Chinese government has ‘final say’ in Dalai Lama reincarnation, CPC’s Tibet official says

BEIJING - The discovery of the next Dalai Lama will be carried out by the Chinese government, and not under the current Dalai Lama’s directions, a Communist Party of China (CPC) committee official for Tibet said on Aug 5.

China considers the Dalai Lama a separatist and wants to bring Tibetan Buddhism under its control, but the the Nobel Peace laureate and his huge following have been obstacles to that ambition.

At his

90th birthday celebration in July

, he assured followers that he would be reincarnated, and a non-profit institution he has set up will have the sole authority to identify his reincarnation.    

But Mr Gama Cedain, the deputy secretary of the CPC committee in Tibet, said the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation would be found via a domestic search, and approval will come from the central government.

“The central government has the indisputable final say in the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama,” he told reporters at a press conference about the socio-economic development in Tibet.

He said that was the creed devotees adhered to, and the government’s process follows the strict religious rituals and historical customs of the reincarnation of living Buddhas.

“The reincarnation has never been decided by the Dalai Lama himself,” he said. 

The current Dalai Lama, 14th in the line of spiritual leaders for Tibetan Buddhism, has said his reincarnation

will be born outside China

and ruled out Beijing’s role in choosing his successor.

China installed a Tibetan Buddhist monk picked by Beijing as the faith’s No. 2 leader, the Panchen Lama, three decades ago after a six-year-old chosen by the Dalai Lama for the position disappeared in 1995. REUTERS