Latest news with #DalaiLama
The Mainichi
7 hours ago
- Politics
- The Mainichi
Dalai Lama to turn 90 amid succession argument between Tibet, China
DHARAMSALA, India (Kyodo) -- With the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual leader, soon to turn 90, the issue of how to identify his successor, traditionally viewed as his reincarnation, is a key issue facing Tibet's government-in-exile and China, which took control of the Himalayan region more than 70 years ago. While China has claimed the sole authority to determine the successor, the current 14th Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959, has warned that Tibetans will not respect anyone chosen as his reincarnation by the country they see as having invaded their homeland. Amid speculation that the Dalai Lama could identify his successor while still alive, potentially through a process of recognition based on "karmic" connection, the president of the Tibetan government-in-exile has told Kyodo News that selection after the spiritual leader's demise on the basis of reincarnation remains the more likely scenario. "I cannot say for sure, but what we have listened to (from) His Holiness and what has been going around so far indicate (the successor's selection would) more likely (be) by reincarnation" than by identification by the spiritual leader, Penpa Tsering said in a recent interview in Dharamsala, northern India. Dalai Lama has also said in the past that his successor could be a woman. Tsering said the Dalai Lama will make an announcement in a video message at a meeting of representatives of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries on July 2, four days before he turns 90, although he said he did not know whether the succession issue would be touched on. Turning to China, Tsering said the key issue for Chinese government officials is selecting a new Dalai Lama "to fulfill their political needs." The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, assumed the role in 1950 after being identified as the reincarnation of his predecessor when he was 2 years old. He exiled himself to India soon after the failed Tibetan uprising against China's imposition of control in 1959. He later established a government-in-exile in Dharamsala. China considers the current Dalai Lama as a separatist who aims to break Tibet away from China. He, however, has insisted he is seeking autonomy for Tibet, with steps to preserve its religion, culture and language. In 1989, the Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize for advocating peaceful solutions to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of the Tibetan people. Formal talks between Tibet and China were last held in 2010. Tsering, the second president of the government-in-exile who took office in 2021, said the two sides have since only used unofficial channels to communicate. He said he believes that China's policy on Tibet and other ethnic minorities revolves around "eliminating the identity of the nationalities" of the ethnic groups. "That's why they are striking the very root of every nationality's identity, including Tibetan, by having this colonial style -- holding schools where a lot of restrictions are imposed on teaching the native language," he added. Tsering was recently on a month-long tour to officially visit the United States, Canada and Japan to discuss the Tibetan cause. While Dalai Lama had a knee surgery in the United States in June last year, Tsering said the spiritual leader is in good health. "His Holiness keeps saying 'I will live for two decades (from now) and more and live up to 113 years of age,'" Tsering said. "There are also prophecies that he will live very long." (By Rini Dutta)
Deccan Herald
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Deccan Herald
Dalai Lama reincarnation: Contest over the soul of Tibet
As the 14th Dalai Lama celebrates his 90th birthday on July 6, all eyes are on his expected announcement on his reincarnation. He, himself, stated that the 15th Dalai Lama would be found in the 'free world'. China, which 'liberated' Tibet in 1951 with a military invasion, on the other hand, declared its intention to select the next Dalai Lama through a 'golden urn' lottery process. Beijing hopes to create some confusion among the Tibetans on the issue of the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. It had done the same in the case of Panchen Lama, the second-highest monk after the Dalai Lama in Tibetan Buddhism. China expects the move will also pave the way for its unbridled influence over Tibet. Earlier, in 1995, when the Dalai Lama recognised Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th Panchen Lama, China put him under house arrest and, instead, selected Gyaltsen Norbu for the position through a "golden urn" process. Gyaltsen Norbu today occupies important political positions in communist China. He is a member of the standing committee of China's People's Political Consultative Conference and the vice president of the Buddhist Association of China. He is also seen touring Tibet and meeting political leaders of Lama @90: The monk who still scares the since President Jiang Zemin's time, stated that it will resort to the "golden urn" process in the case of the 15th Dalai Lama as well. Moreover, in August 2020, the Tibet Forum Meeting – one of the highest decision-making bodies in communist China – declared 'sinicisation' of Tibetan Buddhism to convert all aspects in Tibet into Han Chinese practices with socialist interpretations, despite the promises of it made in the 1951 17-point agreement for the autonomy of Tibetans. The Dalai Lama would not like to see Chinese-induced chaos destroying the Tibetan identity and way of life. In 2011, the Dalai Lama transferred his temporal powers to the popularly elected Sikyong (the prime minister). The exiled Tibetans, since then, took part in the elections of the Sikyong thrice, while Tibet under China had never witnessed popular elections. China's concern is also that, despite its seven decades of tight rule over Tibet since 1951 and assimilation policies, an estimated 97% of Tibetans in Tibet still revere the 14th Dalai Lama. China shudders to think of Tibet slipping from its tight embrace. Spiritually, the Dalai Lama's declaration on his 90th birthday is expected to be endorsed by the key head monks from Mongolia (the originator of the Dalai Lama institution) and those now living in India, Nepal, Bhutan and other countries. The Dalai Lama also has significant influence in the United States (which passed the Tibet Policy and Support Act of 2020 and Tibet Reciprocity Act of 2018), the European Union, Japan, Australia and other countries. Such a contest over the future Dalai Lama has ramifications for not only the Tibetan community but also to the trans-Himalayan belt. With its $19 trillion GDP, China intends to influence the region through infrastructure connectivity and military mobilisation, while the Dalai Lama wants to protect the soul of Tibet and his Lama says his successor to be born outside India, which had borders with Tibet historically, the Dalai Lama's succession creates uncertainties along the current borders, as the Galwan clashes in 2020 and the current full-scale border mobilisation indicate. India also has to factor China's 628 dual-use 'well-off society' villages in the border areas, as nearly 200 such 'villages' were constructed on the path of the Dalai Lama's flight in 1959. Besides, India is also aware of the irredentist Chinese claims on not only Tawang but also the whole of Arunachal Pradesh. India also has to cope with the fragile trans-Himalayan law and order situation. Despite heavy political and military pressure from China, India has vowed to protect and further the identity of the Tibetans living in India and termed the 14th Dalai Lama as a "spiritual" leader. New Delhi is likely to stick to its position in the case of the 15th Dalai Lama too..(The writer is a Professor of Chinese Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University)
Malay Mail
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Malay Mail
As Dalai Lama turns 90, Tibetans fear Beijing's grip on what comes next
DEHRADUN (India), June 28 — Tibetans in exile celebrate the 90th birthday of spiritual leader the Dalai Lama next week, an occasion overshadowed by uncertainty about the future of the role and what it means for their movement. The charismatic Nobel Peace Prize-winning Buddhist — who Tibetans say is the 14th reincarnation of the 600-year-old post — will reveal if there will be another Dalai Lama after him. The inevitable change ahead brings wider concerns for Tibetans over the struggle to keep their identity alive after generations in exile, following a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. There is widespread support among Tibetans in exile for the Dalai Lama role to remain, said Dawa Tashi, once jailed in Tibet for his criticism of Beijing. The Dalai Lama has said the institution will continue only if there is popular demand. 'I strongly believe the reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama will continue,' said Tashi, of the India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. 'This hope is not only shared by Tibetans inside and outside Tibet, but by thousands who are connected to the Dalai Lama across the world,' he told AFP. The leader, who turns 90 on July 6, and thousands of other Tibetans have lived in exile in India since Chinese troops crushed the uprising in the Tibetan capital Lhasa. The Dalai Lama has been lauded by his followers for his tireless campaign for greater autonomy for Tibet, a vast high-altitude plateau in China about the size of South Africa. 'Vested political interests' The Dalai Lama handed over political authority in 2011 to an exiled government chosen democratically by 130,000 Tibetans globally. At the same time, he warned that the future of his spiritual post faced an 'obvious risk of vested political interests misusing the reincarnation system'. Many Tibetans in exile fear China will name a successor to bolster its control over Tibet. The Dalai Lama has said that if there is a successor it will come from the 'free world' outside China's control. The Dalai Lama has long said he does not seek full independence for Tibet. Beijing says the territory is an integral part of China and that the Dalai Lama 'has no right to represent the Tibetan people'. Whatever the Dalai Lama decides about his role, 'the freedom movement must continue regardless', said Kunga Tashi, a 23-year-old Tibetan software engineer in India's tech hub Bengaluru. 'The Chinese government and even Tibetans still equate the Dalai Lama with the freedom struggle,' he said. 'And that is why his reincarnation feels like a turning point.' 'Continuity of the institution' The Dalai Lama, recognised worldwide in his red robes and wide smile, lives an austere monastic life in India's Himalayan hill town of McLeod Ganj. He has said he wants to live until 113. Penpa Tsering, the sikyong or head of the government which is also based in McLeod Ganj, said that senior Buddhist elders, or lamas, will meet the Dalai Lama on July 2. The same day they will open the grand meeting of religious leaders, during which a video message by the Dalai Lama will be broadcast. No details of its message have been released. The Dalai Lama's translator of nearly four decades, Thupten Jinpa, believes that 'the continuity of the institution will remain', meaning that, in time, there 'will be a new Dalai Lama'. 'Today, many young Tibetans prioritise personal success over collective struggle,' said Geshema Tenzin Kunsel, a nun in her 50s from Dolma Ling Nunnery, near McLeod Ganj. 'In his absence, I fear what our future might look like.' 'Shape our own destiny' Tibetans who spoke to AFP say they will keep up their campaign no matter what happens in the coming weeks. 'While we haven't yet achieved our goal of returning to a free Tibet, we've come further than anyone could have imagined — and that's because of His Holiness (the Dalai Lama),' said Sonam Topgyal, 26, a university student in New Delhi. Nepal-based Sakina Batt, 35, a former civil servant with the Tibetan administration, is part of Tibet's minority Muslim population. She too believes that the reincarnation process should 'continue as it has for generations, preserving its sacred tradition without interruption'. But she also said that it depended on the people, not just one leader. 'The future of Tibetans depends on unity and resilience,' she said. 'It's ultimately up to us to shape our own destiny.' — AFP
Malay Mail
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
‘Just another human being': Dalai Lama's enduring grace, in his translator's words
NEW DELHI, June 28 — With his flowing red monk's robes, beaming smile and contagious laugh, the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, has been the charismatic global face of his people's cause for decades. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning monk, Tenzin Gyatso, is expected to celebrate his 90th birthday on July 6 with huge crowds in northern India, his base since leaving his homeland fleeing Chinese troops in 1959. While China condemns him as a rebel and separatist, the internationally recognised Dalai Lama describes himself as a 'simple Buddhist monk'. Thupten Jinpa, his translator of nearly four decades, described a man who uses humour to calm, fierce intellect to debate, and combines self-discipline with tolerance of others. 'He's never deluded by being extraordinary,' said Jinpa, an eminent Buddhist scholar born in Tibet. The Dalai Lama treats those he meets in the same manner whether they are a president or a peasant, world leader or Hollywood star. 'When he's getting ready to go and see a president or a prime minister, everybody around him is all getting nervous he's just completely relaxed,' said Jinpa, who is now a professor at Montreal's McGill University. 'Once I asked him how is it that he's not nervous, and he said, basically, 'the person I'm meeting is just another human being, just like me!'' 'Self-confidence and humility' Despite being revered as the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, a role stretching back more than 600 years, he does not act with a sense of superiority. 'He is one of the most self-confident people I've ever met in my life,' Jinpa said. 'Self-confidence and humility generally don't go together that well, but in him, they sit beautifully.' Jinpa highlighted the Dalai Lama's ability to bring people together through his 'contagious' sense of humour and famous giggling 'individual laugh'. 'He uses humour immediately, so he has this ability to make you feel at ease.' But the translator also described a man who applied the rigorous education and skills of philosophical debate learned as a monk to address the challenges of a complex world. 'He's gone through a formal academic training,' said Jinpa, who himself studied as a monk and holds a doctorate from the University of Cambridge. 'So when he's sitting down with scientists and philosophers and thinkers in deep conversation, his ability to get to the gist, and ask the question that points towards the next challenge, is an amazing display of his focus.' Jinpa described a man who pursues an austere monastic life with 'very high discipline'. 'He gets up at 3:30am and has meditation. He doesn't eat after lunch, which is one of the precepts of monastic ethics,' he said. 'He has always maintained this strictly.' While he was born to a farming family, the Dalai Lama grew up in Lhasa's Potala Palace, a vast building reputed to have 1,000 rooms. Since then he has spent much of his life in a hilltop monastic complex in India's town of McLeod Ganj. 'His bedroom is actually a small corridor between two large rooms, doors on the two sides, and a three-by-six single bed attached to the wall, and next to it is a shower cubicle — and that's it,' Jinpa said. 'He has got his photographs of his gurus, teachers, above his bed — very simple.' 'Non-judgement' But the Dalai Lama balances that toughness towards himself with softness for those he meets. 'Generally, when people are more pious, more disciplined, more pure, they also tend to be less tolerant,' Jinpa said. 'A lot of the intolerance really comes from puritanism in the world, whether it's religious or ideology,' he added. 'But again, in him, this understanding and non-judgement towards others — and expectation of a high standard for himself — it sits beautifully.' Jinpa added that as the holder of a centuries-old institution, the Dalai Lama places his people before himself. 'In all the negotiations that he has had with China, he has constantly made the point that the issue is not about his return, or his status,' he said. 'The issue is about the Tibetan people — there are over six million of us,' said Jinpa. 'Their ability to be self-governing on the Tibetan plateau, which is their historical home, and their ability to exist with dignity as a distinct people within the People's Republic of China.' — AFP
The Hill
18 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
China's threat to Tibet's future should be a global concern
Three decades ago, China abducted the Panchen Lama — then a six-year-old boy — shortly after his recognition by the Dalai Lama, and installed a regime-picked imposter in his place. That abduction, one of the most audacious acts of spiritual and cultural repression in modern history, still haunts the Tibetan people. Yet Chinese President Xi Jinping's meeting with the false Panchen Lama this month has served only to remind the world of the genuine Panchen Lama's continued disappearance. That makes the Panchen Lama — the second-highest spiritual leader in Tibetan Buddhism — arguably the longest-held political prisoner anywhere. Now, Xi is preparing to repeat that sinister act on a much grander scale. He is waiting for the Dalai Lama, who turns 90 on July 6, to pass away so that Beijing can impose its own puppet as the next spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. This would be akin to the Italian government installing a state-appointed pope to lead the Catholic Church, a brazen affront to religious freedom and cultural sovereignty. China's ambitions go far beyond symbolism. With Xi's regime intensifying efforts to erase Tibetan culture, language and identity, the looming succession of the Dalai Lama marks a pivotal and dangerous turning point. Although the Dalai Lama has yet to clarify the exact process for selecting his successor, Beijing is zealously laying the groundwork to seize control of Tibetan Buddhism from within. The paradox is stark: The atheistic Chinese Communist Party is preparing to hand-pick the next Dalai Lama, even while escalating its crackdown on Tibetan religion and culture. Xi has called on Communist Party cadres to become 'unyielding Marxist atheists,' effectively elevating communism to the level of a state religion. The goal is clear: to fashion a successor who pledges loyalty not to Tibetan Buddhism, but to the Chinese Communist Party. But Tibet's plight is not just spiritual or cultural — it is also ecological and geopolitical. The Tibetan Plateau, often dubbed the 'Third Pole,' is Asia's primary freshwater source and a cradle of biodiversity. It is the starting point of the continent's major river systems, which sustain over 2 billion people downstream. China's aggressive exploitation of Tibet's natural resources, particularly water and minerals, has created long-term environmental risks for all of Asia. Beijing is building mega-dams and water diversion projects that threaten to destabilize ecosystems and disrupt hydrological flows far beyond its borders. Tibet's high altitude also plays a critical role in shaping monsoonal patterns and global atmospheric circulation. A 2023 scientific study even found an atmospheric connection between the Tibetan Plateau and the Amazon rainforest — proof that the world's environmental fate is tied to Tibet's future. Despite its annexation in 1951, Tibet maintains a vibrant spirit of resistance. The Dalai Lama, viewed by Tibetans as the living embodiment of compassion and wisdom, remains their moral and spiritual leader. His renunciation of political power in 2011 in favor of a democratically elected government-in-exile only reinforced his legacy as a global symbol of nonviolent resistance. That legacy remains untainted by any link to terrorism, even as China continues to militarize and repress Tibet. Under Xi, repression has intensified, with mass surveillance, religious restrictions and the forced assimilation of Tibetan children into Mandarin-language boarding schools — more than a million children are now separated from their families and culture. The unmistakable goal is to breed loyalty to the Communist Party by obliterating the Tibetan identity. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama's health has declined. Following radiation therapy for prostate cancer in 2016 and knee replacement surgery in the U.S. last year, his international travel has drastically reduced. Adding to the challenge is Beijing's success in pressuring many countries — including Western democracies and Buddhist-majority states in Asia — to deny him entry. Only Japan has held firm. India, to its credit, remains the Tibetan leader's sanctuary and moral ally, with New Delhi referring to him as 'our most esteemed guest.' The Dalai Lama himself calls India his spiritual and cultural home. Against this backdrop, China's strategy to engineer the next Dalai Lama must be met with firm resistance. The stakes could not be higher — the continuity of Tibetan Buddhism as a living spiritual tradition hangs in the balance. To counter Beijing's plan, a coordinated international response is urgently needed to affirm the right of Tibetan Buddhists to determine their own spiritual leadership without interference. Fortunately, the U.S. has taken some meaningful steps. Its 2020 Tibetan Policy and Support Act affirms that the selection of the next Dalai Lama is solely a Tibetan religious matter. It explicitly warns of sanctions against Chinese officials who meddle in the process. In July 2024, President Joe Biden signed into law the bipartisan Resolve Tibet Act, which strengthens American policy in support of Tibetan self-determination and seeks to counter Chinese disinformation campaigns on Tibet. But more must be done. The U.S. and India should forge a united front and rally other democracies to support the Dalai Lama's vision and the Tibetan people's rights. The Dalai Lama's succession should be protected through a multilateral framework that involves Buddhist leaders, legal protections and diplomatic safeguards. China's effort to manipulate the centuries-old institution of the Dalai Lama is not merely a religious affront. It is a geopolitical gambit designed to consolidate control and extend influence across Asia. If Tibet's voice is silenced and its future dictated by authoritarian fiat, the global costs — in spiritual, ecological and political terms — will be immense. Tibet's imperiled future is not just a Tibetan problem. It is a challenge to the international order, to religious freedom and to the environmental security of an entire continent. And the time to act is now. Brahma Chellaney is a geostrategist and the author of nine books, including the award-winning 'Water: Asia's New Battleground.'
