Ageing Dalai Lama sets up chilling clash with enemy China as he reveals succession plan in defiance of communist regime
HOLY WAR Ageing Dalai Lama sets up chilling clash with enemy China as he reveals succession plan in defiance of communist regime
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THE Dalai Lama has reignited a long-standing feud with the Chinese government after he confirmed he will appoint his own successor.
Xi Jinping's communist regime has warned only they will get the final say over who takes over as the next Buddhist leader.
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The Dalai Lama has reignited a long-standing feud with the Chinese government after he confirmed he will appoint his own successor
Credit: AFP
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The announcement from the Dalai Lama came via a video message
Credit: Reuters
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The ageing Buddhist leader has suffered from several health complications in recent years
Credit: AFP
The announcement from the Dalai Lama on Wednesday put an end to decades of uncertainty over the future of the Tibetan spiritual religion.
In recent years, speculation had grown that the 14th Dalai Lama currently in power could be the final one.
Just four days before his 90th birthday, the head of the religion announced: "I am affirming that the institution will continue."
Tibetan tradition holds that the soul of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated in the body of a child upon his death.
It often takes years to identify the child who is said to be the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.
His recorded video message also appeared to take aim at China as he said: "No one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter."
The Chinese have tried to muscle their way into conversations around the Dalai Lama across the past few decades.
Beijing sees the spiritual leader as a 'separatist' who is seeking independence from Tibet - therefore weakening China's grip on the region.
The Chinese army first invaded Tibet to bring them under the control of the Communist Party in 1959.
Since then, the 14th Dalai Lama, born Tenzin Gyatso, has been living in exile in Dharamsala, a Himalayan town in Himachal Pradesh in northern India.
Dalai Lama explains how to train your mind to tackle destructive emotions in India
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Buddhist leader has traveled the world to advocate for nonviolence and the 'true' autonomy and cultural and religious freedom of Tibetans.
Angered by the Dalai Lama's comments, China has been trying to bring elements of the Tibetan religious institution under state control.
They also want to absorb the people into one nation around the Communist Party.
The Chinese government has reportedly assumed they will select the next Dalai Lama.
Beijing insists the next Dalai Lama needs government approval before being declared with the best way of deciding being through a lot-drawing system.
But Beijing's hopes appear to have been dashed as the sitting leader gathered senior Tibetan Buddhist monks in Dharamsala today and said his office has the 'sole authority' over the next reincarnation.
He said he consulted with the heads of Tibetan Buddhist traditions and other religious leaders to search for and recognize a successor as per the traditions.
He has said in the past that his successor would be born in a 'free country', indicating that the next spiritual head could come from Tibetan exiles.
How is the Dalai Lama chosen?
APPOINTING the Dalai Lama has been a centuries-old tradition upheld by Tibetan buddhists.
Believers say the next leader is always reincarnated once the previous one passes away.
Senior monks are tasked with discovering who the holy successor is by searching for them far and wide.
Many believe the chosen one harbours the soul of his predecessor.
The current Dalai Lama, the 14th ever, was identified when he was just two years old.
The sitting Dalai Lama has set up the Gaden Phodrang Foundation to help maintain and support all religious duties - including his successor.
The group's senior officers, which include his aides, will carry out the procedures of search and recognition in accordance with past tradition, according to his website.
The successor has always been a male child from Tibet but in recent years speculation has grown that the future pick could not be male.
The Dalai Lama himself has even admitted his successor will not be from Tibet or China due to the growing number of believers living outside of the region.
Of the 140,000 Tibetan exiles, half live in India.
He has also expressed being open to a successor who isn't a child, or not a man, in a break with centuries of tradition.
The Dalai Lama was born Lhamo Dhondup in 1935 to a family of buckwheat and barley farmers in what is now the northwestern Chinese province of Qinghai.
At the age of two, he was deemed by a search party to be the 14th reincarnation of Tibet's spiritual and temporal leader after identifying several of his predecessor's possessions.
Nine years after he assumed his position, fears grew that the Dalai Lama could be kidnapped by Beijing.
A subsequent crackdown by the Chinese army forced him to escape disguised as a common soldier from the palace in Lhasa, where his predecessors had held absolute power.
In 2011, he announced he would relinquish his political role, handing over those responsibilities to an elected leader for the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Penpa Tsering was appointed as he said today Tibetans from around the world made an earnest request with single-minded devotion that the position of the Dalai Lama should continue for the "benefit of all sentient beings in general and Buddhist in particular."
He said in a statement: "In response to this overwhelming supplication, His Holiness has shown infinite compassion and finally agreed to accept our appeal on this special occasion of his 90th birthday."
Tsering also warned China not to meddle in the decision-making process of the successor due to it being a unique Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
"We strongly condemn the Peoples Republic of China's usage of reincarnation subject for their political gain, and will never accept it," he added.
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King Charles with the Dalai Lama back in 2012 during a visit to London
Credit: AFP
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From his outpost, the Dalai Lama has been both a religious leader and a tireless and highly effective global advocate for the Tibetan cause and community over the past 66 years. He has vocally resisted calls by China for it to have any say over the institution of the Dalai Lama or to meddle in the succession process. Within greater Tibet, home to 6 million people, Chinese authorities have imposed increasingly draconian measures and censorship to try to crush the influence of the Dalai Lama, including banning images of him. Beijing has described the Dalai Lama as a 'wolf in monk's clothing' and views him as a dissident and separatist, even as he advocated for greater Tibetan autonomy within China, rather than full independence. Chinese efforts are widely seen to have failed, and as the Dalai Lama's international profile has grown – he has a Nobel peace prize and millions of devotees, including some of the world's biggest celebrities – he remains more revered than ever. His presence as a constant thorn in the side of Chinese efforts to impose complete homogeneity over Tibet means officials have become increasingly determined to control what happens when he dies. In a statement after the Dalai Lama's announcement this week – which was only published in English – the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, said his successor 'must be chosen by drawing lots from a golden urn and approved by the central government'. Analysts have widely agreed the most likely scenario after the death of the Dalai Lama is that two successors will be appointed; one located by Tibetan monks, as per tradition, probably outside China and recognised by the Tibetan community in exile, and another selected by the Chinese Communist party from within China. Over the decades, the Dalai Lama's presence in Dharamshala and the free movement he is afforded by India has remained a source of tension in Indo-Chinese relations. Yet since 2020, when border tensions erupted into violent skirmishes, it appeared the Indian government, led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, began to see the Tibet issue as a direct form of leverage over China. China has emphasised that any country that interferes in the Dalai Lama reincarnation will be sanctioned – a message seen to be directed at India. In a notable break from convention, this week India's minister of minority affairs, Kiren Rijiju, himself a Buddhist, said publicly that reincarnation of the Dalai Lama 'is to be decided by the established convention and as per the wish of the Dalai Lama himself. Nobody else has the right to decide it except him.' China's foreign ministry instantly called on India to 'stop using Tibet issues to interfere in China's domestic affairs'. Amitabh Mathur, a former adviser on Tibet to the Indian government, said it was highly likely that the Dalai Lama's office would have pre-informed New Delhi of the reincarnation announcement, and that Rijiju's statement would not have been made without consulting senior ministries. 'It certainly goes above and beyond what has been said by India before,' said Mathur. He suggested the geopolitical challenges over the Dalai Lama were likely to become more complicated after his death, particularly if the Tibetan officials located his reincarnation inside India, in defiance of China's own possible selection. Tibetan officials have confirmed that unofficial back channels remained open with the Chinese and that the Dalai Lama was doing all he could to prevent the 600-year-old Tibetan Buddhist institution being hijacked by Chinese political interests. 'He's viewing these things from a very practical lens,' said Mathur. 'Don't forget, the Dalai Lama is as well versed in statecraft as he is in spiritual matters.' Nonetheless, as he led prayers on the eve of his birthday, the Tibetan leader – who appeared in good health – emphasised that he did not foresee his death coming any time soon. 'I hope,' he said, 'to live another 30 or 40 years.'
