Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama presides over an event at the Tsuglakhang temple in Dharamshala, India, Monday.Ashwini Bhatia/The Associated Press
A Tibetan exile group will identify the next Dalai Lama, the current holder of that office said Wednesday, as Beijing attempts to cement its control over Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism by insisting only the Chinese government can choose its future leader.
Addressing a large crowd in Dharamshala, India – home to thousands of Tibetan refugees and seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile – the Dalai Lama said a trust he established in 2015, which includes many senior Tibetan Buddhist figures, will identify his future reincarnation “in accordance with past tradition.”
“The Gaden Phodrang Trust has sole authority to recognize the future reincarnation; no one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter,” he added.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959, along with thousands of other refugees, as Beijing sent in large numbers of troops to complete an annexation begun eight years earlier. In the decades since, China has cracked down harshly, restricting Tibetans’ language, cultural and religious freedoms, including worship of the Dalai Lama, who Beijing regards as a “separatist,” despite his long-standing policy of accepting Chinese sovereignty over Tibet in exchange for autonomy.
The Dalai Lama turns 90 on Sunday, and in recent years the officially atheist Chinese government has asserted only it may identify his reincarnation.
The choice of a successor to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhists, is a matter of deep interest not only for followers of his religion, but also China, India and the United States, for strategic reasons.
Reuters
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the Dalai Lama’s succession “must comply with Chinese laws and regulations as well as religious rituals and historical conventions.”
“The reincarnation of the Dalai Lama and other living Buddhas must be approved by the central government,” Ms. Mao said.
In a statement published by state media, the government-controlled High-level Tibetan Buddhism College of China pointed to a tradition dating back to the Qing Empire – involving drawing lots from a golden urn.
“This unique tradition which integrates profound faith, mystical experience, and rigorous procedures, serves as a core principle to ensure the sanctity and legitimacy of the reincarnation process,” the statement said, adding “China is the homeland of Tibetan Buddhism.”
“Any so-called ‘reincarnation’ that bypasses traditional religious rituals, whether conducted within or outside the Chinese territory, lacks religious legitimacy and will by no means be recognized by Tibetan Buddhist followers,” it said.
In 1995, the Dalai Lama recognized a six-year-old boy living in Tibet as the next reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second-highest ranking figure in Tibetan Buddhism. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima subsequently disappeared, and the Chinese government put forward its own candidate, Gyancain Norbu, who now acts as a senior leader of Tibetan Buddhism within China and sits on an official government body.
Explainer: How will the Dalai Lama’s successor be chosen?
With the vast majority of Tibetan Buddhists still living in Chinese territory, the potential controversy of identifying the next Dalai Lama outside of Tibet, or the risk of repeating the situation with the Panchen Lama, had led to open discussion, including from the current Dalai Lama himself, about whether the centuries-old office should be retired.
“The Dalai Lama institution will cease one day. These man-made institutions will cease,” he told the BBC in 2014. “There is no guarantee that some stupid Dalai Lama won’t come next, who will disgrace himself or herself. That would be very sad. So, much better that a centuries-old tradition should cease at the time of a quite popular Dalai Lama.”
Already, the Dalai Lama has transformed the Tibetan government-in-exile from a hereditary, religious, quasi-monarchical institution into a secular, democratic one, and ceded political leadership of the Tibetan movement to elected representatives, confining himself mostly to religious matters.
Over the past 14 years, however, the Dalai Lama said Wednesday, many senior Buddhist figures and Tibetans around the world “have written to me with reasons, earnestly requesting that the institution of the Dalai Lama continue.”
“In accordance with all these requests, I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” he said.
Tibetan Buddhist figures in China had already made this clear, saying talk of not reincarnating was blasphemous, and the certainty Beijing would put forward its own candidate regardless of what he decided appears to have been a motivating factor for the Dalai Lama to try and assert control of his succession.
Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s China director, said Beijing’s statements on this issue were part of a “concerning pattern of state control over religion in China.”
“The Chinese authorities’ ongoing efforts to control the selection of the next Dalai Lama are a direct assault on the right to freedom of religion or belief,” she added. “Tibetan Buddhists, like all faith communities, must be able to choose their spiritual leaders without coercion or interference by the authorities.”
With files from Reuters