China and the Dueling Dalai Lamas

China and the Dueling Dalai Lamas








Whilst in exile in India the Dalai Lama compets with the Chinese government for control of how the 15th Dalai Lama will be chosen. The issue is urgent for the Tibetans because the current Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of all Tibetans and the charismatic face of the exile movement, has had recent bouts of ill health. He turns 74 in July.

Both the Chinese and the Tibetan exiles are bracing for an almost inevitable outcome: the emergence into the world of dueling Dalai Lamas — one chosen by the exiles, perhaps by the 14th Dalai Lama himself, and the other by Chinese officials.
China seized Tibet in 1951. The Dalai Lama fled in 1959.
A traditional selection process would be easily controlled by the Chinese government, requiring that reincarnations of senior lamas must be approved by the government.

The figure of the Dalai Lama, head of the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism, is without rival in influence among Tibetans and many Buddhists worldwide. He is revered as the reincarnation of Chenrezig, a deity who has chosen to remain on earth to help people achieve enlightenment. Many of China’s six million Tibetans keep photos of him in their mud-walled homes,monasteries and nomadic tents, or hidden in the folds of their clothes, even though the government has outlawed all images of the Dalai Lama.

The Chinese government accuses the Dalai Lama of being a separatist, though he demands only genuine autonomy for Tibet.