All eyes, in India and China, on Dalai Lama's 90th
KULLU: All eyes will be on the
when he turns 90 next week on July 6, as he may announce his successor that day. The year-long birthday celebrations of the
will kick off on July 6 in Mcleodganj in Dharamshala, the headquarters of the Tibetan govt-in-exile, and conclude on July 5, 2026.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
A number of ministers in the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), including Penpa Tsering, Sikyong or the elected head of the CTA, and deputy speaker Dolma Tsering, have said that the Dalai Lama may reveal his successor when he turns 90.
Khenpo Sonam Tenphel, speaker of the Tibetan govt-in-exile, told TOI that a three-day religious conference, beginning on July 2 in Mcleodganj, was also likely to discuss the successor of the Dalai Lama.
"Even though this topic is not part of the conference agenda, there is a strong likelihood that the question of the Dalai Lama's successor would be discussed and we may even get the answer too," said Tenphel.
"The Dalai Lama's successor must be from the free world outside of China, as our holy leader has said. In any case, the Tibetans would accept only the one revealed by the Dalai Lama himself," added Tenphel.
In his new book, 'Voice for the Voiceless', published in March earlier this year, the Dalai Lama specified for the first time that his successor would be born in the 'free world', and outside China.
The Dalai Lama's statement is significant because China insists that it will choose the successor in an attempt to gain religious control over Tibet. But Tibetans, especially those in exile, will not accept one chosen by China. The Dalai Lama has said that any successor named by China will not be accepted by the Tibetans. More than 300 dignitaries from around the world are expected to reach Dharamshala on July 6 to attend the birthday celebrations of the Dalai Lama.
The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the representative body of Tibetan people, wants a smooth transition of the present Dalai Lama's spiritual authority to his successor in the face of the Chinese claim to name the successor.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
an hour ago
- First Post
Dalai Lama to address followers ahead of 90th birthday, will he announce his successor?
Ahead of his 90th birthday later this week, Tibetan Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama will address his followers. He is expected to speak about his succession, a contentious issue as China continues to occupy Tibet and is bound to challenge any successor anointed in exile. read more Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama greets devotees as he arrives at the Tsuglakhang temple in Dharmsala, India, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017. (Photo: AP) The Dalai Lama will address a major three-day gathering of Buddhist religious figures this week ahead of his 90th birthday, as his followers wait for the Tibetan spiritual leader to share details about his succession in a move that could irk China. Beijing views the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, as a separatist and says it will choose his successor. The Dalai Lama has said his successor will be born outside China and urged his followers to reject anyone chosen by Beijing. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Tibetan Buddhists hold that enlightened monks are reborn to carry forward their spiritual legacy. The 14th Dalai Lama will turn 90 on Sunday and has said he would consult senior monks and others at this time to share possible clues on where his successor, a boy or a girl, could be found following his death. 'The rest of my life I will dedicate for the benefit of others, as much as possible, as extensive as possible,' the Dalai Lama told a gathering of his followers on Monday as they offered prayers for his long life. 'There will be some kind of a framework within which we can talk about the continuation of the institution of the Dalai Lamas,' he said, without elaborating on the framework. He has previously said he could possibly reincarnate in India, where he lives in exile near the northern Himalayan town of Dharamshala. He was identified as the reincarnation of his predecessor when he was two. ALSO READ: China signals it's setting stage for Dalai Lama's succession as Tibetan spiritual head nears 90 Dolma Tsering Teykhang, the deputy speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile in Dharamshala, said it was important for the world to hear directly from the Dalai Lama on the issue because while China 'tries to vilify him at every chance … it is trying to frame rules and regulations on how to have the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama in their hand'. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'China is trying to grab this institution … for its political purpose,' she said. 'We want the incarnation of the Dalai Lama to be born not only for the survival of Tibet as a distinct culture, religion and nation, but also for the well-being of the whole humanity.' Thupten Ngodup, Tibet's chief state oracle, said typically such discussions on the reincarnation do not take place when a monk is still alive but things are different now mainly because the 'Chinese government is interfering'. Beijing said in March that the Dalai Lama was a political exile who had 'no right to represent the Tibetan people at all'. China has said it is open to discussing his future if he recognises that Tibet and Taiwan are inalienable parts of China, a proposal the Tibetan government in exile has rejected. 'As if he's not there' The religious conference this week, being held for the first time since 2019, will be attended by more than 100 Tibetan Buddhist leaders and will feature a video statement from the Dalai Lama. Hollywood star Richard Gere, a long-time follower of Tibetan Buddhism, will be among those attending, organisers have said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Dalai Lama will attend prayers called by the Tibetan government in exile on July 5 and participate in his birthday celebrations a day later, according to a schedule shared by the organisers. He will speak at the celebrations for about half an hour. India's parliamentary affairs minister, Kiren Rijiju, and some other Indian officials are expected to attend. Tibetans have been praying for his long health, especially since knee surgery in the US last year, although the Dalai Lama told Reuters in December that he could live until he was 110. The previous Dalai Lama died earlier than expected at 58. The Dalai Lama and Tibetan officials say there is a system in place for the government-in-exile to continue its political work while officers of the Dalai Lama's Gaden Phodrang Foundation search and recognise the next Dalai Lama. The current Dalai Lama set up the foundation in 2015 and its senior officers include several of his aides. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Teykhang and other Tibetan officials said the Dalai Lama has been preparing his people for the day when he is gone, especially through his 2011 decision to hand his political role to a democratically elected government, ending a 368-year-old tradition of being both spiritual and temporal head of Tibetans. 'Since he has come in the form of a human, we have to agree that there will be a moment when he is not with us,' said Teykhang. 'His Holiness has really prepared us for that day, he made us act as if he's not there.' (This is an agency copy. Except for the headline, the copy has not been edited by Firstpost staff.)
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
China shows tech resilience against Trump's export curbs over Rare earths
As Donald Trump brandishes US export controls on technology as a bargaining chip to wrest supplies of rare earth magnets from Beijing, China is showcasing what it can do without the most advanced American semiconductors. On a government-organized trip this month to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, two of China's richest provinces that spawned AI darling DeepSeek, authorities lined up a host of executives from technology companies to meet with journalists from Bloomberg News and other media outlets. The message was ultimately one of defiance: China's technology sector still aims at world dominance despite US curbs. Take Magiclab Robotics Technology Co., a firm in the eastern city of Suzhou founded barely more than a year ago. Its president, Wu Changzheng, said it had independently developed more than 90 per cent of the parts it uses to make humanoid robots. The rest consists of semiconductors and micro-controller units procured domestically and overseas, he said, adding that they don't use US chips. 'China doesn't have many weak links in this industry,' Wu said, as he demonstrated a human-sized robot destined for factory floors. He brushed off Trump's recent ban on US firms exporting semiconductor design software to China, saying his robots only require 'standard chips.' Other entrepreneurs emphasized self-reliance over the five-day trip with companies spanning bio-pharmaceuticals, humanoid robotics, AI and autos — all sectors pivotal to President Xi Jinping's manufacturing ambitions. Many in China's business sector have rallied around Xi's government in the face of Trump's tariffs and expanding US export curbs. Access to so many executives at once is typically difficult for foreign journalists in a country where media access is tightly regulated and company officials can be reluctant to speak freely for fear of reprisal. The trip exemplifies Beijing's desire to boost global investor confidence in its $19 trillion economy, which has been plagued by a property crash, deflation and now the US's highest tariffs in a century. Although DeepSeek's surprise AI breakthrough earlier this year proved China can innovate with a limited supply of chips, Beijing still faces difficulty catching the US while being denied access to Nvidia Corp.'s most advanced semiconductors. On the press tour, the Chinese government mostly presented firms that don't require top-tier chips such as AISpeech Co, which makes in-car AI-powered audio and video tools. For companies pioneering autonomous driving models or artificial general intelligence — systems that possess human-level cognitive abilities — accessing the latest chips is likely to be far more important. Tiptoeing around sensitive topics like state subsidies, eight tech executives who addressed reporters throughout the trip downplayed the impact of a yearslong US campaign to curtail China's technological ascent, emphasizing the country's increased self-reliance as government officials listened attentively on the sidelines. The executives spoke about how they are instead leveraging local advantages they consider disruption-proof, from a vast talent pool to supply chains walled off from the outside world. Yu Kai, AISpeech's co-founder and chief scientific officer, said the company has hired more than 700 people in research centers in Beijing and Suzhou, after starting off with fewer than 10 people developing an algorithm in Cambridge. It has set up a subsidiary in Shenzhen for its proximity to smart equipment manufacturing and also runs a unit in southern China to produce software for cars built by a local auto-making partner. Illustrating the deep concern in Beijing on US tech controls, Xi has restricted China's rare earth magnets in recent months in a bid to unwind some of Trump's recent export curbs. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said last week that the US and China signed a document to codify trade terms reached last month in Geneva, including a commitment from Beijing to deliver rare earths used in everything from wind turbines to jet planes. China's economic stamina was a common theme of the trip that began in Nanjing, a city in Jiangsu where researchers publish three times more scientific papers than those in New York. Ferried by two buses, dozens of journalists went to Suzhou and neighboring Zhejiang province by high-speed train, as the focus of discussions shifted more to the development of green technologies. There's debate in China over how it matters to access state-of-the-art chipmaking machines, and Nvidia's most-advanced AI accelerators. Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei Technologies Co., recently said Chinese firms can adopt means such as chip stacking to get results similar to the most cutting-edge semiconductors. Beijing also blocks most AI services from US rivals, meaning domestic players don't have to compete against American leaders. China has to put on a display of 'confidence and window dressing' after years of tech curbs, according to Julian Mueller-Kaler, director of the Strategic Foresight Hub at the Stimson Center in Washington. High-end chips for AI data centers, for example, can be replaced with less capable models, at the expense of more energy usage, he said. 'The reason the Chinese didn't really retaliate that much after the chips restrictions a few years ago is Beijing actually likes them, to a certain degree,' he said. 'It forces Chinese companies to develop their own capabilities and reduce the reliance on American tech — a political goal Chinese decision-makers had for a long time but was hindered by economic realities.' Still, for all the savvy on display, few companies will emerge unscathed from deteriorating ties with the US. Some executives on the trip mentioned they were feeling the pain as Trump's America First policy seeks to limit US investment in China's high tech sectors. 'The impact on financing is significant,' said Zhang Jinhua, chairwoman of IASO Biotechnology Co., which makes a life-saving cancer treatment. 'I tell my team to stop asking when this winter ends. We must treat winter as the four seasons and adapt to prolonged uncertainty.'
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Former head of major Chinese airline under graft investigation, ET Infra
Advt The former head of China Eastern Airlines is under investigation over corruption allegations, two Chinese anti-graft bodies said Saturday. Liu Shaoyong , who headed the airline from 2009 until his resignation in 2022, is being investigated for "serious violations of discipline and law", the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission said in a Shanghai-based airline, primarily owned by the Chinese government through its parent company, is one of the three largest Chinese was credited with turning the carrier around after it posted record losses before he was Eastern Airlines under his leadership merged with Shanghai Airlines and joined the SkyTeam airline alliance , strengthening its position in domestic and international also led another one of China's major airlines, China Southern, before taking the reins of China President Xi Jinping has waged an unrelenting crackdown on corruption since coming to power over a decade say the policy promotes clean governance but others say it also serves as a means for Xi to purge political rivals.
