Dalai Lama set to make a 'framework' around his succession
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Bangkok Post
19 hours ago
- Bangkok Post
India backs Dalai Lama's position on successor, contradicting China
DHARAMSHALA - A senior Indian minister has said that only the Dalai Lama and the organisation he has set up have the authority to identify his successor as the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism, in a rare comment contradicting rival China's long-held position. The Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, said on Wednesday that upon his death he would be reincarnated as the next spiritual leader and that only the Gaden Phodrang Trust would be able to identify his successor. He previously said the person will be born outside China. Beijing says it has the right to approve the Dalai Lama's successor as a legacy from imperial times. Kiren Rijiju, India's minister of parliamentary and minority affairs, made a rare statement on the matter on Thursday, ahead of visiting the Dalai Lama's base in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala for the religious leader's 90th birthday on Sunday. "No one has the right to interfere or decide who the successor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be," Indian media quoted Rijiju as telling reporters. "Only he or his institution has the authority to make that decision. His followers believe that deeply. It's important for disciples across the world that he decides his succession." India's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the Dalai Lama's succession plan. Rijiju, a practising Buddhist, will be joined by other Indian officials at the birthday celebrations. India is estimated to be home to tens of thousands of Tibetan Buddhists who are free to study and work there. Many Indians revere the Dalai Lama, and international relations experts say his presence in India gives New Delhi a measure of leverage with China. Relations between India and China nosedived after a deadly border clash in 2020 but are slowly improving now.
Bangkok Post
2 days ago
- Bangkok Post
Hong Kong proposes recognising same-sex marriages registered abroad
HONG KONG - The Hong Kong government is proposing to establish a registration system for same-sex couples who are married or registered abroad to receive legal recognition, according to an official document released on Wednesday. The proposal — detailed in a government paper to be discussed in the legislative council on Thursday — comes after Hong Kong's top court in September 2023 partially approved a landmark appeal by an LGBTQ activist for recognition of same-sex marriages. The judges dismissed activist Jimmy Sham's appeal that he had a constitutional right to a same-sex marriage in Hong Kong, but gave the government two years to ensure that rights such as access to hospitals and inheritance could be protected for same-sex couples. Responding to the judgement, the government document proposed the new registration system to essentially allow a same-sex couple's partnership to be legally recognised. It stipulates that both partners must be of the same sex and at least 18 years old, with at least one being a Hong Kong resident. They would have rights related to medical matters concerning their partner, including hospital visits, access to medical information and organ donations, as well as the right to handle a partner's post-death affairs, including applying for a death certificate, claiming the body and arranging funeral matters. Same-sex couples applying for legal recognition under the proposed mechanism must have registered a valid same-sex marriage, civil partnership or civil union overseas. Activist questions equality In Asia, only a few places including Taiwan, Nepal and Thailand currently allow same-sex unions, as the region's largely conservative values still dominate politics and society. The Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau wrote in the paper that the proposed new system — which requires legislative approval — had taken into account Hong Kong's current social system and traditional values while seeking to avoid social divisions. 'It is essential to establish appropriate registration requirements under an alternative framework that aligns with practical realities and public expectations, while safeguarding registrants' rights and preventing abuse,' the bureau wrote. But Sham, who first challenged the government in court, said the proposal offered a minimal level of protection, especially the stipulation that couples needed to be married abroad. '(This) doesn't seem to meet the conditions of equality in registration,' Sham told Reuters. 'I doubt it fully complies with what the judge required.'
Bangkok Post
3 days ago
- Bangkok Post
How will the Dalai Lama's successor be chosen?
DHARAMSHALA — The choice of a successor to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhists, is a matter of riveting interest not only for followers of his religion, but also China, India, and the United States, for strategic reasons. The Nobel peace laureate, who turns 90 on Sunday, is regarded as one of the world's most influential figures, with a following extending well beyond Buddhism. How was he chosen? Tibetan tradition holds that the soul of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated after his death. The 14th Dalai Lama, born as Lhamo Dhondup on July 6, 1935, to a farming family in what is now Qinghai province, was identified as such a reincarnation when he was just two years old. A search party sent by the Tibetan government made the decision on the basis of several signs, such as a vision revealed to a senior monk, the Dalai Lama's website says. The searchers were convinced when the toddler identified belongings of the 13th Dalai Lama with the phrase, "It's mine, it's mine". In the winter of 1940, Lhamo Thondup was taken to the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the capital of today's Tibet Autonomous Region, and officially installed as the spiritual leader of Tibetans. How will his successor be chosen? In his book " Voice for the Voiceless", released in March 2025, the Dalai Lama said his successor would be born outside China. The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in northern India since 1959, after fleeing a failed uprising against the rule of Mao Zedong's Communists. He wrote that he would release details about his succession around the time of his 90th birthday. On Wednesday, he ended years of waiting by his followers on the issue of his succession, saying the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue and that the Gaden Phodrang Trust had sole authority to recognise his reincarnation. The Gaden Phodrang Trust is a non-profit organisation set up by the Dalai Lama. It is responsible for all matters related to him and acts on his behalf. Earlier this week, while addressing a gathering in Dharamshala, he said: "There will be some kind of a framework within which we can talk about the continuation of the institution of the Dalai Lamas". In a speech in 2011, the Dalai Lama mentioned how highly enlightened Buddhists can "manifest an emanation before death". Some experts have speculated that it might mean the Dalai Lama possibly suggesting he could train a successor in his lifetime, but Tibetan officials say that is unlikely. "He has said this institution will carry on, which means his incarnation will be born," said Dolma Tsering Teykhang, the deputy speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile. "Our Dalai Lama will be reborn, and the institution will carry on." The parliament-in-exile, based in the Himalayan town of Dharamshala, like the Dalai Lama, says a system has been established for the exiled government to continue its work while officers of the Gaden Phodrang Foundation will be charged with finding and recognising his successor. The current Dalai Lama set up the foundation in 2015 to "maintain and support the tradition and institution of the Dalai Lama" regarding his religious and spiritual duties, it says on its website. Its senior officers include several of his aides. What does China say? China says its leaders have the right to approve the Dalai Lama's successor, as a legacy from imperial times. A selection ritual, in which the names of possible reincarnations are drawn from a golden urn, dates to 1793, during the Qing dynasty. Chinese officials have repeatedly said the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama should be decided by following national laws that decree use of the golden urn and the birth of reincarnations within China's borders. But many Tibetans suspect any Chinese role in the selection as being a ploy to exert influence on the community. It is inappropriate for Chinese Communists, who reject religion, "to meddle in the system of reincarnation of lamas, let alone that of the Dalai Lama," the Buddhist leader has said. In his book, he asked Tibetans not to accept "a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including those in the People's Republic of China," referring to the country by its official name. Beijing brands the Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for keeping alive the Tibetan cause, as a "separatist" and prohibits displays of his picture or any public show of devotion towards him. In March 2025, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said the Dalai Lama was a political exile with "no right to represent the Tibetan people at all". China denies suppressing the rights of the Tibetan people, and says its rule ended serfdom in, and brought prosperity to, a backward region. What role could India and the US play? Apart from the Dalai Lama, India is estimated to be home to more than 100,000 Tibetan Buddhists who are free to study and work there. Many Indians revere him, and international relations experts say his presence in India gives New Delhi some kind of leverage with rival China. The United States, which faces rising competition from China for global dominance, has repeatedly said it is committed to advancing the human rights of Tibetans. US lawmakers have previously said they would not allow China to influence the choice of the Dalai Lama's successor. In 2024, then US President Joe Biden signed a law that presses Beijing to resolve a dispute over Tibet's demands for greater autonomy.
