Reportage – 2007

China prepares to select the next Dalai Lama

Tibetans protest against China's new law requiring China's approval for reincarnation of Tibetan Lamas. The law is aimed at controlling the selection of the next (15th) Dalai Lama. Tibetans say reincarnation is a traditional Tibetan belief and recognising one is their prerogative. [ click here for print size   3.6M ]

MCLEOD GANJ, India, 21 September 2007 — Tibetans in Dharamshala on Thursday marched in protest against a new Chinese law stating that a Tibetan Lama who is recognised as a reincarnation of a previous one, will have to be approved by the Chinese government.

"China says religion is poison. Why interfere now,"
"Atheist China turns religious, believe it or not,"
read some protest banners.

The Tibetan government-in-exile slammed the new law as "ludicrous and unwarranted."

The Chinese government described the new law as an "important move to institutionalise the management of reincarnation of Living Buddhas (lamas)."

Another clause in the law says, "No outside organisation or individual will influence or control the reincarnation of living Buddhas."

The new regulations have not explicitly named the Dalai Lama, now aged 72, but the new law is obviously China's covetous pre-emptive move towards selecting his next incarnation.

A Chinese Dalai lama will be their puppet, who will be used to propagandise Tibetans on China's behalf, and to influence and govern Tibetans to go in the way China wants.

Exile Tibetans say the new regulations will not affect the selection of the next Dalai Lama, as the selection procedure is a traditional affair and is their prerogative, not that of the government of China.

"China says religion is poison. Why interfere now?" says a banner carried by protesting Tibetan monks against China's new law of requiring China's approval for recognising the reincarnations of Tibetan Lamas. [ click here for print size   3.9M ]

Traditionally, high Lamas (of the Gelug sect) and the Tibetan government carried the responsibility to find his reincarnation, following traditional and spiritual ways based on prophesies, dreams, visions, etc., and finally testing the candidate with memories from his previous life.

What is obvious now is that there will be two Dalai Lamas. A precedent to this situation already exists with the Panchen Lama, Tibet's second holiest figure in Tibetan Buddhism. After the passing away of the 10th Panchen Lama, the Dalai Lama exercised his traditional prerogatives and recognised Gedun Choekyi Nyima, then a six-year-old boy, as the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995. Months later, China named their own Panchen Lama and detained Choekyi Nyima, who disappeared out of sight soon after.

However, what is clear is that the new regulations will not affect the selection of the next Dalai Lama for the Tibetans themselves. China's Panchen Lama is not receiving the mandate either from Tibetans within and without Tibet, or from the followers of the Tibetan Buddhism around the world. In defiance of China's Panchen Lama, Tibetans in Tibet continue to display the image of the previous 10th Panchen, ignoring China's choice Gyaltsen Norbu.

After China meddled in the reincarnation issue, the Dalai Lama announced that he will not be reborn in Tibet while it is under Chinese domination.

China says it guarantees the "citizens freedom of religious belief" and "respects Tibetan Buddhism's practice of inheriting 'Living Buddha' positions."

Tibetan government-in-exile says this is a shameless statement, since it is very obvious that the new order is but a means to trample upon the Tibetan people's religious freedom.

When the Dalai Lama passes away, a Regent will take charge until the new Dalai Lama assumes full power of the state. In the meanwhile, Tibetans will lack the face to carry the message of national freedom for Tibet as the current Dalai Lama has done. An alternative face has not so far emerged among Tibetans to carry forward their struggle.