Dolgyal Shugden: A History
By The Dolgyal Shugden Research Society
Reviewed by Joseph Szimhart
New York, NY: Tibet House US
(www.tibethouse.us). Distributed by Hay House,
Inc. (www.hayhouse.com).2014. ISBN-13: 978-
1941312-01-8 (ebook), $19.99 list ($9.99,
Amazon.com). 1300 KB, 278 print pages.
Dolgyal Shugden: A History is an anonymously
penned report about the Tibetan deity or
“demon” Shugden, its cult, and the cult’s effect
on the perceptions, politics, and culture of Tibet.
The cult or “new religion” in question has been
centered in the United Kingdom since 1991
under the name New Kadampa Tradition (NKT),
established by Kelsang Gyatso. The NKT has its
base in the former Manjushri Institute, “a large
Buddhist college situated at Conishead Priory in
England from 1976 until its dissolution in 1991”
(Manjushri Institute).
The book’s stated goal is “to clarify the
ignorance and misconceptions surrounding
gyalpo Shugden and his relationship with the
Dalai Lamas of Tibet.” Readers will learn
how, far from being widely worshiped,
historical evidence shows Shugden
received minimal attention, first within
just two, then only one of the four main
Tibetan Buddhist traditions, and then
within the provenance of an influential
but politically motivated, highly
sectarian lama whose practice deviated
significantly from his forbears.
For the past three centuries, Shugden was
regarded as “one of the violent gods” of the
Nyingma or Geluk tradition of the Yellow Hat
teachings headed by Dalai Lamas.
The book offers a thorough context for this
controversial worship of a demon, which is the
original designation for Shugden, who has
wrathful and protector sides similar to Shiva or
Kali of Vedic mythology. A recent news release
not in the book regards a statement by the
current 14th Dalai Lama to a German newspaper
that he would not “reincarnate” in China, and
that also means in Tibet under current political
realities. The 14th Dalai Lama has been in exile
since 1959 in protest of China’s forceful and
often brutal domination of Tibet. In typical
Communist doublespeak, the Chinese authority
demands that the present Dalai Lama follow
Tibetan tradition, in which for the past several
hundred years Dalai and Panchen Lamas have
been reborn in Tibet, and all this in the name of
“freedom of religion.” The 14th Dalai Lama
points out that the Chinese named their own
Panchen Lama child, whom China controls in
protest of Panchen Lama devotees:
In 1995, after the Dalai Lama named a
boy in Tibet as the reincarnation of the
previous Panchen Lama, the second
highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism,
China put that boy under house arrest
and installed another in his place.
(Reuters Edition UK, 2014)
The book rigorously dismisses the NKT cult
claim that Shugden worship “is a simple prayer
… to develop pure minds of faith, love, and
compassion.” The book alleges that
devotees published details boasting of
the spirit’s involvement in the bloody
and wretched deaths of dozens of
genuine, non-sectarian Buddhists … and
implicated in the brutal murder of three
Tibetan monks in India.
The authors compare the NKT and its
authoritarian, “charismatic” leader to the
behavior of infamous cults, including “Moonies”
or followers of Sun Myung Moon, who also
used his power politically to manipulate
governments. NKT exaggerates its influence as
inclusive of “4,000,000” supporters, whereas the
data unearthed by the authors sets devotees at
around “30,000.” The NKT has successfully
sold its “traditional” and charitable Buddhist
image to gain financial advantage of public
funds in the United Kingdom. The NKT has had
a “bogus” front group called Freedom
108 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 6, 2015

Foundation. NKT claims no formal connection
to the political Western Shugden Society, yet
most activists in WSS are NKT members.
The book’s authors claim to have uncovered
evidence of NKT and its leader conspiring with
Chinese Communist authorities, “each of whom
are equally intent on promoting Shugden
worship so as to undermine the reputation of the
Dalai Lama.” The Dalai Lama in 1996 instituted
prohibitions against Shugden worship, which
was established within Buddhist tradition
sometime after 1655 CE. Unnamed Chinese
officials attended a Shugden oracle session in
2004. An oracle approved by the Chinese
“played corporeal host to (Shugden) for a time.”
It appears that Chinese atheists view Shugden as
one of the pantheon of Chinese deities, thus
absorbing a religious side of Tibet into China, as
well.
Shugden means “powerful thunderbolt,” and the
spirit is believed to be that of a learned monk,
Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen (1619–1655), who was a
candidate as a child to become the 5th Dalai
Lama. Instead, he was chosen to be the 3rd
incarnation of the Panchen Lama. A rivalry
developed between devotees of the Dalai Lama
and Panchen Lama—a complicated story about
whether Tulku Drakpa committed suicide or was
murdered—but the result was the appearance of
Shugden through an oracle with attendant signs
and wonders that threatened the Dalai Lama
faction.
Shugden worship bases its reality on what
oracles do, similar to modern New Age
mediums who channel a spirit, god, or angel,
and to Pentecostal evangelists who “prophecy”
while possessed by the Holy Spirit of
Christianity.
Lopez writes (p. 188): “The source of the
difficulty (threatening signs and wonders) was
identified, and a series of lamas and magicians
were called in to exorcise the wrathful spirit.”
The exorcists failed. A compromise was
reached, the Dalai Lama’s Geluk sect or faction
“propitiated” the demon through rituals and
offerings, the demon agreed to desist from harm,
and since then, more than three centuries ago,
Shugden has been a “protector” of Geluk monks
and monasteries (a kind of St. Michael the
Archangel for Buddhists).
The Dalai Lamas including the 14th continue
this tradition of consulting a spirit—the primary
one for a Dalai Lama is the Nechung oracle, not
Shugden. The Dalai Lama is on slippery ground
here, as the authors of Dolgyal Shugden point
out. He is essentially bucking three centuries of
traditional acceptance of Shugden by aspects of
his Geluk sect. Rivals among the NKT also are
quick to point this out. However, according to
the book, the NKT has no ground to claim that
Shugden is an established Bodhisattva, or
enlightened being. That myth is perpetrated only
by the Shugden cult. Deities or demons such as
Shugden have no enlightened status in the
tradition despite having special qualities—sort
of like Catholic saints who specialize in healing,
chastity, protection, or finding lost things, yet
who are in no way equal to God. In fact,
Shugden shrines were already being dismantled
in the 1700s and later because, the book says,
many lamas noted that Shugden was “evil” and
mischievous and anything but an enlightened
spirit.
The NKT however, continues to propagate,
training “teachers” in the naïve West, teachers
who claim to have achieved some kind of
enlightened status based on having passed
courses in the General Program (GP), the
Foundation Program (FP), and the Teacher
Training Program (TTP) designed by NKT. The
GP begins with a “transmission” of the tradition
by a brief reading of one of the leader’s books.
The GP is similar to teaching and initiation
rituals of other hybrid new religions such as
Transcendental Meditation with its watered-
down version of Vedic tradition and success at
making a business or franchise out of Eastern
religion for Western consumption. The GP is the
“McDonaldization” of Tibetan Buddhism, a
term the authors borrow from sociologist George
Ritzer (1995), in which religious experience
becomes quantifiable, controlled, and
predictable. The authors of Shugden: A History
add that NKT devotees involved in the Western
Shugden Society (WSS) as the political arm of
NKT may be unwitting pawns in a political
game, an ongoing power grab for control of the
Tibetan homeland.
International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 6, 2015 109