KĀLACAKRA AND THE DALAI LAMAS/GELUGPA. The 20th Century/Chinese communist roots of mass Kālacakra empowerments; the 9th Panchen Lama and Chinese support for the first public empowerments , the 14th Dalai Lama’s takeover of Kālacakra in Tibet and exile, inappropriate timing of the empowerments and the Gelugpa’s mass suppression of other lineages and texts

“The first Kālacakra initiation that was given to large diverse public audiences outside of Tibet was conducted not by the 14^th  Dalai Lama, but by the 9^th  Panchen Lama at the turn of the twentieth century. Nine such Kālacakra initiations were given by the Ninth Panchen Lama from 1928 to 1936.” –Daigengna Duoer (2018)

“The purpose of setting up these [exile] offices [in China] was due to the 9^th Panchen Lama’s concern for “national security and the suffering of the Tibetan people,” as well as a wish to “collaborate with comrades on the revolution front and pursue the liberation of the Tibetan people.” (Document from 1929)

“Traditionally, the Tantras are not meant for mass-teachings. But, the political usage that the Kuomitang China indulged in while putting [Ninth] Panchen Lama in the fore turned out to be a precedent. When the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1950, the current Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso was just a 15 year old boy. He was facilitated by communist China to organize two Kālacakra public ceremonies in Tibet( May 1954 & April 1956).” –Niraj Kumar (2020)

Today, for the new moon and Festival of Lights (Diwali) in India, am happy to offer this article on the history of mass Kālacakra empowerment in Tibet as transmitted by the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. One of my specialist research subjects is Kālacakra and I have published a book on the Kālacakra preliminaries and written several research articles about the Kālacakra tantra and practice and its connection to Karma Kagyu, Jonang, Nyingma and Sakya lineages. So here is an overview of the Dalai Lamas connection to Kālacakra, which became renowned mainly with the 14^th, who in the last fifty years or so has given the most Kālacakra mass empowerments in India and abroad.

The seventeen (or so) Kālacakra lineages that came from India (and Nepal) into Tibet, are well-documented by the Jonang and Shangpa Kagyu master, Jetsun Tāranātha in the introductory chapters of his Kālacakra masterpiece Hundred Blazing Lights (O-Gya Barwa) for my outline and translation of that text, see here. These lineages all came down from Indian masters into the Karma Kagyu, Nyingma and Jonang lineages in particular.  So how did the Gelugpas, more specifically the 14^th Dalai Lama, become seen in the last fifty years or so as the ‘owners’ and bestowers of Kālacakra?   After all, it is it is well-known that the 14^th Dalai Lama/Gelugpas do not have the full  transmission of Dro Kālacakra, and still get their instruction on completion stage Kālacakra from Jonang teachers in Tibet and exile.  

This article is a brief overview of how the Dalai Lamas/Gelugpas came to take over and bestow mass empowerments of the highest yoga tantra practice of Kālacakra. The first part of the article is on the history of mass initiations of Kālacakra in Tibet. As I started to research this, I was surprised by what I uncovered, and you might be too! In summary, the first Kālacakra mass public empowerments were first bestowed in Tibet by the 9^th Panchen Lama, who had actually fallen out with the 13^th Dalai Lamas/Gelugpa rulers over excessively high and unfair taxations (which seems to have been the norm of the Ganden government to inflict as punishment on the other lineages) and had to leave Tibet into exile. This led to the 9^th Panchen Lama collaborating  with the Chinese communist government for the liberation of the Tibetan people who, according to the Panchen Lama were undergoing extreme suffering from the Gelugpa/Ganden ruling and aristocratic classes.  The 9^th Panchen Lama (with the support of the Chinese) then gave the first nine mass Kālacakra initiations in Inner Mongolia, China and India before being allowed to return to Tibet, where he also gave two initiations.  

The second part of the essay will focus on why and how the Dalai Lamas transmitted Kālacakra publicly en masse and his 20th Century takeover (initially also for political purposes arranged by the Chinese communists) from the ^9th Panchen Lama.  I include citations from the work of several scholars, including renowned Indian scholar and Sanskritist, Dr. Niraj Kumar, who recently translated part of the Kālacakra Tantra.  Dr. Kumar also asserts in his introduction that the 14th Dalai Lama has actually bestowed the Kālacakra empowerment at inappropriate times according the tantra itself, more on that below. 

It is important as intellectuals, academics, scholars, translators and human beings to be able to freely express our opinions regarding the actions and words of public and well-known figures (religious or not).  For that reason, Dr. Kumar’s work is an important and valuable addition to the Kālacakra research, not just for this insight, but others (more on that soon)!

In sum, the history of Kālacakra in Tibet as a mass empowerment, and its use and transmission by the 14th Dalai Lama/Gelugpas is not as innocent/clear-cut as many people might think. And, like the imposed recognition of the Jetsun Khalkha Dampa, has ‘controversial’ political and social roots, often unknown to the general public. May this article be of benefit in bringing benefit to Tibetans in Tibet and exile, and Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, and ensuring that independent research on Tibetan history thrives and flourishes

Music? Kālacakra mantra by Jonang Khentrul Rinpoche and the Vietnamese sangha, Honesty by Billy Joel, Gimme Some Truth by John Lennon and I Won’t Back Down by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Written and compiled by Adele Tomlin, 12th November 2023.

The first mass public Kālacakra initiation – 9th Panchen Lama in collaboration with the Chinese communist government aimed at unifying the ‘five nationalities’

Normally, in India and Nepal, highest yoga tantra initiations were given one to one, between a qualified teacher and student, or in very small groups, not to masses of people most of whom are unqualified.  The classic example is that of the Indian Mahasiddha, Tilopa who refused to give any Vajrayana teachings to the famed Nālanda scholar Nāropa, until he had served him like a slave for three years and when he ordered him to jump off a roof, which he immediately did.  These days, a sign of the degenerate times, anyone can sign up for Vajrayana empowerments online with teachers who do not know and have never met the recipients, and vice versa. Often these empowerments are done for money (suggested donations).

In Making the Esoteric Public: The Ninth Panchen Lama and the Trans-ethnonational Rituals of the Kālacakra Initiations in Early Twentieth-Century East Asia, researcher Daigengna Duoer (2018) wrote that:  

“Since May 1954, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama has conducted thirty-four Kālacakra initiations outside of Tibet. The most recent initiation, which had 200,000 people in attendance, was carried out in January 2017 in Bodhgaya, India….

However, the first Kālacakra initiation that was given to large diverse public audiences outside of Tibet was conducted not by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, but by the Ninth Panchen Lama at the turn of the twentieth century. Nine such Kālacakra initiations were given by the Ninth Panchen Lama from 1928 to 1936. Tens of thousands of attendees from Inner Mongolia, Republic of China, and parts of Amdo, such as Mongol lords and princes, Chinese politicians and war lords, foreign dignitaries, distinguished Buddhists from various transnational traditions, celebrities, socialites, university students, as well as thousands of interested individuals, all flocked to the rituals.” 

I was also interested to discover that the 9th Panchen Lama had actually had a dispute with the 13^th Dalai Lama and went into exile travelling in Inner Mongolia and the Republic of China (ROC): 

“In 1923, due to disputes with the Thirteenth Dalai Lama over taxation imposed on Tashilhunpo, the Ninth Panchen Lama left Tibet and began more than a decade of exiled travel in Inner Mongolia and the Republic of China. Beijing in January 1925, he gave a speech read by Lozang Gyeltsen at the National Reconstruction Conference (C: shanhou huiyi 善後會議). The speech denounced internal disputes within the ROC government over power struggles and suggested the “collaboration of the five nationalities” (C: wuzu gongzhu 五族共助).15 This was the first time that the Panchen Lama had used the ROC’s rhetoric of the “Five Races under One Union” (C: wuzu gonghe 五族共和) in public. In the following months of the same year, the Panchen Lama gave a series of Green and White Tārā and Amitāyus initiations at Mount Wutai, as well as in Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai.

In August 1925, he was given the title of “Propagating Righteousness and Spreading Salvation” (C: xuancheng jishi 宣誠濟世) by the ROC government through the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission to commemorate his efforts at spreading the dharma outside of Tibet.” In fact, by the end of 1929, the 9^th Panchen Lama set up several offices in China, Inner Mongolia, Machuria and India with the full support of the Chinese government[i]  According to two correspondences sent from the Office of the Panchen Lama in Nanjing to the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, the purpose of setting up these offices was due to the Panchen Lama’s concern for “national security and the suffering of the Tibetan people,” as well as a wish to “collaborate with comrades on the revolution front and pursue the liberation of the Tibetan people.” (Doer, 2018)

It is also clear from the document that more and more Tibetans were traveling outside of Tibet and that these offices would provide satellite support[ii].  

 The 9^th Panchen Lama and the Kālacakra mass initiations 

Duoer (2018) provides a fascinating insight into the 9^th Panchen Lama’s nine Kalacakra initiations both outside and inside Tibet (probably unknown to most of the general public):

“During his years of exile outside of Tibet, the Ninth Panchen Lama performed numerous tantric initiations. According to Fabinne Jagou, two hagiographies of the Panchen Lama enumerate eighteen tantric initiations given to the public.  They are nine Kālacakra initiations and nine long life initiations (five Amitāyus, three Tārā, and one uncertain).

Amongst these rites, the Kālacakra initiations were particularly well-attended by not only Buddhist donors but also citizens from various parts of society. The nine Kālacakra initiations also received considerably more media coverage in newspapers and periodicals. The table below summarizes the details of these initiations.”

TABLES

It is worth reading about these initiations in Duoer’s paper, as they describe the history of the first time mass media, marketing, merchandise and so on were used to promote and make money from these highest yoga tantra empowerments attended by powerful and wealthy Chinese politicians, businessmen, movie actresses and monastics.   Such events became huge social events.   After giving initiations in Inner Mongolia and China, the 9^th Panchen Lama then returned to Tibet to give two more:

“From August 13 to August 15 in 1935, the eighth Kālacakra initiation performed by the ninth Panchen Lama was held in the Kumbum Monastery in Amdo. The Panchen Lama had just finished his tour in Inner Mongolia, north, and south China, and was preparing for his official return to Tibet. The patrons of the initiation were said to be the abbot of Kumbum and the monastic population there; the ritual reportedly drew around 50,000 attendees, including both the entire monastic population at Kumbum and many lay attendees from nearby. 

A news article published in The New York Times on February 14, 1936 describes the event: “Half a million tribesmen, gathered from all parts of Tibet, Mongolia and West China amid Oriental pomp and magnificence, have paid tribute at the famed Kumbum Monastery, near here, to the Panchen Lama.”  The American photographer and journalist Harrison Forman was quoted saying that the “Living Buddha” planned to travel to Lhasa within a few weeks, whence he was exiled eleven years ago by the Dalai Lama.

The article also reports that an unnamed high Chinese official arrived at the Kālacakra initiation with 500 Chinese troops at the height of the ceremony. In July 1936, the Ninth Panchen Lama performed his last Kālacakra initiation at Labrang for a public audience made up of monastics and laities who traveled from other parts of Tibet and Mongolia totaling at 60,000 people.

The nine Kālacakra initiations performed by the Ninth Panchen Lama were allegedly the first higher yoga-tantra initiations held outside of central Tibet.  Tantric initiations of that nature were also widely understood to be rarely performed to the public even in Tibet. Why was this ritual based on the highest level of yoga-tantra performed to such large audiences? Why were they so well-received by the masses? 

 The Panchen Lama and his retinue did receive compensations for the religious services, but it remains unclear if these compensations were to be paid as taxes owed to Lhasa. Jagou also argues that in addition to the possibility that the Panchen Lama was  giving the Kālacakra initiations out of altruistic goals, “he could also take advantage of these large gatherings to find supporters who could help him return to Tibet, and through the power of the Kālacakra let his cause be known to a  larger audience.”

This seems to be the most appropriate reading, as we will see when we explore the public features of the Kālacakra initiations and how making the esoteric public in fact was able to increase considerable political, social, and religious capital and visibility for the Panchen Lama to prepare him for his return to Tibet following the death of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama as a well-connected leader. “

Mongolians, Han Chinese and Kālacakra

In terms of the Mongolian and Han Chinese connection to Kālacakra, the Mongolians had a particularly strong connection to it and hence to the 9th Panchen Lama too:

“The Mongolians have been patrons of Gelugpa Buddhism since the sixteenth century. As one of the most important tantras for the Gelugpas, the Kālacakratantra and its affiliated traditions have been dominant in the Mongolian regions since the late seventeenth century .

The Kālacakra practices in Mongolia were important to the Mongolian national, religious, and cultural identities. The idea of an imagined community that is the Mongols, who are the descendants of Chinggis Khan and the children of the mythical kingdom of Shambhala, was crucial to the Mongols of both Outer and Inner Mongolia, especially during the political turmoil of the twentieth century. On top of that, according to the legends described in the Kālacakratantra, the prophesied twenty-fifth king of Shambhala will be a reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, who will accede the throne in 2327 AD and become victorious in protecting the Dharma when “barbarians” attack to threaten the transmission of Buddhism in the world.

For the Mongols, the Ninth Panchen Lama, the lineage holder who will be reincarnated into the future savior king of Shambhala, was more than the perfect master to carry out Kālacakra initiations. This would partially explain why the five Kālacakra initiations performed by the Ninth Panchen Lama in Inner Mongolia attracted so many attendees who would travel for days just to attend the ritual, despite the rather low population density of the region at the turn of the twentieth century. “

As for the Chinese connection that was not so strong at all, but they saw an opportunity to influence the Tibetans and Mongols:

“Although the Manchu rulers of the Qing empire officially endorsed Tibetan Gelug Buddhism, it was not popularized outside of the imperial circles and certainly not amongst the Han Chinese Buddhists. The Kālacakratantra was also not translated nor included into the Chinese Buddhist canon at this point. However, being aware of the Panchen Lama’s status and influence amongst the Tibetans and the Mongols, especially after witnessing the popular reception of the Kālacakra initiations in Inner Mongolia, the Chinese donors saw potential in the highly revered Lama to “propagate” the Nanjing government’s policies to the ethnic minorities at the frontiers and to “edify” them of the necessity of pledging allegiance to the new republic.” (Duoer 2018)

See also Esther Bianchi’s paper (2004) on the ‘tantric re-birth’ in China. This Chinese interest was continued initially with the 14th Dalai Lama before he escaped Tibet into exile. Ironically, in a strange karmic twist, in 2017, the Chinese government were recently reported as having declared it illegal to participate in Kālacakra events in India or in China. Beginning in November 2017, authorities allegedly began confiscating passports of Tibetans who were authorized to travel abroad in preparation for Kālacakra.

The Dalai Lamas and Kālacakra

In a very helpful introduction to a new translation of the Kālacakra Tantra, the Indian scholar and director of the Indian Ministry of Culture, Dr. Niraj Kumar (for a recent review of his book, see here) explains how the Dalai Lamas came to takeover this mass empowerment in Tibet and traces the history of the connection of Kālacakra with the Gelugpas and previous Dalai Lamas. Interestingly, he shows how there was no real interest by the Dalai Lamas in the Kālacakra practice until the seventeenth century and that the Fifth Dalai Lama, in particular, was against the Kālacakra tradition (as then practised and transmitted in particular by the Jonangpas who he/the Gelugpas severely suppressed):

“The title “Dalai Lama” was granted to the Geluk head Sönam Gyatso (1543–1588 AD) by  Altan Khan (1507–1582 AD), ruler of the Tümed Mongols during a series of meetings that began on 19 June 1578 in Qinghai province of China. This was retrospectively applied by Sönam Gyatso, the Third Dalai Lama. Such was the political underpinning behind the title that Sönam Gyatso compared his relationsjip with Altan Khan like that of Shakya master Phakpa and Mongol ruler Kublai Khan. Altan Khan’s great-grandson, Yönten Gyatso, became his successor as the Fourth Dalai Lama.

1^st Dalai Lama

The First Dalai Lama, Gendun Drup (1391–1474 AD.) was a great scholar. He was taught KālacakraTantra  by Tsongkhapa (1357–1419 AD), the founder of Geluk sect. Even Bodong master Chokley Namgyal, Tsongkhapa, Khedrup Je (First Panchen Lama), Gyaltsep Je and Pakpa Yontsen Gyatso helped Gendun Drup to understand the Kālacakra philosophy. He wrote two “Notes on Kālacakra .” 

3^rd Dalai Lama

Sonam Gyatso, the Third Dalai Lama, founded Namgyal Monastery in the year 1575 AD. Neither he nor his next successor had much interest in the Kālacakra teachings.

5^th Dalai Lama

Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (1617-1682 AD) became the  Fifth Dalai Lama. His teacher, Panchen Chokyi Gyaltsen was a great exponent in Kālacakra practises. But, the Fifth Dalai Lama was against the Kālacakra practices. He destroyed the Jonang monasteries and regarded them as heretics for their zhentong view of reality. Jonangs considered that there is a luminous substratus of reality, the Vajra-dhātu and that it can be experienced by following  the completion stage practise of Kālacakra. But, Fifth Dalai Lama was a strong votary of Prasangika Madhyamaka’s view of emptiness. He collected texts on Kālacakra from different monasteries in Tibet forcibly and those were sealed away in the Nechu Temple at Drepung Monastery, Lhasa. 

The collection has recently been discovered by Sherab Sangpo, a Tibetologist based in Beijing. A  two-volume catalogue of the old texts discovered at Drepung Monastery  has been published by Nationalities Press,   Beijing( 2004). It lists some 317 individual texts on Kālacakra from noted masters from Kadam, Sakya, Kagyü, Jonang, and Geluk, as well as works on Kālacakra astronomy by the Nyingma author Lochen Dharmaśrī. 

7^th Dalai Lama

Kelzang Gyatso( 1708-1757 AD) became the  Seventh Dalai Lama. Kālacakra was his main practice. He composed a full-length Kālacakrasadhana.   He began providing Kālacakra  initiations to large communities of ordained and lay practitioners in Tibet.

13^th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso

The Ninth through Twelfth Dalai Lamas  were not influential and short-lived. None of these Dalai Lamas lived beyond twenty-one years of age.  Then came Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso( 1876-1933 AD). He had been  in exile once in Mongolia and once in British India.Then he fell out with Panchen Lama. He and the Ninth Panchen Lama, Thubten Choekyi Nyima (1883–1937) had a dispute with regard to taxations. Panchen Lama went into exile in China and took to mass initiation of Kālacakra empowerment in Inner Mongolia and China. The first initiation was given in 1926 AD.  He gave a total of nine Kālacakra initiations.The ceremony in Peking was held on October 21-24 in 1932 and attended by 60.000 participants. In 1934, he organized the Kālacakra ceremony in as far south as Hangzhou.” (Kumar, 2020).

The Chinese communist roots of the 14^th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso’s mass Kālacakra empowerments

As for the 14th Dalai Lama,  Dr. Niraj Kumar (2022) writes:

“Traditionally, the Tantras are not meant for mass-teachings, but the political usage that the Kuomitang China indulged in while putting Panchen Lama in the fore turned out to be a precedent. When the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1950, the current Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (b.1935-)  was just a 15 year old boy. He was facilitated by the communist China to organize two Kālacakra public ceremonies in Tibet(May 1954 & April 1956). It is only in the year 2016 that a Kālacakra ceremony was held under the current, new Panchen Lama ( an ethnic Mongol named Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu )  in Tibet after a gap of 60 years.”

The 14th Dalai Lama has so far, given thirty-four public empowerments, the last one being in Bodh Gaya, 2017 (for full list, see endnote below).

Bad roots and bad timing?  Full moon requirement for Kālacakra Empowerments

The roots/purpose of mass Kālacakra empowerments by the 14th Dalai Lama are questionable, but also the timing of them has been challenged. The last Kālacakra empowerment by the 14^th Dalai Lama was in 2017 in Bodh Gaya. According to Niraj Kumar these public ceremonies have been conducted at improper times and not in consonance with the Kālacakra text. He writes that:

“Stanza 5 of the Third Paṭala mentions that the Kālacakra initiation should be given only during the first Full Moon of the lunar year.  

चैत्र अन्ते श्वेत पर्वे परहित गुरुणा मण्डलं वर्तयित्त्वा देयाः सप्ताभिषेकाः कलुष मलहराः  पुण्य हेतोः सुतानां (caitra ante śveta parve parahita guruṇā maṇḍalaṃ vartayittvā deyāḥ saptābhiṣekāḥ kaluṣa malaharāḥ  puṇya hetoḥ sutānāṃ)

Seven initiations through the maṇḍala  are to be provided for the sake of benefits of the sentient beings by the Guru on the Full Moon day at the end of the Caitra(1st lunar month) .

This generally falls in April. Except 2nd, 8th, 17th and  29th, remaining 30 public initiations by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama is not as per the tradition.  No appropriate discursive justification has been provided by his official monastery, Namgyal monastery.”

Kumar also calls out what he terms the ‘duplicity’ of the 14^th Dalai Lama for excluding great Indian panditas who subscribed to the view of Svatāntrika –Madhyamaka from the 17 Nalanda Panditas. He says:

“The fourteenth Dalai Lama follows Candrakīrti’s Prasangika Madhyamaka. Critics may call out his duplicity in pursuing independent interpretation to change the tradition, which in fact is contrary to the Prasangika approach. Independent interpretation is allowed among the Svatāntrika –Madhyamaka of Bhavaviveka school. But Fourteenth Dalai Lama is very critical of this school and has excluded all the great Paṇḍitas who subscribed to this view from his famous list of seventeen Nalanda Paṇḍita.” 

General Gelugpa suppression and theft of other lineage monasteries, texts and freedom of practice/thought

In fact, the major forms that the Gelugpa domination took against the other lineages, according to contemporary scholars were:

1.  the suppression, marginalisation or co-option of those traditions of magical warcraft which had been used against the rise of the Geluk school. Examples include the suppression of the Karma Kagyu and Jonang ; marginalisation of the “Nangtsey faction” of the Nyingma and co-option of the war magic of the Northern Treasures as well as some aspects of other traditions’ war magic, such as the Drigungpa .
2.  the effective re-construction of the Nyingma school under the wing of the Ganden Phodrang’s political authority, in particular through the patronage of Dorje Drak (Rdo rje brag) and Mindrolling (Smin grol gling) monasteries.
3. the institution of state-sponsored rituals based on the Fifth Dalai Lama’s own visionary experiences and revelations.
4. the establishment of discourse hegemony in the field of Tibetan magicoreligious historiography, and thus over the discourse of war ritual magic itself.

These last two aspects—concerning state rituals and discourse hegemony—were especially augmented by Desi Sanggye Gyatso after the Fifth Dalai Lama’s death in 1682. See pp. 52-53,in Solomon George FitzHerbert (2018).

It was, however, only in the 17th and 18th century that there was a wholesale ban placed on the most famous writings of traditions, such as Jonang, Sakya, Kagyu, and Nyingma by the princes of the ruling Gelug tradition. A survey of the existing blocks in Central Tibet was undertaken by the Tagdra regent in 1956. This notes the existence of printing blocks, many of which were sealed, by order of the Government of the Ganden Podrang. The list of the banned books included the works of such philosophical masters as Dolpopa, Taranatha, the Five Patriarchs of the Sakya, and Karma Mikyo Dorje. Prohibitions against the striking of impressions of the Tagten Puntsoling Monastery of the Jonang was only lifted in the mid-19th century through the efforts of the the scholar Losal Tenkyong. This year, the 17th Karmapa spoke about how the Gelugpas, under the leadership of the 5th Dalai Lama forcefully took over many monasteries created by the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje.

Heresies of the same time led to the banning of the writings of the founder of the great Gelug monastery of Drepung, Jamyang Choje Tashi Palden (1379-1449), and those of one of Musepa Lodro Rinchen Sengge, one of the earliest scholastic hierarchs of the the Je College of Sera. Heresy of some sort was
at the heart of the early Gelug tradition. The ban of the writings of these great masters was so thorough that we cannot find even a full listing of their compositions. The works of Jamyang Choje were kept on the altar at Drepung but were not permitted to be opened. (E. Gene Smith (2004).

See also Cecile Ducher (2020) on the many sealed texts of other Tibetan Buddhist lineages re-discovered at Drepung monastery.

In conclusion, the history of the 14th Dalai Lama’s mass Kālacakra empowerments in Tibet and exile (like the imposed recognition of the Jetsun Khalkha Dampa) has ‘controversial’ political and social roots and history, which is being revealed more and more by scholars.

Cited Sources

Bianchi, Esther (2004) THE TANTRIC REBIRTH MOVEMENT IN MODERN CHINA ESOTERIC BUDDHISM RE-VIVIFIED BY THE JAPANESE AND TIBETAN TRADITIONS. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hung. Volume 57 (1), 31–54 (2004)

Daigengna Duoer. (2023). Making the Esoteric Public: The Ninth Panchen Lama and the Trans-ethnonational Rituals of the Kālacakra Initiations in Early Twentieth-Century East Asia. Acta Mongolica, 18(532), 131–175. Retrieved from https://journal.num.edu.mn/actamongolica/article/view/5795.

Ducher, Cecile (2020) Goldmine of Knowledge: The Collections of the Gnas bcu lha khang in ‘Bras spungs Monastery, Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines.

Kumar, Niraj (2022) Kālacakra Tantra: Vol 1.  D.K Printworld.

Smith, E. Gene (2004).  Banned Books in the Tibetan Speaking Lands. In 21st Century Tibet Issue: Symposium on Contemporary Tibetan Studies. Collected Papers. Taipei: Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, pp. 368–81. https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/en/search/search_detail.jsp?seq=151190.

Solomon, George Fitzherbert, RITUALS AS WAR PROPAGANDA IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TIBETAN GANDEN PHODRANG STATE IN THE MID-17TH CENTURY, Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 27 (2018) : 49-119.

China Deems Dalai Lama’s Kalacakra Ceremonies Illegal to Attend. Lion’s Roar (2017)

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Endnotes

[i] By the end of 1929, eight Offices of the Ninth Panchen Lama had opened in the ROC, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, and India with the support of the ROC government. They are located in Nanjing (capital city of the ROC government in South China), Beiping (today’s Beijing, in North China), Chengdu (in Sichuan), Fengtian (today’s Shenyang, in Manchuria), Xining (in Qinghai), Xilinhot (in Inner Mongolia), Taiyuan (in Shanxi), and Darjeeling (in India).

[ii] In the Manifesto of the Establishment of the Office of the Panchen Lama in Nanjing (C: banchan zhujing bangongchu chengli xuanyan 班禪駐京辦公處成立宣言) written by the Office in Nanjing, it is stated that the offices of the Panchen Lama had three main goals: to collaborate with the ROC in carrying out the “Unity of the Five Nationalities” (C: wuzu gonghe 五族共和), which meant unity between the Han, Manchu, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Hui Muslims; and campaigns of dispelling invasions from “aggressive neighbors” (C: qianglin 強鄰);

2. to help and lead the people of Tibet in ethnic equality towards self-determination

and autonomy (C: zijue, zizhi 自決，自治);

3. to protect and preserve the religion of Tibet in order to spread the rightful

spirit of Buddhism for world peace.

[iii] Until now, the 14th Dalai Lama has conducted 34 Kālacakra public initiations. The list compiled from his personal website is given below:

1.  May 1954 / Norbulingka, Lhasa, Tibet

2.  April 1956 / Norbulingka, Lhasa, Tibet

3.  March 1970 / Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India

4.  January 1971 / Bylakuppe, Karnataka, India

5.  December 1974 / Bodhgayā, Bihar, India

6.  September 1976 / Leh, Ladakh, India

7.  July 1981 / Madison, Wisconsin, USA

8.  April 1983 / Dirang, Arunachal Pradesh, India

9.  August 1983 / Tabo, Himachal Pradesh, India

10.  July 1985 / Rikon, Switzerland

11.  December 1985 / Bodhgayā, Bihar, India

12.  July 1988 / Zanskar, Jammu & Kashmir, India

13.  July 1989 / Los Angeles, California, USA

14.  December 1990 / Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh, India

15.  October 1991 / New York, New York, USA

16.  August 1992 / Kalpa, Himachal Pradesh, India

17.  April 1993 / Gangtok, Sikkim, India

18.  July 1994 / Jispa, Himachal Pradesh, India

19.  December 1994 / Barcelona, Spain

20.  January 1995 / Mundgod, Karnataka, India

21.  August 1995 / Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

22.  June 1996 / Tabo, Himachal Pradesh, India

23.  September 1996 / Sydney, Australia

24.  December 1996 / Salugara, West Bengal, India

25.  August 1999 / Bloomington, Indiana, USA

26.  August 2000 / Kyi, Himachal Pradesh, India

27.  October 2002 / Graz, Austria

28.  January 2003 / Bodhgayā, Bihar, India

29.  April 2004 / Toronto, Ontario, Canāda

30.  January 2006 / Amarvati, Andhra Pradesh, India

31.  July 2011 / Washington, DC, USA

32.  January 2012 / Bodhgayā, Bihar, India

33.  July 2014 / Leh (Ladakh), Jammu & Kashmir, India

34.  January 2017 / Bodhgayā, Bihar, India”