Atheist China will draw lots for next Dalai Lama

FOREIGN MINISTRY SAYS RELIGIOUS RITUALS WILL BE FOLLOWED, INCLUDING DRAWING LOTS FROM THE SACRED GOLDEN URN IN JOKHANG TEMPLE

The successor to Dharamshala-based 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso will be chosen in the traditional way by drawing lots from a sacred urn at the Jokhang monastery in Lhasa, followed by the mandatory approval from the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), Beijing has said.

When the time comes, the succession rules will follow Buddhist religious rituals to be performed at the Jokhang temple and regulations set by CPC, ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) told HT.

“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 the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, which embodies the Buddhist spirit,” the MFA said, adding: “(and) not by what the 14th Dalai Lama has said”.

The primary rules of naming the successor will follow the “Regulation on Religious Affairs and Management Rules of Tibetan Buddhism Reincarnation,” the ministry said.

The emphatic statement from the Chinese government comes amid the ongoing Sino-Indian diplomatic spat over the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims is part of southern Tibet with links to Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

On Tuesday, The Dalai Lama, is learnt to have left Arunachal Pradesh and Tawang, leaving in his trail a seething controversy between India and China.

Last week, the Dalai Lama had said it was up to the Tibetan people whether the “institution of Dalai Lama should continue or not” and that he wanted tostart “some sort of preliminary discussion” on his succession .

For China, it is important that the 15th Dalai Lama is chosen from a Tibetan area within the country so as to nip in the bud any future for the movement for greater Tibetan autonomy.

Calling the Dalai Lama a “political exile” who has had a “disgraceful” influence on the India-China border dispute, the MFA said he is not a “purely religious person” who has been engaged in anti-China separatist activities for years.

“He is active in disputed area in Sino-Indian border which itself is a major political event,” the ministry said about the visit.

It emphasised that “no matter what the Indian government has arranged in disputed areas, and no matter what the Dalai Lama’s speech in “Arunachal Pradesh”, it will never change the fact that there is a great controversy in eastern part of the Sino-Indian border, nor it will change China’s position on this issue.”