5th Dalai Lama - Other Activities

Other Activities

The Fifth Dalai Lama was the first to institutionalize the State Oracle of Nechung. He instituted Pehar Gyalpo as the protector of the Tibetan government, thus Nechung Monastery became the seat of Tibet's State Oracle (not Dholgyal Shugden). Nechung (Ne means place and chung means small) was a shrine dedicated to Pehar, located at west of Tibet's capital, Lhasa. The role of Pehar as protector to Tibet can be traced back to 8th century, where Pehar was bound to oath by Padmasambhava as head of the hierarchy of protectors for Tibet, with Dorje Drakden as his chief emissary. The Great Fifth (Fifth Dalai Lama) also composed Dra-Yang-Ma (Melodic Chant), a text of self-generation practice and an invocation of the protector, was incorporated ans preserved into the monastic rites until the present time.

The position of Nechung was well documented in one particular account to ward off evil spirit (around 1669). The Fifth Dalai Lama in his autobiography entry has specifically mentioned the distorting "evil spirit" from Dhol Chumig Karmo (Shugden's place of origin; which directly refers to (Dholgyal) Shugden) .... has been harming the teaching of the Buddha and sentient beings in general and in particular. A new house (not shrine nor temple) was constructed and articles were placed there in the hope it would become a place for the Gyalpo (evil spirit) to settle. However, the evil spirit's harmful activities only intensified and causes many lay and ordained people afflicted with diseases and death of few monks. A fire ritual was performed and in this prayers, along with all Dharma Protectors, Nechung and his entourage was summoned to ward off the evil spirit, (Dholgyal)Shugden...

He ordered a temple to be built in Lhasa, called Trode Khangsar, which was designated as a "protector house" (btsan khan) for Dorje Shugden. He also crafted the first statue of Dorje Shugden which is currently at Gaden Phelgyeling Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal.

However this was misunderstood by some as elevation of (Dholgyal)Shugden as protector by the Fifth Dalai Lama, instead it was his intention to appease the Dholgyal, evil spirit(Gyalpo), from Dhol Chumig Karmo, in short Dholgyal. The status of (Dolgyal) Shugden was reconfirmed by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama in his letter to Phabongkhapa Dechen Nyingpo (Phabongka Rinpoche), where he identified (Dolgyal) Shugden as "...wrathful worldly spirit....contradicts the precepts of taking refuge". In reply, Phabongka Rinpoche, active promoter of Shugden's practice, has admitted his mistake in propitiating Shugden (Dolgyal) as a protector and repented his act before the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. In the same letter Phabongka Rinpoche mentioned "..I have propitiated Shugden until now because my old mother told me that Shugden is the deity of my maternal lineage..", which reconfirmed the practice of Shugden was not originated from Gelugpa lineage and altogether dismiss the misunderstanding that the Fifth Dalai Lama has elevated (Dholgyal) Shugden status as protector...

He established a centralized, dual system of government under the Gyalwa Rinpoche (i.e., the Dalai Lama), divided equally between laymen and monks (both Gelugpa and Nyingmapa); this form of government, with few changes, survived up to modern times. He also instituted the Lhasa Mönlam, the New Year Festival or "Great Prayer of Lhasa".

It was under his rule that the "rule of religion" was finally firmly established "even to the layman, to the nomad, or to the farmer in his fields". This was not only the supremacy of the Gelugpa school over Bön, or over the other Buddhist schools, but "the dedication of an entire nation to a religious principle".

Lobsang Gyatso was the first to declare Bön to be a fifth school of Buddhism in Tibet. This position was restated in 1987 by Tenzin Gyatso, the current, 14th Dalai Lama, who also forbade discrimination against the Bönpo. However, Tibetans still differentiate between Bön and Buddhism, calling members of the Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu and Gelug schools "nangpa " (meaning "insider"), but referring to practitioners of Bön as "bönpo".