The 14th Dalai Lama was born in 1935 in a cowshed on a farm in the remote Tibetan region of Amdo and given the name Tenzin Gyatso. What the world will look like at that stage is difficult to imagine.” Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama greets his Buddhist followers at the Yiga Choezin ground in Tawang District near the India-China border in India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. Sowe are looking at perhaps 2040 or 2050 by then. When he is recognised, he will be a minor, he will need to study before he is able to take over. “If His Holiness decides to reincarnate himself, then we are looking at perhaps a 20- or 25-year wait. “For us Tibetans, his passing will be the darkest day,” he said.
#CONGRESS DALAI LAMA REINCARNATION SERIES#
It has nothing to do with religion.”Īs Tibetans prepare for the anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s exile with a series of events in March, Mr Frasi warned that the search for a successor, which will be overseen by senior spiritual leaders in the Gaden Phodrang Trust, could mean Tibetans have a lengthy wait before his reincarnation is ready to lead. “Their sole interest in this is political. “Communist China, which is atheist and does not believe in a past or future life, has no right, no authority, to recognise the 15th Dalai Lama,” said Sonam Tsering Frasi, His Holiness’s representative for northern Europe. Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama delivers teachings to Buddhist followers on the last day of his visit at the Yiga Choezin ground in Tawang District near the India-China border in India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. So China will anoint a successor to the Dalai Lama, and Tibetans are certain to reject his legitimacy. “The Tibetan cause will have lost a magical and charismatic figure and it’s going to be so much more difficult to get the plight of the Tibetans known to the world.” “I think it will be a relief for the Chinese when he passes, because he has been such an inspirational figure, both to the Tibetan people, and to keeping the cause of Tibet alive in the outside world,” he said.
But there are two claimants to the Panchen title: the Dalai Lama-approved one, who was kidnapped by Chinese officials at the age of six and whose whereabouts are still unknown, and the China-approved one, Gyaincain Norbu, the son of two Communist Party members.Īsia expert Roderic Wye, associate fellow at the international affairs thinktank Chatham House, believes the death of the Dalai Lama will be a hugely significant moment. His death will create a power vacuum that China will almost certainly fill.īeijing has insisted that the Panchen Lama, the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, will help to find the 15th Dalai Lama. That makes the next life of His Holiness critical. China’s decades-long campaign to erode his prestige has worked: no world leader will meet him today, fearful of rocking the diplomatic boat with China. It has left the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan refugees who call him their spiritual leader effectively marginalised. That has begun to change as new sensitivities emerge in India’s bilateral relations with China, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi unwilling to risk anything that could upset Beijing. India’s government used to believe that housing His Holiness at Dharamsala gave it extra cachet in the Buddhist world. With the two Asian superpowers making the religion a new frontier in their geopolitical rivalry, the loser is the Dalai Lama. To Beijing’s irritation, India’s ambition to become a regional powerhouse has seen it revitalise its own historical sites and parade its Buddhist heritage on diplomatic tours. It has also hosted the World Buddhist Forum since 2006 and poured money into Buddhist sites in Pakistan and Burma, linking heritage revival to its multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, the state-backed campaign to extend its influence through economic investment.īut a stumbling block in the Communist Party’s campaign to adopt Buddhism to further its interests in the region is the fact that the world’s most famous Buddhist lives in India, which is also the religion’s birthplace.
7th September 1959: The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, spiritual and temporal ruler of Tibet, arrives in Delhi, on his first visit to the Indian capital since he sought asylum.
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