User:MacPraughan/Perception of the 5th Dalai Lama

From Talk:5th Dalai Lama#Does this belong at Wikipedia?

Thanks for your comments and advice and for your interest in this article. It was only due to reading certain inaccuracies in articles on Tibet and the Dalai Lamas not too long ago that I first started trying to edit Wikipedia and correct things I knew to be wrong.

The posting of a new section on this article on 10 Oct, 2014 headed "His authorization of mass murder for political reasons" diff sounded so wrong that I researched its basis, i.e. what was written in Sperling's essay; I got in touch with him as he was known to me (he died last January]), obtained details of his primary source (a 17th century Tibetan text) from him and sent it to the Tibetan scholar Samten Karmay, specialist of the subject and the period, for comment. Karmay was able to confirm immediately, due to the language used and the context, that the "authorization of mass murder" was no order to a general but a mere prayer to a supposed spirit. This was further confirmed in a passage I found in the 5th Dalai Lama's autobiography as translated and published by Karmay, see Karmay 2014, p. 416. I notified Sperling of Karmay's observations and he accepted his own misreading, acknowledging Karmay's correction in his additional note to Note 5 on his online-published essay here: “Orientalism” and Aspects of Violence in the Tibetan Tradition.

If my resulting deletion of the "His authorization of mass murder for political purposes" section and my explanation for this in a new "controversy" section is out of order as being undue and/or OR then please feel free to do the necessary. In any case knowing what I have learned since then I would have written my refutation and rebuttal of the consequences of Sperling's misreading differently. I take on board and appreciate all the points you have all made. Please advise how best to go about correcting this issue as presented. I would be interested to see the result and learn from it.

Especially now that Chinese political propagandists seem to have started contributing their views to these articles based on what is written in their own government publications (see Dalai Lama and 14th Dalai Lama), I would also very much welcome a thorough review by competent editors of all the articles on the historical Dalai Lamas, and that on the institution of the Dalai Lama as well; although this is way beyond my own capability I have tried to improve some of them here and there as part of my learning process. Your help and advice in this matter would be very much appreciated. MacPraughan (talk) 15:01, 14 October 2017 (UTC)

Imagining the 5th Dalai Lama

In Imagining Tibet, a 1996 collection of essays on Tibet, includes “Orientalism” and Aspects of Violence in the Tibetan Tradition, an essay by Tibetologist Elliot Sperling which, on page 318, contains a misleading interpretation error. later re-published by "Tibetan Buddhism in the West".

In paras 5 to 7, the 5th Dalai Lama's private prayer to a spirit was unintentionally misrepresented as a "clear instruction to unleash severe military retribution" against rebels, saying the Lama was "using military force to protect the interests of his government and his sect":

With his own pen the Fifth Dalai Lama made clear his role in the events just described. With regard to the first of these [the conflict with Tsangpa Desi in 1638/39, and the Mongol Gusri Qan's military intervention in 1640/41], he was explicit about authorizing the activities of Gusri Qan, through warfare, which made Ganden Phodrang (Dga' Idan pho brang) the unquestioned center of authority in Tibet. With regard to the second [a rebellion in Tsang in early 1660], his instructions evince a clear determination to unleash severe military retribution against those who had risen against his authority. One may say with some confidence that the Fifth Dalai Lama does not fit the standard image that many people today have of a Dalai Lama, particularly the image of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

I have purposely couched these remarks in provocative terms in order to emphasize the point that we cannot simplistically mix the actions and standards of different eras.

In fact, the passage quoted was merely an invocation prayer to a spirit to subdue two treasonous Gelugpa officers, Depa Norbu and Gonashakpa Ngodrub, who had absconded from their posts in Lhasa, seized the castle at Shigatse and tried to foment a rebellion. Soon after the prayer, the dispute was peacefully resolved and the two rebels abandoned the castle and fled to Dam to the north of Lhasa; they ended up under house arrest guarantee care of Taglung Monastery.

After the Tibetan translator of the 5th Dalai Lama's autobiography Samten Karmay confirmed the correct context in 2016, Sperling admitted his mistake and added a note to 'Note 5' of his essay to explain. The note says:

Note by Elliot Sperling, Feb. 4, 2016: “Rather than indicating military action, as the original article mistakenly implied, the missive from the 5th Dalai Lama was addressed to a protector deity and sought the punishments that are mentioned therein via divine means. I’m grateful to Samten Karmay for pointing this out and to John MacPraughan for spurring further inquiry. ES”

Since 1996, though, other authors have disseminated this misinterpretation further and it has been used in various books to put the perception of the Dalai Lama's in a historical perspective, and to criticise Tibetan culture, Buddhism and the Dalai Lama. The first of these was the FPMT-affiliated publisher, Wisdom Publications who published Sperling's essay containing the false accusation in 1996:

• Thierry Dodin & Heinz Räther (1996). Imagining Tibet: Perceptions, Projections, and Fantasies. Page 318, Section III. Wisdom Publications, Somerville MA, USA. ISBN 978-0861711918.

Others have followed (this is not an exhaustive list):

• Geoff Childs (2004). Tibetan Diary: From Birth to Death and Beyond in a Himalayan Valley of Nepal; chapter 9. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520241336.
• Eric D. Curren (2006). Buddha’s Not Smiling, Uncovering Corruption at the heart of Tibetan Buddhism Today, page 52. Alaya Press, Staunton VA USA. ISBN 9788120833319.
• Ben Kiernan (2007). Blood and Soil - A World History of Genocide and Extermination; page 6. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300144253.
• Paul Williams (2009). Mahayana Buddhism: the Doctrinal Foundations, page 164 (2nd edn). Routledge, London & New York. ISBN 9780415356534.
• Western Shugden Society (2010) A Great Deception; the Leading Lama's Policies, chapter 9. ISBN 978-0615329246.
• Johan Elverskog (2011). Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road; page 10 and page 222. University of Pennsylvania. ISBN 0812205316.

Some of these books (e.g. Buddha's Not Smiling, on page 52) compound the error further by confusing this small, non-violent rebellion of 1659/60 with the hard-fought Tibetan civil war of 1639-1642, saying the (mis)quotation refers to the Dalai Lama's instruction "in 1660" to send Gushri Khan and his Mongol Army to put down this rebellion in Tsang, which was "still the stronghold of the Karma Kagyu". This statement is absurd, since Gushri Khan had died in 1655, the Karma Kagyu supporters had been defeated by him 13 years earlier and the 'rebels' in this case were just two treasonous Gelugpa officials, who abandoned the fort shortly after the prayer was made, fled to Dam and then to Taglung where they were allowed to remain under the monastery's guarantee and otherwise unpunished.

Wikipedia editors have cited this misreading to portray the 5th as a (paraphrased quote) 'political mass-murderer' who ‘employed brutality and terror in his struggle for power' (see 'history' of this article on Oct. 10, 2014 diff and Nov. 20, 2015 diff)