I once read an article published in the Canadian newspaper Ottawa Citizen in January 2000. In this article, the author said the Dalai Lamas were not saints but some sensational reports by the Western press had helped the Dalai Lama find instant fame in the international arena.

The article spelt out the disagreement from some people, saying that before China's central government resumed control of Tibet in the early 1950s, feudal serfdom was prevalent and some of its traces are visible even today. So how many Westerners with rational thinking and behaviors would actually choose to live in such a place? Crafty and charismatic the Dalai Lama is, we should not forget that he and his predecessors used to rule Tibet on the basis of fiefdom and democracy was an unknown concept under their rule, the article said.

The major sects of Tibetan Buddhism, it said, were no different from religious nobilities. They exercised spiritual as well as worldly rule over the faithful, the absolute majority of whom were totally illiterate before the Han nationals entered Tibet, it said.

Yet out of certain considerations, many Westerners, including some movie stars, had managed to rationalize and worship such trends that went against the tide of time, the author said. Some people became Dalai Lama worshippers only because they saw in him a challenge to the Communist Party of China's rule, the article said. They had thus labeled the Dalai Lama as a "crusader" and "human rights defender," but turned a blind eye to the feudal nature of the old Tibetan society.

I believe this Westerner's viewpoints make good sense, except that he should have differentiated the upper-class from the lower-class monks when he said the main sects of Tibetan Buddhism were no different from religious nobilities. There was a big difference in old Tibet, where the lower-class monks were no better-off than most serfs and slaves. The ordinary Buddhist monks began to be treated as equals only after the democratic reforms in 1959 abolished the religious privilege at Tibet's lamaseries.

As to the Dalai Lama's "enthusiastic appeal for religious freedom," yes, he is the biggest Living Buddha of the Gelug sect, or the Yellow sect, of Tibetan Buddhism. But he has taken advantage of this title, awarded to him by the Central Government, to firmly take hold of Tibetan Buddhism. A most conspicuous example in recent years is his ban on Dorje Shugden, a deity that has been worshipped by a sect of Tibetan Buddhists for several centuries and is enshrined at many lamaseries and in many homes.

The Dalai Lama, claiming this god is detrimental to his cause and health, grossly banned Shugden worship and threatened to destroy all statues of the deity.

His high-handed acts sparked widespread discontent among the Buddhist faithful, triggered conflicts among the Tibetans and even caused deaths. Some believers staged protests and demonstrations during the Dalai Lama's travels abroad, denouncing him for religious hegemony and sabotaging freedom of faith.

The U.S. magazines Time and Newsweek published articles in 1998, entitled "Monks vs. Monks" and "A Scratch in the Teflon Lama" respectively, to report protests staged by Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns during the Dalai Lama's visit to the United States that year. A Time magazine photo showed demonstrators holding aloft a sign that read "Dalai Lama, please give religious freedom."

Abbot and Living Buddha Gunsa said at a monastery in Switzerland, "If I was to demolish the statue of Dorje Shugden, it would be the same as to demolish the monastery itself. Because I would have to tell the faithful they had been worshipping the wrong god, and they would suspect I had been preaching the wrong religion. They would lose faith in me and even in Tibetan Buddhism."

A Swiss TV producer once told the press that when he interviewed the Dalai Lama about his ban on Dorje Shugden and the subsequent conflicts and violence among the Tibetans, the Dalai Lama hurriedly denied the presence of violence among the Tibetans in exile, and appeared agitated. The producer was shocked to see the usually amiable Dalai Lama suddenly becoming so irritated.

Facts, a Swiss weekly magazine, later commented the influence of Tibetan Buddhism was declining because of the Dalai Lama, who had made a smiling, bowing statue of himself by trying to please the public with claptrap on various occasions.

Now why have some U.S. congressmen been worshipping and preaching about the Dalai Lama regardless of facts? U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "With this gold medal we affirm the special relationship between the Dalai Lama and the United States." This "special relationship" is a long story to tell. The U.S. interference in Tibet's affairs, from after World War II to the founding of the People's Republic of China and on to the "Cold War" decades, was always aimed at checking and opposing socialist China by using the Dalai Lama's ethnic and religious status to erect, in the glory of American democracy, a banner demonstrating that Tibetans were opposed to the Communist Party of China's rule and were seeking democracy and freedom.

Late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, during a meeting with foreign guests in October 1987, said, "The Dalai Lama and a few U.S. congressmen have created a little bit of trouble for us, but this will not affect our overall good situation. On the contrary, all this has revealed their ignorance and arrogance, and exposed their true nature."

Today, some U.S. congressmen are still clinging to the "Cold War mentality" and have extolled the Dalai Lama, who exercises fusion of politics and religion, as a "democracy and human rights fighter." Such practices, which deviate from common sense, will only expose their true nature to more people.