According to the New York Times there were 200 protesters “more than half of the protesters appeared to be Westerners, although Ms. Pema said 100 Tibetan monks also took part in the protest.” The ‘impassionate Buddhists‘ of the Western Shugden Society planed to have 600 protesters, among them 100 Tibetan monks.
The article of the New York Times Dalai Lama Fans Clash With Protesters “briefly described opinions voiced on both sides, for readers who wanted to find out what all the commotion was about. But as you can see from the comments on this article, there are clearly complex dimensions of this dispute that this article could not explore, given the constraints of time and space.” (NYT Editors) The article and the background of the protests are discussed in different posts.
More Articles
- The Time Magazine published on July 17, 2008 the article The Dalai Lama’s Buddhist Foes.
- Barbara O’Brien a Zen practitioner published a second article The Battle of the Sixth Avenue on About.com.
- World War 4 published NYC: dissident Buddhists, idiot leftists protest Dalai Lama (07/19/2008) by Bill Weinberg.
- Dalai Lama’s visit sparks protest by the Capital Times (7/20/2008)
The Dalai Lama responds to Shugden Practitioners protest
- “Previously I was also one of them…” Video Part I (July 14, 2008)
- Video Part II
The World Press about the Protests 1996-1998
Ten years ago, 1998, The Time Magazine published the article Monks vs Monks, and The New York Times Buddhists to Protest Dalai Lama During U.S. Visit. The UK World Press published 12 years ago, 1996, The Battle of the Buddhists (The Independent) by Andrew Brown and Shadow boxing on the path to Nirvana (The Guradian) by Madeleine Bunting.
BBC made a balanced and fair documentary film about the conflict including a portray on the New Kadampa Tradition. Sadly this documentary is not available online.
Tibetan Buddhism – Struggling With Diffi·Cult Issues 