Lately, one typically hears that China might select the subsequent Dalai Lama. Alarming as it might sound to many across the globe, my reply is invariably and emphatically: It doesn’t matter. For the Tibetan individuals, it doesn’t matter if China chooses its personal Dalai Lama. Simply as with the Chinese language-appointed Panchen Lama, a Chinese language-appointed Dalai Lama will solely trigger embarrassment for China. Regardless of Beijing’s all-out efforts to advertise their Panchen Lama as an genuine non secular chief, the Tibetan individuals have firmly and wholeheartedly refused to supply him even a modicum of obeisance.
In contrast to the Panchen Lama’s case, the place the actual Panchen Lama alongside along with his total household have “disappeared”, when that important time finally dawns upon us, the world could have one other Dalai Lama, born in a free nation, recognised in accordance with Tibetan non secular traditions and customs, and chosen as per the clear directions left behind by the present Dalai Lama.
Regardless of China’s full occupation of Tibet because the Dalai Lama’s escape into exile in 1959, it nonetheless lacks legitimacy for its rule over Tibet. It, due to this fact, constantly insists that different nations recognise Tibet as part of China. For the reason that Dalai Lama has been traditionally the supreme temporal and non secular head of Tibet, if China can by some means arrogate to itself the best to recognise and select the subsequent Dalai Lama, deciding on a docile one, it might assist legitimise its rule over Tibet. That is inherently flawed.
Tibetans revere the Dalai Lama because the emanation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion and the patron saint of Tibet. He’s the last word image of Tibet as a nation and its individuals. The method of search and recognition of a reincarnation could seem advanced and complicated to outsiders, it’s necessary to notice that since 1391, the Dalai Lama has been reincarnated 13 occasions. The establishment of the Dalai Lama, in stark distinction to the Individuals’s Republic of China established solely in 1949, is historic and skilled sufficient to handle all potential future eventualities.
Let me briefly set the fundamentals straight on the difficulty of reincarnation. The next excerpt from the current Dalai Lama’s interview to TIME in 2004 ought to supply some perception: “The establishment of the Dalai Lama, and whether or not it ought to proceed or not, is as much as the Tibetan individuals. In the event that they really feel it isn’t related, then it can stop and there can be no fifteenth Dalai Lama. But when I die at the moment, I believe they may need one other Dalai Lama. The aim of reincarnation is to meet the earlier [incarnation’s] life job. My life is outdoors Tibet, due to this fact, my reincarnation will logically be discovered outdoors. However then, the subsequent query: Will the Chinese language settle for this or not? China won’t settle for. The Chinese language authorities likely will appoint one other Dalai Lama, because it did with the Panchen Lama. Then there can be two Dalai Lamas: one, the Dalai Lama of the Tibetan coronary heart, and one that’s formally appointed.”
The mind-boggling conundrum such a scenario presents for Beijing was highlighted again in 2013 by a professor on the Occasion College of the Central Committee of the Chinese language Communist Occasion in Beijing. In an interview with Asia Weekly, professor Jin Wei famous that treating the Dalai Lama as an “enemy” alienated all six million Tibetans who revere him as “the dwelling Buddha.” She mentioned, “The Dalai Lama is the important thing to the difficulty of Tibet,” and really helpful that China ought to resume its stalled dialogue with him. In response to Jin Wei, China’s final objective must be to keep away from an embarrassing scenario that throws up two Dalai Lamas. She believed that if China may management the collection of the subsequent Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, the social gathering would acquire the goodwill of all Tibetans and weaken the Tibetan independence forces working outdoors the nation. Sadly, each then and now, good sense has but to prevail in China.
The system of reincarnation, distinctive to Tibetan Buddhism, is a purely non secular matter rooted totally in individuals’s religion. No power can impose religion upon individuals. And in issues of religion, there is no such thing as a room for compromise, flexibility, or doubt: Both individuals imagine somebody is the reincarnation, or they don’t; there aren’t any maybes.
The USA, by means of varied legislative acts regarding Tibet, has despatched a transparent and robust message to China that it stands firmly in solidarity with the Tibetan individuals. It’s excessive time for different nations to step up and make clear their stance on whether or not the Tibetan individuals have the best to spiritual perception and the liberty to decide on their very own non secular leaders, thereby serving to forestall China from creating an embarrassing scenario for itself.
Dhundup Gyalpo is the secretary of bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, New Delhi.The views expressed are private
