Exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is making a fool of Tibetan Buddhism by indicating that he may not reincarnate at all or reincarnate as something bizarre, said a Chinese official recently. These comments came as early election results indicated that the leader of the Tibetan government in exile, Lobsang Sangay, may be serving a second term as part of the Dalai Lama’s strategy to sustain a decades-old scuffle for greater autonomy of its Chinese-occupied homeland.
According to Chinese officials, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India after a failed uprising against China in 1959, is nothing short of a violent separatist. The Dalai Lama on the other hand denies having espoused violence of any kind and says all he wants is genuine autonomy for his homeland, Tibet. The acrimony between both sides and their contention for control over Tibetan Buddhism lies at the heart of a debate about reincarnation. Buddhism propagates that the soul of a senior lama will reincarnate inside the body of a child after his demise.
While Communist China stresses that the tradition must continue since its officially atheist leaders have the inherited right to appoint the Dalai Lama’s successor, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate monk has said his title could come to an end after his death. China was quick to accuse the Dalai Lama of betraying believers and showing disrespect to Tibetan Buddhism by suggesting that there may be no more reincarnations.
Writing in the state-operated Global Times, chairman of ethnic and religious affairs in the Chinese parliament, Zhu Weiqun, said the Dalai Lama must have respect for tradition.
“The Dalai Lama continues to proclaim his reincarnation is a 'purely religious matter' and something only he can decide, but he has no way to compel admiration from the faithful,” wrote Wequin, “He's been proclaiming he'll reincarnate as a foreigner, as a bee, as a 'mischievous blond girl', or even proposing a living reincarnation or an end to reincarnation. … All of this, quite apart from making a fool of Tibetan Buddhism, is completely useless when it comes to extricating him from the difficulty of reincarnation.”
Tenzin Taklha, a senior advisor to the Dalai Lama, said there was no manner in which Tibetans would approve a successor appointed by China.
“The Chinese are following an absurd agenda and we continue to reject it,” he said.
In 2011, the Dalai Lama had urged exiled Tibetans to elect a leader, also known as Sikyong, to head the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). Sangay was expected to win reelection with more than 65 percent of exiled Tibetans backing him in the March 20 vote.
“I hope to do much better. Both on political terms, by holding dialog with the Chinese, and working on welfare issues in the next five years,” Sangay said.
Exiled Tibetans continue to worry that China might appoint the Dalai Lama’s successor after his death. In 1995, after the 81-year-old spiritual leader named a boy in Tibet as the reincarnation of the previous Panchen Lama, the second highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama, China put Gedhun Choekyi Nyima under house arrest and appointed Gyaincain Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama of Tibetan Buddhism. China obviously refuses to recognize the CTA, which operates out of India’s Himalayan township, Dharamshala, representing approximately 100,000 exiled Tibetans, who now live across 30 countries, including India, Nepal, the United States and Canada.
Photo Credits: Tibetan Review
