Buddha’s Not Smiling

Description

The day the last monastery in Shangri-La fell—

Buddha’s Not Smiling is the anatomy of a crisis. On August 2, 1993, Rumtek monastery was attacked. Its monks were expelled and the cloister was given to a lama appointed by the Chinese government. But Rumtek was not in China, and its attackers were not Communist troops. Rumtek was in India, the refuge for most exiled Tibetans. And it was Tibetan lamas and monks themselves who led the siege. Evidence shows the Chinese Communists directly supported Tibetan lamas and monks who attacked Rumtek monastery.

Why was Rumtek attacked? For a decade, the Chinese government has appointed puppet lamas to strengthen its control over occupied Tibet. Shockingly, the Chinese have recruited Tibetan leaders in exile to further these goals. Politically appointed lamas threaten the integrity of Tibetan Buddhism, yet thousands of Buddhists worldwide are unaware of this controversy, the picture blurred by media bias towards current Buddhist leaders. Buddha’s Not Smiling challenges readers to judge for themselves the health of Tibetan Buddhism today.