The Dalai Lama has officially announced that he will choose a successor in line with “past tradition,” putting an end to years of rumors about the complex office.
The Tibetan spiritual leader claimed that the Gaden Phodrang Foundation, which he founded to safeguard the institution, will be able to grant him the right to recognize his upcoming reincarnation in a video message on Wednesday, just days before his 90th birthday.
Tibetan Buddhist leaders will seek his successor, he continued, underscoring that “no one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter.”
Buddhists have sent him numerous messages urging the office’s continuation in recent years, according to the 14th Dalai Lama.
I’m confirming that the Dalai Lama’s institution will continue in accordance with all these requests, he continued.
He made the remarks at a three-day religious conference in Dharamshala, a town in northern India where he has lived since 1959, when he fled Tibet for India after a failed uprising against China.
Tibetan activist Tenzin Tsundue described the Dalai Lama’s announcement on Wednesday as a “punch in the face” for China, which controls the Tibet Autonomous Region and has claimed to have the authority to appoint his successor.
The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize and is referred to as a “separatist,” has previously warned Beijing against “meddling in the system of reincarnation of lamas, let alone that of the Dalai Lama.
China said the Dalai Lama’s succession had to be approved by Beijing’s central government in response to his comments on Wednesday.
The Dalai Lama’s spiritual adviser, Thupten Ngodup, predicted that there would not normally be discussions about a successor during the current leader’s lifetime.
He told Al Jazeera, “But this discussion is taking place right now, primarily because the Chinese government interferes with His Holiness’ reincarnation.”
The spiritual leader is supposedly reincarnated in a child’s body according to Tibetan Buddhism.
The current Dalai Lama, who was born on July 6, 1935, was a member of a farming family.
According to his website, a search party sent by the Tibetan government picked him after he discovered items belonging to his predecessor.
He relocated to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, in the winter of 1940, and became the spiritual leader of his people.
A Dalai Lama’s trust official said on Wednesday that his successor could be any gender and not be of Tibetan descent.
Source: Aljazeera
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