Dalai Lama is at odds over how Chinese successors will be chosen

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  • The Dalai Lama declared that his reincarnation would be chosen by his foundation, not by China.
  • China claims it has the authority to select the next Dalai Lama and set up potential conflicts.
  • The Tibetan government could be vacant and two Dalai Lamas, one more selected by China.

Will there be two Dalai Lamas in the end?

The announcement of the 14th Dalai Lama in early July announced that he would be reborn as the next spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism reassured his worries. However, the statement also foresaw a conflict with China, where he could choose his successor.

Tibetan tradition believes that the soul of the senior Buddhist monk K of his death is reborn into the body of a child. In his declaration, the 90-year-old Dalai Lama said that Gaden Fodran, a foundation created to support the Dalai Lama tradition, has the sole authority to recognize his successor.

“They need to follow that and carry out search and recognition procedures according to past traditions,” he said. “There is no other authority to interfere with this issue.”

Beijing claims that is the case.

“The reincarnation and succession of the Dalai Lama is essentially an internal event in China,” said Yu Jin, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in India. There, the Dalai Lama had lived in exile since 1959 after the failed Chinese rule over China’s rule in Tibet. Separatist activities under the cloak of religion. ”

Janet Gyatoso, a professor of Buddhist studies at Harvard Seminary in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said that if China chooses to pursue its own process of choice, it is not the first time that Buddhism has dealt with a controversy over the identity of the reborn Dalai Lama.

“It’s not easy to say what they (China) do,” Gyatso said. “But political interests are much higher than ever.”

The conflict several decades ago

About 100,000 Tibetans live in exile, most of them live in India, according to the Institute of Immigration Policy, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Nicole Wilk, professor of philosophy and religion studies at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, said China’s responsibilities for the Dalai Lama’s declaration show an ongoing effort to underestimate Tibet irrelevantly.

“The current CCP policy based on Xi Jinping is to isolate the Dalai Lama when he gets older and force people who want to do business with international companies and China to forget Tibet,” she said.

As an example, she cited “Ghost of the Mountains.” This cited a Disney documentary feature on the snow leopard, the Tibetan national animal.

China colonized Tibet in the middle of 20 yearsth In the century, Africa and Asian countries were independence from colonial power. In 1959, due to a failed uprising, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet for northern India, where he founded a government in exile.

Today, both sides are clashing with those who choose to succeed the Dalai Lama.

“This is a history that the current PRC government hopes is ignoring the world,” Wilk said. “The CCP is thinking about whether the next Dalai Lama will control the Tibetan story.”

How will the Dalai Lama be reborn?

An announcement on July 2nd by one of the world’s most influential religious figures offered relief to those who were perplexed by his previous public meditation on whether that agitation extends far beyond Buddhism and whether the Dalai Lama leadership tradition should withstand or postpone democratically elected authority.

He also answered the wishes of his followers who have ritualized him more frequently about his desire for health and longevity, as he sought for his reborn return.

“Tibetans really want to have a Dalai Lama,” Gyatoso said.

14th The Dalai Lama, born in 1935 as Lamo Dondup and ascended the throne in 1940, is a living example of Tibetan Buddhist customs that recognize the reincarnation of the previous Lama, which continues to work with new reincarnations.

Gyatso says that the faith believes that everyone will be reborn, but only those very enlightened, such as Dalai Lama, can choose where they will.

“They can choose the mother and father they will be born in, on the best conditions to continue their work,” she said.

But when that happens, there is a process that is handled “by highly evolved monks and experts,” she said, although it requires identifying the reincarnation and being recognized as such. “There are usually a lot of tests and methods when your child is about 3 or 4 years old.”

In his statement, the Dalai Lama said his nonprofit foundation will oversee the succession process in consultation with his closest advisors and leaders of various Tibetan Buddhist traditions.

Jose Cabezon, professor emeritus of religion at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said the declaration was marked as highly decisive about the 15 certainty.th How the Dalai Lama and its people are chosen. While providing Tibetans with a “big sense of relief,” the specificity of the statement also said “will warn the PRC government not to interfere in this process.”

Decide who the real Dalai Lama is

Gyatso said two Dalai Lamas could be raised at the same time. One will become the head of the Tibetan government in exile, and the other assumes a role that has not yet been defined in China.

“What we expect to happen is that they (China) carry out their own process,” Gyatso says. “The Tibetans and the rest of the world will decide who they think is the real Dalai Lama.”

If such a scenario were to unfold, most Tibetans outside China could follow the Dalai Lama in exile, and Tibetans within China would be under great political pressure to accept the government’s recruiting appearance.

Kabezon said Beijing’s claim to appoint a successor to the Dalai Lama is ironic given the government’s eschewing religion and viewing reincarnation as superstitious.

“Beijing will definitely appoint 15th We promote the Dalai Lama and the boy as “true” Dalai Lamas,” Kabezon said.

Is there an upside in the split?

Gyatso said the Tibetan community is “very upset” about the potential dichotomy.

“They don’t want the confusion of having two Dalai Lamas,” she said.

Nevertheless, she said that such a situation may not be without benefits.

“If the Chinese government wants to recognize its own Dalai Lama, let him train and nurture real Buddhism, as the current Dalai Lama has gained,” Gyatoso said. “Let him study Buddhist philosophy and ethics. If they can produce the Dalai Lama, which has the ability to reach many people with wisdom and important Buddhist teachings, that would be great.”

The challenge for both is to create leaders on the scale of the current Dalai Lama, she said.

“Let’s see both of you train and educate in the best way,” Gatoso said. “If they are both great leaders of wisdom, they can’t compete. They visit and cooperate, and that’s what will be the test.

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