SHUGS LDAN. In modern times, Tibetan Buddhism, and the Dge lugs (Geluk) school in particular, has been agitated by an intense dispute concerning a controversial deity, Rdo rje shugs ldan (Dorje Shugden). Some of the questions raised by this dispute are common to many Buddhist traditions, where the integration of local deities within a normative Buddhist framework is often delicate. This dispute also raises more particular questions concerning competing conceptions of the Dge lugs tradition.

Buddhists understand themselves to be bound by taking refuge in the Buddha, dharma, and saṃgha. As such they are not supposed to worship other deities. But this restriction creates difficulties—particularly, but not only, for those involved in the world. What are they to do with the deities who have, they believe, a large influence on their welfare, health, and prosperity? The standard answer has been that Buddhists...