The recent adoption of a law in China prohibiting “unauthorized reincarnation” has made the media rounds for its wackiness. But this law has implications for future Tibetan politics and religion, as alluded to in this week’s Economist magazine.
The current (14th) Dalai Lama is 72 and living in exile in India. When he dies the search for his reincarnation — the 15th Dalai Lama — will commence. By clamping down on reincarnations, the Chinese government is attempting to control the selection process for the next Dalai Lama. China already seized the position of Panchen Lama (second highest-ranking leader of Tibetan Buddhism) in 1995. They appointed their own candidate which replaced a boy endorsed by the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama’s choice was taken into “protective custody” by the Chinese government.
In a preemptive move to fill the position before the Chinese government does, the Dalai Lama has suggested that his successor be chosen while he is still alive. He even went further to propose the idea of a popular referendum. If successful this could lead to two futures for spiritual authority in Tibetan Buddhism: 1) a separation between religion and politics, or 2) a split reminiscent of Islam and the Sunni and Shi’a split.
I don’t think it can be doubted that a Chinese-appointed Dalai Lama would be considered a shill by the Tibetans. A Dalai Lama chosen by the people with the blessing of the current Dalai Lama on the other hand would be more complex. Since a referendum will not stop the cycle of reincarnation there will be two sources of authority for the Tibetans, the “chosen” spiritual leader and the “natural” spiritual leader. After a few generations have passed this could lead to two branches of (Gelug) Tibetan Buddhism. Maybe a reader familiar with the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism could enlighten us as to what concrete repercussions this may have?
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Comments to this entry
Michael
December 5, 2007
12:27 am
That would at least keep the Tibetans from being split by a sudden change in succession tradition. Whether Chinese leadership would agree to giving up their tradition of government domination over religious matters is another issue.
feeblemind
December 5, 2007
7:02 pm
Jing
December 6, 2007
3:39 pm
The Communist Party is not the only one engaged in a media and psy-ops campaign, it just happens to be that the exiled Tibetans are much more successful for a variety of reasons.
For example Younghusband, the selection of the latest Panchen Lama is not precisely what you made it out to be. In actuality, the communists when through a lengthy and detailed selection process based on established precedent and tradition carried out by the leading tulkus within Tibet. The choice as it happened to be was Gedhun Choekyi Nyima who is also the child espoused by the Lamaist clique. The problem arose when Chadrel Rinpoche who was part of the government sponsored search committee leaked the results to the exiles. What then happened was that the Dalai Lama proclaimed the boy as the reincarnate Panchen Lama ahead of the Chinese announcement, thereby stealing their thunder. Basically if the boy was to be installed as the Panchen Lama, it would be perceived that the government was simply following the Dalai Lama's lead and that final authority (both secular and religious since in Tibet they were the same) belonged to the exile leader. Perception is key to this entire affair and rather than letting the Dalai Lama steal the initiative, the Chinese scrapped Gedhun Choekyi Nyima's candidacy and re-selected Gyaincain Norbu, the "official" Panchen Lama of today, from the list of remaining finalists.
Aceface
December 7, 2007
4:23 am
Jing
December 7, 2007
7:51 pm
If you are referring to my first paragraph, I wasn't speaking about the Panchen Lama (Don't know why the paragraph's didn't show up) but rather non Yellow Hat Tibetan Budhists.