Prayers for the Dalai Lama in the heart of Mongolian Buddhism
The Gandantegchinlen Monastery has long been the heart of the faith in Mongolia, where more than half the population identifies as Buddhist.
The Dalai Lama insisted this week that his office "exclusively" would name his successor, even as China said it would do so.
Worshipper Jamyandorj Baljinnyam credited him with bringing about a renaissance in the faith.
"Before the Dalai Lama, Buddhism wasn't well known in many parts of the world," he told AFP.
"Thanks to his influence, everyone now accepts that Buddhism is not only a religion but also a comprehensive scientific philosophy," he said.
"He brought us all together. I even know worshippers from Africa."
China's government insisted this week that the next Dalai Lama must be appointed with its approval, in a process carried out by drawing lots from a golden urn under a method introduced by a Qing dynasty emperor in the 18th century.
That urn is held by Beijing and the Dalai Lama has already warned that, when used dishonestly, it lacks "any spiritual quality".
Buddhist institutions wield significant political influence in Mongolia, which is sandwiched between Russia and China, and many there were reluctant to speak openly about the succession given its sensitivities.
Ruth Gamble, a historian of Tibet at Australia's La Trobe University, said Mongolian Buddhists could find themselves trapped in a geopolitical clash with a uniquely spiritual bent.
"I think we're going to end up with two Dalai Lamas, or two people understood by different groups to be Dalai Lamas," she told AFP.
"Who will the other Buddhist, Tibetan Buddhist, or Vajrayana Buddhist countries like Bhutan and Mongolia -- which side of this debate will they go on?"
In the Gandantegchinlen Monastery, where visitors spin golden Tibetan prayer wheels on which mantras are written, worshipper Baasanbat Ulzii said she prayed to the Dalai Lama's portrait every night.
"It makes everything feel complete," she told AFP.
"He's turning 90 years old, which is such a long time," she added.
"I truly hope the next Dalai Lama continues his legacy, uniting all Buddhist communities under one roof and spreading goodness through his will."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
3 hours ago
- Euronews
Tensions, clashes and low expectations loom over EU-China summit
The summit between the European Union and China, scheduled to take place on Thursday, comes at a pivotal moment for both sides. On paper, at least. Donald Trump's return to the White House has upended the geopolitical chessboard, undermining age-old alliances, inflaming simmering tensions and throwing global trade into head-spinning turmoil. The chaos is such that Brussels and Beijing, long at odds over a string of disagreements and recriminations, began toying with the idea of resetting ties and reinforcing cooperation to weather the Trump-induced storm. The fact that the summit coincided with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations only added to the speculation of an impending rapprochement. In May, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the anniversary offered a chance to "properly handle frictions and differences, and open up a brighter future for China-EU relations". Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and António Costa, the president of the European Council, played to the prevailing narrative, committing themselves to "deepening our partnership with China". But then the tide shifted and the tone soured. Beijing's decision to restrict exports of rare earths, the metallic elements that are crucial for manufacturing advanced technologies, caused widespread alarm across European industry and was rebuked by von der Leyen. "China is using this quasi-monopoly not only as a bargaining chip, but also weaponising it to undermine competitors in key industries," she said at the G7 summit in June. "We all witnessed the cost and consequences of China's coercion." Beijing immediately hit back at the Commission chief, calling her speech "baseless" and "biased", but offered an olive branch to build a "win-win" partnership. The damage was done, however. By the time von der Leyen and Costa meet with Xi on Thursday, there are scant expectations for any concrete solution. Hopes are so low for the meeting that officials in Brussels point to the fact of the one-day summit in Beijing happening at all as an achievement. (Under protocol rules, the summit was supposed to happen on EU soil, as both sides take turns as hosts.) "For the EU, the deliverable is a substantive, open and direct conversation between the two of us on every aspect of our relationship," a senior official said last week, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the occasion. A second senior official described the summit as a "unique opportunity" to communicate the bloc's concerns with the view of obtaining results "in the short term". "We go there with the expectation that the Chinese will first understand our concerns and, second, take concrete actions to meet our concerns," the official said. "Otherwise, we will have to defend our own interests." No-limits friction There are certainly no shortage of issues to be resolved, with myriad disputes straining EU-China relations since the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the extensive list of friction points, which range from cyberattacks against state agencies to human rights violations, two stand out: Beijing's "no-limits" partnership with Moscow and the trade imbalances caused by industrial overcapacity. For the past three years, Europeans have been aghast at seeing a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council stand firmly by the side of an aggressor nation in breach of the core principles of the UN Charter. Brussels has repeatedly accused China of acting as the "key enabler" behind Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and supplying 80% of the components that the Kremlin uses to manufacture weapons. Several Chinese entities have been targeted by the bloc for enabling the circumvention of economic sanctions. Last week, two Chinese banks were blacklisted, triggering Beijing's fury. "We urge the EU to stop harming the lawful interests of Chinese companies without any factual basis," said Guo Jiakun, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry. "China will do what is necessary to firmly safeguard the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies," he added. Von der Leyen and Costa are set to raise Ukraine during their face-to-face meeting with Xi, however unlikely their pleas are to be heard. The Chinese leader has shown no signs of wanting to disengage from Russia, attending Vladimir Putin's Victory Day parade earlier this year as guest of honour. "We can say that China is de facto enabling Russia's war economy. We cannot accept this," von der Leyen said earlier this month. "How China continues to interact with Putin's war will be a determining factor for EU-China relations going forward." An 'unsustainable' relation On trade, the stakes are equally high – and the expectations, equally low. The bloc has grown increasingly anxious about its ballooning deficit with China, which last year surpassed €300 billion in goods. The figure risks expanding in 2025 due to sluggish demand from Chinese consumers and Trump's prohibitively high tariffs. The European Commission has set up a special task force to monitor the potential diversion of Chinese products from the US to the EU market. The executive is also keeping a close eye on Beijing's lavish use of subsidies, which have been blamed for artificially lowering prices to the detriment of European competitors. "The present situation is unsustainable. We need rebalancing," said a senior official. The dispute came to a boil in October when the EU slapped steep duties on China-made electric vehicles (EVs) to offset the effects of state aid. Decrying the measure as a "naked act of protectionism", Beijing responded with probes into EU-made brandy, pork and dairy, which Brussels then denounced as unfair and unjustified. Another recurring grievance among Europeans is the regulatory barriers that China has erected to encroach upon the private sector and give preference to domestic companies. The row recently led the Commission to exclude Chinese providers of medical devices from European public tenders. Beijing retaliated with a similar ban. Initially, the July summit was considered the stage to reach a common understanding on these open fronts and announce tentative solutions to some of them. While the disputes will still be addressed as part of the busy agenda, the rise in tensions indicates they will remain unresolved as neither side believes the other is ready to relent. The only deliverable that von der Leyen and Costa can reasonably hope for is a joint declaration on climate action ahead of the UN climate conference later this year. Substantial concessions in other fields are improbable, warns Alicja Bachulska, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). "Beijing appears confident that time is on its side," Bachulska said. "China's strategic calculus, dominated by its rivalry with the US, currently assesses the EU as too internally fractured to exert meaningful pressure or leverage on Beijing, thereby closing any perceived 'window of opportunity' for a significant reset in relations, despite US actions."
Euronews
7 hours ago
- Euronews
Chinese envoy touts prospects for EU-China business on eve of summit
Prospects for pragmatic China-EU cooperation remain broad, China's head of EU mission has written in an exclusive op-ed for Euronews, published on the eve of a delicate summit of leaders taking place in Beijing on Thursday. 'European businesses are finding ample space to expand in the Chinese market,' according to Ambassador Cai Run, the head of the Chinese Mission to the EU, in an op-ed that lists a string of investment and cooperation relations. In the piece, Cai trumpets that 'brands such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen derive over 30% of their global sales from the Chinese market, with profits in China reaching up to 30 times those earned in their domestic markets.' He claims that European products account for more than 30% and in some cases over 50% of China's total imports in sectors such as chemicals, optics, aerospace and aviation. Meanwhile Chinese corporate investment in Europe is listed at length. Cai namechecks the Pelješac Bridge project in Croatia; the Hungary-Serbia Railway, 'China's first high-speed rail project in Europe', and Piraeus Port in Greece. Of Piraeus, Cai claims in the op-ed that the project has created 4,300 direct local jobs and generated €1.4 billion in economic output, 'accounting for approximately 1% of Greece's GDP'. Response to climate change is a unifying factor - Chinese envoy Cai also touts cooperation through the China-EU Climate Change Partnership, saying China's electric vehicle and new energy battery industries 'have become key drivers of a new wave of investment in Europe, further strengthening the bonds of cooperation and injecting strong momentum into China-EU collaboration in the green and low-carbon sector.' On research Cai says the Chinese government is prioritizing the EU as a key partner, and 'remains committed to an open and innovation-driven policy, expanding international scientific and technological cooperation'. He also hails the Geographic Indications (GI) Agreement as China's 'first comprehensive and high-level bilateral agreement on GI protection, marking a milestone in China-EU cooperation on intellectual property rights.' Since its entry into force, he says, Zhouzhi kiwifruit and French champagne 'have entered each other's markets, helping preserve cultural and natural heritage and injecting new momentum into deeper China-EU collaboration.' Despite the envoy's optimistic tone, however, expectations for the outcome of Thursday's summit are muted, despite its coinciding with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the EU. Among the extensive list of friction points, two stand out: Beijing's "no-limits" partnership with Moscow and the trade imbalances caused by industrial overcapacity. In May, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the anniversary offered a chance to "properly handle frictions and differences, and open up a brighter future for China-EU relations". Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and António Costa, the president of the European Council, played into the momentum and committed themselves to "deepening our partnership with China". But since then the tide has shifted. Beijing's decision to restrict the export of rare earths, the metallic elements that are crucial for manufacturing advanced technologies, caused widespread alarm across European industry and earned a rebuke from von der Leyen herself. "China is using this quasi-monopoly not only as a bargaining chip, but also weaponising it to undermine competitors in key industries," she said at the G7 summit in June. "We all witnessed the cost and consequences of China's coercion." Beijing immediately hit back against the Commission chief, calling her speech "baseless" and "biased", but offered an olive branch to build a "win-win" partnership.
France 24
a day ago
- France 24
US Treasury chief eyes China tariff deadline extension in talks next week
Bessent told Fox Business that he will be speaking with Chinese officials on Monday and Tuesday for a third round of high-level negotiations, to work out what he said would be a likely postponement of the deadline. Washington and Beijing slapped escalating, tit-for-tat levies on each other's exports earlier this year -- reaching triple digit levels -- stalling trade between the world's two biggest economies as tensions surged. But after top officials met in Geneva in May, both sides agreed to temporarily lower their tariff levels in a de-escalation set to expire next month. Officials from the two countries also met in London in June. "That deal expires on August 12, and I'm going to be in Stockholm on Monday and Tuesday with my Chinese counterparts, and we'll be working out what is likely an extension then," Bessent said in the interview. He noted that Washington also wanted to speak about a wider range of topics, potentially including Chinese purchases of Iranian and Russian oil. For other economies facing an earlier August 1 deadline for higher US tariffs to kick in, Bessent said he expects the duties will boomerang back up -- but signaled Washington would continue negotiations. Trade talks between the United States and China had initially stalled after their Geneva meeting in May, although Bessent said trade is in a good place now with Beijing. Disagreements bubbled to the fore when US officials earlier accused Beijing of violating their pact and slow-walking export license approvals for rare earths -- crucial materials for making electronics and other goods. Since then, the two countries have agreed on a framework to move forward with their Geneva consensus. The United States has been seen relaxing certain restrictions on semiconductor sales to China, while Beijing has been reviewing applications for export licenses of controlled items. Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has imposed a sweeping 10 percent tariff on allies and competitors alike, alongside steeper levels on steel, aluminum and autos. The 10 percent blanket rate is expected to increase for dozens of economies -- although not China -- come August 1, unless they reach an agreement with Washington to avert this outcome. So far, the Trump administration has only announced deals with Britain, Vietnam and Indonesia. But Bessent maintained Tuesday that more pacts are to come.
