Tibetan book & film release

Dharamsala: To counter the false narrative of religious persecution provided by a section of people calling themselves ‘Shugden followers’, Sikyong Lobsang Sangay on Wednesday launched a brand new documentary film and a book, providing factual explanations on the worship of this controversial spirit, at DIIR’s Lhakpa Tsering memorial hall here.

The 13-minute documentary film titled ‘Shugden Protesters: Allegations vs Facts’ explores the Dolgyal group’s claims and CTA’s responses and policies.

While the 365-page book is an updated version of an earlier book on Dolgyal featuring articles on Dolgyal by noted Buddhist scholars, which also include the complete Reuters article translated into Tibetan.

Addressing the launch, Sikyong said, “It is with the objective of clarifying the Tibetan administration’s stand and to expose the blatant contortion of facts by these misguided fringe groups that we are releasing this book and film to provide factual and truthful information on the matter.”

“A few misguided people manipulated by the Chinese government have been regularly protesting at teaching venues of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Europe and the US in the past few years. However, there has been a dramatic decrease in their activities since the publication of a Reuters article exposing their complicity with the Chinese government in March.”

“Even so, there are still some instances of such protests by a few misinformed foreigners on social media and elsewhere. Even among the Tibetan youth, there are some rare cases where they seem to question the logic behind this controversy, stemming from their belief in the right to freedom of speech and religion.”

“Therefore, we felt it necessary to compile this book and produce this short documentary film to provide a fresh narrative on the issue,” Sikyong explained.

Sikyong also added that these misguided people are being manipulated by the Chinese government to advance their propaganda of maligning the good name of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the just cause of the Tibetan people led by the Central Tibetan Administration.

Sikyong urged the Chinese government to reform their failed policies in Tibet instead of resorting to instigating misinformed people to foment trouble within the Tibetan community.