Tibetan spiritual leader says
Buddhist tradition of reincarnated dalai lamas should end, echoing China’s
criticism of feudal successions
RICHARD S
EHRLICH, BANGKOK
In a surprise spiritual
reversal, the Dalai Lama said his Tibetan Buddhist tradition of reincarnated
dalai lamas “should end now” because the hierarchy created “a feudal system,” a
description echoing decades of communist China’s condemnation.
The Dalai Lama’s public
statement comes amid attempts by Beijing to control who can be legally
recognized as a reincarnated lama in Tibet and what laws they must obey.
“Institutions need to be owned
by the people, not by an individual,” the self-exiled 14th Dalai Lama said in a
speech at his residence in McLeod Ganj, a small town on the outskirts of
Dharamsala, India.
“Like my own institution, the
Dalai Lama’s office, I feel it is linked to a feudal system. In 1969, in one of
my official statements, I had mentioned that it should continue…but now I feel,
not necessarily.
“It should go. I feel it
should not be concentrated in a few people only,” he told college students from
Bhutan and India on October 25.
“The tradition should end now,
as reincarnation has some connection with the feudal system.
“There have been cases of
individual lamas who use reincarnation [for personal gains] but never pay
attention to study and wisdom,” he said, according to the Times of India.
The Dalai Lama, however, did
not express doubt about the concept of reincarnation. Buddhism claims all
people are reincarnated even if they are not Buddhists.
Meanwhile, on October 28, US
Ambassador for Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback and his delegation met the
Dalai Lama in McLeod Ganj.
“The US government supports
the Dalai Lama and supports for the succession of the Dalai Lama to be done by
the Tibetan Buddhist leadership,” Brownback said, criticizing China’s
interference in the procedure.
“The role of picking a
successor to the Dalai Lama belongs to the Tibetan Buddhist system, the Dalai
Lama, and other Tibetan leaders. It does not belong to anybody else, not any
government or any entity,” Brownback said.
Beijing swiftly responded to
the US ambassador’s remarks and visit.
“We strongly urge the US side
to stop any form of contact with the Dalai clique, stop making irresponsible
remarks, stop using Tibet-related issues to interfere in China’s internal
affairs, and do more to advance China-US mutual trust and cooperation,” China’s
foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told reporters.
China eyes warily exiled
Tibetan populations, including large groups in neighboring India and Nepal,
numbering over 150,000 and 20,000 respectively.
During a visit to the Nepalese
capital Kathmandu in October, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued an ominous
warning, saying “Anyone attempting to split China in any part of the country
will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones.”
According to Indian and
Nepalese media reports, Xi sought to sign an extradition treaty that aimed to
deport all Tibetan refugees in Nepal back to China. Kathmandu, however,
declined to sign.
The current 14th Dalai Lama
fled his majestic Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet in 1959 along with 80,000
Tibetan refugees to escape invading communist Chinese troops. They secured
sanctuary in India’s Himalayas.
Since the 1950s, China has
repeatedly said Tibetan Buddhism and the institutional power of dalai lamas and
other senior clergy was one of the main reasons Tibetans lived in “feudal”
poverty, often treated as serfs by Tibetan officials, nobles and lamas.
Tibetan historians said the
centuries-old system of reincarnated dalai lamas, panchen lamas and other
clergy contributed to repression in Tibet, but Tibetans should have been
allowed to fix their homeland instead of submitting to anti-Buddhist Chinese.
“For centuries, Tibet was
ruled by feudal serfdom under theocracy,” China’s State Council Information
Office reiterated in March.
“Millions of serfs were
subjected to cruel exploitation and oppression until [China’s] democratic
reform in 1959,” it said in a report entitled Democratic Reform in Tibet, 60
Years On.
“Even as they were aware that
feudal serfdom under theocracy was coming to an end, the 14th Dalai Lama and
the reactionaries in Tibet’s upper class had no wish to conduct reform.
“Instead, they tried to
maintain the system for fear that reform would deprive them of their political
and religious privileges, together with their huge economic benefits,” the
report said, according to Beijing’s official Xinhua news agency.
Also beginning in the 1950s,
the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) trained and financed Tibetan
guerrillas to conduct scattered assaults against China’s powerful People’s Liberation
Army.
The CIA secretly trained
ethnic Khampas and other Tibetans in Colorado state’s Rocky Mountains before
giving them supplies and parachuting them into Tibet.
The CIA manipulated that
small, bloody insurgency until 1972 when President Richard Nixon abruptly ended
US armed support and traveled to Beijing to improve ties with Chinese Chairman
Mao Zedong.
China’s communists destroyed
most of Tibet’s monasteries and shrines during the 1960s and 70s. Thousands of
Tibetans reportedly perished from persecution, economic disruption and other
policies.
The Dalai Lama repeatedly said
he is a Marxist and would accept autonomy for Tibet under China’s domination.
But Beijing suspects he is a “splittist” conspiring to achieve independence.
Buddhism arrived in Tibet from
India during the seventh century.
“Dalai Lama” is a Mongolian
title meaning “Ocean of Wisdom.” Followers also refer to him as, “His Holiness”
or “Wish-Fulfilling Gem.”
Dalai lamas and others senior
lamas are revered even though they have not achieved the spiritual
enlightenment and nirvana of a Buddha.
Instead they are described as
incarnations of Avalokitesvara the Bodhisattva of Compassion, who delays
achieving nirvana to altruistically help others.
The first dalai lama was born
in 1390. Tibetan Buddhists believe this same person has been reincarnated 14
times.
The current Dalai Lama was
born on July 6, 1935 shortly after the 13th died. Two years later, a delegation
of high lamas searched Tibet for the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation and conducted
traditional tests with several children born amid “prophetic signs.”
Clergymen selected an infant
named Lhamo Thondup. He picked out, from among various items, things which
belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama and performed other feats which they
interpreted as evidence of reincarnation.
Today, the 84-year-old Dalai
Lama appears jovial and spontaneous, frequently traveling abroad.
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