15th Dalai Lama
China hopes to usurp the selection of the next Dalai Lama. Tibetan tradition holds that senior Buddhist monks and other respected religious leaders are reincarnated in the body of a child after they die. Beijing has sought in recent years to control the identification of other Tibetan religious leaders, and says that the selection of the next Dalai Lama — who fled into exile in India following a failed 1959 Tibetan revolt against Chinese rule — must “comply with Chinese law,” while the Dalai Lama himself says that if he returns, his successor will be born in a country outside of Chinese control.
Since Gedun Gyatso was recognized and confirmed as the reincarnation of Gedun Drub in the fifteenth century and the Gaden Phodrang Labrang (the Dalai Lama’s institution) was established, successive reincarnations have been recognized. The third in the line, Sonam Gyatso, was given the title of the Dalai Lama. The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, established the Gaden Phodrang Government in 1642, becoming the spiritual and political head of Tibet. For more than 600 years since Gedun Drub, a series of unmistaken reincarnations has been recognised in the lineage of the Dalai Lama.
As far back as 1969, His Holiness made clear that whether or not a reincarnation of the Dalai Lama should be recognised was a decision for the Tibetan people, the Mongolians and people of the Himalayan regions to make. However, in the absence of clear guidelines, there was a clear risk that, should the concerned public express a strong wish to recognise a future Dalai Lama, vested interests could exploit the situation for political ends. Therefore, on 24 September 2011, clear guidelines for the recognition of the next Dalai Lama were published, leaving no room for doubt or deception.
His Holiness declared that when he is about ninety years old he will consult leading Lamas of Tibet’s Buddhist traditions, the Tibetan public, and other concerned people with an interest in Tibetan Buddhism, and assess whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue after him. His statement also explored the different ways in which the recognition of a successor could be done. If it is decided that a Fifteenth Dalai Lama should be recognized, responsibility for doing so will rest primarily on the concerned officers of the Dalai Lama’s Gaden Phodrang Trust. They should consult the various heads of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions and the reliable oath-bound Dharma Protectors who are linked inseparably to the lineage of the Dalai Lamas. They should seek advice and direction from these concerned parties and carry out the procedures of search and recognition in accordance with their instruction. His Holiness has stated that he will leave clear written instructions about this. He further warned that apart from a reincarnation recognized through such legitimate methods, no recognition or acceptance should be given to a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including agents of the People’s Republic of China.
China has already positioned itself, including enacting a law in 2007 that says all reincarnations of senior lamas must be approved by the government. The conferment of the living Buddha is not only a system of bestowment, but also a management system. It not only reflects the central government's care and attention to the influential living Buddhas, but also demonstrates the central government's standardization and strengthening of their management. At the same time, it emphasizes that the living Buddhas conferred by the central government must remain loyal to it and assume related responsibilities and obligations. The central government has the ultimate authority over the reincarnation of the living Buddhas through the system of conferment.
The approval of the succession of the influential living Buddhas by the central government reflects the state's sovereignty over Tibet and its authority in the identification of the reincarnation of the living Buddhas. It also reflects political power being above divine power and the concept of governing the country in accordance with the law.
On 17 May 1995 Chinese security forces took away a 6-year-old Tibetan child, Gendun Choeki Nyima, and his parents from a remote town in Tibet. They had not been heard from since. No one apart from the Chinese authorities has any idea where they are, what they do, or whether they will ever be seen in public or live freely again. And yet neither the child nor his family members had been accused of any crime. Rather, the boy had been identified by a team of Tibetan monks and lamas as the reincarnation of a premier religious teacher, the Panchen Lama, a decision that the Chinese government opposed.
The authorities, using a procedure that lacked authenticity and involved fabrication, forced another group of monks to identify a different child of the same age, Gyaltsen Norbu, as the official reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. Ever since, that second candidate has been paraded annually in Tibet, accompanied by police, officials and a massive publicity operation involving hundreds of worshippers. In between these visits, he has effectively been held under house arrest in Beijing and never been allowed to travel freely or to speak openly with foreigners.
Historically, the reincarnation of living Buddhas has always adhered to the principle of searching in China, and there has never been a precedent in searching abroad. On July 4, 2010, the lot-drawing ceremony for the boy with the soul of the fifth Living Buddha Dezhub was held in Lhasa. The young living Buddha, whose secular name is Lobsang Dorje and born in Shannan was selected as the reincarnation of the Fifth Living Buddha Dezhub, who passed away in March 2000, through lot-drawing from an golden urn. He was chosen as a candidate after years of searching by senior monks according to religious practice and traditions.
The Panchen Lama also gave him the religious name Dezhub Jamyang Sherab Palden. This was the first reincarnation of a living Buddha selected by lot-drawing from a golden urn after the promulgation of the Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism in 2007.
US lawmakers approved legislation that may lead to sanctioning China if it interferes in the Tibetan people's process of choosing a successor to their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. The US House of Representatives and the Senate passed the Tibet Policy and Support Act by majority vote on 21 December 2020. It was a part of the package which includes the COVID-19 economic relief bill. The Tibet bill states that any interference by the Chinese government in the Dalai Lama's succession would be deemed to be a serious human-rights violation leading to sanctions. The bill also says China will not be allowed to establish any new consulate in the United States until Washington is granted its own diplomatic outpost in Tibet's main city of Lhasa.
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