China asserts it will pick heir to Dalai Lama
China on Friday said that it will choose the successor to the India-based Dalai Lama through the process of “drawing lots from the golden urn”, with the candidate subject to approval of the Chinese government. A policy paper released on Friday all but ruled out the scope for the 14th and current Dalai Lama to himself choose his successor.
Citing historical precedence, the paper said the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama and other “living Buddhas” has been subjected to approval by the central government since an ordinance was passed during the Qing Dynasty, between 1644 and 1911.
“The ordinance stipulated that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama and other grand living Buddhas had to follow the procedure of drawing lots from the golden urn, and the selected candidate would be subject to approval by the government of China,” said the paper, titled “Tibet Since 1951: Liberation, Development and Prosperity”.
The Dalai Lama, who is 85, had fled to India in 1959 following a crackdown on an uprising
by the people of Tibet.
The Tibetan leader was granted political asylum in India and the Tibetan government-in-exile has been based in Dharamsala since then.
In 2017, the Chinese foreign ministry had told HT about the process it would follow on the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation. “The reincarnation of the Dalai Lama must be conducted according to religious rituals and historical conventions, including drawing lots from the golden urn in front of the Shakyamuni (Buddha) statue at Jokhang temple in Lhasa, which embodies the Buddhist spirit,” the ministry had said, adding, “(and) not by what the 14th Dalai Lama has said”.