He was one of the greatest Dhamma teachers of the modern era. His wise teachings have continued to guide thousands of people along the path of Dharma. Venerable Ajahn Chah’s teachings of the Thai Forest Tradition gradually spread across all over the world. Several of Ajahn Chah’s Western students have since established monasteries throughout the world. Just in Thailand itself, there are more than 300 branch monasteries in Ajahn Chah’s tradition. Ven erable Ajahn Chah used his ill health as a teaching point, emphasizing that it was a living example of the impermanence of all things and reminded people to endeavour to find a true refuge within themselves. The legacy of Venerable Ajahn Chah’s teachings and legacy continues into the modern age.
    Thank you Rinpoche for this great sharing.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/great-lamas-masters/venerable-ajahn-chah-the-forest-monk.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Friday, Mar 15. 2024 07:30 PM
    Wonderful blog written on the practice of Kalarupa for us to understand better. As an emanation of Manjushri, Kalarupa’s practice helps us to destroy ignorance and to develop wisdom overcoming our anger and suffering . Awesome Kalarupa manifested in multiple forms to help sentient beings who personifies enlightenment by the conquest of anger. Kalarupa also regard as one of the three main Dharma protectors of the Gelugpa is extremely fierce and ugly, and tames all kinds of spiritual ugliness. The fierceness of his iconography teaches us to remind ourselves that all the causes and effects of anger arising from ignorance are dreadful and distorted.
    Thank you Rinpoche and Pastor Antionette for this detailed sharing,

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/kalarupa.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Friday, Mar 15. 2024 07:27 PM
    Nepal is a very spiritual country, having a huge Dorje Shugden mural in Kathmandu, is indeed a big achievement for Kechara. Located on Charkhal Road in Dilli Bazaar, the mural can be found midway between our two Dorje Shugden chapels which are in Putalisadak and Chabahil. It is also very close to one of Kathmandu’s largest shopping malls. Many locals , tourist will be able to connect them to a powerful deity that is so closely associated with their culture. Well the mural not only beautiful but also full of symbolism and everyone merely by seeing it is blessed. Thanks to those talented artists and generous sponsors making it a success.
    Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/travel/spectacular-dorje-shugden-mural-in-kathmandu-nepal.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Friday, Mar 15. 2024 07:24 PM
    All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. Letting go helps us to live in a more peaceful state of mind and helps restore our balance. A reminder for us all to go of attachment and meditating on impermanence and emptiness. We are to relinquish the domination of our ego and its habits to transform ourselves. A great reminder not to waste our previous life.
    Quoted Ceasing to do evil, Cultivating the good, Purifying the heart .
    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing such a meaningful teachings with folded hands.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/pointing-the-staff-at-the-old-man.html
  • james belich
    Friday, Mar 8. 2024 09:43 PM
    Winning the lottery was part of my dreams, I tried so hard to win big but all to no avail, until I came across Dr Lucas online who made my dreams come through and made me win 10 million dollars. I was a logistics manager who lives in Lancaster, S.C. and works about an hour’s drive away, in Charlotte, N.C., I stopped at a store to buy a scratch-off lottery ticket during my lunch break, because Dr Lucas gave me all the assurance that the numbers are not going to fail after I did all he asked me to do. Dr lucas is a powerful Dr that is on a mission to eradicate poverty from people’s lives and i have confirmed that by winning $10 million with the numbers he provided for me, it is my promise to tell the world about my experience with Dr Lucas and that’s what I’m doing now, you can win the lottery fast with the help of Dr Lucas he is tested and trusted Email: Drlucasspelltemple@gmail. com or WhatsApp +234 904 794 3567 he will help you.
  • james belich
    Friday, Mar 8. 2024 09:42 PM
    Winning the lottery was part of my dreams, I tried so hard to win big but all to no avail, until I came across Dr Lucas online who made my dreams come through and made me win 10 million dollars. I was a logistics manager who lives in Lancaster, S.C. and works about an hour’s drive away, in Charlotte, N.C., I stopped at a store to buy a scratch-off lottery ticket during my lunch break, because Dr Lucas gave me all the assurance that the numbers are not going to fail after I did all he asked me to do. Dr lucas is a powerful Dr that is on a mission to eradicate poverty from people’s lives and i have confirmed that by winning $10 million with the numbers he provided for me, it is my promise to tell the world about my experience with Dr Lucas and that’s what I’m doing now, you can win the lottery fast with the help of Dr Lucas he is tested and trusted Email: Drlucasspelltemple@gmail.com or WhatsApp +234 904 794 3567 he will help you.
  • lee
    Thursday, Mar 7. 2024 07:06 PM
    We are members of the Buddhist Temple in Taman Desa Jaya, Kepong, Kuala Lumpur and we have been issued membership by the president (DATUK YIP KUM FOOK), we are very sad because we are the foundation of this Temple

    Now we can know who is always messing with people, and he always cheats money and women, he even uses Buddhism to find money.

    Also, need to be careful with his brother-in-law (Simon Low Kok Meng) because he is a spy (CID) for DATUK YIP KUM FOOK and we will write some letters to AGONG SULTAN IBRAHIM IBN ALMARHUM SULTAN ISKANDAR as soon as possible.

    From Jesmond Yap, Kepong Baru…Kuala Lumpur
  • Phoenix the Shaman Elder
    Thursday, Mar 7. 2024 01:40 AM
    The matriarchal cultures of the grandmothers have specific symbolism of animism shamanism, such as the horse, especially the blue horse, and the deer. These are two main symbols of a shaman woman and you can find them in many cultural folk lore, especially the Russian, Slavic, Siberian, Nordic, Finland, and Norway. It’s nice to see the Matriarchal Shaman Animism diety represented in Chinese.
  • Samfoonheei
    Monday, Mar 4. 2024 06:59 PM
    An inspiring act of a selfless Lama feeding strays whether its night or day. Truly an example for us all to feed those lonely strays . Yes I do agree compassion starts with feeding strays. Reading this blog again to refresh myself to do more. Strays animals generally lead a life of poor welfare on the street. Feeding strays is a compassionate act.
    Thank you Rinpoche and Anila for this sharing.


    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/one-minute-story/rinpoche-through-my-eyes-compassion-starts-with-feeding-strays
  • Samfoonheei
    Monday, Mar 4. 2024 06:56 PM
    nteresting revisit this blog again as truly inspiring reading over and over again . There’s so many inspiring nuns and female practitioner coming from different back ground, leading a more spiritual life. They are practitioners dedicated their life to religious observance and their path is illuminated by the light of compassion. Going against all odds to become one. Their devotion radiates like a thousand stars in the night sky. Here at Kechara Forest Retreat, Bentong Pahang we too have inspiring practitioners .
    Thank you Rinpoche for this great sharing.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/inspiring-nuns-and-female-practitioners.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Monday, Mar 4. 2024 06:55 PM
    H E Tsem Rinpoche’s Sungbum project aim to preserve the teachings and practices that have been passed from teacher to disciple in an unbroken line beginning with Lama Tsongkhapa himself . History has taught us the importance of preserving Buddha’s stainless teachings. Its important to preserve and safeguard the Buddhist tradition for future generations.
    Tsem Rinpoche is a clear and effective teacher where his stories and teachings are endlessly entertaining and inspiring. The preservation is very much needed. We are so fortunate given a chance to be involved in such a meritorious project .
    Thank you.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/current-affairs/the-tsem-rinpoche-sungbum-project.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Monday, Mar 4. 2024 06:55 PM
    Demons are disembodied spirits, supernatural being or spirit and unseen beings. We know they do exist and I believe they do. They have no physical form to them whatsoever. Demons do definitely exist. They are intelligent beings who are evil malicious spirits and are all dangerous entities. Valak is not to be summoned capriciously by anyone as they are dangerous beings when we invoke them having to face a heavy consequence. There are spiritual practices that we can ask for help a ritual of the wrathful Manjushri in the form of Trakze. Having a doing the practice daily without fail, consistently, as this Trakze practice has been proven to be efficacious to break the hold the Valak and other spirits. All thanks to our Guru bringing this practice to Kechara Forest Retreat, Bentong Malaysia.
    Thank you Rinpoche for this wonderful sharing for us to understand better.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/science-mysteries/valak-the-conjuring-2-demon.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Monday, Mar 4. 2024 06:53 PM
    Wow ,reading all these powerful quotes had me realised much better of giving even I have little. May H E Tsem Rinpoche’s sincere advice to reach the far shore of liberation to everyone reading this blog. The most truly generous people are those who give silently without asking any in return. There is no exercise better than reaching and lifting people up. A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal. Well creating and lighting for others we naturally light our own way. Helping others especially those unfortunate ones, make us feel more positive about our own circumstances.
    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing all these powerful quotes.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/inspiration-worthy-words/the-power-of-giving-18-quotes-from-tsem-rinpoche.html
  • Aarati Bhatt
    Wednesday, Feb 28. 2024 12:47 AM
    I have tried mine and my friend’s horoscope and it results same in both of our case, and not just that I have tried this on various friends and this horoscope is showing same for maximum date of birth, I think this is a bug.
  • Samfoonheei
    Thursday, Jan 4. 2024 04:11 PM
    Lama Tsongkhapa was an influential Tibetan Buddhist monk, philosopher and tantric yogi, whose activities led to the formation of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism . Lama Tsongkhapa was hailed as the second Buddha by contemporary Buddhist masters of his time. Famous for reviving Buddhism in Tibet and revered for elevating the Dharma to all its present glory. Hence having a 12 ft Lama Tsongkhapa Statue at new Kechara Gompa (Prayer Hall) is indeed a blessing. Its truly beautiful. Merely by looking at it is a blessing .
    Thank you Rinpoche and team effort making it possible.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/kechara-13-depts/10-ft-tsongkapa-here.html

1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · »

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I must thank my dharma blog team who are great assets to me, Kechara and growth of dharma in this wonderful region. I am honoured and thrilled to work with them. I really am. Maybe I don't say it enough to them, but I am saying it now. I APPRECIATE THESE GUYS VERY MUCH!

Tsem Rinpoche

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The Unknown

The Known and unknown are both feared,
Known is being comfortable and stagnant,
The unknown may be growth and opportunities,
One shall never know if one fears the unknown more than the known.
Who says the unknown would be worse than the known?
But then again, the unknown is sometimes worse than the known. In the end nothing is known unless we endeavour,
So go pursue all the way with the unknown,
because all unknown with familiarity becomes the known.
~Tsem Rinpoche

Photos On The Go

Click on the images to view the bigger version. And scroll down and click on "View All Photos" to view more images.
According to legend, Shambhala is a place where wisdom and love reign, and there is no crime. Doesn\'t this sound like the kind of place all of us would love to live in? https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=204874
4 years ago
According to legend, Shambhala is a place where wisdom and love reign, and there is no crime. Doesn't this sound like the kind of place all of us would love to live in? https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=204874
108 candles and sang (incense) offered at our Wish-Fulfilling Grotto, invoking Dorje Shugden\'s blessings for friends, sponsors and supporters, wonderful!
4 years ago
108 candles and sang (incense) offered at our Wish-Fulfilling Grotto, invoking Dorje Shugden's blessings for friends, sponsors and supporters, wonderful!
Dharmapalas are not exclusive to Tibetan culture and their practice is widespread throughout the Buddhist world - https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=193645
4 years ago
Dharmapalas are not exclusive to Tibetan culture and their practice is widespread throughout the Buddhist world - https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=193645
One of our adorable Kechara Forest Retreat\'s doggies, Tara, happy and safe, and enjoying herself in front of Wisdom Hall which has been decorated for Chinese New Year
4 years ago
One of our adorable Kechara Forest Retreat's doggies, Tara, happy and safe, and enjoying herself in front of Wisdom Hall which has been decorated for Chinese New Year
Fragrant organic Thai basil harvested from our very own Kechara Forest Retreat farm!
4 years ago
Fragrant organic Thai basil harvested from our very own Kechara Forest Retreat farm!
On behalf of our Puja House team, Pastor Tat Ming receives food and drinks from Rinpoche. Rinpoche wanted to make sure the hardworking Puja House team are always taken care of.
4 years ago
On behalf of our Puja House team, Pastor Tat Ming receives food and drinks from Rinpoche. Rinpoche wanted to make sure the hardworking Puja House team are always taken care of.
By the time I heard about Luang Phor Thong, he was already very old, in his late 80s. When I heard about him, I immediately wanted to go and pay my respects to him. - http://bit.ly/LuangPhorThong
4 years ago
By the time I heard about Luang Phor Thong, he was already very old, in his late 80s. When I heard about him, I immediately wanted to go and pay my respects to him. - http://bit.ly/LuangPhorThong
It\'s very nice to see volunteers helping maintain holy sites in Kechara Forest Retreat, it\'s very good for them. Cleaning Buddha statues is a very powerful and effective way of purifying body karma.
4 years ago
It's very nice to see volunteers helping maintain holy sites in Kechara Forest Retreat, it's very good for them. Cleaning Buddha statues is a very powerful and effective way of purifying body karma.
Kechara Forest Retreat is preparing for the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations. This is our holy Vajra Yogini stupa which is now surrounded by beautiful lanterns organised by our students.
4 years ago
Kechara Forest Retreat is preparing for the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations. This is our holy Vajra Yogini stupa which is now surrounded by beautiful lanterns organised by our students.
One of the most recent harvests from our Kechara Forest Retreat land. It was grown free of chemicals and pesticides, wonderful!
4 years ago
One of the most recent harvests from our Kechara Forest Retreat land. It was grown free of chemicals and pesticides, wonderful!
Third picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal.
Height: 33ft (10m)
5 years ago
Third picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal. Height: 33ft (10m)
Second picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal.
Height: 33ft (10m)
5 years ago
Second picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal. Height: 33ft (10m)
First picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal.
Height: 33ft (10m)
5 years ago
First picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal. Height: 33ft (10m)
The first title published by Kechara Comics is Karuna Finds A Way. It tells the tale of high-school sweethearts Karuna and Adam who had what some would call the dream life. Everything was going great for them until one day when reality came knocking on their door. Caught in a surprise swindle, this loving family who never harmed anyone found themselves out of luck and down on their fortune. Determined to save her family, Karuna goes all out to find a solution. See what she does- https://bit.ly/2LSKuWo
5 years ago
The first title published by Kechara Comics is Karuna Finds A Way. It tells the tale of high-school sweethearts Karuna and Adam who had what some would call the dream life. Everything was going great for them until one day when reality came knocking on their door. Caught in a surprise swindle, this loving family who never harmed anyone found themselves out of luck and down on their fortune. Determined to save her family, Karuna goes all out to find a solution. See what she does- https://bit.ly/2LSKuWo
Very powerful story! Tibetan Resistance group Chushi Gangdruk reveals how Dalai Lama escaped in 1959- https://bit.ly/2S9VMGX
5 years ago
Very powerful story! Tibetan Resistance group Chushi Gangdruk reveals how Dalai Lama escaped in 1959- https://bit.ly/2S9VMGX
At Kechara Forest Retreat land we have nice fresh spinach growing free of chemicals and pesticides. Yes!
5 years ago
At Kechara Forest Retreat land we have nice fresh spinach growing free of chemicals and pesticides. Yes!
See beautiful pictures of Manjushri Guest House here- https://bit.ly/2WGo0ti
5 years ago
See beautiful pictures of Manjushri Guest House here- https://bit.ly/2WGo0ti
Beginner’s Introduction to Dorje Shugden~Very good overview https://bit.ly/2QQNfYv
5 years ago
Beginner’s Introduction to Dorje Shugden~Very good overview https://bit.ly/2QQNfYv
Fresh eggplants grown on Kechara Forest Retreat\'s land here in Malaysia
5 years ago
Fresh eggplants grown on Kechara Forest Retreat's land here in Malaysia
Most Venerable Uppalavanna – The Chief Female Disciple of Buddha Shakyamuni - She exhibited many supernatural abilities gained from meditation and proved to the world females and males are equal in spirituality- https://bit.ly/31d9Rat
5 years ago
Most Venerable Uppalavanna – The Chief Female Disciple of Buddha Shakyamuni - She exhibited many supernatural abilities gained from meditation and proved to the world females and males are equal in spirituality- https://bit.ly/31d9Rat
Thailand’s ‘Renegade’ Yet Powerful Buddhist Nuns~ https://bit.ly/2Z1C02m
5 years ago
Thailand’s ‘Renegade’ Yet Powerful Buddhist Nuns~ https://bit.ly/2Z1C02m
Mahapajapati Gotami – the first Buddhist nun ordained by Lord Buddha- https://bit.ly/2IjD8ru
5 years ago
Mahapajapati Gotami – the first Buddhist nun ordained by Lord Buddha- https://bit.ly/2IjD8ru
The Largest Buddha Shakyamuni in Russia | 俄罗斯最大的释迦牟尼佛画像- https://bit.ly/2Wpclni
5 years ago
The Largest Buddha Shakyamuni in Russia | 俄罗斯最大的释迦牟尼佛画像- https://bit.ly/2Wpclni
Sacred Vajra Yogini
5 years ago
Sacred Vajra Yogini
Dorje Shugden works & archives - a labour of commitment - https://bit.ly/30Tp2p8
5 years ago
Dorje Shugden works & archives - a labour of commitment - https://bit.ly/30Tp2p8
Mahapajapati Gotami, who was the first nun ordained by Lord Buddha.
5 years ago
Mahapajapati Gotami, who was the first nun ordained by Lord Buddha.
Mahapajapati Gotami, who was the first nun ordained by Lord Buddha. She was his step-mother and aunt. Buddha\'s mother had passed away at his birth so he was raised by Gotami.
5 years ago
Mahapajapati Gotami, who was the first nun ordained by Lord Buddha. She was his step-mother and aunt. Buddha's mother had passed away at his birth so he was raised by Gotami.
Another nun disciple of Lord Buddha\'s. She had achieved great spiritual abilities and high attainments. She would be a proper object of refuge. This image of the eminent bhikkhuni (nun) disciple of the Buddha, Uppalavanna Theri.
5 years ago
Another nun disciple of Lord Buddha's. She had achieved great spiritual abilities and high attainments. She would be a proper object of refuge. This image of the eminent bhikkhuni (nun) disciple of the Buddha, Uppalavanna Theri.
Wandering Ascetic Painting by Nirdesha Munasinghe
5 years ago
Wandering Ascetic Painting by Nirdesha Munasinghe
High Sri Lankan monks visit Kechara to bless our land, temple, Buddha and Dorje Shugden images. They were very kind-see pictures- https://bit.ly/2HQie2M
5 years ago
High Sri Lankan monks visit Kechara to bless our land, temple, Buddha and Dorje Shugden images. They were very kind-see pictures- https://bit.ly/2HQie2M
This is pretty amazing!

First Sri Lankan Buddhist temple opened in Dubai!!!
5 years ago
This is pretty amazing! First Sri Lankan Buddhist temple opened in Dubai!!!
My Dharma boy (left) and Oser girl loves to laze around on the veranda in the mornings. They enjoy all the trees, grass and relaxing under the hot sun. Sunbathing is a favorite daily activity. I care about these two doggies of mine very much and I enjoy seeing them happy. They are with me always. Tsem Rinpoche

Always be kind to animals and eat vegetarian- https://bit.ly/2Psp8h2
5 years ago
My Dharma boy (left) and Oser girl loves to laze around on the veranda in the mornings. They enjoy all the trees, grass and relaxing under the hot sun. Sunbathing is a favorite daily activity. I care about these two doggies of mine very much and I enjoy seeing them happy. They are with me always. Tsem Rinpoche Always be kind to animals and eat vegetarian- https://bit.ly/2Psp8h2
After you left me Mumu, I was alone. I have no family or kin. You were my family. I can\'t stop thinking of you and I can\'t forget you. My bond and connection with you is so strong. I wish you were by my side. Tsem Rinpoche
5 years ago
After you left me Mumu, I was alone. I have no family or kin. You were my family. I can't stop thinking of you and I can't forget you. My bond and connection with you is so strong. I wish you were by my side. Tsem Rinpoche
This story is a life-changer. Learn about the incredible Forest Man of India | 印度“森林之子”- https://bit.ly/2Eh4vRS
5 years ago
This story is a life-changer. Learn about the incredible Forest Man of India | 印度“森林之子”- https://bit.ly/2Eh4vRS
Part 2-Beautiful billboard in Malaysia of a powerful Tibetan hero whose life serves as a great inspiration- https://bit.ly/2UltNE4
5 years ago
Part 2-Beautiful billboard in Malaysia of a powerful Tibetan hero whose life serves as a great inspiration- https://bit.ly/2UltNE4
Part 1-Beautiful billboard in Malaysia of a powerful Tibetan hero whose life serves as a great inspiration- https://bit.ly/2UltNE4
5 years ago
Part 1-Beautiful billboard in Malaysia of a powerful Tibetan hero whose life serves as a great inspiration- https://bit.ly/2UltNE4
The great Protector Manjushri Dorje Shugden depicted in the beautiful Mongolian style. To download a high resolution file: https://bit.ly/2Nt3FHz
5 years ago
The great Protector Manjushri Dorje Shugden depicted in the beautiful Mongolian style. To download a high resolution file: https://bit.ly/2Nt3FHz
The Mystical land of Shambhala is finally ready for everyone to feast their eyes and be blessed. A beautiful post with information, art work, history, spirituality and a beautiful book composed by His Holiness the 6th Panchen Rinpoche. ~ https://bit.ly/309MHBi
5 years ago
The Mystical land of Shambhala is finally ready for everyone to feast their eyes and be blessed. A beautiful post with information, art work, history, spirituality and a beautiful book composed by His Holiness the 6th Panchen Rinpoche. ~ https://bit.ly/309MHBi
Beautiful pictures of the huge Buddha in Longkou Nanshan- https://bit.ly/2LsBxVb
5 years ago
Beautiful pictures of the huge Buddha in Longkou Nanshan- https://bit.ly/2LsBxVb
The reason-Very interesting thought- https://bit.ly/2V7VT5r
5 years ago
The reason-Very interesting thought- https://bit.ly/2V7VT5r
NEW Bigfoot cafe in Malaysia! Food is delicious!- https://bit.ly/2VxdGau
5 years ago
NEW Bigfoot cafe in Malaysia! Food is delicious!- https://bit.ly/2VxdGau
DON\'T MISS THIS!~How brave Bonnie survived by living with a herd of deer~ https://bit.ly/2Lre2eY
5 years ago
DON'T MISS THIS!~How brave Bonnie survived by living with a herd of deer~ https://bit.ly/2Lre2eY
Global Superpower China Will Cut Meat Consumption by 50%! Very interesting, find out more- https://bit.ly/2V1sJFh
5 years ago
Global Superpower China Will Cut Meat Consumption by 50%! Very interesting, find out more- https://bit.ly/2V1sJFh
You can download this beautiful Egyptian style Dorje Shugden Free- https://bit.ly/2Nt3FHz
5 years ago
You can download this beautiful Egyptian style Dorje Shugden Free- https://bit.ly/2Nt3FHz
Beautiful high file for print of Lord Manjushri. May you be blessed- https://bit.ly/2V8mwZe
5 years ago
Beautiful high file for print of Lord Manjushri. May you be blessed- https://bit.ly/2V8mwZe
Mongolian (Oymiakon) Shaman in Siberia, Russia. That is his real outfit he wears. Very unique. TR
5 years ago
Mongolian (Oymiakon) Shaman in Siberia, Russia. That is his real outfit he wears. Very unique. TR
Find one of the most beautiful temples in the world in Nara, Japan. It is the 1,267 year old Todai-ji temple that houses a 15 meter Buddha Vairocana statue who is a cosmic and timeless Buddha. Emperor Shomu who sponsored this beautiful temple eventually abdicated and ordained as a Buddhist monk. Very interesting history and story. One of the places everyone should visit- https://bit.ly/2VgsHhK
5 years ago
Find one of the most beautiful temples in the world in Nara, Japan. It is the 1,267 year old Todai-ji temple that houses a 15 meter Buddha Vairocana statue who is a cosmic and timeless Buddha. Emperor Shomu who sponsored this beautiful temple eventually abdicated and ordained as a Buddhist monk. Very interesting history and story. One of the places everyone should visit- https://bit.ly/2VgsHhK
Manjusri Kumara (bodhisattva of wisdom), India, Pala dynesty, 9th century, stone, Honolulu Academy of Arts
5 years ago
Manjusri Kumara (bodhisattva of wisdom), India, Pala dynesty, 9th century, stone, Honolulu Academy of Arts
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CHAT PICTURES

And here's Mr Wong of KSK Ipoh who dropped by to pray and offered some donation to the Chapel. Kechara Penang Study Group. Pic by Siew Hong & uploaded by Jacinta.
2 days ago
And here's Mr Wong of KSK Ipoh who dropped by to pray and offered some donation to the Chapel. Kechara Penang Study Group. Pic by Siew Hong & uploaded by Jacinta.
Today's puja (16/3/2024) ended around 420pm, Jacinta was the umze of the day. Pic by Siew Hong. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
2 days ago
Today's puja (16/3/2024) ended around 420pm, Jacinta was the umze of the day. Pic by Siew Hong. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Group photo taken after the last session, sealed with King of Prayers. Come and join us next time! Sayonara - 9-10th March 2024 - Kechara Penang DS Retreat by Jacinta.
6 days ago
Group photo taken after the last session, sealed with King of Prayers. Come and join us next time! Sayonara - 9-10th March 2024 - Kechara Penang DS Retreat by Jacinta.
Abundance altar! Fruits, flowers, Mee Koo (traditional Penang buns), Bee Hoon, sourdoughs and snacks are some of the offerings to Rinpoche, Buddhas & Bodhisattvas. Kechara Penang Dorje Shugden Retreat 9-10th March, 2024 by Jacinta.
7 days ago
Abundance altar! Fruits, flowers, Mee Koo (traditional Penang buns), Bee Hoon, sourdoughs and snacks are some of the offerings to Rinpoche, Buddhas & Bodhisattvas. Kechara Penang Dorje Shugden Retreat 9-10th March, 2024 by Jacinta.
Siew Hong, one of retreatants and an active member of Kechara Penang group proudly presented her torma to be used during the Kalarupa puja. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
7 days ago
Siew Hong, one of retreatants and an active member of Kechara Penang group proudly presented her torma to be used during the Kalarupa puja. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
Torma making was taught by Pastor Seng Piow and held one day before the retreat. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
7 days ago
Torma making was taught by Pastor Seng Piow and held one day before the retreat. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
Penang Dorje Shugden Retreat cum Puja, 9-10th March 2024 led by Pastor Seng Piow with 12 retreatants. Uploaded by Jacinta
7 days ago
Penang Dorje Shugden Retreat cum Puja, 9-10th March 2024 led by Pastor Seng Piow with 12 retreatants. Uploaded by Jacinta
The celebration ended with a Dorje Shugden puja, dedicated to all the sponsors, our loved ones and as well as for the happiness & good health for all sentient beings. May Rinpoche return swiftly too and taking this opportunity wishing all Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai from all of us, Kechara Penang Study Group. Uploaded by Jacinta.
1 month ago
The celebration ended with a Dorje Shugden puja, dedicated to all the sponsors, our loved ones and as well as for the happiness & good health for all sentient beings. May Rinpoche return swiftly too and taking this opportunity wishing all Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai from all of us, Kechara Penang Study Group. Uploaded by Jacinta.
Seen here, Pastor Seng Piow set off firecrackers - welcoming of the upcoming year with enthusiasm and positive energy. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
1 month ago
Seen here, Pastor Seng Piow set off firecrackers - welcoming of the upcoming year with enthusiasm and positive energy. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
In this pic, Pastor Seng Piow is sharing Dharma with newbies ~ Sharyn's friends. It's always good to make light offerings at the beginning of new year. By making light offerings, you are able to dispel the darkness of ignorance and achieve wisdom. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
1 month ago
In this pic, Pastor Seng Piow is sharing Dharma with newbies ~ Sharyn's friends. It's always good to make light offerings at the beginning of new year. By making light offerings, you are able to dispel the darkness of ignorance and achieve wisdom. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
One the day of Losar (new lunar year), it is always beneficial for Buddhist practitioners to get together in making abundant offerings to Buddhas on the altar to usher in goodness, prosperity and well-being of our loved ones. It's more auspicious this year as Losar and the Chinese New Year begin on the same date, 10th Feb, 2024. Back in Penang, our Kechara members came together to decorate the altar with abundance offerings for Dorje Shugden puja @3pm. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
1 month ago
One the day of Losar (new lunar year), it is always beneficial for Buddhist practitioners to get together in making abundant offerings to Buddhas on the altar to usher in goodness, prosperity and well-being of our loved ones. It's more auspicious this year as Losar and the Chinese New Year begin on the same date, 10th Feb, 2024. Back in Penang, our Kechara members came together to decorate the altar with abundance offerings for Dorje Shugden puja @3pm. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Mr. Dared Lim was offering water bowls on behalf of Kechara Ipoh Study Group. (Kin Hoe)
1 month ago
Mr. Dared Lim was offering water bowls on behalf of Kechara Ipoh Study Group. (Kin Hoe)
Jun from Ipoh was offering mandarin oranges to Mother Tara and The Three Jewels. (Kin Hoe)
1 month ago
Jun from Ipoh was offering mandarin oranges to Mother Tara and The Three Jewels. (Kin Hoe)
Prior to our puja in Ipoh, Mr. & Mrs. Cheah Fook Wan were preparing for the offerings to the Buddhas. (Kin Hoe)
1 month ago
Prior to our puja in Ipoh, Mr. & Mrs. Cheah Fook Wan were preparing for the offerings to the Buddhas. (Kin Hoe)
On Sunday afternoon, Kechara Ipoh Study Group has carried out Mother Tara prayer recitations in Ipoh. (Kin Hoe)
1 month ago
On Sunday afternoon, Kechara Ipoh Study Group has carried out Mother Tara prayer recitations in Ipoh. (Kin Hoe)
Some of the best shots taken during Thaipusam in Penang. Swee Bee, Huey, Tang KS, Nathan, Choong SH and Jacinta volunteered. Wai Meng came all the way from KL to help out. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
2 months ago
Some of the best shots taken during Thaipusam in Penang. Swee Bee, Huey, Tang KS, Nathan, Choong SH and Jacinta volunteered. Wai Meng came all the way from KL to help out. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
Simple yet powerful ally ~ Bhagawan Dorje Shuden. Kechara Penang Study Group consists of Chien Seong, Hue, Choong SH, Tang KS, Swee Bee and Jacinta. Wai Meng came all the way from KL to help out. Uploaded by Jacinta.
2 months ago
Simple yet powerful ally ~ Bhagawan Dorje Shuden. Kechara Penang Study Group consists of Chien Seong, Hue, Choong SH, Tang KS, Swee Bee and Jacinta. Wai Meng came all the way from KL to help out. Uploaded by Jacinta.
Thaipusam in Penang. Some of the best shots. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
2 months ago
Thaipusam in Penang. Some of the best shots. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
Nothing beats having a sacred audience with our lineage lamas. It's not selfie or wefie, but we have the best 'groufie'!!! 20th Jan 2024, Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
2 months ago
Nothing beats having a sacred audience with our lineage lamas. It's not selfie or wefie, but we have the best 'groufie'!!! 20th Jan 2024, Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Welcoming our lineage Gurus to our Penang Chapel today! Pastor Seng Piow explained the significance of having Guru Tree and introduced to us our lineage lamas, Buddhas, deities, protectors and etc.
2 months ago
Welcoming our lineage Gurus to our Penang Chapel today! Pastor Seng Piow explained the significance of having Guru Tree and introduced to us our lineage lamas, Buddhas, deities, protectors and etc.
Umze for the day was Siew Hong. She's just been with us for slightly more than a year now but she's proven her capability in leading the puja. Our Penang group members are so proud of her and her commitment in attending the weekly puja. Despite being eloquence and smart, she has beautiful chant as well. When she leads, make sure you are there to hear her chant for yourself! Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
2 months ago
Umze for the day was Siew Hong. She's just been with us for slightly more than a year now but she's proven her capability in leading the puja. Our Penang group members are so proud of her and her commitment in attending the weekly puja. Despite being eloquence and smart, she has beautiful chant as well. When she leads, make sure you are there to hear her chant for yourself! Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Umze for the day was Siew Hong. She's just been with us for slightly more than a year now but she's proven her capability in leading the puja. Our Penang group members are so proud of her and her commitment in attending the weekly puja. Despite being eloquence and smart, she has beautiful chant as well. When she leads, make sure you are there to hear her chant for yourself! Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
2 months ago
Umze for the day was Siew Hong. She's just been with us for slightly more than a year now but she's proven her capability in leading the puja. Our Penang group members are so proud of her and her commitment in attending the weekly puja. Despite being eloquence and smart, she has beautiful chant as well. When she leads, make sure you are there to hear her chant for yourself! Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Tara Recitation is on now at KISG - Wai Meng
3 months ago
Tara Recitation is on now at KISG - Wai Meng
Photo from Wan Wai Meng
3 months ago
Photo from Wan Wai Meng
A sea of yellow ~usually in Tibetan Buddhism yellow represents growth. We prayed that our Penang group will grow in terms of people, wealth and attainments too. _/\_ Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
3 months ago
A sea of yellow ~usually in Tibetan Buddhism yellow represents growth. We prayed that our Penang group will grow in terms of people, wealth and attainments too. _/_ Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
After Dorje Shugden puja @3pm, we had Rinpoche's Swift Return puja too. We laughed as Sis Swee Bee was commenting that Tang should smile ~ here's the reason why we laughed.  Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta Goh
3 months ago
After Dorje Shugden puja @3pm, we had Rinpoche's Swift Return puja too. We laughed as Sis Swee Bee was commenting that Tang should smile ~ here's the reason why we laughed. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta Goh
3 months ago
Today's (9/12/2023)Dorje Shugden puja led by Gordon. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
3 months ago
Today's (9/12/2023)Dorje Shugden puja led by Gordon. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
3 months ago
3 months ago
Dharma sharing by Hue before we proceeded with DS puja & Rinpoche Swift Return puja. Hue is one of the long time Kechara Penang members and he comes to puja regularly. He shared that he truly believes that Dorje Shugden and Rinpoche always there guiding him. He shared how sometimes DS will give him hints to avert troubles ahead or to alert him when he 'misbehaved'. Hope many will come to know more about this powerful Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugden aka DS. Having Dorje Shugden is like having a powerful ally that will protect us day and night. Just trust Him and have faith. Kechara Penang Study Group, 25/11/2023 by Jacinta.
4 months ago
Dharma sharing by Hue before we proceeded with DS puja & Rinpoche Swift Return puja. Hue is one of the long time Kechara Penang members and he comes to puja regularly. He shared that he truly believes that Dorje Shugden and Rinpoche always there guiding him. He shared how sometimes DS will give him hints to avert troubles ahead or to alert him when he 'misbehaved'. Hope many will come to know more about this powerful Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugden aka DS. Having Dorje Shugden is like having a powerful ally that will protect us day and night. Just trust Him and have faith. Kechara Penang Study Group, 25/11/2023 by Jacinta.
Kechara Penang Study Group had our weekly DS puja , led by our beloved sis Swee Bee and serkym by Mr. Lee. After that, we completed Swift Return puja also. 18th Nov 2023. By Jacinta
4 months ago
Kechara Penang Study Group had our weekly DS puja , led by our beloved sis Swee Bee and serkym by Mr. Lee. After that, we completed Swift Return puja also. 18th Nov 2023. By Jacinta
#Back2back 11th Nov 2023 Dorje Shugden puja & Rinpoche's Swift Return puja @Penang Chapel, 49 Jalan Seang Tek, Georgetown, Pulau Pinang. Every Saturday @3pm/5pm. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
4 months ago
#Back2back 11th Nov 2023 Dorje Shugden puja & Rinpoche's Swift Return puja @Penang Chapel, 49 Jalan Seang Tek, Georgetown, Pulau Pinang. Every Saturday @3pm/5pm. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Pic: Rinpoche Swift Return puja ~ 21/10/23 Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
5 months ago
Pic: Rinpoche Swift Return puja ~ 21/10/23 Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
#Backtoback A few months back, Kechara Penang Study Group started to have two pujas consecutively on Saturday. Dorje Shugden puja @3pm and thereafter Rinpoche Swift Return puja. This can only be achieved due to the committed members from Penang. A big round of applause...... Pic : DS puja on 21/10/2023 Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
5 months ago
#Backtoback A few months back, Kechara Penang Study Group started to have two pujas consecutively on Saturday. Dorje Shugden puja @3pm and thereafter Rinpoche Swift Return puja. This can only be achieved due to the committed members from Penang. A big round of applause...... Pic : DS puja on 21/10/2023 Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
More pictures of the day! Kechara Penang Chapel & public blessings 3rd Oct 2023 by Jacinta.
5 months ago
More pictures of the day! Kechara Penang Chapel & public blessings 3rd Oct 2023 by Jacinta.
Some pictures of the public blessings taken right after the puja was completed by the monks. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta. 3rd Oct 2023.
5 months ago
Some pictures of the public blessings taken right after the puja was completed by the monks. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta. 3rd Oct 2023.
3rd Oct 2023, Tibetan monks came to Kechara Penang for chapel & public blessing, in conjunction with the arrival of H. E Tsem Rinpoche's holy statue. Thanks to Pastor Henry & Pastor Seng Piow, who guided us throughout the event. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
5 months ago
3rd Oct 2023, Tibetan monks came to Kechara Penang for chapel & public blessing, in conjunction with the arrival of H. E Tsem Rinpoche's holy statue. Thanks to Pastor Henry & Pastor Seng Piow, who guided us throughout the event. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
Tsem Rinpoche's holy statue is here! 3rd Oct 2023. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
5 months ago
Tsem Rinpoche's holy statue is here! 3rd Oct 2023. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
29th Sept 2023. Kechara Penang Dorje Shugden puja adjourned at 4.30pm with 9 attendees. Thereafter, a Rinpoche Swift Return puja was completed too. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
5 months ago
29th Sept 2023. Kechara Penang Dorje Shugden puja adjourned at 4.30pm with 9 attendees. Thereafter, a Rinpoche Swift Return puja was completed too. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
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Dorje Shugden
Click to watch my talk about Dorje Shugden....