More on the Dorje Shugden Controversy and the Dalai Lama

This is a good source, evidently, for the Dorje Shugden point of view.

Apparently, the thing started to unravel in 1996. If your irony meter doesn't go off reading the following, then have it checked:

9 April 1996
The Tibetan Freedom Movement bans the worship of Dorje Shugden by its members.

And here's a blog devoted to the issue of Dorje Shugden and the ongoing actions by the Dalai Lama against them.

Now, I have no stake in the issue of whose practice is "more Buddhist," whether it's the Dorje Shugden folk or the Dalai Lama folk.  But what I do have a stake in is the uncritical attitude in the Western Buddhist blogosphere toward the Dalai Lama given the history, which often takes the form of China-bashing. And if we mean religious freedom, dammit, let's mean it: as long as no one is in danger of harming themselves or others, religious beliefs and practices should be allowed.

Of course the Chinese government is not unaware of this, and to me, it all seems like a case of pots calling the kettles black.