Dalai Lama 'may Pick Successor'

[camerata]

Dalai Lama 'may pick successor'

The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, says he is considering breaking with centuries of tradition and naming his own successor.

Usually, following the death of a Dalai Lama, senior Tibetan Buddhist officials, guided by dreams and signs, identify a young child to succeed him.

But the Dalai Lama said he feared China would try to influence this process.

He said he was considering whether his successor should be picked by him, or elected by high ranking Buddhist monks.

"If the Tibetan people want to keep the Dalai Lama system, one of the possibilities I have been considering with my aides is to select the next Dalai Lama while I'm alive," he told the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun during a visit to Japan.

Tibetans are concerned over what will happen when the 72-year-old Dalai Lama dies, fearing that Beijing will try to take control of the succession.

"If China selected my successor after my death, the people of Tibet would not support him as there would be no Tibetan heart in him," he said.

More at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7103841.stm

[seonai]

It's so sad isn't it. The Chinese took away the Panchen Lama... Why can't these amazing people keep their beautiful tradition? What was the name of that film about the little boy the monks found in America and took him to Tibet to become a Lama?

[camerata]

That was The Little Buddha. The boy was taken to Nepal to see if he was in fact the reincarnation of a lama.

[camerata]

Dalai Lama challenges China - with a referendum on reincarnation

Exiled leader fights back at Chinese attempt to control Buddhist selection process

Wednesday November 28, 2007

The Guardian

The centuries-old tradition of choosing a new Dalai Lama may be about to change from the mysteries of reincarnation to the realities of a referendum to hold off the increasing influence of the Chinese government in the process.

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader yesterday offered the prospect of a referendum before he dies to decide how to pick the Himalayan people's next living Buddha - incensing China which insists on the right to approve incarnations.

At a gathering of religious leaders from around the world in the northern Indian city of Amritsar, the 72-year-old appeared to be prepared to break with a historic system to choose the spiritual and political head of the Tibetans.

"If people feel that the institution of the Dalai Lama is still necessary, it will continue," he told reporters.

"When my physical condition becomes weak, and there are serious preparations for death, then [the referendum] should happen," said the 1989 Nobel peace prizewinner. "[but] I am good for another few decades."

China, which has sought to snuff out Tibetan nationalism since its forces invaded in 1950, condemned the proposal. "The Dalai Lama's statement is in blatant violation of religious practice and historical procedure," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

In the past few months, Chinese politicians and the state-controlled media have stepped up the rhetoric against the Tibetan leader, who is accused of being a "splittist" because he advocates more autonomy for his people. It appears that Beijing's hardening position, after six rounds of talks over five years between the two sides, has prompted the Tibetan leader to consider radical options.

Traditionally "living Buddhas" are identified in boyhood through a mixture of tests and divination by Buddhist monks after a lama dies. But this summer Beijing announced it would control the process and reserve the right to approve incarnations - the final straw for the Tibetan government-in-exile that has operated for five decades from the Indian hill station of Dharamsala.

"The Communist party of China have no moral or spiritual basis for such measures," said Tempa Tsering, the Dalai Lama's representative in New Delhi. "Any attempt by the Chinese to pick a successor will result in false idols."

Tsering said Tibetans had already seen this happen with the second most senior figure in Tibetan Buddhism, the Panchen Lama. There are now two rival Panchens. The boy recognised by the Dalai Lama is now 19, and is said to be in a Chinese prison.

Analysts say the Dalai Lama's move is designed to avoid this "duplication of deities". First a poll of Tibetan Buddhists would determine whether they should continue with the Dalai Lama system. If the vote was yes, the Dalai Lama said he would be reincarnated after his death outside China or he would choose a new Dalai Lama before he died. There is a precedent for such events. Earlier this year the Dalai Lama said one of his teachers anointed his reincarnation while still alive.

In calling for a vote among traditional Tibetan Buddhist communities from the Himalayas to Mongolia, the Dalai Lama is challenging the dominance of communist governance over tens of millions of people and thousands of square miles of land within China. As well as Tibet, huge numbers of his followers are found in the provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Inner Mongolia.

It is even possible the Dalai Lama may not be reincarnated at all. "Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism is incredibly complicated," said Phunchok Stobdan of New Delhi's Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

"Mythology speaks of the next Dalai Lama not returning to earth. There is also a provision for a regent to rule in place of a Dalai Lama. Other times lamas have foretold the place and even the family into which they will be born."

Stobdan said China was vulnerable to external pressure in the run up to the Beijing Olympics - the reason why the Dalai Lama has been received by more heads of state than for many years.

To the anger of China, the monk has met US president George Bush and German chancellor Angela Merkel as well as holding talks with the heads of Australia, New Zealand, Austria and Canada.

The issue threatens to divide Europe, where China is using its growing economic clout to reward friends who refuse to meet the Dalai Lama, while introducing punitive actions against "difficult" countries that accept his visit.

Since Merkel met the Tibetan leader, China has halted a number of scheduled bilateral meetings with Germany. By contrast, French president Nicolas Sarkozy has avoided any mention of the subject on a visit to Beijing, where he has signed billions of dollars worth of nuclear and aviation deals.

The mood of Gordon Brown's first visit to China as prime minister - tentatively planned for early next year - would change dramatically if he received or expressed sympathy for the Dalai Lama before then.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after the failed uprising against nine years of Chinese Communist party rule. Since then resistance has flared sporadically only to be suppressed with brutal ease.

Beijing's determination to control religion in Tibet remains unabated because Buddhism is so bound up with Tibetan identity. This week, 800 paramilitary police locked down the village of Baiga after a dispute between Tibetans and majority Han Chinese.

[thaipete]

It's so sad isn't it. The Chinese took away the Panchen Lama... Why can't these amazing people keep their beautiful tradition? What was the name of that film about the little boy the monks found in America and took him to Tibet to become a Lama?

I became a good friend of the Prachin Lama's head monk whilst in Nepal some years back and he assured me the Prachin although Kow Towing to the Chinese was still at heart a true Tibetan and in regular contact with the Dalai Lama forwarding a lot of important information

[chownah]

It's so sad isn't it. The Chinese took away the Panchen Lama... Why can't these amazing people keep their beautiful tradition? What was the name of that film about the little boy the monks found in America and took him to Tibet to become a Lama?

I became a good friend of the Prachin Lama's head monk whilst in Nepal some years back and he assured me the Prachin although Kow Towing to the Chinese was still at heart a true Tibetan and in regular contact with the Dalai Lama forwarding a lot of important information

So, you are exposing a Tibeten spy ring involving high officials right here on ThaiVisa?

Bravo!

Chownah

[rychrde]

It's so sad isn't it. The Chinese took away the Panchen Lama... Why can't these amazing people keep their beautiful tradition? What was the name of that film about the little boy the monks found in America and took him to Tibet to become a Lama?

I became a good friend of the Prachin Lama's head monk whilst in Nepal some years back and he assured me the Prachin although Kow Towing to the Chinese was still at heart a true Tibetan and in regular contact with the Dalai Lama forwarding a lot of important information

So, you are exposing a Tibeten spy ring involving high officials right here on ThaiVisa?

Bravo!

Chownah

That was my first thought!

So many Tibetan masters are in the West as they see this as being the best way to secure the long-term future of the teachings. the seeds grow slowly, all too slowly.

rych

[camerata]

The latest news is the DL says his successor may be female.

[camerata]

And here is China's riposte:

Tibetan living buddha affirms Chinese government management of reincarnations

LHASA, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government's new rule on the management of reincarnations of Tibetan living Buddhas was affirmed by a living Buddha on Monday.

"The rule, which better protects people's religious freedom, accords with the development of Tibetan Buddhism," said Chubakang Tubdain Kaizhub, a living buddha and vice chairman of the regional Political Consultative Conference.

The rule, issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) on July 18 and took effect on Sep. 1 last year, received extensive support from commissaries on the first session of the ninth Political Consultative Conference of Tibet Autonomous Region.

Chubakang Tubdain Kaizhub said the reincarnation of the Living Buddha was a succession system that distinguished Tibetan Buddhism from other religions or other forms of Buddhism. Based on ancient Tibetan beliefs in the nature of the soul and the unique incarnation theory of Buddhism, it was established to solve the problem of leadership successions in various Tibetan Buddhist sects and monasteries.

In Chinese history, every dynasty of Chinese government had attached great importance to the living Buddhas as they played keyroles in Tibetan religion and politics, he said.

A few problems lay in the reincarnations of Tibetan living Buddhas, said Soi'ham Rinzin, a commissary of the ninth Political Consultative Conference of Tibet Autonomous Region.

He said the fourteenth Dalai Lama had ignored religious ritual and historical convention to decide alone the soul, which disturbed the order of Tibetan Buddhism.

Another commissary named Dawa Cering said, "The rule not only legalized reincarnation, but also standardized the government, who can only manage religious affairs related to the national or public benefit, but lets inner religion activities alone. It is definitely welcomed by the Buddhists and the public."

The SARA said it was an important move to institutionalize management of the reincarnation of living Buddhas, and so-called reincarnated living Buddhas without government approval or the approval of religious affairs departments were illegal and invalid.

The regulation is composed of 14 articles, including the principle, conditions, approval procedures, the duties and responsibilities of religious groups for reincarnation as well as penalties for those violating the regulation.

Tibet became an administrative district directly under the central authorities of the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) in the 13th century. Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty conferred the title of living Buddha on Vphag-pa, a religious leader in Tibet at that time. Since then, people began to call eminent monks in Tibet living Buddhas.

The government of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) enforced its governance of Tibet by supporting the dGe-lugs-pa Sect. To fight against corruption, the Qing Court systemized and standardized the location, confirmation and enthronement of the reincarnated soul boys.