The Dalai Lama mentioned on Wednesday that the traditional Tibetan Buddhist establishment he leads will stay on after he dies, placing an finish to hypothesis that he can be the final particular person to carry the position as he plans to reincarnate.
As a part of celebrations marking his ninetieth birthday, the Nobel Peace laureate additionally signalled that China, which Tibetan activists accuse of suppressing their language, tradition and faith, ought to keep out of the method of selecting the following Dalai Lama.
The 14th Dalai Lama’s uncommon remarks got here as nervousness mounts over who will comply with him because the non secular chief of Tibetan Buddhism.
“I’m affirming that the establishment of the Dalai Lama will proceed,” mentioned the Dalai Lama, who has spent nearly 70 years residing in exile in India after fleeing Tibet, an autonomous Himalayan area of China.
“I hereby reiterate that the Gaden Phodrang Belief has sole authority to acknowledge the long run reincarnation,” he mentioned, referring to a corporation he based. “Nobody else has any such authority to intrude on this matter.”
The Tibetan non secular chief made the announcement days forward of his ninetieth birthday on July 6, after a convention of representatives of the 4 main traditions of Tibetan Buddhism within the Indian metropolis of Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
It’s uncommon for a residing Dalai Lama to speak about his successor, the seek for whom begins solely upon his dying as a result of it entails reincarnation. However because the 14th Dalai Lama grows older, there’s rising fear {that a} hole in management might be taken benefit of by the Chinese language authorities.
“I feel His Holiness feels the necessity to reassure individuals by mainly letting them know that he’s eager about the succession,” Thupten Jinpa, his English translator of 4 many years, mentioned in a cellphone interview from India final week.
Recognized as a child in 1937, the 14th Dalai Lama was formally acknowledged two years later. Along with his position as non secular chief, he served as temporal chief of Tibet beginning in 1950, when he was 15 and China started annexing the area.
In 1959, when he was 23, the Dalai Lama and hundreds of different Tibetans fled to India after a failed rebellion towards Communist rule, ultimately settling in Dharamsala.
Because the Nineteen Seventies, the objective of the motion has shifted from Tibetan independence to reaching real autonomy inside China. Lately the Dalai Lama has additionally stepped down from his political position, which is now a democratically elected place.
In March, the Dalai Lama mentioned in a brand new ebook that his successor can be born within the “free world” exterior China, in order that the normal mission of the Dalai Lama might proceed. In keeping with the Central Tibetan Administration, there are about 130,000 Tibetan exiles all over the world, principally in India and Nepal.
The Dalai Lama had beforehand mentioned in 2011 that the establishment of the Dalai Lama didn’t essentially need to proceed in any respect, and that he would depart it as much as the Tibetan Buddhist neighborhood.
Since then he has obtained appeals from quite a lot of constituencies, and the “unanimous” response, Jinpa mentioned, has been that there ought to be a fifteenth Dalai Lama.
“For the Tibetan individuals, his title has come to represent the nation,” mentioned Jinpa, who has assisted the Dalai Lama with various books together with the current “Voice for the Unvoiced.”
There’s additionally concern that in the event that they don’t choose a brand new Dalai Lama, China might title one who goes unchallenged.
“Sadly, the PRC authorities in all probability will wish to play a job, simply because it inserted itself within the means of the popularity of the Panchen Lama,” Jinpa mentioned, referring to the second-highest non secular chief in Tibetan Buddhism.
In 1995, the Dalai Lama acknowledged a 6-year-old boy in Tibet because the eleventh Panchen Lama, after the earlier one died six years earlier. The boy was forcibly disappeared by the Chinese language authorities three days later, rights teams say, and has not been seen in public since.
China then selected its personal Panchen Lama, imposing him on the six million individuals in Tibet.
The Tibetan government-in-exile doesn’t acknowledge the Beijing-appointed Panchen Lama, who hardly ever seems in public however pledged loyalty to the Chinese language Communist Occasion in a closed-door assembly final month with President Xi Jinping, state media reported.
If Beijing additionally tries to call a Dalai Lama, “Tibetans wouldn’t be shocked,” Jinpa mentioned. “They might be dissatisfied and aggravated, however I don’t assume they’d be shocked.”
The Chinese language authorities says Tibet has prospered below its rule, and that it has improved infrastructure and social circumstances and promoted financial improvement. It says the Dalai Lama is “a political exile engaged in separatist actions below the guise of faith,” and that the reincarnation of Tibetan lamas ought to be managed by Beijing.
Reincarnation “should adjust to Chinese language legal guidelines and laws” and “comply with the method that consists of search and identification in China, lot-drawing from a golden urn, and central authorities approval,” international ministry spokesperson Mao Ning mentioned in March.
