venerated for over three hundredyears. The Shugden controversy arose in the late 1970s, when thecurrent Dalai Lama started to speak out against the practice, andthis was intensified in 1996, when he published an "explicitban", suppressing the practice within the Tibetan exilecommunity and considering Shugden as a non-illuminated and a being ofdarkness, a "spirit of the dark forces."The vehement prohibition of the practice by the DalaiLama (although it was presented as "advice" - see:http://tibet.net/2008/06/05/his-holiness-the-dalai-lamas-advice-concerningdolgyal-/)- and subsequent discrimination and violence by Tibetans in exile totheir practitioners, lamas, laypeople and even children, issomething unacceptable in a democratic and secular world who seekspeace, let alone to Buddhists who have non-violence as one of itsbasic practices. The Tibetan government in exile officiallypositioned itself, favoring the opinion of the Dalai Lama:http://tibet.net/2007/07/10/statement-by-the-cta-on-shugdendholgyal-followers-from-tibet/.The Lama Geshe Rabten made the followingobservations: "The Dalai Lama remainsthe temporal leader of Tibetans in exile, but is no longer undisputedTheir spiritual guide." Others claimthat such "discrimination against thedeity" is illegal according to theTibetan Constitution, the Indian Constitution and the UniversalDeclaration of Human rights.The origin of the Dorje Shugden's practice is involved in a politicaldispute in the period of the 5th Dalai Lama. So there is no religiousreasons for the practice to be banned, but only political reasons,power controversies - something temporal and impermanent, at whichshould not be given much emphasis. It seems that the Dalai Lama andhis staff do not tolerate any opposition and that's nothingdemocratic. He only recently has abdicated your tasks as leader ofthe Tibetan nation because he felt the pressure of youth born inexile, a youth that looks things from another perspective, mostmodern and comprehensive. But the ban on Shugden practice stillstands.In fact, despite the controversy over Tibet betotally independent from China before the invasion or not, the factis that its annexation was facilitated by their government be veryfragile and not have promoted in hundreds of years, significantsocial improvement for the vast majority of miserable people. Thisfailure was very well used by Communist China in time to justify theinvasion. However, this does not justify the violation of humanrights and the death of nearly a third of the Tibetan population. Andwhat the Dalai Lama and his staff were able to do today for theoppressed Tibetans? Virtually nothing, except an exile that transfersinert government prior to northern India.Now, the Dalai Lama said tohave abandoned the idea of independence in favor of autonomy forTibet. I think he should go further. What Ipropose to support is an independent or autonomous Tibet, but totallysecular and governed by the Tibetan people, not by Lamas or theChinese government. Thus, Buddhism in Tibet would return to theoriginal status: religious practice without direct connection to thepolicy, where each lineage would have the full freedom to develop andexpand itself.Currently, the Tibetan community around the world goes dividedbecause of arbitrary decisions: the unilateral decision of the DalaiLama of giving up the goal of independence for Tibet withoutconsulting the government or the Tibetan people, the biggeststakeholder; his inability to meet the declared commitment todemocratize the Tibetan government; his acquiescence to censorship ofthe press and the repression of freedom of expression, the ruthlesssuppression of freedom of