Some months ago I learned about the controversy regarding the worship of Gyalpo Shugden. I was curious to find out more, so I did some research. I was really surprised when I saw the Wikipedia article Dorje Shugden, as it represented only one view of he debate. I tried to make some changes but quickly learned that the article is controlled by a group of users who continually delete any information about the opposing view, held by the Dalai Lama and most other lamas of all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. I don't really care which side is right, but I think it's important that both views are presented to the reader.
The story itself is very simple:
- in the 70's the Dalai Lama declared that this deity is a bad spirit and asked his students not to do this practice
- many people followed his advice, but some didn't
- of those who didn't the most vocal group is NKT, who organise protests in the States when the Dalai Lama comes there
So, the situation now is that most Tibetan Buddhists don't follow Shugden and consider him a bad spirit. Whereas if you read the WP article about Shugden, you get a completely one-sided view that it's a Buddha.
If you really, really want to read more about this dispute, you can check the old, archived version of the Wikipedia article, archived before Shugden worshipers took over it. It contains all references to scientific material they removed:
On the 5th of May the people who control the Gyalpo Shugden article reported me and I was blocked. Fortunately the administrator who blocked me read the request for comments and expressed his opinion, which is very natural and clear: the dubious nature of Shugden should be included in the article summary. Unfortunately the users who control the article will never allow it.
I was wandering why they are putting so much energy into editing Wikipedia and I've finally found an explanation. Because they receive so much criticism, they founded some blogs and pages where they defend themselves. On one of these I found the following quote: "Many people have said they lost faith and many more have not tried out NKT meditation classes in the first place as a result of reading his version of Wikipedia and believing that, because it is an encyclopedia, Wikipedia must be neutral." ([[2]])