THE END of an era has begun as the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, announced yesterday that he plans to formally step down as political leader and hand over to an elected figure.
The 76-year-old Nobel peace prize laureate, who fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, now lives in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala and advocates “meaningful autonomy” for Tibet within China.
“As early as the 1960s, I have repeatedly stressed that Tibetans need a leader, elected freely by the Tibetan people, to whom I can devolve power. Now, we have clearly reached the time to put this into effect,” he said in a speech marking the anniversary of the 1959 uprising.
The announcement comes in the same week as the Chinese government insisted Beijing must approve all reincarnations of senior religious figures in Tibetan Buddhism.
Considered a dangerous splittist and a “wolf in monk’s robes” by Beijing, the Dalai Lama is the god-king of Tibetan Buddhists, and functions as both a political and spiritual leader to the movement.
He has hinted the succession process could break with tradition of finding a reincarnated successor, instead opting for someone handpicked by him or democratically elected.
At the National People’s Congress this week, Padma Choling, the Chinese-appointed governor of Tibet, said the Dalai Lama had no right to abolish the institution of reincarnation.
“I don’t think this is appropriate. It’s impossible,” said Mr Padma, a Tibetan and a former soldier in the People’s Liberation Army.
“We must respect the historical institutions and religious rituals of Tibetan Buddhism. I am afraid it is not up to anyone whether to abolish the institution of reincarnation,” he said.
Free Tibet director Stephanie Brigden said China was making every effort to control the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama because they believe that is where Tibetan political and religious identity is held.
“With this transfer of political leadership the Dalai Lama is divorcing the religious and the political, diminishing the capacity of the Chinese to manipulate the politics of Tibet through its religious identity,” Ms Brigden said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the process of finding a successor as spiritual leader could take place at its own pace, without a dangerous power vacuum developing.
In 1995, the Communist Party hijacked the succession issue for the Panchen Lama, the second-in-command in Tibetan Buddhism, by kidnapping Gendun Choekyi Nyima, who was discovered by the envoys of the Dalai Lama.
Instead the communists installed their choice as Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu, and it looks like he is being groomed by Beijing to become the public face of Tibetan Buddhism. The young monk has appeared with party leaders and publicly praised Chinese rule in Tibet, vowing to contribute to “the blueprint of the compatible development of Tibetan Buddhism and socialism”.
One name being mentioned as the Dalai Lama’s preferred choice is Ogyen Trinley Dorjee, the 17th Karmapa Lama, the second most senior Tibetan Buddhist leader in exile. Although the discovery of €540,000 in cash at his Indian headquarters caused a scandal, he seems the obvious choice to assume the mantle, given that his reincarnation has been approved by both Beijing and the Dalai Lama, albeit before he escaped from China in 2000.