Dharamshala, India/Hong Kong
CNN
–
The Dalai Lama announced that he would have a successor after his death, continuing the centuries-old tradition that has been a flashpoint in China’s struggle with the Communist Party for Tibet’s future.
The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism declared on Wednesday in a video message to religious elders gathering in Dharamshala, India, where Nobel Peace Prize winners have fled Tibet after the failed uprising against China’s Communist rule in 1959.
“I assert that the Dalai Lama system will continue,” the Dalai Lama said in a pre-recorded video, citing requests received over the years from Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhists, urging him to do so.
“The Gaden Phodrang Trust has the sole authority to recognize future reincarnations. There is no other such authority to interfere with this issue,” he added, using the official name of Dalai Lama’s office.
The office should carry out the search and recognition procedures for the future Dalai Lama “according to past traditions” without revealing details of the process.
The Dalai Lama previously said when he was about 90 years old, he would consult with the high Tibetan Buddhist Lamas and the Tibetan people to reassess whether the Dalai Lama system should continue.
Wednesday’s announcement – made just a few days before his 90th birthday this Sunday – sets the stage for the High Stakes battle over his succession between Tibetan leaders in exile and the Chinese atheist Communist Party.
Asked about the Dalai Lama statement, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman reiterated Beijing’s long-standing stance that the reincarnation of spiritual leaders must comply with Chinese laws and regulations.
In a memoir released in March, the Dalai Lama stated that his successor was born in a “free world” outside of China and urges his followers to reject the candidates chosen by Beijing.
That could lead to the emergence of two rivals, the Dalai Lama. One was chosen by his predecessor and the other by the Communist Party of China.
“Both the Tibetan exile community and the Chinese government want to influence Tibet’s future. They see the next Dalai Lama as the key to doing so,” said Ruth Gamble, an expert on Tibetan history at Latove University in Melbourne, Australia.
Samdon Rinpoche, a senior official in the Dalai Lama’s office, told reporters Wednesday that further information on the procedures or methods for reincarnation of the Dalai Lama will not be revealed to the public until inheritance occurs.
Throughout his life in exile, Tenzin Gyatoso, the 14th Dalai Lama, became synonymous with Tibet and its quest for true autonomy under Beijing’s tightening grip in the Himalayas region.
From his adopted son’s hometown of Dharamshala, he founded a government in exile, and spiritual leaders exiled the unified Tibetans at home, bringing the light to a global stage.
This has resulted in the Dalai Lama becoming a permanent thorn on the side of Beijing.
Since the 1970s, the Dalai Lama has no longer sought for full independence in Tibet, but claims that they no longer want “meaning” autonomy that allows Tibetans to maintain their distinct culture, religion and identity. His commitment to a non-violent “middleway” approach won him international support and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
The Dalai Lama has long been wary of Beijing’s attempts to interfere with the reincarnation system of Tibetan Buddhism.
Tibetan Buddhists believe in the circle of rebirth, and when an enlightened spiritual master like the Dalai Lama dies, he will be able to choose the place and time of his rebirth through the power of compassion and prayer.
However, religious traditions have become a battlefield for Tibetan mind and heart rule, especially since the contested reincarnation of the second highest figure in religion, Panchen Lama.
In 1995, a few years after the death of the 10th Panchen Lama, Beijing established its own Panchen Lama, contrary to the Dalai Lama.
Under Tibetan tradition, the Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas have long played an important role in recognizing each other’s reincarnation. Experts believe Beijing will try to interfere in a similar way with the current Dalai Lama sequence.
“There is a series of high-level reincarnation llamas grown by the Chinese government to cooperate within Tibet. “We had a long-term plan to work towards this.”
A “resolution of gratitude” statement released by Tibetan Buddhist religious leaders gathered in Dharamshala on Wednesday said it “strongly condemns the use of the reincarnation subject of the People’s Republic of China for their political interests” and “never accept it.”
On his part, the current Dalai Lama has made it clear that candidates appointed by Beijing do not hold legitimacy in the eyes of Tibetans or followers of Tibetan Buddhism.
“For Chinese communists who explicitly reject religions that include ideas of past and future life, interfering with the system of reincarnation of the Dalai Lama is completely inappropriate,” he wrote in his latest memoir, Voice Without a Voice.
