A day after China said that the Dalai Lama’s successor would be chosen following its seal of approval, India on Thursday made its position clear on the issue, stating it was only the current spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhists and the conventions established by him who could determine the next incarnation.
Union Minister for Minorities Kiren Rijiju, himself a practicing Buddhist, said this, in what is being seen as an apparent snub of the Chinese position on it. “The Dalai Lama is the most important and defining institution for Buddhists,” he said, adding that, “All those who follow the Dalai Lama feel that the incarnation 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 and the conventions in place.”
Rijju along with along with his Cabinet colleague Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lallan, who is an MP from Bihar, a State which has the most important Buddhists sites in the world and is also home to Nalanda, whose Buddhist tradition is followed by the Tibetan spiritual leader, will represent the Government at the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday event in Dharamshala on July 6.
The exiled spiritual leader, who is the most important institution for Tibetans and all those who follow the Nalanda tradition of Buddhism, had on July 2 said that only the Gaden Phodrang Trust will have the authority to recognise his future reincarnation. The statement from Tenzin Gyatso was made in the run-up to his 90th birthday, amid growing concerns about succession issues, particularly China’s claims to authority over selecting his successor due to its control of Tibet. The Dalai Lama was only 23 when he fled Lhasa in 1959 as Chinese troops took control of Tibet. He has long been termed a “separatist” by China.
Asserting that a non-profit trust created by him in 2015 will be the sole authority to recognise his reincarnation, the Dalai Lama had said : “I hereby reiterate that the Gaden Phodrang Trust has sole authority to recognise the future reincarnation; no one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter.”
The Dalai Lama’s statement put to rest speculation that the institution of the Dalai Lama would end with him, or that China would have a free run to decide the next incarnation.
“The process by which a future Dalai Lama is to be recognised has been clearly established in the 24 September 2011 statement, which states that responsibility for doing so will rest exclusively with members of the Gaden Phodrang Trust,” the Dalai Lama’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.
After the Dalai Lama asserted control on the important decision, China criticised his remarks and rejected his succession plan. It said that the Chinese Government would approve the decision after choices were made by drawing lots from a golden urn.
“The reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama and other great Buddhist figures must be chosen by drawing lots from a golden urn (procedure started by the 18th century Qing dynasty), and approved by the central Government,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
Mao stated that the Chinese Government which otherwise “implements a policy of freedom of religious belief,” reserved the right to impose “regulations on religious affairs and methods for managing the reincarnation of Tibetan living Buddhas.”
