Latest news with #Dharamsala
South China Morning Post
07-07-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
China protests over Indian PM Narendra Modi's birthday greetings to Dalai Lama
China has protested to India over birthday greetings sent to the Dalai Lama by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 'India should fully appreciate the great sensitivity of Tibet-related issues, recognise the separatist nature, honour the commitments it has made to China related to Tibet-related issues, and act prudently, and stop using these issues to meddle in China's internal affairs,' Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Monday afternoon. She added that Beijing had lodged a protest with New Delhi. On Sunday – the birthday of the 14th Dalai Lama, who is the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet – Modi posted on social media: 'I join 1.4 billion Indians in extending our warmest wishes to His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his 90th birthday.' Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama speaks during a prayer ceremony celebrating his 90th birthday near Dharamsala on Sunday. Photo: AFP 'He has been an enduring symbol of love, compassion, patience and moral discipline,' Modi added.
RNZ News
02-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Dalai Lama says he will be reincarnated, Trust will identify successor
By Krishna N Das , Reuters Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama attends a Long Life Prayer offering ceremony at the Main Tibetan Temple in McLeod Ganj, near Dharamsala on 30 June, 2025. Photo: SANJAY BAID / AFP The Dalai Lama says that he will be reincarnated and that his non-profit institution will have the sole authority to identify his reincarnation, countering China's insistence that it will choose the successor of the Tibetan Buddhist leader. The remarks by the Dalai Lama, who turns 90 on Sunday, end speculation among millions of followers about whether there would be another Dalai Lama after his death . The Nobel peace laureate was speaking during a week of celebrations to mark his birthday which was expected to be closely watched by the US, India and China for clues about his successor for strategic reasons. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning reiterated on Wednesday that Beijing had to approve the identity of the successor and that it had to be done in China through a centuries-old ritual. Beijing views the Dalai Lama, who fled to India from Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, as a separatist. The Dalai Lama has previously said his successor will be born outside China and urged his followers to reject anyone chosen by Beijing. In previous years, he had also said it was possible that there might be no successor at all. "I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue," the Dalai Lama said in a video message to a gathering in Dharamshala, a town in the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India, that was attended by more than 100 monks in maroon robes, journalists from around the world and long-time supporters including Hollywood star Richard Gere. He added that the Gaden Phodrang Trust, the non-profit organisation that he set up to maintain and support the tradition and institution of the Dalai Lama, has the sole authority to recognise his future reincarnation in consultation with the heads of Tibetan Buddhist traditions. "They should accordingly carry out the procedures of search and recognition in accordance with past tradition ... no one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter," the Dalai Lama said. Tibetan tradition holds that the soul of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated in the body of a child upon his death. Born as Lhamo Dhondup on July 6, 1935, to a farming family in what is now Qinghai province, the 14th Dalai Lama was identified as such a reincarnation when he was just two years old by a search party on the basis of several signs, such as a vision revealed to a senior monk, the Dalai Lama's website says. He is now regarded as one of the world's most influential religious figures, with a following extending well beyond Buddhism, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Samdhong Rinpoche, a senior official of the Gaden Phodrang Trust told reporters that the Dalai Lama was in good health and he has not given any written instructions yet on the succession. He said the successor can be of any gender and that their nationality would not be restricted to Tibet. 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. Penpa Tsering, leader of the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, said the Dalai Lama would be open to visiting Tibet if his health permits and if there were no restrictions from China. He also said that the US had lifted some restrictions on funds for Tibetans in exile and that the Tibetan government was looking for alternate sources of funding. 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. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
CNN
02-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Dalai Lama vows he won't be the last leader of Tibetan Buddhism
The Dalai Lama has announced that he will have a successor after his death, continuing a centuries-old tradition that has become a flashpoint in the struggle with China's Communist Party over Tibet's future. Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual leader made the declaration on Wednesday in a video message to religious elders gathering in Dharamsala, India, where the Nobel Peace laureate has lived since fleeing a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese communist rule in 1959. 'I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,' the Dalai Lama said in the pre-recorded video, citing requests he received over the years from Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhists urging him to do so. 'The Gaden Phodrang Trust has sole authority to recognize the future reincarnation; no one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter,' he added, using the formal name for the office of the Dalai Lama. The office should carry out the procedures of search and recognition of the future dalai lama 'in accordance with past tradition,' he said. The Dalai Lama has previously stated that when he is about 90 years old, he will consult the high lamas of Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan public to re-evaluate whether the institution of the dalai lama should continue. Wednesday's announcement – delivered days before his 90th birthday this Sunday – sets the stage for a high-stakes battle over his succession, between Tibetan leaders in exile and China's atheist Communist Party, which insists it alone holds the authority to approve the next dalai lama. In a memoir published in March, the Dalai Lama states that his successor will be born in the 'free world' outside China, urging his followers to reject any candidate selected by Beijing. That could lead to the emergence of two rival dalai lamas: one chosen by his predecessor, the other by the Chinese Communist Party.
New York Times
02-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Dalai Lama Tightens Grip on Succession in the Face of Chinese Pressure
The Dalai Lama gathered senior Tibetan Buddhist monks on Wednesday in Dharamsala, the Himalayan town where he has lived in exile for over half a century, to chart the future of his spiritual office — and how it might survive growing pressure from China. In a recorded video statement to the meeting, the Dalai Lama offered few specifics, except a suggestion that was seen as blocking any Chinese influence from the process of identifying the future reincarnation of the Tibetan spiritual leader. He said that the Dalai Lama's office has 'sole authority' to recognize such an reincarnation. 'No one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter,' he said. The Dalai Lama fled China in 1959 after the Chinese army invaded Tibet to bring the region under the control of the Communist Party. He has lived in India ever since, helping to establish a democracy in exile while traveling the world to advocate for true autonomy and cultural and religious freedom for the Tibetan people. The Chinese government sees the octogenarian leader as a separatist who seeks independence for Tibet. In his absence, Beijing has tried to bring elements of the Tibetan religious institution under state control, and erase Tibetan culture to absorb the people into one nation united around the Communist Party. Traditionally, the search for a new Dalai Lama begins only after the current one dies. It can take years to identify the child believed to be his reincarnation, and more than a decade to educate and prepare him for the role. The fear that China will exploit that gap has long shaped the Dalai Lama's strategy ever since he went into exile. He has said the Chinese are waiting for his death to crush the movement for Tibetan autonomy. The Dalai Lama relinquished his political leadership role in the Tibetan exile government in 2011, a decision intended to strengthen the democratic structure of the Tibetan movement. Since then, Tibetan refugees scattered around the world have elected their political leader through a direct vote. In recent years, the Dalai Lama has told his followers that he is considering other possibilities for the future of his role after him, an apparent effort to prevent Beijing from moving into the gap left by his absence. He has said that his successor will be born in a free country, indicating that the next Dalai Lama could come from among Tibetan exiles, who number about 140,000, half of them in India. He has also expressed being open to a successor who isn't a child, or not even male, in a break with centuries of tradition. He has said that he would make the future of the institution, and his reincarnation, clearer around his 90th birthday, which is being celebrated in Dharamsala this week.
BBC News
01-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Dalai Lama: Will Tibetan spiritual leader reveal succession plan as he turns 90?
Hundreds of followers of the Dalai Lama have gathered in northern India for the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's 90th birthday, amid growing anticipation that he could give a clue about his eventual Dalai Lama is due to release a video message and a statement on Wednesday, his office has told the BBC, although there's no clarity on what he will Dalai Lama fled across the border to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in set up a government-in-exile in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala and has been seen as an alternative source of power for those who resent Beijing's tight control of Tibet. The milestone birthday on Sunday will be preceded by the three-day 15th Tibetan Religious Conference, starting on Wednesday morning. Celebrations began on Monday - the Dalai Lama's birthday according to the Tibetan lunar will be attended by more than 7,000 guests, including a number of Indian ministers. On Monday, photos showed the Dalai Lama blessing Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a long-time Dalai Lama, who had earlier said he would release details about his succession around his 90th birthday, told a gathering on Monday that "there will be some kind of a framework within which we can talk about the continuation of the institution of the Dalai Lamas". He did not the past, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism has been torn between whether to continue with the 600-year-old institution or not. A few years ago, he said his successor might be a girl, or that there might be no successor at all. But in recent years, he has also said that if there's widespread support among Tibetans-in-exile for the post - which there is - then it would continue and his office would choose a has always insisted that his successor would be born outside China, something that has angered though the Dalai Lama has always advocated a "middle way" to resolve the status of Tibet - genuine self-rule within China - Beijing regards him as a separatist. It says the standard of living of people in Tibet has greatly improved under its rule. Youdon Aukatsang, an MP in the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, said he did not expect "a clear-cut procedure would be laid down" this week."I think everyone is kind of anticipating some kind of revelation from His Holiness about his reincarnation. But I do not expect a very specific kind of revelation," he told the present Dalai Lama, he said, "is a binding and unifying force for the Tibetan movement" and some Tibetans feel somebody should be recognised soon as his successor because they worry that there may be an impact on the community and the movement going forward."The Dalai Lama institution is very important for the Tibetan struggle. It's also a symbol of Tibetan identity and a beacon of our spiritual refuge. That will continue. I think there will be a vacuum, but we have to continue, we don't have a choice," he said."We have very, very big shoes to fill but we have to fill them, right? I think many people will have to get into that role, one person will not be enough."Experts, however, say if he does announce a successor, then China is also expected to name its own Dalai Lama."China will argue that only the Communist Party of China based in Beijing has the authority to find the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama," Dibyesh Anand, professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster, told the BBC."After a period of a few months or a few years, they will have their own proteges identify a small boy as the next Dalai Lama and impose that. Of course, a majority of Tibetans are going to reject it and the majority of people in the world are going to make fun of it. But remember China has immense authority in terms of resources so they will try to impose that."Mr Aukatsang says that "despite all these years of trying to control the hearts and minds of Tibetan people inside Tibet", Beijing has "completely failed". A Dalai Lama chosen by China, he says, "will not be recognised, not only by the Tibetans but the world will not recognise it because China doesn't have the legitimacy to find the future Dalai Lama"."We are concerned but we know that irrespective of our concern, China will come up with their own Dalai Lama, we will call it the Chinese-recognised Dalai Lama. I am not worried that Dalai Lama will have any credibility in the Tibetan world or the Buddhist world." Tibetan Buddhists believe that their senior monks are reincarnated and a Dalai Lama is chosen by Buddhist officials if they are convinced that the one they are choosing harbours the soul of his present - 14th - Dalai Lama was born on 6 July 1935 in a small Tibetan village in a farmer family and was named Lhamo Dhondub. When he was two years old, a search party of Buddhist officials recognised him as the reincarnation of the 13 previous Dalai to his official biography, the clinching evidence came when the officials showed him a number of possessions that had belonged to his predecessor. The toddler correctly identified items belonging to the 13th Dalai Lama saying, "It's mine. It's mine".Enthroned before he turned four, he was educated at a Tibetan monastery and has a doctorate of Buddhist philosophy. But in 1950, when he was 15, the troops of Mao Zedong's newly-installed Communist government marched into Tibet. A year later, China drew up a 17-point agreement legitimising Tibet's incorporation into China.A Tibetan revolt in 1959, seeking an end to Chinese rule, was crushed and thousands of protesters were Dalai Lama fled to India on foot along with 10,000 followers and settled in Dharamsala, running a government-in-exile from there. In 2011, he gave up his political role but remains Tibetan Buddhism's top spiritual of those who fled alongside him still dream of going home to Tibet."My faith is that I will return to Tibet. If not me, my younger generations will definitely return," said Lobsang Choedon, 84, who attended Monday's celebrations. Choedon's daughter and grandchildren were all born - and have spent their entire lives - in India. Nevertheless, her 15-year-old grandson Ngawang Lhundup feels deeply connected to his ancestral been listening to stories about Tibet since he was a child and says he would consider visiting Tibet even though it's under Chinese rule. "But if it was free from the Chinese invasion, I would be more than delighted to go back to Tibet."
