Theos-Talk Archives (June 2005 Message tt00135)

Dear all,

Since we're digging up history of theosophy over and over again, I'd
like to inquire about the identity of Alice Bailey's "Tibetan". I
haven't seen any info on this subject (excluding Bailey's own account,
of course) apart from published letters of Helena Roerich. I'm not
sure about the validity of this source in the eyes of fellow forum
dwellers, but anyway, she wrote that Alice Bailey became a disciple of
some resident of Sikkim named Laden La, who served the local
government, and that he definitely had absolutely nothing to do with
HPB's Masters. Helena Roerich stated that they (Roerich's family) knew
him in person and that he was a pretty powerful "dark one" who aimed
at distracting as many people as possible from the true Masters by
feeding the ignorant masses with a sophisticated mixture of Their
original teachings with black magic stuff. Nicolas Roerich (her
husband) wrote in his book "The Heart of Asia": "everyone treading
through Sikkim meets courteous attitude of a Tibetan General,
presently at British service, Laden La, who assists travellers in
every way."

This is what I could find on the internet about (apparently) this
personage. Any comments or suggestions are very welcome, especially if
anyone can provide his photo.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
A hero of the old school

Pasang Tshesing profiles Sardar Bahadur SW Laden La 

A road starting from Clubside Motors leading to the railway station
bears his name . A prominent figure during his lifetime Sardar Bahadur
represented his times. He excelled as a scholar, a diplomat, a patron
of monasteries and charitable deeds. Yet very little about his career
has appeared in print.

Sonam Wangphel Laden La was born of ancient Sikkimese ancestry on 16
June 1876 at Ging, a small village which is three miles to the north
of Darjeeling town. His father named Lodio Lama was the landlord and
high priest of Ging monastery which belonged to the red sect
Lhachung-pa.

His education began at Darjeeling Government High School. Later he
studied at St Xavier College, Calcutta and graduated from Calcutta
University. He was a ‘Blue’ in Hockey during his college days. In 1898
he joined the corps of the Darjeeling Police, and soon attained
official rank. In 1903-4 was deputed to the Staff of the Tibetan
Mission of Colonel Young husband. After this he was an assistant to
Colonel O’Connor in connection with His Holiness the Tashi Lama’s tour
throughout India.. In 1906 he assisted the British Government in the
important treaty with Tibet.

In 1907 he founded the General Buddhist Association of the Darjeeling
District, and became its first President. In 1909 he became
founder-president of the Himalayan Children’s Advancement Association
which educated and placed over 600 orphans and poor boys. It is said
that he spent from his own pocket more than Rs 25,000 for this noble
work.

In 1910 his services were requisitioned by the Political Department of
the Indian government in connection with the Dalai Lama’s journey to
meet the Viceroy and make a pilgrimage of the Buddhist holy places of
India. He was subsequently deputed to Tibet to settle terms between
the Chinese and Tibetans as a representative of the British
Government, and part of his duty consisted in helping to lead the
Chinese Amban, LienOYu, and general Chung and the Chinese troops out
of Tibet, whilst Colonel Willoughby held the Indian frontier.

It was said that the Tibetans were then much incensed against the
Sardar Bahadur because of his services with the Young Husband Mission.
According to rumours at the time of the Mission, in 1904, the Tibetan
Government had even offered a reward of Rs 10,000 for his head and
hands.

But, after some years, all this was forgotten, and he was appointed by
the Tibetan government to accompany four Tibetan boys chosen from good
families, being sent to England to acquire modern technical and
scientific education so that they could return and train their fellow
countrymen.

Sonam Wangphel Laden La also went to England as an envoy of His
Holiness the Dalia Lama, carrying letters and presents to Buckingham
Palace. In 1914, after his return, he attended the Tibetan-Chinese
Conference at Simla, and thence accompanied the prime minister of
Tibet to Sikkim.

During World War I, Sonam Wangphel Laden La assisted in raising war
loans and in recruiting the hill tribes. He was mentioned in
dispatches and in 1917 received the military title of Sardar Bahadur.
Then, in 1921, when Sir Charles Bell went to Lhasa with the object of
cementing the friendly relationship with the Tibetan Government, the
Sardar Bahadur was appointed his personal assistant.

In 1923 the Tibetan government again enjoyed the Sardar Bahadur’s
services, for which they had been asking the Government of India for
two years. This time, he organised a Police Force in Lhasa and, also,
the Tibetan Army. During the following year in recognition the Dalai
Lama conferred upon him the highest distinction in Tibet by raising
him to the rank of a Dzasa or Tibetan Peer. Previously, in 1912, when
some misunderstanding had existed between the Dalai Lama and the Tashi
Lama, the Sardar Bahadur had succeeded in bringing about a friendly
agreement between them. For this good service, the Dalai Lama
conferred upon him the title of De-Pon (or General) and a Premier
Class Gold Medal of the Order of the Golden Lion, the first of its
kind struck in Tibet, which is massive gold nugget bearing the name of
the Dalai Lama . Tashi Lama presented the gold medal to Sardar Bahadur
and conferred upon him the title of Deo-nyer-chhm-Po or Lord
Chamberlain of the Court of Tashi Lhunpo.

The Sardar Bahadur, who was the most active of Tibetan frontier, was
the president and patron of ten Bhuddhist monasteries, including those
at Ghoom, Kurseong, Darjeeling, and Lopchu. Owing almost wholly to his
financial assistance, the Ghoom Monastery was reconstructed after the
disastrous earthquake of 1934, and its Mahayana Chapel built.

In 1927 he was made a Chevalier of the Leopold II by the King and
Queen of Belgium. In January 1930, he was sent to Lhasa by the Indian
Government to dilute a very serious disagreement between Tibet and
Nepal; there by preventing war between the two countries. For this
outstanding service he was made a Commander of the British Empire.

Later that same year, he made his last visit to Lhasa. This was for
the purpose of personally presenting Colonel Weir, the political
officer of Sikkim, and his wife to the Dalai Lama. The colonel’s wife
was the first English lady to be introduced to the Court of His
Holiness the Dalai Lama at Lhasa.

In June 1931 the Sardar Bahadur, after 33 years of public life,
retired from government service; but to the day of his death he gave
himself, in the true Bodhisattvic spirit, to the good of others. Thus,
in the same year, he accepted the presidency of the Hillmen’s
Association, he was active in the Boy Scouts’ Club; in 1923 he was
elected vice chairman of the Darjeeling Municipality, and was vested
with the full authority of a chairman. He was an honourary
aide-de-camp to his excellency the governor of Bengal; and it was in
grateful recognition of the voluntary services which the Sardar
Bahadur rendered in connection with the Three Mount Everest
Expeditions that he was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical
Society.

He had scholarly command of ten languages, English, Tibetan, Hindi,
Kirati, Bengali, Nepali, Lepcha and other Himalayan tongues. The
Sardar Bahadur was one of the really true Buddhists of our generation,
who not only fostered but also practically applied the precepts of the
Enlightened One. He was a fervent devotee of the great Guru
Padma-Sambhava.

Sardar Bahadur SW Laden La breathed his last in Kalimpong on 26
December 1936. For his many educational, religious and philanthropic
activities he was probably the most beloved citizen of Darjeeling, as
indicated by his mile-long funeral procession to the Ghoom Monastery.
The Darjeeling Times of 2 January 1937 published a special four-page
article on Sardar Bahadur, entitled ‘The passing of a Truly Great
Man’.

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:KLmwO7J86T4J:www.thestatesman.org/page.news.php%3Fclid%3D31%26theme%3D%26usrsess%3D1%26id%3D77676+Sardar+Bahadur+S.+W.+Laden+La&hl=ru%20target=nw

[Sorry for the link to Google's cache, but the original page didn't
open.]
----------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Mrs. Salanave asked Sardar Bahadur S. W. Laden La, of Darjeeling, a
well-known and very independent Buddhist scholar of Tibetan ancestry,
if he thought that H. P. Blavatsky had real "inside information" about
the higher Tibetan Buddhism. He replied that she certainly had, and
that The Voice of the Silence contained the most profound Tibetan
teachings."

H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement by Charles J. Ryan
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/hpb-tm/hpbtm-8.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------


Here is a digest of sorts on the subject of AAB's texts vs. HPB's just
to ease search for the readers:

#=====================================================================
# Daniel Caldwell wrote:

Let me start off by saying that as a student of HPB's writings, I take
to heart her statements on Pseudo-Theosophy. For example, she wrote
about one brand of Pseudo-Theosophy:

". . . A close examination will assuredly reveal. . . materials
largely stolen . . . from Theosophical writings. . . [and] distorted
and falsified so as to be palmed off on the unwary as revelations of
new and undreamed of truths. But many will neither have the time nor
the opportunity for such a thorough investigation; and before they
become aware of the imposture they may be led far from the Truth. . .
. Nothing is more dangerous to Esoteric Truth than the garbled and
distorted versions disfigured to suit the prejudices and tastes of men
in general."

<...>

Please understand that I do NOT question the sincerity of AAB or of
her students

BUT

(1) from the "inner resonance and intuition" perspective, I am
convinced that AAB's teachings are NOT derived from the real DK or KH.
I perceive a very unique "vibration" in HPB's and the Mahatmas'
writings but it is totally missing from AAB's writings.

I am open to the possibility that my "intuitive sense" is somehow off
but my intellectual study of both HPB's and AAB's writings only
confirms my "intuition."

http://theos-talk.com/archives/200301/tt00408.html


#=====================================================================
# Jerry Hejka-Ekins wrote:

>From my earlier perusal of AAB's writings, I found that many of her
teachings were drawn directly from Besant and Leadbeater's E.S. 
writings, which to this day, are not publicly available. For the E.S. 
to publicly acknowledge that AAB was publishing secret E.S. material, 
would give away to the public the nature of the very material the 
E.S. is trying to keep secret.

http://theos-talk.com/archives/200301/tt00090.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/10238


The Neo-theosophy had its roots in two places that I know of: 1) In
Subba Row’s Esoteric Teachings to CWL and others and, 2) through the
London Lodge Inner Group, which CWL was a member, and where Sinnett
and company were getting Mahatmic teachings through a medium. These
teachings began to become main stream in the Theosophical Journals
after Besant’s involvement with the London Lodge and CWL beginning in
1894. The Maitreya teaching was originally tied to Krishnamurti, the
supposed vehicle for the Maitreya/Christ return. Besant, in an ES talk
in 1909 or 10, presented the earliest (that I’m aware of) full
description of what later became credited as the Bailey
hierarchy—Maitreya and all. This was published in The Link (a London
ES journal) and in the American EST Bulletin in 1910, I think, but no
later than this. Also in January 1912, CWL and AB were called by the
Maitreya to prepare Krishnamurti and Jinarajadasa for their second
initiation. The boys were taken to Taormina in Sicily for the
training. Much of the material in Masters and the Path comes from
these early events. The account of this 1912 initiation begins on pg.
298 in my 2nd edition (1927). You might also look at Joseph Ross’ book
on the Taormina stay. There is a lot of material made public there for
the first time.

According to her Autobiography, (If my memory serves me correctly)
Bailey’s first contact with Theosophy was through the Pacific Grove
Lodge around 1912. She moved to Krotona Hollywood a year or two
thereafter where she joined the ES, and gained access to the material
concerning the inner government and initiations, which was only
circulated through the ES at that time. However, you will find hints
of it in the Theosophist. Bailey states in her Autobiography that she
began taking psychic dictation from “the Tibetan” around 1917 or 18
and left Krotona shortly afterwards (I’m recalling from her
Autobiography that I read years ago, so my memory may not exactly
match her dates, but they should be close). Initiation Human and Solar
was published in 1922—her first book—I think. I read it some years
ago, and found it very faithful to the ES teachings as they were
presented from 1910-1918.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/10242

I apologize for not being as precise as I ought to have been. I had in
mind a later book Joseph Ross published in 2000. The exact citation in
MLA style is:

Ross, Joseph E. Krishnamurti The Taormina Seclusion - 1912.
n.p.:[author], 2000. 257 pp. ISBN 0-7388-5198-1

I believe that there are far more unpublished source documents on this
event in this book than all of the hitherto published documents put
together.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/10249


#=====================================================================
# Nick Weeks wrote:

If your DK is same as HPB's DK why are his MAIN teachings opposed to
the real Brothers teachings? If your DK is presenting the next stage
in a series of new age teachings, why were they given out around 1910?
That date is only 20 years after HPB's death. Do you really think the
Brothers would have HPB write 25 or so volumes of material only to
have it replaced in 20 years by stuff & nonsense that opposes and
distorts her BASIC Theosophy? Do you think human evolution zips along
at such a frantic pace?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/10327


#==============================================
# Leon Maurer wrote:

My 20 year comparative study of both the Secret Doctrine and the
Treatise on White Magic have never shown any reasonable relationship
between the two teachings. In fact the contradictions stand out in
more places that I was ever be able to count. And while the SD, based
on rational Hermetism and sound scientific thinking, is clearly
decipherable through studied intuition tempered by reason, the TWM is
a garbled mess of phony mysticism, irrationally linked to the mystical
references in the SD, and without any connection to the rational
physical and metaphysical order of the universe... Designed
(sincerely, I would imagine) to foster a blind faith in the personal
God and savior favored by AAB, based on her early brainwashing by her
parent's Christian biases, along with AB and CWL and their "Liberal
Catholic Church" nonsense -- that was completely repudiated by their
supposed "Messiah" JK. Then along came AAB who conjured up DK, and put
him in the fall guy role a live messiah could never have gotten away
with. Fact is, I studied AAB before I got to the SD, and when I found
almost total disagreement with the Hermetic as well as the Tibetan
Buddhist teachings, I then went to the SD and found the real truth,
undistorted, and entirely consistent with fundamental principles,
first page to last. Not to say, however (discounting AAB's personal
biases and prejudices) that the humanistic and "good will" motives
behind the AAB teachings are not worthwhile.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/10520

======================================================================

For specific comparisons HPB vs. AAB see:

Theosophy's Shadow [A Critical Look at the Claims and Teachings of
Alice A. Bailey] by Nicholas Weeks
http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/baileyal.htm

The Pseudo-Occultism of Mrs. A. Bailey by Alice Leighton Cleather and BasilCrump
http://users.aol.com/uniwldarts/uniworld.artisans.guild/HPBvsAB.html


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/10619
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/10703

======================================================================


Hope this helps...


Vladimir