Don Lattin, San Francisco Chronicle Religion Writer

June 6, 1997

As the Dalai Lama prepares to visit San Francisco, a sectarian feud over an obscure Buddhist deity has divided the Tibetan community and allegedly inspired the murder of three exiled monks.

This deadly tale of spiritual intrigue revolves around Dorje Shugden, a wrathful, sword-waving deity with big ears and menacing fangs.

Shugden is one of numerous "protector deities" in Tibetan Buddhism - guardian angels used in meditation and devotional practice.

In recent years, the Dalai Lama has made a series of pronouncements against Dorje Shugden, upsetting both Tibetans and Westerners with a special devotion to this particular Buddhist angel.

Those close to the Dalai Lama say his unusual action was an effort to stem rising sectarianism among Shugden devotees in Ti- bet, India, England and the United States.

"Shugden followers tend to be more fundamentalist, while the Dalai Lama is more open and liberal," said Tenzing Chhodak, a spokesman for the Office of Tibet in New York, which represents the Dalai Lama and the exiled government of Tibet.

Shugden devotees say the Dalai Lama's comments have sparked a crusade of religious intolerance against them in the Tibetan exile community in India.

Kelsang Gyatso, a Tibetan lama with a large following of Western students in England and the United States, said zealous Tibetans have been "removing statues and pictures of Dorje Shugden from temples and private homes, throwing them in the garbage, burning them and forcibly preventing people from worshipping."

Gyatso compared the anti- Shugden crusade in India and Tibet to the violent campaign in the 1960s by the Red Guard of Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong.

According to Indian press reports, Dorje Shugden devotees are fighting back. They are among the suspects in a mysterious triple slaying earlier this year at the Dalai Lama's monastic palace in Dharmsala, India.

Lobsang Gyatso, the director of the Tibetan Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, and two younger disciples were repeatedly stabbed to death in a late-night attack last February.

Gyatso was one of the most vocal opponents of the Dorje Shugden sect.

In April, Indian police identified two suspects sought in the slayings, including one who was "notorious for his involvement in violence against the Dorje Shugden opposition."

Meanwhile, security has been tightened around the Dalai Lama during his current U.S. visit. Ironically, the Tibetan leader arrives in San Francisco on Sunday to participate in a three-day conference titled "Peacemaking: The Power of Nonviolence."

Leaders of the Dorje Shugden movement in India have denied any involvement in the slaying, as have Western followers of Kelsang Gyatso. They say false reports of a Shugden link to the killings have only fueled the crusade against them.

Last year, chanting members of Gyatso's sect in England picketed the Dalai Lama in London, carrying signs reading, "Your Smiles Charm, Your Actions Harm."

One of those picketing the Tibetan leader in London was Gen Togden, a Brazilian-born monk in Gyatso's New Kadampa Tradition sect.

Togden now leads Gyatso's meditation center in San Francisco, the Saraha Buddhist Center.

"Why is the Dalai Lama, a man who refrains from even attacking the Chinese government, attacking a fellow Buddhist monk and another Buddhist organization?" Togden asked.

Wearing red and gold Tibetan robes, Togden spoke in a room just off his center's Buddhist shrine, which prominently displays a statue of Dorje Shugden.

The center, in a private home in St. Francis Wood, is shared by Togden and six senior students. Classes are offered at hotels, retreat centers and other public venues across Northern California.

"This whole thing of calling us fundamentalists is very strange," Togden said. "What's wrong with trying to practice Buddhism purely to be very sincere?"

The campaign against Togden's guru has been fierce. Last August, in a declaration expelling him from Sera Je Monastery in India, Tibetan Buddhist leaders called Gyatso "a demon with broken commitments," and someone enveloped by a "demonic cloud of overwhelming arrogance."

"We request all of our brothers and sisters, the Tibetan people inside and outside Tibet, to completely sever any relationship with him," they declared.

Professor Robert Thurman, and organizers of next week's conference, said he discussed the Dorje Shugden dispute with the Dalai Lama earlier this week.

"His quote to me was, `I don't want Tibetan Buddhism to be mixed up with spirit worship and deity worship,' " Thurman said.

"Buddhism is about using reason to understand how the mind works, to overcome negative emotions, become wise, enlightened, and to help others be free of suffering," said Thurman, a professor of Indo-Tibetan studies at Columbia University. "Worshipping deities and doing ceremonies are cultural side stuff."

"Worshipping Buddha is one thing," he added, "but worshipping some fierce-looking thing with fangs is a bit harder to swallow."

Professor Georges Dreyfus, an expert in Tibetan Buddhism at Williams College in Massachusetts, said the New Kadampa Tradition "is very sectarian."

Other Western students of Tibetan Buddhism including those with teachers outside the New Kadampa Tradition say the Dalai Lama's actions have left them confused.

"It's created division, and that's not the Buddhist way," said Robert Jones of Santa Barbara, a longtime student of Buddhism. "People say if His Holiness (the Dalai Lama) made a statement, it must be true. If you disagree, you are ostracized. We're told things like, `It's political,' or `You'll understand eventually.' "

Hart Melvin, a Toronto man and Buddhist for two decades, said the feud is only harming the campaign to free Tibet from Chinese domination. "It's like watching the children fight while the mother is dying," he said. "If the Chinese aren't involved in this, they've got to be thanking their lucky stars. This is totally dividing the Tibetan community."