‘Only Dalai Lama can decide on his successor’
NEW DELHI : The Dalai Lama alone can decide the matter of his reincarnation and the Chinese government has no say in the matter, the head of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), Penpa Tsering, has said against the backdrop of Beijing’s assertions that it will choose the next Tibetan spiritual leader.
Tsering said in an interview that China’s efforts to play a decisive role in the selection of the next Dalai Lama amounted to “politicisation of the whole reincarnation issue”. The Dalai Lama’s reincarnation is a spiritual issue whereas China’s communist regime doesn’t even believe in religion, he said.
The current impasse in the Tibetan parliament-in-exile – where 22 of the 45 members have not taken oath in line with the official charter – provides an opportunity for “the Chinese government to create trouble” within the Tibetan community and affect the image of the Tibetan movement, Tsering said.
Tsering, who was elected the Sikyong or head of the executive branch of the CTA in May, said if the Chinese government is serious about the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, it “should be giving more attention to the living 14th Dalai Lama than the future 15th Dalai Lama”. He said, “And as a communist regime which does not believe in religion or life after death, this is purely a spiritual matter.”
He added, “When you talk about reincarnation, it’s the person who’s going to be reincarnated who decides where or how he or she should be born...we are talking about [the Dalai Lama’s] reincarnation, so it’s completely up to his holiness to decide where he will be born, not the Chinese government.”
Amid growing concerns about the health of the current Dalai Lama – he turned 86 in July – Tsering said he personally believed the CTA shouldn’t have any role in the issue of reincarnation. “This is a purely spiritual and a religious process. So it’s up to the religious leader, particularly his holiness the Dalai Lama, to decide, not the administration, but once his reincarnation is recognised, then the role of the CTA comes into being,” he said.
With 22 of the 45 lawmakers of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile not having taken oath in line with the Tibetan Charter because of political differences, Tsering said the impasse had created “a lot of space for the Chinese government to create trouble within the [Tibetan] community, and it also affects the image of the Tibetan movement”.