Beijing [China], August 7 : In a display of China's authoritarian grip over Tibet, Beijing has once again claimed total control over the reincarnation process of the Dalai Lama, rejecting the spiritual leader's authority on the matter.
The statement came from Gama Cedain, chairman of the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), during a news conference in Beijing marking the 60th anniversary of TAR's founding, as reported by Tibetan Review.
Cedain, also the deputy secretary of the Chinese Communist Party's TAR committee, declared that "the central government has the indisputable final say in the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama." He emphasised that the process must be carried out "domestically", through the Communist Party's approved methods, including the controversial "golden urn" lot-drawing ritual, and only with Beijing's explicit approval, according to Tibetan Review.
This hardline assertion directly contradicts the Dalai Lama's position. During his 90th birthday celebrations last month, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader reiterated that his reincarnation would be determined solely by a non-profit institution he established for that purpose, and not under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. Tibetan Review noted that he has also made it clear that there is "no question" of his reincarnation being born in a territory under Beijing's rule.
China has long labelled the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, as a separatist, though he has only called for genuine autonomy within China, not independence. Beijing, however, seeks nothing less than total ideological and religious control over Tibet, Tibetan Review reported.
This is not the first time China has intervened in Tibetan religious succession. In 1995, Beijing abducted a six-year-old boy recognised by the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama, Tibet's second most important spiritual figure, and replaced him with a hand-picked loyalist. The original child, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, remains missing to this day.
Gama Cedain's remarks make clear that Beijing's goal remains the same: to hijack Tibetan Buddhism for political control, using state power to suppress the spiritual freedoms of the Tibetan people. The reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, once a sacred religious tradition, is now yet another front in China's war against Tibetan identity and autonomy, Tibetan Review observed.
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