What happens when the Dalai Lama dies?
China's communists want to determine the reincarnation of the Tibetan religious leader themselves.
Germany criticized the project.
Munich/Dharamsala/Beijing – He looked a bit weak when he pushed through the crowds at the end of December who had come to Bodhgaya in northern India to hear him speak: The Dalai Lama was driven through the event hall in a kind of popemobile, later a helper supported him so that he could put the khatag, the Tibetan prayer shawl, around the believers' necks.
But when he spoke to the people about the Buddha, who is said to have attained enlightenment in Bodhgaya, the Dalai Lama seemed as lively and mischievous as we know him to be.
The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists turns 88 in July.
This raises the question of what will happen if he dies one day.
Tibetan Buddhists believe that spiritual dignitaries like the Dalai Lama are reborn after they die - and that it is possible to find their rebirth.
China's Communist Party, which has ruled Tibet for seven decades, believes such notions to be superstitions but has always insisted that it alone should decide who becomes the next Dalai Lama.
"The supreme authority on the issue of the Dalai Lama's successor does not rest with anyone, but with the central government," the state-controlled
Global Times
quoted a senior Chinese politician as saying in early January.
China claims that Tibet has always been a part of China and therefore the government in Beijing can rule over Tibet's affairs - which international law scholars deny.
After all, Tibet was a de facto independent country for at least a few decades when it was occupied by China's People's Liberation Army in 1950.
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At the end of December, the Dalai Lama appeared before his followers in Bodhgaya, northern India.
© Sanjay Kumar/afp
"What happens after the death of the Dalai Lama is a great challenge"
"What happens after the death of the Dalai Lama is a great challenge for the Tibetans, especially if the Sino-Tibetan conflict is not resolved," Penpa Tsering, the political leader of the exiled Tibetans, told the Indian news agency PTI in early January.
Tsering believes that the government in Beijing has been preparing for years to interfere in the succession of the 14th Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama has also been warning for many years that the search for his reincarnation could be politically abused.
It was "inappropriate" that "Chinese communists, who expressly reject even the idea of past and future lives," of all people, want to determine his rebirth, he explained a few years ago.
The Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetans.
He was also their secular head until the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1950.
The current 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was born in 1935, two years after the death of the 13th Dalai Lama, and was later confirmed as his reincarnation.
Earlier, a search team investigating visions and other mysterious signs discovered him in a small village in eastern Tibet.
In 1959 the Dalai Lama fled to Dharamsala in northern India, where he still lives today.
In fact, in 2007, the Chinese Religious Authority issued a regulation on "Handling of Reincarnations of Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism" - a stunning move for a communist country.
With the regulation, China's leadership wants to ensure that a Beijing-friendly person becomes the new Dalai Lama, says Kai Müller, Germany Managing Director of the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), in an interview with the
Frankfurter Rundschau of IPPEN.MEDIA
.
"However, I find it difficult to imagine that this person would be recognized."
Federal government demands: “Religious communities should regulate their affairs autonomously”
Müller refers to the Panchen Lama, the second most important cleric in Tibetan Buddhism.
Since the death of the 10th Panchen Lama in 1989, there have been two successors: one installed by Beijing and one recognized by the Dalai Lama - and who has disappeared for decades.
The Panchen Lama, who is loyal to Beijing, is not accepted by the Tibetans, says Müller.
He believes that a Dalai Lama graced by Beijing would one day do the same.
The Dalai Lama has already stated that he can only be reborn in a "free country", possibly also in the body of an adult of any gender.
Or perhaps he would not be reborn at all, if Tibetan Buddhists and the Tibetans wanted it that way.
"The Dalai Lama adapts beliefs, but is not arbitrary," says ICT Managing Director Müller.
"His main concern is to make it clear that it is not up to the Chinese government to decide on his successor.
But only himself and the Tibetan Buddhists.”
The German government takes a similar view.
When asked by our editors, the Federal Foreign Office said: “The Federal Government takes the view that religious communities are allowed to regulate their own affairs autonomously.
This includes the right to determine their religious dignitaries themselves.” In the China strategy, which is currently being developed under the leadership of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, the question of human rights will “play an important role”.
Dalai Lama: "China wants to eradicate our unique Tibetan cultural traditions"
However, the Chinese government under leader Xi Jinping insists that the rebirth of the Dalai Lama be determined using the so-called golden urn - a type of lottery system first introduced by the Qing emperors in the 18th century, when China and Tibet closely linked politically and culturally.
In the process, the names of several children who are potential reincarnations of a deceased llama are placed in a golden vessel.
A name is drawn from it during a religious ceremony – which the 2007 regulation requires the Chinese government to confirm.
The Panchen Lama, who is loyal to Beijing, was also “found” in this way.
But the current Dalai Lama rejects this because neither he nor his predecessor were appointed that way.
He speaks of an "inappropriate method" aimed at "eradicating our unique Tibetan cultural traditions".
According to Kai Müller, the fact that Beijing's atheistic communists are so doggedly concerned with the rebirth of the Dalai Lama is due to the influence of the Dalai Lama in and outside of Tibet.
The 87-year-old is also an international symbol of the peaceful resistance of the Tibetans against the Chinese occupying power.
In his home country, the Dalai Lama is still very much revered, despite all the smear campaigns by the Chinese government, says Müller - he is a "thorn in the flesh of the Communist Party".
Rubric list image: © Sanjay Kumar/afp