Dalai Lama set to reveal succession plan
Dolma Tsering Teykhang, deputy speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile in Dharamshala, said it was important for the world to hear directly from the Dalai Lama on the issue because while China "tries to vilify him at every chance. It is trying to frame rules and regulations on how to have the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama in their hand".
"China is trying to grab this institution for its political purpose," she said.
"We want the incarnation of the Dalai Lama to be born not only for the survival of Tibet as a distinct culture, religion and nation, but also for the well-being of the whole humanity."
Thupten Ngodup, Tibet's chief state oracle, said typically such discussions on the reincarnation do not take place when a monk is alive but things are different mainly because the "Chinese government is interfering".
Beijing said in March the Dalai Lama was a political exile who had "no right to represent the Tibetan people at all". China has said it is open to discussing his future if he recognises Tibet and Taiwan are inalienable parts of China, a proposal the Tibetan government in exile has rejected.
This week's religious conference, being held for the first time since 2019, will be attended by more than 100 Tibetan Buddhist leaders and will feature a video statement from the Dalai Lama.
Hollywood star Richard Gere, a long-time follower of Tibetan Buddhism, will be among those attending, organisers have said.
The Dalai Lama will attend prayers called by the Tibetan government in exile on July 5 and participate in his birthday celebrations a day later, according to a schedule shared by the organisers.
He will speak at the celebrations for about half an hour. India's parliamentary affairs minister, Kiren Rijiju, and other Indian officials are expected to attend. Tibetans have been praying for his long health, specially since knee surgery in the US last year, though the Dalai Lama told Reuters in December he could live until he was 110. The previous Dalai Lama died earlier than expected at 58.
The Dalai Lama and Tibetan officials said there is a system in place for the government-in-exile to continue its political work while officers of the Dalai Lama's Gaden Phodrang Foundation search for and recognise the next Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama set up the foundation in 2015 and its senior officers include several of his aides.
Teykhang and other Tibetan officials said the Dalai Lama has been preparing his people for the day when he is gone, specially through his 2011 decision to hand his political role to a democratically elected government, ending a 368-year-old tradition of being spiritual and temporal head of Tibetans.
He said: "Since he has come in the form of a human, we have to agree there will be a moment when he is not with us. His Holiness has prepared us for that day, he made us act as if he's not there."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
TimesLIVE
4 hours ago
- TimesLIVE
Tesla stares down a second year of dwindling sales
Tesla is headed for another year of shrinking sales after it posted a second straight drop in quarterly deliveries, dragged down by CEO Elon Musk's right-wing political stances and an ageing vehicle line-up that has turned off some buyers. The carmaker now needs to deliver more than one million vehicles in the typically strong second half to avoid another annual sales decline — a task that some analysts say could prove difficult due to tariff-driven economic uncertainty and threats to phase out key EV incentives under the Trump administration's sweeping tax bill, including the $7,500 (R131,620) credit on new sales and leases. It reported on Wednesday that deliveries fell 13.5% in the second quarter, missing analysts' expectations, despite Musk saying in April that sales had turned a corner. Shares, down about a quarter this year, rose 4.5% as the drop was less severe than the bleakest analysts views, partly helped by a modest demand recovery in the competitive Chinese market, where its refreshed Model Y has gained some traction. Some investors welcomed the numbers, though with caution. 'You need two dots to draw a line. I don't think you can get too excited yet until you have some confirmation (of a demand recovery),' said Camelthorn Investments adviser Shawn Campbell, who personally holds Tesla shares. 'We've had so much bad news — almost any good news is going to help at this point.' While Tesla has leaned on offers such as low-cost financing to boost demand, it is yet to roll out long-promised cheaper models in a market where snazzy and feature-packed EVs from its Chinese rivals have been winning over buyers. Tesla had said it would start producing a cheaper vehicle — expected to be a pared-down Model Y — by the end of June, but Reuters reported in April it was delayed by at least a few months. An escalating feud between Musk and US President Donald Trump over the tax bill has also worried investors as it could potentially alienate more buyers after Musk's embrace of right-wing politics eroded demand in Europe and the US and increase regulatory scrutiny of the robotaxis that are central to its nearly trillion-dollar valuation.
Daily Maverick
8 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
House Republicans advance toward vote on Trump's tax-cut bill
Republicans in the House of Representatives on Wednesday moved closer toward advancing U.S. President Donald Trump's massive tax-cut and spending bill, appearing to overcome concerns over its cost that had been raised by a handful of hardliners. As lawmakers shuttled in and out of closed-door meetings, a procedural vote held open for more than seven hours to give Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson time to convince holdouts to back the president's signature bill. In the end it passed 220-212 along party lines, an indication but not a guarantee that Trump may have won over skeptics. One more preliminary vote was scheduled ahead of the main vote on the bill on the House floor, when minority Democrats, critical of cuts to social spending, were expected to make a final stand against the legislation. Leaving Speaker Johnson's office before the procedural vote closed, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer told Reuters progress was being made. 'There's going to be a vote tonight, and we'll finish voting on the rule, and then we'll do the debate. We'll vote on the bill,' Emmer said. Trump struck an optimistic tone in a social media post. 'It looks like the House is ready to vote tonight. We had GREAT conversations all day, and the Republican House Majority is UNITED, for the Good of our Country, delivering the Biggest Tax Cuts in History and MASSIVE Growth. Let's go Republicans, and everyone else – MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!' he wrote on Truth Social. The Senate passed the legislation, which nonpartisan analysts say will add $3.4 trillion to the nation's $36.2 trillion in debt over the next decade, by the narrowest possible margin on Tuesday after intense debate on the bill's hefty price tag and $900 million in cuts to the Medicaid healthcare program for low-income Americans. With a narrow 220-212 majority, Johnson can afford no more than three defections from his ranks. Earlier in the day, skeptics from the party's right flank said they had more than enough votes to block the bill. 'He knows I'm a 'no.' He knows that I don't believe there are the votes to pass this rule the way it is,' Republican Representative Andy Harris of Maryland, leader of the hardline Freedom Caucus, told reporters. Trump, who is pressing lawmakers to get him the bill to sign into law by the July 4 Independence Day holiday, met with some of the dissenters at the White House. Democrats are united in opposition to the bill, saying that its tax breaks disproportionately benefit the wealthy while cutting services that lower- and middle-income Americans rely on. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that almost 12 million people could lose health insurance as a result of the bill. 'This bill is catastrophic. It is not policy, it is punishment,' Democratic Representative Jim McGovern said in debate on the House floor. TRUMP EFFECT Republicans in Congress have struggled to stay united in recent years, but they also have not defied Trump since he returned to the White House in January. Representative Chip Roy of Texas was leading three holdouts who have raised concerns about increasing the deficit and high levels of spending. Asked why he expects the bill to pass, Republican Representative Derrick Van Orden told reporters: 'Because 77 million Americans voted for Donald Trump, not Chip Roy. That's why.' Any changes made by the House would require another Senate vote, which would make it all but impossible to meet the July 4 deadline. The legislation contains most of Trump's top domestic priorities, from tax cuts to immigration enforcement. The bill would extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts, cut health and food safety net programs, fund Trump's immigration crackdown, and zero out many green-energy incentives. It also includes a $5 trillion increase in the nation's debt ceiling, which lawmakers must address in the coming months or risk a devastating default. The Medicaid cuts have also raised concerns among some Republicans, prompting the Senate to set aside more money for rural hospitals.
Daily Maverick
15 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Conspiracy theories simply ignore history
Conspiracy theorists and conspiracies are thriving on social media. Sometimes these conspiracy theories are clearly bunk, and stem from intellectual laziness. Sometimes they are reproduced by people who feel aggrieved and believe that the world is against them. At other times, they stem from rich, fertile and quite creative minds, but most of the time, when it's not dangerous, conspiracy theorising is laughable. Among the things about conspiracy theories which is especially noxious is the misrepresentation and manipulation, the torturing or wilfully ignoring of facts. This noxiousness and self-dramatising apostasy are distinct markers of Donald Trump's corte milione. Trump is the cynosure of il millione, the braggart who knows more about anything and everything than anyone alive, and his retinue, unabashedly obeisant, provide the vacuous encomia. We probably should not dismiss out of hand the likelihood that conspiracy theories can be titillating – we should also not ignore the pleasure and self-satisfaction gained from reproducing conspiracies. Very many statements by our politicians evidence the appeal (among their followers) of conspiracy theories, often couched in polite terms or language which help shore up their self-senses of importance, legitimacy and, of course, eternal innocence. But let's move on from the public politics and discuss the fun stuff. As a starting point, I should state at the outset two things. The first (something which I have worked on for decades) is that there is no capitalist conspiracy in the sense that a group of people sit down every day and work out how to intentionally destroy the lives of people. Capitalism is, itself, a beast that destroys people, families, communities and society through alienation, excessive individualism, the belief that individual utility maximisation (and the dictum made famous by that auntie who headed the British government that there is no such thing as society), and 'market forces' or 'the invisible hand' necessarily being the ultimate arbiter of human life and agency. Don't give me that 'well capitalist technological innovation'… Soviet innovation (those darn communists!) was at the forefront of the technology that gave us the first human space flight and early satellite technologies. From personal inquiry a generation ago (and things have improved significantly), the infant mortality rate in Cuba (those pesky communists) was/is lower than in the US. The Chinese (communists) have led the world in infrastructure development, scientific innovation and development of social safety nets… And don't dump Pol Pot or Stalin's horrors on my plate. Kaiser Wilhelm II and Adolf Hitler were famous for being virulently anti-communist (in the case of Hitler) and between them were responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of Germans, Poles, Hungarians, Dutch, French and Russians, among others, between 1914 and 1945. The second thing is that the 'theory' part of a conspiracy theory should be taken seriously – until the evidence proves it to be wrong. Careful now, or you'll spill your beer! What I am suggesting is that, yes, there may be a sighting of a UFO (unidentified flying object), until the flying object has been identified. Imagine how many sightings there have been of UFOs (or stories of ghosts, for that matter), but we have yet to see evidence, and have it corroborated. So, this same thing may be said about any conspiracy theory. Sure, state your theory, but, and I paraphrase Richard Feynman, it does not matter how thrilling or exciting or beautiful or seductive your theory is, if the evidence does not support it, either abandon the theory or start all over again… Mushrooming conspiracies of our times The first conspiracy theory I heard of was about the Bermuda Triangle. It was the 1960s, and I was a prepubescent lad who spent a lot of time listening to the BBC World Service (I have progressively been avoiding the BBC since it began to resemble CNN) and reading whatever texts I came across. It was at about the same time, or maybe a little later, when I first learnt about Marco Polo, about which I have written elsewhere. The Bermuda Triangle was fascinating. As young children, teenagers, we spoke about it with much authority. It was all real. True. For the uninitiated, the Bermuda Triangle is an area in the North Atlantic where ships and aeroplanes mysteriously 'disappeared'. It was all based on supernatural and paranormal beliefs – and nonsense. Today, in the third decade of the 21st century, new life has been given to the assassination of former US president JF Kennedy, Malcolm X, former Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Patrice Lumumba, former Secretary-General of the UN, Dag Hammarskjöld or the former president of Mozambique, Samora Machel. The conspiracies of 9/11 have been growing exponentially, and the real doozy is the moon landings. In terms of the latter, I follow the scientists, and with the former, I have always avoided walks during blizzards of half-truths and titillating tales. In these senses, I stick to the official version of stories – until there is actually evidence to prove otherwise. There are very many creative minds out there, some of which can be quite darkly creative. Others are pernicious and tend to be shaped by biases and prejudices. One theory is about a particular group of people who 'rule the world' and who have won a disproportionate share of Nobel Prizes. I will not give these theories oxygen. What I will say is this, going back to wearing my other hat, Europeans dominated the world in arts and science, and in propagating their successes (and the supremacy of the European Enlightenment) most aggressively since what they refer to as the 'Glorious Revolution' in 1688. (Conveniently occluding things like slavery, witch burnings, the cruel injustices of empires, etc). It stands to reason, then, that the most celebrated composers and music theorists like Peter Tchaikovsky, or Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev (my favourite composer) or Arnold Schönberg were European. Not dissimilarly, the liberal capitalist economics fundamentalism that Adam Smith is associated with was picked up by (European) economists from Alfred Marshall to Paul Samuelson, and more latterly by European settler colonists in North America, people like Paul Krugman or Joseph Stiglitz. It's hard to believe, then, that there is some genetic disposition towards genius or greatness among people who 'rule the world' – other than the (more readily acceptable) fact that the Europeans have dominated the world for most of the past 500 years. For what it's worth, classical music has historically been dominated by white people and jazz by black people. The conspiracy that one particular people rule the world is just nonsense. It's probably safer to say that capitalism has dominated the world, that it sprang from a corner of England in the 18th century, and on the backs of empires, was spread around the world. On this point, I will leave the last word to that other European, Karl Marx (a statement about capitalism which is empirically verifiable): 'The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere.' As for conspiracy theories. Well, they are part of what makes us ugly and dangerous. Everyone does, actually, have one or two favourite conspiracy theories. Among mine are that Marco Polo never did get to China, and that Donald Trump has not read a whole book in his adult life (a book that is not about himself, that is), and that his adviser, Stephen Miller, is one of the most awful, cruel and objectionably racist white supremacists. For the rest of it, I follow the official conclusions of the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington, and the official conclusions on the assassination of John F Kennedy. I believe that there are things like UFOs, until they are identified, which is almost immediate – that is, besides the fact there is no actual, verifiable, evidence of their existence. There is no such thing as a ghost, because there is no evidence. I also believe that the moon landing is (for now) humanity's greatest scientific achievement. 'For now' refers to a time in the future when (hopefully) we find a cure for cancer, or eradicate things like infant blindness in Africa. DM
