Foreign Policy Blogs

Controversial Deities

At the beginning of October, Al Jazeera reported on the fascinating developments surrounding the Dalai Lama's ban on the worship of Dorje Shugden , a "500-year-old Deity." The news centered on the tension among Tibetans in India over the issue – and also how the Tibetan exile government says that Shugden worshippers are terrorists linked to China. The fears are that they openly sympathize with China. One website – the Shugden Society – looks at the Dalai Lama's statements and of course argues against the ban on worshipping the deity. Meanwhile, other news reports from two months ago focus on the "schism which could exclude the four million Tibetan followers of Shugden" and the lawsuit, which was brought against the Dalai Lama in India for religious persecution. – Most recently – and unfortunately – the AP is now reporting that the Dalai Lama has been hospitalized and will undergo surgery today.

500yearolddeity.jpg

Picture from “people and power” on Al Jazeera: here
The site also includes a video account of the story.

 

Author

Karin Esposito

Karin Esposito is blogging on religion and politics from her base in Central Asia. Currently, she is the Project Manager for the Tajikistan Dialogue Project in Dushanbe. The Project is run through the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies with the support of PDIV of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. The aim of the project is to establish practical mechanisms for co-existence and peaceful conflict resolution between Islamic and secular representatives in Tajikistan. After receiving a Juris Doctorate from Boston University School of Law in 2007, she worked in Tajikistan for the Bureau of Human Rights and later as a Visting Professor of Politics and Law at the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research (KIMEP). Ms. Esposito also holds a Master's in Contemporary Iranian Politics (2007) from the School of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Iran and a Master's in International Relations (2003) from the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (GIIDS) in Switzerland.

Areas of Focus:
Islam; Christianity; Secularism;

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