The International Shugden Community has announced that they will completely stop any form of protest against the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet from 1st December 2015 and dissolve the community from March 10, 2016 according to their official website announcement which bears only that information and evidently we haven’t noticed any protests till now.
The website of the community bears under the heading of ‘A Special Announcement’, “The Directors of the International Shugden Community previously announced that from 1 Dec 2015 they had decided to completely stop organising demonstrations against the Dalai Lama. Now, from the 10th March 2016 the International Shugden Community itself will dissolve, including its websites.
May everybody be happy.
Len Foley
Representative of the International Shugden Community”
According to a Reuter’s report, it claims that the group has disbanded after the Reuters exposed Chinese backing for the group to harass the Dalai Lama in the name of Shugden controversy wherever His Holiness travelled in the world to taint his position.
The report says “The announcement comes after a Reuters investigation revealed in December that China’s ruling Communist Party backs the Buddhist religious sect behind the protests that have confronted the Dalai Lama in almost every country he visits. Reuters found that the sect had become a key instrument in China’s campaign to discredit the Tibetan spiritual leader.”
The Shugden was a religious deity in Gelug sect of Tibetan buddhism which the Tibetans including His Holiness the Dalai Lama worshipped in the past and disowned by His Holiness since 1978 stating that it was “very negative, very harmful” and advised his followers to stop worshipping it.
However not every follower listened to His Holiness and accused him of depriving their religious freedom.
The Shugden controversy has been negatively used by China to taint the position of the Dalai Lama and create division within the Tibetan community. There are many westerners who have been taking active participation in the protests against the Dalai Lama in order to attract more attention into the controversy.
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