The concept was reiterated this week during a meeting of 50 monks recognised by China, something that Tibet’s spiritual leader has always opposed. The Dalai Lama could end the line of succession when he turns 90 in 2025 by excluding Beijing from control over the Buddhist religion.
Beijing (/Agencies) – Beijing authorities say that reincarnations of Tibetan Buddhists must also follow Chinese law. The idea was reiterated at a recent seminar held in Lanzhou, Gansu province, attended by about fifty monks recognised by the Chinese government. The episode has revived tensions with the Dalai Lama, the leader of Tibetan Buddhists exiled in India, who is expected to announce plans for his succession next year.
According to the pro-Chinese website Tibet.cnThe September 3 meeting reiterated that policies for the “reincarnation of living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism” must be “compatible with socialist society.” According to the Beijing Higher College of Tibetan Buddhism – responsible for training monks officially recognized by the Chinese Communist Party – which organized the meeting, historical customs, including government approval, are “an important principle to follow in reincarnation.”
As with all recognized religions on Chinese soil, Beijing requires members of the clergy to swear allegiance to the CCP, but for Chinese authorities the question of reincarnation is intertwined with sovereignty over Tibet.
China fears that the death of the current Dalai Lama could lead to social instability in the region, which has been trying to resist Chinese intervention since 1950. The spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner had said that he would raise the issue of reincarnation when he turns 90, in July next year.
According to Tibetan tradition, the Dalai Lama is reincarnated as a child at the time of his death, who has been identified for centuries through a complex process of rituals and investigations. But Beijing insists that reincarnation must follow Chinese rules. That is why Beijing introduced the Golden Urn ritual, an ancient imperial practice that was taken over by the Communist Party and incorporated into official Chinese regulations in 2007.
In 1989, China used this method to identify a Panchen Lama, the title of another important religious leader of Tibetan Buddhism, who, according to tradition, would have the role of approving the recognition of the next Dalai Lama. But the current spiritual leader of Tibet declared the process illegitimate and never recognized the Panchen Lama of Beijing, implying that he wants to put an end to his line of reincarnation in order to exclude Beijing from the possibility of intervening in the process.
For some time now, the Chinese authorities have been organizing meetings for monks to “sinicize” Tibetan Buddhism and bring it under their control. A seminar similar to the one in Lanzhou was held in the capital in March, and in mid-October the World Buddhist Forum will be held in the eastern city of Ningbo, to which the Dalai Lama has never been invited since 2006.
According to experts, Beijing wants to show Asian countries that “it is not India, where Buddhism was born, but China that has the greatest influence,” he told Radio Free Asia Sana Hashmi, a researcher at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation think tank. One way to make the world believe that China is preserving Tibetan Buddhism. “Since 2020, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, the CCP has stepped up its efforts to ‘sinicize’ Tibetan Buddhism, assigning this task to the Chinese Buddhist Association, which organizes conferences and events, instruments of soft power manipulation,” explained Tenzin Dorjee, a member of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
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