As Succession Looms, Tibetans Wonder If Next Dalai Lama Can Match Tenzin Gyatso's Global Appeal
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Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Dalai Lama, god-king for Tibetan Buddhists, will have a successor. That decision is consequential
The Dalai Lama has often called himself a simple monk, but millions of his Tibetan Buddhist followers have worshipped him for decades as a near deity. They also see him as the face of Tibet's aspirations for greater autonomy, but have for years wrestled with the idea that he might be the last person to hold the role. He put that speculation to rest Wednesday, just days before he turns 90 on Sunday. There will be a successor after his death, he announced, and the Dalai Lama's office will lead the search and recognize a successor in accordance with past tradition. Play Video Pause Skip Backward Skip Forward Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 1x Playback Rate Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off , selected Captions captions settings , opens captions settings dialog captions off , selected Audio Track Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen This is a modal window. 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When tinnitus won't go away, do this (Watch) Hearing Magazine Undo The decision is consequential for most Tibetans, who have struggled for decades to keep their identity alive - in Tibet or outside in exile - and rallied behind the Dalai Lama for that cause. It could also irk China, which insists that it alone has the authority to approve the next religious leader, a move seen as Beijing's efforts to strengthen its control over Tibet's overwhelmingly Buddhist population. 'Simple Buddhist monk' hailed as a god-king Recognized worldwide in his red robes and wide smile, the Dalai Lama describes himself as a "simple Buddhist monk." But he is also worshipped as living manifestations of Chenrezig, the Buddhist god of compassion, and is the 14th person to hold the title of the Dalai Lama in a tradition stretching back 500 years. Live Events As a village boy, Tenzin Gyatso was thrust onto the Tibetan throne to become the Dalai Lama - a god-king to his people - in 1937. Soon after, Chinese troops swept into his homeland in the 1950s and crushed a failed uprising. He escaped with thousands of his followers to India and established a government in exile. Since then, the Dalai Lama has spent more than seven decades in exile, living an austere monastic life in regal isolation in the tiny, Himalayan town of Dharamshala . He has also jetted from capital to capital to try to force the aspirations of his tiny community onto the world agenda, uniting and mobilizing Tibetans inside and outside China. The face of Tibet's struggle for autonomy Tibetans in exile say they were effectively independent for centuries, and accuse China of trying to wipe out Tibet's Buddhist culture and language, and encouraging Chinese to move there from other parts of the country. Beijing insists Tibet is a part of China. While many Tibetans seek full independence, the Dalai Lama has long said that he seeks only substantial autonomy and identity for Tibetan people. He has advocated for a nonviolent "Middle Way" for autonomy and religious freedom for Tibetan people through peaceful means. Beijing, however, accuses him of making efforts to wrest Tibet's control away from China and inciting rebellion among Tibetans. In the past, Chinese leaders have called him a "wolf in monk's robes" and the "scum of Buddhism." In 1989, the Nobel Peace Prize committee honored him "for his consistent resistance to the use of violence in his people's struggle." In 2011, he relinquished his role as head of the self-proclaimed Tibetan government-in-exile and handed over political powers to a democratically elected government. Raging dispute With the Dalai Lama in his twilight years, the question looms about what happens after him. The Dalai Lama has said that his successor will be born in a free country, indicating that the next spiritual leader could come from among Tibetan exiles and not from China. China, meanwhile, is determined to control the succession of the Dalai Lama and insists that the reincarnation must be found in China's Tibetan areas, giving the Communist authorities immense power over who is chosen. Thus, many observers believe there eventually will be rival Dalai Lamas - one appointed by Beijing, and one by senior monks loyal to the current Dalai Lama. China has also sought to elevate other spiritual figures, particularly Tibetan Buddhism 's No. 2 figure, the Panchen Lama . A boy recognized by the Dalai Lama as the new Panchen disappeared soon after, and Beijing produced its own successor, whose legitimacy is highly contested. Search for next Dalai Lama The search for a Dalai Lama's reincarnation begins only upon the incumbent's death. Traditionally, the successor has been identified by senior monastic disciples, based on spiritual signs and visions. They interpret signs, consult oracles and send search parties to the Tibetan region for a child who exhibits qualities of the previous Dalai Lama. It can take several years after the next Dalai Lama is identified as a baby and groomed to take the reins. That process might be undone this time as the Dalai Lama has said that he might leave written instructions for finding his reincarnation, or name his successor while still alive.
Indian Express
5 hours ago
- Indian Express
Draw a moral line
On July 6, this coming Sunday, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, will turn 90. The world must pause, not just to offer a birthday greeting, but to ask a question that strikes at the heart of Asia's spiritual and strategic future: Who gets to decide who leads Tibetan Buddhism after him? His Holiness has now made that answer emphatically clear. The Gaden Phodrang Trust, which he established and imbued with his moral authority, will oversee the identification of his reincarnation. It is a spiritual masterstroke and a political gauntlet thrown before Beijing's long-standing ambition to manufacture a successor. Make no mistake: This is not just a Buddhist matter. This is a battle between a sacred civilisational legacy and the crude apparatus of authoritarian control. This is Tibet versus totalitarianism. Dharma versus dictatorship. I have met His Holiness many times over the years. Each encounter has left me transformed. There is an aura that envelops him, yes, but more than that, a deeply disarming presence. A man of boundless humour and unshakeable calm, he carries within him the accumulated wisdom of centuries and the clarity of a physicist. And yet, he has never been just a relic of the past. He has been a visionary of the present. In every one of my offices over the decades, I have kept thangkas, gifted and signed by His Holiness, not as ornamentation, but as quiet testimony to the spiritual and civilisational power he embodies. They remind me, daily, that moral authority still walks this earth in human form. That moral authority has now been exercised with profound foresight. China's obsession with the Dalai Lama is as irrational as it is revealing. Having crushed the 1959 Tibetan uprising, desecrated monasteries during the Cultural Revolution, and abducted the legitimate Panchen Lama in 1995, replacing him with a compliant imposter, Beijing now wants to write the final chapter: To appoint the next Dalai Lama. The absurdity is almost comic. A Marxist-Maoist-Leninist Xi-led regime claiming the right to anoint a reincarnated lama? It would be laughable if it weren't so dangerous. This isn't religion. It's control. It is the erasure of a people by capturing their soul. And the method is predictable: Fabricate legitimacy through an ancient-sounding ritual ('Golden Urn'), prop up a state-approved child, and use diplomatic muscle to coerce acceptance. But Beijing has made a fatal miscalculation. Legitimacy cannot be forged in a Party committee. Faith cannot be coerced at gunpoint. A child selected by the CCP will not be the Dalai Lama. He will be a spiritual mannequin in a gilded cage. What China fears is not just the man, but the institution. Since the 17th century, the Dalai Lamas have represented a rare synthesis of spiritual depth and civilisational authority. Their reincarnation is not hereditary but karmic, recognised through dreams, signs, and devotion. It is an institution rooted in introspection, not imposition. By pre-empting Beijing with the Gaden Phodrang Trust, His Holiness has ensured that no foreign power can hijack this sacred lineage. In one quiet, resolute move, he has reminded us all: You may occupy a land, but you cannot colonise the soul of a people. India has a historic, civilisational stake in this unfolding drama. We gave refuge to His Holiness in 1959. Dharamshala became the new Lhasa. We offered hospitality but too often fell silent when moral clarity was needed. In 1954, we conceded Chinese sovereignty over Tibet in a moment of strategic naïveté. In the decades since, we have tiptoed around the Dalai Lama question, wary of provoking Beijing. That era of ambiguity must end. India must now unequivocally support the Tibetan people's right to determine their spiritual future. Not just privately, not just symbolically, but publicly and forcefully. Anything less would be a betrayal, not only of the trust reposed in us by Tibetans, but of our own dharmic foundations. This is not merely an ethical imperative. It is also cold, hard realpolitik. A Chinese-appointed Dalai Lama will bring Beijing's writ closer to our borders, destabilise Himalayan communities, and weaponise religion in the service of authoritarian geopolitics. At 90, His Holiness has done more than most statesmen, philosophers, and warriors put together. He has carried the weight of a nation in exile, resisted hatred with humour, and stared down a superpower with serenity. In a world bereft of heroes, he stands tall, a monk in exile, a prophet of compassion. The least we can do is ensure that his legacy is not buried under the rubble of silence. We must say, clearly and collectively: The Dalai Lama's reincarnation will not be decided in Zhongnanhai. It will not be decided by Politburos or Party cadres. It will be decided by Tibetans, through Tibetan tradition, in Tibetan time. This is the moral line. This is the civilisational frontier. India must stand on the right side of it. So must the world. As His Holiness once told me, with that unmistakable twinkle in his eye, 'We are all just visitors on this planet, for 90, maybe 100 years… we must use our time meaningfully.' He has. Now it's our turn. The writer is dean and professor at the School of International Studies, JNU. He is honorary professor at the University of Melbourne and a former member of India's National Security Advisory Board
Hans India
5 hours ago
- Hans India
India Snubs China Plan: No one except Dalai Lama can decide his successor says Rijiju
New Delhi: A day after the 14th Dalai Lama announced his succession plan, India on Thursday said the next Tibetan spiritual leader would be "chosen only by the present one and with the established conventions"-- a move seen as an apparent snub to China. Beijing has insisted that any future heir of the Dalai Lama must receive its seal of approval. Talking to reporters in New Delhi, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju noted that the Dalai Lama is the "most important and defining institution" for the Buddhists, and his successor must be decided as per the wish of the Buddhist leader himself. "And all those who follow the Dalai Lama feel that the Incarnation is to be decided by the established convention and as per the wish of the Dalai Lama himself. Nobody else has the right to decide it except him and the conventions in place," Rijiju said. The Dalai Lama is the most important institution for Tibetans and all those who follow the Nalanda tradition of Buddhism. On Wednesday, the Buddhist leader said that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue and only the Gaden Phodrang Trust will have the authority to recognise his future reincarnation. The charismatic, Nobel Peace Prize-winning Buddhist had previously said the institution of the Dalai Lama would continue only if there was popular demand. The announcement was seen as a landmark decision for Tibetans, many of whom had feared a future without a leader, as well as for global supporters who see the Dalai Lama as a symbol of non-violence, compassion and the enduring struggle for Tibetan cultural identity under Chinese rule.
