For much of the past century, the Dalai Lama has been the living embodiment of Tibet’s struggle for greater freedoms under Chinese Communist Party rule, sustaining the cause from exile even as an increasingly powerful Beijing has become ever more assertive in suppressing it.
As his 90th birthday approaches this Sunday, the spiritual leader for millions of followers of Tibetan Buddhism worldwide is bracing for a final showdown with Beijing: the battle over who will control his reincarnation.
On Wednesday, the Dalai Lama announced that he will have a successor after his death, and that his office will have the sole authority to identify his reincarnation.
“I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” the Nobel Peace laureate said in a video message to religious elders gathering in Dharamshala, India, where he has found refuge since Chinese communist troops put down an armed uprising in his mountainous homeland in 1959.
The cycle of rebirth lies at the core of Tibetan Buddhist belief. Unlike ordinary beings who are reborn involuntarily under the influence of karma, a revered spiritual master like the Dalai Lama is believed to choose the place and time of his rebirth – guided by compassion and prayer – for the benefit of all sentient beings.
But the reincarnation of the current Dalai Lama is not only pivotal to Tibetan Buddhism. It has become a historic battleground for the future of Tibet, with potentially far-reaching geopolitical implications for the broader Himalayan region.
“He has been such a magnet, uniting all of us, drawing all of us,” said Thupten Jinpa, the Dalai Lama’s longtime translator, who assisted the leader on his latest memoir, “Voice for the Voiceless.”
“I often say to the younger-generation Tibetans: We sometimes get spoiled because we are leaning on this very solid rock. One day, when the rock goes away, what are we going to do?”
In that memoir, published this year, the Dalai Lama states that his successor will be born in the “free world” outside China, urging Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhists globally to reject any candidate selected by Beijing.
But China’s ruling Communist Party insists it alone holds the authority to approve the next Dalai Lama – as well as all reincarnations of “Living Buddhas,” or high-ranking lamas in Tibetan Buddhism.
At the heart of this clash is the ambition of an officially atheist, authoritarian state to dominate a centuries-old spiritual tradition – and to control the hearts and minds of a people determined to preserve their unique identity.
Beijing brands the current Dalai Lama a dangerous “separatist” and blames him for instigating Tibetan protests, unrest, and self-immolations against Communist Party rule.
The Dalai Lama has rejected those accusations, insisting that he seeks genuine autonomy for Tibet, not full independence – a nonviolent “middle way” approach that has earned him international support and a Nobel Peace Prize. To his Tibetan followers, the self-described “simple Buddhist monk” is more than a spiritual leader or former temporal ruler of their homeland. He stands as a larger-than-life symbol of their very existence as a people, defined by a distinct language, culture, religion and way of life that critics say Beijing is trying to erase.
But the Dalai Lama’s death could also pose a new dilemma for the Communist Party. Some younger Tibetans in exile view his “middle way” approach as overtly conciliatory toward Beijing. In the absence of a unifying figure to guide the exile movement and temper its more radical factions, demands for full Tibetan independence could gather momentum.
Source: Here