Published by: World Tibet Network News, Saturday, July 6th 1996

Madeleine Bunting

Religious Affairs Editor

The Guardian - London

July 6, 1996

MEMBERS of a British-based Buddhist sect are behind an aggressive international smear campaign to undermine the Dalai Lama - one of the world's most revered religious figures and political leader of Tibet-ahead of his visit to the UK this month.

The Dalai Lama is accused of being a "ruthless dictator" and an "oppressor of religious freedom" in direct contradiction to his message of religious tolerance, according to a spokesman for an organisation called the Shugden Supporters Community, based in Pocklington, Yorkshire, which has been distributing press releases to 400 worldwide news outlets.

Members of the Shugden Supporters Community (SSC) belong to one of the fastest-growing and richest sects in the UK called the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) whose headquarters are in Ulverston, Cumbria.

The sect has expanded dramatically since it was founded in 1991, and is now the biggest Buddhist organisation in the UK with more than 200 affiliated centres at home and more than 50 abroad. Membership is put at about 3,000. The founder of the NKT is a Tibetan monk, Geshe Kelsang, who has lived in Britain since the late seventies. NKT members believe they must obey, worship and pray to Kelsang because he is the Third Buddha.

Kelsang is in almost permanent semi-retreat in Cumbria and speaks little English, although he is the author of 16 books on Buddhism, two of which have reached the UK bestseller lists.

Former members maintain that the Department of Social Security has unknowingly played a critical part in funding the NKT's rapid expansion. NKT associates have acquired at least five large properties in the last year and a significant proportion of the 300-odd residents of their centres claim housing benefit of up to =A360 a week.

The benefit is paid as rent and used to service the large mortgages on properties. Among the properties acquired recently is Ashe Hall in Derbyshire, a neo-Jacobean mansion in 38 acres.

Organisers are concerned for the safety of the Dalai Lama during his week-long visit to the UK, starting on July 15. There have been threats from the SSC of demonstrations in London and Manchester where he is scheduled to speak before large audiences.

At a demonstration last month outside the Office of Tibet in London, hundreds chanted anti-Dalai Lama slogans and carried placards saying "Your smiles charm, your actions harm."

The SSC maintains that the Dalai Lama has banned a centuries old Buddhist practise and claims that Tibetans in India have been dismissed from their jobs, monks expelled from their monasteries, houses searched and statues destroyed. The Tibetan government-in-exile's London representatives at the Office of Tibet vigorously deny the allegations. Amnesty International says the SSC has yet to substantiate its allegations.

At dispute between Kelsang and the Dalai Lama - the latter has the backing of the majority of the Tibetan religious and political establishment - is the spiritual practice of worshipping a deity called Dorje Shugden.

To supporters of the Dalai Lama, this practice can become demonic. The Dalai Lama has warned his students against it and says this spiritual practice threatens his life and the future of the Tibetan people. The NKT and SSC maintain Dorje Shugden is a Buddha.

In the last few weeks, the SSC has launched a letter writing campaign to the Home Secretary asking for the Dalai Lama's visa to be stopped; draft letters have been distributed by NKT trained teachers to their students, claiming that his visit will "do nothing other than harm" and accusing him of "persecuting his own people."

The concern among British supporters of Tibet is that the SSC campaign will play directly into Chinese hands. As a Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Dalai Lama has had enormous success in raising profile of the cause of a Tibet - the country has been occupied by the Chinese since 1950. The Chinese see undermining of his reputation as a world religious leader as an effective way to weaken support for Tibet.

The UK's Tibet Society, one of the hosts for the Dalai Lama's visit along with 27 Buddhist organisations, accuses the SSC of being sectarian and of "going directly against the basic premise of Buddhism, which is compassion and benefit of others".