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Tag: Dalai Lama

  • China Buddhist association issues statement on 14th Dalai Lama’s reincarnation claims

    China Buddhist association issues statement on 14th Dalai Lama’s reincarnation claims

    The Buddhist Association of China on Thursday issued a statement on the recent claims of the 14th Dalai Lama regarding his reincarnation. The following is the full text of the statement:

    The 14th Dalai Lama recently released the so-called “Statement Affirming the Continuation of the Institution of Dalai Lama,” once again violating the precepts and making false claims regarding his own reincarnation.

    Starting from the 5th Dalai Lama, all successive Dalai Lamas have been conferred by the central government, which is the source of the religious status and historical legitimacy of Dalai Lama’s title.

    The central government has the right to make the final decision on the reincarnation, which is by no means subject to the 14th Dalai Lama’s individual discretion.

    Throughout the historical process of the searches for the spiritual successors of Dalai Lamas, a complete set of traditional religious rituals and historical conventions has been developed.

    Since the establishment of the lot-drawing ceremony from the golden urn, the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama has required adherence to the “drawing lots from the golden urn” procedure, with the selected candidate subject to approval by China’s central government. This process is the only way for the candidate to earn public credibility and religious authority.

    Moreover, the National Religious Affairs Administration has issued the Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas of Tibetan Buddhism, which strictly govern all reincarnation procedures for Living Buddhas, including the Dalai Lama.

  • Dalai Lama, on eve of 90th, aims to live for decades more

    Dalai Lama, on eve of 90th, aims to live for decades more

    The Dalai Lama said Saturday he dreamed of living for decades more, as the Buddhist spiritual leader prayed with thousands of exiled Tibetans on the eve of his 90th birthday.

    Thumping drums and deep horns reverberated from the Indian hilltop temple, as a chanting chorus of red-robed monks and nuns offered long-life prayers for Tenzin Gyatso, who followers believe is the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.

    Looking in good health, dressed in traditional maroon monk robes and a flowing yellow wrap, he led prayers — days after confirming that the 600-year-old Tibetan Buddhist institution will continue after his death.

    Many exiled Tibetans fear China will name its own successor to the Dalai Lama, to bolster control over a territory it poured troops into in 1950 and has ruled ever since.

    “So far, I have done my best and with the continued blessings of Avalokiteshvara (a Buddhist spiritual protector), I hope to live another 30 or 40 years, continuing to serve sentient beings and the Buddha Dharma”, he said, referring to the teachings of the Buddha.

    Followers of the Dalai Lama laud his tireless campaign for greater autonomy for Tibet, a vast high-altitude plateau about the size of South Africa.

    – ‘Experience happiness’ –

    But speaking at the main temple in the Indian Himalayan town where he has lived for decades — after Chinese troops crushed an uprising in the Tibetan capital Lhasa in 1959 — he offered teachings to a far wider audience.

    “In my life, I have encountered people from all walks of life, those with faith in religion and others with no interest in it at all. This is only natural, as individuals have different mental dispositions”, he said, speaking in Tibetan.

    “Yet, the common desire shared by all, including the Tibetan people, is the wish to avoid suffering and to experience happiness.”

    The charismatic Buddhist had previously said the institution would continue only if there was popular demand — and his confirmation on Wednesday it would has reassured followers around the globe.

    He said he had received multiple appeals from Tibetans in Tibet and in exile, as well as from Buddhists from across the Himalayan region, Mongolia and parts of Russia and China.

    He said responsibility for identifying the 15th Dalai Lama “will rest exclusively” with his office, the India-based Gaden Phodrang Trust.

    Self-declared atheist and Communist China, which condemns the Nobel Peace Prize winner as a rebel and separatist, issued a swift response.

    China said on Wednesday that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama “must be approved by the central government” in Beijing, and that it would be carried out “by drawing lots from a golden urn”, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters.

    That urn is held by Beijing, and the Dalai Lama has already warned that, when used dishonestly, it lacks “any spiritual quality”.

  • As Dalai Lama approaches 90, Tibetans weigh future

    As Dalai Lama approaches 90, Tibetans weigh future

    When the Dalai Lama turns 90 in July, the Buddhist monk, who for many exiled Tibetans personifies dreams of a free homeland, will ask if they want a successor.

    For the charismatic Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader, his landmark birthday will be a time to encourage people to plan for an eventual future without him and address whether there will be another Dalai Lama.

    The answer, at least according to his translator of nearly four decades, is clear: yes.

    “I know for a fact that he has received petitions from across the Tibetan Buddhism communities, including some from inside Tibet,” said Thupten Jinpa, 66, a Buddhist scholar who helped produce the leader’s latest book, “Voice for the Voiceless”.

    Jinpa believes the post, which he likens to a Buddhist “papal institution” not only for Tibet but also encompassing the Himalayan regions of India, Bhutan and Nepal, as well as Mongolia and some Russian republics, will continue.

    “My hope is that before his birthday, July 6, he will issue a final statement,” Jinpa said, speaking in India, where the Dalai Lama has been based since fleeing into exile in 1959.

    “If my guess is right, and he says that the continuity of the institution will remain, that means then there will be a new Dalai Lama.”

    Many exiled Tibetans fear China will name a successor to bolster control over a land it poured troops into in 1950.

    – ‘Almost unthinkable’ –
    The current Dalai Lama was identified in 1936 when, aged two, he passed a test by pointing to objects that had belonged to the post’s previous occupier.

    He was hailed as the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, a role that stretches back more than 600 years.

    “One constant in everybody’s life has been the presence of the Dalai Lama,” said Jinpa, who fled Tibet with his parents as a baby, around the same time the Dalai Lama escaped.

    If there is to be a 15th, the Dalai Lama has said he will “leave clear written instructions” on what will happen after his death.

    Jinpa, who trained as a monk before completing his doctorate at the University of Cambridge, said that a foundational principle of Buddhism was the contemplation of impermanence.

    “Anything that comes into being will come to an end,” he said. “Where there is birth, there will be death.”

    But he said the Dalai Lama — who has said he wants to live until he is 113 — also wants followers to confront a future, someday, without him.

    “The idea of a world without him is almost unthinkable,” Jinpa said. “But that will happen, and His Holiness has himself been very explicit in making sure that people are thinking about it.”

    – ‘Symbol of a nation’ –
    Jinpa said that plans for the future had long been in progress.

    The Dalai Lama stepped down as his people’s political head in 2011, passing the baton of secular power to a government chosen democratically by 130,000 Tibetans around the world.

    “He has already prepared the formal political structure for carrying on the struggles of the Tibetan cause beyond his lifetime,” Jinpa said.

    “But one of the things that he can’t just transfer to an elected body… is the moral authority, and his status as the symbol of a nation, and a symbol of the aspiration of the Tibetan people,” he added.

    “This is why the continuity of the Dalai Lama institution becomes important.”

    China, which says Tibet is an integral part of the country, insists the Dalai Lama “has no right to represent the Tibetan people”.

    Jinpa said the Dalai Lama is only advocating for greater Tibetan autonomy.

    “If we were asking for independence, it’s a completely different thing,” he said.

    – ‘People’s heart’ –
    The Dalai Lama has already said that if there “is a consensus that the Dalai Lama institution should continue”, then the Office of the Dalai Lama — the Gaden Phodrang Trust in India’s Himalayan hill town of McLeod Ganj — would hold the responsibility for the recognition of the next leader.

    He has also made it clear that any successor would by necessity be “born in the free world”.

    In 1995, Beijing selected its own child as the Panchen Lama, another influential Tibetan religious figure, and detained a Dalai Lama-recognised six-year-old, described by rights groups as the world’s youngest political prisoner.

    “The Chinese will choose another ‘Dalai Lama’, that’s for sure,” Jinpa said. “It will be ridiculous, but they will do it.”

    But he is confident that Tibetans will not acknowledge whoever Beijing selects.

    “They can suppress, they can ban, they can force,” said Jinpa, noting that Beijing forbids the Dalai Lama’s photograph in Tibet.

    “But you can never change people’s heart. What’s in the heart belongs to the individual, and the loyalty will always be to this Dalai Lama, and whoever is going to be chosen through the traditional system.”