Dharma Wheel

I wonder about this. Dalai Lama is the incarnation of Avalokitesvara.

yet the great compassionate lord ruled over his people like any taken example of our current world ruling elite.

in pre historic tibet people suffered from extreme poverty and bad living conditions, people were illiterate if not monks and basically living a life of slavery.

while the elite monks lived in palaces and enjoyed different pleasures to the fullest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nQNLwh4S8I

i understand this is controversial topic, and even for me it seems that if i question the authority of the dalai lama the whole culture and religious facts, taken for granted in some cases seem to collapse and destroy the whole view of how tibetan buddhist religion is.

so it would be nice to have topic on this, if we can muster in any conversation.

and anyone with any historical knowledge on this topic it would be nice to have that information here.
thanks

We can't say anything about "prehistoric Tibet," really.

But we can talk of "Historic Tibet." In particular, you're talking about Central Tibet after the 5th Dalai Lama, up until the time of the Chinese occupation starting in the late 1950's....just to be clear.

oops , you are correct. that is what I'm talking about. i put the pre word there because i assumed historical tibet is 1959 and before that it is pre historical. anyway, sorry my english skills are seemingly imperfect. heh

KonchokZoepa wrote: i understand this is controversial topic, and even for me it seems that if i question the authority of the dalai lama the whole culture and religious facts, taken for granted in some cases seem to collapse and destroy the whole view of how tibetan buddhist religion is.

Tibetan Buddhism comprises various schools of Buddhism with the goal of guiding practitioners towards enlightenment. You can question any authority at all.

There are examples of people who criticized the structures of Tibetan Buddhism, and the actions of fake/insincere/scheming Lamas - from within Tibetan Buddhism. I even remember some in Words Of My Perfect Teacher.

However, that is different than blaming Tibetan Buddhism for samsara, or for the fact that human society operates under the influence of the three poisons. The Buddha himself couldn't fix samsara, so if one wants to criticize on that level, you can only go by the actions of someone in context, you can't blame them for the operation and/or failings of a whole society, or expect they can magically remake their culture into a pure land.

There are plenty of people out there wishing to make all of Buddhism, or all of Tibetan Buddhism, some kind of grand conspiracy for domination, their sole argument seems to amount to: There are, or were bad Buddhist leaders, or leaders that make, or have made questionable decisions, Tibetan society was no shangri-la etc.

But this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, particularly anyone who has a modicum of understanding of Buddhism, there's a saying that goes something like "Whereever the Dharma is, Maras are bound to be"...pretty common sense stuff.

But people will keep up with their prapanca, because prapanca takes priority..lol.