By Anjan Roy
TORONTO: The supreme leader of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama, has declared that he intends to reincarnate after his death and his council— the Gaden Phodrang Trust— is the only body on earth which can nominate the next Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama’s announcement from Dharamshala catching the attention of the international media, is a major discomfiture for the Chinese Communist Party over its claims of final indisputable authority of the Tibetan people.
Dalai Lama is highly respected all over the world as a emissary of peace and the embodiment of the Tibetan people’s struggle for independence against the Chinese regime. The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his fight for justice for the people of Tibet.
The Trust which operates from the seat of the Dalai Lama government in exile in Dharamshala in India is a congregation of senior most lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist order.
This drives the final wedge between the Communist Party of China’s ability to grab the next Dalai Lama nominee and thus nullifies the authority of the present Dalai Lama as well as the Tibetan people. There has been a long running feud between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese Communist Party over who would be the next incumbent.
Earlier, the present Daily Lama had identified a five year boy from a remote village in Tibet as the next Dalai Lama incarnate. However, immediately after his name became public, the Chinese authorities abducted him and no one had ever heard of his whereabouts.
After the incident, the Dalai Lama announced that the next incarnation would be in the “free world” and he would be revealed in due course. But thereafter the Dalai Lama had raised the question whether he would be the last Dalai Lama. That was thought to be a waving of the olive branch to the Beijing authorities.
Dalai Lama has now struck at the root of the Chinese Communist Party’s claims of authority over the Tibetan people and their religion saying that an atheist Communist Party has no claims over who the next spiritual leader of his people should be.
The dispute would also drag India into the strained relationship between the two. China resents that India still hosts the Dalai Lama and give him enough space to assert his spiritual and temporal authority over the Tibetan people. India has steadfastly maintained that the Dalai Lama is a revered head of religion and he is held in high esteem of the people. The Chinese government and Dalai Lama have been fighting battles since 1959 over the loyalty of the Tibetan people. Though Tibet is a part of China an the residents there are subject to the rules of the Chinese regime, Dalai Lama has large number of believers in the Tibetan region.
The battle will enter a new stage now for capturing the loyalties of the Tibetan people as well as the exercise of authority by the Chinese Communist Party over the Tibetan people and their country. The Communist party had been pursuing a vigorous campaign for obliterating the Tibetan identity of the people by bringing in Han Chinese from the mainland into Tibet.
The ruling Chinese regime had also followed vigorous campaigns for repression and there have been some violent uprisings in Tibet as well. The Chinese authorities had brutally suppressed these moves of the people of Tibet.
Earlier, the Dalai Lama had mentioned that he would review the process and the intent of appointing the next incumbent to the post when he was close to his 90th birthday.
Now, in the run up to the celebrations of his 90th birthday this Sunday, the Dalai Lama has announced from his seat in Dharamshala that the next Dalai Lama would be nominated by him and his council in accordance with the practices and principles followed from antiquity. (IPA Service)
